Paul Mattick
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Paul Mattick Sr. (Script error: No such module "IPA".; March 13, 1904 – February 7, 1981) was a German-American Marxist 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 Marx and Keynes: The Limits of the Mixed Economy (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 Leninist vanguardism. He advocated for a classless society based on workers' councils and direct democratic control over production and distribution.
Early life and political awakening in Germany
Childhood and World War I
Paul Mattick was born on March 13, 1904, in Pomerania, then part of the German Empire, and spent his early childhood in Berlin.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. His family was part of the urban migration of the early 1900s; his father, originally a farmhand, became an unskilled laborer at the Siemens manufacturing complex in Berlin, while his mother worked as a maid and laundress.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. The family, which included Paul and four sisters, lived in poverty in a single room in the Charlottenburg district.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. Despite their limited literacy, Mattick's parents emphasized education.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. His father, initially a stone-hauler, became a teamster at Siemens and joined a socialist union, often engaging in political discussions with younger workmates.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. The family read socialist newspapers like Vorwärts and the Sunday supplement Neue Welt.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. At age nine, Mattick was encouraged by his father to join the Social Democratic youth group, which was known for its anti-war and anti-militarist stance.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
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.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. School conditions deteriorated due to budget cuts, and Mattick described many instructors, some disabled military officers, as sadistic.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. This led to his deliberate academic failure to avoid a particularly notorious teacher and a general aversion to formal schooling.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. Widespread food shortages and rationing led Mattick and his friends to steal food and coal.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. He contracted tuberculosis during this period, a health issue that would persist into adulthood.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
German Revolution and radicalization
Mattick's mother became his initial conduit to political activity. In May 1916, at age twelve, he followed her to an anti-war strike and demonstration where looting occurred. He witnessed a woman use her hatpin against a mounted police officer's horse, leading to the officer being unseated and trampled—an event he later saw as his first encounter with direct revolutionary action.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. His father, upon returning from active duty in 1916, aligned with the anti-war movement and the Spartacus League.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
In March 1918, at age fourteen, Mattick began an apprenticeship as a tool-and-die maker at Siemens, where his father worked.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. 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.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
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.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. 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.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. 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.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. The FSJ in Charlottenburg, where Mattick was active, had about 200 members.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
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.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. The KPD had close ties with syndicalists, particularly the Freie Arbeiter-Union Deutschlands (FAUD; Free Workers' Union of Germany).Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. 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.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. This period of "revolution in retreat" was depressing for the left.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. Mattick's FSJ group began publishing its own paper, Junge Garde (Young Guards), for which he wrote and distributed articles.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
KAPD and early activism
The Kapp Putsch in March 1920, a right-wing military coup attempt, was met by a massive general strike. Mattick participated in demonstrations in Charlottenburg.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. After attempting to retrieve weapons from a complex occupied by putschists, he was arrested and severely beaten by police officers with sword belts, losing consciousness. His sixteenth birthday coincided with the coup's collapse.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. In the aftermath, the Social Democratic government used putschist-sympathizing troops to suppress radical leftists.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
Following the Ruhr uprising, Mattick became a founding member of the Communist Workers' Party of Germany (KAPD) in April 1920.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. 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.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. 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.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. These "class-conscious crimes" were guided by a politicized ethic regarding targets and the use of proceeds.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
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.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. Mattick participated in an attempt to instigate a walk-out at the large Borsig factory complex, but it was unsuccessful.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. 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.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
Interwar activism and emigration
Germany in the early 1920s
After leaving Siemens, Mattick's employment became sporadic. He traveled to Hanover and Bremen, a center of radical activity, working briefly as an electrician before returning to Berlin.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. He found a clerical job with a sugar industry trade association, where he engaged in petty theft of mail and eventually sold the association's entire archive to a paper-recycling dealer, using the proceeds for his youth group.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. He also hawked newspapers to earn money for meals.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
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.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. 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.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. The relationship eventually ended, with Babad criticizing Mattick's recklessness and perceived immaturity.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
The radical left in Germany was in decline, with the KAPD shrinking significantly by 1922 due to internal splits and dwindling support.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. 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.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. Despite these issues, the combined KAPD-AAUD-AAUE still had around 50,000 adherents in mid-1922.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. Mattick worked briefly at Deutz Engines in Cologne, a physically demanding job in locomotive production.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. He helped instigate a strike there, leading to his arrest warrant for destruction of property, though charges were later dropped.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. He also participated in an AAUD strike at the Hoechst chemical complex in Leverkusen, which involved a two-week factory occupation.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
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.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. 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.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. Between 1924 and 1926, Mattick published around twenty pieces, including vignettes, political commentary, and book reviews.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. He also had contact with the Cologne Progressives, a group of radical artists including Franz Seiwert, through his acquaintance Paul Kühne.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
In Cologne, Mattick met Frieda Olle (née Schnorrenberg, formerly Rheiner), the widow of the expressionist poet Walter Rheiner.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. Seven years his senior, charismatic, and involved in Cologne's radical art and publishing scene, Frieda had two young children, Renee and Hans.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. 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.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. To prevent her children from being placed in foster care, Paul and Frieda married four months after Rheiner's death.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
Emigration to the United States
Chronic unemployment and the declining radical movement in Germany led the Matticks to consider emigration.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. Distant relatives in Benton Harbor, Michigan, provided affidavits for the voyage. Mattick secured funding for his passage from the city of Cologne, arguing it was cheaper than long-term unemployment support.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. He sailed in March 1926, just before his twenty-second birthday, listed as a "library clerk" on the ship's manifest.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. The twelve-day voyage in third class was an unpleasant experience, culminating in a day-long processing at Ellis Island, which Mattick found immense, impersonal, and bureaucratic.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
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.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. The family struggled with debt, and life in the small town was a sharp contrast to their cosmopolitan experiences in Germany.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. A miscarriage added to Frieda's distress.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. In spring 1927, Mattick learned of his father's death in Berlin from suspected lead poisoning.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. His mother, then forty-eight, returned to work as a laundress.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
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.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. He analyzed working-class obsessions with sports and stock markets, the pervasiveness of religion, and the influence of advertising.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
Great Depression and Chicago
In September 1928, Mattick moved to Chicago and began working as a mechanic at Western Electric's Hawthorne Works, a massive telecommunications equipment plant.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. Employment there peaked at 43,000 during the speculative surge before the Great Depression.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. The company offered extensive corporate welfare programs, though Mattick was subject to fines for lateness due to his preoccupation with reading and writing.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
In Chicago, Mattick connected with the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), distributing KAZ and Kampfruf at German-speaking events.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. He initiated discussions about amalgamating the IWW with German council communist groups (KAPD/AAUD), leading to extensive correspondence and translation projects.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. 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 "Bolshevisation" reminiscent of earlier Comintern dictates.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. Mattick's article "On International Affiliations" (1930), his first in English, appeared in several IWW papers and AAUD publications, sparking wide debate.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. Ultimately, the amalgamation efforts failed, and Mattick drifted from the IWW.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
The Great Depression hit Chicago hard, with unemployment reaching 28% by early 1931.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. Mattick lost his job at Western Electric (where employment had fallen to 16,000) in early 1931.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. 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.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. He played a central role in reviving the Chicagoer Arbeiter Zeitung (CAZ) on behalf of the Kartell, a coalition of German socialist clubs.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. 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.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. 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.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
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.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. He later spent several months in New York.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. 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.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. He discussed Grossman's ideas extensively with Reinhold Klingenberg in Berlin and Henk Canne Meijer in the Netherlands.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
Unemployed movement and council communism
Unemployed movement
Returning to Chicago in late 1932, Mattick became deeply involved in the burgeoning unemployed movement.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. He joined the Workers League, the unemployed affiliate of the Proletarian Party, helping to write and distribute leaflets and speaking at meetings.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. The unemployed organized by occupying abandoned storefronts, tapping utilities, and soliciting food.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. Following a 50% cut in food subsidies in October 1932, the Workers League, along with Socialist and Communist unemployed groups, organized a hunger march of over 25,000 people, which successfully pressured authorities to rescind the cuts.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. This led to the formation of the Federation of Unemployed Workers League of America in November 1932. At its May 1933 conference, Mattick was elected to the Executive Committee, representing the Workers League alongside delegates from various socialist, communist, and Trotskyist factions.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. The Federation was soon outmaneuvered by larger, better-funded parties, and the radical left's influence waned as welfare authorities centralized relief processes and public works programs began.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
In 1933, Mattick's colleagues from the Proletarian Party who were dissatisfied with its direction formed the United Workers Party (UWP).Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. 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.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. 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.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. Korsch, a lawyer and former KPD Reichstag member, became an important, albeit sometimes critical, correspondent and influence.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. 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.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
International Council Correspondence
Mattick struggled to publish in English, relying on friends like Kristen Svanum, Max Nomad, and Allen Garman for translation and editing.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. His interactions with Sidney Hook began supportively, with Hook praising Mattick's critiques of his own work, Towards the Understanding of Karl Marx.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. However, the relationship soured as Hook became increasingly dogmatic and intolerant of Mattick's views, particularly his criticisms of the American Workers Party (AWP) platform, which Hook had co-authored.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. Max Eastman and V.F. Calverton, editor of Modern Monthly, were more receptive to Mattick's work on crisis theory, though they also found his English writing style challenging.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
In October 1934, the UWP launched the mimeographed journal International Council Correspondence (ICC), with Mattick as the primary contributor and de facto editor.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. 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.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. Key European council communists, including Korsch and Pannekoek, contributed, though often after much persuasion and with Mattick handling translation and editing.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. 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.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
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.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. 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.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
World War II and Living Marxism
As war approached, Mattick's publishing outlets dwindled. ICC was renamed Living Marxism in 1938 and later New Essays in 1942, reflecting a broadening scope but also increasing difficulties.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. Korsch became a more active collaborator, though their relationship was often marked by theoretical disagreements and Korsch's sometimes patronizing tone.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. Mattick engaged in debates with Max Nomad over the role of intellectuals and the nature of state capitalism in Russia and fascist Germany.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. He submitted a manuscript on the unemployed movement to the Frankfurt School (then in New York), but it was not published.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
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.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. He separated from Frieda in 1940 and began a relationship with Ilse Hamm, a young German émigré and educator he met through Fairfield Porter.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. Mattick worked briefly at a bookstore and then in a factory developing prototypes for hearing aids, while Ilse worked at a private school.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. His friendships with Porter and Dinsmore Wheeler provided crucial intellectual and emotional support during this period of personal and political upheaval.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. New Essays ceased publication in 1943 due to financial difficulties and the death of its printer.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
Post-war years and isolation
Life in New York
After the war, Mattick and Ilse Hamm (now Mattick after their marriage in 1945, following Paul's divorce from Frieda) moved to New York City in May 1946.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. Their son, Paul Jr., was born in mid-1944.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. They lived in a loft in Chelsea, which became a hub for a diverse circle of friends, including artists like Willem de Kooning and Nell Blaine, writers, and political exiles such as Josef Kohn and Heinz Langerhans.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. Zellig Harris and his associates, known as the Frame of Reference for Social Change, also became part of their social set.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
Mattick maintained correspondence with his European comrades, including Pannekoek, Alfred Weiland, and Klingenberg, who provided harrowing accounts of post-war conditions in Germany.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. He organized relief efforts, sending packages of food and clothing.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. His relationship with Frieda, who had also moved to the U.S. East Coast, remained complex.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
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.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. 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.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
Vermont and Boston
The post-war political climate in the U.S. was inhospitable to radical leftists. Mattick's writing output dwindled significantly; virtually nothing was published between 1952 and 1955.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. In April 1953, Paul, Ilse, and Paul Jr. moved to a one-room shack on several acres in Jamaica, Vermont, seeking a simpler, self-sufficient life.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. They spent years renovating and expanding the house, cultivating extensive gardens, and engaging with a local community of subsistence farmers, loggers, and pacifist/anti-conscription activists.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. Visitors were frequent, including Josef Kohn, Franz Jung, and Nell Blaine.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
Mattick's health remained a concern, with recurrent illnesses and lung problems.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. 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.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. 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".Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. He slowly worked on what would become Marx and Keynes, but initial drafts were met with discouragement.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
Later career and rediscovery
Marx and Keynes
In the 1960s, new contacts in Europe, particularly Maximilien Rubel in Paris and Roman Rosdolsky, led to a rekindling of interest in Mattick's work.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. Rubel offered Mattick an outlet in his journal Etudes de Marxologie.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. Mattick's correspondence with Rosdolsky involved deep theoretical discussions on Marx, crisis theory, and the nature of Soviet-type societies.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
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.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. Mattick engaged with figures like Gabriel Kolko and Herbert Marcuse, critically assessing their views on contemporary capitalism and the potential for revolutionary change.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.[1] He was particularly critical of Paul Sweezy's Monopoly Capital, viewing it as an abandonment of Marxist crisis theory.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
After decades of effort, Mattick's magnum opus, Marx and Keynes: The Limits of the Mixed Economy, was published in 1969 by Porter Sargent.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. 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.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. It generated considerable excitement, particularly in Europe.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
European reception
Marx and Keynes sold thousands of copies in Germany, where it was published by Europäische Verlagsanstalt (EVA) and also in a pirated edition.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. Study groups formed, and Mattick's work became central to New Left discussions on crisis theory and state intervention.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. Claudio Pozzoli in Italy and Volkhard Brandes in Germany became key figures in editing and promoting Mattick's writings, leading to the publication of numerous books and essay collections in the 1970s.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
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.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. 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.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
Final years and death
Despite his renewed prominence in Europe, Mattick's reception in the United States remained muted.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. He continued to write prolifically, working on a critique of bourgeois economics and what would become Marxism: Last Refuge of the Bourgeoisie? (published posthumously in 1983).Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. He maintained an extensive correspondence network, engaging with a new generation of radicals and scholars interested in his work.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
Mattick's health deteriorated in the late 1970s. He suffered from anemia, kidney problems, and recurrent pneumonia.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. His step-son Hans died by suicide in 1978, and his first wife Frieda died in 1980.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. Paul Mattick died in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on February 7, 1981, after a prolonged illness.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. His ashes were scattered on his Vermont property.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
Personal life
Paul Mattick was married twice. His first marriage was to Frieda Olle (1897–1980), with whom he had a complex and often strained relationship.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. He was stepfather to her children, Hans (1920–1978) and Renee.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. After their separation in 1940 and subsequent divorce, Mattick married Ilse Hamm (1919–2009) in 1945.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. They had one son, Paul Mattick Jr. (born 1944), who also became a writer and philosopher.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
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.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. 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.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
Bibliography
- The Masses and the Vanguard
- Council Communism
- Introduction to Anti-Bolshevik Communism
- Capitalism and ecology: from the decline of capital to the decline of the world
- Marx and Keynes: The Limits of the Mixed Economy, Boston: Porter Sargent, 1969
- Anti-Bolshevist Communism in Germany, New York: Telos Press, 26, Winter 1975-76
- Anti-Bolshevik Communism, Wales: The Merlin Press, 1978 (reprinted 2007) Template:ISBN
- 1939: "Karl Kautsky: From Marx to Hitler"
- 1935: "Luxemburg versus Lenin" (Council Correspondence Vol. 2, no. 1, December 1935)
- 1935: "The Lenin Legend" (Council Correspondence Vol. 2, no. 1, December 1935)
- 1947: "Bolshevism and Stalinism", abridged from original in Politics, Vol. 4, No. 2, Mar/Apr 1947
- 1939: "Council Communism", originally as "Groups of Council Communists" in The Social Frontier, vol. 5, no. 45, May 1939
- 1945: "Otto Rühle and the German Labour Movement"
- 1949: "Spontaneity and Organisation"
- 1962: "Karl Korsch: His Contribution to Revolutionary Marxism"
- 1965: "Humanism and Socialism", International Socialism (1st series), No.22, Autumn 1965
- 1960: "Marxism and the New Physics"
- 1966: "Monopoly Capital"
- 1967: "Workers' Control"
- Economic Crisis and Crisis Theory, London: Merlin Press, 1981 (transl. Paul Mattick Jr.)
- Marxism: The Last Refuge of the Bourgeoisie?, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1983 (ed. Paul Mattick, Jr.); NY: Routledge, 2015.
References
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- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Aronowitz, Stanley (2001). The Last Good Job in America: Work and Education in the New Global Technoculture. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield. pp. 258. ISBN 978-0742509757.
Works cited
- Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Roth, Gary (2015). Marxism in a Lost Century: A Biography of Paul Mattick. Historical Materialism Book Series. Vol. 80. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-22779-8.
Further reading
- Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Bellofiore, Riccardo (2017). "Between Schumpeter and Keynes: The Heterodoxy of Paul Marlor Sweezy and the Orthodoxy of Paul Mattick". Continental Thought & Theory: A Journal of Intellectual Freedom. 1 (4): 72–111. doi:10.26021/299.
- Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Pozzoli, Cláudio (2011). Paul Mattick and Council Communism.
- Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Quirico, Monica; Ragona, Gianfranco (2021). "Self-Management and Communism: Paul Mattick (1904–1981)". Frontier Socialism. Marx, Engels, and Marxisms. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 67–84. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-52371-8_4. ISBN 978-3-030-52371-8.
- Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Souyri, Pierre (1979). "Le marxisme de Paul Mattick" [The Marxism of Paul Mattick]. Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales (in français). 34 (4): 884–888. doi:10.1017/S0395264900148619.
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