The United Socialist Movement of The Americas

The Pan-Americas Socialist Press is pleased to welcome back the return of three of its founding blogs:

The View From Steeltown,

Theory and Revolutionary Practice, and

USMA - Hamilton Chapter.

All three are ending the year with brand new blog posts.

You can find them here: The Pan-Americas Socialist Press

Check out our other blogs as well.

Pan-Americas Socialist Press (blogs and media outlets) are members of USMA and are dedicated to covering the news in the Americas from a socialist perspective.

By William Richardson

     Last week we all watched as US President Obama decided to escalate the war in Afghanistan by sending 30,000 more troop to the nation in an effort to quell the upsurge in Taliban activity. Also in this past week we have seen other, more exciting developments such as Evo Morales being reelected in Bolivia. These stories and others such as Chavez call for a 5th International shows and escalation in the class war here and across the world. Now that the world sees the flaws of the market in not so subtle terms we USMA and other socialism movements must capitalize on this opportunity to show people the alternative, socialism.

     In this endeavor to spread the socialist movement while the enemy is occupied we will begin a new, bold initiative called the Winter Offensive. We will be treating this initiative much like a military offensive using our bases of support to spread the message into the surrounding areas. The initiative will entail 3 stages:

1- Internal Growth

     USMA chapters already established on the ground will be provided with material and support to build up their memberships and create a base on which to act in the future. We need motivated organizers to help with this by going to nearby chapters and helping to organize them.

     If your new at organizing much like I was do not worry if you know your stuff you will succeed regardless. Its all about strategy and tactics which change depending on where your at. USMA International will be here to support all as much as possible. Too we want people who are interested in creating a USMA chapter in their communities to contact us so that we can help with the start-up.

2- Extensive Growth

     USMA chapters will after building up their base or whenever they feel conformable begin to spread outwards. What we mean by this is that we want chapters to begin to set up chapters in the neighboring communities and even neighboring cities. Right now we want chapters to use a 3 hr driving distance radius as their benchmark for deciding where to get active at.

     We encourage our chapters to partner with local left-wing and socialist groups at universities and in the cities/communities and try and get them to become affiliated with USMA. We do not seek to be imperialistic in this endeavor so don't try to steal an area away from already established socialist groups, opting instead of working to create a partnership with them. Where there is no socialist influence try and find local people who are willing to act to set up the chapters and once again USMA International will try and provide resources in terms of political and propaganda support for your campaign.

3- Securing the Gains

     After we begin to establish new chapters and reinforce older ones we must secure these gains to set te stage for the next round of expansion. This includes USMA international providing material to help chapters be productive, creating a committee of chapter leaders to coordinatete efforts across nations and providing reading materials to highten the political knowledge of the membership. We ask chapters at this stage to begin to map their areas and using openings they see in the political scene to become more active in local politics. We also reiterate the importance of chapters setting up blogs or other website and keeping updated with their happenings which will also be posted on www.usma.ca

This is just a small overview of the initiative and if you have any questions please email usmainternational@gmail.com. We will be creating a formal document about the initative further expanding on these 3 goals. Thank you and you have my regards.

-William Richardson, President Buffalo, NY Chapter and USMA website Administrator   

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/4956

by François Sabado - International Viewpoint

During an international meeting of left parties held in Caracas from 19-21 November, 2009, Hugo Chavez launched a call for a Fifth Socialist International which, according to him, should bring together left parties and social movements. According to the president of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, the Fifth International must be “an instrument for the unification and the articulation of the struggle of the peoples to save this planet.” In a world political situation marked by a total crisis of the capitalist system, this is a fact important enough to be underlined.

Indeed, leaders or parties who pose the question of an International do not grow on trees. That is the first merit of Chavez’s call.

All the more so as this call is accompanied by a declaration which denounces the systemic character of the capitalist crisis, beyond its financial and banking dimensions, and reaffirms the perspective of a socialism of the 21st century. It calls for an urgent mobilization against the new imperialist offensive in Latin America, by the US administration and the Latin American Right.

On the basis of this call, a broad world anti-imperialist front can be established, to mark its solidarity with the struggle of the peoples for their social and political rights, to oppose the new US bases in Colombia, to support, in particular, the mobilization of the people of Honduras against the new dictatorial regime.

In the trial of strength in which the imperialists are confronted with the struggles of the peoples, such a world front would constitute an important instrument to fight the power of the ruling classes, not only in Latin America but in the whole world.

We are ready, as we have been since the beginning, in solidarity with the Cuban revolution, the Bolivarian revolution, with the experiences in Bolivia and Ecuador, to fully commit ourselves to the common fight against the imperialist attacks imperialists and to take our full place in this world anti-imperialist front.

It is also within this framework that the process of construction of a new International would be posed. Chavez calls for the establishment of a Socialist Fifth International. That puts back on the agenda the discussion about a new International. Chavez situates the building of the Fifth International in continuity with the Fourth. We have already declared on many occasions: what do labels matter, if there is convergence over the content. But the constitution of a new International implies a whole process around a programme, policies, and an organization, which must be carried out on the basis of a broad discussion with all the protagonists.

There is, indeed, a new historical period, where divergences between various revolutionary currents can be surmounted on the basis of “a common understanding of events and tasks”. From this point of view, it is not a question of discussing the historical balance sheets of different currents, but it is decisive to learn together the lessons from Stalinism and social democracy, so that the tragedies and the errors of the past are not repeated.

Each party, each organization, each current and each militant must contribute to this debate. As for the Fourth International, it has already formulated, on many occasions, its proposals:

• An anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist programme of emergency demands, which starts from the demands and the social needs of the popular classes, proposes a new distribution of wealth, public and social appropriation of the key sectors of the economy and leads on to the revolutionary transformation of society.

• Unity of action of all the organizations, currents and militants against the attacks of the governments and the capitalist classes.

• Independence of the social movements, associations and trade-union organizations with respect to parties and states.

• Solidarity with all struggles of peoples against all the imperialist powers.

• The fight against oppressions and the defence of the rights of women, homosexuals, young people and immigrants.

• The fight for governments of the workers and popular classes which satisfy the principal social and ecological demands and base themselves on the mobilization of the population and its control over the principal sectors of the economy. This perspective implies not participating in governments which manage the state and the capitalist economy along with the parties of the centre-left or social democracy.

• The central character of the self-emancipation and self-organization of peoples, in the perspective of overthrowing capitalism.

• An ecosocialist project which combines both the satisfaction of social needs and the respect and balance of our ecosystem. In this sense, we have much to learn much from the indigenous peoples of South America and their relationship to the land.

• Socialist democracy as a project of society: self-management of the economy, democracy and pluralism of parties and social movements.

These are some themes for discussion in order to advance along the road of bringing together all anti-capitalists on an international level. They are the first ideas that we will defend in the process of constitution of a new International.

Lastly, Chavez’s call for a Fifth International also constitutes a point of support when it poses the question of a new International, independently of the Second (Socialist) International of which organizations like the social democratic parties, the Mexican PRI and the Brazilian PT are members. But it is also necessary to clarify a question in the construction of a new International, that of the difference between state policies and the development of a political project. One thing is to conclude economic and commercial agreements with states which have anti-imperialist governments, to conclude such agreements with other states, including some which have reactionary regimes, or to oppose attacks of imperialism against certain countries. It is quite another thing to give political support to regimes like those of the Chinese Communist Party or the Islamic Republic of Iran… The project of the Fifth International cannot in any way at all be associated with these regimes.

Once again, this call creates the conditions for a new international discussion, indissociable from solidarity with the Bolivarian revolution. It is in this spirit that the Fourth international, its organizations and its militants, will answer “Present”!

François Sabado is a member of the Executive Bureau of the Fourth International and an activist in the New Anticapitalist Party (NPA) in France. He was a long-time member of the National Leadership of the Revolutionary Communist League (LCR).