Rednecks and Barbarians

Houria Bouteldja is one of the most interesting antiracist decolonial activists. Known for her incisive analysis, Bouteldja offers a strong argument for unity between rednecks and barbariansFrançoise Vergès, author ofA Programme of Absolute DisorderBouteldja throws all our certainties into the air, and with brilliant precision, reassembles them. Clear and uncompromising,she points towards a truly emancipatory futureAlana Lentin, author ofWhy Race Still MattersA masterpieceFrançois Bégaudeau, author ofThe Class In Europe and North America, the white working class is increasingly tempted by right-wing political parties. Fascistic candidates and ideas seem to reap the fruits of social unrest everywhere. With her usual thought-provoking and unyielding insights, Houria Bouteldja shows how the history of the left explains this conundrum and how we can overcome it. Drawing from Black radical and decolonial Marxism, she shows that privileging white constituencies, unions, and left parties laid the foundations for a racial contract that binds workers and the poor tothe state. However, there may still be a way out of this trap. Uniting rednecks (the white working class) and barbarians (the racially oppressed) requires a project of popular sovereignty, where national identity is transformed through revolutionary love. Looking to the future, Bouteldja imagines antiracism as a redemptive struggle aimed at rehabilitating marginalized communities and redefining white dignity. Houria Bouteldjais a French-Algerian political activist and writer. She was spokesperson for the Party of the Indigenous of the Republic until 2020. She is the author ofWhites, Jews, and Us: Toward a Politics of Revolutionary Love.