Voters swing to left-progressive

Peter Symon

Over the past few months national elections in a number of 
countries have seen great gains for progressive and left 
candidates and governments. These countries include France, South 
Africa, Sri Lanka, Spain and South Korea. Before that the victory 
of the left-progressive Lula da Silva as President of Brazil 
consolidated the sweep of the anti-imperialist movement in Latin 
America. Although not a national election, the victory of secular 
candidates in a local government area in Iraq is also a strong 
indication that progressive, secular forces have solid support in 
that war-ravaged country.

Some of these elections have been given very little coverage in 
the Australian media.

One of the most significant was the re-election with about 70 
percent of the vote, of the African National Congress (ANC) in 
South Africa. This is the highest vote so far recorded by the 
ANC. The ANC is a broadly based anti-apartheid, democratic 
movement which includes members of its alliance partners the 
Communist Party of South Africa and the Congress of South African 
Trade Unions (COSATU).

The alliance has stood the test of time despite strong efforts by 
both right-wing and extreme "left" forces to disrupt it.

Door-to-door

A statement on the elections by the South African Communist Party 
says of the election campaign: "Beginning with our president, 
right through to every grass-roots cadre of our alliance, we have 
criss-crossed our country, door-to-door. We have explained the 
achievements of the last 10 years, we have discussed our ANC 
manifesto plans, and, perhaps most importantly, we have listened 
to the hopes and frustrations of working people and the poor."

The increase in support for the ANC in the province of KwaZulu 
Natal is of considerable significance. It had been ruled by the 
Inkatha Freedom Party of Buthelezi which had been a spoiler and 
carried on a killing spree against supporters of the ANC even 
after the defeat of apartheid by the ANC. The vote of the Inkatha 
Freedom Party dropped to only 36 percent in the recent election.

Sri Lanka

Another significant election outcome was that held in Sri Lanka 
on April 2. The left-progressive parties won a resounding victory 
over the governing United National Party. The United People's 
Freedom Alliance, that includes the Communist Party of Sri Lanka 
and the Trotskyite LSSP, was on this occasion allied to the JVP 
(People's Liberation Front). Together with the Sri Lanka Freedom 
Party (SLFP) they won 105 seats out of a total of 225.

Although this does not provide a majority it is expected that 
other smaller parties will vote with President Kumaratunga to 
give a government sympathetic to her policies a majority. She has 
already appointed a new Prime Minister from her own party, the 
SLFP.

The socialist JVP was formed in 1965 and is expected to hold 
several Ministerial positions in the new government.

For the first time political representatives of the Tamil 
National Alliance (the Tamil Tigers) were elected to the Sri 
Lankan parliament and became the third largest group. The Tamil 
leader said, "We want talks", with the government. It is to be 
hoped that such talks will result in a conclusion to the long-
running ethnic-based military conflict in Sri Lanka.

The outcome of the elections in South Korea tipped a bucket of 
cold water over conservative candidates who had attempted to 
remove President Roh Moo Hyun by impeaching him over some remarks 
which were taken to indicate his support for a particular party.

Roh's impeachment gave rise to the People's Emergency Action to 
Nullify the Impeachment. A coalition of over 500 organisations, 
including the powerful Korean Confederation of Trade Unions came 
into existence. The day after the impeachment decision a 
demonstration by at least 70,000 took place in Seoul. Despite 
bans on such demonstrations thousands of people continued to 
demonstrate on a daily basis.

On March 20 up to one million people took part in demonstrations 
against both the Iraq war and the President's impeachment. South 
Korea is now considering withdrawing its military contingent from 
Iraq.

President Roh had made himself unpopular with South Korea's 
conservative ruling circles by stepping up prosecutions of 
business leaders for corruption. The country was rocked by case 
after case of corruption among businessmen, politicians and 
political advisers.

Roh's mother who is a poor farmer said, "He understands us. He 
knows what we need. Rich people don't know".

Another largely unspoken factor in the Korean elections was the 
growing friendly relations between the north and south of Korea.

President Roh supported the growing sentiment among the South 
Korean people for better relations with the people and government 
of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) which has 
resulted in family exchanges between north and south, the opening 
up of rail and road communications between the two halves of 
Korea and a generally more relaxed relationship.

These developments do not suite the interests of the US Bush 
administration which declared the DPRK to be a member of an "axis 
of evil" and has attempted to find an excuse to launch a war 
against the DPRK over the nuclear weapons issue.

In the south's elections the Uri Party, which supports the 
impeached President, won 151 seats in the 299 seat assembly. 
Before the elections the Uri Party held only 49 seats. The 
conservatives, which had dominated the parliament for many years, 
ended with 122 seats while the leftist Democratic Labor Party won 
10 seats.

As was the case in Spain, the electors rejected the shoddy 
manoeuvres of the conservatives.

Spain

French municipal elections resulted in sweeping gains for the 
French Socialist Party while the national elections in Spain 
resulted in the surprise election of a Socialist Party government 
which immediately decided to recall Spanish troops from Iraq. 
This decision sent the US coalition occupying Iraq into a spin 
with both Howard and Downer echoing the chorus of American 
politicians who condemned the Spanish decision claiming that it 
would encourage terrorists.

The Spanish election was a victory for democracy, openness and 
truth and, as in many other countries, it saw the mass 
participation of the Spanish people in hundreds of meetings and 
street demonstrations.

Far from the train bombing in Madrid, just three days before the 
election, stampeding the people into giving their support to the 
conservative government, it had the opposite effect. The 
terrorist atrocity revealed the lies of the conservative 
government at a time when the Spanish people were overwhelmingly 
against the war in Iraq.

Taiwan

Another important election outcome was the near defeat of the 
Democratic Progressive Party and President Chen Shui-bian by the 
Kuomintang Chinese Nationalist Party in the Taiwanese election 
held on March 20.

President Chen has pushed strongly for the total independence of 
Taiwan from China. Taiwan is a province of the Chinese mainland 
and any declaration of independence is strongly opposed by the 
People's Republic of China.

There have been huge demonstrations in Tapei against the outcome 
of the elections in which the Democratic Progressive Party 
claimed to have won by a margin of only 23,000 votes or 0.24 
percent. Demonstrators are demanding an investigation into the 
elections and the circumstances of an alleged assassination 
attempt on the life of President Chen just one day before polling 
day.

The Kuomintang Party opposes the independence of Taiwan from the 
PRC. Demonstrations against the election result are continuing in 
Taiwan.

At the same time as the ballot for Taiwan's parliament took place 
a referendum was held. It was interpreted as intended to give the 
green light for President Chen to proceed with a declaration of 
Taiwan as an independent state.

As only 45 percent of the electorate voted in the referendum, 
which required a vote of at least 50 percent, it was defeated.

Significant change

These election results, when taken together, indicate that there 
is a significant change taking place throughout the world. In 
many countries the persistent struggles by the people are 
swinging election results in favour of more progressive 
candidates and away from the economic rationalist policies of the 
conservatives and in particular, against the illegal invasion and 
occupation of Iraq.

Of course there have been and will be continue to be setbacks in 
some countries but this should not blind us from seeing the 
overall swing that is taking place.

A resolution adopted by the Communist Party of Australia in 2001 
said that "the world-wide struggle between the people and the 
transnational corporations is intensifying".

These struggles are against the evils of globalisation, war and 
militarisation. They are in essence struggles against capitalism.

There are innumerable actions by community organisations, trade 
unions and political parties opposing the consequences of the 
economic rationalist policies which have created poverty, 
homelessness, unemployment and many other social evils for 
millions of people.

It is these struggles that are now reflected in various election 
results which are defeats for conservatives and victories for 
left and progressive candidates.

The Australian people could join this sweep by throwing out the 
Howard government in the national elections due later this year.