Internal Criticism
of the Socialist International
[These are edited extracts from documents published by Socialist Party activists.]
The Importance of the Socialist International
by Michael Beahan
International Secretary Australian Labour Party
The last ALP National Conference in 1994 marked the culmination of a long debate around the question of whether we should retain our membership of the Socialist International (SI).
Those who supported severing our ties argued that the SI had shown very little interest in the Asia-Pacific region, that despite the ALP's thirteen years in government, its views and contribution were seldom sought, and that it was not practical enough in its approach, spending most of its resources and energy running talkfests which add very little to the shared knowledge of member parties, provide few opportunities for serious policy discussion and no opportunity for anything spontaneous.
Following the Party debate, and the realisation that the majority of Party members wanted to retain our membership of the SI, the 1994 Conference confirmed this view and resolved to take its SI membership more seriously and to work hard to achieve reform of the organisation to make it a more productive and practical body.
Reform of the SI
The ALP's decision to remain affiliated with the SI was tempered for its opponents by the undertaking that we would actively seek reform of the SI and that we would press for more activity in the Asia-Pacific region. The ALP has been actively pressing for reform of the SI. Progress has been slow but there are promising signs of movement.
Following discussions with other (mainly European) parties with similar views on the need for reform and a meeting of some international secretaries in Amsterdam, the question of reform was placed on the agenda for the 20th SI Congress in New York. The SI President, Pierre Mauroy, announced the setting up of a Commission to be chaired by Felipe Gonzalez, former Prime Minister of Spain. The members of the Commission were appointed at the Rome Council meeting in January 1997 and the Commission has met once since then.
The ALP's National Executive sent an unsolicited but detailed submission focusing on structural, administrative and organisational reform to the Gonzalez Commission and distributed copies to all affiliated parties with an accompanying letter and executive summary in the three official languages of the SI, English, French and Spanish. The submission has provided the catalyst for action in this area, which was not in the minds of those who established the Commission in the first place.
SI activities in the Asia-Pacific region
While a real and practical focus on the Asia-Pacific will demand structural and organisational reform, the SI has made some attempt to place more emphasis on the region as a result of pressure from the ALP, even if some of the activities have not proved very productive. Since the last National Conference, for example, there have been Asia-Pacific meetings in Manila (February 1995), Sydney (September 1995) and Tokyo (June 1996), and an SI Council meeting in New Delhi (November, 1997).
It also unsuccessfully attempted a high level mission to Burma, although a planned mission to Fiji failed to take place. The Gonzalez Commission is planning its Asian consultative meeting early in 1998 in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
The Asia-Pacific Committee has been in limbo since the defection of its chairman, Makoto Tanabe from the Social Democratic Party of Japan to the New Frontier Party.
Future potential of the SI
There is little doubt that, despite its imperfections, the SI holds considerable promise as a global organisation capable of influencing the direction of world events.
It is worth the effort involved in the slow process of reform. Having re-established itself in 1951 with fewer than twenty (mainly European) parties, it now has 139 distributed over every continent in the world, and more clamouring to join. While Europe still has the greatest concentration of social democratic parties, social democrats are becoming more influential in the emerging democracies of eastern Europe, Africa, South America and much of Asia.
In the emerging borderless world with greater demands for economic freedoms it will be difficult to maintain basic decencies that social democrats have championed. It is, essential to have an efficiently functioning organisation capable of coordinating collective global responses necessary to strive for a world in which standards are set not by the market but by the values shared by social democrats across the world.
[Source: http://www.alp.org.au/about/sireport.html]
Submission to Gonzalez Commission
on Reform of the Socialist International
by the Australian Labour Party
Executive Summary
The submission argues for changes to the structure, organisation and operations of the Socialist International (SI) to make it a more contemporary, practical and effective organisation. It makes the point that the SI spends a disproportionate amount of its energy and resources on congresses, council meetings, committee and other meetings at which delegates deliver frequently repetitive and trite pre-written speeches and at which grand resolutions are carried, but at which there is very little real interchange or spontaneity and from which few practical actions result.
1.0 Introduction
The world has also changed. The collapse of the Soviet Union, heralding as it did the humiliating failure of the Communist model has brought with it an almost blind faith in the market as the natural regulator not only of economic but also of social organisation. This has led to a widening gap between rich and poor not only within countries but between countries and presented seemingly intractable problems for world governance and the fairer global distribution of wealth.
Yet the SI does little to try to develop dialogue around these issues or to seek out creative approaches for member parties to consider. Instead we move pious resolutions which achieve little but which make us all feel a little more helpless.
2.0 The Socialist International Today
The Australian Labor Party believes that the SI spends a disproportionate amount of its energy and resources on congresses, council meetings, committee and other meetings at which delegates deliver frequently repetitive and trite pre-written speeches and at which grand resolutions are carried, but at which there is very little real interchange or spontaneity and from which few practical actions result.
It supports those practical activities which provide assistance and support to kindred groups seeking our help. But the ALP believes that too little effort is applied to these and other practical and useful activities such as, for example, assisting in the running of election campaigns, because the undoubtedly industrious and efficient Secretariat is absorbed in organising and running endless events which are little more than expensive talkfests.
The ALP does not discount the value of the networking which takes place at these gatherings but believes firstly that this is a very expensive way of networking and secondly that much more could be achieved by structuring the organisation differently and by reorganising gatherings to make them more practical and focused.
Delegates should leave such gatherings buoyed by the meeting of like minds on common problems and stimulated by the presentation of creative ideas. This is not the case under the current arrangements.
3.2 Format for Meetings
As mentioned above SI meetings, whether Congresses or Council meetings (this submission will, for convenience, use the general term 'conference' to refer to any large gathering of the SI) have failed to provide opportunities for real dialogue between delegates or for detailed examination of problems common to all affiliates.
· - Conference themes should be decided early and the long lead time used to invite experts in relevant fields to prepare short but substantial background papers to form the basis of discussion at the meeting. Given the standing, size and significance of the SI it should have no trouble attracting the world's best minds to address the pressing problems listed in (1.0) above. We envisage that such contributors would be selected not only from academe but also from government, private industry, think tanks, NGO's and other sources - anyone who can make a useful and substantial contribution. Papers should draw on innovative ideas from around the world and should contain specific proposals for action.
· - Delegates ideally should receive copies of these input papers in advance and should be encouraged to prepare responses based on their own experiences.
· - To accommodate such changes conferences may have to be extended to a full three or four days rather than the current day and a half. Since we are suggesting a reduction in the number of conference-style events such an extension of time seems appropriate. Efficiencies could also be achieved if conference timetables were rigidly adhered to. In recent years we have slipped into the bad habit of sessions commencing sometimes as much as an hour late.
· - Conference resolutions should be moved sparingly. Where they are considered necessary the SI should not be so obsessed with achieving consensus that it carries resolutions so bland as to be meaningless. We should not fear constructive disagreement.
3.3 Executive Committee
The Statutes of the SI makes no reference to an executive body to provide leadership in strategic planning and to generally oversee the political directions of the SI. The Finance and Administration Committee (SIFAC), as the name implies, is charged with certain financial and administrative responsibilities, but the political role is not mentioned. The Presidium, which presumably carries out some of these functions, is not listed in the Statutes as an organ of the SI. Furthermore, its name is outmoded (presidium is defined in the Oxford Dictionary as 'a committee in a Communist organisation'), its role is unclear, its structure and size unwieldy, and it is seen by affiliates as a shadowy entity almost disembodied from the SI proper.
3.4 Decentralisation and Regionalisation
Given the SI's dramatic growth in membership, its global reach and the need to improve its organisational efficiency, its practical focus and its distribution of information, there is an urgent need to decentralise and regionalise decision-making and administration. Despite claims to the contrary the SI is still seen as a Eurocentric and highly centralised organisation giving only grudging recognition and very little power to the regions.
Regional secretaries/directors/coordinators should be established in each of the major regions to coordinate activities within their regions, write reports on developments, support regional committees, run seminars and workshops and generally be the 'eyes and ears' of the SI in the area concerned. Such appointments would relieve the Secretariat in London of some of its administrative burden, provide a focus for affiliates in each region and improve the reach and effectiveness of the SI as a global organisation.
3.5 SI Committees
The ALP believes that the most productive work carried out under the aegis of the SI is that by the committees, although a disproportionate amount of their time is devoted to the preparation of lengthy resolutions for consideration by Councils and Congresses. We suggest that the committee system could be improved by adoption of the following proposals:
· Committee meetings could be run much more cost effectively if they were less lavishly organised. The expensive backdrops and plush hotel settings while adding substantially to costs have generally failed to attract let alone impress the media. Meetings could be run much more cheaply in party or, where available, parliamentary committee rooms. For example, the Asia-Pacific Committee Meeting held in Sydney in September 1995 cost the ALP about $A25,000. It could have been run for a fraction of that cost had it been held at the ALP's National Secretariat in Canberra or in the parliamentary committee rooms in New South Wales or Canberra. The funds saved could have been more productively deployed in supporting a regional SI officer or in carrying out some practical and useful activity in our region.
3.8 Transparency
There should be greater transparency in the administration and management of the SI.
5.0 Media
A media strategy should be developed for all major SI events including conferences. The monumental disinterest by the media in the SI is partly a product of their ignorance of the organisation, partly a result of contemporary confusion about the term 'socialism', and partly a negative response to the 'talkfest' nature of our gatherings. They simply find them boring and out-of-touch. Media interest may be rekindled by the more practical and problem-centred approach which we are suggesting, but the SI should commission an international media consultant to advise it on a media plan for all of its activities.
6.0 Finances
It is understood that many of the reforms suggested above will involve additional funding. It is also aware of the difficulty in maintaining a stable funding base in the face of a fees structure which is neither reliable nor equal. Considerable savings can be made in the reduction in the number of large meetings and in the changing nature and cost of committee meetings.
[Source: http://www.alp.org.au/about/gonzrpt.html]
International Report - December 1997
by Michael Beahan
International Secretary Australian Labor Party
Socialist International Committee on Human Rights Gets Practical
A meeting of the Socialist International Committee on Human Rights, (SICOHR) meeting in London on 20 October 1997, addressed the task of identifying the strategy and tactics to advance that agenda effectively.
· It was noted that some member parties have poor human rights records, and that all member parties could gain from self-analysis. It was felt that a good human rights record and a commitment to human rights principles should be mandatory criteria for entry to the SI, and that violations by member parties should attract a delegation of fellow SI members to hold discussions, and ultimately a process of suspension or expulsion, from the SI.
[Source: http://www.alp.org.au/about/isrpt1297.html]
International Report - October 1997
by Michael Beahan
International Secretary Australian Labor Party
Mexico Catches a Dose of Democracy
In elections in July this year the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), who have ruled Mexico as virtual dictators for the 68 years since they were founded in 1929, lost their parliamentary majority in a wave of disenchantment at economic conditions following the 1995 financial crisis and at a series of damaging corruption scandals.
Despite this, with 239 of the 500 seats in the Chamber of Deputies, they still expected to retain control despite having lost their absolute majority. While the PRI still retains the presidency (President Zedillo having been elected in 1994 for a six year term), they were so shocked at the decision of the opposition parties to join forces and take control of the Chamber of Deputies that they threatened to boycott the sitting and to set up their own chamber.
The opposition parties called their bluff and, in the end, the PRI has agreed to participate in a legislature which for the first time in the history of colonised Mexico is genuinely multi-party and prepared to question the administration and to oppose it if necessary.The new situation was encapsulated in the words of Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, the son of one of Mexico's most popular Presidents and the outright winner of the ballot for the powerful position of Mayor of Mexico City: "We will now have a real separation between the executive and the legislature".
While it remains to be seen how unified this motley opposition will remain (it is comprised of the PRD with 125 seats, the conservative National Action Party (PAN) with 122, the Green Party with 8, and the Workers' Party with 6), it is thought likely that they will at least put pressure on the PRI to conduct proper investigations into serious allegations of corruption and political assassinations and urge softer economic policies which have taken such a terrible toll on the poor.
Following the so called tequila crisis of 1995, workers have suffered a 30% drop in wages taking them down to 1940s levels of less than $9 per day. Even middle class Mexicans and small businesses have been ruined by interest rates which shot above 100% per year.
An interesting sidelight for social democrats is that both the PRI and the PRD applied for membership of the Socialist International at its Congress in New York last year. The SI showed impeccable judgement by accepting the PRD as full members whilst affording the PRI only consultative status.
[Source: http://www.alp.org.au/about/isrpt1097.html]
International Report - July 1997
by Michael Beahan
International Secretary Australian Labor Party
Europe Goes Social Democratic
The long-predicted win by Tony Blair's British Labour Party in the UK and the upset win by Jospin's Socialists in France has seen a massive one third of the European population move under social democratic government in less than a month. Even with Labour moving out of government in Ireland following the elections held on June 8, Europe is now undoubtedly the jewel in the socialist crown. Of the fifteen member governments of the European Union, social democrats govern in twelve. They have prime ministers and enjoy majorities in nine, and are partners in governing coalitions in three. Put another way, more than two thirds of the European Union population is now governed by social democrats. They also have a majority and, led by Pauline Green, are the largest group in the European Parliament.
Those countries in which social democrats govern alone or are leaders in coalitions are Austria (Viktor Klima, Prime Minister and Leader of the SPOe), Denmark (Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, Prime Minister and Leader of the Social Democratic Party), Finland (Paavo Lipponen, Prime Minister and Leader of SDP), France (Lionel Jospin, Prime Minister and Leader of the Socialist Party), Great Britain (Tony Blair, Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party), Greece (Costas Simitis, Prime Minister and Leader of PASOK), The Netherlands (Wim Kok, Prime Minister and Leader of PvdA), Portugal (Antonio Guterres, Prime Minister and Leader of the Socialist Party), and Sweden (Goran Persson, Prime Minister and Leader of SAP). Social democratic parties are in coalitions in Belgium (Socialist Party), Italy (Democratic Party of the Left, PDS, and Italian Socialists, SI), and Luxembourg (Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party, POSL/LSAP). Social democratic parties are also in power in the following non-EU countries: Hungary (Gyula Horn, Prime Minister and Leader of MSzP), Malta (Alfred Sant, Prime Minister and Leader of Labour Party), and Norway(Thorbjorn Jagland, Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party), and in coalitions in Poland (SDPR), Romania (PD and SPDR), and Switzerland (Social Democrats).
[Source: http://www.alp.org.au/about/isrpt0797.html]
The Socialist International - Where is it going?
by Marcello Malentacchi
General Secretary International Metalworkers Federation
11 November 1999
It is surprising and disappointing that the Congress of the SI completely ignored the role of the trade unions.
At the IMF Congress in 1993, we tried to resume our close relationship with the SI. Their president, Pierre Mauroy, who spoke at our Congress, emphasised the need for strong links between the political left and the trade unions. Encouraged by his speech, we waited for the SI to renew contacts with us.
It was only in February 1999 that I again had the opportunity to speak with the SI leadership, at a conference they organised together with the Swedish Social Democratic Party (SAP).
At the conference, I criticised the SI for ignoring the international trade union movement. My criticism was and still is based on history, as both the SI and the International Trade Secretariats (ITSs) originated from the same roots. In fact, metalworkers attending the SI's congress in 1893, in Zurich, founded the IMF [International Metalworkers Federation].
Throughout our history we have been together at national and international level. Indeed, the trade union movement has always been proud of being identified with socialism because it represents our ideals - but also because we have always been able to give it pragmatic, practical and concrete meaning.
Both the SI and trade unions know that it is impossible to achieve our goals without close links to one another. This is why it is surprising and disappointing that the Congress of the SI completely ignored the role of the trade unions.
It looks as though the SI does not want contact with us anymore. And this is very much in line with what is happening at national level in many countries.
Are trade unions only useful during election campaigns?