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In Marxism, ultra-leftism encompasses a broad spectrum of revolutionary Marxist currents. Ultra-leftism distinguishes itself from other left-wing currents through its rejection of electoralism, trade unionism, and national liberation. The term is sometimes used as a synonym of Bordigism. "Ultra-left" is also commonly used as a pejorative by Marxist–Leninists and Trotskyists to refer to extreme or uncompromising Marxist sects. (2026). 9780198856627, Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198856627
The term originated in the 1920s in the German and Dutch workers movements, originally referring to a Marxist group opposed to both Bolshevism and social democracy, and with some affinities with anarchism.
The ultra-left is defined particularly by its breed of anti-authoritarian Marxism, which generally involves an opposition to the state and to state socialism, as well as to parliamentary democracy and wage labour. In opposition to Bolshevism, the ultra-left generally places heavy emphasis upon the autonomy and self-organization of the proletariat. It rejected the necessity of a Vanguardism and was described as permanently counterposing "the masses" to their leaders. Dauvé also explained:
The ultra-left was born and grew in opposition to Social Democracy and Leninism—which had become Stalinism. Against them, it affirmed the revolutionary spontaneity of the proletariat. The German communist left (in fact German-Dutch), and its derivatives, maintained that the only human solution lay in proletarians' own activity, without it being necessary to educate or to organize them... Inheriting the mantle of the ultra-left after the war, the magazine Socialisme ou Barbarie appeared in France between 1949 and 1965.
One variant of ultra-leftist ideas was widely revived in the New Left of the 1960s, and particularly in the May 1968 moment in libertarian socialist movements such as Big Flame, the Situationist International, and autonomism. (2026). 9783319626321, Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9783319626321
The mainstream Marxist critique of such a position began with Vladimir Lenin's , which critiqued those (such as Anton Pannekoek or Sylvia Pankhurst) in the nascent Communist International who argued against cooperation with parliamentary or reformist . Lenin characterized the ultra-left as a politics of purity—the doctrinal "repetition of the 'truths' of pure communism".Nicholas Thoburn " Do not be afraid, join us, come back? On the "idea of communism" in our time " Cultural Critique Number 84, Spring 2013, pp. 1-34 Leninists typically used the term against their rivals on the left: "the Communist Party's Betty Reid wrote in a 1969 pamphlet Ultra-Leftism in Britain that the CPGB made 'no exclusive claim to be the only force on the left', but dismissed the groups to the left of the CPGB as the 'ultra-left', with Reid outlining the ultra-left as groups that were Trotskyist, anarchist or syndicalist or those that 'support the line of the Communist Party of China during the Sino-Soviet Split' (pp. 7–8)"."Introduction" in Smith Evan, Worley Matthew Against the grain: The British far left from 1956, Oxford University Press, 1 December 2014
and others saw the Communist International as pursuing a strategy of unrealistic ultra-leftism during its Third Period, which the Communist International later conceded when it turned to a popular front strategy in 1934–35.e.g. John Molyneux " What do we mean by ultra-leftism?" (October 1985) in Socialist Worker Review 80, October 1985, pp. 24–25. The term was popularized in the United States by the Socialist Workers Party at the time of the Vietnam War, using it to describe opponents in the anti-war movement, including Gerry Healy.
Ultra-leftism is often associated with leftist sectarianism, in which a socialist organization might attempt to put its own short-term interests before the long-term interests of the working class and its allies. The term was used by the established currents of the Communist movement against "self-indulgent ultra-leftism that could only make it more difficult for the revolutionary left to win rank and file PCF members away from their leaders″. For example, during the May 1968 events in France, ultra-leftism was initially associated with the opposition to the French Communist Party (PCF).
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