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Periodic reminder that George Orwell was an anti-communist snitch who wrote a list of people he suspected of being Communists (or Communist sympathisers) & gave it to the UK Government’s anti-Communist propaganda unit, the Information Research Department.
The list included people like John Steinbeck and the incredible Paul Robeson, who Orwell shamefully described as being “very anti-white”. In fact, the list is replete with racist comments made by Orwell about the people he snitched on.
Orwell was also a colonial policeman who in his writing about that period of his life in “Burmese Days” can barely conceal his hatred for the “natives”.
Orwell also can’t contain his disdain for the working class in “The Road to Wigan Pier”. I re-read some passages after someone pointed that out to me and it’s striking.
Paul Robeson was a truly remarkable person who suffered enormously because he was an unapologetic Communist and Orwell’s simultaneous slander of/snitching on him was disgusting. https://twitter.com/louis_allday/status/1098305082888724481?s=21
Details of Orwell’s list can be found in ‘Who Paid the Piper?: The CIA and the Cultural Cold War’ by Frances Stonor Saunders.
A review of Saunders’ book by Edward Said here: https://www.lrb.co.uk/v21/n19/edward-said/hey-mister-you-want-dirty-book
I’m finding people in my mentions defending Orwell’s actions hilarious. If you think it’s acceptable to collaborate with the intelligence services of the British Empire against the Soviet Union because “Stalin”, then maybe you’re actually a social imperialist, not a communist.
Also on Orwell's snitch list was Charlie Chaplin, after whose name Orwell commented "Jewish?"
Details of the list written by Orwell from a Frances Stonor Saunders article re. MI5's monitoring of Eric Hosbawm. https://www.lrb.co.uk/v37/n07/frances-stonorsaunders/stuck-on-the-flypaper?fbclid=IwAR3Ns3iK3SYRTOsn43_UDsmLFJTuijAOQGHCpWi22-m5tIMTzS1URJRVgBg
George Orwell's racist thoughts on the inhabitants of Marrakesh: When you walk through a town like this...when you see how the people live, and still more how
easily they die, it is always difficult to believe that you are walking
among human beings" http://www.george-orwell.org/Marrakech/0.html
easily they die, it is always difficult to believe that you are walking
among human beings" http://www.george-orwell.org/Marrakech/0.html
The tone of that whole essay ostensibly critical of empire, reveals Orwell's own deep racism ("They were Senegalese, the blackest Negroes in Africa, so black that sometimes it is difficult to see whereabouts on their necks the hair
begins") and his loathing of the colonised.
begins") and his loathing of the colonised.
Given all of the above, I wonder how much this vile passage from 'Shooting an Elephant' is actually an accurate reflection of Orwell's feelings when he served as a colonial policeman in Burma:
