04.11.1999

RCN debates

Saturday November 30 saw the Republican Communist Network debating ‘international socialism’ as a slogan. The school was the first in a number of educationals looking at the slogan from various perspectives with a view to deciding whether it should be included in the RCN platform.

The meeting was made up of RCN members plus visitors from various organisations. Papers were presented from Dave Craig (Revolutionary Democratic Group), Allan Armstrong (Communist Tendency), Jack Conrad (CPGB) and Mary Ward (Campaign for a Federal Republic) to open the debate. Only Allan Armstrong’s paper argued against the inclusion of ‘international socialism’ as a slogan, while Dave Craig argued for an alternative wording of ‘international socialist revolution’.

All present accepted the need for any revolution to be internationalised if it were to be successful. The crux of this particular debate centred around the question of how far any workers’ state could go in terms of uprooting the law of value.

Debate was fraternal and at a high level, although many comrades still had genuine difficulty in understanding why members of the Communist Tendency found the slogan unacceptable, given that they clearly rejected any notion of socialism in one country. Allan stated that such a slogan could be used to prevent workers from taking action: forcing them instead to wait for the working class in other countries to catch up.

RCN members made it clear that this organisation gives theoretical discussion a high priority, but this must also be linked to practice - particularly at this stage: our work in establishing a communist pole of attraction within the Scottish Socialist Party.

The debate goes on, but so too does our fight against political opportunism and sectarianism.

Mary Ward

Secretary, RCN