Max Lane
Green Left Weekly will be organising the fourth Asia-Pacific International Solidarity Conference in Sydney over the 2007 Easter weekend (April 6-9). This will be five or six months before US President George Bush visits Australia for the 2007 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting.
The theme of the fourth APISC will be "Liberation and resistance in the 21st century". It will bring together speakers from around the Asia-Pacific region, Latin America and other parts of the world.
Already confirmed as speakers are Dita Sari, chairperson of the People's Democratic Party in Indonesia, and Avelino da Silva, secretary-general of the Socialist Party of Timor. From the Philippines, Sonny Melencio, a member of the coordinating committee of the radical left coalition Laban ng Masa, and a leader of the multi-sectoral campaigning group Sanlakas, plus Reihana Mohideen from the Laban ng Masa secretariat, have confirmed their attendance. The Malaysian Socialist Party has also confirmed it will be attending representatives to the conference.
The 2007 APISC will reflect the political solidarity between movements for progressive politics in different continents. The unfolding socialist revolution in Venezuela, the rise of the popular movement in Bolivia and the strengthening political collaboration between Venezuela, Bolivia and Cuba have signalled the opening of a new era of struggle in Latin America. APISC 2007 will be inviting speakers from each of these countries and will be featuring plenaries and workshops analysing these developments and their impact on world politics.
A central theme to the discussions at APISC 2007 will be what political demands to press in the movement against neoliberal globalisation and how to escalate the struggle against its military offshoot — the global imperialist "war on terror", including the war of occupation in Iraq.
Another theme will be internationalist solidarity versus narrow nationalism. Governments and the conservative parties in Australia have been increasingly active in promoting racism and xenophobia, dividing the working class here and trying to set the working class in Australia against the people of the Third World who are struggling for liberation. Another unavoidable question for the movement is how to go beyond capitalism. That is, the question of socialism in 21st century, put on the Latin American and global political agenda by Hugo Chavez.
For more information about APISC 2007, keep reading GLW or email APISC 2007 at <apisc2007@greenleft.org.au> or write to APISC 2007, PO Box 515, Broadway 2007, Australia.
From Green Left Weekly, April 5, 2006.
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