Introduction to the Amadeo Bordiga archive on the Libertarian Communist Library

Bordiga (1889-1970) was an influential member of the Italian communist movement and leader of the Absentionist Fraction of the Italian Socialist Party and for a time leader of the Italian Communist Party, before resigning in favour of Gramsci, under pressure from Lenin.

Arguments for the creation of workers' councils (or "Soviets") in Italy, based in part on the Russian experience. The Leone statement of the Bologna Socialist Party Congress follows in the Appendix. Amadeo Bordiga January/February 1920 First Published: Il Soviet, Vol. III, Nos. 1, 2, 4, 5, 7; January 1, 11, February 1, 8, 22 1920;

The decontamination to which we dedicate 90% of our humble work will be continued a long time after us and be realised only in the distant future. This decontamination combats the epidemic - always and everywhere dangerous, of those who - in all places and at all times - innovate, bring up to date, renovate and revise...

Amadeo Bordiga 1952

First Published: Battaglia Comunista No. 8, 17-20 April 1952;

In launching our communist programme, which contained the outlines of a response to many vital problems concerning the revolutionary movement of the proletariat, we expected to ace a broad discussion develop on all its aspects. Instead there has been and still is only furious discussion over the incompatibility of electoral participation, which is soberly affirmed in the programme.

Amadeo Bordiga May 1919

First Published: Il Soviet, 13 September 1919, Vol. II, No.38;

Amadeo Bordiga 1946

The Fundamentals for a Marxist Orientation

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In Italy, we have long experience of "catastrophes that strike the country" and we also have a certain specialisation in "staging" them. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods, rainstorms, epidemics...

Source: http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/3909/bordiga0.html;
HTML Mark-up: Andy Blunden 2003.

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Abstentionist Communist Fraction of the Italian Socialist Party
Central Committee
Borgo San Antonio Abate 221
Naples

The patriotic saga of Italy raised the Piave to the status of the national river, and designated it as such, in 1917. In the war which was to have been the Fourth War of Independence, leading the country in a leap beyond the Venetian frontiers (won by no means by armed might) already gained from the Third.

Naples, 28 October 1926

Dear Comrade Korsch,

The problems we face today are so important that we should really be discussing them face to face in detail. This unfortunately is not a possibility at the moment. Also I won't be covering all the points in your platform in this letter, some of which could give rise to useful discussions between us.

In these theses our current drew not only the balance sheet of the situation in Italy, of its activity when it was in the leadership of the Communist Party of Italy, and of the activity of the Gramsci-Togliatti leadership which was imposed on the party by the Communist International in the years after 1924.

Seventy years ago the wave of proletarian strife and insurrection which had brought the 1st World War to a close was all but over. Instead of being strengthened and supported by the establishment of a European soviet republic and beyond, the Russian proletariat had been left high and dry.

(Lax and uncaring technology -- Parasitic and pillaging management)

[b]I. Actual and Potential Violence[/b]
In the history of social aggregates we recognise the use of material force and violence in an overt form whenever we observe conflicts and clashes among individuals and among groups which result, through many different forms, in the material injury and destruction of physical individuals.

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1. Communism is the doctrine of the social and historical preconditions for the emancipation of the proletariat.

With a document like this it is difficult to avoid a certain disproportion between the different parts, inasmuch as ongoing discussions have rendered certain points and certain arguments more topical, whilst others, of equal importance, have been cast in a minor light. In order to give as full an idea as possible of the thinking of the group of comrades responsible for the present theses, it is worth providing references to some texts, which, although well known, are nowadays rather difficult to find. We believe it therefore useful to precede the present text with references to some documents relevant to the same line that is reasserted and defended here.

Adopted by the Second Congress of the Communist International, 1920

Two of the articles in our last issue, one devoted to an analysis of the communist system of representation and the other to an exposition of the current tasks facing our Party, concluded by asking whether it is possible or appropriate to set up workers' and peasants' councils today, while the power of the bourgeoisie is still intact.