Left Transnationalism: The Communist International and the National, Colonial, and Racial Questions ed. by Oleksa Drachewych and Ian McKay

Abstract

Reviewed by: Left Transnationalism: The Communist International and the National, Colonial, and Racial Questions ed. by Oleksa Drachewych and Ian McKay Matthew Galway Drachewych, Oleksa and Ian McKay, eds. – Left Transnationalism: The Communist International and the National, Colonial, and Racial Questions. Montréal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2020. 448 p. In a May 26, 1943, "Report on the Dissolution of the Communist International" (關於共產國際解散問題毛澤東同志作詳盡報告/Guanyu gongchanguoji jiesan wenti Mao Zedong tongzhi zuo xiangjin baogao), Mao Zedong reflected on the Comintern's great contribution to the Chinese Communist revolution. He averred that throughout its quarter-century of existence, the Comintern "has rendered the greatest services in helping each country to organize a truly revolutionary workers' party, and it has also contributed enormously to the great cause of organizing the anti-fascist war." Mao's reflection on its past utility then segued to an explanation of why it had outlived its purpose: "It is a principle of Marxism-Leninism that the forms of revolutionary organizations must conform to the necessities of the revolutionary struggle. If a form of organization no longer suits the necessities of the struggle, then this form of organization must be abolished … To continue this organizational form would, on the contrary, hinder the development of the revolutionary struggle in each country." Mao's appraisal of the Comintern as a force behind Communist movements worldwide and as an organizational body that applied obdurately its "Moscow Line" approach instead of adapting to suit specific movements, is where Left Transnationalism breaks new ground. At its heart, as editors Oleksa Drachewych and Ian Mackay note in the Introduction, Left Transnationalism constitutes a "post-post-Cold War project" that throws overdue light on horizontal links that operated "without the direct involvement of Moscow" (pp. 6, 35). Each contributor to the volume sets about "establishing the foundation for new approaches" upon which "there might emerge new insights into the global cultural challenge constituted by the revolutionary upheaval that the Comintern sought to accelerate" (p. 33). The volume consists of four parts: "Orientations," "Transnational Personal Relationships," "Race and Colonialism," and "National Questions." In a comprehensive opening chapter of the first part, Lars Lih explores the links between the Third International and prewar revolutionary social democracy. He casts the Third International as a body that held "a global perspective from the very beginning," but one that did not necessarily deviate from "the original model of revolutionary social democracy" (pp. 56, 68). S. A. Smith tells the story of the Bolshevik Revolution's resonance in the colonized Global South in two halves. First, it asks how the Bolsheviks came to value the "twin issues" of national self-determination and anti-colonial revolution amid socialist crises at home and elsewhere on the continent. Second, it explores the propagation of the October Revolution's symbolic capital as a watershed event with global applicability through horizontal transnational connections (pp. 74, 86). The next two chapters, by John Riddell and Alastair Kocho-Williams, shift the focus to Comintern efforts to forge unity against, undermine, and openly resist European colonial and imperial domination in Asia. [End Page 192] An exceptional entry to the second part is Sandra Pujals' chapter on Latin American and Caribbean poputchiki, or "fellow travelers," such as Seki Sano, Arcady Boylter, Ángel Del Río, and James Sager. These artists and luminaries had "direct, short-lived, or even accidental" relationships with the Comintern's worldwide network, which, as Pujals demonstrates, "underscores the Comintern's presence in the region even after its period of activity" (pp. 156–157). Another excellent contribution, by Xiaofei Tu, explores two incidents of outright betrayal by Japanese Communist Party (JCP) leader Nosaka Sanzo of his comrades Yamamoto Kenzo (to the Comintern) and Ito Ritsu Sanzo (to the Chinese Communist Party). Through a critical analysis of Japanese autobiographies, media reports, and Japanese Communist Party journals, Xu concludes that Sanzo's justification for these betrayals was a mix of careerism, "self-protection," "power-hunger," and a purportedly unshakeable loyalty to global Communism (pp. 218–219). Three chapters stand out from the subsequent two parts: Chapter 10 by Marc Becker, Chapter 11 by Kankan Xie, and Chapter 15 by Anna Belogurova. Becker's contribution...