Ultra-leftism
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In Marxism,ultra-leftismencompasses a broad spectrum of revolutionary communist currents that are generallyMarxistand frequentlyanti-Leninistin perspective. Ultra-leftism distinguishes itself from other left-wing currents through its rejection ofelectoralism,trade unionism,and national liberation. The term is sometimes used as a synonym ofleft communism."Ultra-left" is also commonly used as apejorativebyMarxist–LeninistsandTrotskyiststo refer to extreme or uncompromising Marxist sects.[1]
Historical usage[edit]
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The termultra-leftis rarely used in English. Instead, people tend to speak broadly ofleft communismas a variant of traditionalMarxism.The French equivalent,ultra-gauche,has a stronger meaning in that language and is used to define a movement that still exists today: a branch of left communism developed by theorists such asAmadeo Bordiga,Otto Rühle,Anton Pannekoek,Herman Gorter,andPaul Mattick,and continuing with more recent writers, such asJacques CamatteandGilles Dauvé.This standpoint includes two main traditions, a Dutch-German tradition including Rühle, Pannekoek, Gorter, and Mattick, and an Italian tradition following Bordiga. These traditions came together in the 1960s French ultra-gauche.[2]The political theorist Nicholas Thoburn refers to these traditions as the "actuality of... the historical ultra-left ".[3]
The term originated in the 1920s in the German and Dutch workers movements, originally referring to a Marxist group opposed to bothBolshevismandsocial democracy,and with some affinities with anarchism.[4]Ultra-leftis often used byMarxist–LeninistsandTrotskyistsagainst other communists who advocate a program which those who use the term may consider to be without regard of the current politicalconsciousnessor of the long-term consequences that would result from following a proposed course, often citing what they view asmaterial conditionsthat would prevent such a programme from being feasible.[citation needed]
The ultra-left is defined particularly by its breed of anti-authoritarian Marxism, which generally involves an opposition to thestateand tostate socialism,as well as toparliamentary democracyandwage labour.In opposition to Bolshevism, the ultra-left generally places heavy emphasis upon the autonomy and self-organization of theproletariat.It rejected the necessity of a revolutionary party and was described as permanently counterposing "the masses" to their leaders.[5]Dauvé also explained:
The ultra-left was born and grew in opposition to Social Democracy andLeninism—which had becomeStalinism.Against them, it affirmed the revolutionary spontaneity of the proletariat. The German communist left (in fact German-Dutch), and its derivatives, maintained that the only human solution lay in proletarians' own activity, without it being necessary to educate or to organize them... Inheriting the mantle of the ultra-left after the war, the magazineSocialisme ou Barbarieappeared in France between 1949 and 1965.[6]
One variant of ultra-leftist ideas was widely revived in theNew Leftof the 1960s, and particularly in theMay 1968moment inlibertarian socialistmovements such asBig Flame,theSituationist International,andautonomism.[7]During the May 1968 events in France, ultra-leftism was initially associated with the opposition and critique to theFrench Communist Party(PCF).[8]Ultra-leftism was thus used by the established currents of the communist movement to prevent, sometimes correctly, against "self-indulgent ultra-leftism [that] could only make it more difficult for the revolutionary left to win rank and file PCF members away from their leaders″.[9]
Pejorative usage[edit]
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Used pejoratively,ultra-leftis used to label positions that are adopted without taking notice of the current situation or of the consequences which would result from following a proposed course. The term is used to criticize leftist positions that, for example, are seen as overstating the tempo of events, propose initiatives that overestimate the current level ofmilitancy,or which employ appeals to violence in their activism.[10]
The mainstream Marxist critique of such a position began withVladimir Lenin's"Left-Wing" Communism: An Infantile Disorder,which critiqued those (such asAnton PannekoekorSylvia Pankhurst) in the nascent Communist International, who argued against cooperation withparliamentaryorreformistsocialists.Lenin characterized the ultra-left as a politics of purity—the doctrinal "repetition of the 'truths' of pure communism".[11][12]Leninists typically used the term against their rivals on the left: "theCommunist Party's Betty Reid wrote in a 1969 pamphletUltra-Leftism in Britainthat the CPGB made 'no exclusive claim to be the only force on the left', but dismissed the groups to the left of the CPGB as the 'ultra-left', with Reid outlining the ultra-left as groups that were Trotskyist, anarchist orsyndicalistor those that 'support the line of theCommunist Party of Chinaduring the Sino-Soviet Split' (pp. 7–8) ".[13]
Trotskyistsand others stated the Communist International was pursuing a strategy of unrealistic ultra-leftism during itsThird Period,which the Communist International later admitted when it turned to apopular frontstrategy in 1934–35.[14]The term has been popularized in the United States by theSocialist Workers Partyat the time of the Vietnam War, using the term to describe opponents in theanti-war movementincludingGerry Healy.[15][page needed]Ultra-leftism is often associated with leftistsectarianism,in which a socialist organization might attempt to put its own short-term interests before the long-term interests of the working class and its allies.[16]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^Muldoon, James (2020).Building Power to Change the World: The Political Thought of the German Council Movements.Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 10.ISBN978-0-19-885662-7.
- ^"Bring Out Your Dead".Endnotes.Vol. 1. 2008. Archived fromthe originalon 8 June 2017.
- ^Thoburn, Nicholas (Spring 2013)."Do not be afraid, join us, come back? On the" idea of communism "in our time".Cultural Critique(84): 1–34.
- ^Bourrinet, Philippe (8 December 2016).The Dutch and German Communist Left (1900–68): 'Neither Lenin nor Trotsky nor Stalin!' – 'All Workers Must Think for Themselves!'.BRILL. p. 8.CiteSeerX10.1.1.454.6346.
As for the term 'ultra-left', which is often equated with 'sectarianism', it can only define those currents which historically split from the KPD between 1925 and 1927. Left communism never appeared as a pure will to be 'as left as possible'.
- ^Broué, Pierre (2006).The German Revolution, 1917-1923.Chicago, IL: Haymarket Books. p. 402.ISBN1-931859-32-9.
- ^Dauvé, Gilles(1983)."The Story of Our Origins"(PDF).La Banquise.No. 2.
- ^Pitts, Frederick Harry (2017).Critiquing Capitalism Today: New Ways to Read Marx.Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 142.ISBN978-3-319-62632-1.
- ^Mehnert, Klaus (2021).Moscow and the New Left.Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. p. 20.ISBN978-0-520-02652-0.
- ^Birchall, Ian(May 1988)."The Left and May 68".Socialist Worker Review.No. 109.
- ^"Danger of Ultra-Leftism".Socialist Alternative.Retrieved13 December2018.
- ^Žižek, S.(December 2010).Douzinas, C.;Žižek, S.(eds.).The idea of communism.London:Verso Books.p. 37.ISBN9781844674596.
- ^Nicholas Thoburn "Do not be afraid, join us, come back? On the "idea of communism" in our time"Cultural CritiqueNumber 84, Spring 2013, pp. 1-34
- ^"Introduction" in Smith Evan, Worley MatthewAgainst the grain: The British far left from 1956,Oxford University Press, 1 December 2014
- ^e.g. John Molyneux "What do we mean by ultra-leftism?"(October 1985) inSocialist Worker Review80, October 1985, pp. 24–25.
- ^Hansen, Joseph (September 1999).Marxism vs. Ultraleftism: The Record of Healy's Break with Trotskyism.ISBN0873486897.Archived fromthe originalon 20 November 2008.Retrieved15 November2016.
- ^"A Critique of Ultra-Leftism, Dogmatism and Sectarianism, Introduction".www.marxists.org.Retrieved13 December2018.
Further reading[edit]
- Bahne, Siegfried, 'Zwischen' Luxemburgismus' und 'Stalinismus', die ultralinke Opposition in der KPD, inVierteljahreshefte für Zeitgeschichte,4/1961, pp. 359–383.
- Cunningham, John (29 September 2009)."Invisible Politics - An Introduction to Contemporary Communisation".Meta Mute.Retrieved9 January2017.
- Hoffrogge, Ralf. "Marcel Bois, Kommunisten gegen Hitler und Stalin--Die Linke Opposition der KPD in der Weimarer Republik. Eine Gesamtdarstellung"Twentieth Century Communism,no. 10, 2016, p. 139+. Academic OneFile, Accessed 7 September 2017.
- O. LangelsDie Ultralinke Opposition der KPD in der Weimarer Republik(Frankfurt am Main: Verlag Peter Lang, 1984)
External links[edit]
- Libertarian Communist Library – an archive of libertarian, left and ultra-left communist texts
- Gilles Dauvé(1969)"Leninism and the Ultra-Left"in Gilles Dauvé and François Martin,The Eclipse and Re-Emergence of the Communist Movement,63–75. Rev. ed. London: Antagonism Press.
- Peter Camejo,Liberalism, Ultra-Leftism or mass action
- Abbie Bakan,Ultraleftism: left words, sectarian practice
- International Luxemburgist Network (Anti-Leninist)