Resistance conference dares to struggle and win
BY SIMON BUTLER
MELBOURNE — Opening Resistance's 29th national conference here on June 29, the group's Sydney branch organiser, Will Williams, stated, "Now, more than ever, there's the need for an organised fight back against capitalism". The following four days of debate proved his point as delegates discussed the misery, exploitation, sexism, racism and homophobia that capitalism is spreading across the globe and planned how to organise that fight back.
Presenting the opening report, "Fighting the Globalisation of Neo-liberalism", Sean Martin-Iverson explained the calamitous role imperialist institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and World Trade Organisation (WTO) play in restructuring the economies of Third World countries and redirecting profits and resources to the First World.
Revolutionaries in First World countries had a dual role, he argued: to fight the domestic policies of their own governments and to extend concrete solidarity to those in the Third World who are struggling against the dictatorship of the great powers.
The main proposal in the report, enthusiastically supported by delegates, was for Resistance to throw itself into building the growing international movement to demand the abolition of the IMF, World Bank and WTO, and to help organise massive protests against the September 11 meeting of the World Economic Forum in Melbourne, a body which includes most of the world's largest multinational corporations.
Solidarity
The following plenary report, titled "Solidarity with the Radical Forces in Indonesia and East Timor", presented by Resistance's national coordinator, Kerryn Williams, also concentrated on Resistance's internationalist responsibilities.
Williams argued that despite the formal independence of East Timor and the overthrow of the Australian-backed dictator Suharto in Indonesia, the struggle for democracy and freedom in the two countries remained strong. Resistance had a duty to continue to build practical solidarity, she said.
Conference delegates reaffirmed Resistance's long-standing commitment to building Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor (ASIET) and adopted a plan of work to build ASIET student clubs on particular campuses across the country.
Delegates decided to continue Resistance's support to radical forces, specifically the People's Democratic Party (PRD) in Indonesia and the Socialist Party of Timor (PST), and to participate in ASIET initiatives such as the Indonesian National Front for Labour Struggles (FNPBI) tour in September and the campaign for university scholarships for East Timorese.
Friends of the Earth Victoria representative Cam Walker also addressed the conference on the first day, saying that radical groups such as Resistance and FOE could achieve much by working together in areas where there is political agreement while treating each other's political differences with respect. Commenting on the future of environmental campaigning in Australia, Walker said, "We need to polarise the environment movement" between those who think government policy just needs a little fine-tuning and those who understand that environmental destruction is a product of the entire economic and political system and direct their attention to transforming it.
Day one of the conference concluded with an example of revolutionary theory in practice as the entire conference, 220 activists, rallied outside the Nike superstore in the Bourke Street Mall, demanding an end to the super-exploitation of Nike workers in the Third World. Nike has refused to sign the Homeworkers Code of Conduct, a code put forward by the Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union of Australia to secure living wages and decent conditions for workers. Nike pays its workers in Indonesia as little as $1.50 a day.
Fighting racism and sexism
Plenary discussion on June 30 began with a report presented by Brisbane Resistance organiser Angela Luvera, "How Pauline Hanson became Prime Minister", which analysed the federal government's attempts to respond to rising public sentiment against growing inequality, the GST and the government's handling of indigenous rights issues.
The increasing barrage of "Hanson-like" government policies against migrants, refugees, indigenous people, youth and women are all attempts to scapegoat the already downtrodden and divert attention from the neo-liberal onslaught, the report argued.
But the picture wasn't one-sided, Luvera argued, pointing to many struggles that have arisen in the past year, such as September's massive protests for East Timor and the enormous marches for reconciliation. There would be plenty of opportunities for Resistance to take part in, and help organise, such struggles in the coming year, pointing to S11 protests in Melbourne and anti-Olympics protests in Sydney as the two most prominent examples.
Key to fighting back against one crucial aspect of the Howard reaction — the drive to force women back into the home — will be the re-emergence of an strong, independent women's liberation movement.
Speaking on a feature panel entitled "Getting serious about fighting for women's liberation", Adelaide Resistance member Maria Voukelatos spoke of how the oppression of women is indispensable for the maintenance of capitalism and of the day "when women's liberation learning centres can take over the burned-out shells of Jenny Craig offices".
Pat Brewer, a Canberra-based member of the Democratic Socialist Party and author of the Resistance Books pamphlet The Dispossession of Women, analysed the state of the feminist movement and argued that, distinct from other contemporary Feminist theory, "Marxist feminism is unique in that it says that women were not always oppressed, and therefore demonstrates that liberation from oppression is possible".
International guests
The conference was privileged to have three guests from overseas socialist organisations, the first of whom, Lourdes Goncalves Da Costa from the Socialist Party of Timor, gave a presentation on June 30 of the PST's successes in establishing itself as a mass-based revolutionary party, even in the face of hostility from conservative forces within the National Council of Timorese Resistance (CNRT).
Da Costa warned that many challenges still face the people of East Timor, including massive poverty and unemployment as well as the prospect of CNRT constituting itself as the government of East Timor before democratic elections take place.
On day three, July 1, delegates discussed a report, "Taking socialism onto the campuses", presented by Nikki Ulasowski, which outlined the organisation's plans for work among university students, currently its strongest base of support.
The adopted plans focus on strengthening student activism on campus by working to consolidate thriving Resistance clubs on each campus, and improving the intervention, stature and influence of the student left by building up the National Broad Left as a counterweight to Labor students.
The feature panel that followed, "Fighting capitalism — from Seattle to Jakarta to Melbourne", combined speakers from very different backgrounds, but drew strong links between the growing anti-capitalist campaigns in the First World and the struggles for freedom from exploitation in the Third World.
Kim Tae Jung from the newly formed Korean revolutionary tendency Power of the Working Class delivered an account of the radicalisation of the Korean working class since the 1980s and of current resistance to the IMF-imposed structural adjustment program. Rainer, from the PRD and its affiliate, the National Student League for Democracy (LMND), spoke of the very similar experiences of workers in his country, and of the growing popular resistance.
The panel also featured two local activists — Kim Bullimore, a DSP activist and member of the Indigenous Students Network, and Resistance member Julian Coppens who is involved in the S11 Alliance in Melbourne. They spoke about the anti-capitalist potential of the movements here against racism and corporate tyranny.
In a separate session on developments on Indonesia, Rainer took the floor again, this time to give a detailed analysis of the state of the Indonesian opposition movement.
Since the mass protests that forced the resignation of Suharto in 1998 radical forces have temporarily won the right to organise openly, he explained. Yet he stressed that an increase in activity by religious fundamentalists and the lingering possibility of a military coup make the continued growth of radical Indonesian forces, and continued solidarity from First World radicals, essential.
Workers' rights
A warm reception was given to Craig Johnston, the newly elected Victorian branch secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, who spoke about the electoral success of the rank-and-file Workers First ticket in recent AMWU elections.
Johnston thanked Resistance and the DSP for their contributions to the campaign against the ALP-backed incumbent Julius Roe and declared that Workers First represented a return to "old-style unionism", wherein members have democratic control over their union and the union uncompromising defends the wages and conditions of its members.
In the final plenary report, "Resistance is necessary", on July 2, Wollongong Resistance organiser Chris Latham outlined the central importance of the revolutionary youth organisation in winning young people to the struggle for socialism and developing the next generation of revolutionary leaders.
Latham challenged the organisation to increase the intensity of its activism and to expand and consolidate in a context of growing anti-corporate and anti-government sentiment amongst young people in Australia.
Conference delegates voted for a detailed and ambitious plan of work for the coming year and began the expected expansion by constituting a new Resistance branch in Fremantle, making 16 the number of branches around the country.
John Percy, the national secretary of the DSP, and one of Resistance's founders 33 years ago, delivered inspiring greetings to the conference in which he urged activists in Resistance to refuse to ever make their peace with capitalism. Decrying the common conception of the young radical who becomes conservative in middle age, Percy asked members of Resistance to join the DSP and make the struggle against all forms of oppression and exploitation the central concern of their lives.
In her concluding remarks, Bronwyn Powell summed up the attitude of the organisation, and the conference, to the next 12 months of activist and agitation. "Dare to struggle, Dare to win", she said, a sentiment which activists are now sure to take back with them to the country's campuses, high schools, workplaces and streets.