![[Book Club] A Year in Review](https://i.imgur.com/49qm59f.jpg){kind=link}
Frantz Fanon – ‘The Wretched of the Earth’
“The settler's work is to make even dreams of liberty impossible for the native. The native's work is to imagine all possible methods for destroying the settler."
We began the year with Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon. In this book, Fanon explores colonialism and the effects it has on both the colonised and the colonisers, as well as the methods through which colonial systems are maintained and how they can be dismantled. Perhaps most famously, Fanon dedicates part of The Wretched of the Earth to the discussion of violence and how violence is a necessary part of decolonisation. He argues that, since decolonisation necessarily involves replacing one group of people with another (the coloniser with the colonised), and because colonisation is always maintained “at the point of the bayonet and under cannon fire”, the liberation of the colonised simply cannot be brought about peacefully. Whilst I find that this is often the biggest take away from the book for many people, and what the book is most often acknowledged for, it feels a great disservice as Fanon covers so much more.
For instance, Fanon offers an in depth look at the kind of language used – by both the coloniser and the “colonised intellectual” – to debase and dehumanise the colonised, to equate all that is native as bestial, savage. This then serves to justify the colonial cause as one of enlightenment of a lesser species, whilst also justifying the violence used to maintain this system as a defence against the violent beasts. The colonised, however, are fully aware that they are not beasts or savages, that “the skin of the colonist is not worth more than the native’s”. This realisation by the natives of their own humanity inevitably leads them to “begin to sharpen their weapons” and “waylay [the coloniser] in such a way that he will have no other solution but to flee”. We can see, then, how the machinations of colonialism itself is what lays the seeds for its own undoing.
Portions of the book are also dedicated to an examination of different groups of the oppressed. This includes the already mentioned “colonised intellectual” who are those that have received a western education, they are often recruited by the colonisers and will usually try to draw the natives into non-violence and legal means of resistance. Then there are the peasants and the lumpenproletariat. These groups, often overlooked by many Marxist theorists, are seen by Fanon as being essential to the liberation movement. This is partly because these groups have not been socialised into the colonial system in the same way that the native proletariat have. As such, Fanon sees these groups as essential in building a “national culture” behind which the native people can unify into a single struggle for independence. Without this, liberation movements may all too easily fall into infighting and ethnic conflict. One particular strength of this book that is clear throughout the text, is that Fanon’s ideas are firmly based in a deep understanding of numerous decolonisation struggles from Algeria and Gabon to Cuba and Congo and beyond. This encyclopaedic knowledge of the fight of native peoples around the globe taking centre stage in The Wretched of the Earth is, for me, something that really sets it apart from some of the other books on colonialism that we have read so far. Admittedly, I did find myself having some trouble with fully understanding everything that Fanon presented in this text. It is not a very easy read at all – possibly this could be due to the translation I was reading – and I will no doubt be revisiting this book in the future to hopefully pick up on the parts that flew over my head. On the whole though, a fantastic book which is quite rightly regarded by so many as essential reading for those who wish to fully understand colonialism. I look forward to reading some of Fanon’s other works with you all.
Fabian Scheidler – ‘The End of the Megamachine’
“If I believe that I have been walking on the right road for a very long time, one that will eventually lead me to ever greener pastures, then I will continue to do so. I will continue on, even if the road becomes potholed, devastation occurs all around me and my water supply runs out. At some point, however, I will inevitably wonder whether my maps are right, if I have interpreted them correctly and whether or not I really am on the right road.”
Fabian Scheidler seeks to gain a greater understanding of the roots of the problems threatening humankind today. To do this, he identifies “four tyrannies” which he then traces back through thousands of years of human civilisation to show how they first came to be and how they have developed since. The four tyrannies Scheidler identifies are: Physical Power (particularly through militarised states), Structural Violence (violence that stems from socioeconomic factors, such as unequal wealth accumulation), Ideological Power (ideologies that legitimise the first two tyrannies, make them seems natural, etc.), and Linear Thinking (assumptions that the world functions according to predictable cause-and-effect and can therefore be controlled). By tracing these tyrannies back to their origins in the beginnings of human civilisation, The End of the Megamachine presents us with a scope of thousands of years of human history and the sheer breadth of the content that is covered in just this one book is incredible. This does, however, mean that the content can be a little short of detail at times and it often left me wishing that Scheidler had gone into more depth with some of the topics and historical events that the book covers. That said, I understand that this probably wouldn’t be possible unless the book was broken into multiple lengthy volumes, and that this would obviously be much less likely to appeal to Scheidler’s intended audience. This aside, the book is a very easy read and easy to follow as it traces the evolution of states, militaries, money, capitalism, and environmental destruction. It should, therefore, be a very good read for anybody wanting to get a general overview of how each of these institutions came into being and became what they are today. The link back to environmental destruction and the threat posed to humanity today by climate change is something Scheidler constantly links back to throughout the text. As such, I highly recommend the book to anybody who wants to gain an understanding of how the climate crisis came about, how it is a product of systemic causes rather than individual actions, and why the maintenance of the capitalist system and the survival of the planet are at odds with one another. The passionate writing with which Scheidler details some of the horrors resulting from the four tyrannies also deserves a mention. There were times in the book that I had to take a moment to process the sheer fucked-up-ness of what I’d just read. The section on the genocide of the natives at the silver mines in the city of Potosi with 8 million killed in a conveyor belt of death over a 300 year period was one part in particular that stands out. As were Scheidler’s accounts of Columbus’ arrival in the Americas, and of the exploits of powerful city-states such as Venice. In all, this piece provides a very good overview of the development of human civilisation that helps to show how we got to where we are today. However, if a more in-depth, detailed account of some of the events and historical periods the Scheidler discusses is what you are looking for, I’d say you’re best looking elsewhere.
Thanks to @notthenameiwant and @RedCloud for their write ups on Debt, Fanon’s, Scheidler, Connoly and Graeber.
I didn't even know the book club did Fanon. That was actually my next pick when I finished The Dawn of Everything.
James Connolly – ‘Socialism Made Easy’
“There can be no dignity in Labor until Labor knows no master.”
This short pamphlet from James Connolly is split into two sections, the first of these – Workshop Talks – takes the form of a Q&A between Connolly and a reactionary character, with the character voicing their views on a number of topics such as nationalism, immigration, private property, religion, the plight of the capitalist class, and Irish independence, swiftly followed by Connolly demolishing the arguments in very entertaining and comedic fashion. The pamphlet is obviously meant to work as a kind of handbook to combatting reactionary talking points, however many of the points discussed do feel somewhat outdated by now. I will say though, that it is a very entertaining read and Connolly did still have me laughing at some of his quips. Whilst much of it is quite outdated, I still think there are some parts that are still relevant and can still be useful when responding to anti-socialist rhetoric from your MAGA uncle – such as the parts regarding it being immoral to take private property from the capitalist class, or how stressful it is to be a business owner. Regardless of the relevancy to today, though, this section is actually quite a refreshing read as Connolly addresses the points using humour and sarcasm and I feel like this is something we don’t see enough of in leftist texts these days. In the second section – Political Action of Labour – Connolly changes tone and begins a more serious examination of industrial and political scabbing and what he calls industrial unionism. Connolly’s argument is that workers are too divided in the workplace, do not support their fellow workers in labour struggles, and that scabbing is far too common among workers. A result of this is not only workers being less successful in their labour struggles, but also that these workers are much more likely to reject radical politics and continue to side with the capitalist class on the political battlefield as they do in the industrial one – “Political scabbery is born of industrial scabbery; it is its legitimate offspring”. A solution to this, Connolly proposes, is “industrial unionism”. This would involve all workers in each particular industry being a part of the same union. This would, argues Connolly, help to ensure that workers in each industry act in solidarity with each other and that any strike action undertaken by one group in the industry would be supported or joined by every other group in that industry. This would firstly make it more likely that the workers would win industrial disputes and help to prevent scabbing – the increase of solidarity among workers and the greater conflict with capitalists in the industrial sphere, would in turn lead to further radicalisation of the working class in the political sphere. Connolly also argues that building industrial unions in this way will enable them to take over the running of these industries when the capitalist system is overthrown – something which he also hopes will help to prevent the rise of a state bureaucracy in the future socialist society. Whilst I acknowledge that the pamphlet is not really long enough to allow Connolly to fully flesh out his ideas on this, I am very sceptical as to whether this would work in the way the book suggests – what is to guarantee that the unions would become more politically radical? What would prevent them from merely remaining reformist in nature? These are questions I would like to have seen answered in a longer piece. Nonetheless, I think Connolly is essentially arguing that creating situations in which workers are able to fight against capitalists more often, and in which scabbing is less likely, is a positive step towards building a socialist society. This is something I think we can all probably agree with, I’m just not sure I agree with Connolly as to the degree to which this is the case.
/c/Anarchist Book Club
@notthenameIwant
Debt: The First 5000 years is David Graeber’s most prominent book, and in some ways feels like the work of a lifetime. The text catalogs (as the title suggests) the history of debt monetary systems from Sumeria to the 2010s. Primary subjects include the slow equivocation of morality with debt, the myth of barter predating markets, the invention of primitive and cash based societies, and neoliberal monetary institutions being used as a weapon of imperialism.
A primary function of this book is to lambaste the often touted “truthism” that Capitalism (and by extension, markets) is simply the best system that we, as a society, can come up with. We are on the steady march of progress after all, says Steven Pinker. This is often buoyed by the concept of “barter” predating cash transactions which predate our current credit hell.
Graeber spends several hundred pages laying out that there is no empirical data for this at all. Not only did credit predate cash, but barter as a concept only ever happened in certain rare occurrences. For most of humanity’s known existence, we have used systems such as bullion backed trade and human economies, if such trade even occurred at all. There was evidence that primitive Communism existed as far back as Ancient China.
If there’s one thing Hexbear readers should take from this book (if they haven’t learned about this already), is Graeber’s explanation of the IMF and the World Bank. These supposed impartial instruments are often used to permanently hobble smaller countries so much so that the loans given by these institutions are called “tribute”. This is in lockstep with the notion of the kingdoms of old.
It’s a wonderful book that I can’t do justice in a page. Read it!
Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists
Book summary
A groundbreaking contribution to the history of the "long Civil Rights movement," Hammer and Hoe tells the story of how, during the 1930s and 40s, Communists took on Alabama's repressive, racist police state to fight for economic justice, civil and political rights, and racial equality. The Alabama Communist Party was made up of working people without a Euro-American radical political tradition: devoutly religious and semiliterate black laborers and sharecroppers, and a handful of whites, including unemployed industrial workers, housewives, youth, and renegade liberals. In this book, Robin D. G. Kelley reveals how the experiences and identities of these people from Alabama's farms, factories, mines, kitchens, and city streets shaped the Party's tactics and unique political culture.
The involvement of communists in the nascent civil rights movement is unsurprising. You either are a communist and get involved, or become radicalized as you realize you enjoy "whoop[ing] yourself a cop" for the sake of civil and economic rights. The book club read this at a timely moment. The Amazon warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama sought to unionize and fight for better working conditions, and sure enough the corporate overlords and capitalist sons of bitches, did everything possible, including sabotage, to keep them from organizing. The struggle here in the South, to some extent, continues. With the racial wealth inequality, de facto segregation, and harassment from cops continues. From this book, we can also see the challenges of organizing across racial lines. In the 30s and 40s, organizing with Black Americans was a challenge, and only a few whites were willing to be associated with their Black comrades, while others were too cowardly to stand up to their reactionary friends and family. It continues to be a problem in America and we need to do better to reach out across racial lines, and not repeat the same mistakes as the white chauvinists who complained about Blacks making up the sole focus of communist party politics in the south.
There was also a good analysis of the various Communist Party platforms, and approaches, in the 30s and 40s. And a dispelling of the notion that "Patriotic Socialist", known as the Popular Front initiative, can be successful and appeal to the working poor. Kelley, notes that during that period, organizing was severely handicapped.
I think one of the most moving things for me at least, is that Communists are the only ones making worthwhile demands. Back then, their demands consisted of a federal jobs program, minimum wage protections, equality in more than just law. Today the struggle continues, and we must continue to meet people where they are at, and provide for their material needs, in order to be successful. The Communist Party of Alabama committed to armed anti-eviction actions, intimidated snitches trying to get welfare benefits cut, distributed a newspaper focused on the plight of the, mainly Black, working poor, and held secret meetings disguised as Bible reading meets.
I would like to say that if this was the history I had learned in high school, I would have enjoyed it even more. American history is incredibly sanitized, we see this even more now with the “debate” about what is considered Critical Race Theory, and how it shouldn’t be taught in schools. While reading, I found myself angry at the pre-meditated murders of Communist party members by police. Cheering at Black Ladies (which reminded me of Frank B. Wilderson's Grandma in Afropessimism) signing up for more demonstrations after they got to beat on cops. And moved by the very clear and serious demands of Black Communists for a better and more equitable world.
Book Discussion
Gaza An Inquest Into Its Martyrdom
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Gaza by Norman Finkelstein was a painful read. I had done some reading up on Palestine in 2017-2019 period, and read a UN Civil Rights Report on Israel. The pictured painted by that report was of a deeply segregated and violent country towards those deemed second-class citizens. Norman Finkelstein, unapologetic writing style and careful cataloguing of the Israeli project of violence and genocide towards Palestinians makes your stomach turn. He makes a point to quote both Israeli civilian and military authorities, with careful citations and verbatim quotes. It is my hope that we as communists and with the people of the world, can find ways to resist the narratives of a nation claiming self-defense, but more importantly abolish the state of Israel.
From the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free.
Blackshirts and Reds by Michael Parenti
I have watched plenty of Parenti lectures on youtube. This was my first time reading one of his books. The book was definitely a polemic shot straight at the heart of neoliberal propaganda against Communists, and the white-washing of Fascist collaboration in American and Western Europe. A condemnation of everyone involved in the collapse and destruction of the socialist mode of living. A reminder that Western powers highly preferred to collaborate with fascists. The cataloguing of suspect and inaccurate claims about the life in the USSR. And a reminder of the violence that Capitalist looting has heaped upon the Eastern bloc, after the collapse of the Soviet Union. If you weren't angry before reading this book, you will be after you put it down.
Unfortunately this book is not about how a better world is possible, but about the destructive efforts by capitalist forces and its agents to make sure we can't imagine any other type of world.
Book Discussions
"[Book Club | Part 1 Discussion] Blackshirts and Reds" on Hexbear
"[Book Club | Part 2 Discussion] Blackshirts and Reds by Michael Parenti" on Hexbear
"[Book Club | Part 3 Discussion] Blackshirts and Reds by Michael Parenti" on Hexbear
"[Book Club Discussion | Part 4] Blackshirts and Reds" on Hexbear
People's Green New Deal by Max Ajl
Max Ajl writes with definite urgency about the corporatist hijacking of the fight against Climate Change, by SuccDems like AOC and the "Green New Deal" that relies on private-public partnerships; let alone the neoliberal plans that trade any amount of genocide for the maintenance of a "greener" status quo. Emphasizing the People's part, Ajl looks at the importance of addressing not just the energy production problem, but the way that Capitalism maintains a system bent on eradicating mankind, and its connection to nature. He critiques the neoliberal ideas of driving all of humanity into dystopian megacities, while the last remaining ecological islands become the luxurious playgrounds of the super-rich, or conservation grounds that no human should tread on. Reminding us that we are deeply and intricately tied to nature, to other people, and planet earth. A plan to combat climate change that doesn't reinforce those bonds instead of severing them completely, will ultimately doom us all. This book dares us to rethink what is truly possible.
Book Discussion
"[Book Club Discussion | Part 1] A People's Green New Deal by Max Ajl" on Hexbear
Twenty Days of Turin by Giorgio De Maria
I love Halloween. I really enjoy horror, but I was never one to frequently read horror books, that changed with Twenty Days of Turin. I genuinely enjoyed Giorgio De Maria's writing in this book. That of a profoundly ill society, unable to cope with witnessing and participating in so much violence during a turbulent twenty day period in the City of Turin.
There are some visionary sections, the existence of "the library" essentially a social network that sought out the written thoughts and confessions of Turin's citizens as a way to make friends or connections. Instead it lets loose the darkest thoughts and urges within its citizenry. This book was written in the early 70s. So the fact, we are greeted with allegorical representation of Facebook, cough, sorry "META", Twitter, or Reddit, blew my mind. I am not a big fan of social media. I definitely think the baby-faced freaks of our society — the Zuckerbergs, the Alexis Ohanians, the Jack Dorsey's of the world — that convinced the public to put all of their thoughts and comments out into a "public sphere" with no filter or moderation coinciding with De Maria's smiling teenagers going door to door convincing people to donate their private journals for the library's collection is no accident. If you have ever found yourself drained by social media, or experiencing a sense of paranoia from having put your thoughts out there to no response, worried that Facebook ads are tracking your conversations, jokes about being on a "list". Well the citizens of Turin start to experience insomnia from their contributions to the library, paranoid that any moment they could be doxxed and their personhood attacked for their disturbing thoughts. A book on this alone, would have been a fascinating read; but De Maria is also interested on the allegorical reference to the fascist violence during Italy's [Years of Lead] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Years_of_Lead_(Italy)), the years of lead is a period of turmoil that started after WWII, enabled by the CIA and Italian neo-nazi elements, as well as its own government. With a lot of perpetrators ultimately getting away with it. De Maria has our protagonist investigating the infamous "Twenty Days" where a spate of violence terrorizes the citizens of Turin, and he is trying to find the root cause. Despite several warnings by suspicious operatives, being placed under surveillance, and being warned about letting things lie. The violent and murderous forces that committed these crimes, like in this book, sit in plain sight. Society just decides to keep its head down.
"[Book Discussion Part 3 | Final Chapters ] Giorgio De Maria - 'Twenty Days of Turin'" on Hexbear
David Graeber – ‘Bullshit Jobs’
“The main political reaction to our awareness that half the time we are engaged in utterly meaningless or even counter-productive activities—usually under the orders of a person we dislike—is to rankle with resentment over the fact there might be others out there who are not in the same trap. As a result, hatred, resentment, and suspicion have become the glue that holds society together. This is a disastrous state of affairs. I wish it to end.”
Bullshit Jobs really feels like an important book in Covidworld™ as over the past 18 months I suspect many people have probably been working from their homes, spending more time questioning whether their jobs are really necessary than actually doing those jobs. Graeber’s book on this phenomenon really fleshes out a topic that has been touched on by others in recent years and provides us with a language for talking about useless jobs in a simple way that most people will be able to easily understand. Graeber begins by detailing the different kinds of bullshit jobs – or perhaps more accurately the different types of bullshit that bullshit jobs consist of, given that so many bullshit jobs will likely fall into multiple categories. From here, Graber then goes on the examine the effects that these jobs have on society and on the people working them. The brunt of Graeber’s critique of bullshit job is in the “spiritual violence” that results from them, the effect of the sheer purposelessness, boredom, and depression that is seemingly inherent in these kinds of jobs - even those who simply goof off and do as they please whilst collecting a tidy wage still find it unbearable. I think this examination of the psychosocial effects that capitalism has on workers (even those who are relatively well off) is something that too often gets overlooked during our critiques of capitalism which can tend to focus almost exclusively upon people’s material needs. This, then, is a very welcome change which reminds us of the importance of looking after people’s minds as well as their bodies. Overall, I think the book is an excellent one to recommend to friends who are not already on board with leftist politics – particularly if they have a bullshit job themselves – as it helps to break through the neoliberal myths of capitalist efficiency and rewards for productive behaviour, and instead exposes the reality of wastefulness, inefficiency, and dick-measuring by power-hungry managers that seems to permeate throughout so much of the capitalism of today. Many of the things Graeber discusses will be instantly recognisable to those who are familiar with these kinds jobs, or really just anybody who has tried to navigate their way through capitalist bureaucracy. One downside of Graeber’s lib-friendly appeal is that he has obviously toned down his language and ideas to suit the audience – ‘hidden his power level’. I think this can be seen most clearly towards the end of the book where Graeber discusses some of the solutions that may help to prevent bullshit jobs, with his focus primarily on some kind of UBI. I would really liked to have seen Graeber explore how bullshit jobs would be dealt with or perhaps even prevented entirely in a communist society, or maybe even an examination of some of the bullshit jobs that we saw in the state socialist countries and how these might have been addressed. So, whilst Graeber clearly remains sceptical about whether a UBI could be implemented positively in a way that could allow people to find more meaningful work, not looking beyond capitalism seemed like a bit of a cop-out. Otherwise, a very good book.
AMAs
In addition to our maintaining and keeping up the book club throughout this year. We were blessed to have two amazing interviews with Max Ajl author of People's Green New Deal, and John "The LitCritGuy", author and host of the Horror Vanguard.
Yeahhh if you Bernie Bros™ could vote for some women in 2022 that'd be just great.
Start working up that Kamala, Neera, Clinton, and Pelosi selection.