Fanon and Marxism Flashcards
How does Fanon adapt Marxist thought to the colonial context?
Fanon animates Marxist thought in order to tailor it towards the colonial context, particularly in Algeria
What did Fanon do in Algeria?
- He worked at the Blida-Joinville Psychiatric Hospital
- As a member of the Algerian National Liberation Front.
What Marx quote does he start his conclusive chapter with in BSWM?
Revolution cannot ‘draw its poetry from the past’ but must strive to envision a new future.
What does Fanon believe about the challenges colonised peoples face in revolution?
Colonised peoples face different issues and will need different solutions.
Jeanson, his editor, remarked that Fanon “is speaking for these people: the tirailleur sénégalais forced to fight in Vietnam, the political in Madagascar.”
What does Fanon say about urban workers?
In Algeria, tram conductors and taxi drivers, earn far larger wages and rely on the colonial economy, functioning more like a bourgeoisie than the proletariat.
How does Fanon critique the working class in colonial societies?
Fanon inverts Marx’s proclamation that the working class has nothing to lose and everything to gain from revolution.
What is Fanon’s view of the national bourgeoisie in post-colonial states?
Fanon is critical of the national bourgeoisie, claiming they lack the range to be the revolutionary class because they have a vested interest in maintaining the colonial system.
What does Fanon think of the role of urban intellectuals in the revolution?
Although Fanon acknowledges the importance of a vanguard of urban intellectuals, he critiques their disconnect from rural society.
He believes they will play a role in delivering the revolution but he remains cautious about the challenges of leading a peasant-led revolution.
What does he think of bourgeois politics.
He argues that bourgeois politics, before and after independence, is disconnected from the rural poor, who are seen as ‘incapable of governing themselves.’
Who does Fanon identify as the main revolutionary class?
The lumpenproletariat, the people of the shanty towns.
How does Fanon’s view of the lumpenproletariat differ from Marx’s?
Unlike Marx, who denounced the lumpenproletariat as the worst possible allies, Fanon holds them in high esteem. He argues that they are not simply reactionary but have an organic capacity to rise up due to their condition as landless peasants displaced by settlers.
What is the significance of spontaneity in Fanon’s revolutionary strategy?
Fanon’s focus on the spontaneity of the lumpenproletariat as a revolutionary force reflects his belief that their experiences of colonisation have created a radically innovative force.
In contrast to bourgeois societies that discourage innovation, the lumpenproletariat have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
How does Fanon adapt Marxist superstructure?
‘Stretches’ the Marxist base-superstructure model.
‘In the colonies, the economic substructure is also a superstructure…You are rich because you are white, you are white because you are rich.’
How does race interact with class in Fanon’s revolutionary theory?
Fanon argues that class and race are mutually constitutive
In colonial societies, race is not secondary to class but is directly shaped by the economic base. Fanon opposes the idea that race is merely an ideological tool to justify wealth inequality, as argued by Sartre in Black Orpheus.
