Friday, May 22, 2009/THE NEWS INTERNATIONAL
By Harris Khalique
Around forty politicians and civil rights campaigners belonging to socialist and social democratic parties in Asia have gathered in Manila to look at the systemic crisis of global capitalism the world is witnessing and the search for policy and practical solutions. A few are representing the Argentinian, Swedish and German left as the conference is supported by FES, the political foundation belonging to the leading leftwing party of Germany, SPD, and Olof Palme International Centre, named after the late prime minister of Sweden, who was very popular and assassinated by a bigot outside a cinema hall after he and his wife watched a movie together and were going home. (My fellow countrymen and women, this is possible in some countries that those possessing highest political offices go to public places and use public transport).
At the conference, not everyone is represented but the presence of some sitting Asian parliamentarians, South East Asian academics and leaders of some formidable political parties from ten Asian countries make the event both lively and engaging. Conspicuous by their absence are representatives from Indian political parties. Because to me, the real party practising social democracy, both through its policies and political action, in the Indian subcontinent is Communist Party of India Marxist (CPIM), primarily in Bengal and for quite some time influencing or ruling other states with the help of likeminded parties, like in Kerala. Leftist parties who decide to participate in the electoral process in a broad-based democracy cannot avoid becoming social democrats in real practice. We see the same happening with socialist parties in Europe but those who call themselves communists in South Asia become defensive if you question the purity of their ideology in practice. Nevertheless, the debate between the ones proposing radical change and the ones asking for reformative transformation continues in the backdrop.
Something that everyone tends to agree upon at the conference is a unique opportunity for pro-people forces in the world to deconstruct and redefine the global fiscal arrangement on the one hand and challenge the dominating role of the IMF, the World Bank and the WTO in running the economies of the third world on the other. Speculation in industry, especially food commodities, must stop and progressive taxation must be levied in order to ensure that education and health care are not left at the mercy of the market. The main speakers asked for putting an end to privatisation of social services and supporting the demand for higher real wages by strengthening trade unions and social movements. One of the speakers highlighted the prospects of reshaping the economic system in the wake of environmental damages to the planet. He stressed on the existence of an inherent link between exploiting natural resources to the hilt for high profiteering and rapid climate change. The participants were critical of the tendency of some neo-liberal apologists to put the blame for the current crisis on some greedy individuals running companies and banks instead of unequal income distribution and wage stagnation. The Argentinian delegate, associated with Nueva Sociedad, gave a reality check. He said that the left around the world must not see Latin America as the saviour. Some steps that are taken in the continent by its nationalist politicians which are definitely radical but Latin American left in reality is not anti-capitalist but anti neo-liberalism and anti-economic imperialism. He said that re-nationalisation of oil in Venezuela and gas in Bolivia is in effect re-negotiation of contracts with trans-national companies, which in effect is a fundamental change in approach and a step in the right direction but not to be confused with ending private ownership per se.
In such conferences, one is made to realise again that the existing discourse of the left in Pakistan is fraught with inadequacies, rhetoric without contemporary knowledge and a weak understanding of the global economy. Our narrative must reflect the changes that have taken place in world’s political economy and relate it to the possibility of an indigenous Pakistani theory of economy and polity based on collectivism and inclusion.
(Submitted by Abdul Hamid Bashani Khan)