Fighting for a socialist future

International Socialist Resistance (ISR)/Socialist Students
conference:

Fighting for a socialist future

ISR Conference 2006On
Saturday 4 March young people gathered in London to discuss the fight
for their future and to democratically agree on a strategy and a
programme for that struggle. Throughout the day we heard from young
workers, students, school students and trade unionists providing a
political lead in the workplaces, schools, colleges and universities to
fight low pay, cuts and privatisation.

Reports by Bob Severn, pictures by Marc Vallee

Introducing the Fight For Our Future opening rally, Socialist
Students’ national organiser Zena Awad asked why the Labour government
say they cannot fund public services or free education, yet they can
afford tax cuts for the rich and financing the occupation of Iraq. She
said that ISR and Socialist Students’ conference wasn’t about the
politics of capitalist politicians but about the real politics of what
actually affects our lives every day.

PCS union young members network co-ordinator Eleasha Mullane,
speaking in a personal capacity, called on young workers to get involved
in the trade unions. The network had been set up to make sure young
civil servants are asked to join the PCS and get active.

Eleasha said that trade unions were also about making a stronger
society with better living standards, so PCS young members have also
campaigned against the war in Iraq, against cuts across the public
sector, against attacks on pensions and for international workers’
solidarity.

Frankie Langeland from ISR Bury St. Edmunds gave examples of why
young people want to change the system. Labour’s New Deal forces young
workers into low-paid jobs. If they go into sixth form and further
education, most students have to work longer than ten hours a week – on
top of 50 hours study time – due to low pay and the inadequate Education
Maintenance Allowance (EMA). Frankie showed that ISR members need to
join trade unions and tell other young workers why they should join, to
help stop this modern day slavery.

A speaker makes some points: ISR Conference 2006Leicester
University Socialist Students’ member Tom Penman spoke about the huge
marketisation of Higher Education (HE) for the benefit of big business
over the last 20 years. One quarter of university students now drop out
from their course due to financial problems, as the average student
income is only £40 a week. Most HE students have to work in
minimum-wage jobs and Tom said that Socialist Students agreed with
linking the struggles of students and workers.

In the discussion, Tom Baldwin from Bristol said that privatised
railways meant that taxpayers’ money has gone into the hands of private
company bosses, showing the need to take public transport back into
public ownership.

Jim Thompson from Exeter University Socialist Students reported on
their campaign to bring the canteens back under university control.
Since the university canteens were sold off to Scolarest, the food
prices have gone up while the quality has gone down. Socialist Students
at other universities should consider similar campaigns against the
privatisation of university facilities.

Manchester ISR campaigner Steve North made the finance appeal, saying
that it is young socialists who are fighting back against attacks, but
to do this you need not just ideas but also money for resources. Steve
said he understood that no one at the conference was loaded, but asked
for people to give anything they could – resulting in a collection of
over £200, which will be shared between ISR and Socialist Students.


Support the Bolivian struggle

AMANCAY Colque from the Bolivia Solidarity Network told the
conference how it is possible for working-class people to win against
multinational corporations even in the harshest conditions.

In 1999, the Co-ordination for Water and Life brought together
different campaigning groups in Bolivia – the poorest country in Latin
America – to renationalise the water utilities. The International Water
Company had made water bills as expensive as almost 50% of average
earnings.

There was a ‘water war’ with the country’s population on the streets
versus the Bolivian police and army. However, the ordinary people won,
forcing the right-wing government to end the privatisation contract.

Last year, Bolivian coca workers’ leader, Evo Morales was elected
president. Amancay said that socialists and trade unionists in Bolivia
are still campaigning, as they do not just want one leader, but to take
big industries like gas under democratic public ownership.

"We don’t want to feel alone," she said, "we want the
support of the international working class. The Bolivian struggle is not
just for Bolivia, but for everyone."


In solidarity

Patrick Mahern from Belfast Socialist Students gave a message of
solidarity from Northern Ireland, where they are campaigning against the
restructuring of universities in the interests of big business. Patrick
said that more people in Northern Ireland are looking for socialist
ideas, despite the sectarian politics of the main parties there.

Messages of solidarity were also given from Brazil, Sweden and
Pakistan, where a new ISR group will be launched on 18 March.


Elections and strategy

Sarah Sachs-Eldridge at ISR Conference 2006ISR
national co-ordinator Sarah Sachs-Eldridge (pictured left) chaired the
voting session. Ours was not the only conference taking place this
weekend. The Liberal Democrats were meeting at the same time. While
their new leader, Ming Campbell, was making the case for supporting the
sell-off of Royal Mail, ISR and Socialist Students members had the
opportunity to debate and democratically agree on a strategy and a
programme for fighting privatisation, and all the other attacks we face,
and for fighting for our rights and for a socialist future.

Over twenty resolutions were put forward and discussed on a wide
range of issues from solidarity with Venezuela to committing ISR and
Socialist Students to campaigning against the sell-off of the NHS and
against ASBOs and the attacks on young people and our democratic rights.

In the main, there was agreement on the way forward. One area of
controversy was on the question of Iraq. Arguments were made for and
against amending the resolution to say that we call for a gradual
withdrawal of the troops. After both cases were made we put it to the
vote and conference came down clearly on calling for getting the troops
out immediately.

We also elected the Socialist Students national committee and the ISR
co-ordinating committee and an editorial board for the new ISR magazine.
The voting is important but is not the end of the democratic process.
Local groups should continue to discuss the issues and the co-ordinating
bodies to act on the agreement of the conference but also to continue
developing the analysis and strategy.


Political discussions

Reports from other political discussions that took place will be
carried in subsequent issues of the socialist

Youth campaigns

INTRODUCING the discussion about the victimisation of young people
Ben Robinson commented that it had intensified since the 1980s. This
period has seen massive attacks on the NHS, the destruction of large
parts of industry, and endemic low pay and a huge growth in the gap
between the wealthy and the rest.

Nick Parker, Leicester

These attacks, first from the Tories and now New Labour, can leave
young people pretty depressed, but they also show how important it is to
fight for our future.

Voting at ISR Conference 2006Jacqui
Berry, from Chatham ISR, explained how ASBOs have been introduced on
housing estates to try and tackle the legacy of cuts in state services.
For young people, life is precarious. Slip up once and your education
can disappear. Then you are left with the choice of unemployment or
low-paid, insecure McJobs.

In the discussion that followed, a familiar situation was spoken
about. Working class youth, from Manchester to Paris, complain ‘we’re
bored, there’s nothing to do’. We need to show a way out of such
frustration, campaign in our areas for skate parks and youth clubs, and
against the police harassment that is a part of the daily lives of many
young people.

We heard from a young magistrates’ court worker about how courts
punish the working class for poverty. By 2012, 80% of prisons will be
privatised and these companies will profit from the enforcement of
community orders.


We must be prepared to mobilise young people on our estates to fight
back against this system, to show that through struggling together, we
can gain victories and confidence in the ultimate fight, for socialism.

Revolution in Latin America

Discussions More
than thirty people crammed into an overflowing room to take part in the
session on Latin America. Tom Baldwin gave a short introduction to
recent revolutionary events in Venezuela and Bolivia, and talked about
the nature of the current workers and peasants’ revolt against
neo-liberal capitalism across the continent.

Toby Harris, Winchester

He outlined a position of critical support for radical reformists
Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales, but pointed to the necessity of a mass
revolutionary party and the need to take into democratic workers’
control the main sectors of the economy in these countries.

The discussion was fantastic and wide ranging, with so many
contributing that a lot of debate was squeezed into a short period.
Amancay from the Bolivia Solidarity Campaign was informative and
inspiring as she answered the many questions.

There was also discussion about boycotting Coca-Cola for its murder
of trade unionists in Columbia, and a proposal that Socialist Students
campaign to kick Coke off campuses with the support of bottling plant
workers in Columbia.


Many speakers agreed that the real power behind the struggle both in
Europe and Latin America was in the grassroots organisations of workers
and peasants, and the session ended with a resolution to extend this
discussion to colleges and universities across the country and to
struggle in solidarity against global capitalism.

What is the socialist alternative?

Suzanne Beishon, from London ISR, introducing the session began by
outlining the many problems inherent in the capitalist system of
society.

Andrew Pyrah, Lincoln ISR

The discussion focused on the world’s problems such as poverty, low
pay, war, racism and sexism and the relentless attacks on the living
standards of ordinary working-class people.

The question was then posed – what is the alternative to this clearly
unjust capitalist system? We then discussed how socialism would work.
The session concluded with the majority in agreement that only a
socialist society under the democratic control of the working class
could replace the barbaric capitalist system.


A society designed and run to meet the needs of the majority whilst
protecting the environment, not the current system ran for the profit of
the few which is clearly destructive to both the planet and its people.

Solidarity with Colombian Coca Cola workers

Portsmouth Socialist Students recently passed a motion at a monthly
student union council meeting calling for a day of solidarity action in
support of Coca Cola workers in Colombia.

Andy Waterman, Portsmouth Socialist Students

Increasing numbers of Colombian trade unionists have fallen victim to
the paramilitaries employed by the bosses of Coke and we argued that the
student union should do everything it can to not only raise awareness of
the workers’ conditions but also to show solidarity with them.

At the union council meeting (where our motion was passed
unanimously) we argued that though we endorse a boycott of Coke as a
gesture of support, at this stage it is more important to argue this
idea amongst the student population before calling for an outright
boycott.

We also pointed out that, under capitalism, the rejection of one
company will not solve workers’ problems worldwide and forever. On the
day of action we will raise the issue not only of trade union rights in
Colombia but also in Britain where the need for a mass working-class
party that workers and young people can turn to becomes ever more
pressing.

Hopefully, this day of action will begin the process of transforming
the student union into a democratic, fighting union and backing more
campaigns that stand up for workers and students facing the problems
produced by the capitalist system.


Closing rally

For a world free from war and oppression

Ben Robinson: ISR Conference 2006Ben
Robinson, (pictured left) the new national co-ordinator of ISR, opened
the closing rally, saying that it was appropriate to end a day’s
discussion with an international viewpoint. ISR and Socialist Students
work in solidarity with socialist youth organisations around the world.

Tom Baldwin, Bristol

Simon Van Haenem from Belgium reported on the anti-fascist work of
ISR and Socialist Students’ sister organisation Actief Linkse Studenten
including organising successful counter-demonstrations. He warned of the
danger of the far-right across Europe growing as a result of attacks on
workers’ living standards and the lack of a genuine mass working-class
alternative.

Neo-Nazi party, Vlaams Belang, could gain 24% in elections in the
Flemish speaking part of Belgium but Simon also stressed how the
far-right can be pushed back when workers and young people move into
struggle, exposing their anti-working class policies.

He cited two recent national strikes on pensions in which Vlaams
Belang were forced to drop their anti-strike slogan. He explained that
whilst the building of new mass workers’ parties was a vital task and
would be an important tool in the fight against fascism, it is not a
panacea. To stop new formations moving to the right it is necessary also
to build our own revolutionary organisations.

Christine Thomas who had recently returned from the World Social
Forum (WSF) in Venezuela gave a report of developments there. At the end
of the WSF Venezuela’s radical left-wing president Hugo Ch‡vez
launched his re-election campaign with a demonstration of 1.5 million
marching in his support.

Christine explained how he had built up this mass support by using
some of Venezuela’s great oil wealth to begin to benefit the poor by
initiating programmes to alleviate hunger, illiteracy and disease. Ch‡vez
now talks about building socialism in Venezuela, opening a big debate
about what that means. However, if the capitalist class is left in
control of the economy they will oppose any reforms and try to retake
control, as they did with the attempted military coup in 2002.

True socialism must come from below with workers and the poor forming
independent organisations capable of wresting control of the economy and
state power from the capitalists and forming a democratic plan of
production. ISR can help to organise solidarity with Venezuelans who are
struggling for socialism.

Ian Slattery from Huddersfield Socialist Students was given the
impossible task of summing up the conference in just a few minutes. He
mentioned that one recurring theme of the day had been privatisation,
one of the horrors of capitalism that came up repeatedly in relation to
education and the health service here, to name just two, and in many of
the international reports.