Specters of Revolt

Specters of Revolt: On the Intellect of Insurrection and Philosophy from Below by Richard Gilman-Opalsky revisits non-vanguardist, autonomous Marxism via a panoply of post-modernist and autonomist Marxist philosophies from Guy Debord and Felix Guattari to Michel Foucault and George Katsiaficas. However, as its title suggests, Jacques Derrida’s Specters of Marx in some ways structures Gilman-Opalsky’s whole commentary even as Raya Dunayevskaya’s perspective that philosophy has to “hear what is upsurging from below” helps shape his conclusion.

Today the meaning of history and the idea of freedom pervade street battles in Charlottesville and Berkeley. What is Dunayevskaya’s view of philosophy's contribution to that aspect of the struggle? How does it differ from Derrida’s?