Anticapitalist Network: My trip to Turkey

I have just returned from an intense activity in Turkey, where I was invited by our comrades of the SEP (Socialist Workers Party). I took part of different conferences and activities in Ankara and Istanbul, the main cities of that impressive country that is part of Europe and Asia.

Besides meeting and interacting with the militancy of the SEP, the objective of my trip was to prepare the final details of the foundational conference of the new international organization we are building with those who are part of Anticapitalist Network, the SEP and other organizations. This event, which will take place next May in Barcelona, will be attended by leaders of over 20 countries of America, Europe and Asia.

Revolutionary unity

The great crisis of the capitalist system and the defection of the union and political leaderships that for years were trusted by working people and the mass movement, have created a situation of extreme world polarization. On one side are the most reactionary forces of society that have shown up and try to take over everything. But there are millions of workers, women and youth that confront them, despite not having yet a revolutionary leadership to help them get organised and empower the overwhelming force they have. Now it is more necessary than ever to have an international revolutionary organization that promotes mobilization and builds revolutionary parties to fight for the leadership of social and political processes, with power and a socialist society as its north.

Unfortunately, none of the existing international organizations that claim to be Trotskyist has risen to the occasion. The United Secretariat of the Fourth International has long abandoned the construction of revolutionary parties. Other currents, as those referenced in some organizations of English Trotskyism, are built around a mother party that imposes the wrong course of action to its sections. Small organizations as the LIT, the UIT or the one oriented by the Argentinian PTS develop a feverish sectarianism that impedes the development of political processes. Others fall into campism, following the reformist leaderships that lead some processes.

A new alternative grows

The current leadership vacuum needs to be covered by an international organization that, without sectarianism or opportunism, orientates the struggle towards a revolutionary program and is actively built from the processes of the working class, the women and the youth in every country. Those who will take part in the open conference in Barcelona are decided on accepting the challenge and responsibility that the current situation demands from revolutionaries. We call every group and party, as well as activists who fight against capital, that agrees with the main definitions of the declarations we have published, to join this experience and build the instrument these times demand together.

Alejandro Bodart