Transpontine channels Victor Serge. James Horrox channels Gustav Landauer. Jill Mountford channels Mary MacArthur, the chainmaker’s champion. The AWL channels Pierre Broue on the Bolsheviks as they really were. Lars Lih channels Lenin.
Poumacetic
The past in the present: After last week’s echoes of the Spanish civil war in the UK student protests, here is a superb post by Marko Hoare finding echoes of Trotsky’s vacillations in contemporary Lib Dem policy: “Trotsky ‘massively regrets’ breaking pre-revolution pledge to give power to the proletariat”.
From the vaults: Black Flag 1976 with some wonderful insane leftist comments on sex (hat-tip me). And “What is the trad left?” Maurice Brinton from 1969.
Marxist theory/anarchist theory: Andrew Coates on Lars Libs’ Lenin Rediscovered: good analysis of some of Lenin’s (and Leninism’s) strengths and weeknesses. At Anarchist Writers, a Freedom text against Leninist distortions of anarchism from ca.2000. As they say, “With anarchism back in the news thanks to the student protests in 2010, we can expect the likes of the Socialist Workers Party to have patronising and inaccurate articles on “anarchism” in their publications.” Along the same lines, two anarchist letters to Socialist Resistance from 2004. Into more esoteric territory, they have a long critique of Allan Engler’s Economic Democracy: The Working-Class Alternative to Capitalism. And slightly less esoterically, here is “Bob” on some influential left-wing ideas, and here is Norman Geras’ take on a couple of them.
Anti-communism: This week Barry Rubin at PJM on Bertram Wolfe, right-Communist turned apostate turned Cold Warrior. I will at some point return to this, because Wolfe is an interesting and important figure, badly served in this hatchet job.
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On this day, 1921: The Kronstadt Programme
Marxist theory 2
From The Commune:
- State capitalism and communism-from-below in latin america
- The spirit of utopia today
- On Marxism Today
From Workers Liberty:
- The mistakes of Mandel and Cliff on the Russian question
- Julius Jacobson on Shachtman on Leninism, the Comintern and putschism
- The two souls of eco-socialism
- Trotsky on why Stalin invaded Poland
- Third camp politics: America, Iran and our solidarity
- George Lansbury and Poplarism
- United Fronts and Popular Fronts
Sketchy Thoughts:
- (Introduction to Hamerquist)
- Don Hamerquist: Lenin, Leninism, and some leftovers
- (A response from Dave Renney)
- (A reply by Tom Wetzel)
- (A response by What in the hell…)
Notes and Commentaries:
Links:
Poumahoola
Galician metal workers on the barricades. Interview with Venezuelan anarchists of El Libertario.
Tragic presents:
Antisemitism, Human Rights and Acceptable Jews in Buenos Aires.
Alternative histories:
Yugoslav “self government” by Dan Jakopovich. Otto Bauer on film. Notes on the Portuguese revolution. A little theory by Malatesta.
Iconography/iconoclasm:
Lenin’s butt remodelled. The equivalence of totalitarianisms: no Che on Polish t-shirts.
Fascism and anti-fascism:
Don PalabraZ is a Subversive Historian. mister word’s latest post recalls the day in 1938 Joe Louis defeated Max Schmeling for the heavy-weight boxing title. Curiously, despite being championed by a dead incestuous coprophiliac dicktator, and acting as a mouthpiece for the Nazi regime, Schmeling was:
Compassionate and Modest
…On Kristallnacht, Schmeling took an enormous risk and hid the two teenage sons of a Jewish friend in his Berlin hotel room. The boxer claimed to be sick and did not allow any visitors. When the opportunity presented itself, Schmeling smuggled the two boys out of the country. Henri Lewin, who became a Las Vegas hotelier, credits Schmeling with his life; characteristically, the modest Schmeling made no mention of this episode in his own autobiography.
Below the fold – From the archive of struggle, no.24: (more…)
Marxist theory
1. Hal Draper’s piece on Israel posted by angelus novus at Contested Terrain (and linked to here) has prompted a very thoughtful, intelligent response by Mira Vogel, posted at Engage and Greens Engage, two excellent British left-wing anti-racist sites.
2. Larry Gambone has a couple of recent articles of interest, most notably his dissection of the myth of Lenin’s “libertarian” State and Revolution (a myth that Draper contributed to).
3. Via Bermuda Radical (a bit Pabloite for my liking), I came across Sebastian Lamb’s critique of J Sakai and his theory of “settler” racism – useful.
4. I also recently found the Notes and Commentaries, a very interesting communist blog. This article, on sectarianism and the party, is especially good. (Again, Draper is a key reference point.)
5. Principia Dialectica lay into Amadeo Bordiga and his cult here.
Below the fold: From the archive of struggle, no.22
Who would have expected that of Herr Bronstein from Cafe Central!
Meanwhile, Roland, having heard that Hugo Chavez is planning to give Barack Obama a copy of Lenin’s What is to be Done next time he sees him, conjures up the appalling spectacle of a Chavez book club. On the Lenin gift, Jams comments “That should save Obama a few prescriptions for sleeping tablets”, and Bob adds “Personally, I think that, if books can be called evil, that What is to be Done is up there with Mein Kampf. And it’s boring!”
Meanwhile, Obama himself, interviewed on Radio 4 on his way to Cairo, mentioned he was currently reading Joseph O’Neil’s Netherland, a book heavily influenced by one of my heroes (and part of Trotsky’s legacy), CLR James.
Poumista 