18

A qualification

Echanges et Mouvement,from their tentative Basic Principles:

"In capitalist society the true contradiction is not one of ideas -
revolutionary, reformist, conservative reactionary, etc. - but one of
interests. No kind of will or desire can overthrow commodity
production or abolish the wage system. This will only break down
as a result of class struggle arising from the very position of the
working class in the system of capitalist production. According to a
widespread opinion "class consciousness" and "unity" are seen to
e the main and necessary conditions for what is considered as
"revolutionary behavior" or as "working class action". This view
overlooks or miniterprets how action and consciousness are
influencing each other. Workers don't act as a "revolutionary
class" because first of all they are or become "conscious" of what
they want. "Unity" is not a precondition for, but is crated in, and
as a result of, struggle. Workers are a "revolutionary class"
because their position as a class inside the capitalist system
makes it inevitable that the mere defense of their own interests
brings them into direct opposition to the fundamentals of the
existing order. Such struggles are fought continuously in the
factories and elsewhere, and potentially they are revolutionary.
The development of class struggle with all its changing forms is
therefore far more important than the development of the so-called
"revolutionary movement", regardless of the meaning given to this
word. The break with any form of exploitation of political practice
and thought (reformism, etc.) is not a matter of theoretical
discussion and conceptions but a matter of class struggle and
workers' practice, a practice which is the result of their daily
conditions of exploitation."

The text continues elsewhere:

"The bulletin [Echanges] was started as a means of spreading and
receiving information. Those participating in this project decided
not to bother with the clarification of standpoints held in common
(which usually accompanies the birth of a new group) but to accept
the exisiting tacit agreement. The basic implicit agreement which