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Friends

We have had several new members in the course of the previous two or
three weeks.  Is somebody going to post something?  Perhaps if anybody
wishes to say something, they should discuss the article on the
"bourgeois electoral trap" which I posted.  Can we use elections to
further our class position?  Can we obtain political power through the
existing state structure?  These are key questions, and have been for
a long time.  What think you?

Internal Fraction of the ICC
http://membres.lycos.fr/bulletincommuniste

In the perspective of the class fights to come, one of the lessons
that communists must, in our opinion, underline is the danger of
understanding the question of organisation of the struggle as a
question in itself and, even worst too, as a garanty in itself for the
quality and the strength of a movement.

Who hasn't been surprised by the bourgeois media cover (above all on
TV) rather favourable to the students and particularly to their
General Assemblies during the March and April 2006 mobilisation in
France against the "CPE" ? The TV news commented and showed with
sympathy those thousands of students gathered in assemblies and the
press wrote laudatory articles which claimed to be "objective" about
the democratic organisation of those general assemblies. Many of them,
the Poitiers University in particular, were presented as example of
direct democracy, as a lesson for the "outstanding" organisation of
the debates where every one could express.
We noted too the ICC intervention which presented as "wonderful", with
no restraint nor reserve, these assemblies which "function on the
model of the workers' councils. The richness of the discussion, where
everyone can speak and express their point of view, the way the
tribune organises the debates, the votes, the creation of different
commissions, the nomination of delegates elected and revocable by the
general assemblies, this whole dynamic, this method of struggle are
those which have arisen in the highest moments of the class struggle:
in 1905 and 1917 in Russia, in 1918 in Germany (...)" (Presentation of
the so-called "public" meeting of the ICC in Paris, March 11th.). Is
it necessary to recall that it was those same 1918 workers councils in
Germany that the present ICC, more and more councilist, now presents
as exemplary which excluded Rosa Ruxemburg and Karl Liebknecht from
their ranks and thus banned them to intervene ? We know that it has
been an important factor for the repression and the bloody defeat
which occurred a few weeks later during the Berlin insurrection when
the two communist leaders were murdered by the Social-Democracy in power.

It's above all striking that those student assemblies (which are
indispensable for mobilizing, for going on strike and for deciding the
action to lead), as massive and important they were, couldn't adopt an
orientation of extension with concrete actions, except in some
exceptional cases which weren't significant ; they were unable to put
forwards the slogan of spreading the struggle to the salaried part of
the working class, nor even to impose it as the question, as the true
stake of the situation; as the only perspective to be realized at
once. The defence of this class orientation as the central orientatin
of the struggle would have inevitably lead up to an open political
confrontation within the very assemblies with the student unions
(mainly led by the Socialist Party) and with the various Leftist
groups which controlled these assemblies. Useless to say that these
assemblies would have inevitably lost their so-called exemplary
democratic character and would have become the place of a true
political confrontation between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.
Reality has above all showed that the Left parties, the Leftists and
the unions weren't at all questionned in these assemblies ; that they
were globally considered as being full part of the struggle. Nothing
(not a voice and even less a political orientation) in the movement
could help to unmask them. The class ennemy acted within the struggle
within any risk. We can say that the so-called "democratic" examplary
character of these assemblies didn't express the strength of the
movement but was in reality a sign amongst others of its weakness and
in particular of the lack of struggle experience of the students. The
student unions and the Leftist groups didn't have to sabotage the
democratic character of the assemblies. On the contrary, they could
present themselves even more easily as being at "their service" and as
guarantors of their "democracy", precisely since they had no
difficulties to swamp the few real propositions of extension of the
strike to the rest of the class, to empty them of their genuine
proletarian meaning and content ; and since they could easily impose
their ground and the union tactic through their Days of Action which
led to the dead-end.

To end with the question of "self-organisation", it matters to recall
the Lessons of October that Trotsky drew in 1924. Warning against "the
danger of treating soviets as a fetish, as some. self-sufficing factor
in a revolution" (marxist.org, Trotsky, Lessons of October), and
basing himself on the Rusian and German experiences, he defends that
the soviets without content (it means as organs of insurrection, as
organs of the proletarian power) are nothing, aren't but an empty
form. It matters too to recall the lessons Bordiga developed against
Gramsci and his "selfmanagement" ("autogestion" in french) vision,
"councilist" vision, of the workers councils which empties them of
their function, of their political content : "the fundamental
political question of the network of the workers councils is based on
the historical concept of dictatorship" (Il Soviet, September 14th
1919, translated by us from a spanish version; Ed. Anagrama).

The student assemblies, no question about that, were a necessary
moment of the development of the struggle, to initiate it and above
all to spread it. They were so, even though very partially, for the
extension to other universities. It was not the most difficult task.
But, without extension to the rest of the working class, these same
assemblies became a form without real content since they didn't fulfil
the essential task for which they within the working class.
The question it matters to recall constantly in the general assemblies
as to the revolutionary minorities, is that what has a true
proletarian value isn't "self-organisation" in itself but, if we can
say so, is the "organisation of the setting up of the needs of the
struggle" in relation to its different moments. For this, the General
Assemblies are an important weapon. But not the only one, far from it.
And nor a guarantee.

April 2006

We have had a couple of new members in the course of the past month.
However, I have to point out that there has been no activity, this
email excepted, on this forum for quite some time, and that I do not
expect there to be much in the course of the next few months.  This of
course is dependent on the activity of the forum's members: it is up
to you.  So if you have something you wish to post, please do so.

regards

Richard

Welcome all

This forum is currently undergoing some modification, as you can see
there are not many members just yet and we are in the process of
creating links to organisations of support or interest to the
revolutionary working class current. When the time is right I think
it would be a good idea to contact organisations symphathetic to our
case so that they may bring some important contributions to the
discussions.

In the meantime, any comments and ideas are most welcome.

Regards
D R