here is the summary and analysis, feel free to use this to follow along
Im gonna switch it up and say no discussion question this week to try to encourage a more natural dialog socratic seminar style. just talk about what you liked, didn't like, didn't understand, and try to respond to one person in the comments! lets just give it a try! English translation by Richard Philcox – https://ia801708.us.archive.org/3/items/the-wretched-of-the-earth/The Wretched Of The Earth.pdf – you'd be reading from page 42 to 311 of this PDF, 270 pages
English translation by Constance Farrington – https://abahlali.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Frantz-Fanon-The-Wretched-of-the-Earth-1965.pdf
Original French text – https://monoskop.org/images/9/9d/Fanon_Frantz_Les_damnés_de_la_terre_2002.pdf
English audio version – https://inv.tux.pizza/playlist?list=PLZ_8DduHfUd2r1OOCtKh0M6Q9xD5RaR3S – about 12h20m – Alternative links
soundcloud audio book english https://soundcloud.com/listenleft/sets/frantz-fanon-the-wretched-of-the-earth
Schedule
8/20/23 - pre-face and chapter one On violence
8/27/23- chapter two Grandeur and Weakness of Spontaneity
9/3/23- chapter three The Trials and Tribulations of National Consciousness
9/10/23- chapter four On National Culture
9/17/23 chapter five Colonial war and Mental Disorders and conclusion
I do for the most part. Centralization leads to ossification and the creation of a bureaucratic class that's out of touch with the working class because at a certain point, they're no longer workers but managers. The problem is that while decentralization is needed for decolonization and socialist construction, it is terrible for overthrowing the oppressor class in the way Fanon outlined in the previous chapter. In general, I don't agree with the framing that (Western) anarchists and Marxists have with respect to decentralization vs centralization as two polar opposites and not orientations that has a time and place like Fanon outlines.
I always feel biassed towards centralization, but fanon certainly makes a strong case. different conditions requires a different response of course.