CAPITALIST CRISIS LEADS TO RENEWED INTEREST IN CWI'S SOCIALIST IDEAS AND CAMPAIGNING
The final session of the very successful CWI summer school in Belgium, held last week, with over 400 in attendence, discussed building CWI sections in a period of global economic and political crisis.
The session began with a video montage of recent protest movements, on all continents, at which the CWI were either organisers or had active participants. Niall Mulholland, from the International Secretariat of the CWI, then introduced the discussion, summing up the experiences of the various CWI sections over the past year; the breakthroughs but also the challenges faced.
Most CWI sections have recorded growth in their numbers over the past year. Despite the scale of the crisis and the clear need for a political alternative for workers, Niall pointed out that it would be a mistake to make an automatic link between the onset of a recession and working people and youth responding with an immediate drawing of radical socialist conclusions. Political consciousness tends to lag behind events, in general. The past period of dominant neo-liberal ideology, the practical obstacles of a right wing trade union leadership and an absence of a mass left political alternative – all serve to hold back a more militant active response from workers and youth. That said, events are clearly pushing many youth and workers into opposing this system and there exists a growing radicalised layer that are looking to the ideas of socialism and the CWI.
