The IGCL has decided to take on board the pamphlet that the Internal Fraction of the ICC (IFICC) had published in 2008. We reproduce here the introduction we have made for this republication. This pamphlet (only in French and Spanish) is available at the price of 3 dollars or 2,50 euros plus the mailing expenses: write to our e-mail address : intleftcom@gmail.com.

Introduction by the IGCL (October 2014)

Proletarian Morality, class struggle and revisionism was published first in 2008 by the Internal Fraction of the ICC. The introduction of that time made by the IFICC underlined that « all along the history of the workers movement, Marxism has highlighted how revisionism (…) has introduced ideological themes of the bourgeoisie (…) the values, the morality, the interests and, in a general way, bourgeois ideology within the working class movement by way of “general” science, of “abstract” philosophy, of “human” morality and interests ». As such, this pamphlet is, and will continue to be, a particular moment amongst many others, a modest but nevertheless real contribution of the workers and communist movement for its defense of Marxism and its permanent fight against the penetration of bourgeois ideology in its ranks – especially within its political organizations.

Indeed, the writing which directed the publication of articles first in the IFICC Bulletin in 2007, then combined in a pamphlet, had the primary aim of an immediate fight against the penetration within the International Communist Current of idealist theories which were one more step in the opportunist and revisionist drift of this organization; and this with the hope of a class reaction in its own ranks. This increasing political drift of the ICC had given place to the publication of a text “Marxism and Ethics” in the International Review #127 and 128 (2006-2007).

Today, we intend to defend the political and organizational legacy of the Communist Left that this organization is giving up and looks to liquidate. In this sense, the IGCL claims this continuity of struggle against any opportunist position, in particular against the one presently defended by the official ICC on morality, by taking on, including in a critical manner, the experience of the ICC fractions (IFICC and FICL) and the ICC itself – if only because of the adoption of some of its basic and historical platform positions. As such, we republish this pamphlet under our name, the IGCL.

Because, if the ICC now belongs for a great part to the past, it nevertheless remains that the fight against the revisionist and idealist thesis that it propagates, remains permanent. Besides their opposition to Marxism, or Historical Materialism, that is the revolutionary theory of the proletariat, the premises of the ICC as to the existence of “human morality”, “of general moral interest” (see their text “Marxism and Ethics”, 2006), or still a “natural moral consciousness” (see their recent draft of “Thesis on morale”) are the expressions of bourgeois ideology, particularly under its democratic form, which won’t disappear with this organization.

This is why this pamphlet, as modest and limited as it may be, remains and will remain a moment and a means of this struggle against political opportunism within the workers ranks and, more widely, against bourgeois ideology.

The IGCL, October 2014