Marx had the temerity to declare that philosophy would eventually wither away through the accomplishment of its own strategic development: it was now no longer merely a matter of interpreting the world, but of changing it. Today, by way of contrast, Alain Badiou proposes to reiterate the philosophical gesture par excellence; a ‘Platonic gesture’ in […]

Brazil’s Workers’ Party (PT) has, in the course of the past 20 years, developed a politics of class independence while accumulating a quantity of experiences in social struggles and municipal government, notably through ’participatory democracy’. These founding principles are being flouted in the run-up to the country’s presidential elections. The PT was born out of […]

An article by Daniel Bensaid on the response of French intellectuals to the “war on terror”. 1. Only yesterday, French intellectuals overflowed with compassion. From Bosnia to Chechnya, by way of Kosovo, on every front of the new world disorder. Their silence before the imperial crusade in Afghanistan and before the criminal policy of the […]

Daniel Bensaïd, a central leader of the French Ligue communiste révolutionnaire (LCR), spoke on ’Leninism in the 21st century’ at the ’Marxism 2001’ event organised by the British SWP. Phil Hearse spoke to him there. International Viewpoint: Lenin made important contributions to Marxist thinking about imperialism, the national question, revolutionary strategy and socialist democracy. But […]