Left communism

Left communism is a description of a range of communist viewpoints which oppose the Bolshevik's role in the Russian Revolution from a position which they claim is more left-wing. The proponents of these viewpoints, who are more likely to describe themselves as the only true, or consistent, communists, do not generally use the term. In Trotskyist and Leninist discourse, the term is generally synonymous with the usually derogatory term ultra-left.

Some left communists support the Russian Revolution, but do not accept the methods of the Bolsheviks. Lenin polemicised against this position in his pamphlet 'Left-Wing' Communism and other Infantile Disorders. In the pamphlet, Lenin ascribes this position to groups including the De Leonist Socialist Labor Parties, the syndicalist Industrial Workers of the World, the Spartacist League of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, Amadeo Bordiga's supporters in Italy and Sylvia Pankhurst's Workers Socialist Federation. In this he contrasts the Bolshevik's activity within the parliamentary system and regular trade unions with their self-proclaimedly independent positions.

The Kronstadt Rebellion was also characterised as left communist by the Bolshevik leaders of the time, conducted as it was by sailors who moved from being fervent supporters of the revolution to opponents of its slow, and in their view compromised, progress.

Other left communists reject the idea of a vanguard party and denounce the Russian Revolution as inevitably producing a state capitalist economy. This includes the Socialist Party of Great Britain and the World Socialist Movement around them.

When Trotsky's supporters formed the International Left Opposition, some of their national groups named themselves "left communists", seeing themselves as defending the positions of Lenin against Stalin, and Bukharin's Right Opposition. Some later Trotskyist groups have adopted some of the positions of left communism, in particular those of the Spartacist League, while others have criticised the forced nationalisation of third period Stalinism as inherently left communist.