Frontier Socialism: Self-Organisation and Anti-Capitalism

ISBN-13: 9783030523701 / Angielski / Twarda / 2021 / 198 str.

Monica Quirico; Gianfranco Ragona; Angelina Ione Zontine

Spis treści

​Introduction

Chapter I. “Revolution is not what is supposed to be by revolutionaries”. Gustav Landauer (1870-1919)

1. Bio-bibliographical account

2. Cooperative self-organization

3. The State as a social relation

4. Critique of Marxism

5. Analysis of Capitalism

6. Revolution

Bibliography

Chapter II. Class struggle and women liberation. Alexandra Kollontai (1872-1952)

1. Bio-bibliographical account

2. Marxism, Class Initiative and Gender Autonomy

3. A Difficult transition to Socialism, between capitalistic legacies and bureaucratization

4. Class self-determination: the role of the party and of the trade union

5. A difficult balance between workers’ democracy and leading role of the party

Bibliography

Interlude. Resistance or Revolution? The Spanish Civil War

Chapter III. Self-government and Communism. Paul Mattick (1904-1981)

1. Bio-bibliographical account

2. Marx and his epigones

3. Mixed economy and State capitalism

4. Against Bolshevism and for a workers’ democracy

Bibliography

Chapter IV. Workers struggles in the Neocapitalistic Age. Raniero Panzieri (1921-1964)

1. Bio-bibliographical account

2. Marx and Marxism

3. Monopoly Capitalism: Factory and Society

4. Workers’ control

Bibliography

Interlude. Between Social Movement and Revolutionary Party: Lotta continua

Chapter V. A revolutionary reformism: Rudolf Meidner (1914-2005)

1. Bio-bibliographical account

2. Meidner and Marxism

3. Beyond Private Property

4. The confrontation on the wage earners funds and their neutralization

Bibliography

Chapter VI. A Communist Theory of Politics: Nicos Poulantzas (1936-1979)

1. Bio-bibliographical account

2. Poulantzas’ understanding of Marxism

3. Economic and political crisis in the age of monopoly capitalism

4. Conquest of the State and direct democracy

Bibliography

Chapter VII. Into the crisis

1. A homogeneous political orientation?

2. The Chilean Laboratory

3. The legacy of 68

4. The defeat of Keynes, namely world’s hayekization 

Bibliography

Conclusions. Attempts

1. In the rubble: Alain Bihr’s road to renewal

2. The movements’ movement

3. A “new historical project”

4. Between Class and Gender

5. A new Hope?

Bibliography

Index of Names

O autorze

Monica Quirico is an Honorary Research Fellow in the Institute of Contemporary History at Södertörn University, Sweden.

Gianfranco Ragona is Associate Professor in the Department of Cultures, Politics and Society at the University of Turin, Italy.

Blurb

Considering the history of workers' and socialist movements in Europe, Frontier Socialismfocuses on unconventional forms of anti-capitalist thought, particularly by examining several militant-intellectuals whose legacy is of particular interest for those aiming for a radical critique of capitalism. Following on the work of Michael Löwy, Quirico & Ragona identify relationships of “elective affinity” between figures who might appear different and dissimilar, at least at first glance: the German Anarchist Gustav Landauer, the Bolshevik Alexandra Kollontai, the German communist Paul Mattick, the Italian Socialist Raniero Panzieri, the Greek-born French euro-communist Nikos Poulantzas, the German-born Swedish Social Democrat Rudolf Meidner, and the French social scientist Alain Bihr as well as two historical struggle experiences, the Spanish Republic and the Italian revolutionary group “Lotta continua”. Frontier Socialism then analyzes these thinkers' and experiences’ respective paths to socialism based on and achieved through self-organization and self-government, not to build a new tradition but to suggest a path forward for both research and political activism.

​Monica Quirico is an Honorary Research Fellow in the Institute of Contemporary History at Södertörn University, Sweden.

Gianfranco Ragona is Associate Professor in the Department of Cultures, Politics and Society at the University of Turin, Italy.