Left-com works

[Comrade Jacob]

I would like to read some left-com works, as a Leninist I don't agree with everything but what do you recommend? I'm looking to expand my approach to Marxism. I would've started sooner but most left-coms I've seen have been arrogant and really boring and seems to hate any form of socialism that has ever worked - so that put me off quite a bit. But let's not turn this thread into a left-com v leninist flame-war, this has just been my experience.

[Homo Songun]

Auschwitz, or the Great Alibi (https://www.marxists.org/subject/jewish/bordiga/auschwitz.htm) :laugh:

But seriously, there's not a lot out there, it is a relatively small trend in historical perspective.

[Sasha]

http://www.revleft.com/vb/group.php?do=discuss&gmid=60854

[Asero]

https://www.reddit.com/r/leftcommunism (check the thing on the bottom right)
https://www.reddit.com/r/communism/comments/3dhl9z/left_communism_reading_guide/


But seriously, there's not a lot out there, it is a relatively small trend in historical perspective.
Yeah, but it's a big trend for academics and people on the internet. Anarchists and some Trots also like it.

[Sewer Socialist]

How much Marx have you read? I think that's the best place to start, really. Understanding their criticism of the USSR / the Bolsheviks makes much more sense if you're familiar with Capital. There are some abridged versions (300 pages?) which shouldn't take too long to get through.

[Heilmann]

I would've started sooner but most left-coms I've seen have been arrogant and really boring and seems to hate any form of socialism that has ever worked - so that put me off quite a bit. But let's not turn this thread into a left-com v leninist flame-war, this has just been my experience.

Obviously you have quite a different starting point than left communists. The "hate" towards "any form of socialism that has ever worked" comes from 1) their critique of such "socialism" as in fact state-capitalist (or even simply capitalist), which comes from 2) their perspective on the regimes controling the state-apparatuses of the "socialism that has ... worked" as the counter-revolution itself (at least in the case of the Soviet Union).

To name but a few introductory texts - it's not complete, but then e.g. the list Sasha refers to is too long IMO:
"Party and class", "Marxist Theory and Revolutionary Tactics", "World Revolution and Communist Tactics" by Pannekoek
"Open Letter to Comrade Lenin" by Gorter
"Party and Class" by Bordiga

It's important to read these in context, though. Loren Goldner attempts to do that with the views of Bordiga in his text "Communism is the Material Human Community: Amadeo Bordiga today" (seeing your tendency, you might also want to check out his notes on/critique of Maoism). Council communist Philippe Bourrinet has written probably the definitive introductions to both the Italian and the German-Dutch currents. I believe at least the former is on Libcom.


But seriously, there's not a lot out there, it is a relatively small trend in historical perspective.

Yeah, but it's a big trend for academics and people on the internet.

Well - in fairness, while indeed a relatively small trend historically, the left communist groups in Germany and the Netherlands all the while formed a relatively big minority - and in Italy they even had control over the Communist Party leadership for some time. Either way, it's not for their smallness or greatness they're important, but for their radical break with Second International politics and practice - arguably a more radical break than Lenin.

On the other hand, I don't think it's such a huge trend either online or for academics (you might make that case for communisation theory, which is distinct, even though it draws some influences). To counterweight the impression given above, check out the following persons and groups: Goldner, as mentioned; Gilles Dauvé; TPTG (Greek libertarian communist group with excellent analyses of the recent developments there); Kolektivne Proti Kapitalu (Czech/Slovakian group which draws just as much from operaismo as left communism) and their French-Belgian affiliate Mouvement Communiste (ditto); Internationalist Perspectives (French-American group which borders well into communisation and value-criticism); and, of course, the "actual" left communists (as the term came up again in the 70s) of ICC, ICT and ICP.

[Anglo-Saxon Philistine]

Yeah, but it's a big trend for academics and people on the internet. Anarchists and some Trots also like it.

I don't think that's really true. In fact, to be honest I can't think of one leftcom academic after that Mexican guy from the forties. Most of them are workers, or pensioners. Their Internet presence is also quite small compared to their actual numbers. Don't get me wrong, there aren't that many leftcoms. But in a world where a thirty-man group from London has a massive online following and publishes daily, organisations like the PCInt (various) really don't have an online presence in comparison.

[Heilmann]

How much Marx have you read? I think that's the best place to start, really. Understanding their criticism of the USSR / the Bolsheviks makes much more sense if you're familiar with Capital. There are some abridged versions (300 pages?) which shouldn't take too long to get through.

While perhaps somewhat true, it seems pretty useless to read a 1000 pages work of theory to grasp with a rupture in the workers' movement that happened 30 odd years after Capital was written, and was due to not simply differences in approach to Marx and Capital, but strategical and tactical questions.


I don't think that's really true. In fact, to be honest I can't think of one leftcom academic after that Mexican guy from the forties. Most of them are workers, or pensioners. Their Internet presence is also quite small compared to their actual numbers. Don't get me wrong, there aren't that many leftcoms. But in a world where a thirty-man group from London has a massive online following and publishes daily, organisations like the PCInt (various) really don't have an online presence in comparison.

This is my impression as well. However, I can in fact think of one professor that at least used to be a member of the Scandinavian sections (yes, they existed, though I believe they were miniscule) of ICP (or PCInt?) and still publishes a text or two irregularly.