ABSTRACT
Drawing on Nancy Fraser’s critique of mainstream multiculturalism, this essay draws out an approach rooted in the distinctive revolutionary Marxist tradition. It is first worth revisiting Fraser’s insights regarding the shortcomings of the programs offered by the liberal welfare state, as well as her identification of the tendency to reify difference, evident in many of the civic and social proposals to redress prejudice on the basis of race, gender, and sexuality. However, we can also identify a consistently Marxist approach to these questions that precedes Fraser’s intervention. I draw this out by means of engagement with the history of Marxist positions on the national question, as presented in particular by V. I. Lenin, and the decolonizing and anti-racist practice of subsequent Marxist figures. In particular, I emphasize the work of a heterodox Marxist, Frantz Fanon, in extending the tradition’s relevance to questions of cultural oppression.
