Proletarian Internationalism - The Third International: Leninism Versus Left Communism

The Third International: Leninism Versus Left Communism

Following the First World War the international socialist movement was irreconcilably split into two hostile factions: on the one side, the social democrats, who broadly supported their national governments during the conflict; and on the other side Leninists and their allies who formed the new Communist Parties that were organised into the Third International, which was established in March 1919. However, during the Russian Civil War Lenin and Trotsky more firmly embraced the concept of national self-determination for tactical reasons. In the Third International the national question became a major bone of contention between mainstream Leninists and "left communists". However the latter soon became an isolated minority, either falling into line or leaving the International.

By the time the Second World War broke out in 1939 only a few prominent communists such as the Italian Marxist Amadeo Bordiga and the Dutch council communist Anton Pannekoek remained opponents of Russia's use of the tactics of national self-determination. But in 1943, following the collapse of the Mussolini regime in Italy, Bordigists regrouped and founded the Internationalist Communist Party (PCInt). The first edition of the party organ, Prometeo (Prometheus) proclaimed: "Workers! Against the slogan of a national war which arms Italian workers against English and German proletarians, oppose the slogan of the communist revolution, which unites the workers of the world against their common enemy — capitalism." The PCInt took the view that Luxemburg, not Lenin, had been right on the national question.