Since we launched the Anticapitalist Network six months ago, we have achieved advances we would not have imagined in such a short period. We grew in number in the countries we were organized in, and we began to organize in many others. Now, with the agreement we have reached with the SEP (Socialist Workers Party of Turkey) -to which The Struggle of Pakistan will probably also adhere- we stand before an opportunity to take a new, qualitative step forward in the construction of an international revolutionary current. A new current which will have the potential to rapidly become a pole of attraction for other activists and organizations looking to unite forces to confront a crisis-ridden capitalist system under the banners of revolutionary socialism.
Thy dynamic of the Anticapitalist Network
This year we have extended our forces in Latin America, joining with young Nicaraguan activists that we met in the heat of the intense campaign that we carried out against the dictatorship of Ortega-Murillo. A group of young student leaders from Colombia, who are protagonizing an historic strike in defense of public education, has joined our ranks. We have taken steps toward the construction of a left alternative in the PSOL of Brazil, also with young activists. We have grown in Argentina and Chile, in great measure by being at the vanguard of the mass feminist mobilization. Our groups in Paraguay and Uruguay have taken on a new dynamic. We have begun to reorganize our forces in Venezuela to confront the reactionary regime headed by Maduro. We have reconnected with old comrades in Ecuador, began to relate to activists in Peru, Bolivia and Mexico, as well as with the US left, which stands before the challenge of capitalizing on the rise of a new socialist movement of tens of thousands of activists in the belly of the beast.
In France we are on the front lines of the rebellion of the yellow vests. We launched a group in the Spanish State, born of our internationalist support of the process of Catalan independence. Together with tour Belorussian comrades, we advanced in linking with labor leaders in the Ukraine and young militants of the Socialist Movement of Russia.
All these advances are possible because a new young vanguard is on the rise worldwide, that is radicalized in the streets, looks for political answers far from the traditional leaderships that are in crisis, advances toward anticapitalist positions and is open to building a revolutionary project like the one we are proposing, opposed to the pessimist outlook that has led much of the world´s left currents to falling into opportunism or sectarianism.
The unity with the SEP presents us with enormous opportunities
Another sign of the times we live, is the agreement we have just signed with the SEP comrades, which presents us the possibility of a new qualitative leap. As the comrades have written es from Turkey:
“Comrades, we believe that this agreement between us has an enormous possibility to open a new, dynamic option for a new international which will attract many revolutionary organizations from all around the world. Anticapitalist Network and PST, and the possible relation with Pakistan, even from now on, gives us the chance to become a world party.
Internationalism is one of our priorities, that’s why we are excited about the possibilities and we will do our best to be constructive in this project.”
The potential of a new international organization with organized presence if America, Europe and Asia can become a pole of attraction for other organizations from different traditions and regions of the planet. This confluence and the agreements we have reached, coming from such different traditions and regions, and the possibility of broadening this unity to other groups and sectors, is a clear expression of the ever larger political space there is for building revolutionary alternatives. We will destine all our forces toward consolidating and developing this process, to which we invite all who wish to contribute to the construction of an international organization for the world socialist revolution.
Alejandro Bodart
The SEP of Turkey
The SEP (Socialist Workers Party) is a relatively young party of the revolutionary left in Turkey. Founded in 2004 as the Marxist Ideas Club, the organization founded the party with its current name in 2016. In just over a decade, it built one of the most dynamic organizations of the left, with national extension and sizable branches in the country´s main cities.
Far removed from the passivity and pessimism of much of the left, the SEP has not abandoned the streets and is on the front lines with the workers, students and women against the austerity and repression of Erdogan´s dictatorship. With a mostly young membership, the SEP has an extensive student movement and is the leading political force in the country´s two main universities, Bogazici University and Middle East Technical University.
The SEP also develops a labor organization that intervenes in diverse sectors of the labor movement and has recently founded a new union in the tourism sector; intervenes in gender struggles with its organization Equality; and runs cultural centers in Istanbul and Ankara.
Unlike the sectors of the left that fall behind the class collaborationism of Kemalism or the Labor Party of Kurdistan, the SEP defends revolutionary politics of class independence, while avoiding the pitfalls of sectarianism, supporting the right to self-determination of the Kurdish people and fighting against all oppression.
The strategic objective of the SEP is the construction of a revolutionary party in Turkey and an International for the world socialist revolution.
Tilbe Akan
Act of agreement
Anti-capitalist Network and SEP-Turkey
After a fruitful exchange between our organizations, in which we confirmed the existence political agreements of a strategic character, we have decided to establish a Joint Committee with the objective of advancing, in a brief period, towards the unification of our forces in a common international revolutionary organization.
This Joint Committee will work to integrate the comrades of The Struggle of Pakistan, other organizations close to both our forces and all those who may agree the strategic objectives we defend, to the new international organization.
With this initiative, which greatly satisfies us, we are beginning to take concrete steps towards resolving the most acute political necessity of the current stage of the global class struggle: the building of an international revolutionary socialist leadership.
İn the next months we will elaborate a declaration that will summarize the principal political, theoretic, programmatic, methodological and organizational agreements of the new organization, based on the criteria we have discussed.
We have also agreed to carry out common campaigns, exchange militants of both organizations and to participate in each other’s congresses and events.
On behalf of Anti-capitalist Network Alejandro Bodart
On behalf of SEP (Socialist Laborers Party) Veli Umut Arslan