About the Bordigist Group in Lyon

Today we would like to inform our readers about some of the ideas expressed in the newly published organ of the French Bordigists, the Réveil Communiste. This is a group of theorists who have long represented "left" tendencies in the 3rd International.

The terminology of right, left and extreme left is still used today by the Lyon Bordigists to characterize the various groups.

It is noteworthy that the will is expressed not to repeat the mistakes of the past.

It is in this spirit that the Russian Revolution and its results are commented on.

It is quite correctly stated that in the highly developed capitalist countries the relations of the classes to each other, and especially between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, are different from those in Russia. In the former "we see a cunning bourgeoisie, strong in economic and political experience. Here we see a labor aristocracy whose spirit is fully reflected in the social-democratic parties. Here, finally, the relations between the peasantry and the proletariat are not the same as they were in Russia in 1917. Here, finally, the leading role of the working class in the proletarian revolution on the basis of compromise is not so easy to achieve. The capitalist class has far too important forces in the political formations of reformism to enter into alliances in the struggle against capitalism, even with the intention of liquidating them in the course of the struggle."

The Bordigist comrades in Lyon quite rightly come to the conclusion "that the regime of Bonapartism is a fact in the Soviet(!) Union."

They also speak out against the "centrism" (! Ed.) of the Ruth Fischer people in Germany, as well as against Suzanne and her associates in France, and they also quite rightly brand Zinoviev as the man who never had a line, and also distance themselves from Trotsky and the Opposition bloc.

In a similar sense, the Russian question has already been resolved by Korsch. And even Scholem, in one of his last assembly speeches, dropped the "workers' state" of Russia. There is probably nothing else left for the Oppositionists of all tendencies if they do not want to leave the stage completely today, burdened with the curse of ridicule. The year 1928 is not 26 or 23, and today one must really demand of the former left theoreticians of the 3rd International that they go further and solve the positive tasks of the proletariat in a revolutionary sense. Here, however, the Lyon comrades still fail completely.

The only positive moment seems to us to be a polemic against the KAPD.

The Lyons comrades write:

"Who does not deny that certain manifestations of the radical German elements at the beginning of the resistance of the left against Lenin's line were of a simplistic kind, far removed from the Marxist line. It was a mixture of revolutionary sentimentalism and anti-parliamentarism, which in its criticism took the ideological standpoint of anarchism... This infantile tendency of the Left Opposition in Germany crystallized in Germany land in the Communist Workers' Party and did not succeed in advancing its line to the comprehension of the Marxist method and its application to the present historical method."

However, it is recognized that behind the efforts of the KAP lies a serious objective conflict between the conditions of the class struggle and Lenin's line.

On the other hand, the first issue of Réveil Communiste already contains a very detailed article on the communist politics of Korsch, who has since died and ended up close to the ultra-right Paul Meyer.

Of course, the real questions of struggle are not touched upon in this article either.

Both the French Bordigists and Karl Korsch gave the proletariat stones instead of bread on the important questions of anti-parliamentarism and the trade unions.

As we correctly pointed out in No. 6 of the “KAZ.”, the Lyons Bordigist group, like the Sapronovists in Russia, has separated itself from the Trotskyist-Zinovievist Opposition Bloc. It is also in the process of publishing the Plateforme de l'opposition de gauche (Platform of the Left Opposition) of the Sapronovists in French, which they would like to see confused with the Plateforme de gauche Bordiges, on which they still rely today.

However, in No. 1 of the Réveil, they had promised to deal with Sapronov's platform, which was based on the NEP, either in a preface or in an article in the Réveil. However, this examination of Sapronov's platform in detail has not yet taken place. Also, in the renewed announcement of Sapronov's platform in no. 2 of the Réveil, the demarcation envisaged in no. 1 by a possible preface has been omitted.

So much for the preliminary information for our readers.

There are still many points to be discussed and corrected that were not clearly formulated by the Lyon Bordigist comrades.

The KAP will also be happy to help these comrades to clarify themselves and to follow the revolutionary path of the KAP.

We will return to the views of the Lyon comrades and all the events in the International from time to time in detailed articles which will supplement and deepen the notes intended to provide initial information to a wider circle of readers.