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Communist Interventions #1
European Socialism and Communism
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 di cult: 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.
Tarrying with the history of twentieth-century communism is di cult: 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.
- GenresNonfictionHistory
415 pages, ebook
First published January 1, 2014
7 people are currently reading
27 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 30, 2016
This volume is a collection of texts spanning 400 A4 pages (about 750 pages in conventional book format), put together by the Communist Research Cluster for the purpose of organising reading groups. It consists of 14 chapters stretching from late 19th century SDP orthodoxy to the "Eclipse of the Workers' Movement", the last text being from 1980. Each chapter contains between 1 and 7 articles or abridged pamphlets/books, from a number of perspectives within European socialism and communism, but mostly those that recognise the autonomous revolutionary potential within the working class - that means you'll find neither Althusser nor any Eurocommunists, although Kautsky and Bernstein are included at the beginning, along with critiques from the revolutionary Left.
In all honesty, it's the single best resource I've found for its purpose. My only gripe is its bias towards council communism. The section on "Fascism and War", for example, includes two articles by Pannekoek which IMO have nothing very worthwhile to say (Gilles Dauvé's article "When insurrections die", however, is great). It would have been better to include something on the Spanish Civil War, which is left out of the entire collection. I also find it lacking in texts defending the revolutionary Party-form (we only find Lenin and Bordiga dealing directly with this question), and on anti-Stalinist revolutions such as Hungary '56 and Czechoslovakia '68. Finally, the section on May '68 was surprisingly uninsightful and boring, again because it exclusively includes neo-councilists (e.g. Castoriadis, Debord), although in this context it's more justified as they at least had a mass influence.
Despite this, I think the Communist Research Cluster have done great work with this collection and other volumes they continue to put out (they have one on rev. feminism, one on black revolutionaries in the USA and two coming out on anarchism and national liberation - all available on their website). Reading groups in my context are always either 1) run by sects, entailing the uncritical and ahistorical reading of a book pertaining to their political "tradition"; or 2) run by academics, and therefore not really committed to revolutionary communism. In both cases, they follow the format of reading a single book, meeting every week to discuss one or several chapters, which quickly becomes dull and makes people lose interest. The format of the present volume, I think, is both more accessible to people who work and/or study (i.e., who are neither academics nor paid full-timers of a political organisation), and allows for a more honest, critical approach to the history of our movement by including various perspectives. Check it out and think about organising a reading group in your area.
In all honesty, it's the single best resource I've found for its purpose. My only gripe is its bias towards council communism. The section on "Fascism and War", for example, includes two articles by Pannekoek which IMO have nothing very worthwhile to say (Gilles Dauvé's article "When insurrections die", however, is great). It would have been better to include something on the Spanish Civil War, which is left out of the entire collection. I also find it lacking in texts defending the revolutionary Party-form (we only find Lenin and Bordiga dealing directly with this question), and on anti-Stalinist revolutions such as Hungary '56 and Czechoslovakia '68. Finally, the section on May '68 was surprisingly uninsightful and boring, again because it exclusively includes neo-councilists (e.g. Castoriadis, Debord), although in this context it's more justified as they at least had a mass influence.
Despite this, I think the Communist Research Cluster have done great work with this collection and other volumes they continue to put out (they have one on rev. feminism, one on black revolutionaries in the USA and two coming out on anarchism and national liberation - all available on their website). Reading groups in my context are always either 1) run by sects, entailing the uncritical and ahistorical reading of a book pertaining to their political "tradition"; or 2) run by academics, and therefore not really committed to revolutionary communism. In both cases, they follow the format of reading a single book, meeting every week to discuss one or several chapters, which quickly becomes dull and makes people lose interest. The format of the present volume, I think, is both more accessible to people who work and/or study (i.e., who are neither academics nor paid full-timers of a political organisation), and allows for a more honest, critical approach to the history of our movement by including various perspectives. Check it out and think about organising a reading group in your area.
June 21, 2021
If you accept the parameters of what this collection sets out to accomplish, which is to present an array of primary texts in the socialist and communist tradition in Europe with a focus on questions directly pertaining to revolutionary possibility and organization (including from more marginal or peripheral actors), this definitely delivers. There were points where I wish there had been just slightly longer prefatory materials, and perhaps a glossary would have been helpful when jumping around from decade to decade, but, those problems aside, this read like a comprehensive (and totally non-romantic) survey of the tradition.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews