Marxism 2000 conference: confident in the future of socialism
By John Percy
Whose century was the 20th, and whose century
will the 21st be? As the millennium draws to a
close, we should reflect on this.
Capitalism is still in power across most of the globe.
Capitalists in the imperialist countries have
accumulated unprecedented wealth. They have
previously undreamt-of military power and weapons
of mass destruction at their disposal. Some think they
can act with complete impunity, slaughtering millions
in Iraq with bombs and brutal blockades or raining
destruction on Serbia from a great height, free from
retaliation.
Workers and the oppressed have certainly suffered
numerous defeats this century. Capitalist ideologues
celebrate 10 years of the collapse of Communism in
the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. They're
relishing further assaults on the huge Chinese market
as China's government proceeds apace with
privatisation.
Some capitalist hawkers of get-rich-quick manuals
are even convinced of ever-upward stock market
prices. They think they've hit on the magic elixir of
automatically generated wealth -- for the few, of
course. They would seem to be riding high.
Yet the 20th century in its broad sweep would have
to be seen as a century of revolution, when the ideas
and analysis of Karl Marx came into their own.
There were revolutionary struggles in Marx's 19th
century. Workers began organising and gaining
consciousness of their class interests. But it was small
scale compared to the breadth of class struggles in the
20th -- general strikes, national liberation struggles,
wars, revolutions and the Bolshevik Revolution, which
almost spans the century and certainly exerted its
influence on all its important political and social facets.
Persistent contradictions
The contradictions analysed by Marx that gave rise to
those tumultuous struggles are still there. The gaps
between rich and poor are widening, within countries
and between countries. Fortress Europe, USA,
Australia are pulling up the drawbridges against the
mass of humanity sinking further into poverty, misery
and oppression. Wealthy enclaves within US cities
erect their own walls to keep the riffraff out.
Struggles keep breaking out; they can't keep the lid
on them. How could they, when the contradictions
and inequalities are still there?
The long struggle by the people of East Timor for
freedom was finally rewarded, supported by masses
on the streets in Jakarta, Lisbon, Melbourne and
Sydney.
Even in Seattle, in the imperialist heartland, home of
Microsoft and the world's richest man, 50,000
demonstrated against the World Trade Organisation
and all it symbolises. Futuristic-looking official thugs
used the vandalism of a few to arrest hundreds and
tear gas and viciously baton charge the thousands.
It's a symbolic end to a century of struggle, and a
portent for the century we're entering.
Greatest thinker of millennium
So it was totally appropriate that Karl Marx was
voted the greatest thinker of the millennium in a poll
conducted on the internet by the British Broadcasting
Corporation in September.
Marx best analysed the workings of capitalism, and
has inspired thousands of liberation struggles and
millions of workers and oppressed. Murdoch's
Australian headlined its feature on the 150th
anniversary of the Communist Manifesto two years
ago, =93Why Karl Marx was right=94. Sometimes even
the hired hacks of the big capitalists have to tell the
truth.
Marxism is still not only relevant, but essential, for
analysing, and providing a tool to fight, rapacious
capitalism. The 21st century will undoubtedly be a
century for Marxism.
So the Marxism 2000 Asia Pacific Solidarity and
Education Conference, initiated by the Democratic
Socialist Party and Resistance, is very timely, and
expresses a confidence in the future of socialism.
It will be a multipurpose conference.
Solidarity
Firstly, it will be a conference to promote solidarity
and international collaboration between the left forces
in the region.
In this sense, it is a continuation of the extremely
successful Asia Pacific Solidarity Conference in
Sydney in April 1998. That conference was attended
by more than 700 people, including 67 international
guests.
With more than 50 international guests already
committed to attend Marxism 2000, this conference is
likely to match that level of international
representation. Most of these guests are from the
Asia Pacific region, but speakers are also coming
from Europe, North America, Africa and the Middle
East.
(See the advertisement on the opposite page for a list
of the international guests coming and countries
represented at the moment. An updated list will be
available on the DSP web site
<http://www.dsp.org.au/dsp/m2000>.)
Education
Secondly, the conference will play an important
educational role for DSP and Resistance members
and others attending. The DSP has traditionally
organised a major gathering in early January,
alternating between a delegated congress and a
broader educational conference.
These meetings have to provide a series of basic
education classes for comrades, on the classics of
Marxism, history, Marxist economics and philosophy.
They also help organise and plan the tasks and
perspectives for the year ahead. Reports analyse
important developments in world and Australian
politics, assess different areas of work and set future
projections and priorities.
The provisional agenda so far provides 15 plenary
talks and panels, four major sessions and 92 talks,
classes and workshops. The multiple choice talks are
organised into 24 streams, the themes of which are
listed opposite. The full list of talks is available on the
web site, and will be updated in the lead-up to the
conference.
Renewal
Thirdly, the conference will be an opportunity for
broader discussions, for looking at ways to renew
socialism, to regroup the left, to convince new
activists to join the movement.
The conference agenda and the conference itself will
be an opportunity for important debates, on issues
thrown up by new developments in the class struggle
in 1999, and on issues contested and unresolved for
decades: the national question, Leninism, permanent
revolution, Kosova, East Timor and perspectives for
the student movement, the women's liberation
struggle, solidarity campaigns.
The conference will be overwhelmingly a gathering of
activists: workers, students, young people involved in
building parties and organisations and a range of
campaigns and struggles.
The conference won't have an academic approach,
though there will be many academics there, and we're
fortunate to have three very respected keynote
speakers -- John Pilger, James Petras and Francisco
Nemenzo.
But it will have a high level of political discussion, a
real depth, because of its connection with real
struggles and the serious level of commitment to
fundamental social change by most of the participants
Internationalism
A constant thread running through the conference will
be internationalism. How should socialists organise
internationally? How should we distinguish between
forms and essence? What is internationalism?
As Lenin pointed out, a revolutionary's first
internationalist duty is to wage the struggle and build
the party, and make the revolution, in one's own
country. But we also have to work out how best to
help other struggles win, how best to assist the
workers and oppressed in other countries, how best
to help other socialist parties develop.
The conference will look at concrete ways of helping
such collaboration: building solidarity, promoting joint
work, common tours and projects, joint publishing
activities such as Links magazine.
We'll be working at learning from each other, through
discussions, debates and collaboration. And,
hopefully, we'll be reaching agreement on promoting
and organising similar conferences in the region.
The APSC 18 months ago was an exhilarating,
enthusiastic experience, drawing high praise from all
the international guests and participants. The seminars
that seemed the most packed and appreciated were
those that discussed important concepts of Marxism.
This conference will cater to that felt need. Because
we have five days, and comrades will be able to live
on site, we'll be able to discuss in greater depth, have
a thorough educational experience. It will be even
better than 1998.
The Sydney Olympics, scandal ridden and
commercialised though it is, has tended to make
Sydney somewhat of a focus for the year 2000.
Marxism 2000, January 5-9 in Sydney, will make its
own impact, and express a statement. It will express a
renewed confidence in the ideas of Marxism, in the
struggles of the working class and oppressed, and in
the future victory of socialism, for the start of the 21st
century.
[John Percy is the national secretary of the
Democratic Socialist Party.]
Democratic Socialist Party
http://www.dsp.org.au/
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
PO Box 394, Broadway NSW 2008
TEL: (02) 690 1230
FAX: (02) 690 1381
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