INTELLECTUALS & THE DIVISION OF LABOR--SARTRE ET AL

[Håvard Nilsen]

Although this is the Frankfurt-list, I just want to clear up an important
point regarding the understanding of Sartre: Sartre was never a maoist, and
neither was he an adherent of the French communist party. Sartre was a
strong opponent of the French communist party after 1945, as one can read
in the essays ''Materialisme et revolution'' (1946) or ''Qu'est-ce que la
literature?''(1947), only to name a few well-known texts. The theorists of
the communist party on their side viewed the existentialism of Sartre as
dangerous for the movement, and attacked him fiercely. In 1948, Sartre
launched his own political movement distinct from the party. The enmity
lasted until 1952, when the experiences of the coldwar anticommunism and
mccarthyism made Sartre enter a period of alliance with the communist
party, without ever becoming a member. The alliance lasted until the
uprising in Hungary in 1956, when Sartre, disgusted with the rigidity of
the communist party's attitude broke off completely.
As regards the maoists, Sartre stood as an editor of several maoist
periodicals, to prevent their being banned by the government, and he
participated in several  maoist happenings, but repeatedly emphasized that
he was not a maoist himself, and that his own political philosophy was
incompatible with it.
Enemies of Sartre usually bring up the last publication, a book of
dialogues with Benny L=E9vy, originally a former maoist called Pierre Victor=
,
who changed his name as he converted to judaism. In this book, L=E9vy asks
leading questions seemingly intending to discredit Sartre's philosophy, and
Sartre makes a lot of blunders. The credibility of the book is debated,
however, and even Raymond Aron shook his head in amazement and said: ''This
is not Sartre.'' Even if it is not a fraud, it may well be that Sartre's
mental state in this book simply showed signs of weakness, due to old age
and a substantial use of stimulants throughout his life. In any case, this
is not a book that represents Sartre's philosophy as it is formulated in
his main works, even if it is often quoted.

H=E5vard Nilsen