Can any of the Left Communists here recommend any texts for people curious about Left Communism?
hi you could start with his short overview. The ICC has published a great deal about the history of the communist left, so perhaps you could read this one and indicate which elements you are most interested in and I can recommend some more reading http://en.internationalism.org/the-communist-left
Can any of the Left Communists here recommend any texts for people curious about Left Communism? I would recommend anything by Bordiga but specifically the Lyons Theses, the Abstentionist Theses and the Democratic Principle. If you want to gain an understanding of the basics of left Communist theory I would recommend reading the ICC's platform. Bordiga Archive Abstentionist Theses Lyons Theses Democratic Principle Platform
theres a lot of stuff on marxists.org, but i warn you to read any of the early left wing communists as you might read bakunin, lenin, or any other- with many grains of salt. they said so much about workers organization and revolutionary strategy that was right on, and so much about other things that was off.
Not as off the mark as this 'critical' support for the FARC I am not an outright FARC supporter, though I had thought of myself as closer to being one a long time ago. And honestly, I (openly) wonder about the value of continuing the war, and if there shouldn't be a long break in armed struggle in that country. Like it or not, the FARC and the ELN are saddled with a litany of reasonable critiques, including a militarist culture that feeds itself, some corruption, some disregard for non-combatants, a regression into sexism, and arguably failed strategies. But a call for peace disregards two major facts. When the FARC previously attempted to create a political wing that could become a transition into almost complete disarmament, in the 1980s, thousands of the political activists were slaughtered by the right wing paramilitaries and the government. And secondly, a call for peace is never neutral, and usual means that the government side wins. At the very least guerrillas in Colombia couldn't completely disband, leaving some to operate with the sole purpose of workers and peasants defense squadrons. (myurbanguerrilla blog) What underpines the Communist Left is an intransigent internationalism and rejection of any compromise with the forces of capital. This is probably what bayno means by not right on
whoa, hold your horses. im all for intransigent internationalist anticapitalism. slow down with the personal attack. and feel free to tell me why you think my farc/eln position is off the mark (p.s. im not opposed to fierce critics on my blog)
[FONT=Times New Roman]Bayano, the criticism by Ern wasn’t personal. It’s just that we don’t think it’s possible to support nationalism and be internationalist at the same time. Of course, in the past Marx and Engels did support certain national liberation movements, but they did so in full knowledge that these movements were bourgeois. But they saw them as progressive in relation to the feudal elements which still played an important role in their day. But those days are long gone and we are dealing with a capitalist system in deep decay, in which the nation state, like the capitalist social relation as a whole, is a barrier to human progress, so there is nothing to be gained by ‘national independence’, which, in any case, is a myth in a world dominated by imperialism, where national conflicts immediately become part of wider imperialist confrontations.[/FONT] [FONT=Times New Roman][/FONT] [FONT=Times New Roman]The case of the ‘marxist’ FARC is very relevant here: right now it is being used as a pawn in the local imperialist struggle between Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela, with larger imperialist powers (US, European etc) lurking in the background. If war breaks out between these regimes, we think the internationalist position is to call on workers to continue the class struggle against their own ruling class, to fraternise with workers and soldiers from other countries, etc. All the leftists will be calling on workers to die for Chavez and for Chavez to step up aid and arms to the FARC, in other words, to participate one hundred percent in the imperialist carnage. There is a class divide between one position and the other, just as there was between Lenin and the social chauvinists in 1914. [/FONT]
