Published: Science and Society, no. 4. Summer 1937. Transcription/Markup: Andy Blunden, for marxists.org 2003. Proofed: Micah Muer, 2017. Source: John Gray's Archive
I
Marx's theory of social development is known as the "materialistic conception
of history" or "historical materialism." Before Marx the word "materialism" had
long been used in opposition to idealism, for whereas idealistic philosophical
systems assumed some spiritual principle, some "Absolute Idea" as the primary
basis of the world, the materialistic philosophies proceeded from the real
material world. In the middle of the nineteenth century, another kind of
materialism was current which considered physical matter as the primary basis
from which all spiritual a... (From: Marxists.org.) Published: Left, no. 149. May 1950. Pages 49-53. Transcription/Markup: Micah Muer, 2017.
Editorial Note. — The Editorial Board of "Left" is deeply honored at
being permitted to publish this article by Dr. Pannekoek, the veteran Dutch
Libertarian Socialist and, beyond question, one of the greatest living Socialist
thinkers and scholars. — Editor, "Left."
I
In the second half of the 19th century the opinion spread widely among the
workers that socialism can and must be won by a parliamentary conquest of
political power; and it seemed well on the way. In the 20th century
disappointment brought skepticism; reformist, so-called socialist, parties rose
to power but deteriorated into agencies of capitalism. Many of th... (From: Marxists.org.) From: Rätekorrespondenz, 1936; English translation: International Council Correspondence, Vol.III, No.1, January 1937; Written: 1936 Transcription\HTML Markup: Greg Adargo Source: Kurasje Council Communist Archives
I.
The term “State Capitalism” is frequently used in two
different ways: first, as an economic form in which the state performs the role
of the capitalist employer, exploiting the workers in the interest of the state.
The federal mail system or a state-owned railway are examples of this kind of
state capitalism. In Russia, this form of state capitalism predominates in
industry: the work is planned, financed and managed by the state; the directors
of industry are appointed by the state and profits are... (From: Marxists.org.) Source: Western Socialist, January 1948, written in English; Transcribed: by Adam Buick.
In the workers’ movement two chief forms of fight are
distinguished, often denoted as the political and the economic field of fight.
The former centered about elections for parliamentary or analogous bodies, the
latter consisted in strikes for higher wages and better working conditions. In
the second half of the 19th century there was a common opinion among socialists
that the former had a fundamental importance, was revolutionary, because it set
up the aim of conquering political power, and thereby revolutionizing the
structure of society, abolishing capitalism and introducing a socialist system.
Whereas the latter was only a means of... (From: Marxists.org.) First Published: unsigned article in Ratekorrespondenz, June 1934; Translated: by Adam Buick in Capital and Class, Spring 1977; HTML Markup: Andy Blunden.
The idea that capitalism was in a final, its mortal, crisis dominated the
first years after the Russian revolution. When the revolutionary workers’
movement in Western Europe abated, the Third International gave up this theory,
but it was maintained by the opposition movement, the KAPD, which adopted the
theory of the mortal crisis of capitalism as the distinguishing feature between
the revolutionary and reformist points of view. The question of the necessity
and the inevitability of the collapse of capitalism, and the way in which this
is to be understood, is the most impo... (From: Marxists.org.) Source: Le Socialisme, November 7, 1908; Translated: for Marxists.org by Mitch Abidor.
The question of the relationship between reform and revolution
has played a preponderant role in all debates these last few years. We saw this
at the congresses of Nuremberg and Toulouse.
People seek to oppose reform to revolution. Intransigent comrades, always
preoccupied with revolution, are accused of neglecting reform. Opposed to them
is the concept that says that reforms systematically and methodically realized
in current society lead to socialism without a violent rupture being
necessary.
Contempt for reform is more anarchist than socialist. It is just as little
justified as the reformist concept. In fact revolution cannot be opposed ... (From: Marxists.org.) Publication: Southern Advocate for Workers' Councils, No. 33, May 1947, p. 2-3; Transcribed: by David Walters/Greg Adargo, December, 2001.
I. Capitalism in one century of growth has enormously
increased its power, not only through expansion over the entire earth, but also
through development into new forms. With it the working class has
increased in power, in numbers, in massal concentration, in organization. Its
fight against capitalist exploitation, for mastery over the means of production,
also is continually developing and has to develop into new forms.
The development of capitalism led to the concentration of power over the
chief branches of production in the hands of big monopolistic concerns. They are
intimately connect... (From: Marxists.org.) Written: 1917; Source: International Socialist Review, Vol. XVII, No. 8, February 1917, pp. 460-462. Translated: Unknown Transcription: Daniel Gaido, 2010 Markup: D. Walters, 2010 Copyright: Under the Creative Commons Common Deed. You can freely copy, distribute and display this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit the V.I. Lenin Internet Archive as your source, include the url to this work, and note any of the transcribers, editors & proofreaders above.
Note. — The following article by Comrade Anton
Pannekoek is from his magazine, “Vorbote.” It gives the views held
by Left Wing Socialists in Europe and of the Zimmerwald conference. Comrade
Pannekoek has long been regarded as one ... (From: Marxists.org.) First Published: International Council Correspondence, Vol.II, No.2, January 1936; Signed: J. Harper; Edited version: Root & Branch, No.6, 1978; Written: 1936; Transcription/HTML Markup:Greg Adargo; Source: Kurasje Council Communist Archives.
How must the working class fight capitalism in order to win? This
is the all important question facing the workers every day. What efficient means
of action, what tactics can they use to conquer power and defeat the enemy? No
science, no theory, could tell them exactly what to do. But spontaneously and
instinctively, by feeling out, by sensing the possibilities, they found their
ways of action. And as capitalism grew and conquered the earth and increased its
power, the power of the workers ... (From: Marxists.org.) Source: A Pannekoek, “The Universal Crisis” The Call, 5 February 1920, p.2; translated from Esperanto original in Internacia Socia Revero. Transcribed: by Ted Crawford.
The capitalist system, is in its death throes; its end has commenced.
The world wide war destroyed the productive powers of Europe, drained the
life blood of the peoples, and burdened the states with gigantic war debts. Many
people, when the war finished, believed that the victorious countries, at least,
could expect a period of expansion and recovery, during which capitalism would
be rebuilt. But today it is dear that it will be impossible to rebuild it. In
the conquered countries, stripped bare by the victors, economic stagnation and
social ruin beco... (From: Marxists.org.) From International Socialist Review, Vol. 13, No. 8, February 1913, pp. 589-593 & No. 9, March 1913, pp. 663-665.
Translated by William E. Bohn.
Downloaded with thanks from Archive.org.
Republished here under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 US.
Marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
DURING the closing months of the year 1912 the war against war has
dominated the thought and action of European Socialism. Geographical
and historical conditions give to war an extremely important role in
the social evolution of Europe. In America there exists one great
political unit in which immigrants from all lands amalgamate into a
single mass; therefore America offers the best ... (From: Marxists.org.) Written: October 14, 1914. Translation: Alfred D. Schoch. Published: International Socialist Review, vol. 15, no. 6. December 1914. Transcription/Markup: Micah Muer, 2017.
The war has already lasted two months and it is still undecided. What it has
brought is a frightful destruction of human life and human happiness, not only
for the soldiers, but also for the civil population; not only of property and
food supplies, but also of architectural monuments and works of art impossible
to replace. Belgium had been for many centuries the battlefield of Europe, but
in spite of that fact the old cities, the wonderful churches, the treasures of
art left by the Middle Ages, were still preserved when the first flourishing and
powerful profi... (From: Marxists.org.) Published: Industrial Worker, February 7, 1948. Transcription/Markup: Micah Muer, 2017.
Industrial Worker preface
An unusual amount of effort is being expended currently in many publications
to refute Marxism. LIFE magazine uses many pages for an article by John Dos
Passos on "The Failure of Marxism" that has no more to do with its failure than
crooked bookkeeping has to do with the validity of the multiplication tables.
Perhaps the occasion is that February, 1948, marks the 100th anniversary of the
enunciation of the basic historical teachings of Marxism in the "Communist
Manifesto" of 1848 ... which doesn't seem to have much bearing on what passes
under the name of "Communism" a century later. It is a pleasure under these
... (From: Marxists.org.) Thirty years ago every socialist was convinced that the
approaching war of the great capitalist powers would mean the final catastrophe
of capitalism and would be succeeded by the proletarian revolution. Even when
the war did break out and the socialist and labor movement collapsed as a
revolutionary factor, the hopes of the revolutionary workers ran high. Even then
they were sure that the world revolution would follow in the wake of the world
war. And indeed it came. Like a bright meteor the Russian revolution flared up
and shone all over the earth, and in all the countries the workers rose and
began to move.
Only a few years after it became clear that the revolution was
decaying, that social convulsions were decreasing, that t... (From: Marxists.org.) Published: The Dutch edition was published as "De
arbeidersraaden" by the Communistenbond Spartacus in Amsterdam in 1946 under the
pseudonym P. Aartsz. The first English edition was published by J. A. Dawson in 1950. Transcriber: John Gray HTML: Jonas Holmgren Proofed: and corrected by Paul Germanotta for the MIA, April 2011.
Contents:
Preface to 1950 edition
Preface
THE TASK
1. Labor
2. Law and Property
3. Shop Organization
4. Social Organization
5. Objections
6. Difficulties
7. Council Organization
8. Growth
THE FIGHT
1. Trade Unionism
2. Direct Action
3. Shop Occupation
4. Political Strikes
5. The Russian Revolution
6. The Workers (From: Marxists.org.) Published: First published in English in the International Council Correspondence, Vol.II, No.5, April 1936.[1] Source: Endpage.com. Transcription/Markup: Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive. Proofreading/Reformatting: Andy Carloff, 2010 (proofreading); Micah Muer, 2019 (reformatting).
In its revolutionary struggles, the working class needs
organization. When great masses have to act as a unit, a mechanism is needed for
understanding and discussion, for the making and issuing of decisions, and for
the proclaiming of actions and aims.
This does not mean, of course, that all great actions and universal strikes
are carried out with soldierlike discipline, after the decisions of a central
board. Such ca... (From: Marxists.org.) Published: in De Nieuwe Tijd in 1920, in Kommunismus, the Vienna-based Comintern theoretical organ for South-East Europe; in Petrograd under the title Die Entwicklung der Weltrevolution and die Taktik des Communismus, and as a pamphlet including the ‘Afterword’ by the Verlag der Arbeiterbuchhandlung, the publishing house of the Communist Party of Austria. This translation by D.A. Smart was first published in Pannekoek and Gorter's Marxism (Pluto, London, 1978). Transcription/Markup: Andy Blunden, for marxists.org 2003. Proofreading/Reformatting: Micah Muer, 2019. Source: John Gray's Archive.
Theory itself becomes a material force once it takes a
hold on the masses. Theory is capable of taking a hold on the masses...
once ... (From: Marxists.org.)