ABSTRACT
This chapter presents begins by discussing the historical context of the vanguard of the marginalized (or the “subaltern”), arising in the period after the “Golden Age” of vanguardism in the first half of the twentieth century. In explicating how social, technological, and political changes in the period following the Second World War created an environment that encouraged the proliferation of “revolutionary subjects” (epistemologically-privileged populations), the chapter explains how subaltern-vanguardism derives from earlier vanguardist forms, as well as how the historical context necessitated the importance of alliance formations between varying “revolutionary subjects”. This form of vanguardism is derivative, as the epistemologically-privileged populations include class, race, and nation, and in that the common view of struggle is based in the Hegelian “master-slave” dialectic, filtered through Marx. The chapter presents the works of Fanon – and his reception among vanguardist groups – as an example of subaltern ideology. The chapter concludes by presenting in greater detail the alliance basis for subaltern forms of vanguardism, and how this need for alliances creates the central importance of the Enemy population in subaltern-vanguardism. Groups considered include the Weather Underground, Red Army Faction, and the Black Panther Party, among others.
