Defunct
90-482: The International Communist Party (ICP) is the name assumed by a number of left communist international political parties today. The ICP has often been described as Bordigist due to the contributions by longtime member Amadeo Bordiga , although the adherents of the party don't define themselves as Bordigists. The roots of the International Communist Party can be traced to the left wing of
180-729: A "People's Commune of China" based on the democratic ideals of the Paris Commune . The uprisings of May 1968 led to a large resurgence of interest in left communist ideas in France where various groups were formed and published journals regularly until the late 1980s when the interest started to fade. A tendency called communization was invented in the early 1970s by French left communists, synthesizing different currents of left communism. It remains influential in libertarian marxist and left communist circles today. Outside of France, various small left communist groups emerged, predominantly in
270-551: A consistent defender of a multi-party system and favoured a coalition government to bureaucratic rule . Other figures such as Isaac Deutscher and Ernest Mandel maintain that the intra-party reforms proposed by the Left Opposition from 1923-1926 would have revitalised party democratization, mass participation , worker's self-management and eventually a multi-party socialist democracy . The Left Opposition received active support primarily from intellectuals and
360-776: A councilist direction while also identifying more and more with Luxemburg's work. They also worked with the French Fraction of the Communist Left and seem to have disintegrated at the end of the war. This disintegration was sped no doubt by the capture of leading militant Karl Fischer, who was sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp where he was to participate in writing the Declaration of the Internationalist Communists of Buchenwald when
450-564: A critical alternative to the Stalin-Bukharin majority in a number of areas. Daniels stated that the Left Opposition would have prioritised industrialisation but never contemplated the " violent uprooting " employed by Stalin and contrasted most directly with Stalinism on the issue of party democratization and bureaucratization . Concurrently, Daniels believed that the practical differences in their international policy with other factions had been exaggerated and he contended that Trotsky
540-508: A critical stance toward the student protests. However, it recognized the workers' strikes as superior to those during the 1937 May Days in Spain. Several organizations now claim the ICP name, distinguished by their publications: The ICP does not view Marxism as a doctrine discovered or introduced by Marx, but rather as a theory that emerged alongside the modern industrial proletariat. According to
630-470: A few years. This was because it was founded on the basis of revolutionary optimism and a purism that rejected what became known as frontism. Frontism entailed working in the same organisations as reformist workers. Such work was seen by the KAPD as unhelpful at a time when the revolution was thought to be an imminent event and not merely a goal to be aimed at. This led the members of the KAPD to reject working in
720-568: A founding theorist of the autonomist tendency . Two major traditions can be observed within left communism, namely the Dutch–German current and the Italian current. The political positions those traditions share are opposition to popular fronts , to many kinds of nationalism and national liberation movements and to parliamentarianism . The historical origins of left communism come from World War I . Most left communists are supportive of
810-667: A minority in the party. Simultaneously, the Ordine Nuovo group emerged in Turin under Antonio Gramsci and Palmiro Togliatti . Initially close to Serrati's maximalists and in favor of participating in elections, they first entered into polemics with the Abstentionist Communist Faction, only to move closer to it in 1920 as it gained majority support in cities such as Naples, Milan, Florence, and Turin. In January 1921, these revolutionary elements split from
900-427: A new party, did not officially adopt the name International Communist Party until the early 1960s. Afterwards, its internal organization underwent significant changes. The policy of democratic centralism was replaced with organic centralism , which eliminated internal mechanisms of democracy. Party congresses were substituted with general meetings featuring detailed presentations, and a single commissioner (Bruno Maffi)
990-550: A nucleus led by militants including Onorato Damen , Fausto Atti, Mario Acquaviva, and Bruno Maffi established the Internationalist Communist Party in Northern Italy. The party conducted significant anti-war agitation among factory workers and partisans. Eventually, Atti and Acquaviva were killed by Italian Communist Party members in 1945 for their intervention among partisan groups. Following
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#17327654569901080-742: A pre-revolutionary situation opening in Italy and prepared to participate in the coming revolution. In 1943 the Internationalist Communist Party was founded by Onorato Damen and Luciano Stefanini , amongst others. By 1945 the party had 5,000 members all over Italy with some supporters in France, Belgium and the US. It published a Manifesto of the Communist Left to the European Proletariat , which called upon workers to put class war before national war. In France, revived by Marco in Marseilles,
1170-745: A radical transformation of the economy. The Military Opposition and the Workers' Opposition inherited some characteristics and members of the Left Bolsheviks, as did Gavril Myasnikov 's Workers Group of the Russian Communist Party during the debates on the New Economic Policy and the succession to Lenin. Most Left Bolsheviks were affiliated with the Left Opposition in the 1920s, and were expelled from
1260-456: A stress on the need to build a communist party or workers' council entirely separate from the reformist and centrist elements who "betrayed the proletariat", opposition to all but the most restricted participation in elections and an emphasis on militancy. Apart from this, there was little in common between the two wings. Only the Italians accepted the need for electoral work at all for
1350-575: A variety of tactics. Therefore, Lenin defended the use of parliamentarism and working within the official trade unions. As the Kronstadt rebellion occurred at a time when the debate on tactics was still raging within the Comintern, it has been wrongly seen as being left communist by some commentators. In fact, the left communist currents had no connection with the rebellion, although they did rally to its support when they learned of it. In later years,
1440-554: A very short period of time which they later vehemently opposed, attracting criticism from Vladimir Lenin in "Left-Wing" Communism: An Infantile Disorder . Left Bolshevism emerged in 1907 as the Vpered group challenged Vladimir Lenin 's perceived authoritarianism and parliamentarianism. The group included Alexander Bogdanov , Maxim Gorky , Anatoly Lunacharsky , Mikhail Pokrovsky , Grigory Aleksinsky , Stanislav Volski and Martyn Liadov . The Otzovists , or Recallists, advocated
1530-579: The All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions Mikhail Tomsky . In late 1924, as Stalin proposed his new socialism in one country theory, Stalin drew closer to the Right Opposition and his triumvirate with Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev slowly broke up over the next year (Zinoviev and Kamenev were both executed in 1936). The Right Opposition were allied to Stalin's Centre from late 1924 until their alliance broke up in
1620-754: The Allied invasion of Italy , the Left Faction of Communists and Socialists around Bordiga formed in Naples and was absorbed into the new party in 1945, although Bordiga himself did not formally join until 1949. Immediately, serious divergences emerged between two main currents of the Internationalist Communist Party, eventually leading to a split in 1952. The faction centered around Damen favored electoral participation and rejected both union work and national liberation struggles, whereas
1710-837: The Bolsheviks . Council communists criticised the Bolsheviks for use of the party form and emphasised a more autonomous organisation of the working class, without political parties. Although she was murdered in 1919 before left communism became a distinct tendency, Rosa Luxemburg has been heavily influential for most left communists, both politically and theoretically. Proponents of left communism have included Herman Gorter , Antonie Pannekoek , Otto Rühle , Karl Korsch , Amadeo Bordiga and Paul Mattick . Other proponents of left communism have included Onorato Damen , Jacques Camatte , and Sylvia Pankhurst . Later prominent theorists are shared with other tendencies such as Antonio Negri ,
1800-830: The Chinese Revolution of 1925-27 , which confirmed the United Opposition's critical analysis of the Communist Party of China 's support for the nationalist Kuomintang , the last United Opposition members were expelled from the Communist Party Central Committee; and in November 1927, Trotsky and Zinoviev were expelled from the Communist Party itself, after holding a street demonstration on the tenth anniversary of
1890-773: The Internationalist Communist Party and the British Communist Workers Organisation . Prominent post-1968 proponents of left communism have included Paul Mattick and Maximilien Rubel . Prominent left communist groups existing today include the International Communist Party , the International Communist Current and the Internationalist Communist Tendency . In addition to the left communist groups in
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#17327654569901980-783: The Italian Socialist Party (PSI), founded in 1892. The first two decades of the PSI were marked by an internal struggle led by the left faction to establish Marxism as the party's official ideology. Initially a minority, the left gained prominence at the 1910 congress, where they organized themselves as the Intransigent Revolutionary faction. By 1912, this faction had become dominant within the PSI, with key figures including Benito Mussolini , Angelica Balabanoff , and Amadeo Bordiga . The outbreak of World War I led to significant ideological divisions within
2070-724: The Marx–Lenin–Luxemburg Front . In April 1942, its leadership was arrested by the Gestapo and killed. The remaining activists then split into two camps as some turned to Trotskyism forming the Committee of Revolutionary Marxists (CRM) while the majority formed the CommunistenBond-Spartacus. The latter group turned to council communism and was joined by most members of the GIK. In 1941, the Italian fraction
2160-632: The October Revolution in Russia, but retain a critical view of its development. However, some in the Dutch–German current would in later years come to reject the idea that the revolution had a proletarian or socialist nature, arguing that it had simply carried out the tasks of the bourgeois revolution by creating a state capitalist system. Left communism first came into focus as a distinct movement around 1918. Its essential features were
2250-586: The communist left , is a position held by the left wing of communism , which criticises the political ideas and practices espoused by Marxist–Leninists and social democrats . Left communists assert positions which they regard as more authentically Marxist than the views of Marxism–Leninism espoused by the Communist International after its Bolshevization by Joseph Stalin and during its second congress . There have been two primary currents of left communism since World War I , namely
2340-646: The means of production and helping the Soviet Union move towards parity with Western capitalist countries, which would also increase the proportion of the economy which was part of the socialised sector of the economy and definitively shift the Soviet Union towards a socialist mode of production . There was also the Right Opposition , which was led by the leading party theoretician and Pravda editor Nikolai Bukharin and supported by Sovnarkom Chairman (prime minister) Alexei Rykov and Chairman of
2430-405: The 1918 congress of the PSI officially adopted the policy of the dictatorship of the proletariat . In 1919, the left organized as the Abstentionist Communist Faction, seeking to exclude reformists and align with the Communist International (Comintern). The implicit support given by the Comintern at the 2nd World Congress enabled the Abstentionist Communist Faction to break out of its isolation as
2520-409: The 1930s such as the underdeveloped consumer base along with the priority focus on heavy industry were due to a number of avoidable problems. He argued that the industrial drive had been enacted under more severe circumstances, several years later and in a less rational manner than originally conceived by the Left Opposition. American historian Robert Vincent Daniels viewed the Left Opposition as
2610-594: The CC received only 2,790 voted whereas the Opposition received 6,594. Among the military and administrative delegates elected to regional conferences in Moscow, 1,708 voted for the CC, while 878 voted for the Opposition. Internationally, Trotsky's opposition and criticism of the ruling troika received support from several Central Committee members of foreign communist parties. This included Christian Rakovsky , Chairman of
2700-671: The Communist Party in 1928, although they never regained their former influence and eventually perished in the Great Purge . Trotsky and his supporters, on the other hand, refused to capitulate to Stalin and were exiled to remote areas of the Soviet Union in early 1928. Trotsky was eventually expelled from the country in February 1929, sent into exile in Turkey. Trotsky's supporters remained in exile, but their resolve began to waver in 1929 as Stalin turned against Bukharin and Rykov and adopted
2790-592: The French fraction and expelled Marco from their group. This led to a split in the French fraction and the formation of the Gauche Communiste de France (GCF) by the French fraction led by Marco. The history of the GCF belongs to the post-war period. Meanwhile, the former members of the French fraction who sympathised with Vercesi and the Internationalist Communist Party formed a new French fraction which published
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2880-640: The German–Dutch tradition in particular would come to see the suppression of the revolt as the historic turning point in the evolution of the Russian state after October 1917. Many small currents to the left of the mass communist parties collapsed at the beginning of World War II and the left communists were initially silent too. Despite having foreseen the war more clearly than some other factions, when it began they were overwhelmed. Many were persecuted by either German Nazism or Italian fascism. Leading militants of
2970-583: The Italian fraction now worked closely with the new French fraction, which was formally founded in Paris in December 1944. However, in May 1945 the Italian fraction, many of whose members had already returned to Italy, voted to dissolve itself so that its militants could integrate themselves as individuals into the Internationalist Communist Party . The conference at which this decision was made also refused to recognise
3060-490: The Italian left and the Dutch–German left. The Italian left tends to follow Bordigism and considers itself to be "more Leninist than Lenin" , but denounces Marxism–Leninism as a form of bourgeois opportunism materialized in the Soviet Union under Stalin . The Dutch–German left split from Vladimir Lenin prior to Stalin's rule and supports a firmly council communist and libertarian Marxist viewpoint as opposed to
3150-413: The Italian left which emphasised the need for an international revolutionary party. The Italian current of left communism was historically represented by the Italian Socialist Party and the Communist Party of Italy but today is embodied in the Internationalist Communist Party of Italy , International Communist Party , and the International Communist Current . The Dutch–German current of left communism
3240-653: The Netherlands a revolutionary wing of social democracy had broken from the reformist party even before the war and had built links with German activists. By 1915, the Antinational Socialist Party was founded by Franz Pfemfert and was linked to Die Aktion . After the beginning of the German Revolution in 1918, a leftist mood could be found among sections of the communist parties of both countries. In Germany, this led directly to
3330-658: The October Revolution. In December 1927, the XVth Party Congress declared Left Opposition and Trotskyist views to be incompatible with Communist Party membership and expelled all leading Left Opposition supporters from the Party. After their expulsion by the XVth Congress, Zinoviev, Kamenev, and their supporters immediately surrendered to Stalin, "admitted their mistakes" and were readmitted to
3420-447: The PSI to form the Communist Party of Italy (PCd'I) under Bordiga's leadership, taking with them approximately one-third of the PSI's membership and most of its youth wing. The new party maintained a critical stance toward several Comintern policies, including the strategic position of anti-fascism , the tactical position of the united front , the policy of "Bolshevization" and the formation of workers' governments. Despite representing
3510-471: The PSI. Mussolini broke with the left by adopting a pro-Allied stance, while Bordiga developed an anti-war position similar to Lenin 's revolutionary defeatism . This position, though rejected by most socialist leaders, established Bordiga as a prominent voice within the party base. After Mussolini's expulsion for his increasingly militarist position, leadership passed to Giacinto Menotti Serrati 's centrist faction, which maintained an ambiguous position between
3600-514: The Right Opposition leader, Bukharin, had elaborated on Stalin's socialism in one country policy, giving it a theoretical justification. This solidified the Right Opposition as Stalin's main allies, as the triumvirate of Stalin-Zinoviev-Kamenev from recent years broke up. Soon after the April 1925 Conference, Zinoviev and Kamenev formed the New Opposition , but they were defeated by Stalin, who
3690-473: The Soviet economy while in their opinion, the centrally planned, socialised sector of the economy languished (including the mostly state-run heavy industries which were seen as essential not only for continued industrialisation but also defence). The platform called for the state to adopt a programme for mass industrialisation and to encourage the mechanization and collectivisation of agriculture, thereby developing
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3780-603: The Trotskyist milieu in Southern France and recruited some of them into the Communistes Revolutionnaires (CR) in 1942. This group became known as Fraternisation Proletarienne in 1943 and then L'Organisation Communiste Revolutionnaire in 1944. The CR and RKD were autonomous and clandestine, but worked closely together with shared politics. As the war ran its course, they evolved in
3870-553: The United States. Left Opposition Historical Historical The Left Opposition ( Russian : Левая оппозиция , romanized : Levaya oppozitsiya ) was a faction within the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) from 1923 to 1927 headed de facto by Leon Trotsky . The Left Opposition was formed by Trotsky to mount a struggle against the bureaucratic degeneration that began within
3960-533: The United States. The formation was prompted by Leon Trotsky 's expulsion from the Soviet Union, the adoption of the theory of socialism in one country , as well as a growing number of other disagreements with Comintern policies. Though initially sympathetic to Trotsky's Left Opposition , the faction maintained its independence. Trotsky eventually turned towards the New Italian Opposition, formed by former Stalinists, as his Italian contacts due to
4050-712: The XIII Party Conference in January 1924. Following Lenin's death in January 1924, the confrontation between the Left Opposition and the triumvirate expanded more openly into a dispute over Trotsky's policies, with the triumvirate accusing Trotsky's policies of being "anti- Leninist ". At the XIIIth Communist Party Congress in May 1924, the triumvirate's position was further strengthened at the Left Opposition's expense. Another confrontation took place from October to December 1924, during
4140-523: The basis of the Fourth International , founded in Paris in 1938. Several members of the Left Opposition also engaged in literary-intellectual activities following their forced exile from Moscow during the interwar period . Radek wrotn a biographical account of Lenin , Rakovsky produced a work on the left-wing socialist Saint-Simon , Preobrazhensky completed books on the Soviet economy and
4230-457: The beginning of the war, they took the name Revolutionary Communists of Germany (RKD) and came to define Russia as state capitalist in agreement with Ante Ciliga's book The Russian Enigma . At this point, they adopted a revolutionary defeatist position on the war and condemned Trotskyism for its critical defence of Russia (which was seen by Trotskyists as a degenerated workers' state ). After the fall of France, they renewed contact with militants in
4320-418: The camp was liberated. The year 1952 signalled the end of mass influence on the part of Italian left communism as its sole remaining representative, the Internationalist Communist Party, split in two sections: the group led by Bordiga took the name International Communist Party , while the group around Damen retained the name Internationalist Communist Party . The Gauche Communiste de France (GCF) dissolved in
4410-459: The class party indispensable for proletarian revolutionary struggle. Its key functions include: The ICP maintains a stringent anti-parliamentary position: The party advocates: The ICP maintains the position of the Communist Party of Italy regarding unions: The ICP's analysis of anti-colonial revolutions distinguishes between: Major Post-Colonial States: Minor Post-Colonial States: Left communism Defunct Left communism , or
4500-403: The communist left such as Mitchell, who was Jewish, were to die in the Buchenwald concentration camp. Meanwhile, the final council communist groups in Germany had disappeared in the maelstrom and the International Communist Group (GIK) in the Netherlands was moribund. The former centrist group led by Henk Sneevliet (the Revolutionary Socialist Workers Party, RSAP ) transformed itself into
4590-433: The conception of a party in favour of a unitary class organisation being organised as the General Workers' Union – Unified Organization (AAUE). The KAPD was unable to reach even its founding congress prior to suffering its first split when the so-called National Bolshevik tendency around Fritz Wolffheim and Heinrich Laufenberg appeared (this tendency has no connection with modern political tendencies in Russia which use
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#17327654569904680-448: The conception that the Russian state remained in some way proletarian and also dropped Vercesi's conception of localised wars in favour of ideas on imperialism inspired by Rosa Luxemburg . Vercesi's participation in a Red Cross committee was also fiercely contested. The strike at FIAT in October 1942 had a huge impact on the Italian fraction, which was deepened by the fall of Mussolini's regime in July 1943. The Italian fraction now saw
4770-452: The core of the Left Opposition during the succession period. Members represented the most internationalist elements of the party and held offices at the highest responsibility with Christian Rakovsky , Adolph Joffe , and Nikolay Krestinsky holding ambassadorial posts in London , Paris , Tokyo , and Berlin . Originally, the battle lines were drawn between Trotsky and his supporters who signed The Declaration of 46 in October 1923 on
4860-443: The direct lineage of the Italian and Dutch traditions, a number of groups with similar positions have flourished since 1968, such as the workerist and autonomist movements in Italy; Kolinko, Kurasje, Wildcat; Subversion and Aufheben in England; Théorie Communiste, Echanges et Mouvements and Démocratie Communiste in France; TPTG and Blaumachen in Greece; Kamunist Kranti in India; and Collective Action Notes and Loren Goldner in
4950-409: The economy of medieval Europe , Smilga chronicled the Bukharian school of thought, and Dingelstedt produced essays on the social structure of India . "We say that there can now be no doubt whatever that, as the evolution of the directing line of the faction (i.e., the majority of the Central Committee) has shown, the main core of the 1923 opposition correctly warned against the danger of a shift from
5040-404: The faction centered around Bordiga opposed the policy of revolutionary parliamentarianism, supported union work, and maintained the Communist International's position on national and colonial questions. Following the 1952 split, Damen's group continued to publish the magazine Battaglia Comunista , while Bordiga's faction published Programma Comunista . The faction around Bordiga, now organized as
5130-438: The faction's hesitation about hastily forming heterogeneous opposition groups into an organized whole. The Left Faction opposed the Spanish Civil War , viewing it as a prelude to the coming imperialist war. In 1938, the International Bureau of Left Factions was founded as the only organ from which the future party would emerge. During World War II , the scattered militants maintained a revolutionary defeatist position. In 1943,
5220-411: The former Right Opposition . Historian Pierre Broué stated that the opposition groups were dissolved in early 1933, when many of its members were arrested. However, some documents found in 2018 showed that the Underground Left Opposition stayed active even in prison; in fact, the prisons became their centers of activity. In the meantime, Trotsky founded the International Left Opposition in 1930. It
5310-459: The foundation of the Communist Workers Party of Germany (KAPD) after its leading figures were expelled from the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) by Paul Levi . This development was mirrored in the Netherlands and on a smaller scale in Bulgaria , where the left communist movement was to mimic that of Germany. When it was founded, the KAPD included some tens of thousands of revolutionaries. However, it had broken up and practically dissolved within
5400-493: The founding of the Communist International , or Comintern. In fact, they controlled the first body formed by the Comintern to coordinate its activities in Western Europe , the Amsterdam Bureau. However, this was little more than a very brief interlude and the Amsterdam Bureau never functioned as a leadership body for Western Europe as was originally intended. The Vienna Bureau of the Comintern may also be classified as left communist, but its personnel were not to evolve into either of
5490-455: The journal L'Etincelle and was joined at the end of 1945 by the old minority of the fraction who had joined L'Union Communiste in the 1930s. One other development during the war years merits mention at this point. A small grouping of German and Austrian militants came close to left communist positions in these years. Best known as the Revolutionary Communist Organisation, these young militants were exiles from Nazism living in France at
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#17327654569905580-464: The lack of consistency from members of the Left Opposition over the issue of democratization . She argued that Trotsky and Preobrazhensky overly focused on intra-party democracy rather than widespread democratization outside of the party during the 1920s. Trotsky would develop his writings of political pluralism in the 1930s. Although, Weissman acknowledged the heterogenous views of the Left Opposition and described one of their members, Victor Serge , as
5670-414: The leading capitalist countries. In the late 1970s and early 1980s the Internationalist Communist Party initiated a series of conferences of the communist left to engage those new elements, also attended by the International Communist Current . As a result of these, in 1983 the International Bureau for the Revolutionary Party (later renamed as the Internationalist Communist Tendency) was established by
5760-504: The majority faction, the PCd'I's left leadership was replaced in 1924 by Gramsci under pressure from the Comintern, then effectively controlled by Joseph Stalin . This didn't prevent Bordiga from challenging Stalin directly at the 6th Enlarged Executive of the Communist International in 1926, arguing that Russian affairs had to be decided by the International. The Left Faction of the Communist Party of Italy formed in 1928, primarily composed of Italian émigré communities in Belgium, France, and
5850-409: The mid-late 1930s along with the Oppositionists who remained unrepentant. Some of its members, while claiming to have given up on their old views, participated in the underground opposition in the USSR. They, like I. N. Smirnov , even maintained contact with Trotsky and his son Sedov . During this period, the Trotskyists formed an opposition bloc with several other groups, for example the members of
5940-424: The one hand and a triumvirate (also known by its Russian name Troika ) of Communist International (Comintern) chairman Grigory Zinoviev , Communist Party General Secretary Joseph Stalin and Politburo chairman Lev Kamenev on the other hand. The Left Opposition argued that the New Economic Policy had weakened the Soviet Union by allowing the private sector to achieve an increasingly important position in
6030-469: The party in 1927 and later killed during Joseph Stalin 's Great Purge . Left communism emerged in both countries together and was always very closely connected. Among the leading theoreticians of the more powerful German movement were Antonie Pannekoek and Herman Gorter and German activists found refuge in the Netherlands after the Nazis came to power in 1933. The critique of social democratic reformism can be traced back before World War I since in
6120-432: The party leadership headed by Stalin during the serious illness of the Bolshevik founder Vladimir Lenin . The degeneration intensified after Lenin's death in January 1924. The Left Opposition advocated for a programme of rapid industrialization , voluntary collectivisation of agriculture, and the expansion of a worker's democracy . Intellectuals who had previously lived in exile during the Tsarist era would constitute
6210-485: The party membership) had voted for the platform of the Opposition during the 1923 discussion. He noted that the majority of the party organisation, especially in Moscow , had voted for the Opposition in 1923. At the same time, Stalin approved the appointmnet of Amayak Nazaretian, the head of his personal secretariat, who would later falsify voting results of party meetings which were then reported to Pravda magazine. However, political scientist Susan Weissman criticized
6300-416: The party: The ICP replaces democratic centralism with organic centralism, characterized by: According to the party, organic centralism means developing organs suited to various functions (propaganda, proselytism, union work, etc.) while ensuring all comrades remain involved in multiple aspects of party work. This prevents the deadly division between theoretical study and practical action. The ICP considers
6390-416: The policy of collectivization , which appeared to be close to the policies that the Left Opposition had advocated earlier. The Left Opposition attempted to field opposition candidates against the official Communist Party candidates in the 1929 elections , but to no avail. Most (but not all) prominent Left Opposition members recanted between 1929 and 1934, but they nearly all perished during the Great Purge of
6480-440: The proletarian line, and against the ominous growth of the apparatus regime." Party speech of Grigory Zinoviev in 1926. According to historian Sheila Fitzpatrick , the scholarly consensus was that Stalin appropriated the position of the Left Opposition on such matters as industrialisation and collectivisation . Trotsky maintained that the disproportions and imbalances which became characteristic of Stalinist planning in
6570-554: The recall of RSDLP representatives from the Third Duma . Bogdanov and his allies accused Lenin and his partisans of promoting liberal democracy through " parliamentarism at any price". The faction largely died out by the end of 1918, as its leaders accepted that much of their program was unrealistic under the circumstances of the Russian Civil War and as the policies of War Communism satisfied their demands for
6660-540: The right wing led by Filippo Turati and the left. Like Lenin, faced with the Second International 's support of various sides in the war, Bordiga called for the formation of a new international. When the left encountered Lenin's views after the October Revolution , they considered them not a new adaptation of Marxism but a restatement of it. Under the influence of the Russian Revolution ,
6750-456: The same name ). More seriously, the KAPD lost most of its support very rapidly as it failed to develop lasting structures. This also contributed to internecine quarrels and the party actually split into two competing tendencies known as the Essen and Berlin tendencies to the historians of the left. The recently established Communist Workers International (KAI) split on exactly the same lines as did
6840-670: The same year. Left communists entered a period of almost constant decline from this point onwards, although they were somewhat rejuvenated by the events of 1968 . Examples of left communism ideological currents existed in China during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (GPCR). For example, the Hunan rebel group the Shengwulian argued for "smashing" the existing state apparatus and establishing
6930-665: The so-called "Literary Discussion" and criticism of Trotsky's permanent revolution policy as Stalin proposed socialism in one country . This resulted in the removal of Trotsky from his ministerial post on 6 January 1925, although Stalin opposed Zinoviev's demand that Trotsky be expelled from the Party. With Trotsky largely marginalized, Zinoviev and Kamenev had a falling out with Stalin at the XIVth Communist Party Conference in April 1925 over Stalin's October 1924 proposal of socialism in one country , which Zinoviev and Kamenev now openly opposed. By this time,
7020-671: The start of World War II and were members of the Trotskyist movement but they had opposed the formation of the Fourth International in 1938 on the grounds that it was premature. They were refused full delegates' credentials and only admitted to the founding conference of the Youth International on the following day. They then joined Hugo Oehler 's International Contact Commission for the Fourth (Communist) International and in 1939 were publishing Der Marxist in Antwerp . With
7110-426: The time accept any of these criticisms and both currents would evolve. To a considerable degree, Lenin's well known polemic Left-Wing Communism: An Infantile Disorder is an attack on the ideas of the emerging left communist currents. His main aim was to polemicise with currents moving towards pure revolutionary tactics by showing them that they could remain based on firmly revolutionary principles while utilising
7200-717: The tiny Communist Workers Party of Bulgaria . The only other affiliates of the KAI were the Communist Workers Party of Britain led by Sylvia Pankhurst , the Communist Workers Party of the Netherlands (KAPN) in the Netherlands and a group in Russia. The AAUD split on the same lines and it rapidly ceased to exist as a real tendency within the factories. Left communists generally supported the Bolshevik seizure of power in October 1917 and entertained enormous hopes in
7290-590: The traditional trade unions in favour of forming their own revolutionary unions . These unionen , so called to distinguish them from the official trade unions, had 80,000 members in 1920 and peaked in 1921 with 200,000 members, after which they declined rapidly. They were also organisationally divided from the beginning, with those unionen linked to the KAPD forming the General Workers' Union of Germany (AAUD) and those in Saxony around Otto Rühle who opposed
7380-528: The two historic currents that made up left communism. Rather, the Vienna Bureau adopted the ultra-left ideas of the earliest period in the history of the Comintern. Left communists supported the Russian Revolution , but did not accept the methods of the Bolsheviks. Many of the Dutch–German tradition adopted Rosa Luxemburg 's criticism as outlined in her posthumously published essay entitled The Russian Revolution . The Italian left communists did not at
7470-509: The years from 1928 to 1930 over strategy towards the kulaks and NEPmen . Trotsky and his supporters in the Left Opposition were joined by the Group of Democratic Centralism to form the United (or Joint) Opposition . The first confrontation between the Left Opposition and the triumvirate occurred from October 1923 to January 1924 over industrialization policies. The triumvirate won decisively at
7560-506: The youth section of the Moscow party base. Party histories and documents such as the " Great Soviet Encyclopedia " recorded varying levels of support for the Left Opposition across the membership base. At a meeting of workers' cells, 9,843 voters were cast for the Central Committee (CC) which was controlled by Zinioviev, Kamenev, and Stalin at the time whereas 2,223 voted for the Opposition. Conversely, at meetings of student cells,
7650-643: Was again supported by Bukharin and Rykov, at the XIVth Party Congress in December 1925. Soon after their defeat at the Congress, Zinoviev and Kamenev joined forces with Trotsky's Left Opposition in early 1926, in what became known as the United Opposition . From July to October 1926, the United Opposition lost out to Stalin, and its leaders were expelled from the ruling Politburo. In October 1927, soon after catastrophic events regarding
7740-553: Was appointed with the task of linking different sections of the party. In 1964, the Milan section split off to form Rivoluzione Comunista, which was opposed to the concept of organic centralism. In 1966, the Paris section under Jacques Camatte and Roger Dangeville split off as well. Camatte's group formed around the magazine Invariance , and Dangeville's followers gathered around Le Fil du Temps . The party experienced significant growth in France following May 1968 , despite taking
7830-472: Was historically represented by the Communist Workers' Party of Germany , General Workers' Union of Germany , and the Communist Workers' International . Left communism differs from most other forms of Marxism in believing that communists should not participate in democratic elections, and some argue against participating in trade unions. However, many left communists split over their criticism of
7920-640: Was meant to be an opposition group within the Comintern, but members of the Comintern were immediately expelled as soon as they joined (or were suspected of joining) the ILO. The ILO therefore concluded that opposing Stalinism from within the Communist organizations controlled by Stalin's supporters had become impossible, so new organizations had to be formed. In 1933, the ILO was renamed the International Communist League (ICL), which formed
8010-550: Was no more prepared than other Bolshevik figures to risk war or the loss of trade opportunities despite his support for world revolution . Russian historian, Vadim Rogovin , argued that the Left Opposition, led by Trotsky, was a political movement that "offered a real alternative to Stalinism, and that to crush this movement was the primary function of the Stalinist terror". Rogovin also stated that contemporary historians believed that 40,000 to 50,000 people (more than 10% of
8100-464: Was reorganised in France and along with the new French Nucleus of the Communist Left came into conflict with the ideas which the fraction had propagated from 1936, namely of the social disappearance of the proletariat and localised wars and so on. These ideas continued to be defended by Vercesi in Brussels. Gradually, the left fractions adopted positions drawn from German left communism. They abandoned
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