Some Theory Questions

[Nanatsu Yoru]

What, in ideological terms, are Hoxhaism, Titoism and Left Communism? A more in depth answer than 'the teachings of Enver Hoxha etc.' would be appreciated.

Somewhat unrelated, I was looking at the Wikipedia article on Lenin and it says of a picture of him and Stalin "During Lenin’s sickness (1922–23), Stalin used this altered photograph as his bona fides claim to leading the CPSU."
(I can't post links or images yet, it's about halfway down the page).
What's the story there?

[Vampire Lobster]

What, in ideological terms, are Hoxhaism, Titoism and Left Communism? A more in depth answer than 'the teachings of Enver Hoxha etc.' would be appreciated.

Somewhat unrelated, I was looking at the Wikipedia article on Lenin and it says of a picture of him and Stalin "During Lenin’s sickness (1922–23), Stalin used this altered photograph as his bona fides claim to leading the CPSU."
(I can't post links or images yet, it's about halfway down the page).
What's the story there?

Okay, as I'm not that well-versed regarding Hoxhaism, I might be a little off there. But essentially, it's really just orthodox Marxism-Leninism, upholding the legacy of Iosif Stalin and the kind of policies he exercised. They reject Khrushchev and Mao Zedong, claiming they are not actually Marxist-Leninists at all, and that people should look at the rather isolated and conservative - some would say Stalinist - Albania as the primary of example how socialism should be executed.

I know wikilink is a wikilink, but it's worth still checking out the article for Socialist People's Republic of Albania, which I can't link due to my post count though. It's actually not that bad at all.

Titoism, in the other hand, is well, yeah, just adherence to the kind of socialism they had in Yugoslavia during Tito administration. Basically it means a tad more "slack" form of socialism. Economy wasn't so centrally planned, strikes and independent labour unions were tolerated more and there were some free market reforms. The basic idea was that socialism is unique everywhere it takes place, so they had to reject the Soviet influence, as it supposedly was not suitable for the situation in Yugoslavia. They ended up splitting up with the entire Eastern bloc and they remained a neutral nation 'til the end and somewhat cordial with the West, as well.

Yugoslavia still pretty much remained a party dictatorship, though, and they knew when to be harsh when people got overly demanding or liberal. But to be honest, I don't see a lot of Titoists who are not actually from the former Yugoslavia and their Titoism usually has more to do with merely Yugoslav nationalism, as Titois theory doesn't exist per se. It's more about following his practices.

And finally, Left Communism is a tendency stemming from critique of Bolshevik movement during the Russian revolution. They strictly oppose any form of parliamentary participation and nationalism, they reject a strong centralized vanguard party and place the focus on decentralized workers' control and directly democratic planning of the economy. There are plenty of tendencies within the movement, and I personally am pretty much familiar with only the Russian tendency. They opposed national self-determination and their goal was a revolutionary war against the Central Powers and their main critique of Lenin was about him allowing capitalist governments rise from the ashes of the German and Austrian empires and not nationalizing the Soviet industry fast enough. They were also generally pretty voluntarist, which also clashed severely with the policies of the "rightist" Bolsheviks. But honestly, I don't know a lot about the German or Italian tendencies, which are a lot more relevant today, as Russian left communism essentially died out in the 1920's. I guess you need to find an actual left communist for that, but I guess I covered the main ideas at least to some extent.

I hope that helps.

[Zanthorus]

Left Communism

Left Communism refers to all those groups which followed the line of at least the first congress of the Communist International, but began to develop a critique of Comintern politics around about the second/third congresses when the Comintern started encouraging the formation of 'United Front's' with the old Social-Democratic parties, promoting 'entryism' into the trade unions and encouraging a strategy of 'revolutionary parliamentarianism'. Because their critique of Comintern policy both internationally and in Russia began before the formation of the Left Opposition they took up positions markedly to the left of the Trots. There were Left-Communist currents in places like Russia and Britain but the main currents were in Italy and Germany (With the latter being closely bound up with the current in Holland, such that the two are usually referred to collectively as the Dutch-German Left). As a historical movement more than a tendency which refers to a specific theorist or set of theorists, many different groups calling themselves 'Left-Communist' will have varying positions on varying issues. However in the main, Left-Communists took up a position against both the American and Soviet blocs during the Second World War (In contrast to the Trotskyist movement, which almost universally opted for Soviet defencism apart from a few rogues), oppose participation in parliamentary elections and reject 'United', 'People's Anti-Fascist' and 'Popular' fronts of any stripe. Generally the easiest way to understand Left-Communism is to look at it as a historical movement rather than a set of ideological positions.

The Dutch-German Left formed itself in the aftermath of the German revolution of 1918-19 and based itself on it's experiences during that period. They opposed participation in trade unions, and even went so far as to call for their destruction, after the unions had acted as a conservative force during the revolution. They also opposed parliamentary participation, as they saw that although parliamentary participation had worked to the advantage of the Bolsheviks, it had been in a country where a Tsarist autocracy had ruled for years, and so the parliament was brought down relatively easy. In the west it would not be so easy, and in fact the SPD-USPD coalition government had managed to coax the workers into removing power from the workers' councils and restoring them to a parliamentary institution, forming a bourgeois republic. Unless the party took a hard stance against the institutions of bourgeois power, it would cause confusionism in the ranks of the working-class. Initially the German-Dutch Left supported the Russian revolution and the creation of the Communist International, and formed the majority which created the Communist Party of Germany. But they were ousted by Paul Levi in 1920, and formed the Communist Workers' Party of Germany (KAPD). They remained affiliated to the Comintern for another two years, but eventually their current disintegrated into the spontaneist, ultra-democratist and anti-partyist mess usually known as 'Councillism'.

The Italian Left was formed on the basis of the struggle of the Abstentionist faction of the Partito Socialista Italiano (Which opposed all electoral participation) against the majority Maximalist-Electionist faction which was for a peaceful and parliamentary road to socialism. This was somewhat difficult, as unlike most parties of the second international, the PSI had remained anti-war, and was considering affiliation to the Comintern. The abstentionists leader, Amadeo Bordiga, managed to get 2 points added to Lenin's existing 19 to make up the 21 conditions for affiliation to the Comintern, on which basis the PSI refused affiliation. This allowed the abstentionists to form the Partito Comunista d'Italia in 1921 along with the group around Gramsci's L'Ordine Nuovo. The Italian Left, or 'Sinistra' as one of the modern day descendants of that current (Il Programma Comunista) prefers to label it to avoid the connotations of 'Progressivism' in the English language, was in stark contrast to the German left as a 'partyist'/'vanguardist' current which saw itself as opposed to the German left in fact, as they considered the latter to be crypto-syndicalists. They also accepted the policy of Entryism into the trade unions, although they were less keen on 'United Front's' with PSI which they'd already struggled to split with. They remained in the Comintern and followed all the policies laid down by it, even those they strongly disagreed with (Bordiga's saying on this was "As a Marxist I am first a centralist, and only then an Abstentionist"), until they were expelled in the late-20's for 'Trotskyism' (Bordiga had questioned Stalin's commitment to International revolution at the 6th enlarged executive of the Comintern).

Their is an archive of writings from the German-Dutch left and their descendents here:

http://www.kurasje.org/arksys/archset.htm

And writings of the Italian Left here:

http://www.sinistra.net/

The two main Left-Communist organisations today are the International Communist Current and the Internationalist Communist Tendency, with the latter taking it's que from the Italian Left and the former from both the Italian and Dutch-German Lefts:

http://world.internationalism.org/
http://www.leftcom.org/


they reject a strong centralized vanguard party and place the focus on decentralized workers' control and directly democratic planning of the economy.

The Italian Left and particularly Bordiga were once remarked to be 'more Leninist than Lenin'. Bordiga also rejected all forms of democracy within the party, going instead for 'Organic Centralism', and believed that the dictatorship of the proletariat would simultaneously be the dictatorship of the Communist Party. To the end of his life he defended the crushing of the Kronstadt rebellion. You do not have to be a democratist to oppose the vacillations of Comintern policy after the mid-20's or to regard the Soviet Union as state-capitalist, in fact I believe Bordiga's line on both is stronger because of it.


Russian left communism essentially died out in the 1920's.

Actually, I have heard that the Worker's Group of the Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik) managed to keep it's organisational structures intact and communicate with Communist organisations on the outside until 1938, when it was most likely vanquished in the purges.

[bricolage]

They remained affiliated to the Comintern for another two years, but eventually their current disintegrated into the spontaneist, ultra-democratist and anti-partyist mess usually known as 'Councillism'.

You do not have to be a democratist to oppose the vacillations of Comintern policy after the mid-20's or to regard the Soviet Union as state-capitalist, in fact I believe Bordiga's line on both is stronger because of it.
What do you mean by democratist?

[Martin Blank]

Actually, I have heard that the Worker's Group of the Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik) managed to keep it's organisational structures intact and communicate with Communist organisations on the outside until 1938, when it was most likely vanquished in the purges.

I've been looking for more information about the Workers Group (Workers' Communist Party) for a while now. I've only found very limited information (mostly Avrich's article on Myasnikov). Do you have any good links to documents or articles that quote heavily from their documents?

[Zanthorus]

What do you mean by democratist?

Fetishisation of more or less 'democratic' forms of organisation and holding it up as a principle whilst completely ignoring the question of program and programmatic content. A lot of the Council Communist types seem to think that just by changing the management of existing society for workers' councils, everything will be solved. Similarly, there is a tendency with critics of the USSR to simply throw out the line that it 'wasn't democratic'. I'm not saying that it's not necessarily a valid criticism, but there is certainly more to be said about the fSU than that it simply 'wasn't democratic'.


I've been looking for more information about the Workers Group (Workers' Communist Party) for a while now. I've only found very limited information (mostly Avrich's article on Myasnikov). Do you have any good links to documents or articles that quote heavily from their documents?

This piece by Ian Hebbes on the Communist Left in Russia after 1920 is the best I've found so far:

http://libcom.org/library/communist-left-russia-after-1920-ian-hebbes

The ICC also has a book on the Russian Left which I haven't read yet, but which apparently has original texts by the Russian Left. You can buy it from their website (http://en.internationalism.org/taxonomy/term/227).

[Amphictyonis]

Stalin bad.

Everyone bad, except for the working class.:thumbup1:


Yea us for the win!