Publishing a new collection of writings by Daniel Bensaïd

Daniel Bensaïd (1946 – 2010) was on France's most creative Marxist philosophers. His work is now increasingly being translated and attracting global attention.

In 2009 the IIRE published the collection Strategies of Resistance + ‘Who are the Trotskyists’. In 2025, fifteen years after the passing of our comrade, we want to publish a new, significantly augmented edition, collecting essays on history, politics and strategy.

‘Who are the Trotskyists?’ (2002) is a historical text on the evolution of the Trotskyist movement. Rather than strive for academic comprehensiveness, in this essay, partly informed by his personal experiences, Bensaïd puts forward what he considers the elements of continuing relevance in Trotskyism. ‘Theses of Resistance’ (2004) is an ambitious attempt to confront the theoretical challenges facing Marxism in the so-called ‘postmodern’ age. Written a few years later, ‘Myths and Legends of Domination’ (2008) critically engages with writers like Herbert Marcuse and Michel Foucault to interrogate the historical shift that took place with the victorious ‘new spirit of the free-market counter-reform’ since the seventies.

In these and other texts, Bensaïd puts forward an interpretation of Marxism as a thought without guarantees, one that refuses ideas of historical inevitability to instead focus on the decisive role of social struggles and political decisions. A red thread running through these essays is the dialectic between the identities that can form the beginning of resistance and universal emancipation as the revolutionary horizon of social struggle. Crackling with insight, erudition and wit, Bensaïd’s writings are valuable legacy for revolutionaries. We need your help to pass it on.

To contribute to the costs of translation and production, the IIRE is raising 5000 euros. People who donated 60 euros or more will receive a book of the book once it is published. We are aiming for publication in autumn 2025.

Table of contents

included in original edition:

Who are the Trotskyists?

Theses of Resistance

The Mole and the Locomotive

Hegemony and United Front

Thirty Years After: A Critical Introduction the Marxism of Ernest Mandel

Stalinism and Bolshevism

New texts:

Stalinism against communism: on The Black Book of Communism

Myths and Legends of Domination

Marxism against Totalitarianism

What it means to be Marxist

Marxist notes on Jewish emancipation

A fragment on Fanon

Marx’s Paris Turn

Commune, State and Revolution

The powers of communism

The book will be published by the International Institute for Research in Education in Amsterdam:

https://IIRE.org