Ernest Mandel’s Introduction to Marxism has been and remains a reference book for many activists. Thirty years after its first publication, in 1974, Daniel Bensaïd looks back at one of Mandel’s most widely read works.
The French elections and our strategic project
28 April 2007, byA long interview on the political project of revolutionary marxists, with an introduction reflecting on the outcome of the first round of the French presidential elections on 20 April 2007.
“The Presidential campaign is rotting French political life”
11 February 2007, byThe failure of the anti-neoliberal left in France to agree a united candidate for the coming presidential elections has caused great controversy. For some leftists the LCR shares the blame, for refusing to back any candidate who is equivocal about participation in a ’left’ government with the neoliberal Socialist Party. Daniel Bensaïd explains the LCR’s intransigence on this point - and the damage being done to the French body politic by the campaign.
The Return of Strategy
2 February 2007, byIn the light of developments in Venezuela, Bolivia, Brazil, Italy and France, a new debate is developing. According to Bensaid the ’utopian moment’ of the Global Justice Movement in the early part of the decade is being replaced with a more hard-headed grappling with political strategy.
Twelve comments plus one more, to continue the debate with John Holloway
16 September 2006, byDaniel Bensaid continues the debate on whether the left can change the world without taking power.
The Mole and the Locomotive
8 September 2006, byDaniel Bensaid reflects on the persistance of resistance and revolution at times when the power of capitalism seems unstoppable and overwhelming.
On a Recent Book by John Holloway
16 June 2006, byJohn Holloway’s book, Change the World Without Taking Power (London, Pluto Press, 2002) has provoked wide-ranging debate on the left. In its new pamphlet the International Institute for Study and Research has collated a number of contributions to the debate, starting with a critique of Holloway’s book by Daniel Bensaïd.
"The question of a link between workers and students is immediate"
27 March 2006, byDaniel Bensaid, in this interview with Socialist Worker, reflects on the current battle of the French students and its comparisons with student movements of the past.
The party and the period
16 March 2006, by“We are at a turning point, the moment of transition from one cycle to another”
Stalinism and Bolshevism
16 December 2005, byThis article, written for the Italian magazine Erre, reviews how well Trotsky’s 1937 pamphlet stands the test of time in examining the origins of Stalinism - and discusses what needs to be reformulated today.
