Hello All,
The 49th St. Underground would like to announce an evening discussion ofthe Left Communist and Council Communist traditions. This version of Lefttheory and practice is often appealed to as a way to escape the pitfalls of the Stalinization of Marxist and Left politics. However, we have foundthat it is rarely closely examined. As always, we will take a critical and historical approach to these movements, attempting to understand them intheir moment, understand what was revolutionary about them in that moment, and critically appropriate that which may still be revolutionary and inform our conteporary left politics. We do not arrive at these texts with a dogma and are open to all directions that the discussion might lead us. This is a process of critical exploration.

A note of explanation: I have included a wide array of links to texts and if you find yourself interested and with a great deal of free time, then read them all. However, if you are like most people you don't have the time to read all these articles-- even as short as some of them are--, so please read a variety of articles and come prepared to present and to discuss what you have read. (The historical study by Gerber and the articles by Mattick might be the best place to start.)

Thanks,
Parker Everett
www.49underground.org/index.php

Rosa Luxemburg (Poland/Germany): Mass Strike (1906)
marxists.org/archive/luxemburg/1906/mass-strike/index.htm

Anton Pannekoek (Netherlands): Marxist Theory and Revolutionary Tactics
(1912)
marxists.org/archive/pannekoe/1912/tactics.htm
Pannekoek: World Revolution and Communist Tactics (1920)
marxists.org/archive/pannekoe/tactics/ch01.htm

Alexandra Kollantai (Russia): The Workers Opposition (1921)
marxists.org/archive/kollonta/1921/workers-opposition/index.htm
Shliapnikov (Russia): Theses of the Worker's Opposition (1921)
marxists.org/archive/shliapnikov/1921/workers-opposition.htm

Karl Korsch (Germany and America): Why I am a Marxist (1934)
marxists.org/archive/korsch/1934/why-marxist.htm
Korsch: Lenin as Philosopher (1938)
marxists.org/archive/korsch/1938/lenin-philosophy.htm

Paul Mattick (Germany and America): Council Communism (1939)
marxists.org/archive/mattick-paul/1947/germany.htm
Mattick: Spontaneity and Organization (1949)
marxists.org/archive/mattick-paul/1949/spontaneity.htm
Mattick: Anti-Bolshevist Communism in Germany (1947)
marxists.org/archive/mattick-paul/1947/germany.htm
Mattick: Otto Ruehle and the German Labor Movement (1935)
marxists.org/archive/mattick-paul/1945/otto-ruhle.htm

Otto Ruehle (Germany): The Revolution is not a Party Affair (1920)
marxists.org/archive/ruhle/1920/ruhle02.htm
Ruehle: Report from Moscow (1920)
marxists.org/archive/ruhle/1920/ruhle01.htm

Vladimir Lenin (Russia): Left Wing Communism: An Infantile Disorder (1920)
www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1920/lwc/index.htm
Hermann Gorter (Netherlands/Germany): Open Letter to Comrade Lenin (1920)
marxists.org/archive/gorter/1920/open-letter/index.htm
Franz Pfempfert (Germany): The "Infantile Disorder" and the Third
International (1920)
www.kurasje.org/arksys/archset.htm [not a direct link]

Amadeo Bordiga (Italy): Is this the Time to Form "Soviets"? (1919)
marxists.org/archive/bordiga/works/1919/soviets.htm
Bordiga: Toward the Establishment of Workers' Councils in Italy (1920)
marxists.org/archive/bordiga/works/1920/workers-councils.htm
Bordiga: The Communist Left in the Third International (1926)
marxists.org/archive/bordiga/works/1926/comintern.htm
Bordiga: Letter to Karl Korsch (1926)
marxists.org/archive/bordiga/works/1926/letter-korsch.htm

Those of you interested might want to pursue this tradition further at
this site:
Kurasje: Council Communist Archive
www.kurasje.org/arksys/archset.htm
and another site
www.left-dis.nl/