Hello ringo,
I am more left than right, and not from the US, so I have no political
axe to grind here. Looking at the information about International
Answer, I detect a pattern familiar to me from the days when I was a
political activist.
There are a number of organizations listed in the Steering Committee,
and then a much longer list of co-signers. The representatives on the
Steering Committee would have the greatest say in the overall
political leaning of International Answers. Looking at the
membership of the Committee, I would say that most of these
organizations would have a large input from members of left-wing
organizations of various hues, from New Communist to Trotskyist, as
well as from radical Christians, libertarians and others.
To know exactly how left International Answer is, it would be
necessary to know the political affiliations of the individuals with
the greatest say in organizing its activities. I am fairly confident
in saying that many of them would be nearer far left
(Communist/Trotskyist) than center. I speak from personal experience,
when I say that the tactics of far left groups are to seed their
members into radical broad-based organizations, and in fact to be
among the initiators of such organizations. I would not be surprised
if the main originators of International Answer came from a far left
group. There, they combine committed activism with an attempt to get
their “party line” on a specific issue accepted as the view of the
organization. Their hidden agenda would be to promote revolutionary
politics and to attract others their political views. However, they
also seek to attract people with much less radical politics into
becoming active on the basis of a common platform (the “united front”
which they too can accept. This can then be used to give the
organization more credibility with the general public, as well as to
increase the success of getting some demands met.
For example, here are the tactics as explained by Leon Trotsky “It is
impossible in advance to foresee what will be the concrete stages of
the revolutionary mobilization of the masses. The sections of the
Fourth International should critically orient themselves at each new
stage and advance such slogans as will aid the striving of the workers
for independent politics, deepen the class struggle of these politics,
destroy reformist and pacifist illusions, strengthen the connection of
the vanguard with the masses, and prepare the revolutionary conquest
of power.”
From “The Transitional Program” on the web site of the UK Socialist
Party http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/Trotsky/programme/p2frame.htm?soviet.htm
And from “Unity in Diversity” by Alex Callinicos, Issue 262 of
SOCIALIST REVIEW Published April 2002
http://pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk/sr262/callinicos.htm
“Writing in 1922, Trotsky explained the rationale of the united front
tactic:
'Unity of front consequently presupposes our readiness, within certain
limits and on specific issues, to correlate in practice our actions
with those of reformist organisations, to the extent that the latter
still express the will of important sections of the embattled
proletariat.’
Trotsky made it clear that united fronts could only work if they
involved at least a section of the reformist leadership: 'If we were
able simply to unite the working masses around our own banner or
around our immediate practical slogans, and skip over reformist
organisations, that would of course be the best thing in the world.
But then the very question of the united front would not exist in its
present form.' By bringing revolutionaries and reformists together
into a common struggle, Communists could demonstrate to the social
democratic rank and file, in practice rather than words, the
superiority of their politics. The united front thus had two aspects:
(1) it united revolutionaries and reformists in a common struggle
around issues of concern to the working class as a whole; and (2) it
involved a struggle for political influence over the masses between
revolutionaries and reformists.”
And
“The best example [of a classic united front] is the Stop the War
Coalition (StWC). As already noted, this brings together people of
diverse politics around a very clearly defined set of
issues--opposition to the 'war on terrorism' and to the associated
attacks on civil liberties and on ethnic minorities. The very success
of the StWC is a consequence of this narrowness of focus. Its
initiators on both the revolutionary and the reformist left quite
rightly resisted attempts to broaden it out or to divert it into other
issues--for example, opposition to Islamist terrorism--that would have
divided and paralysed the coalition.”
I would call International Answer an example of a classic united
front. I cannot give you absolute proof that this is the case. This
would involve finding out the strongest voices in this movement and
also finding to which political organizations they belong. However,
the overall pattern in very indicative. A united front need not be a
bad thing. One example was the Anti-Nazi League, which had an
important anti-racist influence in the UK in the 1980s, at a time when
extreme right wing organizations seemd to be increasing their power.
The ANL was mainly initiated by members of the Trotskyist
organization, the Socialist Workers’ Party, however it rapidly
obtained a very broad base of support from across the community and
was very effective for a certain period.
The member organizations of the Steering Committee are:
IFCO/Pastors for Peace – “a special ministry of the Interreligious
Foundation for Community Organization, created in 1988 to pioneer the
delivery of humanitarian aid to Latin America and the Carribean. Since
then, many thousands of people have participated in almost 37 caravans
to Mexico and Central America, 13 to Cuba and many delegations and
work brigades.” http://www.ifconews.org/p4p.html The focus of IFCO
itself is: “one of the most important aspects of IFCO's work is the
support we provide for community-based projects in many parts of the
United States. These are projects working to improve health care,
education, housing, and quality of life in people's local communities;
defending civil and human rights; and raising consciousness about
social, economic and racial injustices”
http://www.ifconews.org/projects.html I would call this a fairly
radical organisation, which probably has input from members of
left-wing groups, but also has support from people with more-radical
religious beliefs. Its most noticeable activity would be the annual
caravan to Cuba coordinated by Pastors for Peace. This group believes
that the US embargo of Cuba is immoral and shows its support for the
independence of Cuba by organizing a caravan to bring medical and
other aid to Cuba from the USA, despite the fact that this is illegal
in US law.
Free Palestine Alliance - U.S. – An organization that supports the
struggle of Palestinians against the Israeli state. It “recognizes the
clear and imminent danger posed by the rising discourse of
obliterating Palestine as a single unit of history, land, people, and
cumulative struggle. We regard the replacement of the national
liberation of the Palestinian people with the Bantustan Project as a
dangerous program of defeat. It is a program that invokes the
prevailing sense of urgency and expediency to empty the Palestinian
movement of its fundamentals.”
http://regenerationtv.com/pipermail/imc-la/2002-May/005139.html
LDEF (Legal Defense and Education Fund) of the Partnership for Civil
Justice – One of its first projects was: “The Emergency Campaign to
Defend Civil Rights has been formed in the aftermath of Sept. 11, to
defend the civil rights of citizens and non-citizens; to fight for the
First Amendment rights of all people of courage who wish to speak
their conscience, including in opposition to racism and war in these
difficult times; to fight for the right of Muslim and Arab people, and
all those who are being targeted in the U.S., to live free of fear and
discrimination; and to fight to protect the rights to privacy, to
engage in communications, conversations, and associations without
government monitoring of, or intrusion into, our beliefs, discussions,
and thoughts.” It challenges “the erosion of civil liberties during
this existing crises period and provides support to progressive
activists, political organizations, noncitizens, and ethnic and
religious groups that are illegitimately targeted by the government.”
Nicaragua Network – is “committed to social and economic justice for
the people of Nicaragua.” It is opposed to CAFTA - the US-Central
America Free Trade Agreement. Its logo is the face of Sandino
superimposed over a map of Nicaragua (Sandino was a Nicaraguan
nationalist guerrilla leader and inspiration for the left-wing
Sandinista movement which overthrew the regime of Somoza in 1979)
http://www.nicanet.org/
Bayan - USA/International – “is a national multi-sectoral alliance of
people's organizations committed to the Filipino people's struggle for
national freedom and democracy.”
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/4677/index.html
Korea Truth Commission – organized the 7th International Fact-finding
Delegation to Investigate U.S. War Crimes Against Civilians During the
Korean War [May 17-24, 2002] “For Koreans, the Korean War was a
continuation of their long struggle for national liberation, a
struggle that had been going on for many decades against Japanese
colonial rule. For the United States capitalist government, the
Korean War was a war to consolidate its economic hold over Asia and to
prevent revolution from spreading on the continent.”
http://www.iacenter.org/ktc_delegation-rpt.htm
International Action Center was founded by Ramsey Clark, Former U.S.
Attorney General. Its mission, as stated on the web site is:
“Information, Activism, and Resistance to U.S.
Militarism, War, and Corporate Greed, Linking with Struggles Against
Racism and Oppression within the United States
http://www.iacenter.org/ Ramsey Clark has been called the “darling of
certain sectors of the radical left” in “THE MYSTERIOUS RAMSEY CLARK:
STALINIST DUPE OR RULING-CLASS SPOOK?” By Manny Goldstein
http://shadow.autono.net/sin001/clark.htm
Muslim Student Association of the U.S./Canada – “MSA National is a
student movement, providing a broad platform for Muslim students…
broad goals are to: help Muslim student organizations to implement
Islamic programs and projects, mobilize and coordinate the human and
material resources of Muslim student organizations, and educate,
mobilize, and empower students to struggle against injustice and
oppression” http://www.msa-national.org/about/faq.html
Kensington Welfare Rights Union – “an organization of poor and
homeless women, men and children from all races struggling both to
survive and to end poverty. (Kensington, located in North
Philadelphia, is the poorest area in the state of Pennsylvania, USA.)
KWRU is an affiliate of the National Union of Hospital and Health Care
Employees, AFSCME, AFL-CIO, an affiliate of the Labor Party and a
chapter of the National Welfare Rights Union. Mexico Solidarity
Network” http://www.kwru.org/ehrc/ehrcfaq.html
Middle East Children's Alliance – “a non-governmental organization,
working for peace and justice in the Middle East; focusing on
Palestine, Israel, Lebanon and Iraq. Our programs emphasize the need
to educate North Americans about the Middle East and U.S. foreign
policy, and to support projects that aid and empower communities. We
believe in insuring the human rights of all people in the region,
especially focusing on the rights of children. There can be no peace
in the region until there is a viable, democratic Palestinian state
alongside the Israeli state and when there is an end to the Israeli
state's occupation of the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza Strip”
http://www.mecaforpeace.org/
The co-signatories are mainly individuals, who sometimes declare an
affiliation, as well as some organizations, which have signed as a
single entity. Again, the organizations listed as signatories or
affiliations tend to be a mixture of left-wing, radical and labor
movement groups.
I hope this answer will prove satisfactory, but please seek
clarification if required. |
