ICC intervention in web forums

The ICC participates in a number of different web forums across the world. In Spain, for example, we have been contributing to the CNT’s forums at alasbarricadas.org. We have also helped to create a new forum for the emerging internationalist milieu in Russia (see the article in International Review 118 introducing the Internationalist Discussion Forum.

More and more these forums are a point of reference for a whole new generation of people looking for answers about the future capitalism has in store for humanity. Our participation in such forums is thus aimed at stimulating this process of discussion and providing a communist perspective on the questions it raises.

At present, the ICC in Britain has been directing most of its efforts towards two forums, urban75.net and libcom.org. The latter in particular is a major focus for those who identify with a ‘libertarian’ political standpoint. We have taken part in or joined up with a number of threads – on the trade unions, on council communism and anarcho-syndicalism, on whether communism is inevitable, on whether the ICC is a sect…. Debate can be difficult and there is a certain amount of hostility and suspicion towards us, especially from those who are steeped in ‘official’ anarchism. Despite this, we are perfectly able to put forward our positions and in some of the threads there is a real attempt to answer what we have to say, allowing for a genuine discussion.

We certainly intend to continue taking part in these and probably other forums. Readers who want to follow our interventions and the discussions around them should search for the contributions from wld_rvn (urban75) and wld_rvn, beltov, and gustave (libcom). We also strongly encourage our readers and sympathisers to get involved in the process as well. Just click on the relevant forums and they will explain their procedures and ground rules. It would be useful if sympathisers could send us their usernames so that we can follow their threads.

In a forthcoming issue of WR we will give a fuller account of the most interesting web forum discussions we have taken part in so far.

WR 2/7/5