By Lisa Renfrey
SYDNEY — What are the prospects for socialism today? Is Marxism still relevant — either in theory or as a guide to action for grassroots campaigners? How are movement activists around the world relating to and using socialist methods and organisations in actual struggles?
These are just a few of the questions which will be discussed and debated at the Marxist Educational Conference here over the Easter weekend. The conference will be attended by socialists from the USA, Russia, the Philippines and Cuba, as well as from a wide range of campaigns and movements in Australia.
Chris Spindler, one of the conference organisers and secretary of the Democratic Socialist Party's Sydney branch, described the gathering as an opportunity for anyone interested in socialist ideas and activist politics to learn and share their ideas.
"It is a chance for new and longer term activists, as well as people just beginning to think about radical politics, to discuss campaigns, Marxist theory, the lessons of the past, the prospects for the future and, as the havoc and horrors of capitalist society multiply, the need for democratic socialism", Spindler said.
New internationalism
The three-day agenda includes a wide range of issues and topics, from lesbian and gay liberation to the rights of nations to self-determination, from civil liberties to free education. These will be covered in a mixture of feature talks, panel presentations and workshops.
Among them, feature talks by Terasita Carpio, a leader of the United Workers of the Philippines, a 30,000-strong trade union comprising mostly women workers in Metro Manila, and Malik Miah, a leader of the US socialist organisation Solidarity, will address the need for a new type of left internationalism.
"This internationalism", said Spindler, "links the struggles and experiences of the anti-Stalinist socialist movements in ways which will strengthen the renewal of interest in a socialism which is green, feminist, anti-racist and democratic."
The need for democratic socialism today will also be addressed at a public meeting on the Friday night by a renowned author on politics in Russia, Boris Kagarlitsky. A dissident in the Brezhnev era and today a prominent leader of the new Russian socialist movement, Kagarlitsky will speak on "Yeltsin's Russia: Towards Democracy or dictatorship?".
Supplementing these feature talks will be workshops examining the role of the World Bank in the North-South divide and the situation in Cuba today. There will be presentations which take up strategies for liberation currently being debated among leftists in Latin America, the Middle East, South Africa and Ireland.
The particular role of Australian imperialism and the struggle for self-determination and socialism in the Asia-Pacific region will feature, with workshops on Bougainville and West Papua addressed by Bougainville Interim Government representative Moses Havini and others; on Indonesia and East Timor, including a presentation by the Fretilin representative in Australia, Estanislau de Silva; and, two years after the UN-run elections in Cambodia, a talk by Cambodia expert Helen Jarvis on the current state of the Khmer Rouge threat.
A special video presentation on the struggle for independence for East Timor will launch the campaign to build a "Free East Timor" national day of action on May 13.
Activists' discussion
The conference organisers also aim to provide a "much needed forum for genuine debate between people actively involved in building local campaigns", Spindler said. So, for example, a feature panel dealing with one of the main themes of the conference — how to build a political alternative to the Labor Party in Australia — includes NSW Greens candidate Ian Cohen and No Aircraft Noise Party candidate Hall Greenland, who will take up some of the questions raised and lessons learned in recent major campaigns in NSW.
A strong green strand is woven through the conference. Authors Sharon Beder and Ted Trainer will conduct a workshop on environmentally sustainable development. This workshop follows a panel on jobs and the environment, speakers including long-term environmentalist and trade union leader Jack Mundey, Wilderness Society spokesperson Kevin Parker and CFMEU Timber Workers division organiser Gavin Hillier.
A separate workshop with speakers from a range of trade unions will deal with the related question of how to rebuild strong, democratic unions.
Other highlights on Australian politics include Tim Anderson giving a workshop on whether the Mabo legislation can actually deliver land rights and well-known author and campaigner Jock Collins examining the facts of immigration and migrants' quality of life in the "lucky country".
For more information, ring (02) 690 1977. With Marxist Educational Conferences being held simultaneously in Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth, the Sydney conference will be attended by activists from across NSW and the ACT. If you are interested in joining other GLW readers from regional centres outside Sydney to travel to the conference, you can contact them at the following numbers: Newcastle (049) 265 328; Wollongong (042) 262 010; Canberra (06) 247 2424.