Jean Barrot

French communist, fusing and critiquing the various strands of left communism and former co-editor of La Banquise.

The Story of our Origins

Dauve traces the emergence of the ultra-left current in the aftermath of WWI and the failure of the Russian and German Revolutions.

The Story of our Origins
(Gilles Dauve - from le roman de nos origines - La Banquise No. 2, 1983)



From the German Left to Socialisme ou Barbarie

A communist movement, universal in nature, which had set out to conquer the world in capitalism's footsteps, had been led into not taking the offensive except in the centre of Europe. Now it was necessary for it to engage in drawing up an assessment, beginning with itself and with the contradictions of the counter-revolution.

The "Renegade" Kautsky and his Disciple Lenin - Gilles Dauvé

Karl Kautsky

Dauvé traces the development of Lenin's ideas from Karl Kautsky and situates them within both the historical context and the Second International.

Publication Details

This article originally formed an afterword to an article by Karl Kautsky "Les trois sources du Marxisme" (The three sources of Marxism) which was reprinted in French in April 1977 by editions Spartacus. (serie B No.78).

When Insurrections Die - Gilles Dauvé

Franco, Mussolini and Hitler

Gilles Dauvé's pamphlet on the on the failures of the Russian, Spanish and German Revolutions, and the rise of fascism in Europe.

Brest-Litovsk, 1917 and 1939

"If the Russian Revolution becomes the signal for a proletarian revolution in the West, so that both complement each other, the present Russian common ownership of land may serve as the starting point for a communist development."

Critique of the Situationist International

Gilles Dauve's analysis of both the Situationists' theoretical strengths and weaknesses.

Ideology and the Wage System

Capitalism transforms life into the money necessary for living. One tends to do any particular thing towards an end other than that implied by the content of the activity. The logic of alienation : one is an other; the wage system makes one foreign to what one does, to what one is, to other people.

Intakes: Back to the Situationist International

Critique of The Situationist International by Gilles Dauve (Jean Barrot) is one of the more important texts on the situationists.We reprint below an update to the text which is due to be published in Greek by TPTG.

Intakes: Fascism/Anti-Fascism - Barrot Replies

'Jean Barrot' responds to our review of his influential text Fascism/Anti-fascism: 'The proletariat is not weak because it's divided: its weaknesses breed division.'

Class war in Barcelona - Jean Barrot, 1973

The following text is the translation of a pamphlet of the group Mouvement Communiste, written in 1973 by Jean Barrot (aka Gilles Dauve), as a means of solidarity for some Spanish revolutionaries arrested in Spain facing harsh penalties.

Undercurrent #8

Eclipse and Re-Emergence of the Communist Movement

A book by Francois Martin and Jean Barrot (AKA Giles Dauve), quite influential since the 1970s in the English-speaking world of radical theory. A restatement of communist revolution as self-organised class struggle - that abolishes markets, states and classes.

Original edition published by Black and Red, Detroit 1974.
This revised edition published by Antagonism Press, London 1997.

Fascism / Anti-Fascism - Gilles Dauvé

An analysis of the liberal and leftist obsessions with fascism and anti-fascism, and the role of workers in opposing it internationally.

Totalitarianism & Fascism

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