Links No. 18
128pp, $8.00
Available at Resistance Bookshops
REVIEW BY ALLEN MYERS
The latest issue of Links magazine sets out to provide an indication of the breadth and depth of Marxist political activity and theory in Asia. It contains a selection of articles dealing with a range of topics that confront Marxist parties in the region.
Leading off, Max Lane provides an overview and analysis of the major political developments that have taken place in Indonesia in the three years since the forced retirement of Suharto. He outlines the preparations of the military and Golkar to attempt a return to power, and explains the inability of President Abdurrahman Wahid and is supporters to confront this challenge. In a situation of potentially coinciding economic and political crises, the radical left People's Democratic Party is in a race against time, seeking to build a revolutionary party that can lead the struggle against capitalist reaction and neo-liberal austerity.
Struggles for national self-determination are part of the explosive mix of Indonesian politics, and they are important in many Asian countries. Sonny Melencio, from the Socialist Party of Labour of the Philippines, analyses the struggle of the Moro people from the standpoint of the Leninist view that a nation is "an objective historical entity encompassing ... common territory, common language, common economic life, and common culture". He then traces the historical development of the Bangsamoro nation and explains why Marxists should support that nation's right to self-determination.
A key challenge for Marxists, in Asia and throughout the world, is to understand and fight against imperialism's many-sided oppression and exploitation of the peoples of the underdeveloped countries. Links No. 18 reprints a resolution on Australian imperialism adopted by the Democratic Socialist Party at its 19th congress, held in January. Basing itself on wealth of factual material concerning the exploitation of countries in Asia and the Pacific, the resolution rejects the position — frequently met on the left in Australia — that Australia in some way constitutes an oppressed nation within the global imperialist system. Instead, it argues that the Australian capitalist ruling class is an integral participant in the imperialist plundering of the Third World.
Another challenge for Marxists attempting to develop their strategy within the complex reality of Asian politics is the rise of religious fundamentalism. Farooq Sulehria, of the Labour Party Pakistan, writes of the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in his country, explaining it as the result of the interaction of such factors as the decreased usefulness of religious reaction as an ally of imperialism after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the ability of religious institutions to provide a partial substitute for the social welfare measures that cannot be provided by the state.
From the other side of the world, Dianne Feeley, from the US socialist organisation Solidarity, provides a guide to Christian fundamentalism in the United States, tracing both its extensive influence and the limits on that influence within the Republican Party.
With this issue, four members of the Scottish Socialist Party — Frances Curran, Allan Green, Alan McCoombes and Murray Smith — have joined the Links editorial board. In an article in the issue, Smith outlines his views on the way forward in establishing relations among socialist parties around the world — a topic that has appeared in several previous issues and will no doubt continue to do so.
On a more historical note, US socialist Barry Sheppard examines what the collapse of the Soviet Union can teach us concerning the various competing theories that sought to explain the character of Soviet society.
In addition to the usual International Workers Movement that rounds off each issue of Links, this issue includes two features on movement news: a report by Dick Nichols on the inspiring World Social Forum held in Brazil in January, and the call for the Second Asia Pacific International Solidarity Conference, which ill be held in Sydney March 29-April 1, 2002.