Leftism

Summary

Dominique Pagani defines leftism (gauchisme) in Lenin's sense: it is the coming together of anarchists or libertarians, Trotskyists and Maoists. What unites them, in his view, is anti-communism and contempt for workers' demands12. He distinguishes two May 68s: the CGT workers' strike on one side, Cohn-Bendit's movement on the other. That second May 68 produced a leftist Marx cut off from Hegel and dialectics3. He follows the paths of former leftists, from Kessler to Jospin, who end up on the side of capital against the CNR programme32. With Michel Clouscard, he sees in this the source of libertarian liberalism: the liberal and the libertarian of 1968 are the same people. He also points to an inconsistency: leftists who were anti-Stalinist in France admired Maoist China, and Glucksmann supported the Khmer Rouge. Treating the State as a monolithic abstraction, as the libertarians and Althusser do, leaves in his view only one strategy, the dictatorship of the proletariat4. He presents Marcuse as the thinker of leftism: the working class would be integrated, and the revolt of minorities would replace revolution1.

1. 1Neo-fascism and the ideology of desire: Clouscard, as relevant as ever2 May 2024
2. 2Neo-fascism and the ideology of desire: is Michel Clouscard still relevant?23 May 2026
3. 3K for Karl25 Dec 2014
4. 4M. Clouscard's reply to C. Morilhat (part 2)10 Sept 2019

Introduction produced automatically from the 4 sessions on this theme, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the sessions.