Amadeo Bordiga

Active opposing the Italian colonial war in Libya, Bordiga was active in the Italian Socialist Party founded the Karl Marx Circle in 1912. He rejected a pedagogical approach to political work and developed a theory of the party whereby it constituted a non-immediate from of organisation which included some people not sociologically working class. He was profoundly anti democratic declaring:

“Thus if there is a complete negation of the theory of democratic action it is to be found in socialism.” Il Socialista, 1914

He opposed any autonomy for the Socialist Party members of parliament, campaigned against freemasonry and helped organise the Abstentionist faction of the Party

In 1919 the Italian Socialist Party voted to join the Third International and Bordiga attended the 2nd Congress in 1920 where he added 2 conditions to the 19 conditions of membership proposed by Lenin, but nevertheless was attacked by Lenin in “Left-Wing Communism: An Infantile Disorder”.In 1921 this Abstentionist faction allied with Ordine Nuovo and other more minor groups to form communist faction which then founded the Communist Party of Italy (PCd'I) at Livorno in January 1921. He became leader of the PCd'I until his arrest in 1921. After succesfully defending himself at his trial, he nevertheless refused to rejoin the Executive Committee and in 1924 he refused to be named as the Vice President of the party. He set up a jounal called “Promoteo” and maintained a critical attitude to the Bolsheviks in the Communist International. He attended his last meeting of the Executive Committee of the Communist International in 1926. In 1930 he was expelled from the PCd'I for taking the defence of Leon Trotsky.

After 1944 he made anonymous contributions to such journals as Battaglia Comunista, Il Programma Comunista, and Promoteo. He produced a theory of the Soviet Union which presented it as being fundamentally capitalist.

Whilst remaining pro-Lenin, he was a constant critic of Leninism.