Re: [Marxism] Aimé Césaire, voice of French Black pride, dies

[Shane Mage <shmage@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Apr 18, 2008, at 3:02 PM, Walter Lippmann wrote:

> Aimé Césaire, voice of French Black pride, dies
> By Astrid Wendlandt
>
> ...Césaire was also a friend of the French surrealist poet Andre  
> Breton
> who had encouraged him to become a major voice of Surrealism...
> ...After becoming mayor of Fort-de-France in 1945 at the age of 32, he
> was elected deputy to parliament a year later, a post he held until
> the early 1990s... he remained a member of the French communist  
> party until the Soviet Hungarian repression of 1956...


This is not quite correct.  Césaire's long and brilliant letter of  
resignation from the PCF 
(http://www.ppm-martinique.net/Lettre-a-Maurice-Thorez_a44.html 
) was dated October 24, 1956, the day before the outbreak of the  
Hungarian Revolution.  It was a scathing political critique of the  
French Stalinist Party and its thoroughly colonialist mindset as well  
as its subservience to Stalin and  its apologia for the crimes of his  
regime.

It is also less than accurate to describe Césaire as a "voice of  
French Black Pride"
because he always claimed that his African identity was primary.   
Sarkozy and the French Establishment now seek to appropriate Césaire,  
even offering burial in the Pantheon--but Césaire's family, his party,  
and the whole Martiniquaise people reject that. He will be buried in  
his country, Martinique.



Shane Mage

"Thunderbolt steers all things...it consents and does not consent to  
be called Zeus."

Herakleitos of Ephesos




________________________________________________
YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Set your options at: 
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40archives.econ.utah.edu