Why the French Communists Stopped the Revolution

1969 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arthur P. Mendel
Keyword(s):  
Communist Party ◽  
Direct Action ◽  
Free Expression ◽  
Meaningful Participation ◽  
May 1968 ◽  
French Communist Party ◽  
De Gaulle ◽  
At Will ◽  
The Revolution

In May, 1968, France was saved from revolution not primarily by de Gaulle and his generals but by the French Communist Party. Nine million striking workers occupied the factories. Militants among the students and young unemployed workers had proven themselves more than ready to play the role of vanguard at the barricades. The peasantry had begun to move from passive grumbling to direct action, fearful that the end of agricultural tariffs in July would further depress their hard lot. Even the middleclass professionals, disenchanted with the hierarchical rigidities and the olympian paternalism of Gaullist society had risen to assert their rights to free expression and meaningful participation. All means of communication and transport and all financial agencies were either directly or indirectly under the control of the workers. At will they could have deprived Paris and other cities of food, water, fuel, electricity and gas.

A esperança da revolução representada pela figura de Luiz Carlos Prestes no filme Olga

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (6) ◽  
pp. 209
Author(s):  
Vinicius Sales Barbosa
Keyword(s):  
Communist Party ◽  
Nazi Regime ◽  
Central Objective ◽  
The Revolution

O presente artigo consiste na análise do filme Olga (2004), que conta a história de Olga Benário em sua luta como militante comunista, prisioneira do regime nazista e, principalmente, sua relação com o Cavaleiro da Esperança, Luiz Carlos Prestes. Ainda que a obra aborde a biografia de Olga, o intuito desta pesquisa é destrinchar o filme em três pontos essenciais para o entendimento de sua estrutura e, posteriormente, apresentar as perspectivas historiográficas a respeito da Intentona Comunista, o papel da Aliança Nacional Libertadora (ANL) e do Partido Comunista Brasileiro (PCB) no movimento e, como objetivo central, trabalhar a esperança da revolução que o filme confere à figura de Luiz Carlos Prestes.Palavras-Chave: Olga, Cinema, História, Religião.AbstractThis article analyzes the movie Olga (2004), which tells the story of Olga Benário in her fight as a communist militant, a prisoner of the Nazi regime, and especially her relationship with the Knight of Hope, Luiz Carlos Prestes. Although the work approaches the biography of Olga, the intention of this research is to unravel the film in three essential points for the understanding of its structure and, later, to present the historiographical perspectives regarding the Communist Uprising of 1935, the role of the National Liberating Alliance (ANL) and the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB) in the movement and, as a central objective, to study the hope of the revolution that the film confers to the figure of Luiz Carlos Prestes..Keywords: Olga, Cinema, History, Religion.

scholarly journals On the Role of Gesinnung in Kant’s Ethics and Philosophy of Religion. Part II

2019 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexei N. Krouglov
Keyword(s):  
Practical Reason ◽  
Critical Period ◽  
Free Expression ◽  
Human Being ◽  
The Novel ◽  
The World ◽  
The Will ◽  
Kant's Ethics ◽  
The Revolution

The sources of Kant’s term Gesinnung and a review of the problems of its translation into English were presented in the first part of this article; the second part examines the novel features that Kant brings to the interpretation of this concept in the critical period. In the Critique of Practical Reason these include the questions of manifestation of Gesinnung in the world, apprehended through the senses, the method of establishing and the culture of truly moral Gesinnung, as well as the problem of the immutability of Gesinnung in the progress towards the good. The new theses that appear in Religion within the Bounds of Bare Reason are Gesinnung as the internal subjective principle of maxims, on virtue as evidence of the presence of Gesinnung, on act as a manifestation of Gesinnung, on the unintelligibility of Gesinnung in its noumenal, suprasensible character, on the innateness of Gesinnung in the sense that it exists not in time, but in the form of its acceptance by free expression of the will, on the singleness of Gesinnung and its indivisibility into periods, on revolution in Gesinnung as distinct from empirical reform, on the creation of the new human being as distinct from the ancient one as a result of the revolution of Gesinnung, on the link between the revolution in Gesinnung and “conversion” or second birth. After discussing the problem of distinguishing the terms Gesinnung and Denkungsart in translation as well as a review of all the existing variants of translating Kant’s concept of Gesinnung into Russian (aspiration, inclination, intention, virtue, virtuousness, conviction, attitude, mode of thinking, thoughts, mood, disposition and umonastroenie), the author comes to the conclusion that the uniform variant umonastroenie is best suited for Russian translations of Kant’s works.

Documents on the Comintern and the Chinese Revolution

1971 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 100-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harold R. Isaacs ◽  
Albert Treint
Keyword(s):  
Communist Party ◽  
Executive Committee ◽  
Full Text ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Chinese Revolution ◽  
French Communist Party

The following two sets of notes from my files bear on the role of the Communist International in China in the 1920s. The references to them in my book, The Tragedy of the Chinese Revolution, have been so frequently cited that I must assume that their full text will be found of some value by interested scholars. This is especially true of the first one, a memorandum based on an interview I had on 19 August 1935 with H. Sneevliet, the Dutch left-wing socialist who, under the name of Maring, went to China in 1921 as a representative of the Comintern. The second is a set of notes written at my request in Paris in 1935 by Albert Treint, who represented the French Communist Party on the Chinese sub-committee of the Plenum of the Executive Committee of the Comintern in Moscow in May 1927.

The present theory of power of the French Communist Party

1967 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 253-268
Author(s):  
Annie Kriegel
Keyword(s):  
Communist Party ◽  
Third Republic ◽  
Present Theory ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future ◽  
Future Society ◽  
French Communist Party ◽  
Modern Form ◽  
The Revolution

From 1920 to 1939, under the Third Republic, and again from 1943 to 1947, under the Fourth, the French communists were able to present themselves as the harbingers of the future society. But this did not prevent them from improvising, according to circumstances and to the response they received, bold variations on the theme of their relations with the established power and society. The question which so many people are now asking: ‘Have the communists really changed ?’ can be reduced to asking whether, in the fifties although possibly in a confused way, it was not their doctrinal basis which changed; and therefore whether, after a long and victorious battle and with the revolution definitely a thing of the past, we cannot now speak of communist integration, Just as it took sixty years for the modern form of Catholicism to triumph, so perhaps a certain kind of socialist revisionism could now also triumph in similar conditions. To discover whether this is so is the object of the present enquiry.

scholarly journals Research Center of Book Culture Studies of Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia The role of Bolshevist libraries in the build-up to the Revolution. (One hundred years of the Soviet librarianship) Article two. Organization of the legal Communist party libraries

2017 ◽  
pp. 62-74
Author(s):  
Yuri Stolyarov
Keyword(s):  
Communist Party ◽  
Research Center ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
Culture Studies ◽  
The Real ◽  
Russian Academy Of Sciences ◽  
Academy Of Sciences ◽  
Book Culture ◽  
The Revolution

The author continues on the role of RSDLP (Вolsheviks) libraries in preparing the revolution in Russia (see Scientific and Technical Libraries. - 2017. - Issue 6. - P. 100-110) and examines V. Lenin’s view of the libraries’ role in the revolutionary struggle. The author refers to historical sources to suggest that libraries played important organizational and propagandist role in preparing Bolshevist revolution, and were the real strongholds of the Party.

Merleau-Ponty, Maurice (1908–61)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Baldwin
Keyword(s):  
Communist Party ◽  
French Philosophy ◽  
Fellow Traveller ◽  
Phenomenology Of Perception ◽  
Personal Perceptions ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Post War ◽  
Political Essays ◽  
French Communist Party

Merleau-Ponty belongs to the group of French philosophers who transformed French philosophy in the early post-war period by introducing the phenomenological methods of the German philosophers Husserl and Heidegger. His central concern was with ‘the phenomenology of perception’ (the title of his major book), and his originality lay in his account of the role of the bodily sense-organs in perception, which led him to develop a phenomenological treatment of the sub-personal perceptions that play a central role in bodily movements. This account of the sub-personal aspects of life enabled him to launch a famous critique of Sartre’s conception of freedom, which he regarded as an illusion engendered by excessive attention to consciousness. None the less, he and Sartre cooperated for many years in French political affairs, until Merleau-Ponty became exasperated by the orthodox Marxism-Leninism of the French Communist Party in a way in which Sartre, who remained a fellow-traveller, did not. As well as several substantial political essays, Merleau-Ponty wrote widely on art, anthropology and, especially, language. He died leaving some important work incomplete. Although his work is still esteemed within the French academic establishment, his influence in France has waned, because of a tendency there to study his German forebears almost to the exclusion of all else. But elsewhere, and most notably in the USA, Merleau-Ponty’s work is widely studied, especially now that questions about the distinction between personal and sub-personal aspects of life have become so prominent.

scholarly journals The role of Bolshevist libraries in the build-up to the Revolution. One hundred years of the Soviet librarianship. Article one. The state of knowledge

2017 ◽  
pp. 100-110
Author(s):  
Yuri Stolyarov
Keyword(s):  
Communist Party ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
The State ◽  
Library Services ◽  
Theoretical Significance ◽  
Many Sources ◽  
The Revolution

The author presents the series of historical articles. The author refers to many sources to prove that the before-Revolution Bolsheviks’ propaganda was carried out via legal and illegal party libraries that served the strongholds for Bolsheviks. The author reviews Communist party and library scientific literature on the issue for the 100-year period. The first article is to demonstrate historical and theoretical significance of the reviewed issues. During the first Soviet years they were investigated by the prominent Communist party and Soviet political figures outstanding, attempted to characterize Lenin’s attitude towards library services.

scholarly journals On the Task of Creating a Financial History of the CPSU

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 116-135
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Financial History ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Revolution

The article poses the task of creating a financial history of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). The Communist Party existed from 1898 to 1991. Though communists declared commitment to Marxism, which acknowledged the precedence of material factors over ideology and policy, the role of finances in the party’s history received little attention. After 1991, the situation in this field remained practically the same. The lack of scientific history generates mythology. The author demonstrates that one of such myths is the concept that the revolution of 1917 was a success thanks to the Bolsheviks having “German money”. The article analyzes the issue of Germany financing the Bolsheviks from the banking point of view. The existing hypotheses of how exactly the Bolsheviks were receiving money are considered. The main “anti-Bolshevik” version implies that finances were being transferred to the Bolsheviks under the guise of operations of an import/export firm, whose representative in Russia was Evgeniya Sumenson. The author investigates three cases which are of prime importance for all these hypotheses: Alexander Parvus’s money, the telegrams intercepted by the French counterintelligence, and the so-called “Sisson Documents”. Based on the analysis of the works of Russian and foreign historians and also on the published archive materials, the author concludes that all the documents currently available do not support the “anti-Bolshevik” version. Moreover, they prove that money movement was backwards: the proceeds from the sales of goods imported into Russia were transferred to Europe. Operations carried out by Sumeson were of a purely commercial nature and were quite in line with the banking practice of that period. The true financial history of the Bolsheviks and the CPSU as a whole is yet to be written. One of such successful investigations is John Biggart’s article on the Nikolai P. Shmit bequest.

Kropotkin

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Kinna
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Political Change ◽  
Direct Action ◽  
The State ◽  
Social Analysis ◽  
Mutual Aid ◽  
Special Character ◽  
Revolutionary Politics

This book is designed to remove Peter Kropotkin from the framework of classical anarchism. By focusing attention on his theory of mutual aid, it argues that the classical framing distorts Kropotkin's political theory by associating it with a narrowly positivistic conception of science, a naively optimistic idea of human nature and a millenarian idea of revolution. Kropotkin's abiding concern with Russian revolutionary politics is the lens for this analysis. The argument is that his engagement with nihilism shaped his conception of science and that his expeditions in Siberia underpinned an approach to social analysis that was rooted in geography. Looking at Kropotkin's relationship with Elisée Reclus and Erico Malatesta and examining his critical appreciation of P-J. Proudhon, Michael Bakunin and Max Stirner, the study shows how he understood anarchist traditions and reveals the special character of his anarchist communism. His idea of the state as a colonising process and his contention that exploitation and oppression operate in global contexts is a key feature of this. Kropotkin's views about the role of theory in revolutionary practice show how he developed this critique of the state and capitalism to advance an idea of political change that combined the building of non-state alternatives through direct action and wilful disobedience. Against critics who argue that Kropotkin betrayed these principles in 1914, the book suggests that this controversial decision was consistent with his anarchism and that it reflected his judgment about the prospects of anarchistic revolution in Russia.

Ecology, Dharma and Direct Action: A Brief Survey of Contemporary Eco-Buddhist Activism in Korea

2015 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 293-311
Author(s):  
Young-Hae Yoon ◽  
Sherwin Jones
Keyword(s):  
Social Engagement ◽  
Direct Action ◽  
Social Activism ◽  
Turn Of The Millennium ◽  
Hunger Strike ◽  
Korean Society ◽  
High Profile ◽  
Reclamation Project ◽  
Self Immolation

Over the last few decades there has emerged a small, yet influential eco-Buddhism movement in South Korea which, since the turn of the millennium, has seen several S?n (J. Zen) Buddhist clerics engage in high-profile protests and activism campaigns opposing massive development projects which threatened widespread ecological destruction. This article will survey the issues and events surrounding three such protests; the 2003 samboilbae, or ‘threesteps- one-bow’, march led by Venerable Suky?ng against the Saemangeum Reclamation Project, Venerable Jiyul’s Anti-Mt. Ch?ns?ng tunnel hunger-strike campaign between 2002 and 2006, and lastly Venerable Munsu’s self-immolation protesting the Four Rivers Project in 2010. This article will additionally analyze the attempts by these clerics to deploy innovative and distinctively Buddhist forms of protest, the effects of these protests, and how these protests have altered public perceptions of the role of Buddhist clergy in Korean society. This study will additionally highlight issues relevant to the broader discourse regarding the intersection of Buddhism and social activism, such as the appropriation of traditional Buddhist practices as protest tactics and the potential for conflict between social engagement and the pursuit of Buddhist soteriological goals.

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