Episode 16: Dunayevskaya’s Life and & Legacy––Interview with Anne Jaclard
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The co-hosts interview Anne Jaclard, who worked with Dunayevskaya for 22 years, as a political colleague and as an occasional secretary, and who now serves as MHI’s organizational secretary. They discuss Dunayevskaya’s childhood years in Ukraine and Chicago; her activities as a young adult with African-American groups and as a Trotskyist; her work with Trotsky in Mexico; and her break from Trotsky and development of state-capitalist theory. The discussion then turns to Dunayevskaya’s collaboration with, and subsequent break from, CLR James, and her development of the philosophy of Marxist-Humanism. Jaclard provides brief accounts––intertwined with personal recollections and vignettes––of how Dunayevskaya’s major writings contribute to revolutionary theory and to our understanding of Marx’s Marxism and the Hegelian dialectic. This episode’s current-events segment, which provides a post-mortem on Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign, responds to Zack Beauchamp’s recent analysis of the import of Sanders’ failure. Was it really “Marxist political strategy” that failed, as Beauchamp contends? Radio Free Humanity is a podcast covering news, politics and philosophy from a Marxist-Humanist perspective. It is co-hosted by Brendan Cooney and Andrew Kliman. We intend to release new episodes every two weeks. Radio Free Humanity is sponsored by MHI, but the views expressed by the co-hosts and guests of Radio Free Humanity are their own. They do not necessarily reflect the views and positions of MHI. We welcome and encourage listeners’ comments, posted on this episode’s page. Please visit MHI’s online print publication, With Sober Senses, for further news, commentary, and analysis. |
Excellent episode all around. A special shout out to Anne for sharing her personal reminiscences about working with RD. These experiences bring out the humanism in Marxist-Humanism and help further develop the theory-practice dialectic for all of us. MHI should consider making Anne a regular member of the pod.
Fantastic episode. You touch on that, towards the end of her time as Trotsky’s secretary, she became upset over her disagreement with him about the nature of the Soviet economy. Years ago, and I can’t for the life of me remember where, I believe I read that Trotsky began do doubt his own line on the matter in his final days. Is there any chance you know something about this, or did I simply imagine it? Thank you!