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The International Communist Study Group

 The International Communist Study Group (ICSG) has begun holding bimonthly meetings online. We currently conducting a study on Marxist attitudes towards fascism and the anti-fascist struggle. Our September book is Fascism and Dictatorship by Nicos Poulantzas, which analyses how the Third International analysed fascism and some of the mistakes that it made. Poulantzas comes very close to Trotsky's critique of the Comintern's approach to anti-fascist organising, both during the Third Period and the later Popular Front. 

In October, the International Communist Study Group will commemorate the 100th anniversary of Lenin's death by reading a book related to Lenin (either some works by Lenin or a book like Reminisciences of Lenin by Krupskaya). As Lenin's works remain a guiding light for revolutionaries around the world, we wish to  remain true to Leninism and its revolutionary communist vision. Our hope is to engage with Lenin in order to bring his teachings to life within our own political context. 

The ICSG currently has participants from the Netherlands, Scotland, the United States, and Turkey. Our members speak multiple languages, including Dutch, English, Kurdish, Farsi, and Turkish. For security purposes, all participants have been met in real life by a comrade. We hope to deepen our discussions by sharing our political experiences from the countries where we are active, in order to learn from eachother and create solidarity. By studying Marxist books together, we can learn how comrades in a variety of different social contexts have experienced the socialist struggle and fought for a better world. The ICSG wishes to enable a friendly conversation between communists that is productive and meaningful. To achieve this, we will study a variety of different authors and books. 

In addition to meeting online, we encourage our participants to also find people in their communities to discuss communist ideas with. This can be two people meeting once a month to study Marx's Capital, a larger meeting to transmit Marxist ideas to a group of people, or a group of coworkers who study Marxism at their workplace. The role of the ICSG is to encourage people to study Marxism with others as an integral component to revolutionary communist politics. We hope that our online meetings give people a sense of international friendship and solidarity. 

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