ICC online public meeting: global implications of US elections, 16 November 2pm

Submitted by Alf on October 19, 2024

The working class has nothing to chose between Trump and Harris, Republicans or Democrats. Whoever wins, the working class will be subjected to the brutal attacks on its living standards demanded by the economic crisis and the build-up of the war economy. Whoever wins, workers will be faced with the need to defend themselves as a class against these attacks

But this does not mean that we can ignore the election campaign and its consequences. They are revealing that the divisions in the US bourgeoisie, the ruling class of what is still the most powerful country in the world, are growing sharper and more violent. The US has become the epicentre of the decomposition of the world capitalist system, and whoever emerges as President after November 5, the election will serve to exacerbate these divisions even more, with serious consequences both within the US itself and on the global stage.

Revolutionaries thus have the task not only of denouncing the fraud of bourgeois democracy, but of analysing the world-wide implications of the US election, of placing them in a coherent framework that will enable us to understand how the fragmentation of the US ruling class is an active factor in the only perspective that the bourgeoisie can offer humanity: an accelerating dive into destruction and chaos. We invite all those who want to fight for a different future to come to this meeting and discuss with us.

The main language of the meeting will be English, but we will have facilities to translate on the spot into other languages as well. If you want to take part, write to us at international@internationalism.org, indicating if you are happy following and contributing in English, or specifying what other language you would need to use.

Date and Time: 16 November 2024, 2pm-5pm UK time

adri

1 month 1 week ago

Submitted by adri on November 17, 2024

How'd it go? Also, would the ICC happen to care if I upload their English translation of Miasnikov's Workers' Group manifesto on here?

Submitted by westartfromhere on November 17, 2024

adri wrote: ...would the ICC happen to care if I upload their English translation of Miasnikov's Workers' Group manifesto on here?

That would be great. The site could do with some light comic relief. For those that can't wait here's a little teaser the Propaganda and Agitation Department of the DPRK would be proud of:

The communist avant-garde must before everything expel from the heads of its class comrades all crass bourgeois ideology and conquer the consciousness of the proletariat in order to lead it to a victorious struggle. But to burn off all this bourgeois debris, it must be with them, the proletarians, sharing all their troubles and labour. When these proletarians, who until now have followed the accomplices of the bourgeoisie, begin to struggle, to go on strike, it should not stand outside blaming them scornfully—it must, on the contrary, stay with them in their struggle, explaining relentlessly that this struggle only serves the bourgeoisie. Similarly, to say a word of truth, one is sometimes forced to stand on a pile of shit (to stand for elections) even when it means soiling honest revolutionary shoes.

Hopefully, permission will be given to publish the two chapters currently unavailable on the Web in English, "The character of the proletariat's class struggle" and "Dialectic of the class struggle".

Long live the heroic historic struggle for Workers' Democracy!

Alf

1 month 1 week ago

Submitted by Alf on November 17, 2024

The meeting went well, with around 60 people from various parts of the world taking part. There wasn't time for everyone present to develop their arguments so there will probably be a follow up meeting in the New Year.
OK for Adri to post the Miasnikov text on libcom (in the relevant section of the archive, not on this tread), with a reference to our website. It was part of the struggle of the international communist left against the degeneration of the Comintern and the rise of Stalinism, so absolutely nothing to do with the North Korean Stalinists.

adri

1 month 1 week ago

Submitted by adri on November 17, 2024

Much appreciated. For completeness's sake, it would also be nice to include the first two parts of the Manifesto ("The Character of the Proletariat's Class Struggle" and "Dialectic of the Class Struggle"), which seem to only be available in the ICC's (currently out of print) book The Russian Communist Left: 1918-1930.

Submitted by westartfromhere on November 18, 2024

Alf wrote: ...the Miasnikov text... was part of... the degeneration of the Comintern and the rise of Stalinism, so absolutely nothing to do with the North Korean Stalinists.

From the little we have read of this document it sits perfectly with the future policy of the Comintern, with "Stalinism", as you prefer. There is a clear link between imperialist Russia and the North Korean republic. These are trade links.

Myasnikov wrote: When these proletarians... begin to struggle, to go on strike,... [explain] relentlessly that this struggle only serves the bourgeoisie.

Perhaps the "communist avant-garde", the ICC, could explain this to us? It sounds like rearguard action.