BY JOHN PERCY
SYDNEY British Marxist intellectual Alex Callinicos will be a keynote speaker at the second Asia Pacific International Solidarity Conference, scheduled for Easter 2002 in Sydney. Callinicos will represent the Socialist Workers Party of Britain.
Callinicos is the second major leader of the European socialist left to agree to speak at the conference. Alain Krivine, a leader of the French Revolutionary Communist League and a member of the European parliament, has also confirmed his attendance, and both Krivine and Callinicos will be able to speak on the regroupment and renewal of the international socialist movement.
The Portuguese Left Bloc has confirmed that it will send one of its members of parliament, and conference organisers are confident of being able to host a leader of the Scottish Socialist Party.
Representatives from the parties in the Asian region that the Democratic Socialist Party has developed close collaboration with in recent years the Peoples Democratic Party in Indonesia, the Socialist Party of Timor, the Socialist Party of Labor in the Philippines, the Labour Party of Pakistan, the Communist Party of India Marxist-Leninist, the Communist Party of Nepal (UML) and the Power of the Working Class in South Korea will all be attending the conference.
Farooq Tariq from Pakistan and Sonny Melencio from the Philippines are two keynote speakers already confirmed.
There are indications that the Cuban Communist Party will send a delegation. There have also been confirmation of attendance from Mauritius, with the leadership of the Lalit revolutionary socialist organisation planning to send a leading member, Ram Seegobin. From South Africa, Dale McKinley, a regular contributor to Green Left Weekly and Links, has accepted an invitation to speak.
The immensely successful first Asia Pacific International Solidarity Conference in Sydney in April 1998 was attended by more than 750 people, including 67 representatives from overseas left parties and organisations.
The conference is being organised by the Asia Pacific Institute for Democratisation and Development, PO Box 515, Broadway 2007, Australia. Email: <apisc2002@greenleft.org.au>.