A new start for the forum

The forum of the ICC in the English language has existed for nearly ten years. In those years numerous discussions have taken place on this forum, and as many contacts and readers of the press of the ICC made use of it to express their views and to share them with other comrades, who were interested in the subject. The items that have been discussed in in these years were very varied, ranging  from “Do stones talk to us?” and “The ICC as a fraction” to “Anarchists and the war question”.

But the number of subjects and posts  is not the most important. More important is the fact that the debates on the forum have permitted the contacts and the readers of the press of the ICC to deepen their comprehension of the the situation of capitalism and the development of the class struggle. And this is also the main objective of the forum: the development of debates, in which everyone, engaged in the struggle against repression and exploitation, is invited to contribute to the clarification of the questions, essential for the development of a class perspective.

The debates that took place on the forum in the past 10 years have been possible since there has been an organisations that watches over the culture of debate and oversees the discussions taking place in the fraternal spirit. A real debate among internationalists is only possible if there exists, without hiding the divergences and the contradictory positions of course, a respect for the visions of others. Insults and cynicism, arrogance and brutality are incompatible with the development and the defence of any proletarian position.

Ten years ago the forum was launched without any thorough preparation. Reading the first threads, one cannot really discover a plan behind it. It started as kind of public billboard, where everyone could paste his messages or make his announcements without the intention of really deepening a certain question. In the course of the years this has improved and the forum has even been used to develop some articles for the press and to be published on the website.

But at the same time the ICC has not always paid enough attention to the forum and it has certainly not given sufficient orientation for the discussions. However in this particular period of the Covid crisis we have become more aware that the forum can fulfill an important function for the theoretical struggle of the class.

As capitalism has no future to offer, people fear for the future, engendering the tendency towards irrational thinking or retreating into a corner. As response to this tendency it is the responsibility of the revolutionary organisation to create the conditions for its contacts and the readers of its press to be able to “open up” and to participate in the elaboration of the theory as “the head of passion”. Every contribution to the expression of a rational, rigorous and coherent thought is welcome. What we want is that the forum becomes a fertile ground for the increase of the taste for theory.

In particular the ICC wants

• To intervene on a more regular basis in the discussions.This means that, from time to time, the team responsible for the forum will give its comment on the stakes of the discussion, on the way this discussion develops, what the main points are that should be clarified and to make proposals for the continuation of the discussion.
• To develop the forum in such a way that more contacts are invited and encouraged to participate and not only contacts from the UK, but from Australia to Canada and from Spain to Sweden. In the deepening of the internationalist positions we need the contribution from contacts all around the world.
• The scrutiny of the forum needs to take place in a more rigorous way than in the past. We hope in future to count on the work of some of our more regular contributors to the forum to assist us in this task.
• In contrast to the posts of individual members of the organisation, which are signed with their own name, posts signed under the name “Forumteam” express a position agreed on by the organisation. 

“Under the present conditions of the Covid-19 crisis it is more than ever necessary for all who fight for the proletarian revolution to express their solidarity with each other and maintain their connections. While we have to isolate ourselves physically for the time being, we can still come together politically!” (Leaflet of the ICC)