Daniel Bensaïd’s memorial meeting

Daniel Bensaïd’s memorial meeting will be on Tuesday 9 February at

7.30pm in ULU, Malet St, WC1H. The speakers will be Gilbert Achcar

(SOAS), Terry Conway (SR executive), Alex Callinicos (SWP central

committee) and Stathis Kouvelakis (from the NPA).

Daniel Bensaïd was one of the leaders of the May 68 movement. He was

one of those people who had an inherent sense for political

initiatives. He grasped the dynamic of the link between the student

movement and general strike, and understood the necessity for a

revolutionary socialist organization.

He was one of the founders of the JCR (Revolutionary Communist Youth)

and the LCR (Revolutionary Communist League), and became part of its

leadership and that of the Fourth International until the early 1990s.

In the struggle, Daniel combined political principles with openness

and a rejection of sectarianism. A good part of his theoretical and

political work was focused on questions of strategy, and the lessons

of the main historical revolutionary experiences.

From the 1990s, he concentrated on theoretical work: the history of

political ideas, Marx’s Capital, the balance sheet of the twentieth

century and its revolutions starting with the Russian revolution,

ecology, feminism, identity politics and the Jewish question. He

developed new policies and strategies for the revolutionary left faced

with capitalist globalisation.

Daniel developed the historical continuity of open, non-dogmatic,

revolutionary Marxism and adaptated to the changes of the new era,

with always the perspective of revolutionary transformation of society

in his sights.

Although many “68ers” abandoned the ideals of their youth, Daniel

abandoned none of them. He didn’t change. He is still with us.

www.socialistresistance.org - contact@socialistresistance.org - PO box

62732, London, SW2 9GQ

Mon 08, February 2010 @ 13:55