Links: International Journal of Socialist Renewal
A quarterly published by New Course Publications, Sydney
$6.50, 128pp.
Reviewed by Martin Roe
An exclusive interview with Sandinista leader and former Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega is the lead article in a new journal called Links.
Also in the first issue are an article on Russia's trade union movement by Renfrey Clarke and prominent dissident (under both the previous and current regimes) Boris Kagarlitsky; two articles on socialist renewal in the Communist Party of the Philippines; a report on left unity in South Africa; an article on left regroupment in the USA; and an evaluation of Accord politics in Australia.
There are also two important documents: one on the Brazilian Workers Party (PT) election strategy and a call for left regroupment by the USA Committees of Correspondence.
This new magazine of international discussion and debate on socialist renewal was launched at a dinner held on April 2, during the International Green Left Conference in Sydney. It was received enthusiastically by the 250 people present, including most of the 40 international guests at the conference.
Among the speakers at the launch were Dulcie Maria Pereira, a leader of the Brazilian Workers Party and a member of several working groups of the Sao Paulo Forum; Carl Bloice and Peter Camejo from the Committees of Correspondence and Sonny Melencio from the Philippines left.
"The range of groups involved in Links is proof of a new climate of collaboration in the international left", Links managing editor Peter Boyle told Green Left Weekly.
"Apart from the groups represented on the speaking platform at the launch, we have on the editorial board Jeremy Cronin, a leader of the South African Communist Party and editor of African Communist, Langa Zita from the SACP and the South African metalworkers union, Dr Francisco Nemenzo from the Philippines and Baddegama Samitha from the New Socialist Party of Sri Lanka.
"In addition we have leading members from the New Zealand Alliance, the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), the Farabundo Mart¡ National Liberation Front (FMLN) and the Fourth International. This is a project involving the left from the Communist Party, the Trotskyist, Maoist, ex-Social Democratic, independent left and liberation theology traditions. We all have in common a desire for socialist renewal based on support for democracy, feminism, ecological sustainability and internationalism."
The magazine was initiated by the Democratic Socialist Party of Australia but has become an international project. "In this New World Order, we face an increasingly globalised capitalism, so the left needs to renew its internationalist heritage", said Boyle.
"Links is a significant contribution to this process. We call ourselves a magazine for the post-Cold War left. This is not a project for those who want to moan about the collapse of the Stalinised regimes in eastern and central Europe or to drown in demoralisation. It is also not just another magazine for academics.
"Involved in Links are some of the left movements making the biggest and boldest steps forward â such as the South African comrades, who will probably be in government with the African National Congress next month, the Brazilian PT, which is tipped to win presidential elections this year, and the resurgent left in the Philippines."
Links subscriptions can be obtained from PO Box 515, Broadway 2007. Phone: (02) 690 1230. Fax: (02) 690 1381. Australian rates: Individuals $25 per year; institutions $35.