The internationalists

(The following leaflet was distributed by our comrades in Rome on the demonstration of the Alcoa workers of Sardinia against the closure of the last aluminium smelter in Italy. The demonstration was not encouraging in that it was a dominated by corporatism, sectionalism and Sardinian separatism (many of the workers wore nationalist insignia).

(The article which follows is a summary of a recent longer document issued by the Executive Committee of Battaglia Comunista as a starting point for an internal training programme regarding this basic theme.) · Established Points · 1. An essential point of our political/tactical line is the distinction between organs of class struggle and Party bodies.

“It is not that the solution of the housing question simultaneously solves the social · question, but that only by the solution of the social question, that is, by the abolition of the capitalist mode of production, is the solution of the housing question made possible.” · Frederick Engels · The housing problem never goes away, it’s nature just changes with the crisis.

Surprise, surprise the Bank of England’s latest report on the economy now sees no return to ‘normal growth’ for at least two years. As forecasts were revised downward yet again the Monetary Policy Committee admitted it has “no real idea when the recovery will take hold”. (See ‘BoE Running Out of Policy Options’ in Financial Times 9.8.

(With the second round of the Olympic spectacle now opening as the Paralympics this week a London comrade reflects on what it says about modern capitalism.) · If the London 2012 Olympic opening ceremony was at times reminiscent of Hitler’s Nuremberg rallies, perhaps it was because much modern Olympic imagery originates from the 1936 Berlin Olympics which were staged as a showpiece for the Third...