The Platform for a Revolutionary International convened its first global conference on November 10-12 in Paris. The interesting and constructive meeting attracted socialists from a number of countries, including France, Spanish State, Greece, USA, Canada, Italy, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland and Denmark. Comrades from six other countries communicated their solidarity and a strong desire to participate, but were finally not able to attend.
Discussions at the conference focused on:
-the current international economic and political situation, which is characterized by the deep crisis of the imperialist system, which produces growing poverty, unemployment and misery for the working class worldwide, aggravates harm to the environment, and causes more and more geostrategic instability and military interventions in many regions of the world.
-the level of the workers’ movement resistance, the development of struggles in recent years, and the prospects for the working class and socialist intervention.
-the tasks of revolutionaries, especially concerning the need for an alternative orientation for the FI looking to the World Congress in March 2018, and beyond, which involves bringing together different revolutionary organizations, political currents and active comrades.
-the text proposed by the Platform for adoption at the World Congress, which was amended on the basis of a thorough debate among the participants in Paris.
In the course of the conference it became quite clear that, despite certain different shades of opinion and points of emphasis, there is a vast common ground concerning analysis of the overall political situation, the urgency of change in the orientation of the FI leadership, the possibility and actuality of socialist revolution in our time, and the indispensability of our strategy for building revolutionary working class parties on that basis. Grounds for optimism spring from the fact that, in addition to the organizers of the meeting, practically all participants pledged to be even more engaged in the Platform for a Revolutionary International going forward. This is reflected in an expanding new list of signatures, drawn from around the world, for the edited version of the text produced at the Paris conference.
On the Friday evening prior to the start of the conference, an inspiring rally to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution took place at a meeting hall in central Paris. Five speakers and one presiding comrade, coming from six different countries (France, Greece, Spanish State, USA, Italy, and Canada) addressed the relevance of the October Revolution in terms of today’s strategic debates and actual struggles. The meeting ended with the audience of close to one hundred singing the Internationale in several languages and with great emotion and enthusiasm.