The 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.
Theses of resistance
9 December 2004, byDaniel Bensaïd makes a bold attempt to track the theoretical challenges faced by Marxism today.
Operation "Bullshit Unlimited"
12 September 2002, byOnly 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 Sharon government in Palestine is all the more deafening. This inglorious resignation is not, alas, unrelated to the relative weakness of the anti-war mobilizations in France, compared with the demonstrations that have taken place since 7 October 2002 in most big European countries.
