What do left-coms do, and why aren't they anywhere in the U.S.?

[CynicalIdealist]

Topic.

[wunderbar]

I think there's a small ICC chapter in New York.

[Paulappaul]

Hmm well Left Communism isn't a word that can be used to describe a very homogenous group of people. Generally I'd say Left Communists utilize the same tactics outlined in the Communist Manifesto as well as all other Communists. They seek to assist in the unification of the working class in defense of its own interests, knowing ultimately what the end game is. They seek to Clarify struggles and bolden struggles with Moral Support.

There are groupings of Left Communists all over America. I was formally in such a group, I am in contact with Left Communists in my area and we participate in struggles still. Council Communism in a broad sense lives on in Libertarian Communist groups and in the development of the theoretical side of American Communism. I know alot of Anarchist federations are very inspired, if not directly influenced by Council Communism and the German/Dutch Communist Left.

Recently there has been a reemergence of texts regarding the party current of Left Communism, Bordigaism. Particularly with the popularity of Loren Goldner and Insurgent Notes. There are also Marxist - Humanist Groups which have historically aligned and been in contact with the Communist Left which are still around. Deleonists are often very familiar with Luxemburg and Anton Pannekoek, figures influential in the Communist Left.

[Paulappaul]

Also the Communist Left's oppisistion to Bolshevism didn't have an American presence of movement which came to the same basic principles the Left was advocating while in the Comintern. The Small presence of the Communist Left in America was felt in the groups of Foreign Workers from Latvia, Germany, Spain and Italy. Most of these workers were in the IWW and the Proletarian Party of America (a left wing split from the Socialist Party) as well as the subsequent United Workers' Party of America organized by Paul Mattick which latter became the "Grouping of Council Communists" which basically kept Council Communist texts alive and printed, without this group much of Council Communism would have been lost. The Socialist Labor Party as well as the WIIU has been historically sympathetic with the Communist Left.

So the Left Communists in America which weren't the Party types like the Italian Left, were basically foreign in composition existing in a time when the American Worker was antagonistic to Foreign Labor and to Communism under the McCarthy era, to top this off, Council Communists like Mattick had a tendency to not declare a movement "Council Communist" or to say that this action by this strata of the working class was because of the "party". Alot of the work in the Unemployed Actions during the 30s was done by Left Communists, despite never grabing credit for it.