Last night I watched two excellent documentaries about Ernest Mandel
that are available in a 2-DVD package. Details, including pricing, can
be obtained from [EMAIL PROTECTED] The first film, which runs for 40
minutes, is titled “A man called Ernest Mandel” and is directed by Frans
Buyens. It consists of an interview given to Buyens in 1972, at a time
when Mandel was at the height of his fame and his power. It is a
remarkable display of his intellect and forceful personality. Directed
by Chris Den Hond, the companion film is titled “A life for the
revolution” and runs for 90 minutes. Alongside interviews with Mandel,
we hear veterans of the Trotskyist movement like Tariq Ali, Michael
Warschawski, Alain Krivine and Catherine Samary offering their views on
his political legacy. It also includes commentary by academic leftists,
who were unanimous in recognizing his contributions to Marxist economic
and political theory. But most importantly, it contains stirring footage
of class battles that Mandel responded to internationally over his
remarkable career thus dramatizing his revolutionary activism. Despite
his commitment to “intellectual work,” he was always ready to mount the
barricades.
Although I now view the Fourth International as a project that was
doomed at the outset, the film reminded me of why I joined the
Trotskyist movement in 1967. More than anybody, except for Peter Camejo,
Mandel could make you feel that such a decision was the most important a
human being could ever make. When Mandel was 13 years old, he made such
a decision himself. His father, who was sympathetic to the Trotskyist
movement, had invited a circle of like-minded people in Belgium to
discuss how to respond to the Moscow trials, whose defendants included
people he knew well. On the spot, Mandel decided that he too was a
Trotskyist and only 3 years later became a militant in the movement.
full: http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2007/09/05/ernest-mandel/
