Duncan Bowie on rebel thought
Global Marxism by Simin Fadaee published by Manchester University Press
The Rebel’s Clinic by Adam Shatz published by Head of Zeus
Fadaee’s book seeks to present the role of Marxism in the political development of nine 20th-century Third World revolutionary figures. Fadaee is an Iranian-born sociologist based at Manchester University. The introductory chapter seeks to analyse the views of Marx and the development of Marxism as it applies to decolonisation and revolutionary politics – a difficult exercise as Marx said relatively little about imperialism or what later became known as the developing or third world. Marx’s Eurocentrism was not unusual for the mid-19th century, so much of the chapter focuses on Lenin’s views of imperialism. Lenin and some of Fadaee’s subjects did, of course, adapt Marxism – the focus on peasantry rather than the urban proletariat. They rejected Marx’s assumption that the development of capitalism was a precondition for any socialist revolution, with an increased focus on military struggle and insurrection rather than more parliamentary democratic approaches to the class struggle.
Each chapter presents a short biography of its subject, focusing on the “revolutionary pathway” before examining the role of Marxism in the subject’s political development and then the subject’s legacy.
Fadaee produces a short and readable guide to his subjects in a single volume – a good introduction and summary of material already widely available. All his chosen revolutionaries have, of course, been the subject of previous biographies, with each chapter tending to draw on a single biography. However, the difficulty of this approach is that the revolutionary trajectories of each subject tend to be oversimplified and too much attention is given to “Marxism” in the development of each individual’s political development – unless, of course, you define “Marxism” as encompassing any views which are broadly socialist or progressive.
No doubt all the subjects read some Marx at some point in their intellectual development – notably, they are all intellectuals – none could really be categorised as “working class”. Whether Marx was the determinant influence on their politics and lives must be questionable, most notably perhaps in the case of Fadaee’s rather surprising first subject – Nehru (though interestingly, Fadaee fails to mention Nehru’s book on Lenin), or on her fourth selection – Kwame Nkrumah. All the chosen subjects were nationalists and fighting for independence for their countries from colonial powers – Ho Chi Minh, Mao, Cabral, Fanon and Guevara will be familiar subjects to most readers.
The most interesting chapters are perhaps the last two, covering lesser known figures – Ali Sharati, the Iranian Islamic Marxist, who died in exile in England (possibly assassinated by SAVAK, the Shah’s secret police) and Subcommandante Marcos, the leader of the Mexican Zapatistas in Chiapas – another intellectual (this time hiding his face in a balaclava) seeking to lead peasants in an insurrection, but much more focused on regional self-government and a form of libertarian socialism a world away from orthodox Marxism. Fadaee’s final chapter, while summarizing how Marxism has been adapted over the decades is perhaps less convincing in her argument of the continuing relance of Marxism to revolutionary struggles in the third world and given the range of adaptations of or deviations from Marx’s thought she chronicles, it is questionable whether “global Marxism” actually exists except in the minds of certain academic sociologists.
Shatz’s book is a biography of Frantz Fanon, the Martinician-born psychiatrist who became a leading supporter and theoretician of the Algerian struggle for independence from France, most famous for two of his books – Black Skin, White Masks and The Wretched of the Earth.
Initially a follower of the Martinician politician, poet and theoretician of “negritude” (who actually supported Martinique being integrated into France rather than being independent) Fanon studied in France, collaborating with leading members of the French intellectual left, including Sartre and De Beauvoir, before training and working as a psychiatrist in Lyon and other French cities. He promoted a radical progressive approach to psychiatry and asylum management before moving to the French colony of Algeria in 1953, where he managed an asylum until 1957, when he was deported for his political activities.
In exile in Tunis, Fanon was actively involved in the Algerian nationalists’ exile leadership and carried out various functions, including seeking support from African nationalists in other countries, notably Nkrumah’s Ghana, which gained independence in 1957. Fanon died in the US in 1961, with The Wretched of the Earth being published posthumously.
Shatz’s study is well researched. It includes detailed commentary on Fanon’s approach to psychiatry and the social pathology of colonialism, as well as on his various writings, his personal life and his political activity. Fanon has become something of a hero to elements of the intellectual anti-colonial left and deservingly so. Shatz’s study is, however, no hagiography and examines some of the critiques of Fanon and his legacy, for example, his endorsement of revolutionary violence, and his alleged misogyny, given his contentious views on sexual relations across race and gender. Shatz’s book is an excellent study of a complex figure and is well worth reading.
