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Paul Mattick Sr. (; March 13, 1904 – February 7, 1981) was a German-American Marxism political writer, activist, and theorist, associated with the council communist movement. Throughout his life, Mattick was critical of capitalism, Bolshevism, and Keynesian economics. His work focused on the critique of political economy, crisis theory, and the self-emancipation of the working class.
Born in Pomerania, Mattick became politically active during the German Revolution of 1918–1919 as an apprentice at Siemens. He joined the Spartacus League and later the Communist Workers' Party of Germany (KAPD), participating in radical actions during the turbulent Weimar Republic. Emigrating to the United States in 1926, he settled in Chicago and became involved with the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and later the unemployed movements during the Great Depression.
During the 1930s, Mattick was a key figure in the American council communist milieu, editing journals such as International Council Correspondence. He corresponded extensively with European council communists like Karl Korsch and Anton Pannekoek, and was influenced by Henryk Grossman's theories of capitalist breakdown. After a period of relative isolation following World War II, his work, particularly (1969), gained renewed attention with the rise of the New Left in the 1960s and 1970s, especially in Europe.
Mattick remained a prolific writer, analyzing contemporary capitalism, state intervention, and the failures of both traditional social democracy and Leninism vanguardism. He advocated for a classless society based on workers' councils and direct democratic control over production and distribution.
The outbreak of World War I in 1914 dramatically altered Mattick's life. His father was drafted and sent to Belgium, and his mother increased her outside employment. School conditions deteriorated due to budget cuts, and Mattick described many instructors, some disabled military officers, as sadistic. This led to his deliberate academic failure to avoid a particularly notorious teacher and a general aversion to formal schooling. Widespread food shortages and rationing led Mattick and his friends to steal food and coal. He contracted tuberculosis during this period, a health issue that would persist into adulthood.
In March 1918, at age fourteen, Mattick began an apprenticeship as a tool-and-die maker at Siemens, where his father worked. While he found the shop floor experience harsh and abusive, similar to his schooling, he valued the classroom instruction in subjects like stenography, drafting, and mathematics, which trained him for skilled decision-making.
During the German Revolution of 1918, which began with the Kiel mutiny in November, Siemens closed for several days. Mattick roamed Berlin, witnessing the revolutionary fervor. He was elected as an apprentice representative to the factory council formed at Siemens but was disappointed by its lack of radicalism and the persistence of hierarchical attitudes. He became active in the Freie Sozialistische Jugend (FSJ; Free Socialist Youth), which served as a meeting point for radical youth regardless of their parents' specific left-wing affiliations. The FSJ in Charlottenburg, where Mattick was active, had about 200 members.
The German Communist Party (KPD) formed in late 1918, drawing from groups including the Spartacists. Mattick aligned with its more radical, anti-parliamentary, and anti-union wing. The KPD had close ties with Syndicalism, particularly the Freie Arbeiter-Union Deutschlands (FAUD; Free Workers' Union of Germany). During the Spartacist uprising in January 1919, Mattick caught a glimpse of Karl Liebknecht. The uprising was suppressed by the Freikorps, and Rosa Luxemburg and Liebknecht were murdered. This period of "revolution in retreat" was depressing for the left. Mattick's FSJ group began publishing its own paper, Junge Garde (Young Guards), for which he wrote and distributed articles.
Following the Ruhr uprising, Mattick became a founding member of the Communist Workers' Party of Germany (KAPD) in April 1920. The KAPD, which initially had around 38,000 members nationwide (7,500 in Berlin), viewed itself as a temporary organization until the working class could seize power through workers' councils. Mattick's youth group joined the KAPD en masse. He contributed to its Charlottenburg paper, Rote Jugend (Red Youth), and participated in expropriations to fund the movement, including stealing metals from Siemens and attempting robberies. These "class-conscious crimes" were guided by a politicized ethic regarding targets and the use of proceeds.
During the March Action of 1921, a series of KPD and KAPD-initiated strikes and uprisings, Mattick's youth group agitated among the unemployed in Berlin. Mattick participated in an attempt to instigate a walk-out at the large Borsig factory complex, but it was unsuccessful. Prior to these events, he had been arrested for theft of workplace materials from Siemens; following a lengthy legal process and the intervention of his Siemens instructors, he was dismissed from his apprenticeship and received a jail sentence, though it appears he avoided serving significant time.
A relationship with Selma Babad, a multilingual typist eight years his senior, began during this period. Babad assisted Mattick with forging documents for employment, as he lacked complete apprenticeship papers. Their correspondence covered a wide range of political and literary topics. Babad, more moderate politically, encouraged Mattick to pursue regular employment and further professional training. The relationship eventually ended, with Babad criticizing Mattick's recklessness and perceived immaturity.
The radical left in Germany was in decline, with the KAPD shrinking significantly by 1922 due to internal splits and dwindling support. One major schism involved the relationship with the Russian Bolsheviks; another concerned the structure of the movement, with some advocating for a "unity organization" (Allgemeine Arbeiter Union-Einheitsorganisation, AAUE) that would merge political and workplace (Allgemeine Arbeiter Union Deutschlands, AAUD) functions. Despite these issues, the combined KAPD-AAUD-AAUE still had around 50,000 adherents in mid-1922. Mattick worked briefly at Deutz AG in Cologne, a physically demanding job in locomotive production. He helped instigate a strike there, leading to his arrest warrant for destruction of property, though charges were later dropped. He also participated in an AAUD strike at the Hoechst AG chemical complex in Leverkusen, which involved a two-week factory occupation.
During these years, Mattick developed important friendships. Reinhold Klingenberg, whose family home in Berlin provided a sanctuary and exposure to art and literature, shared a similar radical political trajectory. Karl Gonschoreck, a fellow working-class writer and expropriator, encouraged Mattick's literary efforts and published in the same KAPD and AAUD papers, such as Kommunistische Arbeiter Zeitung (KAZ) and Kampfruf. Between 1924 and 1926, Mattick published around twenty pieces, including vignettes, political commentary, and book reviews. He also had contact with the Cologne Progressives, a group of radical artists including Franz Seiwert, through his acquaintance Paul Kühne.
In Cologne, Mattick met Frieda Olle (née Schnorrenberg, formerly Rheiner), the widow of the expressionist poet Walter Rheiner. Seven years his senior, charismatic, and involved in Cologne's radical art and publishing scene, Frieda had two young children, Renee and Hans. After Walter Rheiner's death by drug overdose in June 1925, Frieda faced pressure from welfare authorities due to her cohabitation with Mattick and her reliance on public support. To prevent her children from being placed in foster care, Paul and Frieda married four months after Rheiner's death.
Mattick found factory work in Benton Harbor arranged by his relatives, who had hoped he would marry one of their daughters. When they learned he was already married, relations cooled, and Frieda and the children were isolated upon their arrival five months later. The family struggled with debt, and life in the small town was a sharp contrast to their cosmopolitan experiences in Germany. A miscarriage added to Frieda's distress. In spring 1927, Mattick learned of his father's death in Berlin from suspected lead poisoning. His mother, then forty-eight, returned to work as a laundress.
Despite the difficulties, Mattick resumed writing in German, contributing cultural criticism and fictionalized accounts of American working-class life to the German radical press, particularly KAZ and Kampfruf. He analyzed working-class obsessions with sports and Stock market, the pervasiveness of religion, and the influence of advertising.
In Chicago, Mattick connected with the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), distributing KAZ and Kampfruf at German-speaking events. He initiated discussions about amalgamating the IWW with German council communist groups (KAPD/AAUD), leading to extensive correspondence and translation projects. Key differences emerged regarding political affiliations and organizational forms; the IWW insisted that the AAUD reconstitute itself as IWW chapters, which German colleagues saw as a "Bolshevization" reminiscent of earlier Comintern dictates. Mattick's article "On International Affiliations" (1930), his first in English, appeared in several IWW papers and AAUD publications, sparking wide debate. Ultimately, the amalgamation efforts failed, and Mattick drifted from the IWW.
The Great Depression hit Chicago hard, with unemployment reaching 28% by early 1931. Mattick lost his job at Western Electric (where employment had fallen to 16,000) in early 1931. He became active with the Proletarian Party, teaching classes on socialist theory, and the Worker Educational Association (WEA), a German-style group fostering self-education and political agitation. He played a central role in reviving the Chicagoer Arbeiter Zeitung (CAZ) on behalf of the Kartell, a coalition of German socialist clubs. Between February and December 1931, Mattick wrote substantial portions of the ten issues published, covering international events, local politics, crisis theory, and the history of the Chicago labor movement. The CAZ faced intense opposition from the Communist Party, which saw it as a rival, leading to a bitter struggle that ultimately contributed to the paper's demise.
In the spring of 1932, Mattick embarked on a months-long tramping tour of the southern United States, traveling by car, foot, and hitchhiking through New Orleans, Pensacola, and Georgia, where he spent two weeks with Seminole Indians. He later spent several months in New York. Henryk Grossman's The Law of Accumulation and Breakdown of the Capitalist System (1929) profoundly influenced Mattick's understanding of Marxist crisis theory, becoming a central theme in his work. He discussed Grossman's ideas extensively with Reinhold Klingenberg in Berlin and Henk Canne Meijer in the Netherlands.
In 1933, Mattick's colleagues from the Proletarian Party who were dissatisfied with its direction formed the United Workers Party (UWP). Mattick, though agnostic about the name, was a key figure in this small group, which focused on the unemployed movement and maintained an anti-parliamentary, anti-trade union stance. The rise of fascism in Germany in 1933 deeply impacted the council communists. Mattick was peripherally involved with the revived clandestine journal Proletarier, which featured Karl Korsch. Korsch, a lawyer and former KPD Reichstag member, became an important, albeit sometimes critical, correspondent and influence. Discussions with Korsch and Dutch council communists like Anton Pannekoek, often via Canne Meijer, centered on crisis theory, the nature of the Soviet Union, and the failures of traditional Marxism.
In October 1934, the UWP launched the journal International Council Correspondence ( ICC), with Mattick as the primary contributor and de facto editor. The journal, produced in the Mattick apartment, served as a vehicle for council communist ideas, focusing on economic theory, contemporary political developments, the Soviet Union, and critiques of other left tendencies. Key European council communists, including Korsch and Pannekoek, contributed, though often after much persuasion and with Mattick handling translation and editing. Mattick's pamphlet The Inevitability of Communism (1935), an expansion of his critique of Hook, was published by Polemic Publishers, an imprint associated with Modern Monthly, but received little notice.
The mid-1930s saw Mattick analyze the rise of fascism, the Spanish Civil War, and the foreign policy of the Soviet Union, arguing that these developments were rooted in the ongoing crisis of capitalism. He criticized the Popular front strategy and the left's support for national bourgeoisies against fascism, maintaining a consistently anti-capitalist and anti-statist position.
During World War II, Mattick continued to write, focusing on the war as a manifestation of capitalist crisis and critiquing the left's widespread support for the Allied cause. He separated from Frieda in 1940 and began a relationship with Ilse Hamm, a young German émigré and educator he met through Fairfield Porter. Mattick worked briefly at a bookstore and then in a factory developing prototypes for Hearing aid, while Ilse worked at a private school. His friendships with Porter and Dinsmore Wheeler provided crucial intellectual and emotional support during this period of personal and political upheaval. New Essays ceased publication in 1943 due to financial difficulties and the death of its printer.
Mattick maintained correspondence with his European comrades, including Pannekoek, Alfred Weiland, and Klingenberg, who provided harrowing accounts of post-war conditions in Germany. He organized relief efforts, sending packages of food and clothing. His relationship with Frieda, who had also moved to the U.S. East Coast, remained complex.
In 1948, Mattick traveled to Berlin and Holland, his first visit to Europe in twenty-two years. He met with Pannekoek and Canne Meijer, lectured to revived council communist groups in Berlin, and reconnected with old friends. His efforts to publish Pannekoek's Lenin as Philosopher and Workers' Councils in English faced numerous obstacles but underscored his commitment to preserving and disseminating council communist thought.
Mattick's health remained a concern, with recurrent illnesses and lung problems. In 1958, the family moved to Boston so Paul Jr. could attend high school and Ilse could resume her career in early childhood education. She became director of a therapeutic nursery school and later a professor at Wheelock College. Mattick continued to write, though publishing remained difficult. His correspondence with Dinsmore Wheeler and Kenneth Rexroth provided important outlets during this period of "quiet times". He slowly worked on what would become Marx and Keynes, but initial drafts were met with discouragement.
The rise of the New Left in the United States brought Mattick into contact with a new generation of radicals. Paul Buhle sought to republish Mattick's earlier journals and essays. Mattick engaged with figures like Gabriel Kolko and Herbert Marcuse, critically assessing their views on contemporary capitalism and the potential for revolutionary change. He was particularly critical of Paul Sweezy's Monopoly Capital, viewing it as an abandonment of Marxist crisis theory.
After decades of effort, Mattick's magnum opus, , was published in 1969 by Porter Sargent. The book, a critique of Keynesian economics from a Marxist perspective and an elaboration of Grossman's breakdown theory, positioned Mattick as a significant, if heterodox, Marxist thinker. It generated considerable excitement, particularly in Europe.
Mattick undertook several trips to Europe between 1967 and 1973, often accompanied by Ilse. He lectured at universities, participated in conferences, and met with a wide range of New Left activists and intellectuals, including veterans of the May 1968 events in France like Daniel Cohn-Bendit. His reception in Denmark was particularly strong; he held a guest professorship at the experimental Roskilde University in 1974, where Marx and Keynes was a bestseller.
Mattick's health deteriorated in the late 1970s. He suffered from anemia, kidney problems, and recurrent pneumonia. His step-son Hans died by suicide in 1978, and his first wife Frieda died in 1980. Paul Mattick died in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on February 7, 1981, after a prolonged illness. His ashes were scattered on his Vermont property.
Mattick maintained a wide circle of friends and correspondents throughout his life, including prominent artists, writers, and political activists in both Europe and the United States. He was known for his sharp intellect, his commitment to radical politics, and his often-blunt conversational style. Despite his intellectual focus, he worked various manual labor jobs for much of his life, from factory apprentice to construction worker, and experienced long periods of unemployment.
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