Audio's Daniel Bensaïd

Bensaïd departs from the problems in the Monarchy system, which was defeated in the 1931 elections, and talks about the democratic demands by workers' movement regarding teh national question, self determination, the question of land, the separation of Church and State - demands which have been noted by Trotsky in the Tasks of the Spanish Revolution. He discusses the problems with the CP, which despite belonging to the 3rd International, failed to recognise the democratic demands and failed to devise a transitional programme after the fall of the monarchy. Bensaïd provides a contextual debate on the insurrection in Spain within the general framework of Europe and Soviet Union, as well as different perspectives -both national and international- on the desired outcomes of the insurrection. The diebates around building a workers' alliance nationwide that would lead to a united workers' front are discussed.

Bensaïd starts with a discussion of the differences between the CP and the POUM, and prepares the participants to draw lessons from the Spanish Revolution experience. He then provides factual information on Spain in the 1930s with concrete data on the political parties and organisations. He concludes the lecture with a chronology of events to provide a summary of background for the next lesson.

Bensaïd talks about the question of party-building in 1933, around the same time Trotsky saw the radicalisation in the socialist party. In 1934 Trotsky launched a proposal for the Spanish communist left to enter the Socialist Party. Bensaïd provides an in-depth discussion -both contextual and theoretical- of this entryist proposition. He then discusses the National question in party-building and formation of POUM. Bensaïd then moves on the discussions around Popular Front, with contextual information on the parties involved, and the 1936 elections. After this followed the coup d'etat in July 1936, the responses by the left parties and workers, and the beginning of the civil war. Bensaïd discusses the dissolution of communities, excessive nationalisation, military help of the Soviet Union and the Fifth Regiment.

Bensaïd begins with a survey of the general conditions of building a revolutionary proletarian party. Under this heading, he sets out the differences between the proletarian revolution and the bourgeois revolution. The conditions of the exploitation of the proletariat reproduce the conditions of class and an alienated relation with the goals of production. He relates all these points to the party question, where workers need to organise themselves to take power. Bensaïd then discusses several points from Marx, Engels and the party question regarding building a proletarian conscious party. He underlines that the concept of party in Marx and Engels was different from the concept of party in Lenin. The two meanings of party: historical party, and the conjectural party. In Engels, revolution was a natural process and the party is not an active initiative agent of the revolution. Bensaïd then moves onto the Leninist theory of the party, which is mainly taken as a technical process of organisation. The concept of "class party". However the key point is not the technical aspect, it's not the degree of centralisation or discipline; it is the delimitation of the party from the class.