Infiltration

The infiltration is a strategy of organization which consists in inserting in a way concerted of the members of an organization in another organization to the close ideas, but concurrent. The term infiltration is intrinsically related to the history of the Léninisme and the Trotskysme, but is also employed describing since then practices of same order (infiltration, coring, etc).

The objective is to influence the orientation and the power of a current of ideas within the targeted organization, with an aim of managing to inflect the strategy of the whole of the organization. There exist two types of infiltration: official (that Trotsky calls “with deployed flags”) and clandestine. There exists also the infiltration organized by a direction to preserve its capacity or to preserve of an opposition.

The recourse to the infiltration is considered when the movement trotskyste feels too weak and too little influence vis-a-vis the sudden starts of the history or, on the contrary, vis-a-vis the apathy of the working masses which are turned rather on the side of the national PC or the social democrat parties. For the trotskystes, the only way to give a concrete effectiveness to their ideas then remains to seek to influence less radical movements, but having a real role in the political life.

He was thus resorted to the infiltration for relatively short periods, before the movement does not change once again strategy. Moreover, its opportunity made debate within the movement, sometimes causing confrontations, even scissions.

History

1934: The infiltration like strategy of short term

The genesis of the infiltration is to be sought in the difficult context of the years 1930, of the rise of totalitarianisms (Fascism, Nazism and Stalinism), and of their damming up becoming a top priority for the majority of the lefts. The time is diverting including for the movement trotskyste. Thus “the recommendations of Trotsky during the Thirties marry in the month close the fluctuations of a moving situation”. The strategy thus will vary, and the infiltration corresponds to the one of its orientations during the year 1934.

This year is indeed remembered by the emergence of currents endangering social democracy. In Austria, the working insurrection is brutally repressed while the events of the February 6th, 1934 destabilize the parliamentary republic in France. Vis-a-vis that, Trotsky decides creation of active left wings within the socialist parties. He writes with Marceau Pivert, a Socialist of left: “The Bolshevik-Leninists regard themselves as a fraction of International which is built. They are ready to work the hand in the hand with the other really revolutionary fractions”. Trotsky is thus perceived at this time in the same camp as IIIe Internationale however directed by Stalin and than the left wing of the PS, however shown to miss revolutionary strength.

Thus during the year 1934, the infiltration “with deployed flag” - partisans resulting from an organization X gather in “tendency”, “running” and try to inflect the orientations of SFIO - develops.

In spite of the refusal of the old tradition of influence of the Freemasonry whose Trotsky wrote that it “is a bad wound on the body of French Communism. It should be burned with red iron. ”, in 1938, Trotsky, in its lampoon Their morals is ours , remembers:

“I developed in 1935, in letters with my Belgian friends the idea that a young revolutionary party which would try to create “its clean” trade unions would go to the suicide. It is necessary to go to find the workmen where they sont.
- But it is cotiser for the maintenance of an opportunist apparatus?
- Obviously, I, the right answered to sap the reformists, one needs theirs payer.
- But won't the reformists allow us to make against them a sabotage?
- Obviously, I still answered, sabotage requires some conspiratives precautions. ”

1952 - 1953: the infiltration like strategy of long run

The Années 1950 correspond to a wave of clandestine infiltration within the national PC. The time corresponds to a crystallization of the Cold war. The trotskystes feel more than ever impotent in the world political game. At this point in time part of their leaders are tried by this strategy, this time turned towards the Communist parties aligned on Moscow. Thus Michel Pablo proposes this strategy. It notes that “objective social reality is primarily made up of the capitalist mode and the Stalinist world”. It from of deduced that the only means for the trotskystes of really influencing the political life and of testing the effectiveness of their theories is to confront itself with the workers and the parties which represent them. It acts at the time of the powerful Communist parties of the Western countries. It specifies that “this integration must start with the peripheral organizations to even arrive until the Communist party”. According to Pablo, the militant must “completely put at the background his quality of trotskyste”.
He quotes finally the organizations concerned.

This clandestinity answers the monolithism aligned on Moscow of the PC of the time, but also pre-empts the radical ruptures which will not be able to miss occurring according to the trotskystes. This is why Daniel Bensaïd speaks about a “speculative infiltration”. It appears that this strategy is the only means of action of a movement which denounces “the usurpation of the capacity by a bureaucracy privileged” in the USSR.

It causes many antagonisms however and will be one of the causes of most serious tearing than knew the IVème Internationale since its creation. Indeed, as of the statement of his theses, Michel Pablo is criticized. Marcel Bleibtreu, secretary of NCV, refuses this strategy. The rupture takes place with the congress of July 1952. The majority lambertist refuses the infiltration in the Stalinist organizations. This one act the strategy of infiltration, but causes serious scissions.

Many personalities of the troskysme such as Felix Guattari, Denis Shepherd, Gabriel Cohn-Bendit, Lucien Sebag are critical with respect to this practice.

Years 1960 - 1970: the infiltration lambertist

The infiltration term was also employed to qualify very an other practices coring of the communist Organization internationalist (OCI) resulting from the scission of 1952. Paradoxically, it is this movement opposed to the infiltration which will use these methods during the two following decades.

It should be noted that this strategy does not give necessarily a notable result. For example, quite to the contrary, Lionel Jospin, whose Edwy Plenel affirms that it had been infiltrated OCI with the PS, would have given up its ideals of youth little by little while adhering to the PS.

Motivations

The motivations which result in practicing the infiltration are of two orders:

  • the organizations are not of comparable nature:

    • a Political party and a Trade union or an organization of the Social movement: the members of LCR would hope, by adhering to Ras the face, there to defend their point of view and/or to control the policy of the organization. Some refuse the term of infiltration in this case, considering that it is about an individual adhesion rising from an agreement on the action of association concerned.
  • the organizations are of comparable nature and act on the same ground:
    • two political parties or two organizations of consumers.

This practice is generally reproached the minority organizations. Thus, one does not qualify usually an infiltration dual membership of a political party and a trade-union direction, the Socialist party and the direction of a trade union of the CFDT, for example.

The infiltration was also a method used in the years 1950 by the Poujadiste S with the General confederation Commercial and industry (CGCI), near at the origin to the Communist party.

References

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