Solid ultraleftism

"Internationalist Communist Review" a.k.a. "Internationalist Communist" is a publication of the Internationalist Communist Tendency (ICT) a.k.a. The International Bureau for a Revolutionary Party (IBRP). The ICT are Left Communists or ultraleftists, and may look similar to the International Communist Current (ICC) at a first glance. However, the ICC has developed too many strange habits and exotic political positions to be taken absolutely seriously. The ICT look more solid and traditional in their ultraleftism. Indeed, the dominant group of the ICT, the Italian PCInt or Battaglia Comunista, was founded already in 1945 by Onorato Damen, a former follower of Amadeo Bordiga, the legendary founder of the Communist Party of Italy. The English-language publications of the ICT/IBRP are brought out by the Communist Workers Organisation in Britain. Personally, I'm not an ultraleftist or even Marxist of any kind (hey, what's wrong with good ol' Labour Zionism?), but I admit a certain involuntary, psychological preference for the ICT. Except when writing Amazon reviews. The ICC are more fun to bash!

This issue of "Internationalist Communist", also available at the ICT's website, contain an extensive critique of the ICC, attacking both their super-optimism during the 1980's ("the years of truth"), and the later super-pessimism of the 1990's ("the wind from the East", "the decomposition of capitalism and society"). ICC was founded in 1975, but its elderly leader Marc Chirik had a fall-out with Damen already in 1944, refusing to support the founding of Battaglia Comunista. Instead, he fled to Venezuela, fearing the destruction of Europe in a third world war! By contrast, Battaglia and the ICT seems to have had pretty much the same political positions throughout their existence, a kind of combination of ultraleftist theorizing and somewhat sectarian "interventions" in strikes and various protest movements. Battaglia lacks ICC's apocalyptic perspective, instead seeing the economic crisis as a slow movement taking generations to work itself out. The ICC, with their "Luxemburgist" analysis of economic crises, believes that the system has been in permanent terminal crisis since about 1914.

ICT are probably right that the ICC's increasingly erratic behaviour during the 1990's, including purges of suspected Freemasons (!!), have something to do with the constant failure of this particular group to get its political perspectives in order. I'm not sure what the ICC are doing these days, but the weird articles on "cultural critique" at their website makes me wonder whether they have an orientation to anarcho-surrealists? What a pity they didn't have it already during the 1980's, I could have recommended a couple of people, LOL.

Another article in "Internationalist Communist Review" deals with a remarkable incident in France in 1996, when several daily newspapers attacked Left Communism and claimed that Bordiga was the first Holocaust denier! As evidence, the media pointed to Bordiga's old article "Auschwitz or the Grand Alibi". Bordiga died already in 1970, so his detractors were speared the old man's sarcastic tongue. The Bordigists, Battaglia and the ICC protested the articles, although I'm not sure if their opposition was ever registered by Le Figaro, Liberation and other Bordiga-bashing media. "Internationalist Communist" has translated Battaglia's reactions to the campaign.

I've read "Auschwitz or the Grand Alibi", and can report that Bordiga, of course, wasn't a Holocaust-denier. However, I seem to remember that he did have a pretty crude "economic" analysis of the Holocaust. This would presumably make him a Holocaust-minimizer (a problematic term) in contemporary parlance. As an ultraleftist, Bordiga refused to support the Allies against the Nazis, instead opposing both. As part of this sectarianism, he opposed the Resistance movements in both France and Italy. This didn't exactly endear the Bordigists (nor Damen's followers, who took the same position) to the political mainstream after World War II, which could explain why some people still in 1996 were busy bashing Bordiga's ghost.

This issue of ICT/IBRP's journal also contain an article on globalization, and a comment on the rebellion in Albania against Sali Berisha.

I'm not sure how to rate ICT's solid ultraleftism, but eventually I gave it the OK rating (three stars).