Vor einem Jahr wurde in der Reihe Lignes mein Text Fragments mécréants – mythes identitaires et République imaginaire (Fragmente eines Ungläubigen – Identitätsmythen und die imaginäre Republik) veröffentlicht. Die Themen dieses Buches scheinen mir aktueller denn je: Polemiken über das islamische Kopftuch und über das Gesetz, das die Tugenden des Kolonialismus rehabilitiert, die Revolte der […]
Articles à lire ou à relire
Hegemony and United Front
We publish below the summary of a contribution presented by Daniel Bensaid, in the framework of the “strategy cycle” at the summer university of the LCR which was held in Port Leucate from August 24-29, 2007 (references have been changed to English language versions where available). During the 1970s, the notion of hegemony served as […]
“We are faced with the challenge of a process of social and political reconstruction”
Interview led by Franck Gaudichaud a few weeks before the presidential election. Franck Gaudichaud: Recently the philosopher Alain Badiou, in an interview with the Italian newspaper Il Manifesto, still asserted the idea of communism as a “common sense” to be defended. However today, following the fall of the Berlin Wall, faced with the commodification of […]
First impressions off-the-cuff
This text is an introduction to an interview published in Viento Sur. It presents elements from an off-the-cuff synthesis of the French presidential election. This synthesis will require editing later, after taking a step back. A detailed analysis of the presidential results confirms the « social » character of the Besancenot vote. One should keep in mind […]
Thirty years after: A critical introduction to the Marxism of Ernest Mandel
Ernest Mandel’s Introduction au marxisme [“Introduction to Marxism” tittled in English From Class Society to Communism] has been and remains for many activists a reference work. Thirty years after its publication, in 1974, Daniel Bensaïd looks back at one of the most read book of Mandel. The first edition by the Fondation Léon Lesoil of […]
Marxisms, theory, yesterday and today
Vpered: What parts of the Marxist heritage clearly belong to the past, and which ones do you feel remain equally relevant today? Daniel Bensaïd: I’d like to start by nuancing or differentiating the very idea of heritage. There isn’t one heritage, but many: an “orthodox” (Party or State) Marxism and “heterodox” Marxisms; a scientistic (or […]
On the return of the politico-strategic question
This article takes up issues arising in a discussion on revolutionary strategy to be found in the LCR’s theoretical journal Critique Communiste in March 2006 and continued at a seminar in Paris in June. Other participants included the editor of Critique Communiste Antoine Artous, LCR members Cedric Durand and Francis Sitel, and Alex Callinicos of […]
Stalinism and Bolshevism
The following essay by Daniel Bensaid represents a critical re-evaluation of Trotsky’s well-known pamphlet, written in 1937, Stalinism and Bolshevism. It was written for the magazine Erre, published by supporters of the Fourth International in Italy. There is a current fashion for roots and biblical genealogies: Hegel begat Marx, who begat Lenin, who begat Stalin… […]
Why our German friends are wrong on EU Constitution
In a ’tribune’ in Le Monde on May 3rd [1], some distinguished German intellectuals (including Jürgen Habermas, Günter Grass and Wolf Biermann), called their “French friends” to account. They exhorted them to approve the constitutional treaty. Our German friends are welcome in the French debate, but they seem ill-informed of its content. This is no […]
Letter to the comrades of the Democracia socialista (DS-PT), Brazil
Dear friends and comrades of DS, Lula’s presidency has reached the halfway mark, and the November municipal elections are a good occasion for a kind of provisional balance sheet, on the threshold of a period already characterized by preparations for the 2006 campaign. Since we are unable to participate in the upcoming World Social Forum […]