2. Socialisme ou Barbarie

This presentation of Socialisme ou Barbarie (SouB), a group founded by Claude Lefort and Cornelius Castoriadis in 1949, serves as an introduction to the French philosopher’s ideas. The chapter begins with a discussion of the critique of the Soviet Union and the theory of bureaucracy developed by both authors in the late 1940s and early 1950s, which established the idea of the proletariat as an autonomous class, before outlining their denunciation of all forms of economism and mechanism. Next, Lefort’s most original theoretical contribution to SouB, an idea of the proletarian experience that reveals the phenomenological foundations of his thought, is explored. The chapter concludes by considering the tensions between Castoriadis and Lefort, which ultimately led to the latter’s departure from SouB in 1958.