The second sight of racialised outsiders in the imperialist core

Satnam Virdee

Third World Quarterly, 2017, vol. 38, issue 11, 2396-2410

Abstract: This essay focuses attention on a current of socialist internationalism within imperial Britain and the formative role played by racialised outsiders of Irish Catholic, Jewish and Indian descent in actualising anti-racism and anti-imperialism. The collective memories of colonial subjugation combined with their outsider status within Britain itself endowed them with a second sight that enabled them to see through the usual fog of blood and belonging and act as a leavening agent connecting the struggles of workers of different ethnicities within Britain, as well as with those beyond. The essay concludes with a call to accommodate the emancipatory potential of the racialised outsider position in critical theory and practice. In particular, if contemporary Marxism is to remain relevant, it must be stretched to accommodate the specificity of racism and anti-racism without reducing it to class. The lessons for political practice appear equally compelling: emancipatory politics today need to accommodate how identifications of race are materially inscribed social realities which can facilitate resistance against racism. In that sense, socialist political practice will have to be more intersectional if a sustainable solidarity is to be forged between the ethnically diverse proletariat in the imperialist core, as well as with those beyond.

Date: 2017
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DOI: 10.1080/01436597.2017.1328274

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