Socialisme ou Barbarie

[RevolverNo9]

Does anyone know anything about the French council communists? I believe they enjoyed an influential peak during the '60s but I'd be interested to see their views in depth.

[redstar2000]

Alas, the ravages of old age do not permit me to remember the name of their "big cheese"...but I actually did hear him speak in Berkeley around 1976 or so.

I asked him a question concerning the hypothetical evolution of the USSR towards capitalism and he dismissed the possibility with contempt. :o

They did publish an interesting pamphlet on how communist society might actually function -- the English translation appeared in the early 1970s. In fact, if I could remember the name of the pamphlet, I'd search for it on the internet to see what I thought of it now.

I think they came out of French Trotskyism in 1948 or thereabouts...but I have no idea if they ever had any significant influence in France -- though it's certainly chronologically possible that the people who later became situationists in the 1960s had read their material.

Wish I could remember more. :(

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[Monty Cantsin]

was it Cornelius Castoriadis?

Guy Debord was a one time member and so was Jean-François Lyotard.

So they had a big influence on Post-Modernism, Situationism and Autonomist Marxism.

[RevolverNo9]

Yes I believe Debord had a great dealing with them, appropriating certain ideas such as a definition of the proletariat. Their propositions about revolutionary-society as a federation of council-communes was an element to Situationist matter.

Mmm, Cornelius Castoriadis sounds right.

I just read somewhere of an English group, Solidarity who took on their ideas and published translations of Castoriadis.

[redstar2000]

Originally posted by Monty Cantsin
was it Cornelius Castoriadis?

That's the guy! :)

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