Belgique - België PB 2600 Berchem 1-2 BC 9925 International Communist Current Summer 2019 Presenting the Review Centenary of the foundation of the Communist International 1919: The International of revolutionary action 100 years after the foundation of the Communist International: What lessons can we draw for future combats? Internationalisme nº 7, 1945 The left fraction Review Method for forming the party Communism is on the agenda of history Castoriadis, Munis and the problem of breaking with Trotskyism (part II): On the content of the communist revolution The world bourgeoisie against the October revolution (part II) International £2.50 $3 $6Can $7Aus 20Rupees 3Euros 650Yen 50.00PHP 12Rand périodique semestriel Supplement à INTERNATIONALISME.FR Bureau de Depot: B-2600 Berchem 1-2 162 N° d’agréation P408982 International Review 162 Summer 2019 In French, English, Spanish, selections of articles in German, Italian, Dutch, Swedish Contents Presenting the Review 1 Centenary of the foundation of the Communist International 1919: The International of revolutionary action 3 From the death of the Second International in 1914 to the founding of the CI in 1919 The fight of the left for the construction of a new International The political programme of the Communist International From the difficulties of the Third International to its bankruptcy 100 years after the foundation of the Communist International: What lessons can we draw for future combats? 6 Defending the struggle of the working class in the heat of revolution A foundation in unfavourable circumstances A foundation in an urgent situation which opened the door to opportunism Internationalisme nº 7, 1945 10 The left fraction Method for forming the party Communism is on the agenda of history Castoriadis, Munis and the problem of breaking with 14 Trotskyism (part II): On the content of the communist revolution Breaking with the IVth International Castoriadis On the content of socialism: beyond Marx or back to Proudhon? The self-management of a market economy "Socialism" as a transitional society? Munis: For a second communist manifesto The later trajectory of Munis and Castoriadis Castoriadis deserts the workers' movement The world bourgeoisie against the October revolution (part II) 24 The treason of social democracy Campaigns of slander accompany the bloody repression Stalinism: true executioner of the revolution Conclusion Contact the ICC: http://www.internationalism.org Responsible editor: H. Deponthiere, [email protected] PB 102, 2018 Antwerp Central Station, [email protected] Antwerp [email protected] (rest of world) 1 Presenting the Review Like the last two issues of the Review, this one continues the celebration of degeneration which led to the eventual centenaries of the historic events of the world-wide revolutionary wave of 1917- bankruptcy of the CI, just as had been the 23. case with the IInd International. This new Thus, after the revolution in Russia in 1917 (International Review nº 160), the International was also to succumb through revolutionary attempts in Germany in 1918-19 (International Review nº 161), the abandonment of internationalism by this issue celebrates the foundation of the Communist International. All these the right wing of the Communist Parties. experiences are essential parts of the political heritage of the world proletariat, Following that, in the 1930s, in the name which the bourgeoisie does everything it can to disfigure (as in the case of the of defending the “Socialist Fatherland”, revolutions in Russia or Germany) or simply to consign them to oblivion, as is the Communist Parties in all countries the case with the foundation of the Communist International. The proletariat has trampled on the flag of the International to re-appropriate these experiences so that the next attempt at world revolution by calling on workers to slaughter each will be victorious. other once again, on the battlefields of the Second World War. This relates in particular to the following struction of a new world without war questions, some of which are dealt with or exploitation. Against this process of degeneration, in this Review: the CI, like the IInd International, gave – The platform of the CI reflected the rise to left wing minorities which remained – The world-wide revolutionary wave profound change in historical period loyal to internationalism and to the slogan of 1917-23 was the response of the opened by the First World War: “A “The workers have no country, workers of international working class to the First new epoch is born! The epoch of the the world unite!”. One of these fractions, World War, to four years of butchery dissolution of capitalism, of its inner the Italian Fraction of the Communist and military confrontations between disintegration. The epoch of the com- left, and then the French Fraction which capitalist states with the aim of re-divid- munist revolution of the proletariat” subsequently became the Gauche Com- ing the world. (Platform of the CI). The only alternative muniste de France (GCF) carried out a for society was now world proletarian – The foundation of the Communist whole balance sheet of the revolutionary revolution or the destruction of human- International (CI) in 1919 was the wave. We are publishing two chapters ity; socialism or barbarism. culminating point of this first revolu- from nº 7 (January-February 1946) of the tionary wave. All these aspects of the foundation of review Internationalisme, dealing with the the CI are developed in two articles in question of the role of the fractions which – The foundation of the CI made concrete, the present Review, the first in particular: come out of a degenerating party (“The first and foremost, the necessity for “1919: the International of Revolutionary Left Fraction”) and their contribution to the revolutionaries who remained loyal to Action”. The second article, “Centenary formation of the future party, in particular the principle of internationalism, which of the foundation of the Communist In- the method that has to be applied to this task had been betrayed by the right wing ternational: what lessons can we draw for (“Method for forming the party”). of the Social Democratic parties (the future combats?”, develops an idea already majority in most of these parties), to These revolutionary minorities, more raised in the first article: because of the work for the construction of a new In- and more reduced in size, had to work in the urgency of the situation, the main parties ternational. At the forefront of this effort, context of a deepening counter-revolution, that founded the International, notably this perspective, were the left currents in illustrated in particular by the absence of the Bolshevik party and the KPD, were the Social Democratic parties, grouped revolutionary uprisings at the end of the not able to clarify their divergences and around Rosa Luxemburg in Germany, Second World War – in contrast to what confusions in advance. Pannekoek and Gorter in Holland, and happened at the end of the previous war. of course the Bolshevik fraction of the Moreover, the method employed in the Thus this new world conflict was a mo- Russian party around Lenin. It was on foundation of the new party would not ment of truth for the weak forces which the initiative of the Communist Party of arm it for the future. A large part of the remained on a class terrain after the CPs Russia (Bolshevik) and the Communist revolutionary vanguard put quantity, in had betrayed the case of the proletarian Party of Germany (the KPD, formerly terms of the number adhering to the new International. The Trotskyist current in the Spartacus League) that the First parties, above a prior clarification of pro- turn betrayed, although its passage into Congress of the International was called grammatic and organisational principles. the enemy camp engendered proletarian in Moscow on 4 March 1919. Such an approach turned its back on the reactions from within it. very conceptions elaborated and developed – The foundation of the new party, the Internationalisme nº 43 (June-July by the Bolsheviks during their existence world party of the revolution, was 1949) contained an article “Welcome to as a fraction within the Russian Social already late in that the majority of revo- Socialisme ou Barbarie” (republished in Democratic Labour Party. lutionary uprisings by the proletariat in International Review nº 161 as part of the Europe had been violently suppressed. This lack of clarification was an impor- article “Castoriadis, Munis and the problem The mission of the CI was to provide a tant factor, in the context of the reflux of of breaking with Trotskyism”). The article clear political orientation to the working the revolutionary wave, in the develop- by Internationalisme took a clear position class: the overthrow of the bourgeoisie, ment of opportunism in the International. on the nature of the Trotskyist movement, the destruction of its state and the con- This was to be at the root of a process of which had abandoned proletarian posi- 2 International Review 162 Summer 2019 tions by participating in the Second World and the liquidation of the Bolshevik Old War. The article is a good example of the Guard. From the moment that the USSR method used by the GCF in its relations became a bourgeois imperialist state, the with those who had escaped the shipwreck great democracies became its accomplice of Trotskyism in the wake of the war. In in the physical and ideological liquida- the second part of “Castoriadis, Munis and tion of October 1917. This ideological the problem of breaking with Trotskyism”, and political alliance was to last for many published in this issue of the Review, it is years and was to be re-launched, stronger shown how difficult it was, for those who than ever, when the collapse of the Eastern had grown up in the corrupted milieu of bloc and of Stalinism, a particular form of Trotskyism, to make a profound break with state capitalism, was falsely presented as its basic ideas and attitudes.