#left-communism

Not too late at all, dont worry. I kinda wanna give an in-depth answer to this one like the anarchism one but really i have a lot less to say on it and its next in line of my ask so rather than let it sit and wither im going to just give whatever thoughts i can and hopefully its appreciated

to me, left communism, sometimes called ultra-leftism as well, is less of a political movement as it is a type of mistaken idea that can be found within movements. while sure, there are people and groups who label themselves as left-communists, theres arent really many actual active leftcom organizations. thats not to say its not a political ideology, again, these groups do exist, they're just less common, and rarely active, because of something kind of central to left-communism, which is the rejection of most if not all attempts at socialism.

in my experience left-communism doesn't just reject these attempts at socialism due to specific disagreements particular to the historical examples which can be resolved by different decision, but they reject these movements because they actually existed in the real world and thus inherently had flaws and imperfections, required force and hard decisions, which left communists see as distortions of "true" marxism or "true" communism. Its something of a purist sect of marxism, one which rejects all the historical trends and attempts instead of trying to build on them and improve them, they say thes past is wrong, we have to throw that away to do the Correct Thing. they often harp back to marx himself and claim everyone else is misunderstanding him. for example, I once talked to a leftcom who told me that stalin was a liberal, and another who said anarchists are leninists because they misunderstand marx.

there is a closely associated term to this type of mistake within marxism, that being sectarianism. I would happily explain this in-depth myself but the glossary on marxists.org already has a wonderful explanation, so I've copied it below in full

Sectarianism and Opportunism are the twin errors which may befall any organisation formed in pursuit of some principle. The Sectarian emphasises the absolute truth of its principle over any other, finds in every small disagreement the seeds of fundamental difference, see the most deadly foe in the closest rival, puts purity of dogma over tactical advantage, refuses to compromise or modify their aims and is proud of being against the stream. Simply put, sectarianism is the breakdown of solidarity. The Opportunist is always ready to adapt its principles to circumstances, minimises the significance of internal disagreements, treats even opponents as "the lesser evil", puts tactical advantage ahead of being true to its principles, is too ready to make compromises and is all too ready to follow the current of the stream. Not surprisingly, the sectarian or opportunist invariably repudiates being labeled as such, and instead reverses the claim. Meanwhile, these labels are all too easily thrown against minority positions in the attempt to invalidate their opinions as "anti-party", simply because they are different and challenging. Naturally, real differences exist within groups and between different organisations. When these are fundamental differences, opposition and conflict is to be expected when a common course is attempted. The trouble with sectarianism is that it behaves as if fundamental differences exist when they do not; while opportunism actively ignores real differences. Thus, when for example Anarchists and Socialists attempt a common action, one can expect some areas of conflict. Some confusion arises because the very nature of a Communist is to support the working class as a whole, which includes parties, unions, organisations, etc. Such a purpose is an arduous one and a fine line is sometimes walked between helping increase class consciousness and the sectarian slide of dictating to workers that their interests are not workers interests! Thus, mutual respect and thorough going solidarity are two steadfast principles of real Communists. Sectarianism and Opportunism exist in all things; but they are no more dominate in the working class movement than they are in religious organisations or capitalist governments. In the United States for example, the Republican and Democratic parties have been in deeply sectarian battles over how best to rule a capitalist government for over 100 years. While they see one another as fundamentally in opposition (though we clearly know that they are not), they do have the tolerance to the extent that they recognize the need for one another in order for their government to survive. Thus, to irradicate sectarianism is impossible (an attempt we saw in the Soviet Union, accomplished with the most brutal of results), but to control it within certain boundaries can be a source of great strength. "Every form of doctrinaire fanaticism, every attempt to turn Marxism into an unalterable dogma is contrary to Marxist thought, which recognizes no absolute truth but only relative truth. This is not scepticism, which denies the very possibility of absolute perception of the world, but only a recognition of the limitations of our perception. All the truths which we recognize are not truths in themselves, independent of time and place, but truths only as far as we are concerned, valid only for us, for our time, for the space in which we live. Every such truth must govern our actions until more advanced perception has exposed and removed the bit of error residing in the previously accepted truth."

there is also the somewhat infamously titled but exceedingly relevant work by lenin