International Socialist Solidarity Organization (1980): Difference between revisions

|org_type = [[wikipedia:Intergovernmental organization|Intergovernmental organization]] <!-- e.g. Trade bloc -->

|membership_type = Membership (at dissolution) <!-- (default "Membership") -->

|admin_center_type = Headquarters

|admin_center = Vällilä, [[Vesienväl]]

The International Socialist Solidarity Organization was initially a project of the United Workers' Party in [[Vesienväl]], who developed the proposal unilaterally (without the buy-in of any other socialist state or party) during an era of relative political upheaval in Vesienväl. In the late 1970s, the Vesienvällic economy entered an extended period of decline. The country's insistence on reaching [[wikipedia:autarky|autarky]] meant that the availability of food and other basic goods could vary drastically seasonally. At the same time, labor unions were beginning to express concern over the government's increasingly strong, direct control of the economy (rather than a worker-managed, worker-owned model that was the goal of the Vesienvällic Revolution) and had engaged in a series of national work stoppages in 1979. The idea of a Vesienväl-led organization of international communism was the Party's initial response to quell the unrest, hoping to demonstrate with it a "rededication to the values of the Revolution." When the Vällilä Compact was signed on 10 October 1980, it had been written entirely by the Vesienvällic delegation and presented to other states to other sign or decline without any amendments.

 

 

The organization is generally regarded as having accomplished very little of substance. The only formal legislative body of the ISSO was a general session of delegates elected by each member party held once every three years, called a International General Congress of Workers. In between General Congresses, a Presidium overlooked day-to-day administrative affairs. The Vesienvällic organizers portrayed these General Congresses as massive, grand expressions of global comradeship and international agreement in advancing the socialist cause. However, when the first Grand Congress was called in 1983, it soon became apparent that aside from very broad and general statements on supporting socialism, the various delegations were all reticent to agree on any messaging that was not written by their own delegation. Each had such particular instructions from party headquarters that little compromise or consensus was possible. The principal achievement of the first International General Congress of Workers was the Evakjevo Declaration, a document that "rededicated" signatories to "the cause of global communism in our time," hailed by the United Workers' Party at the time as a "crucial moment of change" but regarded with very little attention from media, even in the state media of countries whose parties were in attendance, because the Declaration proposed no new program and contained no actual action items to address. This would become typical for the organization.