fyi; "For a very interesting post-trotskyist organization, check out Italy's Communia Network. http://www.communianet.org/ Although it has its historical roots in trotskyism, this network has abandoned top-down politics and the party form, and puts a strong emphasis on the commons, self-management, local organising, networking and construction of counterpower. Great people, really worth looking into." ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: peter waterman <[email protected]> Date: Fri, Dec 16, 2016 at 7:35 PM Subject: Re: [Networked-Labour] Muted trumpets announce birth of the latest Left/Marxist/Socialist International To: Theodoros Karyotis <[email protected]> Cc: [email protected], " [email protected]" < [email protected]>, WSFDiscuss List < [email protected]>, Debate is a listserve that attempts to promote information and analyses of interest to the independent left in South and Southern Africa <[email protected]> Well, thanks, Theo. That site is, regrettably, only in Italian, which I can more or less understand via my limited Spanish. So, to do Comunia and ourselves a favour, I did a GoogleTrans job on it, only marginally improved. Interested people can check it up via its edress: 'Communia Network is a social and political network, the result of ideas and practices that are measured with the crisis of the anti-capitalist left in Europe and the progressive marginalization of credible alternatives. A project that points to a new political vocabulary. At the time of the structural crisis of the traditional labor movement and the impasse is over the institutional left and not, we move the ambition to reconstruct the places and times of the class struggle, identifying a new language, a new imagery, new tools at national and international connection. It's a project that wants to break with a tradition now useless to start surfing offshore. But we do not care the tabula rasa. We still want to use the Marxian approach without mummification. We appreciate critical Marxism, libertarian, we are interested in mixing it to radical ecologists reflections and feminism, to the criticism of this development. No nostalgia for the old narratives, no anxiety about novelty. We want to build a relationship, theoretical and political, with the highest points in the history of the revolution movements, from those who originated the labor movement to essential ones of the past century. In this spirit we aim to build, again, without nostalgia, and repentance. Focusing on a vision of direct democracy as a fundamental value and radical emancipation; on the self, the alternatives to capitalism and the break with its rules and laws as necessary awareness; the international dimension of the movement as a space necessary for their effectiveness. A project that puts into practice the network free of business, the reappropriation paths and a combatative self-management that measure up to the conflict through the self-organization and practice of real democracy. The confrontational self-management is a field to be filled with new meaning, taking in the history, the potentials, limitations and illusions, especially from the side of the relationship with power, with experiments "outside of business". The form of this project is a network made up of local people who try to build such practices and to connect them with the struggle for the defense of the territory, against the exploitation of labor, the right to education and to knowledge, self-determination of women and lgbti subjects. If you want to write us for more info: [email protected] On Fri, Dec 16, 2016 at 11:34 AM, Theodoros Karyotis <[email protected]> wrote:
Hi Peter, I was just about to point out that this is simply the merging of two trotskyist parties -another episode in the endless cycle of splits and mergers of leftist organizations- but then I saw that you noticed it yourself.
For a very interesting post-trotskyist organization, check out Italy's Communia Network. http://www.communianet.org/ Although it has its historical roots in trotskyism, this network has abandoned top-down politics and the party form, and puts a strong emphasis on the commons, self-management, local organising, networking and construction of counterpower. Great people, really worth looking into.
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On 16 December 2016 at 10:35, peter waterman <[email protected]> wrote:
*Peter sez:*
I discovered this announcement by chance. Somewhat different from the launching of previous such recent internationals, customarily with sound and fury signifying very little.
So I welcome this one and wish it success. Without, however, expectations. Since it has long seemed to me that the last thing global social emancipation needed today was an organisation or institution, rather than a network.
The argument for this has to do with the compatibility between the capitalist (even pre-capitalist) technology of the past and that of today.
If, in the 19th-20th century, most counter-hegemonic social movements reproduced, in whole or part, the hierarchical, the pyramidal, form of the capitalist industrial corporation and the increasingly capitalist state, those of the 20th-21st century seem to taking the form of the computerised network.
There is - Goddesses be Thanked - no International Women's (or Feminist) Organisation (except those left over from the past), nor an ecological or anti-militarist or LGBT one. The only significant new social movement organisation I know of is Via Campesina, the rural labour international (which requires investigation for its survival despite certain crises). Could it be a networked organisation?
The really-existing left, socialist, marxist, autonomist international is surely represented by the innumerable websites - including that of 'International Viewpoint'. That means a form that exists primarily in The Cloud, with all the interpenetrability, and ambiguity, this metaphor suggests. Clearly, it has no Politburo or Central Committee, no 'Lider Maximo', no Prophet. And the flows of influence run not up and down (historically, of course, top-down). Moreover, I would suggest, the decision between conflicting visions and strategies is thrown back to the putative public (me, you, interested and motivated others).
Finally, whilst this initiative describes itself as a (not *the*) international, the newest social movements surpass the reference to the national (to the state-defined-nation, nationalism, nationalists). I have suggested as alternative to 'international', the 'global solidarity movement'. A one-word alternative would be welcome.
None of this precludes the possibility of this latest project adapting to or taking on the characteristics of the newest radically-democratic anti-hegemonic movements.
*Now read on...*
International Viewpoint - online socialist magazine http://www.internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article4799 The Foundation of an International Socialist Organisation (ISO) *Germany / Friday, 9 December 2016*
The International Socialist Left (ISL) and the Revolutionary Socialist League (RSB) have merged.
On the weekend of the 3/4 December 2016, in Frankfurt, the RSB and the ISL united to form The International Socialist Organisation (ISO) (website: www.intersoz.org). This constitutes the united section of the Fourth International in Germany. Prior to this saw a long period of separate functioning (from the foundation of the RSB in 1994 and of ISL in 2001) and an approximately three-year process of moves towards the agreement of a common programme, a profile and statute of the new organisation, and an analysis of the current political context and the most pressing tasks of international socialists and of a revolutionary Marxist organisation.
About 70 members and guests from home and abroad were present on the first day and took part in the debates. What became clear was the collective conviction, and indeed the will, of the members of both organisations to create a fresh start and to confront new questions. Some of the invited guests expressed a desire to join the new organisation at the conference itself.
During the years of separation, the primary differences were in respect of organisational culture and approaches to other left forces. Whilst these have not fully been eradicated, there has been, during the fusion process, a clear rapprochement and agreement towards a stable basis for unity. There is a desire in the ISO to respect and make productive any future differences of views and approaches.
Members of the new organisation will also continue to work in The Left Party (Die Linke). Additionally, as a result of this fusion, the ISO will support the publication of *The Socialist News* (*Die Sozialistische Zeitung* – SoZ) as an independent organ, and also the development of a website and an organisational magazine. As well as publicity, critical socialist educational work will be undertaken. The emphasis of our (certainly strengthened) activities will continue to be in practical work in industry, trades unions and movements.
At a time when the trades unions and the forces of the political and social left are on the defensive and the political right and extreme right are in the ascendency in many countries, the uniting of active socialist forces, however modest their strength, is a good sign and, hopefully, one which will provide an impetus to other forces on the left.
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