Argument

This submission is based on the validity of three premises.

Dear readers: We have foreshortened this excellent presentation that Aubrey made at the Congress for space reasons only.

The fight for the re-installation of workers’ power in the lands of the former Soviet Union and the struggle of workers and their allies in other countries against exploitation and for the working peoples’ power, allowing for the diversity of form which these struggles take, are nevertheless one and all fundamentally part of the same struggle: the struggle against exploitation, capitalism and for the establishment of Socialism.

The principle force for the reestablishment of Soviet power must inevitably come from the workers and allies of the former Soviet lands.

Furthermore, that the setting up of such Congresses as this one on the initiative of the International Council and Northstar Compass, provide us with a platform which cannot be other than of inestimable help and encouragement to those working inside the former republics of the Soviet Union.

(3) Identity of Problems Both Inside the Soviet Union and the Capitalist World

There are problems which are common between the workers’ parties and groupings in capitalist countries and those in the lands of the previous USSR and other former socialist countries.

The problems concern the question of political activity and its relation with the written world. There has been a tendency in post world war times to confine political work more and more to the written word. There has developed a weakening of the roots between the workers’ parties and the masses. This has left the way open for the development of fragmentation of workers’ parties, feelings of isolation, then to disillusionment and possibly to inertia and despondency.

We know that these processes have taken place. They are serious and have affected the work of all workers’ parties and groups, both in the capitalist world and in the lands of the former Soviet Union.

The concept of the unity of theory and practice is a thread that runs throughout this submission.

There has taken place in our movement, a decreasing role of leadership, with even leading figures themselves castigating the very concept itself of leadership as being "undemocratic", thus the way has been left open for various forms of revisionism and opportunism. Thee results had frequently been confusion, leading to disillusionment Many fine and determined comrades, however, have taken alternative routes and they have willingly ploughed in with enthusiasm, and found their abilities and sense of solidarity exceptionally vital in campaigns which are calling for helpers. Here again we have a "single issue", the all-consuming energies, sometimes 24 hours per day to achieve a positive outcome. But that leaves also no energy to spare for discussion with others regarding the necessity for some form of organization, which h can have as centralizing function.

This is the hurdle to surmount. It is a difficult one and it is high, but surmount it we must. The work of Karl Marx gave us dialectical materialism, the most potent weapon possessed by the working class. Using it, this submission confidently asserts, proverbial mountains can be moved, and, though the going be tough, in fact very tough, we can win!