The workers against bureaucracy
The final in a three-part debate conducted within the pages of Marxist ultra-left journal Socialisme ou Barbarie on the nature of the trade unions. Translated by Corinne Chambers and published in English by Ninth Symphony Press (Collective Action) as 'Worker Autonomy: Debate on the Unions'.
The previous texts form our attempt to describe, as exhaustively as possible, the main workers’ struggles of 1955, in France, in England, and in the United States. It was not for their informative value that we gave them so much space, nor because of the number of people involved in these struggles, their physical combativeness, or the victories they snatched.
Facing reality - CLR James and Grace Lee Boggs
Writing in collaboration with Cornelius Castoriadis and Grace Lee, James examines the practical process of social revolution in the modern world.
"Springing forth from the utopian flames of self-emancipation kindled by the workers councils of the Hungarian Revolution, this pivotal book offers a socialist indictment of the miserabilism of state capitalism and calls for the ongoing rejection of both vanguardism and the bureaucratic rationalism of state power." - Ron Sakolsky, author of Creating Anarchy
Reply to Castoriadis - Pannekoek
Pannekoek's final response to Castoriadis's letter in Socialisme ou Barbarie, translated by Asad Haider and Salar Mohandesi for Viewpoint Magazine.
I noticed with great pleasure that you have published in your review Socialisme ou Barbarie a translation of my letter annotated with critical remarks in such a way that involves your readers in a discussion on fundamental questions. Since you express the desire to continue the discussion, I am sending you several remarks on your response.
Reply to Pannekoek - Castoriadis
A reply to Pannekoek's letter to Socialisme ou Barbarie, translated by Asad Haider and Salar Mohandesi for Viewpoint Magzine.
Your letter has provided a great satisfaction to all the comrades of the group; satisfaction of seeing our work appreciated by a comrade honored as you are and who has devoted an entire life to the proletariat and to socialism; satisfaction of seeing confirmed our idea of a profound agreement between you and us on the fundamental points; satisfaction finally of being able to discuss with you and o
The illusion of 'Solidarity' - David Brown
David Brown's letter of resignation from the Solidarity group, and critique of the groups' - and by extension Cornelius Castoriadis' - fundamental misunderstanding of Marx's critique of political economy.
Editorial notes by the Hobgoblin Collective, 21 January 2011
The Fate of Marxism - Paul Cardan
Part 1 of Paul Cardan AKA Cornelius Castoriadis' critique of Marxism.
[i]Between 1961 and 1965 ‘Socialisme ou Barbarie’ published (in its issues 36-40) an important article by Paul Cardan entitled ‘Marxisme et ThÈorie RÈvolutionnaire’. Part I dealt with ‘the historical fate of marxism and the notion of orthodoxy’ and this pamphlet is based on that section. Part II went on to discuss ‘the marxist theory of history’.
The Role of Bolshevik Ideology in the Birth of the Bureaucracy
This article was first published in Socialism ou Barbarie#35(1964),as an introduction to Alexandra Kollantai's The Workers Opposition,but it can stand alone as a refutation of the standard Leninist/Trotskyist claim that the Soviet Union only degenerated post 1924 i.e after Lenin's death, and as such has been published in pamphlet form by a number of groups.
We are happy to present to our readers the first translation into French of Alexandra Kollontai's pamphlet The Workers' Opposition in Russia. This pamphlet was published in Moscow at the beginning of 1921, during the violent controversy that preceded the Tenth Congress of the Bolshevik party. This Congress was to close discussion forever on this controversy as well as on all the others.
On the Content of Socialism I - Socialisme Ou Barbarie
On the Content of Socialism, Part One.
From the Critique of Bureaucracy to the Idea of the Proletariat's Autonomy
From Class Against Class
On the Content of Socialism, Part One.
From the Critique of Bureaucracy to the Idea of the Proletariat's Autonomy
Modern capitalism and revolution - Paul Cardan
Paul Cardan (Cornelius Castoriadis) attempts to describe and analyse the features and dynamics of the fully-industrialised capitalist societies of the early 1960s.
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On the Content of Socialism III - Socialisme Ou Barbarie
French libertarian socialist group Socialisme Ou Barbarie's third part of the Content of Socialism: The workers' struggle against the organization of the capitalist enterprise.
We have tried to show[1] that socialism is nothing other than people's conscious self-organization of their own lives in all domains; that it signifies, therefore, the management of production by the producers themselves on the scale of the workplace as well as on that of the economy as a whole; that it implies the abolition of every ruling apparatus separated from society; that it has to bring ab
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