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  • PoliTree: Final Results

    At long last, you have arrived at the Ultra-Left branch of the Communist leaf within the Abolish cluster.

    Ultra-Leftists believe that communism must center itself around the day-to-day struggles and routines of workers rather than broader questions of historical and political organization.
    Things to note about the Ultra-Left branch:
    • Many of those referred to as 'ultra-left' disown a singular doctrine or legacy, making it more difficult to identify.
    • Traditional socialists have tended to give more weight to leadership and organization in revolution whereas the ultra-left puts more emphasis on spontaneous forms of resistance in times of crisis.
    • Unlike anarchists, the rejection of centralized forms of organization is not due to a libertarian principle, but rather instead a rejection of bureaucracy and mediation.
    Ideologies you may want to look into:
    • Autonomism
    • Situationist Internationale (historical)
    • Communization Theory
    +Good places to start if you are interested in Communist thought:
    • PDF ePUB
      Length: ★★★★
      Difficulty: ★☆
      Genre: History
      Type: Critique
      Summary: Hobsbawm provides a thorough survey of the 20th century, an era of continuous upheaval and various utopian movements, looking at their origins and eventual failures. A great deal of focus is given to the history of socialism, comparing the various movements and discussing the reasons why each of them failed.
    • PDF ePUB
      Length:
      Difficulty: ★☆
      Genre: Sociology
      Type: Theory
      Summary: A loose collection of writings by a younger Marx on various topics related to political economy and their direct effects on the lives of workers.
    • PDF ePUB
      Length: ★★★☆
      Difficulty: ★★☆
      Genre: Economics
      Type: Seminal
      Summary: Marx performs a full dissection of the logic underlying the capitalist economy; he re-interprets fundamental economic concepts such as value, commodity, labor, and property.
    +Good places to start if you are interested in Ultra-Left thought:
    • Length: ★☆
      Difficulty: ★★☆
      Genre: Economics
      Type: Critique
      Summary: Against many orthodox Marxists, Camatte re-centers the focus of Marx's critique on the commodity and its accompanying social relations.
    • Length:
      Difficulty:
      Genre: History
      Type: Critique
      Summary: This issue of La Banquise navigates the oft-confusing history of the 'ultra-left' and the milieu in which modern tendencies have developed.
    • PDF ePUB
      Length: ★☆
      Difficulty: ★☆
      Genre: Politics
      Type: Tactics
      Summary: Tronti reconstructs a theory of communist strategy, primarily focusing on questions of revolutionary organization and the autonomists' reinterpretation of the proletariat.
    • PDF ePUB
      Length:
      Difficulty: ★★★☆
      Genre: Politics
      Type: Theory
      Summary: Debord discusses the effects of commodity in the 20th century, namely related to how it affects the individual; in contrast to the monotony of the Spectacle, Debord calls for a convergence of life, art, and politics. The included Comments on Society of the Spectacle elaborates and updates the concepts put forth in the original.
    • PDF ePUB
      Length:
      Difficulty: ★☆
      Genre: Politics
      Type: Theory
      Summary: Dauve more extensively discusses the relation between theory, practice, and revolution in the wake of the insurrections of the late 20th century, stressing the importance of communism not just as a goal, but as an active, yet spontaneous process.