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Today is International Workers’ Day (May Day), so I’m taking *yet another* opportunity to talk about the revolutionary + intellectual, Omar Blondin Diop, whose politics were predicated on the rights of the working class.
![[THREAD]Today is International Workers’ Day (May Day), so I’m taking *yet another* opportunity to talk about the revolutionary + intellectual, Omar Blondin Diop, whose politics were predicated on the rights of the working class.](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E0T4zgOXMAknPBc.jpg "[THREAD]Today is International Workers’ Day (May Day), so I’m taking *yet another* opportunity to talk about the revolutionary + intellectual, Omar Blondin Diop, whose politics were predicated on the rights of the working class.")
Today is International Workers’ Day (May Day), so I’m taking *yet another* opportunity to talk about the revolutionary + intellectual, Omar Blondin Diop, whose politics were predicated on the rights of the working class.
May 1968 was a definitive moment in Europe, particularly France, marked by uprisings and mobilizing sparked by students of the University of Paris at Nanterre (later joined by other university students) and workers against Charles De Gaulle’s conservatism.
Parallel to (and overshadowed by) France’s May ‘68, Africa was experiencing its own sociocultural + political revolution, particularly in Senegal and Morocco.
Omar Blondin Diop, who was a student and organizer in France, was expelled and repatriated to Senegal apparently at the command of Jacques Foccart, De Gaulle’s right hand man and the architect behind the neocolonial policy Françeafrique.
Diop was a central figure in Senegal’s late 60s resistance movement fighting for students + workers rights.
His politics and activism ultimately led to his imprisonment on Gorée Island and political assassination at the hands of Senghor’s administration on 11 May 1973.
His politics and activism ultimately led to his imprisonment on Gorée Island and political assassination at the hands of Senghor’s administration on 11 May 1973.
One of the functions of the ruling class is to quell any threat to their economic + political power.
Labeled “troublesome” in France and a “danger to national security” in Senegal, Omar Blondin Diop fought against neocolonialism and oppression, fought to liberate the working class, and fought to awaken the people’s collective consciousness to recognize their power + rights.
Stills from La Chinoise (1967), dir. Jean-Luc Godard, in which Diop plays himself.
Previous thread on our beloved Omar Blondin Diop:
https://twitter.com/amy_sall/status/1166046459013279744?s=21 https://twitter.com/amy_sall/status/1166046459013279744
https://twitter.com/amy_sall/status/1166046459013279744?s=21 https://twitter.com/amy_sall/status/1166046459013279744
