Italian Left Communism

'Left Communism' redirects here, for other ideologies see Left Communism (Disambiguation)

Left Communism, also called Ultraleftism, is a far left ideology inhabiting the left edge of the political compass, and centre vertically, occasionally placed in a more libertarian position.

Left Communism is made up of several different ideologies who share similarities, including German Council Communism and Italian Programmism ("Bordigism), thus its use as an umbrella term. Among these similarities is anti-trade unionism, anti-nationalism/internationalism, and anti-parliamentarism. As well as the belief that true socialism is stateless, classless, and can only be achieved when the capitalist mode of commodity production is completely abolished. Every "socialist" who does not is merely an opportunist capitalist.

He loves to sit in an armchair all day reading Marx, Bordiga, Pannekoek, Damen, and Chirik among others, while complaining about other leftists. What is often forgotten is that those of the Italian Communist Left do consider themselves Leninists, being described as "more Leninist than Lenin". Lenin's work "Left-Wing Communism: An Infantile Disorder" criticised left communists in Britain and Germany who did not consider themselves Leninist.

History

Origins

The historical origins of left communism come from World War I. Most left communists are supportive of 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 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 a very short period of time which they later vehemently opposed, attracting the wrath of Vladimir Lenin in "Left-Wing" Communism: An Infantile Disorder.

Russian Left Communism

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 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".

In 1918, a faction emerged within the Russian Communist Party named the Left Communists which opposed the signing of the Brest-Litovsk peace treaty with Imperial Germany. The Left Communists wanted international proletarian revolution across the world. In the beginning, the leader of this faction was Nikolai Bukharin. They stood for a revolutionary war against the Central Powers; opposed the right of nations to self-determination (specifically in the case of Poland since there were many Poles in this communist group and they did not want a Polish capitalist state to be established); and they generally took a voluntarist stance regarding the possibilities for social revolution at that time.

Italian Left Communism

The Italian left communists were named left communists at a later stage in their development, but when the Communist Party of Italy (PCd'I) was founded its members actually represented the majority of communists in that country. This was a result of the Abstentionist Communist Faction of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) being in advance of other sections of the PSI in their realization that a separate communist party had to be formed which did not include reformists. This gave them a great advantage over the sections of the PSI who looked to figures such as Giacinto Menotti Serrati and Antonio Gramsci for leadership. It was a consequence of the revolutionary impatience common at a time when revolution, in the narrow sense of an insurrectionary attempt at the seizure of power, was expected to develop in the very near future.

Under the leadership of Amadeo Bordiga, the left was to control the PCd'I until the Lyons Congress of 1926. In this period, the militants of the PCd'I would find themselves isolated from reformist workers and from other anti-fascist militants. At one stage, this isolation was deepened when communist militants were instructed to leave defense organizations that were not totally controlled by the party. These sectarian tactics produced concern in the leadership of the Communist International and led to a developing opposition within the PCd'I itself. Eventually, these two factors led to the displacement of Bordiga from his position as first secretary and his replacement by Gramsci. By then, Bordiga was in a fascist jail and was to remain outside organized politics until 1952. The development of the Left Communist Faction was not the development of the Bordigist current (as it is often portrayed).

Dutch-German Left Communism (Council Communism)

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 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 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.

Left Communism in the Communist International

Left communists generally supported the Bolshevik seizure of power in October 1917 and entertained enormous hopes in 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 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. In this essay, she rejected the Bolshevik position on distribution of land to the peasantry and their espousal of the right of nations to self-determination which she rejected as historically outmoded. The Italian left communists did not at 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 polemicize with currents moving towards pure revolutionary tactics by showing them that they could remain based on firmly revolutionary principles while utilizing a variety of tactics. Therefore, Lenin defended the use of a parliamentary system and working within the official trade unions.

Stylistic Notes

Left Communists are generally portrayed as sitting in an armchair, reading, theory, and nothing else. He often defends this behavior with "Theory is praxis." They are often depicted as being hyper critical and cynical to such a degree that no other ideologies will associate with them.

How to Draw

Drawing Left Communism takes a few steps:

Draw a ball
Fill it with red (#FC0808)
Draw 2 intertwined yellow (#EDF734) wheat spikes
Draw a black hammer and sickle
Draw the eyes and you're done!

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Relations

Friends

Marxism - I'm the only one that listens to him, smh.
Council Communism - My more decentralized cousin.
Luxemburgism - Love you, Rosa!
Libertarian Marxism - You have the right ideas, but you still need to take the Leftcompill.
Left-Accelerationism - Just sitting in my armchair watching things go NYOOM!

Frenemies

Communalism - My fellow pure leftist. But stop trying to steal my armchair and read theory.
Leninism - We disagree on tactics here and there, but we are both true communists!
Trotskyism - Your early work was incredible, loved it. But you're just an impotent student movement now with zero proletarian support.
Ingsoc - You're a totalitarian prick but you're the only one who agrees that theory is praxis.

Enemies

Marxism–Leninism - Fake Marxist. Fake Leninist. Stop pretending that you read theory when you actually read fake news sources from "anti-imperialist" and "socialist" countries to back up your claims.
Maoism - Yet another bourgeois movement that butchers workers.
Dengism - I mean, you oversaw the conditions that proletarianized China instead of doing the stupid peasant stuff Mao did, but you're still another bloody capitalist.
Anarcho-Communism - Peak petit-bourgeois.
Stalinism - Why must you taint the name of Marxism?
Social Democracy - The welfare economy is a failure! You also killed My mother!
Capitalist Communism - You are a S*cDem.
Democracy - The velvet glove of fascism.
Fascism - The iron boot of democracy.
State Capitalism - Cringe!
Antifa - Anti-Fascism is the worst product of Fascism!
Capitalism - Die and burn in hell!
Social Authoritarianism - Him, but without the mask!
Hoxhaism - You claim to be "against all forms of revisionism" yet you're a Stalinist, curious 🤔
Market Socialism - L*beral Vaushite