Re-collecting our past - La Banquise

Street barricades - Paris 1848
Street barricades - Paris 1848

A summary of historical tendencies towards communism from 1848 to 1984 - via 1917 and 1968.

Submitted by Red Marriott on April 6, 2011

"Most of this issue of La Banquise is devoted to a summary of the modern revolutionary movement. Summing up the past, including the recent past, and taking soundings of the contemporary period in order to recognise some of its basic tendencies, is essential in order to know who and where we are. You will only find an assessment here, not the complete global summing up which will only be possible after the world revolution. Each revolutionary grouping can only take stock by starting from its own position, formation and particular experience. This text is not a group introspection, nor is it an assertion of general principles and movements which we pretend to describe as a whole, instead it seeks to be both universal in its basis, through the aspirations and struggles of which it is the product, and also particular, because its authors participated in the world communist movement in specific places and circumstances."

The text surveys the Italian and German lefts, Socialisme Ou Barbarie and the Situationist International and describes the theoretical development of the French ultra-left - and includes a long account of the notorious Faurisson affair in which some communists became involved in a public controversy concerning Holocaust revisionism, with accusations flying back and forth.

Translated from le roman de nos origins - La Banquise No. 2 (1983)

Translation by the administrator of the John Gray website; http://www.reocities.com/~johngray/

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Comments

Spassmaschine

12 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Spassmaschine on April 7, 2011

Thanks for posting this!

subprole

12 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by subprole on April 7, 2011

are there still texts by dauvé which are not translated?

Spassmaschine

12 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Spassmaschine on April 7, 2011

There are quite a few not yet translated if you browse through www.troploin.fr , both newer articles and a few like the above from La Banquise. Also other texts that are neither translated nor online, eg. Dauve and Nesic's book on democracy from a couple of years ago that exists only in hard copy in French.

Steven.

12 years 10 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Steven. on May 27, 2011

ludd

What are the odd << >> marks in the texts?

they are what crazy French people use as quotation marks

Spikymike

4 years 7 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Spikymike on August 15, 2019

Important though the lessons of the 'Faurisson affair' are in illustrating some of the pitfalls which tiny pro-revolutionary groups can fall into in their efforts to distinguish themselves from both the capitalist left and liberals, and the dangers of avoiding criticism based on past associations and personal ties, the sections dealing directly with this and with the related errors of la Guerre Sociale, (No's 17 to 20) can be usefully missed alltogether by readers mainly interested in a rare brief overview of the preceding theoretical influences and connections, and practical background, of the different marxist influenced pro-revolutionary groups and tendencies that emerged from the mid 1960's, many of who's texts have been uploaded to the library on this site.