BRADFORD ANARCHIST / RADICAL BOOKFAIR
The CWO will have a stall at the Bradford Anarchist / Radical Bookfair.
When: Saturday, 3 September 2022
Where: 1in12 Club, 21-23 Albion Street, Bradford BD1 2LY
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. This distinction is related to the political conception that we have of the relationship between communists and the class as a whole, a consequence of the Marxist analysis of the materialist origin of consciousness.
2. The struggle organs of the class are generated by the class itself regardless of the presence of communists and have as their starting point the break with institutional and institutionalised organisations (trade unions). These organs are related to immediate disputes and thus – like them – are of limited duration.
These bodies are shaped without the presence of communists because their birth is stimulated by a level of consciousness that matures spontaneously, that is, in the absence of a revolutionary method of analysis of society. There is no need for a revolutionary analysis and a communist program to develop a level of consciousness focused on the economic struggle/demands, there is no need then – necessarily – for the presence of revolutionaries for the class to create their own organisations of economic struggle; obviously the presence of revolutionaries (but not infrequently, even simply politicised elements) can assist any possible workers’ reaction and promote rank and file organisation.
3. Organs of class struggle can take many forms and perform different functions, thus expressing varying levels of organisation and class consciousness. They are what, in our documents, we call strike committees, assemblies, coordinations.
They can be simple agitation committees, consisting of a limited number of workers with the aim of promoting a strike or other forms of struggle among their colleagues.
They may take the form of struggle committees/assemblies, large organs formed by workers in a factory or other place of work, with the function of carrying out a strike, a struggle activity. These assemblies can also elect delegates to carry out various functions, primarily to unify the struggle of other sections, companies, different sectors of the workforce; we always say that delegates should be revocable and that delegates must serve the assemblies.
Regardless of what they are called, all these are instances of organisations related to disputes, different organisational forms of the class, demonstrated to us by the class itself in its own experience of struggle.
4. The fact that autonomous forms of organisation of struggles arise even without the presence of communists does not mean that revolutionaries must refrain from actively intervening – so in practical/organisational terms – it means that we must participate, always keeping in mind that the primary aim of the communists is not just the "success" of the immediate struggle, as much as establishing the roots of consciousness and the revolutionary organisation of the class. We must act in the fight (supporting it of course...) with the aim of politically stimulating the proletarians involved by agitating for the goal of socialism.
For us, there is no task of agitation, organisation, intervention in the economic/demand struggle detached from political work. We never act with the sole objective of instigating or supporting struggles but we try to be an active part in the struggle with the aim of being able to develop political work at the same time (never later).
5. From the practical point of view this means that we – as organised political activists – provide ourselves with instruments for intervention, and whilst we participate (contribute, support, promote) in class struggle organs, we do not give up our organisational independence and our political clarity under any circumstances. Our political instruments are our individual militants, sections, and political bodies designed for intervention in the working environment; the GIFT (Internationalist Factory and Territorial Groups).(1) The GIFT consist of party militants and sympathisers that work with us (in the workplace or in the territory) on the specific ground of political internationalism among workers.
The militants, sections, GIFT, get involved in struggles, stimulate them, are active in committees of class struggle, promote them too, but do not convert themselves into such committees.
Example: 10 militant workers or close internationalist sympathisers do not create a struggle committee or any other body of self-organisation for the fight/strike but form a political body, the Internationalist Factory Group. This political body operating on the terrain of the dispute, strike, or struggle, thus promotes autonomous organs of struggles and when they appear – on the basis of a genuine commitment/involvement of other workers – the 10 militants internationalists will be an active element of them (maybe the most active), but always taking into account their own political function.
So the GIFT – or a party section – develop the work of agitation and promotion of the struggle as they actively participate in the bodies of the class, but they carry out this work of agitation and organisation without ever separating it from political work, trying to use every situation to establish what the workers cannot achieve spontaneously: consciousness and the revolutionary program.
6. Another fundamental point: realism. In the definition of our work of intervention, and the tools we use, we cannot but take into account what our strengths are and what is the historical period in which we work. We must define practical and political objectives according to concrete living reality.
Our immediate goal today is not, of course, to win the leadership of the class to push for the dictatorship of the proletariat. The goals that we can now realistically set when we act among workers – beyond of course promoting and supporting their struggles – are:
What to Do in Practice
7. First of all, as far as we can, we must really act among workers, as a political party, with the tools we have today. Without having a real experience of intervention among workers we run the risk of formulating tactics in the abstract.
We must not simply ask the question: how to intervene? Rather: how to intervene in this labour dispute that we are following? Thus we are thinking concretely.
The starting point must always plan for a minimal activity with our tools (sections, militants, GIFT) and then reason accordingly.
8. Possible activities:
9. How do we get our intervention started, how do we approach and involve workers?
Battaglia Comunista (16 August 2012)
(1) We use the Italian acronym as it has a fortuitous sound in English but we, and our Italian comrades, have long recognised that it makes more sense to talk these days of “workplace” (as it does later in the text) rather than “factory” groups (CWO).
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BRADFORD ANARCHIST / RADICAL BOOKFAIR
The CWO will have a stall at the Bradford Anarchist / Radical Bookfair.
When: Saturday, 3 September 2022
Where: 1in12 Club, 21-23 Albion Street, Bradford BD1 2LY
ANARCHIST BOOKFAIR IN LONDON
The CWO will have a stall at the Anarchist Bookfair In London.
When: Saturday, 17 September 2022
Where: Bishopsgate Institute, 230 Bishopsgate, London EC2M 4QH
INTERNATIONALISM AND THE WAR IN UKRAINE
NO WAR BUT THE CLASS WAR
PUBLIC MEETING AND DISCUSSION
People in Ukraine today, like those in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere previously, are suffering the consequences of a system in freefall towards generalised global war.
As if the threat of climate change were not enough, the world capitalist system is bringing us famine, massive inflation and greater job insecurity, all for the profits of a few. Only the exploited of the world can halt this descent into the abyss, but we need to begin to organise now before it is too late.
To find out more about how we can fight back both to defend our living standards and our lives come along and join the debate.
When: Saturday, 1 October 2022, at 2:00pm
Where: Bar Loco, 22-4 Leazes Park Road, Newcastle, NE1 4PG
Communist Workers' Organisation
MANCHESTER & SALFORD ANARCHIST BOOKFAIR
The CWO will have a presence at the Manchester & Salford Anarchist Bookfair.
When: Saturday, 5 November 2022
Where: People’s History Museum, Left Bank, Manchester M3 3ER
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.