The Wretched of the Earth

by Frantz Fanon

violence continues to progress, the colonized subject identifies his enemy, puts a name to all of his misfortunes, and casts all his exacerbated hatred and rage in this new direction.

In this age of the Sputnik we might think it ridiculous to die of hunger, but for the colonized masses the explanation is more down to earth.

certain developing countries, therefore, they are quick to catch on and realize two or three years after independence their hopes have been dashed: "What was the point of fighting" if nothing was really destined to change? In 1789, after the bourgeois French Revolution, the humblest French peasant gained substantially from the upheaval. But it is common knowledge that for 95 percent of the population in developing countries, independence has not brought any immediate change. Any observer with a keen eye is aware of a kind of latent discontent which like glowing embers constantly threatens to flare up again.

All this is quite normal. The nationalist leaders know that international opinion is forged solely by the Western press. When a Western journalist interviews us, however, it is seldom done to render us service.

For the colonized subject, objectivity is always directed against him.

Powerful. This truth deserves further discussion.

what Mr. Khrushchev is showing the colonized countries who are watching, is that he, the missile-wielding muzhik, is treating these wretched capitalists the way they deserve. Likewise Castro attending the UN in military uniform does not scandalize the underdeveloped countries. What Castro is demonstrating is how aware he is of the continuing regime of violence.

greater threat, as far as imperialism is concerned, is that socialist propaganda might infiltrate the masses and contaminate them.

The colonized, underdeveloped man is today a political creature in the most global sense of the term.

And first and foremost, stating the principle "It's them or us" is not a paradox since colonialism, as we have seen, is precisely the organization of a Manichaean world, of a compartmentalized world.

Violence among the colonized will spread in proportion to the violence exerted by the colonial regime.

The most alienated of the colonized are once and for all demystified by this pendulum motion of terror and counterterror. They see for themselves that any number of speeches on human equality cannot mask the absurdity whereby seven Frenchmen killed or wounded in an ambush at the Sakamody pass sparks the indignation of civilized consciences, whereas the sacking of the Guergour douars, the Djerah dechra, and the massacre of the population behind the ambush count for nothing.

The armed struggle mobilizes the people, i.e., it pitches them in a single direction, from which there is no turning back. When it is achieved during a war of liberation the mobilization of the masses introduces the notion of common cause, national destiny, and collective history into every consciousness.

This European opulence is literally a scandal for it was built on the backs of slaves, it fed on the blood of slaves, and owes its very existence to the soil and subsoil of the underdeveloped world. Europe's well-being and progress were built with the sweat and corpses of blacks, Arabs, Indians, and Asians.

see is the colonizer withdrawing his capital and technicians and encircling the young nation with an apparatus of economic pressure.9 The apotheosis of independence becomes the curse of independence.

sign agreements and commit themselves. The formerly colonized territory is now turned into an economically dependent country.

The basic confrontation which seemed to be colonialism versus anticolonialism, indeed capitalism versus socialism, is already losing its importance. What matters today, the issue which blocks the horizon, is the need for a redistribution of wealth. Humanity will have to address this question, no matter how devastating the consequences may be.

The Third World must not be content to define itself in relation to values which preceded it.

Colonialism and imperialism have not settled their debt to us once they have withdrawn their flag and their police force from our territories. For centuries the capitalists have behaved like real war criminals in the underdeveloped world.

Moral reparation for national independence does not fool us and it doesn't feed us. The wealth of the imperialist nations is also our wealth.

then realize that their true interests lie in aiding, and massively aiding without too many conditions, the underdeveloped countries. It

is clear therefore that the young nations of the Third World are wrong to grovel at the feet of the capitalist countries. We are powerful in our own right and the justness of our position.

at the level of the individual and human rights what is fascism but colonialism at the very heart of traditionally colonialist countries?

Haphazard killings are now backed up by premeditated murder. Stop the bloodshed, urged the UN. The best way of doing so, retorts Lacoste, is to have no more blood to shed.

In any union or political organization there is a traditional gap between the masses who demand an immediate, unconditional improvement of their situation, and the cadres who, gauging the difficulties likely to be created by employers, put a restraint on their demands.

It is the repeated demonstrations for their rights and the repeated labor disputes that politicize the masses.

The notion of party is a notion imported from the metropolis. This instrument of modern resistance is grafted onto a protean, unbalanced reality where slavery, bondage, barter, cottage industries, and stock transactions exist side by side.

In the capitalist countries, the proletariat has nothing to lose and possibly everything to gain. In the colonized countries, the proletariat has everything to lose.

a static society, clinging to a rigid context, can of course sporadically generate episodes of religious fanaticism and tribal warfare. But in their spontaneity the rural masses remain disciplined and altruistic. The individual steps aside in favor of the community.

The political parties are unable to establish roots in the countryside. Instead of adapting the existing structures in order to invest them with nationalist or progressive elements, they are intent on disrupting traditional existence within the context of the colonial system.

the mesh of the colonial system is still tightly interlocked. They make no effort to reach out to the masses. They do not place their theoretical knowledge at the service of the people, but instead try to regiment

There is no contamination of the rural movement by the urban movement. Each side evolves according to its own dialectic. At a time when the rural masses are totally receptive, the nationalist parties make no attempt to introduce them to an agenda. They have no objective to offer and simply hope that the movement will continue indefinitely and that the bombardments will not win the day. We thus see that the nationalist parties do not make use of even this opportunity to integrate the rural masses and raise their political awareness as well as their struggle to a higher level.

The stronghold of colonialism, the capital, has difficulty withstanding such a battering. But the rural masses of the interior remain unaffected by this confrontation.

therefore, a clear disproportion from the national point of view between the importance of the labor unions and the rest of the nation.

the nationalist parties' will to smash colonialism works hand in hand with the will to remain on good terms with the colonial authorities.

For them, being activists in a national party is not a question of politics but the only way of casting off their animal status for a human one.

they use their period of detention to compare ideas and harden their determination.

We do see this. Mandela, Assata, Angela, even King.

leads to the formation of an underground party, parallel to the official party. But the repression of these irredeemable elements intensifies as the official party draws closer to colonialism and attempts to change it "from the inside."

They realize at last that change does not mean reform, that change does not mean improvement.

The problem is clear-cut: The foreigners must leave. Let us build a common front against the oppressor and let us reinforce it with armed struggle.

Israel and Gaza.

The art of politics is quite simply transformed into the art of war. The militant becomes the fighter. To wage war and to engage in politics are one and the same thing.

In guerrilla warfare, in fact, you no longer fight on the spot but on the march. Every fighter carries the soil of the homeland to war between his bare toes.

the leaders of the insurrection realize that their units need enlightening, instruction, and indoctrination; an army needs to be created, a central authority established.

Lenin and even Marx pushed this sentiment. Revolution is needed but is unsuccessful if the people do not know the reason for the fight.

raise the consciousness of the men in combat.

lumpenproletariat

The unorganized and unpolitical lower class who does not have class consciousness and seems to not be interested.

National unity crumbles, the insurrection is at a crucial turning point. The political education of the masses is now recognized as an historical necessity.

As long as he imagined he could switch straight from colonized subject to sovereign citizen of an independent nation, as long as he believed in the mirage sustained by his unmediated physical strength, the colonized achieved no real progress along the road to knowledge.

Racism, hatred, resentment, and "the legitimate desire for revenge" alone cannot nurture a war of liberation.

There is therefore a need to save one's strength and not waste it by throwing everything into the balance. The reserves of

colonized, at the most, can accept a concession from the colonial authorities, but never a compromise.

this core which constitutes the embryonic political body of the insurrection. As for the peasants, they improve their knowledge through practical experience and prove apt to lead the people's struggle.