New ICC publications for the month:

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Articles published this month

Internal debate on the world situation

New response to Steinklopfer

Continuation of a debate within the ICC about the growing drive to war, its nature in the phase of decomposition, and the state of the class struggle.

New warmongering campaigns

"Guaranteeing peace by preparing for war"

The ruling class in the west wants the exploited to accept austerity and war preparations in the name of " national defence"

Internationalist Voice

Against the Barbaric War of Israel and Iran. Capitalism Means War and Barbarism!

The ICC welcomes the rapid reaction by Internationalist Voice to the escalation of the war in the Middle East: analysing the attacks between Israel-Iran and putting forward an unswerving denunciation of the Israeli and Iranian bourgeoisies. 

Internal Documents j) COUNTER-RESOLUTION PROPOSED AT THE IIND CONGRESS OF THE ICC

IInd Congress of the ICC

We must take into account the impossibility of arriving at a transitional phase with notions that are fixed, complete, which don't allow any logical contradiction and which exclude any idea of transition.[1]

A) The period of transition from
capitalism to communism

Internal Documents i) DRAFT RESOLUTION PROPOSED AT THE IIND CONGRESS OF THE ICC

The platform of the ICC contains the essential acquisitions of the workers' movement concerning the conditions and content of the communist revolution. These acquisitions can be summarised as follows:

Internal Documents h) A REPLY TO CERTAIN CRITICISMS

Some of our recent discussions seem to have lost track of the aim of this whole debate. With all the different exegeses on "gentile" society, the dissertations on absolute monarchy and the scholastic war of quotes back and forth, we risk losing sight of the fact that the ICC did not embark on these discussions to show off our reading notes or to rival academic treatises on “the state”. We are trying to shed some light on questions which will become extremely urgent and tangible in a moment of revolution and we do this from a direct commitment to the revolutionary process.

Internal Documents g) THE ORIGINS OF THE STATE AND ALL THAT

The discussion going on now about the resolution concerning the state after the victory of the proletarian revolution must not be seen as some sort of speculation on an abstract theme. The theoretical work of a political group is different from that of a bourgeois centre for scientific research. The latter is composed of specialists who study this or that discipline by placing themselves “outside it”. Their “objectivity” resides in their professed “neutrality”. Research is a professional business.

Internal Documents d) CLASS AND STATE IN THE PROLETARIAN DICTATORSHIP

1) Early in the succession of the various modes and forms of social production after the dissolution of the simple and crude communism of primitive times, the state appeared at a certain moment, determined by the economic development within a given territory. The state supplanted the consanguineous gens. Its existence was necessary both because of the growth (though still very slight) of social wealth and because production remained incapable of satisfying the expanding needs of the collectivity.

Internal Documents c) POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC DOMINATION IN THE PERIOD OF TRANSITION

In opposition to the draft resolution on the state in the period of transition, which asserts that there is no mode of production in the transition period, the Toronto comrades state that: "When the workers dominate politically, they dominate the economy since they already have the levers of production, literally, in their own hands". And: "Socialised production is the mode of production, that is, production of use values, the communist mode of production in embryo".

Internal Documents b) WHO WILL DOMINATE THE ECONOMY?

Definition: When the class conscious world proletariat has overthrown the bourgeois order on a world scale, when all states have been over-thrown, when all opposing armies have been defeated, in short, when the “civil war” has been won, then, by definition, the so-called period of transition has begun.

Internal Documents a) DEFINING THE FRAMEWORK OF OUR DEBATES

To begin with, we must recognise the importance of the problem of the period of transition. The platform itself points this out in the section concerning the dictatorship of the proletariat:

The experience of the Russian revolution has shown the complexity and seriousness of the problem of the relationship between the class and the state in the period of transition. In the coming period, the proletariat and revolutionaries cannot evade this problem, but must make every effort to resolve it.

Basic Texts 7: THE STATE AND THE DICTATORSHIP OF THE PROLETARIAT

In the Platform adopted at the First Congress of the ICC in January 1976, the question of the relationship between the proletariat and the state in the period of transition remained "open":

The experience of the Russian Revolution has shown the complexity and seriousness of the problem of the relationship bet-ween the class and the state in the period of transition. In the coming period, the proletariat and revolutionaries can-not evade this problem, but must make every effort to resolve it.[1]

Basic Texts 6: STATE AND DICTATORSHIP

The following text is an attempt to put for-ward a general conception of the state and the dictatorship of the proletariat without trying to come to any definite conclusions. It is a contribution to the present discussion on the period of transition dealing with the basic question of the form and content of the proletarian dictatorship. A more detailed explanation, especially of the more problematic points, will be under-taken in another document.

Basic Texts 3: PROBLEMS OF THE PERIOD OF TRANSITION (1972-73)

The following text is a report of a meeting held by the group Révolution Internationale in February 1972. The subject under discussion was “the content of socialism”. This was the first time the group as a whole had dealt with such a subject. The aim of the meeting was not to pretend to end up with a ready-made, immutable theory on what the content of socialism should be, but rather to open up the discussion, to begin dealing with the problem by studying the experience of past revolutions and the theories put forward by revolutionaries throughout the history of the workers' movement.

Basic Texts 2: THE STATE, THE PROLETARIAN REVOLUTION AND THE CONTENT OF SOCIALISM (1972)

In the period of decadence when the private bourgeoisie has been replaced by the state bourgeoisie, the confrontation between the working class and the “state-boss” is always a direct one.

International Review 172 - Spring 2024

1) General introduction on the dangers of opportunism

Basic Texts

Basic Texts 1: THESES ON THE NATURE OF THE STATE AND THE PROLETARIAN REVOLUTION

 

BASIC TEXTS 1

Theses on the Nature of the State
and the Proletarian Revolution

Gauche Communiste de France, 1946, Internationalisme

ICC online public meeting

Wars between Russia and Ukraine, Israel and Iran: capitalism takes another step into barbarism

The open conflict between Israel and Iran marks a further extension of imperialist war in the Middle East. Come to this meeting to discuss the internationalist response. 2-5pm, UK time, Saturday 4 May

The ambiguities of internationalist anarchism

The ACG takes another step towards supporting the nationalist war campaign

We examine the Anarchist Communist Group's growing concessions to the campaigns in favour of Palestinian nationalism

The Communist Left against imperialist war

Two years on from the Joint Statement of the Communist Left on the war in Ukraine

A first balance sheet of our appeals to the Communist Left to make a joint statement on the current imperialist conflicts.

The struggle against imperialist war can only be waged with the positions of the Communist Left

The Communist Left is the only real heir to the marxist tradition of struggle against imperialist war.

Marxism and Ecology

Critique of Saito's "Degrowth Communism"

Why marxists reject all versions of the “Green New Deal”, from the mainstream to its most left wing variants

War in decomposing capitalism

Terrorist massacre in Russia: capitalism sinks ever deeper into chaos!

The Moscow slaughter by Islamic State terrorists once again reveals the chaotic nature of today’s multiple imperialist conflicts

Workers' struggle

Shock measures met with manoeuvres by the unions and the left of capital... In Argentina, the proletariat is under attack from all sides

Workers are not only faced with vicious economic attacks from the government, they also have to deal with traps set to divert their discontent.

Internationalism against leftism

What is 'Lotta Comunista' in reality?

In Britain, the group Lotta Comunista hides behind the “Internationalist Workers Club”, which runs food banks in London. It may at first sight look like an internationalist organisation from the tradition of the Communist left. This article argues that appearances can be deceptive.

TV documentaries on the 1984-5 miners' strike

Government and unions set the miners up for defeat

Whatever their intentions, the recent TV documentaries on the 1984-5 miners' strike provide evidence how a trap was laid for the workers by the twin strategies of government and unions. In a second article, The working class has finally recovered from the defeat, we look more closely at the international context of the strike and its long-term impact on the class struggle. 

Economic crisis

Germany: workers will pay the cost of the economic crisis

Europe’s most powerful economy is hit hard by the combined effects of war, economic crisis, and the ecological disaster.

40 years since the UK miners' strike

The working class has finally recovered from the defeat

The defeat of the miners' strike in Britain in 1985 has had a long-lasting, negative impact, but it is no longer a blockage on the capacity of the working class to defend its interests. In a second article, Government and unions set the miners up for defeat, we look in more detail at recent  TV documentaries about the strike and the specific tactics of the British bourgeoisie to lure the miners into a trap. 

Life of the ICC

Public Meeting in Madrid: The invaluable contribution of Bilan to the struggle for the world party of the proletariat

An account of a public discussion about  the historical method of  the Italian Communist Left and its contribution to the communist programme.


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