Obsolete Communism. The Left Wing Alternative

by Gabriel & Daniel Cohn-Bendit

255p period paperback in excellent condition but with library bookplate and faint traces of shelfmark, translated by Arnold Pomerans, very good, this copy published in the year 1969 in the series entitled Penguin Special

Genres: Politics, History, Nonfiction, France, History and Politics

Paperback

First published January 1, 1968

Reviews

[Carlo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally got around to reading Cohn-Bendit & Cohn-Bendit. It's a great read for many reasons one of which is insight into what French student militants, eg the 22 March Movement, were reading in the 1960s. Cohn-Bendit records the influence of Socialisme ou Barbarie (Castoriadis/Chaulieu/Cardan, Lefort, Gautrat/Mothe, Bourdet, Simon), L'Internationale Situationniste (Debord, Vaneigem), Informations et Liaison Ouvrieres (Lefort, Simon), Noir et Rouge (Bourdet). All these journals advocated workers self-organization in councils--council communism or libertarian socialism (if you prefer)--and were connected to worker militants. The contrast with the reading of US student militants (SDS) is striking--CW Mills, Studies on the Left, Monthly Review, The Guardian (moving from Deweyian pragmatism to Maoism). In Detroit, there was Correspondence and News & Letters, but they were a bit isolated even though Marcuse notes their significance in One Dimensional Man. Not that reading
material changes the world, but the difference between factory occupations and a general strike in France and the Progressive Labor Party and Weather Underground in the US may have have had a relation to "understanding the world".

[Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you think Debord had a huge importance in the May '68 insurrection you would be wrong. It was Cohn-Bendit and this is the book he wrote throughout it all. There is nothing spectacular about this book, but it is important to set the record as straight as possible as to the goings on of the event--even if Debord is more interesting and fun to read.

[Jake · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cohn-Bendit provides an insightful analysis of the students and workers’ uprising of May 1968. An event that I honestly knew very little about before reading this book. I found Cohn-Bendit’s views on self-organisation of the socialist movement interesting, though it was at times a bit dry. Nevertheless, as someone fascinated by the October Revolution, his well-reasoned left-wing critique of Lenin and Trotsky’s rule in the last section of the book was particularly interesting. Though there aren’t many people I could recommend this book to, I’m nonetheless happy to have read it.

[Roger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extraordinary book capturing May 68--arguably the most important worker-student uprising of the 20the century--and an insightful, forceful critique of Leninism and hierarchical parties designed for operating under dictatorial regimes, not open, nominally democratic societies.

[Demetri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely fascinating when it comes to learning about May 68. If you're trying to research May 68, I highly recommend this book. It takes you through the ideology behind the movement which is integral to understanding the movement.