German-Dutch Left and Italian Left did not break from the social-democratic framework and its underlying social strata despite their critiques of many facets of social-democratic theory and practice in Germany and especially of the Bolshevik Party in Russia after October 1917. Their remnants in the fringe left, even during these thirty-five years that we have had some interactions with a few of them, are stuck in the 1920s. Whereas, with incomparable leaps in productive forces since early-1970s, “revolutionary intellectuals” have increasingly become irrelevant throughout the world.
Despite our above mentioned reading, on the basis of interactions with most of the strands of the left in India over these forty-five years, it seems that an acquaintance with the German-Dutch Left + Italian Left and their inheritors could be of help in questioning the leninist- stalinist-trotskyist-maoist framings that still have some influence.
So, this link to the current issue of “A Free Retriever’s Digest” (April-June 2021). Incidentally, this issue also has, “A Note on Peasants in the Indian Subcontinent” which we sent as a response to a write-up in the earlier issue of the magazine.