Source: a.a.a.p.

International Council Correspondence
Living Marxism
New Essays
1934-1943

Introduction

Brought together here are references to all the publications by the International Council Correspondence-group in Chicago, Illinois, u.s.a., originally named “United Workers’ Party”; the party-name was dropped early 1936. The periodical was published in ever bigger volumes with ever longer articles yet appearing ever less frequent, discontinued in 1943.

The whole series of periodicals: International Council Correspondence; Living Marxism (International Council Correspondence); and New Essays, but without the pamphlets, was reprinted in 1970 in five volumes: in photographic reproduction of reduced size without transcripts, edition, annotation or source, by the in 2015 still existing Greenwood Reprint Corporation , Westport, Connecticut, under the general title “New Essays”; with a short introduction in the first volume by Paul Mattick sr. (see below).

Source (unless otherwise stated): collection a.a.a.p.

The first volume can also be found as pdf at: libcom.org , in a much smaller file of lower resolution and without optical character recognition. For complete scans in a better resolution but also without (searchable) optical character recognition, also see libcom.org , posted by Stephen, 13 May 2014; in September 2015 we were unaware of the existence of this publication as proper references to the whole series and tables of content were missing; since, we have given permission to libcom.org  to reproduce the scans made by us.

An anonymous incomplete table of contents, apparently originally compiled by Bjarne Avlund Frandsen (a source is not given), and amended, with links to html-versions of some of the texts, can be found at Marxists’ Internet Archive . One might doubt the attribution of some articles to Paul Mattick; sources are not given.

Another one, with some texts and some French translations attached (1) at: La Bataille socialiste  (libertarian marxist blog).

en |  Marxism in a Lost Century : A Biography of Paul Mattick. – Leiden, Boston : Brill, 2015. – 342 p. – (Historical materialism book series, ISSN 1570-1522 ; volume 80) (Source: Libcom.org ; if Libcom published this in conflict with bourgeois law, it will be removed here at request).
pt 

Among the original group in Chicago: Paul Mattick, Rudolf (Rüdiger) Raube, Carl Berreitter, Al Givens, Kristen Svanum, Allen Garman (edited Paul Mattick’s essays), Frieda Mattick; later joined by: Karl Korsch, Walter Auerbach (author and co-author with Paul Mattick), Fritz Henssler (negociated possible mergers with other journals), and the New York group: Walter Boelke, Wendeling Thomas, Hans Schaper, Emmy Tetschner, Mary MacCollum. Living Marxism in Chicago in the late 1930’s: Jake Faber, Emil White, Sam Moss, Dinsmore Wheeler (edited Paul Mattick’s essays), Fairfield Porter (financial contributor), Ilse Mattick (2). A regular outside collaborator was Anton Pannekoek. Finally there was Jos. Wagner. For a somewhat “sociological” yet informative introduction to this group, see: The Council Communists between the New Deal and Fascism / Gabriella M. Bonacchi (1976).

Introduction / Paul Mattick, 1969

Source transcription: Marxists’ Internet Archive 

The following introduction was written by the former editor of “International Council Correspondence”, “Living Marxism” and “New Essays”, Paul Mattick, for the 1970 Greenwood reprinting.

This series of publications, which appeared during the years 1934 to 1943 under the title International Council Correspondence, later to be renamed Living Marxism and, finally, New Essays, expressed the political ideas of a group of American workers concerned with the proletarian class struggle, the conditions of economic depression and worldwide war. Calling themselves Council Communists, (the group was equally far removed from the traditional Socialist party, the new Communist party, and the various “opposition” parties that these movements brought forth. It rejected the ideologies and organizational concepts of the parties of the Second and Third Internationals, as well as those of the stillborn “Fourth International.” Based on Marxist theory, the group adhered to the principle of working-class self-determination through the establishment of workers’ councils for the capture of political power and the transformation of the capitalist into a Socialist system of production and distribution. It could be regarded, therefore, only as a propaganda organization advocating the self-rule of the working class. Because of the relative obscurity of this group and its ideas, it may be well to deal briefly with its antecedents.

Labor organizations tend to see in their steady growth and everyday activities the major ingredients of social change. It was, however, the unorganized mass of workers in the first of the twentieth-century revolutions that determined the character of the revolution and brought into being its own, new form of organization in the spontaneously arising workers’ and soldiers’ councils. The council, or soviet, system of the Russian Revolution of 1905 disappeared with the crushing of the revolution, only to return in greater force in the February Revolution of 1917. It was these councils that inspired the formation of similar spontaneous organizations in the German Revolution of 1918 and, to a somewhat lesser extent, in the social upheavals in England, France, Italy, and Hungary. With the council system, a form of organization arose that could lead and coordinate the self-activities of very broad masses for either limited ends or for revolutionary goals, and that could do so independently of, in opposition to, or in collaboration with existing labor organizations. Most of all, the rise of the council system proved that spontaneous activities need not dissipate in formless mass exertions, but could issue into organizational structures of a more than temporary nature.

In both Russia and Germany the actual content of the revolution was not equal to its revolutionary form. Although in Russia it was mainly general objective unreadiness for a Socialist transformation, in Germany it was the subjective unwillingness to institute socialism by revolutionary means that largely accounts for the failures of the council movement. The great mass of German workers mistook the political for a social revolution. The ideological and organizational strength of social democracy had left its mark; the socialization of production was seen as a governmental concern, not as the task of the workers themselves. The workers’ councils, which had made the revolution, abdicated in favor of political democracy. In Russia, the slogan “All Power to the Soviets” had been advanced by the Bolsheviks for tactical and opportunistic reasons. Once in power, however, the Bolshevik government dismantled the soviet system to secure its own authoritarian rule. The Russian Soviets proved unable to forestall the transformation of the soviet into a party dictatorship.

It is clear that workers’ self-organization is no guarantee against policies and actions contrary to proletarian class interests. In that case, however, they are superseded by traditional or new forms of control, by the old or newly established authorities. Unless spontaneous movements, issuing into organizational forms of proletarian self-determination, usurp control over society and therewith over their own lives, they are bound to disappear again into the anonymity of mere potentiality. This is not true, of course, for the minority of conscious revolutionaries who expect and prepare for new social struggles and to that end concern themselves not only with the critique of capitalist society but also with the criticism of the means required to put an end to it.

This accounts for the Left opposition within the Communist movement, which arose as early as 1918 and directed itself against the opportunism of the Bolshevik party in its endeavor to secure the existence of the Bolshevik government. Although bad experiences with bourgeois parliamentarianism and with the class-collaborationist practices of trade unionism had turned Western Communists into antiparliamentarians and anti-trade unionists, and thus into supporters of the council movement, the Bolsheviks insisted on a reversal of policies and the return to parliamentarianism and trade unionism. The Communist parties were split and their left wings excluded from the Communist International. Lenin’s pamphlet, Radicalism, an Infantile Disease of Communism (1920) was written to destroy the influence of the Left in western Europe.

With the prestige of success on their side, and with the material means available to government to influence or destroy rival social movements, the Bolsheviks succeeded in reducing Left communism to practical insignificance. But it was never completely extinguished and has continued to exist in small groups in a number of countries down to the present day. For a time, it even won a hearing in the United States, where the lack of revolutionary conditions condemned communism to exist in merely ideological form. The formation of groups of council Communists was first made possible here during the Great Depression, which saw the spontaneous growth of organizations of the jobless and of councils of the unemployed.

With the demise of the unemployed movement, the group of council Communists elected to continue to function as an educational organization. A split in the Proletarian party added to their membership and made possible the publication of Council Correspondence. At the founding of the group it adopted the temporary name United Workers party, soon to be changed to Council Communists. It was, perhaps, due to the character of the group and its intentions that it failed to attract intellectuals into its ranks. Wish the exception of articles translated from European sources, all the material published in Council Correspondence was written by employed or unemployed workers. Contributions were not signed because they expressed the opinions of the group even when written by individuals. There was, of course, no money available to pay for printing, and the magazine was produced by voluntary labor. Only with an increase in the number of readers, which coincided with a membership decline in the group, did it become both possible and necessary to print the journal. In view of the reduced membership, however, it was clear that Council Correspondence did not promote the growth of the organization but was practically no more than a vehicle for the elucidation of the ideas of council communism. For this reason the change of name to Living Marxism was decided upon. Eventually, however, the general decline of radicalism resulting from America’s entry into World War II made the name Living Marxism seem rather pretentious, as well as a hindrance in the search for a wider circulation. It was changed to New Essays, but this did not yield the hoped-for results. After a few issues it became clear that a sufficient number of subscribers to make the magazine financially viable was not forthcoming.

Throughout the existence of International Council Correspondence no attempt was made to simplify its style or content to suit less-educated workers. The intention was to raise their level of understanding and to acquaint them with the complexities of social, economic, and political issues. The magazine was also written for politically advanced workers and for the council Communists themselves so as to improve the collective knowledge of the group. It was a forum for discussion, unhampered by any specific dogmatic point of view, and open to new ideas that had some relevance to the council movement. The magazine eventually succeeded in attracting contributions from Socialist writers who were not associated with the group. And it had, of course, at its disposal the work of some academic people, for instance, Anton Pannekoek (writing under the pseudonym J. Harper), an advocate of workers' councils since their very inception. Others, like Otto Rühle. had been active in the workers’ councils in the German revolution. It was Karl Korsch, however, who became Living Marxism’s most prominent academic contributor as well as theoretician of the council movement.

Because large-scale unemployment was the most important aspect of the depression years, it received special attention in Council Correspondence – particularly with regard to self-help organizations and direct actions that attempted to alleviate the miseries of the unemployed. Connected with this in a special sense, but also for general reasons, was a great concern with the inherent contradictions of the capitalist system and their unfolding in the course of its development. The nature of capitalist crisis was more intensely discussed, and on a higher theoretical level, than is generally the rule in labor publications, encompassing as it did the most recent interpretations of Marxist economic theory and its application to the prevailing conditions. The various articles devoted to this subject make their perusal highly rewarding even today, since they have lost neither their actuality nor their validity.

In political terms, the, rising tide of fascism, and thus the certainty of a new world war, occupied most of the space in Council Correspondence – not only with regard to the European scene but also with respect to its interconnections with Asia and the United States. From its earliest beginnings, German “National-Socialism” was recognized as preparation for a war to redivide economic power on a worldwide scale favoring German capitalism. The reactions to Fascist imperialism were considered as being equally determined by competitive capitalist interests. Fascism and war were seen as directed against the international working class, for both attempted to solve the crisis by capitalistic means in order to sustain the capitalist system as such.

The anti-Fascist civil war in Spain, which was immediately a proving ground for World War II, found the council Communists quite naturally – despite their Marxist orientation – on the side of the anarcho-syndicalists, even though circumstances compelled the latter to sacrifice their own principles to the protracted struggle against the common Fascist enemy. The essays devoted to the civil war were of a critical nature and for that reason possessed a high degree of objectivity, which made the failure of anti-fascism – as a mere political movement – more explicit. Not only were the political-military struggles, foreign interventions, and frictions within the anti-Fascist camp adequately dealt with, but even more attention was given to the short-lived collectivization of industry and agriculture in the anarchist-dominated centers of revolutionary Spain.

Insofar as the problem of the collective economy has been dealt with at all in nineteenth-century Socialist literature, it was in terms of the nationalization of productive resources and government control of production and distribution. Only with the Russian Revolution did this problem assume actual importance, even though the socioeconomic conditions in Russia allowed for no more than a state-controlled economy that retained all the essential economic categories of capital production. This system may best be described as state capitalism. In spite of its differences from the capitalism of old, it was, as far as the working class was concerned, merely another system of capitalist exploitation. The council movement did not recognize its planned economy as either a Socialist economy or a transition to such an economy, and opposed it not merely by denunciation but by developing its own concept of a Socialist society as a free association of producers in full command of all decisioning power connected with the production and distribution process.

The organization of socialism was, then, a recurrent theme in Council Correspondence and Living Marxism, for the questions it raised could be answered neither by the localized collectivization of economically backward Spain nor by the centralized government planning in equally economically backward Russia. Quite generally, however, Russia's state capitalism was either bewailed or celebrated as the realization of socialism – or, at any rate, as the road leading to it – and this illusion, though aiding Russian state interests, was detrimental to the international labor movement. It was the function of council communism, through its publications, to aid in the destruction of this illusion. There was no longer an urgent need to oppose social democracy. It had already, through its own practices, demonstrated its non-Socialist character and was now in the process of shedding its Socialist ideology as well. This, however, gave the no less counterrevolutionary activities of international bolshevism an unwarranted nimbus. Much space was, therefore, given to analyses of both the theory and practice of bolshevism, going back to its earliest critics, such as Rosa Luxemburg, and bringing this criticism forward by following the history of bolshevism down to World War II. This criticism was all-inclusive, philosophical, political, economical, and organizational, and expressed at an early date what became, only much later, a more widely accepted recognition of the true nature of bolshevism. Criticism of the old labor movement, whether reformist or revolutionary in its tactics, did not exhaust the repertoire of Council Correspondence. Many of its articles and essays dealt with issues of a scholarly nature of more general interest, ranging from problems of psychology, sociology, and literature to such items as geopolitics, nationalism, and imperialism. Quite a number of these essays have been steadily reprinted by other publications and have served different authors as material for their own productions. Yet, for some years after World War II, the ideas propounded in the publications of council Communism seemed to be totally lost. Since then, however, a new interest in workers’ councils has brought into being a great international library devoted to the subject and its history. This new interest was undoubtedly fostered by the institutionalization of workers’ councils, shop stewards, and workers’ committees in almost all the west-European nations, by the rather emasculated workers’ councils in the Yugoslav “market socialism,” and, last but not least, by their emergence as revolutionary organizations in the recent social upheavals in “Communist” Poland and Hungary. In view of this situation, this reprint of International Council Correspondence and its successors is not only of historical interest but may, in a small way, throw some light on the potentialities of a future labor movement.

Paul Mattick
Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1969

Pamphlets by the United Workers Party of America, 1934-1937

Besides the periodicals, the group also published pamphlets, which are hard to find and which sell (in 2015) at $35 each. If you dispose of any of these, or can copy them, please make them publicly available, inform us, or send scans directly to us and other platforms.

Bolshevism or Communism, 1934

 Bolshevism or Communism : On the Question of a New Communist Party and the “Fourth” International. – Chicago : United Workers Party of America, 1934

Source: Libcom.org .

• I
• II
• III
• IV
• V

The Crisis and the Labor Movement, 1934.

The Crisis and the Labor Movement. – Chicago : United Workers Party of America, 1934.

World-Wide Fascism or World Revolution, 1934

 [Cover missing] World-Wide Fascism or World Revolution , Chicago, March 1934, 26 p.

Source: Libcom.org 

• The Permanent Crisis
• “State Capitalism” and a “Planned Economy”
• Fascism
• The Old Labor Movement
• The New Revolutionary Labor Movement

What next for the American Workers?, 1934

 What next for the American Workers?. – Chicago : United Workers Party, 1934. – 29 p.

A popular pamphlet dealing with the present day American conditions and outlining a perspective for the future.

Source: Libcom.org 

• II
• III
• IV
• V
• VI
• VII
• VIII
• IX

Leninism or Marxism / Rosa Luxemburg, 1934

Marxism or Leninism [?], by Rosa Luxemburg, 1935 [seperate Reprint from the periodical, see below]

The Inevitability of Communism, 1935

The Inevitability of Communism : A Critique of Sidney Hook’s Interpretation of Marx  / Paul Mattick, 1935

The Bourgeois Role of Bolshevism : Its relation to World Communism, 1935

The Workers’ Way to Freedom, 1936

Outline of Production and Distribution in Communism, 1936

Announced in 1936; replaced by the next title.

What Communism really is / Paul Mattick], 1936

What Communism really is. The Social Average Labor Time as the Basis of Communist Production and Distribution / [Paul Mattick], 1936

Offprint from What is Communism, in: International Council Correspondence, Volume I (1934), No 1 (October)

The Crisis and Decline of Capitalism, 1937

The Crisis and the Decline of Capitalism : Marx Theory of Over-Accumulation : The Law of the Falling Rate of Profit : The Permanent Crisis, 1937

Offprint of The Permanent Crisis, in: International Council Correspondence, Volume I (1934), No 2 (November)

Outline Study Course in Marxian Crisis, 1937

Outline Study Course in Marxian Crisis : Based on Vol. I of Capital, by Karl Marx, 1937

Not to be confused with [?]: Outline study course in marxian economics, 1935

International Council Correspondence, Volume I (1934-1935)

More transcription in English and translations in Portuguese appear on: Crítiaca desapiedada .

  International Council Correspondence, [Vol. I] (1934-1935), No 1 (October 1934)

• What is Communism?
• Future of the German Labor movement
• Unity of the American Workers Party and the Communist Leage?
• The Strike Wave
• Reports and announcements

  International Council Correspondence, [Vol. I] (1934-1935), No 2 (November 1934)

• An Apology
• An Explanation
• “The Permanent Crisis”. Henryk Grossmann’s Interpretation of Marx’s Theory of Capitalist Accumulation / [Paul Mattick] [Offprinted in The Crisis and the Decline of Capitalism, 1937]
• I.
• II. Accumulation and Crisis
• III. How Crisis are Overcome
• IV. Permanent Crisis
• The Struggle against the Reduction of Unemployment Relief in Amsterdam (From “Rätekorrespondenz”, #4 of the Group of International Communists of Holland)
• The Class Struggle in Spain / [Paul Mattick]
• Upton Sinclair on the road to Fascism?  / [Paul Mattick]
• Home Coming. The End of the Trotsky Movement [Cover title: French Trotskyists go over enmass to the Socialist Party] / [Paul Mattick]

 International Council Correspondence, [Vol. I] (1934-1935), No 3 (December 1934)

• Theses on Bolshevism  / [Helmut Wagner]
• I. The significance of Bolshevism
• II. The preconditions
• III. The class groupings
• IV. The essence of Bolshevism
• V. The directives
• VI. Bolshevism and the Working Class
• VII. The Bolshevist REvolution
• VIII. Bolshevist Internationalism and the National Question
• IX. State Bolshevism and the Comintern
• What’s behind the “New Deal” / [Paul Mattick]
• Notice
• Announcement of Classes Conducted by u.w.p.
• Forthcoming Articles in the Council Correspondence
• In German

 International Council Correspondence, [Vol. I] (1934-1935), No 4 (January 1935)

• The Babbits have a program. On the program of the National Association of Manufacturers / [Paul Mattick]
• Capitalism and planning / [Paul Mattick]
• I.
• II.
• III.
• IV.
• V.
• VI.
• VII.
• VIII.
• On the new program of the “American Workers Party”, by Karl Korsch
• The “Revolutionary Parliamentarism” of the a.w.p.
• The Trade Union Policy of the a.w.p.
• In German
• Notice

 International Council Correspondence, [Vol. I] (1934-1935), No 5 (February 1935)

• First Complete English Translation of Leninism or Marxism, by Rosa Luxemburg, Introduction / [Paul Mattick]
• Leninism or Marxism , by Rosa Luxemburg
• Part I. Organisational Questions of the Proletarian Revolution
• II. Dictatorship of the Party or Dictatorship of the Proletariat? (Extract from Rosa Luxemburg’s “The Russian Revolution”)
• The American Federation of Labor and the Present Crisis / [Paul Mattick]
• “Marxism without Doctors”, Review at: The Inevitability of Communism. By Paul Mattick
• Notice

 International Council Correspondence, [Vol. I] (1934-1935), No 6 (March 1935)

• Daniel De Leon, by Kristen Svanum
• Announcements
• C.C.C. Capitalism’s Conservation Corps / [Paul Mattick]
• The Scum of Humanity / [Paul Mattick]
• [I.]
• II.
• III.
• IV.
• A.F. of L. and Administration Break / [Paul Mattick]
• Announcements

 International Council Correspondence, [Vol. I] (1934-1935), No 7 (April 1935)

• The Basis of Japanese Imperialism  [from Rätekorrespondenz]
• The Declaration of War on European Capital
• The Technical Precondition of Japanese Expansion
• The “Currency Dumping”
• Japanese Wages
• Standard of Living
• Woman and Child Labor
• Permanent Agrarian Crisis
• The Japanese State
• Conclusion
• Workers’ Councils and Communist Organization of Economy
• The Way Backward
• Wage Labor and State Economy
• The Problem from the Proletarian Point of View
• The Workers’ Councils
• Communist Economy
• New Pamphlet, The Bourgeois Role of Bolshevism

 International Council Correspondence, [Vol. I] (1934-1935), No 8 (May 1935)

• Revolutionary Marxism / [Paul Mattick]
• Notice
• The Next World Crisis, the Next World War and the World Revolution (Theses)
• Remarks on the Theses Regarding the Next World War and the World Revolution, by Karl Korsch
• Capturing the A.F. and L.  / [Paul Mattick]

 International Council Correspondence, [Vol. I] (1934-1935), No 9 (July 1935)

• The Americanizing of Marxism
• I.
• II.
• III.
• Marxism and Anarchism, by W.R.B.
• I. Federalism and Centralism
• II. Attitude Towards State
• The Franco-Russian Pact / [Paul Mattick]
• Inflation / [Paul Mattick]
• What is Money?
• How Inflation is being Forced
• Marxism as a Religion. Critical remarks on “Marxism”, a symposium by John MacMurray, John Middleton Murray, N.A. Holdaway and G.D.H. Cole, by Karl Korsch
• I.
• II.
• III.
• Guy Aldred’s “Mission” [For Communism. A Communist Manifesto. Defining the Worker’s Struggle and the Need of a New Communist International. With a History of the Anti-Parliamentary Movement, 1906-1935. By Guy A. Aldred. 120 pp. 25c. Published in Glasgow, C.l., 145 Queen St., Scotland] / [Paul Mattick]

 International Council Correspondence, [Vol. I] (1934-1935), No 10 (August 1935)

• The Rise of a New Labor Movement  [by Henk Canne Meijer]
• The Impotence
• The Class “in itself” and the Class “for itself”
• National Socialism
• The Struggle for Democratic Rights
• Class Struggle and Communism
• The Self-Movement of the Masses!
• a) Meaning of the mass-movement
• b) Extension of the movement
• c) The mastery of the class forces through the workers’ councils
• The New Labor Movement
• Party or “Work Group”
• The Work Groups
• The “Diseases of Childhood”
• Summary

 International Council Correspondence, [Vol. I] (1934-1935), No 11 (September 1935)

• Germany Today / [Paul Mattick]
• “National Bolshevism”, by H.G.
• The Brussels Conference [Toward the middle of June, 1935, there was held in Brussels an conference of the international council-communist groups, at which, among others, our German, Dutch and Danish groups were represented] / [Paul Mattick]
• The Competitors of Fascism / [Paul Mattick]
• From the “Dictatorship” to the “People’s Government”
• The Belgian Succes
• The Triumph of the United Front
• The Last Congress of the Communist International
• Read

 International Council Correspondence, [Vol. I] (1934-1935), No 12 (October 1935)

• “Revolutionary Parliamentarism”, by W.T.
• Anti-Parliamentarism and Council Communism
• Report from Denmark. 22d Congress of the d.s.p., by L.
• The Third International in the Opinion of the Bourgeoisie
• Critical Remarks Concerning “The Rise of a New Labor Movement”, by H.W. [=Helmut Wagner]
• The Intellectuals, by J[ohn]. H[arper]. [Anton Pannekoek]
• To Readers of Council Correspondence

International Council Correspondence, Volume II (1935-1936)

More transcriptions in English and translations in Portuguese appear on: Crítiaca desapiedada .

 Cover, preliminary pages

  International Council Correspondence, Vol. II (1935-1936), No 1 (December 1935)

• The Breathing Spell [on cover: Will there be prosperity?] / [Paul Mattick]
• The Lenin Legend / [Paul Mattick]
• On the resolution adopted by the Brussels Conference
• Please Notice
• Portrait of the Counter-Revolution

  International Council Correspondence, Vol. II (1935-1936), No 2 (Januari 1936)

• Notes on the War Question / [Paul Mattick]
• Please Notice
• Trade-Unionism, by J[ohn]. H[arper]. [Anton Pannekoek]
• Problems of the New Labor Movement / [Paul Mattick]

  International Council Correspondence, Vol. II (1935-1936), No 3-4 (March 1936)

• The Development of Soviet Russia’s Foreign Policy / [Not by Paul Mattick, but by Marxistisk Arbejder Politik]
• The Period of the Revolution
• The First Defeat of the Bolshevik’s Foreign Policy
• The Period of Civil War
• The Turn Towards National Self-Assertion
• Entering International Diplomacy
• Russia Becomes a Factor of International World Politics
• The Pacification of Russia’s Western Policy
• Russia Turns East
• The Betrayal of the Chinese Workers Revolution
• On the Way to the “League of Nations”
• Peace Diplomacy in the World Crisis of Capitalism
• Entry into the League of Nations
• The Inner-Political Presuppositions of the Latest Phase of Russian Foreign Policy
• The Liquidation of the Comintern
• Conclusion
• Current Trends in Czechoslovakia / [Paul Mattick]

French language publication of the first text: Le développement de la politique étrangère de la Russie soviétique, 1973, exists also in Dutch

  International Council Correspondence, Vol. II (1935-1936), No 5 (April 1936)

• Election Year / [Paul Mattick]
1. 2. 3.
• Forthcoming Articles in the Council Correspondence
• The Miner’s Strike in Belgium
• The Situation before the Strike
• The Strike
• The Trade-Unions choke the Strike
• The State Participates
• Conclusion
• Boom with Twelve Million Unemployed
• The “Victory” in Spain
• Marx on Social Reform
• Workers’ Councils, by J[ohn]. H[arper]. [Anton Pannekoek]
• [Quote from Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire]
• Book Reviews / [Paul Mattick]
• Conze, Edward – The Scientific Method of Rhinking. An Introduction to Dialectical Materialism. Chapman & Hall, Ltd., London, 1935
• Uphoff, Walter, H. – The Kohler Strike. Its Socio-Economic Causes and Effects. – Chas. H. Kerr & Co., Chicago, 1935

  International Council Correspondence, Vol. II (1935-1936), No 6 (May 1936)

• The Power of the Classes, by J[ohn]. H[arper]. [Anton Pannekoek]
• I.
• II.
• Communism and Religion / [Anton Pannekoek]
• I.
• II.
• III.
• IV.
• Forthcoming Articles in the Council Correspondence
• Class Struggle in War (Taken from Internationale Räte Korrespondenz)
• Second World War Inevitable
• The Ideological Preparation for the Second World War
• The Jingoism of the “Working Class Movement”
• National Independence and Leninism
• The Fourth International (Trotzky Opposition) and “Leninism”
• Prevention of the War
• The Enemy is within the Country

  International Council Correspondence, Vol. II (1935-1936), No 7 (June 1936)

• On the Communist Party, by J[ohn].H[arper]. [Anton Pannekoek]
• I.
• II.
• The Dictatorship of the Intellectuals (Critical Remarks on the Reflections of Max Nomad) / P.M. [=Paul Mattick]
• I.
• II.
• III.
• IV.
• V.

  International Council Correspondence, Vol. II (1935-1936), No 8 (July 1936)

• The Defeat in France / [Paul Mattick]
• Notice
• The Role of Fascism, by J[ohn].H[arper]. [Anton Pannekoek]
• [I.]
• II.
• Luxemburg versus Lenin / [Paul Mattick]
• The Collapse of Capitalism
• Spontaneity and the Role of Organisation

  International Council Correspondence, Vol. II (1935-1936), No 9-10 (September 1936)

• The Land of Promise. Report from Palestine [Tel-Aviv]
• Masters of Tomorrow, by Max Nomad [in reaction to Paul Mattick in International Council Correspondence, Vol. II, no 7]
• I.
• II. Fascism and Bolshevism
• III. “Councils” and Soviets
• IV. The Permanent Revolution
• The Party and the Working Class / [Anton Pannekoek]

  International Council Correspondence, Vol. II (1935-1936), No 11 (October 1936)

• The Civil War in Spain / [Paul Mattick]
• I.
• II.
• III.
• IV.
• V.

  International Council Correspondence, Vol. II (1935-1936), No 12 (November 1936)

• Work Shop Committees in England (Leeds, England)
• On the Soviet Constitution (The following open letter to Feuchtwanger is taken from the Sozialistische Warte of Aug. 15, 1936, by A. Rudolf, former Soviet official; author of “Goodbye to Russia”.)
• What must be done? Introducing our new pamphlet “What Communism really is” (The Social Average Labor Time as the Basis of Communist Production and Distribution)
• To the Reader
• Max Nomad’s “Masters of Tomorrow” / P.M. [=Paul Mattick]
• To All the Workers in the World, by The National Confederation of Labor, The Iberian Anarchist Federation
• The “Popular Front” and Fascism
• Democracy in Russia
• Roosevelts Prosperity

International Council Correspondence, Volume III (1937)

More transcriptions in English and translations in Portuguese appear on: Crítiaca desapiedada .

Cover, preliminary pages

  International Council Correspondence, Vol. III (1937), No 1 (January)

• The Era of good feeling. Roosevelt’s Second Term / [Paul Mattick]
• State Capitalism and Dictatorship (From Rätekorrespondenz) / [Anton Pannekoek]
• I.
• II.
• III.
• The Maritime Strike / J.Z. [unlikely Paul Mattick?]
• A Letter from Germany
• Notes on The Question of Unemployment / [Paul Mattick]
• To the Right There is no Limit

  International Council Correspondence, Vol. III (1937), No 2 (February)

• “Soviet”-Russia Today (From Räte-Korrespondenz)
• Essential Moments in the Development of Russia During the Last Years
• Class Relations in Russia in Agriculture
• The Situation of the Workers
• Stakhanovism
• The New Constitution
• State Capitalism and Communism
• Russia’s Latest Executions – Why?
• Outline Study Course in Marxian Economics
• Fascist Corporatism
• Before the Seizure of Power
• Reactionary Corporatism
• Reformist Corporatism
• Fascist Corporatism
• In Germany
• Capitalist Magnates Against Corporatism
• New Strikes – New Methods
• Two New Marxian Quarterlies (Science and Society and The Marxist Quarterly)
• New Books
• Planning the Chaos? (Douglas, Paul H. “Controlling Depressions”, W.W. Norton & Company)
• The Sociology of Invention (By S.C. Gilfillan – Chicago, 1936)
• An Outline History of Unemployment (By W.T. Colyer, n.c.l.c. Publishing Society, London 1936)
• From Hegel to Marx (Studies in the Intellectual Development of Karl Marx by Sidney Hook)
• Spain Today. Revolution or Counter-Revolution by Edward Conze (Greenberg Publisher, 67 W. 44th St. N.Y. – $1.50)
• We recommend: “The International Review”

  International Council Correspondence, Vol. III (1937), No 3 (March)

• The End of a Strike!
• Supreme Court Reform. New Bood in the Judiciary
• Those Against the Reform
• Those in Favor of the Reform
• Ballyhop For and Against the Issue
• The Supreme Court is a Bulwark of Capitalism
• War Prevention Schemes
• What Next in Spain?
• The Situation in England (From “Controversy” no 4))
• On Fluctuation of Wages
• Rise f the Living Standard
• The Marxian Law of Wages
• Limit of Intensification
• “NOTE: The Council Correspondence often accepts articles from writers who are not affiliated with the Groups of Council Communists. These articles are signed to denote that we do not necessarily endorse the view of the writer entirely. All material presented without signature is to be considered as the collective work of the members of the Groups of Council Communists. We will appreciate suggestions, criticisms and articles.”

  International Council Correspondence, Vol. III (1937), No 4 (April)

• The Brownshirts of Zionism (Abner Barnatan, Tel Aviv)
• Child Labor. A Class Issue
• Exploitation of Child Labor is Necessary to Capitalism
• The States’ “Legislation” of Child Labor
• Federal Legislation of Child Labor
• The Holy Roman Catholic Church
• To the Ladies!
• State Maintenance of Children
• Child Labor under Communism
• Wages and Prices
• Shop Delegates’ and Workers’ Control
• Delegates Insiode the Establishments
• House Committees
• The Work of the Delegates
• The Shop Delegates and the Unions
• What Remedies?
• What Can Replace the General Assembly?
• The Future of the Shop Delegates?
• Notes on Productivity and Profits
• Trotsky and Proletarian Dictatorship (H. Smith)
• The Simple is too Profound
• What is the Proletarian Dictatorship?

  International Council Correspondence, Vol. III (1937), No 5-6 (June)

• Anarchism and the Spanish Revolution
• [I.]
• II.
• Foreign Help Strangulated the Revolution
• The Class Struggle in “Red” Spain
• The Economic Organization of the Revolution
• Taking Over of Production by the Unions
• Anarcho-Syndicalism (From Räte-Korrespondenz)
• The Necessity of Planned Production
• Bolshevist vs. The Communist Mode of Production
• Nature and Significance of “Overproduction”
• a) Production as Reflection of Capital Accumulation
• b) Production and Stocks
• c) The disruption of the Accumulation Process
• New Books
• Leon Trotsky’s The Revolution Betrayed. Doubleday, Doran & Co., 308 p., $2.50
• Max Eastman, The End of Socialism in Russia. Little Brown & Co., 75 cents
• From Tzar to Lenin (A Film edited by Max Eastman) (P.W.)
• John Strachey, The Theory and Practice of Socialism. Random House, $2.50
• The Recovery Problem in the United States
• Civil War in Catalonia
• Seven Workers have been Killed

  International Council Correspondence, Vol. III (1937), No 7-8 (August)

• Much Ado About Nothing. The Future of the c.i.o.
• Strikers and Leaders
• Control of Markets and World Capitalism
• [I.]
• III. [A II. is missing]
• IV.
• Summary
• “The Barricades Must be Torn Down” Moskou Fascism in Spain
• Racketering. A Phase of Class Conflict
• The Use of Criminals By Capitalism Against the Workers
• Labor Unionism and Gangsterism
• Organized Extorsion
• Fate of the Small Capitalists
• Conclusion

  International Council Correspondence, Vol. III (1937), No 9-10 (October)

• The War in the Far East
• Foreword
• Outline of Chinese History
• Chinese Economy (to be continued)
• Agriculture
• Industry
• One Year “Peoples Front” in France
• The Old Hegelian Dialectic and the New Materialist Science (Karl Korsch)
• The Non-Intervention Comedy Comes to and End in Spain (Hartwig)
• Hitler’s National “Socialism”
• Books and Pamphlets
• After the Revolution – Economic Reconstruction in Spain Today. By D.A. Santillan. Greenburg Publishers. 127 p. $1.25
• The Crisis and Decline of Capitalism. Published by International Council Correspondence. P.O. Box 5343, Chicago, Ill. 28 p. 10 cents
• Economic Welfare. By Oscar Newfang. A plan for Economic Security For Every Family. 187 p. $1.50. Earnes & Nobles, Inc. New York
• An Outline of Finance. By Arthur Woodburn. The n.c.l.c. Publishing Society, 15 South Hill Park Gardens, London, N.W.3. 181 p. 2/6
• Social Security, by Abraham Epstein. League for Industrial Democracy, 112 E. 19th St., New York City. 38 p. 10 cents
• Industrial Unionism in the American Labor Movement, by Theresa Wolfson and Abraham Weiss. League For Industrial Democracy. 52 p. 15 cents
• The Labor Spy by Gordon Hopkins. Sical Acrion 32 p. 10 cents
• John Le Lewis Exposed by Eric Hass. New York Labor News Co., P.O. Box 1076, City Hall Station. 69 p. 10c
• The Soviets by Albert Rhys Williams. Harcourt, Brace & Co., 383 Madison Ave., New York City. 554 p. $3.00
• The Letters of Lenin. Translated (and often very badly) by Elizabeth Hill and Doris Mundie. Chapman & Hall, London. Harcourt, Brace & Co., New York. 95 p. $4.00
• The Web of Thought and Action by H. Levy-Watts & Co., London, 5 and 6 Johnson’s Court, Fleet St. E.C. 4 238 p. 2/6 net,
• Earl Browder, Communist or Tool of Wall Street (Stalin, Trotsky or Lenin) by George Marlen. P.O. Box 67, Station D, N.Y. $1.00
• From Lenin to Stalin by Victor Serge. Pioneer Publishers, 100 Fifth Ave. New York city. 112 p. 50 c
• Leon Trotsky, The Stalin school of Falsification. Pioneer Publishers. 326 p. $3.50
• L.C.R. James, World Revolution 1917-1936: The Rise and Fall of the Communnist International. Pioneer Publishers. 429 p. $3.50
• The Natiional Debt and Government Credit. Twentieth Century Fund. 330 W. 42d St. New York, 1937. 169 p. $1.75
• Unemployment and Accumulation
• One Year People’s Front in France
• News Notes on the c.i.o.
• A Definition
• Miners “Hang” Leaders
• c.i.o. Union Curbs Locals
• Responsability versus Irresponsability

  International Council Correspondence, Vol. III (1937), No 11-12 (December)

• To our Readers, Contributors, and Subscribers [Council Correspondence will appear in printed form]
• The Materialistic Interpretation of History
• The Italian Corperative State (Hartwig)
• National Liberation Movements are Good Business (from The New Masses, Communist Party, Sept. 17, 1937)
• The Passing of Marxian Orthodoxy. Bernstein – Kautsky – Luxemburg – Lenin (Karl Korsch)
• Union Democracy (Chicago Daily News, Nov. 9, 1937
• Origin and Development of the Communist Party of Germany (to be continued)
• The Activity of Karl Liebknecht
• The Social-Democratic Arbeitergemeinschaft
• New Pamphlets
• What has become of the Russian Revolution by M. Yvon. Translated by Integer. International Review, N.Y. 64 p. 25 cents
• c.i.o. – Promise or Menace? Published by Industrial Union Party. 62 p. 5 cents
• Rich Land, Poor Land. A Pamphlet summary of a book of the same title by Stuart Chase. League For Industrial Democracy, New York City. 27 p. 15 cents
• The Tragedy of Spain, by Rudolf Rocker. Freie Arbeiter Stimme, New York City. 47 p. 15 cents
• The Popular Front from the bourgeoisie to the anarchists
• The c.i.o. breaks a Strike
• Visit the Groups of International Council Communists [Weekly, New York and Chicago]
• Asia and World Imperialism
• [I.]
• II.
• “Stalinism and Bolshevism”
• Is this Bolshevism, Stalinism or Hitlerism?

Living Marxism : International Council Correspondence, Volume IV (1938-1939)

More transcriptions in English and translations in Portuguese appear on: Crítiaca desapiedada .

Cover, preliminary pages

  Living Marxism : International Council Correspondence, Vol. IV (1938-1939), No 1 (Februari 1938)

• Against the Stream
• The Future of Unemployment. Unemployment and the Labor Market
• Unemployment and Accumulation
• Unemployment and the Unemployed
• Literature on Unemployment
• Planning New Depression (from the book “Karl Marx” by Karl Korsch)
• The Right to Work
• Marxisme and Psychology / [Anton Pannekoek]
• I.
• II.
• III.
• Book Reviews
• Reuben Osborn, Freud and Marx
• Upton Sinclair, The Flivver King
• Bruce Minton and John Stuart, Men Who Led Labor

  Living Marxism : International Council Correspondence, Vol. IV (1938-1939), No 2 (March 1938)

• Welcome the Depression
• “A Bird in the Hand”. Thurman W. Arnolds “The Folklore of Capitalism”
• The Marxist Ideology in Russia / l.h. [=Karl Korsch]
• The Simple and the Complex / H.
• What can the Unemployed do? (to be continued)
• Unemployment and the Labor Movement in American History
• Welfare and the Unemployed
• “Self-Help” – The American Way
• Book Reviews
• Spy Overhead, the Story of Industrial Espionage, by Clinch Calkins. The Labor Spy Racker, by Leo Huberman
• Japan and Asia, by W.H. Chamberlin
• Forty Years of American-Japanese Relations, by Foster Rhea Dulles
• The Origin of American Intervention in North Russia (1918), by Leonid J. Strakhovsky
• A Real New Deal, by Charles E. Carpenter
• Science in the Light of Marxism (Die Wissenschaft im Lichte des Marxismus), by H. Wallon, M. Prenant, H. Mineur, J. Baby and others

  Living Marxism : International Council Correspondence, Vol. IV (1938), No 3 (May 1938)

• German Fascism on the Offensive / S.P.
• [I.]
• II.
• [III. is missing]
• IV.
• The Lorelei
• Economics and Politics in Revolutionary Spain / l.h. [=Karl Korsch]
• The Dominican Republic Solves its Unemployment Problem
• What can the Unemployed Do? (to be continued)
• Boorlegging of Coal in Pennsylvania
• Beyond the Confines of Private Property
• The Struggle against Bootlegging
• The meaning of it all
• What Bootlegging means for the Workers
• Nationalization of Coal
• Book Reviews
• America’s Stake in International Investments, The Brooking Institution
• Caste and Class in a Southern Town, by John Dollard
• America on Relief, by Marie Dresden Lane and Francis Steegmuller. Trends in Relief Expenditures, Works Progress Administration
• This Question of Relief, Public Affairs Pamphlets

  Living Marxism : International Council Correspondence, Vol. IV (1938-1939), No 4 (August 1938)

• Organizations of the Unemployed (to be continued)
• The Masses and the Vanguard
• Communist Production and Distribution
• Marxism and the Present Task of the Proletarian Class Struggle / l.h. [=Karl Korsch]
• Southern Negroes
• Book Reviews
• “Eagle Forgotten”. The Life of John Peter Altgeld, by Harry Barnard

  Living Marxism : International Council Correspondence, Vol. IV (1938-1939), No 5 (November 1938)

• The World War in the Making
• Czechoslovakia – the Stepping Stone
• The Future of the Danube
• “They Dress Like Mourners, Yet Rejoice”
• American “Isolation”
• We Are All Marxists Now
• Lenin’s Philosophy (Some additional remarks to J. Harper’s recent criticism of Lenin’s book “Materialism and Empirio-Ctiticism”) / l.h. [=Karl Korsch
• Leninism Goes West
• Leninism versus Machism
• The Present Impact of Lenin’s Materialistic Philosophy
• General Remarks on the Question of Organization / J[ohn]. Harper [Anton Pannekoek]
• [I.]
• II.
• III.
• IV.
• V.
• A “Marxian” Approach to the Jewish Question

  Living Marxism : International Council Correspondence, Vol. IV (1938-1939), No 6 (April 1939)

• The Jitterbugs (“Their Extacy is without content”, T.W. Adorno)
• Hitler Lied!
• Stalin and Hitler
• The Peoples’ Front
• Officials make Escape
• Union Unity?
• The Concentration Camp Grows
• [I.]
• II.
• III.
• IV.
• V.
• VI.
• VII.
• VIII.
• Collectivization in Spain / Karl Korsch
• Marxism and Marginal Utility Economics
• Book Reviews
• Karl Marx, by Karl Korsch
• The School for Dicatators, by Ignazio Silone / K.K. [=Karl Korsch]
• The Story of the c.i.o., by Benjamin Stolberg. Labor’s New Millions, by Mary Heaton Vorse
• Lige of a rebel, by Angelica Balabanoff

  Living Marxism : International Council Correspondence, Vol. IV (1938-1939), No 7 (June 1939)

• Karl Kautsky, From Marx to Hitler
• The Struggle for Democracy
• Curbing Big Business? / P.W.
• Discussion. On the Impotence of Revolutionary Groups / Sam Moss
• [I.]
• II.
• Book Reviews
• The State and the Socialist Revolution, by Martov
• Mussolini’s Roman Empire, by Geoffroy T. Garrat
• Apostles of Revolution, by Max Nomad
• The Origin of the Inequality of the Social Classes, by Gunnar Landtman
• American Labor, by Herbert Harris. Union of Their Own Chossing, by Robert R.R. Brooks
• The New Deal in Action, by A.M. Schlesinger

  Living Marxism : International Council Correspondence, Vol. IV (1938-1939), No 8 (September 1939)

• Security With 403’s
• What you ought to know about relief and WPA
• The dream was short
• The wonders of WPA
• Why do these things happen?
• Divide and rule
• And your organizations?
• What is to be done?
• On the Economic Theory of Socialism
• The Struggle against Fascism begins with the Struggle against Bolshevism / [Otto Rühle]
• [I.]
• II.
• III.
• IV.
• V.
• VI.
• VII.
• Book Reviews
• World Communism, a History of the Communist International, by F. Borkenau

Living Marxism : International Council Correspondence / New Essays, Volume V (1940-1941)

More transcriptions in English and translations in Portuguese appear on: Crítiaca desapiedada .

Cover, preliminary pages

    Living Marxism : International Council Correspondence, Vol. V (1940-1941), No 1 (Spring 1940)

• The War is Permanent
• Fascism and Imperialism
• The Fascist World Revolution
• The End of Bourgeois Economics
• The World War – The Present War – The Task of Fascism
• Marxist Philosophy and Science
• Book Reviews

        Living Marxism : International Council Correspondence, Vol. V (1940-1941), No 2 (Fall 1940)

 (the forgotten p. 50-51)

• Leon Trotsky
• Prelude to Hitler : the Internal Politics of Germany 1918-1933 / Karl Korsch
• Which side to take
• Why past revolutionary movements failed / Anton Pannekoek
• The fascist counter-revolution
• Long live the war!
• Book reviews

        Living Marxism : International Council Correspondence, Vol. V (1940-1941), No 3 (Winter 1941)

• Fascism in the u.s.a.
• The end of the capitalist revolution
• The industrial revolution of “socialism”
• The blessings of fascism
• The dynamics of war and revolution
• The workers’ fight against fascism
• The corporate community
• The end of the marker
• The viewpoint of the workers
• The war for a better world
• Book reviews

        Living Marxism : International Council Correspondence, Vol. V (1940-1941), No 4 (Spring 1941)

• The fight for Britain, the fight for democracy, and the war aims of the working class
• From liberalism to fascism
• The old and the new totalitarian state
• Revolution for what?
• A critical comment on Jan Valtin’s “Out of the night”
• Man and society in an age of reconstruction
• The transition from laisser faire to planning
• Towards full use of resources
• The structure of American economy
• Book reviews

New Essays : A Quarterly Devoted to the Study of Modern Society / New Essays, Volume VI (1942-1943)

More transcriptions in English and translations in Portuguese appear on: Crítiaca desapiedada .

        New Essays : A Quarterly Devoted to the Study of Modern Society, Vol. VI (1941-1943), No 1 (Fall 1941)

• War and revolution
• Stages of totalitarian economy
• Two men in a boat – not to speak of the 8 points
• Hitler as peace angel
• British imperialism: old and new
• The end of appeasement
• The struggle for England
• The German-Russian war
• America – Germany – Japan
• German Europe
• Hitlers “secret” weapon
• Book reviews

          New Essays : A Quarterly Devoted to the Study of Modern Society, Vol. VI (1941-1943), No 2 (Fall 1942)

• Notes on history: The Ambiguities of Totalitarian Ideologies / Karl Korsch
• The Old an the New Imperialism
• Revolutionary and Counter-Revolutionary Aspects of Totalitarianism
• The Historical Philosophy of Nazism
• Toward a New function of historical knowledge
• Materialism and historical materialism
• Marxism and empirism
• The Heydrich pattern
• What destroyed democracy?
• An analysis of capitalist technology
• The structure and practice of totalitarianism / Karl Korsch
• The Marxian dialectic and its recent critics
• Book reviews

          New Essays : A Quarterly Devoted to the Study of Modern Society, Vol. VI (1941-1943), No 3 (Spring 1943)

• Wilson vs. Roosevelt : Reflections on a charter / Dwight MacDonald
• A historical view of geopolitics / Karl Korsch
• The bureaucratic spirit / Sebastian Frank
• Marxism and pragmatism / C.P. West
• Competition and monopoly / Paul Mattick
• Philosophy and the state
• Book reviews

          New Essays : A Quarterly Devoted to the Study of Modern Society, Vol. VI (1941-1943), No 4 (Spring 1943)

• Vladimir Korolenko / Rosa Luxemburg
• The modern machiavellians / Paul Mattick
• Societal implications of Russian resistance / C.P. West
• Book reviews

Editorial Notes

1. Several texts were also translated from French into Portuguese: A Contra-Revolução Burocrática, Artigos de Karl Korsch, Paul Mattick, Anton Pannekoek, Otto Rühle, Helmut Wagner. – Coimbra : Centelho, 1978. – 318 p.

2. The names were provided by Gary Roth, email of 14 December 2015.

© Allthough the Communist Left in general abstained from claiming copyrights or rights on “intellectuel property”, some publications on this site might be copyrighted; if they are, their use is free for personal consultation only. Non-copyrighted material, provided for non-commercial use only, can be freely distributed. Including a reference to this source is appreciated, as well as a notification. As for commercial use, please contact us.

Compiled by Vico, 5 September 2015, latest additions 13 May 2021

Overview

• Introduction
• Introduction / Paul Mattick, 1969
• Pamphlets by the United Workers Party of America, 1934-1937
• Volume 1, International Council Correspondence, 1934-1935
• Volume 2, International Council Correspondence, 1935-1936
• Volume 3, International Council Correspondence, 1937
• Volume 4, Living Marxism, 1938-1939
• Volume 5, Living Marxism, 1940-1941
• Volume 6, New Essays, 1942-1943
• Editorial Notes