Why is the a specific group called 'Left Communism'

[The Old Man from Scene 24]

I'm confused about that term. Aren't all communists on the left?

[Manic Impressive]

NEVER thought I'd be the one to say this but you need to read some Lenin
http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1920/lwc/index.htm

[Niccolò Rossi]

I'm confused about that term. Aren't all communists on the left?

The 'left communists' are those elements on the left of the Communist International who broke away from it corresponding with it's degeneration as well as the political descendants of these elements.

[Danielle Ni Dhighe]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_communism

[Искра]

NEVER thought I'd be the one to say this but you need to read some Lenin
http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1920/lwc/index.htm

This is LeftCom replay to Lenin: http://www.marxists.org/archive/gorter/1920/open-letter/index.htm

Also check this: http://www.marxists.org/subject/left-wing/index.htm (even this one is little bit confusing, because it's concentrated on council communism)

And here you have LeftCom organisations:
http://world.internationalism.org/
http://www.leftcom.org/

[Comrade Hill]

They are leftists who consider themselves to the "left" of Lenin and capital, hence the term "left" communism.

However, you can just call them anti-Leninists since that's what they are.

[Искра]

Here's also thread were we discussed Left Communism few weeks/days ago: http://www.revleft.com/vb/left-communism-vs-t164104/index.html?t=164104&highlight=left+communism

[Die Rote Fahne]

This could be considered to date back to the second international, when it collapsed after the first world war. Internationalists opposed to the idea of "right to self determination" (a nationalistic view) reorganized themselves. Two trends came out on top in Germany; the supporters of Luxemburg (Luxemburg then created the Spartacus League) and the trade unionists who were becoming discontent with their unions. The trade unionists went to form the German Left Communist movement which led to the creation of the Communist Workers' Party of Germany. A further split from the CWPG (KAPD) formed the council communist current.

If anyone could be more specific, or add more information, it'd be appreciated. I can't remember where i read this, so it may be slightly flawed as well. I didn't do a whole lot of research into the history of Left Communism when I considered myself a member of that tendency.

[Devrim]

They are leftists who consider themselves to the "left" of Lenin and capital, hence the term "left" communism.

However, you can just call them anti-Leninists since that's what they are.

Actually most left-communists today see themselves in the same tradition as Lenin.

Devrim

[Niccolò Rossi]

Actually most left-communists today see themselves in the same tradition as Lenin.

Then again, Dev, Lenin wasn't a 'Leninist'.

[Blake's Baby]

This could be considered to date back to the second international, when it collapsed after the first world war. Internationalists opposed to the idea of "right to self determination" (a nationalistic view) reorganized themselves. Two trends came out on top in Germany; the supporters of Luxemburg (Luxemburg then created the Spartacus League) and the trade unionists who were becoming discontent with their unions. The trade unionists went to form the German Left Communist movement which led to the creation of the Communist Workers' Party of Germany. A further split from the CWPG (KAPD) formed the council communist current.

If anyone could be more specific, or add more information, it'd be appreciated. I can't remember where i read this, so it may be slightly flawed as well. I didn't do a whole lot of research into the history of Left Communism when I considered myself a member of that tendency.

Well, I'd think most Left Communists would disagree with this.

the majority I'd think regard themselves as having more to do with the Italian Fraction of the Communist Left than the KAPD; some like the ICC (International Communist Current) regard themselves as synthesising wthe contributions of the Dutch/German Left, and the Italisan Left, others regard themselves as being more allied to the Italian Left but recognise the Dutch/German Left made important contributions.

Though the early Left Communists were also on the left of the Second International, so were those they were fighting against in the Communist International. In the IInd Int, Lenin and Luxemburg were allies on the left. Luxemburg was killed before the IIIrd Int was founded but she wouldn't have been in the left I don't think - there were certainly those to the left of her in the early KPD. And Lenin wasn't on the left of the CI. So it's not enough to say that the Left Communists were the left of the IInd Int.

The Left Communists as already explained were those who were purged from the IIIrd Int - Bordiga, the KAPD and others who opposed 'the right of nations to self-determination' and warned against the degeneration of the Soviet state. Nowadays the Left Communist organisations are those who claim theoretical continuity with those organisations and individuals.

[Misanthrope]

NEVER thought I'd be the one to say this but you need to read some Lenin
http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1920/lwc/index.htm

No you don't OP.

[Dave B]

I am not too sure what a left communist is/was either but assume that Herman Gorter and Otto Rühle were; so perhaps it might be worth reading them to discover what they were?


Herman Gorter 1920 Open Letter to Comrade Lenin


First Published: Herman Gorter, “Open letter to comrade Lenin, A reply to “left-wing” communism, an infantile disorder,” in Workers’ Dreadnaught, London, 12 March-11 June 1921;



http://www.marxists.org/archive/gorter/1920/open-letter/index.htm

Otto Rühle From the Bourgeois to the Proletarian Revolution 1924


http://www.marxists.org/archive/ruhle/1924/revolution.htm

[TheGodlessUtopian]

No you don't OP.

If he wants to be well read than he kinda has to.