The Socialist International General Conference kicked off yesterday, with a series of discourses by Labour Party Leaders and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez hailing socialism and the legacy of their parties.
The conference was opened by Malta’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister Ian Borg, who said that the Labour Party upheld the value of equality throughout its history. Ian Borg also quoted ex-Labour Party Leader Dom Mintoff about the importance of strength in unity. Malta is a place to build partnerships and friendships the Deputy Prime Minister added as he hailed the international work of socialist parties. He said that Malta built a Republic based on democracy and social justice from the ashes of the Second World War, after it was bombed in much the same way Gaza was bombed recently. He warned about rising disinformation, backsliding in democracy, the resurgence in far-right ideologies and the climate crisis.
Malta’s Prime Minister Robert Abela said that the gathering of socialists will serve to produce fresh ideas and thinking and provide further engagement. He said that a collegial approach to work together is a socialist value and that this reflects in their collaboration together across borders and barriers. The Prime Minister said that the world currently lacks hope and that socialists need to provide a new hope for a better and peaceful future. He also said that winning elections is till based on the same fundamental issues of the time when the Socialist International was founded. Elections are always won on the economy he added.
The Maltese Premier said that socialist parties have always strived to be the voice of all people and quoted French socialist philosopher Jean Jaurès, who said that a minority can never make a revolution even if it is very energetic. The Prime Minister also hailed Malta’s role as a mediator and stressed that despite Malta is neutral, it is not neutral in the face of injustice. He also hailed the Spanish Prime Minister’s efforts to revitalise the Socialist International. He warned against the rise of the far-right and described socialist parties as popular but not populist.
Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez also took the stand and said that the Socialist International should strengthen progressive governments as they improve the people’s lives by rising wages, raising public services and protecting the vulnerable. Wherever socialists parties are governing, people live better and democracies are better he said. Social-democracy has the answer for real life and real people he added.
Premier Sanchez said that the values of fairness and equality serve as cornerstone values for their parties. He said that these values bring hope and that Zohran Mamdani won the mayoral elections in New York because he raised the expectations and hopes of people. Socialists should offer hope not fear he added, while history is not programmed by algorithms but belongs to people.
Premier Sanchez reiterated that Socialist governments are improving the lives of millions of people in Spain and Malta. The Spanish Prime Minister then condemned mainstream right-wing parties for normalising the far-right by governing with them. He also accused the traditional right of abandoning its traditional values not to lose votes for the far-right. He also described the far-right as contradictory for pretending to be patriots only to sell out to multinational corporations. In the same argument he said that the far-right pretend that they are liberals but then go against international trade. Taking a page from Marxist dialectics, the Spanish Premier said that the far-right will collapse on the weight of its contradictions.
Premier Sanchez said that we are facing four main challenges and these are climate change, rising inequality, advancing equality between men and women, and upholding peace. He said that hybrid threats and cyber attacks are rising and warned that nations should not arm themselves for war in a self-fulfilling prophecy. He also added that Spain is supporting Palestine in the Two-State Solution and is also supporting Ukraine in its fight against Russia. Premier Sanchez added that Ukraine needs long-lasting security guarantees. He also referred to the “proxy wars” taking place in Africa.
He concluded by saying that socialism is the inevitable solution for the world’s ongoing problems. He referred to his government’s policies and said that raising wages is not radical, but lowering them is. He added that what is truly radical is having homeless people in a city full of empty apartments, not the opposite.
The Socialist International awarded the Peña Gómez Award to Rawhi Fattuh, who is a political leader of the Palestinian political party, Fatah. He was unable to attend the ceremony.
The Spanish Prime Minister is reviving the Socialist International after membership of the organisation went down in the 1990s as European socialist parties joined the Party of European Socialists and its European Parliamentary Grouping, the S&D.
You can watch the opening speeches here.
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