Interviews with some of the comrades attending the conference

As we report in our article, Conference of the international Marxist tendency: An historic meeting, an international conference was held this summer of the international revolutionary Marxist tendency. We interviewed some of the comrades taking part and are making them available to our readers to give a taste of the proceedings and the atmosphere.

Marxist MP Manzoor Ahmed

It's a very good meeting, very alive. The morale is very high. The enthusiasm, you can see it in the comrades, in the people. It's very good.

We're very happy to have a Marxist Member of Parliament here all the way from Pakistan.

It's my pleasure. It's my honour.

Life is very hard. The unemployment rate is very high. Huge numbers of people are living below the poverty line. Their earnings are very low. It's a very miserable life.

I think there will be a lot of explosions, political explosions. That's what we expect. I said it on the floor of the parliament; it is going to happen. These political explosions will be similar to the 1968-69 revolution. That's going to happen again in Pakistan. The 1968-69 movement, the revolution, changed the entire political scenario. The whole of society was changed.

This time, I think, there's already a difference. There will be a difference that the Marxist tendency is there. It can change the whole course of events and guarantee the success of the revolution. We will play the final role. The help we have received from the international Marxist tendency has, of course, been a decisive factor. We are proletarian internationalists, fighting for socialism not just in Pakistan but also throughout the Subcontinent, in Afghanistan, in Iran and all over the world.

John Peterson

John, it's great to have people here from the Workers’ International League in America. What's your impression of the meeting so far?

It's fantastic. There's a really high level of political discussion here. The first thing we talked about was World Perspectives, that's important. The key to taking the Workers’ International League forward in America is to understand the political situation on a world scale. America is the world's largest superpower and obviously is key to some of the discussions we've been having here. The mood here is extremely optimistic. There's lots of people from all around the world here, speaking all kinds of languages and sharing experiences, and basically working together for the same goal, which is international socialism and for the ideas of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Trotsky.

Because of the economic position of the United States there has be a certain amount of "fat" built up that partially insulates it from the shocks of the outside world. But over the last few years we've already seen a dramatic change of mood. We had the 9/11 attacks, before that the 2000 election which was quite a shake up of the US political scene. We watched Enron collapse. We've had wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and we have a presidential election coming up this year in just a couple of months. There are a lot of things going on that are helping to shape the consciousness of American working people and the youth in particular, who don't remember the cold war and the only thing they've ever known is instability, turbulence and chaos on a world scale. I think the next few years are going to be extremely important for the work of Marxists in the United States. We will be building the Workers’ International League so that we can play a role in the stormy period that lies ahead for workers in the United States and around the world.

Well obviously it's going to have a huge impact in the United States. Latin Americans are now the largest minority in the country at over 15% and all of that revolutionary energy crashes right into the United States at the Mexican border. There's a tremendous amount of revolutionary potential in the United States itself. Immigrant workers are some of the most exploited. They have much worse wages and living conditions. They work in non-union jobs and don't have the rights of citizenship. Events in Latin America are going to have a huge impact across the United States, up into Canada and throughout the world. So the events in Venezuela, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru and elsewhere are very important for workers and youth to keep their eye on. They will have an effect and are already having an effect on the consciousness of the whole world.

Alan Woods with Yossi Schwartz

My name is Yossi Schwartz and I'm from Israel. I was born in Palestine in 1945. I've been a Marxist since the age of 15. I joined our international tendency about a year and a half ago.

I'm very impressed. I think that the level of theoretical discussion and practical discussion reflect a tendency that is today relatively small, but will become a mass revolutionary international tendency in the future.

Well, Zionism should not be confused with the working class or even the petit bourgeois that exists in Israel. Zionism is a very reactionary phenomenon, not unlike many other nationalist phenomena ‑ movements that have been collaborating with Imperialism. Zionism is an attempt on the part of those layers of the petit bourgeoisie that aspire to become bourgeois to create a capitalist state through the colonisation of a weaker country. However, the Zionists have created their own gravediggers ‑ the Israeli working class. In the past, for many years, the life of the average person in Israel was not too bad. There was social security; there was a relatively high standard of living, and so on. But today, the standard of living has dropped tremendously. 25% of Israeli children live below the poverty line. The poorer layers are forced to pick up vegetables from the floor after the market has closed in order to survive. The Palestinian situation is obviously much worse. But the situation of many Israeli workers and many of the petit bourgeois has declined. It means that they don't have any real interest in the capitalist state that Israel created. At this moment there are class divisions, there are struggles, and it's not the first time. The problem that we have been facing for many years is the lack of a dedicated revolutionary Marxist leadership that can combine the struggle for food and better conditions with a struggle against national occupation and national oppression, to unite the Arab and Jewish workers to take state power. Because what can unite Arab and Jewish workers are not only democratic questions, but the perspective of changing the world, where all workers could have a secure place to live.

Razi (Iran)

Comrade Razi speaks to the conference

We're very happy to have comrades here from Iran. Can you introduce yourself?

My name is Razi. I've been an activist of the Trotskyist movement for the last 30 years. We actually participated in the Iranian revolution in 1979 and established the first Trotskyist organisation there. In the last two years we have been working closely with the Committee for a Marxist International and we have been trying to establish an organisation in Iran based on the ideas of this international Marxist tendency, of Marxist.com.

I thought it was an excellent opportunity to meet various militants from other countries. Also the reports and the activities of all the comrades on a world scale are very impressive. We have also conveyed the reports of our organisation in Iran to the comrades here. The exchange of views, in particular on the burning issues on a world scale, such as the question of Venezuela was important. It was a great opportunity to develop our views on these issues. Also, we have been able to meet the various comrades from different countries, especially the comrades from Spain, from Canada, and from America and the European countries that we don't have an opportunity to meet otherwise. It is very important that we take back the experience of this international conference to the activists in Iran, and let them know that there is an international Marxist tendency fighting to re-establish Marxism within the labour movement on a world scale.

Francisco Rivero

I am a Bolivarian militant from Venezuela, and I have participated in this important meeting of Marxists.

I think the conference was very good. I am very emotional about the achievements of the conference. First of all, because I think the meeting was important for the political information given by all the participants. Every one of us can leave from here having grown in all aspects. Also I believe that it was important to help all of the comrades of Europe and other countries to understand a little more about what is happening in Venezuela, sharing my own experiences and experiences of all the other people that are working in the Venezuelan revolution. Another important aspect is the personal exchanges between all the comrades. I am very happy because I go back to Venezuela in three days, with only a few days left before the date of the referendum. I go to Venezuela ready to face the challenge that we have next Sunday, the recall referendum.

Phil Mitchinson

My name is Phil Mitchinson. I've been a Trotskyist now for 21 years. I first got involved during the 1984 British Miners' strike, when as a school student I became active in the Labour Party Young socialists, where I found the ideas of Marxism and Trotskyism, which are represented here at this meeting. This meeting represents an historic turning point for the forces of world revolution. The presence here of comrades who, even today as we speak, are participating in the marvellous revolutionary events in Venezuela, defending the revolution in Cuba, fighting for socialist ideas in Ireland, as well as the many many young comrades and workers from countries in Europe, the US, Canada, and elsewhere. It's truly an inspiration and a turning point because we have the bringing together here of young people with enormous enthusiasm for the struggle in front of us. And we also have an understanding, which you won't find anywhere other than in this meeting, of the process taking place in the world today, the crisis of capitalism, of imperialism, the process of revolution. In many countries this is still below the surface, but throughout Latin America and elsewhere, it has already begun to break through the surface. And in the next period of years, the forces that have gathered here in this meeting will build an unstoppable force of world revolution. No force on earth can stop this movement. The power of the ideas of this movement, once it is united together with millions of young people, of working class people, all over the world, will succeed in overturning this decrepit and decadent system of capitalism and building a new world, a new future, a socialist society around the world.

Miriam Martin

See also:

• Conference of the international Marxist tendency: An historic meeting (August, 2004)
  

• Gerry Ruddy, General Secretary of the Irish Republican Socialist Party addresses the international Marxist Conference (August, 2004)

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