socialist by then, owing in part to the sad socialism of my life as a prisoner that
nonetheless was a collective life, a community.
...
The Marxists in France gave no place to the notion of freedom, [to the notion that
people] could form themselves according to their own options and not as conditioned
by society...The idea that a free man could exist beyond socialism – when I say
“beyond” I don’t mean at some later stage but surpassing the rules of socialism at
every moment – that’s an idea that the Russians have never had. That’s what I had in
mind by calling our little group in 1940 , 1941 “Socialism and Freedom.” Though it
is very difficult to realize beginning with socialism, it’s the connection, socialism-
freedom, that represents my political inclination. It was my political bent and I’ve
never changed it. Today I’m still defending socialism and freedom in my discussions
with Gavi and Victor [inOn a Raison de se re ́volter].
(Ce ́r 494 , 502 )
In the early years following the liberation of Paris by the Allies in 1944 ,
Sartre accepted an invitation to join David Rousset and Ge ́rard
Rosenthal in the inauguration of a non-Communist nonparty of the
Left called the “Revolutionary People’s Assembly” (Rassemblement
De ́mocratique Re ́volutionnaire or RDR).^12 Its aim was to reconcile
Communists and socialists into a common front against capitalism at
home and colonialism and superpower politics abroad. It was in search
of a “third” option between either side of the cold war politics, though
clearly from a left-leaning perspective. Noteworthy was Sartre’s rationale
for joining this group: his appeal to “situation” as “an idea capable of
uniting the Marxists and non-Marxists among us.”^13 In hisBeing and
Nothingness( 1943 ), Sartre had characterized “human reality” (his ver-
sion of Heidegger’sDasein) as “being-in-situation.” And in his seminal
essay “Materialism and Revolution” published the year before joining
the RDR, we saw him conclude: “It is the elucidation of the new ideas
of ‘situation’ and of ‘being-in-the-world’ that revolutionary behavior
specifically calls for.”^14 It is commonly acknowledged that this futile
foray into organized politics soured him on the genre. Still, he would
continue to recommend that members of the working class join the
Communist Party, which Sartre came to see as its sole voice in what he
(^12) June 18 , 1948 (Contat and Rybalkai: 213 ).
(^13) Jean-Paul Sartre, David Rousset, Ge ́rard Rosenthal,Entretiens sur la Politique(Paris:
14 Gallimard,^1949 ),^38.
MR 253.
288 Means and ends: political existentialism