Internationalist Communist

Internationalist Communist - 23

webmaster — Wed, 01 Jun 2005 13:59:59 +0200

Editorial

webmaster — Wed, 01 Jun 2005 13:59:58 +0200

To say that these are difficult times for revolutionaries is to take understatement to the point of caricature. We are living through one of the longest economic crises in capitalism’s history (at least 32 years) and yet there has been neither a resolution to the crisis nor even the beginnings of a proletarian response. In the last few months some have actually voiced the view that the crisis either does not exist, or, it is of such longevity that it no longer matters. The capitalist crisis does exist and it does matter. Empirically the statistics demonstrate the consequences of the crisis. World per capita GDP growth in 1961 was 3.6%.

To Our Readers - Internationalist Communist

webmaster — Wed, 01 Jun 2005 13:59:57 +0200

This is the last in the current series of Internationalist Communist. It was created to act as the central organ of the International Bureau for the Revolutionary Party when it was set up. At that time there were only two affiliated organisations, the Communist Workers’ Organisation in the UK and Il Partito Comunista Internazionalista in Italy. At that time it was relatively easy to coordinate the work of the two groups particularly given the contribution and energy of Mauro Stefanini. However the growth of the Bureau and the establishment of Bilan & Perspectives in France and the International Workers Organisation in Canada and the USA means that the need for wider internal debate has become a greater priority. Added to this is the new reality of the internet.

On the Events in France

webmaster — Wed, 01 Jun 2005 13:59:56 +0200

Statement of the International Bureau for the Revolutionary Party

For the thirteenth consecutive night, working class suburbs mainly occupied by immigrant workers have been the victim of riots. At first these were in the suburbs on the outskirts of Paris and then were extended to the provinces where they were repeated in cities like Lyon, Bordeaux and Nantes… but also in smaller towns like Blois or Rennes. Since October 27^th, over 4000 vehicles have been torched along with countless numbers of buildings, both public and private.

In Memory of Mauro who has left us so soon

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From Battaglia Comunista 6 June 2005

On 2^nd May we lost Mauro Stefanini. He was killed by cancer, the illness of our miserable age. Right up to the end we hoped his vitality and will to live would enable him to win through, but it wasn’t to be. The disease won, even if it didn’t succeed in humiliating him as it came up against his insurmountable reserves of courage and dignity. For this reason, the last memory we have of him is not his sunny smile, his clear gaze, that incredibly youthful air and spirit of his which he had managed to preserve over time and which meant he was loved by all the comrades and everyone who had the good fortune to know him, but instead an appearance that signalled physical pain and suffering.

Letter from Comrade Franca

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Dear Comrades,

I know that at the opening of the AGM there will be a space to remember Mauro, the comrade and the man. I am sending my thoughts to help complete the all-round profile which the comrades will certainly be giving of the communist fighter/militant.

Mauro was a natural communist: his daily life, his feelings, his spontaneous reaction to events in life, they were all an expression of his need for class justice, of his intolerance of every form of bourgeois power, whether economic, political or cultural.

The Commemoration at Calusca in Milan and the messages of solidarity

webmaster — Wed, 01 Jun 2005 13:59:53 +0200

The Commemoration of comradeMauro Stefanini was held on Saturday 28^th May at the Calusca bookshop in Milan.

The room in which the Commemoration was held was packed with comrades, family and friends, united to give a last salute to a man who was profoundly loved and appreciated by all who had the fortune to know him.

The Commemoration started with a speech from a comrade of the party who outlined Mauro’s biographical profile: a profile from which emerged a life naturally dedicated to the fight for justice, a passionate and militant fighter for Battaglia Comunista.

Tribute to Mauro from the CWO (UK)

webmaster — Wed, 01 Jun 2005 13:59:52 +0200

It is perhaps too early to write or say anything dispassionate about someone who was such an enormous presence but this message comes from the entire CWO for whom Mauro was, in the words Lenin used of Bukharin, “the favourite of our party”. This is not only due to his warm and engaging personality. From the very beginning Mauro was the initiator of contact between the CWO and the PCInt. and over the years it was principally through Mauro’s visits that those of us who don’t know Italian were able to realise the extent of our common political ground.

The CWO was founded in 1975 with the union of two groups, Revolutionary Perspectives and Workers Voice. A new platform, heavily influenced by the German Left, was produced and accepted in September that year.

Tributes from other comrades

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From Comrade Dédé on behalf of Bilan et Perspectives, affiliate of the Bureau in France

…Naturally I had understood that that there could be no other conclusion, but this news has upset me deeply. I am thinking of the grief of Franca and of his daughters, of Gea who is still so young. I am thinking of all the comrades who knew and appreciated Mauro for years and years. Mauro came here last summer and I gave him some apricots from the garden. I remember his delight (“an apricot which tastes like apricot”!). I weep once again that I won’t be able to give him any more.

Refining the Concept of Decadence

webmaster — Wed, 01 Jun 2005 13:59:50 +0200

The document which follows is the result of a wide-ranging debate amongst all the organisations which adhere to the International Bureau. This common work is a measure of the increasing degree of homogeneity of the Bureau itself which is a fundamental premise for the us to reach the objective which we have set ourselves — the rebuilding of the revolutionary party on an international scale.

Introduction

Capitalism in its Historical Context

Every previous society has, at a certain point of its development, reached a period of decay which, over time, characterises it more and more, leading to the prevalence of a parasitic appropriation of wealth and a drive toward barbarism.

From this many get the idea that every decaying social formation goes through a process of biological ageing like that of living organisms which is ultimately destined to an inevitable end through its own internal contradictions.

World Revolution and True Marxism - a letter from Norway

webmaster — Wed, 01 Jun 2005 13:59:49 +0200

As we were going to press we received the following letter from a sympathiser of the communist left tradition in Norway who has informed us that he was previously a follower of Maoism which he no longer regards as a proletarian current. The letter is to be welcomed as it underlines what many correspondents have been telling us since the collapse of the former USSR and its empire that capitalist relations in the territory of the old Russian Empire were not overthrown but were developed with the state becoming a collective capitalist. “Really existing socialism” as its defenders smugly asserted having now collapsed, we can get back to analysing what a really socialist society is all about.

The Question of Consciousness: A Basis for Discussion

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Translated from Bilan & Perspectives No. 6 (December 2005)

The text which follows as part of a series of discussions between communists in France. This particular text is a reply to a document by the comrades who still call themselves the Internal Fraction of the International Communist Current although some years have now passed since they were in that organisation. The quotations at the end of the text are from that document of the IFICC.

The question of consciousness is a wide one but this document only deals with the relationship of the party and the class.

Terrorism and Democracy: Imperialism's Final Frontier

webmaster — Wed, 01 Jun 2005 13:59:47 +0200

Capitalism’s latest theme is the struggle to defend democracy against terrorism. But what is this democracy? It exploits labour power, impoverishes the proletariat by progressively eroding its health, its pensions and its standard of living through the intensification of the working day and the lowering of its purchasing power. It guarantees only more unemployment and uncertain conditions in the future. This democracy is a ferocious military predator on the international scene in order to acquire strategic raw materials. It uses terrorism when it coincides with its own interests and opposes it only when it no longer suits it.

Internationalist Communist - 22

webmaster — Fri, 01 Aug 2003 13:59:59 +0200

The roots of the war in Iraq

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The USA consumes 19.5 million barrels of oil a day, some 26% of the world’s consumption. More than half (9.8 million) is originated in order from: Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Canada, Venezuela, Nigeria and Iraq. Iraq, after Saudi Arabia, possesses the worlds greatest oil reserves and a barrel of its oil costs 5 dollars to produce, whilst that of Texas costs 15 dollars. [1]

Moreover, the American economy is living through the worst recession since the Second World War. Last April, when only a few months earlier, according to many analysts, the first consistent signs of economic recovery were evident, industrial production suffered a 0.5% decrease in comparison with a 0.4% decrease for March 2002.

China, a boom with feet of clay

webmaster — Fri, 01 Aug 2003 13:59:57 +0200

All bourgeois economists are terrified by the catastrophic consequences which may be produced by SARS (the so-called severe acute respiratory syndrome) in the Chinese economy and the consequences on an international level. Will the astonishing Chinese economic development succeed in overcoming the panic of recent months or will it decline, dragging the entire world economy into the vortex of another recession? The doubts which afflict bourgeois economists throw us violently back into the Middle Ages, when a simple epidemic was enough to precipitously lower the standard of living of millions of human beings, simultaneously showing to what extent the much-praised Chinese development is more the fruit of particular conditions in the world economy rather than of an endogenous process.

Internationalist Communist - 21

webmaster — Thu, 01 Aug 2002 13:59:59 +0200

Editorial

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In present conditions we could have entitled this issue simply “socialism or barbarism” because that is precisely where we are in world history. It is not a rhetorical flourish, nor an exaggeration, to say that humanity is approaching a massive social and political crisis. The events of this year have speeded that process up.

The threat of war in Kashmir may have been replaced by the threat of war against Iraq, or Iran, or anywhere else the USA identifies as a “terrorist state” but the dangers are no less. Since the explosive social mixture of religious fundamentalism threatens, in different ways, to undermine the regimes in Delhi and Islamabad the prospect of a revival of open war preparations cannot be far away. However the two nuclear powers of South Asia are not the only states which threaten the world with nuclear mayhem.

War Over Kashmir - A Threat To Us All

webmaster — Thu, 01 Aug 2002 13:59:57 +0200

The following text is based on a presentation given at a public meeting of No War But The Class War in Sheffield in June at the height of the Pakistan-India confrontation over Kashmir. The immediate threat of war in that arena has receded but the causes which brought on the crisis have not gone away. Given the general global decline of capitalist profitability and the threat this poses to the social peace for any ruling class the threat of new crises and wars remains very real.

Comments on the Latest Crisis of the ICC

webmaster — Thu, 01 Aug 2002 13:59:56 +0200

We find ourselves facing yet another political/organisational crisis of the ICC, the conclusion of which is still undecided. It occurs at a delicate moment for the capitalist dynamic as well as the proletarian movement. On the bourgeois side, the drive towards war has accelerated with the military initiative of the USA following the attack on the World Trade Centre. As for the proletariat, Argentina is the first great episode of class revolt which in spite of, or rather, because of its considerable limitations, poses enormous problems for the proletarian vanguards, or those who thus describe themselves.

At the same time as issuing this document the Bureau is distributing an international document/manifesto regarding events in Argentina. Besides being an urgent call for the international party, this aims to be a serious invitation to all those claiming to be the class vanguard. Faced with that, what is the ICC doing?

Workers' Struggles in Argentina - Polemic with the ICC

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Introduction

The Argentinian economic collapse is a preview of future turmoil which capitalism’s crisis will inevitably bring. It is from such a collapse that revolutionaries look for the seeds of a future revolutionary assault on the entire capitalist system. The political forces of the communist left have understood both the seriousness and the potential of this crisis, however, they have differed in their assessment of the response of the Argentinian working class. While the IBRP has seen in these struggles the potential for future revolutionary struggles the ICC has dismissed them as “sterile revolts”. Although we consider the ICC’s conclusions are wrong, the present text is not aimed at refuting them. What follows attempts to expose the method through which the ICC analyses these events and to locate in its method the root of its erratic pronouncements.

The Significance of Argentina’s Collapse

The Piqueteros Movement of Argentina

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From our Latin American correspondent

A Little History

Argentina’s current crisis of power has not only arisen because of the capitalist financial collapse, but from the aptitude of the hardest hit sectors of the proletariat to translate the experience of the last 20 years — during which the capitalist regime, whether under the military boot or under democracy, has plunged the working class into misery and super-exploitation — into autonomous organisations which restore to the masses the power to decide their own destiny. One of the characteristics of revolutionary periods is the organisation of sectors of the proletariat which were previously disorganised and thought destined to occupy a passive role in the dismal industrial reserve army. The origins of the piquetero movement go back six years ago when the first nuclei responded to the initiatives of experienced worker activists who had been fired as a result of bourgeois persecution.

Argentina - After the December 2001 Insurrection

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Argentina, and indeed most of Latin America, remains on the edge of a social cataclysm. There is not a day goes by without some major protest against the state of the economy. In June two more protestors were shot in cold blood by the police which has only led to more protests. These have now spread to neighbouring Uruguay. The economic and social crisis in Argentina is a living issue, not just for a continent in economic meltdown but also for the world capitalist system.

In the summer of 2001 we published an article from our South American sympathisers of the International Bureau for the Revolutionary Party on the economic crisis in Argentina. This concluded that the attempts of the De La Rua Government to follow the dictates of the IMF and make the workers pay even more for the crisis of Argentine capitalism would not only

bring the deepening of recession and pauperisation, but will also lead to the outbreak of class conflict [1].

A Lesson from Argentina - Either the Revolutionary Party and Socialism or Generalised Poverty and War

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Statement of the IBRP

Argentina, pummelled by an economic, financial and political crisis which has no precedent in this post second world war period, has been torn apart and the vast majority of its population reduced to hunger. When the media and the institutions that govern the world economy, like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, break the wall of silence that they have imposed on themselves, they will attribute guilt for this disaster entirely to the local political class and its entrenched corruption. But in truth the root of Argentina’s situation is the long-running crisis in which the entire world capitalist system is thrashing about. It is the product of this crisis and at the same time it marks a decisive turn in that crisis, a testimony to the fact that from now on any country in the world could be the next Argentina.

The Origins of the Crisis

Statement on the Relationship of Los Angeles Workers Voice (LAWV) with the IBRP

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Given the fact that until recently the IBRP has considered the group in Los Angeles, formerly know as Los Angeles Workers’ Voice, as an organisation politically sympathetic and working towards closer relations and eventual integration with the Bureau as a whole, it is important to clarify that this is no longer the situation. The IBRP no longer endorses the Los Angeles group as being able to genuinely represent our political positions, aims or method of work.

In April 2000, at a meeting with North American sympathisers of the IBRP in Montreal, the LAWV delegates agreed that all US comrades would work together towards transforming Internationalist Notes [then published by a single comrade in Wisconsin) into a regular publication for distribution through the whole of the United States.

Internationalist Communist - 20

webmaster — Wed, 01 Aug 2001 13:59:59 +0200

Editorial

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Davos, Quebec, Gothenburg, Genoa… this year has been one of ‘anti-capitalist’ protests. To judge by the response from state security forces it seems that governments see these protests as a massive threat. In fact the anti-capitalist or anti-globalisation movement is no more than a thorn in the side for the powers-that-be. The massive display of state repression against the protesters is really an indication of the arrogant self-assurance that the most powerful states — those who boast about democracy — feel about their existence. Our rulers sense that the social mish-mash of an anti-capitalist ‘movement’ where the working class is hardly to be seen as an independent force, is not a serious threat.

IBRP Statement

webmaster — Wed, 01 Aug 2001 13:59:57 +0200

Leaflet distributed at the G8 protests by comrades of Battaglia Comunista.

Comrades

Globalisation is a term dear to the bourgeoisie and its mass media but we’d prefer to call it what it really is — imperialism. By this we mean the present mode of existence of capitalism made up of the undisputed rule of finance capital on the one hand and the capacity to distribute throughout the entire planet the different stages of the process of production (from tinned tomatoes to cars or toys) on the other [1]. The rule of finance capital isn’t under the control of one centre. Because it is finance capital it is made up of many capitals leading to competition between different centres and state alliances.

Quebec Summit - A Gathering of Vampires

webmaster — Wed, 01 Aug 2001 13:59:56 +0200

Internationalist Notes’ statement distributed at the protests during the Summit of the Americas. Translation from the original French version.

Can there be a single person living in Canada who hasn’t heard of the important summit to be held in Quebec City, from April 20^th to the 22^nd 2001? For months now, we have been witness to an unprecedented media barrage. Not a single news report goes by without the anchor devoting headlines to the event and no newspaper is published without giving ample coverage on the stakes of this meeting.

We know that this summit will bring together 34 of the 35 heads of state of the Americas, the exception being Cuba. They will be accompanied by 9000 “partners” (bureaucrats, capitalists, trade unionists and academics) who will participate at different levels of the discussion. We also know that the goal of the summit is the implementation of a Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA), by 2005 if possible.

1921: Beginning of the Counter-revolution?

webmaster — Wed, 01 Aug 2001 13:59:55 +0200

Today we are the witnesses of a tragedy of a social revolution being contained within national frontiers, as a result of the passivity of the peoples of Europe faced with intelligent and well-armed reactionary forces. It is thus stifled and reduced to playing for time with the enemy within and without. We have seen many mistakes made, many errors revealed and from the libertarian point of view many precious truths have been confirmed.

Latin America - Critique of a bourgeois programme passed off as "socialist"

webmaster — Wed, 01 Aug 2001 13:59:54 +0200

Considered objectively, despite its “Marxist” and “communist” airs, the socialism of the Latin American “left” has, in reality, a bourgeois-democratic orientation. From the outset it has been the ideological head of a simple bourgeois nationalist/reformist movement adorned with a socialist phraseology. Despite the unwary who have ended up seduced by their verbal radicalism, the current Left governments of the world are carrying out what, until now, the right have only dared to dream. Today it has been made clear that the only point which differentiates right and left resides in the political ritual and the rhetoric used to manipulate the masses.

The New International will be the International Party of the Proletariat

webmaster — Wed, 01 Aug 2001 13:59:53 +0200

This is the second of two articles of orientation for the International Bureau, presented by the PCInt. It elaborates how the world party of the future will differ from previous communist parties and the III International and outlines the role of the IBRP today in moving towards the creation of that future party. Both articles are still being translated and discussed by Bureau members and sympathisers.

We concluded our previous article by maintaining that:

The old political category of “proletarian political camp”, which we ourselves gave to correct the erroneous definition of “revolutionary camp” insisted upon by the ICC at the time, has been superseded.

The Proletariat Opposes the Imperialist War Firmly Resolved to Reach its Own Historical Objectives

webmaster — Wed, 01 Aug 2001 13:59:52 +0200

Historical Appendix — Statement from Prometeo, Year 21, 1^st November 1943 — the first issue in Italy after the collapse of Mussolini’s central government.

Introduction

In November 1943 the first issue of Prometeo to be published inside Italy since 1924 appeared [1]. It was published by the Internationalist Communist Party (Partito Comunista Internazionalista/PCInt) which was just being formed under the principal impetus of comrades like Onorato Damen, Fausto Atti, Mario Acquaviva, expelled from the PCI (Communist Party of Italy) in the Thirties for resisting its Stalinisation and now released from prison. Alongside them were newly-returned political exiles like Luciano (Mauro) Stefanini and Ottorino Perrone (Vercesi) who had kept up the political work of the Italian Left communists with the publication of Bilan and Prometeo in France and Belgium up to the outbreak of the War.

Situation in the USA - The Way Forward for the IBRP

webmaster — Wed, 01 Aug 2001 13:59:51 +0200

IBRP Introduction

In the previous issue we reported on the first meeting of the IBRP with its supporters in North America. It was decided then that the geographically disparate US comrades would work together to make Internationalist Notes (then published in Wisconsin) a regular publication of all IBRP supporters in the US. This task, of course, was more than a practical one of overcoming physical distance but above all a political task of unification and consolidation: both within the group of supporters in Los Angeles [which had no formal organisational frame] and between them and Internationalist Notes. In the event the attempt to work together has led to differences. The political reason for this is more and more being revealed as the LA comrades’ reluctance to accept the Bureau’s perspective on the situation facing political minorities and how to go about building the nucleus of a revolutionary political organisation.

Internationalist Communist - 19

webmaster — Sun, 01 Oct 2000 13:59:59 +0200

Editorial

webmaster — Sun, 01 Oct 2000 13:59:58 +0200

For over a decade the International Bureau had to face increasing political isolation as the working class lost confidence in itself under the blows of economic restructuring and political disorientation (the twin myths of the collapse of communism and the disappearance of the working class). However, as the old millenium breathes its last we are encouraged by a marked resurgence of interest from new political elements throughout the world and by the movement of existing sympathisers to consolidate themselves and become fully integrated organisations of the Bureau.

Prague S26

webmaster — Sun, 01 Oct 2000 13:59:57 +0200

Prague S26

Only the World Working Class can Put a Stop to Capitalist “Globalisation” — IBRP Statement on the occasion of the September protests at the IMF/World Bank meeting

This time it’s the turn of the bureaucrats of the World Bank and the IMF to run the gauntlet of “anti-capitalist” protests as they gather in Prague for their 55^th annual general meeting. Whilst the rich countries continue with their empty promises to reduce “3^rd World” debt, while the yawning chasm between the income of the tiny minority of the world’s rich and the whole of the world’s poor put together continues to grow, and while the ruthless erosion of workers’ working and living conditions remains unchecked, the umbrella movement against the disastrous effects of capitalism’s recent development has not yet run out of steam.

Old Capitalism, New Movement?

US Boom: Triumph of the Paper Economy

webmaster — Sun, 01 Oct 2000 13:59:56 +0200

Translated from Prometeo 18, December 1999

Eight years of uninterrupted growth in GDP, an inflation rate well under two per cent and unemployment amongst the lowest in the world (4.5 per cent): all these have turned the USA into a new mystery for political economy. All the specialist magazines are talking about it while the daily press now assumes that the American recipe is the panacea against all evil. It doesn’t matter whether the subject is teenage growing pains, the migraine of bank employees or higher petrol prices, the recipe is always the same: America! Except that in America itself the economists can’t agree on the reasons for this brilliant achievement. The high priests of monetarism maintain that credit should go to the government’s rigorous budget policies and a flexible labour market.

Towards the New International

webmaster — Sun, 01 Oct 2000 13:59:55 +0200

Translated from Prometeo Series VI No.1, June 2000

Before we can talk about a new International we need to be clear about two things: the first is the reason why an International is necessary and the second is what were the main characteristics of previous Internationals.

Why Do We Need an International?

The Communist Manifesto of Marx and Engels concludes with the words, “Workers of the World, Unite!” This alone would be a good enough argument for the advanced part of the working class, the communists, to unite immediately in a political organisation which went beyond national boundaries and identities, to embrace all countries. Even in Marx and Engels’ time, well before “globalisation”, capital was international. It was already a relation of production which dominated the greater part of the countries that existed and where the two great conflicting classes were the proletariat and the bourgeoisie.

Statement on the War in Chechnya

webmaster — Sun, 01 Oct 2000 13:59:54 +0200

From Russia

IBRP Introduction

Behind the conflict in Chechnya lies the external competition with the imperialist powers of the west. In particular the US and Europe are each competing to gain a foothold in Central Asia. Azerbaijan’s government has recently agreed to start shipping Caspian Oil via the Baku-Novorossisk pipeline. It is this oil that is to be shipped over the Black Sea to Turkey and then to the west. Russian tariffs are regarded as all too high by the west. It is the US that seeks to build a pipeline from Baku to Ceyhan through over a thousand miles of mountainous earthquake prone territory. The main ally of the US in the region is Turkey, which the US sees as playing the role of a stabilizing mini-power. One of the desires of US imperialism is that Kazakhstan will be a major source for the petroleum needed to justify the building of such a pipeline. So far the US finds countries like Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan difficult to deal with.

News of Radical Communists of Ukraine

webmaster — Sun, 01 Oct 2000 13:59:53 +0200

In early summer the IBRP received the following letter from a group hitherto unknown to us, Radical Communists of Ukraine. We are publishing it with our reply, not only as testimony to the emergence of a range of groups striving for revolutionary clarity in the ex-USSR, but also to extend a warm welcome to the comrades who have since translated the IBRP Platform into Russian and Ukrainian. [See the IBRP website.] We are even more encouraged that the comrades were able to say,

Public Sector Strike or Sapping of the Workers’ Movement

webmaster — Sun, 01 Oct 2000 13:59:52 +0200

Public Sector Strike or Sapping of the Workers’ Movement

From Colombia

Background to New Bourgeois Measures, Reaction of the Masses and Imperialist Promises

In Colombia a process of insurrection has been unleashed by capitalism as the conflict between the two bourgeois military fronts is extended and exacerbated. This flare-up also involves a struggle for total control over the drugs business in an exceptional situation where the imperialist bourgeoisie and the marginalised of Colombia and other neighbouring countries are fighting a ferocious battle. If the former have a means to expand their super profits in the shape of the multibillion drugs business, the latter have found — in the hallucinogens which sedate the inhabitants of the metropoles — the “gold of the poor”, a sure path to the El Dorado of capitalist wealth which up until now they had only viewed on their TV screens.

Peyke Anternasionalisti - Communists, the Working Class and the Election Issue

webmaster — Sun, 01 Oct 2000 13:59:51 +0200

IBRP Introduction

This article is translated from Peyke Anternasionalisti nos. 8 and 9, December 1999. It was written prior to the elections held later that month and which brought a landslide reformist victory. The response of the powerful Council of Guardians was to declare that there had been irregularities in the vote counting for some areas in Tehran and it was doubtful whether some of the newly elected members were legitimate members of parliament. A few weeks later, after an appropriate amount of hype to give people the sense that they had achieved something, the spiritual leader Ayatollah Khamenei intervened and the opening of the sixth session of parliament, with a reformist majority, was officially announced for 27^th May 2000.

Khatami’s coalition front and the opposition groups joyfully spoke of a new era of “law and order” and of “people’s democracy”.

Internationalist Communist - 18

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Editorial

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In sharp contrast to the millennium hullabaloo which ushered in the year 2000, this issue of Internationalist Communist is a stark reminder of the real situation facing humanity at the turn of the century.

Far from heralding an era of universal peace and prosperity, over a decade after the end of the Cold War capitalism is still exacting its toll of human misery. Over the past year there has hardly been a publication of the International Bureau which has not mentioned the growing impoverishment of the working class both on the periphery and in the heartlands of the system. While bourgeois academics and journalists discuss the meaning of poverty and split hairs over the distinction between its “absolute” and “relative” form, a Marxist analysis points rather to the similarity of the condition of the working class throughout the world when capital is bent on driving down the cost of labour power to offset falling profit rates.

Control Over the Oil Market in an Epoch Where Finance Dominates

webmaster — Sat, 01 Jan 2000 12:59:57 +0100

Translated from Prometeo 17, June 1999

During 1998 the price of oil fell by 29.7% compared to 1997. This is the fifth largest drop since 1921 and means the period 1986 to date has experienced the biggest price reduction in recent times (-51.1%). Despite this, however, the economic analysts still maintain that the market is afflicted by an excess supply of around 1.5 million barrels per day. Armed with this information, those who argue that NATO’s attack on Serbia was carried out for exclusively humanitarian reasons are having a field day against those who maintain, on the contrary, that behind such a massive aerial bombardment were once again the IMF, the EEC and Russia and their plan to construct pipelines to carry oil directly from the Caucasus and the Caspian Sea to the North Sea and the Adriatic, thus bypassing the Persian Gulf. That, in short, this was the latest war of the West to have oil at low cost or, according to some, quite simply at zero cost.

The WTO is a Symptom, the Disease is Capitalism

webmaster — Sat, 01 Jan 2000 12:59:56 +0100

On the WTO Millenium Round in Seattle, Nov. 27, 1999 — Statement of the IBRP

War and Revolutionary Politics

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Translated from Prometeo 17, June 1999

NATO’s war in the Balkans (which in effect meant bombarding the Yugoslav Federation from a height of ten thousand metres) proved far more than anything else recently just what an enormous gulf separates the Marxist minority from the whole of the left bourgeoisie, however radical, which still dominates the political scene. It is as much a theoretical as a political gulf — demonstrated first and foremost by the use of an entirely different methodology as well as by the contrasting political implications and conclusions drawn for the present and future.

Clearly the true reasons for this war — as for every other war involving capitalist states — lie in the economic, strategic and political interests which each state represents and defends and not in the ideological fog manufactured and spread by the bourgeoisie and its hangers-on.

Revolutionaries Faced With the Prospect of War

webmaster — Sat, 01 Jan 2000 12:59:54 +0100

… and the Current Situation of the Working Class — Statement of the IBRP

The fact that the recent war in the Balkans took place in Europe itself plus the way it was fought (both during and after the NATO bombings) shows that we have taken a significant step towards generalised imperialist war. The wars which have broken out in Daghestan and other former Soviet Republics are yet another step. Here Russia is opposed to guerrilla movements operating under a radical mixture of nationalist and religious ideologies, but which in reality are encouraged by competing imperialisms.

ICC - Idealism or Marxism

webmaster — Sat, 01 Jan 2000 12:59:53 +0100

Once Again on the Fatal Flaws of the ICC

Introduction

The following article is from an ex-ICC member who has been in close contact with the Bureau since 1995. Unlike other ex-members of the International Communist Current, he has not resorted to the comforting theory that the working class will liberate itself without political organisation (or even worse, that all political organisations are simply rackets — an ideological myth which perfectly suits the ruling class). Instead he has discussed and debated with the IBRP over a range of issues (including the nature of communist society and the way in which a revolutionary organisation can and must work today). Having already announced himself to be a sympathiser of the Bureau at a CWO public meeting, he participated in the IBRP campaign in Britain against the war between Serbia and NATO last year. The text here clarifies the main issues over which he has broken with his ICC past.

Sylvia Pankhurst: the meaning of the revolutionary years

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For anyone espousing communist politics today the appearance of a book which deals seriously with Sylvia Pankhurst’s political progression from militant reformist (suffragette) to revolutionary and left-wing communist is of more than passing interest.

Unfortunately, as the book’s title suggests, the author herself is not really aware that this is what she has elected to do in recording Pankhurst’s years of “political work in the East End of London”. As it happens Pankhurst’s time in the East End (1912-24) spanned some of the most traumatic years of capitalism’s existence, a period which even bourgeois historians have come to recognise as an historical watershed.

War and Revolution: The End of the Old World Order

Internationalist Communist - 17

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Editorial

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The last IC was a special edition devoted to Battaglia Comunista’s VIth Congress. As a result of this we have a backlog of material to publish. However, this heftier than usual issue also reflects the growing international work of the IBRP, something which has also helped delay us going to press.

It is no coincidence that as capitalism’s global crisis brings new depths of misery and poverty to the world proletariat there is increasing interest in the Communist Left from around the globe. Many of the groups and individuals who have written to us recently have been moved by the futility of left capitalist reformism to break with the social democratic, Trotskyist or other organisations they once belonged to and are now searching for political clarity. From the USA and Canada, through Russia to Iran and Sweden, militants moving into the proletarian camp are confronted with a so-called Communist Left divided into a variety of groups and tendencies.

NATO Bombings of Yugoslavia: War Against the Working Class

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Statement of the IBRP (25.3.99)

Introduction

The NATO bombings in Yugoslavia cannot be understood as a single event. They are part of a continuing story of contemporary capitalism. All the features that make up the horrors of life under this decaying social system are present. The first is the capitalist crisis. The crisis of accumulation first arrived in the early 1970s. At first it brought a new wave of class struggle but by the 1980s the stagnation of the world economy led to a new level of capital concentration. Western states were forced to deregulate and privatise their economies in a competitive effort to increase inward investment. In Eastern Europe, where the state was both main banker and main capitalist, the crisis brought economic ruin. This provoked the collapse of the both the USSR and the old Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia.

The crisis of Yugoslavia in the late 1980s also provoked a wave of strikes.

Disharmony Over the Euro

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Translated from Prometeo #15, June 1998

In December 1988 few people believed that European Monetary Union [EMU] would ever happen. Even the committee of central bank governors, presided over by the then Commissioner Delors and charged with the task of drawing up a plan to implement EMU, was sceptical. The committee envisaged three distinct phases lasting more than ten years and with the possibility of further delays. In fact such scepticism was not completely unfounded. How would states with different traditions, languages, and especially economies, be able to agree on the creation of a single currency without first achieving some form of political unification? Nor could it be forgotten that the same states had laboured for over forty years just to create a free exchange area.

The United States is only now starting to show signs of annoyance.

Materialism and Idealism - A reply to the ICC

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In IC15 we wrote on “The Political Roots of the ICC’s Organisational Malaise”. The article was our attempt to explain why the International Communist Current (ICC) had suffered a severe crisis (particularly in its most important section in France) and why this had led them to lash out at other communist organisations, in particular the Communist Workers’ Organisation (CWO), the British affiliate of the International Bureau. The CWO replied on its own account in Revolutionary Perspectives (Series 3 No.5) in an article entitled “Sects, Lies and the Lost Perspectives of the ICC”. We are not going to repeat the statements we made there. What our two articles have in common is that they point out to the ICC that the real cause of its crisis was political, not organisational. Their problems stemmed from wrong political perspectives about the imminence of a proletarian upsurge. An organisation can only go on shouting that revolution is just around the corner for so long.

The ICC Criticises the Proletarian Struggle Groups (GLP)

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Translated from Battaglia Comunista #12, December 1998

In the June-September 1998 issue of the ICC’s Rivoluzione Internazionale, an article appeared entitled “The Proletarian Struggle Groups, an Unfinished Attempt to Achieve Revolutionary Coherence”. It was quickly translated and published in the ICC’s other international publications. It is fitting that we, as Party militants who work inside the Proletarian Struggle Groups, give a reply, seeing that the criticism was not only directed at the GLP, but also at the Party’s relationship with them.

We would like to begin by pointing out that reading the article caused a certain annoyance amongst the militants of the GLP, given that the assessment it made is based on a superficial reading, if not on outright prejudice. The article begins by placing the GLP

Why the IBRP Will Not Be Attending the ICC Congress

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For the Record

Dear Comrades

In response to your letter inviting us to your next Congress, we are pleased to see that the ICC is abandoning its policy of demonisation and denunciation of the IBRP as “parasitic”, “sectarian”, etc. We welcome the re-establishment of what should have been the natural fraternal relationship between internationalists.

Nevertheless, our fundamental differences on method and perspectives remain, as the recent polemic on the work we are doing with the GLP demonstrates.

Now, to invite another political organisation to one’s own Congress is not simply an act of courtesy but has precise political significance. Given the history of our political relations over the past twenty years the only significance the invitation to your Congress could have is that of an hypothetical political convergence: a convergence which, however, does not exist.

Peyke Anternasionalisti - Aims and Positions

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Introduction

The long interval since the publication of a regular issue of IC means that our welcome to newcomers to the inter-nationalist proletarian camp is long overdue In particular, it is now over two years since political exiles from Iran — the comrades of Peyke Anternasionalisti [PA] — contacted us and sent us the first issue of their magazine, whose title translates as Internationalist Messenger.

We are publishing here our translation of the statement of Peyke’s political positions which appeared in that first edition.

Together they show us a clear picture of class fighters who have struggled to make sense of their experiences inside Iran.

Peyke Anternasionalisti and the Critical Current Inside the Workers Movement

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Translated from Internationalist Messenger No. 2

Half a century after left capitalist ideology came to dominate over the workers’ movement in Iran, Peyke Anternasionalisti (PA) ( Internationalist Messenger) is the first revolutionary publication to be circulated with a clear Internationalist outlook and policies.

Stating this fact is not to neglect the efforts of the individuals and various political tendencies that have marched on this path. The important point is that these efforts, for many reasons, such as the absence of a true communist tradition in Iran and the isolation of the workers’ political movement on a global level, could never free themselves from the nightmare of the left capitalist framework (i.e. Stalinism, Maoism and Trotskyism).

With the passage of time after the 1979 uprising, the left in Iran has acquired a clear and specific place in Iranian politics.

Correspondence with the South Russian Bureau of the Marxist Labour Party

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Introduction

Regular readers of the IBRP press in English will already have come across the South Russian Bureau of the Marxist Labour Party (MLP). In Revolutionary Perspectives 12 we published their “Appeal for an International Party of Workers’ Self-Government”. Since then the MLP has been in direct contact with us, the initial letters of which are published here.

The MLP’s understandable confusion over the differences between the groups in the camp of the Communist Left, specifically between ourselves and the ICC, evoked a long reply from the CWO on behalf of the IPRP. We are publishing this in the hope that it will be enlight-ening to the growing number of corres-pondents who are asking us about the differences between our two tendencies.

On the crucial issue of the Russian Revolution the discussion between us is still in its infancy.

The Lost Marxism of Critical Trotskyists

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A review of Sean Matgamna’s The Fate of the Russian Revolution: Lost Texts of Critical Marxism [1]

1989-91: End of an Era

The collapse of the Russian bloc gave a great boost to the right wing of capitalism who had long peddled the myth that the monstrosities of Stalinism represented the logical and inevitable outcome of the struggle for socialism. The triumphal crowing about the final triumph of liberal capitalism or even “the end of history” was how they responded to the collapse of their rivals in the fight for world domination.

The left of capitalism’s spectrum, those who had pointed to Stalinism as a model for socialism, were left to mourn the collapse of the model which they had applauded as being worthy of support and admiration.

New Internationalist Communist Publication

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Besides the correspondence in this issue of Internationalist Communist further evidence of a wider interest in the revolutionary traditions of internationalist communism comes from Canada. Here a group of “Left Communist workers” who have been taking part in a discussion circle in Montreal got together to produce a paper called Internationalist Notes.

Without doubt its standpoint is broadly that of proletarian internationalism. It declares (in an echo of our own positions) that

Our aim as workers is the establishment of a stateless, classless, moneyless society without exploitation, national frontiers or standing armies. To achieve this we struggle to join other forces of the Communist Left in view of building a new International for the promotion of world revolution.

The first issue has an excellent balance between articles on the communist programme and the current realities facing the working class both in Canada and internationally.

Internationalist Communist - 16

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Editorial

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On 25^th-27^th April 1997 the Internationalist Communist Party (PCInt), otherwise known by its newspaper, Battaglia Comunista, held its VI Congress in Milan. Also present were delegates from the CWO, Battaglia’s sister organisation in the International Bureau for the Revolutionary Party (IBRP), and messages of support were received from sympathisers in Europe and the USA. [1]

This issue is devoted entirely to the theses and documents accepted by the Congress. There is one omission — the comrades in Italy voted to accept an updated and amended version of the IBRP Platform to replace the old and now outdated PCInt Platform. Thus the ambiguity of having two platforms has been formally removed. The English version of the IBRP Platform will be published shortly as a separate document.

Globalisation and Imperialism

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The theses Crisis and Imperialism which were presented and approved by our last Congress (1983) outline the possible outcomes of the economic crisis which had broken out in the early 1970’s.

The tendency is clear: we are not witnessing a conjunctural crisis which can be resolved in a more or less greater period of time, but a permanent economic crisis the epilogue to which can only be a new world conflict.

The Current State of Capitalism

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From the end of the 1960’s and the early 1970’s, world capitalism has had progressive difficulty with accumulation. This has led to a new situation where the relationship between capital and labour is becoming increasingly embittered. Attacks by the managers of capital on the world of labour are worsening. Meanwhile the level of class struggle — apart from some exceptional episodes — is at its lowest point since the beginning of the century.

Communist Work and the Trades Unions Today

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In the present period of decadence of capitalist society, the union is called upon to be an essential tool in the politics of conserving capitalism, and therefore to assume the precise functions of a State organ.

P.C.Internazionalista Conference on the Trades Unions, 1947.

Thesis 1

**It is an accomplished and irreversible fact that the trades unions are subjected and incorporated into the capitalist state. Since the first decades of this century working class experience has fully confirmed our analysis and predictions.

Theses on Communist Tactics for the Periphery of Capitalism

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Preamble

With capital’s global domination over society the proletariat has become a global class. This is confirmed by the two fundamental characteristics of the term “proletariat”: a class in itself and a class for itself. As a class in itself — i.e. as the variable element of capital in the process of production and reproduction — the proletariat follows capitalism’s international destiny. In this advanced imperialist epoch that destiny has now been achieved: absolute domination over every corner of the Earth. As a class for itself — as the historic adversary of the class which has control over the capitalist mode of production — the proletariat will only be able to assert its own programme of emancipation at an international level.

Internationalist Communist - 15

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Editorial

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The need to present an overview of this issue of Internationalist Communist draws sharply into focus the gravity of the situation faced by the world’s workers. As the longest economic crisis in capitalism’s history continues on its downward spiral there is no let-up in the attacks on the people who produce the world’s wealth. Profit — the search for the highest possible return on capital invested — has always been the motive force of capital. Today, when returns on manufacturing investment are at a post-war low, capital’s response has been twofold. On the one hand it is ruthlessly paring down production costs, above all the cost of labour power — both direct (jobs and wages) and indirect (pensions, health and welfare). (See the article on Korea and our statement on unemployment.) On the other, it is putting more and more of its money capital into the booming financial sphere. Here there are higher returns on offer, the highest of all involving the highest risk.

The Two-Dimensional State: Globalisation of the Economy and the State

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Every transition from one stage to another of capitalist society is marked by a throng of intellectuals who are so taken by the “new advance” that they lose even a minimal ability to distinguish the real process from their own personal expectations. Thus it was with the passage from competitive to monopoly capitalism at the turn of the century. Then numerous intellectuals, economists and political analysts concluded that monopoly was the ideal instrument for the state to overcome its class nature and for easing the painful passage from bourgeois to socialist society. More precisely, inside the social democratic camp of the 2^nd International it was thought that the growth of large-scale industry — which was leading to the numerical and intellectual development of the workforce — would eventually also enable the working class to take over the management of the state by peaceful and electoral means. For example Bernstein urged social democracy to demand universal suffrage because

The monster is Capitalism

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From Battaglia comunista n.10 October 1996

Introduction

In the autumn of last year the French press (from the right wing Le Figaro through to the social democratic Rouge ran a series of articles which tried to maintain the lie that the Communist Left had joined in the denial of the Nazi Holocaust. In particular they attacked the Bordigist pamphlet, Auschwitz or the Great Alibi which is published by the Parti Communiste International (Le Proletaire). In solidarity with these comrades we are publishing their leaflet responding to this attack preceded by an article from our Italian comrades of Battaglia Comunista statingly unequivocally our rejection of these lies which are aimed at discrediting the only tradition which is both revolutionary and untainted by either class collaborationism or support (however critical) for Stalinism — the Communist Left.

Italian Imperialism and the Crisis in Albania

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Introduction

The following article is from the April issue of Battaglia Comunista, journal of the Italian affiliate of the International Bureau. It is an analysis of the role of Italian imperialism in Albania. (A country the Italian ruling class have historically seen as within their legitimate sphere of interest, having twice “intervened” there this century already.) In addition our comrades have also pointed to the tragedy of a situation in which the crisis of the capitalist state is not accompanied by a clear consciousness on the part of the working class. The crisis in Albania may have led to a “popular insurrection” but it is not one of proletarian revolution as leftists like the Socialist Workers’ Party and the various remaining Maoist sects have so loudly tried to maintain. According to the SWP the committees which have appeared in the Southern cities of Albania were “proto-soviets”. Only a Lewis Carroll view of the world could have arrived at such a fantasy.

The Political Roots of the ICC's Organisational Malaise

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Regular readers of the English language press of the International Bureau for the Revolutionary Party will be aware that we have recently had to deal with the consequences of an organisational crisis in the International Communist Current. This crisis stems from the expulsion of a former leading member of the French section of the ICC (Revolution Internationale) followed by the resignations of about a dozen others including one of the most internationally respected founding members of the ICC. It is tragic enough if communists (even ones we are fundamentally in disagreement with) are lost to the class struggle. What compounds this particular issue is the reaction of the ICC itself.

Internationalist Communist - 14

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Bosnia: The Imperialist Peace Sows the Seeds of Future Wars

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Bosnia: The Imperialist Peace Sows the Seeds of Future Wars

Despite the intense rivalry between the USSR and the USA lasted so long because neither side had emerged fundamentally aggrieved from the Second World War. The USA had emerged as far and away the strongest military and economic power in the world. Untouched by the ravages of war the post-war boom was simply “business as usual” for the citizens of the “the arsenal of democracy”. The USSR, on the other hand, through its control of Eastern Europe, now had the buffer zone against attack from the West that Stalin desired. Moreover the major European threat, Germany had been dismembered. It is perhaps not surprising that it was over the proposed re-unification of Germany that the Cold War started in earnest in 1948. But despite Eastern European workers revolt, a Cuban missile crisis and scores of proxy wars, the armed peace held.

With the collapse of the USSR in 1991 we reached a fundamental turning point in history.

Reflections on the French Strikes

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Reflections on the French Strikes

There was a spell last December when news bulletins contained almost daily reports of strikes in France. Nowadays when the media allow us to hear about such a thing as a strike before it is over and done with you know there must be something fairly substantial going on. In this case there was such a widespread outburst of class struggle that capitalism’s propaganda merchants couldn’t afford to keep quiet about it without serious loss of credibility. Not only was there a real possibility that the Prime Minister, Alain Juppéé, would have to “stand down” but even the insular British working class were beginning to get wind of something going on across the Channel — especially when EuroStar train drivers were confronted with their French counterparts lying on the track in front of them!

Inevitably there were comparisons with ‘68.

Capitals Against Capitalism

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The belief that the collapse of the USSR also means the collapse of marxism has set off a wave of neo-liberal euphoria. Nowadays all economic change is presented as a sign that the law of the market prevails over monopoly, whether in state or private form. This belief is now so widespread that there isn’t a question answered without the magic word “liberalisation”. The level of unemployment is too high? Well, liberalisation of the labour market — or rather the abolition of any protection for the workers — will solve it. The budget deficit needs to be reduced? Privatise public services and put them onto the free market. This will increase efficiency and reduce costs. Three quarters of humanity is dying from hunger? Just ensure there is free movement for capital and everything will be resolved. As Pangloss (Voltaire’s tutor for Candide) would have it, this is still the best of all possible worlds.

Bordiga: 1926, Last Fight in the Communist International

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The Communist Left in the Third International — Bordiga at the 6^th Enlarged Executive Meeting of the Communist International

Since the Russian Revolution is the first great stage of the world revolution it is also our revolution, Its problems are our problems, and every militant in the revolutionary International has not only the right, but also the duty, to collaborate in their solution.

Amadeo Bordiga, at the 20^th session, 15^th March 1926

Seventy years ago the wave of proletarian strife and insurrection which had brought the lst World War to a close was all but over. Instead of being strengthened and supported by the establishment of a European soviet republic and beyond, the Russian proletariat had been left high and dry.

Hobsbawm's Age of Extremes

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The Extremes of Age or how Stalinists effortlessly become Democrats — A review article on The Age of Extremes The Short Twentieth Century 1914-91 by Eric Hobsbawm (Michael Joseph 1994)

A comrade asked why we were reviewing this book in ICR. It is a fair question. After all, Hobsbawm was one of the stalwarts of the British Communist Party who metamorphosed along with “the movement” first into a Eurocommunist and eventually — with the Martin Jacques school at Marxism Today — abandoned any pretence of defending socialism (whatever he understands by that term) at all. Like the rest of the left-wing of the capitalist class he is loudly proclaiming his attachment to “democratic values”. In doing so he is part of the bourgeoisie’s ideological offensive against the working class. Something which is overlooked by would-be revolutionary intellectuals who are thrashing around in the famous “swamp”.