47th Linz Conference
Is one world possible?
Practices of 'International Solidarity' and 'International Development'
29 September - 2 October 2011
BACKGROUND AND APPROACHES
The purpose of the Conference 2011 is to discuss Solidarity and Development at international level as practiced by social movements and initiated by organizations acting in the tradition of the Labour Movement. International Solidarity is perceived as a concept for dealing with others on the basis of common interests and concerns genuinely rooted in the traditions of the Labour Movement. International Development is perceived as a transformation of society by means of deliberate active intervention to achieve certain objectives like “Modernisation” or “Socialism”. Both concepts are realized through transfers: transfers of concrete resources, knowledge, working and living modes as well as norms and standards. Solidarity, at least conceptually, can be depicted as a reciprocal transfer process, Development as a unilateral transfer process.
Both are universal concepts basically aimed at producing one (single) world. Every individual and every society can develop the entrepreneurial spirit, and the attitudes and practices linked to it, that leads to prosperity, is the credo of those who fundamentally believe that “development” is tantamount to increasing prosperity. Every individual and every society can be set on a “socialist developmental path” which, based on a planned economy and collectivisation under the leadership of the Party, will lead to an “all-round development” of individuals and collectives would be the credo of a competing concept of development as progress towards socialism. We are pursuing a struggle on the basis of an economic dynamism striving to go beyond all frontiers and of a joint social position and political stance, and this struggle unites us, would be a stance based on “Solidarity”.
The question is if the implementation of these distinct concepts converged in practice. In principle the Labour Movement, too, shared the concepts and practices that have, ever since the Age of Enlightenment, perceived “progress” as a chronologically ascending development towards “civilisation” and “culture” – if we start from the assumption that the creation of one (single) world in which the material standards, working conditions, systems of social justice, and ways of living according to the yardstick of the “most highly developed” societies were to apply has been the aim of the international Labour Movement. At an institutional level the question arises concerning “development aid” and “socialist aid” (also referred to as “international solidarity”) as competing systems for Development and Solidarity in the “Third World” in the era of global systems competition. On display we find quite different principles from those according to which the respective social systems actually function: on the one hand we find the Development-sector of the capitalist world system as a sector that is not primarily orientated towards profit maximization and only to a limited extent market driven, often characterized by state intervention, planning guidelines and claiming the moral high ground of being unselfishly disinterested; on the other hand the Solidarity-sector of the socialist world system in which the notion “mutual benefit” is more often used than the notions “aid” or “assistance”.
Individual papers should discuss situations in which practices of Solidarity and Development were actively conceived and implemented. They should further concentrate on forms of transfer: material assistance, trade at preferential conditions; personal commitment; collective actions like solidarity strikes or campaigns. In line with the global history orientation of the ITH, movements and states in the “Third World” should be at the centre of attention. Temporal focus is the post-colonial era in the second half of the 20th century.