Bensaïd begins with a survey of the general conditions of building a revolutionary proletarian party. Under this heading, he sets out the differences between the proletarian revolution and the bourgeois revolution. The conditions of the exploitation of the proletariat reproduce the conditions of class and an alienated relation with the goals of production. He relates all these points to the party question, where workers need to organise themselves to take power. Bensaïd then discusses several points from Marx, Engels and the party question regarding building a proletarian conscious party. He underlines that the concept of party in Marx and Engels was different from the concept of party in Lenin. The two meanings of party: historical party, and the conjectural party. In Engels, revolution was a natural process and the party is not an active initiative agent of the revolution. Bensaïd then moves onto the Leninist theory of the party, which is mainly taken as a technical process of organisation. The concept of "class party". However the key point is not the technical aspect, it's not the degree of centralisation or discipline; it is the delimitation of the party from the class.

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Duration: 47:31

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Bensaïd talks about the question of party-building in 1933, around the same time Trotsky saw the radicalisation in the socialist party. In 1934 Trotsky launched a proposal for the Spanish communist left to enter the Socialist Party. Bensaïd provides an in-depth discussion -both contextual and theoretical- of this entryist proposition. He then discusses the National question in party-building and formation of POUM. Bensaïd then moves on the discussions around Popular Front, with contextual information on the parties involved, and the 1936 elections. After this followed the coup d'etat in July 1936, the responses by the left parties and workers, and the beginning of the civil war. Bensaïd discusses the dissolution of communities, excessive nationalisation, military help of the Soviet Union and the Fifth Regiment.

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Duration: 62:39

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Bensaïd starts with a discussion of the differences between the CP and the POUM, and prepares the participants to draw lessons from the Spanish Revolution experience. He then provides factual information on Spain in the 1930s with concrete data on the political parties and organisations. He concludes the lecture with a chronology of events to provide a summary of background for the next lesson.

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Duration: 43:10

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Bensaïd departs from the problems in the Monarchy system, which was defeated in the 1931 elections, and talks about the democratic demands by workers' movement regarding teh national question, self determination, the question of land, the separation of Church and State - demands which have been noted by Trotsky in the Tasks of the Spanish Revolution. He discusses the problems with the CP, which despite belonging to the 3rd International, failed to recognise the democratic demands and failed to devise a transitional programme after the fall of the monarchy. Bensaïd provides a contextual debate on the insurrection in Spain within the general framework of Europe and Soviet Union, as well as different perspectives -both national and international- on the desired outcomes of the insurrection. The diebates around building a workers' alliance nationwide that would lead to a united workers' front are discussed.

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Duration: 42:25

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Au cours de cet exposé, Bensaid recherche l'équilibre entre généralités et spécificités et tente d'analyser plusieurs thématiques relatives à la presse révolutionnaire, notamment : - la définition générale de la fonction de la presse et du journal central dans la construction du groupe ou de l'organisation révolutionnaire ; - la définition du journal dans sa fonction politico-organisationnelle ; - l'importance du journal surtout en cas d'inégalités surtout en cas d'inégalités dans l'accès aux médias traditionnels ou encore lorsque les conditions font que faire de la presse est difficile ; - l'orientation politique que le journal donne au travers de sa ligne éditoriale : tout comme le point organisationnel, cette orientation révèle l'efficacité ou non des dirigeants du mouvement (cf. l'exemple des cheminots) ainsi que les forces et faiblesses au sens large des mobilisations ; - les problèmes liés à la construction d'une presse d'avant-garde et les potentielles solutions, dont on ne peut jamais garantir l'efficacité absolue ; - les problèmes du rapport entre la direction politique et la direction de la presse au sein des sections, ainsi que les questions de la centralisation et du dialogue direct et officiel des mouvements ; - les rapports entre presse publique et circulaires internes et l'équilibre sain entre ces deux types de publications ; - les rédacteurs et les correspondants et la nécessité de planifier et d'organiser les équipes de rédacteurs, ainsi que les questions de la formation pour les premiers et de la mise en réseau pour les seconds - des questions clés pour le parti ; - l'équilibre entre quantité, qualité et moyens financiers et questions sociales et expertise ; - le choix de l'outillage et les questions financières ; - les forces et les faiblesses des communiqués, notamment concernant la politique générale ; - le contenu et la qualité, le travail de propagande accessible ; - la question du "tournant", le champ de préoccupation et de réflexion historique du parti, la vitrine humaine et politique que doit être le média, le danger du couple du politique et du syndical.

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Duration: 44:53

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In this part of the lecture, Bensaïd commences with a criticism of the Ninth World Congress, considering that its resolutions arrived late considering the context of, mainly, Latin America. He then gives a detailed context of the political condition in Latin America and a detailed analysis of political positions as well as debates. He continues a criticism of the Ninth World Congress on two points: The political context for the discussion of armed struggle was misconceived; secondly, general definitions and concrete experiences were different. Commenting on various experiences from the continent, Bensaïd mentions debates around democratic demands, transitional period, and the national question.

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Duration: 59:53

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Bensaïd starts with a chronology and introduces the two parts of his lecture: 1- Ninth World Congress (April 1969) and Tenth World Congress (December 1973); 2- Eleventh World Congress. He provides an in-depth information on the years leading to the Ninth World Congress such as the defeat in Indonesia, the coup d'etat in Algeria, American intervention in Santa Domingo, the beginning of bombings in Vietnam, May 68 in France, Czechoslovakian spring, fights in Mexico and Pakistan, big international demonstration in Berlin, etc. He then moves onto a detailed summary of discussions in the Ninth World Congress, marked by the situation in Vietnam; and the Tenth World Congress, marked by debates on armed struggle.

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Duration: 59:14

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In this part of his lecture, Bensaïd mentions the discussions that were enabled by the reunification, primarily around the implications of entryist tactics, although the main agreement in the reunification was that the discussion of entryism should be suspended. The Soviet-Chinese conflict developed in 1960 after the last big world conference of communist parties that brought together 81 of them. Bensaïd summarises the post-reunification years as follows: On the one hand, a symbolic reunification on the main events and tasks in the colonial and political revolution in the end of the 1950s, on the other hand, this period of reunifications is breaking with a crystallised secterian current (Lambert, et al.). The dynamics created by Pablo's long-term perspective of entrism provoked some by-products and lead to the break of Pablo himself in 1964. Bensaïd then moves onto the last part of his account of the FI: the break with entryism. Three subheadings: a) how to go out from entrism, and the case of France, where workers denied entering Stalinist parties; b) some big problems are in fact solved with entrism, such as the problem of the united front, which is developed for mass parties but not for smaller organisations; c) functioning as a fraction, which is different for bigger parties and smaller organisations. Bensaïd discusses the examples of France, Italy and Germany to talk about the results of break with entryism, and lessons learned.

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Duration: 47:54

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Bensaïd starts this lecture with a mention of Ernest Mandel's "What Should Be Modified and What Should Be Maintained in the Theses of the Second World Congress of the Fourth International on the Question of Stalinism?", alternatively known as "Ten Theses," and Michel Pablo's "Where Are We Going?".  He then moves onto the organisational consequences of the period following the splits of 1952 and 1954 and discusses the isolation of sections; "How to survive this isolation without becoming crystallised into a small sectarian group?" A reconsideration and reformulation of the tasks of the Fourth International, after Trotsky's prediction of Stalinism's downfall and rise of the Fourth International following the World War II proved false. Bensaïd quotes Mandel and mentions his three characteristics --namely spontaneity of masses, empirical leadership, advances of consciousness towards revolutionary marxism-- which can be unified with one single formula: the stage of centrism, aka progressive centrism. Adoption of entryist tactics, as a particular stage in the development of class consciousness. Transitional slogans that bridge the existing level of consciousness and the necessity of taking power. Similarly, entryism is a bridge between class consciousness and necessity of revolutionary party. Discussion of "strategic entryism" which combines integration in the process of mass radicalisation with a revolutionary programme. At the Third World Congress when the general orientation was on entrism, despite the French section's disagreement. This led to suspension of its leadership. Bensaïd cites Pablo's report as a key document on the organisational consequences of this resolution in "pre-revolutionary" conditions. After a break, Bensaïd moves onto the third main heading of his account of FI: the years towards the reunification. He outlines some key political and historical events that were tests for two main currents after the split (ICFI and ISFI).

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Duration: 60:06

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This lecture is composed of two main parts: the post-war condition (36-50), and the years of the splits in the FI (50-56). Bensaïd mentions Trotsky's expectation that the Second World War would be a repetition of the first in the sense that it would trigger revolutions. However, with the expectations not met, comrades had to rethink the situation after the war. Bensaïd mentions the world congress of 46 as an important moment, which brought together the leftist forces that were dispersed during the war. Bensaïd provides an international context of post-war years with a specific mention of the condition of CPs in various countries. The debates on workers' state and the future and nature of eastern countries, e.g. Yugoslavia. In the second part of the lecture, Bensaïd continues with the Years of the Splits (1950-1956), providing an in-depth contextual analysis of the international political situation during those years, with a special focus on the eastern countries, these being the main axis of international politics. The five elements that made a big impact in the world politics: "capitalism will not collapse by its internal economic conditions", consolidation of workers states,  Yugoslavia-Soviet conflict, Chinese Revolution and its victory, beginning of the Korean War. These debates had effects on the building of the Fourth International in its early years and some clashes of ideas led to splits. Bensaïd specifically dwells on the Yugoslavian-Soviet conflict to discuss the condition of CPs, the Stalinisation and bureucratisation trends. He makes a omparative analysis of the Yugoslavian and Chinese CPs.

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Duration: 61:04

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