Tag: Leftist Thinkers

George W. Woodbey: Pioneering Black American Socialism

Published June 25, 2022 by Franchesca Johnson

In discussions of Black American activism following the emancipation of enslaved peoples in 1865, historians regularly overlook the prevalence of socialism and other progressive ideologies in shaping Black politics and Reconstruction. One Black American activist who embraced such socialist policies to do precisely this was George W. WOODBEY(1854-1937).

Born into slavery in Johnson County, Tennessee, Woodbey grew up conscious of the systems of oppression against Black Americans. However, it was not until after the Civil War that he entered politics and embraced an unconventional, socialist perspective. Latching onto the beliefs of Eugene Debs and the Socialist Party, Woodbey crafted a belief system that stressed socialism as the solution to the racism experienced within a post-slavery society. As is indicated in his novel, Black Socialist Preacher, he emphasized the necessity of eradicating “the watchdogs of capitalism”: the police. Altogether, George Woodbey was a highly influential Black socialist whose work inspired various other Black American activists and thinkers. Chiefly, his advocacy demonstrates how the African American political tradition employed socialism as a tool for tackling issues of race and labor exploitation.

FURTHER READING

George Washington Woodbey, George W Stater, and Philip Shelden Foner. 1983. Black Socialist Preacher: The Teachings of Reverend George Washington Woodbey and His Disciple, Reverend G.W. Slater, Jr. San Francisco: Synthesis Publications.

Heideman, Paul. 2018. Class Struggle and the Color Line: American Socialism and the Race Question 1900-1930. Chicago, Illinois: Haymarket Books.

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Eduardo Galeano

Published June 22, 2022 by Amy Weitzman

Eduardo Galeano (1940–2014), best known for Open Veins of Latin America, was a leftist Uruguayan writer. His works are significant because they aim to tell history through the lens of the oppressed. He describes histories of oppression, both economic and cultural, in order to explain the present state of the developing world. He is widely known for his contributions to Latin American dependency theory. A dichotomy between oppressor and oppressed is a key aspect of his beliefs.

While Open Veins is Galeano’s most famous work, Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone provides a broader survey of his ideas. Mirrors includes more than 600 vignettes, each one documenting an incident or historical trend that depicts oppression. He addresses structures of racism, misogyny, homophobia, and classism. Furthermore, he references countless cultures for his stories and extends past his reputation as a theorist on Latin America. For example, he recalls Ancient China’s family structures, the development of African American jazz music, and the Turkish origin of the croissant—all written as demonstrations of oppression. Galeano’s critics argue that his stories are largely apocryphal and it is unfair to divide the world into oppressor and oppressed.

FURTHER READING

The New York Times. “Author Changes His Mind on ’70s Manifesto (Published 2014),” 2022. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/24/books/eduardo-galeano-disavows-his-book-the-open-veins.html.

Galeano, & Belfrage, C. (1997). Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent (25th anniversary ed.). Monthly Review Press.

Galeano, Eduardo, and Mark Fried. Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone. New York, NY: Nation Books, 2010.

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Fred Hampton: A Black American Martyr for Socialist Liberation

Published June 8, 2022 by Franchesca Johnson

Fred HAMPTON(1948-1969), known by most people exclusively for his assassination in 1969, was a revolutionary activist in the Black American struggle for liberation who utilized socialist ideas as a form of resistance against a racially and economically oppressive America. Born Fredrick Allen Hampton in Chicago, Illinois, he began his progressive activism at a young age. Through studying communist revolutionaries from around the world and providing for members of his community, Hampton developed an ideology rooted in combatting capitalism. Moreover, as he later became an influential leader of the Black Panther Party (BPP), he began to further value revolution and the strength of the masses.

In particular, in his book, I Am A Revolutionary: Fred Hampton Speaks, Hampton’s famous orations reveal this groundbreaking response to the racism in America. Knowing of the oppression of minorities in America, Hampton firmly believed in the necessity of an “international proletarian revolution” and “[fighting] capitalism with socialism.” Therefore, even though the police ended his life at the young age of 21, Hampton’s legacy reveals the actuality of socialist policies as a perceived solution to racial oppression in America.

FURTHER READING

Hampton, Fred. 2023. I Am a Revolutionary: Fred Hampton Speaks. Edited by Fred Hampton Jr. Pluto Press.

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The March First Movement

Published June 7, 2022 by Franchesca Johnson

*The March 1st Independence Movement* (*Suh Se-ok*)

Beginning in 1910, the Empire of Japan illegally annexed Korea after victories in the Russo-Japanese War (1905). This annexation led to the establishment a colonial government within the country that lasted until the Axis Powers surrendered in 1945. With harsh assimilation policies, forced labor, and censorship, Japan attempted to deliberately subjugate Korea, which consequently urged the development of socialist and nationalist resistance.

Thus, the March First Movement, or the Sam-il Movement, was the physical response to these tools of oppression. Beginning on March 1st of 1919, the campaign involved various student-led demonstrations demanding the Independence of Korea as a result of Japanese imperialism. Inspired by the Treaty of Versailles and Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points, the movement sought to dispel Japanese colonial power through peaceful protest and the creation of a Korean Declaration of Independence. While the event did not single-handedly attain Korean Independence, it is notable for empowering the Korean Independence Movement and inspiring various influential activists.

FURTHER READING

Baldwin, Frank Prentiss, JR. 1969. “The March First Movement: Korean Challenge and Japanese Response.” Order No. 7220026, Columbia University. https://proxy.wm.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/march-first-movement-korean-challenge-japanese/docview/288040533/se-2?accountid=15053.

Neuhaus, Dolf-Alexander. “”Awakening Asia”: Korean Student Activists in Japan, The Asia Kunglun, and Asian Solidarity, 1910–1923.” Cross-Currents: East Asian History and Culture Review 6, no. 2 (2017): 608-638. doi:10.1353/ach.2017.0021.

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Kim San: A Martyr for the Masses

Published June 7, 2022 by Franchesca Johnson

KIM San (1905-1938) was a Korean activist and celebrated Communist who vigorously rebelled against the Japanese government’s oppression of the Chinese and Korean people. In particular, Kim is renowned for his participation in the March First Movement, a major demonstration against Japanese imperialism and assimilation in Korea throughout 1919. However, most importantly, through his experiences living in and studying Japan, China, and Russia, he framed the Left-wing revolutionary movement within East Asia.

While much of Kim’s literary work lacks documentation within Western publications, he is best known for working with Nym Wales on a biographical novel titled Song of Ariran: The Life Story of a Korean Rebel. While this source serves primarily to document the complex conditions of Kim’s political journey, it also highlights many of his left-leaning perspectives, especially as a response to Japanese imperialism. From his praise of communism in “To Tolstoy: An Acknowledgement” to his discussion of Korean liberation and the power of the masses in “‘Only the Undefeated in Defeat…’,” Kim exposes the Korean Left’s robust resilience in the face of Japanese domination.

FURTHER READING

Kim, San, and Nym Wales. 1941. Song of Ariran: The Life Story of a Korean Rebel. Cornwall, New York: The Cornwall Press.

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The New Culture Movement

Published May 17, 2022 by Catherine Freemon

The New Culture Movement (1917-1921) was a movement in China that criticized conservative, traditional Chinese ideas and sought to advance a more progressive “new culture.” This new culture found its footing in Western ideals like science and democracy and was spearheaded by scholars such as Chen Duxiu, Lu Xun, Hu Shih, Li Dazhao, Chen Hengzhe, Liu Bannong, Cai Yuanpei, He Dong, Zhou Zouren, Qian Xuantong, and Bing Xin. This group, of whom many were classically educated, rebelled against Confucianism and classical values. Its hub was Peking University, where many of the leaders gathered under the leadership of Cai Yuanpei during his time as chancellor.

An important facet was the New Youth magazine, a publication where many of these thinkers were able to speak out through essays, short stories, and other forms of writing. The New Culture Movement espoused liberal ideas like the end of the patriarchal family structure, individualism, the re-examination of the Confucian texts and other ancient writings using modern critical methods (called the Doubting Antiquity School), rights for women, and democratic values.

Further Reading

Goldman, Merle and Leo Ou-fan Lee, eds. An Intellectual History of Modern China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Mitter, Rana. A Bitter Revolution: China’s Struggle with the Modern World. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.

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Lu Xun

Published May 17, 2022 by Catherine Freemon

LU Xun (1881-1936) was a writer, essayist, and poet, and an influential figure in China in the early 1900s. In 1918, Lu published his first short story, “The Diary of a Madman,” a dark and satirical political commentary that forcefully attacks the government and culture of China in the early 1900s. Society was based on Confucianism, which values traditionalism and denigrates Western ideas. Through the story, Lu Xun calls for a more humanistic and individualistic society that eradicates the old values of China. This was one of the first works of vernacular fiction in Chinese history, and it was written for the magazine New Youth, which would become the flagship journal for the May Fourth movement. His most famous work is “The True Story of Ah-Q.” Similar to The Diary of a Madman, this story also criticizes Confucian ideals and urges readers to resist them, albeit not as violently as the former. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in literature because of this work, and it solidified his writing as a pillar of Chinese literature.

FURTHER READING

Xun, Lu. The Real Story of Ah-Q and Other Tales of China: The Complete Fiction of Lu Xun. Afterword by Julia Lovell. Translated by Yiyun Li. London: Penguin Books, 2009.

Leo Ou-fan Lee, Voices from the Iron House: A Study of Lu Xun. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987.

Spence, Jonathan. The Gate of Heavenly Peace: The Chinese and Their Revolution 1895-1980. New York: Viking, 1981.

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Ricardo Flores Magón

Published April 30, 2022 by Amy Weitzman

Ricardo Flores MAGÓN (1874–1922) was an indigenous Mexican anarchocommunist whose activism helped lead to the Mexican Revolution. He was born during the military dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz, the porfiriato, which greatly shaped his career. He and his two brothers founded Regeneración, a newspaper meant to unveil the injustices under the porfiriato. Magón independently authored countless articles and stories about anarchism as a solution to the ills of capitalism.

Magón’s writing often used fiction to illustrate anti-capitalist uprisings and ended with vehement calls to action. Not only did he support an uprising, but he more generally supported workers’ rights, elimination of private property, and anti-clericalism. He questioned the need for government entirely; however, he described his radically anarchocommunist works as liberal to gain wider approval. Magón’s popularity prompted the formation of a radical political party to oust the porfiriato—the Mexican Liberal Party (PLM). The PLM initiated several uprisings. Although Díaz was ousted and replaced with a liberal, Magón still expressed doubts. He believed that only the workers themselves could obtain workers’ rights.

FURTHER READING

“A world without borders” in New York, 2006

Magón Flores Ricardo, Chaz Bufe, and Mitchell Cowen Verter. Dreams of Freedom: A Ricardo Flores Magón Reader. Oakland, CA: AK Press, 2005.

Magon, Ricardo Flores. “Government?” The Anarchist Library, August 4, 2020. https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/ricardo-flores-magon-government.

Magon, Ricardo Flores. “Land and Liberty.” The Anarchist Library, June 14, 2018. https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/anarchist-communist-group-land-and-liberty.

Archivomagon.net. “Archivo Digital de Ricardo Flores Magón | Archivo Digital Del Trabajo Histórico de Ricardo Flores Magón,” 2021. http://archivomagon.net/.

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Yamakawa Kikue

Published April 29, 2022 by Franchesca Johnson

YAMAKAWA Kikue (1890-1980) was a renowned socialist, activist, and advisor to the Sekirankai throughout 1921. Born to a prominent family of former samurai, she attended a women’s academy, where she formulated her progressive philosophy. Through encounters with socialist literature, the hypocrisies of capitalist society, and her future husband and founder of the Japanese Communist Party, Yamakawa Hitoshi, Yamakawa Kikue cultivated a belief in the necessity of socialist revolution to attain freedom which transferred to her work with the Sekirankai.

In Mikiso Hane’s Reflections on the Way to the Gallows: Rebel Women in Prewar Japan, Yamakawa’s unique perspective emerges within her memoir. Via descriptions of her formative experiences, she demonstrates a desire to denounce labor abuses and the governmental oppression of women through a cooperative organization. Hence, even without being active in the Sekirankai’s political demonstrations, she engaged with the group through a unified desire to acquire female liberties by overthrowing capitalism. Therefore, despite her eventual disappointment with the Sekirankai’s dissolution, Yamakawa’s revolutionary views influenced the socialist ideology of the collective, which demonstrates feminine resistance throughout the modern period of Japan.

FURTHER READING

Hane, Mikiso. 1998. “The Sekirankai.” In Reflections on the Way to the Gallows: Rebel Women in Prewar Japan, 161–74. University of California Press.

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The Sekirankai

Published April 29, 2022 by Franchesca Johnson

The Sekirankai (1921), or Red Wave Society, was a Japanese women’s-rights organization born from leftist members of a Japanese newspaper group called the Seito circle. Established explicitly by Sakai Magara, Hashirura Haruko, Kutsumi Fusako, and Akizuki Shizue, these socialist figures assembled the group as a response to the Taisho government’s misogynistic policies, censorship, and increased militarism. Moreover, with the assistance of various political connections to the Japanese Communist Party and prominent advisors, Yamakawa Kikue and Itō Noe, the organization pushed for a reformist transformation of the Japanese government.

Overall, the Sekirankai is notable for its political rallies in support of feminism and its position as the first women’s socialist organization. Throughout 1921, the association participated in a variety of seminars, leftist book distributions, and public demonstrations, such as the prominent May Day Protest. However, following a surge in imprisonment and assassination of the leadership, the group eventually disbanded only six months after its inception. Regardless, the Sekirankai remains an organization that demonstrates the origins of organized female political resistance and reformist ideology within the Taisho period.

FURTHER READING

Hartley, Barbara. 2020. “Sakai Magara: Activist Girl of Early Twentieth Century Japan.” Girlhood Studies 13 (2): 103–18. https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.3167/ghs.2020.130209.

Hane, Mikiso. 1998. “The Sekirankai.” In Reflections on the Way to the Gallows: Rebel Women in Prewar Japan, 125-27. University of California Press.

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