80 attend first national Marxist School in the Spanish State

On the weekend of 8-9 November, the Organización Comunista Revolucionaria (OCR), the Spanish section of the RCI, held its first national Marxist School in Madrid. It was a great success. This marks an important step in the development of our section as it was the first time that we have held two major national events in the same year.

It was the perfect opportunity to bring together all the new recruits we have made during the autumn to educate them in the revolutionary history of the country and of our International, and to give them the tools to understand the war filled period through which we are passing. 

We had a total of 80 comrades participating over the weekend, including international guests from Portugal, Germany, Yugoslavia (Croatia), France, and Switzerland. From within the Spanish section we had comrades from Madrid, Barcelona, ​​the Basque Country, and Cartagena as well as some comrades from Mallorca, Málaga, and Extremadura.

The atmosphere was enthusiastic and one of great camaraderie. The talks and debates were of a very high political level, not only in the lead-offs by the speakers (on Imperialism, War and Revolution; the revolutionary struggle against Francoism; and the history and degeneration of the 4th International and the origins of the RCI), but also in the interventions of the comrades in the debates, which showed a great deal of prior preparation and which notably complemented and enriched the discussion.

War and revolution

The first talk, in the Saturday morning session, addressed both theoretical and historical aspects of the question of imperialism and war, including the concept of ‘revolutionary defeatism’, formulated by Lenin and so poorly understood by ultra-leftist sects. We also discussed the proletarian military policy formulated by Trotsky and its successful application by the British Trotskyists during the Second World War.

Comrades attended from across the Spanish State, with many international visitors also attending / Image: OCR

In addition, current events were discussed, such as militarism and the current arms race, the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, and the imperialist competition between the US and China. A comrade from Yugoslavia described the catastrophe of the criminal division of that country, encouraged by western imperialism, and the genocidal war that followed in the early 1990s.

The link between war and revolution, of which recent history provides so many examples, was also addressed. The waste of wealth, resources, and creativity of the working class represented by ever-increasing military spending was emphasised.

This is an era of escalating imperialist conflicts that is preparing a revolutionary response from the working masses worldwide, both due to the effects of current and future wars, and due to attacks on the living conditions of the masses resulting from the capitalist crisis and the cuts to social spending and attacks on democratic rights. We must use the current capitalist barbarism, which manifests itself in militarism, war, and destruction, to agitate for the ideas of communism as the only alternative for the future of humanity.

The fight against Francoism

The second session took place on Saturday afternoon. We discussed the gripping story of the revolutionary struggle against Francoism and its outcome. The highlight was the intervention of veteran comrades, beginning with the speaker, who actively participated in those events and vividly conveyed the revolutionary atmosphere of those years.

Marking the 50th anniversary of the death of Franco, in the second session comrades discussed the heroic struggle against Francoism. Read more about this episode in Spanish history in Alan Woods' The Great Betrayal, available at wellred-books.com / Image: Wellred Books

They discussed the central role played by the working class in the collapse of the dictatorship, the murderous repression by the police and fascist gangs, and the open betrayal by the leaders of the PCE and PSOE of the revolutionary expectations they had raised.

The debate covered a wide range of topics: the role of youth and student struggles, the neighbourhood movement, the emergence and role of ETA, the fight for democratic and national rights, the role of the monarchy, the fraudulent nature of the 1977 elections that elected the parliament which drafted the 1978 Constitution, the attempted coup d'état of 23rd February 1981, and the continuity of the Francoist state apparatus under ‘democracy’, among many others.

What became clear was that the absence of a mass revolutionary party during those years was the decisive factor that prevented the enormous heroism of the working masses from being harnessed to carry out a successful socialist revolution.

Our heritage

The final session on Sunday morning was dedicated to the history of the Fourth International and its degeneration, as well as to the origins of the RCI, which date back to the struggle against the deviations and grave errors of the leaders of this organisation.

Thirteen comrades spoke at this session. We defend the creation of the Fourth International (FI), as well as its founding programme The Transitional Programme drafted by Trotsky, which became necessary as a result of the degeneration and bureaucratisation of the USSR and the Stalinised Communist International.

Created under conditions of extreme persecution, isolated from the masses, and amidst the most devastating proletarian defeats, the International lacked sufficient political cadres and attracted a highly heterogeneous group of people.

Thus, from the assassination of Leon Trotsky in 1940 onward, the official leaders of the International made every imaginable mistake and found themselves completely disoriented by the end of World War II. Among many other errors, they dismissed the possibility of establishing bourgeois-democratic regimes in Western Europe; claimed that the USSR had emerged weakened from the war; dismissed any capitalist economic boom, and promoted work within reformist workers' organisations when the conditions for such work were not present.

To make matters worse, they resorted to bureaucratic manoeuvres and measures to impose this policy on critical elements such as the Trotskyist leaders of the British Revolutionary Communist Party, headed by Ted Grant, who ended up marginalised and expelled from the Fourth International.

Later, these same leaders surrendered to Tito and Mao, whom they labeled as “unconscious Trotskyists” when they were merely a variant of Stalinism. They capitulated to guerrilla warfare in the post-colonial world and scorned the western working class as “Americanised”.

Incapable of correcting their errors and prisoners of prestige politics, they did not tolerate those who, like Ted Grant, opposed their policies, who ended up being expelled for a third time from the International in 1964.

It was at that moment that Ted and his supporters in Great Britain decided to definitively turn their backs on these people in order to lay the foundations for a new international revolutionary communist grouping that, over the years, would give rise to the Revolutionary Communist International.

The unbroken thread of Bolshevism

Today, the RCI represents the genuine continuity of Bolshevism and the true ideas and methods of Leon Trotsky, and the lessons of this aspect of our history should be studied by all comrades.

The best proof of the thirst for ideas that the comrades had is demonstrated in the hundred books, pamphlets and magazines sold, which collected more than €1,000 in sales, a highlight being the sale of our most recent publication, Trotsky's Writings on the Spanish Revolution, of which 15 copies were sold.

The final collection was also very successful. Although initially a modest target was proposed to finance some of the School's expenses, the enthusiasm of our comrades was such that we came close to reaching €2,000.

At the end of the School, the comrades marched in parade to a nearby square where we sang The Internationale together, after which the comrades returned to their regions more convinced than ever of building the OCR in the Spanish State and the RCI worldwide in the shortest possible time.

This first Marxist school left a wonderful tradition for the coming year and is an extraordinary prologue to our next face-to-face meeting in Madrid, when we will celebrate our Congress.