Revolution is not ‘showing’ life to people, but making them live. A revolutionary organization must always remember that its objective is not getting its adherents to listen to convincing talks by expert leaders, but getting them to speak for themselves, in order to achieve, or at least strive toward, an equal degree of participation.
… the representation of the working class has become an enemy of the working class.
Guy Debord
“Nuit Debout has no need of intellectuals to reflect. The production of ideas is immanent to the movement, in which each member is an intellectual, the ensemble a “collective” intellectual.” These words appear in a collective statement published in Le Monde (04/05/2016) under the title, in translation, “Nuit Debout contributes to the invention of another world”. However the collective author of the text is a collective of intellectuals!
The insistence with which intellectuals of the Left in france and movements/collectives with which they are associated, judge, propose and endeavour to speak for Nuit Debout, something that nevertheless largely surpasses their theoretical and/or political ambitions, augurs ill, for however fragile their voices are, their words as actions are not without resonance.
The only way forward is struggle: A fifth anniversay for the 15th of may movement in spain
When we thought that we had all of the answers, suddenly, all of the questions changed.
Mario Benedetti
Five years on and the 15th of May movement in spain remains a point of confluence for many who imagine and act for a world against and beyond the violence of capitalism.
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