9 | C.L.R. James: Leadership, Organization, Mass Politics (with Dr. William Clare Roberts)

03/12/21 • 61 min

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Episode 9 explores the antinomies of autonomy and self-emancipation in the thought of C.L.R. James. Dr. William Clare Roberts joins us to discuss James’ legacy and how it fits into his book project on the history of “history from below.” Please be advised that a side-effect of this episode may be republicanism. (No, you Yanks, not the GOP. It’s the Black Jacobins, get it?)
References:
CLR James, The Black Jacobins, (New York: Vintage Books, 1989).
CLR James, World Revolution 1917-1936: The Rise and Fall of the Communist International (Durham: Duke University Press, 2017)
CLR James. Radical America, vol. IV, no. 4 (May 1970): https://repository.library.brown.edu/storage/bdr:89210/pdf/
Selma James, “The Perspective of Winning,” (1973); in Sex, Race, and Class: A Selection of Writings, 1952-2011 (Oakland, CA: PM Press, 2012).
“CLR James talking to Stuart Hall,” Channel 4, dir. Mike Dibb (1984): https://youtu.be/_Gf0KUxgZfI
William Clare Roberts, “Centralism is a dangerous tool: Leadership in CLR James’ history of principles,” forthcoming in The CLR James Journal (2021).
William Clare Roberts, Marx’s Inferno: The Political Theory of Capital (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2017).
W.E.B. Du Bois, Black Reconstruction in America: 1860-1880 (New York: The Free Press, 1998).
Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition (Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 2000).
Music: "Vintage Memories" by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com

Previous Episode

8 | (Neo)colonialism and Anticolonialism

In episode 8, we look to the writings of Aimé Césaire to guide a conversation about colonialism, neocolonialism, and anti-colonial thought and struggle. Focusing especially on his 1950 Discourse on Colonialism and his 1956 letter to Maurice Thorez—in which he explains his resignation from French Communist Party—we discuss the subjective and objective ‘boomerang effects’ of colonialism on colonizing countries, the tensions between particularism and universalism in putatively global left politics, the relationship between colonialism and capitalism, and the state of neocolonial domination and exploitation.
Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism. Ed. Robin D.G. Kelly. Monthly Review Press, 2000.
Aimé Césaire, “Letter to Maurice Thorez”, trans. Chike Jeffers, Social Text 28.2 (2010): 145-52.
Silvia Federici, "War, Globalization, and Reproduction," in Revolution at Point Zero. PM Press, 2012.
Paul Gilroy, Against Race: Imagining Political Culture beyond the Color Line. Harvard University Press, 2002.
Music: "Vintage Memories" by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com

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10 | Donna Haraway: Socialist Cyborg Affinities

In this episode, we discuss Donna Haraway’s distinctive socialist cyberfeminism. We talk through the virtues and vices of her version of postmodern feminism and leftism, the ambivalent character of scientific knowledge production and new technologies, and the strange material powers of metaphor. Ask yourself: would you rather be a cyborg or a goddess?
patreon.com/leftofphilosophy | @leftofphil
References:
Donna Haraway, “A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century,” in Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature (New York: Routledge, 1991).
Donna Haraway, “Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective,” in Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature (New York: Routledge, 1991).
Donna Haraway, “The Biopolitics of Postmodern Bodies: Constitutions of Self in Immune System Discourse,” in Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature (New York: Routledge, 1991).
Sophie Lewis, “Cthulhu plays no role for me,” Viewpoint Magazine, 2017 <https://viewpointmag.com/2017/05/08/cthulhu-plays-no-role-for-me/>
Music: Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com