International Viewpoint - online socialist magazine

This statement was adopted by Kokkino on 14 June 2013 and published on their website.

After days of hesitation and negotiation, the government has finally decided to evacuate the Taksim Commune, where thousands camped in Gezi Park and which tens of thousands visited every night. Police attacked Gezi Park yesterday evening (June 15) and after evacuating it using tear gas and, as a novelty, water cannon apparently supplemented with a special kind of chemical since it burnt the skin of everyone it touched, razed the tents, the infirmary, the kitchens and the library established there to the ground.

Everyone agrees, in Greece and elsewhere: the wild decision of the Prime Minister Samaras to announce, at midday on Tuesday 10 June, the closing of the public audio-visual service ERT for the same evening is surprising and of course requires explanation. And a massive response!

Francisco Louçã is an economics professor at Lisbon’s Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão. He is the author of numerous books and essays including Ensaio para uma Revolução [Rehearsal of a Revolution]; As Time Goes By — From the Industrial Revolution to the Information Revolution, with Chris Freeman; Portugal Agrilhoado — A Economia Cruel na Era do FMI [Portugal in Chains — The Cruel Economy in the Age of the IMF]; and most recently, co-authored with Mariana Mortagua, A Dividadura [The Dictatorship of the Debt] and Isto é um Assalto [This Is a Robbery].

In the current context of international crisis of capitalism, sub-Saharan Africa is presented as a zone of the world economy which is doing well. In 2012, none of the states in the region was considered as in recession: 0.8% growth in GDP in Swaziland, 8.7 % (after 13.7% in 2011) in Ghana, or 7% in Congo-Brazzaville, 2.7% in South Africa and 4% in Mauritius [1]. The average growth of the sub-region is 5.8%, well above the world average of around 3%.

The effect of population growth on the ecological crisis is a discussion rarely taken up by the left, including the Fourth International. We are inviting contributions on it, of which the first, by Alan Thornett, is “Population and the environment: time for a rethink”.

This is a counter report to both the texts from the Bureau “To continue the debate on broad parties” and from SA “The debate on broad parties” for the IC meeting in March.

Davies (Socialist Resistance, Britain) – 30th January 2013

Draft counter-report to the FI Bureau text “To continue the debate on broad parties” presented to the March 2013 meeting of the International Committee of the Fourth International, approved by the National Committee, Socialist Action (U.S.) January 23, 2013.