“Class Struggle is Not a Game”: Daniel Bensaïd’s Relational Conception of Class.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5902/2236672548530Keywords:
Class theory, Marxism, Class formation, Strategy, Exploitation.Abstract
While Daniel Bensaïd’s writings on Marxism, socialist strategy, and historical temporality have gained increased attention in the years since his passing, there remain relatively few accounts of his thinking on class. This article seeks to correct that gap by situating Bensaïd’s various texts on class theory in relation to other key reconceptualizations of class in the Marxist tradition that sought to avoid sociological determinism: E. P. Thompson’s lens of class formation and the Italian Workerists’ methodology of class composition. In tracing these connections, we argue that Bensaïd’s conception of class is at once historically grounded and attuned to the open-ended conflictuality and multiple terrains of class struggle.Downloads
References
ALQUATI, R. Composizione organica del capitale e forza lavoro alla Olivetti. Quaderni Rossi, Vol. 2, June 1962 and Quaderni Rossi, Vol. 3, June 1963 (English translation: “Organic Composition of Capital and Labor Power at Olivetti”, translated by Steve Wright, Viewpoint Magazine, 3, 2013, available at: https://www.viewpointmag.com/2013/09/27/organic-composition-of-capital-and-labor-power-at-olivetti-1961/).
ALQUATI, R. Lotta alla FIAT. Classe Operaia, Vol. 1, January 1964 (English translation: “Struggle at FIAT”, translated by Evan Calder Williams, Viewpoint Magazine, 3, 2013, available at: https://www.viewpointmag.com/2013/09/26/struggle-at-fiat-1964/).
ALQUATI, R. Ricerca sulla struttura interna della classe operaia. Classe Operaia, Vol. 2, nº. 1, January-February, 1965.
ANTENTAS, J. M. Daniel Bensaïd, Melancholic Strategist. Historical Materialism, Vol. 24, nº. 4, pp. 51-106, 2016.
ARRUZZA, C. From Women’s Strikes to a New Class Movement: The Third Feminist Wave. Viewpoint Magazine, December 3, 2018 (available at: https://www.viewpointmag.com/2018/12/03/from-womens-strikes-to-a-new-class-movement-the-third-feminist-wave/).
BALIBAR, E. Marx, Engels, et le parti révolutionnaire. La Pensée, nº. 201, pp. 120-35, October, 1978.
BALIBAR, E. From Class Struggle to Classless Struggle?. Trans. Chris Turner. In: BALIBAR, E. and WALLERSTEIN, I. Race, Nation, Class: Ambiguous Identities. London: Verso, 1991, pp. 153-184.
BALIBAR, E. On the Aporias of Marxist Politics: From Class Struggle to Civil War. Trans. Cory Browning. Diacritics,Vol. 39, nº. 2, pp. 59-73, Summer, 2009.
BALIBAR, E. Communism and Citizenship: On Nicos Poulantzas. In: BALIBAR, E. Equaliberty. trans. James Ingram. Durham: Duke University Press, 2014, pp. 145-164.
BENSAÏD, D. Considérations inactuelles sur ‘l’actuel encore actif’ du Manifeste Communiste. Personal Archive (available at http://danielbensaid.org/Considerations-inactuelles-sur-l-actuel-encore-actif-du-Manifeste-communiste?lang=fr).
BENSAÏD, D. Le Sourire du spectre. Nouvel esprit du communisme. Paris: Éditions Michalon, 2000.
BENSAÏD, D. Les Irréductibles. Théorèmes de la résistance à l’air du temps. Paris: Les éditions Textuel, 2001.
BENSAÏD, D. Marx for Our Times. Adventures and Misadventures of a Critique. London and New York: Verso, 2002 [1995].
BENSAÏD, D. Hegemony and the United Front. Working Class, Social Movement, Alliances – and the Limits of Radical Democracy. International Viewpoint. August 27, 2007. (available at http://danielbensaid.org/Hegemony-and-United-Front?lang=fr).
BENSAÏD, D. Éloge de la politique profane. Paris: Albin Michel, 2008a.
BENSAÏD, D. Politiques de Castoriadis. (Castoriadis corrige Marx ?). Contretemps, nº. 21, pp. 131-42, 2008b.
BENSAÏD, D. La prevue par la bourgeoisie. 2008c (available at http://danielbensaid.org/La-preuve-par-la-bourgeoisie?lang=fr).
BENSAÏD, D. Strategy and Politics: From Marx to the Third International. Historical Materialism, nº. 16, pp. 1-38, July, 2018, (available at https://brill.com/abstract/journals/hima/aop/article-10.1163-1569206X-00001670.xml?crawler=true&mimetype=application%2Fpdf).
BOLOGNA, S. Otto tesi per una storia militante. Primo Maggio, Vol. 11, 1977-1978.
BOURDIEU, P. The Social Space and the Genesis of Groups. Trans. Richard Nice. Theory and Society, Vol. 14, nº. 6, pp. 723-744, July, 1985.
BOURDIEU, P. Social Space and Symbolic Space: Introduction to a Japanese Reading of Distinction. Trans. Gisele Sapiro and Brian McHale. Poetics Today, Vol. 12, nº. 4, , pp. 627-638, Winter, 1991.
CAMFIELD, D. Re-Orienting Class Analysis: Working Classes as Historical Formations. Science & Society, Vol. 68, nº.4, pp. 422-446, 2004-2005.
COMINU, S. Composizione di classe. Intervento all’incontro sulla “composizione di classe” nel ciclo di autoformazione di Piacenza, available at http://www.commonware.org/index.php/neetworN/276YcomposizioneYdiYclasse, 3 March 2014.
DAVIS, M. Edward Thompson's Ethics and Activism 1956–1963: Reflections on the Political Formation of The Making of the English Working Class. Contemporary British History, Vol. 28, nº. 4, pp. 438-456, 2014.
HALL, S. Life and Times of the First New Left. New Left Review, nº. 61, pp. 177-196. January-February, 2010.
KOUVELAKIS, S. Daniel Bensaïd: La dialectique du temps et de la lutte. Lignes, Vol. 32, nº. 2, pp. 59-66, 2010.
KOUVELAKIS, S. The Time of History, the Time of Politics, the Time of Strategy. Historical Materialism, Vol. 24, nº. 4, pp. 150-169, 2016.
GALASTRI, L. Social Classes and Subaltern Groups: Theoretical Distinction and Political Application. Capital & Class, Vol. 42, nº. 1, pp. 43-62, 2018.
GARO, I. Un marxisme profane. Lignes, Vol. 32, nº. 2, pp. 39-46, 2010.
GOLDMANN, L. Essays on Method in the Sociology of Literature. Trans. and ed. William Q. Boelhower. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1980.
LAFRANCE, Xavier & SEARS, A. Beating Time in the Slow Movements: Bensaïd’s Revolutionary Rhythms. Historical Materialism, Vol. 24, nº. 4, pp. 129-149, 2016.
LENIN, V. I. What Is to Be Done? Burning Questions of Our Movement. In Collected Works, Vol. 5. Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1961 [1902].
MACHEREY, P. Théorie. In: BENSUSSAN, G. & LABICA, G. (Dir.). Dictionnaire Critique du Marxisme. Paris: PUF, 1982, pp. 1142-1148.
McNALLY, D. Night Lights: Daniel Bensaïd’s Times of Disaster and Redemption. Historical Materialism, Vol. 24, nº. 4, pp. 107-128, 2016.
MOHANDESI, S. Class Consciousness or Class Composition? Science & Society, Vol. 11, nº. 1, pp. 72-97, 2013.
PELLETIER, J. Le passé au présent: histoire et politique chez Daniel Bensaïd. Lignes, Vol. 32, nº. 2, pp. 109-124, 2010.
RAWICK, G. Working Class Self-Activity. Radical America, Vol. 3, nº. 2, pp. 23-31, March-April 1969.
RILEY, D. Bourdieu’s Class Theory: The Academic as Revolutionary. Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, Vol. 1, nº. 2, pp. 107-136, Summer 2017.
ROGGERO, G. L’operaismo politico italiano. Genealogia, storia, metodo. Rome: Derive Approdi, 2019.
ROSO, D. Confronting the Triple Crisis of the Radical Left. The Workers’ Movement, Strategy and the ‘Crisis of Marxism’. Historical Materialism, Vol. 26, nº. 1, pp. 37-67, 2018a.
ROSO, D. Introduction to ‘Strategy and Politics’. Historical Materialism, 2018b forthcoming (available as an advance article at https://brill.com/view/journals/hima/aop/issue.xml). https://doi.org/10.1163/1569206x-12341670
MOULIER-BOUTANG, Y. L’operaïsme italien: organisation/représentation/idéologie ou la composition de classe revisitée. In: TAHON, M.-B. & CORTEN, A. (Dir.). L’Italie, le philosophe et le gendarme. Montréal: VLB, 1986, pp. 37-60.
SACCHETTO, D.; ARMANO, E. & WRIGHT, S. Coresearch and Counter-Research: Romano Alquati’s Itinerary Within and Beyond Italian Radical Political Thought. Viewpoint Magazine, Issue 3, 2013 (available at https://www.viewpointmag.com/2013/09/27/coresearch-and-counter-research-romano-alquatis-itinerary-within-and-beyond-italian-radical-political-thought/).
SEWELL, W. H. How Classes are Made: Critical Reflections on E. P. Thompson's Theory of Working-Class Formation. Center for Research on Social Organization, Working Paper #336, July, 1986 (available at https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/handle/2027.42/51104).
THOMPSON, E. P. The Making of the English Working Class. New York: Vintage, 1966.
THOMPSON, E. P. Whigs and Hunters: The Origins of the Black Act. London: Breviary Stuff Publications, 1975.
THOMPSON, E. P. Eighteenth-Century English Society: Class Struggle without Class? Social History, Vol. 3, nº. 2, pp. 133-165,1978.
THOMPSON, E. P. Customs in Common. London: Penguin, 1993.
TRAVERSO, Enzo. Le passeur. Lignes, Vol. 32, nº. 2, pp. 174-183, 2010.
TRAVERSO, E. Daniel Bensaïd between Marx and Benjamin. Historical Materialism, Vol. 24, nº. 4, pp. 170-191, 2016.
WEBER, H. Marxisme et conscience de classe. Paris: Éditions 10/18, 1975.
WOOD, E. M. Democracy Against Capitalism. Renewing Historical Materialism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
WRIGHT, S. Storming Heaven: Class Composition and Struggle in Italian Autonomist Marxism. London: Pluto, 2002.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish in this journal agree with the following terms:
1. Authors keep the copyrights and allow the journal the right of first publishing, having the paper simultaneously licensed by Creative Commons Attribution License that allows the sharing of the article – copyright recognized - and first publishing in this journal.
2. The journal is allowed to require the copyrights transfer, allowing the article to be used under noncommercial purposes, including the right to send the paper to Free Access or Paid databanks, not assuming the obligation to pass on the value charged from users to the authors.
3. Authors are allowed to take additional contracts separately for nonexclusive distribution of the paper’s version published in this journal (e.g. publishing in institutional repository or as book chapter), recognizing the copyright and first publishing in this journal.
