Description
Comrade Sak charts Shapurji Saklatvala's movement from privileged Parsi beginnings as a member of the mega rich Tata dynasty to revolutionary communist. It examines his quarrel with Gandhi over the goals and tactics of the Indian independence movement and Saklatvala's not always easy relationship to the Communist International. Above all, the study documents his role in a radical phase of British Labour politics and the traditions of local activism and municipal socialism, which made his Battersea North constituency such a welcoming home.
Drawn from his speeches and writings, Saklatvala's passionate and radical voice speaks clearly to our times when the mainstream left is in retreat. His words and life serve to remind us that the goals of ending inequality and making possible human liberation are too important to be consigned to forgotten history. This comprehensively revised 2020 edition replaces the 1998 publication.
What Marc Wadsworth brings to the study are the insights of an active participant in the contemporary struggles to define a “political Black” position within the British Left. In exploring how Saklatvala negotiated the roles of Indian anti-imperialist, Indian British MP and Communist, Wadsworth has written an important study of African, Caribbean and Asian working class history in the 1920s and 1930s.
Marc Wadsworth has worked as a senior news reporter at Thames Television, Chair of the NUJ's Black Members' Council and National Secretary of the Anti-Racist Alliance. He currently works as a freelance journalist and broadcaster.
