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Walter Rodney: A Lightning Rod of Black Working Class Power

Dissecting the impact of slavery and colonialism on the history of international capitalism, and the global meaning of Black Power.

Verso Books24 August 2023

Walter Rodney: A Lightning Rod of Black Working Class Power

Walter Rodney described himself as a guerrilla intellectual, committed to studying the concrete realities of the working class. He believed in the centrality of education in revolutionary struggle and, alongside his work as a professor, he wrote two children’s books that challenged racial division in Guyana. As Robin D G Kelley says in this episode of The Verso Podcast, we are all Walter Rodney. 

Forty-four years on from his assassination, his work remains incredibly prescient. Here we present his groundbreaking works, as well as key excerpts and essays on Walter Rodney from the Verso Blog.

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Walter Rodney: Guerilla Intellectual with Robin D.G. Kelley and Kevin Okoth Ochieng on The Verso Podcast - see all platform links here.

Walter Rodney on the Verso Blog:

Colonialism as a System for Underdeveloping Africa: an excerpt from How Europe Underdeveloped Africa

Walter Rodney’s Marxist approach to African underdevelopment: an excerpt from Walter Rodney’s Decolonial Marxism.

Walter Rodney and the Russian Revolution: Vijay Prashad on the importance of Walter Rodney's lectures on the Russian Revolution.

Walter Rodney and the Question of Power: C.L.R. James discusses Rodney's work in relation to the revolutionary seizure of power.

Pan-Afrikanism, Marxism and the Next Generation: Kevin Ochieng Okoth celebrates the work and legacy of Walter Rodney.

Walter Rodney's Legacy by Angela Davis.

See all our Author Bookshelves here. See all our reading from Walter Rodney here.

How Europe Underdeveloped Africa
How Europe Underdeveloped Africa is an ambitious masterwork of political economy, detailing the impact of slavery and colonialism on the history of international capitalism. In this classic book, R...
Decolonial Marxism

Decolonial Marxism

Early in life, Walter Rodney became a major revolutionary figure in a dizzying range of locales that traversed the breadth of the Black diaspora: in North America and Europe, in the Caribbean and o...
The Russian Revolution
Preface by Jesse Benjamin and the Walter Rodney FoundationIntroduction by Robin D.G. KelleyAfterword by Vijay PrashadIn his short life, the Guyanese intellectual Walter Rodney emerged as one of the...
The Groundings With My Brothers
In his short life, the Guyanese intellectual Walter Rodney emerged as one of the leading thinkers and activists of the anticolonial revolution, leading movements in North America, South America, th...
Red Africa
Red Africa makes the case for a revolutionary Black politics inspired by Marxist anticolonial struggles in Africa. Contemporary debates on Black radicalism and decolonisation have lost sight of the...

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