Anton Pannekoek

The logical result of the collapse of German Imperialism following the military defeat, was the revolution.

Anton Pannekoek responds in 1952 to criticisms of the polics of Herman Gorter

John Gerber
Reprinted From "New Politics" #5 (Summer 1988)

Anton Pannekoek's letter -

DEAR COMRADE,

Letter from Anton Pannekoek to Socialisme ou Barbarie

--from the AK Press edition

STATE CAPITALISM AND DICTATORSHIP

Anton Pannekoek

This article was apparently first published in Raete Korrespondenz. This translation was published unsigned in the american journal International Council Correspondence Vol. III No. 1 January 1937.

Trade Unionism (1936)

Anton Pannekoek

How must the working class fight capitalism in order to win? This is the all important question facing the workers every day. What efficient means of action, what tactics can they use to conquer power and defeat the enemy?

REVOLT OF THE SCIENTISTS

By Anton Pannekoek

(From "RETORT", Vol. 4, # 2, Spring 1948)

Panic pervades the intellectual layers of American society. Whereas the peoples of Europe were used to war and damage, to destruction and insecurity in life, Americans felt safe in being separated by oceans from dangerous foes, until the atom bomb fell upon Hiroshima; the first scientists, realizing what it meant, called themselves "frightened men."

Thirty years ago every socialist was convinced that the approaching war of the great capitalist powers would mean the final catastrophe of capitalism and would be succeeded by the proletarian revolution. Even when the war did break out and the socialist and labor movement collapsed as a revolutionary factor, the hopes of the revolutionary workers ran high.

Pannekoek hammers at the idea that party and class must be antagonistic, as the history of German and Russian parties had shown by 1936.

General Remarks on the Question of Organisation (1938)

Anton Pannekoek

Organisation is the chief principle in the working class fight for emancipation. Hence the forms of this organisation constitute the most important problem in the practice of the working class movement. It is clear that these forms depend on the conditions of society and the aims of the fight. They cannot be the invention of theory, but have to be built up spontaneously by the working class itself, guided by its immediate necessities.

LENIN AS PHILOSOPHER

Anton Pannekoek

The Politics Of Gorter

by Anton Pannekoek

La politique de Gorter was published in the french journal La Révolution Prolétarienne Aug-Sept 1952.

Révolution Prolétarienne introduction : Circumstances beyond our control delayed the publication of the following article by Professor Pannekoek : loss of a first manuscript between Holland and Paris, then difficulties of translation. However this delay may have an unforeseen advantage worth being announced : the comrades who publish the weekly socialist paper De Vlam in Amsterdam have formed a committee to commemorate the twenty fifth anniversary of the death of Gorter and they are publishing Pannekoek's article at the same time as us.

Having been victimized by capitalism, the working class were deluded by state socialist parties German and Russian, who only engineered a return to capitalism. Then they were left behind by trade unions, who only served as a go-between for big business. The new way forward is the self-actualted, self-directed wildcat strike, which will become truly effective when it becomes a large-scale action during the last phase of capitalism.

Destruction As A Means Of Struggle

Anton Pannekoek

This article was apparently first published in Persdienst van de Groep van Internationale Communisten 1933, no. 7 at the same time as the article Individual Acts (a.k.a. The Personal Act). This translation has been made from the french translation in Echanges No. 90 Spring/Summer 1999. For the background to the article see Chapter Six of "La Gauche Communiste Germano- Hollandaise - des origines à 1968" by Philippe Bourrinet, available in PDF format at this link.

Anton Pannekoek - The Theory of the Collapse of Capitalism

Table of Contents

TRANSLATORS INTRODUCTION by Adam Buick
THE THEORY OF THE COLLAPSE OF CAPITALISM
MARX AND ROSA LUXEMBURG
ROSA LUXEMBURG AND OTTO BAUER
GROSSMANN'S REPRODUCTION SCHEMA
GROSSMANN VERSUS MARX
HISTORICAL MATERIALISM
THE NEW WORKERS MOVEMENT

World Revolution and Communist Tactics

Anton Pannekoek

* Publication details
* Part One
* Part Two
* Part Three
* Part Four
* Part Five
* Part Six
* Part Seven
* Part Eight
* Afterword

State Capitalism and Dictatorship

Anton Pannekoek - 1936

I

The term "State Capitalism" is frequently used in two different ways: first, as an economic form in which the state performs the role of the capitalist employer, exploiting the workers in the interest of the state.

Anton Pannekoek writes on the burning of the Reichstag by council communist Marinus Van Der Lubbe.