From Marxism, the author of Rethinking revolution walked away. Although it raises
essential issues in the period, he ventured into very questionable positions taken. ----
Bitot starts on an admittedly confusing statement but empirically observable: all mass
movements aimed at upsetting the capitalist social order are presented in a backward stage
of development. With the development of the market society, the working class gets more
movement to try to improve comfort. ---- Despite a somewhat hasty conclusion, Bitot here
raises one of the most pressing issues of the moment: how, in a capitalist system whose
domination becomes more complete, a class can she find out? ---- For him, capitalism will
collapse by itself due to its two major contradictions: its outer boundary, the
environment in which it operates. Instead, the author believes that energy limitations
cataclysm to Roland Emmerich.
internal abutting the possibility of constant capital appreciation. If the economy has
so far mutated to avoid the falling rate of profit, it is now impossible for her to leave
his last major contradiction: the third industrial revolution, that of microelectronics,
resulting in a new explosion mechanization.
And the revolution in all this? Bitot's located after the collapse of capitalist
civilization. Communism does not come spontaneously replace, hence the need for a party
propagandist role, leaving the initiative to the masses. But the author is careful to
explain how a cadre of the revolution could reproduce avoided a class society.
Meanwhile, it remains to be revolutionary groups may prove useful later, any intervention
in the period is unnecessary.
And if the proletariat is currently more likely to lead this revolution, who will? This
non-class Bitot thinks he sees looming on the horizon, whose premises would be
decommissioned and the masses excluded from direct production (unemployed, workers in the
service). However, the reflection that leads to the form of the power of this class is not
an excuse for some interesting considerations on democracy. He recalled that it directly
or not, is only an expression of the strong antagonism of modern societies, it can not but
be transient and can not stand as a general form of power in a world without classes.
Claude Bitot shown here lucidity on changes in capitalism that everyone does not, but is
false miracle solutions to all the issues raised. Nevertheless, this is a certainly not
uninteresting book, for the clarity of the proposed analyzes or unavoidable reflection
points it addresses.
Julien (AL Montpellier)
Claude Bitot, Rethinking Revolution, Which way to go beyond capitalism? , Friends of
Spartacus, 2013, 13 euro
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