Appeal to sympathisers of the communist left (Australia)

[Bilan]

Comrades!

Today humanity faces the same ultimatum posed to it since the eve of the First World War, in the words of Rosa Luxemburg and Friedrich Engels before her - Socialism or Barbarism.

The world capitalist system has seen its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, with the working class taking the brunt of the blow, everywhere facing wage-freezes, job-cuts and worsening working conditions. The threat of global environmental catastrophe looks more possible than ever before. Bloody and brutal conflicts rage on around the globe - from Iraq to Afghanistan, Somalia to Sudan, Colombia to Mexico.

In contrast to these emanations of a moribund society we also see the germs of a new world – without exploitation or oppression, without poverty or scarcity, without wars or national borders – in the class struggle of the international working class.

The Communist Left has its origins in the Left currents of the Communist International which came into being as a proletarian response to its opportunist slidings when faced with the retreat of the international revolutionary wave in the 1920s. Whilst the Communist Left had expressions in many countries its most prominent representatives were to be found in Germany, The Netherlands, Italy and Russia. In the period of counter-revolution which opened at the end of the 1920s, it was the Communist Left which proved to be the most intransigent defenders of proletarian internationalism and the most rigorous in drawing up the balance sheet of the revolutionary wave.

Whilst sympathisers of the Communist Left do exist in Australia, at this point they do so only as individuals suffering largely from political isolation. In order to effectively intervene in the class struggle, it is necessary that revolutionaries organise themselves into a political organisation, founded on the basis of shared positions and principles.

However, at the present hour the immediate formation of such a group is not on the agenda in Australia. What is needed at present is the coming together of internationalists for discussion conducted with the goal of initiating and maintaining contact between comrades (particularly those who are geographically isolated) and collective political clarification of the positions which define the communist programme today.

Thus, we appeal for the initiation of organised discussions between all sympathisers of the Communist Left in Australia. It is proposed that the discussions are conducted under the name: ‘Internationalist Communist Affiliate Network’.

We propose the criteria for participation is agreement with the most elementary positions of left communism today:

- Imperialist war and national movements of all stripes have nothing to offer the working class but death and destruction. The working class must oppose all bourgeois camps. By calling on them to take the side of one or another faction, the bourgeoisie divide workers and lead them to massacre their class brothers and sisters.

- Parliament and bourgeois elections are a masquerade. Capitalist ‘democracy’ does not differ at root from any form of capitalist dictatorship. Any call to participate in the parliamentary circus can only reinforce the lie that elections offer any real choice for the exploited.

- All unions are organs of the capitalist system and act in its service. The fundamental role of the unions is to police the working class and sabotage its struggles. In order to defend its immediate interests, and ultimately to make the revolution, the working class must struggle outside and against the unions.

All who may be interested in taking part are encouraged to write to InternationalistWorker[at]gmail.com. We also welcome any comments, questions and criticisms.

With fraternal communist greetings,

Fabius, Jack, Max, Niccolo, Thomas

[h0m0revolutionary]

- All unions are organs of the capitalist system and act in its service. The fundamental role of the unions is to police the working class and sabotage its struggles. In order to defend its immediate interests, and ultimately to make the revolution, the working class must struggle outside and against the unions.

"Outside and against"
is that really your position?

You don't call on workers to join and agitate within, whilst having no illusions with the fundamental nature of unionism itself?

[Bilan]

Union membership in Australia stands at about 19%.


TRADE UNION MEMBERSHIP

In August 2008, there were 1.8 million employees who were trade union members in conjunction with their main job. This was a 3% increase on the 1.7 million trade union members in August 2007, however in both years, trade union members represented 19% of people who were employees in their main job.

Data collected about trade union members in August 2008 also showed:
21% of full-time employees and 15% of part-time employees were trade union members
42% of public sector employees were trade union members, compared to 14% of private sector employees
the state with the highest proportion of trade union members was Tasmania (25% of Tasmanian employees), while the lowest was Western Australia (14% of Western Australian employees).

The occupation groups with the highest proportion of employees who were trade union members in their main job were Machinery operators and drivers (28%), followed by Professionals (25%) and Community and personal service workers (23%). The occupation group with the lowest proportion of trade union members was Managers (9%).
Employees in main job, Industry of main job, By trade union membership-Proportion of all employees who were trade union members



Employees in the Education and training industry group had the highest proportion of trade union membership (40%), followed by Public administration and safety (34%). The industry group with the lowest proportion of trade union membership was the Professional, scientific and technical services industry (4%).


They also play an openly reactionary role (e.g. the SDA).

The ACTU, incidentally, has pledged to work with employers and the government to "confront" the economic crisis:


employers, unions and employees must work together to confront the economic crisis and to protect jobs and incomes.

...
“We will be responsible and flexible, but we will not accept wage freezes that actually cut the real incomes of Australian workers.

“It is no fault of workers that we had a financial crisis. They still have to pay their bills, so the time to actually maintain wages is now because you keep demand in the economy.”

source (http://www.actu.org.au/Media/Mediareleases/Unionscallforneweconomicstimuluspackagetotargetjob sthatcanbeginstraightaway.aspx).

We shouldn't be fostering any illusions: we should be open with class enemies.

[Niccolò Rossi]

"Outside and against"
is that really your position?

You don't call on workers to join and agitate within, whilst having no illusions with the fundamental nature of unionism itself?

Yes, this is very much our position. Do you find it that surprising? This is a very fundamental position of left communism. Would you disagree? I would have thought these ideas would not be something new, especially to someone like yourself. Or are you asking rheotically?

I think it's important to make a distinction here. We state very clearly that in our opinion unions are organs for capital and that revolutionary experiences of the past confirm that the unions are supporters of counter-revolution.

Of course there is a different between this and the tactics advanced by revolutionaries in the present situation. For example there is disagreement over this question within the groups which draw heritage to the Communist Left. Thus whilst the ICC militants do not join unions as a rule (with the exception of those working in closed shops, etc.), the ICT (formerly IBRP) see a role for their memberships within the unions agitating against them and for mass meetings, etc. from the inside. And of course you evern have the Bordigist 'red unions'.

These are questions that we will have to take up in discussion and clarify our position on. In this appeal we are certainly not calling on workers to leave the unions immediately or whatever.

Nic.

[Android]

Good luck to Nic and the other comrades involved in this initiative.

Don't want to derail the thread into a discussion on trade unionism. But I'm gong to comment on a few points made.


You don't call on workers to join and agitate within, whilst having no illusions with the fundamental nature of unionism itself?

We shouldn't encourage/promote union membership and "agitat[ing] within" because this echoes the conception deployed by leftists where trade unions equal the working class. The orientation of communists should be to agitate amongst workers against the union framework/machinery. Although I'm pretty sure from brief discussion we've had offline that you agree with this and don't defend the leftist position outlined above.


Of course there is a different between this and the tactics advanced by revolutionaries in the present situation. For example there is disagreement over this question within the groups which draw heritage to the Communist Left. Thus whilst the ICC militants do not join unions as a rule (with the exception of those working in closed shops, etc.), the ICT (formerly IBRP) see a role for their memberships within the unions agitating against them and for mass meetings, etc. from the inside.


As far as I understand the difference between the ICC and ICT (shared by others) regarding whether their members join trade union or not. Is largely a difference over strategic orientation versus tactics. ICC militants don't join trade unions because they believe that their anti-union position is made clearer. Whereas the ICT approach is based on the tactical consderation of whether there is a possibility for individual militants to use union membership to further their anti-union perspective. But I wouldn't call it a 'inside and against' approach because they don't have a general rule that members join trade unions like platformists and trotskyists or on the hand don't join (ICC).

[Alf]

Hi Ronan
I agree with your iargument and with your interpretation of the differences between the ICC and ICT. The question of whether individual communists are union members or not is secondary. A much more important question - which is a constant theme in discussion with many libertarian comrades, for example - is whether communists can defend their position on the unions while at the same time accepting lower level positions of responsibility in the unions, and there I would say that there is an agreement between the ICC and ICT that this is not possible, although a while back we did criticise the Battaglia comrades in Italy for arguing that communists could work on the 'factory commissions' there, as they are more or less the equivalent of shop stewards committees. I don't know whether they have changed their view on this.
Having carried out workplace activity for years both as a member of the NUT and as an ex-member, I have found that colleagues understand my point of view more clearly by being totally independent of the union, and it has not prevented me from discussing with them or even attending union meetings when serious issues come up - in fact, it provides an opportunity for arguing that meetings should be open to everyone whether or not they are members of this or that union. But as Nic says, it is not a question of calling on all workers to leave the unions right now. This would only make sense in a much more advanced stage of the class struggle.

[Devrim]

"Outside and against"
is that really your position?

You don't call on workers to join and agitate within, whilst having no illusions with the fundamental nature of unionism itself?

I think that the phrase 'outside and against' seems to cause a lot of consternation in UK anarchism. I think that it probaly goes back to the period after the miners' strike, and the discussions about the unions then. 'Wildcat' wrote a pamphlet with this name as a response to Dave Douglas' speech, later turned into an article, at the Class War conference.

Since then the phrase 'outside and against' has been used to imply that those who hold left/council communist positions as well as increasingly many anarchists who hold similar positions have all sorts of strange ideas, such as calling upon all workers to leave the unions now (we don't by the way).

If we go back to the phrase used in the text here what it says is "the working class must struggleoutside and against the unions". I don't think it is actually that different to what the AF says.

Do you believe that the working class can use the unions to struggle? Do you think that they can be reformed? Do you think that they can be 'recaptured' by the working class?

Devrim

[MilitantWorker]

I really like how you guys have "taken the initiative here" and I commend your efforts to be part of the proactiveness (:thumbup1:) the left communist camp is becoming known for..

..the only thing you guys might wanna do is change some of the wording around a bit and you should be good, for example you guys used the word 'germ' in the beginning-- I think maybe seedling or something cool sounding yet positive might do better there.

I agree with the principles and ideas you guys are putting forth. Let me know if you need any help and good luck with this!

[Niccolò Rossi]

I really like how you guys have "taken the initiative here" and I commend your efforts to be part of the proactiveness (:thumbup1:) the left communist camp is becoming known for..

..the only thing you guys might wanna do is change some of the wording around a bit and you should be good, for example you guys used the word 'germ' in the beginning-- I think maybe seedling or something cool sounding yet positive might do better there.

I agree with the principles and ideas you guys are putting forth. Let me know if you need any help and good luck with this!

Thanks for the kind words and support.

Also thanks for the input regarding some of our language in the appeal. Unfortunately it's a little late to change much, we have already emailed to to our contacts and published it online. :)

Nic.

[Niccolò Rossi]

Just as a general note, we will be sending out further details for the first round of discussions shortly. If you are interested in taking part, please write to us as soon as possible.

Nic.