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Marxists from every continent hold landmark meeting

Marxist Perspectives · 2023-02-09

Core Argument

The central thesis of this article is that the International Marxist Tendency (IMT) has undergone a significant quantitative and qualitative leap forward during the period 2020–2023, and that this growth reflects a deeper objective process: the radicalisation of youth and workers under conditions of intensifying capitalist crisis. The article claims that the IMT's success is not organisational or tactical in the narrow sense, but flows from the power of Marxist ideas themselves — that young people are instinctively seeking "genuine communism" as the system fails them, and that the main barrier to this process is not the strength of capital but the conservatism of existing working-class leaderships. The meeting in Italy was therefore not merely a stocktake but a strategic preparation for the coming revolutionary explosions.

Theoretical Grounding

The analysis draws on the classical Marxist understanding of the relationship between objective conditions and subjective consciousness. The article does not deploy technical categories like the tendency of the rate of profit to fall or overaccumulation, but its framework is recognisably Trotskyist in its emphasis on the crisis of working-class leadership. The key theoretical move is the distinction between the spontaneous radicalisation of layers (youth, nurses, strikers) and the political conservatism of the existing trade union and reformist leaderships — a distinction rooted in Lenin's What Is to Be Done? and Trotsky's analysis of the betrayed revolutions. The article also implicitly draws on the Marxist theory of combined and uneven development: the IMT's growth is fastest in some of the most advanced economies (Britain, US, Austria, Denmark) while simultaneously establishing new footholds in the Global South (South Africa, Chile, Colombia, India). This situates the piece within the tradition of revolutionary Marxism as opposed to both Stalinism and reformism, and it treats the rejection of the latter two as settled positions.

Conjunctural Relevance

The article is explicitly conjunctural. It identifies a world "on fire" in early 2023: the aftermath of COVID-19, the war in Ukraine, inflation and cost-of-living crises, and an explosion of class struggle across Europe. Specific data points anchor the analysis: nearly 3 million workers on strike in France against Macron's pension reform; 500,000 on strike in Britain on a single day — the largest in over a decade; a 7,000-strong demonstration of Basque youth chanting "the workers' revenge: socialist revolution." The article also notes the emergence of the 'Socialist Movement' in the Basque Country, a left-wing split from the youth wing of the nationalist party Bildu, which has openly declared for communism, internationalism, and the dictatorship of the proletariat. These are not abstract examples but concrete evidence of a leftward shift among layers that had previously been channelled into nationalism or reformism. The article's claim is that this radicalisation is still in its early stages and that the IMT's growth — 85 percent overall, 165 percent in Britain — is both a product of and a preparation for this unfolding conjuncture.

Where the Argument Continues

The article is a report on a leadership meeting, not a theoretical exposition, so it leaves several questions open. It does not analyse the internal dynamics of the strikes in France or Britain — the relationship between the rank-and-file and the union bureaucracies, the political consciousness of the strikers, or the specific demands. It does not address the war in Ukraine beyond naming it as one crisis compounding others. It does not examine the political character of the 'Socialist Movement' in the Basque Country or the risks of its rapid growth. These are gaps that the IMT's ongoing work — in its daily agitational output on In Defence of Marxism, in the América Socialista journal, and in the forthcoming World Congress — is intended to fill. The article also announces a campaign for the centenary of Lenin's death in 2024, which will presumably develop the theoretical offensive against Stalinist and reformist distortions of Bolshevism. Readers should look to the IMT's coverage of the French strikes, the British strike wave, and the Peruvian crisis (referenced in the solidarity statement at the end) for the concrete development of the argument.

Connections

The article connects directly to the broader corpus of the IMT and the Revolutionary Communist International. It should be read alongside Alan Woods' The History of the Bolshevik Party and The Ideas of Lenin for the theoretical grounding of the Lenin centenary campaign. It connects to the IMT's analysis of the crisis of reformism, particularly in the Spanish and British contexts. The reference to the conservatism of the trade union leadership echoes Trotsky's The Transitional Program and the Marxist analysis of the labour bureaucracy. The article's emphasis on the power of ideas as the motor of organisational growth is a recurring theme in the IMT's self-understanding and can be found in earlier reports from the 2020 and 2022 International Marxist Universities. For a deeper treatment of the relationship between objective crisis and subjective radicalisation, readers should consult the IMT's The Death Agony of Capitalism and the Tasks of the Fourth International.

Key Quotes

  1. "Our ideas are the only justification for our existence, and they are our most important tool. Young people today feel lost; they feel that life is empty and claustrophobic under this system. They are instinctively groping for something more. They want to soar above the trivialities of life under capitalism; they want something real to aspire to. Only revolutionary Marxism can provide that."

  2. "The old leaders have become mentally paralysed, useless, hypnotised by past defeats. They are unable to see past the end of their own noses."

  3. "You can see the fire, the revolutionary instinct, in the eyes of these young nurses, who are on strike for the first time. The IMT will stand or fall on our ability to reach that layer… We must turn towards the picket lines, towards the factories, towards the strikers."

  4. "The main barrier they encounter is that the genuine communists as yet represent a small group. Meanwhile, the ruling class has sought to bury these ideas — and especially the ideas of Lenin — under a heap of lies and distortions."

  5. "The capitalist class has run out of the ammunition it used to get out of past crises, and is now stricken by panic and divisions. And class struggle is on the rise."

  6. "This is the beginning of an awakening of the working class. Fresh layers of the class are coming into action. A fresh breeze is blowing."