[GM112] General Meeting in Sarzana

21-22 January 2012

Back there again after an interval of two years, the party reassembled in Sarzana for what was, according to our index, its 112th general meeting since 1975. Our proceedings took place in a comfortable and spacious meeting place rented from the local circolo di quartiere (district club).

Comrades started arriving from Friday afternoon onwards and on Saturday morning we held a planning session, deciding the order of proceedings for the meeting. The different study groups gave a broad outline of the content of their reports and the conclusions they had reached. Despite the fact that the reports cover different topics and that there is a division of labour between the different groups, the party makes every effort to arrive at a synthesis of the various themes, which are actually all inter-connected, and seperated only for ease of investigation and presentation. It is no coincidence that often a ‘non-specialist’ comrade, after listening to and meditating on a complex report, will draw very pertinent conclusions.

The non-contradictory nature of the interests of the class we represent, of the doctrine we profess and of the revolution we are preparing for, ensures that the party can aspire to a maximum of centralized efficiency and working discipline without, or reducing to a bare minimum, all those external forms of centralisation and discipline which are only really necessary when, as in the world of the bourgeoisie, they can only be achieved by coercion, by codifying them into a rigid set of rules and regulations.

The reports are summarised below, with the full versions published in our press:

Course of Capitalism – The Military Question (2nd War of Italian Independence) – Syria: data for an initial evaluation – The rearming of the States – The Labor Movement in the USA – Imperialism’s war in Libya – Communist Negation of Democracy – Trade Union Activity – Democracy and the Labour Movement in Italy – Origin of the Trade Unions in Italy.