MIM Notes 210 May 15, 2000 Conference on "capitalist globalization" provides revolutionary anti-imperialist forum: Maoists from Russia and the Philippines address audience of hundreds SANTA BARBARA, CA -- "From environmental destruction to rampant human rights abuses and perennial global poverty, more and more people around the world are realizing that our current economic and political system is incapable of meeting even the most basic needs of the world's population." This was the first sentence of the press release for the "Communities Confronting Capitalist Globalization" conference, held at the University of California -- Santa Barbara on April 14-16. Well over 200 people attended the conference, which featured diverse speakers and workshops. Many of the speakers and presenters plainly stated that the "current economic and political system" is imperialism, as summed up by Lenin in 1917. Most others had a nascent anti-imperialist perspective. Two of the four featured speakers -- the founding chairpersyn of the Communist Party of the Philippines, Jose Maria Sison, and Dar Zhutayev, from Russia -- come from the same communist tradition as MIM, namely Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. Because of time constraints and visa difficulties, comrade Sison addressed the conference via videotape and answered questions over a speaker phone. He currently lives in the Netherlands, where he was forced into exile after the u.$.-Aquino regime cancelled his passport. The other speakers were Ramona Africa, from the MOVE organization, and Amory Starr, who gave an overview of anti-"globalization" movements, especially in the Third World. Comrades Sison and Zhutayev argued that "globalization" must be understood as imperialism, that is, parasitic monopoly capitalism, where a handful of oppressing nations extract wealth from politically and economically subjugated oppressed nations. They also spoke of the need for revolutionary struggles. In the colonies and neo-colonies, the main struggle now is against foreign imperialism and local reactionary classes (like the landlord class) and for real self-determination. This struggle takes many forms, but ultimately it is an armed struggle -- the reactionaries took what they have by force and will not relinquish it freely. In imperialist and semi-imperialist countries (like Russia) the main struggle is for socialism. As comrade Zhutayev stressed during his address, there are many other opinions as to what "globalization" is, and, consequently, there are differences on strategy and tactics in the anti- "globalization" movement. One of the strengths of the conference was the open and friendly discussion of such differences. We say "friendly" in the sense that the bulk of the participants earnestly desired to decide what would be best for the majority of the people of the world. RAIL and MIM freely put forward their perspectives from the floor, in the workshops, and in many frank discussions with individuals throughout the weekend. The open form of the conference gave some participants their first taste of political struggle. For example, the Spartacist League showed up to push their moribund, hard-line Trotskyism. Organizers allowed them to have a share of the floor, while preventing them from monopolizing it. RAIL comrades and others briefly corrected the most pernicious elements of the Sparts' rantings, while soliciting the questions and input of the broader audience. This strategy paid off, as participants who were unfamiliar with the Sparts quickly came to dislike their style and, more importantly, their ITAL line END. To paraphrase one RAIL comrade: "The Sparts kept talking about all these historical examples, which I don't know all that much about yet. But from what I heard, all of the things they criticized, like Mao shaking Nixon's hand and so forth, could have been valid strategic or tactical policies. The Sparts seemed to be saying that revolutionaries should never ever deal with the enemy; they mis-characterized tactical concessions as total sell-outs. I don't agree with that." Indeed, this idealist approach is one of the main problems with Trotskyism. The conference also succeeded in balancing accessible, concrete information about the manifestations of imperialism with deeper, theoretical discussions. As one comrade put it, the conference "walked on two legs." For example, comrade Zhutayev gave many concrete details on the effects of the advent of Western style capitalism in Russia: The decline in living standards, the decline in the status of wimmin including the rise of prostitution, the genocidal war in Chechnya, etc. But he also spent quite some time discussing the nature of Soviet state-capitalism and social- imperialism, to give people an understanding of how these things came about. Some said that they couldn't quite grasp all the ideas right way - - but rather than throw up their hands in exasperation, they wanted to delve more deeply into the arguments. This is the correct attitude. Revolutionary theory is not easy -- as Marx said, there is no royal road to science -- but it is absolutely necessary. If we do not understand ITAL why END tens of millions of people die each year from starvation and preventable disease, how can we hope to change this? If we do not understand how our enemies cling to power, how can we hope to overthrow them? Of course, theory springs from material reality, and not ITAL vice versa END, so it was good that speeches like comrade Zhutayev's included plenty of concrete information. MIM plans to publish the speeches of comrades Sison and Zhutayev in pamphlet form. This will give people the opportunity to study them at length. Anybody who is interested in helping produce, fund, or distribute these pamphlets should contact MIM or your local RAIL branch. Articles on some of the speeches and workshops from the conference will appear in future issues of MIM Notes. Aside from public opinion work, RAIL and MIM made some practical organizing gains at the conference. We got back in touch with old friends and met new friends. We raised a three figure sum selling books, videos, CDs, and t-shirts. This money will go to independent institutions of the oppressed, such as this newspaper and the Free Books for Prisoners Program. We also made contacts with people who will provide technical skills necessary for some of our independent media projects, and talked to some energetic youth who plan to hold a hip-hop benefit for the Free Books for Prisoners Program. The conference was organized by the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League (RAIL), Asian Sisters (& Brothers) for Ideas in Action Now! (ASIAN - a mass organization which does agitational work on a variety of important issues, like the struggle for Puerto Rican independence and the Amerikan prison system), the Campus Labor Action Coalition (CLAC - part of the anti-sweatshop movement), and Increase the Peace (ITP - which concentrates on environmental issues). MIM congratulates these organizers for a fruitful conference. The fact that they invited such explicitly revolutionary speakers shows that they have a bold anti- imperialist spirit. We commend them for it. We wish the organizers and participants success in their struggles against the exploitation, starvation, disease, environmental destruction, reactionary wars, and all other evils caused or exacerbated by imperialism. We encourage those who have not made up their minds yet about deeper theoretical questions (the need for armed struggle, dictatorship of the proletariat, socialism, etc.) to study this history of successful revolutionary movements and Marxism-Leninism-Maoism in particular. MIM sends a special shout out to the Santa Barbara branch of the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League. It played an important part in organizing the conference. MIM helped them with leadership, advice and some logistical support, but it was their initiative and dedication that helped make the speeches by comrades Sison and Zhutayev possible. They also put forward a revolutionary anti- imperialist line throughout the conference.