The other
Asia
Hong Kong IMF protest
Two hundred protesters rallied outside the September 21st meeting of the IMF and WB, writes Lau Yu Fan. The protest was organised by Solidarity against the IMF/WB, a broad grouping of trade unions, NGOs, socialist organisations, students unions
Despite its limitted size, organisers say it has been "is the first time for more than 15 years that a leftist issue could attract this kind of support."
For more than a decade, leftist ideas seemed dead in Hong Kong. But with the sharp increase in poverty and unemployment, more discontent can be heard.
The coalition was a new way of working for the Hong Kong left. Most participating organisations intend to continue their co-operation. One of their first tasks is to call for the release of four demonstrators charged with attacking and obstructing the police. *
The 14th International Youth Festival in Cuba
Ideas on Social change
The XIV International Festival of Youth and Students in Cuba reaffirmed socialism as the only possible form of society that benefits all of humanity. Mónica Gaona Romero Young students, workers, lesbians, relirious activists, feminists, and militants from other mass movements affirmed that there is an socialist alternative to neoliberalism, which would enable us to achieve a life that is just, peaceful and truly human. The exchange of experiences of the effects of neo-liberalism in the different countries of the participants demonstrated that the effects have been uniformly devastating for the people, and that the only solution for the economic, political and social problems is the radical overthrow of capitalist society.
The desire of youth for the transformation of a world which offers no future profoundly contradicts all those governments which daily preach exploitative and polarising policies - policies which have been imposed world-wide with the complicity of the principal international financial centres: the IMF, the World Bank, and the Bank of International Settlements.
Along with the participation of thousands of youth from around the world, the presence and active participation of the socialist left had a positive effect. One of the emotional highlights of the meeting was the presentation of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo from Argentina. A defiant contrast with Joaqín Sabina's song in which he remembers the thousands of disappeared with the words: "Forgetfulness exists... on arriving at the Plaza de Mayo, I fell to tears and started to shout governments have blockaded Cuba for more than 35 years.
The US delegation included important numbers of members of minority groups: Chicanos, Mexicanos, Latin Americans of all types, blacks, Asians — all participants in the struggles which have been developing in various cities for human rights and national self-determination, among others.
Attendance at this important meeting against neo-liberalism more than doubled the pre-conference registration. Just on the first day there were 3,000 more participants than had been anticipated. As a result, the co-ordination of transportation and scheduling of the different workshops and Festival activities had to be changed on the spot. The infrastructure had been prepared for only 5,000 participants, but more than 11,330 delegates came.
The topics discussed included: lack of democracy and respect for human rights; intolerance: the intervention of big business, especially in the third world; poverty, which is increasing all over the world; the segregation of ethnic minorities; the resurgence of neo-fascism; xenophobia; unemployment; lack of access to education and health care. Responding to the women question
Unfortunately, the time and space allotted to each of the panels was, in the end, insufficient for an adequate development of the different discussions. To take just one example: the room dedicated to the discussion of the situation of young women in the world was, if not the smallest, then at least one of the smallest. This was not due to any lack of partıcıpation, since a large number of truly youthful women couldn't participate in the discussion due to the lack of space.
There were various other surprises in this discussion. In the first place, the composition of the Cuban delegation - all women over 40 years old. One of these women took charge of chairing the coordinating panel, and another, who was a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of Cuba, read a document which tried to show "the realties of young women in Cuba." The central theme of the paper was that Cuban women have full equality, and that there are numerous laws that assure their well being. Machismo, easily noticeable in the country, was not questioned. The relation of public to private life was not mentioned. In this respect, the women of Cuba continue to face great disadvantages.
The festival confirmed that the remaining Worker's States still have some of their old vices. The North Korean delegation was certainly youthful, but the speech that they gave had absolutely nothing to do with their way of life. Not the slightest admission that, although their society proclaims itself communist, the population is rigorously controlled. In the women's meetings, North Korean delegates centred their speech on their great leader, the "principal guide" who has shown them "the light, and the path of life" and has "aided them to be good and better women every day". And with this, they wanted us to believe that their living conditions and development were good and equal. It was clear, however, that none of the North Korean women present played an important or decision-making role either in the Communist Party or in their communities.
A lively debate was provoked by one of the delegates from Barbados, who argued that prostitution must be tolerated. since men have to satisfy their "biological necessities" but it is desirable that their future wives be virgins at the time of marriage. Most other delegates accepted that,
Greeting from Fourth International Youth 'Where are you?'
On this occasion, the shouts of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo were the cries of hope: "The dream of the Revolution is alive. Our sons and our daughters gave their lives for the revolution. Their dreams and hopes were Marxism, and on the beautiful example of the Cuban Revolution and the passionate internationalism of Che Guevera. The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo know that this hope is not dead. We know that the death of ideology' is a lie"
The US delegation is worth mentioning, not only because they had to defy
To the 14th International Youth Festival
Comrades,
We are 500 young people from 15 European countries gathered in France at the fourteenth annual International anstone of terration.
youth share with the Fourth International a long tradition of solidarity with the Cuban people and their popular
We are active in the campaigns and his life and legacy. 'Che' symbolises for us as for young people all over the world the virtues and example of being a revolutionary today. His courage and audacity, his deep feeling for the oppressed and exploited, his internationalism and anti-imperialism are our values too.
In our struggles in defence of democratic rights and against compulsory military service, for a decent education and standard of living and against a Europe of austerity and unemployment movements against the criminal imper- we commend these values to young the prohibition imposed by their government which made it impossible to travel to
Cuba legally, but also because 849 delegates came to Havana. The biggest delegation, which consistently attacked imperialism and neo-liberalism, came from the country whose successive alist blockade of Cuba and in defence of the Revolution.
Our Camp this year had a major rally to mark the 30th anniversary of Ernesto
Che' Guevara's death and to celebrate people all over the world
Viva the Cuban revolution!
Viva the Fourth International!
Forward to victory! *