three Questions with MARCEL PARET author of Fractured Militancy

1. What inspired you to write this book?

This book is the culmination of more than a decade of research and publishing on South African society. I decided to write the book for two related reasons: first, to pull together the various themes and threads of my research – on protest, economic precarity, community formation, social movements, xenophobia, and electoral politics, among others – into a coherent narrative; and second, to make a definitive statement about the character and consequences of South Africa’s transition from apartheid to democracy. To accomplish these

3. In what ways will your book resonate with readers?

The race story. This book is about the failure of formal racial inclusion to deliver Black liberation. It is also about how the process of racial inclusion both encourages ongoing struggles for Black liberation, and fragments or divides those struggles. This could be one hook about the long arc of Black movements, or two hooks about the process of racial inclusion and subsequent protests. Related to all of this is the comparative story about the similarities and differences between South Africa and the ends, I needed the book form.

2. How will your book make a difference to the field?

My central contribution is to demonstrate the centrality of capitalist politics and class struggle to dynamics surrounding race and social movements. Through a novel theoretical framework based on the idea of “passive revolution,” I show how capitalism shapes processes of racial inclusion and popular mobilization.

United States, which I address in the Preface and Conclusion. The inequality and resistance story. This book is about a world of rising inequality, written from the perspective of one of the world’s most unequal cities (Johannesburg) and countries (South Africa). It is also about the possibility of popular resistance and social change towards greater equality. I show that those at the very bottom have agency and their own diverse politics. At the same time, however, movements “from below” are divided, thwarting possibilities for effective change.