We received and publish…
In front of the expansion of the Middle-East War and the new Iran-Iraq revolutionary waves:
Towards an International Meeting in Kurdistan
Comrades,
In the last decades, the capitalist society as a whole is splitting up more and more into two great hostile armies directly facing each other: Bourgeoisie and Proletariat. Our epoch, the epoch of the deepening of the global industrial and commercial crisis and thereby increasing class struggle around the world has already passed various stages of development, through which the proletariat has exceeded its first stage of the isolated and sporadic phenomena. The growth of the class war will more and more take on an increasingly international form. And despite of the capitalist war in the Middle East, and new attempts by global capitalism to widen the circle of the war under the pretext of striking Iran’s nuclear weapons, proletariat in Iran has joined-up the current international wave of class struggle. The strikes and demonstrations in Iran have spread to over 249 cities in all of Iran’s 31 provinces. These revolutionary waves did not set an end in Iran, before the proletariat in Iraq entered this historical wrestling ring.
In July 2018, a new wave of the class struggle in Iraq, with 30 victims killed and 700 injured during the past 10 days, more than 50 police and security men were wounded – proletariat in Iraq too started moving towards the universal scene of the class struggle. During the same week, demonstrations erupted in all towns and cities in central and south Iraq, where dozens of demonstrators were wounded, and hundreds arrested. Demonstrators had attacked a courthouse, governorate headquarters, headquarter of Iraqi Hezbollah in Najaf, setting their office on fire and causing air traffic to be suspended. Demonstrators in Najaf occupied the international airport and set fire to the municipality buildings. The government cut off the Internet and blocked social media and has issued a nationwide order security forces on high alert aiming to stem the revolutionary movement. On the contrary, the city of Baghdad joined-up the movement. Finally, the movement showed its development in repeatedly attempts for establishment of the committees in Bagdad which is an attempt to coordinate the demonstrations all over the country.
All these events are evidence of the increasing of the proletariat, not only in number, but in concentration in greater masses. This is an evidence that the movement has an inner ability to self-organizing and self-arming of the proletariat. And while demonstrators everywhere in Iraq shouted: “Hunger Revolution”, and confirmed what a UN agency has confirmed in April 2017 when he said that more than half of Iraqi families are at risk of going hungry because of the ISIS war, although in the eyes of different schools of bourgeois socialism and communism, these events are nothing more than conflicts between Islam and Democracy, Shia and Sunni, Arabs and Kurds. They therefore search after a new political doctrine, a philosophy or a science to create conditions for the movement and thereby for the society they imagine. They, hand in hand with the different categories of bourgeois, endeavor consistently, to push the proletarian movement back and to reconcile between social classes by transforming the religious form of the state into a truly secular state, along with the protection of freedom and establishment of a secular state in Iraq and Iran and an independent democratic state for Kurdish people in which political power is authorized and controlled by the people through their elected political parties, and by this way turn the class antagonism into national conflicts and conflicts between democracy and fascism or between secularism and religion, since the task of the socialists and communists is to dismiss anything in their literature that alleviates the conflict between the social classes. These different schools of leftism see nothing more than contradiction between the political state and the civil society, between the state and human rights of its citizenship, even though such a society that is free of class antagonism only exists in imagination. Social antagonism reflects the existence of two social antagonistic classes: Bourgeoisie and Proletariat. In this antagonism, the bourgeois represents the conservative side everywhere and the proletariat represents the destructive side in society. Thus, the spontaneous movement and the gradual organization of the proletariat anywhere in the world is nothing more than identification of the similar class structure of different countries that creates an international base for proletarian’s common actions.
From this point of view, militants in Kurdistan, suggest an international meeting in our region. We, in honors of the constant progress of the proletariat movement, invite all international socialists, communists, anarchists that are willing to develop a relationship between revolutionary individuals and groups. This progression is a real base for common international activates and such meetings may be a base for a great international conference in the nearest future. The aim of this meeting is to firstly set up an international committee for the exchange of information upon matters of interest to the proletarians of all countries and discuss practical tasks related to class struggle, organize periodic meetings, set up a common website, collect financial aid to achieve specific tasks, etc. The meeting may at least break the isolation between the internationalists and will be an expression of the common interests of the world’s proletariat. It may find a center for these common tasks and do a common program for all internationalist groups. It will at least be an international common answer to the capitalist alliance which exorcises the specter of the social revolution. The only answer to this capitalist alliance, especially for expanding the war is the proletarian’s revolutionary war. The continued capitalist militarization, which is the biggest fundamental fact of our epoch, results undoubtedly with the arming of the proletariat. This phenomena, the phenomena of the proletarian arming, which has been a reality in Iraq/Kurdistan, even though it is so far at the beginning, is based on the whole development of the capitalist militarism in our epoch. That is the fulfillment of the historical materialist condition of the proletarian revolution.
Greetings,
Militants in Kurdistan, Iraq
24, July 2018
Source: http://www.myinternetpages.com/meetingenglish.html
Also published here: https://www.autistici.org/tridnivalka/towards-an-international-meeting-in-kurdistan/
Comments
See for German translation:
See for German translation: Arbeiterstimmen
See for Dutch translation: Arbeidersstemmen
Comment
Arbeidersstemmen/Arbeiterstimmen welcomes the above initiative taken by militants in Kurdistan, Iraq, as an important step forward in the international workers' struggle. Arbeidersstemmen/Arbeiterstimmen with its modest resources will do everything in its power to support and advance this initiative, first of all by publicizing the call for a first meeting.
The question is how one believes to distinguish between the internationalists among the groups and individuals invited and the left-wing nationalists who use socialist, communist and anarchist verbiage to hide their participation in the imperialist war.
The call itself is neither very clear in this respect. Firstly, the formulation capitalist war, where the Communist Left, following in the footsteps of Lenin, Luxemburg and Gorter and others, spoke clearly of (inter)imperialist war: 'transformation of the imperialist war into a civil war'.
The final paragraph seems to equate the embrigadation, the organisation in armies and militias, the militarisation of workers for the interimperialtic wars in the Middle East with the armament of the workers as a class. On the contrary, for the workers in uniform, it is first and foremost necessary to take up arms against their 'own' national oppressors and exploiters, from the Assad regime to the Ayatolla regime, from ISIS to PYD/PKK, from Erdogan to Trump, etc.
The bitter experiences of the revolutionary movements after the First World War in Russia, Germany, Hungary and Italy have taught us that it is not enough to arm the workers as a class.
The revolutionary proletariat must also present itself as a political, social and economic force in relation to the other oppressed and exploited classes. To this end, it is necessary, first of all, to open up the places of work to workers in uniform and young unemployed proletarians, and to integrate them into production and into mass meetings.
These mass meetings discuss all the issues of the revolution and how to put production and distribution at the service of social needs. In order to coordinate mass activity, these meetings elect delegates and, where necessary, replace them with others who are more expressing the will of the workers.
In order to meet the needs of energy, water, transport and care, the workers where they exercise armed power will restart work and enter into an exchange with the farm labourers and farmers in order to provide the cities with food. These are tasks that may under no circumstances be placed in the hands of a state (however it calls itself), they are carried out by the mass activity of the working masses themselves.
Fredo Corvo, 18-8-2018.
What oprecisely is meant by
What oprecisely is meant by "workers in uniform"? Does this include the police?
Quote: What oprecisely is
With "workers in uniform" I meant proletarian soldiers and militia men and women. See for more Proletarian internationalism and the war in Syria.
Generally the police is a repression force.
Repression forces can brought to lay down their arms only at a high level of proletarian struggles, as seen f.e. in the Russian Revolution when Cossacks that were supposed to hold back proletarian demonstrators permitted them to pass by crawling under their horses bellies (Trotsky History of the Russian Revolution).
"Below – armed proletarians
"Below – armed proletarians at funeral of person murdered by state forces"
"Armed Iraqi civilians attend the funeral of a protester allegedly killed by security forces on Monday night. Photo: Haidar Mohammed Ali / AFP"
Afterword – Once upon a time
Afterword – Once upon a time there was an appeal for an international meeting in Kurdistan…
Two months ago we published here an appeal for an international meeting in Kurdistan signed by “Militants in Kurdistan, Iraq” in relation with the increasing and intensification of the class struggle in the region of Middle East and especially in Iraq and Iran.
But one thing is to translate and/or publish and spread materials from militant groups as a practical task to develop together the proletarian community of struggle and critics, another thing is to agree (or not) completely on the content of the text.
Since then an international discussion developed around and about this appeal. Following lines are a reflection of this discussion, discussion which was also the basis for development of our critics of the text.
When we received this appeal we considered it as an initiative of our class, a militant effort to get centralized and to centralize proletarian direct action in the Middle East region, even though it may not correspond to all of our criteria, even if we would not have written it in this way, even if its milestones and many points remain unresolved or unclear, even very vague, and require a deepening, a clarification…
The class struggle in the region has been since these last years and months more and more intensive: demonstrations, riots, occupations, burning down of governmental and militia buildings, proletariat arming itself, reorganising its forces… struggle against exploitation and the global dictatorship of the value that prevents the developing and imposing of the dictatorship of human needs.
Therefore it seems to be logic that the local proletarian groups try to get organized, develop our class associationism, and try to share and centralize their activity and all this not only in the framework of a national state but (what is important) also internationally. We can only greet such attempts as they are crucial for the continuation, development and spreading of the class struggle, moreover when they grow up from the local reality of class struggle as it is the case in Iraq.
Without falling into the trap of an excess of optimism and overvaluation, we did not want to dismiss (and there has never been any question for us to dismiss) this initiative, what would have made us sinking into an irresponsible indifference and liquidationism or in self-centred complacency… Yesterday, today and tomorrow, communists have been, are, and will still be confronted with dozens, hundreds of initiatives with few clear criteria, with blurry and evasive perspectives, that it has been necessary, that it is necessary, and that it will still be necessary for the most determined elements of the proletariat in struggle to direct, clarify, deepen, coordinate, centralize… to uproot the counterrevolution poison from our ranks…
From time immemorial, the communists (and we insist once again here on the fact that the formal name we give ourselves is neither a guarantee nor the most decisive element in the development of our struggle), so the communists have always had to fight hard to criticize, denounce, break down, annihilate, eradicate any Social Democratic tendency that is distilled within our struggles, our militant structures, in our texts, appeals, manifestos… like a poison for emptying them from their subversive substance, diverting them from their final goal: the abolition of wage labour and therefore of capital (and vice versa), of the present state of things and its State…
These are basically the reasons why we decided to publish and spread the appeal.
But on the other hand, we were and we are of course aware of the important weaknesses of this appeal.
It is notably the lack of clear criteria for possible participants. An international and internationalist meeting is not an open debate (a conference) where everything can be discussed and put into question! If the issue of the international meeting should be to discuss such important questions as how to centralize proletarian forces, how to turn the weapons against our own bourgeoisie, how to turn an inter-bourgeois war into a civil war…, it is necessary to clarify with whom we want to centralize and on which basis. Who we consider to be revolutionary, internationalist, communist? Those who claim it or those whose practice proves it? We believe that an internationalist discussion can be hold only with those groups who share the basis of communist positions – internationalism, revolutionary defeatism, against wage labour, against state, against capital…
We have to refuse also a kind of fetishism of armed struggle as it appears in the appeal. If we insist on the fact that proletariat has to arm itself, if the situation in Kurdistan puts it as a pure necessity for the proletarians to survive, we can hardly defend or praise any kind of militia or self-defence unit as such, neither we can consider it as a qualitative leap as such in the class war. Armed struggle is not revolutionary as such. Armed struggle can be revolutionary only as a result of a revolutionary social practise of the proletariat. And it is this social practise that determines the forms of the (armed) struggle. What makes the difference between any armed core and the red army is its content – the class content, proletarian programme that is assumed by it.
We also want to insist on the critics of gradualism in grasping the class struggle that appears in the appeal. We would like to point out here that class struggle is not developing gradually – from little demonstration to the insurrection, from a small proletarian group to the proletariat organised as a party world widely, but on the contrary through series of organizational ruptures, programmatic clarifications that will inevitably take violent forms. Communists are not loyal to any organisation, group or party, they are loyal only to the communist programme and if the given structure diverts from it, communists should not only leave it, but to organise outside of it and against it. Once again it is the revolutionary content that prevails.
We have no doubt that there is a need to centralize the proletarian activities in the region of Kurdistan. But there is of course also the question of feasibility of such an international meeting, especially concerning the security of participating militants. Are the comrades “Militants in Kurdistan, Iraq” able to assume such a responsibility in a region riddled with military forces and secret services of all possible colours?
If a debate on these questions develops in the internationalist milieu, if there are attempts of clarification of above presented problems, we have to admit, that there are not a lot of replies provided by the “Militants in Kurdistan, Iraq”. Is it due to hard repression or technical problems? Or were we mistaken to take their appeal seriously?
Whatever will be the reply, it doesn’t change anything on the fact that the communists should continue to deal with decentralization of direct action, of local and regional initiatives, of the regrouping of militant forces and attempts to spread the struggle, on one hand, and “political”, programmatic, centralization through clear central guidelines that determine and define the overall goal to be achieved and the enemy to destroy, on the other hand… That is to say centralization and decentralization not as a contradiction, but as a part of the same process, the same movement, in Kurdistan, all over the world.
Class War – 24/10/2018.
Source
An Invitation to a
An Invitation to a Discussion
Reply to an appeal for an internationalist meeting
In the previous issue of A Free Retriever's Digest we were able to notify the aforementioned appeal for an internationalist meeting by militants in Iraqi Kurdistan. What follows is the reply provided on libcom by Fredo Corvo of the ‘Arbeidersstemmen’ blog. We hope to continue corresponding with the initiators on the situation regarding the Near- and Middle East and their initiative.
» Arbeidersstemmen/Arbeiterstimmen welcomes the (...) initiative taken by militants in Kurdistan, Iraq, as an important step forward in the international workers' struggle. Arbeidersstemmen/Arbeiterstimmen with its modest resources will do everything in its power to support and advance this initiative, first of all by publicizing the call for a first meeting.
The question is how one believes to distinguish between the internationalists among the groups and individuals invited and the left-wing nationalists who use socialist, communist and anarchist verbiage to hide their participation in the imperialist war.
The call itself is neither very clear in this respect. Firstly, the formulation capitalist war, where the Communist Left, following in the footsteps of Lenin, Luxemburg and Gorter and others, spoke clearly of (inter)imperialist war: “transformation of the imperialist war into a civil war”.
The final paragraph seems to equate the [brigading], the organization in armies and militias, the militarization of workers for the inter-imperialistic wars in the Middle East with the armament of the workers as a class. On the contrary, for the workers in uniform, it is first and foremost necessary to take up arms against their ‘own’ national oppressors and exploiters, from the Assad regime to the Ayatollah regime, from ISIS to PYD/PKK, from Erdogan to Trump, etc.
The bitter experiences of the revolutionary movements after the First World War in Russia, Germany, Hungary and Italy have taught us that it is not enough to arm the workers as a class.
The revolutionary proletariat must also present itself as a political, social and economic force in relation to the other oppressed and exploited classes. To this end, it is necessary, first of all, to open up the workplaces to workers in uniform and young unemployed proletarians, and to integrate them into production and into mass meetings.
These mass meetings discuss all the issues of the revolution and how to put production and distribution at the service of social needs. In order to coordinate mass activity, these meetings elect delegates and, where necessary, replace them with others who are more expressing the will of the workers.
In order to meet the needs of energy, water, transport and care, the workers will restart work and enter into an exchange with the farm laborers and farmers, where they exercise armed power, in order to provide the cities with food. These are tasks that may under no circumstances be placed in the hands of a state ([whatever] it calls itself), they are carried out by the mass activity of the working masses themselves. «
Fredo Corvo, 18-8-2018.
Readers are invited to send appreciations of the presented texts, questions and/or own contributions on the subject per e-mail. Meaningful correspondence is eligible for publication in a next release of AFRD.
The editor.
Source