Lists must recognise that they themscives have not succeed ed in making a decisive contribution to the building of a revolutionary party in Italy, nor in building an organisation as strong and influential as other sections of the Fourth Internanonal southern Europe."
This is the openly self-critical view of the Gruppi Comunsti Rivoluzionari (GCR Italian sation Bl the Fourth Intertheir development drawn up in connection with their recent conference.
"In abbreviated fashion', they write, 'we can say that we underpolitical contest that began to take shape around 1966 or would be set in mation outside the organisationa framewatk sphere of hegemony of he traditional parties. In part cular. nocrestimated th nossibility that this development could occur among sections of the working class, and we were slow to realise that impomant mass mobilisations though with a largely seudent might develop through the initiative of newly formed movements and groups As a resuh the Italian revoluto discontiue their tactic entry into the traditional organisations. Because of this they lest the majority of their membershin, and lyine end of 1909 were in an extremely weak condition.
the mait cause of might develap... 1966-69 criss, This does not mean that there are no grounds for elf-criticism with respect to thi ceconstruction phase as well, our comrades explair They aimed, despite their extreme weakness, at 'building a or inervening in all seter on y scale organisation, national scale. in of 'not having tried to achieve a noes in priority areas of wo 189944084 and in those arcas where there cre greater opportunities, eve period we would be mainty a LOUSES HIS AWE ocal and sectoral organisation They further made the error of paying insufficient attention to the important developments on PROGRESS But these weaknesses should not overshadow the real progress choice of procities was teall applied, In Turin, for exampl air comrades wete able throug a policy of unity in action and discussion with the far left to permanently change the relationship of forces in their favour, to the point of becomin nised political force in the city The main docament ndopeed y the CCR Congress points b the seriousness of the economi of divisions in the working, class. and the effects of the opportunist sations.
Is such a stuation, it argues, response to the policy of lte Andretti Government, around SuCHES BELEILE ULLES sliding scale We were slow to resilse that important mass mobilestions though with a largely srudent composition that -the governmicot and employers have pul A further motion concrerises this orientation.
on requires more than eve he development of activity ind capable endent eadership, inside and outside th trade union structures, and of the coordinamenti ank-and-file militants within articular Hua merentin the forma tion of the coordinamenri mus take place on strengthening the ties betweer the vanguard and the masses; it CALS LIUEROOHECIHECARSO impantation in places M the same time, precise cause they are involved in th task, the play a role in heiping vanguard to concrete political confrontation, as well as initiating and reinforc goal sbould be to bild, without Inclinations to self proclamation, a recogOver and bullied ar their concress. th pan in the Italian revolutionary lell.
should make it possible, after a lone period of domination by th Macists, to gain a bearing for the answers put forward by revolutionary Marxists. and THE ITALIAN similar together var lel in Britain. the basis workmunist Party (PCI.
The differences and in far left organisa Maoism above the tasks ndvanced social crisis discussion question government' that such SEARCHES should bo one BIG FLAME socialist ate nati bese Government and Socialist Parties working class has within its collective memory experiences such as the wave of factory councils in 1920-21 and the struggles of 1969-71 which saw the emergence of all the far left groups. which have no paralunder harsh Similarly, it has no single nsass reformist party, and its principal trade political expression is one whose volution has been as much de termined by international devel as its links the HUIS talian class struggle: the Com from Britain are clearest when one looks at the a project not professed ideology of the majo in Britain AO But the Italian far left does confront many of the same prob lems as me do, in conditions of political and Perhaps the most critical is the of the mass reformist policies. drapped TECTORES TEREST A SIRLE the 1976 elections made a serious vanoed the slogan of the tell never learly what were to be its coo absence SHEETE RAIS HAC WA WAS SOU left open for some of the smal bourgeois parties), nor its rela One commoo conception was gavernment woul iclude the farleft, and would t define ye i partiny are Fi particularly poigorganisation consciously making DATE TORTOTALENTE an attempt to so beyond the CHOYLIENIE main supporters of the idea of revo *winnine heremony within a left government, i, ironically, the same mis indenstanding which makes Big Flame in this country tail to call That on be are is to ma a Labour Government in a In outlibe, the comrades of Big Flame argue that the reformist makes support for it purely rac tical. This is only the other side ot to in he he can con government: tion of programme, not of social the reason revpletonaries Call for a Labour For in Italy a COLTINEEL DI LIEDERS is that despite their programme these parties, as independent organisa tions of the working class, mock an important wain tor the work ing dines, Any other approach leads to ultra leftism or, as in de case of tomo Candini, an ada tation to the polities of the reformist parties The relationship of the far left to the trade unions nas aiso come scrutiny in recent months. In the early 1970s tb WETH (CUBs), which served to group "revolutionary" workers sympa LECTIC TO BE H58803 exclusive of other militants. It is so dissimilar from that of the SWP's Rank and File increasingly found inself TUBE LO carried out by masses of workers beginning to challenge the re formist wich leaderships. ano could pixe its own members no lead on what to de inside their provide So the CUBs But again a sectarian and ultraleft position found its mirrorimage in a rightist tendency to tail-end the vacillations of the of any programmatic alternative or perspective for mass left-wing opposition in the What's Left Nevertheless the lessons from negative. There are now signs of the emergenoe of a current prepared ro fight within the union round defence of working ciass Jiving standards and COORDINAMENTI The coordinamen (coordina ting committees) which i grew up grouped the whole of the far lef alter 190y have in many case and many Independent militants WIN OD BUE 30 LICISCIES trunilars unions The evolution of such left tendencies bas frequentl been set back by the retreat of rain of tbe far left groups ar 1 the case of the PaLP, the oven capuanon co me corcal Even so, the halting advance of the controlin is an expe ence we should take to heart Their salient lesson is that the bisted action of the tar leht in thi unions, on a limited programine demands, not tied organisa OBSES HOT CHENH to focus the activity of far large numbers of workers in oppos What the cordinament repre ent is the possible nucleus of reach those sections of the working class where the reformists think thei wichallenged.
The popular struggle in the black township of Soweto for Minister Kruger leading the hard 11 Augual 1977 Pape 12
----- pull-quotes -----
revolutionary Marxists must cake Beins conduzed today by his