Hi, I was wondering if anybody could please elaborate to me what the primary differences are between Council Communism and Left Communism? I'm under the impression that Council Communism specifically advocates a libertarian approach to organizing for the working class, particularly through workers' councils, while Left Communists tend to be a more broadly anti-Bolshevik? Correct me if I'm wrong.
Firstly I would advise you to browse this group, because there's a lot of discussions here on that topic. Now, I wouldn't use term "libertarian" in this discussion because that is anarchist moralist fabrication which has nothing to do with Marxism (after all Marx was authoritarian, according to anarchists). Left Communism isn't defined by its position thowards Lenin or Bolshevism. We could say that Left Communists are anti-Bolshevik because they opposed Comintern in 1921, but we could also say that they are ultra-Bolshevik, because they kept principles on which Comintern was founded and also they rejected its turn to reformism. When we are talking about Left Communism its important to say that there are two currents: Dutch/German and Italian. When Dutch/German current degenereted Council Communism was created. Council Communists and Left Communists have different positions on "Party" question and Russian Revolution. Left Communists generaly consider Russian Revolution as proletarian revolution which was defeted by counter-revolution and they support organising a communist proletarian party (such as Internationalist party in Italy or KAPD in Germany) as vanugard of proeltariat. Coucil Communists tend to consider every party bourgeuisie and also Russian Revoultion. I'm maybe a mess but other comrades will fix my holes
Generally agree with this response. The communist left arose as the left wing of the Communist International to oppose its degeneration from the early 20s. There were left currents in most of the parties of the time, including the Bolshevik party, but the German/Dutch and Italian left were indeed the two most important currents. I agree that 'council communism' was a false reaction to the degeneration and defeat of the Russian revolution, since it began to reject both the revolution and the party form itself as bourgeois, rather than analysing what happened as a defeated proletarian revolution in which the party became the instrument of counter-revolution through its identification with the state. Both council communism and the Italian left kept alive basic proletarian principles, above all internationalism, during the period of counter-revolution of the 30s to the 60s. But they were not immune from degeneration. Part of the Italian left, so-called 'Bordigism', also failed to draw the lessons from the Russian revolution, and still argues that the role of the party is to take political power. It's a kind of mirror image of the complete rejection of the party form by the councilists.
