Edward Abramowski

Edward Abramowski (1868-1918) was a Polish philosopher, psychologist and anarchist, and one of the best-known figures of classical anarchism in Poland. His thought sits at the boundary between socialism and criticism of the official Marxism of the Second International.

He was born in Stefanin, in what is now Ukraine, then part of the Russian Empire. After spending time in Warsaw and Geneva, he became involved in the Polish labour movement and in 1892 published a programme for the Polish Socialist Party. His research on the subconscious earned him a chair in experimental psychology at the University of Warsaw, which he held until his death in 1918.

For Abramowski, the economic base and the superstructure were linked through human needs and capacities, and changes in consciousness were the ultimate source of economic change. He therefore argued that lasting transformation required a moral revolution, and that reforms imposed from above would stay superficial. He proposed boycotting state institutions and building independent organisations based on solidarity, above all trade unions and cooperatives. He is regarded as the founder of the Polish cooperative movement.