The Vanguard and the Lumpen: The Transatlantic Marxism of the Black Panther Party

The article offers an analysis of the development of concepts received from the Marxist tradition by leading figures in the Black Panther Party, especially Huey Newton. It uses the revival of the narrative figure of the Black Messiah in recent American historical films on the Civil Rights-Black Power era as an opportunity to highlight the limitations of the depictions of Black radicalism in contemporary popular culture and the oversimplified idea of Black political struggle that they tend to foster. Subsequently, it turns to concepts of the lumpenproletariat, the vanguard, and Marxist internationalism and the ways in which they were reinterpreted by the Black Panthers. Taken into account are aspects of the historical and social context of this reinterpretation, such as the demographic changes in urban Black communities, the violent state repression of the party, and the negative consequences of the choices leaders of the party made to further their agenda, such as public displays of virile masculinity or the celebration of the criminal as proto-revolutionary.