The Jehovah´s Witnesses of the left

The International Communist Current (ICC) is an ultraleftist or Left Communist group active in several countries.

This pamphlet contains the Platform and Manifesto of the ICC, the closest thing this group has to a political program. It was originally adopted in 1975. The Platform paints a bleak picture of the world situation. Capitalism has entered its period of decadence, reforms are no longer possible, and the state is taking over and regimenting the economy and society, thereby giving rise to "state capitalism". The perspective is one of crises and wars, with the international communist revolution as the only solution to the eventual collapse of the system into complete barbarism.

How the glorious revolution shall be brought about is less clear, since the super-sectarian ICC rejects virtually all venues for political activity: labour unions, elections, anti-fascist and anti-racist organizing, national liberation struggles, feminism, the environmentalist movement, etc. The only approved form of struggle are wildcat strikes, but the ICC also opposes strike committees which continue to exist after the strike has ended - such committees are simply new labour unions. Presumably, we should all just sit back and wait until the wildcat strikes one day seamlessly passes over into...an armed insurrection.

The ICC's most visceral hatred is reserved for the really existing socialist countries, where "capital" is said to be ruling "in its most decadent form". The so-called Communist parties are really servants of national capital and the purest incarnation of the counter-revolution. In contrast to many other ultraleftists, however, the ICC regards the Russian (October) revolution as "proletarian" and are surprisingly positive towards the Bolsheviks. Unfortunately, the Bolsheviks soon degenerated, smashed the Kronstadt rebellion in 1921 and fought the ultraleftists within the Communist International. Ironically, the ICC calls for an international revolutionary party based on democratic centralism, i.e. something similar to the Bolshevik-led Comintern. They even use the term "vanguard" at several points in the Platform. Yet, the ICC promises that power after the revolution will be in the hands of "the whole class" rather than the party. Thank you.

Of course, ICC's political platform is completely absurd, and it could be argued that this group is to the rest of the left what the Jehovah's Witnesses are to the rest of Christendom. Lenin himself wrote an incensed polemic against the ultraleftists, "Left-Wing Communism: An Infantile Disorder" in which the Russian leader calls on Communists to join unions and even the British Labour Party, stand in elections, cooperate with reform socialists if the opportunity arises, etc. I'm not a big fan of Vladimir Ilyich, but I'd say he was smarter than the ICC! As for handing over the power "to the whole class"...

Of course, the ICC will never live to see its particular version of an international communist revolution. But then, the Jehovah's Witnesses will probably never live to see the arrival of the Grim Reaper, either.