Paul Le Blanc - Revolutionary Collective: Comrades, Critics, and Dynamics in the Struggle for Socialism

Praise for Revolutionary Collective

A brilliant collection of essays on the revolutionary Marxist tradition, from the classicsLenin, Trotsky, Rosa Luxemburgup to recent authors, such as the South African poet Dennis Brutus and the French activist and philosopher Daniel Bensad. The essays deal both with their individual contributions and their places in collective movements. As Le Blanc persuasively argues, their ideas do not only belong to the past but are also a compass for the struggles of the present. Michael Lwy, author of The Theory of Revolution in the Young Marx

Paul Le Blanc tackles the thorny but inescapable problem of the revolutionary collective in this valuable selection of his essays with his usual lively tone and openness to opposing views. This is a fine book for the beginner or advanced activist thinking about what we have lost and what we might recuperate. Paul Buhle, coeditor of the Encyclopedia of the American Left

This collection of essays crystalizes many of the themes running throughout Paul Le Blancs lifes work. Ever attentive to the reciprocal and complex relationships between individuals and broad historical forceshistory is the lives of innumerable peopleLe Blanc explores a diverse range of figures in the global tradition of socialism from below and draws out their lasting lessons for the future. The essays provide sufficient contextual explanation and clarity to be accessible to those new to this history, while supplying rich and unexpected details that will hold the interest of seasoned revolutionary Marxists. These stories of collective organization and struggle, which combine expansive scholarship with personal anecdote, will provide sustenance and hope to those seeking to understand and resist capitalism in our own calamitous present. Helen C. Scott, editor of The Essential Rosa Luxemburg

Paul Le Blanc provides us with a sparkling array of revolutionary portraits, illuminating the interplay of socialist movements with individual liberatory initiative. John Riddell, editor of the multivolume The Communist International in the Lenins Time

Paul Le Blanc has a gift for tracing the life course of his subjects, keeping their individual face always present but putting them in a thick context of events, disputes, and organizational loyalties. This gift is particularly telling in the case of activists who may be little more than a name to many of us, including such determinedly original thinkers as Alexander Bogdanov and James Burnham. Paul certainly has his heroes but thankfully very few villainsno, not even the ex-Trotskyist turncoat James Burnham. Throughout he engages in genuine dialogue with other scholars, myself included. In all, a remarkable achievement to add to the list of Le Blancs impressive studies of the twentieth-century Marxist Left. Lars T. Lih, author of Lenin Rediscovered

Is there a future for Leninism? In an outstanding assembly of essays with a bold mission, Paul Le Blanc brings a lifetime of socialist commitment to bear on the entangled affinities and conflicts within the revolutionary Marxist tradition. A dozen discrete studies, marked by a broad and deep knowledge, allow him to offer unexpected links that remind us of the promise and possibilities of the collective enterprise of social transformation. Alan Wald, author of The New York Intellectuals: The Rise and Decline of the Anti-Stalinist Left From the 1930s to the 1980s

A series of highly readable sketches of participants in the revolutionary movement over the last century, including such central figures as V. I. Lenin, Rosa Luxemburg, Leon Trotsky, and Antonio Gramsci. Some of the individuals portrayed remained devoted to the struggle their entire lives, while others abandoned it along the way. Nevertheless, each made contributions to revolutionary political thought and activism that are worth studying today. A central unifying theme of the book is why a democratic collective process is needed by revolutionary activists. Mike Taber, editor of Under the Socialist Banner: Resolutions of the Second International, 1889-1912

People do not make history as they please, but under given circumstances that have been transmitted from the pastand yet they do make history. In Revolutionary Collective, Paul Le Blanc gives us an overview of some of the most important revolutionary thinkers and activists of the twentieth century, people who were committed to changing those circumstances. A red thread throughout the book is an examination of the interaction between individual engagement and collective emancipation. Written in his usual erudite, intellectually generous and lucid style, Le Blancs book is a gift to radicals today, equipping us with historical lessons and helping us to oriente ourselves for the ongoing task of changing the world. Alex de Jong, co-director, International Institute for Research and Education, Amsterdam

While socialist thought and action emphasize the necessity to overcome capitalisms innate individualism, most writing on revolutionary socialist thinkers and leaders remains centered on their individual strengths and weaknesses, sins and achievements. This volume rightly focuses our attention on common sources of inspiration, on learning through successes and failures lived and thought through in joint struggle, and on the seldom celebrated but nevertheless real value of unoriginal contributions that pass on the knowledge gained by previous generations in their struggle for human liberation. Always thoughtful in his critique and generous even to those to whom he finds himself fundamentally in opposition, Paul Le Blanc draws us back toward these deep, collective sources for every attempt at socialist renewal. Pepijn Brandon, Senior Researcher International Institute for Social History, Amsterdam; coeditor, Worlds of Labour Turned Upside Down: Revolutions and Labour Relations in Global Historical Perspective

2022 Paul Le Blanc

Published in 2022 by

Haymarket Books

P.O. Box 180165

Chicago, IL 60618

773-583-7884

www.haymarketbooks.org

ISBN: 978-1-64259-686-1

Distributed to the trade in the US through Consortium Book Sales and Distribution (www.cbsd.com) and internationally through Ingram Publisher Services International (www.ingramcontent.com).

This book was published with the generous support of Lannan Foundation and Wallace Action Fund.

Special discounts are available for bulk purchases by organizations and institutions. Please email for more information.

Cover design by Rachel Cohen.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is available.

PREFACE

The revolutionary Left, and the working-class movement of which it has traditionally been a vital component, have long placed considerable value on the notion of collectivism. This infuses the goal of its struggle: a cooperative commonwealth in which the free development of each will be the condition for the free development of all. It also infuses the struggle itself: we are sisters and brothers, we are family and comrades, an injury to one is an injury to all, solidarity forever.