It is remarkable that Moses has published his second novel in two years at the age of 25. I think this book shows he is developing and improving as a It is remarkable that Moses has published his second novel in two years at the age of 25. I think this book shows he is developing and improving as a writer. This novel is set in St Pauls in Bristol in 1980, just before the St Pauls uprising/riot kicks off. It follows a 16 year old protagonist Jabari, the son of Ras Levi, the leader of the local Rastafarian community. It explores issues of race, police violence, inequality and crime, religious conviction and dogmatism, gender relations and radical politics. It is written in Rastafarian dialect. It takes place in a concentrated and intense few days. Well worth reading. Moses is one of the best up and coming writers in the country. ...more
I have mixed feelings about this book. Hall was obviously a very clever man. These essays feel like a haphazard tour across the social sciences. The oI have mixed feelings about this book. Hall was obviously a very clever man. These essays feel like a haphazard tour across the social sciences. The overriding theme, as far as I can discern, is to stake a claim for 'Post-Marxism'. He says that he is very influenced by Marxism, but is constantly wrestling with Marx. His disgruntlement with Marx derives from the distaste that many Western Socialists felt after the crushing of the Hungarian uprising in 1956 by the Soviet Union, and Hall's sense that Marxist thought was essentially Eurocentric and didn't apply so well in places like the West Indies that he grew up in. The other overwhelming source of disagreement is with the concept of Materialism, and the idea that it has a deterministic effect on culture; or in more technical Marxist language, the idea that the Base determines the Superstructure. Anyone who is engaged in developing an academic discipline known as 'Culture Studies' is obviously going to feel like this.
Reading this collection of essays made me very aware of the fact that I left University 20 years ago, and I can't really remember what Poststructuralism is. It begins with lots of references to British leftist thinkers like EP Thompson, Raymond Williams Richard Hoggart, but as it goes on it refers more and more often to European thinkers like Gramsci, Althusser, Foucault and Lacan. As I read these essays one thought that turned over more and more in my mind was how far removed they were from ordinary people, or the working class. The essays are extremely referential and intertextual, and you have to have a good base of background knowledge about arguments within Marxism, the ideas of Max Weber, psychoanalysis, global political history, semiology and linguistics to keep on top of what he's writing about. I have a reasonable level of understanding of these things from decades of reading across subjects and genres, but I think this places me squarely in the minority. It reminded me of what I started to find annoying about Mid to Late 20th Century European thinkers, which is how insular and removed they are from 'the people'. Marx said that "Philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point, however, is to change it". It's clear that thinkers like Marx, Engels, Lenin, Trotsky, Luxemburg and Gramsci were intellectuals and philosophers who were also men and women of action, who were actually engaged in trying to change the world for the better. A later generation of thinkers retreated to the ivory tower of academia and removed themselves from the struggle to directly fight for what they believed. They became enmeshed in more and more obtuse and rarefied intellectual pursuits, and this had a terrible effect on the struggle for social justice.
I was surprised when I came across a quote I have encountered many times “race is the modality in which class is lived". I was surprised because I encountered it in a long, extremely difficult and technical essay about debates within Marxism. I simply don't believe that most of the people who use or encounter this line again and again have read this essay. I've just Googled the expression so I could remind myself of the title of the essay this line comes from, and as if to prove my point, all of the top results are from other sources quoting the line, and you would have to dig much deeper and research further to be able to find the actual essay itself. I strongly suspect this line is being referenced often as a jab at 'class reductionist Marxism' by people who haven't read the essay, or understand the context from which it is drawn.
Part of my reservation in reading these essays by Stuart Hall is because of the time in history that I am reading them. I am reading them from a vantage point in which the New Left, of which he is a leading figure, are seen to carry some of the blame for the appalling state that the left is in today. To summarise it as I understand it, with the caveat that I haven't read most of this stuff and I am making judgements from their reputation and not from my personal understanding; The New Left emerged in the West in opposition to traditional Marxism or Socialism, which was stained by the perceived failure of the Soviet Union and its allies. Marxism was too Eurocentric, and was fixated upon the Working Class as embodied in the idea of the White, Male manual labourer. Marx was wrong in many of ideas, and the world was more complicated than he imagined. Class was not the dominant system of oppression, the idea of the primacy of the economic base over culture was flawed, and the Left should be paying more attention to inequalities inscribed in gender, race, sexuality and other markers of identity. This attitude has brought many positive developments to society over the past few decades, improving the lives of women, ethnic and sexual minorities, and challenging white supremacy, the patriarchy, heteronormality and more. On the other hand it is increasingly recognised that this turn towards issues of identity has played into the hands of the Ruling Class, deradicalized supposedly radical movements, fractured the unity of the working class and left us at the mercy of an increasingly monstrous and devastating Neo Imperial form of Capitalism that is literally destroying the Earth.
Stuart Hall was obviously much more intelligent and well read than I am. It is obvious from reading his work that he has read far more than I have, and knows Marx's work inside out. But as I was reading it I couldn't help feeling like I disagreed with his analysis on some points. For example the final essay in this collection is 'The Great Moving Right Show', which is widely regarded as a classic work, analysing and predicting the rise of Thatcherism when many of his comrades on the British Left thought she was just another manifestation of the same old Conservatism. But I don't understand his insistence that the Base does not determine the Superstructure, or that economics and production do not determine culture in the final instance. It is my understanding that the rise of the New Right, with the election of Thatcher in the UK and Reagan in the USA, the overthrow of the Keynesian consensus in favour of Neoliberalism inspired by Hayek and Friedman, is in fact an outcome of massive economic shifts caused by the Oil crises of the early 70's and Nixon dropping the Gold Standard and opening up relations with China, which eventually meant that European and American Capitalists could relocate production to Asia. As far as I am concerned the phenomenon and the culture of 'Thatcherism' is downstream from these economic conditions.
I am glad I have now read a decent chunk of Hall's work. I've been meaning to do it for years, but as it says in the introduction to this collection of essays, he doesn't really have many key, go-to books to read. There aren't many classics that are instantly associated with his name. His work is spread out in academic essays, speeches and interviews, and many of his works are collaborative rather than works of single authorship. He is a deep and thought provoking thinker and I have mixed feelings about his work, but I do respect it. But I can't say that I 'enjoyed' it, because it is very complicated academic work. Other books that I have read in the Black Marxist tradition over the past few years such as Black Jacobins by CLR James, or How Europe Underdeveloped Africa by Walter Rodney were a lot more enjoyable and I felt like they enriched my thinking and understanding a lot more, but perhaps that's just because I already more or less agreed with what they wrote before I read them. ...more
I was very pleased to host a launch for this book at bookhaus on the 24th of October. When I saw this appear in the Verso catalogue months ago I immedI was very pleased to host a launch for this book at bookhaus on the 24th of October. When I saw this appear in the Verso catalogue months ago I immediately decided to host a launch. I feel that this topic is very unknown and under discussed by Black radicals and the wider Left.
Okoth argues that people interested in Black Radicalism are drawing upon the theories being popularised and propagated by some people in American academia. These people are materially comfortable members of the bourgeoisie who have drifted away from real radical politics and activism and contact with mass movements, who have retreated into more and more abstract and academic theorising which uses the language of radicalism whilst detaching it from it's actual meaning. He takes aim at Afropessimism, which opposes itself to socialism and Marxism, as well as Liberal identity politics. It argues that Black people are always and forever destined to be the most oppressed people in society, they are indelibly and ontologically marked out as 'slaves', that solidarity with other oppressed people and races is impossible because black people are at the bottom of the racial hierarchy and all other races are junior partners in the system of White Supremacy, and that it is foolish to think that the position of Black people in society can ever be changed for the better. Although it is a highly abstruse academic discourse, some elements of it have seeped out of academia into mainstream discourse among activists, such as replacing the universal term 'racism' with the term 'anti-blackness'. He also takes aim at the 'Decolonial Studies', which has moved further and further from the study of actual anti-colonial liberation struggles, and become more and more concerned with culture and abstractions like decolonising language, or decolonising beauty.
He makes the case for activists and Leftists to turn their attention towards the history of Third Worldism, Pan-Africanism and African Marxist revolutionary struggles, as practiced by figures such as Nkrumah, Lumumba, Sankara and Amilcar Cabral. He also makes the case for Universalism and solidarity between oppressed peoples, and for engaging with the theory, history and practice of Marxism. An excellent book that is very short and readable, and which should be read by anyone interested in Black Radicalism and the Left....more
I thought I was going to enjoy this book but it exceeded my expectations, so I'm giving it a rare 5 stars. This is such a great book. It is superbly rI thought I was going to enjoy this book but it exceeded my expectations, so I'm giving it a rare 5 stars. This is such a great book. It is superbly readable and it really broadened my knowledge. Pitts explores Black Europe and the concept of the 'Afropean' from Paris to Moscow to Lisbon. I read this on holiday in Porto, and as I read it I yearned to follow in his footsteps and explore Stockholm, Marseilles and Lisbon. It did make me feel more reluctant to go to Russia, which I have wanted to do for years.
As I read this book I have to admit that part of the reason I enjoyed it so much is because I felt like I identified with the concept of the Afropean that he explores here, as a mixed race guy with African heritage who was born in Germany and who lived there and in Cyprus until moving to the UK at 11 years old. It makes me want to dive into this subculture and explore further. ...more
I probably wouldn't have picked this up myself, but someone lent it to me insisting I read it and it turns out that it's great! A contemporary novel bI probably wouldn't have picked this up myself, but someone lent it to me insisting I read it and it turns out that it's great! A contemporary novel by a peer of about my own age, set in a London I recognise with lots of cultural references that I share. Mendez has written an autobiographical novel exploring themes of masculinity, race, class and sexuality. It opens with a prelude about a couple making their way from Jamaica to the West Midlands as part of the Windrush Generation, before moving onto the main body of the novel covering the life of their Grandson. Jesse grows up in a working class, loveless home in Dudley, with a Mother suffering from clinical depression who treats him badly, a white Stepfather who doesn't know how to handle him and keeps him at arms length, in a suffocating community of Jehovahs Witness's. He experiences racism in his predominantly white school, is discouraged from pursuing education by the Church, and is exiled and shunned when he builds up the courage to make his first pass at another boy. This leads him down a well trodden path, escaping from his family and his homophobic town to the bright lights of London, where he becomes drawn into a Gay scene that leads to him becoming a hedonistic, drug loving Rent Boy. It is refreshing to read a novel by a real outsider, a working class, black, gay writer from the West Midlands, and it makes a nice change from the overwhelmingly White, Bourgeois, well connected, private school and Oxbridge educated writers that dominate British publishing. ...more
An interesting and ground breaking book that is a little marred by being an object of it's time. Fanon is one of the most influential post-colonial thAn interesting and ground breaking book that is a little marred by being an object of it's time. Fanon is one of the most influential post-colonial thinkers, drawing together elements of Existentialism, Marxism and Psychology into a body of work that has inspired thinkers and revolutionaries ever since. Fanon examines the psychological conditions created by colonisation, and the effect it has upon the colonised and the colonisers, toppling the Eurocentric conception of psychology from being framed as standard or universal. It is refreshing to explore the psychological effect of colonialism rather than just the social or political effects. However, on the other hand, a lot of it reads as being speculative because it isn't provable or falsifiable. The subject that Fanon is centring is the black man, and he has some misogynistic and homophobic views. I'm keen to read Wretched of the Earth and learn more about his work. ...more
I'm surprised how relentlessly bleak and brutal this book is. It isn't what I was expecting. It reminds me of The Road by Cormac McCarthy or the WalkiI'm surprised how relentlessly bleak and brutal this book is. It isn't what I was expecting. It reminds me of The Road by Cormac McCarthy or the Walking Dead without the zombies. ...more
This book is a masterpiece. The story of Toussaint L'Overture and the Haitian Revolution is astounding, and it is crazy that it isn't more widely knowThis book is a masterpiece. The story of Toussaint L'Overture and the Haitian Revolution is astounding, and it is crazy that it isn't more widely known or discussed. It would be perfect material for a film or a prestige TV show. I am currently a bit spun out after getting a vaccine shot so I'll try to come back to this later....more
Good. An up to date work of black feminism and a counter to liberal feminism. If you are on the left (as I am) you may find that you have picked up a Good. An up to date work of black feminism and a counter to liberal feminism. If you are on the left (as I am) you may find that you have picked up a lot of the contents of this book from various conversations, articles, podcasts, public talks etc..., so nothing was particularly new to me, but I'm not the intended audience for this. It's an ideal primer for contemporary feminism....more
I have finally read this book, which is central to the corpus of Marxist, Decolonial and Black Radical thinking. It is a sober, sombre, serious work oI have finally read this book, which is central to the corpus of Marxist, Decolonial and Black Radical thinking. It is a sober, sombre, serious work of history that filled me with a gradually increasing level of rage as I read it. The version of history that is broadly understood in the West is so ridiculously untrue that it is absurd. This book should be mandatory reading in schools. Instead the reactionaries in the West are trying to prevent people from learning this history, and are boasting of their own ignorance. ...more
A fascinating autobiography by a great man. What an incredible life he led, and what an enormous impact he had. I highly recommend this book. The angrA fascinating autobiography by a great man. What an incredible life he led, and what an enormous impact he had. I highly recommend this book. The angry, uncompromising, self-taught natural leader from the streets who provided a much more confrontational alternative to the work of Civil Rights leaders such as Martin Luther King. He spoke for the Northern, urban, hip Black community more than the Southern, rural, Christian Black community represented by the more respectable, middle class leadership King represented. Some of Malcolms attitudes towards women made me cringe, but it is absolutely foolish to judge people from the past according to our social attitudes today. It is a tragedy that he was murdered when there was still so much he could have accomplished....more
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