A Congress of mutation...
Numéro spéciale hors abonnement, supplément à International Vlewpoint n° 273
14th World Congress of the Fourth International
THe 14TH WorLD CONGRESS OF THe FOURTH International took place on 5-10 June 1995. There were four major debates. The general discussion on the global situation organised around three themes — globalisation and the crisis of capitalism, the major political tendencies of the current period, and the restoration of capitalism in Eastern Europe. The second debate was an evaluation of the current situation and perspectives in Latin America, with special attention to the evolution of the Castrist regime in Cuba. The third debate covered the general tendencies of the socio-political situation in Western Europe, with special attention to the state of the left and the response to the European Union. The fourth and final debate concerned the strategies and problems of construction of revolutionary parties and an International in the new global period. Specific discussions, working group meetings and commissions covered feminist activities, youth work, ecology, solidarity campaigns with Bosnia and Chiapas (Mexico) and the Campaign to Abolish Third World Debt (COCAD). The Congress also examined and decided on a number of organisational problems concerning the status of various groups in various countries. Congress noted the division of the forces of the International in Germany and Mexico, and looked for ways to organise co-operation between the parties concerned. Mutation was a constant theme in the deliberations of the Congress: the Participants, delegates, guests and greetings The 150 participants included representatives of organisations and groups linked to the International in Australia, Austra, Belgium, Britain, Canada/Quebec, Denmark, Equador, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Japan, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Morocco, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Senegal. South Africa, the Spanish State, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey, Uruguay and the USA.. Organisations and groups in Algeria, Bolivia, mutation of the world system after the collapse of the Stalinist states of the exUSSR and eastern Europe, the mutations in the anti-capitalist left around the world, and of course the mutation of the Fourth The collapse of Stalinism and the (corresponding to the extension of the long wave of crisis which contradictory effects. Myths and illusions connected to the restoration of capitalism in the post-Stalinist societies have dissipated, faced with the economy. But reactions to the socio-economic crisis, in this period of loss of credibility of the socialist project, all too often take the form of reactionary tendencies of an ethnic, nationalist, racial or religious character. Hence the urgent need to rebuild a world-wide movement of anticapitalist struggle, within the socialist perspective, taking account of the recomposition of the workers' movement which is underway as a result of the double failure of social democracy and The political disorder in the ranks of the anti-capitalist left, in the context of a global balance of forces dominated by imperialism, had resulted in many political, even ideological capitulations. But it has also led to a spectacular overcoming of the sectarian traditions generated by the existence of Stalinism which have taken root in the anti-capitalist lett over the decades. Regroupments of forces determined to learn the lessons of the abomination that was Stalinism and to continue, against the winds and the tides, to fight against capitalism are being realised in a number of countries so large that it is legitimate to extrapolate a general tendency in the new period. This process can take a variety of groupments of anti-capitalist torces where the major element comes mainly (though not exclusively) from the decomposition of
Stalinism. In other cases, there are narrower re-groupments of tendencies which are based in the mutation under way inside the revolutionary left.
Sometimes this takes the form of the creation of new political formations organised on the basis of democratic pluralism, respecting the diversity of the component parts and their individual identities, yet founded on the basis of unified action and collective discipline, and acting both on the electoral level and in the field of general social and political struggles. In all the countries where one or the other of these possibilities exists, the organisations of the
Fourth International are ready to be part of the re-groupment process. We consider this as an important step towards the recomposition of the anticapitalist left on a world scale. At the international level, the Fourth
International is an active participant in re-groupment, bringing with it the advantages of a long tradition of combat against capitalism and
Stalinism. *
Contents
5 Confronting Capitalist Globalization 11 Challenges of the new world situation 21 The political situation in imperialist Europe 37 Our tasks in imperialist Europe 41 The European Union 45 Latin America 55 The situation in Cuba
Chile,
Congo, Guadeloupe, the State of Israel, Jordan,
Martinique and Mauritius could not attend: many for financial reasons, others because of visa problems.
A minority tendency was formed during the Congress. It presented counter-resolutions on the
Among the guests were representatives of the main points of the agenda. These texts may be obtained on request against payment of the
Democratic Socialist Party of Australia, Gauches Unis
(Belgium), Tri-Continental Centre (Belgium), the necessary photocopy and postage costs from PECI, BP85, 75522 Paris cedex I1, France.
Workers' Party (Brazil), Solidarity (USA), Zutik
(Basque country), Lutte ouvrière (France), People's
Communist Party (Philippines), MLCB (Philippines),
Bisig (Philippines), Russian Party of Labour,
Communist Refoundation (Italy) and the African Party for Democracy and Socialism (PADS) of Senegal.
Among the written greetings to the conterence were messages from the Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine (PFLP) branch in the occupied territones.
forms. In some cases there are wide re-
57 Building the International today
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(fesses)
Confronting Capitalist
Globalization
14th World Congress of the Fourth International 5
THE PRESENT DECADE REMAINS dominated by a world economy bogged down in a recessionary long wave indicative of a profound transformation of the logic of accumulation. This break, situated in time at the beginning of the 70's, has been accompanied by radical modifications in the relationship of forces on the world level: the main one being the collapse of the bureaucratic societies. The present mode of capitalist functioning has brought out its two basic limits: first of all, it is an economic system that is less and less able to place the development ot productive torces at the service of satistying the needs of the majority. And, even if it dominates the planet, today, practically without exception, it has shown itself to be perfectly incapable of establishing a stable world order. 1. THE PHASES OF THE LONG WAVE
Since the first generalized recession in 1974-1975, the world capitalist economy has gone into a recessionary long wave, from which no way out is foreseeable, and which, thus, characterizes the overall economic framework of the present period 1.1 THE TURNAROUND
But within this long wave, phases can be distinguished, development of which should be analyzed so as to specify precisely where we are at the present time. The end of the expansionary long wave dates back to the beginning of the 70's. The turnaround was clearly marked by the generalized recession of 1974-1975 which sent all of the imperialist countries into what can be called the "crisis" which has lasted since then. The first phase, which immediately followed that recession, corresponded to the pursuit of Keynesian policies attempting to treat the recession like those that had occurred following W.W.II. At the same time, petro-dollars were recycled and generously loaned to Third World borrowers, such that the Delegate votes For: 92.5% Against: 2.0% Abstentions: 5.5% attempts at boosting the economy were both internal and transnational. 1.2 THE NEO-LIBERAL TURN
The inadequacy of this therapy became obvious with the explosion of the second generalized recession at the beginning of the 80's. This is the second important turning point, whereby neoliberal policies spread throughout the remarkable similarity of objectives and means. The Third World countries which, for a few years, had served the function of amortizing the slow-down of the world economy, were violently hit by the debt crisis and the rise in interest rates. In the imperialist countries, a period profound restructuring opened up accompanied by the rise of unemployment, notably in Europe.
The neo-liberal phase, that we are still clearly in, can be broken down into several sub-periods: offensive (19801986), apparent success (1987-1990), relapse (1991-1993) and then revival. The first half of the 80's witnessed a systematic anti-labour offensive the catchword of which was flexibility. This not only involved wages, hammered by austerity and the elimination of cost-of-living allowances but, more generally, the overall living conditions of salaried workers (the social security net, the right to a job, etc.). Real advances and the resistance met were variable but the generalization of such policies made plausible a rapid relapse into a new generalized recession, provoked by the smothering of wage demand across the 1.3 THE REASONS BEHIND THE PASSING SUCCESS
The outbreak of the third generalized recession was delayed until the beginning of the 90's thanks to the world demand that the Reaganist policy involved, particularly in terms of military expenditures. A dissymmetrical configuration of the world economy was set in place wherein the substantial American deficit was financed by Japanese and German capital at the cost of a rise in interest rates to unprecedented levels. At the same time, international commodity trade and investments intensified but mainly between imperialist countries.
Within each imperialist country, the normally recessionary effects of wage austerity were offset by an increasingly unequal distribution of incomes. The rise in interest rates also played a key role here: it not only ensured the financing of the American deficit and the pillaging of the Third World debtor countries but also served to modify the distribution of incomes in favour of bond- and shareholders. What some have called the financialization of the economy thus reveals itself to be a gigantic process of redistribution of surplus value.
The 1986 oil counter-shock trimmed the non-producing countries' oil bill. The October 1987 stock market crash, which was correctly controlled by the international bourgeoisie, paradoxically doped up the real economy. As a result, the second half of the 80's registered a recovery of accumulation. This was presented as the triumph of the neoliberal theses: austerity and unemployment were merely the price to pay for adapting to technological change,