Correspondance with other groups

The debate on the period of transition has always been the object of fierce polemics between revolutionary groups.

Presentation

 

We have already presented the Alptraum Communist Collective of Mexico in this Review (International Review No 40).

"Revolutionary ideas are not the property of any single organization, and the affairs of any component part of the proletarian camp are of interest to it all.

The text from Internationalisme no.36 (July 1948) published here is a critique of the political and organizational weaknesses of the Internationalist Communist Party in its begin

The course of history: The 80s are not the 30s

Address to Proletarian Political Groups

In answer to the replies

"Far from being a sum of ready-made prescriptions which have only to be applied, the practical realization of            socialism as an economic, social and juridical system is s

The 21 Theses of Council Communism Today written by a group of council communists in Denmark expresses the continuing res­urgence of revolutionary groups and ideas since 1968.

We want to inform our readers with great happiness that as a result of deep discussions held with patience we have been integrated into the International Communist Current and formed the section of the International Communist Current in Turkey named Dünya Devrimi by dissolving our previous group, Enternasyonalist Komünist Sol.

This article has already been published on-line here

Our last international congress, for the first time in a quarter century, was able to welcome the delegations of different groups that stood clearly on internationalist class position. Since then, the discussions with the comrades of EKS and Internasyonalismo led them to pose their candidature to join the ICC, given their growing agreement with our positions.

The open letter published here is in response to the interview between Loren Goldner and the Korean group Sanosin, concerning the history and present condition of the communist left. In a very brief exchange of mails, Loren has not objected to the publication of the letter, considering that "Your letter is fair and I see no need to respond at this time".

The fact that today a conference of communist internationalists has been called in the East, by an organisation which explicitly identifies with the communist left, is an event of historic importance for the working class. It holds the promise - perhaps for the first time in history - of building a real unity between the workers of East and West. Nor is it an isolated event: on the contrary, it is a part of a slow world wide awakening to consciousness of the proletariat and its political minorities.

In October 2006, the Korean group "Socialist Political Alliance" called a conference in the towns of Seoul and Ulsan under the title "International Conference of revolutionary Marxism" , with the explicit purpose of reinforcing the presence of Left Communist positions within the Korean working class and its political minorities.

The conference in Korea was the first of its kind in the history of the workers' movement of that country and indeed in the whole of East Asia. That such a conference should be called today, in a country still divided by the consequences of the imperialist war launched more than 50 years ago, is an event of the greatest importance. It opens a perspective for the development of the international unity of the workers' movement between East and West for the first time since the brief experience of the Third International. However modestly, it heralds the appearance on the historical stage of the proletariat of the East.

The Aufheben review has published, in its second issue, and article that claims that: “The theory of capitalist decline or the decadence of capitalism hinders the project of abolishing that system.” The ICC is targeted in particular, since our organisation bases its defence of the interests of the working class in present day conditions on the understanding that capitalism is in its decadent phase.

The SPGB in its review of the British Communist Left (Socialist Standard 1213, September 2005) shows that it has understood nothing of the question of revolutionary organisation, even after 100 years of existence. Less than half of the review actually deals with the book; the rest is an attack on the ICC. The article as a whole seeks to dismiss the communist left, yesterday and today, as irrelevant.

The exchange of views below continues a discussion with Red and Black Notes on the vitally important question of class consciousness and the role of the revolutionary organization. As readers will recall, in Internationalism 134 we published a letter to R&BN commenting on a joint public forum they held with the Internationalist Workers Group, the Canadian affiliate of the IBRP, last winter. We publish below R&BN’s response to our letter, followed by some further comments that we offer in an effort to deepen the discussion on consciousness and revolutionary organization.

In Révolution Internationale n°300, we only cited the two most significant anarchist tendencies, those of its two “founding fathers”, Proudhon and Bakunin. We are not unaware of the other tendencies which emerged out of this dual matrix, but we think that the development of the most significant anarchist currents has to be placed in its historical context, which will be dealt with in other articles.