Report on ISN / Fourthwrite dayschool

dublin | anti-capitalism | news report Monday November 09, 2009 18:12 by Irish Socialist Network / Fourthwrite

A report on last Saturday's dayschool on Capitalist Crisis and the Left Alternative, hosted by Fourthwrite and the Irish Socialist Network.

LATIN AMERICA'S NEW LEFT

The day began with a session on Latin America’s New Left and a talk by Chilean activist Jose Antonio Gutierrez. He began by criticizing the simplistic presentation of Latin American politics in Europe, where a range of governments with very different policies and strategies are lumped together under the heading of the “pink tide”. The election of left governments in the last decade was the result of a deep-rooted social crisis across the region as it felt the worst effects of neo-liberalism, driving millions into dire poverty. In many cases (Brazil and Uruguay for example) the new governments have stuck to administering the economic model they inherited from their right-wing predecessors. Even in Bolivia, where some of the most radical social movements developed among coca growers and brought the Movement Towards Socialism to power, the Morales government has committed itself to “Andean-Amazonian capitalism” rather than socialism.

Jose Antonio argued that the “pink tide” governments have been partly responsible for a demobilisation of the popular classes, after a turbulent period of mass action in the late 90s and the early part of this decade, when huge numbers of people took to the streets all over Latin America pressing their demands. But the memory of that period hasn’t been lost, and will have to be drawn on if the conservative bloc in Latin America acts to counter any threat to its privileges. The recent coup in Honduras is a reminder of how high the stakes are, and the development of the conflict in Colombia is likely to be crucial for the whole continent.

THE FINANCIAL CRISIS AND THE LEFT

There were three speakers in the early afternoon meeting on the financial crisis and the Left. Afri chair Andy Storey argued that the current situation in Ireland makes it possible to argue for a programme of national democracy that could command broad support. The basic elements of the programme would be opposition to the bail-out of property developers and sell-off of Irish natural resources to multi-nationals. Mobilisation behind those demands might not encounter strong international opposition, since neither the US state nor the EU would have a strong reason to act in support of Irish construction capitalists or the companies exploiting the Corrib gas field.

Chekov Feeney of the Workers’ Solidarity Movement spoke about the global recession, which he attributed to a huge accumulation of personal debt to compensate for inequality of wealth that has held down the incomes of workers. Talk of recovery is misleading: the financial system may have been saved from collapse but unemployment has soared across the developed world and shows no sign of coming back down. The approach of the Irish government to the crisis has been to do the worst thing possible, shifting yet more debt onto the shoulders of working-class people through NAMA.

Mainstream economists keep predicting a recovery because they have a mystical faith in the ability of the free market to generate growth, but they forget that the US economy was only pulled out of the 1930s depression because of the outbreak of the Second World War, which forced the government to take radical steps to redistribute wealth and kick-start economic activity. In the discussion he warned that traditional Marxist calls for state ownership and central planning are not likely to have popular appeal: the modern global economy is so complex and inter-dependent that central planning is unlikely to work as an alternative to the status quo. The Left would be better off raising demands for economic democracy (for example, boards of worker-directors elected by the workforce of a company with a veto over management decisions).

Tommy McKearney of the Independent Workers’ Union noted that there has always been a tendency for people to distinguish between “bad”, parasitical capitalism and “good”, productive capitalism, but that distinction is not realistic – capitalism is capitalism, full stop. He also identified the downward pressure on working-class incomes, which limits consumer demand, as a key factor explaining the global economic crisis. Tommy argued that the current Fianna Fail government has no ideology and will adopt any economic policy as long as it goes down well with its friends in the business class. He drew attention to the political schizophrenia of unionist and nationalist parties in the Northern Ireland Executive, who have tried to join protests against cutbacks introduced by their own ministers.

BUILDING A 21ST CENTURY LEFT

The final meeting of the day after lunch was chaired by Mick O’Reilly and featured contributions from Murray Smith and Cieran Perry. Murray Smith has been active on the radical left in France over the last decade and described the background to the launch of the New Anti-Capitalist Party earlier this year. The forces to the left of the French Socialist Party received a major boost in 2005 when they worked together to defeat the EU constitution with a strong grassroots campaign. The evidence that they could actually win a political victory gave fresh impetus to the radical left. Attempts to agree on a joint candidate for the 2007 presidential elections were not successful, however. The Revolutionary Communist League (LCR), the party in which Murray was active, had the best result for its candidate Olivier Besancenot, who won a little under 5% of the total vote. The LCR subsequently decided to take the initiative by launching the New Anti-Capitalist Party (NPA) and dissolving its own organisation.

At the time of its launch, the NPA had almost 9,000 members – three times greater than the membership of the old LCR. The composition of its membership was younger, more working-class, and with a better representation of women and ethnic minorities. The main political question for the LCR at the moment is whether or not to form an alliance with the French Communist Party, which remains a serious force despite its decline over the past twenty years. There has been discussion of a joint electoral list between the Communists, the NPA and other groups, which may or may not come together in the new year.

Cieran Perry began by saying that his speech might seem pessimistic, as he questioned whether many people on the Left had the stamina and the work ethic needed to build up community activism in working-class areas. He discussed the work he has been involved in over the past two decades in Cabra, which led to his election as a councillor this May. Although he was deeply cynical about mainstream electoral politics and was not expecting great things from the council, he has still been surprised by the sheer powerlessness of elected councillors in dealing with the city manager, who makes all the important decisions without their input. Councillors are expected to behave themselves and in return will be given a few grand here and there to fund projects in their community for which they can claim the credit. Cieran referred to the example of the anti-drugs movement in Dublin as an example of grassroots community mobilisation that the Left should be encouraging and participating in.

Thanks to all the speakers and everyone who came along for the day.

You can hear a recording of the final session at:

http://www.irishleftreview.org/2009/11/07/dayschool-cap...ve-2/