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.

---

[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.

Proposal for an online discussion forum within the Communist Left

The purpose of this virtual exchange forum would be to encourage discussion between groups of the communist Left, so that these groups:

Participate in strengthening the foundation of the proletarian camp by setting up a permanent meeting place for a fraternal exchange of ideas;

Contribute to the clarification of the communist program with regard to the struggles of today’s working class;

Attempt as far as possible to bridge the gap between various elements not so much as to put aside differences between its participants, but in order to eventually be able to intervene within the struggles of the working class

We also hope that the mere presence of such a meeting place will engender a clearer definition of what constitutes the proletarian camp in the 21^st century, rooting out any outside elements that would confuse the class that is ours. The class that produces the surplus value can indeed defend its immediate interests; but only a revolutionary minority united around an internationalist class party can instill class-consciousness in the working class in order to guide the struggles in a revolutionary direction.

Since in general the Communist Left is very low in number and divided on certain questions, its intervention in the class is minimal and dispersed – sometimes with serious differences, of course; but sometimes with the same political point of view or with minor differences. We think that a place of theoretical debate and practice could be a step toward greater unity and clarity of the proletarian political program.

Also, different groups of the CL have already suggested such a forum for debate.

IBRP [New name Internationalist Communist Tendency]

« From its formation the two organizations which founded the IBRP have made it clear that the Bureau did not claim to be the international party of the proletariat but neither are we a mere academic discussion circle. It follows from this that the activity of the IBRP, in total coherence with its Platform and its own strategic aims, has always aimed to encourage discussions between different groups at an international level, concretely aimed at the rebuilding of a real revolutionary international party. The entire activity of the IBRP, though not claiming to be the party nor the original nucleus of the future party has been taken up with the theoretical and political debate with other groups. International correspondence in various languages, meetings and discussions with elements who have contacted us and the publication of an English review Internationalist Communist (unfortunately now suspended for financial reasons) have been for many years our daily work.» 25 Years of the Bureau: Balance Sheet and Perspectives, May 2008

IFICC

“In this particularly difficult situation for our class, we can only observe and deplore not only the weakness of communist minorities but especially the sectarian isolation endured and maintained by these groups and organizations in the proletarian camp.

What the class needs – and only its communist vanguard are in position to provide, and moreover it’s their responsibility – is guidance, clear political reference points, definite objectives indicating the sense of its struggle and the real stakes involved.

To engage in struggle, to go on strike, the working masses essentially have no need of communist minorities; this it can and does manage on its own. However, to lead the struggle in such a way as to turn the balance of forces in its favor; to avoid the pitfalls and the inevitable traps set by the bourgeoisie, its left apparatus and its unions; to comprehend the magnitude of the situation and the depth of the issues, the communist minorities are indispensable and historically it is for this specific task that the class has given rise to them.” La bourgeoisie à l'offensive tous azimuts ; le prolétariat en ordre dispersé. (The bourgeoisie in an all out offensive; the proletariat in scattered array.) Bulletin #47 26/07/2009)

ICC

“For a sect, dialogues with others obviously have no purpose. "We don't agree! We don't agree! We're not going to be convinced!" Why can't revolutionary organizations convince other revolutionary organizations through debate? They can, because it's only the sects who refuse to question their own certitudes.

How did all the revolutionary regroupments of the past come about if it's impossible for anyone to convince anyone else through debate?” Sectarianism, an inheritance from the counter-revolution that must be transcended - International Review no.22 - 3rd quarter 1980

“ … the politicization of the proletarian struggle is linked to the presence of a communist minority within its ranks. The fact that the internationalist milieu is still very weak indicates the distance the working class still has to travel in order to engage in revolutionary struggles and give birth to its world class party, an essential organ without which the victory of the revolution is impossible” 18th ICC Congress: Resolution on the International Situation - International Review no.138 - 3rd quarter 2009

Of course these quotes are not exclusive but reflect the urgent need of a forum for practical and theoretical discussions considering the scale of the current crisis and a struggling working class without any revolutionary political orientation for the long term that is to say communism. It is important, for instance, to take stock of struggles in Greece and in Guadeloupe, to study the consequences of the growth of state capitalism in the current and future struggles of the working class, etc.

Proposals for basic criteria to participate in this meeting place:

· Acknowledgment of the dictatorship of the proletariat

· Acknowledgment of the necessity of an international working class party

· A minimum of intervention in the class (e.g. drafting and dissemination of leaflets)

It goes without saying that internationalism is a criterion but we believe it is included in the first two criteria and that only the international working class struggle can lead to victory over capitalism.

For the moment we are sending out invitations to the IBRP, OPOP (Brazil-Workers' Opposition, the ICC, Pcint (Proletarian) and to IFICC.

Possibly other groups (and /or individuals that match these criteria could be added.

We hope, through this forum, to see groups of the CL evolve fraternally toward a relative homogeneity – wherever possible – or to see them break away from the proletarian camp should discussions arise with concepts completely foreign to the interests of our class.

This will be an internal tool for groups of the CL. The implementation of texts will be accessible only to participating groups, this restriction to prevent leftist groups from confusing or hampering the discussions. However, the site would be open for all to read, and thus the conscious elements of the class. Admittedly it is restricted to Internet access, but let us not forget that its primary purpose is for groups of the CL.

The texts should be published in English and French. The responsibility for translation lies with the groups participating.

Obviously, this is a proposal. We hope it will be discussed and possibly modified by the participants proposed. The CIM will not set up this website. In the event of your agreement, we await the proposals of a new site or an addition to the current one.

Internationalist greetings

Internationalist Communists Montreal (ICM)

From Nationalism to Internationalism

We have just published a booklet, "From Nationalism to Internationalism".

This booklet tells the story of an activist over a period of about 35 years. For him, it is an easy enough transition from nationalist to Maoist groups, for almost all of them are fundamentally nationalist, with the Stalinist justification of the concept of "socialism in one country" for the latter. He has been well acquainted with Maoists having been a militant founder of the Maoist group In Struggle! (En Lutte!) This booklet is his political autobiography.

In the introduction he writes: “The purpose of this booklet is to comment on my political activity as a militant, while grounding myself on my current knowledge of Left communist positions.”

His booklet is both intended as a criticism of past activities (for example, a critique of the Maoist current in which he’d long evolved) and to show that these same activities were alien to the proletariat. In fact, he is writing this booklet so that young workers and students can avoid the same mistakes and gain an understanding of the politics of the Communist Left, the real proletarian camp. To learn from our struggles and past mistakes is an important aspect of Marxism.

Here’s an excerpt:

“The October 1917 Russian Revolution was the first step toward world communist revolution in an international revolutionary wave that ended the imperialist war and lasted several years. The failure of that revolutionary wave, particularly in Germany in 1919-23, condemned the Russian Revolution to isolation and rapid degeneration. Stalinism was not the product of the Russian Revolution, but its gravedigger. The bourgeoisie’s biggest lie for the past 80 years has been in calling Stalinism “communism”. “

Table of Contents

Introduction

My origins

My years in the dead-end of nationalism or the nation before classe struggle

Taxi drivers’ Struggle against Murray Hill

My years in the dead-end of Maoism or socialism in one country

October 1970 crisis

Other important events in Quebec and internationally that influenced me

L’Atelier Ouvrier

The In Struggle! (En Lutte!) team

1976 Olympic Games underground

Once again, the police and their mercenaries

Dissolution of the Maoist group In Struggle!

Fight against pesticides in a suburban town

Years ‘89 and ‘90: the collapse of the Soviet Union and its satellites

Summer of 1990 :The Mohawk bourgeoisie’s struggle against the Quebec and

Canadian bourgeoisie

Memoir that plays into the hands of bourgeois democracy

1996 socio-economic summit

Summit of the Americas Quebec City April 2001

Discovering the existence of the communist Left

The International

Appendices

I- Basic Positions of internationalists of Montreal

II- "every man for himself"

III- Marxism and the police

IV- Terrorism, a War Weapon of the bourgeoisie

V- A circus of darkness and lies: the National Assembly

VI- from The Question of Trade Unionism in Quebec

VII- Data on major Quebec companies

VIII- Origin of the Communist Left

IX- Capitalism is dying !

 It is still available. Send your address to: klasbatalo@gmail.com

Summary of the French version of the response of ICM to the Mise au point du BIPR

1. First, we would apologize for any confusion caused, and explain that the release of the document without addresses and coordinates for the IBRP-GIO . Although it is presented as an IBRP tract.

2. That this occurred as a result of a computer sending error by one comrade in the group. (details if necessary)

3. The text was prepared in anticipation of a reply on doing a joint distribution, should that have had occurred. We had made the request april 03, 2009.

4. We decided not to do a distribution of the IBRP leaflet at our meeting last week, and that is as far we had taken it as a group.

5. We in no way wished to convey the idea that we were a sympathizing group officially tied in any way to the IBRP.

6. We chose the IBRP tract-leaflet because it encapsulated many of the crucial points affecting the class struggle today, very well.

7. It has never been our intention to denigrate the IBRP or any of its organizations. To this extent, we apologize to the comrades of the GIO for leveling the charge of being an opportunist group – this instead should have remained leveled at one comrade within the group, and the charge of opportunism specific to a particular set of events that you are aware of.

8. On this same point we’re thoroughly convinced that you have only heard one side of the events properly. Our point here was not to denigrate but to have the truth come out.

9. Though we have no official ties with the IBRP, we adhere to most if not all positions within the IBRP’s platform and overall approach. We are in continual debate and discussion on the platforms and programs of the IBRP and the ICC, IFFIC as well as the Bordigist ICPs and evolving our own elaborations.

10. Folowing from this, it must be said that whenever we made contact with those interested in the IBRP in particular, we have directed them to the Bureau and the GIO. And we will continue to do so, while encouraging all contacts to familiarize themselves with all the groups within the communist left as well as their publications.

11. We are not cops, informers, counter-revolutionaries or hobbyists getting their jollies from spurious factionalism. So while we understand your response to our error, we hope you will rescind your decision to not allow our use of your leaflets and tracts. We will continue to use quotations from all the groups on the communist left, including the IBRP when appropriate, with proper credit given.

12. In any case, the spread and development of the class struggle today, around the world face the global economic crisis currently raging, can illustrate how our communication errors are secondary in this situation. “The entire communist left has to relate to the actual working class struggle, wherever it finds itself, and not to the petty debates that are often manufactured between communists. To blow these out of proportion is idealism of the worst kind.” Jocks (CWO)

13. If these problems and misunderstanding are not resolved today, we hope that they will be in the future.

The National Assembly: A Circus of Lies and Hypocrisy

Elections are the best means available for businessmen and their political valets to divert the working class from its historical task - the emancipation of all humanity. An artificial terrain where your X legitimizes capitalist power, be it Charest, Marois, David, Dumont, whoever...

The diversion of the working class towards bourgeois democracy for the last 100 years has led to its passivity and defeat. The "citizens" - as politicians and unionists like to call them, in order play down theexistence of the working class - are locked in a Kafkaesque choice between political parties which offer no choice at all when it comes to ideas - obsessed only with grabbing governmental power.

All of this at a time when the crisis exposes the reality of capitalism to a degree greater than ever before: environmental problems, the impossibility of sustainable development in the unbridled race for profit, which only represents the capitalist system's apex; unemployment and growing pauperization; the use of "terrorism" to stifle any critical opposition to the economic and political order, and nationalist polarizations towards world conflict.

To abstain is to refuse bourgeois power, to deny its legitimacy; it's the refusal of the daily extortion of surplus-value from the working class.

Workers, we must realize that elections do not change anything.

Blackmail in the form of closures like Olymel will continue. Unions, which cry out that we need "to act together for Quebec", prod us continually to vote for various clones. The true decision-makers are not the deputies; they are the businessmen and businesswomen, the companies of the state's senior officials - basically all the owners
of the means production who are in charge of enterprises such as Bombardier, Québecor, Olymel, Hydro-Québec, or a possible Eole Inc. Their goal is the pursuit of profits for their stockholders and leaders. Among them, we count the official managers of state enterprises, those same state enterprises that operate symbiotically with their private sector sisters. For example, the supply of electricity at reasonable costs to the SME or other monopolies, be it Hydro-Québec or a possible Eole inc., is one of close collaboration between Québec's state capitalism and private capital. From the CSN sidestepping Quebec Solidaire for the Greens, this political "rearguard" wants nothing more than to improve "the economy of Quebec" to benefit the corporations, and to create increasingly precarious jobs…This gang of social-climbers will never admit that in the capitalist economy, employment is only temporary and that wage-cuts are increasingly permanent. Faced with the disillusionment that Capital creates, their solution isn't to bring it down but to prolong its existence, its so-called democracy, its extortion of our class'slabour. Their aim is to get us to vote in the belief that capitalismis eternal, and that we must make do with it!

To abstain will not suffice.

The increase in abstention during elections reveals the growing indifference of workers to the electoral process. However, this alone will never be sufficient. Let us stop begging at the altar of the bourgeois state with petitions, votes, or on marches of the "Francoise David" variety. The dictatorship of the bourgeoisie must be destroyed and replaced by the dictatorship of workers councils. It's the prospect of the class war against our exploiters that must motivate us. Workers, we must unite to construct an internationalist proletarian party, an anti-Stalinist party!

Some internationalist communists, Montreal