(May 1922)
From International Press Correspondence, Vol. 2 No. 43, 30 May 1922, pp. 323–324.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive
In view of the fact that the 1st of May this year fell during the Genoa Conference, the Italian Government sent cut very stringent instructions to the chiefs of police, prohibiting any and all political demonstrations. The Fascisti announced that they looked upon the 1st of May and upon all demonstrations connected with it as an anti-Fascisti provocation; through their meager organization within the unis they made an attempt to shift the workers’ holiday to the 21st of April, thus turning it into a solemn fiasco. They even announced th... (From: Marxists.org.) Published: December 1, 1912 in L'Avanguardia; published in English in Communist Left 10/11, 1997, pages 63-68. Source: International Library of the Communist Left.
Though we can't yet evaluate the historical consequences of the
slaughter, as it draws to a close we can at least examine it somewhat
objectively from the socialist standpoint.
It is said that the Balkan peoples are fighting for the cause of
civilization, liberty and the independence of peoples; it is accepted as
indisputable dogma that the disappearance of Turkey from the map of
Europe will be a sound basis for eastern economic and social
development, and so must be welcomed by socialists. Before an astonished
Europe, the fine gesture of the four statelets took on... (From: Marxists.org.) Produced: at a Party meeting held in Florence, 8-9 December, 1951;
I. Theory
The doctrine of the Party is founded on the principles of the historical
materialism of the critical communism set out by Marx and Engels in the
Communist Manifesto, in Capital and their other fundamental works and which
formed the basis of the Communist International constituted in 1919 and of the
Italian Communist Party founded at Leghorn in 1921 (section of the Communist
International).
1. In the present capitalist social
regime an ever increasing contrast between productive forces and production
relations is developing. This contrast reveals itself in the opposing interests
and the class struggle between the proletariat and the ruling bourgeoisi... (From: Marxists.org.) First Published: Battaglia Comunista No. 39. 1949; Source: http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/3909/bordiga0.html; HTML Markup: Andy Blunden 2003.
Yesterday
Mistakes in the practice of the proletarian struggle and the ruinous deviations
from it, a feature of the First World War period as well as the Second and this
postwar period, are closely tied to the muddling up of the cardinal points of
the Marxist method.
Marx coordinated the forecast of the revolutionary workers' assault with the
economic laws of capitalist development.
Those that revised marxism wanted to find in the defects of the system, strengths
that have delayed our revolution for a century. On the basis of the new conditions
of transport and world commu... (From: Marxists.org.) Released as: “Commentarii dei manoscritti del 1844”: Il Programma comunista, Nr. 15-18, 1959.
Cornerstones of the communist program
At the closing sessions of the meetings in Turin and Parma (including the corollarii[1] in the report of the first meeting) we dealt with the basics of our party doctrine, which ties in with the negation of individualism and personality; something with which not only the propaganda of the Western capitalist countries, but also that of Moscow’s friends and followers, is rife with disgrace. The fact that we want to go back over this aspect of our doctrine is linked to the demonstration that all the innovations and reforms announced at the last Russian party congresses continue to drift diam... (From: Marxists.org.) Source: http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/3909/bordiga0.html; HTML Markup: Andy Blunden 2003.
“Since the Russian Revolution is the first great stage of
the world revolution it is also our revolution. Its problems are our
problems, and every militant in the revolutionary International has not
only the right, but also the duty, to collaborate in their
solution.” - Amadeo Bordiga, at the 20th session, 15th March 1926
Seventy years ago the wave of proletarian strife and insurrection
which had brought the 1st World War to a close was all but over.
Instead of being strengthened and supported by the establishment
of a European soviet republic and beyond, the Russian proletariat
had been left high and dry. ... (From: Marxists.org.) Published: May 15, 1924 in Prometeo; published in English in Communist Left 12/13, 1999. Source: International Library of the Communist Left.
A premise to the question
The important discussion presently going on within the Russian Communist
party throws into relief problems concerning the internal life of
revolutionary parties. They also arise within the polemics of communists
against other movements who seek to appeal to the proletariat and in the
internal debates, and whenever disagreements or particular crises arise
within our international communist organization.
However, as is often the case, it is wrong to pose the question by
setting one against the other two allegedly contrasting positions:
mechanical dependence on... (From: Marxists.org.) First Published: Rassegna Comunista - February 1922; Source: http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/3909/bordiga0.html; HTML Markup: Andy Blunden 2003.
The use of certain terms in the exposition of the problems of communism very
often engenders ambiguities because of the different meanings these terms may
be given. Such is the case with the words democracy and
democratic. In its statements of principle, Marxist communism presents
itself as a critique and a negation of democracy; yet communists often defend
the democratic character of proletarian organizations (the state system of
workers' councils, trade unions and the party) and the application of democracy
within them. There is certainly no contradiction in this, and no objec... (From: Marxists.org.) First published: as Dialogato con Stalin in Il Programma Comunista, in 4 parts, October-December 1952; Translated: by Libri Incogniti, libriincogniti.wordpress.com.
First Day
By submitting another article, a good two years after his last article,
(that infamous text on linguistics[1] which we had to deal with only incidentally, but which
would be worthy of detailed treatment; nevertheless, quod differtur[2]) about 50 pages long[3], Stalin responds to topics that have
been presented in the last two years not only in the series “Thread of
Time,” but also in the workshops on the theory and program of Marxism
conducted by our Movement, and which have been published in summarized or
detailed form.
By which we do not mea... (From: Marxists.org.) First Published: Battaglia Comunista no. 21, 1951; Source: http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/3909/bordiga0.html; HTML Markup: Andy Blunden 2003.
It is vital to be quite clear about the question of state capitalism in
order to reset the compasses that have lost their bearings.[1]
We have managed to gather many contributions to this question from the range
of traditional concepts of the marxist school that show that state capitalism
is not only the latest aspect of the bourgeois world, but that its forms, even
complete ones, are very old and correspond with the very emergence of the
capitalist type of production. They served as the main factors in primitive
accumulation and long preceded the fictitious and conventional env... (From: Marxists.org.) Source: http://web.infinito.it/utenti/c/communism/classici/bordigen.htm; First Published: Part One of the Lyon Theses, the “General Questions”, appeared in L'Unità on the 12, 14, 23 & 26 January; the complete text as a pamphlet with the title “Theses for the 3rd Congress”, Rome 1926; HTML Markup: Andy Blunden 2003.
Rome Theses — voted on at the 2nd congress of the Communist Party of Italy on March 26, 1922. The text presented at the congress is published in Comunista, no. 67, 31/12/1921; in Ordine Nuovo, no. 2, 3/1/1922; in the Lavoratore, No. 4960; in Rassegna Comunista, No.17 on the 30/1/1922. The few changes made to the first text at the congress are published in: Comunista, No. 95, 4/4/1922; the... (From: Marxists.org.) First Published: Battaglia Comunista No.23, 1951; Source: http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/3909/bordiga0.html; HTML Markup: Andy Blunden 2003.
The floods in the Po valley and the confused debate over their causes and
over the responsibility of organizations and public bodies that did not know
how to carry out protection work, with all the disgusting mutual accusations of
“speculating” on misfortune, puts into question one of the most
widespread false opinions shared by all the contenders. This is that
contemporary capitalist society, with the corresponding development of science,
technology and production, places the human species in the best possible
position to struggle against the difficulties of the natura... (From: Marxists.org.) Source: Communist Program, n.1, 1975, n.3, 1977, n.4, 1978, n.5, 1979. This text originally appeared in Italian in our review Prometeo, nos 2 and 4 (1946), nos 5 and 8 (1947) and nos 9 and 10 (1948).
I. Actual and Potential Violence
In the history of social aggregates we recognize the use of material force
and violence in an overt form whenever we observe conflicts and clashes among
individuals and among groups which result, through many different forms, in the
material injury and destruction of physical individuals.
Whenever this aspect comes to the surface in the course of social history,
it is received by the most varied reactions of abomination or of exaltation
which in turn furnish the most banal foundations of the various... (From: Marxists.org.) Source: web.infinito.it/utenti/c/communism/classici/bordigen.htm; First Published: in Prometeo 1946; HTML Markup: Andy Blunden 2003.
The Fundamentals for a Marxist Orientation
1. Marxism is not a matter of choice
between conflicting opinions, in the sense that Marxism is connected with a
historic tradition.
2. Orientation of the dialectic method
of Marxism; the contradiction between the productive forces and social forms;
classes, class struggle, party-conformism, reformism, anti-formism.
3. Interpretation of the
characteristics of the present historic period, dialectic evolution of historic
forms. Political example: monarchy and republic. Economic example:
mercantilism. Social example: the family. Ideological example:... (From: Marxists.org.) Published: Originally published in Il programma comunista, nos. 13, 14, and 15, 1957. Source: n+1.
Foreword (1976)
The following text is the written account of a party general meeting
held in 1957.
The negative historical phase which prompted the writing of the
Fundamentals is still very much with us today, and the text expresses
the hard, tiring work of doctrinarian clarification. As Lenin taught,
and as the Left has confirmed, this is a never-ending task for a
revolutionary party even in the heat of the armed insurrection. It
should be read in a spirit of extreme patience and humility (not
typical attributes of the rather impatient and conceited petty
bourgeoisie) because it represents a powerful synthesis of crucial,
... (From: Marxists.org.) Source: http://web.infinito.it/utenti/c/communism/classici/bordigen.htm; HTML Markup: Andy Blunden 2003.
At the Lyons Congress of the Communist Party of Italy in 1926, shortly before the Communist International adopted the theory of “socialism in one country”, the Left presented a draft theses (The Lyons Theses) which predictably was rejected by the largely Stalinised party. In these theses our current drew not only the balance sheet of the situation in Italy, of its activity when it was in the leadership of the Communist Party of Italy, and of the activity of the Gramsci-Togliatti leadership which was imposed on the party by the Communist International in the years after 1924. It also drew the balance sheet of the internationa... (From: Marxists.org.) First published: in Italian as “Tavole immutabili della teoria comunista del partito” in Il Programma Comunista No. 5, March 11-25, 1960. Translated: from the Italian by AnythingForProximity; Source of the Italian text: n+1.
Fundamental Marxist text
At the concluding session of the La Spezia meeting [1] and, at greater length, in the corresponding report (for which see issues 15, 16, 17, and 18 of Il Programma Comunista from 1959), a reiteration of essential topics took place on the occasion of our examination of the “Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844” by Karl Marx.
It was noted that the various editions of this text and its translations into different languages are not in agreement with one anothe... (From: Marxists.org.) First Published: Il Programma Comunista 23, December 1961; Translated: by Conor Murray.
In Mexico, in a lake called Patzcuaro, there is a little island called
Janitzio. 2350 meters above sea level a stunning landscape opens up before
visitors: tranquil waters, mountains, torturous slopes, a sky so close you can
almost touch it with a finger. Descendants of a proud race, the Tarascan
Indians did battle against the Spanish conquistadors. They were beaten, and
they adopted the Christian religion of the invader: but the saints whom they
revere have kept the character of ancient divinities: the Sun, the Water, the
Fire and the Moon. The Tarascanos are skilled in leatherworking and
woodcarving, silversmithing and weaving wool. They are... (From: Marxists.org.) (26 January 1919)
From Il Soviet, II/6, 26 January 1919 (unsigned).
The Italian text was taken from Amadeo Bordiga, Scritti 1911–1926, 3, Lotte sociali e prospettive rivoluzionarie del dopoguerra, 1918–1919, edited by Luigi Gerosa, Formia: Fondazione Amadeo Bordiga, 2010.
Translated by David Broder for MIA.
Marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive
In our last issue we did not want to speak of the terrible crime perpetrated by the gloating reactionaries in Germany. There was still some element of doubt about the news, and still some possibility that the monstrous tragedy was merely the brainchild of the sinister, Torquemada-like fantasies of the preening hyenas that count for capit... (From: Marxists.org.) First Published: Il Soviet, 21 September 1919, Vol. II, No.39; Source: http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/3909/bordiga0.html; HTML Markup: Andy Blunden 2003.
Two of the articles in our last issue, one devoted to an analysis of the
communist system of representation and the other to an exposition of the
current tasks facing our Party, concluded by asking whether it is possible or
appropriate to set up workers' and peasants' councils today, while the power of
the bourgeoisie is still intact. Comrade Ettore Croce, in a discussion of our
abstentionist thesis in an article in Avanti!, asks that we should
have a new weapon at the ready before getting rid of the old weapon of
parliamentary action and looks forward to the formation... (From: Marxists.org.) First Published: Il programma comunista no, 20 1963; Source: http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/3909/bordiga0.html; HTML Markup: Andy Blunden 2003.
The patriotic saga of Italy raised the Piave to the status of the
national river, and designated it as such, in 1917. In the war which
was to have been the Fourth War of Independence, leading the country in
a leap beyond the Venetian frontiers (won by no means by armed might)
already gained from the Third. After two years of an immobile front on
the Isonzo, streaming blood from a dozen battles, the direction then
changed with the famous defeat at, and flight from, Caporetto, with the
Austrians flooding onto the plain through this breach. After a few days
of fearing for the wors... (From: Marxists.org.) Written: November 1919 and January 1920; Source: http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/3909/bordiga0.html; HTML Markup: Andy Blunden 2003.
I
Abstentionist Communist Fraction of the Italian Socialist Party
Central Committee
Borgo San Antonio Abate 221
Naples
To the Moscow Committee of the IIIrd International.
Our fraction was formed after the Bologna Congress of the Italian Socialist
Party (6-10 October 1919), but it bad issued its propaganda previously through
the Naples newspaper Il Soviet, convening a conference at Rome
which approved the program subsequently presented to the Congress. We enclose
a collection of issues of the journal, plus several copies of the program
together with the motion with which it wa... (From: Marxists.org.) First Published: “Communist Left”, No.9, p.32-34; Source: International Library of the Communist Left; HTML Markup: Andy Blunden 2003.
Naples, 28. Octobre 1926
Dear Comrade Korsch
The problems we face today are so important that we should really be
discussing them face to face in detail. This unfortunately is not a possibility
at the moment. Also I won’t be covering all the points in your platform
in this letter, some of which could give rise to useful discussions between
us.
For example I don’t think “the way you express yourself”
about Russia is correct. We can’t say that “the Russian revolution
was a bourgeois revolution”. The 1917 revolution was a proletarian
revolu... (From: Marxists.org.) First Published: Battaglia Comunista No. 8, 17-20 April 1952; Translation: Communist Left, No. 2, January-June 1990; Source: http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/3909/bordiga0.html; HTML Markup: Andy Blunden 2003.
The decontamination to which we dedicate 90% of our humble work will be
continued a long time after us and be realized only in the distant future. This
decontamination combats the epidemic — always and everywhere dangerous,
of those who — in all places and at all times — innovate, bring up
to date, renovate and revise.
It would be useless and even detrimental to specify or to personalize
— to search around for a bacteriological bomb thrower — rather, it
is a matter of identifying the ... (From: Marxists.org.) (2 December 1921)
From International Press Correspondence, Vol. 1 No. 13, 2 December 1921, pp. 106–108.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive
The session of the National Council of the C.G.L. (General Federation of Labor) took place at Verona from the 5th to the 8th of November. After the General Congress this council is the most important body of the C.G.L.; it consists of representatives of all the local trade councils (in Italy every province has its Labor Council) and of all the National Unions. In contradistinction to the Congress the National Council does not consist of delegates directly elected by the local organizations but of officials of the Labor Councils an... (From: Marxists.org.) First Published: Battaglia Comunista No. 24 1951; Source: http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/3909/bordiga0.html; HTML Markup: Andy Blunden 2003.
In Italy, we have long experience of “catastrophes that strike
the country” and we also have a certain specialization in
“staging” them. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods,
rainstorms, epidemics... The effects are indisputably felt especially by
poorer people and those living at high densities, and if cataclysms that
are frequently much more terrifying strike all corners of the world, not
always do such unfavorable social conditions coincide with geographical
and geological ones. But every people and every country holds its own
delights: typhoons, drou... (From: Marxists.org.) First published: in Italian as “Contenuto originale del programma comunista è l'annullamento della persona singola come soggetto economico, titolare di diritti ed attore della storia umana” in Il Programma Comunista No. 21, November 18-December 3, 1958, and No. 22, December 4-18, 1958. Translated: from the Italian by AnythingForProximity
Source of the Italian text: Part 1, Part 2.
The original content of the communist program is the obliteration of the individual as an economic subject, rights-holder, and agent of human history
Marxism and property
One topic that we have frequently found ourselves occupied with is that of the formula which in the communist program correctly counterposes the post-bourgeois historica... (From: Marxists.org.) Source: “Communiste program”, No. 2, march 1976, Translated from “Partito e azione di classe”, Rassegna Comunista, Year I, No. 4, May 31, 1921.
In a previous article where we elaborated certain fundamental
theoretical concepts, we have shown not only that there is no contradiction in
the fact that the political party of the working class, the indispensable
instrument in the struggles for the emancipation of this class, includes in its
ranks only a part, a minority, of the class, but we also have shown that we
cannot speak of a class in historical movement without the existence of a party
which has a precise consciousness of this movement and its aims, and which
places itself at the vanguard of this movement ... (From: Marxists.org.) First Published: “Partito e classe”, Rassegna Comunista, no 2, April 15, 1921; Source: http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/3909/bordiga0.html; HTML Markup: Andy Blunden 2003.
The Theses on the Role of the Communist Party in the Proletarian
Revolution approved by the Second Congress of the Communist International are
genuinely and deeply rooted in the Marxist doctrine. These theses take the definition
of the relations between party and class as a starting point and establish that
the class party can include in its ranks only a part of the class itself, never
the whole nor even perhaps the majority of it. This obvious truth would have
been better emphasized if it had been pointed out that one cannot even speak
of a... (From: Marxists.org.) First Published: “Dittatura proletaria e partito di classe”, Battaglia Comunista nos 3, 4 and 5. 1951; Translation: Communist Program, No. 2, March 1976; Source: http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/3909/bordiga0.html; HTML Markup: Andy Blunden 2003.
I
Every class struggle is a political struggle (Marx).
A struggle which limits itself to obtaining a new distribution of economic
gains is not yet a political struggle because it is not directed against the
social structure of the production relations.
The disruption of the relations of production peculiar to a particular
social epoch and the overthrow of the rule of a certain social class is the
result of a long and often fluctuating political struggle. The key... (From: Marxists.org.)