Comrade: An Essay on Political Belonging by Dean, Jodi

ISBN: 1788735013

Author: Dean, Jodi

Condition: new

When people say comrade, they change the worldIn the twentieth century, millions of people across the globe addressed each other as comrade. Now, among the left, its more common to hear talk of allies. In Comrade, Jodi Dean insists that this shift exemplifies the key problem with the contemporary left: the substitution of political identity for a relationship of political belonging that must be built, sustained, and defended.Dean offers a theory of the comrade. Comrades are equals on the same side of a political struggle. Voluntarily coming together in the struggle for justice, their relationship is characterized by discipline, joy, courage, and enthusiasm. Considering the egalitarianism of the comrade in light of differences of race and gender, Dean draws from an array of historical and literary examples such as Harry Haywood, C.L.R. James, Alexandra Kollontai, and Doris Lessing. She argues that if we are to be a left at all, we have to be comrades.