The Council of the Socialist International met in New York at the United Nations Headquarters on Monday 21 and Tuesday 22 June. Democratic Socialists of America was represented by Vice-Chair Joseph Schwartz, national director Frank Llewellyn, and Alejandro Duhalde, a NYC DSA activist.
The Council addressed four main issues and priorities of the social democratic movement in its agenda: the Global Economy in the run-up to the G20 Summit in Toronto, peace in the Middle East, working for an international unified response on Climate Change. and recent developments in the field of Disarmament and Non-proliferation.
At the well attended meeting of the Council, opened by SI President George Papandreou, over three hundred leaders and representatives from approximately one hundred parties and organisations from all continents and regions of the world, first exchanged views on the current phase of the financial crisis, days before heads of state and government would gather in Toronto for the G8 and G20 Summits to map out a course of action for the world economy. The social democratic leaders gathered in New York, agreed in a statement that what was needed today was a well-coordinated economic policy between the world’s major economies, financial reform, new counter-cyclical capital requirements and more global governance.
A declaration on the challenges of global development in 2010 presented by the SI Committee on Economic Policy, Labour and National Resources was also approved.
The current crisis in the Middle East was addressed by the Council in a frank, and open debate with contributions from representatives of the SI Israeli member parties, Ehud Barak, Leader of the Labour Party and Defence Minister and Avshalom Vilan, member of the Knesset from Meretz, and from representatives of the SI Palestinian member parties, Husam Zomlot of Fatah and Mustafa Barghouti of the Palestinian National Initiative, as well as from participants from other parties. Following intensive consultations with the Israeli and Palestinian delegations, a Council statement on the Middle East was presented the following day and adopted by acclamation.
The Council, with its sights on the forthcoming COP16 [the UN Climate Change Conference] meeting in Cancun later this year, approved a declaration on the issue of Climate Change. The matters of disarmament and non-proliferation were addressed by the Council leading to the approval of two declarations, one on A World Without Nuclear Weapons and the other on a Comprehensive Arms Trade Treaty.
Special contributions were heard from the leader of the Socialist Party of Albania on the unresolved electoral violations in that country and from the leader of the Burmese delegation on the struggle of the people in that nation to restore democracy.
The Report of the SI Mission which visited Venezuela earlier this year was presented to the Council.
The Council agreed that its next meeting will be held in Paris on 15-16 November, hosted by the French Socialist Party.
Filed under: Politics, Uncategorized Tagged: | SI Council, Socialist International
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