Hi… I hope there are some ICC members on here!
Recently I read the ICC pamphlet “The Period of Transition” http://en.internationalism.org/pamphlets/transition
It says that during a revolution, in the immediate period after the state has been overthrown, there will be a dual organizational structure. On the one hand, the workers councils. On the other hand, the “territorial soviets” which include not just the working class but all the non-exploiting classes. (But capitalists and the old political class are excluded.)
This raises a couple questions…
1. What is the division between what the workers councils are in charge of and what the territorial soviets are in charge of? (It says the workers councils are in charge of the economic program. Are the territorial councils allowed to be self-governing in all other areas? What exactly do the territorial soviets have control over?)
2. The pamphlet says that the workers councils have a monopoly of armed force. However, I found a couple old threads on the libcom forums where members of the ICC seemed to be saying that there would be two militias – a militia of the workers councils to protect working class interests, and another militia that included revolutionaries of all non-exploiting classes to fight a civil war against the bourgeois counterrevolution. So I’m confused – which of the two is the ICC position?
Thanks a bunch!
And even if you're NOT in the ICC, but have an opinion on the above, I'd be glad to hear your perspective, too.