Book Discussion: "Sartre against Stalinism" by Ian H. Birchall, 2004

This will be an informal discussion in person in a pub near Warren Street Station. A table has been booked in the upstairs room called The Orangery. This is an opportunity to discuss existentialism in general and the philosophical and political background of one of its leading proponents in particular. Unfortunately this book is rather difficult to get hold of but I have a copy and happy to introduce it in the meeting.

From the book cover: "Most critics of Jean-Paul Sartre's political evolution have emphasised his allegedly sympathetic and uncritical attitude to Stalinist Communism due, to a large extrent, to their equation of Marxism with Stalinism. It is true that Sartre was guilty of many serious misjudgements with regard to the USSR and the French Communist Party but his relationship with the Marxist Left was much more complex and contradictory than most accounts admit. This book offers a political defence of Sartre and shows how, from a relatively apoltical stance in the 1930s, Sartre became increasingly involved in the politics of the Left; though he always distrusted Stalinism, he was sometimes driven to ally himself with it. Sartre was repelled by the Communist Party, yet powerfully drawn to it; he was unable to throw in his lot with the Anti-Stalinist left, yet equally unable to disregard the force of its argument. Sartre against Stalinism demonstrates that the continuing debate with the anti-Stalinist left was an essential component of Sartre's political development, and provides an important key to the understanding of his work as a whole."

This group is for general discussion and does not take any particular stance on the subject discussed. Hopefully the discussion will be educational and enlightening for all of us.