Council communists (US organization)

Part of a series on
Left communism
Concepts Anti-Leninism Revolutionary spontaneity Proletarian internationalism Class consciousness Class struggle Mass strike · Workers' council World revolution · Communism
People Karl Marx · Friedrich Engels Daniel De Leon Rosa Luxemburg · Otto Rühle Amadeo Bordiga · Onorato Damen Herman Gorter Antonie Pannekoek Karl Korsch Sylvia Pankhurst Gavril Myasnikov · Paul Mattick · Grandizo Munis Maximilien Rubel Jan Appel · Karl Liebknecht Karl Schröder Marc Chirik (Marc Laverne) Guy Debord · E.T. Kingsley
Organizations Spartacus League Communist Workers' Party of Germany Communist Workers International International Communist Party International Communist Current International Bureau World Socialist Movement Socialisme ou Barbarie
Related topics Western Marxism · Libertarian socialism Council communism Luxemburgism · Ultra-leftism Libertarian Marxism Autonomism · Impossibilism Situationist International
Communism portal
v · d · e

In 1934 a group of left communists within the IWW joined with a dissident faction of the Proletarian Party to form the United Workers Party. The group soon changed its name to Groups of Council Communists or simply the Council Communists.^[1]

Originally based in Chicago, the groups main activity was producing its journal International Council Correspondence, which was called Living Marxism when the group transferred to New York in 1938 and New Essays in its final issues in 1943. The group published published important articles by Paul Mattick, Anton Pannekoek, Karl Korsch and the first English translation of Rosa Luxembourgs Marxism or Leninism. Its most important original work may have been The Inevitability of Communism^{[dead link]} by Paul Mattick, the first book length critique of Sidney Hooks Karl Marx: a revolutionary interpretation. Hook thought the work important enough to attempt to get it published by a mainstream publisher.^[2]

The periodical, which was originally produced with voluntary labor, increased readership inversely to the growth of membership in the organization.The journal gained readers as the group lost members. Shortly after the entry of the US into the Second World War interest in radicalism began to fade. When the cost of producing the journal became too expensive to accommodate its circulation the group was dissolved and the periodical folded.^[3]

Reference

1. ^ Paul Mattick "New Essays" in Joseph R. Conlin ed. The American radical press Westport, CT; Greenwood Press p.360
2. ^ Christopher Phelps "Historical introduction" in Sidney Hook Toward an understanding of Karl Marx. Expanded edition Amherst, New York, Prometheus Books
3. ^ Paul Mattick "New Essays" in Joseph R. Conlin ed. The American radical press Westport, CT; Greenwood Press p.360

Pamphlets

• World-wide fascism or world revolution? Manifesto and program of the United Workers Party of America. Chicago: United Workers Party, 1934
• Bolshevism or communism : on the question of a new communist party and the "Fourth" International Chicago: The Party, 1934
• What next for the American workers? Chicago: United Workers Party, 1934

External links

• Leninism or Marxism by Rosa Luxemburg first published in English by this group. Reprinted in pamphlet form by Anti-Parliamentary Communist Federation
• Comprehensive index of issues of ICC, with links to selected articles