Sorel stopped at the trade union and never reached the political party

Evidence

A study might be made of how it came about that Sorel never advanced from his conception of ideology-as-myth to an understanding of the political party, but stopped short at the idea of the trade union. It is true that for Sorel the “myth” found its fullest expression not in the trade union as organisation of a collective will, but in its practical action—sign of a collective will already operative. The highest achievement of this practical action was to have been the general strike—i.e. a “passive activity”, so to speak, of a negative and preliminary kind (it could only be given a positive character by the realisation of a common accord between the various wills involved), an activity which does not envisage an “active and constructive” phase of its own. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 601

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• XREF: The general strike as ‘negative and preliminary’ activity — parallels pure negation critiques relevant to identity politics that never construct.