Condemnation of the Renegades to Come

by Amadeo Bordiga

Unknown Binding

About the author

Amadeo Bordiga was an Italian Marxist, a contributor to Communist theory, the founder of the Communist Party of Italy, a leader of the Communist International and, after World War II, leading figure of the International Communist Party.

Reviews

[AHW · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wonderful and in some ways cringey text, a commentary on Lenin's pamphlet Left-Wing Communism which displays the brilliance and shortcomings of the later Bordiga, and gives useful clues as to where in Bordiga's thought he exaggerated for polemical effect and where he's to be taken more literally. It consists mainly of a rebuke to both Stalinism and the Dutch-German council communists, and defines the Italian marxist left tradition as in continuity with Lenin (as opposed to the "Marxist-Leninist" Stalinist parties). The clues it gives for understanding Bordiga's rhetoric are quite valuable - he quietly defends the use of democratic measures in the communist apparatus when necessary, for example, and also the participation in electoral activities at the appropriate place and time; he also credits anarchism for being the first to correctly emphasize the disappearance of the state, in a text otherwise laden with invective against "libertarianism," "autonomism," Sorelian syndicalism and the like.

In Condemnation as everywhere, Bordiga is brilliant in drawing out what's useful in Lenin for internationalist or "left-"communists. Here as elsewhere, he also rhetorically exaggerates his continuity with Lenin so as to disappear the real differences between them, and engages in other typically mechanical acts of rhetorical extremism for which he's famous: calling the Italian marxist left tradition "authoritarian" as a compliment, for example (usually I see him say "totalitarian" instead - I don't know whether or not it's a difference in translation, as the two words have different connotations and meanings.) This is where the cringiest aspects come in; he's also unable in this text as elsewhere to take his own insights against the cult of heroes and geniuses (as in Carlylean Phantoms, one of his best texts) to their logical conclusion, and continually upholds Lenin as a towering heroic figure of manly brilliance, calling his opponents "cripples" and other ableist nonsense.

A very worthwhile read.