Amadeo Bordiga
Italian left communist who split from the reformist Socialist Party, formed the Communist Party of Italy and contributed heavily to a critique of the Soviet Union.
The Legend of the Piave - Amadeo Bordiga
Bordiga's analysis of a fatal environmental catastrophe in Italy, which could easily been avoided, had importance been placed on safety rather than profitability.
The patriotic saga of Italy raised the Piave to the status of the national river, and designated it as such, in 1917. In the war which was to have been the Fourth War of Independence, leading the country in a leap beyond the Venetian frontiers (won by no means by armed might) already gained from the Third.
Letter from Amadeo Bordiga to Karl Korsch
Letter written by Amadeo Bordiga in Naples, in October 1926 to German left communist Karl Korsch about his platform.
Naples, 28 October 1926
Dear Comrade Korsch,
The problems we face today are so important that we should really be discussing them face to face in detail. This unfortunately is not a possibility at the moment. Also I won't be covering all the points in your platform in this letter, some of which could give rise to useful discussions between us.
Fundamental Theses of the Party - Amadeo Bordiga
At the Lyons Congress of the Communist Party of Italy in 1926, shortly before the Communist International adopted the theory of "socialism in one country", the Left presented a draft theses (The Lyons Theses) which predictably was rejected by the largely Stalinised party.
In these theses our current drew not only the balance sheet of the situation in Italy, of its activity when it was in the leadership of the Communist Party of Italy, and of the activity of the Gramsci-Togliatti leadership which was imposed on the party by the Communist International in the years after 1924.
The Communist Left in the Third International - Amadeo Bordiga
Bordiga at the 6th Enlarged Executive Meeting of the Communist International, 15th March 1926: "Since the Russian Revolution is the first great stage of the world revolution it is also our revolution. Its problems are our problems, and every militant in the revolutionary International has not only the right, but also the duty, to collaborate in their solution."
Seventy years ago the wave of proletarian strife and insurrection which had brought the 1st World War to a close was all but over. Instead of being strengthened and supported by the establishment of a European soviet republic and beyond, the Russian proletariat had been left high and dry.
Weird and Wonderful Tales of Modern Social Decadence
(Lax and uncaring technology -- Parasitic and pillaging management)
Force, Violence and Dictatorship in the Class Struggle
Force, Violence, and Dictatorship in the Class Struggle deals with the questions of the use of force in social relationships and the characteristics of the revolutionary dictatorship according to left communist interpretation.
[b]I. Actual and Potential Violence[/b]
In the history of social aggregates we recognise the use of material force and violence in an overt form whenever we observe conflicts and clashes among individuals and among groups which result, through many different forms, in the material injury and destruction of physical individuals.
Theses of the Abstentionist Communist Faction of the Italian Socialist Party (May 1920)
Key text of Bordiga's left communist current.
I
1. Communism is the doctrine of the social and historical preconditions for the emancipation of the proletariat.
Draft theses for the 3rd Congress of the Communist Party of Italy presented by the Left (Lyons, 1926)
With a document like this it is difficult to avoid a certain disproportion between the different parts, inasmuch as ongoing discussions have rendered certain points and certain arguments more topical, whilst others, of equal importance, have been cast in a minor light. In order to give as full an idea as possible of the thinking of the group of comrades responsible for the present theses, it is worth providing references to some texts, which, although well known, are nowadays rather difficult to find. We believe it therefore useful to precede the present text with references to some documents relevant to the same line that is reasserted and defended here.
Theses on the Role of the Communist Party in the Proletarian Revolution
Adopted by the Second Congress of the Communist International, 1920
Is this the time to form "soviets"?
Amadeo Bordiga writes on the German and Russian revolutions for an Italian audience, Il Soviet, 21 September 1919.
Two of the articles in our last issue, one devoted to an analysis of the communist system of representation and the other to an exposition of the current tasks facing our Party, concluded by asking whether it is possible or appropriate to set up workers' and peasants' councils today, while the power of the bourgeoisie is still intact.
