The Red International and the Black Caribbean: Transnational Radical Organizations in New York City, Mexico and the West Indies, 1919-1939

The Red International and the Black Caribbean: Transnational Radical Organizations in New York City, Mexico and the West Indies, 1919-1939 By Margaret Stevens B.A., Rutgers University, 2001 A.M., Brown University, 2006 A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of American Civilization at Brown University Providence, Rhode Island May 2010 © Copyright 2010 by Margaret Stevens This dissertation by Margaret Stevens is accepted in its present form by the Department of American Civilization as satisfying the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Date ____________ __________________________________ Barrymore Bogues, Advisor Recommended to the Graduate Council Date ____________ ___________________________________ Paul Buhle, Reader Date ____________ ___________________________________ Paget Henry, Reader Approved by the Graduate Council Date ____________ ___________________________________ Shelia Bond, Dean of the Graduate School iii CURRICULUM VITAE Margaret Stevens was born in Madison, Wisconsin on October 7, 1979. She received her B.A. in Philosophy and English and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Rutgers University in 2001. Stevens completed her A.M. in American Civilization at Brown University in 2006. In 2008, Stevens‘s article entitled ―‗Hands off Haiti!:‘ Self-Determination, Anti- Imperialism and the Communist Movement in the United States, 1925-1929‖ was published in Black Scholar. Her article ―Shirley Graham DuBois: Portrait of the Black Woman Artist as a Revolutionary, co-authored with Gerald Horne, is forthcoming in ―Want to Start a Revolution?” Women and the Black Freedom Struggle, an anthology edited by Dayo Gore, Jeanne Theoharis and Komozi Woodard with New York University Press. She also wrote an entry on the Organization of African Unity for an encyclopedia entitled Africa and the Americas: Culture, Politics and History, Transatlantic Relations Series. Stevens organized and presented a paper for a graduate colloquium entitled ―Early Twentieth Century Black Radicalism: Anti-colonialism, Marxism and National Liberation in International Context‖ held at Brown University in 2008. She also presented papers at academic conferences held at the University of Cape Town in South Africa in 2007 and at the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, in Jamaica in 2006. Stevens has taught courses on Black Radicalism in the United States for the Department of American Civilization at Brown University. She teaches courses in World Civilization and United States History at Essex County College were she is also currently the Director of the Urban Issues Institute. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The intellectual basis for this dissertation was derived in large part from the admixture of research, teaching, conference presentations and mentorship that I enjoyed under the guidance of my advisor, Barrymore Bogues. His unwavering support for, vision of and confidence in my academic pursuits were fundamental to the successful completion of this project. My other committee members, Paget Henry and Paul Buhle, served as important sources of historical information and helped to clarify the conceptual and theoretical implications of this study. In my future career as an academic I can only hope to emulate the impeccable instruction and advisement that I received under the training of these faculty members in the Departments of Africana Studies and American Civilization at Brown University. During my tenure as a doctoral student at Brown, I was able to grow with and learn from an exceptional community of students, faculty and staff who made my graduate career exciting, intellectually stimulating and successful. Ani Mukherji continues to be a supportive and challenging colleague whose own work on anticolonial internationalism has helped to push my interests forward. Matthew Quest was the single most dedicated colleague who volunteered repeatedly to read chapters and drafts of my work while also asking for my input on his project about C.L.R. James as it unfolded. My periodic and often informal encounters with Eric Larson and Sarah Wald were important for helping to remind me that activism is an important component of sound academic training. Moreover, the friendship and camaraderie that I enjoyed with my fellow colleagues Jeannette Lee, Jermain McCalpin and Andreas Woods made my time in Providence enjoyable and helped to advance my thinking on Black radicalism. v Professors Robert Lee and Elliott Gorn always showed interest in my transnational approaches to ―American‖ history. Finally, the office support from Jean Wood in the Department of American Civilization was present from my initial days of entry into the department until the final hour of my completion of graduate school. I also enjoyed the support and active tutelage of scholars who were not directly affiliated with Brown University. At the Center for Caribbean Thought at the University of the West Indies Mona Campus in Jamaica, Professor Rupert Lewis and my colleague Maziki Thame helped to expand my understandings of and approaches toward Caribbean radicalism. English Professors Grover Furr and Gregory Meyerson deeply contributed to my understanding of Marxist epistemology and history. Most notably, Gerald Horne stood entirely in support of my research, writing and publications and helped me think globally about the intersections of Marxism and Black radicalism in the twentieth century. The librarians, staff and archivists who facilitated the research component of my dissertation can not go unacknowledged. Many thanks to the librarians at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture who patiently saved my photocopies in spite of sometimes months-long absences on my part. The staff at the National Library of Jamaica also ensured that my materials were safely kept and delivered to me in a timely manner. Above all, the archivists and staff at the U.S. National Archives in Maryland, particularly the now deceased Walter Hill, were vital in ensuring that I found accurate and relevant information that laid the basis for much of the research that is presented in this project. When I first came to see Mr. Hill, I had not even a mere outline much less a sense of how to go about the actual process of writing a dissertation. But his advice and vi mentorship helped to quickly improve the manner in which I conducted my academic pursuits. Lastly, the librarians and staff of Rockefeller Library at Brown University were also patient and understanding as I checked out cartloads of materials that sometimes did not return to the library on the timeliest basis. On a personal note, a solid community of women in both Providence and New Jersey helped to strengthen me emotionally as I completed my graduate work. Rachel Adams, Eula Berry and Crystal Osborne were my maternal anchors in Providence and no words can thank you for the care that you elicited over the years by ensuring that I had the type of family support that was necessary while my own family was hundreds of miles away. My ―Jersey Girls,‖ Tyisha Bennett, Stephanie Benson, Maiga Hunter, Tasha Meggett, Kenya Pope and Hajar Shirley are also my dearest friends, some going back to grade school, and each of you deserves so much more than a brief acknowledgement for your sustained confidence in my academic and life pursuits. Adia Phillips, thanks so much for giving me a couch to crash on in D.C. while I worked away in the national archives. And Dr. Beverly Williams, your attentiveness to my psychological health was indispensable. My family was just as much an academic support base for this project as the aforementioned individuals and institutions. My brother, Adam Stevens, is the finest ―organic intellectual‖ that I know, and his commitment to education for liberation has been pivotal for my dedication to same. Early in my graduate career my father, Houston Stevens, gave me several pieces of crucial advice — namely, not to aspire unrealistically for a perfect paper and to live as monastically as possible. Finally, my mother, Barbara vii Foley, has been my friend, colleague, mentor, advisor and, well, my mother. Without her, this might not have been possible. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Signature Page iii Curriculum Vitae iv Acknowledgements v Table of Contents ix Introduction A History of Their Own 1 Part I The Making of Bolshevism between New York City and the Black Caribbean Chapter 1 The Dark World of 1919 23 Chapter 2 Hands Off Haiti! 80 Part II Transnational Party History in Black and Brown Context Chapter 3 El Dorado Sees Red 106 Chapter 4 Every Country Has a Scottsboro 157 Chapter 5 The ―Black Belt‖ Turned South and Eastward 212 Part III Race, Nation and the Uneven Development of the Popular Front Chapter 6 The Temperament of the Age 258 Chapter 7 Popular Fronts in Uncle Sam‘s Good Neighborhood 309 ix Chapter 8 Of Dogs, Hogs and Haitians 373 Conclusion God on Earth 405 Bibliography 409 x Great men make history, but only such history as it is possible for them to make. Their freedom of achievement is limited by the necessities of their environment. To portray the limits of those necessities and the realization, complete or partial, of all possibilities, that is the true business of the historian. CLR James, Black Jacobins, 1937 xi xii INTRODUCTION A History of Their Own Writers on the West Indies always relate them to their approximation to Britain, France, Spain and America, that is to say, to Western civilization, never in relation to their own history. This is here attempted for the first time. C.L.R. James, Preface to the Vintage Edition of Black Jacobins, 1962 In the years between the First and Second World Wars, a series of interconnected political and labor organizations concerned with the socio-economic struggles of Black people emerged in New York City and specific regions in the Caribbean. These organizations were forged at the intersection of two political forces, Bolshevism and Black radicalism. Many of these groups were aligned with, if not within, the revolutionary global infrastructure referred to interchangeably as the Third International or the Communist International (Comintern)—and denoted here as the Red International.

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