council communism
Council communism - an introduction
A short history and explanation of the ideas and practice of council communism.
Council communism was a radical left movement originating in Germany and the Netherlands in the 1920s. Today it continues as an important theoretical current within libertarian communism.
Russia 1917 - 'N', Wildcat [UK],1985
Originally a contribution to the conference held by UK Wildcat on the Russian revolution and its implications today [i.e. 1985].
The Brownshirts of Zionism - Abner Barnatan
An article by a council communist on the Fascistic qualities of 1930s Zionist Revisionism.
Originally published in "International Council Correspondence", Chicago, USA, Vol. III, No. 4, April 1937.
Reprinted by Unpopular Books, London, March 1989.
The Impotence of the Revolutionary Group (Sam Moss, 1930s, USA)
"It is the writer's conviction that the day of the revolutionary party is over; the revolutionary groups under present conditions are tolerated, or rather ignored, only as long as they are impotent; that nothing is so symptomatic of their powerlessness as the fact that they are permitted to exist. We have often stated that the working class which will endure while capitalism lasts, and which cannot be obliterated under this system can alone wage a successful struggle against capitalism and that the initiative can not be taken out of its hands.
We may add here after all the conservatism of the working class today, only reflects the still massive strength of capitalism, and that this material power cannot be cast out of existence by propaganda but by a material power greater than that of capital."
From International Council Correspondence.
The Politics of Gorter - Pannekoek
Anton Pannekoek responds in 1952 to criticisms of the politics of his late comrade Herman Gorter.
The World Revolution, 1924
A 1924 article for Sylvia Pankhurst's Workers Dreadnought.
Rubel, Maximilien, 1905-1996
A short biography of Ukrainian-born French council communist Maximilien Rubel.
Maximilien Rubel
Born 1905 - Chernivtsi, Ukraine, died February 1996 - Paris, France
The Hunt for Red October: Ten Days That Didn't Overthrow Capitalism - Wildcat
Wildcat (UK) attempt to debunk theories both for and against the October Revolution in Russia against the events of 1917-1921, including the council communist, Trotskyist and 'left communist' positions on the revolution.
The Hunt for Red October - Ten Days That Didn't Overthrow Capitalism
By Wildcat (UK)
Pannekoek, Anton and the Quest For an Emancipatory Socialism
A short biographical article on the famous council communist theorist and astronomer.
Anton Pannekoek and the Quest For an Emancipatory Socialism
(John Gerber, 1988)
Mattick, Paul, 1904-1981
A short biography of German council communist tool maker-turned academic Paul Mattick.
Born in Pomerania in 1904 and raised in Berlin by class-conscious parents, Mattick was already at the age of 14 a member of the Spartacists’ Freie Sozialistiche Jugend. In 1918, he started to train as a toolmaker at Siemens, where he was also elected as the apprentices’ delegate on the workers’ council of the company during the German revolution.
