Welcome to the Black Sheep Republic
Over 600 militants gathered in Amarante, Portugal in July for the annual camp organised by the European youth organisations of the Fourth International and a range of fraternal organisations. The main theme was "for a Furone of the pennles " Worker "for a Europe of the peoples." Worker and student struggles, anti-racism, and the reactionary Schengen accords for European union were at the centre of European Union were at the centre of debate.
Everyday life was suspended for one short week, creating a setting for networking, reflection, and debate. A giant poster of Che Guevara in pink lipstick marked the disco tent, reflecting the increased visibility of the lesbian and gay contingent within our youth organisations, as well as the more holistic conception of revolution which has developed among revolutionary youth in the 13 years the Fourth International has organised this unique gathering.
Amarante, in Northern Portugal, was one of the first towns where the revolutionary left began to organise against the Salazar dietatorship. The local branch of the Socialist Revolutionary Party (PSR) was formed before the 1974 revolution. As a result of the PSR's solid local work, the town hall donated use of the municipal campsite, and co-sponsored a concert in the town attended by a large number of local young (and not so young) Portuguese.
With 604 participants, the Amarante camp was smaller than in previous years. This is partly due to its location in the South West corner of the continent (50 hours by bus from Denmark and Sweden!). But it also reflects the difficulties facing a number of youth organisations, and the lack of effective campaigns to build the camp.
On a more positive note, there were over 140 participants from Portugal itself (50%
WELCOME D TE C ISKEP ASPUBHIC 1961 higher than in 1992, the last time the camp was held in Portugal). And, while financial reasons prevented a larger number of Polish delegates, almost half the German delegation came from the former GDR. For the third year, and despite the distance, a small group of Greek comrades participated actively. Other participants came from Quebec, English Canada and the USA.
As in previous years, less than half of participants were members of the sponsoring organisations, which demonstrates the implantation of our youth organisations in the few areas of radicalisation which do exist. For 60% of the participants., this was the first International Youth camp.
Message to the Chiapas Intercontinental Meeting for Humanity
[...] "These are difficult times to struggle for utopia. Hard times for justice, liberty and dignity. And a hard mission for revolutionaries here in
Europe, and everywhere else in the world where neo-liberalism shows it ever-more ferocious consequences.
From this corner of Portugal, over 700 young revolutionaries, militants and Trienas of the Fourth International, send this fraternal greeting.
We want another reality. More human, and more just. This is what we fight for, and what we live for. " [...] Signed: Jeune Garde Socialiste/Socialistische Jong Wacht (Belgium), Liberation (Britain), Socialistisk Arbejderparti (Denmark), Rebel - Zaragoza (Spanish State), Revolutionär Sozialistischer Bund (Germany), Bandiera Rossa (Italy), Jeunesse Socialiste Révolutionaire (Luxemburg), Rebel (Netherlands), Anty-Nazi Front, Nurt Lewicy Rewolucyjney (Poland), Partido Socialista Revolucionario (Portugal), Ungosocialisterna (Sweden), Alternative Solidaire/Solidarität (Switzerland), Gauche Socialiste (Quebec-Canada)
Young women were 49% of participants this year, the highest proportion on record. And women co-presented all the workshops and forums, (except the ecology forum).
In previous years, some participants suspected that our selection of an all-women panel for the closing meeting was an attempt to compensate for women's underrepresentation in the rest of the camp. This year, it was clear that we were simply choosing the most appropriate speakers!
The day dedicated to the feminist struggle was the best prepared and best attended part of the camp, with considerable interest in the two women-only meetings, and the women-only cabaret-disco that evening.
One participant left the camp early, so as to participate in the Zapatista-sponsored intercontinental Meeting for Humanity and Against Neo-liberalism. He carried with him a statement of solidarity [to the left] which emerged from the intense discussion of Zapatismo and solidarity at the camp.
The representative of Italy's Party of Communist Reconstruction accepted our invitation to address the camp. He invited participants to support Rifondazione's campaign against unemployment.
To help concentrate debate in this extremely heterogeneous gathering, Daniel Bensaid's keynote speech to last year's camp. A socialism for our time (IVJuly 1996, pp.
October 1996 #281 31
* Portugal
17-20) was distributed in English French, German,
Castilian, Portuguese, Italian, Danish and Dutch.
The programme this year had something for everyone.
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French activists analysed the difficulties in linking the student mobilisation last November-December to the
2 wider public sector strike. A Portuguese speaker in the media forum suggested that the mass media has replaced the Church as the main institution of socialisation to obedience and low expectations — TV is the kingdom of the post-modern bishops!"
Participants from France and Italy described signs of growth of a new women's movement. They suggested that we are seeing the re-activation of veterans of the 70s feminist wave, and a feminist current among women in the 15-25 age group But the 25-40 age group seems
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Outside the structured meetings, the camp also facilitated informal networking between comrades in various countries concerned with the same area of work, be it anti-racist activity, student unionism or producing an
"underground" high school newspaper. Those
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participating for the first time were sometimes surprised to discover that there is great diversity across Europe in the way the left approaches even "universal" issues like unemployment and racism. And while most Fourth
International supporters are clearly in favour of the
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decriminalisation of personal drug use, attitudes concerning the recreational use of drugs vary. This is only natural. In a similar manner, most participants from other
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political traditions, like many of those from Eastern Germany, were less convinced of the central role of feminist
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As in previous years, lesbian and gay participants organised a range of activities to deepen our understanding organısed a range ot actvitles to deepen our understanding of their struggle, and integrate it into the regular work of our organisations. "Veteran" participants noticed a growing presence and sophistication of the homosexual resence at the camp,though the occasional comrade at the bar needed to be confronted with the contradiction between his revolutionary rhetoric, and aspects of macho
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Catherine Samary
The Formative Years of the Fourth
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Daniel Bensaïd
Marxism and Liberation Theology
Michael Löwy
Robert Lochhead
The Spanish Civil War in Euskadi and
Catalonia 1936-39
Miguel Romero
The Gulf War & the New World Order
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Italy: From the PCI to the PDS
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Do the Workers have a Country?
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Factory Committees and Workers' control it
Petrograd in 1917
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Women's Lives in the New Global Economy
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Lean Production: a capitalist Utopia?
Tony Smith
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11/12. The Bourgeois Revolutions
17/18. October 1917: Coup d'état or Social
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