Bøker av Anton Pannekoek

Anton Pannekoek (1873-1960), the Dutch astronomer and Marxist revolutionary, was a key theoretician of council communism-a Marxist alternative to both Leninism and Social Democracy that instead emphasized working-class self-emancipation through workers' councils. The first half of this book walks the reader through the fundamentals of council communism and the conditions that led to the development of these ideas. The second half of the book demonstrates the rich depth of Pannekoek's thinking, with penetrating essays and insightful letters on revolutionary organization, state capitalism, Marxism, the limitations of trade unions and political parties, the potential of wildcat strikes, public vs. common ownership, the necessity of combining organization and freedom, the deceptiveness of parliamentarism, workers' councils, the vital importance of working-class self-emancipation, and more.With the recent resurgence in the naïve hope that Democratic Socialism and trade unionism can act as radical methods to meaningfully confront or even overthrow capitalism, Pannekoek's council communist ideas encourage workers to think for themselves rather than submit to the dead-end traditions of the old movement and embrace the collective self-activity that can build a new movement capable of overcoming the struggles we face ahead.

Anton Pannekoek discusses the viability of workers' councils as an effective means of administrating a socialist society, as contrasted to the centralized doctrines of state communism or state capitalism.Conceived as an alternative way to establish and sustain socialism, the workers councils have so far never been successfully established at a national scale. Part of the problem was disagreements among revolutionaries about their size and responsibilities; while Lenin supported the notion during the revolutionary period, the councils were phased out in favor of a centralized state, rather than diffused through the strata of society.Pannekoek draws on history for his ideas, noting the deficiencies of previous revolutions and the major objectives a future revolution should hold. The various tasks a state of worker's councils must accomplish, and the enemies that must be overcome - notably fascists, bourgeois elements and big business - are listed.

Anton Pannekoek discusses the viability of workers' councils as an effective means of administrating a socialist society, as contrasted to the centralized doctrines of state communism or state capitalism.Conceived as an alternative way to establish and sustain socialism, the workers councils have so far never been successfully established at a national scale. Part of the problem was disagreements among revolutionaries about their size and responsibilities; while Lenin supported the notion during the revolutionary period, the councils were phased out in favor of a centralized state, rather than diffused through the strata of society.Pannekoek draws on history for his ideas, noting the deficiencies of previous revolutions and the major objectives a future revolution should hold. The various tasks a state of worker's councils must accomplish, and the enemies that must be overcome - notably fascists, bourgeois elements and big business - are listed.