A Political Education and Militant Intervention Before, During and After May ’68

http://insurgentnotes.com/2018/05/a-political-education-and-militant-intervention-before-during-and-after-may-68/
Date Written:  2018-05-20
Publisher:  Insurgent Notes
Year Published:  2018
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX23456

In the context of the Algerian War for independence, Charroussart discusses his political education and activism before, during after 1968 in relation to Marixsm.

Abstract: 
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Excerpts:


In 1963, just one year after Algerian independence, I participated in a camp near Skikda along with more than 200 French young people from the whole left and far-left spectrum, ranging from the uec, the student organization of the pcf, by way of the psu and different Trotskyist groups, to Socialisme ou Barbarie. The camp was a virtually permanent forum where passionate discussions ranged from Algeria’s chances of becoming a socialist state or having a worker and peasant government (I had no illusions about this) to the "right interpretation" of Marx’s analyses. I remember a sharp collective discussion, of which I understood nothing, on the new book of Kostas Axelos, Marx, penseur de la technique. What I on the other hand understood quite well, talking with young Algerian peasants or fishermen my age, who were mainly illiterate but very lucid, was that they had no confidence in Ben Bella and the fln people in power. They gave me concrete examples of their corruption. These youths, who had fought for independence in the countryside, dreamed only of leaving for France and finding work. I became friends there with a guy studying in Lyon who had been a militant with Socialisme ou Barbarie and then with Pouvoir Ouvrier. I had already evolved from anarchism to libertarian Marxism from reading Daniel Guerin’s book Jeunesse du socialisme libertaire. My friend introduced me to issues of the Situationist International, Louis Janover’s journal Front Noir, and to the bulletins of ico (Informations Correspondances Ouvrières). A Parisian militant from Voix Ouvrière had also persuaded my father to subscribe to their Trotskyist journal, without ever actually meeting me. I was very interested in all these publications, but the analyses of Socialisme ou Barbarie seemed to me the richest and most convincing. Although I was reading very widely to keep up with all these analyses, and having begun the reading of Marx, Lenin, Lukacs, Korsch, Ernst Bloch and Debord, I had the permanent impression of catching up, and not being at the level to this constantly evolving revolutionary movement, itself in constant evolution. That led to a break of one year with my friend; I had written him to tell him not to waste his time with me because I no longer was able to understand everything he was explaining to me.