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Facing Reality
174p paperback with blue and green cover, a clean and tight copy, cover a little dusty, well preserved, no name or stamps, a little aged, uncommon title, first published in 1958, Pierre Chaulieu is a pseudonym used by Cornelius Castoriadis, this copy published in the year 1974
174 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1958
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 21, 2019
"There is no need for these shop floor organizations to be formally organized. As soon as the men in a department know one another and go through the work together, they are organized."
"The idea that the emancipation of the workers will be the work of the workers themselves is the literal and total truth. It is not enough to say that the working class alone has the necessary force to realize its emancipation, as if the working class were the steam of an engine with intellectuals as mechanics and engine drivers. The reality is that it is the working class alone which is able to produce the organization, the forms and ideas which this emancipation demands."
"It is not the business of the Marxist organization to invent what Marx scornfully called recipes for the cookshops of the future. It is sufficient to watch carefully what the workers are actually doing, and what they are aiming at, and to draw the conclusions."
"Social upheavals bring out what already exists in society, even though only in embryonic form, or as aspiration. But they exist. It is the task of the Marxist organization to find them."
"Theory is the distillation of history and it is only by understanding the present that one is able to understand the past."
"The idea that the emancipation of the workers will be the work of the workers themselves is the literal and total truth. It is not enough to say that the working class alone has the necessary force to realize its emancipation, as if the working class were the steam of an engine with intellectuals as mechanics and engine drivers. The reality is that it is the working class alone which is able to produce the organization, the forms and ideas which this emancipation demands."
"It is not the business of the Marxist organization to invent what Marx scornfully called recipes for the cookshops of the future. It is sufficient to watch carefully what the workers are actually doing, and what they are aiming at, and to draw the conclusions."
"Social upheavals bring out what already exists in society, even though only in embryonic form, or as aspiration. But they exist. It is the task of the Marxist organization to find them."
"Theory is the distillation of history and it is only by understanding the present that one is able to understand the past."
November 9, 2023
Facing Reality is an impressive work but limited by when it was released. The book has high highs and some low lows. The interventions into philosophy are often lacking and occasionally even reactionary. However, where the book shines is in its constant assertion of the importance of independent workers power and its description of the role Marxists can play in promoting that power.
I would recommend the book for those looking to break into Autonomism, but would warn them not to expect a book as useful or relevant as those written by later thinkers.
I would recommend the book for those looking to break into Autonomism, but would warn them not to expect a book as useful or relevant as those written by later thinkers.
November 29, 2012
I'm re-reading this now in the context of the Walmart strikes and the uptick in labor organizing going on today. I love the emphasis on worker-self activity and the embroyo of change, and find it rather unnuanced on the role of unions. Also, as much of the pamphlet was written with such an enthusiasm for the Hungarian Uprising, I'm interested in reading more about that history now.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews