SocialistStories حكايات اشتراكية

This is the first book (120pg) written by Sengalese communist Sembene Ousmane. He wrote it in 1956 in France, where he was working as a docker in Marseilles and was also actively involved with the CGT and the French Communist Party. This book is written against the strong and disgusting racism that the French directed against the "colonial" immigrants in France at that time (and of course this racism continues to this day), and the economic oppression of these immigrant workers which went hand in hand with it.

Sembene also makes clear the difference that class makes, showing several examples of normal French people behaving towards the immigrants as they would with any other person, their outlook not clouded by racial prejudice, the two united by their common economic position and the oppression against them. In this book Sembene also describes the miserable lives of these immigrants: living in horrible, run-down buildings because it's the only housing they can afford, working long hours in a completely unstable job without any contract or guarantee that they won't be kicked out the next day, and suffering from the racism which surrounds them...and all of this leading many to drink, or to lashing out at each other in fights and arguments, or to not valuing their life any more and sinking into depression.

The Black Docker also delves into the issue of workers and literature, an issue obviously very significant for Sembene, since he was a worker when he published his first book. The "Black Docker" in the book, Diaw, has impressive literary talents, very like Sembene, but he is just a poor worker, and has to work long, exhausting hours as basically a human mule hauling heavy loads from ships, and Diaw complains at one point: How am I to find time and energy to write when i have to work all day to have enough money to eat, and when I get home I am too tired to do anything? Of course this is an important problem all over, and capitalism surely crushes many times the number of working class writers than manage to break through this seemingly solid barrier of oppression. And Diaw manages to break through the twin barriers of capitalist economic oppression and racism, and is punished for his success, his talents, and his intelligence. Let us keep these thoughts in mind and never give up struggling and resisting capitalism! Enjoy comrades:

Liberation:

The Black Docker - Sembene Ousmane.pdf