Published below is a comradely critique from Jacob Richter of platform text of the ‘Communistisch Platform’, our comrades who run a website in Dutch. In this letter Jacob Richter felt it necessary to address some apparent shortcommings and questions some of the formulations of the platform:
In May 2014 comrades of the Marxist Center founded a magazine in the Dutch language: Komas (Compass). The magazine is build around a platform, which incidentally also bears the name of the group: Communistisch Platform. The group is a campaign to establish a party-movement. For ours readers we publish an English translation of the Communistisch Platform.
Under this heading we publish interesting reads and longreads from elsewhere. Currently: on the democratic legacy of pre-1917 Russian Marxism, the problems of monopolies of political ideas, and the revolutionary tactics of Engels. The articles presented do not form our opinion on the matter discussed. We present them for the purpose of discussion and education.
This article by JR is a commentary on “economic republicanism”, a political trend in the United States around the time of Lincoln. It intends to complement some writings from the Marxist Center about the democratic republic. Thomas’s recent article about the democratic republic for example lacks an explanation of the republican ideas of bourgeois socialism.
Marx and Engels referred to the United States as a democratic republic even though the United States of America almost never called itself a genuine democracy before the Second World War. Even now, the popular usage of the word democracy in the US is contested. Were Marx and Engels wrong? And what does “democratic republic” […]
While the Socialist International Congress in Brussels of 1891 was coming to a close, a small city nearby, famous for the development of its industries and socialist workers’ organisations, was preparing to welcome the delegates during their last days in Belgium. Proud as they were, the socialists from the city of Ghent did their best […]
Thomas continues with his three-part on Bebel and the congress of 1891 in Brussels. This is the second part of a three-part series on the influence of August Bebel and of German social democracy in general on the proceedings of the international socialist congress of 1891 1. We left off on Wednesday morning August 19, with […]
Thomas is delving into the early history of the modern workers movement and one of its giants: August Bebel who today died exactly 100 years ago. A giant of the workers movement The launch of this site marks the 100th aniversary of August Bebel’s death. Bebel was the leader of the German social democratic party […]