Finally, the relevance of the initiative taken by the Brazilian PT three years ago is shown today by the growing number of organizations, parties and social movements from throughout Latin America and the Caribbean and from various parts of Europe, Asia, the USA, Canada and the Middle East who were present at the third meeting, whether as members, guests or
The fourth meeting of the Sao Paulo Forum will take place next year in Havana, Cuba; its central themes will be "The economic, political and social development of Latin America and the Caribbean" and "The relation between parties and social movements".* through combative and creative action, to forge our investment in the third millennium.
The Forum has shown the willingness to pursue the struggle for the definitive political and economic liberation of Latin America and the Caribbean, menaced by the new mechanisms of imperialist domination and oppression. It reaffirms the necessity of struggling for national liberation, social justice and democracy, in all their dimensions, not only political but also economic, social and cultural. It symbolizes the refusal of the great majority of Latin Americans to identify democracy with capitalism, modernization and submission...
An offensive from the North is taking place today under different forms against Latin America and the Caribbean aimed at accentuating its domination, by modifying and deepening the basic structures of dependent capitalism, and by imposing neo-liberal policies which have led to a growing deterioration of the living conditions of the people, a limitation of elementary rights, and the denationalization and complete opening of our countries to capital and to world production.
The international financial organisms controlled by the United States and the great imperialist powers, like the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank (WB), and the Interamerican Bank for Development (IBD) play a key role in these attacks against popular interests, as do the utilization of the unjust and unpayable debt and the formation of economic and geopolitical blocs controlled by the great powers which wish to submit the countries of the South...
The attempts to impose a new division of the world between the different monopolies of the main powers develops in a context of inter-imperialist conflicts and the world crisis. The oppressed and exploited peoples of the world must know how to take advantage [of this situation].
While we should not under-estimate the external factors which to a great extent are responsible for the extremely grave situa tion in which the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean live, it is necessary also to stress the responsibility of the internal elements in this situation. Sectors of the oligarchy and of big multinational capital insist on maintaining the links of dependence between the South and the North... to safeguard their common interests and keep control of power at the local or international level.
The neo-liberal offensive is also taking place on the cultural and ideological terrain; it seeks to dislocate the values of solidarity rooted in our society, imposing an individualist model of competition which opposes the one to the other in a struggle for survival. This limits again the social and political participation of our
The economic and political structural adjustment programmes, defined and imposed under the pressure of multilateral financial organisms, far from assuring social development, seek only to create the best conditions for dependent insertion, according to the needs of the imperialist interests of the economies... At the same time, the different forums and world and regional organizations are increasingly under the control of the United States and the other capitalist powers, which are seeking to consolidate a regional and world order in their own interests, and aiming to legitimate the role of world policeman for the United States, notably through the intermediary of the Security Council of the United Nations.
Defend popular interests
The search for popular and revolutionary alternatives must be linked with the capacity to encourage resistance to the neo-liberal policy and the creation of spaces of popular power. The neo-liberal project advanced for Latin America and the Caribbean cannot be amended, for its evil is rooted in the very nature of the unjust world economic order which it seeks to consolidate, and the model of society it aims to impose.
Only the broadest unity of all the left and the progressive forces of the world in all their diversity could bring about a definitive change more in accord with the demands of justice and peace. The economic content of an alternative model of
September 14, 1992 integration must start from inside the societies, from a struggle destined to go beyond the dominant structures and models and to eliminate monopolistic and oligarchic control, and from the construction of autonomous economic development oriented, in the first place, towards satisfying the elementary needs of the majority.
This could be done by an alliance between all the forces who have an interest in the elaboration of national projects for the construction of social justice, democracy and national liberation. Every process of authentic economic development passes through a change in the social subjects of power, for a just distribution of property and wealth, for the establishment of the power of the majority and for the reinforcement of civil society.
To achieve this, spaces for participation must be opened, both in the autonomous organization of the people and the state institutions, amplifying the influence of the great majority of the people. Social policies cannot be separated from economic policies.
To modify the character of the traditional productive structure, or to struggle for structural changes, it is necessary to combat the policies, orthodox or heterodox, of structural adjustment and to favour the development of the productive forces.
It is necessary to undertake active political work for the autonomous organization of the people under different forms and modes, starting from the base up to their national expressions. We must oppose the neo-liberal strategy which seeks to weaken the action and the political weight of
We should implement programmes which specifically guarantee measures allowing the full and equal integration of women in society, which recognize maternity as a social function and domestic labour as a function which produces weal-
These programmes must permit the integration of women into the labour market and their appropriation of the intellectual, technological, political, cultural and material wealth of society and the elimination of oppressive social relations.
An authentically popular alternative must involve a programme of democratization which weakens and replaces the anti-democratic elected and non-elected institutions, and which, on new constitutional bases, allows the possibility of creating and developing an integral political, economic and social democracy.
A popular alternative must be prepared to assume the economic responsibilities monopolized by the employers' sectors. In a new institutional and structural framework, the people and the popular organizations must assume the roles of economic
Pega, Toto,
pega "Bone, Fido, bone!" management and leadership which facilitate the necessary transformations. For that, information, transparence, public debate and the development of forms of local and national popular participation are essential. These forms of participation are only viable in the context of a project of global transformation for a new society.
Popular participation in the elaboration, leadership, management and control of strategic decisions depends on the existence of a clear project of national development on which efforts can be concentrated.
The accumulation of micro-economic projects, even if these latter are very autonomous and popular, does not constitute in itself a national alternative as such. The state must constitute a place for the participation and power of national decision, inasmuch as it is obliged to play a central role in the regulation and promotion of social equality, without abandoning the direction of the economy to the will of the
We must resume the struggle of our indigenous peoples and nations, by breaking with the ancestral submission, with the goal of creating conditions which permit the construction of multinational societies and states. This is a central factor in popular development.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, the autonomy of the indigenous peoples and ethnic groups, socially and culturally structured, requires proper economic bases and appropriate forms of political representation, as an indispensable part of any
LATIN AMERICA
CRISE
project for democratic participation. The rights of the Latin American and Caribbean immigrants in the United States must be taken on, in militant fashion, by all our movements and parties, through supporting their demands and their protests in common with the revolt of the black minorities and the struggles of the most impoverished sectors, vigorously demanding the end of discrimination, exploitation, exclusion and repression.
The integration of peoples
The Initiative for the Americas and the Free Trade Treaty represent an attack on democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean; they grant increased power to the multinational enterprises to take decisions which have direct repercussions in the areas of education, health and other services indispensable for the improvement of the quality of life.
[We] reaffirm that any alternative project or any programme of political action should take into account the harmful role of the interventionist policy of the United States.
The success [of an alternative project of integration of the peoples] can be seriously compromised by the problem of the foreign debt... The payment of the debt continues to deepen poverty and block the investments necessary for economic growth, technical progress and social justice. Integration would demand the search for persponse to the unis of oint negotiation in 21 response to the unity of the creditors.
September 14, 1992
LATIN AMERICA
The "legitimation" of the interventionist policy
Under the pretext [of the struggle against the drugs trade and terrorism the United States organizes military campaigns in the Andes region, and reinforces the repressive capacity of the security and spying structures in the countries of our region.
The armed policy traditionally employed by the United States against our peoples has now been legitimated by the illegal judgement of the Supreme Court of the United States which, through a series of extradition demands, justifies the detention of those who the Washington government considers as having committed a crime. We raise our voices together with the other forces that defend legality, to denounce this new attempt to impose the rule of the strongest in international relations, through flagrantly violating national sovereignty and international law. We demand the annulment of this illegitimate claim by the legally competent world and regional organisms, as well as the immediate repatriation of the detainees.
The aggressive and increasingly hostile policy of the United States government towards the people and government of Cuba, and its new attempts to strengthen the economic blockade against this sovereign nation, constitute an affront to the national sovereignty of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean and an offence to the dignity of their peoples. We affirm our support for the right of the people and the Cuban government to defend their will to pursue the construction of socialism in their country. We mobilize with the people of the region and of the world to contribute to the defence of this sister nation, by demanding of all governments that they do not give in to the imperialist pressures seeking to make an obstacle to links of cooperation with Cuba.
For non-intervention
We call for the construction of a new international political and economic order, different to that which is being imposed today under the hegemony of the United States and the capitalist powers, which
• The democratization of the international organisms and especially the United Nations, by changing its current norms of functioning which allow the hegemonic abuse of the Security Council...
• The definite resolution of the grave problem of the foreign debt, through its
• The modification of the current regime of unequal exchange between the developed countries and those of the South;
• A total reorientation of the policies and functions of the IMF and the World Bank, redefining the mechanisms of decision making inside them;
• The adoption of economic policies and models of development which guarantee the preservation of the environment, by putting an end to ecological devastation and which link the struggle for the environment with the struggle against poverty;
• The recognition of the ecological debt of the countries of the developed capitalist world towards the countries of the South;
• The reallocation of the military expenditures of the great powers to the development of the South, thus encouraging world disarmament;
• The democratization of the mechanisms of information and of world communication;
BBS
• Respect of national sovereignty and the principles of non-intervention and of political solutions of the differences between nations;
The Sao Paulo forum demands;
• An immediate end to the illegal and immoral blockade against Cuba and massive international economic aid to alleviate the harmful consequences of more than 30 years of blockade.
• The handing back of [the US military base at] Guantanamo to Cuba.
• The re-establishment of Jean-Bertrand Aristide as president of Haiti.
• The re-establishment of the democratic rights denied to Peru and the election of a sovereign constituent assembly;
• The scrupulous respect by the government of El Salvador of the peace accords signed with the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN);
• The acceleration of the process of negotiation in Guatemala;
• The immediate halt of all interference or intrusion by the United States in the internal affairs of Nicaragua, as well as the end of the pressures which weigh on the future policies of this nation to dismantle the consequences of the Sandinista popular revolution;
• The non-recognition of the illegitimate government imposed on Panama by the US invasion, the withdrawal of all US troops from this country and the full and complete respecting of the Torrijos-Carter accords;'
• Respect of the right of the brother people of Puerto Rico to free self-determination and independence as well as the closing of the military bases on their territory;
• The total eradication of colonialism in the Caribbean and the dismantling of the foreign military bases in this region, so that the right to self-determination and independence of those countries and territories which still suffer from colonial domination in Latin America and the Caribbean can be exercised;
• The pursuit of the process of negotiations for a political and non-military solution to the Colombian internal conflict and the rapid resumption of the dialogue between the government and the Simon Boli-
• The closure of the military bases of the United States in Honduras.
Managua, July 19, 1992. *
Canon
-eIf aboro Labatt's G BOScH Buce
22
International Viewpoint # 234
•
ESsEX
CURUAGNET GEBER
1. The Torrijos-Carter accords were signed in 1979 by the then presidents of the United States and of Panama, respectively Jimmy Carter and Omar Torrijos. They provided for the return of the canal to Panamanian sovereignty. The US military intervention of December 1989, which took place under the pretext of arresting Panamanian president Noriega, was linked to the approach of the deadline for the return of the canal.
Socialism and the
September 14, 1992
FUTURE OF SOCIALISM
Of course, the masses understand very well that this is the failure of an overall radical social objective. But that does not imply a negative assessment of the important concrete changes in social reality in favor of the exploited that have taken place. In this latter sense, the balance sheet of more than 150 years of theactivity of the
WHAT ARE the prospects for socialism after the collapse of the self-styled socialist regimes in the Soviet Union and
Eastern Europe? In the following article Ernest Mandel, an internationally known Marxist scholar and a member of the
United Secretariat of the Fourth International, gives his answer.
This text is based on the speech Mandel delivered to the third meeting of the San Paulo Forum held in Managua,
Nicaragua this July.
ERNEST MANDEL
INCE the mid-1970s a deterio-
S ration of the balance of forces between the classes has taken place on a world-wide scale.
The main reason has been the onset of a long-lasting depressive wave in the capitalist economy with a continuing increase in unemployment. In the imperialist countries, unemployment has increased from 10 to 50 million people; in the Third World it has reached 500 million. In many of the latter countries this means that 50% or more of the population find themselves without work.
This massive rise in unemployment and in the fear of unemployment among those who have jobs, has weakened the working class and facilitated the world-wide capitalist offensive aimed at increasing the rate of profit through pushing down real wages, and cutting social and infrastructural costs.
The neo-liberal and neo-conservative offensive is only the ideological expression of this social and economic offensive.
The large majority of the leaderships of the mass parties who claim to be socialist have capitulated before this capitalist offensive, and have accepted austerity policies;
this has been seen in countries as diverse as France, Spain, the Netherlands, Sweden, Venezuela and Peru. This has disoriented the working class and, during a whole period, has made it more difficult for the masses to undertake defensive struggles.
### Crisis of credibility
This capitulation of the Social Democracy has been coupled with the ideological and political impact of the crisis of the systems in Eastern Europe, the ex-Soviet Union, the People's Republic of China and in Indochina, which is fomenting a profound and near universal crisis of the credibility of socialism.
In the eyes of the great majority of the population of the planet, the two principal historical experiences in constructing a classless society, the Stalinist/post-Stalinist/Maoist and the Social Democratic, have failed.
international worker's movement and all its tendencies, remains positive.
But this is not the same as a belief by millions of workers that all immediate struggles will increasingly lead to the struggle for the overthrow of capitalism and the advent of a classless society without exploitation, oppression, injustice or mass violence. In the absence of such a conviction, immediate struggles are fragmented and discontinued, without overall political objectives.
The political initiative is in the hands of imperialism, the bourgeoisie and its agents. This is clear from what is happening in Eastern Europe where the fall of the bureaucratic dictatorships under the impact of broad mass struggles has led not to a political initiative in the direction of socialism but rather, towards the restoration of capitalism. The same thing is beginning to happen in the ex-Soviet Union.
### Stalinism and Marxism
The masses in Eastern Europe and the ex-Soviet Union, not to mention countries like Cambodia, identify the Stalinist and postStalinist dictatorship with Marxism and Socialism, and they reject all of these equally. Stalin murdered a million Communists and repressed millions of workers and peasants.
This was not the product of Marxism, socialism or of the revolution; it was the result of a bloody counter-revolution. But the fact that the masses still see these things differently is an objective fact that bears heavily on international political and social realities.
This crisis of the credibility of socialism explains the principal contradiction of the world situation at a time when the masses are fighting in many countries, often on a larger scale than ever before.
On the one hand, imperialism and the international bourgeoisie are not capable of crushing the workers movement as they did in the 1930s and the beginning of the 1940s in in the big cities of Europe and Japan and in many other countries. But, on the other, the working masses are not yet prepared to fight for a global anti-capitalist solution. For this reason we are in a period of worldwide crisis and disorder in which neither one of the principal social classes is capable of assuring its historical victory.
The principal task of socialists and communists is to try to restore the credibility of 23 socialism in the consciousness of millions
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future
The Lesbian and Gay
Struggle in South
International Viewpoint # 234 • September 14, 1992
SOUTH AFRICA
We are part of an inner city committee, since we are residents and here of course we work alongside the political organizations. • What about the trade unions?
We have very strong links with the domestic workers union - I don't know
Africa Today who is more marginalized! A presentation has been made to COSATU so the issue of lesbian and gay rights will come up. We
TANYA Chan-San is a lesbian and gay rights activist in
Johannesburg, South Africa. IV interviewed her in July during a visit to Paris.
AN you tell us something about your organization? I work for an organization called GLO - the Gay and Lesbian Organization of South Africa, in which there are more gay men than lesbians. It is a non-racial organization and contrary to other lesbian and gay organizations, we encourage our members to be members of political organizations.
One of our members, Simon Nkoli, was in an important trial, the so-called Delmas trial. He was a member of a mainly white gay organization which did not want to support him in this trial - so GLO was formed. Simon was not out as a gay man, but the prosecution raised it, trying to imply that he was gay and therefore evil. There was a campaign and he and 14 others were acquitted.
Our organization exists in the Witwaterrand region, which takes in Johannesburg, Soweto and four townships along the Rand. We have contact with other groups in the Transvaal. There are two groups in Cape Town; one which is solely an activist group and another which also gets involved in social functions. There is also a lesbian- only group in Durban. GLO, the Cape Town groups and the Durban group work on campaigns together.
Because of the distance involved, it is difficult to coordinate, but we are hoping to form a national organization. • What are the prevailing cultural views of lesbian and gay sexuality in South Africa?
In South Africa, the apartheid system is marked by a very strong Calvinist ethos. Gay men are criminalized - sodomy is illegal; lesbians are not criminalized, but there is an age of consent which is 16 for heterosexuals, 18 for gay men and 19 for lesbians.
There is a strong Christian fundamentalist current in South African society, including in the Black society, which is very vocal and is supported by the government. Their very oppressive views on homosexuality have been made widely known. 26 They claim that there is no homosexuality in the Black culture, that it is a product of Western decadence and of course they hold that it is abnormal and evil.
The broader population reflects these VIeWS. • And what about the anti-apartheid movement?
Working within the anti-apartheid political organizations as an openly gay man or lesbian has proved extremely difficult. One of the few successes we have had has been in some ANC (African National Congress) branches and this has only come about through long involvement in grassroots struggle in the old UDF [United Democratic Front - the umbrella anti-apartheid organization before the unbanning of the ANC and other organizations] movement.
There has been little support from the left and far left organizations, who avoid the issue. The PAC (Pan-African Congress), AZAPO (Azanian People's Organization) and sections of the ANC have moved gay and lesbian rights down the agenda, saying that it can't be an issue now, only after the revolution.
No organization has come out in full support of our cause. The ANC Charter contains a clause against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, but this is part of a catch-all clause which includes all other human rights. The real commitment is very vague.
GLO members have worked in different organizations and have tried to put lesbian and gay liberation on the agenda. We have tried with the PAC and also with WOSA (Workers Organization for Socialist Action). Even in the latter this has not been easy. The culture here is very macho and socialist men may be very committed socialists but are still male chauvinist and very homophobic.
In reality there is no substantial support. The ANC pays lip service to keep foreign support. The PAC is out-and-out macho and is open about it. The far left organizations have not yet made a commitment. WOSA has supported our marches and campaigns, but we do not find this enough; we need support all the year round.
have also tried to get it on the agenda as part of the issue of conditions at work. • Have you had any positive support from the Churches?
In Holland I met a lesbian minister from the Dutch Reformed Church; they have a positive policy on homosexuality. Indeed, the South African branch of the Dutch Reformed Church threatened to withdraw from the international Reformed Church because they thought that the people in the Netherlands had gone too far! • Can you tell us about some of your campaigns?
At Winnie Mandela's trial the defence tried to equate homosexuality with sexual abuse. Her supporters were outside carrying placards saying "There is no Black homosexuality". We wrote an Open Letter to the ANC and others pointing out the contradiction between this and the statement in the ANC's programme about sexual orientation.
We got no reply from the ANC, but branches throughout the country sent messages of support. That was at least a victory from the point of view of publicity and education on the issue.
We have also been involved in campaigns in defence of people who have been fired because they are HIV positive. This is still in the test case stage which gets lots
The first sittings of the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA — a forum involving the South African government, the ANC and other organizations in discussions on the country's future) called for submissions, so we made one on gay and lesbian rights.
Out of that came a campaign to draw up guidelines on gay and lesbian rights to provide a point of reference on the issue; like most South Africans we are wary of the courts. The courts here tend to refer to American decisions in test cases - and the US courts are often very conservative.
In drawing up the guidelines we have gone around bars and so on, and have had a big response in terms of suggestions, especially from the Black community. On the whole conservative white peopleand anyone else with enough money, even if they are lesbian and gay — don't consider themselves oppressed and don't want
lution and other books on women's liberation, died in 1979. *
September 14, 1992° to get involved. • What is the situation with regard to AIDS and HIV?