Our next book will be a title in French: is the first number of Les Cahiers du crabe (Notebooks of the Crab): "l'intervention soviétique en Afghanistan (1979)". The documents which are reproduced there, in a chronological order, all come from the bulletins interior, known as BI, of the LCR (internal discussion bulletins , in theory relatively confidential) and of its publications, Rouge (weekly of the LCR, whose files are gradually made available in DVD), Critique Communiste (theoretical review of the LCR), Inprecor (International Press Correspondance, news review of the Fourth International).A further set of themes "On the PCF", reproducing criticisms of the LCR on the standpoint of the Communist Party in France, is placed after the other articles. At the end of the review, a special booklet of the LCR on the question of Afghanistan, published in mid-February 1980, is reproduced just as it is (this section has the least aesthetic quality).
The editors decided, for practical reasons (availability of the files and a number of pages of the review), to stop at the date of March 1980. However, a Critique Communiste article of December 1981 gives the reader a critical review with respect to the initial position of the LCR.
Notebooks of the Crab
The Notebook is published by the 'Association to safeguard of the memory of the French section of the Fourth international' (ASMSFQI). It has two wishes: to save the files of this political current, by collecting them and by digitizing them, and to allow their access. With this intention, in addition to its Internet site, it publishs a review which reproduces various documents, all resulting from the French section of the Fourth international ( at different times known as the Internationalist Communist Party, communist league, and now LCR) and all related to a specific topic.
The idea of the Notebook is this : to reproduce articles of Rouge, La Verite, and Inprecor, extracts from discussion bulletins, and posters to allow the readers and to know reader what the internal debates of the French section of the Fourth international were and what was its public positioning on such questions. It does not have any further scientific or analytical aiming. the task of the ASMSFQI is making documents known. The Notesbooks do not aim to be a place of study or criticism. Simply they aim to be able to support certain studies, reflections, and personal training, by giving access to documents.
The 104-page A4 book will be available in mid-September for £7, €10 or $14 from Amazon. You will be able to use its ISBN number (9780902869905) to order the book from bookstores.
