[Marxism] Council communism

[Daniel Koechlin <d.koechlin@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi everbody,

I realize I should have introduced myself before embarking on a posting 
spree.
I am indeed a "council communist", also known as a "left-wing 
communist", or better still a "libertarian Marxist."  But I promise not 
to  inundate this list with  anti-Lenin comments, now it has been 
pointed out to me that this is  a  decidedly pro-Lenin Marxist list.
I am an English teacher in France, strongly involved in union 
activities. For the last 8 years, I have tried to get union members to 
criticize the deals made by the union leadership with the government. 
All my attempts have been met by opposition from the Trotskyist (French 
LCR)/"Stalinist" (ex-PCF, French Commmunist Party)  leadership  who 
argue that  compromise with  capitalism  is inevitable, given the 
current weakness of organized labour, and that  voting for 
Trotskyist/PCF candidates will  one day bring about a better world.
 
Council Communism goes back to Marx himself, and then the tradition 
continues through Rosa Luxemburg's anti-Lenin writings, the first 
Russian soviets (and the Workers' Opposition within the Bolshevik 
party), the German Councils, the Spanish CNT,  Paul Mattick, Socialisme 
ou Barbarie, the Situationists (Debord and Vanneigem), Toni Negri, 
Operaism, etc...
All defined themselves as Marxists engaged in a "radical criticism of 
all that exists" in the Capitalist mode of production.
They furthermore reproach Leninist traditions with substituting 
extraction of surplus-value by bosses with extraction of surplus-value 
by state bureaucrats.
Meaning that the worker is still obliged to get up at 8 and work until 
8, without any say in how or why surplus-value is extracted.
In fact, under Marxism-Leninism, the worker is bound to obey the State 
and its bureaucrats, because the whole capitalist economy is controlled 
by them.
Trotsky, former chief of the Red Army, was all in favour of the 
"complete militarization of the workforce". He thought workers should be 
subjected to military discipline, thus showing his own bourgeois fear of 
the proletariat. Any insubordination, such as the Kronstadt uprising, 
was mercilessly put down, long after the end of the civil war.
As many council communists have pointed out, once he was evicted from 
power, his main regret revolved around not having become the great 
leader himself, this position having been taken up by Stalin.

This is the last blatantly anti-Lenin posting on this list on my part. I 
will participate in any forthcoming debate without openly criticizing Lenin.

WORKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE !

Daniel Koechlin


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