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Daniel BensaidFrench Marxist philosopher
Date of Birth: 25.03.1946
Country:  France |
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Biography of Daniel Bensaid
Daniel Bensaid was a French Marxist philosopher, one of the leaders of the Revolutionary Communist League and the New Anticapitalist Party. He was born in Toulouse in 1946. His father was a Sephardic Jew from Algeria and a champion boxer in North Africa, while his mother was a determined and energetic French woman.
Political Activism
In 1962, after being deeply affected by the events of the Paris massacre, Bensaid joined the Union of Communist Students (Union des Étudiants Communistes). Disagreeing with the party's orthodoxy, he moved to the left opposition within the movement. In 1968, Bensaid became one of the leaders of the student movement. At that time, he was a student at the University of Paris-10 in Nanterre and participated in the "March 22 Movement." He was also one of the founders of the Trotskyist organization, Revolutionary Communist Youth.
After the merger of the Revolutionary Communist Youth and the International Communist Party, and the creation of the Communist League, Bensaid joined the Politburo of the new organization. In October 1971, he was arrested along with 17 other members of the Politburo of the Communist League during a demonstration at the US embassy.
Academic Career
Bensaid worked as a professor of philosophy at the University of Paris-8. He gained recognition as a researcher of the works of Walter Benjamin and Karl Marx, as well as for his contemporary analysis of French postmodernism. He was a leading theorist of the Revolutionary Communist League and the Fourth International and published in their theoretical organs, including the journal "Critique communiste". He also collaborated with the International Institute of Research and Education, and initiated regular international discussions on the strategy of anticapitalist struggle and its prospects.
Legacy
Most of Bensaid's works were published in French, but they are also available in Spanish, Italian, English, Portuguese, German, Turkish, Vietnamese, and Japanese. On the morning of January 12, 2010, Daniel Bensaid passed away from cancer.
