We fight for human solidarity

Submitted by Anon on 17 March, 2003 - 5:59

Liam Conway made the closing speech at conference.
"Comrades, the mainstream labour movement is dominated by people who have nothing in common with the aspirations of the working class - who care nothing for the idea of human solidarity.

"People who think it is right to go to war in alliance with a right-wing republican government in America - not to liberate its people from a dictator, but to liberate its oil for western capitalism.

"People who think it is just and fair that Cherie Blair can buy two flats for her son in Bristol for £500,000 using the services of a known conman, whilst working class students face the prospect of paying thousands more in tuition fees to get a university education.

"People who want to close off every avenue of political and economic struggle for working class people - from firefighters to teaching assistants.

"People who see no shame in 'modernising' and selling off every public service to spivs and city slickers in the interests of profit.

"People who would shed no tears if thousands suffered and died as a result of such polices.

"Yet, comrades, there are hopeful signs that the control of these New Labour parasites is beginning to break-up. As revolutionary socialists it is our job to help unravel the New Labour project - to wrest control of the movement for the working class.

"Comrades, we represent a world at odds with everything New Labour stands for.

"We fight for a more equal world, a more democratic world, a world free from exploitation and war. A world based on progressive ideas of freedom and fraternity and a world that liberates the talents and creativity of every human being.

"But, comrades, we also represent a world vision at odds with much of what the Stalinoid left stands for. What price a belief in progress if you think it correct for the biggest anti-war movement in history to make political alliances with organisations that would take us back to the dark ages?

"If you want an idea of the politics of the Muslim Brotherhood, see the movie The Magdalene Sisters, which tells the story of young Irish women sentenced to slavery in convent laundries for defying the perverse sexual morals of the Catholic Church. Then imagine something 50 times worse and you have the politics of the MAB.

"Comrades, Trotsky, in the last years of his life, wrote a testament which always brings me close to tears: "Life is beautiful. Let the future generations cleanse it of all evil, oppression and violence and enjoy it to the full." Life is beautiful, comrades, but the politics and actions of Bush, Blair, Saddam and the Islamic fundamentalists mask it in ugliness. It is the job of revolutionary socialists like those here today to a fight with all our energies and inventiveness to create a beautiful democratic socialist world and to win over other comrades to help us in that struggle."

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