Lenin Reloaded: Toward A Politics Of Truth, Sic Vii ([sic] Series)

__Lenin Reloaded__ is a rallying call by some of the world’s leading Marxist intellectuals for renewed attention to the significance of Vladimir Lenin. The volume’s editors explain that it was Lenin who made Karl Marx’s thought explicitly political, who extended it beyond the confines of Europe, who put it into practice. They contend that a focus on Lenin is urgently needed now, when global capitalism appears to be the only game in town, the liberal-democratic system seems to have been settled on as the optimal political organization of society, and it has become easier to imagine the end of the world than a modest change in the mode of production. Lenin retooled Marx’s thought for specific historical conditions in 1914, and __Lenin Reloaded__ urges a reinvention of the revolutionary project for the present. Such a project would be Leninist in its commitment to action based on truth and its acceptance of the consequences that follow from action.These essays, some of which are appearing in English for the first time, bring Lenin face-to-face with the problems of today, including war, imperialism, the imperative to build an intelligentsia of wage earners, the need to embrace the achievements of bourgeois society and modernity, and the widespread failure of social democracy. __Lenin Reloaded__ demonstrates that truth and partisanship are not mutually exclusive as is often suggested. Quite the opposite—in the present, truth can be articulated only from a thoroughly partisan position. __Contributors__. Kevin B. Anderson, Alain Badiou, Etienne Balibar, Daniel Bensaïd, Sebastian Budgen, Alex Callinicos, Terry Eagleton, Fredric Jameson, Stathis Kouvelakis, Georges Labica, Sylvain Lazarus, Jean-Jacques Lecercle, Lars T. Lih, Domenico Losurdo, Savas Michael-Matsas, Antonio Negri, Alan Shandro, Slavoj Žižek Lenin Reloaded is a rallying call by some of the world’s leading Marxist intellectuals for renewed attention to the significance of Vladimir Lenin. The volume’s editors explain that it was Lenin who made Karl Marx’s thought explicitly political, who extended it beyond the confines of Europe, who put it into practice. They contend that a focus on Lenin is urgently needed now, when global capitalism appears to be the only game in town, the liberal-democratic system seems to have been settled on as the optimal political organization of society, and it has become easier to imagine the end of the world than a modest change in the mode of production. Lenin retooled Marx’s thought for specific historical conditions in 1914, and Lenin Reloaded urges a reinvention of the revolutionary project for the present. Such a project would be Leninist in its commitment to action based on truth and its acceptance of the consequences that follow from action. These essays, some of which are appearing in English for the first time, bring Lenin face-to-face with the problems of today, including war, imperialism, the imperative to build an intelligentsia of wage earners, the need to embrace the achievements of bourgeois society and modernity, and the widespread failure of social democracy. Lenin Reloaded demonstrates that truth and partisanship are not mutually exclusive as is often suggested. Quite the opposite—in the present, truth can be articulated only from a thoroughly partisan position. Contributors . Kevin B. Anderson, Alain Badiou, Etienne Balibar, Daniel Bensaïd, Sebastian Budgen, Alex Callinicos, Terry Eagleton, Fredric Jameson, Stathis Kouvelakis, Georges Labica, Sylvain Lazarus, Jean-Jacques Lecercle, Lars T. Lih, Domenico Losurdo, Savas Michael-Matsas, Antonio Negri, Alan Shandro, Slavoj Žižek Sebastian Budgen, Stathis Kouvelakis, and Slavoj Žižek, Introduction: Repeating Lenin 1 PART I. RETRIEVING LENIN 1 Alain Badiou, One Divides Itself into Two 7 2 Alex Callinicos, Leninism in the Twenty-first Century?: Lenin, Weber, and the Politics of Responsibility 18 3 Terry Eagleton, Lenin in the Postmodern Age 42 4 Fredric Jameson, Lenin and Revisionism 59 5 Slavoj Žižek, A Leninist Gesture Today: Against the Populist Temptation 74 PART II. LENIN IN PHILOSOPHY 6 Savas Michael-Matsas, Lenin and the Path of Dialectics 101 7 Kevin B. Anderson, The Rediscovery and Persistence of the Dialectic in Philosophy and in World Politics 120 8 Daniel Bensaïd, “Leaps! Leaps! Leaps!” 148 9 Stathis Kouvelakis, Lenin as Reader of Hegel: Hypotheses for a Reading of Lenin’s Notebooks on Hegel’s The Science of Logic 164 viii Contents PART III. WAR AND IMPERIALISM 10 Etienne Balibar, The Philosophical Moment in Politics Determined by War: Lenin 1914–16 207 11 Georges Labica, From Imperialism to Globalization 222 12 Domenico Losurdo, Lenin and Herrenvolk Democracy 239 PART IV. POLITICS AND ITS SUBJECT 13 Sylvain Lazarus, Lenin and the Party, 1902–November 1917 255 14 Jean-Jacques Lecercle, Lenin the Just, or Marxism Unrecycled 269 15 Lars T. Lih, Lenin and the Great Awakening 283 16 Antonio Negri, What to Do Today with What Is to Be Done?, or Rather: The Body of the General Intellect 297 17 Alan Shandro, Lenin and Hegemony: The Soviets, the Working Class, and the Party in the Revolution of 1905 Contributors 333 Index 335 Explains that it was Lenin who made Karl Marx's thought explicitly political, who extended it beyond the confines of Europe, who put it into practice. This title demonstrates that truth and partisanship are not mutually exclusive as is often suggested. At a time when few people seriously consider alternatives to global capitalism, this work argues that Lenin demonstrates the inseparability of truth and partisanship (the taking of sides), an argument liberal leftists must hear now