Towards decisive confrontations between the proletariat and the capitalist forces

We publish the editorial of the International Communist Bulletin of November, 2010 organ of the Fraction of the International Communist Left. This text indicates that the bourgeoisie and his State uses everywhere the same tactics to deceive the working class. Both faces of this tactics in Quebec are on one hand the Lucid and their illegitimate offsprings which want some more cuts and on the other hand the social Alliance of labor unions, these botchers of our fights, who want more intervention of the capitalist State and its democracy.

Internationalist Communists - Klasbatalo

Towards decisive confrontations between the proletariat and the capitalist forces

The classes struggle comes back with strength to assert itself as the obvious "motor of history" for everyone despite its "death" has been declared so many times by the bourgeois ideologists and propagandists. All the continents are affected by the proletariat's struggles : the Americas - Brasil, Chile, Mexico, United-States -, Asia - China, Vietnam, Thailand, Turkey -, Africa - South Africa, Egypt -, the former Eastern imperialist bloc countries - Russia, Bulgaria, Ukraine, the Baltic countries -, and now simultaneously almost all the Western European countries - Greece, Spain, Portugal, France, Great-Britain, Belgium, Germany, etc... The entire world proletariat, and particularly of its historical core, Western Europe, resumes the path of the class fight. These struggles develop in response to the massive attacks that capitalism in acute crisis is obliged to unleash against the exploited class. The so-called economical recovery is not but an illusion, an additional lie, that the daily reality - and very often too the very datas of the bourgeoisie - comes to refute. It is the same for the false good economical health of the so-called "emerging" countries"1. China - and with it Brasil - which is so often put forwards as an example, experiences an increasing "contradictory" economical situation from the capitalist point of view and a wretched one for the working class. At any moment, this country can explode at the economical as well as social level, and the massive and violent workers struggles are growing on number 2.

This simultaneous development of the workers struggles at the international level raises the question of the perspective for the "internationalization" of these struggles. It signifies that we have entered in the process which leads to generalized and historically crucial classes confrontations.

This process is confronting today to the obstacles that the State apparatus puts on its course. Firstly, the manouvers and the sabotages of the unions which are more and more forced to utilize a false internal division between the leaderships and the more radical "rank and file" [the "bases"]. The first ones organize Day of action, strikes and national street demonstrations, which aim at occupying the ground, at limiting as much as they can the break out of open fights and at supressing any direct self-organization by the workers of these ones and particularly of their spreading and unification against the State. As the growing worker pressure and combative spirit can't be contained by these Days of action, "base" unionism "accompagnies" (when it does not organize them itself) the "overrunnings", the more radical actions, the wildcat strikes - it means those which, rightly, don't respect the bourgeois law which set the so-call "right" of strike - ; the demonstrations which don't want to be harmless unions walks and which take over the streets, the strikes picket lines and blockage of the enterprises, etc. It too "accompagnies" all these social movements by muzzleing the General Assemblies which aim at being independant from the unions with "committees" and other "coordinations" that it controls - the "interprofessional General Assemblies" ["AG interprofesionnelles"] which rose in France lately, sometimes on the workers' initiative themselves, more often on the leftists and base unionists' initiative - to finally seek to derail them from their function and their goal. Despite these obstacles, the combative spirit and the workers struggles keep on searching for their way through various means and in an apparent "disorder" which is not but the very process of the classes struggle, and more particularly the one of the Mass Strike as described by Rosa Luxemburg in her time.

"It flows now like a broad billow over the [Russian] whole kingdom, and now divides into a gigantic network of narrow streams; now it bubbles forth from under the ground like a fresh spring and now is completely lost under the earth. Political and economic strikes, mass strikes and partial strikes, demonstrative strikes and fighting strikes, general strikes of individual branches of industry and general strikes in individual towns, peaceful wage struggles and street massacres, barricade fighting – all these run through one another, run side by side, cross one another, flow in and over one another – it is a ceaselessly moving, changing sea of phenomena". Even though the social movements are not yet at the level of those of 1905 in Russia, it is still the proces of the Mass Strike which presently develops at the international scale, particularly in Western Europe, and which will arise at its term the questions of the generalization and unification of the workers fights. If this process is today still far for expressing iself through a movement which openly questions capitalism, nevertheless it is true, as said Rosa Luxemburg, that "the mass strike is rather the indication, the rallying idea, of a whole period of the class struggle lasting for years, perhaps for decades".

But we can already affirm that, rarely in history, we have known a situation such as the one which is approaching today and which gather so many objective and subjective conditions for the development of this process : the inexorable march with no return of the economical crisis (which signs the definitive historical bankruptcy of the capitalist system) is accompanied by an inevitable slide of the world proletariat in the worse misery and by the development of the warlike capitalist barbary which announces and allows the preparation by the ruling class of a new generalized holocaust ; but nevertheless these unbearable conditions ensure the working class everywhere to increasingly affirm its anger and its refusal of the bourgeois policies and it favor the development of its own experiences of struggle and of its class consciouness which have suffered so much since two decades.

Moreover the bourgeoisie does not make mistake on this and does not stop preparing itself at the international level. It voluntarily organise and develop the same strategies everywhere to confront the proletarian danger. It gives itself all the means (more particularly thanks to its unions and its medias) to delay, to disperse, to sabotage the workers ripostes and above all to prevent their conscious generalization and unification beyond the sectors ["corporatist"] divisions and even the national ones ; it means it makes all it can, from today on, to make abort the process which is initiated.

Now, for instance, almost everywhere (above all in Europe and North-América) and through the utilization of exactly the same means, it adapts its political apparatus to the classes contradictions worsening. Thus, through the publicity it makes ot the "extremist oppositions" of the Left and the Right, it specifically arms itself against the working class : with the first "opposition", it aims at covering its social flank, the one of the struggles ; as for the second one, it serves as a scarecrow in order to derail the attention of the workers towards the supposed cause of the "Democracy in danger" and, through this, to chain up them behind the defence of the democratic State. We come back in this bulletin on this phenomenon in our article Partout la bourgeoisie prépare son appareil d'Etat pour contrer le prolétariat en lutte [Everywhere the bourgeoisie prepares its State apparatus to oppose the proletariat in struggle, only in French and Spanish3].

But, in the perspective of the inevitable massive confrontations which already mature, the bourgeoisie can't just impede the development of the workers struggles and of the class consciousness amongst the great workers masses. It also directly attack the political vanguard of the proletariat, it means to the communist forces, at the political and ideological level. These ones are already affected by dispersion and sectarianism which today handicap the workers reaction and the historical relation of forces between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. The pressure of the bourgeois ideology within the political proletarian camp is permanent which justifies the permanent fight that has to be led against the various manifestations of political opportunism. The present ICC, in its crazy run on this path, apparently without any brake, presently attempts a true strike ["coup de force"] in order to introduce anarchism as a full component of the revolutionary camp, even indeed as the alter-ego of the Communist Left ! As well as this cannot but precipitate the liquidation, already well begun, of this organization and its definitive lost as a communist organization, the passive acceptance and the silence of the other forces of the proletarian camp about the theoretical and political revisions by the ICC will also represent a considerable handicap for the proletariat in its perspective to massive classes confrontations.

As particular moment of this fight, the reader will find in this bulletin the open letter we are sending to the whole militants of the ICC. And we call all the communist groups and all the sympathizers of the Communist Left, and firstly of the ICC itself, to intervene and to get involved in this struggle 4.

Obviously, even though it is fundamental for us, we don't limit the action of the communist groups to this single dimension. Their intervention is as well important in the development of the workers struggles and in the process of Mass Strike in which we have entered. Up to today, their dispersion and their political hesitancies did not allow that this intervention be at the level, not of the necessity in regards to the class, but of their political and militant forces. Though, from the history and the political positions they do share, they have the means and the possibility to speak with a single voice in the struggles of today and of tomorrow. Their existence has no other significance.

October 31st; 2010.

1. Other example amongts others of an ex-"Asian Tiger" so much vaunted : Singapour GNP has reduced by 19% the last quarter. Source : IILS, 09/2010.

2. Source : yahoofinances, 14/10/2010.

3. See : Por todas partes la burguesía prepara su aparato de Estado para enfrentar al proletariado en lucha

4. We are ready to reproduce on our web site and in our bulletin any contribution or intervention of group or individual.

Fraction of the International Communist Left - International Communist Bulletin 3

Additions to our basic positions.

The internationalist Communists of Montreal are changing their name to “The Internationalist Communists – Klasbatalo!” In Esperanto, 'Klasbatalo!' is a word meaning class struggle. There are two reasons for this. First, the activity of revolutionary internationalists is not restricted to a city, of course, and secondly the militant composition of Internationalist Communists is no longer limited to the city of Montreal.

The Internationalist Communists – Klasbatalo! have made additions to their basic positions.

It has been emphasized that Stalinism was the result of the isolation and degeneration of the Russian Revolution following the collapse of the revolutionary wave particularly in Germany between 1919-1923. Stalinism is also a bourgeois ideology (Maoism one of its variants).

We have added a position rejecting bourgeois democracy. This is nothing new for the ICM (see the article: A circus of darkness and lies: the National Assembly) but we felt we should mention it in our basic positions.

We have also clarified that self-management and nationalization are just other forms of capitalism, which do not address its relations of production.

Finally, the distribution of the communist program aims to raise proletarian consciousness within its own class. Communism requires the working class to consciously abolish capitalist social relations. Following from this we reject all sectarian attitudes and isolationism. Left Communist ideas must have a hearing within our class.

CSIS Visits ICM

In the wee hours of Thursday morning July 1, 2010, a bomb blasted a Canadian Forces recruitment center in Trois-Rivières. The attack, claimed by an obscure group calling themselves Résistance Internationaliste, followed two others perpetrated in the same manner over a period of six years, the first on a Hydro Quebec pylon in 2004; the second in 2006 blew up the car of a petroleum industry spokesman.

There are indeed few groups in Canada claiming proletarian internationalism, and even fewer carrying the “internationalist” epithet, from orthodox Marxism, as part of their name. As international communists we are therefore part of the second group – it’s a no-brainer.

And so, on July 9^th, the International Communists (Montreal), alias Klasbatalo, got a visit from two agents from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) – Canada’s version of the American CIA. The two men came specially to see one of our members to elicit information concerning the attacks carried out by Résistance Internationaliste.

How to behave under these circumstances

After combing through the files of the Tsarist secret police (the Okhrana) following the Russian Revolution of 1917, Victor Serge published his little volume, “What every revolutionary should know about repression”. The book was intended as a general assessment of the methods employed by police to tail, detain, put on file, interrogate, and intimidate, any revolutionary militant deemed a potential threat to the established order “for the defense of capitalism everywhere uses the same tools; and moreover all police forces work together and are similar to each other.” (V. Serge). And so he put at the disposal of revolutionaries a guide to countering police tactics.

Our comrade managed to act with due caution in this situation: don’t open any doors to them, don’t get drawn into conversation, and feign the most crass ignorance. The two CSIS agents wanted both information on the terrorist group Résistance Internationaliste, and co-operation from our comrade in the identification of "violent and non-violent groups". What, a housecleaning for Canadian leftism?

Our comrade therefore didn’t invite them in, leaving them standing in the doorway (an important psychological barrier). To let them in is to open the door to discussion and to risk putting a foot in your mouth. Keep in mind that investigators from this sort of police agency are better trained than most revolutionaries at subtly leading a conversation. So after simply asking if they had a file on him, he told them quite plainly that he had nothing to say, and shut the door in their faces.

Even if it’s a group worthy of denunciation, with which he has nothing in common, a downright enemy (a group from the extreme right, for instance), a revolutionary militant should not collaborate with the police. It’s more than a question of principle, but his personal security that’s at stake – for anything he might say is subject to interpretation and could be quickly turned against him. The golden rule here is always silence.

Moreover as recently as during the G20 protests, several young militants were victims of police intimidation. When in the hands of police, it is important for a militant to realize that one of their methods is to threaten rape, physical abuse, and murder (sic)! Quite probably some of your personal possessions will be confiscated, ending up in some detective’s bookcase never to be seen again! The golden rule remains the same in these circumstances: if you are permitted, contact your lawyer immediately and say nothing. As little interaction possible – as little expression possible – facing the police squarely will likely get you out of there faster than the militant who babbles, cries and seems frightened.

Every militant has to be ready for this sort of thing and know how to behave under such circumstances, for the revolutionary path is no game, it’s a long-term commitment of which one should be conscious.

Concerning Resistance Internationaliste and terrorism in general

First, let’s put things into perspective: internationalism is a proper designation of the revolutionary worker’s movement descending from Marxism. Internationalism is one of the cornerstones of Marxist theory that rests essentially on class unity and solidarity without borders… Against the national and corporate divisions that entangle the proletariat. Also, faced with bourgeois conceptions of the State and of the Nation, he counterposes his international class party and its internationalist program whose objective is revolution. Against national wars, he advocates revolutionary defeatism and class war.

Secondly, note straight away that orthodox Marxism has always rejected terrorism and political intrigue, which have absolutely nothing to do with revolutionary defeatism and class war. Whatever the propaganda by revolutionary unionists of the 19^th century, anarchistic banditry, or the Bakunian manipulations within the First International, for Marxists, and thus the internationalists, the revolution is not an affair of a handful of individuals with cryptic methods who as a consequence take revolutionary license in the name of the class, through an adventurism rife with intrigue and political maneuvering. It is the affair of a majority class guided by the watchwords of its revolutionary party. The internationalists, a group of individuals belonging to the proletariat whose class-consciousness is more advanced, reject ipso facto the methods of terrorist action.

So, Résistance Internationaliste, who are internationalists in name only, use methods alien to the proletariat. Terrorism is, and will always be, an expression of the bourgeoisie(Note). The terrorist hijacks as many fractions of the bourgeoisie who oppose it than the proletariat in its entirety. Its weapon is always terror, no matter the victims left behind, leaving all classes confused.

Incidently, Résistance Internationaliste uses two mutually opposing terms: resistance and internationalist. Resistance is not an act of the revolutionary proletariat, which in fact, has no interest in keeping the system in place. They have never resisted since they’ve never had a clue about communism (this system historically never having seen the light of day). Also, what communist regime would it have to defend in opposing its so-called resistance to the capitalist order? Nada.

Moreover, resistance and terrorism have always made good bedfellows within bourgeois fractions and the déclassé, who seek to preserve their assets, their property, wealth, and their capital. It is a weapon of imperialist rivalry. The attacks of Résistance Internationaliste do nothing in advancing proletarian class-consciousness toward a revolutionary outcome. To the contrary! It sows programmatic confusion in our class; it sows fear. And it threatens our lives by dubious acts.

Résistance Internationaliste simply plays the game of the police and of state repression. Terrorist acts lead only to a dead end.

Proletarian comrades, build your class party internationalist!

International Communists, Montreal.

Note: On state terrorism, read the excellent article from the Internal Fraction Communist Current International (August 2005) Terrorism, anti-terrorism : Weapon of the bourgeoisie in its Path towards War, especially the part Terrorism, a War Weapon of the Bourgeoisie.

http://fractioncommuniste.org/ficci_eng/b32/index-2.html

Letter to IFICC

To IFFIC June 21, 2010

Hello Comrades,

We are always very happy to hear from you, even if it’s somewhat difficult to respond as thoroughly as we’d like. It’s neither neglect, nor certainly any lack of interest on our part; it’s time, rather, that is not always on our side. There are only a few of us, as you know, and all of our energy these past weeks has been spent preparing for our presence at the Montreal Anarchist Book Fair. Though we are not part of that political current, it is always interesting to set foot, make contacts, exchange ideas, and to defend Marxism.

In any case, rest assured – we’ve put aside the idea of an interventionary journal. The fact is that we were struck from the start by the logistical and technical difficulties of such a project. We still see the idea as relevant, although unfeasible with the scant resources of such a small group. It’s that our priority isn’t solely to debate with diverse organizations on issues of the Communist Left – actually, we also hope to intervene as “actively” as possible within our class[1]. We realize, of course, that debating with other groups is part of a larger debate within our class. However, this debate must also be taken directly to the class, and not only to its organizations. Unfortunately, we seem to see most groups who claim Left Communist heritage, sinking into the most primitive forms of sectarianism. It’s not a sect that we need for the proletariat, but a party!

Also, we fully share your concerns about the circumstances that seem to entangle our current and would like to remedy this state of affairs. We therefore agree when you say that: “Today, It seems wrong (for example and simply by way of explanation) to stick to the plan of “redressing the ICC” and to claim to want to re-establish it in this objective, in order to support the minority comrades of the Fraction (that’s been our motivation for “keeping in the background”). The problem is, rather, how you apply it and whether it is worth the effort. In fact, we think that it’s no longer how you stand as the Fraction that will help the ICC out of its impasse, or even an entire opportunist and sectarian current within the Communist Left. It might be best to pull as many members as possible, those who are still more than a bit lucid and dynamic, rather than try to breath life back into the ICC, itself; for after ten years of debating without an inkling of major change, maybe it’s time to adopt another tactic. In fact, not only does the Internal Fraction remain External, but furthermore, this political stagnation they’ve imposed on you – in which you have been “obliged” by the force of events to soak up as a Fraction – after a decade it has certainly not helped your group to see its way clear. In fact, today you find yourselves as part of a split, but when troubles come, they don’t happen as isolated events.

Thus, as with several other groups at the moment – and despite criticisms it has made on the absence of real discussions within the ICC – the Fraction has unfortunately given a pathetic example that it isn’t in the position to better explain its divergences. This adds another element of confusion for our class.

We believe it is always necessary to critique certain political and organizational positions of the ICC as it stands now; however, the ICC doesn’t have the exclusive right to mistakes, political setbacks, opportunism, sectarianism and internal difficulties. The evidence lies in, among other things, the politics of “turning a deaf ear” that the ICT practices with regard to us and, to quote you, in the “exclusion and confusion” that they are going through. These critiques and the balance sheet that you must make of IFFIC will prove necessary for the ensemble of organizations coming out of Left Communism. We’re eager to hear from you on this subject as well.

The ICT as a pole of regroupment

Now, we are curious about your position on this subject: Do you still consider the ICT as a pole of regroupment?

First of all, remember that the IBRP – now the ICT – never wanted to consider itself as a pole of regroupment for groups and for individuals coming out of Left Communism, and is even critical with regard to the use of this term. Also, even though we are always ready to work with them politically, we don’t consider them the pole of regroupment that we would have hoped for in the past. We know, that although the organization contains the most members numerically, this is no indication that its program is best for our class, and that they make fewer political mistakes. Moreover, and contrary to the ICC which plays out all of its psychodramas in front of the class, the ICT seems rather to conduct politics of silence and secrecy. For us, the pole of regroupment (the embryo of the future international party) must be able to conduct a clear politic in bringing the debates before the class, no matter what mistakes or defeats it gathers. In this sense, the ICC in the time of Chirik appears more honest. Now, how can a so-called pole of regroupment (ICT) lose some of its members in Italy without any mention of it in its press[2]? How can it keep silent about something that should be brought to light before the class to avoid any element of confusion and to keep the proletarian program free and clear of any misunderstanding? And what about the public silence of all the affiliates of the ICT on the opportunistic behaviour of the GIO?[3] Their politics of “mise au point” (setting the record straight) regarding us reflects this tendency of shutting up anyone who might tarnish their image. This isn’t bitterness; it’s just a sad report. Their sectarian attitude toward an Austrian group is just as open to criticism.

Common distribution IFICC, ICM and FGCI and political discussions

So, you don’t agree with the contents of the tract, “The Working Class of Greece shows us the way!” Why not?

In our case, we find that the missing call for the proletarian party – the guide to the class struggle beyond simple economic demands within the framework of capitalism – was a grave oversight. This didn’t prevent us from disseminating it widely (2600 copies). Yet, in the tract, “Les enjeux des luttes en Grece”, that you signed with the other groups, there was the same omission regarding the international party. Furthermore, it would be interesting to know the number of copies that the groups disseminated, or was it only diffused on the Internet?

Regarding the proposed discussions between IFFIC and us on State capitalism and the current assessment of the class struggle, put forward by one of us in Paris, it should be mentioned that the ICM never confirmed this proposed discussion. In the past, exchanges between IFFIC and us took up to 70% of our time. We have had to meticulously weigh our every word so as not to not receive a leftist epitaph. This caused us to neglect our own debates as to an eventual platform, even though our exchanges with other groups came from Left Communism.

Comrades, we are not against political exchanges with other left communist organizations; but the fact is that we are a very small group that does not share the politics of IFFIC, of the ICC, nor of the ICT. You have to take into account that not all groups from the Communist Left are at the same level of formation. The dialectic is, after all, the principle force of Marxism. What’s more, political organisations do not all consist of experienced militants or those able to commit up to 100% of their time to militancy – In fact, even within an organization, there may be militants who work up to 60 hours a week, work more often than not physically and mentally exhausting. This is the case for us, actually. As we are in the unfortunate situation (by a rise in general struggles of the working class), in which militants will be called upon to put in much more time. For the small group that we are, it is important that all can participate in political efforts. This is partly why we’ve been late in our replies – that and the fact that we have not been militants of the Communist Left for several years.

In autumn, we also intend to set aside a space on our blog for divergent points of view within the ICM – not that there is any danger of us splitting, but rather to prevent it, and to provide an outlet to a minority point of view if there is one.

The following extract of the article, “Il est minuit dans la Gauche Communiste”, from the Journal Controverses April 2010, inspired us with this idea.

1-… whereas in half the time, during their period of existence (1903-21), the Bolsheviks were traversed by a multitude of tendencies and fractions (these having positively animated their political life, having been freely provided with the material means in order to defend their positions, in the party and publicly, across all its own particular organizational structures.

Now, perhaps you are in a better position to tell us with more precision whether the Communist Left in the past 40 years has had a significant influence in any working class struggle? Perhaps in the Fiat factory of Pomigliano in Italy…

Awaiting your response,

Fraternally,

Some Internationalist Communists, Montreal

---

[1] Following our exchanges in French with hospital workers who have set up a mobilization committee –

[2] A few days after this writing, we found on the ICT’s response in English on its website: the « Istituto Onorato Damen » A Small Clarification http://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2009-11-07/the-“istituto-onorato-damen”-a-small-clarification in the article Point à la ligne of the “Istituto Onorato Damien" http://www.leftcommunism.org/spip.php?article180.

[3] Obviously we welcome this publication [From Nationalism to Internationalism], first because it’s a voice from the Communist Left that expresses itself before the class, but also because this booklet is, from a methodological point of view, an example of a political break, fully realized, with a current of the extreme left of capital – something which wasn’t done by some people (you know who I mean) who will end up paying one way or another, one day or another.

For the Fraction, Jonas March 13, 2008

Note from icm: The ’some people’ that Jonas means, is a long time militant of the IWG.

Reprinted pamphlets

We held an information table at the Montreal anarchist bookfair 2010. On this occasion, we have reprinted brochures of the "old" International Communist Current (ICC). All these texts and pamphlets were published before 2001.

We do not released the texts and pamphlets of Internationalist Communist Tendency(ICT) given the dictates of its sectarian ‘Mise au point’(April 2009): "We advised them [the ICM] we strongly wish that under these conditions, immediately cease the dissemination of public material IBRP and all its sections. "

The following addition has been made in each booklet : « Internationalists Communists of Montreal (ICM) havin't any organisational links with the International Communist Current (ICC) and don't agree with all its political positions. »

These pamphlets are :

Is it possible to reconcile anarchism and marxism?

(ICC reply to Gauche Communiste Libertaire - extracts) 0.25$

Unions Against the Working Class (ICC) 2$

The communist left and the continuity of marxism (ICC) 0.50$

Appeal to sympathisers of the Communist Left (Australia)

We have received this "Appeal" published below from a group of left communist sympathisers in Sydney and Adelaide( Australia) [ Our Answer below ]

Appeal to sympathisers of the Communist Left (Australia)

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@gmail.com. We also welcome any comments, questions and criticisms.

With fraternal communist greetings, Fabius, Jack, Max, Niccolo, Thomas

Internationalist greetings comrades!

It’s good news to hear that left communists are beginning to organize in Australia. We wish you a warm welcome.

As you mentioned, capitalism is facing its greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression. Most importantly, we’re faced with a set of circumstances that cry out for
an international and internationalist response from the world’s working class. Today, it is more than a question, of general debate and analyses, but an actuality.

The attacks on the working class, carried on throughout the world today, have crystallized around Greece and the EU. In many ways, Greece has become the weathervane and mine-canary for not only the European but the global ruling class. For, in virtually every country and region, the very same austerity measures, the very same attacks on wages and living conditions, whether in the private or public sectors, with the same nationalist rationales ‘of staying competitive in a global market’, are being advanced.

The competing brothers of Capital are united in their attacks on the international working class, while the proletariat is kept divided, fragmented and atomized by repression, the unions, and capitalism’s left wing. One would think that the very similarity of these attacks should create the means for a unified common fight-back by the world’s working class. This is indeed the task facing us and the international working class, which is an important reason why we welcome your invitation for discussion, and debate. A number of months ago we put forward a proposal for online discussion forum to help facilitate debate amongst the Communist Left, of which a copy is printed below. In any case we welcome any questions, contributions and assessment, analysis, and debate as you progress as a group. Don’t hesitate to ask, we’ll try to help in any way we can.

Internationalist Communists Montreal ICM-CIM

The working class of Greece shows the way!

Social movements have been mushrooming, one taking up where the other leaves off, uniting, building and gaining strength. This is the situation in Greece these past few weeks – a situation the bourgeois media throughout the world tries to hide, or worse, distort. The extent of censorship in the news media reveals the international capitalist class’s greatest fear: that this situation will spread, and that the main player in this brewing Greek tragedy, the working class, will set an example for workers of other countries.

The Greek working class fights back in force

The latest plan the country’s government announced was a powerful offensive as taxes went up by 21%, salaries slashed (reduction of 60% by the 14^th month and of 30% by the 13^th), public and private pensions frozen, with massive tax hikes (on alcohol, tobacco and fuel), with increases in other taxes (housing and property). These vicious attacks have a fundamental and direct impact on the working class. Capitalism intends to force the working class to pay for its crisis.

The country’s overall bankruptcy and its current attacks on the working class are in their entirety the complete responsibility of the bourgeoisie – and not just in Greece. This is the real significance of the European Union’s "recommendations", with the German bourgeoisie leading the way, along with the IMF who, with its "support" of Papandreou, the Greek First Minister, will oblige the Greek bourgeoisie by making its own working class pay.

Such attacks are currently underway in Spain as well as in Portugal. Similar attacks will hit the working class of other countries in the weeks to come.

Facing these attacks, struggles, strikes, street demonstrations, massive delegations and assemblies, are erupting and spreading throughout Greece, in opposition to this scandalous bourgeois plan. In all sectors, in all categories, the working class is mobilizing in its anger and refusal to endure circumstances whose sole responsibility lies with the capitalist system.

These workers are showing the way for their class brothers throughout the world

-On a mass scale, it’s through struggle that their furious rejection of the anti-worker government and its bosses’ policies are expressed – and not through the sterile means offered by bourgeois democracy (elections, referendums, social dialogue, union negotiations, etc.). They inspire us to do likewise and more.

- They demonstrate because these days they no longer have any choice – their unfailing determination pushing them into direct confrontation with any and all forces blocking their just struggle – escalating clashes with the forces of capitalist order sent by the "socialist" government of Papandreou; expelling all "false-friends" from their street demonstrations – particularly union pontiffs whose organizations are party to government policy. For workers the world over, the determination of the Greek working class should be welcomed and adopted.

Though still dispersed and still expressing themselves through the trap of corporatism (with union encouragement), they are clearly attempting to spread, to join and to unite their struggle with others, mutually expressing their solidarity, realizing that their concerns and their interests are the same. This is what we’ve seen in the willingness shown by workers in separate demonstrations – to converge, to coalesce and to unify their forces, which the unions knowingly organized in separate locations.

For the working class to impose a balance of forces to force the bourgeoisie to retreat, understanding the unity of its struggle is indispensable and in fact vital. Such unity is achieved through the spread of active solidarity within each movement to other sectors and corporations, by dispatching mass delegations to factories and companies in each area. There is no worse or greater source of defeat than a fragmented and dispersed social front; it is just what the capitalists order and often get, thanks to the sabotage of the unions.

The confrontations unfolding in Greece show us that, if we are to develop our fight, spread our struggles, and unite them into a massive and powerful common front, then we must take things into our own hands. We must lead, control, and organize them ourselves. General Assemblies are a means to this end, for as many workers as possible must be gathered to decide the major objectives, directions and demands of our struggle, nominating elected delegates subject to immediate recall – delegates to represent us in the strike committees. We can't let our class "war" fall into the hands of so-called "specialists"!

Capitalism’s crisis can only get worse. Let there be no illusions. We can no longer buy the lies of the government and the media in the pay of the capitalist class! Today, the states of certain countries at the heart of capitalism are already on the verge of bankruptcy – Spain, Italy and especially Great Britain – with all states deeply in debt.

The entire international capitalist class intends to make the working class to pay for its crisis in all sectors, public and private, active workers, unemployed and pensioned, in every country, on all continents, from capitalism’s periphery to its center. None of us will escape. We can have no illusions!

Just as our class brothers in Greece are doing, we have to reject the fate that capitalism has in store for us. We must enter en masse in struggle, organizing a large, compact and powerful battlefront to drive back the bourgeoisie.

This is how our consciousness will develop, in our realization that capitalism is a deeply bankrupted system leading humanity to yet more misery and to its ultimate destruction through generalized war. It must be smashed. The only force capable of doing this is we, the international working class.

The world’s bourgeoisie wants the working class of all countries to pay for its system’s crisis.

Capitalism’s bankruptcy has only one outcome: a deepening misery for all of the exploited before demanding their lives be sacrificed in a world war, as we’ve already seen in 1914 and 1939.

Today, workers everywhere must reject the enormous sacrifices the bourgeoisie is imposing on them, so that tomorrow they will have the strength to do away with this class and its system.

March 9^th, 2010

The Internal Fraction of the International Communist Current.

The Internationalist Communists of Montréal (Canada)

E-mail of IFICC : inter1925@yahoo.fr

To see our site : :www.bulletincommuniste.org

E-mail of ICM : cim_icm@yahoo.com

To see our blog : http://klasbatalo.blogspot.com

Charest and Godbout, the asbestos capitalists’ lapdogs

This February, Premier Charest was in India defending the interests of the asbestos lobby.

Asbestos is not environmentally friendly, don’t forget. Linked to a variety of diseases, it endangers workers exposed to it in any form. Harmful effects persist even as it breaks down – airborne fibers are dispersed and ingested through the lungs. Toxic effects can take years to become apparent – up to 20 - 40 years after one’s exposure, though longer and shorter intervals are possible. These effects can range from benign to severe, notably to respiratory passages (lung cancer, mesothelioma). Profit-hungry manufacturers are responsible for thousands of deaths globally from asbestos use.

Charest’s attitude is hardly surprising, given his role as representative of the bourgeois state, defending capitalist production – in this case the Quebecois asbestos manufacturers. His greenwashing in Quebec serves only to pacify the naïve environmental lobby.

In his approach to India, Charest found a considerable ally in that trade union corpse, Clément Godbout. Parti Québécois candidate in ’73, FTQ president from 1993 to 1998, member of the administrative council of the Chrysotile Institute since its creation in 1984, becoming its president in 2002… – (the asbestos lobby’s compensation for his work as a saboteur trade-unionist). This spokesman of the Chrysotile Institute – a defense organism of Canadian capitalist asbestos producers – had called upon Indian workers to pressure their government for safety regulations regarding its use. This institute has so little credibility that specialists have demanded their funding be suspended, maintaining that it’s a "waste of public funds", a stain on the scientific and moral reputation of the government and the Canadian people, themselves – "exposing innocents" to the health-hazards of asbestos. [1] India, in spite of being an emerging capitalist power, bases its economy purely on very low wages and lack of health and safety regulations in the workplace – a sickening exploitation of the proletariat. Clement Godbout offers poisoned bait to Indian workers by inciting them to struggle alone against the asbestos manufacturers. To demand safety regulations for its use is, according to journalist Rima Elkouri, an utterly hypocritical and irresponsible attitude, as Canada is all too aware of the impossibility of working safely with asbestos. [2] Clement Godbout just keeps yapping as he learned so well as a trade unionist: expecting workers to fight sector by sector, isolated from other sectors in other countries.

Only an international struggle of the working class can end the use of harmful products such as asbestos.

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[1] http://www.cyberpresse.ca/la-tribune/200901/26/01-821010-des-specialistes-reclament-la-fin-du-financement-de-linstitut-du-chrysotile.php

[2] http://www.cyberpresse.ca/opinions/chroniqueurs/rima-elkouri/201002/02/01-945330-honteux-et-indefendable.php

Robert Perrault (1952-2010)

After a long battle with cancer, Robert Perrault, a GIO/IWO sympathizer, passed away Monday January 11^th at the age of 57.

For most of his life Robert was active in the Maoist group the PCC (m-l) even participating in the electoral circus as one of that Stalinist party’s candidates.

Eventually he realized that the theory of “socialism in one country” put forth by Stalin was a dead-end for the working class and that what the Marxist Leninist groups had been advancing was state capitalism, not socialism. After reading the booklet, “From Nationalism to Internationalism”, he got in contact with the International Communists of Montreal (CIM/ICM) in spring 2009. From our very first meeting with him, we remember his spirit of openness towards internationalism and the political proletarian camp. He spoke of his Maoist background not to brag or share anecdotes but to expose the sectarianism within those groups and their break with the international revolutionary objectives of the proletariat.

At this meeting, we strongly encouraged him to get in touch with le Groupe Internationaliste Ouvrier/ International Worker’s Group (GIO/IWO) the Canadian affiliate of the International Communist Tendency, (the former IBRP) and a sympathizer Parti Communiste Internationaliste (Le Prolétaire). At a second meeting we learned that even if politically he was closer to CIM/ICM, he had chosen to become a sympathizer with the GIO/IWO giving technical assistance to Notes Internationalistes publications and other projects.

He would have liked to have been involved with us during the exchanges between the GIO and the CIM in May 2009. He maintained personal contact with one of us. Always the optimist, he ended his last e-mail to us “Vive la vie! Vive le communisme!” (Long live life, Long live communism).

Robert was for a brief period a militant internationalist. We will remember his lack of sectarianism and his will to clarify the political differences between the CIM and the GIO.

Robert, you will remain always in our hearts and minds.