What does libcom stand for?

The group who runs the site, we're libertarian communists. A couple of our forum users are a bit mutualist, and one - Lazy Riser - seems to like markets.

Yes we do! So people who want to argue against them please do.

ooh i'm gonna read up on mutualism, sounds good...

No. No it's not.

We going to change the tagline to something a bit cooler soon, so this distinction won't be as confusing. It means libertarian communist though.

Where does it say parecon, (and for that matter unhyphenated feminism)? If it was down to me I'd kick the situs off that list as well.

We generally ban people for being disruptive rather than on divergent politics (although the two go hand in hand sometimes).

At least a part of the point of this site is to be an entry point for revolutionary history and ideas, so the forums are designed to be a lot wider in focus than the rest of the site. That doesn't mean that people don't get a hard time if they talk bollocks - in fact most criticisms of the forums are that they're unfriendly, sectarian, exclude people who don't hold a certain line etc. etc.

So yes those of us who run the site have no time for mutualism, but I personally have got time for our two (that I know of) mutualist/market socialist posters because they're decent people and talk about other stuff as well.

We've got one or two Trots on here as well, one of whom is moving rapidly away from being a Trot at the moment. Especially given the SWP's lack of education and complete ban on open discussions, if we get the odd one on here we can corrupt that's fine with me.

Hi

Who’s that? afraser and sam_frances?

Ha ha.

LR

Hi

On what grounds? Have you decided you're a proper left communist now? And what about the Broadway Market occupation, talk about defending the Left of Capital.

Love

LR

Not kick them off the forum, kick them off the list - I don't think they're as important as other groups that aren't on it.

Why??

Hi

That's what I thought you meant. Now, have you decided you're a proper left communist now (like Devrim) or not?

Love

LR

Lazy, you said:

And now Catch as well?

Is this contagious?

Readies himself for the 'Çucukluk Hastaliği' jokes.

Devrim

Don't like them much...

No I wouldn't call myself a left-communist at all, but Devrim, and redtwister and a couple of other posters, talk a lot of sense and I'm a lot more sympathetic to that stuff than I was even a year ago.

If I ever did 'decide' I was one, I'd call myself an ultra-leftist anyway, left communist just sounds wrong.

That's because it is.

Hi

Oh no! He's turning. He will be assimilated. Presumably all that Brinton and Castoriadis stuff will have to go from the library.

Love

LR

Catch, I think that ultra-leftist is generslly used as I insult. It says ultra-ultra leftist on my tag as it was what somebody accused me of being.

Lazy, it can all stay there. Left communists aren't afraid of others ideas. Some of it is very good stuff. It is just when Castoriadias starts to talk about the market. Maybe it should just have a warning for children.

Dev

Hi

I will donate £10 to LibCom if you can find a Castoriadis quote that advocates markets in a way incompatible with Catch’s emerging left communism.

I’d venture that Castoriadis’ radical working class autonomy is to the left of Marxism in general and Left Communism in particular.

Love

LR

I don't have any problem with working class autonomy. In fact it is what the left communists argue for.

Fortunately for your wallet, I can't find an online copy of 'Workers' Councils and the Economics of a Self-Managed Society', but if anybody has a link, there will be £10 of Lazy's money winging its way to Libcom.

Devrim

Hi

It would have paid off in the long term.

Love

LR

Have you read it Lazy? I first read it over twenty years ago, and was quite impressed at the time. I went back to it later, and was appaled.

Dev

Gotcha, that section (and many others ) is one that we're in the process of tidying up and filling out. I think everyone in the group would be critical of parecon, and of the majority of feminists, it's probably only me who doesn't like the situs though. Those are intended to be introductory articles to various strands of thought, and it makes sense for it to be fairly broad I think.

Yeah, we're working on the civil bit, but that's the general idea.

Hi

Yes, I read it a long time ago like you, and we've talked about when you were still "quite impressed" so I know where you're coming from. I've been trying to get hold of copy but it's hard to come by, I guess it's part of the "Meaning and Content of Socialism" but I think there's also a Brinton translation in pamphlet form, I vaguely remember from way back, which is even more contentious. That £10 would have been well spent I think.

Love

LR

I had it in a separate pamphlet format with a read cover under the pen name of Paul Cardan. Thanks for blowing all my left communist credentials out of the window by saying you remember when I was quite impressed . It was over twenty years ago.

Dev

Hi

Indeed. I’m pretty sure that’s a Solidarity pamphlet, a Brinton translation. The forward is in “For Workers Power”, but not the damn pamphlet itself. Cruel fate, how it mocks me.

If LibCom is to become a more resilient bastion of Left Communism, and the suggestion here is that it should be, we should all be aware of the ICC’s cruel obituary for Castoriadis…

http://en.internationalism.org/wr/213_castoriadis.htm

So there’s a very complex and interesting relationship between left communism and Castoriadis/Brinton’s “Autonomy”, especially given Castoriadis’ influence on the Situationists, discussions between Pannekoek and Castoriadis in the 50’s and similarity of their councilist models, and the Solidarity spin out into what became the UK ICC. Not to mention the SPGB injection into Solidarity, and the fissures that opened over Castoriadis/Brinton’s non-Marxism. Let’s not even start on Andy Anderson, the web we’ve woven is rich enough to show there’s enough contention without the merest hint of Proudhonism.

On the contrary. A flirtation with Castoriadis would seem de rigueur for any aspiring ultra-leftist. Something they have in common with famous Green Party free market mutualist Danny Cohn-Bendit.

Love

LR

you mean me!!??

Don't know what my exact politics are at the mo. When I visited Italy, I somewaht mischievously tried to convince a group of Malatesta enthusiasts whose meeting I went to (Gruppo Germinal in Trieste) that I was an 'anarcho-Trot' !!! Had them convinced it was a significant tendency here. But language barriers limited the discussion to them saying 'But how can that be? What about Krondstant?'. He he.

But I love how the Italian song Bandiera Rossa ends with " Evviva il communismo e la libertà"

I wouldn't pretend that I'm that well read (politically) but I'd have no problem describing myself as a Left-Communist or Ultra-Leftist if that's meant as an insult by Bolsheviks.

Can we have that on the welcoming boards? with star rating the comments? Like them movies.