General Meeting Reports

• Gm114 – Turin, September 22-23, 2012
• Gm115 – Genoa, January 19-20, 2013
• Gm116 – Parma, May 25-26, 2013
• Gm117 – Sarzana, September 21-22, 2013

Turin, September 22-23, 2012 (Gm114)

Trends in the Economy – The Military Question: Garibaldi’s ‘Thousand’ – Marxist Economic Theory – Trade Union Activity – Labour Movement in the USA – The War in Syria – Imperialism and Oil – The Democracy Question in Italy.

The aim of the militants in our small party is both to safeguard and represent the continuity of the left communist revolutionary tradition, and, ‘holding each other tightly by the hand’ as Lenin once described it, to work together so that the party can reintroduce it to the global working class; a class which, in the West, is starting to question the crazy notion of indefinite progress, and in the East, the bourgeois myths of national independence and democracy. Today we see only the smallest of cracks appearing in the almost century old barrier of counter-revolution, but pounding against it are the breakers of the general economic crisis, which, even if still in its earliest stages, is showing that Capital, under the form of private or public property, is exactly as described by Karl Marx. Likewise it reconfirms the authentically Marxist thesis which states that the working class is deprived of any power in the dictatorial society of the bourgeoisie, even when the regime is democratic; and that in order to liberate and defend itself there are only two forces on which it can rely: on its own organised and resolute social struggle, and on the clarity of its revolutionary programme, which rejects the programmes of all other classes.

We don’t say the party is ‘preparing for the revolution’, which smacks both of voluntarism and fatalism, but, much more, that the party is the revolution; not in the sense that we ‘make’ it, but because it is an anticipation of communism within today’s society; meanwhile it carries out all of the historical tasks appropriate to it to the extent that circumstances permit. Thus activities include study and research, preservation of texts, propaganda, interventions within the unions, etc.

At the last meeting in Turin, and indeed during previous ones, we made a great effort to ensure that the contributions of all the groups involved in these various activities converged, in such a way that their common and general significance was apparent to everyone in the party.

As usual the hospitality of our local comrades was impeccable and we extend our hearty thanks to them all. As well as from Turin, comrades from Genoa, France, Florence, England, Cortona, Parma and Milan attended the meeting.

The communist programme casts its light on a dying society – Genoa, January 19-20, 2013 (Gm115) 

The Military Question: The Austro-Hungarian War – The Labour Movement in the USA: Imperialism and the Trade Unions – The War in Syria – Trade Union Activity – The Course of the Economic Crisis – Marxist Economics – The Global Economic Crisis – History of Modern Egypt – Origins of the Movement in Italy

Organised with much care and consideration by our very efficient comrades, who had looked after even the smallest details and provided a very welcoming atmosphere, we held the party’s regular working meeting, the 115^th held since 1974.

From elsewhere there were comrades from Turin, Cortona, Parma, Florence, Friuli and Great Britain.

At the opening of the proceedings the Party Centre gave an overall view of the various interlocking tasks and activities, the responsibility for each one of which is entrusted to one or more comrades, and referred to outcomes and progress made. As usual most of the morning was taken up with deliberations on these various tasks, with a view to anticipating possible difficulties of interpretation or of access to primary source materials for research purposes, and planning how to put them into effect.

In the afternoon, and then continuing on the following day, we listened to a number of reports prepared by young and less young comrades (in terms of both actual age, and time spent as a militant) all of them perfectly in tune with our seventy year old continuous existence as a party and the hundred year old tradition of the communist left.

As usual the meeting was conducted in a very orderly fashion to the satisfaction of all those present.

Initial report on the party meeting at Parma, 25 -26 May, 2013 (Gm116)

Course of the World Economy – The Rearming of the States – The Party’s Trade Union Activity – Towards a Study of Indian Capitalism – The Global Economic Crisis – Marxist Economy – Working-class Conditions in Bangladesh – The Military Question.

The May meeting went very well indeed. Comrades from almost all of our sections attended, from Italy and beyond.

The organisational part of the meeting opened with a report by the Centre, giving a summary of our activity over recent months. Given our minimal forces it has been a truly notable effort, both in terms of quality and quantity: and how much has actually been achieved – due to us working in the way communists ought to work – we are often the last to realize, going about our tasks as we do in a disciplined and spontaneously ordered way, free of the vulgar, petty personalisms of the dying society which we are fighting against.

While we know that for five years now global capitalism has been spinning towards its historic crisis of overproduction of commodities– as predicted by authentic Marxism – the working class has still not accumulated sufficient experience to enable it to effectively oppose the bourgeois regime; or to oppose the even worse material and ideal forms of corruption peddled by the so-called labour parties and trade unions, all dedicated to nationalism and class solidarity.

The party, for all its commitment to the task in hand, cannot hasten the revolution or the advent of communism by a single second. The communist revolution will cause the party to expand when the moment is right. The party could, on the other hand, delay the revolution and even be responsible for its defeat if it appeared at that critical juncture to be unsure of its doctrinal foundations or not sufficiently resistant to tactical compromises and political coalitions. The party knows it stands alone: alone with the class in yesterday’s, today’s and tomorrow’s social war.

There follows a resumé of the reports presented at the meeting, apart from two of them which unfortunately were not ready due to lack of time. There also appears here a note about the awful conditions endured by the clothing workers in Bangladesh, so tragically confirmed by the collapse of the factory building in Dacca.

Party General Meeting at Sarzana, 21 -22 September, 2013 (Gm117)

Course of the World Economy –The Party’s Trade Union Activity – Strikes outside the Trade Unions in Great Britain – The Military Question: the Paris Commune – Marxist Economics: Communism in Marx’s Grundrisse – The Bourgeois Conception of State and Revolution – The Crisis in Syria – History of the Labour Movement in the U.S.A: the I.W.W. – Toward a history of the Trade Unions in Latin America – Democracy and the Origins of the Labour Movement in Italy

Back in Sarzana again we met in a comfortable and spacious room hired from the district council. Present at the meeting were comrades sent from our groups in Turin, Cortona, Genoa, Florence, Parma, Pordenone and Sarzana, and from abroad we had representatives from France, Great Britain, Denmark and Latin America.

The proceedings took place in the usual way, marked by an attitude of maximum understanding and collaboration between comrades, a method which, tried and tested over a very long time, has proved to be entirely in line with the difficult tasks which the party has to perform, and the best way of going about them. Indeed, this method, we are sure, is entirely appropriate not only in the current ‘unfavourable situation’ but also in the future, when the party will be much stronger and on the road to victory, and when we will have a real ‘world communist party’.

Although some comrades had already arrived on the Friday evening, the main meeting started on the Saturday morning. As usual the Centre, having anticipated what topics would arise on the basis of our copious internal correspondence, gave a balance sheet of the multi-faceted and voluminous work taken on by our various groups, providing updates and clarifications about our future programme of work. This is a very complex operation, which tends to involve all of our militants, from whom we ask neither opinions nor votes, but simply work.

In a healthy party which is well practised in its programmatic content and methodology, the contributions which comrades make, apart from the inevitable minor adjustments, tend to converge spontaneously towards a strict discipline which it isn’t actually necessary to mention or be reminded about.

Included here is a summary of some of the numerous reports given at the meetings, including the report on trade union activity. The remaining summaries will go in the next Communist Left with full reports appearing in Comunismo.