Greetings from Bolshevik-Leninist of Australia

Hello comrades,

On behalf of Bolshevik-Leninist, I would like to extend the warmest greetings to this international gathering of comrades of the International Communist League.

It is commendable that the ICL has fought to return to its communist foundation, to struggle for a Marxist organisation in the present day; not as a group hiding in a bunker holding out for better days but an organisation which is willing to struggle for those better days in the here and now. Not to act as a pressure group on liberals but to hoist a Marxist pole that directly attacks liberalism and poses the question of revolutionary leadership point blank.

We find that one of the most remarkable aspects of the ICL’s recent struggles is the fact you seek to leave no stone unturned. That you investigate positions and questions that reach to the very beginning and even preceding the formation of the Spartacist League/US, from the national question to permanent revolution. This reveals a political vitality that we have not seen in other contemporary groups. We commend that you do so in a manner that does not discredit your history, but carries through to completion what your predecessors struggled for. Reaffirming, and not junking, your organisation’s Marxist history is the only genuine way that you can preserve revolutionary continuity, and thus re-orientate yourselves to the present day. The fact that you have done so in such a radical way and with no significant defections shows the political seriousness of comrades here today.

We have only begun to seriously study your re-orientation, but already comrades have felt like we have jumped leaps and bounds. We have been jump-started in such a short time period with the fruits of three years of the heated struggles within the ICL. Your framework, in line with Trotsky’s transitional demands, has acted like an electric shock that has motivated us immensely. Marxism is a guide to action, and we had been stuck with the contradiction between the abstract analysis in our articles and practical action here and now. We have now been given a solid foundation to answer these questions that we had previously only begun to grapple with. For that, we are extremely grateful. We hope comrades here today can feel the same electricity that we have felt.

There is a lot of work to be done. If you succeed in the task that you have sought out, to apply the Marxist framework as the guide for your organisation both internationally and on a national level, it would only be a gain for the working class, and we hope dearly that you succeed. If you do, this conference will be looked back upon with world-historic significance. Of Marxism returning with strength in the 21st century. Of, in nucleus form, the foundations atop which will be built a reforged Fourth International Trotsky would recognise. We look forward to listening to the discussions of the conference and the proposals adopted. We wish you the best.

Thank you.