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; […]
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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 Guignol in History, Amadeo Bordiga
In this 1953 article from the “Thread of Time” series, Amadeo Bordiga addresses the role of the great man or “man of destiny” in history, whose modern representatives he calls “Guignols” (grotesque puppets)—devoid of individuality, vacuous, two-dimensional receptacles for the cult of personality—from Napoleon to Eisenhower, and situates this phenomenon […]
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 […]
Last Interview of Amadeo Bordiga
In November of 1917, you took part, in Florence, in a secret conference of the ‘intransigent revolutionary’ current of the Socialist Party. On that occasion, you exhorted socialists to take advantage of the military crisis and take up arms to deal a decisive blow to the bourgeoisie. What was the […]
Letter from Amadeo Bordiga to Karl Korsch
Dear Comrade Korsch, The problems we face today are so important that we should really be discussing them face to face in detail. This unfortunately is not a possibility at the moment. Also I won’t be covering all the points in your platform in this letter, some of which could […]
Why Russia Isn’t Socialist, PCInt
I. Russian Capitalism Conspicuous social divisions, wage differentials, privileges according to type of work, and a division of labour which dooms “manual workers” to the factory inferno and which reserves for intellectuals the monopoly of comfort, can these really be said to be compatible with Socialism as the CP men […]