Second Asia-Pacific solidarity conference planned

Issue 

BY JOHN PERCY

At its 19th congress in January, the Democratic Socialist Party decided to support the holding of a second Asia-Pacific international solidarity conference over the 2002 Easter weekend (March 29-April 1).

The 2002 conference — to be held around the theme "Building links for global resistance" — will seek to build on the achievements of the first Asia Pacific solidarity conference. This was held in Sydney over the 1998 Easter weekend and was attend by more than 750 people, including 67 representatives from overseas left parties and organisations.

Since 1998 conference comradely collaboration and discussion has developed between parties coming from very different left traditions — Maoist, Trotskyist, traditional Communist — in India, Australia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Japan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia and other countries.

The Marxism 2000 Conference in Sydney in January 2000 organised by the Democratic Socialist Party and Resistance was attended by 450 people including 53 international guests. The Socialism 21 Conference in Katmandu in November 2000 organised by the Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist Leninist) similarly reached out to a broad range of socialist parties around the world. And the coming Asia Pacific Peoples' Solidarity Conference in Jakarta June 7-10, 2001, is shaping up to be very widely attended, the first such conference in Indonesia for more than 35 years.

A new spirit of resistance, renewal and cooperation is visible among the left around the world. The rapidly developing movement against neo-liberal globalisation has shaken capitalist confidence. New parties are developing with varied origins. New alliances are being built. New links are being developed between parties with very different traditions. More and more people, especially young people, are waking up to capitalism's neo-liberal offensive, against the workers and poor at home, and to their brutal exploitation of the rest of the world.

The second Asia Pacific International Solidarity Conference at Easter 2002 in Sydney will attempt to provide a meeting place for many of these experiences, to bridge the continent-wide discussions that have been taking place in Asia, in Latin America, in Europe, in Africa, to bring them together as much as possible.

If you would like to present a paper or workshop, let us know now so we can plan and advertise the agenda well in advance.

The conference will be organised by the Asia Pacific Institute for Democratisation and Development. Contact API (PO Box 515, Broadway 2007, Australia. Email: <apiaustralia@greenleft.org.au.>) for more information and to get involved.

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