The Council Communist Reader

Author : Paul Mattick
Publisher : Pattern Books
ISBN 13 : 8843114581
Total Pages : 360 pages
Book Rating : 4.80/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Council Communist Reader written by Paul Mattick and published by Pattern Books. This book was released on 2021-05-24 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: " 'Workers' councils' does not designate a fixed form of organization, elaborated once and for all and for which all that remains is to perfect its details; it concerns a principle, that of workers' self management of the enterprise and of production. The realization of this principle can never occur through a theoretical discussion concerning the best means of execution. It is a question of the practical struggle against the apparatus of capitalist domination." - Anton Pannekoek The Council Communist Reader is a collection of selected writings from a few council communists. Council Communism emerged in Holland and Germany in the 1920's as an alternative to Bolshevik and Marxist-Leninist thought up to the Third International. Council Communist theory was derived from workers' experiences in the German Revolution of 1918, the early years of the Weimar Republic, and the study of the early council movements in Russia in 1905 and 1917. They sought not to impose a kind of organization upon the workers' movement, but instead to uplift the form of "councils" as spontaneous and self-emancipatory for the working class. This was a throughline for the council communists to connect back to Marx's understanding of proletarian revolution in maintaining "the emancipation of the working class is the task of the workers themselves." Council communism was not to be a new ideology for the working class, but to take a critique of state socialism back to the roots of self-emancipation towards theoretical coherence which can combat all forms that hinder emancipation and move this theoretical coherence into practice. From this, and their understanding revolutionary consciousness develops as a result of crisis, revolution is not a choice but a necessity. The works included in this book have been chosen to reflect the developments of Council Communism over decades; this is not an exhaustive, encyclopedic collection of all councilist texts, but a collection of key texts. This book in the Radical Reprint series from Pattern Books is made to be accessible and as close to manufacturing cost as possible.

Author : Anton Pannekoek
Publisher : PM Press
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 321 pages
Book Rating : 4.95/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Workers’ Way to Freedom written by Anton Pannekoek and published by PM Press. This book was released on 2024-01-02 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Anton Pannekoek (1873-1960), the Dutch astronomer and Marxist revolutionary, was a key theoretician of council communism—a Marxist alternative to both Leninism and Social Democracy that instead emphasized working-class self-emancipation through workers’ councils. The first half of this book walks the reader through the fundamentals of council communism and the conditions that led to the development of these ideas. The second half of the book demonstrates the rich depth of Pannekoek’s thinking, with penetrating essays and insightful letters on revolutionary organization, state capitalism, Marxism, the limitations of trade unions and political parties, the potential of wildcat strikes, public vs. common ownership, the necessity of combining organization and freedom, the deceptiveness of parliamentarism, workers’ councils, the vital importance of working-class self-emancipation, and more. With the recent resurgence in the naïve hope that Democratic Socialism and trade unionism can act as radical methods to meaningfully confront or even overthrow capitalism, Pannekoek’s council communist ideas encourage workers to think for themselves rather than submit to the dead-end traditions of the old movement and embrace the collective self-activity that can build a new movement capable of overcoming the struggles we face ahead.

Author : Anton Pannekoek
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780359046485
Total Pages : 180 pages
Book Rating : 4.87/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Workers' Councils written by Anton Pannekoek and published by . This book was released on 2018-08-24 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Anton Pannekoek discusses the viability of workers' councils as an effective means of administrating a socialist society, as contrasted to the centralized doctrines of state communism or state capitalism. Conceived as an alternative way to establish and sustain socialism, the workers councils have so far never been successfully established at a national scale. Part of the problem was disagreements among revolutionaries about their size and responsibilities; while Lenin supported the notion during the revolutionary period, the councils were phased out in favor of a centralized state, rather than diffused through the strata of society. Pannekoek draws on history for his ideas, noting the deficiencies of previous revolutions and the major objectives a future revolution should hold. The various tasks a state of worker's councils must accomplish, and the enemies that must be overcome - notably fascists, bourgeois elements and big business - are listed.

Author : Peter Gross
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 0739174940
Total Pages : 224 pages
Book Rating : 4.44/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Media Transformations in the Post-communist World written by Peter Gross and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2012 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Media Transformations in the Post-Communist World: Eastern Europe's Tortured Path to Change, edited by Peter Gross and Karol Jakubowicz, is a collection of analyses of Eastern European media by some of the most distinguished scholars in the field. This in-depth exploration shows how despite positive changes after the fall of Communism, the transformations of societal institutions, including the mass media, have turned out to be slow, uncertain, and unsatisfying to many when measured against the admittedly ambiguous and overly Panglossian expectations. This collection offers readers a different view of post-Communist media by examining the mass media's evolution in the region from a more holistic perspective. The contributors to this volume respond to essential questions, including: Is the post-Communist transition and transformation over? When can it be considered over? Each chapter contributes to our understanding of these questions by offering theoretical overviews and country-specific studies. This collection serves as an affirmation that the study of mass media is essential to understanding the nature and workings of democracy in the long-suffering nations of Central and Eastern Europe, with international applications. Media Transformations in the Post-Communist World is an indispensable contribution to the study of Eastern Europe after Communism, and the transformations of mass media in the region.

Author : Sue Vander Hook
Publisher : ABDO Publishing Company
ISBN 13 : 1617840750
Total Pages : 162 pages
Book Rating : 4.53/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Communism written by Sue Vander Hook and published by ABDO Publishing Company. This book was released on 2011-01-01 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This title examines communism in world history from the Russian Revolution of 1917 to creation of the Soviet Union after World War I, through World War II and the Cold War to its apex in the 1960s. Communist governments in the Soviet Union, China, Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam, and Laos, and Socialist Law are examined, as well as daily life for people under this type of government. Other types of governments are compared and contrasted, as are the properties of the central economy. Influences in the movement such as François Marie Charles Fourier, George Ripley, François-Noël Babeuf, John Goodwin Barmby, Friedrich Engels, Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Leon Trotsky, Mao Zedong, Fidel Castro, Nikita Khrushchev, Mikhail Gorbachev, Kim Jong-il, Nguyen Minh Triet, and Choummaly Sayasone are examined. Critics of communism such as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Ayn Rand, Ludwig von Mises, Milton Friedman, Robert Conquest, and Stéphane Courtois are introduced. Important institutions such as the Fourier Movement, Brook Farm, Communist Propaganda Society, League of the Just, Communist Correspondence Committee of Bruxelles, Communist League are explored. Important events such as the Cultural Revolution, Cuban Missile Crisis, Bay of Pigs Invasion, The Helsinki Accords, House Committee on Un-American Activities investigation, Fall of Berlin Wall are highlighted, and important works such as The Communist Manifesto, and State and Revolution are included. Exploring World Governments is a series in Essential Library, an imprint of ABDO Publishing Company.

Author : Philippe Bourrinet
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 900432593X
Total Pages : 701 pages
Book Rating : 4.37/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Dutch and German Communist Left (1900–68) written by Philippe Bourrinet and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2016-11-01 with total page 701 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Dutch-German Communist Left separated from the Comintern (1921) on questions like electoralism, trade-unionism, united fronts, the one-party state and anti-proletarian violence. The present volume provides the most substantial history to date of this tendency in the twentieth-century Communist movement.

Author : Vladimir Tismaneanu
Publisher : University of California Press
ISBN 13 : 0520282205
Total Pages : 334 pages
Book Rating : 4.09/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Devil in History written by Vladimir Tismaneanu and published by University of California Press. This book was released on 2014-03-14 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Devil in History is a provocative analysis of the relationship between communism and fascism. Reflecting the author’s personal experiences within communist totalitarianism, this is a book about political passions, radicalism, utopian ideals, and their catastrophic consequences in the twentieth century’s experiments in social engineering. Vladimir Tismaneanu brilliantly compares communism and fascism as competing, sometimes overlapping, and occasionally strikingly similar systems of political totalitarianism. He examines the inherent ideological appeal of these radical, revolutionary political movements, the visions of salvation and revolution they pursued, the value and types of charisma of leaders within these political movements, the place of violence within these systems, and their legacies in contemporary politics. The author discusses thinkers who have shaped contemporary understanding of totalitarian movements—people such as Hannah Arendt, Raymond Aron, Isaiah Berlin, Albert Camus, François Furet, Tony Judt, Ian Kershaw, Leszek Kolakowski, Richard Pipes, and Robert C. Tucker. As much a theoretical analysis of the practical philosophies of Marxism-Leninism and Fascism as it is a political biography of particular figures, this book deals with the incarnation of diabolically nihilistic principles of human subjugation and conditioning in the name of presumably pure and purifying goals. Ultimately, the author claims that no ideological commitment, no matter how absorbing, should ever prevail over the sanctity of human life. He comes to the conclusion that no party, movement, or leader holds the right to dictate to the followers to renounce their critical faculties and to embrace a pseudo-miraculous, a mystically self-centered, delusional vision of mandatory happiness.

Author :
Publisher : PM Press
ISBN 13 : 160486737X
Total Pages : 505 pages
Book Rating : 4.74/5 ( download)

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Download or read book All Power to the Councils! written by and published by PM Press. This book was released on 2012-06-07 with total page 505 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The German Revolution erupted out of the ashes of World War I, triggered by mutinying sailors refusing to be sacrificed in the final carnage of the war. While the Social Democrats grabbed power, radicals across the country rallied to establish a communist society under the slogan “All Power to the Councils!” The Spartacus League launched an uprising in Berlin, council republics were proclaimed in Bremen and Bavaria, and workers' revolts shook numerous German towns. Yet in an act that would tragically shape the course of history, the Social Democratic government crushed the rebellions with the help of right-wing militias, paving the way for the ill-fated Weimar Republic—and ultimately the ascension of the Nazis. This definitive documentary history collects manifestos, speeches, articles, and letters from the German Revolution—Rosa Luxemburg, the Revolutionary Stewards, and Gustav Landauer amongst others—introduced and annotated by the editor. Many documents, such as the anarchist Erich Mühsam's comprehensive account of the Bavarian Council Republic, are presented here in English for the first time. The volume also includes materials from the Red Ruhr Army that repelled the reactionary Kapp Putsch in 1920 and the communist bandits that roamed Eastern Germany until 1921. All Power to the Councils! provides a dynamic and vivid picture of a time of great hope and devastating betrayal.

Author : Philip Brenner
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 0742555062
Total Pages : 430 pages
Book Rating : 4.68/5 ( download)

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Download or read book A Contemporary Cuba Reader written by Philip Brenner and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2008 with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of essays that explore a wide range of topics related to Cuban politics, economics, foreign policy, social transformation, and culture in the post-Soviet era.

Author : András Fejérdy
Publisher : Central European University Press
ISBN 13 : 9633862485
Total Pages : 449 pages
Book Rating : 4.83/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Pressed by a Double Loyalty written by András Fejérdy and published by Central European University Press. This book was released on 2017-02-10 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Second Vatican Council is the single most influential event in the 20th century history of the Catholic Church. The book analyzes the relationship between the Council and the "Ostpolitik" of the Vatican through the history of the Hungarian presence at Vatican II. Pope John XXIII, elected in 1958, was a catalyst. The pope thought that his most urgent task was to renew contacts with the Church behind the iron curtain. Hungarian participation at the Council was also made possible by the new, pragmatic model in Hungarian church politics. After the crushing of the 1956 Revolution, churches in Hungary thought that the regime would last and were willing to compromise. Vatican II – in the perspective of Hungary – was not primarily an ecclesial event, but it remained closely joined to the negotiations between the Holy See and the Kádár regime: during the Council Hungary became the experimental laboratory of the Vatican's new eastern policy. Was it a Vatican decision or a Soviet instruction? Fejérdy suggests that it was a decision of the Holy See.