Abstract
Comrade—a single word that conjures a strong emotional response deep within so many. For some, perhaps it brings to mind nostalgia for another time. To others, maybe the word suggests fear and distrust that lingers on despite the passing of Cold War tensions. No matter the characterization, surely a word that invokes such a strong response is more than just a word.
In her most recent book, Comrade: An Essay on Political Belonging, Jodi Dean argues just that—“comrade” is more than a word. Building on her previous works on the promise and potential of communism as an alternative to liberal capitalism (The Communist Horizon), and the need for recent anti-capitalist movements to manifest themselves in a political party (Crowds and Party), Dean argues for the recentering of the Left around a common political belonging, one which she finds in the essence of the comrade. In her book, Dean posits that, more than just a word, comrade “indexes a political relation, a set of expectations for action toward a common goal” (2).
Critical of the Left's current preoccupation with identity politics, and the call to allyship that so often follows as a means to dismantle oppression, Dean argues that if the Left is ever to demand real radical change, it must abandon these individualizing social processes and find solidarity and belonging in the common struggle against the oppressive forces of capitalism. Dean locates this solidarity in the social processes encompassed in the comrade—a true political relationship “between those on the same side of a political struggle” (3). Throughout, Dean draws upon past examples of the use of the word comrade situated within their unique contexts to demonstrate her argument about the social and political potential of the term. In her own words, it is an attempt to salvage that potential “for present struggles for another future” (25).
The recentering of Leftist politics on solidarity is the overarching highlight of Dean's Comrade. Dean brings the reader's attention back to the underlying cause of oppression: racist, patriarchal capitalism. She posits that these are not three separate forces but instead one system of exploitation to which all struggles can be linked. Further, Dean brilliantly outlines the psychosocial potential of solidarity encompassed in the comrade—a set of ideals, a form of belonging, a fidelity to a common truth—that might be seen as a prerequisite for any attempt to create meaningful change. Indeed, it is a force so compelling that Comrade leaves one longing for the experience of true comradeship.
While powerful in its focus on solidarity, Dean's quickness to discount the role of identity and calls to allyship creates apparent contradictions. Indeed, one might be forgiven for having the impression that Dean brushes aside the very different ways that diverse identities experience oppression. While Dean argues that comrade represents a political belonging that bridges identity, it can also be understood as an identity itself—one that Dean believes must be privileged in order to build collective action. Dean's dismissal of allyship and her insistence that it is somehow mutually exclusive from comradeship is at times puzzling. Indeed, a rush to dismiss identity as unimportant may be seen as discounting experiences of oppression. This has the potential to undermine the creation of solidarity or, worse yet, create a solidarity that works to reproduce the racial and patriarchal structures it names as its common enemy.
In all, Comrade is a thought-provoking, emotive call to action; it is a powerful reminder of the complexity of identity in comradeship and what becomes possible when true solidarity is the modus operandi of the Left. This book is a must-read for all those on the Left looking for a focal point and striving for a sense of belonging amid what often feels like a myriad of struggles in today's political landscape.