Leninism? Democratic Centralism? Interview with Daniel Bensaïd, 2001

2013-01-04 · first published in marxsite · 237 words

This was not a Socialist Resistance publication. marxsite was Phil Hearse’s own long-form site, run alongside the paper he helped edit. It is kept here with his agreement, recovered from the Internet Archive after the domain lapsed and was taken over by someone else; nothing here links to the address it now points at.

Only part of this piece survives. The capture it was recovered from is truncated, so the text below stops before the article did.

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Daniel Bensaïd, the long-time central leader of the French Ligue Communiste Revolutionnaire (LCR) and then of the New Anti-Capitalist Party died three years ago. He spoke on 'Leninism in the 21st century' at the 'Marxism 2001' event organised by the British SWP. Twelve years later the debates on Leninism have not gone away. Herewith is the interview done by Phil Hearse at the time.

Q. Lenin made important contributions to Marxist thinking about imperialism, the national question, revolutionary strategy and socialist democracy. But when parties and groups call themselves 'Leninist' they are generally referring to organisational forms. Yet the modern experience of such organisations has shown they have quite diverse organisational practices. What is special about 'Leninism' as an organisational form?