International's 1.5th World Congress took place in mid-February in Europe. On many key issues, capitalist movement, the importance of new broad parties of the left the Fourth International shares a common framework with Socialist Resistance. GREG TUCKER, a delegate to the congress from the ISG, reports on its proceedings.
The Fourth International's Congress stands on the brink of a brutal war of conquest to be waged by the US and Britain. A huge anti-war movement is opposing it. In Florence and Porto Alegre, the European and World Social Forums show that the anti-globalisation movement is growing and merging with that anti-war movement. In Brazil, Lula's election represents a victory against neo-liberalism for the whole of Latin America by a powerful popular movement. In every area, comrades of the Fourth International are involved in or leading these struggles.
This created an upbeat, confident and forward-looking Congress, which was spontaneously dubbed a "relaunch" Congress of the Fl. It was the most important and successful Congress for many years. Membership of the Fl had doubled since our last meeting in 1995.
Representatives from forty sections and sympathising organisations from all corners of the globe engaged in a week of debate and decision. In line with an increasing mood of unity amongst the far-left more guests were invited to this Congress than was the case in the past. These included guests from Britain (the SWP and ISM), France (Lutte Ouvriere), Australia (the DSP), South Korea and a host of other countries.
The previous (14th) Congress held in early 1995 had been very different. It had been dominated by the fall of the Berlin Wall, the collapse of the USSR and the sharply defensive situation facing the working class internationally at that time. This A working class president, but is Lula cuddling up too much to the bankers? Congress was very different, dominated by engagement in a growing world movement.
The Fl had responded to the higher levels of struggle, which emerged in the mid1990s, starting with the mass strikes in France at the end of 1995, and to the rise of the anti-globalisation/anti-capitalist movement. From 1997-1999 the Fl was heavily involved in the success of the European Marches, which culminated in a demonstraThen came Seattle, Genoa and the subsequent mass mobilisations right through to the ESF in Florence at the end of last year and the 3rd WSF in Porto Alegre this January - processes in which the Fl has played and continues to play an indispensable (though often not very visible) leaderOur Italian comrades of Bandiera Rossa have been able to play an important role as a current inside the Party of Communist Refoundation and through that a vital role in the mobilisation for Genoa and in Florence. The LCR in France was able to play a leading role in the mobilisations against Le Pen, and its presidential candidate Olivier Besancenot scored over 1 million votes. Our Brazilian comrades of the Socialist Democracy (DS) current have proved key to the development of the Workers Party.
The rapid rise and huge success of the anti-war movement and the opportunities opened up for the left by these events and the need for the left to renew and reshape itself in the process set the scene for the
• Representatives from forty sections and sympathising organisations from all corners of the globe engaged in a week of debate The Congress discussed texts on the world political situation and the tasks for revolutionaries. Two important programmatic issues, on Lesbian and Gay Liberation and on Ecology and Socialism were debated and texts adopted. And new redrafted Statutes were adopted which set the framework for how the Fourth International organises itself. The theme of the war and the need to build the anti-war movement ran through
It was a remarkably united Congress. A process of convergence had produced texts in the pre-congress discussion that were supported by almost all of the sections, and previous tendencies, of the FI. This meant no-one found it necessary to organise factions or tendencies at this Congress - the first time for many years that this has been the case. The ISG supported all the main texts and confined itself to amendments where we had disagreements, feeling that they were much closer to what we had argued at the previous Congress. A new world political situation A leading member of the French LCR introduced the debate on the new world situation. In a speech that started with the US war drive he argued that the new period we are in is characterised by:
• The collapse of the USSR in the early 90s and the demise of the Western CPs;
• The increasing globalisation of the world economy;
• Higher levels of class struggle in the second half of the 90s enhanced and enriched by the emergence of the anti-globalisation movement;
• US imperialism's drive for global hegemony, manifest in a series of wars and interventions aimed at controlling the planet;
• The ongoing ruling class offensive, now running up against major economic and social obstacles;
• The enormous increase in the bourgeoisie's military strength, combined with a crisis of its forms of political domination;
• The social-liberal transformation of social democracy, who's historic crisis is opening up space for experiments outside the control of the social democratic and Stalinist apparatuses. In order to have a coherent discussion the debate on the world political situation (which was one and a half days) was subdivided with slots given over to several important aspects of the debate. The most fascinating, and controversial, debate was on the political situation in Brazil - which had a four-hour slot of its own.
There was no disagreement, of course, on the general significance of the remarkable victory of the PT (in a vast country of 160 million) in both the parliamentary elections (where it became the biggest party) ularly greeted by the masses as a great advance not only in Brazil but in the whole of Latin America. The neo-liberal government of Cardoso had been defeated by a popular movement against neo-liberalism.
There was also agreement on the nature of the Lula government and the significance of its wholesale adoption of the neo-liberal agenda. Lula made major concessions to the neo-liberal agenda (contrary to established PT policy) in the course of his election campaign. His campaign was presented as a coalition which included the Liberal Party (a party of the right) and his running mate was Jose Alencar a major employer of labour:
The controversy was over the decision of the DS (the Fl section in Brazil - which has 1600 members inside the PT and gains I015% of the vote in PT conferences) to take a ministerial position in Lula's government. DS member Miguel Rossetto (previously deputy governor of Rio Grande du sul) took the position of Minister for Agrarian Development (i.e. land reform). On this there was a sharp, though impressive, debate in the Congress.
The DS sent a strong delegation to the Congress including Heloisa Helena, an impressive and a powerful speaker, who is an elected member of the Senate. She has recently been threatened with expulsion from the PT, first for refusing to vote for the president of the Central Bank, who is a member of Cardoso's party, and then for failing to vote for a former Brazilian president and representative of the old oligarchy as Speaker of the Senate.
Many speakers were critical of and some completely opposed to) the decision of DS to take a ministerial position. However there was wide acclaim for the fight they had conducted inside the PT over a long period of time and the political base they had built within it. And most agreed that the crucial issue was what to do now. In this respect there were clearly different emphases from different comrades from the DS delegation itself on how they should proceed now they held a ministerial position, and how long they would be able to stay in the government.
Some DS comrades emphasised that they had been in the PT from its inception. They had not been entryists into the PT but had built it as their party - although they had had their own distinct political platform within it. This meant, they argued, that it was very difficult to refuse a ministerial position once it was offered and for that refusa to be widely understood by the masses -and in this they really were under the watchful eye of the masses.
This dilemma was reinforced by pressure from the landless movement (MST) and by CONTAG, the rural sector of the CUT trade union federation, for Miguel Rossetto to take the position of minister for agrarian reform. It was a dilemma which arose out of the success of the comrades in placing themselves in the centre of events and as a significant factor in them.
These DS comrades saw taking a government position as a way of fighting to halt the
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Once March 2003 13 Fourth International Congress