Enthusiastic weekend of the ICOR in Paris: Vive la Commune!

Finally – last weekend was the weekend we had long been waiting for: Together with 15,000 people ICOR celebrated the 150th anniversary of the Paris Commune and contributed to the great success of the campaign of the ICOR Europe. Important lessons for today's struggle against imperialism and its revolutionary overcoming could be drawn. ICOR delegations from France, Germany, Turkey, Switzerland, Haiti and Tunisia as well as other friendly organisations and comrades started on Saturday with stands, rallies, culture and many discussions on the Place de la République. Numerous left wing organisations and trade unions were represented – including a large stand of the unity of action "Collectif Vive la Commune de 1871", in which the French ICOR parties UPML and UC play an important role. Accordingly, ICOR and the ICOR organisations present also took part in this stand. Among other things, we distributed flyers for "Friends of ICOR", the ICOR resolution on Palestine and the call for the anti-imperialist united front. Hundreds followed our rally where speeches and militant music alternated. It was great that our ICOR Main Coordinator Monika Gärtner-Engel was also there and represented the ICOR together with the comrades of the ECC.

Afterwards, an impressive demonstration went through Paris in bright sunshine to the Père Lachaise cemetery. Our ICOR block was clearly visible, with a beautiful front banner, many flags and, as a special feature, a row with one comrade from each of the represented countries and a corresponding country sign. This made our international character very clear. During the demo we sang the "International" again and again, shouted slogans together and gave short speeches.

Finally, at the Père Lachaise cemetery, there was an overwhelming picture with thousands of people and a sea of red flags. At the memorial wall the ICOR Main Coordinator laid our flower arrangement together with a French comrade and photos were taken of the international delegations together with our banner.

Saturday ended with a welcome evening of ICOR.

Finally, the conclusion on Sunday was the discussion event "Lessons from the Paris Commune of 1871 for our struggles today." More than 60 people participated, comrades of the ICOR parties were joined by a representative of the ICOR organisation from Cameroon, as well as Bir-Kar/Turkey, ARLAC, Peru Solidarity Committee and interested colleagues, "Friends of ICOR" etc. The discussion made clear that there are important lessons to be learned from the Commune on a wide range of issues. In this context, the evaluations of Marx and Engels in particular and the practical application of Lenin, Stalin and Mao Zedong in leading the Russian and Chinese revolutions and socialist construction are crucial lessons. The necessary building of strong and purposeful revolutionary parties and their cooperation in ICOR is undoubtedly the main focus. This requires in particular to lead the ideological struggle offensively against anti-communism, so that the masses organise themselves in the revolutionary party. The work of ICOR was also presented and what its practical cooperation and coordination consists of. For example, in solidarity with the strikes and struggles of the masses in Colombia, in solidarity with the Palestinian people!

We also used this common event to evaluate the weekend. We agreed: it was an enthusiastic weekend, it was very valuable that ICOR as a union of revolutionary parties contributed in shaping this weekend, it was "ICOR live". But: we can also do it better. ICOR has made a very good development as a revolutionary world organisation in the ten years of its existence! Accordingly, we have to present ourselves in a top-organised way and make the future-oriented positions of ICOR known among the masses, precisely as a self-confident distinction and attack against revisionist, Trotskyist and anarchist nostalgics. We were also too little prepared against possible attacks by fascists, but also by the particularly aggressive French police.

Despite these weaknesses it was altogether a very successful weekend, which we fought for together as ICOR and despite the unpredictabilities caused by the pandemic. A huge thank you goes in particular to the French comrades of our affiliates UPML and UC, who prepared this weekend with the greatest commitment over six months. Merci beaucoup!

Vive la Commune de Paris de 1871!

Vive l'ICOR!