Ultra-leftism is a term used initially to the Ultra Left current of Marxist communism closely related to council communism and left communism and, later, to identify and criticise positions, especially by those within the mainstream historical Marxist parties, to describe a position which is adopted without taking notice of the current situation or of the consequences which would result from following a proposed course. Marxism is the political practice and social theory based on the works of Karl Marx, a 19th century philosopher, economist, journalist, and revolutionary, along with Friedrich Engels. ... This article is about communism as a form of society and as a political movement. ... Council communism is a Radical Left movement originating in Germany and the Netherlands in the 1920s. ... Left Communism is a term describing a whole range of communist viewpoints which oppose the political ideas of the Bolsheviks from a position which is asserted to be more authentically Marxist and proletarian than the views held by the Communist International after its first two Congresses. ...

Ultra-left

The term Ultra Left is rarely used in English, where people tend to speak broadly of left communism as a minor variant of traditional Marxism, but the equivalent term in French - ultra-gauche - has a stronger currency, since it describes a more positively defined movement that is still in existence today. Though the two are very closely related, the "ultra left" is not identical with left communism, but refers rather to a specific branch descending from people such as Otto Rühle, Anton Pannekoek, Herman Gorter, and Paul Mattick. The term is also sometimes used derogatorily. Left Communism is a term describing a whole range of communist viewpoints which oppose the political ideas of the Bolsheviks from a position which is asserted to be more authentically Marxist and proletarian than the views held by the Communist International after its first two Congresses. ... Left Communism is a term describing a whole range of communist viewpoints which oppose the political ideas of the Bolsheviks from a position which is asserted to be more authentically Marxist and proletarian than the views held by the Communist International after its first two Congresses. ... Otto Rühle (1874 - 1943) was a German Left Communist active in opposition to both the First and Second World Wars, and a founder with along with Karl Liebknecht, Rosa Luxemburg, Franz Mehring and others of the group and magazine Internationale, which posed a revolutionary internationalism against a world of... Anton Pannekoek Anton Pannekoek (January 2, 1873 – April 28, 1960) was a Dutch astronomer and Marxist theorist. ... Herman Gorter (born Wormerveer, Netherlands, 1864) was a late 19th century and early 20th century Dutch poet and Socialist. ... Paul Mattick (1904-1981): Born in Pomerania in 1904 and raised in Berlin by class conscious parents, Mattick was already at the age of 14 a member of the Spartacists Freie Sozialistische Jugend. ...

The term originated in the 1920s in the German and Dutch workers movements, originally referring to a Marxist current opposed to both Bolshevism and social democracy, and with some affinities with anarchism. The ultra-left is defined particularly by its breed of anti-authoritarian Marxism, which generally involves an opposition to the state and to state socialism, as well as to parliamentary democracy, and to wage labour. In opposition to Bolshevism the ultra left generally places heavy emphasis upon the autonomy and spontaneous organisation of the proletariat. Marxism is the political practice and social theory based on the works of Karl Marx, a 19th century philosopher, economist, journalist, and revolutionary, along with Friedrich Engels. ... Bolshevik Party Meeting. ... Social democracy is a political ideology emerging in the late 19th and early 20th centuries from supporters of Marxism who believed that the transition to a socialist society could be achieved through democratic evolutionary rather than revolutionary means. ... Anarchism is derived from the Greek αναρχία (without archons (ruler, chief, king)). Anarchism as a political philosophy, is the belief that all forms of social coercion, such as governments and social hierarchies are undesireable. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... A state is an organized political community, occupying a territory, and possessing internal and external sovereignty, that enforces a monopoly on the use of force. ... State socialism, broadly speaking, is any variety of socialism which relies on ownership of the means of production by the state. ... A parliamentary system, or parliamentarism, is distinguished by the executive branch of government being dependent on the direct or indirect support of the parliament, often expressed through a vote of confidence. ... A wage is the amount of money paid for some specified quantity of labour. ... Bolshevik Party Meeting. ... The proletariat (from Latin proles, offspring) is a term used to identify a lower social class; a member of such a class is proletarian. ...

Ultra-Leftism

Ultra-leftism is used more broadly to describe leftist positions that, for example, over-state the tempo of events, propose initiatives that over-estimate the current level of militancy or which employ a highly militant tone in their propaganda. Critics of the Communist International often describe the Third Period strategy as being one of ultra-leftism. The first edition of Communist International, journal of the Comintern published in Moscow and Petrograd (now Saint Petersburg) in May 1919. ... Third Period refers to the ultra-left policy adopted by the Comintern, following the end of the New Economic Policy in the Soviet Union in 1928 up to the adoption of the Popular Front policy in 1934. ...

The term has been popularised party by the Socialist Workers' Party (US), who have used the term to both describe opponents in the anti-war movement [1] and opponent Trotskyists [2] including Gerry Healy. Ultra-leftism is often associated with left sectarianism, in which a socialist current might, for example, attempt to put its own short-term interests before the long term interests of the working-class and its allies. The Socialist Workers Party is a small communist political party in the United States. ... Gerry Healy (December 3, 1913 - December 14, 1989) was a Trotskyist activist. ... Sectarianism refers (usually pejoratively) to a rigid adherence to a particular sect or party or denomination. ...

External links

• Left Communism: an Infantile Disorder ?
• Libertarian Communist Library - an archive of libertarian, left and ultra-left communist texts
• Vladimir Lenin's Left Wing Communism: an Infantile Disorder
• Peter Camejo, Liberalism, Ultra-Leftism or mass action
• Abbie Bakan, Ultraleftism: left words, sectarian practice
• The Redstar2000 Papers