Workers' Liberty

It's best, I think, to start not with tactical and immediate questions, but with fundamental world-views. Marxism, is after all, not just a set of tactical prescriptions. Marxism is distinguished from other socialisms in being rooted in a reasoned overview of history.

By Paul Hampton

“The attempt of the bourgeoisie during its internecine conflict to oblige humanity to divide up into only two camps is motivated by a desire to prohibit the proletariat from having its own independent ideas.

International greetings to AWL conference 29-30 April 2006

I see through your eyes
And I see through your brain
Like I see through the water
That runs down my drain
Bob Dylan, Masters of War

In order to demystify the post-September 11 situation it is helpful to briefly touch on the two basic claims of the warmongers which were bolstered by the tragedy of the attacks.

Anna Rzymska, from the Revolutionary Left Current in Poland, reported on the situation of the labour movement and the left in Poland at the international meeting organised by the AWL in Paris on 18 June.

Réponse à Martin Thomas (et ça et là à Yves Coleman) : voir la réalité en face !

Taking part in our international meeting on Saturday 18th June was Karim Landais. This young man worked with Yves Coleman on the magazine Ni patrie ni frontières and, unbeknownst to most of us at the meeting, he was battling with depression. A week later, on Saturday 25 June, he took his own life. This appreciation of Karim was written by Yves Coleman.

By Martin Thomas

Several socialist groups, meeting in Paris on 18 June, agreed on the project of an international demonstration, some time in the coming months, in support of the workers’ movement in Iraq.

By Bjarke Friborg, who is EU campaign secretary for the Red-Green Alliance and a member of SAP, the trend in the RGA supporting the Fourth International.

Summary notes on Europe for the international meeting of June 2005/ notes sommaires sur l'Europe, pour la réunion internationale du 18 juin 2005. (In English and French).

ND : Voici quelques points de remarques jetées rapidement sur le texte. Je peux les développer si nécessaire, c’est-à-dire s’il y a une réelle volonté d’en discuter.

Rapport par Anna Rzymska à la réunion internationale en Paris, le 18 juin 2005.

A survey of the attitudes to the EU and the draft European constitution of the two main link-ups of the European left, the Party of the European Left (Communist and ex-Communist parties) and the European Anti-Capitalist Left (which includes some revolutionary groups).

Comments from Ni patrie ni frontières on the November 2003 text drafted by AWL.

Amendements de Paul Hampton sur l’impérialisme et sur le stalinisme

"A little informative article written by a comrade who recounts what the Parti des travailleurs [PT, Workers' Party, one of the three sizeable Trotskyist groups in France] said about Europe and the referendum", sent to us by Yves Coleman. In French.

Written the day after the referendum, this text will be expanded and modified to address readers feedback. Text below in both English and French. By Yves Coleman (Ni patrie ni frontières).

No Campaign will not lead to a better Europe

In reply to the message of greetings to the AWL conference of May 2005 from the French Marxist group Liaisons arguing that the "No" campaign will stimulate the class struggle, Martin Thomas replies:

In this message of greetings to the AWL conference of May 2005, the French Marxist group Liaisons urge us to favour a "no" vote in any referendum on the draft European Union constitution, rather than the position of refusing to take sides in such a referendum and instead saying that there should be a democratic Constituent Assembly for the EU. Click here for AWL reply.

By Paul Hampton

I visited Poland in January to learn about the reality Polish workers face and to meet socialist revolutionaries there.

A short report by Piotr Ciszewski on a meeting in Warsaw, 15 January 2005, from the lewica.pl (the most popular left website in Polish).

The AWL draws on the “Third Camp” tradition in revolutionary socialism, stemming from the ideas of Leon Trotsky, and developed after Trotsky’s death by people such as Max Shachtman and Hal Draper.

Amendments on imperialism and on Stalinism, from Paul Hampton

Paris, 10th November 2003.

This meeting was called by the Alliance for Workers' Liberty (Britain), and attended in addition by a delegate from Workers' Liberty Australia and a number of comrades from different currents of the French revolutionary left.

3 and 4: replace by: Those who today set out to struggle for the emancipation of the exploited and the oppressed do not start from zero as regards ideas which can guide their struggle.