3 George Orwell, pan-Africanism and reconciling antiimperialism with ‘Britishness’
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Theo Williams
Abstract
This chapter explores how activist-intellectuals on the British left attempted to reconcile ‘Britishness’ and ‘Englishness’ with anti-imperialism, focusing particularly on the political thought of George Orwell, George Padmore and C. L. R. James. In so doing, the chapter moves beyond the usual scholarly concern with Orwell’s Burma writings to examine his (anti-)imperialist politics during the late 1930s and the 1940s. Orwell can productively be read in conjunction with figures such as James and Padmore for a number of reasons: perhaps most obviously because of the synchronicity of their works and their shared association with the Independent Labour Party, but also because each held a sense of ‘Britishness’/‘Englishness’ that was forged in a colonial context. Padmore and James, through embracing certain forms of British identity, made claims for the ending of colonial subjecthood and the creation of a socialist commonwealth. Orwell invoked English patriotism as the basis of a future socialist revolution. These invocations of ‘Britishness’ and ‘Englishness’ were not identical, but each hinged on recovering and reinterpreting what the respective actor considered to be radical traditions of Britishness or Englishness in order to serve a contemporary left-wing end. Ultimately, Orwell’s politics would diverge from James and Padmore’s, as he supported the British war effort during the Second World War, while James and Padmore opposed it. But this episode points to an instructive example of how left-wing actors have sought to reconcile anti-imperialism with Britishness, and the fault lines they have encountered in doing so.
Abstract
This chapter explores how activist-intellectuals on the British left attempted to reconcile ‘Britishness’ and ‘Englishness’ with anti-imperialism, focusing particularly on the political thought of George Orwell, George Padmore and C. L. R. James. In so doing, the chapter moves beyond the usual scholarly concern with Orwell’s Burma writings to examine his (anti-)imperialist politics during the late 1930s and the 1940s. Orwell can productively be read in conjunction with figures such as James and Padmore for a number of reasons: perhaps most obviously because of the synchronicity of their works and their shared association with the Independent Labour Party, but also because each held a sense of ‘Britishness’/‘Englishness’ that was forged in a colonial context. Padmore and James, through embracing certain forms of British identity, made claims for the ending of colonial subjecthood and the creation of a socialist commonwealth. Orwell invoked English patriotism as the basis of a future socialist revolution. These invocations of ‘Britishness’ and ‘Englishness’ were not identical, but each hinged on recovering and reinterpreting what the respective actor considered to be radical traditions of Britishness or Englishness in order to serve a contemporary left-wing end. Ultimately, Orwell’s politics would diverge from James and Padmore’s, as he supported the British war effort during the Second World War, while James and Padmore opposed it. But this episode points to an instructive example of how left-wing actors have sought to reconcile anti-imperialism with Britishness, and the fault lines they have encountered in doing so.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- Series editors’ foreword vii
- List of abbreviations viii
- Introduction – Anti- racism in Britain 1
- I Domestic, imperial and global anti-racist alliances and encounters 23
- 1 Countering racial discrimination in Britain, 1880s–1913 25
- 2 From racist humanitarianism to colonial human rights 44
- 3 George Orwell, pan-Africanism and reconciling antiimperialism with ‘Britishness’ 64
- 4 British anti-racism in Australia 79
- II Anti- racism and the making of post imperial Britain 101
- 5 Celebrating African culture in the north- east of England, 1930s–40s 103
- 6 British Jews and the Race Relations Acts 124
- 7 South Asian political Blackness in Britain 143
- 8 ‘Unfinished activisms’ 164
- III Anti-racism, memory and identity 185
- 9 Memory, multiculturalism and anti- racism in east London, 1990–2006 187
- 10 Tartan inclusivity or workers’ internationalism? The St Andrew’s Day Anti-Racism March and Rally in Scotland 207
- 11 ‘Martin Luther King fought for a colour-blind society’ 228
- Afterword 247
- Index 254
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- Series editors’ foreword vii
- List of abbreviations viii
- Introduction – Anti- racism in Britain 1
- I Domestic, imperial and global anti-racist alliances and encounters 23
- 1 Countering racial discrimination in Britain, 1880s–1913 25
- 2 From racist humanitarianism to colonial human rights 44
- 3 George Orwell, pan-Africanism and reconciling antiimperialism with ‘Britishness’ 64
- 4 British anti-racism in Australia 79
- II Anti- racism and the making of post imperial Britain 101
- 5 Celebrating African culture in the north- east of England, 1930s–40s 103
- 6 British Jews and the Race Relations Acts 124
- 7 South Asian political Blackness in Britain 143
- 8 ‘Unfinished activisms’ 164
- III Anti-racism, memory and identity 185
- 9 Memory, multiculturalism and anti- racism in east London, 1990–2006 187
- 10 Tartan inclusivity or workers’ internationalism? The St Andrew’s Day Anti-Racism March and Rally in Scotland 207
- 11 ‘Martin Luther King fought for a colour-blind society’ 228
- Afterword 247
- Index 254
