First published in 1938 by a leader of the Council Communism movement, Anton Pannekoek's Lenin as Philosopher offers a classic left-wing interpretation and critique of Lenin's philosophical accomplishment and its relationship to the development of Leninism as perhaps the dominant political theory of the twentieth century. Providing a detailed discussion of the philosophical background to the Machist controversy which occasioned Lenin's Materialism and Empirio criticism, Pannekoek's study still stands as one of the most forceful and politically astute discussions of the topic available....

The recent collapse of the Soviet Union made clear the weaknesses and deficiencies in Leninist theory and practice. In the period between the World Wars, however, an entirely different trend of socialist thought had briefly flowered in Europe, a trend which rejected the Leninist model of centralized party and state, and instead affirmed the democratic self-emancipation of the working class. This movement was "council communism." "Non-Leninist Marxism" presents a selection of the most influential writings from the council communists, including Hermann Gorter, Anton Pannekoek, Sylvia Pankhurst,...