state socialism
Articles about forms of statist socialism, such as social democracy, Trotskyism, Marxism Leninism, Maoism and Stalinism.
Doctrine of the body possessed by the devil - Amadeo Bordiga
Bordiga's critique of state-planned socialism from the radical position of the Italian communist left.
It is vital to be quite clear over the question of state capitalism in order to reset the compasses that have lost their bearings. (1)
Factory Committees in the Russian Revolution - Rod Jones
Alongside the Russian workers' attempts to create socialism -- not as some abstract far-off utopia in a political party program, but through confronting and changing the concrete reality of their everyday life -- were the activities of socialist parties, supposedly sympathetic to working class aspirations. This pamphlet tells the story of the Russian workers' struggle, in particular the efforts of the factory committees.
The success of the Bolsheviks in defeating the working class and crushing all hope of socialism is the other side of the story. Today's supporters of Lenin and Trotsky still parade their writings and their politics as relevant to the working class and to socialism.
Bolshevik Opposition to Lenin: G. T. Miasnikov and the Workers' Group - Paul Avrich
Paul Avrich's article from 1984 about G.T. Miasnikov and the Workers' Group
Bolshevik Opposition to Lenin:
G. T. Miasnikov and the Workers' Group
Paul Avrich
(RUSSIAN REVIEW, Vol. 43, 1984 pp. 1-29)
Anarchists in the Russian Revolution - Paul Avrich
The Anarchists in the Russian Revolution, Paul Avrich. We present this in PDF format (270kb) but hope to convert it to text in the near future.
1920s: Communism vs. Reforms: Mistakes of the Communist Party in Ireland
Pankhurst exposes the reactionary role of the Communist Party of Ireland and gives some background information on the Limerick and Cork soviets.
Online version by http://www.af-north.org
From "Workers' Voice", Liverpool, 1974
The Fight Against Fascism Begins With the Fight Against Bolshevism
Otto Ruhle
The Fight Against Fascism Begins With the Fight Against Bolshevism (1939)
Left-communist pamphlet that points the finger at Lenin and the bolsheviks for crippling the international workers' movement with authoritarian tactics and for developing a totalitarian and capitalist system of rule in the USSR.
State capitalism and dictatorship (alternate translation)
On the limits of state capitalism as a strategy for the ruling class.
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.
Lenin as philosopher
Pannekoek's classic work analyses Lenin's philosophical views as being determined by the historical circumstances they emerged from; the battle against religious dominance in 19th century Russia. This made Lenin's simplistic materialism quite different from Marx's. Pannekoek illustrates that dualistic conceptions of a vanguard party as a 'consciousness' leading the working class 'body' are rooted in the philosophical underpinnings of Lenin's bourgeois materialism.
Community and Communism in Russia - Jacques Camatte
Community and Communism in Russia
by Jacques Camatte
Class history and theory: capitalism and communism in the USSR - review by Paresh Chattopadhyay
Paresh Chattopadhyay's review of Stepen Resnick's book on the USSR, analysing the Soviet experience in terms of class.
CLASS THEORY AND HISTORY: CAPITALISM AND COMMUNISM IN THE USSR, Stephan A. Resnick and Richard D. Wolff; New York and London: Routledge, 2002
Reviewed by Paresh Chattopadhyay
The book under review is not just one more addition to the numerous works on the USSR that have so far appeared in print. This is an unusual work. It attempts to analyse the whole soviet experience (1917-1990) in terms of 'class,' derived from Marx. According to the authors the USSR was all along a "state form of capitalism." The Bolsheviks had simply replaced pre-1917 "private capitalism" with "state capitalism."
