On Apr 18, 2008, at 3:37 PM, Charles Brown 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 _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
