On 18 and 19 May, 120 comrades of Révolution – the French section of the International Marxist Tendency (IMT) – met for this year’s National Conference in Paris.
[Originally published at marxiste.org]
World perspectives
Saturday morning was devoted to a discussion on the evolution of the economic, political, social and military situation on a global scale. In his introduction, Jules Legendre discussed the most important events of our time – in particular the wars in Ukraine and Gaza – in the general context of the organic crisis of capitalism.
The relative decline of American imperialism is a central part of the world situation. In the Middle East, for example, the United States is more dependent than ever on its ally Israel. This allows Netanyahu to brush aside Biden's hypocritical calls for ‘moderation’ in the massacre of Gazans.
In Ukraine, US imperialism is facing bitter humiliation. Jules recalled the IMT's internationalist position on this war, which is nothing but an imperialist war on both sides. He stressed that in France our central task is to fight against the propaganda of French imperialism. As Karl Liebknecht pointed out in 1915: “the main enemy is at home!”
From the IMT to the RCI
On Saturday afternoon, Francesco Merli, from the IMT's International Secretariat, introduced the discussion on the Manifesto of the Revolutionary Communist International (RCI), which will be discussed at the founding conference of the RCI in mid-June.
Francesco detailed the spectacular progress made by our International in recent years. Everywhere, our successes stem from our firm orientation towards the youth, but also and above all from our implacable defence of the genuine ideas of Marxism. Young people, radicalised by the crisis of capitalism, want to fight, but they also want to understand. They are looking for ideas and a serious programme.
The Revolutionary Communist Party
On Sunday morning, the Conference discussed, amended and adopted the document presented by our national leadership, Perspectives and Tasks.
In his introductory speech, Guillaume Eudeline described the various symptoms of the decline of French capitalism and the crisis of its political system.
To defend its profits, the French bourgeoisie urgently needs budget cuts and drastic counter-reforms. But on the one hand, growing political polarisation is causing a deep crisis in the establishment parties and, on the other hand, the bourgeoisie's attacks on the living conditions of the masses will not go unanswered. Major struggles are on the agenda, despite the extreme moderation of the official leaders of the left and the trade union movement. In this respect, the Yellow Vest movement in 2018 and 2019 was a crystal clear warning.
Guillaume and all the speakers defended the central proposal of discussion: the transformation of Révolution into a Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP). The founding congress of the RCP will take place next autumn. Between now and then, we'll be launching a major recruitment campaign and explaining our approach in a series of articles.
Introduced by Jérôme Métellus, the final session of the National Conference on Sunday afternoon was entitled: ‘Their communism and ours’. Jérôme defended genuine communism – that of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Trotsky – against the various forms of revisionism: Stalinism, Maoism, ‘libertarian communism’, ultra-leftism, so-called ‘academic Marxism’ and, finally, the reformism of the French Communist Party’s leadership.
Enthusiasm and determination
The decision to found the RCP was taken unanimously by the delegates at the National Conference. The enthusiasm of the comrades was electric – and the political level of the discussions was very high.
The confidence and determination of our comrades was shown by the fund-raising event on Saturday evening. The initial target was 45,000 euros. At the start of the Conference, comrades had raised €40,000. But after a presentation by Charles Royer on the methods of financing a revolutionary organisation, the comrades were gripped with enthusiasm and a further €20,000 was raised in just a few minutes. In total, €60,000 was collected to help us fund the growth of the French section, almost double last year's figure.
This enthusiasm is based on solid confidence in our ideas, in our methods and in the colossal power of the working class. In France, as elsewhere, young people and workers will be mobilising en masse on several occasions in the years to come. To defeat and overthrow capitalism, they will need revolutionary parties and an International that is up to the task. To help us in this task, join us!