International

Montreal, the second largest city in Canada, has a robust history of left-wing organizing and mobilization at the municipal level, both through electoral and non-electoral means. This panel seeks to examine the successful practices and the strategic shortcomings of the municipalist Left in Montreal, by focusing on two main dimensions. We would first pay attention to left-wing municipal parties (the Front d’Action Politique from 1969 to 1973, the Rassemblement des Citoyens de Montréal from 1974 to 2001 and Projet Montréal from 2004 to today) and the numerous drawbacks and tensions that they faced in the last five decades, both regarding internal democracy and their links to extra-parliamentary left-wing organizations. We would then take a look at an ongoing mobilization campaign against the gentrification of Park Extension, a low-income neighborhood in the North West of Montreal, and the ways in which this campaign has integrated community-campus collaboration as a strategy for popular empowerment and social change. Our broader aim is to identify a set of practical insights that can contribute to mobilizing efforts in other cities, while helping the Left to face the turbulent times ahead of us.

When the yellow vests movement began in November 2018 following the Macron government’s decision to raise the tax on diesel, it was characterized by many, including those on the far left, as being a movement of the extreme right - anti-immigrant and anti-ecological. It was a movement that existed outside the major urban centers. And it was outside the unions and political parties that would usually be associated with any significant mobilization. But far from being a minority movement, it is made up of a significant portion of the French population: the poorer sections of the working class, retirees and women. The movement gained widespread support as it demonstrated on the exclusive Champs de Elysees in Paris and battled the police for the right to put forward its grievances. It was made up of hundreds of local “headquarters” with people meeting on the “roundabouts.” Recently General Assemblies, grouping members or representatives into broader regional bodies have been formed to discuss the direction of their movement. This panel will discuss the political developments within this movement and how the extreme left can engage this new movement that has the possibility to challenge the mechanisms of power.

The German revolution of 1918-19 attempted to overthrow capitalism and establish a Socialist Republic. Unlike the Russian revolution a year earlier the German uprising ended in defeat. Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, leading members of the young Communist Party of Germany, were murdered by reactionaries. What can we learn from this defeat in our struggle against capitalism? Come and discuss the way forward!

Thomas Jefferson called the U.S. an “Empire of Liberty.” Barack Obama called the U.S. an “Indispensable nation.” These manifestations of American exceptionalism and American innocence provide the doctrine of U.S. empire building at home and abroad. Danny Haiphong and Roberto Sirvent’s new book American Exceptionalism and American Innocence a People’s History of the United States from the Revolutionary War to the War on Terror not only exposes this doctrine as myth but also analyzes its impact on the class struggle to develop a world free of U.S. capitalism, war, and white supremacy. Join anti-imperialist activists and journalists in a discussion about the book and its relevance as a tool toward dismantling the actually-existing fake news of U.S. Empire.

In recent years the fascist movement in India has been growing. Led by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), their electoral wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and sponsored by the big corporate houses in India, this fascist movement has sponsored and carried out viscous attacks on Muslims, Dalits (the so-called "untouchables"), women, Adivasis (indigenous people), religious minorities, and national minorities. All this has been coupled with extractive neoliberal policies aimed at maximizing corporate profits while undercutting the most basic and meager social welfare programs that still exist in India. Recently, a series of poets, human rights lawyers, professors, and civil liberties activists have been arrested on trumped-up charges and accused of terrorism. This is all part of the government's plan to forcible evict 800 million people from their land and move them from the countryside to the city by 2050. When coupled with draconian laws like the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (which give the state legal cover for arresting and killing activists with impunity), it clear that the people of India face a very dire situation. This panel will examine the growing fascist movement in India, speak on the dire situations that people face, and highlight the courageous resistance being waged across the country. We will also examine the role of US imperialism in supporting and sponsoring the fascist movement in India and the associated neoliberal extractive policies.

Blocking U.S. imperialism’s regime change agenda focused on Venezuela and Iran should be a priority for the left. Our panel will discuss both the historical context for this threat and the critical relevancy to the global anti-imperialist/climate and energy justice movements. The debate in the left regarding Maduro and the course of the Bolivarian Revolution is secondary, on one side is Trump/Pompeo/Bolton/Elliot Abrams (the war criminal from the Reagan era) and their appointed "president" Guaido, on the other side is the right of self-determination of Venezuela free of criminal imperial aggression/economic warfare/sanctions and the continuing threat of armed intervention. We should note U.S. involvement in the 2002 failed coup. Considering Iran, the sordid history of U.S. intervention goes back to the 1953 CIA-instigated coup removing Mossadegh. Now Iran is once again a target of regime change, with the U.S. withdrawal from the nuclear agreement and imposing new sanctions raising the danger of a reprise of the catastrophic Iraq war. Militarized fossil capital wants control of the world’s biggest oil reserve found in Venezuela’s Orinoco deposit and likewise the fourth largest reserve in Iran. Extracting this oil will drive us to catastrophic climate change (C3). Only by blocking the imperial agenda will the ecosocialist-inspired Bolivarian Revolution have the chance to use a small fraction of its conventional oil reserve as an energy supply for solarization of Latin America, as well as a revenue source for its social transformation, thereby creating a model for a cooperative global regime for preventing C3.

From Eco villages and community land trusts to worm farms and worker co-ops, people all over LA, the country, and the world are coming together to reimagine economy from the ground up - from the dominant extractive, exploitative system currently in place to a regenerative system that values people and the planet. We are hoping to explore connections and make visible local initiatives. We invite you to bring your own passions, questions, talents and resources to explore ways we can come together to co-create the beautiful world we know is possible.

In light of the fate of the Syrian Revolution, which has been crushed by the genocide carried out by Bashar al-Assad together with his Russian, Iranian, and Lebanese allies, there has debate in the global left about the meanings of imperialism and anti-imperialism, and the political implications these carry. Many authoritarians claiming leftism cross-over with the white-supremacist right's open support for the Assad Regime by denying its crimes and overlooking the imperialist role played by Russia and Iran in Syria, focusing exclusively on the U.S.'s supposed opposition to Assad's rule. This tendency is a worrisome development, suggestive as it is of a red-brown alliance (or axis) that is not consistently anti-imperialist but rather, only opposed to U.S. Imperialism. It also fails analytically to see how the U.S. has increasingly accommodated Assad's counter-revolution.

In contrast to such approaches, participants on this panel will present anti-authoritarian class analyses of militarism and imperialism. Panelists will discuss the red-brown alliance (or axis) as recalling the “Holy Alliance” and fascism; the concept and reality of imperialism in the Middle East; the current wave of popular protests in Iran; left and right interpretations of geopolitics and political geography both historically and today; the lessons of the Bosnian genocide; and the tragedy of the Syrian Revolution.

These days, one mostly hears of Pakistan as a staging ground for the war on terror. When not lamenting the Pakistani ISI's double game in Afghanistan, mainstream coverage in the US fixates on semi-regular suicide bombings in urban centers and an active Taliban insurgency in the northwest in order to paint a picture of a Pakistan overrun by the religious right. Pakistan, we're told, is not much more than a waffling Army, a handful of brave secular elites, and the 180 million-strong barbarian horde that they frantically restrain. Yet peer beneath the surface, and a very different Pakistan soon emerges--one in which the everyday experience of Pakistanis is defined primarily by their grievances and struggles as workers, peasants, and students in a terribly poor, unequal country.

The purpose of this panel is to substantiate the claim that this is the best frame with which to approach Pakistani history, and Pakistani politics today. Speakers will speak to the current state of the Left, progressive forces, and the challenges these groups face in relation to the perils of military dictatorship, neoliberalism, and the War in Af-Pak.

Speakers: Madiha Tahir (journalist), Saadia Toor (Professor of Sociology at CUNY Staten Island), Adaner Usmani (PhD student in Sociology at NYU)

The revolution in Egypt inspired millions of people around the world with its heroism, its mass character and stunning victories in a relatively short period of time. Tahrir Square became a symbol of resistance and helped give rise to occupations from Madrid to Wall Street. However, Egypt has been (and is) going through a protracted revolutionary process of advances and retreat. This panel will feature journalists who have closely followed this process as well as participants from the revolutionary struggle in Egypt. It will examine the dynamics of the revolution over the last year, its prospects and the challenges that it must confront.