Since quite a few years pro-revolutionary internationalists have been organizing summer meetings, including week-long “summer camps”, to inform each other, to discuss and establish contacts. We reported earlier on some of those gatherings that took place last year in Europe. This year we welcomed the return of one of the oldest of these initiatives, which had taken a break during the covid years. Unfortunately, none of us was able to attend but from what we heard of friends who were there, it must have been quite interesting, with participants from many countries, reports on class struggles from around the world and discussions on theoretical issues, all in a friendly atmosphere of solidarity.
While we had to skip that summer camp, we were able to participate in another, organized by the so-called “Beach Communists” in the south of France, also attended by comrades from many (mostly European) countries. What distinguished this camp from the other one was, among other things, that it situated its discussions within a perspective of organizing and participating in class struggles and did not shy away from affirming political positions. Indeed, earlier it adopted a common platform which, after some debate, was unambiguous in its defense of ‘revolutionary defeatism’, the rejection of supporting either side in the wars of capitalism, including those in Ukraine and the Middle East. As the first paragraph of the platform states: All states, without exception, exist today to maintain the domination of the ruling, capitalist class over the working class. Capital is everywhere, transcending borders, and we need to be able to face it internationally, not just with workers from our own territories. Therefore, we do not offer any support to wars waged by any capitalist state or any faction aimed at creating or strengthening a new state, whether aggressor or aggressed, whether or not they describe themselves as ‘socialist’ or ‘democratic’.
Given the present world situation, War was one of the main topics of discussion at this camp. The other main issues on the agenda were class struggle, the period of transition to communism, and feminism. While all these topics are important, the discussion of them left us quite frustrated.
On class struggles: various reports were presented on struggles in a number of countries. These were informative but also reflected the confusion of some participants about the nature of the trade unions. While it was stated that the aim of this session was to continue a general discussion on the trade unions started at last year’s summer camp, and the text proposed as a basis for this debate identified the unions unambiguously as organs of capitalism, the debate didn’t take place and base-unionist illusions survived the session unscathed.
On the period of transition: not coincidentally this subject has been returned to more and more in recent years, reflecting a growing awareness that the perspective of a breakdown of the global capitalist system is becoming increasingly realistic. Unfortunately, the entire discussion was centered around a presentation given by two comrades who, as they put it, had “discovered The Fundamental Principles of Communist Production and Distribution1, two years prior, and couldn’t believe that nobody was talking about it”. Not only did they defend its theoretical frame but they went further, suggesting that it was possible to create something like self-managed worker’s firms that would represent concrete and practical steps towards a communist social order. Only comrades of IP and a few others criticized their position. The discussion was limited to the comrades’ presentation and not a free exchange on the general topic of transition to communism. Therefore there was no discussion of the State and its nature, no discussion on value production, and no discussion on revolution or the revolutionary subject… only “communist firms”!
On war: the session was in three parts: First, Sanderr (IP) presented a general overview of the connection between capitalism, crisis and war, based on his text, which then was discussed; second, various comrades reported on the militarization underway in the countries where they are based, and third, the Statement on War that originally came out of the conferences in Prague and Arrezo last year (See HERE) was presented and discussed.
The general presentation did not evoke much discussion. Some seemed to think that theoretical discussion is a waste of time (although informally there were some interesting discussions on crisis theory and war later on).
The presentations on militarization were informative, showing how broad and fast the war preparation has become. A comrade from Russia gave a rundown on all the different perspectives that people are taking, especially on the war in Ukraine, and did a good job at exposing their contradictions.2
The Statement on War was discussed and approved with some minor modifications. But it was clear that some participants were not happy with the decision to adopt the statement. Some of their objections seemed not very important (for example, they wanted the text to be called Statement rather than Declaration and preferred trade union mediations rather than trade union middlemen in point 8).
They also disagreed with the passage We do not call for negotiations or UN interventions, parliamentary resolutions, disinvestments, etc. At their insistence the word disinvestments was dropped and the rather superfluous phrase since we do not see that these will lead to revolution was added.
But we got the impression that behind these mild criticisms there were deeper disagreements that were not talked about. A sizable number of the participants felt that this discussion was ‘forced on them from the outside’ and did not see political clarification as the coalescing factor of this summer camp, preferring political vagueness for the sake of activist unity.
Feminism: The discussion on feminism was more than a little confusing. It had been decided to dedicate a full session to this topic because ‘toxic masculinity’ was seen as still pervasive in the pro-revolutionary milieu. A complicated power point presentation was given on the topic of genetic biology in an attempt to show that biological differences do not explain social differences and to present counter-arguments for when biological determinism is used to attack a communist perspective. The discussion that followed proceeded with difficulty, since nobody was an expert on the topic of genetic biology. After that, we split up in small work groups where we talked about the gender-make-up in our respective workplaces and sex discrimination. Then these groups reported back to the plenum. There was a serious lack of class perspective in the discussion. Some of the more militant voices seemed to embrace feminism as a partial critique of the system. More interesting was the presentation by a worker of the Spanish Correos (Post Office) on how she and her female colleagues were being exploited and attempted to fight back.
In conclusion:
For us, the balance sheet was mixed. We were disappointed in the lack of desire for theoretical clarification through discussion by many at the camp who seemed more interested in activism. In our opinion this made them vulnerable to confusion on who is on the side of the proletariat and who represents he Left of Capital. We also were not happy with some of the organizational measures, such as a speaking limit of 2 minutes in the discussions, or the establishment of a “care team” to address incidents of sexual harassment (which did not occur).
On the positive side, the atmosphere at the camp was generally friendly and many informal conversations were interesting. We made some good contacts.
Positive as well is the commitment of the Beach Communists to continue to the discussions throughout the year in working groups meeting online, which hopefully will contribute to a well prepared summer camp next year. Several of these working groups are already active (on class composition, gender/sex, and war).
Three and possibly more summer camps and similar meetings are being planned for next year in various European countries. Internationalist Perspective has been urging the various organizers to join forces for maximal results. Without success however. It seems to us that many in our milieu still have not grasped how the acceleration of history demands from us to think and act together.
NOTES
1 This is a text by the Group of International Communists (GIK) from 1930, which describes a system of labor-time vouchers. IP’s critique of this concept can be found HERE, HERE and in MacIntosh’s text “Communization and the Abolition of the Value Form”
2 An interview with this comrade can be found HERE
Addendum:
INTERNATIONALIST STATEMENT ON CAPITALISM AND WAR
(fourth draft)
Adopted by the Narbonne Summer Camp August 2025
1. All wars, whatever they are called, are capitalist wars. While the specific conditions in which they break out may be quite different, all are rooted in the capitalist system, which is based on competition and exploitation. Wars are the extreme form of the competitive logic of capitalism. They constitute the ultimate degree of capitalist exploitation and oppression. It’s no longer just labor which capital demands from the exploited, but their very life or that of their children.
2. While imperialism has been a constant feature of capitalism since its beginning, the crisis of profitability and the escalation of class conflict which capitalism faces today and the instability it engenders, both pushes economic competition to military conflict and creates opportunities to do so. This crisis will only deepen, making it inevitable that the continuing existence of capitalism implies that war could reach all over the planet.
3. The working class, the vast majority of humankind, has nothing to win and everything to lose in war. It is always its main victim. National defense and national liberation means fighting and dying for the interests of one faction of the capitalist class against another. It means killing (and being killed by) other working class people for the power and profit of the class that exploits and oppresses us.
4. We reject both nationalism and bourgeois democracy, which are the principal ideological tools by which the capitalist class creates the illusion that its interests and those of the working class within the national borders are the same, and by which it mobilizes for war and justifies the militarization of society.
5. There are no separate solutions for the many existential threats to humankind. A peaceful capitalism, a green capitalism, a socially just capitalism are all just pipe dreams to hide the growing horror that is real. War, ecocide, climate disasters, pandemics, poverty, insecurity, forced migration, homelessness, stress and mental breakdown will continue to worsen, together with the crisis of capitalism which causes them all. Therefore there is but one solution to all of them: closing the capitalist chapter of human history.
6. We are not pacifists. We do not call for negotiations or UN interventions, parliamentary resolutions, etc. since we do not see that these will lead to revolution. We do not appeal to the ruling class to act “reasonably”, because we understand that it can’t. Instead we count on autonomous, class based resistance to capitalism. The global working class is the only social force capable of ending capitalism and establishing a human community based on the fulfillment of needs instead of the compulsion of making profit.
7. But it has a long way to go. Its struggle cannot be merely economic, it has to be political as well and confront the state. It has to refuse to submit to capitalism’s war drive. We support proletarians on both sides of any war who refuse to fight, who desert, who turn their weapons against those who order them to kill each other. We support sabotage of the war machine and resistance against conscription, mobilization and the militarization of society.
8. But the oxygen on which the war-machine depends is the exploitation of the proletariat, the extraction of surplus value. It would be paralyzed without it. So war can’t be stopped without ending exploitation. Furthermore, to make room for the war efforts, the ruling class has to attack the social wage, impose austerity. In fighting against it, workers fight against the war, consciously or not. The more they wage this fight autonomously, without any collaboration with the capitalist class, its state and its trade union mediations, the more it can blossom into a struggle against exploitation, a revolution which puts an end to capitalism, to its wars and its miserable ‘peace’.