International Viewpoint

http://www.3bh.org.uk/IV/


International Viewpoint, issue 348, Mars 2003



The weekend of February 14-16, 2003 saw tens of millions of people marching in demonstrations worldwide to oppose the US-led assault on Iraq, which may well have begun by the time this issue of IV reaches readers. Drawing on insights from Marx, Engels and Rosa Luxemburg, economist Claude Serfati argues here that "the attack on Iraq marks a significant change of in the militarism of US capitalism, and more than ever, the globalization of capital and militarism appear as two aspects of imperialist domination".

Author Gilbert Achcar takes up this theme in an interview we publish here, pointing out that since September 11, the US has, directly or indirectly, begun to cover the whole of the planet with a network of military bases.

Achcar stresses the need to build a long-term resistance to imperialism's long term offensive and draws attention to its potential Achilles heel - resistance to the war drive from the US people themselves. The growing internationalization of the movements of resistance - strikingly demonstrated by the millions of people who demonstrated all over the world on 15th February around the same slogan opposing a war against Iraq, and the success of the third World Social Forum - are beginning to nourish a discussion on the need for a more structured form of international organization. Michael Lowy offers here a contribution to this debate. On the basis of a balance sheet of the first four proletarian internationals, he situates the new internationalization of resistance movement in its historical context and looks at the forms it has taken. On this basis he then offers some ideas as to what would be necessary for "the forces across the planet motivated by indignation against the existing system, rebellion against the powerful and the hope that another world is possible" to become an organized international force.

Aside from the mobilizations against the war drive and the gathering at Porto Alegre, the most momentous event of recent months has been the election of Workers' Party leader Lula as president of Brazil. As promised in our last issue, we devote a considerable amount of space here to an in-depth study by Joao Machado of the conflicting pressures that the new government will be subjected to. Machado argues that the orientations of this government are not defined a priori and will be defined in the course of a process of political and social struggles.

The developments in Brazil must be seen within the context of the convulsions currently sweeping the Latin American continent. In an important study we publish here, Ernesto Herrera poses the strategic questions for the left and the social movements as a decisive political and social confrontation unfolds and Washington prepares the conditions for a counter-revolution.

Finally, we pay tribute to two veterans of the Fourth International. The first is the Chinese revolutionary Wang Fanxi, whose long life of militant activity ended towards the end of last year. Gregor Benton and Pierre Rousset share their memories of Wang. Our second veteran, Livio Maitan, is happily still very much alive and has recently published his autobiography in Italy - we print here an exclusive translation of the final section of the book.