“Daniel Bensaïd was one of the most creative, imaginative and sharpest minds in the contemporary history of Marxism, in France and beyond.” Michael Löwy.
“In Bensaïd’s work we can salvage certain missed encounters: between a Trotskyism focused on economics and politics and a western Marxism focused on philosophy and aesthetics; between dominant trends of English-speaking Marxism and of continental European Marxism; as well as between academic Marxism and that of political activists; and between two generations of activists, that of 1968 and that of the 2000s, whose experience, inspiration and practice is very different.” Cinzia Arruzza.
Daniel Bensaïd (1946-2010) was a leading member of the LCR (French section of the Fourth International) and one of France’s most prominent Marxist philosophers. His many books include works on Marxism, Walter Benjamin, Jeanne d’Arc and the May 1968 uprising in which he was an active participant. Information about Daniel Bensaïd’s life and works is available at danielbensaid.org
CONTENTS
Introduction: Daniel Bensaïd, melancholic revolutionary
1. What it means to be Marxist
2. Who are the Trotskyists?
3. Myths and legends of domination
4. Theses of resistance
5. The mole and the locomotive
6. Hegemony and united front
7. Marxism against totalitarianism
8. Marx’s Paris turn
9. The Commune, the State and the Revolution
10. Stalinism against communism
11. Stalinism and Bolshevism
12. Thirty years after: A critical introduction to the Marxism of Ernest Mandel
13. Marxist notes on Jewish emancipation
14. The powers of communism