Karl Kautsky “The Road to Power” 100 Years On.

100 years on, still no power for the world proletariat.  Certainly there needs to be a reassessment, but there is a lot that still can be gleaned from Kautsky’s finest work.  It’s important to note that historically the parties of the left have fallen into the trap of class coalitionalism or mass strike fantasies and haven’t practiced the Kautsykan “strategy of patience”.  How realistic this strategy is in the 21st century is an open question.  Certainly new tactics will need to be devised, but the general principles of this piece though, in my opinion, are unassailable. 

Mirror 1: Direct

I only have mirrors for the 1909 A.M. Simons translation.  I am looking for the Raymond Meyer 1996 translation.

Military Operatives Spying on Activist Groups

Is there like a new COINTELPRO directed at anarchist and anti-war groups?  I suppose dreary “orthodox” Marxists like myself aren’t the threat to the ruling class at the moment :)

If readers want to advertise any campaign or petition related to this state interference with non-violent protest, feel free to use the comment box below. 

Some new releases will be coming in around a week or so, support the site if you can be bothered to.  If not, I’m not complaining.

The Platypus Synthesis

The Platypus Synthesis: History, Theory, and Practice

At the 1st annual international convention of the Platypus Affiliated Society, in Chicago, June 12-14, 2009, the concluding plenary event, a discussion on the Platypus's theoretical stance, its raison d'etre, and where the project will be going.

http://platypus1917.org/about/convention2009/schedule/

Revolutionary Strategy by Mike MacNair

A very important work that I would recommend to any leftist.

Articles on this book:The Activist, Perm. Revolution, The Commune

And of course MacNair is a member of the CPGB

Mirror 1: Rapidshare

Mirror 2: Torrent

Reformism or Revolution by Alan Woods

This book by Alan Woods is a polemic against a well-known (in Latin America) intellectual Heinz Dieterich. Dieterich claims to have invented a new "Socialism of the 21st Century" and much else into the bargain. He offers a great deal of advice to those involved in the Venezuelan Revolution dressed up in all manner of revolutionary rhetoric. However, when you clear away all the verbiage that surrounds his "new" socialist philosophy, there remains nothing new at all, simply a rehash of stale petty-bourgeois ideas of the past. The author of "Reformism or Revolution" seeks to answer Dieterich's extravagant claims and in doing so defends the real ideas of Marxism on a whole host of questions and in particular the way forward for the Venezuelan and world revolution.

Mirror 1: Direct

The revolutionary ideas of Karl Marx by Alex Callinicos

Mirror 1: http://www.istendency.net/pdf/revideas.pdf

Memorias del Subdesarrollo

Memories of Underdevelopment is the classic film of Cuban cinema. Directed by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, the story is based on a novel by Edmundo Desnoes. It was Alea's fifth film, and probably his most famous worldwide. The film gathered several awards at international film festivals.

Sergio, a wealthy bourgeois aspiring writer, decides to stay in Cuba even though his wife and friends flee to Miami. Sergio looks back over the changes in Cuba, from the Cuban Revolution to the missile crisis, the effect of living in an underdeveloped country, and his relations with his girlfriends Elena and Hanna. Memories of Underdevelopment is a complex character study of alienation during the turmoil of social changes. The film is told in a highly subjective point of view through a fragmented narrative that resembles the way memories function.