The German-Dutch Communist Left - Libcom

the basic texts of 1930s council communism, including texts of Pannekoek and Gorter. 1283 The teachings of Paul
Mattick Sr. in 1975-76 at the University of Roskilde in Denmark had a real impact on the propagation of
councilist theories in the ‘anti-authoritarian’ milieu in Scandinavia. 1284 Outside Scandinavia, in countries like
Germany and Italy, the influence of council communism, and of Mattick in particular, made itself felt at the
‘literary’ level through the re-publication of old texts. In Germany after 1968 the councilist current has barely
crystallised in groups, with the notable exception of the group Die soziale Revolution ist keine Parteisache!
(‘Social revolution is not a party affair!’) in 1971. 1285 The same is true of Italy, where ‘councilism’ in the strict
sense of the term has fled into the fringes of the ‘Workers’ Autonomy’ (Autonomia Operaia) movement at the
end of the seventies. 1286
In the period after 1968, and until the mid-1970s, ‘councilism’ played the role of an antechamber. Certain groups
have disengaged themselves from it and have evolved towards the positions of the so-called ‘ultra-left, by
appropriating political and theoretical experience of the communist left of the 1920s and 30s in Germany and
Italy, and in France around Bilan. 1287 The others have disappeared after trying more or less a synthesis of council
communism, ‘modernism’, and ‘left-wing communism’. 1288
1283 The Internationell Arbetarkamp translated the GIC’s Theses on Bolshevism into Swedish [No. 3, May 1973], as well as
Pannekoek’s 1934 text The intelligentsia in the class struggle [pamphlet published in September 1973]. Arbetarmakt
published in Swedish the Theses on Bolshevism (1975), Pannekoek’s Lenin as Philosopher (pamphlet No. 3), Gorter’s Open
letter to comrade Lenin (pamphlet No. 10), along with texts by Cardan, Rosa Luxemburg, and Rossana Rossanda (the
Italian ‘Manifesto’ group). They also translated texts from the KAPD and the AAU, with studies on the KAPD, heavily
influenced by H.M. Bock’s book [in pamphlet No. 11, Arbetarråde, the theoretical review Råds Makt No. 8, 1975,
‘Vänsterkommunismen i Tyskland’.] Arbetarmakt was also influenced by Harald Andersen-Harild, an old council
communist from the Danish GIK of the 1930s, and in 1976 republished the first issue of Mod Strømen (December 1930).
For its part, the ‘Kommunismen’ group – led by Carsten Juhl, today associate professor at the Royal Danish Academy of
Fine Arts – republished in German texts by the KAPD (‘Partei und Klasse’ in Verlag Kommunismen), by Gorter (‘Die
Kommunistische Arbeiter-Internationale’), in 1972; Pannekoek’s 1909 text ‘Tactical disagreements in the workers’
movement was republished in 1974. In 1971, Kommunismen had published in French an important pamphlet : La Gauche
allemande et la question syndicale dans la III e Internationale.
1284 Coming from the author of Marx and Keynes, Mattick’s crisis theory influenced the whole ‘councilist’ milieu, in
Scandinavia, Britain, etc. As a disciple of Grossmann, he considered that the crises of capital could be explained entirely by
the tendency of the rate of profit to fall, the ‘saturation of markets’ having no part to play in explaining them. Mattick’s
influence in Scandinavia seems to have promoted an essentially academic study of Marx’s Capital. Most of the
Scandinavian councilist groups spread the idea of the study of ‘Kapitallogik’ (Capital’s Logic), such as the Swedish
periodical Tekla (1977-1984). Under Mattick’s influence, they saw themselves as academic study groups, rather than groups
for ‘political intervention’. As for Mattick himself, his view of future revolutionary perspectives, at the end of the 70s,
moved between pessimism and optimism: “The future remains open... Marxists necessarily start from the principle that the
road to socialism is not cut, and that there remains a chance to overthrow capitalism before it self-destructs... And yet, after
more than 100 years of socialist agitation, the hope seems slender indeed. What one generation has learned, the next forgets,
led as it is by forces outside its control and therefore beyond its understanding”. [P. Mattick’s Le marxisme hier,
aujourd’hui, et demain (Paris: Cahiers Spartacus, 1983), p. 30; text from 1979.]
1285 This West Berlin group published only two issues in 1971: there were numerous contributions from such groups as Daad
en Gedachte, Solidarity, Root and Branch, ICO, and Révolution Internationale, along with texts by Mattick. Other
periodicals like Politikon, Revolte, Schwarze Protokolle, born at the same moment, oscillated between anarchism,
situationism, and ‘councilism’, in the wake of the student revolt.
1286 Council communist ideas found a more favourable terrain with the decomposition of the Italian ‘bordigist’ movement
and the rejection of all form of Leninism after the polish strikes at the beginning of the 1980s. This found expression in
numerous translations of Mattick, Pannekoek, Rühle, etc.
1287 This was the case with a number of groups which formed sections of the International Communist Current (ICC),
founded in 1975. In 1972, after abandoning their ‘councilist’ positions, the Marseilles group Cahiers du communisme de
conseils (Robert Camoin) and the Organisation conseilliste de Clermont-Ferrand (Guy Sabatier) merged with the Révolution
Internationale group, since 1975 the ICC’s section in France. After breaking with ‘councilism’, the British World
Revolution group, which had emerged from London Solidarity, became the ICC’s section in Britain. The same happened in
Sweden, where a nucleus from the För Kommunismen group (1975-1977) – which came from the CP in Stockholm – joined
with some elements from Arbetarmakt to for Internationell Revolution, the ICC’s section in Sweden. The same was true of
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