Maurice Brinton

Maurice Brinton, pen name of Christopher Pallis - UK, 1923-2005
Maurice Brinton was the pen name of eminent neurologist Chris Pallis, and a key thinker and writer of the British libertarian socialist group Solidarity. He translated from French much material by Cornelius Castoriadis/Paul Cardan and wrote vivid first-hand accounts of mass struggles such as Paris '68. As a neurologist his criteria for brainstem death have been internationally adopted.

Links on libcom.org
Maurice Brinton/Chris Pallis archive
Solidarity archive

Among thinking socialists there is a deep malaise. The purpose of this article is to explore the roots of this malaise, and to show that they lie in the transformations of class society itself. Over the last few decades - and in many different areas - established society has itself brought about the number of the things that the revolutionaries of yesterday were demanding. This has happened in relation to economic attitudes, in relation to certain forms of social organisation, and in relation to various aspects of the personal and sexual revolutions. When this adaptation in fact benefits established society, it is legitimate to refer to it as "recuperation". This article seeks to start a discussion on the limits of recuperation.

For the traditional socialist "raising the standard of living" is the main purpose of social change. Capitalism allegedly cannot any longer develop production... It seems to be of secondary importance to this kind of socialist that under modern capitalism people are brutalised at work, manipulated in consumption and in leisure, their intellectual capacity stunted or their taste corrupted by a commercial culture. One must be "soft" it is implied, if one considers the systematic destruction of human beings to be worth a big song and dance.

[b]Introduction[/b]

'We're gonna die for the revolution. We're gonna die to expose this racist and fascist society.

Despite the optimism of the time, however, Brinton does not get too swept up in the events, and unlike some accounts of the time, manages to keep his views firmly rooted in reality.

Paris:May 1968
First edition published by Solidarity, June 1968 This edition published jointly by Dark Star Press and Rebel Press, 1986

Introduction

The Irrational in Politics

Maurice Brinton, 1970

Propaganda and policemen, prisons and schools, traditional values and traditional morality all serve to reinforce the power of the few and to convince or coerce the many into acceptance of a brutal, degrading and irrational system.

(AS WE SEE IT - Solidarity)

N.B. There are some patriarchal and offensive comments in this essay.

In doing so not only does it demolish the romantic Leninist 'history' of the relationship between the working class and their party during these years (1917 - 21) but it also provides a backbone to understanding why the Russian revolution failed in the way it did.