Many Marxists, for whatever reason, have accused the Left Communists of being the most sectarian and closed minded kind of Marxist. Others have accused Left Communism of being revisionism, an abandonment of Marxism. The intent of this essay is to find out whether or not these accusations are true.
First we need to define Left Communism. Left Communism in this essay, “is the range of communist viewpoints held by the communist left, which criticizes the political ideas of the Bolsheviks from a position that is asserted to be more authentically Marxist and proletarian than the views of Leninism held by the Communist International after its first two congresses” (Wikipedia). Although Rosa Luxembourg lived before Left Communism became distinct, her works are very influential in the modern Left Communist movement. So I think it is fair, for the sake of this essay, to count her among the ranks of the Left Communists.
“The sect sees its raison d'être and its point of honour not in what it has in common with the class movement but in the particular shibboleth which distinguishes it from the movement." (Marx to Schweitzer, 13th October 1868.)
The Spartacist League, originally formed as the “Revolutionary Tendency” of the SWP, has been known to get into brawls with far right-wing groups (such as the KKK). There is nothing wrong with that tactic when employed properly, but right-wingers aren’t all the SL have fought with. They have gotten violent at meetings with other leftists, including with the ISO (International Socialist Organization) and DSA (Democratic Socialists of America). This is certainly not a good tactic. Instead of engaging in constructive debates with other leftists, they have decided to act like sectarian thugs and attack anyone who disagrees with them even slightly. For clarification, the SL considers itself to be Trotskyist, but it has a wild streak of Left Communism (“American Red Groups” source).
Let’s take a more classic example. In the 1920’s the Communist Party of Italy was under the leadership of Left Communist Amadeo Bordiga. It was to remain this way until 1926. Under Bordiga’s guidance, the Communist Party of Italy became isolated from other anti-fascist militants. This isolation got worse as Party militants were instructed to leave defense groups that weren’t completely controlled by the Party. These sectarian tactics also lead to fighting within the Party itself (“Left Communism” source).
The International Communist Current, a Left Communist group with members worldwide, has seen a number of sectarianism-induced splits within its ranks over the years (“International Communist Current” source).
I do not intend to investigate and analyze the entire history of Left Communism and its various groups. It would take volumes of books to do that. It would also be unfair to lump all Left Communist groups together into one stereotype. So, in the interest of fairness, I will conclude that Left Communism has a frightening history of sectarianism. Does this mean Left Communism is only for people with sectarian views? No, it would be wrong to lump that many people into one category, and to even attempt to do so could take years of work. The point here is that Left Communism has a history of sectarianism, and it is right to accuse many, many of its followers of being childishly sectarian, but we should avoid stereotyping all of these people.
Others have accused Left Communists of revising Marxism. Let’s take a look at its history and theory to see whether or not this is true.
One thing the Left Communists like to put forward is the idea of being uncompromising. "...All compromise with other parties ... any policy of maneuvering and compromise must be emphatically rejected," the German Lefts write in the Frankfurt pamphlet. However, F. Engels felt compromises were necessary in order to eventually achieve (in full) the final goal. This is what Engels wrote, almost sarcastically, in 1874 condemning the manifesto of the thirty-three Blanquist Communards:
"’We are Communists’ [the Blanquist Communards wrote in their manifesto], ’because we want to attain our goal without stopping at intermediate stations, without any compromises, which only postpone the day of victory and prolong the period of slavery.’”
“The thirty-three Blanquists are Communists just because they imagine that, merely because they want to skip the intermediate stations and compromises, the matter is settled, and if ‘it begins’ in the next few days—which they take for granted—and they take over power, ‘communism will be introduced’ the day after tomorrow. If that is not immediately possible, they are not Communists.”
"What childish innocence it is to present one’s own impatience as a theoretically convincing argument (Engels source)!"
So we have found one occasion in which common Left Communist theory abandons Marxism. Are there anymore?
“…all compromise with other parties, all reversion to parliamentary forms of struggle which have become historically and politically obsolete, and any policy of maneuvering and compromise must be emphatically rejected." - from “The Split in the Communist Party of Germany (The Spartacus League)”
We’ve already addressed compromise, now let’s address parliamentary struggle. Engels said in The Tactics of Social-Democracy that work within parliament was not obsolete, and that in some cases it would help the revolutionaries avoid falling into the traps of bourgeois agitators who only want to spill as much proletarian blood as they can while the bourgeoisie is still strong (second Engels source). When the Bolsheviks were working to seize power in Russia, they found it very beneficial to work within parliament. It gave them exposure they didn’t get before (Lenin source).
From this short examination, we can see that Left Communism does make major breaks with Marxism in some areas. Again, this doesn’t mean all Left Communist groups make these very same mistakes.
From this we will conclude that Left Communism is very sectarian and very revisionist, but we should study a Left party, regardless of its ideology, before labeling it as such in order to avoid dangerous stereotyping. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if most Left Communist groups fit the stereotype of being sectarian and revisionist.
Works Cited:
"American Red Groups." 11 July 2002. Web. 13 Feb 2010. http://reds.linefeed.org/groups.html.
"International Communist Current." Wikimedia, Web. http://www.fact-index.com/i/in/international_communist_current.html.
"Left Communism." Wikimedia, Web. http://www.fact-index.com/l/le/left_communism.html.
“Left-Wing Communism: An Infantile Disorder” by V.I. Lenin
"Programme of the Blanquist Communards" by Frederick Engels
“Tactics of Social Democracy” by Frederick Engels
"The International Conferences of the Communist Left (1976-80)." International Review (2005): n. pag. Web. 13 Feb 2010. http://en.internationalism.org/ir/122_conferences.
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