AROUND THE WORLD
Latin American political bureaus of the
Fourth International meet
The second meeting of the political bureaus of the Latin American sections of the Fourth International took place in October, 1984. Delegates from sections or sympathising groups in Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Uruguay, Brazil, Chile and the Antilles participated, as well as fraternal organisations from other countries.
As a working meeting it was able to take up the following issues and thrash them out:
The popular resistance to austerity and to the demands of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), mainly with regard to the experiences of the paro civico' (community strikes) in Mexico and the social explosion in the Dominican Republic in April 1984.
The struggle for the overthrow of the dictatorships and the problems posed by the processes of 'democratic openings'. In this framework the discussions mainly went over the experiences of Chile, Paraguay, Brazil and Uruguay.
The recomposition of the workers' movement: Workers Party and the consolidation of the Workers Union (CUT) in Brazil; the Broad Front (Frente Amplio) and the Independent Democratic Left (IDI) in Uruguay; the United Left (IU) and the formation of the Mariateguista Unity Party in Peru; the lessons of the Sixth Congress of the COB and the political situation in Bolivia. In addition, a discussion took place on the negotiations between the government and the guerrilla movement in Colombia.
- The agrarian question in Latin America: agrarian policies, reforms and the peasant movements were discussed here.
The dynamic of the Central American revolution and the solidarity initiatives in Central America and the Caribbean.
The discussions held at this second meeting, one year after the first, allowed a better assessment of the acceleration of certain processes underway in the workers' and popular movement, under the combined effects of the economic and social crisis and the impact of the Central American revolution.
In most countries, the central task that remains to be resolved is that of building a workers' movement independent of the state or of bourgeois populism both on the political terrain and on the trade26 union level. In those countries that are just emerging from many years of dictatorship, the attempts to carry through a transition to parliamentary rule on the basis of agreement with the military and under blackmail from imperialism via the IMF highlights the relevance of radical democratic and anti-imperialist demands. In this connection, the link between such democratic and anti-imperialist demands and social, economic and agrarian demands also shows up clearly.
Finally, the degree of social disintegration and the explosive situation amongst the popular masses in countries such as Bolivia and Peru and, in a different way, the Dominican Republic, pressage new tests of strength and leave no room for illusions about the democratic process lasting any length of time.
In this context and bearing in mind the experiences in Nicaragua, Salvador and Grenada, questions of unity and political pluralism are vital in the recomposition of the workers' movement and its vanguard. The development of this aspect of things in the space of one year is very noticeable. It has taken several different forms:
The radicalisation of the peasants' movement, sometimes directly or organically linked to the workers' movement. The conference of peasant organisations which took place last November in Mexico confirms this dynamic. It was attended by several organisations including: The Independent Peasants Movement of the Dominican Republic; the peasant section of the CUT in Brazil; the Peasant Conference of Peru (PC); the ATC of Nicaragua; the National Coordination Plan of Ayala (CNPA) of Mexico. (
The development of the trade-union movement. This phenomenon can be observed in relation to the consolidation of the CUT in Brazil and the marked radicalisation in the Sixth Congress of COB in Bolivia, but also in relation to the reemergence of the issue of trade-union unity in Colombia.
- The issue of unity is being expressed in the setting up of blocs and political fronts whose composition and functions vary a great deal. They go from the Frente Amplio in Uruguay, which reflects the need for unity against the dictatorship within the framework of a break with the bourgeois two-party system, through to the United Revolutionary Leadership (DRU) in Bolivia, which is a partial united front of the trade-union left, and to coalitions that for all practical purposes are broad united fronts of the workers' and popular organisations, such as the United Left of Peru, the Dominican Left Front or the Democratic Popular
Finally, organisations or regroupDominican Republic, Party of Peru or the Democratic Independent Left, express, sometimes in a confused way, the fight for a pluralist and democratic socialist society and the need for unity among the vanguard or
Such a development toward unity would be impossible without taking into account the different traditions, history and origins of various components.
In relation to tasks, the meeting of the Latin American political bureaus helped to follow up and strengthen solidarity work with the revolutions in Central America and the Caribbean and to extend the distribution and use of the Southern Cone Inprecor, as well as to maintain and improve the framework for collaboration that has been built up over the last two
Larry Stewart -A fighter to the end The following obituary of a veteran American Fourth Internationalist leader was written by those with whom he was most closely associated at the time of his death.
Larry Stewart of Newark, New Jersey, died of cancer at a New York hospital on November 16, 1984. He was 63 years old and had been actively engaged in building the revolutionary Marxist, labor and Black movements since he was 18
The editorial board of the Bulletin in Defense of Marxism, of which Stewart was a member, said, "His death marks a real loss for those movements. His sober judgment and advice, his rich experience under all kinds of conditions, and his militant example will be sadly missed at a time when the workers and their allies need leadership more than ever before."
Stewart was born to a poor Black working class family near New Haven, Connecticut, and spent part of his youth in foster and orphan homes. His formal education had to stop at high school for economic reasons. Soon after joining the Socialist Workers Party in New Haven,
International Viewpoint 28 January 1984
Mexican PRT in conference moved to Newark because it was asier to find a factory job there. He remained in Newark for the rest of his life except during World War II, when he became a merchant seaman before being
In the following years he held jobs in the steel and electrical industries and as a truck driver. Among the CIO, AFL and independent unions he belonged to were the United Steel Workers, Electrical Workers and Teamsters. knew what it was to be jobless for long periods and he was on strike several times.
In 1941 Stewart was a leading activist in the Newark branch of the March on Washington Movement, an all-Black group that fought against racism in industry and active in the NAACP [National Association for the Advancement of Colored People] and local committees against police brutality, and he defended the Black community against repression dur-
The fourth national conference of the Mexican section of the Fourth International, took place in November in Mexico
It was opened by a public meeting people under the banner of the PRT, including notably contingents of peasants, 'colonos' (shantytown dwellers) and trade unionists from all over the country.
On the platform at the inaugural meeting were several leaders of the workers' and peasants' trade unions, as well as leaders of popular movements and representatives of most of the parties of the Mexican left, including the PSUM - the Communist Party. Apart from the two spokespeople of the PRT, Edgar Sanchez and Margarito Montes, several others
Popular Revolutionary Bloc (BPR) among grown in the workers' movement and the reached the conclusion that it was necessary to review the criteria of membership and affiliation to the party, as well as to reorganise the structures at the base of organisation into territorial units (based on 'zones'). The resolution and the statutes were adopted almost unan-
Presenting the resolution on electoral comrade Ricardo Pascoe underlined the necessity to put forward an independent class alternative in the form of an 'alliance of all the left'.
In fact the crisis has brought about a gradual but consistent disintegration of ing the so-called Newark "riot" of 1967. spoke. He also tried to help build the National
Independent Political Party in New Jersey when it was organized in
The SWP had high esteem for Stewart's many contributions to party-building. It valued his best proletarian traits -his steadfastness, his personification of the party's revolutionary continuity, his modesty and his sense of proportion. He was elected to his branch executive committee several times, and was a branch delegate to national conventions. He ran for Congress and other local posts on the SWP ticket and wrote for the party press when he had something to
The SWP national convention in 1976 elected Stewart to four-member Control Commission, which investigates charges of violations of party discipline. The tradition in the party was that only the most responsible, fair and independent-minded members should be put on the Control Commission. He was reelected to this post in 1977 and served on it for another two years. He did this as he did everything else - with concern for the interests of both his party and his
Stewart was expelled from the SWP in January 1984. He then helped to organize the Fourth Internationalist Tendency with others who were expelled from the SWP at about the same time. He became a member of the editorial board of the FIT's journal, the Bulletin in Defense of Marxism. It printed several of his articles, including a copy of his appeal against his expulsion and his request to be reinstated
His fellow-editors sent condolences to Vera Stewart, his wife, and Paul, his son. "His example," they wrote, of strength to us who knew him personal-
We commend it to others who share his revolutionary proletarian goals." International Viewpoint 28 January 1984
They included: a representative of Radio Venceremos in El Salvador; Hugo Blanco for the Peruvian section of the Fourth International; Ramon Jimenez, a leader of the Independent Peasant Movement of the Dominican Republic; and a representative of the United Secretariat of the Fourth International.
The work of the congress centred on
La general political resolution; a resolution on questions of organisation statutes; a resolution on electoral policy for 1985; a debate on Central America and finally a discussion on building the Fourth International.
The resolution on general orientation was presented by comrade Sergio Rodri-
It dealt with the effects of the economic crisis in Mexico, the consequences of this for the populist regime of the PRI (the party of government for more than fifty years), the process underway in the trade-union and popular movements, the resistance to austerity measures and a balance sheet of the struggle for a national 'paro civico' (community
The resolution, which stressed the need for a democratic national and popular alternative to the crisis, was adopted by a large majority.
The resolution on organisation, presented by comrade Edgar Sanchez, and on the statutes, presented by comrade Jaime Gonzalez, proposed solutions to new problems arising from the growth of the organisation. In fact, since the 1982 election campaign, the PRT has seen its strength increase threefold. It has also gone through a significant change in social composition, with many and peasant activists joining its ranks. The breadth of the participation at the conference was noted by the Mexican
The growth and transformation of the party has gone hand in hand with a spectacular growth in its influence in the mass united-tront organisations, CCRI among the peasantry, or the
The danger is, that in the absence of the sort of alternative which the PRT is proposing, the chief gains will be made by the main bourgeois opposition party (the Party for National Action - PAN), which is linked to imperialist interests.
At the municipal elections in the region of the Valle de Mexico, which took place the day before the conference, a left coalition, involving the PRT and the PSUM, obtained 8 per cent of
The PRT, therefore, gained half a dozen seats on the municipal
Similar agreements are being discussed in other states such as Colima
The PRT has shown the most deter-
But there are many ob The electoral laws severely for forming Thus, if two or three parties wanted to run a common slate, they could only do so by giving up their own legal status for the sake of gaining legal status for the coalition itself alone or by reorganising under the legal banner of one of the components of the coalition.
The proposal put by the PRT to the PSUM and to the Mexican Workers Party (PMT - a nationalist left grouping). as well as to the other smaller formations. goes all the way, that is towards a perspective of a coalition under a single
Divided and looking for an escape hatch, the PRT's allies have pro posed common slates for the municipal and separate ones for tbe legislative elections.
The confidence of the PRT in thei own forces and their faith in the unitary perspective represented a common thread running through the conference. PSUM spokesperson noted this when he began his address, and all the delegates and observers stood up to shouts of 'Unity! Unity!'
Finally, the conference agenda includ ed the election of a new Central Commi tee of about fifty members.
Salvador guerrillas
Crisis in Israel
Mass murder stop fight
- Guatemala farce does nothing for peace
35-hour week:
Fighthed against unemploy
Women and the shorter week
Biggest mass
Victory to the miners upsurge in Brazi's history
Steel jobs under the knife
SPECIAL OFFER
FOR NEW SUBSCRIBERS! In that time there have been a number of changes in the magazine, both in regularising and broadening the scope of its coverage and in the look of it. We
International Viewpoint was launched nearly three years ago. Now, we will be forced by rising costs to adjust our prices in the New
The costs involved in a magazine like ours are considerable - to keep contact with a worldwide network of hope you will agree that we have come a long way. correspondents is a costly business on top of all the usual costs involved in publishing a magazine. In addition, for those of you in richer imperialist countries, we ask you to help us subsidise the cost of the magazine for our readers in countries where the true cost of a magazine like this is just an impossible burden on a weekly wage. But we have never changed the prices. Year to take account of inflation. By taking a special subscription now you are helping both us and yourself. You will get a bargain, and we will be in a better position to plan our budget for the next year.
1 year surface mail to all countries
150 French franes; £13.50; 26.50 US dollars
The reduction we are offering is of 15%:
165 French francs; £15; 31.50 US dollars
Please make cheques payable to 'PEC' except for sterling cheques which should be payable to International
1 year airmail
Americas: 204 French francs; 35.50 US dollars
Australia: 230 French francs; 40 US dollars
Europe:
Viewpoint'. Subs box and further details on page 2.
OFFER ENDS FEBRUARY 15!
Salvador's electoral
Interpational
VIEWPOINT
Advance by tails to