Minkah Makalani. In the Cause of Freedom: Radical Black Internationalism from Harlem to London, 1917-1939. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2011. 309 S. ISBN 978-1-4696-0251-6.

Reviewed by John Munro

Published on H-Soz-u-Kult (June, 2015)

What happens when we are shown a political Jay Lovestone, Ras Makonnen, Claude McKay, landscape of transatlantic interwar radicalism to , Richard B. Moore, George Padmore, fnd that the white left is not occupying its cus‐ William Patterson, M.N. Roy, Lamine Senghor, and tomary place in the central foreground? First, I.T.A. Wallace-Johnson, among others. Makalani feelings of disorientation in the face of the unfa‐ shows how this diverse array of individuals and miliar, perhaps, or maybe excited anticipation at their organizations were part of a wide circle of this needed rearrangement. Then, an ability to see mutual infuences in which theory and praxis the previously unseen. Welcome to Minkah were shaped and reshaped to confront intersect‐ Makalani’s In the Cause of Freedom, a book that ing structures of power amid shifting historical makes many contributions. Setting out from circumstances. World War I-era New York and arriving in Lon‐ Even for readers who already know some‐ don on the eve of World War II, with stops in thing of the individuals and groups that Makalani Chicago, Moscow, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Brussels, considers, there is much to learn from the story and Paris along the way, it tracks an evolving this book tells: about, say, the complexities of race, Black radicalism that revised but did not reject class, and nation in 1920s Harlem; about the on‐ Western Marxism. going signifcance of Asian activists to the devel‐ Makalani’s study is a history of a politically opment of Black radical thought; about Claude engaged conversation rather than that of any par‐ McKay’s pivotal role in convening Soviet Commu‐ ticular organization, and while this approach nism and the Black radical tradition; about the clearly entailed prodigious research to connect as consistent objections by national Communist par‐ many dots as it does, the book wears its archival ties of countries like France, South , and the learning lightly to tell a fascinating story about a United States to giving race its theoretical and group of Black radicals who sought nothing less practical due as a useful category of analysis; or than the overthrow of racial capitalism. Indeed, about the countless moments of autonomy by ac‐ by not sticking to the archival path of one institu‐ tivists and intellectuals of color within and with‐ tion, In the Cause features an extended dramatis out the interwar world of what Makalani calls personae, including Cyril Briggs, Grace Campbell, “organized Marxism.” W. A. Domingo, James Ford, Lovett Fort-White‐ Perhaps more important than these lessons man, Amy Ashwood Garvey, , Hu‐ are those that the study holds not only for schol‐ bert Harrison, Ho Chi Minh, Otto Huiswoud, C.L.R. ars familiar with interwar Communism and Black James, Sen Katayama, Garan Kouyaté, V.I. Lenin, radicalism but also for readers interested more H-Net Reviews broadly in transnational twentieth century histo‐ the theorists he documents, we are reminded that ry and histories of racism and resistance. Let me while capitalism assuredly creates inequality, it is note three relationships in this vein which this also true that the hidden abode of production can‐ book sheds light on: that between activists and or‐ not reveal all the secrets of a racially ordered to‐ ganizations, between race and class, and between tality. Makalani writes about the interwar years, evidence and argument. In contending that for in‐ but reading this book in 2015, events since its ini‐ terwar Black radicals, “organized Marxism repre‐ tial publication in 2011 have proved this point es‐ sented less the source and more the moment of pecially relevant and, in a context of continuing their politics,” Makalani presents a generative racialized police brutality and renewed social case about the relationship between individual movement mobilization in and beyond the United activists and the movement organizations they States, all the more timely. sometimes form, build, join, transform, are frus‐ A third large lesson that we can draw from trated by, or leave. Black radicals and their allies this book pertains to how evidence relates to ar‐ made use of the tools on ofer in the world of gument. In contrast to the default empiricism that Communist politics in order to gain ground on vi‐ animates too much historical scholarship, and is sions of freedom that preceded the Bolshevik Rev‐ too often presented as somehow atheoretical, In olution; they did not become entranced with Sovi‐ the Cause is clear and convincing about the in‐ et Marxism and work compliantly to carry out escapability of interpretation and the implications Moscow’s orders. The specifc debate closest to thereof. As Makalani points out, historians nar‐ hand here is that over the extent of member ad‐ rate, and while evidence obviously matters, our herence to the Party line of a given Communist or‐ emplotments involve choices that are not solely ganization, and In the Cause has the efect of ren‐ driven by archival discovery. As already men‐ dering the terms of that entire debate somewhat tioned, this book rests on solid and extensive re‐ outmoded. But there is also food for thought here search, but it is also the “process of repositioning for anyone hoping to better understand the com‐ evidence” that makes Makalani’s account as inno‐ plex dynamics of people and political organiza‐ vative and important as it is. tions more generally. As to the criticisms, a fuller explanation as to In terms of the vexed intersection of race and why the racial attitudes of white Communists class, Makalani shows how the intellectuals he were so consistently obtuse, a little more informa‐ writes about did not reject Marxism but rather ex‐ tion on the relationship between World War I-era tended it, even transformed its scientifc preten‐ Black internationalism and the Industrial Work‐ tions to objective materialism into a more precise ers of the World, and a few more words on the analytical framework that might account for the overlaps and divergences between anticolonial‐ irreducibility of race. The book departs from ism and antifascism would have flled in areas al‐ Cedric Robinson’s indispensable study of this is‐ luded to but perhaps beyond the scope of the sue, yet in Makalani’s deft handling we can fnd book. Overall, though, In the Cause is clearly a sig‐ compelling his point about Black radicalism’s nifcant work, one that builds on excellent exist‐ proximity to Marxism while also appreciating the ing books by such historians as Robin Kelley, intellectual history that both he and Robinson Mark Solomon, Gerald Horne, Winston James, contribute to, a history in which we can recognize Kate Baldwin, Glenda Gilmore, and Susan Penny‐ that Makalani’s argument appears in a feld al‐ backer, is complemented by subsequent scholar‐ ready cleared by Robinson’s earlier and necessary ship by Dayo Gore, Erik McDufe, Meredith Ro‐ move that clarifed Marxism’s distance from the man, Adam Ewing, and Leslie James, and is sure Black radical tradition. From Makalani and from

2 H-Net Reviews to be added to by the widely anticipated forth‐ coming studies by Mark Matera and Ani Mukherji. The historical conversation that it traces is cer‐ tainly a rich one. So too is the historiographical one that it participates in. Here, then, are some of the ways that readers will be able to see something new after exploring the political and intellectual terrain mapped out in Minkah Makalani’s frst-rate book. But sight is not the only relevant register here. Recalling Stu‐ art Hall’s insightful image of “working within shouting distance of marxism,” we are reminded that there’s new things to be heard here as well. So read this book, and sharpen your senses.

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Citation: John Munro. Review of Makalani, Minkah. In the Cause of Freedom: Radical Black Internationalism from Harlem to London, 1917-1939. H-Soz-u-Kult, H-Net Reviews. June, 2015.

URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=44629

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

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