Raya Dunayevskaya on Race, Resistance, and Revolutionary Humanism

Abstract

We are living through a resurgence of class reductionist politics that place emphasis on universal class demands over racial and gender oppression. Raya Dunayevskaya in her foresight posits that the resistances of Black masses are pivotal to a new and revolutionary humanism. This chapter is devoted to exploring Dunayevskaya’s concept of Black masses as vanguard as relates to our current political moment. Through her astute analysis of the slave revolts, the Black nationalism of the 1920s, the Black mass movements of the civil rights era, the anti-war activism by Black youth and the resistance of Black folks during the neo-conservative era Dunayevskaya challenges us to realize Marx’s revolution in permanence. She emphasizes the role of the Black dimension as being vital to overthrowing systems of domination and establishing new human relations. This chapter analyzes current day conversations on identity politics, Black anti-imperial resistances, Black activism against state violence and Black feminist prison abolition movements as relates to her work. Not only has Dunayevskaya offered us important theoretical tools to understand our racial past, she remains an important thinker and radical humanist that is relevant for our times.