During February a total of $1,344 was received in fighting fund donations from members including two $500 from a comrades in Melbourne and Sydney. The Melbourne branch raised an additional $544 from a range of activities including street stalls, campus stalls, and the rally for skaters' rights. Perth branch has really stepped up the activity level during and after the State election campaign and $187 was raised in February on strreet stalls. The Sydney comrades continue to be exemplary for regular payment of subs, As a result of the hard work and sacrifice of all the members the Party is aquiring the resources it needs to educate the next generation of activists and prepare for the struggles ahead.

The residents of Lyndhurst, South Dandenong, are battling against the proprietors of the local tip, Pacific Waste Management Australia (PWM). They propose to extend the tip 24 metres above ground level. It will take all of Victoria's garbage and hazardous waste, toxic or otherwise. Residents up to 1.5 kms away have in the last four years been suffering from respuratory and other problems. Some residents live as close as 25 metres away and there is a large market garden in the area. This will be the largest toxic waste dump in Victoria. The EPA is currently doing an environmental study on the effect of the extension to the site. The residents want the present tip closed. Let the PWM find a remote site to dump waste.

Sincerely

Ms M Graham

Noble Park

The NationAAL Question is, without doubt, one of the great issues facing Socialiststs today. Lenin described Tzarist Russia as a prison house of nationalities - 57% of its peoples were non-Russian. He argued that without a correct approach on this issue the Bolsheviks would not have been able to lead the working class to power in 1917.

Is the struggle over the national question and the fight for 'self-determination' merely a distraction from the fight for socialism? What is the relationship between the struggle for socialism and the growing number of 'national questions' worldwide, from Ireland to Indonesia. The great socialist thinker, Karl Marx, provides much insight into the national question. He wrote over 100 years ago on issues such as the situation in Ireland but his ideas are still relevant today. During the time of Marx, capitalism was still able to create the productive forces to carry society forward and with this the assimilation of peoples into nations and the creation of nation-states. However, Marx saw that this also entailed the oppression of nationalities. Concerning Ireland he wrote, "The English working class will never be free until Ireland is freed from the English yoke". He advocated freedom for Ireland, adding that "after separation there may come federation".

Lenin wrote on the subject of nations during the epoch of imperialism -the beginning of the 20th century - which saw the entire world splitting into spheres of control of the major powers. This imperialist power was created through military, political and economic enslavement. Lenin opposed all forms of national oppression: "Whoever does not recognise and champion the equality of nations and languages and does not fight against all national oppression or inequality is not a Marxist, he is not even a democrat". The tendency for assimilation so prevalent during the rise of the capitalist system (often by brutal means) has been replaced by its exact opposite; the tendency for nations to break-up and for new national issues to arise in an period of capitalist decline.

The capitalist ruling classes have always used a policy of divide and rule, on the basis of nationality, sex, religion, language and so on. In other words, keep the different national and ethnic groups within a country at war with each other and they'll ignore the fact that they're being exploited from above.

Many of the nation states in the ex-colonial countries ('Third World') are based not on the natural assimilation of people, but on the artificial boundaries imposed by imperialism in the past. Now these people are being pitted against each other, fighting over land and jobs (the scraps that the capitalists drop off the table).

During the last century, many of the mass independence movements in the 'Third World' raised the idea of breaking free of not only imperialist rule but capitalism also. This acted as a unifying factor and also reflected the class demands of the impoverished masses. There was huge potential to achieve real national and social liberation. However once direct colonial domination was removed the leaders of these nationalist movements often quickly jettisoned their 'socialist' camoflage. "Once these independence movements defined themselves as capitalist governments which could neither break the economic domination of the West nor deliver a secure future, they were no longer able to draw together the peoples of different tribal, ethnic, religious or regional identities." ('Troubled Times', Peter Hadden).

It is true that today there is a certain sense of 'national' identity based on the states which now exist, no matter how artificial their boundaries. Arabs will describe themselves as Arabs but also as Egyptians, Syrians, Lebanese or whatever. Beneath this, and because of the historical weakness and economic impasse of most of these 'nations', other identities based on tribe, religion, caste, etc, tend to rise. The working class movement, fighting on a state and a regional level for a socialist solution, can cut across the tendency for divisions. Otherwise we will have more wars, mass displacement of peoples and a situation whereby states may remain on the map but in reality will have ceased to exist as centralised units, and eventual break up can occur.

Nationalism never progresses in a straight line though, it rises and falls in a series of ebbs and flows in a mirror-like reflection of the advances and declines of the class struggle. A new movement of the working class in Europe could, for example, erode the basis of nationalism and likewise could strike a blow against racism for a whole period.

After two worlds wars and prolonged economic depression, the national question raises itself anew, not only in the ex-colonial world but in the 'settled states' of the West. The capitalist crisis, the now outright capitulation of reformism (the social democratic parties) and the absence of any mass socialist alternative have all laid the conditions in many countries for nationalism to arise or re-arise in some form. The collapse of Stalinism has resulted in a further twist. From the Balkans to the Caucuses a torch of national/ethnic and religious conflict has been lit. In some cases this has reached the level of civil war, while elsewhere it registers still as smouldering discontent. National issues have the capability to arise in any nation of the advanced capitalist world.

The national question is with us today in a new, more virulent, more complex form than that faced by the world workers' movement at the time of the Russian Revolution. Socialists approach the question as internationalists, never as nationalists. The nation state is now an outmoded anachronism from the point of view of production. The world economy now dominates, which means that on a global scale the material basis for a transition to socialism now exist. We are for a world plan of production to replace the anarchy of capitalism. We stand for a socialist world.

But how do we get there? The starting point is the need for the unity of the working classes of the world. For the most advanced sections of the working class a straight forward appeal to class solidarity and internationalism may be enough. But where a national issue has arisen, especially in the form of opposition to national oppression, for the majority of people it will be necessary to go beyond this. We need to show that socialists stand opposed to all national oppression and are the firmest advocates of the rights of nationalities and indeed of all minorities within a state. Socialists put forward democratic demands; against oppression and the suppression of language, literature and other aspects of the culture of a nation. But to go beyond this and to solve the national question on a lasting basis it is necessary to struggle to remove its root cause - the capitalist system.

Socialists support the right of nations to self-determination, up to and including seperation. When socialists actually advocate seperation depends upon a number of factors, such as the demands and interests of the working class of the oppressed nation. The unity of the working class and the struggle for socialism are paramount. Socialists are opposed to the false 'self-determination' of reactionary elites, such as we saw in the ex-Yugoslavia. This really means the 'right' to oppress other peoples and minorities.

Where a nationality is under foreign armed occupation, the right to seperation is a clear cut case. The working class of the oppressor nations must support the right of separation for the colonies and nations oppressed. Otherwise, the internationalism of the working class would be nothing but empty words; neither confidence nor class solidarity would be possible between the workers of the oppressed and the oppressor nations. Socialists of the oppressed nations must defend the full unity of the workers of oppressed nations and oppressor nations.

Karl Marx put the principle of internationalism and socialism in the foreground - no nation can be free if it oppresses other nations. However, the aim of socialism is not to see the division of humankind into ever more smaller states and the isolation of nations, but rather to integrate them on a voluntary and equal basis. While dealing sympathetically with the national aspirations of the oppressed people socialists need to counter illusions that capitalist independence will be an answer to their problems. The idea that the national problem can be solved by secession is often also an illusion. It is more likely that such a 'solution' of one problem would lead to the creation of others.

Only a socialist revolution can assure that the rights to self-determination of nations will be both respected and assisted. After separation, socialists call for a confederation of socialist states on a voluntary and equal basis. The rights of all minorities would be guaranteed. With a planned economy, run by the working class, the living standards of all peoples can be fundamentally transformed and the roots of national tensions removed.

Further Reading:

V.I.Lenin - the rights to self determination

P.Hadden - Troubled Times

The National Question and the right to self-determination is being raised once again most profoundly in West Papua. Indonesia's repression of the struggle in West Papua - including the banning of the raising of the Morning Star flag of independence - has reached boiling point in recent months and the area is set to explode. Ever since the August 1999 UN-supervised referendum in East Timor resulted in overwhelming support for their independence from Indonesia the struggleby the people in West Papua for the same right to decide their own future has grown.

The West Papuans have had opportunities for independence squandered in the past. In 1962, the UN took control of the area from the Dutch but in May 1963, under the pressure of the US and Australian governments, control was passed onto the Indonesian government. They were ordered to prepare the country for self-determination within six years but now 38 years later the fight continues. Under the Indonesian government's Act of Free Choice in 1969, a group of local chiefs selected by the Indonesian military supported Indonesia's control of west Papua. The UN recognised this fraud as a legitimate act of eslf-determination. This led to mass murders at the hands of the military as the Idonesian state acted to crush opposition. The country was also had its name changed from Dutch New Guinea to Irian Jaya.

ASIO, the Australian state security organisation, played an active role smothering the fight for independence. The Australian military collected evidence of Indonesian atrocities within West Papua but did not use it to highlight the brutal oppression taking place. The ruling class of Australia, and in fact all the big capitalist powers, do not support genuine independence struggles around the 'Third World'. In 1965 the Organisation for Papua's Independence (OPM) was the victim of military action, arrests, disappearances and teh murder of OPM supporters. Yet since the 1960's the independence struggle has continued to grow, with several organisations dedicated to the liberation of West Papua. The Indonesian President, Abdurrahman Wahid, has been forced to grant small concessions, including the changing of the areas name back to West Papua, and an "apology" for years of repression and human rights violations. At a People's Congress last June, 2700 West Papuans rejected Indonesian rule. On December 1 2001, the pro-independence Papuan Presidium Council will report back on the struggle for world recognition of the sovereignty of the West Papuan people.

In Australia, Labor in opposition has been the only establishment party to openly support the West Papuan right to self-determination. But the ALP is pro-big business and Australia's capitalists all believe it's more important not to jeopardise already very strained relations with the Indonesian government. This is reminisent of the government's position to East Timor not four years ago. In the last few weeks the ground has burned with violence spreading throughout the region as the people grow increasingly impatient. President Wahid, backed buy the Australian government, has ruled out a referendum on self-determination in West Papua in the immediate future. It seems inevitable that violence will continue unless a referndum is held now. The right to self-determination for the people of West Papau is at it's most desperate point. The people of West Papua face daily oppression, but also terrible levels of social and economic deprivation. They demand fundamental change. However, in order to achieve real national and social liberation, the West Papuan working class and rural poor need a programme for action that clearly represents their national and class interests. Independence or 'enhanced autonomy' which leaves capitalism intact is no real solution. Under these conditions the working people of West Papua would still face exploitation, unemployment, low pay and poverty.

Therefore, West Papuan workers and poor need socialist policies that can achieve an end to Indonesian rule and the overthrow of capitalism. A socialist West Papua would see a planned economy democratically run by the majority of society - the working class. This could act as a beacon for socialist change throughout the whole region, leading to the establishment of a confederation of socialist states on a free and democratic basis.

It is anybody's guess as to how many have died in the worst ever earthquake that India has seen in the last two centuries. Ahemadabad, Bhuj, Bhachau and the entire Kutch district have been devastated. Ten days after the disaster the most conservative estimate puts the body count at 100,000 and those who are still under the concrete rubble will be at least four times that number as the day of the earthquake was a holiday and people mostly remained home.

"The more we tried to run, the more we stayed in the same place. There was a sound like a screaming train, and then, the silence". Syed Husain Miya, of Bhachau village, who lost his entire family, explains the horror. Ironically his village Bhachau means in Hindi "Save us." Gujarat, which was India's second most developed state, has been reduced to ruins. The state of Gujarat which had a growth rate 10% per annum all through the '90s,had an industrial growth 22% per annum and 11% of India's GDP came from Gujarat. Naturally with such a high intensity of capital, Gujarat also has a sizeable chunk of upper middle class with sufficient disposable incomes. Ahemadabad, which is one of the most affluent cities of India, had seen rapid urbanisation and real estate boom in the '90s. Concentration of buildings in prime areas had sky rocketed the land value of some of the suburbs around Ahmedabad. The Land mafia, corrupt politicians and the bureaucracy, which worked as a nexus, are the real culprits behind this "natural disaster".

Two ministers of the Gujarat's BJP govt. are a part of this unholy nexus, Vajubhai Wala and Narottham Patel are leading property developers. Because the administration is under focus the govt. is making all the right sounding noises, but it is certain that only eyewash enquiry will be done and a stitch-up will be worked out. "An earthquake itself never kills people. It's the badly constructed buildings that do," points out V.Suresh, chairman of the Housing & Urban development Corporation (HUDCO).

Almost all of the high rise buildings and skyscrapers built flouting all the building bye-laws and architectural specifications have been reduced to rubble, and the lives of those who were living in them has been finished. Gujarat earthquake came as no surprise. The Rann of Kutch has been marked as extremely high risk earthquake zone since the first seismic hazard surveys in 1935. Earthquake-resisting designs have been known to structural engineers since 1960's, and the National Building Code of 1983 clearly identifies structural designs in terms of earthquakes and cyclones. But like the innumerable laws and statutes made ineffective the corrupt capitalist system flushes down the drain all the warnings and expert opinions for obscene profits. The district of Kutch in Gujarat is cursed in one more way, that the underground water tables are shifting and disappearing very fast, according one independent survey by 2020 the entire Kutch region would become a desert. This phenomenon has puzzled many, but many fingers point towards the some secret and many not so secret nuclear bomb tests that were carried out in the neighboring Pokhran village of Rajasthan. Experts say that 36% of buildings in Delhi and 50% in Bombay would collapse under an impact half as strong as that experienced in Gujarat. These cities and the way they are built represent an even greater disaster waiting to happen.

For capitalism, though, everything has its uses. The calamity of Gujarat has come as a blessing in disguise to the administration. With a daunting task of balancing huge fiscal deficit, the Prime Minister has already warned that people will have to be ready for harsher times. It is certain that the direct and indirect taxes will go through the roof when the budget is announced later this month.

In the garb of humanitarianism, the burden of disaster management will be put on the backs of the ordinary people. It is the criminal nexus of politicians, the land and building mafia and the corrupt bureaucracy who must pay for this not so natural disaster. Capitalism is incompetent to save the lives of the people; in fact it breeds destruction through its greed for quick and more profits. Make the Builder-Land Mafia pay. Seize their ill-gotten wealth and assets. For a programme of massive public investment in affordable, safe and modern government housing. Give decent housing to the migrant labourers, who were living in appalling conditions before the disaster. No fresh taxes on the poor; tax the rich! Take land and building into public ownership. Run the provision of homes through democratically elected bodies of ordinary working people and the poor. Build a new socialist alternative to end the corrupt Capitalist System Jagadish G Chandra New Socialist Alternative. (Indian Section of the Committee for a Workers' International)

On March 2nd-4th, 2001 Socialist Alternative, the US section of the CWI, held their 8th National Conference. The documents discussed included a Perspectives and Task and a comprehensive balance-sheet of the organization. The Conference was held in San Francisco with 35 elected delegates, over 70 observers and an international delegation from the CWI International Secretariat.

In the city of Porto Alegre, capital of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, between the 25th and 30th of January the first meeting of the World Social Forum took place. In total 4,702 delegates from 117 countries registered for this event of which 2,570 were from Brazil and 1,509 from other countries. Apart from the delegates thousands more people participated in the debates and other activities. Present were an enormous variety of political parties, trade unions, popular movements, NGO's. From "progressive bourgeois" to anarcho-punks the political colors of those present was also extremely varied. The objective of the forum in Porto Alegre was to counter-pose itself to the meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

A Labour Party councillor in Preston, England has joined the Socialist Party. The party now has six councillors in that country and is the only socialist organisation with elected representatives in Britain. Last November Sam Dias was elected to Lewisham Council beating Labour with 39% of the vote. She now joins SP councillor Ian Page on the council . In Coventry we have three SP councillors. Furthermore, in the Irish Republic our sister party has an MP in the national parliament and a second one is possible in the upcoming general election. These results show the possibilities socialists have in filling the vacuum if the groundwork is done in the area.

Condemn the Kim Dae-jung Regime!

A Call for International Solidarity Action by the Power of the Working Class The workers of South Korea have suffered yet another violent and brutal crackdown at the hands of Nobel Peace Prize-winner President Kim Dae-jung. On the afternoon of February 20, over 4,000 armed riot cops stormed Daewoo Motors' Bupyong plant, which was being peacefully occupied by several hundred striking workers and their families. Many were viciously beaten and 76 were taken in for questioning. The cops have detained 7 union leaders and are out to arrest 29 more. The very next day, on February 21, Daewoo's creditor banks gave the company a pat on the head for the crackdown by extending the credit period and providing it with even more funds. This shows who this is all basically for, whose interests the whole vile affair is all about. As this is being written, arrest warrants are also being drawn up for the top leaders of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions.

The Bupyong workers had begun a strike on February 16, in opposition to the company and regime's mass sacking of 1,750 workers. What's more, many of this 1,750 are the key union activists and militant workers in the plant - an open attempt to destroy the union in Bupyong. This sacking comes on top of some 3,500 that have been laid off since last November, and thousands more since the collapse of the Daewoo empire in late 1998. The completion of Daewoo Motors' restructuring and its sell-off overseas is vital for the onward march of the regime's neoliberal "reforms", which are nothing but a desperate bid to salvage a deeply crisis-ridden capitalist economy at the enormous expense of working people's living conditions and democratic rights. Its result is billions of dollars of handouts to the corporate robbers, while working people suffer more and more unbearable hardships. And when workers resort to mass struggle to defend even the little they still have, the regime thunders dow! n with batons and boots. It is nothing short of a war on South Korean working people.

However, since the crackdown, the workers have courageously begun to regroup. They are holding daily rallies in Bupyong and attracting the support of other workers and organisations. In response, the regime has deployed even more cops and are attempting to suppress any attempts at protest. It is almost like a return to the days of military rule when we had to converge at pre-arranged locations to hold surprise demonstrations.

We urgently call on the international workers movement to take immediate solidarity action to place international pressure on the vicious Kim Dae-jung regime. We request protests and industrial action to target the South Korean government's embassies and consulates, Daewoo Motors outlets and service centres, as well as any other South Korean government representative institutions and figures.

• Stop the mass sackings
• Kim Dae-jung regime Resign Now
• Release the Arrested Now
• Nationalise Daewoo Motors