TPR EUROPEAN TOUR

TPR EUROPEAN TOUR

WORLD SOCIAL FORUM IN TUNISIA

“Social Forum, Forum of Capital!”

Between March 28th and 30th, Lionel Zivals took part in the debates of the World Social Forum, together with Natália Pimenta, of the Brazilian Partido da Causa Operária (PCO). During this event, we had the opportunity to meet different groups, activists and leaders of the “Front Populaire”: among them, the Parti National Socialiste Révolutionnaire (Watad), the Parti du Travail (PT, ex Parti Communiste Ouvrièr Tunisien, stalinist), and, particularly, with the Ligue de Gauche Ouvrière (LGO), aligned with the Unified Secretariat of the Fourth International. Lionel Zivals met Fathi Chamkhi and Abdessalem Hidouri, both leaders of LGO and the left of the Tunisian Front Populaire. The Front Populaire is a reformist, pro-democracy grouping, led by the stalinist PT, and linked to the UGTT bureaucracy. The UGTT favours a “social pact” with the Enhannad regime, and although LGO and Watad oppose this, they both remain in the Front Populaire with the PT. Comrade Fathi Chamkhi has declared his solidarity with the campaign launched by the TPR against the prosecution of Amina.

In addition, comrade Zivals has also been able to initiate a discussion with the left wing of the WSF, which invited him to the Alter Summit, to be held in Athens on June 7-8. These are the comrades of the Tunisian General Union of Students, who stormed into the meeting shouting “Social Forum, Forum of Capital!” They denounced the takeover of the event by a number of satellite organizations of big imperialist institutions. Lionel was invited to meet with the leaders of the Students' Union (UGET), who organized to discuss the TPR text submitted to participants and entitled “we shall not defend the pro-imperialist democracy, we shall defend the Arab revolution”.

BELGIUM-BRUSSELS

“We don't need a Belgian Mélenchon, but an authentic Workers' Party that fights to oust Di Rupo and for a Workers' Government”

From May 25th to 31st, Zivals visited Brussels, one of the centers of workers' resistance against capitalist bankruptcy, and where important struggles are taking place. Lionel debated with Daniel Piron, an outstanding leader of the FGTB (Belgian General Federation of Labour) in the Charleroi & Sud-Hainaut region (the second most important in the country). Piron is at the heart of the debates in the workers' and left political vanguard in Belgium, having made the “Charleroi appeal”. On May 1st 2012, Daniel Piron denounced the Socialist Party (who governs implementing hard-line anti-worker adjustments) and called for the formation of a Belgian Front de Gauche against the PS and its allies, the ECOLO. Although this is a sign of discontent, the aim is to channel it through the structures of the FGTB, in order to build a popular front to the left of the PS-ECOLO. We posed the need to promote a workers' democratic, revolutionary, mass party, based on the trade-unions, against the attempts to mimic Melénchon and the French Front de Gauche. The task is to oust Di Rupo, and nationalize, under workers' control, all companies that close down or fire workers, and to fight for a workers' government. We agreed to continue the debate. The comrades were most interested in the experience of the TPR in Bolivia, a struggle that we led together with the AMR, in the constitution of the PT, as well as the news of the general strike called by the COB.

MEETING OF ANTARSYA-BELGIUM

On May 28th, there was an important event preceding the 2nd Conference of Antarsya, to be held in Athens on June 1st and 2nd. Antarsya-Belgium held its preparatory meeting, with the LCR/SAP (USFI), PSL (CWI), LCT (LIT) and TPR from Argentina, as international guests, along with a number of Greek activists. The conference expressed the political limitations of the debates in the Greek anti-capitalist movement. The Cliffite SEK, although rightly concentrated in the defense of immigrant workers, is not strategically orientated towards blocking a Syriza government, but rather on stimulating the class struggle, while accepting the Popular Front. The comrades of the Belgian LCR/SAP, the most advanced of all, aligned with the OKDE-Spartakos, placed their expectations in the defense of the call for a “left government” of the 2011 Syriza, against the idea of a “government of national recovery (salvation)” in the 2012-2013 version, while they sided with our denunciation of the “anti-euro” devaluationist front of Alavanos. The TPR formally presented its document for discussion among the delegates of the Antarsya conference in Athens, in which we propose that anticapitalists attend the Open Conference of the CRFI on June 9-10 in the Greek capital. Let's fight for a workers' united front to oust Samaras, and for a workers' government.

GREECE

“For a Workers' United Front to oust Samaras”

Lionel Zivals was present in Athens, the Greek capital, from April 21st to May 7th. During his stay, he engaged in a substantial debate with the organizations that form Antarsya, and especially with the OKDE-Spartakos, SEK and NAR.

The OKDE-Spartakos, which is the official section of the Unified Secretariat in Greece, organized a meeting on the “Argentinazo” and the situation in Latin America on Saturday, 27th of April, with Lionel Zivals and the leader of the Brazilian PCO, Natália Pimenta, as speakers. Our proposal to the comrades of the SEK, who are part of the cliffite tendency, was to organize internationally in defense of their positions, against the integration of their sister parties in “Syriza” formations such as Die Linke. The NAR, which was a member of MERA, along with the EEK until 2008, is a left split from the KKE, and a group with whom we have also established links of solidarity. They have invited Zivals to deliver a talk about the “piquetero” movement in their festival, to be held in June 7-8. It is clear that the struggle of the Tendencia Piquetera Revolucionaria (TPR) against bourgeois nationalism and the popular front in Latin America is a highly valued experience.

The 1st of May rally organized by the militant unions, Antarsya, EEK and anarchists, with 3000 attendants, had our comrade Lionel Zivals as the only party speaker. This comrade will take part in the 2nd Conference of Antarsya, to be held in June 1-2, on an invitation of the Central Committee, to bring up the need for a Workers' United Front to oust Samaras, in unity with EEK, OKDE Ergatiki Pali, etc., and to call for Syriza and the KKE to break with the bourgeoisie. In the TPR, we deem it necessary for EEK to place itself at the forefront of this policy: this is what our comrade Zivals asserted in the talk organized by EEK and OKDE Ergatiki Pali, with the attendance of Savas Matsas.

FRANCE-PARIS

“The invasion of Mali and the PSA Aulnay strike reveal the bankruptcy of the anticapitalist left”

Lionel Zivals arrived in Paris to participate in the Lutte Ouvrière festival, which took place in Presles (Ile-de-France), outskirts of Paris, on May 17th, 18th and 19th. The TPR's central campaign was the denunciation of the militarization of Mali under Hollande and the UN, by means of a bulletin published specifically for the event. We resumed our exchange with the Tendance Claire, which accepted our critique of the pacifist stance of the NPA leadership, and with the Gauche Communiste, who are opposed to the PCF's support for the invasion. The GSI group, which broke from the LIT 4 years ago, on account of the morenoist adaptation to the Bloco da Esquerda and its refusal to join the NPA, was interested in collaboration, as they are agitating systematically in solidarity with the people of Mali in different locations throughout Paris. Lutte Ouvrière and the NPA refuse to support the guerrillas; at the same time, and with different excuses, both reject the struggle for the construction of a Malinese revolutionary party, and even to take any concrete steps to reinforce the fight against the invasion in France.

Zivals also intervened in the panel debating the Italian political crisis, along with the comrades of L'Etincelle (“Convergences Révolutionnaires”) and the Genoa PCL. In the talk on Venezuela, titled “after the death of Chávez” (with no reference to the Capriles coup attempt), the TPR defended the stance of Opción Obrera, the Venezuelan CRFI group.

With the PSA Aulnay comrades: a fighting plan and a general strike against adjustment and redundancies

Lionel had the honour of debating our perspective with comrades of the Strike Committee in PSA Aulnay, after more than 4 months of an heroic strike against 8000 redundancies, which put Hollande in check. The isolation caused by Thibault's CGT bureaucracy, and on the general political level, by Mélenchon's Front de Gauche, prevented a workers' victory. In its balance-sheet, Lutte Ouvrière, which led the struggle, attributes the defeat to the workers' unwillingness to fight, and not to its refusal to call for a general strike. Almost every party and group, including the French CCR (associated with the Argentine PTS and integrated in the NPA), have adapted to this line and are now in crisis. The NPA as such trailed behind Mélenchon on the May 5th mobilization, and merely proposes a “left opposition”. This stage requires a joint response: against the PS, the FG marches are not enough. We must demand from CGT a fighting plan and a general strike.

ITALY

“Se ne vadano tutti. Governino i lavoratori”

(Rome, Florence, Emilia Romagna, Genoa, Naples)

At the end of the WSF, and for a period of 20 days, comrade Zivals was engaged in an intense activity across 5 Italian cities. In Florence, we received the acknowledgement of the anti-fascist movement, with which we established a liaison some years ago. The Centro Popolare Autogestivo (CPA) in South Florence, the core of the resistance, invited Lionel to give a talk about the situation in Latin America, along with comrade Natália Pimenta.

Our comrade also met the Collettivo Studentesco Rivoluzionario (CSR), which is heading an enormous, rising movement against the educational rip-off. Zivals also had a most important meeting with the Movimento di Lotta per la Casa di Firenze, where he presented the experience of the TPR as the only Trotskyist organization implanted in the Parque Indoamericano, where Lionel was elected delegate by a section of the occupiers.

In Naples, a group of almost 50 revolutionary comrades has recently joined the ranks of the PCL: Comunisti Napoli Est (CNE), which has an increasing influence in the student, community and labor movements. Comunisti Napoli Est has declared its complete solidarity with the struggles of the Latin American revolutionaries, which they expounded in a video where Lionel addresses Italian and European workers. Before the verdict of April 19th, TPR and CNE have sent a joint message of solidarity to Mariano Ferreyra's comrades, demanding justice.

MADRID

“A United Front to bring down Rajoy on the streets and fight for a workers' government”

Lionel Zivals was in Madrid from the 13th to the 16th of May. There he met Raúl Camargo, leading member of Izquierda Anticapitalista. This meeting was intended to discuss the challenges of the Spanish left. IA states that the Izquierda Unida leadership, which governs in coalition with the PSOE in different places and does not promote the struggle to oust Rajoy, should not be “denounced”, but “pressed”. This means that IA, while stating its support for Antarsya in Greece, is moving towards a formula of “a grassroots popular front”, a laboratory for a Spanish Syriza. Miguel Urbán (IA) in particular, expounded that these are “candidacies from below”, with people from 15M, IU and others. According to their view, it is an “operation” to surpass the IU apparatus. As TPR, we set out the fact that “Alternatives from below” (the IA leadership initiative) does not aim at encouraging popular mobilization to oust Rajoy (its objective is an electoral detour). Thus, Lionel debated with comrades from all backgrounds, such as the Marxistas IU grouping, which while integrated in Izquierda Unida, is contrary to placing the slogan “Down with Rajoy” on a parliamentary terrain, opposed to popular rebellion. On June 1st, Madrid will be one of the centers of a continental mobilization against the Troika, and the debate on how to develop the struggle to oust Rajoy will be at the forefront.

The Argentine MST and its request to join the United Secretariat, as seen from Europe

In the meeting with Raúl Camargo of IA-Madrid, it was interesting to confirm that the “best” argument for the incorporation of the Argentine MST in the USFI (MES in Brazil and Marea Socialista in Venezuela) is that “we do not have sections in Latin America”. The leadership of IA, however, is dominated by its reservations about the MST, due to its support for the agrarian capitalists in 2008. The MST manifested its willingness to create a front with the FAP and the PS (the 2nd International in Argentina). This situation presents an imminent risk for the comrades of the USec left wing (the OKDE-Spartakos in particular); if they wish to pursue a tenacious struggle for their positions, they must reject the incorporation of the MST outright, and become an organized tendency.

BARCELONA

“Those of us who voted for the CUP did not vote to dissolve into CiU and ERC”

Lionel Zivals was in Barcelona in 2012, and again in 2013, meeting the different left, independentist, anticapitalist organizations, integrated in or supporting the Candidaturas d'Unitat Popular (CUP). We believed that the CUP were the only lists that, on November 25th, took a stance against the CiU (Artur Mas) and PP (Rajoy) cuts, based on an independentist line opposing the EU. This is why the TPR placed itself at the disposal of the CUP in Argentina, campaigning amongst the Catalan residents in the country, and calling publicly for a CUP vote. We did not do this, however, in order to dissolve into CiU (Convergencia I Unió, independentist right) and ERC (Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, independentist centre-left), which is a path that a certain section is following a year after the election. In different meetings with the independentist left which leads the CUP, we ascertained the fact that there is a deep crisis following the vote of the declaration of sovereignty, along with Mas, in the Catalan parliament. This declaration would lead to a vote in referendum come 2014. The crisis derives not only from this vote, but from the participation in the process which CiU is promoting. In this process, the CUP is not appearing as a differentiated force. Besides, the CUP leadership is removing the right of the Lluita Internacionalista and En Lluita comrades to take part in the decision-making process, with the excuse of their “small representation” (a fact that was not alleged during the election campaign, when everybody's support was needed). Once again, the TPR states that only the Catalan working class can end national oppression through social revolution. We warn against a popular-frontist degeneration, and we call for the defence of the anticapitalist left's participation in the CUP, as a reservoir of the struggle against reliance on CiU and ERC.