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Category Archives: Africa

Jacobin | The Revolutionary Humanism of Frantz Fanon

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Posted by ztnh in Africa, Anti-Capitalism, Anti-Fascism, Anti-Imperialism, Anti-Racism, Civic Engagement (Activism), Marxian Theory (Marxism), Memoirs, Political Science, Pyschology & Psychiatry, Racism (phenotype)

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Dr. Peter Hudis, Frantz Fanon (1925-1961), lumpenproletariat, Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968), peasantry

LUMPENPROLETARIAT—A friend of mine at a Mediterranean café in Berkeley many years ago commented to a mutual friend about me, as I gorged on shawarma: You know what he needs to read? He needs to read Frantz Fanon. Indeed. I was only familiar with the “Cliff’s” notes version of The Wretched of the Earth. Honestly, I think I was afraid to read Fanon, even as an adult in my 20s, American fascism being what it is and all. People of color are often discouraged from reading, or being associated with, so-called radical or revolutionary thinkers, theorists, and authors. The French government, for example, censored Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth.

Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) 

Even studying the fate of Martin and Malcolm leads you down some pretty scary investigative journalism leads. You get called names, if you’re not careful. And, yet, the forbidden writings and ideas of Frantz Fanon might have never been more relevant than today, with the Black Lives Matter movement reaching a critical mass in 2020, perhaps the biggest protest movement in U.S. history.

Even now, something about our society makes it seem like a radical act to even discuss Fanon. Thankfully, we have Dr. Peter Hudis, a welcome scholar and discussant in the body of work established by Frantz Fanon, the French West Indian psychiatrist and political philosopher.

The philosopher, psychiatrist, and revolutionary militant Frantz Fanon was a key figure in the struggle against European colonialism. Fanon’s innovative thinking on racism and its relationship to class oppression still speaks vividly to the present.

Fanon argued that the peasantry and the lumpenproletariat would serve as the principal force of the revolution, not Africa’s nascent working class.

Peter Hudis, “The Revolutionary Humanism of Frantz Fanon”

Messina

***

JACOBIN—[26 DEC 2020] The renewed protests against racism and police brutality over the last year have supplied a fresh impetus for thinking about the nature of capitalism, its relationship to racism, and the construction of alternatives to both. Few thinkers speak more directly to such issues than Frantz Fanon, the Martinican philosopher, psychiatrist, and revolutionary who is widely considered one of the twentieth century’s foremost thinkers on race and racism.

— snip —

These considerations were central to Fanon’s last and most famous book, The Wretched of the Earth. He began writing the book after learning that he had incurable leukemia and died shortly after it appeared in 1961. Scholars often overlook the fact that The Wretched of the Earth does not completely turn its back on Europe. Instead, Fanon set out to critically rethink dimensions of European thought, including Marxism.

Fanon insisted that a Marxist analysis “should always be slightly stretched when it comes to addressing the colonial issue.” In Marx’s analysis of capitalist accumulation in Europe, the development of capitalism had torn peasants from the “natural workshop” of the land and transformed them into urban proletarians, who in turn would become a massive, compact, and revolutionary force through the concentration and centralization of capital. Fanon saw that this process was not being repeated in Africa.

The destruction of the continent’s traditional communal property forms did not lead to the formation of a massive, radicalized proletariat, since the colonialists did not industrialize Africa but rather underdeveloped it through the brutal extraction of labor power and natural resources. The peasantry remained the greater part of the population, while the working class in towns and cities was relatively small and weak. Because of this, Fanon argued that the peasantry and the lumpenproletariat would serve as the principal force of the revolution, not Africa’s nascent working class.

— snip —

Learn more at JACOBIN MAGAZINE.

***

[31 DEC 2020]

[Last modified on 1 JAN 2020 at 06:02 PST]

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Child Slave Labour Case of Mali and Ivory Coast Production of Nestlé and Cargill Products

24 Fri Mar 2017

Posted by ztnh in Africa, Anti-Capitalism, Ivory Coast, Mali

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Bloomberg Financial News, Dr. Richard David Wolff (b. 1942), Economic Update, KPFA, Marxian economics, Pacifica Radio Network, transcript

LUMPENPROLETARIAT—On this week’s edition of free speech radio’s (and Free Speech TV’s) Economic Update, Professor of Economics Dr. Richard Wolff has reported that production of cocoa products by Nestlé and Cargill has exploited child labour and slave labour in Mali and Ivory Coast.  Dr. Wolff cited the well-known Bloomberg Financial News service for this disturbing news update of modern capitalist modes of production.  Escaped slaves, or former child workers, sought legal counsel and filed the case of Doe v. Nestle SA, 05-cv-05133, U.S. District Court, Central District of California (Los Angeles).  However, the federal judge has sided with the corporations despite evidence of corporate malfeasance or criminality.  This is the second time the judge has dismissed this case, this time arguing that the escaped slaves failed to prove that the slavery was planned from the U.S., such that the case might fall within U.S. jurisdiction.  This narrow logic sets a terrible precedent, which makes it easier for corporations to claim plausible deniability in future when corporations are found to engage, directly or through subcontractors, in labour abuses, child labour, or slavery.  Saliently, The U.S. Department of Labor actually publishes a yearly report containing a List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor issued by the Bureau of International Labor Affairs.  (The December 2014 updated edition of the report listed a total of 74 countries and 136 goods.)  Listen (and/or download) here. [1]

Messina

***

ECONOMIC UPDATE—[24 MAR 2017]

[Introduction by Dr. Richard Wolff omitted by scribe]

[Economic Updates omitted by scribe, except for the news report on child/slave labour.]  (c. 11:16)

DR. RICHARD WOLFF:  “This last week, or actually March 10th to be exact, also set an interesting precedent, that is so interesting that my guess is you don’t know much about it.  So, I can bring it to your attention.  This has to do with a judge in Los Angeles, who decided that two famous food companies—Nestlé, that is perhaps best known as cocoa and chocolate products, and Cargill.  These are two monster corporations, major players in the world of mega-corps in the food business.

“And they had gotten themselves into trouble because it turns out that, in Mali and the Ivory Coast, the countries from which most of the cocoa comes, that goes into the chocolate, that we eat, that Nestlé and Cargill process.  It turns out that many of the people working in the cocoa fields are children.  It turns out that many of them are slaves.  That’s right—children bought and sold between Mali and the Ivory Coast in Africa.

“So, to your wonderment, is there still slavery in Africa?  The answer is an unqualified, absolutely YES.

More than one million children—

“Just as background:

—some as young as five pick cocoa pods, and then crack them open in the Ivory Coast and perform other manual labour under sometimes hazardous conditions. 

“This is the restrained language of the Bloomberg Financial News Service.  No radical sheet here screaming about a crime.  This is very okay language.

“Six of them found a lawyer—that’s six child slaves.  And they told the following story.  They were

taken to the Ivory Coast from Mali.  They were sold to plantations in the 1990s.  They worked 14 hours a day under armed guard without pay six days a week.  They slept on floors of locked rooms, were given only food scraps.  Those trying to escape were severely beaten [etcetera, etcetera].

“If this sounds familiar, it is.  These are the stories of slavery, that one has heard, if one has not been asleep, only it happens now.  And, so, a few of these ex-slaves got a lawyer and brought suit in the United States claiming that Nestlé and Cargill knowingly did business with, provided funding for, the local authorities, who were running this slave labour operation.  (c. 14:32)

“These companies were stunned.  Both of these, Nestlé and Cargill recently—and that is in recent years—set up offices to monitor and to be concerned about corporate responsibility.  And they were proud and advertised their corporate responsibility programme.  And they insisted that they had nothing to do with it, that they shouldn’t be brought up with this, that this wasn’t their responsibility; they didn’t buy or sell these slaves, the usual.

“The corporation’s defence persuaded the judge.  So, why am I telling you about this sad outcome, in which these abused children were unable to find justice in an American court?  The reason is:  I want you to understand the logic of the judge and of the victorious corporate lawyers.  They wanted the judge to rule the way he did, they argued, because, if he didn’t, then it would mean that corporations would have no reason to set up corporate responsibility offices because it wouldn’t work.  It wouldn’t protect them from such lawsuits.

“I found this amazing.  The corporate responsibility programme clearly didn’t prevent these companies from engaging in business with people doing slave labour, about which these companies, of course, had to know.  It didn’t work, these corporate responsibility programmes, very well.  Did they?

“So, if the court found against these companies, and they stopped doing it, what difference would it make?  Extraordinary the way legal reasoning sometimes works.  Extraordinary what is going on in the United States, in our court system, and the way we earn the money, we believe we need as as society.”  (c. 17:04)

[snip]  (c. 59:59)

Learn more at ECONOMIC UPDATE.

***

[26 MAR 2017]

[Last modified at 23:56 PST on 6 APR 2017]

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Africa Today Speaks With Dr. Joseph Hanlon On Mozambique

13 Mon Jun 2016

Posted by ztnh in Africa, Anti-Capitalism, Mozambique, Political Economy, Political Science

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Africa Today, Carlos Cardoso (1951-2000), Chickens and Beer: A recipe for agricultural growth in Mozambique (2014), communism, Eduardo Mondlane, FRELIMO, KPFA, London School of Economics, Marxism-Leninism, Professor Walter Turner (College of Marin), RENAMO, Samora Machel, The Guardian

"ProjectCensored" by Project Censored - This image has been downloaded from the website of Project Censored at www.projectcensored.org.. Licensed under Fair use via Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ProjectCensored.png#/media/File:ProjectCensored.pngLUMPENPROLETARIAT—On this week’s episode of Africa Today, free speech radio host Professor Walter Turner presented an interview he conducted a couple of weeks ago with Dr. Joseph Hanlon, a veteran expert on the social studies of Mozambique. [1]  Professor Walter Turner prefaced the interview by reminding us that the nation of Mozambique is one of the most recently freed from direct colonialism on the African Continent.

Mozambique gained its independence in the 1970s, and later in the decade saw the rise of anti-communist party politics.  The mid-1990s saw an end to a decade-long civil war in Mozambique.  But since the 2014 elections, tensions have arisen again between the two dominant political parties, which has led to political and military unrest.  And, adding to the tensions, new and extensive discoveries of coal, natural gas, and other natural resources have attracted predatory capital.  Listen (or download) here. [2]

Messina

***

[Working draft transcript of actual radio broadcast by Messina for Lumpenproletariat and Africa Today]

AFRICA TODAY—[13 JUN 2016]  “The time, here, at radio stations KPFA in Berkeley, at 94.1, KPFB in Berkeley, 89.3 FM, KFCF in Fresno, that’s 88.1 FM in Fresno, and K248BR 97.5, coming from Santa Cruz, and online all the time at www,kpfa.org.  The sounds of Thomas Mapfuma.  (c. 1:30)

[brief music break by Thomas Mapfuma]

“Shumba” by Thomas Mapfuma

[local community announcements:  Oakland Juneteenth Community Picnic, sponsored by the Eastside Arts Alliance, and hosted by KPFA’s Davey D with DJ Pam the Funkstres features Lenny Williams and a special tribute to the life and music of Prince.  Also the SF Black Film Festival begins on June 16, 2016.]

[SNIP]  (c. 4:40)

“We start off this evening talking about the country of Mozambique with Joseph Hanlon to update you a bit on Mozambique.  Since we produced this interview a couple of weeks back, uh, some changes in one of Africa’s newestly independent countries—in the 1970s—when we come back.”

[brief music interlude]

“Since independence in the 1970s, Mozambique has been governed by FRELIMO, the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique, the party of Eduardo Mondlane and Samora Machel.  FREMILO has won every single election since independence, although its percentage of electoral victory has declined with the elections of 2014.

“RENAMO, an anti-FRELIMO, anti-communist, party was formed in the mid-1970s—finally agreed to a peace settlement in the early 1990s, that ended the decade-long civil war between the two parties.  (c. 5:53)

“Since the elections of 2014, tensions have risen again dramatically between the two parties.  And, then, internal military and political conflict has ensued.  Additionally, to add to the picture, over the last five years, Mozambique has made extensive discoveries of extractive resources, including coal, natural gas, and oil.  And, actually, Mozambique is slated to be, I think, third on the African Continent, behind Nigeria and Algeria, in terms of access to gas resources.

“Joining Africa Today to discuss developments in Mozambique is Joseph Hanlon, a long-time writer, researcher, and analyst on developments in Mozambique, served at one time as a policy officer for Jubilee 2000, currently a Visiting Senior Fellow at the Open University, written books on the Mozambican Flood.  He has a regular newsletter, which we’ll give you the address to.  He has written on issues of land in Zimbabwe, agriculture in Mozambique, currently working on a book on Bangladesh.  His most recent book was Chickens and Beer.  And he joins us, as he has over the years, to talk about developments in his favourite country of Mozambique.

“Joe, thanks for joining us today.”  (c. 7:06)

DR. JOSEPH HANLON:  “Well, I’m pleased to be back to talk to you again, Walter.”

PROFESSOR WALTER TURNER:  “Good.  I read in one of your bulletins—the Mozambican Formation Bulletin, which you started in 2000 or so, and right now this is the third, 300th issue.”

DR. JOSEPH HANLON:  “Well, I mean I started it when Carlos Cardoso, the journalist was assassinated and I covered the trial and so on.  And I just, sort of, kept going with it and people subscribed to it.  Right now, I’ve got about 5,000 subscribers.”

PROFESSOR WALTER TURNER:  “Whoah!”

DR. JOSEPH HANLON:  “And it’s free.  So, any of your listeners can subscribe to it.  It’s easy, if you just send me a message at j.hanlon@open.ac.uk.  And it’s sort of erratic because I do it when I can space it around other things.  But it’s free.”  (c. 8:04)  [SNIP]

PROFESSOR WALTER TURNER:  “Okay.  Well, I’ll usually save ’em; and I’ll go back when I can read them when I have the moment there.

“Was there ever a moment when you thought about stopping the bulletin.”

DR. JOSEPH HANLON:  “Well, no, just because I do it because I’m interested in Mozambique.  And I like Mozambique.  And I’ve got so many friends there, now.  But I go back and forth.  And I just like to write about it and know about it.

“You know; being a journalist, you’re a storyteller.  And, so, you wanna tell the stories.”

PROFESSOR WALTER TURNER:  “Your last book, that we spoke about, which was out was Chickens and Beer.  And your newer book is gonna be on Bangladesh.

“Chickens and Beer was about the—it was an analysis of agriculture, was it not, in Mozambique?”  (c. 8:47)

DR. JOSEPH HANLON:  “Yeah.  [SNIP]  ”

[SNIP]  (c. 59:59)

Learn more at AFRICA TODAY.

[This transcript will be expanded as time constraints, and/or demand or resources, allow.]

***

“War” (live) by Bob Marley and The Wailers

“And until the ignoble and unhappy regimes
that hold our brothers in Angola,
In Mozambique,
South Africa
Sub-human bondage
Have been toppled,
Utterly destroyed –
Well, everywhere is war –
Me say war.”

***

[1]  Also see writings by Dr. Joseph Hanlon at The Guardian, which offers the following bio:

“Joseph Hanlon is visiting senior fellow at the department of international development of the London School of Economics and honorary research fellow in the school of environment and development of the University of Manchester. He is co-author of Just Give Money to the Poor. He has been writing about Mozambique since 1978. He is editor of the Mozambique Political Process Bulletin and co-author of Do bicycles equal development in Mozambique? His next book, Zimbabwe Takes Back its Land, will be published this year.”

[2]  Terrestrial radio transmission, 94.1 FM (KPFA, Berkeley, CA) with online simulcast and digital archiving:  Africa Today, hosted by Professor Walter Turner, Monday, 13 JUN 2016, 19:00 PDT, one hour broadcast.

***

[14 JUN 2016]

[Last modified 13:45 PDT  14 JUN 2016]

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