An important step for the unity of the world communist movement
It was for that purpose that 163 years ago, Marx and Engels- those great leaders of the working and toiling masses throughout the world - provided the slogan “Workers of all countries unite!” as the guide for working class struggles. The class that was in the way to become the majority of the exploited and oppressed peoples at the capitalist countries. This class that had only its physical and mental power , in this historic battle had nothing to lose besides the chains of the bondage of slavery and wage labor. In the more recent historical situation and the ascent of capitalism to the imperialism stage and its aggression to the backward nations, Lenin proposed the slogan of “Workers of all countries and the oppressed nations of the world unite!” in the day order of communists and worker class movement.
The formation of the First Working Class International in 1864 through the efforts of Marx and Engels faced the obstructionism and destructive tendencies of anarchists. The formation of the Second Socialist International in 1889 was plagued by the fact that the majority of its founders were social democrat parties; by the time of the outbreak of World War I, it had degenerated from reformism to revisionism and finally to social- chauvinism and social-imperialism. The formation of the Third Communist International took place in 1919, through the efforts of Lenin and revolutionary social democratic parties after the victory of the October Revolution of 1917 in Russia. Its demise in 1943 coincided with the outbreak of World War II, under pressure from the imperialist bourgeoisie. This on the one hand demonstrated to what extent the international bourgeoisie relentlessly opposes the global unity of the working class; on the other hand, this period demonstrates the extent to which the continuous struggle of the globally conscious working class to achieve its historic mission needs such an organization.
Presently, global capital has taken the form of giant multi-national monopolies. Guided by its neo-liberal policies, the concentration of capital has accelerated and its aggressive policies seek to impoverish as much of the world as possible under this post modern colonialism. In this context, the success of the prophetic mission of the unification of the global working class must become the number one priority. The responsibility for accomplishing this mission lies squarely on the shoulders of the vanguard of the working class. By being organized at the global level, they will provide a positive role model for the unity of the global struggle of the working class: The elimination of alienation due to the exploitation of wage labor and the establishment of socialism and communism or enslavement under the barbaric global capitalist system which every day confronts workers and toilers throughout the world with oppression and brutal acts. Therefore, no communist should ignore this historical responsibility and sit idly by while watching organized global capital attack the unorganized global working class.
But the history of world communism unity shows us that unity has not progressed smoothly or continuously. In the second half of the Twentieth Century, there were numerous negative experiences of the Third International in dealing with the autonomous activities of the various communist parties. There was a sub-estimation of the formation of new international for the struggle against imperialism and reactionaries, against the modern revisionism in power and opening a path for modern revisionism to take power. This situation, with the influence of this revisionism in the leadership of communist parties throughout the world encouraged further divisions within the world communist / working class movements. The imperialists and the local bourgeoisie took full advantage of these divisions in their efforts to wipe out the socialist camp, to corrupt roughly the revisionist parties. Imperialism had successful at this aim.
Since the 1980’s decade, initiatives hade been taken toward the unification of communist parties and organizations by would-be “world” organizations. But, due to insular viewpoints in regard to the true unity of revolutionary parties, and so very little was accomplished. However, efforts through the creation of ICOR (International Coordination Committee For Revolutionary Parties and Organizations) in October, 2010 and ICOR’s opening proclamation of October 16, 2010 in Berlin, accompanied by marches and demonstrations, show far greater promise. ICOR’s analysis of the present situation and of divisions among communist parties and organizations, along with its adoption of a flexible method, are positive steps forward toward uniting them and workers movements against global imperialism and all enemies for the victory of socialism.
The time has come for communist forces throughout the world to wholeheartedly attempt to reinforce the communist and workers movement, by accepting ICOR’s positions and statute, and to join it. The time has come to set aside the negative experience of unprincipled sectarianism which continues to inflict great harm to the united struggle of workers and toilers, and which encourages even to come to the deeper ideological political unity.
In Iran, from this point of view, we face two principal trend of communists:
Some organizations In regard to the shared global struggle are somehow more or less unified with the organizations of other countries. However, from the point of view of the unifying the communist movement in Iran, they suffer from sectarianism and see only themselves as the vanguard representative of the proletariat. In this manner, they undermine the pursuit of the objective of global proletarian unity. Nevertheless, if these organizations truly want to serve the cause of proletarian internationalism, they are prime candidates to participate in ICOR. Within this spectrum of organizations, Ranjbaran Party of Iran has consistently defended communist unity both globally and locally; and it actively participated in the founding of ICOR.
There are other organizations that are indifferent in regard to the creation of an International Communist Organization, and we see no effort on their part to reach this objective. Regardless of their claims, in practice, the steps that they take, in the end, only benefit the world capitalist system, by promoting sectarianism within the communist and workers movement. In these circumstances, Right and Left revisionism have created such Augean stable of Left forces views which will require many years to clean out.
Nevertheless, in the spirit of proletarian optimism, we hope that the Iranian communist movement forces will learn the lessons of the past few decades of fruitless activity and lack of meaningful influence in workers movement, in advancing the proletarian revolution, and must seriously revise their past positions and strengthen the world communist movement, by uniting and joining ICOR.
In this issue of Ranjbar, we present highlights of the positions and decisions of the Founding World Conference of ICOR for Ranjbar’s readers.
K. Abraham, November 11, 2010
