Socialisme ou Barbarie
Encyclopedia
Socialisme ou Barbarie (Socialism or Barbarism) was a French-based radical libertarian socialist group of the post-World War II
period (the name comes from a phrase Friedrich Engels
used, and was cited by Rosa Luxemburg
in a 1916 essay, 'The Junius Pamphlet'). It existed from 1948 until 1965. The animating personality was Cornelius Castoriadis
, also known as Pierre Chaulieu or Paul Cardan.
, where Castoriadis and Claude Lefort
constituted a Chaulieu–Montal Tendency in the French Parti Communiste Internationaliste
in 1946. In 1948, they experienced their "final disenchantment with Trotskyism", leading them to break away to form Socialisme ou Barbarie, whose journal began appearing in March 1949. Castoriadis later said of this period that
They were linked to the Johnson-Forrest Tendency, which developed as a body of ideas within American Trotskyist organisations. One faction of this group later formed Facing Reality
. The early days also brought debate with Anton Pannekoek and an influx of ex-Bordigists
into the group.
The group was composed of both intellectuals and workers, and agreed with the idea that the main enemies of society were the bureaucracies which governed modern capitalism. They documented and analysed the struggle against that bureaucracy in the group's journal. The thirteenth issue (January–March 1954), as an example, was devoted to the East German revolt of June 1953 and the strikes which erupted amongst several sectors of French workers that summer. Following from the belief that what the working class was addressing in their daily struggles was the real content of socialism, the intellectuals encouraged the workers in the group to report on every aspect of their working lives.
Socialisme ou Barbarie was critical of Leninism, rejecting the idea of a revolutionary party, and placing an emphasis on the importance of workers' councils. While some members left to form other groups, those remaining became more and more critical of Marxism
over time. Jean Laplanche
, one of the group's founding members, recalls the early days of the organization:
The Hungarian Revolution
and other events of the mid-1950s led to a further influx into the group. By this time, they were proposing the fundamental point as
This became characterised as a distinction between the dirigeant and exécutant in French, usually translated as order-givers and order-takers. This perspective enabled the group to extend its understanding to the new forms of social conflict emerging outside the realm of production as such. That was also the case for the 1960-1961 Winter General Strike
in Wallonia.
In 1958 disagreements on the organisational role of a political group led to the departure of some prominent members including Claude Lefort and Henri Simon to form Informations et Liaison Ouvrières.
By 1960, the group had grown to around 100 members and had developed new international links, primarily in the emergence of a sister organisation in Britain called Solidarity.
In the early 1960s, disputes within the group around Castoriadis' increasing rejection of Marxism led to the departure of the group around the Pouvoir Ouvrier journal. The main Socialisme ou Barbarie journal continued publishing until a final edition in 1965, after which the group became dormant and was then dissolved. An attempt by Castoriadis to revive it during the May 1968 events failed.
The Situationist International was associated with and influenced by the group through Guy Debord
who was a member of both. The Italian social movement of Autonomia were also influenced, but less directly.
Source: Andrea Gabler: Arbeitsanalyse und Selbstbestimmung. Zur Bedeutung und Aktualität von “Socialisme ou Barbarie“, Göttingen, 2006. This is a dissertation for the Doktor (Ph. D.) in social sciences from the Georg-August-Universität at Göttingen. Her many biographies are in Anhang C, pp. 210– 223.
But the first four numbers of the magazine have been digitalized and there have been numerous reprints of SouB articles under the name of their authors, esp. of C. Castoriadis' textes.
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
period (the name comes from a phrase Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels was a German industrialist, social scientist, author, political theorist, philosopher, and father of Marxist theory, alongside Karl Marx. In 1845 he published The Condition of the Working Class in England, based on personal observations and research...
used, and was cited by Rosa Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg was a Marxist theorist, philosopher, economist and activist of Polish Jewish descent who became a naturalized German citizen...
in a 1916 essay, 'The Junius Pamphlet'). It existed from 1948 until 1965. The animating personality was Cornelius Castoriadis
Cornelius Castoriadis
Cornelius Castoriadis was a Greek philosopher, social critic, economist, psychoanalyst, author of The Imaginary Institution of Society, and co-founder of the Socialisme ou Barbarie group.-Early life in Athens:...
, also known as Pierre Chaulieu or Paul Cardan.
History
The group originated in the Trotskyist Fourth InternationalFourth International
The Fourth International is the communist international organisation consisting of followers of Leon Trotsky , with the declared dedicated goal of helping the working class bring about socialism...
, where Castoriadis and Claude Lefort
Claude Lefort
Claude Lefort was a French philosopher and activist.He was politically active by 1942 under the influence of his tutor, the phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty...
constituted a Chaulieu–Montal Tendency in the French Parti Communiste Internationaliste
Internationalist Communist Party
The Internationalist Communist Party was a Trotskyist political party in France. It was the name taken by the French Section of the Fourth International from its foundation until a name change in the late 1960s....
in 1946. In 1948, they experienced their "final disenchantment with Trotskyism", leading them to break away to form Socialisme ou Barbarie, whose journal began appearing in March 1949. Castoriadis later said of this period that
"... the main audience of the group and of the journal was formed by groups of the old, radical left: Bordigists, council communists, some anarchists and some offspring of the German "left" of the 1920s"
They were linked to the Johnson-Forrest Tendency, which developed as a body of ideas within American Trotskyist organisations. One faction of this group later formed Facing Reality
Facing Reality
Facing Reality was a radical left group in the United States which existed from about 1962 until 1970.-History:Facing Reality originated in the Johnson-Forest Tendency led by C.L.R. James and Raya Dunayevskaya. It has its origins in the Trotskyist left but regarded the Soviet Union as state...
. The early days also brought debate with Anton Pannekoek and an influx of ex-Bordigists
Amadeo Bordiga
Amadeo Bordiga was an Italian Marxist, a contributor to Communist theory, the founder of the Communist Party of Italy, a leader of the Communist International and, after World War II, leading figure of the International Communist Party.- Early life :Bordiga was born at Resina, in the province of...
into the group.
The group was composed of both intellectuals and workers, and agreed with the idea that the main enemies of society were the bureaucracies which governed modern capitalism. They documented and analysed the struggle against that bureaucracy in the group's journal. The thirteenth issue (January–March 1954), as an example, was devoted to the East German revolt of June 1953 and the strikes which erupted amongst several sectors of French workers that summer. Following from the belief that what the working class was addressing in their daily struggles was the real content of socialism, the intellectuals encouraged the workers in the group to report on every aspect of their working lives.
Socialisme ou Barbarie was critical of Leninism, rejecting the idea of a revolutionary party, and placing an emphasis on the importance of workers' councils. While some members left to form other groups, those remaining became more and more critical of Marxism
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
over time. Jean Laplanche
Jean Laplanche
Jean Laplanche is a French author, theorist and psychoanalyst. Laplanche is best known for his work on psychosexual development and Sigmund Freud's seduction theory, and has written more than a dozen books on psychoanalytic theory...
, one of the group's founding members, recalls the early days of the organization:
...the atmosphere soon became impossible. Castoriadis exerted hegemony over the journal (he wrote the main articles) and his central idea in the mid-1950s was that a third world war was inevitable. This was very hard for people in the group to stand: to continue our lives, while thinking there would be an atomic explosion in a few years' time. It was an apocalyptic vision.
The Hungarian Revolution
Hungarian Revolution
Hungarian Revolution may refer to:* The Hungarian Revolution of 1848.* The Hungarian Revolution of 1919, which led to the formation of the Hungarian Soviet Republic headed by Béla Kun.* The Hungarian Revolution of 1956....
and other events of the mid-1950s led to a further influx into the group. By this time, they were proposing the fundamental point as
...the necessity for capitalism on the one hand to reduce workers to simple executors of tasks, and on the other hand, in its impossibility to continue functioning if it succeeds in so doing. Capitalism needs to achieve mutually incompatible objectives: the participation and the exclusion of the worker in production - as of all citizens in relation to politics.
This became characterised as a distinction between the dirigeant and exécutant in French, usually translated as order-givers and order-takers. This perspective enabled the group to extend its understanding to the new forms of social conflict emerging outside the realm of production as such. That was also the case for the 1960-1961 Winter General Strike
1960-1961 Winter General Strike
1960–1961 Winter General Strike was the most important strike of the 20th century in Belgium and was called the Strike of the Century. Its triggering factor was Eyskens' government introducing a number of austerity policies under the general name Loi unique...
in Wallonia.
In 1958 disagreements on the organisational role of a political group led to the departure of some prominent members including Claude Lefort and Henri Simon to form Informations et Liaison Ouvrières.
By 1960, the group had grown to around 100 members and had developed new international links, primarily in the emergence of a sister organisation in Britain called Solidarity.
In the early 1960s, disputes within the group around Castoriadis' increasing rejection of Marxism led to the departure of the group around the Pouvoir Ouvrier journal. The main Socialisme ou Barbarie journal continued publishing until a final edition in 1965, after which the group became dormant and was then dissolved. An attempt by Castoriadis to revive it during the May 1968 events failed.
The Situationist International was associated with and influenced by the group through Guy Debord
Guy Debord
Guy Ernest Debord was a French Marxist theorist, writer, filmmaker, member of the Letterist International, founder of a Letterist faction, and founding member of the Situationist International . He was also briefly a member of Socialisme ou Barbarie.-Early Life:Guy Debord was born in Paris in 1931...
who was a member of both. The Italian social movement of Autonomia were also influenced, but less directly.
Members
Members of Socialisme ou Barbarie included:- Danièle Auffray, b. 1944. Left SouB around 1965.
- Daniel Blanchard (as Pierre Canjuers), b. 1934. SouB: 1957- 1965.
- Pierre Canjuers, Guy Debord: Preliminaires pourund définition de l'unité du programme révolutionaire, Paris (July 20), 1960, (4 p.).
- Transl. in: Ken Knabb, Situationist International Anthology, Berkeley, 1981, p. 305ff..
- Cornelius CastoriadisCornelius CastoriadisCornelius Castoriadis was a Greek philosopher, social critic, economist, psychoanalyst, author of The Imaginary Institution of Society, and co-founder of the Socialisme ou Barbarie group.-Early life in Athens:...
(1922–1997).- Various reprints, Union Génerale d'Editions, 10/18 series, 7 Vols., 3 in 2 books, Paris, 1973 to 1979; Political and Social Writings, David Ames Curtis (editor, transl.), 3 Vols., Minneapolis, 1988, 1993.
- Hubert DamischHubert DamischBorn in 1928, Hubert Damisch is a French philosopher specialised in aesthetics and art history, and professor at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris from 1975 until 1996....
, b. 1928. SouB: 1953- 1958. - Guy DebordGuy DebordGuy Ernest Debord was a French Marxist theorist, writer, filmmaker, member of the Letterist International, founder of a Letterist faction, and founding member of the Situationist International . He was also briefly a member of Socialisme ou Barbarie.-Early Life:Guy Debord was born in Paris in 1931...
(1931–1994). SouB: One year from 1960 to 1961. Programatic statement, with Daniel Blanchard - Vincent DescombesVincent DescombesVincent Descombes is a French philosopher. His major work has been in the philosophy of language and philosophy of mind. He is particularly noted for a lengthy critique in two volumes of the project he calls cognitivism, and which is, roughly, the view current in philosophy of mind that mental...
,b.1934. - Jacques Gautrat (as Daniel Mothé), b. 1924. SouB from 1952. As Daniel Mothé: Journal d'un ouvrier, 1956-1958, Éditions de Minuit, Paris, 1959.
- Gérard GenetteGérard GenetteGérard Genette is a French literary theorist, associated in particular with the structuralist movement and such figures as Roland Barthes and Claude Lévi-Strauss, from whom he adapted the concept of bricolage.-Life:...
, b. 1930. SouB: 1957- 1958. - Pierre GuillaumePierre GuillaumePierre Guillaume is a French political activist. He was the founder of the Paris book shop La Vieille Taupe in 1965 and later the negationist publishing house of the same name. A former member of Socialisme ou Barbarie, he moved to Pouvoir Ouvrier with Jean-François Lyotard and P....
, b. 1941 (or 1940 ?). SouB: 1960- 1963 (PO). - Alain Guillerm (1944–2005). SouB: 1962- 1967.
- Jean LaplancheJean LaplancheJean Laplanche is a French author, theorist and psychoanalyst. Laplanche is best known for his work on psychosexual development and Sigmund Freud's seduction theory, and has written more than a dozen books on psychoanalytic theory...
(as Marc Foucault), b.1924. - Claude LefortClaude LefortClaude Lefort was a French philosopher and activist.He was politically active by 1942 under the influence of his tutor, the phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty...
(as Claude Montal), b. 1924. SouB until 1958. - Jean-François LyotardJean-François LyotardJean-François Lyotard was a French philosopher and literary theorist. He is well known for his articulation of postmodernism after the late 1970s and the analysis of the impact of postmodernity on the human condition...
(1924–1998). SouB: 1950- 1963 (PO). - Albert Maso (as Vega, R.Maille) (1918–2001). Spanish anarchist, POUMPoumPoum is a commune in the North Province of New Caledonia, an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean. The town of Poum is located in the far northwest, located on the southern part of Banare Bay, with Mouac Island just offshore....
. SouB: 1950-1963 (PO). La Bataille socialiste Masó page. - Edgar MorinEdgar MorinEdgar Morin is a French philosopher and sociologist born Edgar Nahoum in Paris on July 8, 1921. He is of Judeo-Spanish origin. He is known for the transdisciplinarity of his works.- Biography :...
,b. 1921 (some sources have him as a member in the early 1950s). - Henri Simon, b. 1922. SouB: 1952- 1958.
- Pierre Souyri (as Pierre Brune) (1925–1981). SouB: 1954- 1963 (PO). La Bataille socialiste Souyri page.
- Benno Sternberg (as Hugo Bell, Sarel, Barois), member from 1949 to 1967. He died in 1971. As Benno Sarel: La classe ouvrière en Allemagne orientale, Éditions Sociales, Paris 1958 (Turin, 1959; Munich, 1975).
- Translated for SouB: Paul Romano and Ria Stone: The American Worker, Bewick, Detroit, 1947.
Source: Andrea Gabler: Arbeitsanalyse und Selbstbestimmung. Zur Bedeutung und Aktualität von “Socialisme ou Barbarie“, Göttingen, 2006. This is a dissertation for the Doktor (Ph. D.) in social sciences from the Georg-August-Universität at Göttingen. Her many biographies are in Anhang C, pp. 210– 223.
Textes
No complete reprint of Socialisme ou barbarie exists.But the first four numbers of the magazine have been digitalized and there have been numerous reprints of SouB articles under the name of their authors, esp. of C. Castoriadis' textes.
External links
- Socialisme ou Barbarie: A French Revolutionary Group (1949-65) by Marcel van der Linden, Left History 5.1, 1997. Dead geocities link, now at the La Bataille socialiste site.
- From the German Left to Socialisme ou Barbarie from La Banquise No. 2: le roman de nos origines, 1983.
- Libertarian Communist Library Socialisme ou Barbarie holdings
- Socialisme ou Barbarie Journal index of articles by issue
- La Bataille socialiste, many interesting SouB links, PO link, biographies: Souyri (1925-1979), Masó dit Vega (1918-2001)