December 5, 2003

Dear friends and comrades,

Next January, many of our parties will participate at the Fourth World Social Forum in Mumbai. For this event, several revolutionary organisations are preparing initiatives such as conferences, debates and seminars. We think that it is important to give them as much publicity as possible and to participate and contribute to them with as many comrades as we can.

The fact that the WSF will meet in India can be considered an exceptional opportunity to organise as well a meeting of radical, anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist and revolutionary organisations coming from different continents and which, very often, do not know each other or not sufficiently.

We then invite you to participate in a meeting of radical political parties. As explained in the proposal presented below, the agenda of this meeting will be focused, limited, and complementary to the other initiatives taken at the occasion of the WSF. Your comments on this proposal will be much appreciated.

The meeting of radical parties will take place in Mumbai, during the WSF (between January 16 and 21). The precise day and time are not yet chosen: The definite choice has to take into account the overall programme of the WSF, which is not yet finalised.

The main aims of the meeting will be to help organisations from different continents to get in touch, to have a first exchange of views about what each party expects from a process of international cooperation, to expand and deepen the existing links, without any attempt to formalise them.

We do hope that your organisation will be willing and able to participate with us in this meeting of radical parties.

Looking forward to your answer.

Internationalist regards,

All Together (South Korea), Bloco de Esquerda (Portugal), Communist Party of India - Marxist Leninist Liberation (CPI-ML, India), Communist Party of India - Marxist Leninist (CPI-ML, India), Communist Party of India - Marxist Leninist Red Flag (CPI-ML, India), Democratic Socialist Party (DSP, Australia), Esquerra Unida i Alternativa (EUiA, Catalunya), Labour Party Pakistan (LPP, Pakistan), Ligue communiste révolutionnaire (LCR, France), Marxist-Leninist Party of the Philippines (MLPP, Philippines), New Left Front (Sri Lanka), Pakistan Kissan Mazdor Party (PKMP, Pakistan), Philippines Workers Party (PMP, Philippines), Power of the Working Class (PWC, South Korea), Revolutionary Workers Party-Mindanao (RMP-M, Philippines), Scottish Socialist Party (SSP, Scotland), Socialist Workers Party (SWP, GB), SolidaritéS (Suisse)

PROPOSAL

Our parties have different origins. But, since a long time, they felt the need to dialog, to exchange experiences, to come to a common understanding of the lessons of passed struggles and about the present-day tasks. Some links, sometimes on regular basis, have been built but they rarely overpass the framework of a region. But the tremendous growth of the movement against corporate globalisation is now operating at a worldwide level. After the war in Iraq and the WTO summit in Cancun, the movement has now to face a new wave of aggressive imperialist, militarist and anti-social policies. This means that it has to tackle new major challenges that require answers, which have to be at the same time united and radical, and the definition of real alternatives.

Considering our investment in the struggles against capitalist globalisation, we all share important responsibilities in such a matter. The question is not only to dialog and assert mutual solidarity but also to see to what extent we can act together from now on.

Of course, the answer to that question will need time. What we prepare for next January is very modest and complementary to the different initiatives already organised in India: It consists into a meeting of radical, anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist and revolutionary political parties. This meeting could last an afternoon with a limited agenda. Issues such as the international situation and socialist alternatives will be discussed at conferences and seminars organised by the Indian parties. So, it will not be necessary to repeat these discussions in a different format.

The most important objective of the meeting will be to facilitate organisations from different continents to get in touch in order to allow a first and collective exchange of views about what each party expects from a process of international cooperation. It will be nor a seminar neither a public conference. Each party would send two or three delegates. We hope that such a meeting can help to better know each other, to deepen the existing links, without any attempt to formalise them.

Moreover, we hope that this meeting will allow to start a process of linking and cooperation between radical parties and become a first step towards new meetings in the future.