Irresponsible chatter plays into the hands of the bourgeoisie

The latest post on Mr JLR's blog Le Prolétariat universel is entitled "Game over".

At the top is a photomontage on which is written "Le palmarès des menteurs" ("The liars' prize list"). Around it are photos of the heads of Macron, Le Pen, Mélenchon, Martinez... and a militant of the ICC! To make sure that the target is clear, the acronym "ICC" is written across the whole picture in capital letters. The image introduces a long text in which JLR spends his time calling the ICC liars. Liars worse than Macron, Le Pen, Mélenchon, Martinez... if the photomontage is to be believed.

 

When unbridled irresponsibility leads to slander...

"Slander boldly, something always sticks" (Francis Bacon, after Plutarch).

JLR disagrees with the ICC's analysis of the social movement against pension reform. For the ICC, this movement is part of the international dynamic that began in Britain in June 2022, with a series of strikes and the "summer of anger": faced with the worsening of the global economic crisis, the working class in the central countries is beginning to raise its head and take up the struggle once again. In JLR's view, the series of demonstrations in France was nothing more than a trade union charade that led lifeless workers to yet another defeat. So be it. The ICC has never had any problem with this type of disagreement, and it could even be an opportunity for debate and the confrontation of positions. With arguments to back it up...

But no, JLR is not interested in debate and clarification; he prefers to make false accusations. In support of his argument, JLR issued what is supposed to be proof of the lies of the ICC: "In order to lie to itself about the so-called 'international awakening of the proletariat', it can even use a little lie, so ridiculous is it: 'It's no coincidence that the most popular slogan on placards was: “You give us 64, we'll give you May 68”'. Absolutely not, they'd copied a photo I'd taken of three young schoolgirls with their little placard, sitting on a pavement, to whom nobody was paying any attention".

Is that all?... Yes, that's all. To judge the ICC’s "little lie", all you have to do is type into any Internet search engine "Tu nous mets 64, on te re-Mai 68": hundreds of photos of demonstrators with this slogan on their placards will appear.

There is nothing "ridiculous" about JLR's unfounded accusations. With his photomontage, JLR associates an ICC militant with the crooks of the bourgeoisie. He equates communist militants with bourgeois leaders. Such comments, which are tantamount to slander, can only tend to put off those who are beginning to take an interest in revolutionary positions, communist organisations, and their debates.

Today, revolutionary forces are still limited. The few minorities looking for class positions are precious. They represent the future. Winning them over to the revolutionary camp, enabling them to organise themselves, to appropriate the principles and experience of the Communist Left is vital for the future of revolutionary organisations, for the future of the struggles of the proletariat, for the possibility of revolution. Nothing less.

And here we have JLR smearing the ICC without restraint, and, through it, the tradition of the whole Communist Left. In the end, there is no other concern here than his own little self, his own pleasure, within the political imagination he has created for himself.

It has to be said that JLR's hostility towards the ICC fluctuates widely. Sometimes he even writes words of praise for our organisation. Then, on another day, he covers it with muck and insults. An article on his blog about one of our public meetings in which he took part reads: "The best tribute to this meeting came from people I had invited directly: 'a meeting where we could express ourselves freely, unlike other political groups, and discuss issues that are excluded from the media'. There was also a touching comment from an old ICC supporter: ‘a place where you could escape the feeling of loneliness’". A few days later, he described the ICC as a "neo-Stalinist sect" or "a delusional sect alien to the proletariat".

There is absolutely no problem with JLR welcoming the positions and approaches of the ICC that he considers to be correct, while criticising those with which he disagrees. Quite the contrary! But that's not what this is about. Clearly, JLR's overall judgement of our organisation depends very much on his mood at the time. This is totally irresponsible behaviour.[1]

 

... and snitching

But irresponsibility can lead to the worst. JLR's blog is full of information about militants, some of whom he describes as "narcissistic perverts" or "crazy"... Everything from descriptions of couples and their relationships to details of their children... the lives of militants are laid bare without restraint.

And yet, on this same blog, you can read these comments: "Are the RG really going to take an interest in the maximalist movement again? [2] Not just through their masked incursions on the web?” But, as with everything else, this kind of thinking passes before it resumes again, and JLR is ranting the next day about the lives of others.

His irresponsibility and inconsistency led him to publish a photo of an ICC militant. Much to the delight of the RG and their "masked incursions into the web". By displaying the face of an ICC militant in this way, JLR is playing into the hands of the ICC's declared enemies and the bourgeoisie.

In fact, this kind of denunciation has even been permitted and encouraged by all those who use snitching as a weapon against the ICC in order to destroy it, in particular the ‘Internal Fraction of the ICC’ (now called the International Group of the Communist Left), for which it is even their speciality, their trademark[3]

The history of the workers’ movement shows that this type of snitching has always prepared and accompanied the repression of revolutionary organisations and their militants. The disclosure of sensitive information about them was a direct part of the repression aimed at destroying them, and formed the first stage. In January 1919, it was social democracy itself that took responsibility for the lies, slander and hate speech that led to the assassination of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht.

Today, to carry out this work of undermining, to maintain suspicion of revolutionary organisations and even to breathe out the foul smell of pogroms, the bourgeoisie does not need to get involved directly, it can count on this parasitic mire, ready for anything, and free of charge. Without sharing this detestable goal, JLR finds himself on his blog, feeding this swamp by dint of irresponsibility and not thinking further than his navel.

 

The responsibility of the entire Communist Left to combat shameful behaviour

The question now facing revolutionary organisations and all those who share their positions and their struggle is: how can we fight against this disgraceful and destructive behaviour?

JLR's unfettered irresponsibility is encouraged by the entire parasitic milieu that wallows in slander and snitching. This parasitic environment can spread all the more easily because it encounters no obstacles, no barriers.

In the image of this rotting world, individuals and groups are proliferating who are ready for anything, including the lowest and most sordid attacks. The use of slander and, for some, the practice of snitching, are the disgusting embodiment of the hatred for the political organisation of the proletariat and the desire to destroy it, typical of parasitism. But the laissez-faire attitude of a large part of the groups of the Communist Left, the absence of any reaction year after year, slander after slander, snitch after snitch, facilitates this dirty work. By remaining silent, a large part of the revolutionary organisations is in reality offering a blank cheque, almost an encouragement to all this destructive behaviour.

To say nothing is not only to fail in the most elementary solidarity which should prevail between the historic groups of the Communist Left, it is also to allow our tradition and our principles to be dragged through the mud, it is to mortgage the future. Without a firm reaction in the face of calumny and snitching, without a visible and uncompromising defence of the principles of the Communist Left, without solidarity in action between revolutionary organisations[4], the whole putrid swamp of parasitism can only continue to develop, to disgust searching minorities and to destroy.

We also call on all our readers to respond, to take a stand and to fight against these actions, to work for proletarian solidarity and the defence of the principles of the revolutionary camp and of what constitutes its most precious weapon: the political organisation of the proletariat.

ICC, 19 June 2023

 

 

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[1] "It's a tradition: the enemies of action, the cowards, the entrenched, the opportunists willingly pick up their weapons in the sewers! They use suspicion and slander to discredit revolutionaries" (Victor Serge).

[2] This is how JLR refers to the organisations of the Communist Left, in particular the ICC

[3] For a non-exhaustive list of the misdeeds of this group with its police methods, see for example on our site: "Attacking the ICC: the raison d'être of the IGCL". We will be returning to the IFICC/IGCL in our press shortly.

[4] In 2002, the IBRP (now Internationalist Communist Tendency) and one of its supporters living in the United States (called AS) were attacked by the Los Angeles Workers Voice (LAWV). The IBRP denounced the LAWV for "resorting to slander" and quite rightly stated that such behaviour "prohibits any further discussion". The ICC immediately and publicly expressed its solidarity with the IBRP and also denounced the LAWV. The aim of our 2002 article, Defense of the revolutionary milieu in Internationalism 122 was to defend both the IBRP and the sympathiser AS, and the honour of the whole Communist Left