Declaration of ECC on the withdrawal of PML(RC) from ICOR

On July 16, 2019 the Spanish party PML(RC) declared its withdrawal from ICOR. It wrote among other things: "We continue to defend the international coordination between the revolutionary forces of the continent and on international level... We understand our participation in ICOR in general as positive for our party." The comrades justified their withdrawal with the fact that, after the temporary ban of their party, they did not “receive the support we expected from ICOR.” They consider it necessary “to go beyond signing of communiques and resolutions and to reach a real and useful coordination between the parties, which will advance the international communist movement towards an authentic unity both politically and ideologically, as the Komintern has done, which is necessary today more than ever.”

It is the right of every ICOR member to resign from ICOR, but if the PML(RC) agrees in principle with the goals of ICOR and evaluates its membership positively, we do not understand the withdrawal.

ICOR Europe has tried to persuade the Spanish comrades to withdraw their resignation in a letter and during a discussion in Madrid, autumn 2019 - unfortunately with no success.

Regarding the accusation of lack of solidarity, ECC referred in its letter of August 8, 2019 to the declaration of solidarity by the 3rd World Conference of ICOR on the occasion of the arrest of Spanish comrades. "On this basis some solidarity actions were carried out in January and October 2018 and, as far as we know, at least 7 declarations of solidarity from ICOR organizations and/or the ECC were sent to you in October/November 2018. Please note that these are not only papers, but that they also represent revolutionary rank-and-file work of ICOR organizations.”

Nevertheless, it is our opinion that this support was not sufficient for a party that is very much hit by criminalization and state repression (including a temporary ban). Further support and consultation would have been necessary. Unfortunately, the comrades did not inform us about the progress of their court case, although we asked for it, in order to be able to organize further solidarity.

These disagreements however are not fundamental contradictions. They do not justify a resignation, but must and can be solved in a critical self-critical process between the ICOR organizations and the responsible coordination committees.

During our conversation in December 2019 the Spanish comrades explained that lack of solidarity was not the actual reason for resigning, but different ideas exist about practical work. They support for example squatting by people without a home. There are of course different views among ICOR parties about squatting and other practical work, the main thing is that each ICOR party decides autonomously about its tactics in class struggle and in the struggle of the masses. Especially in tactics, ICOR organizations follow many roads, but with basic unity about our common goal. So tactics cannot be a reason for the party to resign. Unfortunately, PML(RC) did not follow our request of 6.12.19 to once again justify its resignation, based on principles.

International solidarity is not a one-way street. We criticize that PML(RC) has not participated in any solidarity action within the framework of ICOR in the last years, not even in solidarity with the political prisoner Müslüm Elma in the "Munich Communist Trials".

We hope that ICOR Europe will be able to cooperate constructively with PML(RC) in class struggle in the future and that the PML(RC) will find a way back into ICOR.

During the discussion in Madrid we said that ICOR will organize solidarity in the continuation of the trial against comrade Roberto. For this we need prompt information from the Spanish comrades. Now more than ever.

Long live proletarian internationalism! Forward with the construction of the ICOR!

For ECC,

Jeroen Toussaint and Joachim Griesbaum