Agenda at-a-glance:
| Saturday September 9th | |
| 9:30am | World politics today and our internationalist tasks in Australia Max Lane |
| 11:15am | Imperialist money in international AID, academia and NGOs: co-opting and displacing grassroots movements in the Global South Pipin Jamson, Madeline F, Lana Wolf |
| 1:15pm | Lunch break |
| 2:00pm | The struggle for socialism in Cuba: challenges and progress Andrew Martin and Sasha Gillies-Lekakis |
| 3:45pm | Neoliberal identity politics: a Marxist critique Rjurik Davidson |
| 7:00pm | LIVE MUSIC featuring Pipin Jamson (from Jawa Pitu band) @ The Clyde Hotel, 385 Cardigan Street, Carlton |
| Sunday September 10th | |
| 9:30am | Lenin’s two stage theory of revolution: its importance today Nick D |
| 11:15am | “Practical action against the united capitalists”: the united front theory in history and today Barry Healy |
| 12:45pm | Lunch break |
| 1:30pm | Australian capitalism within the crisis of the world imperialist system Sam King |
| 3:15pm | Australian politics with Labor in power Barry Healy |
Conference Location:
Kathleen Syme Library, 251 Faraday St, Carlton, VIC 3053
Please pre-register:
Register for the conference here: https://forms.gle/nXe1qAtooFXgwnSL7
for more information email: redant.communication@gmail.com
Full Program and Speakers
Day One, Saturday 9 September
World politics today and our internationalist tasks in Australia – Max Lane
09:30-11:00am
For most of the period since World War Two, revolutionaries and progressives in the imperialist countries have concentrated their international political solidarity on the national liberation movements and socialist revolutions of the Third World, now called the Global South. With the imperialist siege of socialist Cuba and the transitional socialist struggle government of Venezuela, this kind of solidarity remains central.
In the current period, however, there are two new crucial fronts that have opened. As some Global South economies grow to the point that they are no longer compelled to accept every U.S. demand, they come under more severe attack from US imperialism. China is a prime example: but there are other countries too, such as Iran, Russia and perhaps soon Brazil. While socialists have no obligation to defend the governments of these nations from justified criticism or opposition from their own peoples, it is necessary to defend the countries from imperialist military and economic aggression.
As US imperialism becomes more desperate to intensify its exploitation and political domination of the world – even Europe – it is possible the US ruling class will risk more wars and other destructive acts. It is of great importance that the US left and progressive sectors there grow stronger and that the international progressive sector supports and cooperates as much as is feasible with the US anti-imperialist Left. This report will give a basic outline of the aspects of the current international political situation which frame this discussion of international political solidarity for the Australian left.
Max Lane is renowned internationally as a writer and translator of Pramoedya Ananta Toer – a leading Indonesian dissident intellectual during the military dictatorship. Max was a key leader of the international solidarity movement against the Indonesian dictatorship and helped unite socialist opponents from Indonesia and East Timor with those in Australia. His latest book is Indonesia Out of Exile: How Pramoedya’s Buru Quartet Killed a Dictatorship. He is a founding editor of red-ant.org and has been a socialist activist since 1981. He is a Fellow of the Tricontinental Institute for Social Research. See maxlaneonline.com
Imperialist money in international AID, academia and NGOs: co-opting and displacing grassroots movements in the Global South – Pipin Jamson, Madeline F. and Lana Wolf
11:15am-1:05pm
The panel examines the complex dynamics of imperialism, international AID money, Non-Government Organisations (NGOs), Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and their influence on Global South grassroots movements.
Imperialist countries use non-coercive methods to advance their interests, such as economic assistance and cultural exchange. This aid is often packaged as a means of promoting development, reducing poverty and capacity building. It can shape the policies of recipient nations perpetuating dependency.
‘NGO-isation’ refers to the transformation of grassroots movements into non-governmental organizations that operate within the institutional frameworks of development aid. James Petras argues the proliferation of NGOs has had a de-radicalising effect on the grassroots and left movements, diluting radical, transformative agendas, creating service-oriented entities that focus on technical assistance or project implementation using a managerial approach.
In academia, post-Marxist intellectuals associated with NGOs attend academic seminars, receiving foreign funding, and generating bureaucratic reports. The process of co-option, much of it funded by foreign money, has created a powerful counter-pole to classical Marxist ideas which, by contrast, not only acknowledge the importance of local struggles but also emphasise that their success hinges on the outcome of the class conflict for state power at the national level.
However, the current context presents a complex situation for those wanting to rebuild popular movements. In the absence of powerful movements, NGOs and CSOs to some extent fill up the vacated space. They can often play useful or progressive role in defending rights or providing support for movements and activists. This means it is not possible for radical left activists to adopt a purely hostile attitude to NGOs and CSOs or the people that work in them.
The panel will assess, especially with reference to Indonesia, (1) the role of international aid as a channel for imperialist influence in the Global South, (2) the strategies and impacts of NGOs and CSOs in the Global South, exploring their relationship with grassroots movements and local communities and (3) the political dynamics and power struggles in Indonesian grassroots movements including conflicts and collaborations between the radicals and NGOs/CSOs/AID wings.
The struggle for socialism in Cuba: challenges and progress Sasha Gillies-Lekakis, David Deutschmann & Andrew Martin
2:00-3:30pm
The Cuban Revolution of 1959 expropriated the property of its former capitalist ruling class. Ever since, the country has fought to establish the basis for a socialist society. For seven decades, the United States has punished Cuba with a cruel and long-running economic blockade, which the United Nations estimate has caused US$130 billion in losses.
Many socialists in Australia have written Cuba off. They cite the supposed human rights concerns that are peddled by capitalist mass media, or the lack of economic progress in establishing a fully socialist economy. These views reflect an inability to understand the objective limits to building socialism in a small and isolated Global South society that is in the crosshairs of the USA and other imperialist societies.
Fully developed socialism cannot be established in one country, yet Cuba has achieved massive social and environmental advances, and shown international solidarity, that clearly demonstrate the advantages of its socialist system.
For decades Cuba has carried out international solidarity across the globe that is unthinkable for any capitalist regime. Today this includes critical medical work in the South Pacific region (where Australia is more concerned with extracting profits). Cuba is also involved in empowerment-based literacy programs among Australian indigenous communities. Cuba’s massive military support to revolutionary movements that ultimately defeated The South African apartheid regime’s invasion of Namibia and Angola is another historical example.
This session will outline the challenging contemporary situation Cuba faces due to the tightening blockade under Trump and Biden, and the loss of tourism and other income owing to the pandemic. It will outline the remarkable history of Cuba’s biotechnology and biopharmaceutical industry – particularly in the production of COVID-19 vaccines. A renewed left upsurge in Latin America and Cuba’s important role in regional Latin American integration will also be addressed.
Sasha Gillies-Lekakis is a PhD researcher at the University of Melbourne, focussing on Cuba-Pacific Islands cooperation in education and healthcare. He has visited Cuba four times and lived there twice, studying within Cuba’s socialist education system and conducting fieldwork. Recently he visited Fiji and Solomon Islands investigating Cuba’s impact on healthcare. Gillies-Lekakis is best known for being thrown out of the audience – live – on the ABC’s QandA by show anchor Stan Grant. He was attacked for supporting Russia because he protested the absence of any discussion of Ukrainian atrocities in the Donbas – something obviously taboo on Australian television..
David Deutschmann has travelled many times to Cuba. He is a co-founder of the book publishers Ocean Press and Ocean Sur and is the editor and co-editor of several book anthologies including “Fidel Castro Reader” and “Che Guevara Reader”. He was one of the founders of the Australia Cuba Friendship Society (ACFS) and for a period was the editor of its national magazine “Cuba Today”. In 2000 the Cuban Council of State awarded him a Friendship Medal to acknowledge his contribution to solidarity with Cuba.
Andrew Martin is a rank-and-file union militant with two decades of industrial experience in four Australian states. He has held delegate positions in the AMWU and MUA. He fought to initiate the industrial action against the sell-off of Queensland Rail in 2009. Andrew was the key leader of strike actions against 12-hour night shifts at the Port of Melbourne in 2018. He joined the socialist movement before the Iraq war in 2003 and has also been active in the refugee rights campaign in Western Australia.
Neoliberal identity politics: a Marxist critique – Rjurik Davidson
3:45-5:15pm
The ideas that inform contemporary identity politics come from the recent period of political defeats against the working class and the Left. These defeats contributed to breaking down collective struggle and solidarity traditions. Identity politics has become a kind of neo-liberal progressivism – ‘cultural’ politics rather than actual politics and is characterised by the absence of any political strategy. Its manoeuvres centre around particularism and moralism: silencing, call-out culture, the idea of privilege. All these abandon universal or class-wide issues – ‘social justice’ doesn’t really figure. Instead, concepts from psychotherapy such as “triggering” are deployed in ways that therapists would object to.
This wasn’t always the case. In the 1960s, questions of identity appeared in the context of a broader struggle for social transformation. But contemporary identity politics emerged principally in the 1980s in the context of defeat. The term dates from then.
Contemporary identity politics is perfectly compatible with elite ideology and practice – based on identity, we celebrate Barack Obama or Julia Gillard being elected. Even the CIA produces supposedly ‘woke’ recruitment ads. At its core, identity politics is a form of liberalism in large measure incompatible with actual campaigning for systemic or social change. The problem is not that it’s too radical – but that it’s not radical enough. Against it, Marxists have to campaign for universalist demands, like ‘free education’, and must unite anyone who chooses to join that struggle, regardless of ‘identity.’ In that struggle, all have the same rights – we fight for democracy in the movement, while identity politics is a defence of hierarchy, a guild – it is for the most part anti-democratic. The task for Marxists is to reclaim the democratic heritage of movements for social change.
Rjurik Davidson is a novelist, editor and literary and film critic. His two acclaimed novels are Unwrapped Sky and the Stars Askew. He is winner of the Ditmar Award as Best New Talent and the Aurealis Award for his short fiction. See rjurik.com
Dinner, drinks and LIVE MUSIC featuring Pipin Jamson from Jawa Pitu band – The Clyde Hotel, 385 Cardigan Street, Carlton from 7pm
Day Two, Sunday 28 August
Lenin’s two stage theory of revolution: its importance today – Nick D
09:30-11:00am
Since World War Two, every revolution that has been successful in overthrowing capitalist rule has taken place in societies outside the imperialist core. In the coming period, there is every chance that the Global South – home to a large majority of the world’s population – will again be the site of the next revolutionary seizure of power, or a series of them.
It is therefore important to reflect on the general character of revolution in Global South countries, where social realities – in particular the social weight of non-proletarian classes – are distinct compared to industrially advanced, imperialist economies such as Australia.
The Bolshevik Revolution provided a powerful example of strategy for socialist revolution in colonial and semi-colonial countries with large non-proletarian populations.
According to Lenin’s theory, which was historically confirmed in the Russian Revolution, the process of socialist revolution in such countries will likely proceed in two distinct phases: the democratic stage and the socialist stage.
This talk will explain the core theoretical tenets of Lenin’s two-stage theory of revolution and outline its realisation in the Bolshevik Revolution. It will also argue that socialists in imperialist countries need a firm understanding of the process and realities of Global South revolution in order to best respond when a revolutionary crisis emerges. A sectarian ultra-left perspective – that chastises Global South revolutions stuck in the first stage due to domestic and international conditions – both undermines support and solidarity and prevents revolutionaries overseas from developing the clear eyed analysis of the modern imperialist system.
Nick D is an Asia Pacific solidarity activist and Indonesian language speaker currently working as a writer and translator. He has been involved in Cuba solidarity and climate justice movements in Sydney as well as campaigning to link left and socialist groups in the region. Since 2022, he has been a member of Red Ant’s Editorial Committee.
“Practical action against the united capitalists”: the united front theory in history and today – Barry Healy
11:15-12:45pm
The point of organising a revolutionary Marxist party is to coordinate the socialist revolution. It goes without saying that to accomplish this, the party’s revolutionary ideas must become the dominant trend, the every-day common sense within the working class. A party must demonstrate political intelligence so that the vast majority of working people respect its judgement and are prepared to act upon it. Publicising and agitating around good ideas is part of this work but is not enough.
History teaches us that it is only from collective experiences of struggle that most people can think beyond the conventional ideas of ruling class ideology and seek out alternatives, revolutionary concepts.
In attempting to organise such collective struggles revolutionaries have to recognise the varied levels of consciousness among different sections of the class. The existing leaderships of working class organisations (such as unions, parties or campaigns) often have pro-capitalist outlooks and fear the potential of mass mobilisation to radicalise workers.
Given this, how can a revolutionary party mobilise large numbers of people in collective action against this or that aspect of capitalist exploitation or oppression? What is required, according to the Communist International (Comintern) in 1921, is “practical action against the united capitalists” – this became known as the ‘united front tactic’. This session will examine the discussions in the early Comintern congresses, especially as these analysed developments in Germany during the revolutionary period of 1920. It aims to help provide a historical and theoretical basis for those wanting to think about how united action might be developed around key issues in Australia today.
Barry Healy is a life-long socialist activist, beginning with involvement in the Vietnam Moratorium Movement as a teenager. He has been active in many tumultuous struggles, such as the fight for civil liberties against the repressive Bjelke-Petersen Queensland government, anti-uranium mining and other environmental movements. Currently Barry is active in community projects against climate change.
Australian capitalism within the crisis of the world imperialist system – Sam King
1:30-3:00pm
The global capitalist system (global imperialism) is clearly in a period of ongoing crisis. Its failure to raise living standards for large parts of the population, failure to take decisive action to slow climate change, its ongoing wars and increasing economic crises are all indications of this.
The character and trajectory of the capitalist crisis affects social life within all countries as well as relations between them. A crucial aspect of this is how severely the capitalist classes of the various countries, in order to safeguard profitability, are forced to attack or restrict the wages and social conditions of workers in their own society – or, alternatively, what concessions they are able to grant when needed.
Revolutionary socialists have historically underestimated the capacity of the system to grant concessions or find ways to lessen and ameliorate crises, especially inside the imperialist states where capital has the most resources at its disposal.
For decades prior to the pandemic, imperialist super-exploitation of Chinese and other Global South labour gave rise to sustained super-profits, long-term low inflation and relative prosperity for whole sections of workers in the Global North. That was imperialism’s dividend from bringing China, Russia and Eastern Europe into the world market.
Today that bonanza looks exhausted as a source of surplus-profits, and is being further undermined by increasing imperialist economic hostility and military aggression especially towards China and Russia.
How the crisis manifests in Australia in the next few years will be determined by factors such as the degree of ongoing super-exploitation of Global South labour internationally, how far the imperialist states are able to raise the productivity of domestic labour through investment in things like renewable energy and highly automated production, and the relative success of Australian capital vis-a-vis other imperialist economies in doing this.
This talk will explain the core concepts and dynamics mentioned and attempt to broadly outline the prospects for Australian imperialism and the context of working class organising and struggle over the next few years.
Sam King is the author of the Marxist theoretical work Imperialism and the development myth: How rich countries dominate in the twenty-first century (Manchester University Press, 2021).
Australian politics with Labor in power – Barry Healy
3:15-4:45pm
With the ALP in power in every mainland state and federally, in what way do these governments break from the preceding LNP counterparts and to what extent are they continuators?
Two outrageous continuations federally are the nuclear submarine program and the implementation of the Tier 3 tax cuts that benefit the already wealthy. Combined with approvals for coal and other disastrous fossil fuel projects, the ALP is delivering a government that is different in style from the LNP but very similar in content: austerity for working people, profits for corporations – but mixed in with culture war virtue signalling.
What are the bottom-line drivers of this hypocrisy? What is the Australian ruling class demanding of Labor that it is so intent on delivering? What grounds exist for beginnings of working class resistance or fightback, or for starting to rebuild the strength of socialist and left forces in the context of the current low-ebb of struggle?
RED ANT 