Platform of the ICC

http://en.internationalism.org/platform


Preface


After the longest and deepest period of counter-revolution that it has ever known, the proletariat is once again discovering the path of class struggle. This struggle - a consequence both of the acute crisis of the system which has been developing since the beginning of the 1960s, and of the emergence of new generations of workers who feel the weight of past defeats much less than their predecessors - is already the most widespread that the class has ever engaged in. Since the 1968 events in France, the workers’ struggles from Italy to Argentina, from Britain to Poland, from Sweden to Egypt, from China to Portugal, from America to India, from Japan to Spain, have become a nightmare for the capitalist class.
The reappearance of the proletariat on the stage of history has definitively refuted all those ideologies produced or made possible by the counter-revolution which attempted to deny the revolutionary nature of the proletariat. The present resurgence of the class struggle has concretely demonstrated that the proletariat is the only revolutionary class of our time.
A revolutionary class is a class whose domination over society is in accordance with the creation and extension of the new relations of production made necessary by the development of the productive forces and the decay of the old relations of production. Like the modes of production which preceded it, capitalism corresponds to a particular stage in the development of society. It was once a progressive form of social development, but having become world-wide, it has created the conditions for its own disappearance. Because of its specific place in the productive process, because of its nature as the collective producer class of capitalism, deprived of the ownership of the means of production which it sets in motion - thus having no interests which bind it to the preservation of capitalist society - the working class is the only class, objectively and subjectively, which can establish the new mode of production which must come after capitalism: communism. The present resurgence of the proletarian struggle indicates that once again the perspective of communism is not only an historic necessity, but a real possibility.
However, the proletariat still has to make an immense effort to provide itself with the means to overthrow capitalism. As products of this effort and as active factors in it, the revolutionary currents and elements which have appeared since the beginning of this reawakening of the class, bear an enormous responsibility for the development and outcome of this struggle. In order to take up this responsibility, they must organise themselves on the basis of the class positions which have been definitively laid down by the historical experience of the proletariat and which must guide all their activity and intervention within the class.
It is through its own practical and theoretical experience that the proletariat becomes aware of the means and ends of its historic struggle for the overthrow of capitalism and the establishment of communism. Since the beginning of capitalism, the whole activity of the proletariat has been a constant effort to become conscious of its interests as a class and to free itself from the grip of the ideas of the ruling class - the mystifications of bourgeois ideology. This effort expressed itself in a political continuity which extends throughout the workers’ movement from the first secret societies to the left fractions which detached themselves from the Third International. Despite all the aberrations and expressions of the pressure of bourgeois ideology which can be found in their positions and their activities, the different organisations of the class are irreplaceable links in the chain of historical continuity of the proletarian struggle. The fact that they succumbed to defeat or to internal degeneration in no way detracts from their fundamental contribution to that struggle. Thus the organisation of revolutionaries which is being reconstituted today expresses the general reawakening of class struggle (after a half-century of counter-revolution and dislocation of the past workers’ movement) and absolutely must renew the historical continuity with the workers’ movement of the past, so that the present and future battles of the class will be armed with all the lessons of past experiences, and so that all the partial defeats strewn along the proletariat’s path will not have been in vain but will serve as signposts to its final victory.
The International Communist Current affirms its continuity with the contributions made by the Communist League, the First, Second and Third Internationals, and the left fractions which detached themselves from the latter, in particular the German, Dutch, and Italian Left. It is these essential contributions which allow us to integrate all the class positions into the coherent general vision which has been formulated in this platform.

I agree with this, except that, I want to comment that right now, in 2008, the working class is in the defensive. So when this preface was written, it did seem that the proletariat as an active force had resurged, but now it is not the case.

I think that it was written in the mid to late seventies, so yes the situation has changed.

At the moment, I think that we are seeing the beginnings of a return to class struggle after the dreadful years that were the nineties.

To put it into historical perspective though the nineties were not as bad as the middle of the Second World War.

Devrim

You are right about the WWII bit, although I am sure most of the forum would disagree with you.

What makes you think there is a surge of class struggle?

Basically being middle aged does. The eighties were years of quite intense class struggle albeit of a rearguard action. The nineties were terrible years, and this decade seems to be brining a resurgence in class struggle (I wouldn't say surge though. That is too strong a word as yet).

On a purely national level it is very easy for us to see. Recently we have had the biggest strikes since the 80s both in terms of days lost (Telekom) and strikers (last week's two hour general strike).

On an international level I think things are similar. Watching the news last night there were two big stories about strikes in Europe (Greece and Dacia car factory, in Romania). I am going on more than this. This is just an example.

I don't want to exaggerate it. We don't think that the revolution is just around the corner. However, we think that there is a slow but steady return to combativity within the working class.

Devrim

This kinda going off a tangent.

I support the ICC as an organization, and in fact I am going to help them with some stuff, (and who knows, maybe become a militant one day), however, their writing has always bothered me.

Maybe because I have always been a creative leaning person, but I always thought the ICC had a very boring writing style! Some of the ideas are fantastic, but I believe they should spice up their articles a little bit. For example, the RCP is a horrible organization, but their newspaper is much much better, maybe not in terms of content, but in terms of style and getting the attention of readers.

What I find humorous is that whenever a Communist organization gives us the news the last paragraph is always something like "Whatever the bourgeoisie is trying to do, it is bullshit. And this is the bullshit that oppresses, and exploits us."

You are right about the WWII bit, although I am sure most of the forum would disagree with you.

What makes you think there is a surge of class struggle?

Hi,

Yes, the Preface was written in the '70s when the class struggle was at a higher level, historically. There were waves of struggles through the '80s but there was a big drop off after the collapse of the Eastern bloc post '89. The '90s were pretty quiet, but there has been a resurgence since 2003. It may not seem like it in the US, but taken globally there have been many significant struggles. Yes, they are not empirically at the same level as those of the '70s in terms of days lost, but they are important at the level of quality as they have characteristics such as

• the expression of solidarity for future generations and other sectors
• use of proletarian forms of struggle: general assemblies, extension to other sectors
• increasingly simultaneous, strikes breaking out in different sectors at the same time, rather than being staggered
• crossing generational boundaries
• involving new sectors of workers with little experience (service sector)

The latest strikes have also been international in scope, not just limited to one part of the world. In 2007 alone there were strikes in Egypt, Dubai, Algeria, Venezuela, Peru, Turkey, Greece, Finland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Russia, Italy, Britain, Germany, France and the USA. See,
Against the world wide attacks of crisis-ridden capitalism: one working class, one class struggle! http://en.internationalism.org/ir/2008/132/editorial

So our basic point remains, the working class has remained undefeated since 1968, despite setbacks and temporary retreats.

Secondly, what is significant about the reawakening of the proletariat since the end of the retreat of the '90s has been the emergence of new groups and individuals defending internationalism and coming to grips with the positions of the communist left. As the Preface said:

However, the proletariat still has to make an immense effort to provide itself with the means to overthrow capitalism. As products of this effort and as active factors in it, the revolutionary currents and elements which have appeared since the beginning of this reawakening of the class, bear an enormous responsibility for the development and outcome of this struggle. In order to take up this responsibility, they must organise themselves on the basis of the class positions which have been definitively laid down by the historical experience of the proletariat and which must guide all their activity and intervention within the class.

The ICC has taken up its responsibilities to this new generation and will continue to do so. Our article summarising the ICC's 17th congress deals with this aspect,
ICC's 17th Congress: The proletarian camp reinforced worldwide
http://en.internationalism.org/ir/13...ngress-summary

What do you think of these?



B.

Maybe because I have always been a creative leaning person, but I always thought the ICC had a very boring writing style! Some of the ideas are fantastic, but I believe they should spice up their articles a little bit. For example, the RCP is a horrible organization, but their newspaper is much much better, maybe not in terms of content, but in terms of style and getting the attention of readers.

I agree with this, and maybe there could be a little more imagination with design too.

Devrim

Next part:

1. THE THEORY OF THE COMMUNIST REVOLUTION



Marxism is the fundamental theoretical acquisition of the proletarian struggle. It is on the basis of marxism that all the lessons of the proletarian struggle can be integrated into a coherent whole. By explaining the unfolding of history through the development of the class struggle, that is to say struggle based on the defence of economic interests within a framework laid down by the development of the productive forces, and by recognising the proletariat as the subject of the revolution which will abolish capitalism, marxism is the only conception of the world which really expresses the viewpoint of that class. Thus, far from being an abstract speculation about the world, it is first and foremost a weapon of struggle for the working class. And because the working class is the first and only class whose emancipation necessarily entails the emancipation of the whole of humanity, a class whose domination over society will not lead to a new form of exploitation but to the abolition of all exploitation, only marxism is capable of grasping social reality in an objective and scientific manner, without any prejudices or mystifications of any sort.
Consequently, although it is not a fixed doctrine, but on the contrary undergoes constant elaboration in a direct and living relationship with the class struggle, and although it benefited from prior theoretical achievements of the working class, marxism has been from its very inception the only framework from which and within which revolutionary theory can develop.



Devrim

We were discussing the platform of the ICC before, and it sort of fizzled out. I would suggest that we try and start again as there are some new posters. Leave this thread for the preface, and start on section one on another thread.

Devrim