Bordiga

[scarletghoul]

There seems to be a few Bordiga supporters here, so perhaps you could help me. From what I've read of him I just thought he was an ultra-left who dragged down the Party with unrealistic ideas. For example he apparently said that the comintern should collectively govern the USSR, and was against antifascist alliance

What are some good ideas of his ? Is there a defense of the above ideas ? What are his theoretical contributions etc

thankshttp://http://www.marxists.org/archive/bordiga/bordiga.jpg

[Zanthorus]

For example he apparently said that the comintern should collectively govern the USSR,

Because he wanted to subordinate the development of the USSR to the interests of International socialism.

Apparently, at the 6th enlarged executive of the Communist International in 1926, in a closed session between Stalin and the Italian delegates, Bordiga asked wether "comrade Stalin thinks the development of the Russian situation and the internal problems of the Russian Party are linked to the development of the international proletarian movement?" and Stalin replied "Never till now has this question been put to me. I would never have believed that a communist could put it to me. May god forgive you for having done so."


and was against antifascist alliance.

He did oppose anti-fascist struggle on principle but the PCI were bound by the fourth congress of the international to engage in anti-fascist struggle. So what they did was come up with the idea of a "united front from below":


For the Communist Left, the adoption of the united front marks a turning point in the history of the working class. It is one of the factors which distinguish us all from the Trotskyist currents today. In Italy, the Left still controlled the party so they came up with the idea of proclaiming a “united front from below” and even tried to persuade other parties to adopt this interpretation. The idea was that communists would cooperate with socialist workers at the factory level but not with their parties.

http://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2009-07-01/the-italian-communist-left-a-brief-internationalist-history

This doesn't seem all that different from the ideas propagated during the third period:


Trotsky’s call was directed at the leaders of the Communist Party, who instead of seeking a united front with the socialists, were denouncing the socialists as “social fascists.”

While intended to achieve the class-unity which was necessary to defeat fascism, as Trotsky saw it, the united front did not include the parties ceasing criticism of one another. In fact, in order to get the best policy, it was essential that the two parties continued to criticise each other and compete for the loyalty of the workers.

Further, the united front was to be formed by a public agreement between the leaders of the two parties, who thereby recognised each other’s legitimacy, even while disagreeing with each other. This differs from the idea of a ‘Red United Front from Below’ put forward by Stalin, which meant denouncing the leaders of the opposing party as ‘social fascists’ but calling upon those who supported the social democrats to form a united front ‘behind the backs’ of their own leaders, ‘from below’.

So I don't see what Stalinists have to complain about.


What are some good ideas of his ? Is there a defense of the above ideas ? What are his theoretical contributions etc

He came up with the idea of one single international centralised Communist party instead of various national groups tied together in an International. He also elaborated on the content of socialism as a society without money, markets etc with everyone united into a single productive association. He advanced the idea of communism not being a question of forms of organisation (As in New Left and anarchist circles) but of programmatic content. He fought the "bolshevisation" policies of the Communist international. He made an analysis of the Soviet Union as capitalist based around the SU's agrarian sector.

That's just some things off the top of my head.

[bailey_187]

There seems to be a few Bordiga supporters here, so perhaps you could help me. From what I've read of him I just thought he was an ultra-left who dragged down the Party with unrealistic ideas. For example he apparently said that the comintern should collectively govern the USSR, and was against antifascist alliance

What are some good ideas of his ? Is there a defense of the above ideas ? What are his theoretical contributions etc

thankshttp://http://www.marxists.org/archive/bordiga/bordiga.jpg


This could have been a good idea IMO. What do you see wrong with it?