ICC public meeting on foundation of the Third International, London, 9 March

Submitted by Alf on February 8, 2019

International Communist Current Public Meeting
100 years since the foundation of the Communist International


Saturday March 9, 2019, 2pm-6pm
May Day Rooms
88 Fleet Street, London, EC4Y 1DH
Nearest tube: St Pauls

“The CI's foundation awakes unpleasant memories for the whole capitalist class and its zealous servants. In particular, it reminds them of their fright at the end of World War I, faced with the mounting and apparently unavoidable tide of the international revolutionary wave: the victorious proletarian revolution in Russia in October 1917; mutinies in the trenches; the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm and the hurried sig¬nature of an armistice in the face of mutinies and the revolt of the working masses in Germany; then the insurrection of German workers; the creation along Russian lines of republics of workers' councils in Bavaria and Hungary; the beginning of strikes among the working masses in Britain and Italy; mutinies in the fleet and army in France, as well as among some British military units refusing to intervene against Soviet Russia ....” (‘1919: foundation of the Communist International’, International Review 57).

The Communist International was formed in order to provide a clear political orientation to this massive upsurge of the class struggle, to point the way to the world-wide conquest of power by the working class. At this point in history, it was a very different organisation from what it later became with the isolation, degeneration and defeat of the revolution in Russia – a simple agency for the foreign policy of a Russian state in the process of integrating itself into the global imperialist system. Revolutionaries today must therefore recognise that the history of the CI is a vital part of their own history. But we are also faced with the task of understanding the weaknesses and failures of the International in order to construct the future world party on the clearest possible programmatic and organisational principles.

The ICC will outline its approach to this question, with the emphasis on developing a wide-ranging and in-depth discussion among everyone who attends.

Alf

5 years 1 month ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Alf on February 28, 2019

We're working on a new article on the foundation of the CI, but in the meantime, this older one can be looked at to help prepare the discussion:

https://en.internationalism.org/content/3066/1919-foundation-communist-international

Alf

5 years ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Alf on March 6, 2019

This Saturday. All welcome, including those who reject the idea that the formation of the Communist International was a major step forward in the history of the proletarian movement.....come and argue your case!

slothjabber

5 years ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by slothjabber on March 7, 2019

Is the new text on the founding of the ComIntern available yet?

Alf

5 years ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Alf on March 7, 2019

The new article is available in French here: https://fr.internationalism.org/content/9871/100-ans-fondation-linternationale-communiste-quelles-lecons-tirer-combats-du-futur, but it hasn't been translated into English yet.
deepl.com/en/translator is pretty good for a machine translator, but if you want to use the free version you can only do blocks of 500 words at a time.

Alf

5 years ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Alf on March 8, 2019

Late in the day, I know, but we also wrote about the 1919 Platform of the CI, as part of the series about the history of communist programmes: https://en.internationalism.org/internationalreview/199806/3831/platform-communist-international

The controversy that has got going on the other thread about the formation of the Comintern
(https://libcom.org/blog/founding-comintern-then-now-03032019) can be continued at our meeting, where we hope to see comrades from the CWO and others, like Slothjabber, who are fighting in defence of the proletarian nature of the Communist International.

This is also an invitation to those who strongly disagree with this left communist view of the CI, whether from an anarchist or SPGB starting point.

slothjabber

5 years ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by slothjabber on March 11, 2019

I'd like to thank the ICC comrades for hosting what I thought was a very interesting discussion, setting out both the political background to the founding conference, and trying to draw lessons for today (and the future). Not only those of us in the room but also about 10 comrades following via the internet from different parts of the world. I hope they were able to to hear the majority of the discussions, it was at times difficult to make out everything they were saying unfortunately, but hopefully the technology will improve.

As there was no-one in the meeting who expressed a SPGB-ist or Anarchist orientation of being against the creation of the International, there was a fair degree of agreement about some essential points. However, there was a great deal of discussion about the actual process both historically and looking to the future, showing a disagreement on organisational questions between those following the perspective put forward by the ICC and that of the ICT. For me it helped to clarify some questions but it also raised others. I suppose that is the point!