European Socialism and Communism Communist Interventions, Volume I Communist Research Cluster 2014 Reasoning about history is inseparably reasoning about power Guy Debord Preface We present here a history of twentieth-century communism through primary sources, divided into fourteen chapters arranged in chronological order. Each chapter deals with a historical moment or theoretical debate, and contains an amount of reading appropriate for one week's time. We hope that this reader will provide the foundation for seminars and reading groups. Tarrying with the history of twentieth-century communism is difficult: these texts issue a clar- ion call for human emancipation. At times, their authors seem almost hubristic. They confidently proclaim that the future belongs to communism. Yet, if these pages begin with a confident outlook, they end in despair. The twentieth century looks, to us, much as Walter Benjamin suggested the past did to the Angel of History: \Where we see the appearance of a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe, which unceasingly piles rubble on top of rubble and hurls it before his feet." Why should we feel compelled to revisit this history, today? In compiling these texts, we hope to transmit a series of revolutionary perspectives. However { and this point bears repeating { we do not think that one can find answers to the burning questions of the present moment in the revolutionary theories of the past. It would be foolish to search these pages for the \right" perspective to adopt. Nevertheless, a historical awareness may prove useful, for at least two reasons. It has the po- tential to free us from overly simple perspectives on our own times. In part, that is because history gives a sense of the complexity of revolutions: they tend to leap out in unexpected directions. Rev- olutions take place on a grand scale, involving not just handfuls of revolutionaries, but millions of people acting in concert and conflict. Historical awareness also shows us the ways in which the views we already hold are, in certain respects, derivatives of historical positions. Engaging with the revolutionary traditions of the past helps us understand the positions we hold, in terms of their origins and limitations. Now is the time to free ourselves from the burdens of old ideas { while remaining intransigent about the communist potential of the present moment. Access to the history of revolutionary theory has typically been restricted to small cliques passing down their traditions, with their own associated reading lists, to acolytes. That is one of the main reasons we have put together the present reader: we hope it will enable people to undertake their own revolutionary education, on their own terms. At a time when many people are questioning capitalism, we believe the history of ideas about what it would take to overthrow capitalism deserves to be propagated more widely. In defense of the particular selections we have made, we offer the following brief points: 1) We do not suggest that this reader { which begins with some of the founding texts of the Second International and continues to the end of the twentieth-century labor movement { covers the entire canon of revolutionary theory. We hope to produce other readers in the future. Two will focus on race and on gender. Another reader may deal with anarchism and another with the i ii PREFACE nineteenth century. Yet another may look at the United States. 2) Within the history of socialist and communist theory, we have focused on texts that deal specifically with revolution. Much was left out: texts on nationalism and imperialism, as well as texts about crisis, culture, and so on. In part, that was because we wanted to avoid the topics that make regular appearances on academic syllabuses (for that reason, the Frankfurt School was cut), as well as topics that are overly technical. But also, we hope that this reader can serve as a reminder that most of the debates in the history of communism were actually about how to overthrow capitalism. 3) Many self-described revolutionary organizations are dedicated to promoting their worldview at the expense of others. A reader that refuses to consider perspectives that do not align with the prejudices of the editors will be poorer for it. We try to present a history that is non-sectarian. However, we must admit that this reader contains many texts from small, or short-lived, heterodox traditions. We believe that it was on the margins of communist history that many of the most interesting positions emerged. Although the readings herein are rewarding to peruse in their own right, they are more evocative when paired with a companion historical text which provides greater insight into the context in which these texts were penned. For this purpose, we recommend Forging Democracy: The History of the Left in Europe, 1850-2000 by Geoff Eley (Oxford University Press, 2002). PDFs of this text can be found online, for those who know where to look. For each week, along with the required readings we note the corresponding Eley chapters or other alternative readings that serve the same purpose. Further readings for each week's topic matter can be found at the end of the reader. Each week's reading is preceded by an introduction. We have tried to keep these concise and informative, in order to let the texts speak for themselves. Please note that we have abridged these texts in order to keep them short and focused. We have tried to indicate the locations of these abridgments with ellipses, but be forewarned abridgments may not always be clearly marked. We also sometimes omit the footnotes that accompany the original or a later edition of the text. In addition, in some cases, we have made minor typographical changes and corrected errors from prior digitizations. We owe a debt of gratitude to the Marxists Internet Archive (marxists.org) and also libcom.org, two resources without which preparing this reader would have been impossible; most of the texts herein were taken from one of these two sources. We encourage anyone interested in further inves- tigating these ideas to browse their libraries. We hope that this reader plays a small part in contributing to what Anton Pannekoek called the \deep revolution of ideas." Communist Research Cluster Oakland, CA 2014 [email protected] http://communistresearchcluster.wordpress.com Contents Preface i 1 Orthodoxy 1 1.1 Karl Kautsky, The Class Struggle (1892) . 1 1.2 Karl Kautsky, Erfurt Program (1891) . 29 2 Revisionism 33 2.1 Eduard Bernstein, Evolutionary Socialism (1899) . 33 2.2 Rosa Luxemburg, Reform or Revolution (1900) . 48 3 Social Democracy After 1905 61 3.1 Rosa Luxemburg, The Mass Strike (1906) . 61 3.2 Anton Pannekoek, Marxist Theory and Revolutionary Tactics (1912) . 85 4 Betrayals of 1914 93 4.1 Rosa Luxemburg, The Junius Pamphlet (1915) . 93 4.2 Zimmerwald Manifesto (1915) . 108 4.3 Draft Resolution of the Leftwing Delegates (1915) . 110 4.4 Declaration of the Left Wing (1915) . 112 5 The Russian Revolution 113 5.1 Vladimir Lenin, April Theses (1917) . 113 5.2 Vladimir Lenin, State and Revolution (1917) . 116 5.3 Rosa Luxemburg, The Russian Revolution (1918) . 142 6 Left-Wing Communism 147 6.1 Anton Pannekoek, World Revolution and Communist Tactics (1920) . 148 6.2 Vladimir Lenin, Left-Wing Communism, an Infantile Disorder (1920) . 159 6.3 Herman Gorter, Open Letter to Comrade Lenin (1920) . 163 6.4 Grigory Zinoviev, Theses on the Conditions of Admission to the Communist Inter- national (1920) . 171 7 German and Italian Revolutions 175 7.1 Programme of the Communist Workers Party of Germany (KAPD) (1920) . 176 7.2 Otto R¨uhle, The Revolution is Not a Party Affair (1920) . 181 7.3 Fritz Wolffheim, Factory Organizations or Trade Unions? (1919) . 185 7.4 Amadeo Bordiga, Party and Class (1921) . 191 7.5 Amadeo Bordiga, Towards the Establishment of Workers' Councils in Italy (1920) . 195 7.6 Antonio Gramsci, Unions and Councils (1919) . 204 7.7 Antonio Gramsci, Unions and the Dictatorship (1919) . 206 iii iv CONTENTS 8 Communism and Gender 211 8.1 Alexandra Kollontai, Theses on Communist Morality in the Sphere of Marital Rela- tions (1921) . 211 8.2 Alexandra Kollontai, Sexual Relations and the Class Struggle (1921) . 216 9 Fascism and War 225 9.1 Leon Trotsky, The Death Agony of Capitalism and the Tasks of the Fourth Interna- tional (1938) . 225 9.2 Anton Pannekoek, State Capitalism and Dictatorship (1936) . 232 9.3 Anton Pannekoek, The Failure of the Working Class (1946) . 237 9.4 Karl Korsch, The Fascist Counter-revolution (1940) . 240 9.5 Gilles Dauv´e,When Insurrections Die (1979) . 242 10 Stalinism 253 10.1 Leon Trotsky, The Revolution Betrayed (1936) . 253 10.2 C.L.R. James, Russia { A Fascist State (1941) . 262 10.3 H.H. Ticktin, Towards a Political Economy of the USSR (1974) . 266 10.4 Christopher Arthur, Epitaph for the USSR: A Clock Without a Spring (2002) . 276 11 May 1968 in France 281 11.1 Cornelius Castoriadis, On the Content of Socialism, Part I (1955) . 281 11.2 Guy Debord, The Society of the Spectacle (1967) . 293 11.3 Ren´e,Preliminaries on Councils and Councilist Organization (1969) . 302 11.4 Gilles Dauv´e,Leninism and the Ultra-Left (1969) . 307 12 Second-Wave Feminism 317 12.1 Mariarosa Dalla Costa & Selma James, The Power of Women and the Subversion of the Community (1971) . 317 12.2 Silvia Federici, Wages Against Housework (1974) . 334 13 Italy's Creeping May (1968-77) 341 13.1 Mario Tronti, Lenin In England (1964) . 341 13.2 Mario Tronti, The Strategy of the Refusal (1965) .