Damen-Bordiga correspondence

The ICT has published some interesting correspondence between Damen and Bordiga from the early 1950s, around the time of the Bordigist split from the PCInt. I certainly found it interesting. Apparently these letters have never been published in English before.

http://www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2...f-disagreement

This is great, I read about them before and always wanted to read them, but reading in Italian is a bit tiresome to me.

This particular exchange caught my attention:

Damen to Bordiga

The tendency to an ever greater intervention of the state, which is characteristic in this economic period of the most highly industrialised countries, finds in the soviet economy it’s most complete, defined and organic expression. Being in the general line of development of monopoly capitalism enabled Russia to miss out more than one stage, thanks to the October Revolution which allowed the most absolute centralisation of the economy within the orbit of the state,. In addition, thanks to the Stalinist counter-revolution, it made use of this enormous centralised economic potential to massively increase the power of the state and open the way to this latest capitalist experience.

Bordiga to Damen

It is not accurate to say that the bourgeoisie was the protagonist in one period of capitalism and that the State is the protagonist today. Class and State are different things and ideas are not interchangeable. Before you still had the State, and after you still have the Class. The State is not the leading factor in economic facts but is derived from them: if politics don’t arise from the economy but the economy from politics and the management of power then the Marxist interpretation of history is dead (and those who think that should say it clearly!) and the old theories, which still seem new to imbeciles, that history is created from the desires of the leaders, and the need of those who have wealth to rule, are back in fashion.

I hope more documents from this period will be made available in the future.