Skip to main content

New Publication: Memoirs of a Critical Communist. Towards a history of the Fourth International

30 October 2019
Livio Maitan: Memoirs of a Critical Communist

Preface by Daniel Bensaid
Translated by Gregor Benton
Edited with an introduction by Penelope Duggan

Llivio Maitan's Memoirs of a Critical Communist tells the life of revolutionary communist in the second half of the 20th century. From his early commitment to communism under fascism in Italy, Livio chose to be 'against the current' by rejecting both Stalinism and social democracy, and charted a curse towards democratic and revolutionary Marxism.

We will send copies of the book to people who donated 40 euros or more to our fund-drive that helped make this publication possible. As with all our books, it will also be send to donors who donate 25 euros or more per month. We want to thank everyone who supported this project!

Gregor Benton writes:

Livio Maitan helped inspire the growth of Italian Trotskyism. There was also a wave of Maoism in the 1960s and a debate ensued, to which Livio contributed his book on China, Party, Army, and Masses. I was deeply influenced by it, and I translated it for New Left Books. The book combined criticism of the Chinese Revolution with support. From it, I learned how to write engaged scholarship.

Livio could have shone at a leading university had he wanted, but instead he spent most of his life working on a shoestring. In 2002, he wrote this history of the Fourth International to go alongside his autobiography.

Translating this new book was a bittersweet experience. Through it, I was able to relive chapter by chapter my wild political youth and my middle age. Livio Maitan’s spirit lifts this story from a catalogue of false starts into a chronicle of heroism and optimism. He died before Black Lives Matter, Me Too, Corbynism, Gilets Jaunes, Extinction Rebellion  and other new struggles, but he paved the way for them.

This book shows the road to socialism remains open.

The book can be ordered here.

Category
© IIRE 2024

The IIRE is an international foundation,
recognised in Belgium as an
international scientific association
by Royal decree of 11th June 1981.

Address
IIRE
Lombokstraat 40
1094 AL AMSTERDAM
The Netherlands

Contact
T: (+31) (0)206717263
Email: iire @ iire.org
Follow @twitter
Follow @Facebook