Presentation of document “Letter to the comrades of Central Committee of the PCF”, written by Louis Althusser

Abstract

What theoretical and political issues were at stake when Louis Althusser decided to draft a letter to the Central Committee of the French Communist Party (PCF) in March 1966? In the 1960s, Althusser formulated an original analysis of the evolution of Marx's thought, guided by criticism of economism and theoretical humanism and by the defense of the scientific character of the Marxist theory of history, formulated in Marx's mature texts. Published in 1965, the works Pour Marx and Lire le Capital could be seen as the main references of Althusserian Marxism at that time. In the work Pour Marx Althusser brought together a series of articles that had been published in left-wing magazines in France since 1960. Located on Rue D’Ulm in Paris.