Migrants and Militants E-Book

Alain Badiou

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Seitenzahl: 45

Beschreibung

The question of migration has come to dominate the news agenda in many countries, but what does the word 'migrant' really mean today and how should we respond to those who are labelled 'migrants'? In this short book Alain Badiou argues that our way of thinking about migration should be governed both by an ethical duty to welcome the migrant in the name of hospitality and also by the urgent need to put an end to the global capitalist oligarchy that has produced the migrant as a figure of contemporary crisis. For the 'migrant,' argues Badiou, is in fact a nomadic proletarian. Today, our homeland is the world, and any meaningful politics must include those who come to us and who represent the universal nomadic proletariat. Writing with the rigor, clarity, and polemical flair that have made him one of the world's most influential philosophers, and drawing on a rich body of material including contemporary poetry and the words of an anonymous migrant, Badiou develops a powerful riposte to those who have stoked the fear of migrants and exploited the migration question for political ends.

Leseprobe

CONTENTS

Cover

Front Matter

Migrants and Militants

Notes

End User License Agreement

Guide

Cover

Table of Contents

Begin Reading

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Migrants and Militants

Alain Badiou

Translated by Joseph Litvak

polity

Originally published in French as Méfiez-vous des blancs, habitants du rivage © Librairie Arthème Fayard, 2019 This English edition © Polity Press, 2020

‘A Massively Single Number’ by Guo Jinniu from Yang Lian (ed.), A Massively Single Number (Bristol: Shearsman Books, 2015), translated by Brian Holton.Original poem copyright © Guo Jinniu, 2015; translation copyright © Brian Holton, 2015. Reproduced here by kind permission of Shearsman Books.

Excerpt from Of Hospitality by Jacques Derrida and Anne Dufourmantelle. Translated by Rachel Bowlby.Copyright © by Calmann-Lévy. English translation © 2000 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All rights reserved.

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All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-4247-5

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataNames: Badiou, Alain, author. | Litvak, Joseph, translator.Title: Migrants and militants / Alain Badiou ; translated by Joseph Litvak.Other titles: Méfiez-vous des Blancs, habitants du rivage. EnglishDescription: Cambridge ; Medford, MA : Polity, [2020] | “Originally published in French as Méfiez-vous des blancs, habitants du rivage! ©Librairie Arthème Fayard, 2019.” | Includes bibliographical references. | Summary: “France’s leading philosopher gives a powerful account of our obligations to migrants”-- Provided by publisher.Identifiers: LCCN 2019047001 (print) | LCCN 2019047002 (ebook) | ISBN 9781509542451 (hardback) | ISBN 9781509542468 (paperback) | ISBN 9781509542475 (epub)Subjects: LCSH: Emigration and immigration. | Refugees. | Other (Philosophy)Classification: LCC JV6035 .B3413 2020 (print) | LCC JV6035 (ebook) | DDC 305.9/0691--dc23LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019047001LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019047002

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The first version of this text was a lecture given at the Maison de la Poésie in Paris. The idea for this evening came from the Textes & Voix group, directed by Nadine Eghels.

I place at the threshold of this book a ‘Madagascan Song’, written in 1783 by Évaryste de Parny, apparently inspired by Madagascan traditions. The song shows – and this is good news – that a radical, indeed violent anti-colonialism is as old as colonialism itself. Maurice Ravel, who was himself a true progressive, and who in particular supported the Bolsheviks, took this text, in 1926, as the basis for a superb melody.

A.B.

Beware of the white men,

You dwellers on the shore.

In the time of our fathers,

White men descended on this island.

One said to them: here is land,

May your wives cultivate it;

Be just, be good,

And become our brothers.

The white men promised, and yet

They built entrenchments.

A menacing fort arose;

The thunder was enclosed

In brass canons;

Their priests wanted to give us

A God that we did not know;

They spoke at last

Of obedience and of slavery.

Sooner death!

The carnage was long and terrible;

But despite the lightning that they vomited,

And that crushed whole armies,

They were all exterminated.

Beware of the white men!

We saw new tyrants,

Stronger and more numerous,

Plant their flag on the shore:

The sky fought for us;

It made rain fall on them,

Tempests and poisonous winds.

They are no more, and we live free.

Beware of the white men,

You dwellers on the shore.

‘Madagascan Song’, Évaryste de Parny

Migrants and Militants

In certain situations, apparently, one issue can have the power to wipe away another, which had until then seemed to be the most important one.