Communist Left is the "Review of the
International Communist Party." Number 14 (undated) includes
articles on Algeria, "The Explosive Potential of the
Indonesian Working Class," "The Italian Left and the
International (Part 6), 'The Communist Party and
Parliamentarism,'" "Biodiversity and Capitalism,"
and others. For those of us unfamiliar with the various groups
that evolved from the Italian left communist opposition to the
Third International, this 36-page issue sheds some light on the
program and purpose of one strand, the International Communist
Party. Consider the following statement: "What
Distinguishes Our Party - is the assertion of the line which stems
from the Communist Manifest, to the Russian Revolution and the
foundation of the Communist International, - the struggle against
the degeneration of Moscow, rejection of Popular fronts and of
coalition of Resistance Groups; - the difficult task of restoring
the revolutionary doctrine and organisation in conjunction with
the working class in opposition to personal and parliamentarist
politics." From my recent reading of a book on the Italian
Communist Left I gather that this group is a part of the Bordiga
wing. Most interesting to me was Part 6 of their series on the
"Italian Left and the International [i.e. the 3rd
International]"which details the actions of the Commission on
the Parliamentary Question that accepted the report written by
Bukharin and Lenin. This report committed the International to
policies that allowed the inclusion of reformist groups in the
Communist Parties and led to the reformism that has always
characterized CPs worldwide. Included in this 36-page issue is a
list of publications in various languages. The cover price is
given as L1 / $2.50; the annual subscription is L2.00 including
postage, $5 for the USA - from ICP Editions, P.O. Box 52,
Liverpool L69 7AL, U.K. Also received from ICP editions was
Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Russia, the 1991 edition of a
collection of texts on Russia taken from ICP journals and
published originally in 1976. The preface states "Our main
intention in presenting this work is to accelerate the dismantling
of the widespread myth of Russian socialism." All but one
article in the 49-page pamphlet was written before 1976. The
nine-part article "Why Russia Isn't Socialist" includes
sections on the nature of Russian capitalism, the Russian
proletariat, Stalinism, and Russian agriculture. It seeks to show
the essential capitalist nature of all aspects of the Russian
economy. L 2.00 / $5.00 [?] from the Liverpool address given
above.
World Socialist Review is the "Journal
of the World Socialist movement in the United States." With
number 16, Summer 2001, it resumes publication after a hiatus of
at least two years; number 14 was published in December1998. This
16-page issue features articles on two of the WSM's major
fixations: religion and the idea of a moneyless economy. I have
trouble with importance the WSM gives to religion. Despite the
formal acceptance of religion here in the U.S., with polls
suggesting that believers number over 90 percent of the
population-nearly 100 percent in prisons-I think its importance in
determining people's political beliefs and other activity is
vastly overrated. People seem to be able to reconcile almost any
behavior with their religion, and I can't imagine that it will
inhibit our ability to choose the socialist solution when the time
comes. The WSR bases its opposition on the same history of
religion's barbarism, its psychological effects and the
philosophical reasons that made me--and I would assume most
readers--rid ourselves of it when we grew up. I would guess that
the real strength of Christianity is about on a par with that of
paganism in, say, 300 A.D. In other words the WSM is fighting a
battle that is already won. "There Is Never Enough
Money" combines an excellent critique of reformist solutions
to social problems with a brief, thoroughgoing examination of the
role of money in a capitalist society. "Is There Turnover
Under Production for Use" raises the question, "If
society becomes the owner of the means of production, then what
happens to surplus labor and the production of surplus
value?" The author paints an attractive picture of labor in a
socialist society. From other remarks one can infer the need for
an administrative organization-a socialist industrial
union???-through which society would plan production and
distribution of goods and services in a moneyless economy. $2
from WSP (US), P.O. Box 440247, Boston, MA 02144.
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