The Science and Passion of Communism

Selected Writings of Amadeo Bordiga (1912-1965)
Erscheinungsjahr 2020
ISBN: 978-90-04-23450-5
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 209, 526 Seiten, Format (B × H): 164 mm x 243 mm, Gewicht: 866 g

Reihe: Historical Materialism Book Series

The Science and Passion of Communism presents the battles of the brilliant Italian communist Amadeo Bordiga in the revolutionary cycle of the post-WWI period, through his writings against reformism and war, for Soviet power and internationalism, and then against fascism, on one side, Stalinism and the degeneration of the International, on the other.

Equally important was his sharp critique of triumphant U.S. capitalism in the post-WWII period, and his original re-presentation of Marxist critique of political economy, which includes the capital-nature and capital-species relationships, and the programme of social transformations for the revolution to come.

Without any form of canonization, we can say that Bordiga’s huge workshop is a veritable goldmine, and anyone who decides to enter it will not be disappointed. He will guide you through a series of instructive, energizing and often highly topical excursions into the near and distant past, into the present that he largely foresaw, and into the future that he sketched with devouring passion.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Bordiga, Amadeo

Basso, Pietro

Weitere Mitwirkende

Donis, Giacomo

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Weltgeschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Ideologien Marxismus, Kommunismus

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgements

List of Figures

Introduction: Yesterday’s Battles and Today’s World

Part 1 The Italian Left in the Great Revolutionary Struggle (1912–26)

1 Against the War

2 On Elections

3 On Soviets

4 On Strategy and Tactics

5 On Fascism, against Fascism

6 The Lyons Theses

7 Against Stalin and ‘Socialism in One Country’

Part 2 The Struggle for the Rebirth of Revolutionary Communism (1945–65)

Section 1 Russia and Revolution in Marxist Theory

8 Lessons of Counter-revolutions

9 Forty Years of Organically Analysing Russian Events within the Dramatic Context of the Social and Historical Course of the World

Section 2 The Critique of Triumphant Capitalism

10 Property and Financial Capital

11 Welfare Economics

12 The Law of Hunger

13 Murder of the Dead

14 Inflation of the State

15 The United States of America (1947–57)

Section 3 On the ‘Gigantic Movement of Emancipation’ of the Coloured Peoples

16 The Factors of Race and Nation in Marxist Theory (1953)

17 East

18 The Multiple Revolutions

19 ‘Racial’ Pressure of the Peasantry, Class Pressure of the Coloured Peoples

Section 4 On the Revolutionary Prospects of Communism

20 The Revolutionary Programme of Communist Society

21 Who’s Afraid of Automation?

22 The Immediate Revolutionary Programme in the Capitalist West

Section 5 On the Party

23 Considerations on the Party’s Organic Activity When the General Situation is Historically Unfavourable (1965)

Annotated Bibliography of Bordiga’s Writings

Annotated Bibliography on Bordiga in Italian

References

Index

Illustrations

Über Autor(innen)

Amadeo Bordiga was one of the greatest figures of the Third International. A socialist militant from the age of 21, he became the undisputed leader of the Communist Party of Italy before being imprisoned by the Mussolini regime. After a long hiatus, he resumed his political and theoretical work in 1944, producing many significant writings in the years up to his death in 1970.

Pietro Basso has been Associate Professor of Sociology at the Ca' Foscari University of Venice. His works include Modern Times, Ancient Hours (Verso, 2003), Le racisme européen (Syllepse, 2016), and Le grandi questioni sociali del nostro tempo (Edizioni Ca' Foscari, 2018, co-edited with Giuliana Chiaretti).