diff --git a/content/annex/abecedaire.md b/content/annex/abecedaire.md index 10d77dc..a20e34e 100644 --- a/content/annex/abecedaire.md +++ b/content/annex/abecedaire.md @@ -1262,6 +1262,27 @@ In *Trickster Makes This World*, Hyde reanimates these archetypes, pairing ancie Each chapter delves into a specific trait of the trickster—hunger, deception, the crossing of thresholds—and examines its cultural resonance. The trickster embodies a “disruptive imagination,” flipping societal values on their heads and introducing radical new ways of seeing. +⮝ Back to top ⮝ + +--- + +# Ultra-Leftism + +The 1972 conversation between Philippe Gavi, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Pierre Victor on "Illegalism and Ultra-Leftism," later published in *On a raison de se révolter* (1974), is a tangled interrogation of the limits and possibilities of radical political commitment. Held during an era when revolutionary fervor was alive but fragmented, their exchange is a charged attempt to wrestle with the "rules" of revolt itself—when and how to break the law, whether to uphold a moral code, or whether that very concept of morality is a bourgeois fantasy that revolutionaries ought to abandon. + +Sartre’s existentialist commitments lead him to test the possibilities of individual freedom against the strictures of collective action, wondering if rebellion itself isn’t at risk of being co-opted by its own hierarchies. He’s not simply asking if illegal actions are permissible; he's asking whether the law can ever represent anything other than the repressive machinery of a capitalist state. Meanwhile, Victor (aka Benny Lévy) brings in the gritty realism of Maoist organizing, warning of the dangers of ultra-leftism splintering into ineffective gestures that don’t necessarily destabilize power. For Victor, revolution demands discipline—a word that, to Sartre, smells too much like submission. + +There’s a kind of agony in their questioning: a recognition of how desperately they want liberation yet how they disagree about the route. Gavi’s presence, meanwhile, serves as both a witness and provocateur, encouraging them to articulate the stakes of their convictions. They’re asking: Does revolution mean tearing up the social contract wholesale, or do we salvage parts of it? Is illegalism an act of integrity, a realignment of justice outside the law? Or is it simply theater—a way to feel radical without the risk of building something concrete? + +In this conversation, Sartre and Victor explore the fraught divide between legitimacy and legality, distinguishing the moral grounds that justify revolutionary actions from the state’s laws that seek to repress them. Legality, Sartre suggests, is the veneer that maintains capitalist and state power structures, while legitimacy stems from a higher ethical duty to challenge oppression and injustices embedded in the law itself. To illustrate this, Sartre references the International Red Aid (MOPR), an organization founded in 1922 by the Communist International as a kind of "political Red Cross" that supported political prisoners involved in class struggle worldwide. Sartre points to MOPR's legacy as a symbol of transnational solidarity, and he underscores its resurgence in the 1970s when groups across Europe—particularly in Belgium, France, Italy, and ultimately with the re-establishment of German Red Relief (Rote Hilfe)—sought to provide material and moral support for activists facing incarceration. This reference highlights Sartre’s belief that solidarity and revolutionary justice often necessitate support networks outside the state, challenging the notion that legality holds a monopoly on justice. + +**Reference:** + + Philippe Gavi, J-P Sartre, & Pierre Victor. *On a raison de se révolter*. Gallimard, Paris, 1974 + +Philippe Gavi, J-P Sartre, & Pierre Victor. ["Illegalism and Ultra-Leftism"](https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/sartre/1972/illegalisme.htm), December 1972. + + ⮝ Back to top ⮝ --- @@ -1282,7 +1303,7 @@ Jorge Luis Borges captured the essence of *viveza* when he wrote that in Argenti Popular culture further reinforces this archetype through characters like *Isidoro Cañones* and *Avivato*, who exemplify the *viveza criolla* lifestyle. Isidoro, a playboy figure, celebrates life without labor, thriving off parties, gambling, and charm while avoiding honest work. His addiction to alcohol and cigarettes symbolizes the decadence of *viveza*, where indulgence and deception are glorified. Similarly, *Avivato*, a middle-class con artist, embodies the everyday opportunism of the *vivo*, always finding ways to exploit others for his gain. -See: [https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/argentina/viveza.htm](https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/argentina/viveza.htm) +**Reference:** [https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/argentina/viveza.htm](https://www.latinamericanstudies.org/argentina/viveza.htm) ⮝ Back to top ⮝