The Idea of Equality and the Bolsheviks by Nestor Makhno
The 14th Congress of the Russian Communist Party has roundly condemned the notion of equality. Prior to the congress, Zinoviev had mentioned the idea in the course of his polemic against Ustrialov and Bukharin. He declared then that the whole of contemporary philosophy was sustained by the idea of equality. Kalinin spoke up forcefully at the congress against that contention, taking the line that any reference to equality could not help but be harmful and was not to be tolerated. His reasoning was as follows:
“Can we talk to peasants about equality? No, that is out of the question, for in that case, they would set about demanding the same rights as workers, whic... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Published: This translation was first published by Socialist Reproduction in cooperation with Revolutionary Perspectives in 1974. The translation was made from a German edition of the text published in 1970 by IPTR (Institut für Praxis und Theorie des Rätekommunismus, Berlin). Transcriber: For Communism HTML-markup: Jonas Holmgren Proofreading: Micah Muer, 2017.
This HTML version follows the Socialist Reproduction
edition, except that references to the AAUD-E have been standardized (in the
Socialist Reproduction edition it is also referred to as the AAU and AAUE), and
references to factory organization (Betriebsorganisation) and Workers'
Union (Arbeiterunion), have been indicated like this to make it clear
that these ar... (From: Marxists.org.) Source: ? Published: 1939 Transcriber: Workers' Liberty HTML: Jonas Holmgren
The following abridgment of the first volume of Capital
- the foundation of Marx's entire system of economics - was made by Otto Rühle
with great care and with profound understanding of his task. First to be eliminated were obsolete examples, then
quotations from writings which today are only of historic interest, polemics
with writers now forgotten, and finally numerous documents which, whatever their
importance for understanding a given epoch, have no place in a concise
exposition that pursues theoretical rather than historical objectives. At the
same time, Rühle did everything to preserve continuity in the development of the
scientific an... (From: Marxists.org.) Achievement
Part II
The Alliance and the International
At the Berne Congress of the League of Peace and Freedom, Bakunin had tried to induce the league to adopt a revolutionary program, and to affiliate to the International. When this attempt failed, he resigned from the league, and, in conjunction with J. P. Becker, founded the International Alliance of the Socialist Democracy, also known as the Alliance of Social Revolutionaries. His aim now was to get this Alliance accepted as part of the International; then, by degrees, to excavate and absorb the International; until, at last, the International would be replaced by the Alliance.
For, as he had said at the Berne Congress, he hated communism because it implied the annihilation o... (From: Marxists.org.) Mexico D. F. Versalles 84.
August 1937
Dear Comrade Schlamm!
When we had read your book, and thought of a critical stance on it, I
suggested sending you Marx’s “The German Ideology” as a
contrast, because I thought that it contained everything I had to say to you in
reply. But then I considered that Marx was no longer an authority, or to say it
better: No orientation for you anymore. So I stopped writing, because it seemed
hopeless to me to discuss under these circumstances.
Now Alice has taken on the obligation to write, and she will send you a
critique, which is roughly the reflection of our joint debate on your book. I
agree with her on almost all the essential points. But since Alice is urging me
to ... (From: Marxists.org.) Source: Die Aktion, Volume 10, no 37/38, 18 September 1920, translated by Mike Jones. Prepared for the Marxist Internet Archive by Paul Flewers.
I
The First International was the International of the awakening. It had to
appeal to the proletariat of the world, to arouse it; it had to issue the great
slogan of socialism. Its task was propagandistic.
The Second International was the International of the organization. It had to
gather, to educate the aroused class-conscious masses, to prepare them for the
revolution. Its task was organizational.
The Third International is the International of the revolution. It has to set
the masses in motion and to unleash their revolutionary activity; it has to
undertake the world revolution... (From: Marxists.org.) First published: as Die Seele des proletarischen Kindes (Dresden: Verlag am anderen Ufer, 1925), 203-205. Published in The Weimar Republic Sourcebook, Kaes et al.
Proletarian youth challenged the principle of authority for the first time in
June 1919 when a number of young workers abandoned Free Socialist Youth in order
not to oppose from within an authoritarian organization (which was an appendage
of the parties) but to adopt a new position of their own. “Where are the
leaders of the young,” ran a manifesto of these young people on this
occasion, “who have not run their heads up against ‘fatherly
benevolence’ and the ‘well-intentioned advice’ of older men?
It is high time that an end be ... (From: Marxists.org.) I traveled illegally to Russia. The business was difficult and
dangerous; but it succeeded. On 16th June I stepped on to Russian soil: on the
19th I was in Moscow.
The departure from Germany went hastily. In April, upon invitation from
Moscow, the KAPD (Communist Workers Party—Germany) had sent two comrades
as negotiators to the Executive, to advise upon the KAPD’s joining of the
Third International. It was being said that the two comrades had been arrested
in Estonia on the return journey. The necessity was to immediately recommence
the negotiations and to bring them to completion and if possible to send back a
report to the KAPD, so that information from the KAPD could be received before
the start of the Congress.
... (From: Marxists.org.) I
Parliamentarism appeared with the domination of the bourgeoisie. Political parties appeared with parliament.
In parliaments the bourgeois epoch found the historical arena of its first contentions with the crown and nobility. It organized itself politically and gave legislation a form corresponding to the needs of capitalism. But capitalism is not something homogeneous. The various strata and interest groups within the bourgeoisie each developed demands with differing natures. In order to bring these demands to a successful conclusion, the parties were created which sent their representatives and activists to the parliaments. Parliament became a forum, a place for all the struggles for economic and political power, at first f... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) 25th October 1918
In the name of those social democratic workers and soldiers who
attach themselves neither to the “governmental” socialists party nor
to the Independent Social Democrats, and who are nevertheless numbered in
thousands and thousands, in the name of these men who demand the right to make
this tribunal listen, and to have their say in an important political and
historical situation, I want, very briefly, to give our point of view on the
problems which have been at the center of the discussion for the last few
days.
We reject any peace which the bourgeois-capitalist governments intend to, and
are on the point of concluding, on the backs of the people who have been bled
white. In the epoch of imperial... (From: Marxists.org.) INTRODUCTORY NOTE (Alfredo M. Bonanno)
Now that the tragic history of fascism has run the full course of its formal development, culminating in the modern democratic State, Rühle’s article becomes more readily comprehensible to us. It was written at the end of the thirties and dedicated to the contemporaneous struggle against both bolshevism and fascism.
The real dominion of present day capitalism shows the authoritarian designs that have provided the platform for contemporary fascism (camouflaged by democracy), and those of contemporary bolshevism (camouflaged by the dictatorship of the proletariat) to be quite similar.
To be more explicit we can say that by shedding formal authority (where it needed the fas... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) This article first appeared in the American journal Living Marxism Vol. 5, No. 2, Fall 1940.
The second World War has presented grave and fateful problems to
the socialist workers' movement. Again it is faced with a situation similar to
that which confronted the old labor movement at the outbreak of the first World
War. There is a danger that the mistakes which brought doom to social-democracy
will be repeated.
The question confronting us today is whether Liebknecht's slogan: "The enemy
is at home!" is as valid for the class struggle now as it was in 1914. When
Liebknecht voiced his slogan class-struggle conditions were relatively simple.
In Germany, for instance, the semi-feudal government was undoubtedly considered
a greate... (From: Marxists.org.)