Far-left political ideologies and movements Books

Book SynopsisRichard Müller, a leading figure of the German Revolution in 1918, is unknown today. As the operator and unionist who represented Berlin’s metalworkers, he was main organiser of the ‘Revolutionary Stewards’, a clandestine network that organised a series of mass strikes between 1916 and 1918. With strong support in the factories, the Revolutionary Stewards were the driving force of the Revolution. By telling Müller's story, this study gives a very different account of the revolutionary birth of the Weimar Republic. Using new archival sources and abandoning the traditional focus on the history of political parties, Ralf Hoffrogge zooms in on working class politics on the shop floor and its contribution to social change. First published in German by Karl Dietz Verlag as Richard Müller - Der Mann hinter der November Revolution, Berlin, 2008, this english edition was completerly revised for the english speaking audience and contains new sources and recent literature.Trade Review"[Ralf Hoffrogge's] biography of Richard Müller is [...] far removed from the old fashioned “great-men-make-history” interpretation of high-political notoriety; instead, the political life of the protagonist is firmly located within the dynamics of a mass-based social movement “from below.” As the author points out, the failures of the man derives from the failures of the movement. But we also learn a great deal about Richard Müller as a “forgotten revolutionary” and the Revolutionary Shop Stewards (RSS) as a “forgotten movement,” as well as why he was forgotten". - Norman LaPorte, “Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed and Something Blue”: Recent Literature in Communist Studies, in Moving the Social: Journal of Social History and the History of Social Movements, Vol 55 (2016): pp. 120-123. "Hoffrogge’s biography differs from those written about revolutionary icons like Liebknecht or Luxemburg for very practical reasons. The latter were from middle-class backgrounds and used to writing letters and articles offering biographers insights into their political but also private lives. An ordinary worker like Müller did not leave comparable records. […] For a book that is not about Müller the great individual but about one worker as first among equals, this absence of detailed private records is actually quite apt. It reflects workers’ subordinate position in capitalist societies. What made these equals, the Revolutionary Shop Stewards, so interesting is that they had a capacity to mobilize rank-and-file workers in large numbers because, unlike many of the Spartacists, they worked alongside them and knew when they were ready for action, but also when they were hesitant, anxious, or subdued. Hoffrogge’s book is a first-rate invitation to think about a link between Richard Müller and the Revolutionary Shop Stewards and today’s still unfocused struggles against imperialist wars and capitalist exploitation." Ingo Schmidt, Coordinator of the Labour Studies Program at Athabasca University, in: WorkingUSA: The Journal of Labor and Society, September 2015, Volume 18.3: 525-528. 霍夫拉格这本书的重要价值，在于揭示了社会主义运动中常被忽视的一个事 实，即工人阶级政党的理论如何才能被群众所接受。长久以来，在共产主义运动史 的撰写中，一方面强调革命领袖的重要作用，另一方面强调工人阶级的重要作用， 但二者之间的纽带是谁？理查德·穆勒的经历似乎给出了这一问题的答案。 马嘉鸿，当代世界社会主义问题·２０１６年第 ３期，119-122. (Ma Jiahong, Issues of Contemporary World Socialism, Sept 2016, issue 3, pp.119-122) "Ralf Hoffrogge is especially successfully in describing how a group of ordinary working men, who in no way began as revolutionaries but rather as trade unionists fighting to defend workers’ living standards, nonetheless built up the only network which was able to bring workers on and off the streets [...] during the revolutionary upheavals. He explores the complicated relationship between the Stewards and the various socialist political parties with great skill and discusses the emergence of a new kind of socialism amongst Müller and his colleagues, which did not focus on state power and centralisation but rather on grassroots democracy and workers’ control, sometimes known as council communism." Dick Geary, Emeritus Professor of Modern History, University of Nottingham, UK "The merit of Hoffrogge’s contribution is a capacity to translate his extensive research into a wide-ranging historical analysis and narrative of the role of the Revolutionary Shop Stewards and Richard Müller. [...] In addition to the great historical importance of Hoffrogge’s work, the study of the subject will also play an important role for contemporary debates about the road to socialism." Dario Azzellini, Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Linz, Austria "Ralf Hoffrogge has authored an invaluable addition to the literature of German radicalism by detailing the life of one of the key leaders of the Revolutionary Shop Stewards. Müller and his comrades provide an interesting contrast to more well known supporters of Social Democracy and Communism within the German workers’ movement." William A. Pelz, Director of the Institute of Working Class History, Chicago, USATable of ContentsList of Illustrations List of Abbreviations Sisyphus of the Revolution: A Preface, Wolfgang Wippermann Author’s Preface 1 Introduction: A Forgotten Revolutionary The Politics of Historical Interpretation The Makers of the German Revolution 2 Background, Youth, and Early Union Activities: 1880-1913 From Farm to Factory Müller’s (Very) Private Life Fighting Taylorism with its Own Weapons Bureaucracy in the Service of Agitation 3 Opposition to the Burgfrieden: 1914-1918 ‘The Great Betrayal’ From Discipline to Opposition Early Ambiguities and their Price 4 The Revolutionary Shop Stewards and Political Mass Strikes: 1916-1918 The Stewards’ First Political Strike: Protesting Liebknecht’s Arrest Repression and the New Opposition Müller’s Arrest and the April Strike Marking Time under Repression Preparing for the January Strike: Rising Discontent and the Bolshevik Example The January 1918 Strike: Council Power Emerges The Politics of the Action Committee and the End of the January Strike Barth and Däumig lead in Müller’s Absence Müller’s Return 5 The German Revolution in Berlin, 1918 The Stewards and the Spartacists: A Tale of Two Styles Arming the Revolution Outbreak Council Power The State of the Revolution 6 Chairman of the Berlin Executive Council: 1918–1919 Conflict, Caution and Counter-revolution Loss of National Power 7 Richard Müller and the Council Movement: 1918–1919 The Council Movement in War and Revolution The First Council Congress and the Triumph of Parliamentarianism The Blocked Path to Socialism Berlin’s January Uprising Political Murder, Demoralisation, and the End of the Revolutionary Shop Stewards Theorising Council Socialism The March Strikes of 1919 After the Tumult 8 From Council Movement to Works Councils: 1919-1920 Council Ideal and Works Council Reality Leading the Left Opposition in the DMV Defeat at Nuremberg, Compromise in Stuttgart The Works Councils Act, Armed Conflict and Party Split DMV Political Divisions and the Works Council Centre The first Works Council Congress 1920 The State of the Revolution in 1920 9 From Council Socialism to Party Communism and Beyond: 1920-1924 The Leninist Model and the USPD Split The Communist Union Centre The Red International of Labour Unions Crisis in the Communist Party and the March Action of 1921 Post-March Crises and `Made in Moscow´ Resolution The Revelation Affair Müller, the unwanted Communist 10 Richard Müller as Historian of the German Revolution: 1923-1925 Müller’s Historiographical Approach Müller as Publisher 11 Footnotes and Suppression - Richard Müller’s Impact on Historiography The Millstones of Social Democracy and Marxism-Leninism Müller in East Germany Müller in West Germany 12 Break with Politics, Withdrawal into Private Life: 1925-1943 The DIV, the ‘Construction Issue’ and Union Fragmentation Müller as Landlord Drifting back to Social Democracy? Returning to Obscurity 13 Conclusion: The Darkness of History Bibliography 1. Printed Sources 2. Literature About the Author Index

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Book SynopsisThe Marxism of Manuel Sacristán: From Communism to the New Social Movements offers a substantial selection of some the most significant writings on Marx, Marxism, and radical social theory by Manuel Sacristán, Spain’s most important Marxist philosopher. Whether discussing Marx’s intellectual development and philosophical views, exploring central issues in Marxist theory or analysing the challenge to contemporary Marxism from feminism, pacifism and environmentalism, Sacristán emerges in these pages as both a major Marx scholar and a formidable social theorist in his own right. The Marxism of Manuel Sacristán makes available in English for the first time many of the key texts by a brilliant, yet neglected, Marxist thinker.Trade Review"The Marxism of Manuel Sacristán, una magnífica edición de Renzo Llorente. Una Introducción documentada e impecable (pp. 1-22); unas notas informadas y rigurosas, y una traducción excelente (y sin duda nada fácil) son algunos de los atributos que acompañan al excelente y casi insuperable trabajo de este profesor de Filosofía, vivamente interesado por la tradición y filosofía marxistas. El ensayo también incorpora unas cuidadas referencias bibliográficas. [un] magnífico e imprescindible trabajo [...]" – Salvador López Arnal, in: Rebelión, 15-10-2014Table of ContentsAcknowledgements ... vii Introduction ... 1 A Note on This Edition ... 23 PART 1 On Marx and Engels 1 Marx’s Scientific Work and His Notion of Science ... 29 2 Karl Marx as a Sociologist of Science ... 67 3 Engels’s Task in Anti-Dühring ... 121 4 Marx on Spain ... 141 5 What is Dialectic? ... 154 6 One Hundred Years On: To What ‘Literary Genre’ Does Marx’s Capital Belong? ... 163 7 On the Centenary of Karl Marx’s Death ... 167 8 Which Marx Will Be Read in the Twenty-First Century? ... 170 PART 2 On Political Ecology, Communist Politics, and the New Social Movements 9 Political Ecological Considerations in Marx ... 179 10 Paper for the Conference on Politics and Ecology ... 189 11 The Political and Ecological Situation in Spain and the Way to Approach This Situation Critically from a Position on the Left ... 196 12 Three Notes on the Clash of Cultures and Genocide ... 201 13 On the Subject of ‘Eurocommunism’ ... 212 14 On Stalinism ... 220 15 Marxist Parties and the Peace Movement ... 230 16 The Marxist Tradition and New Problems ... 234 PART 3 Interviews 17 ‘Gramsci is a classic, he is not a fad’: Interview with the Diario de Barcelona ... 255 18 Manuel Sacristán Speaks with Dialéctica ... 259 19 Interview with Naturaleza ... 278 20 Interview with Mundo Obrero ... 285 Further Reading ... 293 References ... 295 Index .. 308

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Book SynopsisReading Gramsci is a collection of essays by Francisco Fernández Buey with a unifying theme: the enduring relevance of Gramsci’s political, philosophical and personal reflections for those who wish to understand and transform ‘the vast and terrible world’ of capital. Reading Gramsci is of considerable biographical and philosophical interest for scholars and partisans of communism alike. Fernández Buey distils Gramsci’s intimate thinking on the relation between love and revolutionary engagement from Gramsci’s personal correspondence; he reveals how Gramsci draws on both Marxism and Machiavellianism in order to formulate his conception of politics as a collective ethics; he retraces the trajectory of Gramsci’s thinking in the Prison Notebooks, and elucidates Gramsci’s reflections on the relation between language and politics. English translation of Leyendo a Gramsci, published by El Viejo Topo in 2001.Table of ContentsPrologue Chapter One Love and Revolution Chapter Two The Ethico-Political Project of Antonio Gramsci Chapter Three Language and Politics in Gramsci Appendix One Brecht, ‘To Those Born Later’ Appendix Two Guide to Reading Gramsci Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisIn The New Left, National Identity, and the Break-Up of Britain Wade Matthews charts the nexus between socialism and national identity in the work of key New Left intellectuals, E.P. Thompson, Raymond Williams, Stuart Hall, Perry Anderson, and Tom Nairn. Matthews considers these New Left thinkers’ response to Britain’s various national questions, including decolonization and the End of Empire, the rise of European integration and separatist nationalisms in Scotland and Wales, and to the national and nationalist implications of Thatcherism, Cold War and the fall of communism. Matthews establishes a contestatory dialogue around these issues throughout the book based around different New Left perspectives on what has been called “the break-up of Britain.” He demonstrates that national questions where crucial to New Left debates.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Preface 1. History and Historiography of the New Left in Britain 2. Socialist Intellectuals and the National Question before 1956 3. E.P. Thompson in the Provinces 4. Raymond Williams’s Love of Country 5. Stuart Hall’s Identities 6. Perry Anderson against the National Culture 7. Tom Nairn on Hating Britain Properly Conclusion References Index

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Book SynopsisIn Debord, Time and Spectacle Tom Bunyard provides a detailed philosophical study of the theoretical work of Guy Debord and the Situationist International. Drawing on evidence from Debord’s books, films, letters and notes, Bunyard reconstructs the Hegelian and Marxian ideas that support Debord’s central concept of ‘spectacle’. This affords a reconsideration of Debord’s theoretical claims, and a reinterpretation of his broader work that foregrounds his concerns with history and lived time. By bringing Situationist theory into dialogue with recent reinterpretations of Marx, this book also identifies problems in Debord’s critique of capitalism. It argues, however, that the conceptions of temporality and spectacle that support that critique amount to a philosophy of praxis that remains relevant today.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements List of Illustrations Introduction: Radioactivity Subjectivity, Temporality and Spectacle 1 Interpreting the Theory of Spectacle 2 Five Aspects of Debord’s Theoretical Work The New Beauty: 1951–62 3 ‘We are Artists Insofar as We are No Longer Artists’ 4 The Everyday and the Absolute 5 ‘Avant-Gardes Have Only One Time’ ‘Everything that had Formerly been Absolute Became Historical’ 6 Debord and French Hegelianism 7 Subjects and Objects: Debord, Lukács and the Young Marx 8 Life and Non-life In Pursuit of the Northwest Passage: 1963–73 9 Never Work! 10 ‘I am Nothing and I Should be Everything’ 11 The ‘Fetishism of Capital’ The Integrated Spectacle: 1974–94 12 Moving with History’s ‘Bad Side’ 13 Strategy and Tactics in the Integrated Spectacle 14 The Knight, Death and the Devil Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThe February Revolution, Petrograd, 1917 is the most comprehensive book on the epic uprising that toppled the tsarist monarchy and ushered in the next stage of the Russian Revolution. Hasegawa presents in detail the intense drama of the nine days of the revolution, including the workers' strike, soldiers' revolt, the scrambling of revolutionary party activists to control the revolution, and the liberals’ conspiracy to force Tsar Nicholas II to abdicate. Based on his previous work, published in 1981, the author has revised, enlarged, and reinterpreted the complexity of the February Revolution, resulting in a major and timely reassessment on the occasion of its centennial. See inside the book.Trade Review"... his achievement in creating a superbly clear and detailed, indeed encyclopaedic, rendering of the whirlwind of events that plunged Russian society into crisis in February 1917 and gave birth to ‘Dual Power’ is formidable scholarship." - Simon Cosgrove, Europe-Asia Studies 72/9 (2020)Table of ContentsPreface Acknowledgements List of Maps List of Abbreviations Part I: Russia and the First World War 1. Russia Enters the War 2. The Political Crisis of the Summer 1915 3. Deepening Gulf: The Government and the Liberals, 1916 4. Petrograd during the War 5. The War and the Workers 6. The War and the Revolutionary Parties Part II: On the Eve 7. The Tsar, the Tsarina, and the Government 8. The Security of Petrograd 9. The Liberal Opposition 10. The Liberals, Conspiracies, and the Freemasons 11. The Workers and the Revolutionary Parties Part III: The Uprising 12. The Beginning: February 23 13. The Second Day: February 24 14. The General Strike: February 25 15. Bloody Sunday: February 26 16. The Insurrection, February 27 Part IV: The Petrograd Soviet and the Duma Committee 17. The Formation of the Petrograd Soviet 18. The Formation of the Duma Committee 19. The First Steps of the Duma Committee 20. The Petrograd Soviet and the Masses 21. The ‘Transfer’ of Power Part V: The Abdication of Nicholas II 22. Nicholas II and the Revolution 23. The Duma Committee and the Monarchy 24. The Stavka and Counterrevolutionary Attempts 25. The Abdication of Nicholas II 26. The Duma Committee’s Delegates Part VI: The Formation of the Provisional Government and the Birth of Dual Power 27. The Formation of the Provisional Government 28. Grand Duke Mikhail Aleksandrovich’s Renunciation of the Throne 29. The Provisional Government, the State Duma, and the Birth of Dual Power 30. Conclusion Bibliography Index

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