Nikos Anastasiadis
Between February 10-15, Internationalist Standpoint, held its first face-to-face conference in Athens.
Comrades from groups affiliated to Internationalist Stanpoint were present from Australia, Belgium, north Cyprus, south Cyprus, Greece, Romania, Taiwan, Turkey and the UK. A number of comrades from other countries were not able to attend for various reasons. Our comrade from Nigeria had all his papers stolen two days before traveling, while comrades from Ireland, Iran and Afghanistan were not able to participate due to health reasons or the pressures of political work. In addition we had a number of important visitors: from Brazil (Resistencia), Italy (ControCorrente), Ireland (RISE) and the US (Reform and Revolution).
Substantial discussions
The discussions were based on a number of documents prepared beforehand. There was a session on World Developments, a session around the situation inside the revolutionary Left with special references to the lessons from the recents splits in the CWI and ISA, a session on Environment and another on Feminist Struggles. There was also a special session on how to proceed to build the forces of a mass international revolutionary organisation and special reports (with short discussions) on Latin America and Turkey after the earthquakes.
The discussions were substantial, very interesting and of a high political level. There were several amendments on the documents which will be incorporated over the next few days. There were, of course, also differences aired by some of the visitors which were discussed in a fraternal and in-depth manner. These had the effect of allowing the discussions to go deeper, to the benefit of all participants.
Decisions
The conference was inspirational, as some comrades met for the first time (!) due to travel restrictions but also because of the high quality and openness of the discussions as well as the significant progress made by some of the organisations taking part in the conference.. Moreover, we were able to explore the possibilities to work together with the groups that were there as visitors.
The conference agreed on the amendments on the documents proposed. These will be incorporated in the coming days and the documents will be published on Internationalist Standpoint’s website.
The conference also decided to begin the process of forming a formal international organisation. Up until now, Internationalist Standpoint was an “initiative”, working on the basis of consensus. Time has shown that there is sufficient agreement on all major issues, so the next step is to discuss statutes and elect formal structures. Of course, if other organisations that we are in discussion with decide to join forces, we are more than ready to discuss changing the name, ect.
Overall, the conference was an important landmark for our work in the coming period!
