THE founding congress of the And Jeff/African Party for erased. The very definition of the territory
Socialism and Democracy (AJ/PADS) took place last to be demarcated by the state frontier has
December 14-15. Two thousand people, 1,100 of them created many problems.
We have seen examples of this in the ex-
Soviet Union and we see them in Yugosla-
The founding of this organization is quite significant via. We have this problem in Euskadi, because it defines itself as socialist and anti-imperialist. It with a working class of diverse national enjoys the support of several thousand members and origin, and territories which are not at all clearly demarcated and still less won over sympathizers. It is clear that it will enjoy significant influence to a democratic Basque national project among students and the independent trade union movement.
that can integrate them.
The new organization hopes to contribute to the emergence of
This is the situation in Navarre, where different (Basque and Spanish) identities a new revolutionary Pan-Africanism.
are today superimposed on each other and
The AJ/PADS is the product of a fusion of several far-left where the point of convergence is preciseorganizations and, because of the exemplary manner in which ly the Navarre identity. Without the conthe fusion was carried out, it can hope to draw even more sent of those who feel this Navarre identity, voluntary adhesion of any
Navarre to the Basque nation is unthinka-
This is quite significant in Africa where no organization of ble, unless imposed by state force.
this type has ever before existed.
A nation based on voluntary adhesion
A delimitation of the nation on the basis of voluntary adhesion, very much more flexible in terms of territorial conception and based on consent in the administrative domain, would avoid many problems, some of artificial origin, and some due to the difficulty of separating drastically that which is not very clear, either in reality or in the consciousness of the inhabitants. It is not by chance that the conflicts become destructive and violent, leading to chauvinism and xenophobia, exactly in those areas where this delimitation is neither
It is necessary to understand that a good part of the population has diverse national origins and that, to win it to a Basque national project, it will be important to recognize and respect the cultural rights stemming from that origin.
This destatization of the nation also involves a self-managing economic project, the free association of the producers and of units of production, an articulation between the social plan and those sectors where the market is judged necessary.
And naturally, such a project is required in the political and administrative domain, where the weight of the state, of the apparatus (police, army, bureaucracy)
is a permanent source of oppression and
The path of self-managed independence rejecting both the existing order and the statist and European capitalist road is on the order of the day: it could help us to go beyond the limits of strictly national indeforces together. CLAUDE GABRIEL
T HE new party is the result of
three years of debates between four organizations. The largest of these was the And Jeff/ Revolutionary Movement for National Democorigin which was built in conditions of clandestinity during the 1970's, particularly through cultural activities in the poor developed beyond its original positions. It approached the fusion process with the attitude that many questions had to be dispassionately re-discussed.
The three other organizations that participated in the founding of the PADS are the Union for Popular Democracy (UDP), the Socialist Workers Organization (OST), and the Suxxuba Circles. UDP was the product of a split in the AJ and was therefore also of Maoist origins. The OST was a revolutionary Marxist organization and part of the Fourth International. The Suxxuba Circles came out of a split from the Lambertist current.
During the last three years these organipolitically through common work in community campaigns, in the union movement, in university struggles, in the positions they took against the Gulf war, and against the repressive policies of the government in the southern part of the country, the Casamance.
The proof that this fusion was an authentic one lies in the fact that the leaderships worked for months debating the program, the tasks, and the organizational principles of the future organization. This does not of course mean that the founding congress was able to clarify all programmatic and political questions. The idea of socialism has been so muddled in the African continent that the PADS needs time to develop a coherent alternative to the current crisis in Black Africa. This continent has never lacked either "Socialists" or "Marxists" to manage its states! The system of nationalizations has been so widespread because the speculators who shared power needed to tap a certain sum of money from the collective purse to further develop their private wealth. In other words, it is necessary that a genuine anti-imperialist project clarify the question of social property, identify the social aspects of democracy, and finally offer a vision of another society.
A true break with the current system of dependence involves clarity on the nature of the existing states and the role of various social classes and layers in future struggles. This is without doubt the key challenge for the PADS and much will be in the coming months. Many 1. Following a decision of the conference, the members of the ex-OST will remain individual members of the Fourth International, and those elected to bodies of the International will continue as such. The PADS and the Fourth Interational will establish relations of political 2% solidarity.
----- pull-quotes on this page -----
EUSKADI / SENEGAL
MAURITANIA
International Viewpoint #221 • February 3, 1992
SENEGAL
- Railway
Richard Toll submission... This is why the essential pedagogical principle of this alternative is [for women] to rely on their own forces beginning with self-organization, selfdevelopment and self-defense. These are the mechanisms which will restore and reinforce the confidence of themselves, make them capable of occupying the important place that they will
Atlantic
SENEGAL
DAKAR-Rutisque
LG-A-MSBLI assume in the fight for an independent, democratic and prosperous Senegal where men and women will freely develop without any discrimination whatsoever.
It is hoped that women in the PADS will continue this fight in their own party and that the party as a whole will lead this struggle throughout Senegalese society. This would be a considerable gain for a movement that wants to change society, and will win it the support of the women of the country. There will not be true democracy in Africa as long as women are excluded from the current debates on constitutional reform. What could be more
GUINEA -BISSAU questions have been left open. There was congress a clear trend towards "refounding" a political project. As elsewhere, the pressure of world events has nourished a discussion which starts from a radical critique of capitalism, shorn of the dead weight of Stalinism and the various reformist and nationalist illusions that it engendered.
Apart from these analytical questions the new party will be confronted with the problem of organizing the hundreds of people who will be attracted to it hoping to find something different from what the traditionally corrupt clientelist parties have offered.
A party built at the base
The stakes are enormous because the political project outlined at the December congress can only be realized with a party built at the base, capable of carrying out militant political initiatives in the neighborhoods, regions and villages. sands of men and women in this country are waiting to be heard and are ready to act on the condition that there is an organization that will allow them to participate in discussions that will help them understand the world. In this sense the founding congress was an enthusiastic and moving gathering because the participants had the impression that they were charting new territory in their country.
The other challenge will be on the electoral plane. The pressure of the national and international relationships of forces can derail the best of initial intentions. A small organization has less of a risk of falling prey to electoralism than a party already able to modify the political situation in a country. Electoral strategies are therefore a new problem for Senegalese
24 the task of combining electoral cam- militants. They will have to grapple with
paigns with long term revolutionary projects, as well as dealing with the relationship between state institutions and the patient accumulation of militants for the formation of a powerful revolutionary
The PADS must not remain alone and isolated. Its first activities underline the urgent need for solidarity. Such is the case in its first campaign against corruption, in which it has targeted the "fat debtors", that is, the men and women in power who have taken out huge loans without paying them back. This is an excellent example of making the connections between social mobilizations and the demand for social control over foreign aid on the one hand, and the international campaign for the cancellation of the debt on the other. While imperialism loudly clamors for democracy in Africa it silent on the secret bank accounts of African dictators and all the corrupt politicians whose booty inevitably winds up in Western banks. This is their contribution to democracy!
Solidarity is also needed since a motion was passed at the PADS congress demanding that French troops leave Senegalese territory and that no other foreign troops be stationed in the country. This would a good project for the French anti-militarist movement.
But the greatest gain made at this congress was without doubt the role envisioned for women. The battle was joined to make the PADS the first mass party in Black Africa where feminism is part of the consciousness and practice of the party. The motion passed by the congress on this theme ended thus: "If productive labor is the necessary condition [for emancipation] it is not by itself sufficient because economic autonomy does not immediately and irredeemably eliminate ideology and incapacity, dependence and hypocritical than these national conferences that are taking place throughout Africa where there is much talk about the people, development and democracy, but where women are practically excluded?
Women of neighbourhoods and villages
If the PADS fully meets this challenge it will gain for itself the considerable social force of the women of the neighborhoods and villages. The first stage in this process was that of electing leadership bodies. Eleven women were elected to the fortyfive member Executive Secretariat (the equivalent of a Central Committee).
The PADS conference also provided the opportunity to bring together for the first time a number of independent and oppositional African organizations in order to discuss the renewal of Pan-Africanism. This was only a beginning as several invited organizations could not come. The next stage of these discussions will therefore be important.
Two options remain open along these lines: that of a broad coming together in which heterogeneity would become a parthat of an anti-imperialist African left capable of taking several initial initiatives and debating strategic problems. The debate around the renewal of Pan-Africanism has only just begun. Hopefully, the continuity with the past, particularly the rich but contradictory experiences of the 1950's and 1960's, will not be broken. But these must be enriched by new generations brought up under new social Africanism can take either the form of a "regional" super-nationalism, a simple formal revolt against dependence and alienation, or of a revolutionary PanAfricanism that would be the African link in a new internationalism capable of contributing to the renewal of a universal socialist project. *
----- pull-quotes on this page -----
Tambacounda
AROUND ous poets, musicians and artists participated.
THE WORLD AFRICA Pan-African Forum meets ON December 15, 1991, in Dakar, Senegal, during the founding congress of the African Party for Democracy and Socialism (see article on opposite page), an exploratory meeting of African political organizations was held to consider the possibilities for the rebirth of a militant, independent and anti-imperialist PanAfricanism. The number of countries represented and the political diversity of the participanis meant that the Dakar forum was no more than a first modest step in this direction. But the impetus is now there. Subsequent meetings will show whether the movement can broaden itself. We publish below the final declaration of internal co-existence are not properly
No African country can by itself resolve the enormous problems confront-
That means that it is necessary to develop Pan-Africanist ideas and make them a material reality for the deBalkanization of the continent which is, today, a central dimension of our struggle. It is necessary, in order to do this, to build new institutions controlled by men and women who are honest, competent and accountable to their people.
It also requires socio-economic choices defined in relation to the needs of the peoples and the possibilities of our counthose of foreign powers.
The African forces of progress should attach as