Workers’ Left (IT) of Argentina and Workers’ and Socialist Front (FOS), member of the International Workers’ League – Fourth International, have got together to constitute a liaison committee to coordinate the steps to follow in order to make headway towards a joint revolutionary party as well as the joint intervention in the events of class struggles of the workers and students in our country.
This national process is the refraction of an international process of regroupings and rapprochements having the IWL-FI, an international organization that has a consistently revolutionary position in the face of the new governments on the continent, as a landmark.
We are going through a very favourable world situation, when the working class and its trade unions once more take up preponderant activity together with students and popular sectors. The strikes of transport workers, teachers and public servants and the demonstrations of students in France, the strike of the engine drivers in Germany that paralysed the entire transport for several days, the demonstration of nearly 200 000 people in Portugal on November 3rd, the youth demonstrations against racism in Spain, the first US General Motors strike, the strikes of Ford and other car industry factories in Russia, all that shows the growing weight of workers and their organisations.
The same thing is happening in Latin America: the strike of copper miners and public servants in Chile, of teachers in Colombia, Peruvian teachers, miners and nurses, Doctors and social security workers in Panama, the teachers of Oaxaca in Mexico, the 16000-strong march of Conlutas and other sectors in Brasilia and the struggles of oil workers and public servants in Venezuela.
What is behind all these conflicts is the response to the permanent economic counteroffensive of imperialism and the sound beating that the Iraqi people are inflicting on the American army as we could see with the great rebellion of masses against Masharrag, the puppet government of Pakistan.
The new situation
The XXI century came to our continent sweeping the neoliberal administrations of the nineties. The argentinazo*, the defeat of a coup in Venezuela, the downfall of Goni and Carlos Meza in Bolivia, the insurrections in Ecuador and the fight of Fujimori inaugurated a new situation.
Now it is the turn of the new class collaboration governments, called nationalist, populist, of popular front that emerged from the mass ascent: the PT and Lula, Chavez, Evo Morales, Correa in Ecuador, Tabare, and Kirchner. These XXI century presidents do not talk of privatisations, because they cannot do so. They talk of “socialism”, “human rights”, “and original nations”.
In spite of all the differences they have between them, they are all bourgeois governments using socialist language to cheat workers while they are still junior partners of imperialism in the exploitation of oil, gas and natural resources and in the repression of workers.
Dividing waters
These new class collaboration governments have spawned a division of waters. Most of the left organisations, with the alibi of fighting against imperialism, turned “Castro-Chavist”: they support the populist Chavez administration and the measures of reduction of democratic freedom, such as the closure of the RVTV, repression of students, referendum with all the changes to the constitution that establish the state of siege and reduce democratic rights of the toiling masses.
Only a minority, of which we are part, regards all these governments as enemies of the workers and consequently, we do dot support any of these measures, nor do we lend them any type of support, even if under determined circumstances. If they are attacked by imperialism or reaction, the way it was in Venezuela in 2002, we may circumstantially fight in the same trench.
These governments, with their enormous concessions to the bourgeoisie and the reactionary forces lead the struggle of the workers and the popular sectors to the crossroads as can be seen in the confrontations between the hesitating Evo Morales administration and the bourgeois opposition.
That is why, as days go by, there are more and more struggles of the workers, students and popular sectors against these governments as has been proved in the case of the Venezuelan oil workers and civil servants.
Revolutionary regrouping is underway
The paradox is that while workers do everything they possibly can, and at a time when it is more urgent than ever to offer the budding vanguard a firm alternative to “Castro-Chavism”, Peronism, Lula’s PT, Evo Morales’ MAS, the left has been unable to respond.
And yet the struggle is not halted and new alignments take place: thousands of activists and fighters, trade union trends against bureaucracy, young people getting radicalised, and cracks appear in the parties of these governments, groups appear in search of alternatives or groups that had drifted apart begin to coincide.
This objective process has also begun in Argentina. A sample of this can be seen in the rally held in the Bauen Hotel on 7th October, were different political organisations converged, most of them coming from Morenism but also from other origins and traditions.
The FOS-IT Liaison Committee emerges with the intention of responding to this objective process. We hope to revert the explosion of the Morenist trend from which we come and which we stand for. But we are aware of the fact that it will only be possible provided we simultaneously merge with other groups with which we have an agreement as to the main topics of a revolutionary programme even if we do not belong to the same stock: our trust in the historic role of the working class with its democratic organisations as a leader of the revolutionary process, the struggle against all bourgeois governments whatever their colour, the need to encourage the emerging of new democratic and fighting leaderships, class independence, against opportunism and messianic sectarism and for a real workers’ governments.
The IWL-FI world pre-congress with the framework for this process and to make headway in the debate with all those who, as from a principled coincidence on programme and methodology and the existence of revolutionary trust, are willing to establish the grounds for a national and international revolutionary party.
The FOS-IT Liaison Committee is a first modest step for we know that our forces are small, we are just small organisations, but we trust that this is just the first kick off to begin overcoming the division and the dispersion.
We invite the trade union and students’ leaders and activists that acutely need unity and clear proposals to fight, the militants who have been through years of frustrations, the parties or groups coming from Peronism, Trotskyism or other stocks and are – each one in their own way – in quest for a revolutionary way out to join this enterprise to become an alternative capable of capable of disputing the leadership of the workers against Peronism, Lula’s PT, Castro-Chavism, Bolivian MAS and all their variants.
Buenos Aires, November 27th 2007
* Argentinazo – reference to the revolutionary outburst in December 2001 (Translator’s Note)
