We’re in a hurry. Is that okay? The earth, on the crust of which we live, is shaped like a ball or a sphere. Let us digress for a moment: this concept, which for thousands of years has been extremely difficult for even the most brilliant scientists to understand, is […]
Vil
Lessons of the Counterrevolutions – Amadeo Bordiga
Introduction to the 1981 Spanish Translation The theme of the general meeting of the Party held on September 1, 1951 in Naples was “the lessons of the counterrevolutions”, not only in order to respond to doubts and uncertainties of the comrades concerning the correct evaluation of the nature of the […]
The Guignol in History – Amadeo Bordiga
The cult of the Leader, the cult of personality, not a divine but a human personality, is an even worse social narcotic that we shall define as the cocaine of the proletariat.
Immutable Tablets of the Communist Theory of The Party, Amadeo Bordiga
Fundamental Marxist text At the concluding session of the La Spezia meeting1 and, at greater length, in the corresponding report (for which see issues 15, 16, 17, and 18 of Il Programma Comunista from 1959), a reiteration of essential topics took place on the occasion of our examination of the “Economic and Philosophic […]
Theory and action in Marxist doctrine, Amadeo Bordiga
I – The Reversal of Praxis in Marxist Theory FROM THE REPORT 1. Ideological disorder within many of the international groups which condemn Stalinism and claim to be holding the revolutionary Marxist line. Uncertainty of such groups as to what they call analysis and perspective: modern development of capitalist society; […]
The Fundamentals for a Marxist Orientation, Bordiga
1. Marxism is not a matter of choice between conflicting opinions, in the sense that Marxism is connected with a historic tradition. 2. Orientation of the dialectic method of Marxism; the contradiction between the productive forces and social forms; classes, class struggle, party-conformism, reformism, anti-formism. 3. Interpretation of the characteristics of the present […]
The “Elite” and the Ruling Class, Vil
Who are the elite? The elite has no actual body, it is a myth which is constructed constantly in order to justify the existence of the present state of things. The meaning of ‘the elite’ differs from mouthpiece to mouthpiece, depending on the general intent. For the new emerging social-democrats […]
Communist Organisation and Discipline, Amadeo Bordiga
Article by Amadeo Bordiga from Prometeo no. 5, May 15th 1924, on the structure and functioning of communist parties, and the International. A Premise to the Question The important discussion presently going on within the Russian Communist party throws into relief problems concerning the internal life of revolutionary parties. They […]
Fundamentals of Revolutionary Communism, Amadeo Bordiga
Introduction We need to begin, first of all, by explaining that the aim of our present exposition is not to systematically examine every economic, historical and political aspect of the communist scheme and its programme, nor to provide an exhaustive treatment of what we might call the ‘connective tissue’ which […]
On The Question of Trotsky, Bordiga
1925 article by Amadeo Bordiga in solidarity with Trotsky who, at that time, was under attack from the Russian party leadership. The discussion, which was recently concluded with the measures adopted by the EC and the Control Commission of the Communist Party of Russia against Comrade Trotsky1, was based exclusively […]