This short essay written by karl korsch in 1950 and commonly known as the “Zürich theses” marks an important point within the development of the post-war communist milieu by virtue of its historic role as a reconfiguration of the Marxist dialectic and an assessment of weak practical and theoretical points […]
Stalinism
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 […]
Doctrine of the Body Possessed by the Devil, Amadeo Bordiga
A 1951 text arguing for the existence of a capitalist class in the Soviet Union, in the form of the state.
The Spirit of Horsepower, Amadeo Bordiga
A 1953 text describing the Marxist view of industrialisation and applying it to the Stalinist five-year plans to demonstrate their capitalistic nature.
Dialogue with Stalin, Amadeo Bordiga
A 1952 work written as a response to Stalin’s ‘Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR’, demonstrating the USSR to be a state capitalist rather than socialist state.