14.11.2002
European SA needed
Around 50 comrades attended the No Sweat meeting held in Fortezza da Basso on Friday November 8. No Sweat, an Alliance for Workers' Liberty front against sweatshop labour, attracted a number of trade union and NGO speakers from across the continent, all of whom outlined the ills of 'sweated' labour and argued for a large, broad campaign against the injustices suffered by many workers in the so-called third world. Mick Duncan of the AWL made a largely sound speech outlining the need for an organised working class movement against sweatshop labour, a phenomenon which enslaves hundreds of thousands of workers, many of them children, in diabolical conditions with no trade union rights and negligible pay. He cited work by PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka and others in building resistance in the United Kingdom, and denounced the tactic employed by some of the left of boycotting 'sweated' products, which, he emphasised, would only undermine the already abominable conditions experienced by many workers in factories run by capitalists contracting to the likes of Nike and Gap. Unfortunately neither comrade Duncan nor other speakers mentioned the Socialist Alliance, nor did they explain in what political form they envisaged unity across the continent against sweatshop labour. The inference was that we simply needed to create a larger No Sweat coalition on a European-wide scale, in alliance with trade unions and a few non-governmental organisations. This was regrettably typical of the approach some of the left take: ie, to disregard the necessary project of building a real workers' party in favour of building their own sect through 'feeder' single-issue campaigns. Surely a Socialist Alliance of the EU, if it was based on the collective strength of Europe's left groups and parties, would be a force to be reckoned with - in elections, in trade unions, in the anti-war movement and, yes, in a campaign of solidarity with sweatshop workers across the globe. We need to fight for what every worker on this planet needs - a global communist party. And one step towards that is a European Socialist Alliance. This is unachievable unless we merge our sect projects and build collectively towards this common aim. James Bull * European left gathers * Socialist Alliance marginalised * Communist SWP
Worker