I have a concern over a pretty fundamental point, one which I have thought about for a while.

The basic positions on which the International Bureau was founded are those established by the International Conferences which ended in the early 1980s. These are:

• acceptance of the October Revolution as proletarian

Now, firstly, are we saying that this means the 1917 experience was fundamentally one which serves as a model to be replicated?

Are we saying that despite flaws it was a genuine attempt at revolution.

Are we saying that all faults arose at a later date and that the October revolution was a solid example of proletarian revolution?

Of course things are complicated by the many volumes written on the subject, and my own limited reading.

However, instinct tells me that the position is not dialectical, not Marxist. there was a conflict between opposing forces, not simply proletariat against bourgeoisie, but within the proletarian camp. I think this is true regarding the perspective on power, the role of the party, the role of the councils, unions etc. This conflict seems to have persisted to this day, with Bordiguists declaring against councilism etc. You may say Bordiguists are an infinitely small number of living fossils, but at the end of the day, so is the rest of the movement (well its small, hopefully we are not fossils!)

I do not think the Bolsheviks were committed to the perspective that we have, regarding substitution etc. I think that the fundamental perspective was one of party dictatorship which was never really relinquished despite recognition of facts on the ground.

In the worst case this possibly means that the October revolution was a battleground where the theoretical uncertainties were tested. However, I have the doubt that our statement is too positive.

Not that 1917 was not important, not that it did not mark progress, a highlight, but that it was not without its blemishes which were not simply the fault of the enemy camp, but central to the theoretical perspectives of the proletarian camp.