20.10.2004

For a programme of the European left

The Call of the Assembly of Social Movements is the closest to a political programme that the European left has

The ‘Call of the assembly of social movements’ reproduced below was discussed and amended in meetings held during the ESF. Compared to the first draft (see Weekly Worker October 14), it is quite an improvement.

This is the closest to a political programme that the European left has - a sad reflection of the lack of cooperation and coordination of our forces. The existing international formations are either sectarian clone-structures (International Socialist Tendency, Fourth International, League for the Fifth International, etc). Or, like the European Left Party, they are based solely on the need to come together to contest European Union elections.

Our call - a bit of a hotchpotch - therefore reflects the strengths and weaknesses of the main revolutionary and socialist parties across Europe: Rifondazione Comunista, Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire, Communist Party of France, Socialist Workers Party, etc. Officially of course, they are not allowed to participate as political parties in the ESF. But by now everybody knows who in reality is speaking on behalf of which party and how much weight their voice has.

This call is more concrete on our objections to the European Union’s proposed constitution than the previous draft. However, while the overwhelming majority of those organisations involved in drawing it up are against the EU constitution, we are not allowed to make this the general thrust of the declaration: some organisations - particularly, of course, some of the main trade union federations across Europe, as well as the European Trade Union Confederation - are advocating a ‘yes’ in referendums.

The demand for an “immediate” withdrawal of forces from Iraq was also rejected. Some of the French organisations seem to believe that mass slaughter and chaos would follow automatically if the troops were to go immediately - instead, British and US troops are to keep ‘order’ for the time being. They also introduced the formulation in the section on Palestine, according to which we should call for an end to the Israeli occupation, “following the judgement of the UN International Court of Justice and the unanimous vote of the European countries in the UN general assembly”. This formulation seems to imply that we can only support this correct demand because those reactionary bourgeois institutions have done so first.

But our call now also includes the “right to choose an abortion”. Combined with the twice-stated demand for the “free movement of people”, it is well to the left of Respect’s political platform.
While it was very fruitful to have three days’ worth of discussion on the call, the assembly itself (on the Sunday morning) was as dull and stage-managed as last year’s. Over 30 speakers were chosen the night before, at a small preparatory meeting. Only those groups who stayed until after 10pm were able to get a speaker in. There were no contributions from the floor and many activists were very annoyed by the lack of real discussion during the assembly itself.