TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION, by the editor...... 2

Varieties of Influence THE AFRICAN REVOLUTION, by Walter Rodney...... 5 THE TRAINING OF AN INTELLECTUAL, THE MAKING OF A MARXIST, by Richard Small...... 13 IN , 1932-1938, by Robert Hill ...... 19 IN THE U.S.A., by ...... 28 THE FALL OF , by Manning Marable ...... 39 THE REVOLUTION, by Basil Wilson...... 47 IX QUEST OF MATTHEW BONDSMAN: SOME CULTURAL NOTES ON THE JAMESIAN JOURNEY, by Sylvia Wynter...... 54 INTERVIEW, Darcus Howe with Ken Lawrence...... 69 LETTERS, C. L. R. James and ...... 76 INTERVIEW, C. L. R. James with Paul Buhle, Noel Ignatin, James Early...... 81 WILLIAMS WAS NO GENIUS ... THE OIL SAVED HIM, C. L. R. James with Harry Partap...... 83

Times and Places A CRITICAL REMINISCENCE, by James and ...... 86 REVOLUTIONARY ARTIST, by Stan Weir ...... 87 YOUNG RADICALS, 1955-1965, by Dan Georgakas ...... 89 ONLY CONNECT, by Ferruccio Gambino...... 95

Books and Subjects MINTY ALLEY, by E. Elliot Parris ...... 97 A PROFOUND THINKER, by Peppino Ortoleva ...... 98 PHILOSOPHY AND CULTURE, by David Wagner...... 99 MARINERS, RENEGADES AND CASTAWAYS, by David Roediger ...... 100 PIONEERS OF WEST INDIAN SURREALISM, by Franklin Rosemont...... 101 , by Paul Berman...... 105 WHAT IF C. L. R. JAMES HAD MET E. P. THOMPSON IN 1792? by Peter Linebaugh ...... 108 BLACK WOMEN WRITERS, by E. Ethelbert Miller...... 111 Encounters THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JAMES, by Gregory Rigsby...... 112 A MEETING WITH COMRADE JAMES, by David Widgery ...... 115 A UNIQUE MARXIST THINKER, by Wilson Harris ...... 118 PERSONAL NOTES, by George Rawick ...... 118 BLACK SCHOLAR, by Richard Thomas...... 121 CONVERSATION, and Ken Lawrence...... 122 XELLO, by John Bracey...... 125 MEETING IN , by Noel Ignatin ...... 126

C. L. R. JAMES AT 80, by E. P. Thompson...... Back Cover Introduction

Any "introduction" to James's life and work, by way of anthology or collected views on him, faces one almost insurmountable problem. As Martin Glaberman noted in the first anthology of James's selected writings (edited and published by this writer as Radical America, Volume IV, Number 4, May 1970), the sheer range eternally evokes the question, "where does one begin?" Happily, our beginning does not have to be so rudimentary as eleven years ago. A growing number of James's works are readily available in commercial editions throughout the English-speaking world. We anticipate confidently that an autobiography will soon be completed. And surely, as the world crisis brings another generation of insurgents to the fore, many of James's now less available studies will receive the proper attention. Already, many readers of this symposium will be familiar with James the Pan-Africanist historian of The Black Jacobins, the political visionary of the post-Vanguard Party age, and (especially in Britain) the West Indian and British commentator on sports and culture. We mean here only to sketch out the general contours of James's life, his travels, the main periods of his political and theoretical endeavors, and the specific influences which have prompted this volume. James was born in 1901 in Trinidad, in the kind of family that used to be called "poor but honest," driven down economically but determined to hold onto self-respect and the ideals of education and upward mobility. Like many revolutionary artists, he had a mother devoted to literature as her time and energies would allow. Several of the following essays show how James might well have become a provincial schoolteacher but, through love for cricket, felt drawn toward the common pastimes of the West Indian masses. When I asked James recently why Ireland and the West Indies had produced so many great literary figures, he answered simply that young people of talent had no other options — as if to say that becoming a writer had, negatively speaking, been for him as well the only means to use the available political and intellectual resources. But surely there is a positive side: fiction about daily life in the slums, about the education of a young intellectual learning about that life (Minty Alley) offered a synthesis of James's background, training, cultural and political proclivities. So while James took a hand in the emerging West Indian literature by way of editing and writing, and ulti- mately drew a novel from his experiences, he became a self-consciously and primarily political intellectual only after he had removed to Britain. One might have thought, from his political work and cricket journalism there, that he had found his calling as an editor-agitator and his vocation as a sports reporter. In addition to the pioneering Pan-African agitation that various authors describe below, James served as Chairman of the Finchley Independent Labor Party branch, wrote for the ILP press, and after the Trotskyists' abandonment of that organization became editor of their own newspaper, Fight. With the publication of Boris Souvaraine's Stalin under James's translation, The Black Jacobins and World Revolution, along with the History of the Negro Revolt and The Case for West Indian Self- Government, he had proved to be an international historical and political author. Here again, he had established a promising (second or third) career and intellectual self-identity. His fifteen-year sojourn in the U.S. represents in many ways the most curious and personally obscure part of James's life. Foremost intellectual in a small but lively Trotskyist organization with any number of fledgling luminaries (Irving Howe, Dwight MacDonald, B. J. Widick and Harvey Swados, to name only a few), he published not a single book outside the movement's own miniscule press until the very end of his stay. He edited no newspapers himself, and contributed only occasionally to the theoretical journal, The New International. When his collaborators and followers launched their own political movement, centered in Detroit, he remained in New York within an intellectual and cultural orbit that Marxist politics never fully encompassed. And yet he produced, in those years, the intellectual corpus of his philosophical-analytical advance beyond the notions of the Vanguard Party, his critique of State and State as the stage of class formation to be overcome, and his cultural critique of industrial society through the pages of Moby Dick. Scarcely a handful of Americans outside his political group had even heard of James, let alone understood his contribution, by the time of his expulsion in 1953. The answer lies in the peculiar conditions imposed upon James personally and politically in those years. Unlike other intellectual giants whom immigration brought to American radicalism — Morris Winchevsky, Daniel DeLeon and Moissye Olgin, to name three — James was Black and an illegal. He had to keep a low profile. Even more important, the almost shadowy character of the Left-opposition to the Communist Party held an entire milieu from public gaze. Its writers gained attention as individuals only when they abandoned revolutionary

2 politics for culture or delivered denunciations of Stalinism in favor of bourgeois democracy. Moreover, the very quest of the faction that broke with Trotsky became contact with working class life and collective development of theoretical-strategic-tactical options. James submerged his independent identity as a writer into a maelstrom of debates, discussions and reconsiderations. In this he followed the relentless dedication of the Old Bolsheviks at the very moment when he ruled so many of their propositions archaic for modern conditions. He did not submerge his intellectual, cultural personal identity so thoroughly as the now-forgotten rank-and- file militants around him. He remained one of the handful of Blacks, even fewer West Indians in such circles and that alone would have divided his sentiments and interests. It should be remembered also that the metropolis, then perhaps in the most hopeful years of an emerging multi-racial identity, had secrets which could be revealed only to the participants of its day- and night-life. On rare occasions, the political documents of the era bear hints of this participation: James feels he is part of a new civilization struggling to be born, not abstractly as the intellectual might imagine, through mass acceptance of blazing new ideologies, but concretely human as the characters in Minty Alley.

James's own group, which in the early 1950's began to publish the bi-weekly Correspondence in Detroit, picked up on many of the same hints. Daily Worker sportswriters struggled for decades to make commercial entertainment a legitimate concern of Left journalism, while "Culture" in general never really got beyond the logic- chopping of whether film, play or novel should be judged as "objectively" progressive or reactionary. The Trotskyist publications rarely did much better. Correspondence, by contrast, had the ethos of the working class in labor and recreation, readers' own often brilliant commentaries upon sports and movies, teenagers' views of the generational conflict, Blacks' and whites' attitudes toward each other, and women's observations about their special sense of oppression. If the notion of "Workers Correspondence" had originated with the pre-Stalinized Communists of the 1920's, a way for workers to write about their own conditions and struggles, Correspondence carried the idea beyond the limits of the Third International concept of insurrection into a fuller perception of what the would call "daily life." The greatest strength of this vital and unique experiment in working class politics was that it could bring the cultural sense of flow together with the struggles against the labor bureaucracy, shown vividly in the wildcat strikes of the time.* The weaknesses might be traced to limited resources, the political pall of McCarthyism and other factors, but rested ultimately upon the still-unresolved dilemma of the political stage beyond the Vanguard Party. What should the small group be and do? James's physical presence in the U.S. would at least have accelerated the discussion of the problem which would torture and destroy the New Left fifteen years later. James's exile brought him hither and yon, from Britain to the West Indies and back again. As he said later about his university teaching in the U.S., "Life presents you with some strange difficulties and, at times, you have to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds." His versatility served him well. Facing Reality drew the lessons of the Hungarian Revolution, later to become so plain in France of 1968 and Poland of the present. Modern Politics, a series of lectures delivered in the West Indies and published (then immediately suppressed) in 1960, drew the widest interpretation of civilization, culture and politics as the inevitable background for Socialism's promise and necessity. Party Politics in the West Indies, published the next year in Trinidad, focused in upon problems of anti- and political transformation, as did "Nkrumah Then And Now," written a few years later but published only in 1978 as Nkrumah and the Ghana Revolution. Beyond A Boundary (1963), in part an autobiography, has been proclaimed far and wide for its more apparent element, the best historical study of cricket anywhere. Some of James's best public moments have come when he undertook the editorship of the Nation in Trinidad, mixing superb popularization of the European cultural legacy with an insistence upon the West Indian contribution to the world's future, and when the rise of recalled James to American platforms where he could exert an extraordinary influence upon a new generation, one-by-one or in considerable numbers through his lectures, personal presence and achieved status as Pan-African eminence grise. The delayed influence of his writings, along with his more recent activity, have resulted specifically in the impulse behind the publication of this volume. Its immediate precursor, the Radical America anthology noted above, marked James's impact upon a New Left at the crisis moment of its short existence. Radical America had just come to perform duties of an historical-theoretical organ (albeit unofficial) for SDS, to project beyond the phase of student power some wider vision of constituency and deeper view of transformation. Even by the late 1960's, James was hardly more than the author of The Black Jacobins for most New Leftists. But there was an infallible logic to the connection. For if the New Left were not simply to return to worn-out dogmas, Stalinist, Trotskyist, Social-Democratic, Anarchist (however painted over with new titles: Maoist, "Democratic Socialist," Euro-Communist, Hippie), it had to advance conceptually and politically toward some new notion of the political group, the working class, racial minorities, women, and international revolution. New Leftists stood on ground closer to James and his co-thinkers than to any of the elder politicos and their tendencies. Here, it must be said, the seeming obscurity of the 1940's Trotskyist context hurt: the language of the pamphlets, references

3 to old enemies and old doctrines, seemed just beyond the reach of many potential readers. And the New Left itself passed so quickly from boom to bust, wild mass demonstrations to defeat and debacle, that there was not much time or space for serious discussion anyway. In a deeper sense, the crisis in the Movement (including Black Liberation and Women's Liberation) demanded a definite political answer to the stage beyond militance, that History had not revealed and James had not sought to disclose. Intellectually, James's influence through The Black Jacobins and Radical America had the more subtle role of coaching a generation of social historians dedicated to reconstructing the past, and bringing a relative handful of activists toward some theoretical alternatives to neo-Stalinism and Euro- Communism. More, it could not do. Among the younger generation of Afro-American scholars and activists, James has had an almost wholly separate but equally important influence. Through Federal City College and Howard University, where he taught in the 1970's, his ideas radiated outward. A group of SNCC veterans had already reprinted A History of the Negro Revolt as A History of the Pan-African Revolt. Dignitary-militant, his own public suggestion responsible for initiating the Sixth Pan-African Congress, James took every occasion to elucidate the real history of struggle, his unrelenting interest in current developments on the Afro-American scene, and his encouragement to all sincere rebels. Finally — and this explains the current format — James's influence has touched still newer chords as the 1980's open. Not only are his books now available as never before, his ideas have helped guide some of those currents which emerged from the 1970's slough into another stage of activity. Subtly, the process has long been in development, as one or another of the existing alternatives demonstrated their liabilities. It is natural that STO, with its roots in the "industrialization" of the New Left and in the supreme significance of the Black presence in the U.S., and which has long recognized the relevance of James's thought to its own concerns, should devote this special issue of Urgent Tasks to a critical appreciation of his work. This publication is also an experiment in collective biography. It brings to this editor's mind a commemorative document published for another intellectual leader who espoused the cause of workers' self-emancipation, Daniel DeLeon.** The differences in the men and in documentation are perhaps finally suggestive of our larger purpose here. Five years after DeLeon had died, the Socialist Labor Party's National Executive Committee issued the earlier book as a sentimental evocation and as a vindication of the leader's activities. That was natural because DeLeon had single-handedly dominated the SLP and its press, alienating almost everyone else on the Left by his sectarianism but rendering himself a monument in his restricted circle. Although an extreme case, he was a typical political type of our modern age. James, by contrast, has no organization to sing hosannas. And rather than concentrating his energies (as he might have done, with greater or lesser success) on building up a following, he has for most of his political life been an instigator rather than an executive, dividing his talents into the various possible arenas of revolutionary promise. To most readers, the totality of his work has therefore remained elusive. Our effort has been to solicit commentary upon the diverse and sometimes recondite aspects of his work, to tie the whole together piecemeal. Neither, the reader will notice, are the essays wholly uncritical. James the strapping octogenarian is by no means ready for eulogies. In a life crowded with activities there have inevitably been shortcomings, and indeed our purpose has been to put the entire person into context as much as possible, while accentuating the contributions he has made. The reader will have to assemble the pieces into a single albeit variegated picture. James has always demanded more than passive admiration from those who take his work seriously. We welcome you into the pages of James's life. We think you will leave somewhat affected, for we have ourselves been touched, changed, subtly enriched such that we cannot imagine a political universe, a cultural perspective, a sense of what Humankind has been and might become, without the wisdom and sly humor of C. L. R. James. — Paul Buhle

*It might be noted also that another journal of the 1970's, this author's own Cultural Correspondence, was in turn named after the paper of James's group and their cultural initiatives most especially, with the intention of filling in that missing category in Left thought. **Daniel DeLeon, the Man and His Work: A Symposium (New York, 1919).

4 The African Revolution

by Walter Rodney ternational Friends of Ethiopia." This later emerged as the "International The African continent today has African Service Bureau," having less turmoil, less violence and a James as editor of its journal, slower rate of social transformation International African Opinion.1 The than Asia or Latin America; and main platform of this journal was these are the elements normally as- colonial liberation; and it was against sociated with Revolution. Yet those this background that James wrote A who speak of the "African Revolu- History of Negro Revolt in 1938.2 It tion" know that African people are bears the marks of those years when more aware and more determined even Black militants inside and than ever before. It is this conscious- outside accepted the language ness, added to internal contradic- of the European oppressor - tions and external forces, which gives "Negro," "natives," "tribes," etc. the African situation its revolutionary Beyond that, however, the book is a character. mine of ideas advancing far ahead of For nearly forty years, C. L. R. its time. WALTER RODNEY James has been interested in the de- James began his section on "Re- tion in 1938 was an act of defiance velopment of political consciousness volts in Africa" by citing what his- and singled out C. L. R. James as a among African people and in their torians have come to call (rather front-runner in the field of African strivings towards grasping control disparagingly) the Sierra Leone Hut studies devoted to African libera- over their own lives. As an analyst Tax War of 1898. As James ex- tion. of processes in Africa, James quali- plained, it was a reaction by indige- Having cited the Sierra Leone war fies to be called an "academic" or nous Sierra Leone peoples against of resistance in 1898, James "intellectual"; and as a participant in the imposition of European colonial proceeded to mention a series of the struggle for African advance, he rule, symbolized by the enactment African social movements taking becomes a "revolutionary intel- of legislation taxing dwelling places. place in the inter-war years, and lectual." It will be found that anyone It was a war of national resistance commonly designated as the African confining himself to the supposedly and liberation, involving the majority Independent Church movement. pure academic understanding of of the ethnic groups in Sierra Leone James unerringly identified three of Africa will in fact fall short of the in unified struggle. Many years the most important of these — cen- objective, because of lack of com- elapsed before any researcher tered around John Chilembwe (Ma- mitment and failure to relate theory seriously undertook investigation of 3 lawi), Simon Kimbangu (Congo) and to practice. The value of James's this episode. The reason for the Harry Thuku (Kenya). Once more, it contribution to the African Revo- disinterest is that African resistance was many years before these protests lution and to an appreciation of it to European colonization was not were to gain the recognition they stems precisely from the blend of supposed to have existed as far as deserved. John Chilembwe is today committed scholarship and activism. colonialist scholars were concerned. an African hero known far beyond Quantitatively, what James has As late as 1957, Sir Alan Burns was the boundaries of what was in his written on Africa does not amount expressing the orthodox view when day the British colony of to a great deal, and it is certainly a he wrote that Africans welcomed Nyasaland, and his service to his tiny proportion of his numerous the coming of the British. As he people evoked one of the fullest writings on a variety of subjects. put it, "there was, for the most part, biographies written on an African Similarly, one could say that only a little fighting against the local leader.4 Harry Thuku has also been small part of his time was devoted to people. In certain cases, slave in the forefront of subsequent activity directly concerning the dealers, pirates and tyrannical historical writings on Kenya, and African continent. It is the quality rulers were fought and defeated, will undoubtedly continue to attract and significance of his writing and but the inhabitants of these attention. And it is now accepted political action that really matters. territories as a whole stood aside that forty years of the immediate During the 1930's, when the "West- during the fighting and willingly pre-independence history of the ern Democracies" were conspiring accepted British rule." Burns was a Congo cannot be understood without to make Ethiopia into an Italian colonial governor and wrote on be- reference to the popular forces and colony, James directed from Eng- half of the British ruling class. The aspirations articulated by Simon land an ad hoc committee of "In- mere mention of a different posi- Kimbangu.

5 Not only were African Independent erally acknowledged these facts. For saw the necessity for international Churches neglected as an area of that matter, even today the tre- affiliation. But though the constitu- enquiry for many years, but when mendous awakening of the small tion of the organisation condemned they were first studied or assessed urbanized African element in the capitalism, he would not affiliate to by Europeans, there was a tendency 1920's is recorded only in texts the Third International. The white to portray them as being exclusively which take the minority Marxist South African workers refused his position on African history or as a offer of unity, for these, petty related to religion or superstition. By bourgeois in outlook owing to their Christian missionaries, they were backdrop to specialist volumes on 5 high wages and the social degrada- often presented as the work of the the African trade union movement. tion of the Negro, are among the devil, while other social researchers In describing the fortunes of a mass bitterest enemies of the native came up with such mystifying terms organization, James is at his best — workers, (pages 70, 71) as "millenarian," "messianic" and partly because of the immediacy that "atavistic." James's treatment was he brings to commentary and more European scholarship on Africa very brief, but he captured the so because of his grasp of the in the 1960's was ostensibly more essence of these anti-colonial dialectics of organization. In 1938, liberal and more concerned with the African mass movements in a few he had obviously had enough history of Africans rather than the lines. He recognized them as revolts experience of political organization activity 01 Europeans in Africa. Yet against oppression and as part of at both first- and second-hand to standard general works carried the socio-political protest appreciate the strengths and weak- scarcely a hint of the tremendous engendered by the presence of the nesses of the I.C.U. under Clements armed struggle waged by Africans Europeans and the system of colo- Kadalie. James's account is a real in the late 19th century before falling nialism. He distinguished between tribute to the fighting spirit of the to the European enemy.7 It is only form and content, noting that the Africans of South Africa who today very recently that this topic has language of religion in which the bear the burden of apartheid. In a begun to receive the attention it protests were couched should not most economical manner, he probed deserves from African and European obscure the fact that they sprung the quality of the leadership, ex- historians dealing with the continent from such things as forced labor, amined the relationship of leader- in that period. (It is interesting to land alienation, and colonial taxa- ship to the mass from which it note that individuals like James and tion. It was because the leadership sprang, reflected on the international Padmore never receive credit or had formal schooling from mission- context of the strikes and other acknowledgement from later aries that they expressed themselves protests by the African workers of writers.) The same applies to the primarily in religious terms. As South Africa at that time, and qui- subject of African independent James put it, "Such education as the etly indicated that within a racist churches and to the self-mobiliza- African is given is nearly always situation the category of "class" tion by the small wage earner class religious, so that the leader often must be seriously re-examined. A in colonial Africa. How come that translated the insurrection into re- great deal has since been said on the C. L. R. James was so prescient as ligious terms. . . . To every African South African labor movement, and 6 to perceive the significance of all [independent church organization] is much more remains to be written. these "African revolts" when writing an instinctive step towards inde- But the following lines by James in 1938? And what is the meaning of pendence and away from the per- constitute a judgment that will such manifestations as far as the petual control of Europeans." (pages probably remain unshaken. He ob- contemporary African Revolution is 53, 55) served as follows: concerned? A third segment of James's treat- Most schoolboys would have ment of African revolt was provided The real parallel to this movement heard the axiom that each genera- in his analysis of workers' organi- is the mass uprising in San Domin- tion rewrites its own history. It does zations and their militancy. He cited go. There is the same instinctive ca- so not merely by giving different the Sierra Leone railway strikes of pacity for organisation, the same answers to the same questions but 1919 and 1926, the Gambian sail- throwing up of gifted leaders from by posing entirely different questions ors' strike of 1929, the spontaneous among the masses. . . . After 1926 based on the stage of development uprising of Nigerian women at Aba the movement began to decline. It which the particular society has could not maintain itself for long at in 1929, and the powerful Black reached. Certain scholars will be trade union activity of the I.C.U. in that pitch without great and con- crete successes. It was bound to among the first to raise the new and South Africa. In each instance, he stabilise itself at a less intense level. meaningful issues because of their pinpointed phenomena of the greatest Kadalie lacked the education and sensitivity and connection with the relevance to the creation of Africa the knowledge to organise it on a most dynamic group in the as it is today, and he was doing stable basis — the hardest of tasks society. Thus, when African peo- so a comfortable twenty years be- for a man of his origin. There was ples were mounting a struggle for fore writings on these subjects gen- misappropriation of the funds. He political independence and as they

6 continued that struggle through roots deep in the African past, and fear most is a combination of the military means in Southern Africa that the political parties which won workers in the towns and the peas- and politico-economic means else- independence in so many territories ants in the interior. Such a move- where, they automatically became were only the end product of a con- ment, however, has not yet taken interested in recalling previous re- tinuous process of resistance which place. . . . Yet railways are linking sistance. Initially, only a scholar took diverse forms: notably, armed the various portions of the territory, committed to or at least sympathetic struggle, independent churches, wel- and . . . since the war each to the present African emancipation fare associations, peasant crop hold- succeeding revolt has been more drive would find it possible to seek ups and strikes by wage earners. fierce, more concentrated than the out and unearth the evidence of This has been fiercely resisted by a last." (page 62) And, finally, the earlier struggles. C. L. R. James was small number of white scholars, brief survey was brought up to the a participant in some of the earliest basically because they wish to hold year 1938 with reference to the co- pressure groups in the metropoles to the position that nationalism was coa hold-up that had just taken place urging African freedom from a product of and in the British colony of the Gold colonial rule in the 1930's. That is virtually a gift to the African people Coast. James felt that "an ex- why he was capable of writing A from in the period after the traordinary determination and unity History of Negro Revolt in 1938. last war.8 This is not the time and linked the population", but he had A people's consciousness is place to refute such a view, and no romantic illusions that victory heightened by knowledge of the perhaps there is no context in which was at hand. His assessment at that dignity and determination of their there is much value in so doing. point was that, "Militant as was this foreparents. Indeed, the African However, it is worth pointing out movement, yet, as in most of the world-view regarding ancestors as that a perception of links and older colonies, there was not that an integral part of the living com- continuity between popular resist- militancy which thinks in terms of munity makes it so much easier to ance over a long period of time is throwing out the British. . . . There identify a given generation with the not something unique to an African is no national revolutionary struggles of an earlier generation. nationalist historian. This is the ap- movement." (page 84) The perception, therefore, is in terms proach adopted by Vietnamese In the years immediately after of self — what struggles were we scholars, by progressive Philippine James wrote the above lines, the waging in 1885, in 1904, in 1921, scholars, and by Cuban scholars. tempo of events in Africa quick- and so on? It is also a learning James's awareness of the conti- ened, and the various strands of re- experience in which African people nuity of African resistance throughout volt were drawn together. There de- often painfully find out the mistakes the colonial era can be illustrated by veloped both the combination of of (say) king Lobengula of South the following lines. "By the end of urban and rural elements which the Africa or the Maji Maji warriors of the nineteenth century, less than colonial authorities feared and the . To give historical depth to one-tenth of Africa remained in the determination to -throw the coloni- the process of resistance is itself hands of Africans themselves. This alists out rather than merely seek functional within the African rapid change could not fail to concessions. In England, James re- Revolution today. James knew this. produce a series of revolts, which mained part of the small group of His major effort to project a past have never ceased." (emphasis Black men who constantly agitated revolt into present consciousness was mine) (pages 40, 41) His awareness on the African independence issue, The Black Jacobins, that remarkable that this struggle evolved over time expressing their confidence that at study of the momentous victory of and changed form can be observed the end of the last world war the the enslaved African population of in these sentences: "in the years peoples of the continent would not San Domingo against white before the war [of 1914] the tribes brook much further delay in the plantation society, against the simply threw themselves at the quest for independence. The demand Thermidorean reaction in France, government troops and suffered the for African independence was voiced and against the expansionism of inevitable defeat. Such risings could most insistently at the famous British capital. A History of Negro not go on. They were too obviously Manchester Conference in 1945, Revolt fulfilled the same purpose; suicidal. In 1915, however, we have having in attendance both DuBois and one of its most significant fea- a new type — a rising led not by a and Padmore as well as two future tures was its emphasis on the con- tribal chief but by a Negro who has African heads of state in the tinuity of resistance. had some education." (page 53) persons of Kenyatta and Nkrumah. Then, moving to the end of the James himself reflects that at the Modern nationalist African his- decade of the 1920's, James time it was felt that their statements torians have recently come to the commented on urban workers' re- about African freedom could only realization that the "nationalism" sistance in Congo Brazzaville: "This have come from "lunatics or of the 1950's and 1960's had its movement had definite Communist inebriates." It is true that the colo- tendencies. What the authorities nial powers and Britain in particular

7 spoke vaguely of self-government Pan-Africanist platform. This is highly our color and origins. As young for Africa, but no schedule was set intriguing. Today, it is usual for the men in Trinidad, James and Pad- up and the tenor of their pro- Pan-Africanist in the New World to be more read Garvey and DuBois. As nouncements suggested a delay of into a heavy culture thing. This is young West Indians they were con- some forty or fifty years at least. In condemned by certain Philistines cerned primarily with West Indian 1947, on the eve of Nkrumah's (white and Black) as being romantic politics, but the factor of blackness return to the Gold Coast colony, racism, since African culture is could not be escaped since it was so British experts were saying that the supposedly alien to the Americas. pervasive. Similarly, within the 1946 Gold Coast constitution would What the critics fail to realize is that United States, Black people were last for several decades, and exhor- there are fundamental political realities impelled to read about Africa not tations were being made to strengthen which draw the conscious Black man because of any a priori judgments the British colonial administration to in the New World towards the African that they were "African" but be- meet the growing demands that continent. These realities operate cause of the necessity to survive and 9 were to be made on it. The equally whether the individual has challenge white mythology within difference between these two per- arrived at a stage of heightened the U.S.A. itself. James drew atten- spectives is that between a people- consciousness via cultural tion to this process, saying that, centered approach on the one hand nationalism or through a more "The American blacks — faced and a blend of racism and paternal- conventional approach to the struggle with this view of the past of Africa, ism on the other. The Pan-African- against exploitation and oppression. a view that has been used not only ists were expressing confidence in Some attempts have been made to to justify slavery but also to the African people and they were explain why articulate and politicized maintain segregation and proved right. (Even so, James fre- West Indians like James, Padmore, oppression — found themselves driven to make the most serious quently admitted being surprised by and Garvey found that their field of studies of the past of Africa."12 the speed of change in Africa. Other expression had to be within North African leaders have made America, Europe and Africa rather Once the African continent was statements to this effect, showing than in their island homes. The answer brought under colonial rule by the that when the potential of a people is to be found partly in their home end of the last century, the racist is realized in action it literally goes environment and the socio-political factor was also evident there as a beyond all expectations.) 11 justification of exploitation and op- It is difficult and perhaps unnec- inadequacies there. However, the continuing validity of the Pan-African pression. Racism had become part essary to try and single out James's of the superstructure of the white role within the Pan-African move- perspective throughout the years of James's career derives from the capitalist world. The drive towards ment, since it was essentially a col- white domination shaped policy as lective venture.10 What is well-known incontrovertibly international character of white racism, and the an end in itself — sometimes at is that Africans in the diaspora for variance even with the profit motive many years were the driving forces situation of African peoples as integral parts of the international political which is the propellant of capital- of Pan-Africanism, and it is ism. It became highly probable that economy. important to examine the significance any Black man fighting against After the end of formal enslave- of this for the African Revolution. white oppression in his particular ment in the Americas, there were a Garvey was an exception in locality would sooner or later real- regarding himself as "an African few whites who would have wel- ize that all Africans "at home and overseas." DuBois remained American comed the massive re-transfer of abroad" were caught up in the same until very late in his life, and James Africans to their homelands. But of predicament. Pan-Africanism is not has always consciously identified as a course our labor was still needed by simply a unity of color, it is also a West Indian. He offers the the capitalist systems of Western unity of common condition and one explanation that the West Indian Europe and North America, so that that retains its validity because the (both French and British) has been possibility was never part of the ra- dominant group in the international steeped in the culture of Europe, has tional calculation of white society. political economy continue to define in many instances mastered that The alternative was to try and placate things in racist terms for their own culture so thoroughly as to lecture the former slaves by promises of convenience. For their own the "mother countries" on it and tear advance within American and Ca- convenience, admittedly, but then it down from within. Hence ribbean society. We were told to they are also playing with rev- Cesaire, Fanon, Padmore, etc. forget slavery, forget Africa and olution. James has more than once James certainly prided himself on forget that we were Africans. The commented on this double-edged mastery of everything in European stumbling block to accepting this is weapon of racism. He wrote recent- culture from Greek tragedy to the that the unique exploitation and ly that "centuries of Western dom- Hegelian dialectic. But once in oppression of the Black population ination and indoctrination . . . cre- England, he moved instinctively to a could only be explained in terms of ate in the minds of the great major-

8 ity of Africans and people of Afri- can descent everywhere a resent- ment that is never entirely absent. It may remain dormant for long periods, but it can be depended up- on in a particular population at a particular time to create and cement a formidable unity and deter- mination. Imperialism created this feeling; it has paid and will pay dearly for it."13 Identity is both affirmation and negation. It recognizes in the same instant the insider and the outsider. Black becomes relevant to an Afri- can at that point when he came into contradiction with white men. The continuing sharpness of that con- tradiction is due to white domina- tion, and the Black or African iden- tity has become a weapon for eman- cipation. At the level of organiza- tion, it is a common enough princi- ple that unity and the enlargement of scale must be brought to bear against the enemy. It is logical enough, too, that one must maxi- mize strong points, so the freeing of the African continent itself became the first priority for politically ac- tive West Indians who knew the limitations of their own societies and knew that the weakness of Af- rica contributed to indignity and low status abroad. Europeans en- slaved Africans and colonized Afri- emerges from the mass struggle. This ricans on the continent do not find this ca. They could never have imagined perception of classes forming within course of action hard to follow. There that some of the slaves would be in- African society and his attachment to is already a built-in suspicion of strumental in the freeing of the col- the Marxist world-view placed James "foreign" ideologies which can be onies, but the outcome was an un- in a position shared by several Black carried to irrational lengths but which avoidable consequence of the kind intellectuals over the course of this at least serves as a barrier to accepting of international political economy century. It required a reconciliation white ideological hegemony of any that emerged under European guid- between the African and the World sort. The progressive African who is ance from the 15th century onward. Revolution, as it were, and a plotting conscious of what the Christian The African Revolution so far of the coordinates of race and class. missionaries did is unlikely to be has already demonstrated convinc- The manner in which these were re- taken in by Marxist missionaries. ingly that what has been used as a solved by James is instructive. A less obvious lesson which can badge of servility can be turned into Time and again, James found his be drawn from James's double com- a bond of unity and a liberation white Marxist comrades reneging on mitment to Marxism and the Afri- tool. James's career is a small illus- their internationalism when it came can Revolution is that certain tration of this. It is also an illustra- to the cause of the Black man — be brands of Marxism have no appli- tion that the given African identifi- it Ethiopia, the West Indies or the cability whatever to our situation, cation is not sufficient as far as car- U.S.A. The only course of action having in fact been exposed as rying out the African Revolution is compatible with the welfare of Af- bankrupt in Europe itself. While concerned. The Revolution is by rican peoples was to break with Stalin-ism dominated the European and of the mass of the people, such compromised crypto-racist scene during the late 1920's through which means in effect the workers, whites, as Padmore did, as Sekou to the 1940's, James was attracted peasants and such leadership as Toure did, as Aime Cesaire did. Af- to the minority Trotskyite position,

9 which at least questioned some of opinion, this change needs to be ered as incorporating political free- the monstrosities carried out in the reaffirmed not only vis a vis the dom unmatched by economic inde- under the banner of reactionaries and liberals who al- pendence. Nkrumah himself fostered Socialism. Later, James broke with ways disliked Nkrumah, but also this distinction. However, at a much the Trotskyite mainstream on the with regard to the ultra-leftists who more fundamental level, it should be grounds that they too were too suddenly decided after the Ghana noted that neo-colonialism is wedded to the Soviet State to per- coup that Nkrumah had never been incompatible with political ceive how completely the Revolu- leading a revolutionary movement independence, and that the flag- tion had been betrayed. Without at all, but rather a party of the petty raising ceremonies effected no 14 entering into the substance of this bourgeoisie. change on the colonial state. James argument, it can still be affirmed In the many analyses which he suggested that, "The first problem that the African Revolution cannot has made of the popular movement was a state, a government. To begin afford to draw on Marxist theory in in the Gold Coast and Ghana, James with, he had no independent African its dogmatic Stalinist or even Trot- seldom if ever uses any overt Marxist government. Like all these new skyist form. But, conversely, it categorization, or makes any African rulers, he had inherited a should be equally clear that Africans citations from the spokesmen of colonial government organised for can benefit from mankind's scientific socialism. Indeed, his purposes quite different from his ideological heritage just as we can favorite comparison is with the own." The African head of state build on the universal technological French Revolution, and he is quite found himself "in charge of a British heritage. James brings out the ap- happy to use Michelet and Lefebvre imperialist colonial government plicability of Marxist methodology as the sources of his quotations. But which was constructed for British in his analysis of some important his methodology remains that of imperialist purposes and not for features of contemporary Africa: historical dialectics; and he was in purposes of governing an African notably in his evaluation of the effect showing the compatibility population." ("Reflections on Pan- Ghana experience and in his ap- between the latter and an African Africanism.") This remarkable in- proach to the transformation taking nationalist or Pan-Africanist stance. sight (which James develops at some place in Tanzania. It is relevant under the present length in his "epilogue" to A History What happened in Ghana is cen- circumstances to explore the limita- of Pan-African Revolt) is beginning tral to an understanding of modern tions rather than the achievements to gain wider acceptance. African politics. Many liberals paid of Nkrumah's regime, since it is the In 1971, such sentiments were lip-service to Ghana independence, former which have salutary lessons officially expressed by the governing while trying to suggest that it was a to offer on the nature of Revolution party in Tanzania, in a document that gift from Britain and was complete and counter-revolution in Africa. declared unequivocally that the in itself. Such individuals were out James traces the deterioration of people had yet to take political of tune with Nkrumah's efforts to the Ghanaian revolution at some power into their hands throughout achieve genuine all-round liberation length in his study Nkrumah Then the continent.15 for the Ghanaian people; and his and Now, pointing to political er- In 1966, while writing on Nkru- overthrow was a welcome opportu- rors and problems such as the fol- mah to a West Indian public, James nity for them to spout anti-African lowing: made the following comment: sentiments. In turn, James was Nkrumah's dismissal of the Chief prompted to reply in a number of Justice for a politically unpopular It took Nkrumah six years to win public forums, restating positions he decision; the growth of a bureauc- independence by 1957. He could had arrived at sometime before the racy; the total alienation of the have gone on to independence in coup. His first concern was to middle classes; the encouragement 1951. He preferred to wait. But one of a coterie of sycophants; failure day he told me he didn't know vindicate the popular and revolu- whether he was right to wait, or if tionary nature of the events that to involve the masses politically; he should have gone forward in transpired in the Gold Coast colony and personal degeneration of Nkru- 1951 as and Doro- between 1947 and 1957. During this mah as he became overwhelmed by thy Padmore were urging him to period, the role played by Nkrumah forces hostile to his original inten- do. I did not know what to think at was that of an authentic spokesman tions. Not surprisingly, the strong- the time but today I am of the of the people, challenging the est part of James's argument dealt opinion that he should have gone leadership of the petty-bourgeois with the question of the state and straight ahead. That six-year delay educated elite of lawyers and the political party. A correct appre- was one cause of the deterioration doctors. However, James was ciation of these issues remains one of his party and his government. A equally emphatic that subsequently of the highest priorities to be met revolution cannot mark time for six years. (i.e. .after 1957) the revolution in by the leadership of Africa today. Ghana and Africa as a whole was Among a number of well-meaning More prominence should be given people, neo-colonialism is consid- subverted by those forces. In my to this idea than James himself

10 gave it. {See another mention in of Tanzania as one of the foremost political phenomena of the twentieth "Reflections on Pan-Africanism.") It century. Tanzania is the highest peak was a fundamental aspect of the reached so far by revolting blacks." derailing of the people's aspirations (page 117, A History of Pan-African in Ghana and elsewhere on the con- Revolt) tinent. The struggle for independ- ence was a revolutionary one ema- What has Tanzania done to receive nating from the masses of the people such unqualified praise, in James's and embracing nearly all strata of the opinion? The government national- population. Colonial governments ized foreign property, which was retreated before the force of popular good. It began to restructure the political organizations, but at the educational system in an entirely same time they maneuvered and new way, which was an even better counter-attacked sometimes openly idea. It was planning the future on and more often insidiously. A period the basis of socialist rural communi- of "Self-Government" such as that in ties, drawing upon the heritage of Ghana between 1951 and 1957 was the people, since or family James, as a revolutionary protagonist living was part of that heritage. This, one of co-option and defusing. It was for nearly half a century, is not in James's estimation, was the most in that period that the colonialists unduly perturbed by the apparent revolutionary aspect of the political ensured the perpetuation of the weight of the counter-revolution. thought of Tanzania. colonial state and of the international Insofar as the African leadership is Reading between the lines, one imperialist economy. not responsible to the majority of the can see that James has enriched his Within a colonial or neo-colonial people, it only means that the own long fruitful career of learning state structure the locus of power lies African Revolution will be aimed as and teaching by turning to the pages outside the national boundaries, much against them as against the of Fanon and moreso Mwalimu having only a local representation in longstanding alien forces of capital- Nyerere. Fanon exposed the limits the form of an administration or ism and imperialism. James cites Fa- of Western culture and its counter through the persons of a small class non with full approval in this con- productive aspects as far as a Black created by and dependent on capi- text, paraphrasing him as follows: revolutionary leader was concerned. talism as a system. To break with Nyerere and the Tanzanian develop- this, the African revolution must In the nationalist revolution of the ments undoubtedly rekindled transfer power to the people. In twentieth century, the people must James's interest in African civiliza- Ghana, this did not happen. The be against not only the imperialists. tion and African culture. The fact party decayed, the bureaucracy Some of the people's leaders who that Ujamaa seeks its roots in the come forward to lead the revolution flourished in state and party, and the African past and in African society have nowhere to lead the people, must have reinforced James's long- regime became more authoritarian and revolution must be as fiercely behind its facade of one-party against them as against the held conviction that Revolution democracy. James's judgment of imperialists. Some of the writers, must be of the people. Tanzanian Nkrumah on this score is a judgment having learned all they could from Ujamaa was of the people and of the African Revolution. Western civilisation, will join the about the people. . : revolution, but bring nothing posi- Because the majority of the Nkrumah studied, thought and knew tive and corrupt the revolutionary Tanzanian population lives in the a lot. But one thing he never movement. The intellectuals must countryside, it means that any mastered: that democracy is not a learn that they must dig deep among goals for the well-being of the matter of the rights of the opposi- the mass of the population to find country must relate primarily to tion, but in some way or other must the elements of a truly national the rural areas. A most obvious involve the population. Africa will culture. (Emphasis mine, taken from conclusion, one might say, but it "DuBois to Fanon.") find that road or continue to crash only became obvious after Nyerere from precipice to precipice. It is the last of the above state- had said it often enough. Nkrumah had not discerned this. Economic After the fall of Nkrumah and ments which holds the key to development under his rule was the subsequent demise of Modibo James's present fascination with the urban-directed and oriented Keita, one could well ask "where Tanzanian situation. James's praise towards industry, which was is the African Revolution?" — for Tanzania is unstinted: viewed as a panacea. In evaluating especially given the fact in the Nkrumah's economic policies, first place that constitutional The impact that the policies of Tan- zania have made upon Africa and James did not perceive the independence brought nothing but upon the rest of the world has al- weakness. He merely observed puppet regimes in so many territories. ready established the African state that Nkrumah was trying to do too

11 much. It was more than that — it was cannot separate Ujamaa from the stract as that of the value of Marx- an incorrect strategy for socio- "" of the African ism to the African Revolution has economic development, because it petty bourgeoisie. A few of these are recently been revived among Afri- ignored the majority of the popula- Africans on the continent or in the can students on the continent and tion and was encouraging further ties Americas — a fact worth noting in activists in the Black movement in of dependence with the outside world the present context. More signifi- America. It is a recognition of the rather than self-reliance, as is cantly, there are numerous Africans fact that, as oppressed people, we Tanzania's goal. as enthusiastic about Ujamaa as cannot afford to overlook any weapon which could contribute to our liberation. One of the many African freedom will not be won facets of the career of Mzee C. L. R. without building on the positive James is precisely the awareness that African freedom will not be won elements in the history of Man. without building on the positive elements in the history of Man. This is a propitious moment for restating When looking at the appalling James is, but who refuse to accept that proposition, because it can be economic plight of Africa and the that insights can be gained from placed in the now firmly established Third World, James at one point Marxism which are applicable to the context that the portion of that tended to place reliance on an ex- African situation and would history most relevant to us is the ternal solution: namely in "the re- strengthen our ideological position. history of Man in Africa and of generative assistance of the accumu- James has always been applying Africans in world affairs. lated wealth and technical knowl- Marxism to the concrete conditions edge of the advanced countries." of Black society, irrespective of For once James seems to be defeatist whether or not he announces this. Footnotes when he assesses that "the regimes Occasionally, he makes it explicit. 1. John Gaffar La Guerre, "Cyril Lionel in Asia and Africa, with their present He did so with regard to the Tan- Robert James, 1901 — An Annotated resources, have no possibility zanian Revolution, and it is worth Bibliography" (Mimeograph, Univer- whatever of overcoming constant ending with the illustration to that sity of the West Indies, 1970). economic crisis and political and so- effect. 2. This has since been republished as C. cial decay." Undoubtedly, a Revo- Drawing on his detailed knowl- L. R. James, A History of Pan- lution within the metropolitan cen- edge of the Russian Revolution, African Revolt (Drum and Spear ters would be of inordinate impor- James isolated the two matters on Press, 1961). (All page references in tance to the African Revolution, but which Lenin placed absolute priority the text are taken from this second it is no pre-condition. It may even in his last years. The first was the edition.) be argued that the world revolution break-up of the old state machinery 3. A major monograph has still to make must continue to move from the and the second was educational work its appearance on this subject. How- ever, see Christopher Fyfe, A History "periphery" to the "center" as far as among the peasants. Marxism- of Sierra Leone (1964) and Robert the imperialist world is concerned. Leninism was not Nyerere's point Rotberg and (eds.), Black In any event, the trend pointed by of reference, but he decided upon Protest (1970). Tanzanian Ujamaa is for self- these same two priorities for Tan- 4. George Shepperson and Thomas reliance, internally integrated growth, zania after the experience gained Price, Independent African (1958). and a self-sustaining economy from several years in office as head 5. An example in the first category is which can in itself constitute exit of state. James holds up this rele- Jack Woddis, Africa, the Roots of from the economic crisis and socio- vant parallel between the Russian Revolution In the second category, political decay attendant on neo- and Tanzanian situations as an ex- see loan Davies, African Trade Un- colonialism. There can be no ample to those Africans who mis- ions (1966). guarantee of success of this particular guidedly and maliciously represent 6. One of the more revealing volumes line, but there can never be a Marxism as "something that Marx is that by Edward Roux, Time Longer guarantee in these matters. James had to say about the advanced Than Rope (second edition, 1964). 7. This applies for instance to R. Oliver himself is fond of telling political countries." Equally of course one and J. D. Fage, A Short History of activists to do what they feel has to could conclude that Marxist formal- Africa, which is still widely in use. be done — and let the rest take care ism is not indispensable in the task 8. This view was first strongly advocated of itself. In terms of economic policy, of discerning the movement of by colonial historians such as Lady therefore, he has taken his cue from society and building the new Margery Perham, and is now being the Tanzanian revolution. structures that express the interests pursued by a younger generation of Some Marxists are skeptical of of the mass of the people.16 It is signifi- neo-colonial European scholars. what is going on in Tanzania. They cant that a question as seemingly ab- 9. See, e.g, Sir Charles Jeffries, Trans-

12 fer of Power: Problems of the Passage 12. C. L. R. James, "Colonialism and zanian Ujamaa and Scientific Social- to Self-Government (1960). National Liberation in Africa: The ism," in African Review, Volume 1, 10. James himself is tireless in giving Gold Coast Revolution" in Norman No. 4 (1972). credit to the others who were in- Miller and Roderick Aya, National volved, such as DuBois, Padmore, Liberation: Revolution in the Third Walter Rodney, an internationally Wallace Johnson and Makonnen. See, World (The Free Press, 1971), page renowned historian of colonialism e.g., his discourse, "From DuBois to 106. and a leader of the Guyanese Working Fanon" (1970). 13. Ibid, page 129. People's Alliance, was closely 11. A number of explanations have been 14. See, e.g. Bob Fitch and Mary Oppen- associated with James (and to his offered for this phenomenon. One of heimer, Ghana, the End of an Elu- memory James's autobiography wil the recent reviews is one by Locksley sion — a book with many insights but be dedicated). Rodney was assas- Emundson, "Caribbean Nation-Build- one marred by oversimplification of sinated June 13, 1980. The above ing and the Internationalization of the class situation in Ghana. address was delivered at a Sympo- Race: Issues and Perspectives," in 15. The T.A.N.U. Guidelines (T.A.N.U., sium on James at the University of Wendell Bell and Walter Freeman , 19V1J. , March 31, 1972. Our (eds.), Ethnicity and Nation-Building 16. For an extended discussion along these special thanks to Richard Small for (Sage Publishers, 1972). lines, see Walter Rodney, "Tan- supplying a copy.

The training of an intellectual,

the making of a Marxist

2 by Richard Small nationalist movement, proletariat Insofar as it is possible to break and developing Carnival in a up any man's life into compart- I was about six years of age when society if not as scholastic as ments, it could be said that there I got hold of my mother's copy of Barbados certainly one that was are three in the case of James's. Shakespeare. There were 37 plays increasingly literate. First there is cricket. He grew up in in it, or 36, and there was an illus- The quotation may suggest great a house that was directly in front of tration in the front of each play. audacity — but the main point is the local cricket ground. In Trini- The illustration had below it the the method and that it should have dad and the West Indies of the early Act and the Scene which it twentieth century this game, intro- illustrated and I remember the been there from so early. First he illustration before Julius Caesar was very disciplined in assessing duced by the English colonials, was saying, "How ill this taper burns." what he could handle and set out not only a major form of entertain- Now I could not read a play of to master that. The picture would ment (this being before the era of Shakespeare but I remember have helped to provide a visual such popular forms as the cinema perfectly looking up the Act and image to the print which a young and radio) but it was also the arena Scenes stated at the foot of the mind by itself perhaps could not in which the social forces in the ab- illustration and reading that conjure up. Secondly it was done sence of adult suffrage or a devel- particular scene. I am quite sure comprehensively — all 36 or 37 oped trade union movement con- that before I was seven I had read plays — some would stick, tended against each other. all those scenes. I read neither perhaps not all, but all would be The membership of the various before nor after, but if the picture read. The quotation is also clubs was determined by occupa- told me Act 3, Scene 4, I would tion and social class and at that look it up and fortified myself apposite since it illustrates another with the picture.1 aspect of James's development. time, even more sharply than now, Almost 60 years later on the that discrimination would be In this quotation is contained a occasion of the 4th centenary of virtually the same as great deal of what helped to form C. Shakespeare, he did a series of differentiation according to color. L. R. James. Born in the West programs for the BBC which were Queens Park Club, the controllers Indies at the turn of the century, the afterwards used widely on radio of cricket in the island, were son of a Black Trinidadian school stations in the U.S.A. Here as in white and wealthy; Shamrock, teacher, grandson just over half a all the main areas of his ideas, the Catholic French Creole traders century after the abolition of grounding in them can be found and cocoa planters; Maple, middle slavery of a sugar-estate pan boiler in his earliest years and in a class of brown skin; Shannon, and an engine driver, came of age in method which he seemed to have the Black middle class version, the growing stages of a West Indian developed entirely empirically. white collar office types, and teach-

13 ers; and then Stingo, the tradesman, artisan, worker. Today, after Muhammad Ali there can be no doubt of the profound and compre- hensive social drama that can be portrayed through a sport. Add to that that almost everybody played or took an interest in cricket and that it was played for up to eight months of the year, and some estimate of its potential for social and sublimated social expression will be grasped. The game itself can often produce great dramatic effects:

Down came a short ball, up went Jones and lashed at it, there was the usual shout, a sudden silence and another shout, not so loud this time. Then from my window I saw Jones walking out and people began to walk away. He had been caught by point standing with his back to the barbed wire. I could not see it from my window and I asked and asked until I was told what had happened. I knew that something out of the ner's account of the M.C.C. 1903-4 the normal youth's interest in ad- ordinary had happened to us who tour of Australia, and his Cricket, venture stories, particularly James were watching. We had been lifted The Jubilee Book of Cricket by Fenimore Cooper's The Deerslayer, to the heights and cast down into Ranjitsinghi and the Badmington The Pathfinder, The Last of the the depths in much less than a fraction of a second. Countless as are Book of Cricket. These were the Mohicans, and The Prairie. His the times that this experience has pillars and they helped to form part mother had a library. She read, and been repeated, most often in the of his outlook on life from when he close behind her he would read company of tens of thousands of was in school. He would organize everything from the magazine got people, I have never lost the zest of newspaper clippings, articles from from the travelling salesman to wondering at it and pondering over magazines, keep statistics on the Dickens, Charlotte Bronte, Nathaniel it.3 game. He was up-to-date on the the- Hawthorne and a Mrs. E. D. E. N. ories of the game and would ex- Southworth. He formed an associa- The game has the virtue of a book pound on them. After a time it tion with Vanity Fair at the age oi like Animal Farm in that all ages seems that the actual playing of the eight and would read it about once can observe it and get their own game was merely ancillary to all this. every 3 months — so that till today stimulation. In contrast to his adventurous mind, he can recite pages of it from mem- From as early as the age of six, he was a defensive batsman. He ory. He was very familiar with his James was looking out from "my bowled medium fast and could do Bible, not as is the usual case in the window," which was placed right things with the ball — competent West Indies because he was told it ought to be read but because he behind the wicket. His father had but not gifted. He played the game regularly and hard, right up to 1931 discovered that the unabridged ver- given him a bat and ball on his when he left the island, but his sion of the stories he read in The fourth birthday. His first day at intellectual involvement in the game Throne of the House of David could secondary school, he put his name was always there. After he left be found in that good book. down to play. He eventually made school, he moved naturally into At school he would read the set the school eleven, was secretary and cricket journalism. books through well ahead of the organized the purchase of the stock The story of James and literature class and then move on to the vol- for the whole school. That, however, is the second (only in listing, not in umes of criticism. He read all the was a small part of his involvement. priority) area of his life. There is the volumes of Thackeray's works. He He read every book on cricket in quotation at the start on the nature of studied Greek, Latin and History. It sight, and those out of sight his introduction to Shakespeare. was the same with these. It he would go looking for. P. F. War- He was drawn to reading by led him to the collections of historic 14 speeches. In addition he said he choice to him was between the light failure to apply himself to his formal read "everything." colored, Maple, on the one hand, school studies, he had disappointed Two quotations may help. and on the other Shannon, the team his family and all around who that played as if they were the expected him to follow the course I did not merely play cricket. I representatives of the whole Black which would have made him, despite studied it. I analysed strokes, I population — and which they were. his color, the professional if not the studied types, I read its history, its He searched his mind, sought advice social colleague of the Maple players. beginnings, how and when it and decided for the club in which Was there any place in the society changed from period to period, I many were friends of his — Maple. where he could have learned a dif- read about it in Australia and in In the words of an advisor, "These ferent answer to this personal crisis South Africa. I read and compared are the people who you are going to in which Thackeray and Matthew statistics, I made clippings, I talked meet in life. Join them; it will be Arnold could not assist? There was to all cricketers, particularly the 8 better in the end." the aloofness of the grammar school inter-colonial cricketers and those This decision summarized a great boy garrisoned by the protectiveness who had gone abroad. I compared deal of James's life up to that time. what they told me with what I read Although from solid "Shannon" of the school and its Oxbridge-trained in old copies of Wisdon. I looked stock, his brightness had got him to masters who could easily, within the up the play of the men who had one of the two leading secondary walls of the school, teach the old done well or badly against the West schools. It was a path that was ex- public school ethic of "playing the Indies. I read and appreciated the game," "respecting the authority of phraseology of laws.4 pected to release a few Black men in a generation into the rare sur- the umpire," and esprit de corps. It was only after I left school that I roundings of professional life and Education was then even more than began to distinguish between the legislative appointment. James had now separated from the social study of cricket and the study of not applied himself to what was realities, and the few scholarship literature, or rather, I should say, considered his social responsibility winners could hardly represent any the pursuit of cricket and the pur- to complete that circuit. Yet the real questioning of the applicability suit of literature. I did with the one mere fact of being a QRC (Queens of the legend to Trinidad as it existed exactly what I did with the other. I Royal College) boy for seven years outside the school. James was further paid no attention to the curriculum.5 presented a dilemma of decision that separated by his avid reading and lesser Blacks would not have faced. immersion in British ideology. C. L. R. James today, despite his It was not an easy decision for him acknowledged wide range, is known to make, but the fact is that the Trinidad society was no calm pool, firstly as a political writer and decision was made the way it was. and other forces, we can now detect, Marxist. Up to the time he left He had spent close to fifteen years were an undercurrent in his life that school, there is no sign in him of making himself widely familiar with perhaps even he was unaware of. In any political inclinations. English literature, cricket, the public Beyond A Boundary there is a school code, history and general passing reference to the calypso tents But this school was in a colony European culture. Yet when the most of his boyhood days. ruled autocratically by Englishmen. concrete of decisions for a Black What then about the National Ques- Trinidadian came to be made, there I was fascinated by the calypso 6 tion? It did not exist for me. was nothing in all that training that singers and the sometimes ribald could point a way for him. It is ditties they sang in their tents during The race question did not have to almost that it had isolated him from carnival time. But, like many of the black middle class, to my mother a be agitated. It was there. But in our seeing the sharp forces which were little Eden it never troubled us.7 calypso was a matter for ne'er-do- embattled before his eyes. He does wells and at best the common write about making the decision, people. I was made to understand "My social and political instincts, It is James's view that despite some that the road to the calypso tent was nursed on Dickens and Thackeray, the road to hell, and there were instances of racial discrimination were beginning to clarify always plenty of examples of hell's outside, they were soon forgotten themselves. As powerful a pull as inhabitants to whom she could once he returned to the shelter of the any was the brilliant cricket Shannon point.10 school atmosphere. Yet the racial played."9 categories of the society would have When you look at it, the main Ribald ditties were not all that been all around for everybody to see. reason which his advisor gave for were being sung in those tents. It It was certainly there in cricket and joining Maple, "These men are the would be interesting to know whether he had to make a very clear decision people whom you are going to meet James ever heard the Calypsonian, on it just as he left school. in life," had already been rejected Patrick Jones, sing, in 1920, these Which club would he join? The by James. By his very interests and lines11: 15

Class legislation is the order of this land be depended on to shoot down the population and it is a serious problem up We are ruled with the iron hand 17 (REPEAT) to today.

Britain boast of democracy Along with the reading of Gar- Brotherly love and fraternity vey's paper, James recalls reading But British Colonists have been somewhere around 1921 Rene Ma- ruled in perpetual misery. rat's novel that won the Prex Gon- court and reading "the novel which The period immediately after the was an exposure of colonialism in end of the first World War was one French Africa" and which caused of considerable unrest among the Marat to lose his job. 12 Although he did not take part in working class. Following on a series any of the political activity in 1919 of strikes in the oil and asphalt he was in 1919 among a group who fields, a group of independent- formed the Maverick Club. It was a minded and militant workers moved social club which lasted about two to push the employers to adjust years. No white people were allowed wages, which had been severely re- to join. James was the secretary "and duced during the wars by price in- for the most part we were Black creases and actual cuts. In November people and one brown." Among its 1919 the stevedores struck, there members were C. T. W. E. Worrell was a march which caused business and John Theophilus Caesar Prescod. places in Port of Spain to close, and There were lawyers and doctors as a was called. Various members and among other things categories of workers either joined were banned was 's "we would give concerts.' What the strike then or struck later — Negro World, but James used to ar- racial consciousness did this after the stevedores had won a 25% range to get his copy and read it. represent? For he maintained increase. The colonial administration After Garvey was expelled from the had called in white troops from U.S.A., in the course of his travels A circle of friends (most of them Jamaica during the strike. They he came to Trinidad. The Port of white) with whom I exchanged believed that the spirit of the Spain City Council gave him an of- ideas, books, records and manu- Taranto Rebellion in Italy, when ficial welcome and C. L. R. James scripts. We published local maga- Black troops of the British West was among those who interviewed zines and gave lectures or wrote Indies Regiment revolted in him. To James, Garvey was an in- articles on Wordsworth, the Eng- December 1918, had in fact teresting person, but he was not a lish Drama, and Poetry as a Criti- follower of Garvey. If he didn't get cism of Life. We lived according to "eventually reached the population 15 of Trinidad generally."13 the paper, he "would not die." the tenets of Matthew Arnold, spreading sweetness and light and The unrest continued in 1920 and Many of the leaders of the 1919 the best that has been thought and a Strikes and Lockouts Ordinance, strike considered themselves Gar- veyites. said in the world. We met all visit- a Seditious Acts and Publications ing literary celebrities as a matter During the strike James, as was 19 Ordinance, and an Industrial Courts his practice with politics at the time, of course. Ordinance were all passed that year. took no part in it but went around to There was a Stingo batsman, see what was going on.16 A prominent member of this Telemaque, whom C. L. R. James circle was the novelist Alfred Men- 20 would have often come into contact I saw what was happening and later des. In an interview about the with. He was in fact an all-rounder it had a great effect on me because I period, he expresses the opinion that — a bowler and fielder. He was also realized how weak and defenseless was the local government and that . . . the motivating forces that drove a waterfront worker and a member had an influence on my thinking. of the waterfront workers' . . . I remember that the soldiers us, willy-nilly, like a sort of one of organization. James liked the man, didn't frighten anybody. That had a the furies, into writing at all, but in Beyond A Boundary he can lot to do with my attitude later be- stemmed from two world-shattering events at that early period of our only speculate that Telemaque may cause the people were not afraid, so that in 1938-39 although I was not lives. have taken part in the events of 1919- The first was, of course, the first 14 there I read the report and could 20. "Telemaque and I rarely talked." visualize it. The trouble in a Carib- world war where a large number of Among the publications that bean island is that the army cannot us had been abroad and indeed, 16 even those of us who had not been what I should believe. However, I thereby appropriately linked the abroad were influenced considerably remember three Or four very impor- game with the surge of West Indian by what was happening in the tant history books. They were a nationalism. It represented the first world, and the second event was history of England by G. K. Ches- major fruit of the offer of James's the Russian Revolution. Those, I terton and some histories of the exceptional qualities to the services think, were the two events in our seventeenth century by Hilary Bel- lives at that time which drove us lock. These books violently attacked of the Caribbean mass. The title of into writing about our islands. the traditional English history on the abridged version prepared for the which I had been brought up and West Indian market caught its real they gave me a critical conception of spirit — The Case for West Indian James certainly had been writing historical writing.22 Self-Government. about the island — in his novel Minty Alley and his two best-known His historical approach to litera- In 1938 two books that were first short stories, "Triumph" and "La ture can be illustrated. At the library worked on during those last hectic Divina Pastora" — and with a there was a set of books by Thomas years in Trinidad before departure to sensitivity for local culture that is in Hardy. James borrowed and read England were published in England striking contrast to this strange them in the sequence in which they — The Black Jacobins: Toussaint aloofness from politics. There is, were written. Similarly, when a L'Ouverture and The San Domingo series of translations of the works of however, no indication that the crisis Revolution and A History of Negro Anatole France became available, he Revolt. of the World War or the Russian imported them and read them in Revolution sparked any urge in him. The historical sense remains very order. strong. We can summarize the tran- From 1919 Captain Arthur An- Long before he became a Marxist sition to Marxism very quickly. In drew Cipriani had joined the Trini- he used to tell his students: 1932 when he went to England he dad Workingmen's Association and had general socialist ideas and na- launched a period of nationalist What you need in studying any his- 21 tionalist sentiments. He went in- politics. It was not until 1924 that torical subject is you must get some tending to be a novelist and probably James started paying anything like idea of the economic circumstance, a critical essayist. He had an in- you must also get some idea of the close attention to his speeches and clination towards the British Labor not till 1931 that he became a political circumstances and you must get to know the literary cir- Party, not unusual as Cipriani had a follower of Cipriani, great faith in the party and his or- It is history, the third area of cumstances. Only when you know those three, you have some idea of ganization was affiliated to it. In James's life, that really makes the the historical development of the addition, the Calypsonian Patrick link between the young man who period.23 Jones had sung a calypso in honor of grew up in Trinidad and the man the first Labor Party victory. whose life and ideas today make it No doubt the power of the social In Britain there was tremendous so unreal to divide him into cate- movement was channelling this political excitement going on among gories. He studied his history in exceptionally trained mind into new the intellectuals. Also in Nelson, school in the same way in which he inquiries. So his writing began to where he stayed with Learie approached literature and cricket. show a native preoccupation that Constantine and his wife, workers, Indeed there was history in cricket was already evident in his creative members of the Labor Party, taught and history in literature. History work. In 1931 he published in the him not to expect too much from the suffused everything. It was implicit Beacon a study of Michel Maxwell party. He was reading Lenin and in the very method he developed — Philip, a Trinidadian Solicitor-Gen- Stalin and Trotsky. Then first comprehensiveness, then the eral. He had been writing about attempt to place the whole in some Prudhomme David, a Black member I read the History of the Russian order. of the legislature. Indeed from about Revolution because I was very much 1928 he had started talking to interested in history and the book seemed to offer some analysis of I can remember this much. I read people, collecting information and modern society. At the end of an enormous number of history government reports. That work reading the book, Spring 1934, I books, none of them particularly found consummation in the writing became a Trotskyist — in my mind good, but I read every one I could of The Life of Captain Cipriani, a and later joined. It was clear in my put my hands on — chiefly the his- study that embraced much else be- mind that I was not going to be a tory of England and later, histories sides the life of a remarkable West Stalinist.24 of Europe and ancient civilization. I used to teach history, and reading Indian. Its publication in Britain in the whole lot of them I gained the 1932 is charged with great symbol- C. L. R. James, even today with habit of critical judgment and dis- ism. It was dedicated to Learie Con- his strong puritan sense and Marxist crimination. I was compelled to try stantine, the outstanding West politics, still remains an enigma to find out what I should teach or Indian cricketer of the period, and to many. To read his Beyond A

17

Boundary, to hear him speak of what 10. Ibid., pages 25-26. he owes to Western civilization in Thackeray, not 11. Calypso Lore and Legend, Cook the same breath as expounding on Records, LP 5016. 12. See footnote 2 and "Black Power In Black Power, can be a puzzling The British West Indies: The Trini- experience. Still there is a natural Marx, bears the dad Longshoremen's Strike of 1919," link between all this. One should not Science and Society, Vol. 33, Winter be fooled by the aura that surrounds 1969, pages 71-75. "the British public school code" or 13. "Disturbances in Port of Spain, Re- the failure of those who preached heaviest ports by the Commissioners on The honesty, fair play, etc. to practice it, Conduct of the Constabulary," Sep- to carry it to its logical conclusion. It tember 1920, Public Record Office is those very qualities of fair play, responsibility (), C.O. 884/13. For informa- honesty, etc. in their pure sense that tion on the rebellion, see W. F. El- a Black colonial would be driven to kins, "A Source of extract from the code. That is what for me. in the Caribbean: The Revolt of the British West Indies Regiment at Ta- he would need, as it was the absence being betrayed by a contemporary ranto, Italy," Science and Society, of that everywhere around him that brutality and crudeness, that this can Vol. 34, Spring 1970, pages 99-103. was holding him down. That is the lead someone who believes in the 14. James, op. cit, page 76. movement that he detected in values of the old order either to pine 15. Interview with C. L. R. James by au- English literature. It is there in the thor in London, April 3, 1969. authors to whom he was attracted. after the past or to create a vision of 16. Ibid. a new order which will either restore 17. Ibid., i.e., 1969. It was a serious My social and political instincts, the cherished values or at least make problem once again in 1970 in nursed on Dickens and Thackeray25 it possible to live by them. The spirit Trinidad. of Marxism that James has 18. Interview with C. L. R. James by au- Thackeray, not Marx, bears the thor. heaviest responsibility for me.26 illuminated is very little removed 19. James, op. cit., pages 70-71. from the essentials of what he was 20. "Talking About The Thirties," Voi- Fairness contains in it the ideas of brought up on. ces, Vol. 1, No. 5 (Port of Spain, justice, equality. It pushes one Trinidad). toward that. It may have taken a long Footnotes 21. See C. L. R. James, The Life of Captain time but when he turned to look at Cipriani (Nelson, Lanes, 1932). Trinidadian society, he saw first the 1. Interview with C. L. R. James by au- 22. Interview with C. L. R. James by mass of the population, how they thor in London, October 1967. author in London, October 1967. 2. "Labour Relations after World War 23. Ibid. lived and what the motion of their One," Moko, 22/12/69. history was propelling them towards. 24. Ibid. 3. C. L. R. James, Beyond A Boundary 25. James, Beyond A Boundary, page 58. In The Life of Captain Cipriani and in (Hutchinson, 1963), pages 16-17. 26. Ibid., page 47. his creative works, he writes as 4. Ibid., pages 41-42. naturally about the mass of the 5. Ibid., page 42. population as if he had been looking 6. Ibid., page 38. at them all his life. 7. Ibid., page 39. Richard Small is a lawyer in Jamaica There is a way when the qualities 8. Ibid., page 59. and an old friend of C. L. R. James. of an older order, past times, are 9. Ibid., page 58.

18 In England, 1932 -1938

by Robert A. Hill this achievement. fort and concentration; in measure- By anyone's standards, it was a ment, the results were prolific and Two passages will immediately monumental achievement, which gave example of the man's tremen- place the general outline and orient staggers the mind simply in the re- dous diversity of interest and capac- the reader to the broad limits of the counting of it. In order that the full ities; in consequence, it touched all interpretation to which the period stature of James's actual accom- corners of the world-wide revolu- of C. L. R. James's first stay in plishments may be settled and rec- tionary struggle. Finally, in between England will be treated. Both ognized from the outset, it would be much of the actual work on the passages are drawn from his own best to simply itemize them. The list above matters, James went about later work, Beyond A Boundary runs as follows: earning some regular pail of his liv- 1963), and the first comes from ing by reporting on English first- Chapter 8. Here James states: 1. (Published for the West Indies) class cricket for The Manchester The Life of Captain Cipriani, Guardian newspaper. In March 1932 I boarded the boat 1932. It would be trying to reach for the for Plymouth. I was about to enter 2. The Case for West Indian Self- impossible if we sought after a the arena where I was to play the Government, 1933. (An abridged complete description of James's English version of the above pub- role for which I had prepared my- evolution over this pivotal six-year self. The British intellectual was lished under its real title.) going to Britain, (pages 114-15) 3. Learie Constantine's Cricket and stretch in England. Many separate I, 1932, the writing of which histories are bound up together in The second passage, found in Chapter James was largely responsible for. each stage of his work, and each 12 of the same book, counterposes 4. Minty Alley, 1936, a novel. would separately necessitate a great in telescoped fashion the evolved 5. International Friends of Ethioia, deal further research. In addition, it stage of James's political position. 1935-1937. would alike be too much to attempt The passage reads: 6. Toussaint L'Ouverture, in which an exhaustive analysis of each work. played the leading In the present context and at this role in its London production, stage of our knowledge, it will be (Between 1932 and 1938) fiction- 1936. writing drained out of me and was sufficient to give only a kind of 7. International African Service Bu- perspective in reviewing James's life replaced by politics. I became a reau, official organ, formed out Marxist, a Trotskyist. I published of the IAFE in 1937 by George for this period, while at the same large books and small articles on Padmore. Editor of International time making some tentative these and kindred subjects. I wrote African Opinion, 1938. conclusions of the import which it and spoke. Like many others, I ex- 8. The first historical account of has for the man's development into pected war, and during or after the the Third International, World one of the major political thinkers of war social revolution. In 1938 a lec- Revolution: 1917-1936. The Rise the twentieth century. ture tour took me to the United and Fall of the Communist From James's own later account States and I stayed there fifteen International, 1937. years, (page 149) in Beyond A Boundary, we learn 9. English translation of Boris Sou- that in 1931 he planned to go to varine's biography, Stalin, 1938. Thus, the perspective of what ac- England so that he could "write 10. The Black Jacobins: Toussaint books." (page 114) This fact came tually overtook the intellectual L'Ouverture and the Haitian development of James during the Revolution, 1938. out in the course of James's agreeing period 1932-1938 should be very 11. A History of Negro Revolt, 1939. to do the actual writing of Learie straightforward. It was a leap out of Constantine's projected book on the the world of Thackeray and nine- All of this was done between March history of West Indian cricket. But teenth-century intellectual concerns 1932 and October 1938, when he this was only, according to James, "a into the world of international so- preparatory operation," for in cialist revolution. Simply put, world a leap out of the accepting Constantine's offer to revolution. But what is not so sim- sponsor his trip to England as a ple, at least still undetected, are the writer, the seed of a remarkable actual circumstances surrounding the world of Thackeray partnership and an even more re- process through which the markable future was being nour- transformation was achieved. The sailed for the United States, a period ished. James himself tells us: "This present essay will attempt to of just over six and a half years. transcendence of our relations suggest the contours and content of In method it meant prodigious ef- as cricketers was to initiate the West

19 Indian renaissance not only in cricket, 1937-38. It was in the army that many of the but in politics, in history and in There are many unique features soldiers, a medley from all the British writing." (page 114) to the book, but here it will suffice West Indian islands, for the first time At this period, however, Constan- to point out what to the present wore shoes consistently. But they tine the cricketer was the more po- writer is the most significant. Al- were the product of their peculiar litical of the two, for as James at- though the political conception of history. The speed with which they tests, though his "sentiments were in the work was governed by the need adjusted themselves to the spiritual the right place, I was still enclosed to state in carefully reasoned terms and material requirements of a within the mould of nineteenth- modern war amazed all observers, the capacity then of West Indian from General Allenby down. century intellectualism." Then he society for self-government and na- Cipriani made a reputation for him- tells us that the shell really began to tional independence, the book sug- self by his militant defence of the crack under the impact of the gests very clearly the source of regiment against all prejudice, offi- political capability demonstrated by James's later espousal of Marxism cial and unofficial. To the end of the people of Trinidad under the as a philosophical and political out- his days he spoke constantly of the leadership of Captain Cipriani. "I look. In this sense it could be said recognition they had won. ('Ap- was caught up in it like many others that James was writing as a Marxist pendix,' The Black Jacobins, 2nd and began to take notice," James even before he engaged consciously ed., 1963, page 403) states. Before this, however, it was in the articulation of Marxism as a What this passage hints at was the Constantine's "'they are no better scientific method. than we'" that had first made the fact that James by 1932 had dis- Behind the delineation of Cipriani initial breach in James's naive good covered more than political nation- as the outstanding West Indian faith in the fairness of sporting alism. He had discovered the socially political personality and the overall convention, albeit colonial social revolutionizing force of the "in- readiness of West Indian society in convention. This last was the test of articulate" and their primary role in assuming self-rule, the book bases a conviction in social egali-tarianism overcoming and breaking out of the its perspective on the vindication of but now under the pressure of contradictions of the historical pro- the West Indian soldier and his witnessing national injustice. Before cess. Indeed, Cipriani's true stature achievement in the Great War of leaving Trinidad, James had arrived rests on his response as a leader to 1914-1918. Collectively as the West at the point where, he tells us; "My "the barefooted man" and the con- India Regiment, these soldiers hitherto vague ideas of freedom sequent political interaction between opened out a whole new stage in crystalized around a political them. The effects, a large part of the development of West Indian life. conviction: we should be free to which would be undone before they In reviewing their achievement and govern ourselves." (page 119) could finally defeat colonial rule, its significance for Cipriani's This newly won conviction was were not as important as the emergence as a political leader, the guiding principle around which source out of which it sprang. James informs us: he organized the two manuscripts Not the educated colonial middle- which accompanied him to England in the spring of 1932. One was a history of cricket in the West Indies which he had already begun prepar- ing with Constantine; the second was his biography of Captain Cipri- ani. Together they subsumed the discovery of political nationalism, West Indian nationalism in this instance. The first published was The Life of Captain Cipriani, the cost of which was borne by Constantine, in whose home in Nelson, Lancashire, James was staying and where he finished the final draft. Constantine approved and paid for it to be printed, and it was sent home to the West Indies, where it came to play a significant role in orienting many individuals when the widespread labor riots broke out in

20 class, but the "barefooted man" it events in the West Indies." — the leader of the revolt of the was who showed that the society With these works out of the way, slaves in the French colony of San had achieved genuine political mo- James was quickly shedding his ties Domingo. This revolt and the suc- dernity, and this was signalled by which he had brought with him from cessful establishment of the state of Trinidad. The completed novel which Haiti is the most outstanding event the adjustment made by West Indian in the history of the West Indies. soldiers in the course of the War's he had brought with him to England (Beyond A Boundary, page 122) unprecedented challenges. was discarded in favor of a However, if James's discovery of succeeding work, Minty Alley, which From this beginning in Nelson, the the "inarticulate" soldier in the War in time was to prove to be the first of project would move on to incorpo- was prelude to his later locating a the West Indian novels to be rate revolutionary ideas of history scientific method in Marxism for published in England. The novel and society and to be placed at the explaining the true nature of popular appeared in 1936 as one of the very purpose of wider freedoms. But if it forces in history, the nationalism of first group of books published by the is there that we can mark the real the book itself suggested something new house of Martin Seeker and beginning of James's fundamental deeper than mere territorial attribute. Warburg Ltd. It attempted an account movement to the Left, the West In- Indeed, nationalism in this instance of a childhood in the West Indies, in dies was his preparation, and the was based on the unconscious which the social ambience of a fused books which had gone before were principle which would later colonial community was analyzed in characterize the genuine uniqueness terms of the simultaneously operating "new material, new in that (their) of James's Marxism. That extremes of class privilege and class premises are the future, not the past." uniqueness is best summed up by oppression. (A reprint of Minty Alley (page 124) James himself in the following has been published by New Beacon It should be pointed out, however, passage from Beyond a Boundary: Publishers in Britain.) that James had already begun to acquaint himself with left-wing ideas Time would pass, old empires would The general effect of this initial while in Nelson. He tells us: fall and new ones take their place, burst of literary activity emanating the relations of countries and the out of Constantine's home in Nelson I soon made friends in the local relations of classes had to change, was that, as James puts it, Labour Party, attended their meet- before I discovered that it is not "henceforth the West Indies was ings, spoke to them. Some of Con- quality of goods and utility which speaking for itself to the modern stantine's intimate friends who came matter, but movement; not where world." (page 124) It was also the to the house often found congenial company in me, apart from cricket. you are or what you have, but completion more or less of James's where you have come from, where My Labour and Socialist ideas had you are going and the rate at which West Indian period, a period in been got from books and were you are getting there, (pages 116-17) which cricket and the case of West rather abstract. These humorously Indian self-government went hand cynical working men were a The Life of Captain Cipriani was in hand. But at a certain stage in the revelation and brought me down to soon taken up by Leonard and Vir- course of these preoccupations, earth, (page 122) ginia Woolf and their circle, as a re- James informs us "literature was sult of which James did an abridge- vanishing from my consciousness and James goes on to state how, upon the ment of the book which was pub- politics was substituting itself." publication in Nelson of his Life of lished in the succeeding year under (page 124) James is also very right Captain Cipriani, his "Labour friends its real title, The Case for West In- in remarking that it was "no easy made merry with it." Finally, James dian Self-Government (1933). It transition" to make. It was more states that during this period he "was appeared as Number Sixteen in the than just a question of finding some reading hard. . . . Night after night I series, "Day to Day Pamphlets," means of supporting himself. The would be up till three or four." (page published by The Hogarth Press. transition was not one from a purely 124) What was he reading so Before both of these, however, West Indian focus to that of a larger earnestly? James tells us: "I had not came the book which he had begun political view, for even here the been long in Nelson before I began to working on with Constantine in West Indies served as the basis or import from France the books that I Trinidad the year before arriving in point of departure. James describes would need to prepare a biography of England. Listening "once more to the general beginning of the new Toussaint." (pages 122-23) Constantine with my pad on my stage in the following manner: Three different strands were being knee," Cricket and I became much fused around the projected biography more than a mere cricket book. To West Indian history now began to of Toussaint. The first was James's James it meant "the first book ever assume a new importance. Stuck fairly regular contact with members published in England by a world- away in the back of my head for of Nelson's working-class. The famous West Indian writing years was the project of writing a second was his reading of as a West Indian about people and biography of Toussaint L'Ouverture socialist literature, even though he

21 claims that the ideas which issued dian to a world consciousness. Padmore, after his break with Mos- from it were "rather abstract." The At some point during this time, cow over the question of supporting third strand, about which one cannot though the writer cannot be certain, the "democratic" imperialist say too much until James himself James left Nelson to enter upon the countries of the West, arrived in tells us a great deal more about how broader cultural and political milieu London, where he was to settle until he came to write The Black Jacobins, of London. The early West Indian 1957. Padmore joined in the efforts was the preparatory reading in period had ended and James was by serving on the Committee with French historiography. This factor, now on his way to a full-fledged James as Chairman. Like so many however, has not yet received the career in radical Marxist politics. He others throughout the world at the careful attention it deserves. James read thoroughly into the Stalin- time, Black men and women were indeed alludes to its significance for Trotsky split, which then forced him deeply aroused to a sense of urgent the eventual writing of the book in to go behind it and himself search unity on behalf oi Ethiopia's the following passages taken from the out Lenin's own views on the defense. Though it cannot be gone "Bibliography": development of the October into here, it is the present writer's Revolution. Inexorably this process view that the Abyssinian invasion It is impossible to understand the led him to undertake a systematic marked the turning-point of San Domingo revolution unless it is examination of Marx's own writings nineteenth-century and post-Wpr studied in close relationship with and to measure these against what Black nationalism and paved the way the revolution in France. Fortunately had taken place in Russia. for the emergence of an explicitly the French historical school of the political Pan-Africanism. The French Revolution is one of the difference was to be found in the greatest historical schools of Western civilisation, combines new social content with which the scholarship with the national spirit ideas of African emancipation and taste, and with that respect for became infused. In this process, the the Revolution without which the contribution of C. L. R, James history of revolution cannot be would prove to be one of the written, (page 383) essential factors in clearly estab- lishing the changed outlook. Here he is referring to Michelet, By 1937, however, the conjunc- Aulard, Mathiez, Juares, Georges tion of Pan-African agitation and Lefebvre, Guerin. And then at the organized was complete, end of the same section James rein- for not only was James advocating forces the conviction with the both objectives simultaneously but following conclusion: he had become part in both cases of the type of organized activity which I have sought all through to show would characterize the rest of his the direct influence of the Revolu- entire political career, namely, the tion on events and leading personal- small Marxist organization. This is a ities in San Domingo. . . . I have distinct political formation with tried to show the close parallels, hitherto unsuspected, which can be The process of theoretical self- deep historical roots and deserves found between events in two popu- education, however, was interrupted much greater scholarly attention than lations so widely separated and so in 1935 by the exigencies of di- it has hitherto received. In any case, diverse in origin. Studies of events, recting an organized defense cam- James between 1936 and 1938 had in France and in San Domingo, will paign on behalf of the Ethiopians found himself ideologically as well not fail to unearth more, (page 385) whose country had been invaded by as organizationally and was Mussolini's military forces. This embarked upon the political course The conclusion which the present marked James's baptism in the head- which would see him become a full- writer draws from the foregoing is waters of the modern Pan-African time, professional Marxist that French radical historiography, movement. In response to the Italian theoretician. which James began to immerse him- invasion, together with Arthur The first step in the direction of self in while still living in Nelson, Lewis, Amy Ashwood Garvey, Jomo developing a small Marxist organiza- played an important part in helping Kenyatta, and others, James tion was made when James gathered to create very definite radical polit- organized the International African about himself in 1936 a circle of ical responses on James's part. At the Friends of Ethiopia, which aimed at Trotskyists in London. The burning very least, it was instrumental in educating British and International question of that period for the in- helping James to make the transition opinion and to agitate against the ternational socialist movement was from literature to a political imperialist plans for Africa. Trotsky's "permanent revolution" consciousness, and from a West In- It was also the year in which George versus Stalin's "socialism in one

22 country." The Stalinists had control tion in the European Trotskyist traditions. One of the most remark- of the organs of Soviet state-power movement between 1936 and 1938. able examples of the general type as well as the party apparatuses of This crucial factor continues to elude was Harry Wicks, and from him the many Western European com- a great many of James's admirers James gathered first-hand knowledge munist organizations. To combat this even to this day. The key to what of the intimate political history of the array of power and propaganda, the was fundamental about James's European revolutionary movement. Trotskyist movement at the time had involvement in the Trotskyist Out of this same general milieu of essentially the single resource of its movement in Europe can be gleaned political links with veteran Leninists leader, Trotsky. It lacked, however, from the following statement by issued James's translation from the any coherent theoretical statement of Franz Borkenau: French in September 1938 of Boris its position. To this end James set out Souvarine's massive (704 pages) to make good the weakness, and Whether there was real degenera- biography of Stalin. Leonard from the attempt emerges in 1937 the tion or whether, under Stalin, all Schapiro terms it "the best biography book, World Revolution, 1917-1936: the intrinsic trends of the dictator- of Stalin" (The Communist Party of The Rise and Fall of the Communist ship came simply to the surface, is the Soviet Union, 2nd ed., 1971, International (Kraus Reprint, 1970). no matter of discussion here. Any- page 638). The book's publisher, the Once again the book, the second way, earlier than in any other coun- venerable Fredric Warburg, within a year, was published by try, as soon as serious dissensions rendered the following opinion: started in Russia after the death of "Thoroughly documented, written Fredric Warburg of the new com- Lenin, large groups of communists pany, Martin Seeker and Warburg in France felt that this was no longer with a fine narrative sweep, imbued Ltd. James had been one of the first the regime they had admired. Thus with a firsthand knowledge of its authors introduced by Fenner a considerable section sided with subject, it was and probably remains Brockway to Warburg, who shortly Trotsky, mistaking him for a the best book available on Stalin's afterwards was also assisted to meet champion of liberty against Stalin. life and policy up to 1936." (An and publish George Padmore, Jomo (European Communism, 1953, pages Occupation For Gentlemen, 1959, 261-62)* Kenyatta, George Orwell, Jennie Lee, page 270) etc. Together they formed that When due allowance is made for The book was a tremendous suc- brilliant cluster of political writers Borkenau's obvious political bias cess for its day, selling over 2,000 who centered around the Independent against the revolutionary struggle, the copies by June 1940. Two reasons Labor Party's weekly newspaper, significant fact remains that a accounted for its reception, one New Leader. Warburg published World Revolution in April 1937 and a large body of Trotsky's he described it in his published memoirs, An Occupation For followers were genuine Leninists. Gentlemen (1959), as having achieved the status of "a kind of large body of Trotsky's followers, critical and the second political. The Bible of Trotskyism." (page 211) not just in France but throughout the latter reason had to do with the fact The book was dedicated to "The European working-class movement, that the book appeared very Marxist Group," which was in fact were genuine Leninists who, while propitiously, within a month of the James's small political circle of not willing to tolerate Stalin's Nazi-Soviet Pact, thus increasing the Trotskyists. James in the Preface betrayal, went with Trotsky because public's awareness of its notes that the book "could never have he seemed to offer a possibility of significance. The first reason, been written at all but for the material sustaining the revolutionary political however, had to do with the ex- patiently collected and annotated in principles of Lenin. The cadres tremely authoritative air of the work France, China, America, Germany whom James became associated with itself. He had been fortunate to in the Trotskyist movement were and Russia," thus showing here also receive from Trotsky many valuable bearers of the political thought and the very tightly knit relationship and original documents which practice of Lenin and Bolshevism at contained authentic data on political among political forces of the small its prime. Most of them could be developments within the highest organization in the exchange of classified as Trotskyists only circles of the Russian Party and Ad- information and in the analysis of secondarily. From them James gained ideas. an immense knowledge of the ministration. Trotsky knew very well Though James might shortly after internal make-up of the what he was doing when he the publication of World Revolution revolutionary socialist movement *James's World Revolution was the first be ready to abandon the political and the special role which outstanding available history of the Comintern, ap- theory of Trotskyism, something workers came to play in its de- pearing one year before Borkenau's gen- much more fundamental velopment. These men carried with- eral history, The , would remain from his participa- in themselves actual proof of those London, 1938.

23 handed these documents over to which more than anything else Souvarine, who while being a Rus- James's reputation as a scholar and sian had risen to a leading position political theoretician rests. Before in the French Communist Party the actual historical contribution of shortly after its inception. Borkenau that book is discussed, however, it tells us that Souvarine was "one of will be necessary to describe the the most far-sighted men in the "new premises" surrounding it by Comintern, [who] as early as 1924 explaining the way in which the spoke of the end of the revolutionary book was linked in two very impor- era and the 'degeneration' of the tant directions. Soviet regime in Russia." (page 261) The first link was in the person of That awareness caused Souvarine in Paul Robeson, about whom a great 1924 to be deposed from the deal has been written by James leadership of the French party-group himself (Black World, December in the Communist International. He 1970). James had completed in 1937 was ultimately excluded from a script for a play based on the life membership in the French Party of and entitled, Toussaint altogether in 1928, along with those L'Ouverture. Persons who read the other leaders who stood firm on script were inspired to attempt a their independence from Moscow's production of it if Paul Robeson line, viz., Prossard, Loriot, Monatte, could be interested in accepting the which the African possessed, in both Suzann Girault, Treint, Paz. title role of Toussaint. James set out head and body. Robeson broke the The work of translation was many with the script to meet and invite mould in which the West Indian months in preparation, and Robeson to consider it. He conception of physical personality in eventually James's lateness with the succeeded and Robeson eventually James had been formed. That was a completed translation caused the, starred in the London production. time when Black West Indians grew book to appear much later than What was important, however, up with an unconscious prototype of originally scheduled. That, however, was not so much the play itself nor the white Englishman and white was a boon in disguise since it only the fact of Robeson's acceptance of Englishwoman as their absolute made the book's appearance before the lead. More important than all of standards of physical perfection and the public more forceful in the light these was the context which the development. James's encounter with of the circumstances surrounding the production of the play provided for Robeson was nowhere more Hitler-Stalin Pact. The actual job of James to get to know the person profound than in its forcing him to translation had necessitated James whom he considers to be one of the abandon these inherited values. spending quite a bit of time with greatest political figures of the For James, therefore, Toussaint Souvarine in Paris going over it with twentieth century. Indeed, James was consequently more than just a him. Out of this collaboration would looks upon Robeson along with matter of politics. The Black Jaco- have developed additional political Franklin D. Roosevelt as being the bins is truly a classical achievement insights on James's part that added to two most important American po- in the balance it maintains between his already significant store of litical personalities of the age. The the careful interpretation of politico- accumulated education in the history fact that at the time Robeson was in historical events and the unique of Bolshevism. Borkenau reinforces support of Moscow and the Sta- resources of personality to have linist parties and James was firmly this view when he points out that manifested themselves in Toussaint, wedded to the "perhaps the best idea of the con- Christophe, Dessalines, Rigaud, of Trotsky was no hindrance to nection of Bolshevism with pre- Roume, and the remarkable General their mutual appreciation. Moise. Once we understand the Marxist Russian revolutionism is to That in itself, however, would not be got from Souvarine's Stalin." nature of the balance we can begin have been sufficient to make to genuinely appreciate what appears The importance to James's work Robeson the decisive personality that of this process of developing per- to be those elements of paradox in he was for James. At a very the Preface to the book: sonal/political/organizational con- profound and fundamental level, nections through individuals who Robeson as a man shattered James's embodied the really revolutionary The transformation of slaves, trem- colonial conception of the Black bling in hundreds before a single political stance of the age was no- Physique. In its place the magnifi- white man, into a people able to where more fundamental than in the cent stature of Robeson gave to him organize themselves and defeat the preparation of The Black Jacobins a new appreciation of the powerful most powerful European nations of (1938), the magnum opus on and extraordinary capacities their day, is one of the great epics

24 of revolutionary struggle and basis of spreading this political My own approach was different, achievement. Why and how this knowledge all over Britain. and although I was immersed in the happened is the theme of this book, The motto of the IASB was: British revolutionary movement, I (page ix) "Educate, co-operate, emancipate. worked on the application of Marxist Neutral in nothing affecting the Af- and Leninist ideas to the coming By a phenomenon often observed, African Revolution, and for this the individual leadership responsible rican people." Between July and October 1938, when he left for purpose wrote Black Jacobins, a for this unique achievement was full-scale study of the only successful almost entirely the work of a single America on a lecture tour, James revolution of people of African man — Toussaint L'Ouverture. . . . was editor of the group's organ, descent that the world had yet seen Yet Toussaint did not make the International African Opinion, and — the revolt of the slaves in the revolution. It was the revolution responsible for its literary publica- French colony of San Domingo that made Toussaint. And even that tions generally. Here once again was during the French Revolution which is not the whole truth, (pages ix-x) James functioning as part of an in- ended in the establishment of the novative "small organization" and state of Haiti. . . . Historical in Thus, it is the contention of the attempting to project theoretical form, it drew its contemporane- present writer that The Black Jaco- analyses, based in this instance on ousness, as all such books must, bins would have been significantly slave revolt in the Caribbean, to the from the living struggle around us, present concrete tasks of political life and particularly from the daily ac- different in quality in the absence of tivity that centered around Pad-more James's relationship to Robeson. in the shape of African emancipation from colonial rule. Perhaps the most and the African Bureau. It The second link, which gave point represented in a specific form the and purpose to the book, is to be powerful section of the entire general ideas that we held at the traced in James's relationship to original Preface was the concluding time, it is still the only book of its paragraph, in which James very George Padmore. In the Preface to kind. . . . The theoretical basis of graphically and movingly attested to the Second Edition, James states the the book, amply demonstrated, is the urgent tasks which he thought his that in a period of world-wide revo- essential proposition of The Black history of the San Domingo lutionary change, such as that of Jacobins very simply as follows: Revolution exemplified: 1789-1815 and our period which began with 1917, the revolutionary I have retained the concluding pages crisis lifts backward peoples over which envisage and were intended to Tranquility to-day is either innate centuries and projects them into the stimulate the coming emancipation (the philistine) or to be acquired very forefront of the advanced of Africa. They are a part of the only by a deliberate doping of the movement of the day. The slaves in history of our time. In 1938 only personality. It was in the stillness of San Domingo were two-thirds raw the writer and a handful of close a seaside suburb that could be Africans from the Coast in a associates thought, wrote and spoke heard most clearly and insistently strange country, many of them not as if the African events of the last the booming of Franco's heavy ar- knowing the language. Yet with the quarter of a century were imminent. tillery, the rattle of Stalin's firing example and slogans of the French squads and the fierce shrill turmoil Revolution, these for the most part The principal and always guiding of the revolutionary movement illiterate blacks organized themselves figure among the "handful of close striving for clarity and influence. in a manner fully comparable to the Such is our age and this book is of associates" referred to by James was great achievements of the mass it (1937: note) with something of movement in France, produced a the venerable Trinidadian, George the fever and the fret. Nor does the body of great leaders in politics, Padmore, who along with James, writer regret it. The book is the his- administration, differentiated among , Wallace-Johnson, tory of a revolution and written themselves in clear alignments of and T. Ras Makonnen, was the under different circumstances it Right, Left and Centre, and all in all person most responsible for directing would have been a different but not showed themselves immensely necessarily a better book, (page xi) the work of the International African superior in every human quality to Service Bureau, which was the highly educated colonial officials and ministers in France who established in March 1937 from the And the special "clarity and influ- ruled them. . . . The reader is asked remnants of James's International ence" which James was attempting to to note the complete confidence in African Friends of Ethiopia group. achieve with the book was the focus the self-emancipation of the African When the Ethiopian question was of the African Revolution. James people from imperialism as a over, the problem arose as to what later on reflected in Nkrumah Then contemporary political issue that was to follow. Pad-more then and Now on the import of this imbued everything we did, and if he endeavor as part of an organized is interested, to compare it moved to form the with the dreary repetition IASB, an organization devoted to political struggle, comparing it with of percentages of literacy, centuries the study of the colonial question Padmore's own efforts in the of barbarism, centuries of in Africa and to agitating on the following manner: training, and all the rubbish now in

25 the dust-bins that characterised the official attitudes and pronouncements of the time.

We can now more fully appreciate the awesome significance of the conclusion which James wrote to The Black Jacobins:

Finally those black Haitian labourers and the Mulattoes have given us an example to study. Despite the temporary reaction of Fascism, the prevailing standards of human lib- erty and equality are infinitely more advanced and more profound than those current in 1789. Judged relatively by these standards, the millions of blacks in Africa and the few of them who are educated are as much pariahs in that vast prison as the blacks and Mulattoes of San Domingo in the eighteenth century. The imperialists envisage an eternity of African exploitation: the African is backward, ignorant. . . . They dream dreams. .. . The Blacks of Africa are more advanced, nearer ready than were the slaves of San Domingo, (pages 375-76)

This was no Utopian vision. It was based ultimately on the facts of his- tory and directly on the organized political activity which had started when did property ever listen to certain theoretical perspectives. The among a handful of Black men but reason except when cowed by vio- San Domingo Revolution had been directly inspired by the French which would subsequently become lence?" (page 70) The historical Revolution, had developed side by encompassed in the political motion parallel to the reciprocal unfolding side with it, and had had an enor- of the African peoples themselves. It of the French and Haitian Revolu- mous influence upon the course of was the very apotheosis of realization tions at the end of the eighteenth that Revolution. The book therefore for the "small political organization." century would be the interpenetra- constantly implied that the African There was something more spe- tion of proletarian revolution in the revolution would be similarly cific, however, in the strategic po- West and colonial revolution in Af- contingent upon the socialist revo- lution in Europe. It did not envis- litical conclusion of the book. Few rica and the East, each encompassed age an independent movement of people today realize how significant within a specific dynamic of social Africans as being able to succeed in that conclusion was at the time. movement but each also clearing the face of the enormous military power Within the specific context of the way for the other. Here is how James that a stable imperialist government changing balance of political forces himself analyzes the elements on would be able to bring to bear. This in the world at the time, the which the strategic perspective in has been apparently contradicted by the experience of the Gold Coast International African Service Bureau 1938-39 for the African revolution Revolution, but conversely re- was debating the political course rested, and we will have to be inforced during the same period by which the African struggle would pardoned for quoting at such length: the experience of the revolt in follow. The Black Jacobins was Kenya. If a British Government had probably the most important factor in But the book had other premises, been unable to send assistance to the evolution of the strategic raising urgent questions which had Kenya, or a revolutionary British to be radically revised and are by Government had been in a position perspective of the group, which no means settled. It took armed re- where the success of the Kenya became the premise that armed bellion for granted as the only road revolt against the counterrevolution struggle would be the form to metropolitan and colonial free- was necessary for its of the African revolution. "But dom and from this premise flowed own preservation (that is what hap-

26 pened during the French Revolu- tary paralysis of the metropolitan place at the pace and in the form in tion) the revolt in Kenya, though government. It was in other words which it did, was no longer prof- made by the same people, Would to place the initiative for African itable. Economic growth in Europe have been entirely different. It struggle upon the European prole- and its accompanying demands for would have had socialist allies and tariat. In the Black Jacobins are the free exchange of manufactured would have been made under socialist words: "Let the blacks but hear slogans, representatives of the from Europe the slogans of Revolu- goods were at the root of slavery's British Government would have tion, and , in the liquidation. The force of "philan- taken part in it and guided it, and same concrete manner that the thropy" had meaning only in that the result, particularly in the modern slaves of San Domingo heard Liberty context. world, would have been an African and Equality and the Marseillaise, If that was a considerable break- Government under which (of this and from the mass uprising will through in the way of historical there can be no question to any who emerge the Toussaints, the understanding which James's work have studied the San Domingo Christophes, and the Dessalines. made possible, the second excava- Revolution) white settlers, once They will hear." Those were exactly tion in historical conception they saw no other way out, would the ideas that we had had. have fraternised, male and female, achieved by The Black Jacobins has with General Kimathi, General China . . . But by the end of the war the been even more significant. Put and their associates and successors. proletariat of Britain and France simply, historical analysis of the This has happened before and will had not spoken. Imperialism still existence and nature of servile revolt happen again, and we must not be held sway at home. Only a radical took on completely new meaning. too surprised if from limbo alteration in theory could form a Taken together with his more querulous voices assure us that this basis for action. The perspective of schematic A History of Negro Revolt too was the settled policy of His armed rebellion was abandoned (1939), James's work laid the Majesty's Government. Whatever the (though held in reserve) and non- foundation for the later systematic future of tropical Africa will be, violent mass action was substituted. one thing is certain, that it will not analyses of slave and colonial resistances, as well as the factor of be what the Colonial Powers are The Black Jacobins can finally be radical consciousness realized as self- trying to make of it. It will be said to have revolutionized historical activity in the life of the "inar- violent and strange, with the most writing in ways dealing both with abrupt and unpredictable changes in conception and method. Firstly, it ticulate" slave and colonized person. economic relations, race relations, initiated the destruction of the Prior to James's two books there had territorial boundaries and everything been Norman Leys' tentative else. accepted scholarship in regard to the Abolition question in England. The inquiry, Kenya (London, 1926), and death blow to the view that abolition George Padmore's The Life and The work of the Bureau continued Struggles of Negro Toilers (London, all through the war and in 1945 sprang from pure and philanthropic there came a sharp break with the motives came with Eric Williams's 1931). The work, however, which it theory outlined above. The Bureau Capitalism and Slavery (1949), which most nearly resembles and in fact changed its position from the was originally presented as a complements in a quite remarkable achievement of independence by doctoral thesis at Oxford, but which manner is W. E. B. DuBois's Black armed rebellion to the achievement Williams himself admitted was first Reconstruction (1935). What both of independence by non-violent outlined in Chapter II of James's works demonstrated most notably mass action. But to say that is one was the essential role which Black thing, to carry it out in practice is book, The Owners. This in no way detracts from the eloquent brilliance emancipation played in effecting another. The problem has never been the course of these wider historical treated fully even in the publications of Williams's work in demolishing, of the Bureau, and it is time that this according to James, that "venal race changes in which it was enmeshed. was done. . . . of scholars, profiteering panderers to But all this takes us much too national vanity, (who) have wide afield. We should end simply . .. In a colonial country and espe- conspired to obscure the truth about by reiterating that C. L. R. James cially in tropical Africa, these moves abolition." (page 51) It is now part of arrived in England in March 1932 and counter-moves (when the common historical knowledge that and left for America in October revolution and counter-revolution first the slave trade, and later slavery 1938 — slightly more than six-and- are approaching an ultimate crisis) itself, were abolished in the West a-half years, in which he added are impossible. The colonial significantly to the emancipation and government in power can call upon Indian islands for reasons that were the power of the metropolitan largely economic, namely, that understanding of the human country as soon as it is aware of any African slavery, once the condition. dangerous movement against it. To gigantic source of capital stake independence upon armed accumulation in Europe, and Robert A. Hill, a native West Indian, rebellion was therefore to have as without which the Industrial teaches Afro-American Studies at a precondition the collapse or mili- Revolution could not have taken UCLA.

27 Marxism in the U.S.A.

By Paul Buhle Anderson has called "Western New Left which repudiated class Marxism," the drift of Marxist along with Party, or in a post-New The claim that C. L. R. James is theory from the revolutionary Left Leninism which returned to a major contributor to revolution- parties to the academies between the Vanguard out of pessimism ary thought, not only as regards the 1920's and today. Anderson's about the self-organizing capacity Pan-Africanism but every major Considerations on Western of its intended constituency. As far aspect of the Marxist legacy, may Marxism names Lukacs, Korsch, back as the mid-1940's, one of seem even now exaggerated or Gramsci, Benjamin, Horkheimer, James's sharpest critics complained mistaken. He has been no Della Volpe, Lefebvre, Adorno, that he could not comprehend the demigod of the younger Sartre, Goldmann, Althusser and organizing role of the Vanguard generations like , Colletti as those key thinkers who and therefore exaggerated "the has no European intellectual have reshaped the conception of utter collapse of capitalism" in reputation on the scale of a Sartre, what Marxism is and what it can order to promote "the spontaneous his books do not even sell so do. Only Gramsci and Korsch character of the rise of working briskly as those of his bete noir might be remotely considered class consciousness and the from decades ago, Belgian activists, and their theoretical work working class struggle, not merely Trotskyist Ernest Mandel. When I mostly took place after they had against capitalism as such, but approached a leading American been removed by prison or exile above all, for such a conscious goal Left book publisher in 1970 with from the center of the fray. as Socialism."2 Between James's a proposal for a C. L. R. James Anderson might have included E. views and those of neo- anthology, the editor politely P. Thompson or Raymond Vanguardism, or James's views and suggested to me that the author's Williams; he certainly should have Social Democratic reformism there work could gain attention "on included W. E. B. DuBois. But his can be no final reconciliation, any Black subjects only." That has schema has a certain logic as the more than the political movements been an all-too-characteristic internalization of political defeat, presuming working class response. Yet I am persuaded that the return to exegetics, to philo- disintegration and obsolescence if civilization survives the threat sophic and aesthetic mediations could have any comfortable of nuclear annihilation another upon Marxist theory as an end in agreement with James. quarter century, James will be itself.1 Missing is an aggressive The misapprehension of James' considered one of the few truly statement of politics, the working position, the sincere but mistaken creative Marxists from the 1930's class and its allies as they move reference to it as "Syndicalist" or to the 1950's, perhaps alone in his through these largely disastrous "Anarchist" in its treatment of Par- masterful synthesis of world decades, and of their inter- ty and State, throws into relief the history, philosophy, government, relations with the movements of third and greatest problem. For the mass life and popular culture. The the Third World. That was quite essential question of politics as retrenchment of revolutionary beyond most such thinkers, as it such has been, for James, not forces through much of the era, has been beyond the functionaries merely the form of intervention but the growth of new conditions high and low of the Socialist, the content inevitably replete with which caught Party leaders and Communist and Anarchist the heritage of Western thought and theoreticians confused and wrong- movements in Europe and America world culture, the full range of talents headed, partly accounts for who piled formula upon formula and energies that ordinary people James's current obscurity. The without adding greatly to what the bring to the revolutionary struggle, problem of an emergent generations of Marx and Lenin had and the corruption that traditional alternative beyond Stalinism and set out. political institutions (including those Trotskyism, beyond Welfare State Secondly, James has been of the Left) have suffered. In an age and One-Party State in every part outside the dialogue among the of pessimism, even the statement of a of the globe, offers the rest of the political Left's power-brokers for teleology which brings forward the explanation. The sometimes nearly all these years because of proletariat as outcome of a vast recondite vocabulary and his insistence upon two points: the historical process seems anarchistic secluded political context of continuing revolutionary — so far has "Western Marxism" James's American writings must potentiality of the working class, fallen. Socialism has been for no longer blind us to the larger and the historic obsolescence of the James concretely, personally and significance of what he Vanguard Party as known in theoretically what it has been only undertook. Lenin's time. Had he declined in general or rhetorical terms for James has, first, been almost either half of this proposition, he the rest of formal Marxist thought: entirely outside what Perry might have garnered interest in a a question of civilization.

28 This inestimable contribution can be analyzed in a number of ways. Here I will stress the revolutionary problematic most puzzling in the world, for a number of reasons, to Marxist thought: the American scene. Most highly developed of industrial capitalist nations, behemoth of the twentieth century, it has never (and contrary to all orthodox Marxist anticipations) rendered up a European-style mass workers' party, never a Third World variety of all-encompassing political organization, remained impervious for the most part to the very texture of formal Marxism. Yet Everywhere across the Southern landscape young Negroes picked up the aspiration of their fathers, it has — in all modesty for any rekindled it, and started marching. national claims — produced again War strikes to the 1950's wildcats, from the class struggle, James and again political, social and 3 cultural movements that surprised and from the Black labor activity knew the thesis to be wrong. Like revolutionaries and others the world and Harlem demonstrations of the the American Communists of the over, supplied heroic personalities, 1930's-40's to the monumental Civil 1930's-40's who, in some of their slogans and songs carried to every Rights outbreak of the 1950's, mass finest moments, fought for the section of struggling humanity. movements had gone beyond the integration of professional Sometimes its labor insurgencies, leadership that the Left had baseball, cheered with Harlem to most recently the CIO, have showed expected to provide. Meanwhile, the profoundly political the way forward. The distance and unlike so many other promising exhilaration of Joe Louis's ring between Marxist political intellectuals from the 1930's, James victories, James recognized the expectation and reality has surely was not to be overwhelmed by ways in which popular life had in been one of unprecedented Hitler's rampage, Stalin's crimes some measure displaced or proportions. James's contribution and the failure of an immediate replaced the literal political has spanned that gap imperfectly, to revolution after the Second World intensity of Europe. If he turned to be sure, but with so much energy War. Historian of colonialism, Hegel and the deepest roots of and insight that we have yet to James had seen greater slaughters, Marxian thought — in tune with measure his work's significance. He even, than the Holocaust of the Whitman's proclamation of that accomplished this by comparing Jews, civilizations exterminated and giant as the "most American European Marxism and West Indian abolished from memory, peoples philosopher" — James did so Nationalism to the American suffering incalculably from poverty because his background and situation, hardly satisfying those and self-hatred pick themselves up experiences drove him to who carried the familiar banners or and fight to throw off the oppressor. reevaluate the revolutionary successfully reaching that massive He stepped out of West Indian and process as a whole. Here, where majority outside the Left political British political life so confident the roads of race and class, discussion altogether. But the traces about the colonial revolt and the popular life, culture and practice are there, and the impact has character of working class cross, is James’s American already been felt in subtle ways. that he instinctively accomplishment. James could make a unique looked beyond the weakness of the theoretical contribution because of Left to the mobilized forces 1 his own talents and effort, of themselves. Having no illusions course, but also because he arrived about the Soviet Union or We can appreciate this better in in a key moment and stood in a Stalinism, moreover, he had no light of the American Marxism that special place among those on the hopes in that quarter to lose. He had existed for some three American scene. From the late saw the revolutionary process with generations when James came onto 1930's to the 1950's the political fresh eyes. the scene. No brief sketch will do forces of the Left exhausted But James's resilience, justice to a subject that James noted themselves, lost their following adaptability and creative energies as utterly unique and whose as the immigrant generations aged are not a matter of race and formal analysis he looked upon as a task and no group of workers took politics only. He remarks in Beyond that should have fallen on other their place. From the first years A Boundary that when Trotsky shoulders than his own. A highlighting of the CIO to the post- assailed sports as a mere distraction of some prominent features permits, 29

however, a sense of the crises that biguous. How to balance interna- James alone addressed directly, in tionalist aims with desire for influ- theoretical and practical terms, sys- ence within an often racist, xeno- tematically as his circumstances phobic, exclusive male labor move- allowed. ment? This was not a matter of mere Marxism in the U.S. had been in opportunism. Frequently, the very the first instance an immigrant sen- movements which seemed to catch sibility. The reason is not mysteri- the threads of an impulse beyond that ous. The internal strength of collec- of European labor (like the Knights tive class self-identification, of te- of Labor, the Populists, Woman nacity across periods of defeat and Suffrage and Black movements) had isolation, for generations belonged the least conscious ideological affinity foremost to those who brought with to Marxism, claimed to organize them a heritage of centuries and a themselves on non-class lines and set of beliefs and practices which aim at something more "American" bound up daily habits in a coherent than Socialist. The immigrant unity. The proletariat stood as communities repeatedly played a unifying element, but the success of decisive role in the struggle for labor W. E. B. DuBois the Left combined small advance. But they found their more fluid and adaptive sense of businessmen, professionals, family recruits outside their own ranks only history and practice.6 In a subtle and members and all conscientious sup- in a scattering of intellectuals, complex way, this alternative porters of the ethnic group and of its political and labor leaders, and short- conception had also been a key to homeland's best interests. Socialists, lived mass constituencies. At times the questions of the State and of later Communists offered a and places this combination nearly Culture some time before James mediation by which the immigrant dominated American intellectual and came onto the scene. could accept the oppressive, dis- cultural life, and promised to help Twenty years earlier, the rise of criminatory, chaotic and frightening lead the labor movement to a New mass strikes on an unprecedented American reality as transitory, Jerusalem. Still, something had never scale, the aggressive State interven- international revolution and a com- connected in the European sense. And tion of Woodrow Wilson's adminis- mon brotherhood of working peo- Marxism as formal doctrine remained tration and the prospect of World ples as immanent truth of real pro- a curious mixture of fumbling Revolution coming out of the First gress. exegesis, rote learning, and creative World War had inspired a real (if The same immigrant radicalisms, leaps which never quite found a spot diffuse and little-remembered) the- singly or together, could not by 5 to land. oretical breakthrough. Translator of themselves transform America. Only There have been instructive ex- Anti-Dühring, theorist of the IWW in some industries did their nation- ceptions. W. E. B. DuBois's Black and perhaps the deepest philosophical alities hold a commanding position. Reconstruction, written only two thinker of the Socialist movement, Outside the industrial Northeast, the years before James's The Black Austin Lewis, came to concentrate Midwest and pockets of strength Jacobins, is one of the classic works his attentions upon the fierce elsewhere, they remained alien to of modern revolutionary thought. struggle within the working class. the nation. Many did not or could Perhaps the key methodological truth The unskilled, foreign-born and not vote, much less challenge the of the study is that DuBois brought unorganized proletariat had until the power of the two-party system. At a to Marxism a decisive view of strike waves of 1909-13 and 1915-19 still deeper level, they had to com- American history, a sense of the been under the whip-hand of the promise the internal dynamics of U.S. experience in world terms, native-born, skilled AFL member. their movements with the possibili- that the perspectives of Marx and Through mass actions, they asserted ties imposed by the economic sys- Lenin helped DuBois to clarify their own leadership. Now Lewis tem and the waves of labor radical- and articulate. DuBois seems not foresaw the future in the single ism, the objective opportunities for to have been greatly influenced metaphor of the Mexican-American alliance with non-proletarian groups by other American Marxists. But workers in Southern California (for (e.g., farmers) and with the contours he stood in a tradition of those whom he provided legal counsel): of the international revolutionary who sought to measure the lacking any union emblem for a movements. To hold onto their "abstract internationalism" (or a Labor Day parade banner, they strength and to confront wider blind eye turned to any had emblazoned the simple America required more than skill distinctions among the slogan, "WORKERS OF THE and tenacity, a real sense of what a proletariat) against the reality of WORLD UNITE." Likewise their minority radical movement can do.4 race and ethnic diversity, Euro- counterparts among the Eastern The clues were many, but am- pean Marxist orthodoxy against a European immigrant workers in

30 the new-built factories of heavy in- as central to the U.S., past and fu- dustry, brought together by the ture, industrial, social and political. conditions of production, signified Trade union work showed the levels for Lewis the development of a truly of contradictions by which down- modern revolutionary movement. graded craft workers often led in the Not the battle against feudal rem- unionizing effort, and the industrial nants still carried on in Europe; not union leadership could actually use the backstairs resistance of the fading the available government American petty-bourgeoisie against mechanisms (as the garment workers monopolism that had dominated had already in the First World War) American reform and Socialist to gain recognition. Meanwhile the political mentality; but the machine vital, continuing immigrant proletariat in Marx's terms, on its radicalism demonstrated the own turf, learning the lessons that tenacious self-identification of mili- only mass production could teach.7 tants who remained firm in their Lewis's contemporary, William basic racial or ethnic differences be- English Walling — a founder of the yond the factory gates. NAACP's forerunner, the Niagara The irony of American Commu- Movement, and for a time also a nism is that these lessons soaked in, propagandistic supporter of the became mass initiatives rather than IWW — saw the other side of the slogans and good intentions, as the equation. The State, manipulating Communists entered the New Deal the heterogeneity of the workforce coalition. Anti-Fascism, the inter- to draw strength and definition at national Popular Front and the at- the moment of ascending monopoly mosphere of progressive democracy capital, would increasingly tend to enabled sections of the Left to do pull the petty-bourgeoisie, the new The Lindy Hop what the revolutionaries who white collar worker and the Miguel Covarrubias launched American Communism surviving labor aristocrat into a for- could not have imagined: to help mation which unified behind the had in themselves an important con- develop "Mass Action" (i.e., the sit- imperialistic war effort and con- tribution to make to the revolution- down strikes), guide radical popular ary process. As ordinary working tinued ruthless exploitation of the culture (Woody Guthrie, the public 8 people found the means to express basic industrial worker. music concerts From Spirituals to Intuitively, and without theoretical themselves creatively, collectively Swing, a Black showcase in 1937, to elaboration in classic Marxist terms, across the Old World boundaries, Socialism in Swing, a Young Lewis, Walling and a handful of they emancipated themselves for a Communist League spectacle two others had guessed at the leap Lenin higher level of consciousness. And years later), ardent support of the — he might have added with his bo- proposed in Imperialism: to explain most downtrodden sectors of labor both the basis for opportunism in hemian counterparts in other sec- into mechanisms for advancing Left the labor movement, and the tions of the Left cultural movement interests within a State Capitalist — they came to appreciate at some 10 possibilities of a revolutionary regime. outbreak that began from the bot- levels that the Black contribution This turnabout, and the steady would become ever more apparent tom of the workforce and swept 9 disintegration of the strategy from away the accumulating State and essential. 1939, left radicals of all kinds flat- apparatus. Louis Fraina, first These few writers, looking to footed. Marxist theory had become American Communist ideologue their own experience and a partial among Communists even more than and populariz-er of the Russian re-evaluation of Marxist basics, had their rather casual Socialist prede- Revolution for an come a long way toward the per- cessors a system of political self- audience, added an element that ceptions that James broadened into justification; strategy a patchwork might be seen best in the U.S. theoretical understanding. Between thing with hardly anything in com- Drawn to the examination of mass themselves and him lay twenty mon but general notions of class. cultural life even as the Russian years of Left retreat to home base in The sharp breaks from the Second events unfolded, Fraina proposed the immigrant ghettoes, interna- International parliamentarist expec- that the dance styles, which grew tional complications, and a slow but tations before World War I, from the out of Black music and provided extraordinarily painful learning pro- primitivist Third International the immigrant working class cess in the complexities of Ameri- insurrectionism of the early 1920's, youth measures of freedom in the can life. The Garvey Movement had been put aside, repudiated, but (and the directives of the Comin- great metropolitan ballrooms, never seen as necessary or logical tern) clarified the Black experience

31 stages in the revolutionary process. something very different from what it mal socialist ranks, beyond manip- In short, nothing had prepared had been. James' genius was to ulation as a recruiting ground, de- Marxists for the crisis of the Second perceive this entire political process manding no specific socialist politics World War and after. The develop- as a natural and inevitable one, the as condition for membership. In ment of a dual labor market, the outgrowth of newer phases of Capi- short: an organization with the erosion of the first- and second-gen- talism, and to locate from within the autonomy that had never been eration immigrant base of the Left, mass of population its dialectical granted ethnic, racial or other entities the advance of cultural questions opposite, seeds of a new life within within the Left; a fundamental 11 toward the center of the stage in the the shell of the old. breach of Leninist (or even Second post-war working class — these The "Negro Question," conceived International) concepts of discipline were for the Left a catastrophe hid- in the broadest terms, can be seen as in the name of self-organization. den only by the more obvious ca- the illuminating insight that directed This, and James's opposition to the tastrophe of Cold War. Something James to a fresh perspective. It had slogan of Black (territorial) Self- had come to an end, without the been the analysis of the Black masses Determination, proved sticking Marxists ever coming to terms with in the West Indies that first gave a points with Trotsky, who engaged what had been in motion. Enter C. L. political focus to his wide-ranging James in dialogue at Coy-coyan in R. James. intellectual interests, helped him not 1939. James wanted revolutionaries only to write The Case for West to suggest tactics and specific II Indian Self-Government and The struggles, to aid the formation of a Black Jacobins but also sharpened his movement, but to remove their hand James set foot upon the American critique of Stalinism in World from the lever and to support the scene just as the old ways reached a Revolution. The inextricability of the ultimate goals Blacks themselves climactic end to their development. international influence upon any raised up — including Self- From the "Roosevelt Recession" of radical prospects, the ability of Lenin Determination only if they deemed 1937 to "Doctor Win the War" and to see beyond the Party to the this desirable to emancipation in a the Truman administration, the ugly potentials of mass stirrings and in multi-racial American order. side of the welfare state revealed turn to use the Party for the Organization versus spontaneity? In fulfillment of mass democratic part, but in larger part, Europe versus itself step-by-step, no transition to 13 Socialism but a more sophisticated prospects, the Communist perception America. (and potentially more vicious) stage that masses revolt on slogans and for One could draw a straight line of Capitalist hegemony. Although concrete ends rather than from some from James's observations of Gar- the Communist Party reached its abstract ideal — all these carried veyism in his 1938 History of the numerical peak of 80,000 during into James's observations of Negro Revolt to the culmination of wartime, it had become a virtual American Blacks. Within a year or his decade-long wrangling with agent of in Russia so of his American residence, he had American Trotskyists in the ground- and America, as its bitter opposition outlined a program which breaking 1947 conference document, to A. Philip Randolph's planned confronted not only the Left's "The Revolutionary Answer to the March On Washington, its avid handling of the Black Question per Negro Problem in the U.S." The high support of the No Strike Pledge and se but also hinted strongly at a very estimation of Garvey's impact James of the Minneapolis Trotskyists' different orientation on a spectrum based not on formal Back-to-Africa prosecution by the government all of strategic matters. Out of these, politics but rather on the sense of theoretical ramifications would be pride, racial and international attested. Interlocked with the Red 12 Army invasion of postwar Eastern seen very soon. solidarity against centuries of Europe — "Revolution from the James's "Preliminary Notes on the oppression that Garvey aroused. Tank Turret" carried out with the Negro Question" struck at the base What James called the "social service imprisonment or murder of opposing of the white Left's previous attitude" of the Left could never radical and democratic forces as if approach. He insisted that Trotsky- stoke the "fires that smolder in the no other form of liberation were now ists support the "formation of an Negro world" and showed imaginable — the Communist organization to rally Negroes, which themselves vividly in social life: direction showed something more would be reformist at the start, but which would develop at once into Let us not forget that in the Negro than "betrayal" had taken place. The people, there sleep and are now Party's ethnic and race following, militancy." Not an organization with awakening passions of a violence which had in a certain sense strings pulled by the white Left, exceeding, perhaps, as far as these compensated for its limited cadre as even the best of the Communist things can be compared, anything outside the leadership of industrial "front" organizations turned out among the tremendous forces that unions, drifted away. Whatever its to be in moments of political capitalism has created. Anyone who future, American radicalism would be stress; but rather one outside for- knows them, who knows their his-

32 No American radical had gone so the Universal of Socialism — not a far, and none would carry these change in the form of property but ideas further until the 1960's. That the very negation of the dominant James's views became gospel for the social relations. "More political party orthodox Trotskyist movement is a than trade union," he was to say minor (although interesting) concern, later, the CIO embodied the response with indirect links to white Left to the foremost challenge that recognition of and the modern capitalist industry ever set early "Black Power" slogans. More before its exploited.15 important, James had set himself The system of sweated labor pio- against Communist fundamentals in neered by Ford evinced a totalitarian a precise fashion, without economic mentality, scientifically renouncing revolutionary intention, rationalized production with closer Leninist legacy, or direct political inter-capitalist relations and the involvement. intervention of the State as mediator. James's perception of the CIO This marked the culmination of struggle in a wholly unique fashion, industrial and political development his analysis of the Communists' over the centuries, and unchallenged, support for bureaucratic tendencies would signify the subordination of within the labor movement, extended every democratic possibility to the the insight into the process of demands of capital. But intertwined revolutionary transformation and the with that development, at every step, limitations of the existing Marxist had been elements of resistance, comprehension. With a small group of from the battles of the weavers in the collaborators inside the Trotskyist medieval cities to the actions of the Workers Party, James began to insist ranks in Cromwell's Army, to the tory, is able to talk to them inti- that — contrary to the perceptions revolt of the masses in the French mately, watches them in their that cut across other differences Revolution to the rise of the Paris churches, reads their press with a among the American Left — the Commune and finally the Soviets in discerning eye, must recognize that working class was not backward by although their social force may not Russia. True to Marx, James had be able to compare with the social true Marxist standards. Like the keen seen the proletariat as the embodi- force of a corresponding number of observer of early CIO strikes, Louis ment of the revolutionary prospect. organized workers, the hatred of Adamic, who pinpointed in the Even his San Domingo slaves of the bourgeois society and the readiness militant workers the most nineteenth century, "working and to destroy it when the opportunity democratic impulse in the nation, living together in gangs of hundreds should present itself, rests among James recognized the instinctual on the huge sugar-factories . . . were them to a degree greater than in any grasping for closer to a modern proletariat than other section of the population in 14 any group of workers in existence at the United States. that time, and [their] rising was, therefore, a thoroughly prepared and Through that perception, moreover, organized mass movement."16 (My James could follow and extend emphasis.) Not prepared by some DuBois in turning the concept of external agent, but by the American history around. Blacks had, conditions of life and work, with a with their allies the white Abo- natural leadership thrown up in litionists, forced the bourgeoisie to- self-conscious striving for a better ward Civil War. Only by their eman- life. The modern class struggle cipation could that struggle have been pressed home the ultimate prole- won, and the South truly re- tarian goals, abolition of value constructed. Only through their production and abolition of success could a Populist movement hierarchies invested through the have restrained an advancing Capi- division of mental and manual talism. And only by their actual ad- labor. Like Austin Lewis a vance could the CIO come into its generation earlier observing the own. With broadening, deepening mass strikes of unskilled foreign- relevance to the revolutionary pros- born workers, James looked at the pect, the independent Black move- early, dynamic stages of CIO ment precipitated the political forces industrial unionism and declared of Socialism. Leon Trotsky in Mexico, 1940

33 the shop-floor struggle to be "So- side their corporate opposite num closer than ever to cutting the Gor- cialism . . . the only Socialism."17 bers, constituted the "American bu- dian knot. The old categories that And still, the weight of institutions reaucracy carried to its ultimate had held fast since the beginnings of loomed heavier than ever upon the and logical conclusion," State Capi- Capitalism, the mysterious origin of proletarian impulse. As Walling had talist functionaries-in-progress. the commodity in workers' labor- seen the earliest stages of State Their willingness to compromise power on the one hand and the Capitalism taking on craft workers as the integrity of the proletarian im- supposed autonomy of party and ballast against the unskilled pulse indicated no necessary cor- state on the other, lost their essential proletariat, James analyzed the next ruption or personal gain, but the definitions. As Engels had predicted stage as the decisive unfolding of hankering after a higher logic. They in Anti-Dühring, the last major text State Capitalism. In the U.S., the had repudiated private Capitalism of the Marxian founding fathers, working class had moved forward to without believing that the classic "concealed within" the very institutionalize its power through the proletariat of could in contradictions of this more highly unions. But because circumstances the foreseeable future rule itself.18 organized Capital were "the had not grown desperate enough or the progressive forces strong enough for revolutionary change, the net Stalinism is a necessary and inevitable result had been the creation of a new intermediary stratum, the labor form of development of the labor movement. bureaucracy. That the functionaries In later years, James sought to technical conditions that form the were often Communists signaled to penetrate still further the logic that elements of the solution." Working James the new level of internal ruled Communist parties and kept class elements themselves — and not contractions within the system, the unquestionably idealistic ranks in merely their Socialist or Communist generating a political mood which a curious stasis between radical and political representatives — had re-established at the new level the liberal perspectives. "Stalinism is a become (in Engels' words) "the in- essential dichotomy of rulers and concrete truth . . . a necessary, an vading Socialist Society" at the ruled. inevitable form of development of doorstep of the world order.21 This symmetry bespoke a weighty the labor movement," he argued by Although hardly more than an analysis, indeed. James had observed 1951, no distortion of history (in the outline of a world-view, this medi- in World Revolution that Stalin final sense) but the working out of a tation of James compressed an ex- intuitively chose to rely upon the logic inherent in the uneven pace of traordinary vision of socialism's Party bureaucracy or even the world revolution.19 The world was place in world history into a current bourgeoisie to carry out the interests divided into two camps, the moreso political position. As James of the Russian State, as Lenin had after the Second World War. And yet explained in a 1947 position paper, chosen the masses in creative despite the futility of Trotskyist "Dialectical Materialism and the Fate moments to override both. As James panegyrics against Communist of Humanity," the philosophic and his collaborators began to misleadership, despite the rubble of position of Hegel that stood behind perceive through study of the war and growing fears among non- Marxism had been no more than a Russian scene, Stalin was a knave Communists that revolutionary recognition of the human effort to but no fool. He had correctly un- options had become almost resolve the contradiction between derstood the objective formation of a unthinkable, James insisted that a the "Abstract Universality" (equal- new power base in the State bu- promising stage had been reached. ity, oneness in God's eyes) of the reaucracy itself, perverse extension "The one-party state is the bour- original Christian promise and con- of Lenin's insights in Imperialism. geois attempt to respond to the crete necessity. Hegel recounted — Dramatic change, at least in the contemporary necessity for the albeit in idealistic form — the stages West, no longer served a Third In- fusion and transcendence of of negation through which this ternational which had, like the Sec- nation, class, party, state," James struggle had to pass. Marxism gave ond International before it, been argued boldly.20 The increasing this understanding, in turn, a mate- transformed from revolutionary concentration of social and rial base and a political outlook. Not agency to the special interest group economic power in a few hands, Rationalism, which had served the of a particular strata. American even in the once politically diffuse intermediate classes at every moment Communist union leaders who democracies, pointed in the same of bourgeois revolution, raising up banked the fires of resistance through direction. When the society as a the education, articulate-ness and crackdowns on wildcats and subtler whole increasingly perceived the supposed intelligence of the measures like the dues check-off, forces of production (the working bourgeoisie and petty-bourgeoisie who thought in terms of industrial class) to be essentially social and against the "backwardness," the rationalization and international not merely economic, the "irrationality" of the masses. But consumer marketing along- working class stood objectively the freed expression "by the prole-

34 tarian millions of their world-his- own sake. Marxism but nonetheless directed torical universality, no longer em- Did James delude himself or dis- the potentialities of the revolutionary pirical but completely self-conscious . guise for political reasons the extent movement. The force of Blacks upon . . the total mobilization of all forces to which this constituted a break American political life seems in in society. That and nothing else can from all that historic Marxism retrospect an almost obvious insight, rebuild the vast wreck which is the (since, at least, the young Marx) had but the implication that they arrived modern world."22 been? In one specific sense, yes. in politics under their own steam and So, too, was the prospect altered of "Trotsky declared that the prole- brought Socialism upon the center- what Marxism had meant and would tariat does not grow under world stage stood outside all conventional mean to the prospects for Socialism. capitalism and declines in culture. wisdom. The struggle within the When James's little group published This is absolutely false,"24 James class struggle that this interpretation the earliest translations from Marx's wrote in 1949. One may find hints implied defied the best of the 1844 Economic-Philosophical in this or that Marxist literary com- Communists' "Black and White, Manuscripts, they sought to identify mentary about the existence of a Unite and Fight" perspective. And it the sense of alienation, below the "Cultural Question." Never by the was the logical outcome of the more obvious poverty and orthodox Marxists of the First, Sec- conflict between American-and exploitation, that every modern ond or Third Internationals, not foreign-born, skilled and unskilled working person suffers. "Be his even during the drive for a "Prole- which, as Austin Lewis had wages high or low," as Marx wrote, tarian Culture" in the U.S.S.R. and shrewdly perceived, reflected the that alienation remained fundamen- abroad from the late 1920's to the final vestiges of a small-property tally intolerable. Lenin had, in his mid-1930's was the proposition of tradition (translated into skill as a finest moments, recognized the lim- culture in itself put forward as a form of property) that reached back itation in any change of property basis for the revolutionary transi- centuries against the totality of form as such. Trotskyism, the closest tion. Yet, understood in the broadest modern manufacture. The resolution thing to a revolutionary succession, sense, it was the glue for James's to this conflict stood ultimately carried over the Party form without philosophical, economic and political beyond the adjustments that a state- that awareness and unwittingly perspectives, his observation of regulated Capital could make to the returned to what Marx had blasted as workers' lives as a whole, their ar- condition of the wage-earner. the "Vulgar Communism" of ticulated and ill-expressed subjectivity There was much to this Ameri- mistaking transcendence of private the disproof of their supposed can radicalism that James did not property for real socialist social "backwardness." When he argued in and could not see from the relations. Now the Marxist group, if his own last major theoretical docu- secluded corner of the Trotskyist not to fall upon the same pointless ment before his deportation that movement, isolated from other contest to become the "real" Captain Ahab of Moby Dick was the great elements of American Vanguard, had to take up the deeper consummate bureaucrat ("abstract reform. The significance of the purpose of demonstrating to the intellect, abstract science, abstract ethnic strains, which had provided masses of people the power of their technology, alive, but blank, serving the immigrant with the taste of the own creativity, "the socialism that no human purpose") while the crew Socialist future in the warmth of exists in the population, the constituted the indestructible family and class ties, James resentment, the desire to overturn working class embracing risk, glimpsed from afar. Not until the and get rid of the tremendous Nature and spontaneity, James mid-1940's did he begin to write burdens by which capitalism is placed the task of the true revolu- about that force which stood co- crushing the people."23 Or there tionary to understand that cultural equal with Blacks in the Aboli- would be no Marxism, no Socialist dichotomy above all and to choose tionist movement, which bolstered or Communist movement, worthy of Life over the promise of Power. ethnic radicalisms and contributed consideration at all. From the young Marxism at its best had implied this in large part the moral sensibility, Marx laboring under Hegelian difference all along; but almost never the grassroots impetus to native So- influence to the final Socialist had the cultural logic become ground cialism: the women's movement. impetus, the circle would be closed for a real Communism.25 That the struggle (as James put it) by Marxists who had come to grips In another, quite intimately re- against "an authority which incul- with the world around them. The lated sense, James had stated the cated the authoritarian character of revolutionary movement would be- basic propositions of an American the society as a whole" within the come explicitly what it had been Socialism which had never been the family circle might have an impor- implicitly, the amalgam of every text of the formal Marxist parties. tance hardly less than that of the progressive impulse in the history of For James had cracked the nut of struggle for emancipated labor — the species, the vindication of radicalism's relation with the racial, this was a leap too far in one direc- humanity not for any external end ethnic, social and cultural forces tion, too precise in totality for 26 (not even "Progress") but for its which had never fit into the smaller James's central conceptions. Here

35 as in other areas like the profound erful agent if not by any means co- pared socially for its tasks, by the effect of religious moralisms, or the herently perceived. And in the time very mechanisms of capitalist pro- unfolding of a radical aesthetic, one that has followed, the congruence duction itself."28 A few years after must say that the great questions of of social history and radical com- World War II, every avowed radical American Socialism received only mitment has been made abundantly movement, whatever its formal an abstract answer at James's hands. evident, indeed become the Marxist ideology, shared Trotsky's pessi- But he achieved no small thing. The scholarly commitment of hundreds mism. Stalinism and Social Democ- path he illuminated broadens out to who emerged with university train- racy in particular had gone over to a wide road that passes through ing from the 1960's: a vision of or- the belief that armies, bombs, po- valley and dale of theory and dinary people in the U.S. and litical maneuver and foreign policy practice, the high mountain passes everywhere, searching urgently for rather than the working class would of profoundest human hope and the means to remake the quality of rule the fate of the world. In James's dark cities of toil and trouble. James their existence. The New Left, the own Workers' Party, the thesis of has made his contribution to Women's Movement, above all the "Retrogression," as one key writer American radicalism, as a variant of Black movement seemed at points put it, placed "a question mark over the European experience. But to be expressing in political logic the ability of the proletariat to foremost he has since the onset of that insightful kernel James had reassemble a revolutionary his career placed international opened up in his venture beyond leadership to take power before it responsibilities upon the agenda, orthodox Leninism. And the turn is overtaken and destroyed by the shown them inevitable as the con- toward the working class by the disintegrative tendency of nections between capitalism and the early 1970's carried along his capitalist civilization of which labor market worldwide. If he has imperatives, to relocate the blue threatening atomic war is the most returned Marxist theory from the collar source of a future soviet.27 potent force."29 Against this de- darkness of the exegetical lumber rooms, it is because he has seen the working out of the deepest schema the proletariat is prepared socially in the lives of ordinary people across the globe. for its tasks by the very mechanisms

III of capitalist production itself. Many of the same themes reached a wide reading public, first James's specific contribution and featism every instinct of James re- in a pessimistic, then more hopeful the totality of his view, with the belled. But his voice cried into the and again more pessimistic vein. partial exception of that emphasis wind. The rife alienation that James and upon Black initiative and self- By and large — with the excep- his collaborators perceived in activity, seemed however to have tion of some rather brief political American life, if one can believe been lost on the cutting room floor. periods and some groups — the Albert Camus, grew out of the Part of the rationale surely resides fundamental pessimism as regards detective novel into the entire in the groupuscule character of the working class has never lifted. Existentialist philosophy. Ralph James's earlier efforts, publication Indeed, one can say that it has per- Ellison's Invisible Man, building and language so restricted by the meated the best as well as the upon themes that James's friend Trotskyist context that twenty worst of political writing on the had developed years hence the confused Fourth Left, from the philosophy of earlier, pointed up what James had Internationalists James singled out Herbert Marcuse to the social written about Communists in for critique took the aspect of economics of Michael Harrington Harlem — but without proposing ghosts from some vanished to the cultural ruminations of any solutions. Slowly, over political dynasty. And his books Ishmael Reed. When today a generations, the Hegelianism of were, aside from the Black noticeably undoctrinaire Socialist the Young Marx played a role in Jacobins, for all j; ractical writer looks to the possible futures the revival of another Left, as did purposes physically unobtainable. of "a semi-corporatist liberalism," the vision of Corporate Liberalism There is also a deeper reason "a technocratic, authoritarian, (a general approximation of State that goes back to the conflicts of neo-conservatism," or (in the best Capitalism and Rationalist the 1940's. When James redressed case) a "radical-democratic totality). By the late 1960's, the Trotsky's estimation of proletarian liberalism with populist elements," connection between Culture and physical diminution and spiritual he cites as his future-looking guide Radicalism had become an all- decline under later Capitalism, he the same Daniel Bell who James pervasive topic of discussion militantly defended the "thesis of leveled against in 1949 for and not only within the Left, Marx that in the very crisis of substituting technical for human Culture recognized as a pow- capitalism the proletariat is ... pre- solutions, and for excluding the

36 Socialist possibility altogether.30 Meanwhile, as the world revolu- of liberational forces that might Even at the mundane level of tac- tionary process has continued to have been anticipated on the mor- tics, many of James's complaints accelerate, things have remained in row of the Revolution. Yet it is — that Marxist response to a wide- a stasis for two generations: also the ancient dream of Utopia spread strike vacillated between Socialists committed to one realized. complaints against labor's back- version or another of the State, To James, who early saw the wardness and assertions that it was with its perpetuation of mental human truth behind the civilized not backward but needed the lead- versus manual labor; and falsehoods about his West Indian ership of a (still unformed) Van- Communists waiting for the people's capacities, this promise guard — have not been essentially working class to join some kind of has never been a matter of dogma outdated in thirty years. Communist Party en masse. By- or blind faith. "We live our daily The obscurity of James's contri- passed or in the future, James's lives in the upper reaches and butions, beyond the problems of contributions have never seemed derivative superstructures of verbiage and context, can be sum- quite timely. Marxism," he wrote in 1043. "We are not academicians and must marized in the proposition that James's perspective defies Marxists have not yet reconciled perforce spend most of our time empirical proof, in the sense that there. But the foundations and themselves with the subjectivity of nothing but Barbarism or the revolutionary subject. Whether lower floors are huge unexplored Socialism can finally demonstrate buildings which we enter if at all this be the locus classicus proletar- such political conclusions. During iat is not even the essential matter. in solitude and leave in silence. World War II, James presciently They have been shrines too long. James has often glimpsed moments referred to "Socialism and when the peasantry, entering into a We need to throw them open, to Barbarism," alive at the same 32 transition to the modern order, can ourselves and to the public. . . ," moment, battling toward a finish Perhaps no Marxist has dug take the leadership of the whole that has only been postponed these social matrix. And he stressed that deeper into the subsoil of the forty years. But there is something Socialist heritage, from its distant in the outbreaks of the future in more that James wrote from a deep the industrialized nations, origins to the philosophic sense of history and which the foundation stones to the fructify- students, women and other self- Left, the intelligentsia as a whole, defined groups will represent ing columns and arches which has been unable or unwilling to have been considered the holiest themselves in the councils of absorb: transformation. Meanwhile, of holy additions. From the among the Marxist political colonial background of the West We do not idealize the workers. . . Indies, from metropolitan London, groups, hardly even the most But the very bourgeois society "spontaneist" have become which has produced its most gifted from Harlem to Detroit to Africa, seriously interested in popular life body of thinkers and artists has James has felt the confidence in as a whole, beyond the factory also given birth to a proletariat the basic capacities and desires of gates, save to deplore which instinctively demanded the plain people justified. "The consumerism, to place "real" (i.e., application to itself of every value unending murders, the destruction economic) class struggle against which the philosophers and the of peoples, the bestial passions, such delusions, to cite a Leftwing various classes they represented the sadism, the cruelties and the (generally Socialist Realist) artist had demanded throughout the lusts, all the manifestations of here and there who has ages. . . . Spinoza and Kant would barbarism . . . are unparalleled in stand aghast at what the average history. But this barbarism exists supposedly captured the palpi- worker takes for granted today. tating dynamics of contemporary only because nothing else can But he does not demand them as suppress the readiness for conflict. Only among the smallest an individual or in the primitive minority have the (once) widely manner as the early Christian did.. sacrifice, the democratic instincts accepted notions of Black and creative power of the great .. These are the values of modern 33 proletarian combativity been civilization. They are embodied in masses of people," James has linked with a concept of that as the very web and texture of the written. The task of lever for the rest of the working lives of the masses of the people. revolutionaries, to build upon class and broader society, means Never were such precious values those perceptions, those desires, for insight about the cultural so resolutely held as necessary to has been often and sadly particularities and possibilities complete living by so substantial disappointed. But nothing short of across the demographic map. and so powerful a section of nuclear holocaust encompassing society. Socialism means simply the whole planet can obliterate the James, be it recalled, never the complete extension and revolutionary option. elicited guilt from white workers; fulfillment of these values in the he made it clear that for them (and life of the individual.31 the rest of the nation) to accept Black equality in the fullest sense This is even more than the prophets meant an acceptance of dramatic had foreseen, since the continuation change in the whole social order. of class society nourished a variety

37 Footnotes 12. My thinking has been influenced by ing (Moscow, 1969), pages 328, 331. an unpublished paper, David N. Lyon, 22. Reprinted as C. L. R. James, Dialectic 1. Perry Anderson, Considerations on "C. L. R. James and the Negro and History: An Introduction Western Marxism (London, 1976). Question in American Marxism," (Cambridge, 1972). 2. Albert Gates, "Politics in the Strato- whose author we have been unable 23. Best articulated in C. L. R. James, sphere," New International, IX (No- to locate to request permission for Perspectives and Proposals (Detroit, vember 1943), page 311. the essay's publication. James ex- mimeographed, 1966), page 39. 3. C. L. R. James, Beyond A Boundary plained the origins of his historical 24. State Capitalism and World Revolu- (London, 1963 ed.), page 151. analysis in Letters on Organization tion, page 34. 4. See my essay, "Jews and American (Detroit, mimeographed, 1962), page 25. C. L. R. James, Mariners, Renegades Communism: The Cultural Question," 12. and Castaways (New York, 1953), Radical History Review, No. 23 13. The discussion has been reprinted in page 14. (Spring 1980). Lean Trotsky on Black Nationalism 26. Reprinted (from an unfinished work 5. I have explored this in my disserta- and Self-Determination (New York, on women) in Selma James, "The tion, "Marxism in the U.S., 1900- 1970 ed.). American Family: Decay and Rebirth," 1940," University of Wisconsin, 1975, 14. James's resolution is now most ac- Radical America, IV (February 1970). now being revised for publication. cessible in The Future in the Present 27. Expressed in Radical America of the 6. See Paul Richards, "W. E. B. DuBois (Westport, 1977), quotation from early 1970's: see, e.g., my essays bor- and American Social History: Evolu- pages 126-27. rowing upon James, "Marxism in the tion of a Marxist," Radical America, 15. Louis Adamic, My America (New U.S.: 39 Propositions," V (Septem- IV (November 1970). York, 1938). James's quotation from ber-October 1971) and "The Eclipse 7. Lewis's writings are scattered through Notes on Dialectics (Detroit, 1971 of the New Left: Some Notes," VI The New Review and other publica- ed.), page 188. (July-August 1972). tions. His most incisive single text is 16. C. L. R. James, History of the Pan- 28. State Capitalism and World Revolu- The Militant Proletariat (Chicago, African Revolt (Washington, 1969 tion, page 34. 1911). ed.), pages 5-6. 29. Ernest Erber, "The Class Nature of 8. Waiting's major works were Socialism 17. A separate essay would be required the Polish State," New International, As It Is (New York, 1912), The Larger to trace James's evolution from the XI (August 1947), page 178. Aspects of Socialism (New York, early 1940's; the evidence is abun- 30. David Plotke, "The United States in 1913), and Progressivism — And After dant in The New International and in Transition: Toward a New Order?" (New York, 1914). the Bulletin of the Johnson-Forrest Socialist Review, No. 54 (November- 9. This "Cultural Question" is explored Tendency (available in the Raya December 1980). at length in my forthcoming Litera- Dunayevskaya Papers). 31. C. L. R. James, "Laski, St. Paul and ture and the Multitude (New York, 18. C. L. R. James, State Capitalism and Stalin," reprinted into The Future in 1981). See the collage of Fraina's World Revolution (Detroit, 1969 ed. the Present, page 100. essays from Modern Dance magazine from original 1950 publication), page 32. C. L. R. James, "Production for the in Cultural Correspondence, Nos. 6-7 42. Like a number of other Sake of Production — A Reply to (Spring 1978). documents from the time, this work Carter," Workers' Party Bulletin, No. 10. See my essay, "Jews and American was in fact a collaboration with 2 (April 1943) in Communism." Grace Lee (now Grace Boggs) and Papers. 11. This view of the 1940's CP is argued Raya Dunayevskaya. See also C. L. R. 33. The Invading Socialist Society, page best in a special number of Radical James, The Invading Socialist Society 14. America on the 1940's, IX (July- (Detroit, 1972, from 1947 ed.), co- August 1975), and most especially in authored by Lee and Dunayevskaya. Paul Buhle was a founding editor of Stan Weir's reminiscence, "American 19. Notes On Dialectics, page 22. Radical America and is director of Labor on the Defensive: A 1940's 20. Ibid., page 192. the Oral History of the American Odyssey." 21. The Invading Socialist Society, page Left at the Tamiment Institute, New 62; see Frederick Engels, Anti-Duehr- York University.

38 The fall of Kwame Nkrumah

by Manning Marable Black and/or socialist critics, James James served as editorial director for also recognized the deep problems the Bureau and later became editor A man who has just come in from inherent within the Ghanaian revo- of the Federation's journal, the rain and dried his body and put lution. The Nkrumah-James rela- International African Opinion. on dry clothes is more reluctant to tionship reveals the distance between James's international contacts during go out again than another who has the rhetoric of Pan-Africanism and the decade of the 1930's and 1940's been indoors all the time. The trouble with our new nation . . . was that Ghana's "scientific socialism" and its included a number of militants who none of us had been indoors long reality. would determine the political enough. . . . We had all been in the Born in the village of Nkroful, character of post-war Africa: Jomo rain together until yesterday. Then Gold Coast, in 1909, Kwame Nkru- Kenyatta, then an anthropology a handful of us — the smart and the mah was educated first at the teacher graduate student; T. R. Ma-konnen lucky and hardly ever the best — training college at Achimota. of British Guiana, general secretary had scrambled for the one shelter Borrowing money from a distant of the Pan-African Federation in our former rulers left, and had taken relative, he left the Gold Coast and Britain; Chris Jones of Barbados; it over and barricaded themselves in. spent twelve years abroad in the West African trade unionist Wallace And from within they sought to United States and Great Britain. It persuade the rest through numerous Johnson; Dr. W. E. B. DuBois, a was during his sojourn in the U.S. at founder of the National Association loudspeakers... that all argument the time of the Great Depression and should cease and the whole people for the Advancement of Colored speak with one voice. (Chinua Second World War (1935-1945) that People and premier scholar of Afro- Achebe, A Man of the People the young African intellectual American and African sociology and [Garden City, New York. Anchor, became involved in the currents of history, and George Padmore, born 1967]) Black nationalism, international so- Malcolm Nurse in the West Indies, a cialism and Pan-Africanism. He was former Communist and chairman of I particularly influenced by the mili- the London-based International tant nationalism of Marcus Garvey, African Service Bureau. When founder of the Universal Negro Im- The heroic yet tragic figure of Nkrumah left the U.S. to enroll as a provement Association in 1914, and Kwame Nkrumah represents a major graduate student in London's advocate of Black independent paradox within the history of African University College, James provided liberation struggles. As a leading movements across the African dias- pora. In New York City, Nkrumah him with a letter of introduction to theoretician and practical politician of Padmore. A firm personal and Pan-Africanism, he shaped the first met another Black activist/ intellectual who would play a major political relationship developed direction of the British and French quickly between Nkrumah and colonies in Black Africa during the role in his subsequent political de- velopment, C. L. R. James. Padmore, as both men served as joint post-Second World War period. political secretaries of the Fifth Pan- Nkrumah's emergence as Prime It was through James that Nkru- mah was initiated into the broader African Congress held at Manchester Minister of the Gold Coast, or Ghana, in March 1945. his rise as a leader of the Third and more complex events of Pan- With the active support of the World, and his fall into political Africanism and anti-colonialist Bureau, Nkrumah left London and oblivion in the wake of a military struggle. During the years 1934- returned to the Gold Coast in 1947. coup in 1966, have been exhaustively 1936, James had been chairman of explained and reviewed by Africanist the International African Friends of In James's words, Nkrumah's task scholars. One key toward Abyssinia, a committee whose was "to begin his preparations for understanding the strengths and "main purpose was to arouse the the revolution which was to initiate a weaknesses of Nkrumah's revolution, sympathy and support" of the West new Africa." He was immediately however, is within the writings of the for the state of Ethiopia, having been hired by Dr. Joseph Boakye Dan- Trinidadian socialist, political overthrown by the fascist troops of quah, leader of the United Gold organizer and historian, C. L. R. Mussolini. In early 1937 James and Coast Convention, to serve as the James. James, along with Pan- other Black intellectuals formed organization's general secretary and Africanist George Padmore, had a the International African Service principal organizer. Within two years, pivotal role in young Nkrumah's Bureau, which was the Nkrumah had succeeded in intellectual development, and guided "forerunner" of the historically mobilizing the African masses his steps to power. Before most significant Pan-African Federation. against British colonial rule beyond

39 anyone's expectations. On June 12, Ghana became the first independent 1959. DuBois left the U.S. in Oc- 1949, Nkrumah launched his own African nation-state in the postwar tober 1961 upon the invitation of formation, the Convention Peoples period. Nkrumah to direct a major scholarly Party

40 lution to overthrow capitalism is ence of the Convention People's geoisie were also unhappy with Party dictatorship, for the "party" Nkrumah's performance. The nation's written, at the head will be names was totally dependent upon him. like" Marx, Engels, Lenin and major banks, Barclay's and the Bank Apart from Nkrumah it had no real of British West Africa, did not lend "Kwame Nkrumah." "The centre of existence of its own — he was the the world revolutionary struggle is sole expression of its corporeality. . sufficient money to African here in Accra, Ghana." . . Nkrumahist Ghana was an ideo- businessmen to promote local On February 23-24, 1966, the logical state without an ideology, a commercial expansion. The British still controlled the currency system; Ghanaian armed forces successfully one-party dictatorship without the even after independence, the coun- initiated a coup d'etat against the party. It was also a Socialist state without a trace of socialism, try's currency was simply "the British Nkrumah government. There can be whether of the Western or Eastern pound printed on different colored no doubt that the army's operation brand — if by "socialism" we mean paper." Ghana's Black bourgeoisie was generally supported by a sig- something more than just extrava- attacked Nkrumah for perpetuating nificant percentage of the popula- gance, waste, incompetence and British financial hegemony at their tion. "The most astonishing aspect of shortages. The Ghanaian economy expense. And finally, the Ewe the February coup was not that it under Nkrumah was basically a people of Eastern Ghana and the took place at all," writes Trevor capitalist one. The "commanding heights" — the foreign currency Mamprussi people of the Northern Jones in Ghana's First Republic, and Upper Regions expressed 1960-1966, "but that the ruling earners — were ranged firmly in the private enterprise sector. dissension because Nkrumah's public party and its integral wings collapsed policies were, in their opinion, so completely within the course of a How can one begin to reconcile oriented heavily toward the South few hours, offering no resistance to fundamentally contradictory views of and specifically urban constituencies the takeover. Nkrumah's calls from Nkrumah's Ghana? Was Nkrumah's (Accra, Sekondi-Takoradi, etc.). By exile for resistance over the next overthrow the failure of Pan- the elections of 1956, the joint weeks fell on deaf ears. No Africanism as an ideology for the opposition factions won 33 elements of the party went emancipation of the Black diaspora? legislative seats to the CPP's 71 seats, underground and carried the struggle Or does the ordeal of Ghana's first and tallied over 40 percent of the into the hills and forests." In his republic provide a critical lesson in popular vote. sometimes rambling, uncritical de- the strategies toward developing a From 1957 until early 1960, fense of the coup, Colonel A. A. theory and practice of Third World Nkrumah's general strategy was one Afrifa explained that "the only Revolution? What were the strengths of cooperation and nonconfronta- tangible basis for Nkrumaism is the and weaknesses of Nkrumah's tion with U.S. and British capitalist man's own protean personality, ma- politics? interests. The Ghanaian state as- niacal tendencies, and essentially sumed control over the cocoa export blurred visions of personal glory." II trade, and ran the basic means of Since 1957, "the former heroes like J. communication and transportation. B. Danquah and others who were The origins of the February 23-24, The central means of production ready to sacrifice everything . . . had 1966 coup were formed over a remained firmly under British been killed or pushed aside. The new decade before. An African opposition control. Profits from gold mining politicians became self-centered to Nkrumah and the Convention production increased annually 35-50 cowards without ideas, or People's Party emerged with the percent in the late 1950's. Cocoa 'comrades,' willing to denounce establishment of the National exports increased from 206,000 tons everything — honour, name, truth, Liberation Movement (NLM) in in 1956 to 405,000 tons in 1961. The and morals — in order to keep their September 1954, at the old Ashanti CPP-controlled Trade Union place in the new ruling class and in capital of Kumasi. Its leader was Congress had grown more the hierarchy of Nkrumah's circle." Bafour Osie Akoto, a wealthy cocoa conservative. Graft and corruption In The Ghana Coup, Hungarian po- planter who had political ties to the among trade union bureaucrats litical scientist Tibor Szamuely, a ruling Ashanti chiefs. (Note: Nkru- helped indirectly to depress African former instructor at Nkrumah's mah's people were the Nzima, who workers' wages. Nkrumah's oppo- Ideological Institute, wrote: lived among the Fanti along the nents were encouraged by the grow- country's southwest coastline along ing discontent against the govern- A careful scrutiny of the actual the Atlantic Ocean.) Defeated at the ment. However, the opposition was workings of Nkrumaism reveals that unable to stop the passage of a law for all the "progressive" trappings polls, Danquah joined forces with the and "socialist" declarations it was newly formed NLM, charging that his banning tribally based political or- basically much nearer to the fascist former associate was moving ganizations in 1957. In 1958 the than to the communist pattern.... the nation down the road to Preventive Detention Act was passed The adoration of the Leader was communism. Ghanaian entrepreneurs which allowed the government indeed vital to the continued exist- and the aspiring Black bour- to arrest dissidents without criminal

41 charges. One of the first detained was Dzenkle Dzequ, an old colleague of Nkrumah who had left the CPP bitterly in 1958. Danquah was detained in 1961 and died in a small cell in Nsawam prison on February 4, 1965. Part of Nkrumah's dilemma was found within the composition of the Convention People's Party. Unlike Amilcar Cabral's African Party for the Independence of Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde (PAIGC), the CPP was not a vanguard party but a mass- based formation. Africans from all occupations and social strata had rallied to defend Nkrumah during the ed together that in a situation of income after 1960. Massive state- struggle against British colonialism in enormous difficulty, on the whole he sponsored industrial projects were 1947-1951. The Black women who was not only doing his best but was, launched, chief among them the bartered and sold fresh produce in the as politicians go, one of the most Volta Dam endeavor. In theory, the crowded streets of Accra; the African enlightened." James was not overly huge dam should have helped the intelligentsia, the enterprising concerned about the detention of nation's balance of payments deficit attorneys and civil servants seeking to Danquah and other Nkrumah by providing electricity to export to replace white officials in government oppositionists. This "severity . . . neighboring countries. Unfortu- posts, the militant trade unionists, drew no protests nor anguish from nately, no proper coordination ex- mine and dock workers: all looked to me," he noted later. "They were isted between the hydroelectric dam the Osagyefo, Kwame Nkrumah, to advocates neither of democracy nor project and planning centers in the deliver them from the shackles of even of the Christianity they privately owned corporations, Too their peculiar class/caste bondage. The professed." In a personal letter to much money was allocated for the contradictions and outright graft Nkrumah, dated July 21, 1962, dam, and not enough for state- within his government had to be James stated, "you are one of the controlled heavy industries that understood as part of the uneven few of whom I can say that from the could have used the electricity. Since the vital means of industrial process of political development time I have known you, you have always had as your undeviating aim production was still retained by the within any newly liberated zone. As the emancipation from a subordinate British, the government could not James later admitted, upon his visit position of the people of Africa and develop a serious national economic to Ghana in 1960, "I found the of African descent and your struggle program effectively or efficiently. educated section of the population for that emancipation in the context On the international front, Nkrumah seething with anger" against the of worldwide events and the shifted from a pre-1960 policy of "cancer" of official corruption. emancipation of the whole of nonalignment toward a generally "They felt that they had made history humanity." favorable attitude toward the Soviet — which they undoubtedly had. And Nkrumah attempted to resolve the Union and China. Junior officers now corruption was eating away at crisis of confidence by moving to who as late as 1959 were trained at the foundations of the new state they the left, toward a domestic strategy the Sandhurst Royal Military Acad- so proudly cherished." of "peaceful transition" to state- emy were being sent by 1962 to the James recognized that "Ghana, directed socialism. The Cocoa Soviet Union. Nkrumah's involve- from being the finest jewel in the Purchasing Company, for example, ment in the Congo crisis on the side crown of Africa, was [in 1960] ob- established in late 1952 to provide of martyr , com- viously in a state of impending cri- loans to small farmers and purchase bined with the growing presence of sis." Despite delivering a speech to cocoa for the export market, was Soviet military and political advis- CPP leaders and cadres that spoke dissolved amidst charges of massive ers, created enemies among the con- indirectly of "the perils I saw fraud in administrative circles. Its servative, British-trained officers in ahead," James made a difficult de- bureaucratic successor, the Ghana the military. cision not to attack the Nkrumah National Trading Corporation, fur- It must be emphasized that most program. "Against all criticism of ther undercut Black merchants and of Ghana's fiscal distress could be the unquestioned anomalies of his petty bourgeois entrepreneurs in the traced directly to metropoles of regime, I stood firmly by the fact cocoa trade. Small cocoa farmers world capitalism. Nkrumah's indus- more important than all others add- experienced severe losses in real trial and agricultural programs pro-

42 noted by the state sector were to be of the budget was transferred from an act of defiance when he was em- financed by the capital generated by the Finance Ministry to a newly ployed at the supreme court as a cocoa exports. The price of cocoa formed Budget Secretariat under clerk. Adamafio opposed the CPP peaked at L476 per ton in 1954 aid Nkrumah's control. After the labor during its early years. As a writer for had never dropped below L200 per strikes at Sekondi-Takoradi in Se- the Accra National Times in 1952, ton. The Seven-Year Development tember 1961 the government passed a he denounced the CPP as "the party Plan projected a modest figure for Criminal Procedure Amendment Bill of fooling and thieving." He cocoa at L200 per ton for the mid- which greatly restricted domestic participated in a raid against the and late-1960's. In 1965, the U.S. civil liberties. At the second reading CPP's central newspaper offices, and and British governments adopted of the bill, Gbedemah finally made physically attacked the editor. In policies which artificially lowered public his opposition to the 1953 he served as assistant general the world price of cocoa to i87 a ton. government, denouncing even the secretary to an anti-Nkrumah Both countries refused to lower Preventive Detention Act as "an political faction. By this time, how- trade barriers against processed and instrument of terrorism." He left ever, Adamafio reassessed his political semi-processed cocoa products, as Ghana in late December 1961 and situation and decided to join they had promised to do at the joined the growing expatriate oppo- Nkrumah's ranks. After the 1954 Geneva meeting of the United sition against Nkrumah. general election, Adamafio rose to Nations Conference on Trade and Krobo Edusei was perhaps the the post of assistant general secre- Development in 1964. The most popular leader of the CPP. A tary of the CPP. As a law student in "economic squeeze," which would be real "man of the people" in Achebe's London in the mid-1950's, he used by subsequent American terms, Edusei was a complete worked with Padmore to establish administrations against Allen-de's opportunist. In 1949 he organized the National Association of Socialist Chile in 1970-73 and Manley's people's courts to levy fines against Student Organizations, a militant Jamaica in 1978-80, was developed Africans who refused to join in the formation supported by the CPP. and perfected first against Nkrumah. boycott of white-owned stores. Despite Gbedemah's opposition, The crisis within Ghana was also Monies were divided between himself Nkrumah appointed Adamafio essentially a crisis within the CPP. and his own supporters. For years he general secretary of the CPP in Jan- This can be illustrated by a brief enriched himself by pedaling uary 1960. Adamafio soon devel- sketch of the careers of three of governmental favors to the highest oped a strong base of supporters Nkrumah's most influential sup- corporate bidder. Traveling ex- among the Ga people in the govern- porters: Komal Gbedemah, Krobo tensively between Europe and Africa, ment, including Foreign Minister Edusei, and Tawia Adamafio. Gbe- Edusei acquired the reputation as a Ako Adjei and Cofie Crabbe, CPP demah represented the petty bour- lavish entertainer and bon vi-vant. executive secretary. By early 1961 a geois-entrepreneurial wing of the After one of his endless series of serious power struggle had emerged CPP. Imprisoned by the British in fiscal improprieties, Nkrumah between Adamafio's "leftists" within 1949 for six months, he neverthe- dismissed him as Minister of Indus- the state and party bureaucracy and less prepared his party for the mu- tries in April 1962. Despite all this, the Gbedemah faction, who nicipal elections of the following Edusei remained a leader of the primarily occupied seats within the year. As Vice Chairman of the CPP, powerful right wing of the CPP. His legislature and controlled the African Gbedemah stood second only to base of support was provided in part private sector. Nkrumah as the chief architect of by his close personal/political ties to Adamafio's fall from power was the liberation struggle. James him- the Ashanti people. Edusei had as rapid as his emergence. As Minister self referred to Gbedemah in Nkru- participated vigorously in the of Presidential Affairs, Adamafio mah and the Ghana Revolution as the construction of the police state ap- was largely responsible for the "Trotsky leading the revolution" paratus. As Minister of the Interior in suppression of striking workers in contrasted to Nkrumah-as-"Lenin." early 1957 he introduced the September 1961, calling laborers By the late 1950's Gbedemah was Preventive Detention Act without "despicable rats" and "agents of neo- considered the party stalwart, first even first discussing the legislation colonialism.' Adamafio led the purge among all CPP activists who had with his party or cabinet members. of the right wing in 1961-62 and built the organization from 1949 To protect himself, he collected was widely considered the heir onward. As Minister of Finance and damaging political information on apparent to Nkrumah. Adamafio principal member of the presidential the Osagyefo with the intention of praised his mentor from the floor of commission which ruled Ghana using the data "should he fall too far parliament as "the Great Eman- in Nkrumah's absences abroad, he from grace." cipator who delivered Ghana from wielded tremendous authority Tawia Adamafio was certainly the the bondage of imperialism." In among middle class, urban and most ambitious of all of Nkrumah's August 1962 Nkrumah was nearly intelligentsia constituencies. In cadre. Born Joseph Tawia killed in an assassination attempt. 1961, however, the control Adams, he Africanized his name as Adamafio's enemies within the CPP

43 gathered circumstantial evidence Chief Justice's dismissal. Unfortu James stated, "Nkrumah prepared which indicated that the Adamafio nately, none of Nkrumah's closest the population of Ghana for the faction was somehow involved. supporters were in a position to tell morals of the Mafia." Adamafio, Adjei, Crabbe and others the President the truth. "A prime In the span of two years, Nkru- within his group were promptly ar- minister who has not got people mah had decimated both the right rested. Tried in 1963, the Adamafio around him who can tell him that is and left leadership of the CPP. In a faction were declared not guilty by living on borrowed time," James curious pattern, Nkrumah's policies Sir Arku Korsah, the Chief Justice. predicted. "If he hasn't got such parallel those of Soviet leader Jo- Within two days, Nkrumah dismissed people around him it is his misfor- seph Stalin in 1924-31. Of course, Korsah and nullified the court's tune and his fault. Worse still it is Stalin's major opponents to the left proceedings. All three were the misfortune of the people over were destroyed first, notably Leon detained in prison until the 1966 whom he rules." One reason for the Trotsky and the "Left Opposition." coup. current "catastrophe," James argued, As Nicolai Bukharin and the rightist Nkrumah's decision to dismiss was that Nkrumah "has been fooling Bolsheviks participated in the de- Chief Justice Korsah provoked a himself and a lot of other people struction of Trotskyism, so sharp response from James. Dated with a dangerous fiction — did Adamafio and his supporters lead December 14, 1963, James's corre- Its name is ." in the overthrow of Gbedemah. And spondence described the dismissal as "a terrible business, bound to have effects far outside Ghana and Africa will go crashing from precipice to in Ghana itself." James requested precipice unless the plans for economic detailed information on the incident in order to explain the case in the development are part of a deep philosophical Trinidad Evening News. "I hope . . . concept of what the mass of African people you have people around you able to need. That is where Nkrumah failed. tell you quite plainly what is now required from you," he confided. Because the Osagyefo takes himself within months, both Bukharin and Nkrumah did not respond to the so seriously, he has "ended up with Adamafio would themselves be correspondence, and in early 1964 the totalitarian state — no democ- overthrown. The destruction of both James made the letter public. With a racy and no socialism." The large, ideological factions in the Soviet degree of sadness, James issued a state-sponsored public works cam- Union initiated Stalin's infamous brief but insightful essay in the paigns and the rhetorical commit- "left turn" as a massive program for News on the "failure" of Nkrumah: ment to rapid westernization helped superindustrialization and the generate the collapse of parliamen- physical elimination of the well-to-do I suppose it brings to an end an as- tary government and an inevitable peasantry became the order of the sociation of twenty years that I emergence of a dictatorial, one-party day. The destruction of the CPP's have valued more than most. I signed state. James warned, "Africa will go left and right wings merely left the myself a sincere supporter of Nkrumah: a bad phrase. Nkrumah crashing from precipice to precipice real control of the government under did not and does not need my sup- unless the plans for economic the personal domination of port. I needed his. I have been and development are part of a deep Nkrumah. After 1963, he "never am concerned with and active in a philosophical concept of what the again permitted one of his lot of politics, one part of which mass of African people need. That is lieutenants to build up a personal was and is the expulsion of imperi- where Nkrumah failed." following within his party compar- alism from Africa and the develop- In the introduction of Nkrumah able to Adamafio's," wrote Trevor ment of under developed countries. . and the Ghana Revolution, James Jones. "He continued to tolerate . . In all this Nkrumah played a wrote that Nkrumah's decision in the private baronies of wealth and pa- great role: he is one of the greatest case "showed the degeneration not tronage, but only on the unspoken of living politicians. I always appre- only of the regime but of his own condition that the barons themselves ciated the splendid work he was doing concept of government." Nkrumah eschewed any political ambitions. He amid immense difficulties. When people pointed out what they con- had to be aware of the consequence allowed the radicals to continue to sidered negative aspects of his re- of his act. "The very structure, press their uncompromising view of gime I held my peace because I juridical, political and moral, of the revolution, but denied them the knew the positive aspects, the im- state is at one stroke destroyed, means of bringing it about." As in mense positive aspects. and there is automatically placed Stalin's Russia, the only force on the agenda a violent in society capable of commanding James stated that Nkrumah restoration of some sort of legal con- a serious challenge to the should publicly declare that he nection between government leader's hegemony was the had made a grievous mistake in the and population. By this single act," armed forces. Stalin took care of

44 this potential source of opposition junta. Nkrumah's destruction of the tically. These and other austerity during 1937-39, when Marshal M. left wing of his own party meant that measures did not halt the accelera- Tukhachevsky, the leader of the no working class base could be tion of the balance of trade deficit, army, was shot. Within the army organized immediately to oppose the and served to galvanize working about 20,000 officers, 25 percent of regime. The intelligentsia, the class/peasant opposition to the new the entire officers' corps, were African petty bourgeoisie, the en- rightist regime. The military again detained and several thousand even- trepreneurs and laborers had long took charge by ousting Busia in tually executed without trial. since grown indifferent at best, and January 1972. A series of military Nkrumah was no Stalin — both in usually hostile, towards the govern- takeovers and unstable civilian gov- the positive and negative meanings ment. Had Nkrumah developed and ernments have since followed. As for of the word. James revealed this in trained thousands of serious younger Nkrumah, his political career had his assessment of the man. cadre committed to his ideals of come to an end. The last years of his "Nkrumah is a man of great gener- socialism and Pan-Africanism, he life were spent in exile, producing a osity of spirit," James wrote in the might have succeeded in reversing series of thoughtful studies in African 1950's, "and it is common talk in the military coup. Ac one of the political economy and theory. In Ghana that even in internal party conspirators freely admitted as late Revolutionary Path, he described his relations, except where political as 1967, "the irony of the present stay in Conakry, Guinea, as "one of principle is involved, he is a soft situation in Ghana is that it is quite the most fruitful periods of my life. probable that President Nkrumah rather than a hard man." Unlike For, in a secluded villa by the sea, and the CPP would command the my enforced freedom from the day Stalin, he preferred simply to arrest support of a majority of the elec- to day work of government leaves nis opponents rather than torture or torate, even in genuinely free elec- me time to study, to contemplate murder them. Aware of the problems tions." But Nkrumah's party had deeply on the problems of Africa, to he encountered within his own army, never developed any ideological write, and to prepare actively for the in August 1965 Nkrumah removed consensus. Despite the existence of next vital phase of the African from office his Chief of Defense. Ideological Institute of Winneba, Revolution. . . . " Nkrumah died in Major-General Stephen Otu. and there was no real theoretical devel- Bucharest, Rumania, on April 27, Ours chief deputy. Major-General J. opment that was an on-going part of 1972. A. Ankrah. Both generals were mass-based CPP politics. Nkrumah's Writing in the Black World, James actively involved in a conspiracy to primary constituency between 1962 reflected on the meaning of Nkru- overthrow the government organized and 1966 was the bureaucratic caste mah's life and thought in an essay by Nkrumah's police chief. John of public and party officials who published in July 1972. "Kwame Harlley, and Colonel Emmanuel K. benefited personally from the state. Nkrumah was one of the greatest Kotoka, commander of the infantry Devoid of any viable working class political leaders of our century," he brigade. Nkrumah's announcement or peasant base of support, noted. "We must be on guard that his declaring that he was assuming Nkrumaism gave way without a years of exile do not remove from personal control over all armed forces fight. our constant study and contemplation was, for most officers, totally the remarkable achievements of the unacceptable. In late November III great years." Perhaps deliberately 1965, in an emergency session of the avoiding any discussion of legislature, the government passed The coup solved absolutely none Nkrumah's contradictory record in the Africa Defense bill, granting to of Ghana's pressing problems. In power between 1957 and 1966, Nkrumah the right to send the 1969 Dr. K. A. Busia succeeded the James concentrated his analysis nation's armed forces anywhere on military junta as President. An old instead on the period of "positive the African continent. This act, more ally of Danquah from the 1950's, action" against British colonialism in than any other, set the wheels of the Busia represented the local Black the Gold Coast. James applauded the coup into irreversible motion. petty bourgeoisie and reactionary manner in which "Nkrumah With Nkrumah out of the country bureaucratic elite. With Nkrumah's mobilized" the masses, but did not on the morning of February 23, fall, the U.S.-inspired boycott of mention the invaluable contributions 1966, the rebel leaders struck. The Ghanaian cocoa ended, and its price of Gbedemah and other lesser CPP coup was virtually bloodless. Kotoka rose 220 percent in two short years. leaders. James did not analyze the announced over the radio that "the Busia received a 1.5 million dollar shortcomings of Nkrumah's model of myth surrounding Nkrumah has loan from the World Bank at gener- political praxis, the choice of been broken. Parliament is ous terms, and initiated a strictly creating a mass-based party rather dissolved and Kwame Nkrumah is capitalist fiscal policy at home. Na- than a vanguard-style party, along dismissed from office." Dozens of tionalized firms under Nkrumah the lines of Cabral's PAIGC Nkrumah's "firmest supporters" were restored to private ownership, or Agostinho Neto's MPLA, immediately backed the military workers' real wages were cut dras- to pursue the anti-colonial-

45 ist struggle. Instead, he asserted, annually; in 1961-62 Ghana's 6 reaucracy that promised much, but "there is not a political leader or a nursing schools produced 265 mid- produced only official corruption political party anywhere in the world wives and nurses. and social stagnation. Lenin "always which cannot learn from Nkrumah's Nkrumah's unfulfilled Seven-Year believed and often said that any politics in the revolutionary Gold Development Plan projected the serious and notable change in the Coast, 1947-1951." James agreed creation of 500,000 jobs in ag- social and political construction of that "it would be dishonorable to riculture and industry; 400,000 jobs Russia came from the proletariat ot attempt to deny Nkrumah did not in construction, commerce and gov- from the masses, only when the establish a viable regime in Ghana." ernment services; and 100,000 in masses take part does real politics However, he justified Nkrumah's mining, transportation and govern- begin." The implications for Ghana failures as being a legacy of British ment utilities. Unemployment re- were specific — Nkrumah must colonialism. "Nkrumah's failure was mained at relatively low levels smash the vestiges of the colonial not a failure of individual throughout Nkrumah's tenure in state apparatus that still existed, and personality," James observed. "It public office. Most of the nation's make an uncompromising break from was the impossibility of establishing balance of payments difficulties were those CPP factions who were willing a viable regime and bringing some due less to the state's misman- end eager to pursue neo-colonialist order into the messes the imperialists agement, graft, etc., and more to the policies. Real politics for Ghana had left behind." inflation in prices for imported would begin again, as in the period This was, strictly speaking, his- consumer goods and the U.S.-spon- 1947-51, when the broad working torically true. Nkrumah's achieve- sored boycott of Ghanaian cocoa. masses, the peasantry and the ments against overwhelming odds For these and other reasons, W. E. B. proletariat, were dictating the throughout his entire career are a DuBois wrote privately to Nkrumah direction of the struggle. matter of record. Under his leader- on November 30, 1961: "You The sad failure of Nkrumah and ship, the First and Second Five-Year [have] set the highest standard of the destruction of his government Development Plans (1951-56 and African training with worldwide rests here. Ghana had begun the long 1959-64) established the foundations recognition and [have taken] the and painful struggle down the road for the cultural and industrial great step forward toward uniting toward socialism. Measured in terms transformation of modern Ghana. the old classical learning and of educational institutions, culture, Nkrumah's assertion that "in ten modern technology into one broad transportation and communications plan of education for human uplift." years we had achieved more than in systems, and even in some sectors of In late 1963 a Ghanaian political the whole period of colonial rule" agricultural production, Nkrumah's journal requested from James a con- was no empty boast. Between 1951 Ghana represented a qualitative leap tribution on African politics. James and 1961, the amount of paved or toward the inevitable reality of a refused "to write anything about gravel motor roads in that country unified, socialist Africa. Nkrumah Africa — I knew the hopelessness of pursued the socialist vision through increased from 3,491 miles to 5,396 the situation in which the African the sterile corridors of a bloated and miles; the number of telephones leaders found themselves, and knew inefficient bureaucracy, the worst more than tripled, from 7,383 to that all that I had to say would not legacy of British colonialism, a state 25,488; post offices increased 75.4 be published in any African paper." percent, from 444 to 779; the He suggested instead a seemingly apparatus largely devoid of any number of health care clinics neutral and somewhat esoteric topic fundamental commitment to the increased from 1 to 30; the numbers on V. I. Lenin's final writings on leader's ideological aspirations and of dentists and doctors rose 159.9 Soviet development and the prob- bold public policy imperatives. By percent, from 156 to 500. Nkrumah's lems involved in socialist construc- the early 1960's, an elite stratum of commitment to mass literacy and a tion in a so-called backward coun- opportunistic CPP officeholders, general improvement in the try. The essay, drafted in a kind of trade union bureaucrats and petty educational apparatus was unequaled Aesopian language, spelled out the civil servants acted as a permanent in Africa. The enrollment of primary problems of the Soviet Union's buffer between the material needs of and middle school children struggle for socialism in such a manner the working masses and the publicly increased from 220,535 in 1951 to that comparisons to Nkrumah's stated goals of Pan-Africanism and 1,286,486 in 1964-65. By the mid- Ghana were not only clear but un- socialism. The party had begun to 1960's, there were 89 secondary avoidable. Any social revolution educate the masses in technical schools with 32,971 students; 11 must commit itself to two goals — skills, but failed to re-educate itself technical schools; 47 teacher "the reconstruction of the govern- and transform its membership ideo- training colleges; and three major mental apparatus" and "the educa- logically from its motley origins as a universities in Ghana. In 1945, the tion of the almost illiterate peasan- purely anti-colonialist, united front. Gold Coast's only nursing try." Echoing Lenin, James con- The CPP never evolved into a tough, establishment graduated 8 nurses demned the growth of a state bu- effective apparatus for social con-

46 struction and cultural revolution. tions, 1944-1963 (Amherst: University don: Nelson, 1965). Ignoring James's repeated warnings, of Massachusetts Press, 1978). , Dark Days in Ghana Kwame Nkrumah failed to trans- Basil Davidson, Black Star: A View of the (London: Lawrence and Wishart, form himself from being an anti- Life and Times of Kwame Nkrumah 1968). colonialist activist into a genuine (London: Alien Lane, 1973). , Ghana: The Autobiography revolutionist, while he still occupied S. G. Ikoku, Le Ghana De Nkrumah (Paris: of Kwame Nkrumah (London: Nelson, 1957). a position of state power. Nkrumah Francois Maspero, 1971), C. L. R. James, Nkrumah and the Ghana ______, Revolutionary Path relied instead upon the CPP and (New York: International Publishers, state bureaucracy to support his Revolution (Westport, Conn.: Lawrence Hill and Company, 1977). 1973). programs. This was the reason that , "Kwame Nkrumah: Founder George Padmore, Pan-Africanism Or Com- munism (Garden City, New York: millions of his former allies and of African Emancipation," Black Anchor Books, 1972). supporters rejected him in February World, 21, 9 (July 1972), pages 4-11. 1966. R. Pinkney, Ghana Under Military Rule, , "Nkrumah, Padmore, 1966-1969 (London: Methuen and and the Ghanaian Revolution," taped Company, 1972). lecture, 1974, Institute of the Black Bibliography World, , Georgia. Trevor Jones, Ghana's First Republic, Tawia Adamafio, ed., Hands Off Africa: 1960-1966: The Pursuit of the Political Some Famous Speeches by Dr. Kwame Kingdom (London: Methuen and Nkrumah (Accra: Ministry of Local Manning Marable is a Senior Re- Government, 1960). Company, 1976). search Associate at the Africana A. A. Afrifa, The Ghana Coup, 24th Feb- Rukudzo Murapa, "Nkrumah and Be- Studies and Research Center of ruary 1966 (London: Frank Cass and yond: Osagyefo, Pan-Africanist Lead- Cornell University, He is also Com- Company, 1967). er," Black World, 21, 9 (July 1972), munications Coordinator and Samir Amin, Neo-Colonialism in West Af- pages 12-20. Northeast States National Repre- Kwame Nkrumah, Africa Must Unite rica (New York and London: Monthly sentative of the National Black Review Press, 1973). (London: Mercury Books, 1963). Correspondence between Kwame Nkru- , Class Struggle in Africa Independent Political Party. mah and W. E. B. DuBois in Herbert (New York: International Publishers, Aptheker, ed., The Correspondence 19701 of W. E, B. DuBois, Volume III: Selec- , Consciencism (Lon-

The Caribbean Revolution

by Basil Wilson tions give rise to the germination of to frighten the hell out of a semi- radical alternatives to the decrepit literate bourgeois class. This class — Living standards in Central Amer- established order. Marxist thought is in alliance with the middle strata, ica and the Caribbean islands have quite new to the Caribbean. Marxist the working class and agro-prole- decreased precipitously in the last parties of formidable strength are tariat incensed at the inability of the decade. World inflation and high oil even more recent. Democratic Manley government to stem in- prices have shaken out of balance the socialism, as epitomized by Michael flation, unemployment and deterio- delicate mechanism of these de- Manley and the People's National rating living conditions — shifted to veloping economies. Countries like Party, has much deeper roots. This the right and voted for the return to Jamaica have experienced consistent species of socialism was extracted power of the conservative Jamaica years of negative growth, further from the British Labor Party and Labor Party, much to the delight of exacerbating the unemployment during the colonial era slept in the the Reagan administration. The set- situation which even in times of same bed with imperialism. During back has left the anti-imperialist reasonable growth rates was already the 1980's, parties of this ideological forces in a serious state of staggering. Jamaica's unemployed pursuit offered some mild reforms befuddlement. presently constitute approximately but were dauntless in accommodating The nation of has a much 30% of its labor force. This vast themselves to the capitalist order. older and established history of army of unemployed, mostly Under the leadership of Michael radical politics. Unlike Jamaica, concentrated in urban enclaves, is Manley, the PNP in 1974 Guyana has no bourgeois political becoming quite restless and seeking reprogrammed democratic socialism, party of any consequence. The ways out of a desperate situation. refrained from taking an anti- three major political parties, These kinds of horrendous condi- communist position, and managed the governing People's National Con-

47 to become a mass party. It was pre- sumed that lavish quotes-from Lenin would precipitate a flock of workers coming into the revolutionary fold. Experience has taught them that the economistic unions — like the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union, Photo on left: Picket in London affiliated to the conservative Jamaica Labor Party, and the Photo below is of Eusi Kwayana, Elder National Workers Union, affiliated to ofASCRIA, and Executive member of the the reformist People's National Party Working Peoples Alliance. — won the allegiance of workers at the genesis of the working class struggle and thereafter, political loyalties remain deeply ingrained. That kind of first chapter naivete is

understandable, but what I find more disturbing is the inability to look at the political heritage of the Caribbean and adapt the theory of Marxism in a creative way. Is that too much to ask of revolutionary political parties? Although the Caribbean lacks a gress, the People's Progressive Party history of Marxist scholarship, in and the Working People's Alliance, recent years a number of scholars all subscribe to some form of social- from the region have been forced to ism. The Burnham dictatorship un- reject capitalism. If one lives in a ceasingly makes claims of having society where barbarism is seeping established a co-operative republic, in daily, one has no choice but to but the PNC has managed to cling to state power through adroit man- explore alternative models of social agement of the voting process. The organization. We have begun that People's Progressive Party demon- process but too many of our excep- strated during the 1950's and the tional minds have been trapped into becoming prisoners of radical meta- 1960's that it was the majority party and established a revolutionary physics. There is a tendency unfolding in that racially divided country. The government that enjoyed excellent that critical thought is "counter- PPP is a Marxist-Leninist Party that relations with the former Manley revolutionary"; that the recitation of continues to give credence to government and has developed a Burnham's dictatorship by its ever- close relationship with the revolu- platitudes is a healthy exercise; that willingness to participate in the tionary government of Cuba. Marxist intellectual rigor is a bourgeois electoral masquerades that Burnham parties have emerged in Dominica, St. pastime. The political activists — holds intermittently before his Vincent, Antigua, etc. All these our people of action — cannot find coronation. This revolutionary party parties contested recent elections time to read, which is understand- insists there is no revolutionary held in their respective territories and able. This leaves a burden on the situation in Guyana and participates the few votes they managed to scholars in the region, and if they in Burnham's charade to preserve its muster reveal the embryonic stage of succumb to the apocalyptic "magic" recognized constitutional role as the Marxist thought and organizations in of the activists, who will produce opposition party. the Caribbean. Many of these that body of literature necessary to The Working People's Alliance is Marxist parties held an unreal notion construct the new society? It is not a relatively new party that espouses of their strength in relationship to the surprising that one seldom finds Marxism, but is far more committed bourgeois political parties. The a radical scholar or political to revolutionary democracy than the recent elections should force them to activist in the Caribbean who has PPP or the PNC. return to the scientific path of real read C. L. R. James. Yet many can Other Marxist and/or radical po- politics. recite passages from Lenin and are litical parties sprang up throughout Marxist-Leninist political parties ready to apologize for Stalinism. This the Caribbean in the 1970's. The like the Workers Party of Jamaica goes on in a region that has New Jewel Movement seized control commenced with a naive concep- produced an important Marxist in Grenada on March 13, 1979, tualization of what was necessary scholar whose life ingenuously

48 Buzz Butler, leader of the Home Rule Party and working-class rebellion of the 1930s (left). Workers occupying union headquarters (below). 'House-slave, free coloured, colonial middle-class' leader, Eric Williams (far below).

combines scholarship and political activism. Even more important, James never flinched from intellectual honesty.

Building the Mass Party

C. L. R. James left the Caribbean in 1932, shortly after completing a biography of the Trinidadian trade union leader, Captain Cipriani. In The Life of Captain Cipriani James eloquently made the case for self- determination in the Caribbean. In his formative years on the island of Trinidad, he studied the intellectual tradition of Western civilization. Like many of his contemporaries, torian and author of Capitalism and such as Aimé Césaire and Ras Slavery, was instrumental in forming Makonnen, James, a product of the nationalist People's National plantation society, journeyed to the Movement. Williams' party reaped metropolis not in search of afflu- the nationalist whirlwind. From 1956 ence, but to march with the forces of to the present, the PNM has history which were willing to smash dominated the politics of Trinidad Western imperialism and liberate the and Tobago. It was the determination on the working class. As the British prepared to make part of the Caribbean masses to resist After much wandering and many their gracious exodus from the Ca- British colonialism that prompted theoretical battles (covered elsewhere ribbean, they attempted to create an James's return. Despite his un- in this journal), C. L. R. James impotent federal polity. After flagging commitment to Marxism, returned to the Caribbean in 1958. centuries of governing the English- James was never troubled by na- In that 26-year absence, the power speaking Caribbean territories as tionalism. In 1948, he published the configuration of the world had separate entities, the British now felt essay, "The Revolutionary Answer changed dramatically. The gale force compelled to foster a spirit of to the Negro Problem in the U.S.A.," winds of Third World Nationalism political unity. This experiment in and stated quite lucidly that unleashed in the post-World War II political ecumenism fell apart in 1962 the Black movement in the period were also sweeping when Jamaica withdrew from United States had an autonomy the Caribbean. Eric Williams, his- the federation. and validity of its own. When James

49 returned to the Caribbean, he did so degeneracy, James lamented: without any romantic illusions about James and the Middle Class establishing a revolutionary society. In many cases the party does not He returned to the Caribbean willing exist, except in name and the most James emerged from that experi- to abandon temporarily his own urgent and repeated efforts to cor- ence convinced that the Caribbean revolutionary activities and to work rect this, meet with the indifference, middle class was an impediment to sacrificially for the building of the carelessness, ignorance and now, the reconstructing the new society. The obstinacy and hostility of the party People's National Movement into a 1 democratic system had been effec- leadership! mass force. Here, one has to pause, tively enshrined, but the politicians catch a few gasps, and ponder awhile. James tried to get the Premier of were quite adept at playing games Now this is truly the act of a Trinidad, Eric Williams, to intervene. with people's lives. "Very few Ca- remarkable man. Convinced that was The goodly doctor remained ribbean politicians had a firm grasp where the mass movement in undisturbed and replied tersely, of the productive forces in their Trinidad was at this historical "There was nothing to discuss."2 country. They were mostly from the juncture, C. L. R. James buried his trade union' movement, clerical revolutionary Marxist position, not Commitment to assistants, small business men, and to lead the nationalist struggle but to Revolutionary Democracy administrators in the public sector. edit the PNM paper and to do the Thus, the politicians carry into poli- nitty-gritty, unglamorous, tics all the weaknesses of the class Throughout his long life, James 3 organizational tasks most has manifested an unabiding faith in from which they came." theoreticians simply shun. democracy. Revolutionary politics In their quest for office, the as- I have attended political meetings means the deepening of the piring politicians would promise jobs with James and heard "revolutionary democratic process. This is what without being clear about how these comrades" from the Caribbean James sought to do with the People's things could be realized. What chastise him for his work with the National Movement. Williams would incensed James was that the middle PNM and for the West Indian have none of it. He was more class had seized control of the na- Federation. Nonetheless, this veteran fascinated with building a political tionalist movement, yet had not been of Marxist thought is never party that served as the extension of the instigators of the working class apologetic. His positions were al- his imperial personality. unrest that served as the catalyst for ways so principled that he does not Because of this commitment to mass politics. have to tread through the yester- revolutionary democracy, James years and apologize for past action, went to the trouble to publish a The democracy and West Indian na- The decision to return to the Carib- pamphlet on the West Indian Fed- tion was won by mass revolt. Even bean was not one that was taken this revolt was led by men who eration. There was no attempt to lightly. James was convinced there were not typically middle class. was no revolutionary situation in the include the Caribbean people in the When, after 1937-38, the democratic Caribbean and the advance of making of the Federation. It was left movement started, it was a labour Caribbean people to self-determina- to the hand-work of middle-class movement. Gradually, however, the tion was a critical period requiring politicians and colonial lords. This British Government felt itself is why the first time the Jamaican compelled to make the Civil Service enormous sacrifice. The native son West Indian, i.e., middle class. By returned and put his shoulders to the people were given the opportunity to vote on the issue, they rejected the degrees, the middle class took over wheel to heave the mass movement the political parties.4 forward. federation outright. James foresaw James's sojourn with the PNM the dangers. At a time when the This was what definitely occurred came to an end in July 1960. By federation appeared shaky, he in Trinidad, Barbados, and Jamaica. then, he had his bellyful of the suggested salvaging this noble Political leaders like Eric Williams, wishy-washy elite who dominated attempt at political unification by Grantley Adams, and Norman Man- the moribund PNM. During the two- abandoning the present structure and ley came out of that middle class year span, James tried to get the to start anew with a constituent milieu. They were by nature con- leadership of the party to take assembly. Constitutions in the servative men, nationalist but sub- financial responsibility for the party region, both national and federal, servient to British imperialism, be- paper, The Nation, He felt the party were offered for ratification without lieving in democracy but frightened should be used as the instrument to any involvement at the draft stage of mass mobilization. This leadership build the mass party. The PNM by the mass of the population. core and the class to which they leadership now had control of state Understandably, the situation was belonged had demonstrated an power and building the party much too far gone to be salvaged intellectual capacity unequalled apparatus had become superfluous. and the undemocratic experiment at anywhere else in the colonial world. Concerned by this state of political unification failed abysmally. They had acquired skills indispens-

50

able to the running of a modern so- ers, once in control, spent their time Under imperialism, they had had ciety. They were part of the modern devising schemes to ensure they little opportunity to learn anything. world, knew how to survive in it, would not fall from grace. History will take its course, only 7 but nonetheless failed to understand Maintaining control of state power too often a bloody one." the real nature of that world. As a remained paramount. They cursed For James, the mass movement class, they were too terrified of the British, yet went cap-in-hand to was not static, but an irreversible authority. They avoided struggles the Americans, begging for foreign force propelling history. The task of and were much more comfortable aid. They were ferocious lions in the revolutionary was to depict the accommodating themselves to exist- opposition, pussycats in power. stage and state of the mass ing institutions. Leaders like Bustamante (Jamaica), movement and push it along. James James saw clearly the deficiencies Uriah Butler (Trinidad and Tobago) returned once more to the Carib- of this class and wrote quite poig- and Eric Gairy (Grenada) in partic- bean in 1966 to form a revolution- nantly: ular accommodated themselves to an ary political party. James's political imposed democratic system and organization, the Workers and I do not know any social class unlike their more educated middle Farmers Party, participated in the which lives so completely without class counterparts, were of an auto- 1966 election in Trinidad and To- ideas of any kind. They live entirely cratic bent. bago. All the party's candidates ex- on the material plane. In a pub- cept one failed to muster sufficient Both the grass roots autocrats and lished address, Sir Robert Kirkwood votes to warrant the return of the the middle class parliamentarians quotes Vida Naipaul, who has said cash deposits required by law to dis- of them that they seem to aim at failed to develop any real ap- preciation for democracy No attempt courage the frivolous. The middle nothing more than being second- class politicians were still in control, was made to redefine democracy rate American citizens. It is much the mass movement still feeling its more than that. They aim at noth- and/or adapt it to the specific way. ing. Government jobs and the op- conditions in the Caribbean. One portunities which association with group sought to manipulate the mass The Rise of the the government gives, allows them movement for its own sense of the possibility of accumulating ma- aggrandizement while the other terial goods. That is all.5 sought to maintain its distance from The first decade of Caribbean in- the mass movement. Thus, at its They were certainly not familiar dependence was marked by a serious new dawn, the Caribbean suffered attempt at industrializing the region with the politics of ideas. The com- from intellectually bankrupt political mitment to democracy was perfunc- through attracting Western capital parties. and technology. Especially in the tory. They surely were not interested James sensed the discrepancy that in asking fundamental questions, larger regions, such as Jamaica, was developing between the Trinidad and Tobago, and Barbados, never questioning the efficacy of the conservative political leadership and system inherited. They glorified the this strategy for economic the restlessness of the multitudes. development produced high growth British past and always insisted they The political parties were without rates in the gross national product. were "brown men," ensuring that the vision and had no plans to proceed Concomitant with the high growth distance between themselves and the with economic development outside rates, however, was growing unem- mass of the population was kemptly of inviting in foreign capital. James ployment. The weaknesses of the kept. They were the king-makers recognized there had to be a strategy of industrialization by in- and they strutted around in tweedy reckoning: vitation was attacked by the radical English three-piece suits, oblivious social scientists whose writings car- to the rags of the noon day sun. The old order is gone. No new ried them beyond the bourgeois order has appeared. The middle Another leadership style had also paradigm. classes have their work cut out for emerged. These were the gung-ho, The New World group of acade- trade union type who identified with them. Their brief period of merely enjoying new privileges after three- micians critiqued the dependency the mass of the population. From a hundred years of being excluded is theory which had become the con- different class background, these about over.6 ventional wisdom of the dominant rebels were always willing to fight political parties. This created a cli- the British and to lead the workers The mass of the population would mate in which new seeds of social in rebellion. They empathized with not remain indefinitely excluded organization could be sown. A new the workers and demanded an from the nerve center of power. generation shattered the insularity of equitable distribution of wealth, They were not interested in Caribbean political thought and especially while in opposition. substituting "new masters for old. marched in step with the revolu- Although excelling in rebellious They want no masters at all. Unfor- tionary nationalism that was sweep- posturing, these political lead- tunately, they do not know much. ing America. Indeed, a native of the

51

Caribbean, , was Trinidad was further evidence that a tionary state. In 1972, Michael a chief architect of the Black Power new political trend had crystallized in Manley came to power in Jamaica Movement in the United States. the Caribbean. The National Joint and trail-blazed a new developmental Walter Rodney was instrumental Action Committee harnessed the strategy. The left forces in Dominica in adapting the Black Power Move- energies of the mass movement and used mass demonstrations to topple ment to the Caribbean. Rodney had challenged the elite democracy in the government of Patrick John, after just been assigned to the History Trinidad and Tobago. Parliamentary it was revealed that he was forging Department at the Mona Campus, democracy of the Westminster links with the racist South African University of the West Indies. An variety for a moment teetered but regime. In the election held in 1980 African scholar and Marxist, this eventually — with the show of mili- to replace the Patrick John young Guyanese scholar had a tary might by the Venezuelan and government, however, it was not the marked impact on the student body United States governments — the left which triumphed but the pro- at the Mona Campus. Rodney ap- armed forces remained loyal to Wil- American Freedom Party led by pealed not only to the intelligentsia liams and order was restored. The conservative Eugenia Charles. The but was able to forge links with the Black Power Revolt nevertheless Jamaican masses meanwhile struggled more politically inclined members of marks the beginning of a new type with Michael Manley for eight years the Rastafarian Movement. of politics. New radical parties and decided in October 1980 that the The Jamaica Labor Party gov- emerged, like the New Jewel Move- promise of democratic socialism did ernment, epitomizing that conserva- ment in Grenada which overthrew not match the deterioration in the tive middle class which dominated Eric Gairy on March 13, 1979 and living standards of the working class. Caribbean politics hitherto, pro- immediately established a revolu- nounced Walter Rodney persona non grata in October 1968. The University students protested, and on October 16, 1968 there was rioting in downtown Kingston. The 1970 Black Power revolt in

52 The rise of radical thought in the pitious. now an anachronism, and, if per- Caribbean has put an end to the James never succumbed to using sisted in, lead to one form or an- ideological monopoly that the bour- Marxism as a dogma. It wasn't to be other of the counter-revolution. The geois parties enjoyed in the first used as a sledge-hammer to intimi- first thing we must do is to purge decade after independence. Socialism date political opponents. He believed ourselves of it.10 of whatever species is no longer just in the innovative capacity of an envisioned theory in the Ca- Caribbean people. There is always the danger in the ribbean. It has been tested in Jamaica Vanguard Party that it sees itself as and found wanting. The experiment We are too much dominated by the the repository of all wisdom and in Grenada is only two years in the ideas and theories of advanced reserves the right to pontificate. The making. countries. We should, we have to mass of the population should develop, for example, economic follow like sheep or stand accused as ideas and theories and practice of The Atavisms of Leninism counter-revolutionaries. That kind of our own, which can help not only politics, that so many Caribbean ourselves but help to regenerate the Modern Caribbean society was bankrupt West; distinguished econ- Marxists with middle class created as an outgrowth of the in- omists abroad expect it from us.8 backgrounds subscribe to, was to- ternational capitalist economy. De- tally unacceptable to James. James- spite the malady of insularity, the Caribbean scholars and political ian Marxism is aware of the oppres- fate of the Caribbean is subject to the activists have done just that in their sive nature of official bureaucracy. state of the world economy. struggle outside the Caribbean. What would replace the vanguard Simultaneously in the Caribbean, James, like Fanon, was calling on party? The working class would there is taking place the birth of new Third World people not to follow the emancipate itself. James was heart- societies and the resurrection of old European past, but to create a new ened when he saw this possibility ones. That dialectic between the old world. He was aware of the pitfalls come to fruition in Hungary in 1956. and the new is reflective of the two- of revolutionary consciousness — The Workers' Councils in Hungary tier world crises going on inside and how callous men could become were the true expression of outside the Caribbean. Not only is when power was up for grabs. He proletarian democracy. Only Soviet world capitalism in a severe crisis, never saw these qualities in George tanks ended that noble social but we find Soviet Marxism also in a Padmore and commented: experiment. severe crisis. Martin Luther King once said, The dependency nature of Carib- "Truth crushed to the ground will Politics, above all revolutionary pol- rise again." We have witnessed the bean society seems to encourage itics, frequently make men hardened either a willingness to subjugate the and indifferent to normal human rise of yet another demand on the national polity to the vicissitudes of relations and even the elements of part of workers for revolutionary imperialism or to break out of that civilized intercourse. There was democracy, this time in Poland. dependency by immersing the body never a trace of that in George, Again, the working class has been despite all he had been through and exemplary. Its members are not politic into the Marxist-Leninist 9 fraternity of nations. The left forces all he had seen. concerned with vengeance or econ- omism. They wish to humanize in the Caribbean, like the People's James likewise never became so Progressive Party of Guyana and the Soviet state capitalism and abolish intrigued by political power that he the privileges accruing to members Workers Party of Jamaica, have was for a moment willing to bury his of the Stalinist vanguard party. What taken this latter route. But the mass humanity. He has been appalled by we have seen unfold in Poland is not rebellion of the working class cannot the degradation of official society — just faith, but the verification of be seen as a historical aberration. Just the death of ten million soldiers in Marxist thought. What we observe is as the Communist Party of Poland is World War I, thirty-five million in mass movement in all its forced to come to grips with the World War II, Hiroshima, the gulag quintessence. working class, Marxist-Leninist archipelagoes in Stalin's Russia. The Marxist-Leninists in the Caribbean parties in the Caribbean, where crimes of the latter forced James to must also strip themselves of the democratic precepts are highly re-examine the Soviet model. He atavisms of that creed. They must institutionalized, will have to come to rejected the precepts of the vanguard understand the meaning of the terms with revolutionary democracy. party and said of Leninism: gulags, the Workers' Councils in It is a nigh impossible task to patch Hungary in 1956, the proletarian up capitalism in the Caribbean. What It was a particular theory designed uprising in Poland in 1980. They is going to be critical in the coming to suit a specific stage of working must understand the nature of the decade is the debate about the new class development. That stage of so- mass movement in the Caribbean, society. It is in this regard that ciety is now past. The theory, and where it is, where it is going. If they James's writings become most pro- the practice that went with it, are continue to function outside of his-

53

tory, they will succumb to the poli- West Indies (Vedic Enterprises, San 9. Ibid., page 111. tics of histrionics, rather than un- Juan, Trinidad, 1962), page 5. 10. C. L. R. James, Facing Reality (Cor- derstand the dialectics of history. It 2. Ibid., page 109. respondence, Detroit, 1958), page 87. is their historical duty to prod the 3. C. L. R. James, "The Middle Classes," mass movement and take it to the published in David Lowenthal and advanced stage we see unfolding in Lambros Comitas, Consequences of Poland. James is always fond of Class and Color: West Indian Perspec- Dr. Basil Wilson, a native West In- saying that the choice before man is tives (Doubleday, New York, 1973), dian, is now an Assistant Professor a simple choice, "It is socialism or page 81. and Chairman of the African-Amer- barbarism," The Caribbean has 4. Ibid., page 83. ican Studies Department at John Jay 5. Ibid., page 84. already had too much of the latter. College of Criminal Justice of the 6. Ibid., page 91. City University of New York. Footnotes 7. Ibid., page 92. 8. C. L. R. James, Party Politics in the 1. C. L. R. James, Party Politics in the West Indies, page 87.

In quest of Matthew Bondsman: some cultural notes on the

Jamesian journey

by Sylvia Wynter omy is just as profound. (Baudril- labor with which he produces his lard, The Mirror of Production) "material life," his means of physical 2 I. What Do Men Live By? subsistence, represses the awareness It took England to reveal to me the that these definitions are cultural From the National to the hidden aspects of Constantine's per- representations. That, like the feudal Popular-Aesthetic Question sonality. . . . (He) was the same man on the cricket field as he was definition of man as a spiritual He, Garfield Sobers (the West In- in our private and public life. The being, they are context-bound and dian batsman), does not need the difference was that there, or rather historical, and become a half-volley of a fast or a fast-medi-, in the Lancashire League, he was "mythology" when they are spread um bowler to be able to drive. From able to give his powers full play. over the expanse of human life; made a very high backlift he watches the (Beyond A Boundary) into a teleology. ball that is barely over the good Beyond A Boundary relativizes and length, takes it on the rise and sends We are still in the flower garden of deabsolutizes the "material the gay, the spontaneous, tropical it shooting between mid-off and representation" of man's identity mid-off. ... The West Indian crowd West Indians. We need some astrin- when it asks the question central to has a favorite phrase for that stroke, gent spray. (Beyond A Boundary) Not a man move. (Beyond A the cultural life of man: What do Boundary) men live by? The answer to this In the autosociographical system of question moves the Jamesian poeisis Beyond A Boundary, James places In the fine points of Marxist thought, beyond the national, the class ques- confronting the work ethic is an his act of separation from tion, into the contemporary dimen- esthetic of non-work or play. . . . Trotskyism within a larger question, sions of the popular question. This realm beyond political which is the structuring motif of the "Fiction writing," James writes, economy called play, non-work or book. In posing the fundamental chronicling another stage on his non-alienated labor . . . remains an Tolstoy an question "What do men journey, "drained out of me and was esthetic, in the extremely Kantian live by?" the system of Beyond A sense, with all the bourgeois ideo- replaced by politics. I became a Boundary displaces at one thrust the Marxist, a Trotskyist. . . . In 1938, a logical connotations which that im- bourgeois "mirror of the natural" plies. Although Marx's thought settled lecture tour took me to the United and its related ''mirror of accounts with bourgeois morality, it 1 States and I stayed there for fifteen remains defenseless before its production." years. The war came . . . esthetic, whose ambiguity is more The presuppositions of both subtle but whose complicity with, "mirrors," i.e. .of man as a "natural It did not bring Soviets and prole- the general system of political econ- being," of man as identified by the tarian power, instead the bureau-

54

cratic totalitarian monster grew stronger and spread. As early as 1941, I had begun to question the premises of Trotskyism. It took a decade of incessant labor and col- laboration to break with it, and recognize my Marxist ideas so as to cope with the post-war world. . . . That was a matter of doctrine, of history, of economics and politics.

In my private mind, however, I was increasingly aware of large areas of human existence that my history and my politics did not seem to un- cover. What did men live by? What did they want? What did history show they had wanted?

A glance at the world showed that when the common people were not at work, one thing they wanted was organized sports and games. They wanted them greedily, passionately.

The pattern of Beyond A Bound- ary, working out the logic of its own motifs, uncovers "large areas of human existence," as James points out, that his "history, economics, politics" had left unaccounted for. Here it reveals that a separation, a gap appeared between the mode of popular desire, i.e., what the masses wanted to "live" by and what the "ruling elements" wanted them to live by. In other words, what is at issue here in a struggle between two modes of desire — that of the bourgeoisie and that of the popular forces: the bourgeoisie for whom things" whilst stigmatizing all non He then reverses the stigmatiza- sports were "mere entertainment", middle class desire as crass. tion, revealing the "mythology" of for whom play served as James first analyses the reflex the middle-class eye's view. "recuperation" from the real work of stigmatization of the masses' desire for sports, by a middle-class eye's But that was quite untrue. Orga- labor, rather than as an alternative view. nized games had been part and parcel life-activity in its own right, for of the civilization of Ancient whom the aesthetic was a luxury or They wanted them greedily, pas- Greece. With the decline of that even in the case of bourgeois sionately. So much so, that the civilization they disappeared from aesthetes, for whom the "fine arts" politicians who devoted themselves Europe for some 1,500 years. Peo- — split off from the popular arts — to the improvement of the condition ple ran and jumped and kicked balls were the high culture used to of the people, the disciples of about and competed with one cultivate individual sensibilities to culture, the aesthetes, all deplored another; they went to see the knights jousting. But games and sports, mark off the differential value of the expenditure of so much time, energy, attention and money on organized as the Greeks had bourgeois concerns, to be guarded organized them, there were none. from the hoi polloi, as the sacred sports and games instead of on the higher things. Well, presumably it (Beyond A Boundary) animal in the sacred pool (in Levi- could not be helped. It had always Strauss's term) that canonized been so and was likely to continue And, although James does not the middle-class mode of for a long time. (Beyond A Bound- mention this, the intervening ages desire as a desire for the "higher ary) were not to miss organized games,

55 because the great festival-complex dition of the entire world, of the ential value." Both the categories of common to pagan traditional socie- world's revival and renewal in which the bourgeois code of knowledge, 3 ties (the dominant element in the all take part. and as Bakhtin points out in his imperatively popular cultures of study of Rabelais, the canons of Africa), incorporated by the Catholic Thus the grace and style of bourgeois aesthetics were to reflect church, had provided the macro- Bondsman's batting, the innovative this setting apart. The "fine arts" institution of Carnival. That insti- genius of W. G. Grace, the "fero- separated themselves off from the tution, as Mikhail Bakhtin points cious" wit and inventiveness of a "popular arts," establishing a cate- out, had functioned in pre-capitalist Mighty Sparrow, all derive finally gorization into higher and lower. from the same source — the over- Europe, as it functioned in tra- The aesthetics was the politics. The whelming vitality of the exclusive ditional Africa, as it functions in the new mode of social relations in nature of the popular arts — popular Afro-Euro-derived Trinidadian, New which an absolute breach occurred in the sense of being both the Orleans and Brazilian Carnivals, to between the two groupings was re- "common people" and the "whole provide the great "dramatic flected and constituted by the aes- body of the people." spectacle" that the Greek games, and thetics of the bourgeoisie, an aes- its successor, Greek tragic drama, as With the rise of the bourgeoisie, thetic which now redefined the James notes, had provided. The same Bakhtin points out, Carnival, the mode of co-existence in what was dramatic spectacle of which dramatic spectacle of the whole body now not the polis of the whole body organized sports were to be the of the people, disappeared from of the people, but the polis of the contemporary modality of industrial Europe. The categories of blood and bourgeoisie in which the popular birth had enabled the aristocracy to society. forces, transformed in the mingle with the peasantry, at least bourgeoisie's definition, into the during the Carnival period. The mass, came to serve the same sig- Carnival is not a spectacle seen by bourgeoisie, like the Jamesian clan, the people; they live in it, and nifying role of the "Negroes," i.e., as everyone participates because its very had no such permanent and the symbolic inversion of the ideal embraces all the people. "inherent" mode of status- bourgeoisie, the memento of all that differentiation. The "class-body" During carnival time life is subject they were not. only to its own laws, that is, the had to be kept from "physical" laws of its own freedom. It has a contact if it were to signify — The categorizing of art into higher universal spirit; it is a special con- and thereby realize — its "differ- and lower reveals that the bour-

56 geois aesthetics replicates within the neither bowler nor fieldsman could gral part of modern civilization was structure of its own aesthetic react fast enough, the game is no on its way. Of this renaissance, the system, the same bimodal Head/ longer a spectacle, seen by the peo- elevation of cricket and football to Body, Reason/Instinct categories that ple. Rather, as in Carnival, they live the place that they soon held in English life was a part, historically subtend both the categories of in it, and everyone participates bourgeois thought; and of its global speaking, the most important part. because its very idea embraces all The system as finally adopted was polis. the people. Like Carnival too, the not an invention but a discovery, or The separation of the class-body, game is "subject only to its own rather a rediscovery. . . . Cricket representationally constituted itself laws," which are the laws of free- and football provided a meeting in the languages of the arts, of their dom.5 place for the moral outlook of the critical canons, as Bakhtin points Thus if for the bourgeoisie the dissenting middle classes and the out:, athletic instincts of the aristocracy. condition of the realization of its Finally, cricket was one of the most The Renaissance saw the body in powers is an imperatively individual complete products of that previous quite a different light than the and class-restricted realization (bril- age to which a man like Dickens al- Middle Ages, in a different.. . rela- liant in its own way yet incapable, as ways looked back with such nostal- tion to the exterior non-bodily in the great ages of transition — i.e., gia. It had been formed by rural and world. As conceived by these can- of a Rabelais, a Cervantes, a artisan Englishmen who had aimed at nothing but the creation of an ons, the body was first of all a Shakespeare, a Chaplin — of draw- strictly completed, finished product. activity which would disinterestedly Furthermore, it was isolated alone, ing on the multiple resources of a express their native artistic fenced off from all other bodies. . . cross-fertilization of aesthetics for instincts. If it could so rapidly be . The accent was placed on the the popular imperative), then the elevated to the status of a moral completed, self-sufficient in- realization of its powers, the aes- discipline it was because it had been dividuality of the given body. Cor- thetics of its participatory art, de- born and grew in an atmosphere poral acts were shown only when pends precisely on its ability to enact and in circumstances untainted by the borderlines dividing the body any serious corruption. The only from the outline world were sharply and incorporate and give image to word that I know for this is culture. . defined. . .. The individual body the "whole body of the people." . . The proof of its validity is its was presented apart from the an- The people wanted organized success, first of all at home and cestral body of the people. Such sports because these sports and then almost as rapidly abroad, in was the fundamental tendencies of games were institutions that they the most diverse places and among peoples living lives which were poles the classical canons. . . . [From] the helped to found and continue, point of view of these canons the removed from that whence it body of grotesque realism was institutions that they had helped to originally came. This signifies, as so hideous and formless. It did not fit found as surely as their working often in any deeply national move- the framework of the aesthetics of class struggles led to the formation of ment, that it contained elements of the beautiful as conceived by the trade unions, as their struggles for universality that went beyond the 4 Renaissance. the right to vote — to control the bounds of the originating nation. conditions of their life-activities — (Beyond A Boundary) The popular forces desired "or- had also led to the founding of ganized sports and games" because Cricket, then, was very much the modern mass-political parties; to the they, unlike the middle classes, had invention and creation of the "whole no other institutional framework grounding of the concept of body of the people," even where it which could provide in modern democracy. However much when was to be expressed in a middle- contemporary terms what Carnival wearing bourgeois masks on their class form.6 The middle class was to and rural life had originally provided popular skins, they would be led to contribute, as James points out, the before their disruption into industrial negate their own imperative. least, yet due to their gift for civilization; into the stresses and Cricket as a national sport, with rationalization and organization they trauma of the factory-system and universal elements, as James chroni- were to appropriate the game and industrial colonization. Organized cles it, was to be a re-organization convert it into a national institution. sports provided what Carnival of the contributions of the different (Ibid.) and the rural ethos had provided elements in the social order, under Yet, if the struggle was not as in another form. As James the hegemony of the middle classes. obviously political as in Trinidad, reveals, the act of watching is In other words, cricket was to be a the middle classes, as they prepared a participatory act. When the West fusion of three different aesthetic themselves for class hegemony, had Indian crowd shouts "Not a man canons, three different imperatives: to face the new pressures of the move!" as they do after a stroke by popular masses, whose organizations Sobers so escapes the trap both The world-wide renaissance of or- had emerged precisely out of of bowler and of the set field that ganized games and sports as an inte- the collective struggle they waged

57 in cooperation with the middle tion that the "realization of one's et but moved entirely outside the classes for popular democracy in powers" at both the individual and public school code. For him a England. the group level is the most urgent straight bat was literal, not figura- As James notes, the organization imperative of all. Thus the conjunc- tive. And it "isn't cricket" was of modern sports and games was co- tion of the institution of organiza- meaningless in its moral/ethical temporal with the modern popular tional forms for the struggle for sense. forms of trade union and political popular democracy — in multiple Indeed he would not even stand struggle. The "intervention" and forms, the trade unions, political to benefit from the normal work- input of the popular forces into the parties, the Communist International, ings of the code. One might theo- creation of the national game of etc. — was a conjunction that hit retically widen the code to struggle cricket — into the aesthetic produc- James, only because unlike Trotsky with the problems that Matthew tion of the more-than-bread by- he had moved outside the mono- Bondsman, who would not work, which-men-live — went pari passu conceptual Labor frame to the wider presented for the implicit morality with trade union struggles for a higher frame of a popular theoretics. system of the labor code — but the living standard. Here the Marxian For if, as James argues, the "con- class-body of James's schoolmates doctrine which revealed the labor junction had hit me as it would have would refuse Matthew charity on contribution to the national product hit few of the students of the the grounds that poor chaps ought played a powerful role. But the international organization to which I to be deserving. Matthew was cer- praxis had been initiated before belonged" (Ibid.), this was because tainly not. Marx. And the struggles of the James had already moved outside the Nor was he in any sense of the working classes at a cultural and categories in which they were still term a member of the deserving epistemological level were struggles embedded. For if within the Labor proletariat. In the great utility-code which stopped the automatic conceptual frame, whose logical goal of the productivist ethos of bour- functioning of the accumulative is the development of the productive geois classarchy, he was in the words dynamic, a dynamic kept in motion forces, the development of of James's aunts "good-for-nothing by the global differential structure of production is the means of realizing else except to play cricket. " social relations, by the bourgeois one's labor-value, the value through Bondsman, like contemporary ghetto cultural control of the mode of which one expresses one's human Blacks as defined by J. B. Fuqua, an identity and desire, by its diffusion potential, then Trotsky was quite adviser to ex-President Carter, was of bourgeois masks, its equation of right to say that "sports" deflected precisely depreciated machinery. identity-value with accumulated the worker from politics — "Labor" Matthew Bondsman, then, like the 7 value. politics. ghetto Blacks today, like the good- If, as Castoriadis points out, it was With popular politics, it was a for-nothing macho Benoit of Minty the working class's struggles that different matter. In the ecumeni- Alley, like his Becky-sharp-type fueled the dynamic expansion of cism of the politics of the latter, heroine, Maisie, who refuses to capitalism — since the higher wage labor, and labor geared to a specific work for pittance-wages and finally packets led to the rapid development end, the realizations of men's powers escapes to America, and who, like of internal markets, and to the wider both singly and collectively, was Bondsman, breaks every prohibition social provision of technological only one of the possible means for of the bourgeois code in order to skills, thereby compelling higher Man's self-realization of his powers. realize her powers, to take her levels of development — its input Which leads us to Matthew womanhood upon account, cannot be into the national game of cricket was Bondsman and the popular impera- no less decisive.8 In other words, the tive versus both the public school revindicated in the name of their conjunction that hit James was not and labor code. Bondsman lived next labor-value (or needless to say, of fortuitous, and the conjunction is door in Tunapuna to James, the their capital-value). Yet, Matthew itself crucial to the doctrine of his child. "His eyes were fierce, his Bondsman, like the Blacks of the book. language was violent and his voice ghetto-prison-system-shanty-towns The co-evolution of new popular was loud," he refused to take a job archipelagos of the modern world forms of social organization, i.e., but "with a bat in his hand [he] was system, had not always been useless. trade union organizations, political all grace and style." The con- In fact in the earliest phase of the parties, international organization, tradiction seemed inexplicable. "The historical process of bourgeois organizational forms of struggle for contrast between Matthew's pitiable accumulation, Matthew Bondsman popular democracy with the rise of existence as an individual and the and his ilk had been amongst the the desire for organized sports all attitude people had towards him," skilled slave specialists who had ac- within the decade 1860-18709 pro- James recalls, "filled my growing tually run the plantation, then the vide the basis for the Jamesian re- mind and has occupied me to this most highly organized and efficient flection on the complexity of human day." mode of accumulation in existence, needs, for his implicit affirma- Matthew Bondsman played crick- until it was displaced by the new

58 mode of accumulation, the factory- system of production. At that time, Bondsman was the value core of the world that the bourgeoisie modelled in their own image.10 He was both capital value and skilled labor-value, as James pointed out in a talk in Montreal in 1966 — "The making of the Carib- bean peoples."11 In other words, Matthew, coerced, yet trained in necessary skills, had been subordi- nated to the "time" of the great positivity of the development of the productive forces. He had truly done his bit to set in train "their" liberation. And the paradox was that since he was central to the process, he was allowed to realize those skilled and specialist powers that the ac- cumulative telos needed to realize its objective rationale. Those powers not needed for the telos of ac- the town. He reserved his Labor. greats like Sir Donald Bradman of cumulation, therefore not historic- As the Cybernetic Revolution be- Australia, one of the greatest bats- ally viable, were pushed aside, ex- gan to displace the Industrial Revo- men of all times, to bring to a close cluded. To realize his own powers, lution and it became clear that his the Golden Age of Cricket, subor- to give them full play, the Bonds- Reserve Labor was in reserve in per- dinating the aesthetic code of the men had to live in an alternative petuity — machines were the skilled game to the technicized rationality cosmology, an underground culture specialists now — Bondsman would of the "national" competitive code. which they reconstituted for them- have to come to terms with the fact For "it isn't cricket" had func- selves. In addition, it meant that the that he had become "refuse" (the tioned only partially as a moral code. total blockage of the realization of term given to the slave too old and It had functioned too as an aesthetic their powers, the prevention of their worn-out to contribute labor). He code. It was by this code alone that a living of their own radical could hustle a day's work here and Bondsman could even contemplate historicity, their subordination, to there, sweep a yard or two, live batting. The great Bradman, the historicality of the productive from hand to mouth. Jump Jim responding to the technological forces would therefore impel the Crow. Or he could drop out. rationality of his time with its Bondsmans of the world (des damnes Matthew dropped out. His imperative of efficiency and utility, de la terre, as Fanon defines them) "abominable life" was the end result could — as he tells us in his autobiography — afford to bat like to demand, to desire as that by of a historical process which had that only once in a lifetime. All his which alone they can live, not the built a world that had no place in it life Bradman had batted a "de- liberation of the productive forces where Bondsman could realize his powers. Establish his identity. Enact fensive" game designed to win (Liberalism and Marxism-Leninism) his radical historicity. matches — except for one glorious but the "liberation of Man." Above all, where Matthew could inning when he cut loose. For the autonomy of a Bondsman live according to the popular- James quotes the incident, for it is had been totally subordinated to the aesthetic code that surfaced only crucial to the aesthetic imperative of autonomy of the accumulative telos. when he batted. And the percep- his own "doctrine": When the logic of its own process tiveness of James in Beyond A needed him as a specialist, he was Boundary is to have counterposed made one. As a sharecropper Yet what are his sentiments after he has Bondsman batting at the beginning made the hundredth run of the breaking his back, he became one. of the book with the problematic of hundredth century? He felt it in- As a native agro-proletariat, he ac- a cricket now trapped by the cumbent upon him, he says, to give the cepted his one shilling per week and barbarism of a rationalized code one crowd . . . some reward. . . . He withstood his lot. When it needed which had led not only to the therefore proceeded to hit 71 runs in him as labor reserve to the "real" perversion of "body-line" cricket, 45 minutes. This, he adds, is the proletariat he left the rural area for but had also compelled cricket way he would always wish to have

59 batted if circumstances had permitted him. (Ibid.)

James, startled by this admission of Bradman, uses it as the point from which Beyond A Boundary can reflect on the question — What had happened to the game that W. G. Grace had built, that Arnold had transformed into a part of the educational system, transforming it into a vision of life? What, too, had happened to the "art and practic part of cricket?" The times had changed. The ruth- lessness of body-line cricket, the technicized efficiency of a Brad- man's batting, were merely the logi- cal development of that crisis of bourgeois rationalism, a philosophy and master-conception which, crea- tive in its springtime,12 had now become destructive in its decline, focussing only on one end, losing the balance between the aesthetic and the technical, the physical and the mental that had calibrated the great cricket of the Golden Age, its fusion of mind and body, its flow of motion and "mechanics of judg- ment." The fusion that had marked a W. G. Grace, that defined the grace and style of a Bondsman batting in the only way he could bat; a Bradman, in that Carnival moment when he made 71 runs in forty-five minutes. And said to hell with the utility code! With the bourgeois mode of rationality! Here the juxtaposition in the structure of Beyond A Boundary — of the culture of that Afro-American another coordinated by the impera- of a Bondsman and a Bradman, the archipelago which gave rise to the tive of accumulation and expansion, latter subordinated to the code of Calypsoes of Sparrow; to the Jazz i.e., the reason of the productive technological rationality, the former popular culture, the first universal forces. As Rodney himself comments: immersed in the imperatives of the musical culture; to the Rastafarian popular underground counterculture reggae. A culture in which the The above is a beautiful set-piece of of Trinidad, a culture derived from reason of accumulation of the the moral terminology of capitalist Africa, yet toughened, suffered a bourgeois polis had been contested accumulation — the ''assiduous" and sea-change, transformed from a and held at bay by a counter-reason the "industrious" who will inherit the normative culture of traditional — the reason of the social that had earth, while those who do not share African societies to a culture of defined the imperatively popular grace are the ones who were "lazy." liminality,13 liminality with respect to cultures of African traditional so- It pointedly illustrates the difference the global polis of bourgeois cieties.14 between the African and European classarchy, reveals a culture clash, What we note here is a funda- cultures. Even within the empires a clash of Reasons. A clash mental clash of telos between a of Ghana, Mali and Songhai, between the rationalism of the society coordinated symbiotically by the explosiveness of class bourgeoisie and a new popular rea- the imperative of redistribution, contradictions was lacking, as Diop son. This latter reason is the reason the imperative of the social, and stresses in his Nations Negres et

60

Culture. In the states of Ashante the technical reason that held the full sarily entails. For if, as James quotes and Dahomey, whose growth was powers of Bradman in check during in Beyond A Boundary, a poetic contemporaneous with European his normal batting lifetime, found its work must be defined as a verbal mercantilism, there was no concept sovereignty overturned by the function whose aesthetic function is of the "market" in the sense of sup- autonomy of the aesthetic imperative its dominant, then the value-system ply and demand, and the social re- which ruled the playing of the West implicit in the contrast between the distribution of goods made accumu- 15 batting of a Bondsman and the lation impossible. Indian Cricketers in their triumphant tour of Australia with Frank Worrell everyday batting of a Bradman, It is this dialectic and tension — the first Black player ever selected between the everyday efficient between the technological rationality as Captain. batting of a Bradman dictated by the of the bourgeois master-conception With the governing categories of overriding criteria of utility of in its decline and consummation, i.e., the bourgeois polis reversed socially, winning, and the glorious innings when Bradman batted to reward the the complete mechanization of aesthetically, the West Indian cricketers kept the theoretics of its crowd and to purely realize his own men,16 of thought (theoretics), of technological rationality in the powers, suggest that in cricket too as feeling (aesthetics) — and the rightful place — as the mere second- in all organized sports, there is a counter-reason of the underground ary means to a Jamesian defined and criterion of evaluative judgment that popular-aesthetic imperative, that popular end, the realization by the responds to the aesthetic imperative gave rise to the West Indian genus homo of the free-play of of all art. For in that crowning cricketers. In very much the same faculties. inning, Bradman's batting rewarded way, as James tells it, another great Thus the climax of Beyond A the crowd — and the Australian age of transition, the age of Hazlitt's Boundary is the climax too of the crowds, James notes, are at once England,17 had given rise to W. G. Jamesian quest to assert the auton- proud of Bradman and ambivalent Grace, the innovative genius — and omy and radical historicity of men towards his mode of batting — by founder of Modern Cricket. over the historical process; over the making the aesthetic function, Thus, that technological rationality time of the productive forces and the hitherto secondary to the which had discarded a Bondsman mode of social relations which technological code, the dominant. as "refuse," which had dictated the sovereignty of the latter neces- This was/is the apex moment of

61 Beyond A Boundary too, the mo- to cricket history. . .. The West In- identity. Each fed the need to satisfy ment when the West Indian cricketing dies team in Australia on the field the visual artistic sense. The em- team under at last the captaincy of a and off was playing above what it phasis on style in cricket proves Black and professional, which knew of itself. What they discov- that without a shadow of doubt; means to say of non-middle-class or ered in themselves must have been a whether the impulse was literature of marginal middle-class origins, re- revelation to few more than to the and the artistic quality the result, or turned cricket to the Golden Age of players themselves. . . . This [was] vice-versa, does not matter. If the W. G. Grace, the genus Britannicus not playing brighter cricket for the Hambledon form was infinitely more complicated it rose out of a of a fine batsman who founded the sake of the spectators who pay, that absurd nostrum for improving more complicated society, the result game. And in doing so, fused the cricket. . . . No, it was simply the of a long historical development. aesthetic imperative of a Bondsman return to the batting of the Golden Satisfying the same needs as with the technical imperative of a Age. .. . The first innings of Sobers bushmen and Hambledon, the in- Bradman but reversing the order of at Brisbane was the most beautiful dustrial age took over cricket and priority — yet won the game. batting I have ever seen. Never was made it into what it has become. Displacing then the rational hegem- such ease and certainty of stroke, The whole tortured history of modern ony of the bourgeoisie with its im- such early seeing of the ball, such Spain explains why it is in the plicit categorization18 into the late and leisured play, such cruelty of the bull-ring that they Head/Body, Reason/Instinct "Social command by the batsman not only seek the perfect-flow of motion. Imaginaire" with a liminal reversal, of the bowling but of himself. He That flow, however, men since they have been men have always sought that is, not of the specific categories seemed to be expressing a personal vision. . . . Yet my greatest moment and always will. It is an unspeak- as in Marxism-Leninism, i.e., able impertinence to arrogate the Laborism, or in Black nationalism was the speechmaking after the last test. . . . Frank Worrell was term "fine art" to one small section which represents Black as a biological of this quest and declare it to be rather than as a socio-historical crowned with the olive. . . . If I say he won the prize it is because the culture. Luckily, the people refuse category, but of the mode of crowd gave it to him. They laughed to be bothered. This does not alter categorization, the system itself. and cheered him continuously. . . . the gross falsification of history and the perversion of values which is It is this transformation of hier- I caught a glimpse of what brought the result. (Ibid,) archical categories into a continuum, a quarter of a million inhabitants of this transformation of the bourgeois Melbourne into the streets to tell The tools chosen by Castoriadis were social imaginaire which defines the the West Indian cricketers goodbye, those of orthodox Marxism. Yet the aesthetic imperative of the great a gesture, spontaneous and in cricket implicit logic of his political popular arts — the arts of the whole without precedent, one people approach contained in germinal body of the people. The arts of the speaking to another. (Ibid.) form an essential element of his Greek games, its tragic drama; of the later critique of Marx, which bears Or as James would say, insisting mention here. The working class will great African festival complex; of continue to revolt against its modern organized sports. It was the on the fusion of man and nature, on the continuum rather than hierarchy immediate condition showing its affirmation in action of the popular willingness to struggle now for a social imaginaire — of the of mind and body, insisting with the better life. Yet so long as that better Bondsman aesthetic — that drew a elegance of a Worrell driving through life is imagined in Russian tonalities, quarter of a million people of the covers: the political translation of this can Melbourne, Australia, out in the only be the Communist Party. streets to pay tribute to and say We have had enough of the flower- Implicit in the suggestion is that it goodbye to the West Indian garden of the gay, the spontaneous is the stunting of the creative imagi- cricketers who had rewarded the West Indians. We need some astrin- nation of individuals, due to the crowd with the kind of playing in gent spray. existence of a socially legitimated collective representation — an imag- which the "aesthetic function" was Never was there such ease and inaire social, as Castoriadis refers to the dominant. With stroke after certainty of phrase. Such late and it later — which must be analysed. stroke hitting ball after ball beyond leisurely play! The imaginary social representations the boundary, strokes after which as are in effect a material force in the West Indian crowd would say Not their own right. (Dick Howard, The a man move! Marxian Legacy) II. The Jamesian Ethics/Aesthetics James's prose as he tells it enacts Ah! Vanitas Vanitatum! Which of the "flow of motion" of bat and ball The bushmen's motive was perhaps us is happy in this world? Which of and fieldsmen in the rhythms of his religious, Hambledon's entertain- us has his desire? or, having it is prose: ment. One form was fixed, the other satisfied? — Come, children, let us had to be constantly re-created. shut up the box and the puppets, for Frank Worrell and his team in Australia The contrasts can be multiplied. our play is played out. (Thackeray, had added a new dimension That will not affect the underlying Vanity Fair)

62 Put baldly, the second central gorization with a deliberate flinging structure on which the whole spec- question of Beyond A Boundary down of the critical gauntlet. tacle is built. The dramatist, the might seem remote from the James- novelist, the choreographer, must ian clash with Trotsky; from the I have made great great claims for strive to make his individual character Negro Question; from the Bonds- cricket. . . . [Cricket] is an art, not a symbolical of a larger whole. He may or may not succeed. . , . The man contradiction and the popular bastard or a poor relation but a full member of the community . .. and batsman facing the ball does not question; from the decline of ortho- merely represent his side. For that dox Marxism as a viable alternative we have to compare it with other arts. (Ibid.) moment, to all intents and purposes, projection of the futural and a new he is his side. This fundamental hope for our times, from the 6th And in his brilliant analysis of relation of the One and the Many, Pan-African Congress and the stag- cricket as "a dramatic spectacle . . . Individual and Social, Individual and nation of Pan-Africanism, for the [which] belongs with the theatre, Universal, leader and followers, representative and ranks, the part debate of the Third World, for the ballet, opera and the dance,"19 he not growing totalitarianism of both and the whole is structurally only takes issue with the aes- imposed on the players of cricket. Wests, i.e., the U.S.A. and the So- theticians, but like Bakhtin, he lib- viet Union, a tendency foretold by What other sports, games and arts erates the critical imagination from have to aim at, the players are given

James. the closetted confines of the aes- to start with, they cannot depart Yet they are all of a piece. The thetic as a separate realm from the from it. Thus the game is founded aesthetic question that James raises realm of the real, and from the value upon a dramatic, a human relation when he asks and answers What is categories of fine arts and non-fine which is universally recognized as Art? is all of a piece and cut out of arts. the most objectively pervasive and the same cloth as all other aspects psychologically stimulating in life and of the Jamesian quest. therefore in that artificial The chapter, What is Art? dele- Cricket is first and foremost a dra- representation of it which is drama. matic spectacle. It belongs with the (Ibid.) gitimates bourgeois mythology in its theatre, ballet, opera and the dance. aesthetic form and deconstructs a In a superficial sense all games are central aspect of the ruling social dramatic. Two men boxing or run- The aesthetics is the politics. imaginaire. It critiques both the ning a race can exhibit skill, cour- James is not negating the fine arts. theoretical canons of a Trotsky, for age, endurance and sharp changes He is taking them out of the box in whom productive labor is necessarily of fortune, can evoke hope and fear. which bourgeois critical canons, hegemonic, and the aesthetic canons They can even harrow the soul with responding to a socio-ideological laughter and tears, pity and terror. of the Liberal art critic, Berenson. code rather than to a purely critical The state of the city, the nation or conceptual imperative, have confined James first takes issue, however, the world can invest a sporting event with the distinguished cricket them. with dramatic intensity such as is And in this displacement of im- commentator Neville Cardus, who reached in few theatres. When the perative the fine arts too, like cricket had often defended cricket's right to democrat Joe Louis fought the Nazi Schmelling the bout became a focus closetted from the reality of their be called an art. Yet, James points times, face the same aridity, the out, it is the same Cardus who of approaching world conflict. . . . These possibilities cricket shares same death. James points out that in nevertheless stigmatizes cricket's with other games in a greater or defining the arts according to audience. "Nothing fine" in music or lesser degree. Its quality as drama is bourgeois prescriptions, the aesthe- in anything else, Cardus wrote, can more specific. It is so organized that ticians have scorned to take notice be understood or truly felt by the at all times it is compelled to of popular sports and games to their crowd. Given this initial reproduce the central action which own detriment. presupposition, it is logical that characterizes all good drama from whilst Cardus often introduced music the days of the Greeks to our own: The aridity and confusion of which two individuals are pitted against they mournfully complain — will into his writing on cricket, he never each other in a conflict that is strictly introduced cricket into his writing continue until they include orga- personal but no less strictly nized games, and the people who on music. As James comments: representative of a social group. watch them as an integral part of One individual batsman faces their data. Cardus is a victim of that categori- one individual bowler. But zation and specialization, that divi- each represents his side. The James engaging with the art critic sion of the human personality personal achievement may be of the Berenson refutes the latter's decision which is the greatest curse of our utmost competence or brilliance. Its to deny the criterion of art to time. Cricket has suffered but not ultimate value is whether it assists wrestling matches because (as only cricket. (Beyond A Boundary) the side to victory or staves off de- feat. This has nothing to do Berenson argues) of the game's James then breaches this cate- with morals. It is the organizational "confusion and fatigue of actual-

63

ity." Thus, Berenson maintains, only form is permanent present. It is day, which has been seen and never the artist manages to extract the known, expected, recognized, en- forgotten. There are some of these "significance of movements," as in joyed by tens of thousands of spec- the writer has carried in his con- the rendering of tactile values solely tators. Cricketers call it style. . . . sciousness for over forty years, some, the artist can embody the corporal What is to be emphasized is that in fact longer, as is described in the significance of objects. Against whereas in the fine arts the image first pages of the book. (Ibid.) Berenson's emphasis on the solitary of tactile values and movement, artist as mediator and on the painting however . . . magnificent, is perma- Here James notes a significant fact nent, fixed; in cricket the spectator about Berenson's art criticism — the as the only medium of art, James sees the image constantly recreated argues: fact that whilst praising paintings and whether he is a cultivated spec- like Pollaiuolo's "Hercules tator or not has standards which he Strangling Antaeus" as well as Mi- carries with him always. He can re- I submit . . . that without the inter- chelangelo's drawings as the ultimate vention of any artist the spectator at create them at will. He can go to cricket extracts the significance of see a game hoping and expecting to yet reached in the presentation of movement and of tactile value. He see the image recreated or even ex- tactile values and sense of experiences the heightened sense tended. . . . The image can be movement, never once does of capacity. . . . [The] significant a single stroke, made on a certain Berenson analyze the fact that is for

64 James of central importance, "the enormous role that elemental physical action plays in the visual arts throughout the century." The omission is not accidental. The separation of the physical and the mental is maintained even for a "physical" art such as painting. The abduction system of the Head/ Body division rules inaesthetics too. The wrestling match or the game of cricket could not be regarded by Berenson as being among the "fine arts." The bodies always in tense dynamic movement, the coordina- tion is never static, finished, com- pleted. Its aesthetic is itself dynamic.

Cricket, in fact any ball game, to the visual image adds the sense of physical coordination, of harmoni- ous action, of timing. The visual image of a diving fieldsman is a frame for his rhythmic contact with the flying ball. Here two art forms meet. (Ibid.)

But James's greatest breach with bourgeois aesthetics is his refusal to see it as "play," as the Marcusean- mensions of the Jamesian heresy. defined rest from labor and recu- The critique in Beyond A Boundary, peration for labor. Rather, the art of the same unaided.. . . He may bowl rather than merely an attack on cricket or of any sports is seen as a a slow curve or fast or medium, or capitalism as the economic ex- he may at his pleasure use each in creative activity in its own right and pression of bourgeois society, goes turn. There have been many bowlers one intimately linked to human whose method of delivery has beyond the absolute of the economic. existence as is labor. In other words seemed to spectators the perfection As James writes, summing up his the aesthetic ceases to be merely a of form, irrespective of the fate credo: residual social activity; it becomes which befell the balls bowled. Here, centrally meaningful. far more than in batting, the repeti- After a thorough study of bull- tion conveys the realization of In this part of his book James ex- fighting in Spain, Ernest Haas, the movement despite the actuality. presses the summa of his poesis — a famous [photographer's] . . . con- Confusion is excluded by the very summa that expresses what Geoffrey clusion is that the bull fight is pure structure of the game. Bateson calls the aesthetics of being art. The spectacle is all motion.. . . alive.20 The perfection of motion is what As for the fieldsmen, there is no In the chapter, the Art and Practic people want to see. They come hoping limit whatever to their possibilities Part, James formulates an aesthetics that this bull-fight will produce the of running, diving, leaping, falling perfect flow of motion. Another forward, backwards, sideways, with that moves outside the bourgeois name for the perfect flow of motion all their energies concentrated on a aesthetic code. He calls in question is style, or, if you will, significant specific objective, the whole com- the ruling social imaginaire, i.e., the form. pletely realizable by the alert spec- socially legitimated collective tator. The spontaneous outburst of representations which "value" the Let us examine this motion, or, as thousands at a fierce hook or a value-systems which control the Mr. Berenson calls it, movement. dazzling slip-catch, the ripple of Where the motive or directing force mode of desire through the recognition at a long-awaited leg- rests with the single human being, glance, are as genuine and deeply mechanism of its representation of an immense variety of physical mo- felt expressions of artistic emotion the optative identity, of the optative tion is embraced within four cate- as any I know. canons of thought and feeling. gories. . . . The batsman propels a It is here that we grasp the di- missile with a tool. The bowler does You will have noted that the four

65 works of art chosen by Mr, Beren- native to us, a part of the process of his powers, to the free play and son to illustrate movement all deal by which we have become and re- development of his faculties is now with some physical action of the main human. It is neither more nor the socio-cultural environment. athletic kind. Mr. Berenson calls the less mystical than any other of our This socio-environment is never physical process of response mysti- faculties of apprehension. . . . The natural; nor is it arbitrary. Nor are cal. ... I believe that the examina- impression I get is that the line was the attitudes and responses, of ap- tion of the stroke, the brilliant piece an integral part of co-ordinated proval, recognition, or aversion, re- of fielding, will take us through physical activity, functional perhaps, mysticism to far more fundamental but highly refined in that upon it jection, in other words, of intersub- considerations, than mere life- food or immediate self-preservation jective valuation ever purely subjec- enhancing. We respond to physical might depend. tive. Rather these subjective atti- action or vivid representation of it, tudes are responses in line with the value-systems of the hegemonic dead or alive, because we are made Innate faculty though it might be, that way. For unknown centuries the progress of civilization can leave social imaginaire.. survival for us, like all other it unused, suppress its use, can re- And it was this imaginaire that animals, depended upon competent move us from the circumstances in persuaded the masses that their de- and effective physical activity. This which it is associated with animal sire for organized sports had noth- played its part in developing the energy. Developing civilization can ing to do with their material needs, brain. The particular nature which surround us with circumstances and that aesthetic needs were for egg- became ours did not rest satisfied conditions in which our original heads. That the satisfaction of a with this. If it had it could never faculties are debased or refined, have become human. The use of the "visual artistic sense" could only be made more simple or more compli- fed in art galleries. That aesthetic hand, the extension of its powers by cated. They may seem to disappear the tool, the propulsion of a missile appreciation was something from altogether. They remain part of our which they were excluded. at some objective and the human endowment. The basic mo- accompanying refinements of the tions of cricket represent physical Like the man speaking prose mechanics of judgment, these action which has been the basis not without knowing it, so the West marked us off from the animals. only of primitive but of civilized Indian cricket audience shouting "Not Language may have come at the life for countless centuries. In work a man move!", the bullfighting same time. . . . Sputnik can be seen and in play they were the motions crowd shouting "Ole!" and "the as no more than a missile made and by which men lived and without spontaneous outburst of thousands . . projected through tools by the de- which they would perish. The In- velopment hand. . the ripple of recognition" at a dustrial Revolution transformed our moment when the player plays existence. Our fundamental charac- Similarly the eye for the line which above himself, outside himself, is teristics as human beings it did not engaged, as Beyond A Boundary is today one of the marks of ulti- and could not alter. The bushmen mate aesthetic refinements is not reproduced in one medium not reveals, in "genuine and deeply felt new. It is old. The artists of the merely animals but the line, the expressions of artistic emotions." For caves of Altamira had it. So did the curve, the movement. It supplied in it is this above all that people live by. bushmen. They had it to such a de- the form they needed a vision of the Deprive them of it. Or sell the game gree that they could reproduce it or, life they lived. (Ibid.) by faking it, by massifying it. rather, represent it with unsurpassed force. Admitting this, Mr. Berenson Reduce the aesthetic to the The aesthetic is not less "material" mechanically orchestrated in thought confines the qualities of this than the economic. The expropriation primitive art to animal energy and and feeling — as in Hitler's an exasperated vitality. That, even of the means of aesthetic perception, Germany, Stalin's Soviet Union, if true, is totally subordinate to the of the mechanics of critical Jonestown, and now increasingly in fact that among these primitive judgment are no less and perhaps far the United States, and in many areas peoples the sense of form existed to more terrible with respect to its of the Third World — and all that is the degree that it could be consequences than the expropriation human of Man will be gone. The consciously and repeatedly repro- of the means of production. The "stunted" creative imagination will duced. It is not a gift of high civili- means of providing for material call for gas ovens. And the burning zation, the last achievement of noble existence are vital, but so too are the has already begun. minds. It is exactly the opposite. means of enacting, exercising, The use of sculpture and design developing the innate faculty — the Footnotes among primitive people indicates eye for line and for significant form, that the significance of form is a common possession. Children have an eye physical in earlier 1. "Marx shattered the fiction of homo it. There is no need to adduce circumstances where the natural economicus, the myth which sums further evidence for the presuppo- environment was the dominant up the whole process of naturaliza- sition that the faculty or faculties by challenge, now conceptual and tion of the system of exchange- which we recognize significant aesthetic in a situation where man's value, the market and surplus value form in elemental physical action is greatest obstacle to the realization and its forms. But he did so in the

66 name of labor power's emergence in In attaining to this normative middle- Crusades saw an international organi- action, of men's own power to give class identity, the individual acts ac- zation composing millions of people. rise to value by his labor (producere). cording to the grammar of action In 1871 in France Napoleon III was Isn't this a similar — naturalization — coded in the identity package. In overthrown and the a model bound to code all human realizing his "individuality" as pre- was established. It failed, and popular (life) in terms of value — and scribed, the "unit" acts so as to con- democracy . . . seemed doomed. In production? Through this mirror of stitute and verify middle-class reality only four years it had returned and production, the human being comes as the really real. The middle-class the Third Republic was founded. So to consciousness in the imaginary, cooptation of the identity and desires that this same public that wanted finalized by a sort of ideal produc- of the popular forces is even more sports and games so eagerly wanted tivist ego . . . in the identity that a powerful because more invisible. popular democracy too. Perhaps they man dons with his own eyes when he Nazism — and the rise of the moral were not exactly the same people in can think of himself only as some- majority, Jonestown — reveals each case. Even so, both groups were thing to produce, to transform, or this contradiction, i.e., the power of stirred at the same time." (Beyond A bring about as value." (Jean Baudril- middle-class pseudo-populism to co- Boundary) lard, The Mirror of Production, tr. erce the popular forces through their 10. "Concerning the treatment of slaves, I Mark Poster [St. Louis, 1975]) control of the social imaginaire. may mention as a good compilation, 2. "The definition of labor power as the James's reading of Moby Dick reveals that of Charles Comte, Traite de la source of concrete social wealth is the hold of Ahab on the others pre- legislation, Third Edition, Brussell, the complete expression of the ab- figuring Hitler, Stalin, Jim Jones. Who 1837. Those who want to learn what stract manipulation of labor-power, next? Others by compelling a the bourgeois makes of himself and the truth of capital culminates in this reversal of the accumulative telos; his world, whenever he can, without 'evidence' of man as producer of compelling some measure of redis- restraint, model the world after his value. . . . For [Marx] . .. men begin tribution at the popular levels. own image, should study this matter to distinguish themselves from ani- 8. Carnelius Castoriadis, L’Institution in detail." (Marx, 1930: 1: 752) mals as soon as they begin to pro- Imaginaire de la Societe (Paris, 1975), 11. James quoted from an excellent work duce their means of subsistence. . . . 9. ". . . after this long absence they of Richard Pares to prove his point. But is man's existence an end for seemed all to have returned within Pares noted inter alia that: "in all the which he must find the means? ... Is about a decade of each other, in frantic inventories which are to be found he labor-power (by which he separ- haste. . . . Golf was known to be ates himself as means from himself among the West Indian archives it is ancient. The first annual tournament very usual for the mill, the cauldron, as his own end)?" (Ibid.) of the Open Championship was held 3. Mikhail Bakhtin, Rabelais and His the still and the buildings to count only in 1860. The Football Associa- for more than one-sixth of the total World, tr. Iswolsky (Cambridge, Mass., tion was founded only in 1863. It 1968). capital; in most plantations one-tenth was in 1866 that the first athletic would be nearer the mark. By far the 4. Ibid. championship was held in England. 5. Ibid. greatest capital items were the value The first English cricket team left for of the slaves and the acreage planted 6. "In all essentials the modern game Australia in 1862 and a county cham- was formed and shaped between 1778, in canes by their previous labor. pionship worthy of the name was or- "Yet, when we look closely, we when Hazlitt was born, and 1830, ganized only in 1873. In the United when he died. It was created by the find that the industrial capital re- States the first all-professional base- quired was much larger than a sixth yeoman farmer, the gamekeeper, the ball team was organized in 1869. potter, the tinker, the Nottingham of the total value. With the mill, the [Lawn] tennis was actually invented boiling house and the still went an coal-miner, the Yorkshire factory hand. and played for the first time in Wales army of specialists — almost all of These artisans made it, men of hand in 1873 and was carried next year to them slaves, but none the less special- and eye. Rich and idle young the United States. The public flocked ists for that. noblemen and some substantial city to these sports and games. All of a people contributed money, sudden, everyone wanted organized "They were not only numerous but, organization and prestige. Between sports and games. because of their skill, they had a high them, by 1837 they had evolved a "But in that very decade this same value. If we add their cost to that of highly complicated game with all the public was occupied with other or- the instruments and machinery which typical characteristics of a genuinely ganizations of a very different type. they used, we find that the industrial national art form, founded on Disraeli's Reform Bill, introducing capital of the plantations, without elements long present in the nation, popular democracy in England, was which it could not be a plantation at profoundly popular in origin, yet passed in 1865. In the same year the all, was probably not much less than attracting to it disinterested elements slave states were defeated in the half its total capital." (Reprinted into of the leisured and educated classes." American Civil War, to be followed Spheres of Existence.) (Beyond A Boundary) immediately by the first modern or- 12. In State Capitalism and World Revo- 7. The "white masks" worn by Blacks ganization of American labour. In lution James defines this crisis. As (Fanon) are not so much white as 1864 Karl Marx and Frederick En- always where he analyzes the crisis "normative masks," i.e., the set of gels founded the First Communist In- in terms only of the division of labor desires, aspirations, in the identity ternational and within a few years in production, I suggest that his literary package which it then codes as Norm. Europe for the first time since the and fictional system and the un-

67

derground heresy of his theoretics medium, is nothing less than the essaries. But the laws of hospitality widen this analysis to the global so- third facet of human society.... It is a are not restrained to diet. A common cial division imperative to the telos domain in which the categoric dis- man cannot quietly enjoy a spare of accumulation, and based on the tinctions that normally segmentalize shirt or a pair of trousers. Those who social imaginaire of the Reason/In- the social field are temporarily held are too lazy to plant or hunt are also stinct, Head/Body division. The divi- in abeyance, allowing the human too lazy to trade.'" (Walter Rodney, sion of labor is then seen as a subset, community to experience the bonds Groundings With My Brothers [Lon- as the division white captain, Black of total empathy. These inordinately don, 1969]) team; or white quarterback, Black fragile liminal societies exist only for 15. Ibid. footballers. As James wrote: very brief periods of history, and in 16. "When we reach state capitalism, one- "The crisis of production today [the the very process of dying, they give party state, cold war, hydrogen crisis then of the global social order rise to new forms of social structure bomb, it is obvious that we have — S.W.J is the crisis of the antagonism or revitalized versions of the old or- reached ultimates. We are now at the between manual and intellectual der. Liminality is the repository of stage where all universal questions labour. The problem of modern the creative potential underlying hu- are matters of concrete specific ur- philosophy from Descartes in the man society. (Asmarom Legesse, Ga- gency for society in general as well as sixteenth century to Stalinism in 1950 da: Three Approaches to the Study of for every individual. As we wrote in is the problem of the division of African Society [New York, 1973]) The Invading Socialist Society: labour between the intellectuals and 14. Walter Rodney was the first to un- "'It is precisely the character of our the workers. ... In the springtime of derscore this clash of ratio between age and the maturity of humanity capitalism this rationalistic division the accumulative telos of the bour- that obliterates the opposition be- of labour was the basis of a common geoisie and that of African traditional tween theory and practice, between attempt of individual men associated societies at the beginning of the the intellectual occupations of the in a natural environment to achieve : "educated" and the masses.' control over nature. Today this "What is most fundamental is an "All previous distinctions, politics division of labour is the control in attempt to evaluate the African con- and economics, war and peace, agita- social production of the ad- tribution to the solution of the prob- tion and propaganda, party and mass, ministrative elite over the masses. lems posed by man's existence in so- the individual and society, national, Rationalism has reached its end in the ciety; and hence the stress placed in civil and imperialist war, single country complete divorce and absolute this paper on matter pertaining to and one world, immediate needs and disharmony between manual and in- social relations: codes of hospitality, ultimate solution — all these it is tellectual labour, between the social- processes of the law, public order impossible to keep separate any longer. ized proletariat and the monster of and social and religious tolerance. In Total planning is inseparable from centralized capital." State Capitalism each of those areas of human social permanent crisis, the world struggle and World Revolution (Detroit, 1950). activity, African norms and practices for the minds of men from the world 13. "The structural analysis [of Borana were given a high value by Europeans tendency to the complete mechaniza- society, Ethiopia] demonstrated that themselves. They often reflected that tion of men." (The Invading Socialist structures resting upon cognitive dis- the hospitality they saw in an African Society [Detroit, 1950]) crimination can be as orderly as the village was lacking in their com- 17. "Hazlitt's strength and comprehen- grammar governing language. We cannot munities; that the security of goods siveness were the final culmination of assume that this is the only kind of stood in marked contrast to brigand- one age fertilized by the new. In order in human society. In the analyses age and depredations in Europe. prose, in poetry, in criticism, in of instability we saw the kinds of ". . . On the other hand, African painting, his age was more creative regularities that are not based on norms were frustrating to capitalists. than the country had been for two native conceptual schemes. .. . There For instance, the whites resented the centuries before and would be for a are rather events, processes, and trends polite formulae of African greetings century after. This was the age that that exist in spite of structure. . . . since they were lengthy and could among its other creations produced [Yet] .. . there is a third domain that delay business for a whole day. One the game of cricket." (Beyond A is both anti-structural and anti- European denounced African hospi- Boundary) empirical. This is the domain of crea- tality in the following terms: "The 18. Cf. James: "The revolutionary bour- tivity, ecstatic religion, prophetism. . law of hospitality is obstructive of geoisie which established its powers . . This is where Turner's classic, The industry. If there is provision in the against feudalism could only develop Ritual Process ... has finally country, a man who wants it has a philosophy of history and of society established liminality and multi-vo- only to find out who has got any, in which, on the one hand, it spoke cality as the third major area of an- and he must have his share. If he en- for the progress of all society, and on thropological analysis. . . . He [Tur- ters any man's house during his re- the other, for itself as the leaders of ner] has established the interpretative past, and gives him the usual saluta- society. This philosophy can be power of the concept of liminality . . . tion, the man must invite him to par- summed up in one word: rationalism. [and] has established that the take. Thus, whatever abundance a "Rationalism is the philosophy of topsy-turvy world of transitional man may get by assiduity, will be bourgeois political economy. It is and marginal groups, dominated shared by the lazy, and thus they materialist and not idealist in so far as it is by a rich multi-vocal symbolic seldom calculate for more than nec- as it combats superstition, seeks to

68 expand the productive forces and in- and World Revolution) and the aesthetics of being alive and creases the sum total of goods. But 19. Television reproducing the movements will grow up to be good business- there is no such thing as a classless of footballers, baseball players, men. " (Geoffrey Bateson, Mind and materialism. Rationalism conceives basketball in slow motion, reveals Nature [New York, 1979]) this expansion as a division of labour not only that sports are modalities of between the passive masses and the dance, but also why all theoretical active elite. Thereby it re-instates dance, classical ballet and modern, idealism. Because it does not and have become the vestiges of a mu- cannot doubt that harmonious pro- seum — performance, irrelevant. Sylvia Wynter, a native West Indian, gress is inevitable by this path, the 20. "Today, we pump a little natural essence of rationalism is uncritical or history into children along with a is a writer and teaches Afro-Ameri- vulgar materialism, and uncritical little 'art' so that they will forget can Studies and Comparative Liter- or vulgar idealism. (State Capitalism their animal and ecological nature ature at Stanford University.

Interview Ken Lawrence interviewed Darcus tionary political activity, it is not you build in an advanced capitalist Howe in London last October. what the working class ought to be society? And the question of the doing, but what it is doing at any vanguard party arises, which is the DH: We are having an 80th birth- given point, and to keep one's eyes third plank in Nello's work which day series of lectures by Nello here firmly fixed on what workers are assists us. And let me give you an in London in early January — three thinking and doing. That is for us example as to how that is practiced lectures sponsored by Race Today the primary consideration, the self- insofar as we are concerned. We and supported by the Black Parents activity of the working class, and have organized ourselves at Race Movement and the Black Youth where it is at any given stage as the Today in a collective around a jour- Movement. The titles of the lectures basis for what has to be done, as nal. We have influenced a lot of are: Lecture 1 — Socialism or opposed to where it ought to be and Black and white people throughout Barbarism; Lecture 2 — Britain and the guess work that follows, the ad- the United Kingdom. And the ques- America: Two English-Speaking venturism which flows from that. tion would have arisen whether or Democracies; Lecture 3 — Immi- Secondly, many of us have come not you build a vanguard party to grants to Britain: Formerly Colonial from the Caribbean, a colonial sit- lead Blacks to some emancipation. Peoples. Those are the three we are uation. And in making the break In rejecting this course, we have re- sponsoring and we are having a with colonialism, one always looks lied heavily on Nello's analysis. So birthday party for him. He will be 80 for models as to what kind of society those are the basic pillars of his the- on the 4th of January and we will pay one ought to build. And Nello was I oretical work which we find of great his passage over from Trinidad, think pretty instrumental, even key, value in facing the struggles in charging for the lectures so we can in debunking the myth that Russian which we are involved here and recoup our costs. society is the model through which inside of the Caribbean. we should develop. The Russian KL: By the time this interview model has adherents in the KL: The next thing I'd like to ask gets into print, that will have already Caribbean, particularly with the rise you is, it seems to me that the most taken place. I think you should tell of Cuba as the revolutionary, or revolutionary situations arising today me what C. L. R. James means to imagined revolutionary society. One in the English-speaking Caribbean you and to the movements that you finds in the Caribbean, among left- would have to be listed as Guyana, have been part of. ists, the tendency to fall under the Jamaica, and Grenada. hegemony of the Moscow/Cuban DH: First of all, I think we have to axis. The only alternative to that DH: And Trinidad and Tobago. identify the period in Nello's work presented in the development of that we are talking about. The Caribbean politics at all is the work KL: . . . OK. And there are ob- theoretical work he did in the United Nello has done in the United States, viously very sharp differences in each States on his way out of the on his way out of Trotskyism. This of these places. And particularly Trotskyist movement forms the basic illustrates the second position, on along the lines of each of the things pillar on which our political activity state capitalism, worked out by the that you just itemized as his rests. I think the first one, the most Johnson/Forest tendency. contribution. Would it be too much important one that has influenced The third position arises from the to ask you to say how you think his us, particularly myself, is first two: what kind of revolu- contribution has played a role, that in political activity, revolu- tionary political organization do or will play a role, in each of those

69 situations, and to what extent loupe. The Moscow tendency draws oil production in the international they've departed, organizationally or its strength from Cuba. Nello's posi- economy. The productive capacity of politically, from the direction in tion in regard to underdeveloped these workers has placed Trinidad which he's pointed? countries is stated in Nkrumah and and Tobago in a powerful position in the Ghana Revolution, in particular regard to her Caribbean neighbors. DH: I do not think that there the chapter titled "Lenin and the She lends them a lot of money and could be a revolutionary movement Problem." passes off all kinds of deficient in a Caribbean country without Among leftists and intellectuals goods on them. And the Oilfield reference to Nello's work. You ei- there has been and will continue to Workers Trade Union is independent, ther have to reject it, accept it or be a lot of debates, a lot of polem- self-organized, perhaps representing modify it. But the one thing you ics, a lot of discussions, a lot of hos- all Nello's confidence in working cannot do is ignore it. Many of the tility and so on, but that is not class self-activity and the ability of present crop of revolutionaries would crucial. What is crucial is what the working class to take power on have to face his work at some time workers think about him and how its own. The Oilfield Workers Trade or another and come to terms with they express what they think. Here Union, under the revolutionary it. He has informed our tendency. is an example. The major revolu- leadership of George Weekes, There are several tendencies inside tionary force in the entire Carib- represents that. And truth to tell, of the Caribbean. Maoism and bean is the Oilfield Workers Trade Nello is presently living at their Union, because of its organization Stalinism are predominant and premises in Trinidad under their care of the workers who are employed in the Trotskyists are the least im- and attention. Nello lives in one of the oil industry in Trinidad and portant. They figure in the French their properties which is in walking colonies, Martinique and Guade- because of the strategic position of distance from their headquarters and he walks pretty slowly there and they look after him. So I suspect he'll be spending his last years in the ambience of mass independent working class organization. So there is no better example of the acceptance of his work than the fact that workers themselves, having built their own organization, are now able to see him through the last years of his life. They provide people to look after him, they see to it that he gets to and from the airport when he is travelling. They see that he gets three meals a day and so on in order that he writes his autobiography free from the hassles of life. Here in Race Today we are for workers' and peasants' power inside the Caribbean, and we are for the complete destruction, without trace, of the colonial state. We hold the view that the Caribbean working class is advanced enough for a self- organized workers' and peasants' state. I believe that was to some degree Walter Rodney's view. And if you are talking about the Caribbean now, in terms of the ideology of the left, one would always have to look at what Walter Rodney was saying, because he was the major exponent of Marxist and leftist political theory in the Caribbean. I suspect that was his view;

70 we are not too sure about that. Or uration of Caribbean peoples that your cars without the limitation of perhaps he might have been moving this historical stage is on the order the shortage of>spare parts. You can from one position to the other, that of the day. get your houses built without a other position being Nello 's position. shortage of cement. You can get KL: There are also other political the artifacts of civilized culture KL: Back to the differences. tendencies that I perceive as more without any problems. You can make reactionary than those you fine films without having to face a described as the alternatives, like shortage of celluloid. And so on. So DH: My interpretation of the Seaga, for example, who seems to that when all these difficulties major difference translates the posi- me to be just a surrogate of the appear inside the social crisis in tion of several left tendencies as fol- United States. Caribbean society, the middle classes lows: that the political struggle for rebel in their own interests. Large working class emancipation would DH: Do you mean you are more areas of the Jamaican economy, sugar be led by a political party of intel- reactionary if you are a surrogate of in particular, has collapsed and lectuals drawn from the middle the United States than if you are a therefore the crisis is acute. From classes with a handful of advanced surrogate of Moscow? the middle class standpoint the re- workers in tow. Once in government bellion of the working classes pro- the leadership would provide proper KL: In that it's certainly, if vides the energy for the former's welfare, organize the workers to nothing else, a lot closer, and that full -emancipation. They have be- produce more in order to meet the makes it militarily more dangerous. haved this way for more than sixty costs, the workers to be motivated years. For them Manley was the either by incentives, the moral whip DH: I am not sure about that. In perfect leader until he offered too many crumbs to the workers and or Siberia. The surplus goes towards fact, I don't agree with that. Now peasants. Seaga is a much more projects sanctioned by the leadership on the question of Seaga and Man- complete representative of that class. and the massive bureaucracy which ley in Jamaica, I have this to say. It Not much choice between both. hangs over to corrupt the new. is the complete state of insurrection Surplus for guns, travelling expenses that the Caribbean working class has been in since the late 1960's in KL: Let me say this. I recall four for bureaucrats to beg loans abroad. or five years ago Nello had very From time to time, with less Jamaica, Trinidad, Guyana, warm words of praise for Manley. regularity as the years go by, the Grenada, etc., which informs the working class would be called to politics of both leaders and their parties. That insurrection pushed DH: I disagree with him and I large gatherings then sent home after Manley from a right-wing trade have told him so. At one point Nello being told of the latest in the unionist to what he calls democratic did say that his support rested development plan to which they socialism, which is neither among other things on the fact that must shout their assent. All this is democratic nor socialist. It has Manley had reduced imports in rela- spiced with revolutionary slogans. pushed Seaga from a liberal demo- tion to exports, or something like All independent attempts at working crat to a rightist position. I believe that. class and peasant organization are to both of them are preoccupied with be squashed with a ferocity which how to contain this insurrection and KL: But you don't believe Man- surpasses that meted out by previous how to use this energy and force ley is following his direction. colonial masters. Mind you, I do not for the full development of the believe this tendency will hold middle classes. You see, it is not only DH: Nello's direction? Absolutely power for any length of time in the working classes who are in not. I don't even think Nello believes Caribbean politics, vulnerable as rebellion in the Caribbean. The that. I think Nello is sympathetic they are to imperialism on the one middle classes, particularly the pro- that he's trying to do something. But hand and working class and peasant fessional middle classes, are in re- Nello has never come down revolt on the other. As I understand bellion as well. They feel pretty anywhere that I have seen to say Nkrumah and the Ghana Revolution, stunted in the colonial Caribbean. Manley's position is his position. He what is called for is the break up of Most of them have been to America, says Manley is looking for a new the old colonial state and the have been to Britain, those who have institutionalizing of a workers' and not been are equally influenced by orientation and democratic socialism peasants' state. This process involves the fact that in those societies the is more or less what he (Manley) the self-organized masses deciding way is open for the full sees as this new orientation. And to on, implementing, and administering development of the middle classes. the extent that Manley is looking a national economic plan. Nello holds You can become a barrister and for a new orientation is to that the view that because of the size of blossom within a fairly well orga- extent that Nello is sympathetic. those islands and the advanced mat- nized legal system. You can get But I have neither sympathy

71 struggle. For me that is an astounding development, because the struggle in Northern Ireland is perhaps one of the most courageous anti-colonial struggles of our time. They have their problems as each revolutionary struggle experiences but, by and large, one supports the Catholic section of the Irish working class in their struggle to break up that Irish state and to establish a new society. When the Grenada government takes a page out of the repressive end of the Irish struggle, one has to begin to ask some questions. Now why is it that the Grenadian government finds itself in the position in which it believes it cannot rely on the democratic form of jury trial to secure the regime against counter- revolutionaries? Revolutionary development means more democracy, not less. And the reason in my view is that they have not destroyed the colonial state and instituted an extreme democracy on the overthrow of Gairy. Such a regime is the most powerful and potent force in the struggle against imperi- alism. Now if you don't do that, you do something else. You govern by proclamation. You believe that the nor support for Manley. I disagree must be yes. leadership knows best and could with Nello on his sympathetic Any retreat from both positions is justify what it is doing by pointing approach. bound to cause enormous social and to the amount of welfare they political problems sooner or later. Let provide. That does not alter, in my KL: What about ? me tell you what I have come across view, the basic colonial production recently in the Free West Indian, the relations in that society. In fact it DH: What took place in Grenada national Grenadian weekly. It was makes it much worse. It sharpens the on March 13th, 1979 was a revolu- reported that the Grenadian contradictions even further because tionary seizure of power in that government recently passed an anti- on the overthrow of Gairy the previous changes in power in the terrorist law, a law which would working class would be that much English-speaking Caribbean have been have imprisoned them all had it been further on the road to emancipation through electoral means. Since then passed 18 months previously. within a Caribbean context. The the material condition of the Secondly, they quote as justification Gairy regime did two things in Grenadian masses has improved to a for passing that law the fact that the Grenada. The reactionary that he great degree. They have won enor- British government discovered that was, he stifled and strangled the mous welfare benefits. But our strict in dealing with the evil terrorists in working class and the peasantry. analysis on class divisions in Northern Ireland you have to That is the first thing. Secondly, he Caribbean society must apply. Our do away with juries. The British created no room for middle class position on the break up of the co- created new courts, the Diplock development inside Grenada. Once lonial state must apply. Is it the courts. I don't know if you have he was overthrown, both these case that the old colonial state in heard about those. Therefore, the classes would be contesting each Grenada has been destroyed without Free West Indian reported, the other for supremacy. It is out of this trace? The answer must be no. Is it government of Grenada was insti- struggle that the new society is born. the case that the middle class has tuting the identical law, the identical The Grenadian government is been in rebellion against Gairy courts as the British state had hovering precariously above this and in its own interest? The answer done to repress the Irish liberation conflict, which is bound to acceler-

72 ate in the coming months. pretty lost, drifting hither and today a wide range of nationalists thither, preferring the haven of re- hold these views, as well as a wide ligious sects like the Moonies or range of Black Marxists who are not KL: It's my recollection — I am some Asian sect led by a Maharishi. building multi-national organizations, not absolutely certain of it, but it's There is this bankruptcy of direc- but who base themselves around a my best recollection — that back in tion. Nello came here a few months perspective of independence. Now I the sixties Maurice Bishop was quite ago and suddenly they discovered have not heard a similar perspective fond of Nello and his ideas. that here is a man who knows them. He knows them more than they put forward here and it seems to me DH: We published in the May know themselves. Again, here is this that 1974 issue of Race Today an inter- man with a wide range of intellec- view by Maurice in which he out- tual and political pursuits. So that DH: You wouldn't hear it from me. lined the basis of the workers' and regularly in the newspapers, on ra- peasants' state which would replace dio and television, you read, hear, KL: Right, I know, and it seems to Gairy's colonial dictatorship. He and see something about C. L. R. me that one of the differences is that talked about the organization of James. He asked me, "Why is there whereas the Black Nationalists and workers' and peasants' assemblies all this interest?" He was taken aback Black Marxist nationalist movements which would form the basis of a by this surge of interest. And I told in the U.S. identify Black people as a constituent assembly from where the him that it was because they need nation within the U.S., that the country would be governed. We him, they needed some clarification identity here seems to be a Caribbean republished the interview in the of their past and direction for the identity. Is that basically correct? February/March 1979 issue of Race future urgently. And he provides it. Today shortly after they seized And one can remember those days power. We agreed with that position. when it could be quite difficult to Things have not developed in that DH: Not quite. The long and get him on the screen. Now, lots of barbaric history of lynchings, of direction. people want to speak to him, to hear brutal murders by gun-toting south- what he has to say. And that's his KL: Let me shift a little now and influence here, right across the erners did not take place in this ask you what role Nello and his board, in both the Black and the country. Also there is not, anywhere ideas have played within the West white community. in Britain, a socialized separateness. Indian community in England. No Harlem through which you could KL: What is the political aim, or travel all night long and not see a DH: The 1948 resolution on the strategy, of the independent, auton- white person except a policeman. So Black question which identified the omous Black movement here? one is always socially and culturally Black struggle as having an inde- in contact with whites every day, all pendence, validity and vitality of its DH: The tendency to which we day. In the process of this own, which resolution preceded belong is for workers' and peoples' socialization, one has to some extent Black Power, served to develop and power in Britain. That's what we are strengthen the Black movement here been able to undermine the divisions for. It is a hell of a climb from between Blacks and whites which in Britain. Much more than that, one fighting a campaign to free George must be able to grasp the importance modern capitalism tends to foster Lindo, a Black worker who was and encourage. And I would give of his political ideas in relation not falsely imprisoned in the north of only to Blacks in Britain but in the two major examples of this. In 1970 England, to workers' and peoples' the Black community in Netting society as a whole. Presently, the power. But that is our perspective. British working class is feeling its Hill, West London, organized itself to carry out a struggle against police way and will have to discover what KL: I want to ask you a little bit to do about the Labor Party, what is more on this last question, because brutality and corruption. The issue socialism, and so on. And there is no in the U.S. the aspect of the Black centered around the Mangrove Res- one on the horizon who knows and movement that makes it independ- taurant, an all-night restaurant, which understands British society, the ent, autonomous, increasingly is offered a legal advice service during British working class in particular, taking the direction of sovereignty, the day. The resident lawyer was politically, socially and culturally, separateness, territorial independence. made available to the Black and who is revolutionary, to give And whereas, during the sixties community by the proprietor of the them some sense of themselves there was a lot of argument about Mangrove for anyone arrested at in order that they be fortified that and that position had not local police stations. The lawyer to transcend the Labor Party. been fully developed by Malcolm would nip down to the police station We are living in a X, who was the most before the police had time society in which the whites are advanced proponent of that strategy, to force the suspect to sign a state-

73 ment of admission. He would be able wept as I spoke, you know. So one white workers to cut off the gas and to secure bail in circumstances in knew it was possible to move white the electricity to that factory. which suspects were not normally workers in support. And more than Resolutions were passed in several granted bail. The police, in turn, took that, freed as we were from institu- trade union branches calling on the the position that the presence of the tions like the Labor Party and the leadership to isolate the factory. lawyer disrupted their hegemony trade union bureaucracy and so on, Such was the mobilization that even over the Black community. So they we are able to move much faster in right wing MPs were forced to join moved to close down the restaurant debunking a lot of myths inside the picket line. The election was by objecting to its license, raiding British society, although we do not coming up so they had to be where the premises for drugs, etc. We have the accompanying power to the action was. Then there came the called a demonstration which ended transform British society on our own. reaction in press and pulpit that the in street fighting between ourselves Then recently some Asian women Labor Party was associating itself with this radical and revolutionary and the police. And nine weeks later, went on strike for unionization in a picketing of militant workers and following a series of press reports factory called Grunwicks and showed tremendous fortitude in thereby creating a lot of disorder in about Black Power agitators, the keeping up that strike for week after the society, making matter's difficult police arrested nine of us, including week. One would have found that for the police and so on. So that myself, and charged us with inciting by and large, white workers would leadership — members of parliament members of the public to riot and have got pissed off with it and and trade union bureaucrats — which making an affray. The maximum moved on into other areas of the tentatively supported the strike was sentence was life imprisonment. economy. So the Asian women held the very leadership which refused to Their strategy was to deem a few of out and were able to mobilize, on sanction the cutting off of gas and us leaders, incarcerate us for a long their side, coach loads of miners, electricity. They turned tail and ran. time, and dissipate the rest of the engineering workers, in their thou- So those are the two examples Black movement. We got to court sands on the picket line. And I am which indicate that white workers and argued for a Black jury. We not talking about white leftist ideo- can be made to move in support of believed we could win the case with logues — they were there too. Such our struggles. Now, I could well see Black jurors. The judge turned down was the rush of the white working in a situation where that is not the the application. We then asked for a class to defend these women. The case, where white workers not only list of jurors and chose those from trade union bureaucracy refused don't move in support but do some- the white working class. Anyone to carry out the directions from the thing else, that you're forced to with any pretense to Marxism knows that the working class at some point in its development had to feel the sharpness of police oppression in order that they be molded into obedient producers for capitalism. The police keep them in order so that the working class had to have some experience of the police, that the police were not the saints that bourgeois propaganda made them out to be. So we said to the court authorities, well, give us a list of jurors and we chose them by occupation and appealed to them as working class folk as ourselves, sure in the belief — some of us weren't so sure — in the general belief that if there was any section of the population who could deliver us out of the mess in which we found ourselves, it would be white workers. And they did. Some of them began the trial as racists. At the end of it, when I was making my closing speech — I defended myself — one of the white women

74 work out theories about a separate that way, and he replied that it was the white workers, but at the same state and all that. I could see that as when he saw that white workers did time, as dialecticians we have to be a reaction to a political condition at a not see the boss in that way. So able to see, and to be quite clear given moment in history. But I don't when he came to Britain he was about it, as to what the contribu- see how any Marxist, anyone who prepared to do just about everything tion of the other side has been. calls themselves a Marxist could his boss required, to break every advance that position. You have to single law of working class KL: Let me ask you for one fi- believe that the white working class organization in that factory, and only nal observation about Nello. What is irretrievably racist to hold such a through witnessing the militancy of do you anticipate history will judge position. white workers was he set in motion. his stature and his major contribu- And when I interviewed him he was tion? KL: Obviously if white workers on strike. were as advanced as they ought to So it seems that one has to give DH: I think the overthrow of the be, there would be no need for the some credence to the dialectic in the Russian state by the Russian working independent organization at all; that relationship between Black and class will be the final seal on the is, it's clear to you that there's white workers. And not just to say contribution Nello has made. That something more dynamic and revo- that there is something dynamic in event would prove without dispute lutionary and advanced about the the Black community without iden- the post-Trotskyist theoretical basis oppressed community than about tifying the fact that we have been of society that Nello had worked the white working class generally, influenced by what whites have been out. and I assume, maybe wrongly doing and what they have achieved. My grandmother and his mother Once set in motion, we perhaps were sisters so that he is a very DH: But one has to see that the move a little faster because we are close relative of mine. He is very development of the revolutionary not clogged at hand and feet by all close to my eldest daughter, who is dynamism that you identify has sorts of cultural and historical doing quite well as a linguist at necessarily to incorporate the influ- disciplines and traditions. But one school. He advised her to study ences that white workers have had cannot under any circumstances Russian because he forecasts that the next major revolutionary out- on the Black community. I will give overlook the contribution that the burst in the modern world is the you some examples. In 1974 Race white working class has made to the revolution in Russia, which would Today took the decision to interview development of the Black struggle. just about transform everything. Asian workers who were at the time One can't do that. That would be The personal impact that Nello involved in several strikes. And who totally erroneous in my view. are these Asian workers in Britain? has made on me is the fact that he By and large they had come from the KL: Is there any sector of that spent virtually all his life in the po- Punjab in India. They were small working class or people who have litical wilderness. If you are a Ca- farmers farming a plot of 5 acres or been involved with it who have an ribbean person, your success in po- so. And the acreage and what they outlook comparable to the one litical life is judged by whether you produced on it were no longer you've described based on Nello's are a prime minister or minister in capable of feeding, clothing and thinking? government. And Nello would have looking after the family. So they been able to secure that with the would migrate to Delhi or Bombay. DH: We have come to that posi- greatest amount of ease. And to re- That's how they started. Eventually, tion in opposition to Black nation- sist that temptation as he has re- some of them migrated to the alism inside the Black movement in sisted it means that his eyes are factories in different parts of permanently fixed on the working Britain. In one of these interviews I this country. What one does find inside nationalism is a class division class and his confidence in their mentioned earlier, I asked an Asian revolutionary capacity is absolute. between the working classes and the worker, "When you first arrived here That is what I admire most about middle classes. And if you are from in Britain, how did you understand him, that you have to spend a lot the Caribbean, in which nationalism this country?" He said when he first of time in the wilderness and not held sway before and after the began working in a factory, he saw as someone who's all-powerful in Second World War, you absolutely his boss as someone big who could government. There are a lot of us do a lot of things to people. So know that there is a class division who have followed his work and he saw his boss in the factory in inside nationalism. Now, have the have been influenced by him in the the same way as he saw his feudal Black workers discovered the last 25 years. lord for whom he worked for contribution of white workers?. a portion of the day in the The answer is yes. I suspect in Punjab. I then asked him the United States today, on the one Darcus Howe is a member of the at what point did he cease thinking hand you talk about the racism of editorial collective of Race Today.

75

Letters

In addition to the voluminous and which was the leading party in One Thursday, on a day in De- writings of C. L. R. James which Ghana. "UGCC" is United Gold cember, a woman was arrested for have been published in one form or Coast Convention. travelling on the bus in a seat re- another, there is also a massive The last two letters were responses served for white people. In Mont- correspondence which is virtually to letters written by me. The first was gomery, Alabama. The woman re- unknown except to those who were to a Black activist in Detroit. The sisted, and to this day she says she the recipients of his letters. These 1948 resolution referred to in this does not know why she did. Thou- include responses to letters he re- letter was the Resolution on the sands of Negroes had obeyed the ceived, discussions which he initiated, Negro Question of the Socialist regulations for many years. A local Workers Party. The second letter was responses to events or activities of trade union leader went down and written to James and concerned the those associated with him, of which bailed her out and called up Dr. draft of a pamphlet on which we he became aware, and letters of were all working, a pamphlet King, suggesting that they should guidance and instruction. eventually published as "Negro "do something." It was the kind of These letters varied from short Americans Take the Lead." The statement that is made a hundred notes to letters of many pages. Those relevant parts of my letters are times a month in variouss parts of the of us who were in groups with which included. South whenever one of these he was associated sometimes got long Martin Glaberman outrages takes place. This time, letters every day for a week or two, however, King called up a few of the sometimes received no letters for March 25, 1957 better class Negroes and parsons in months on end. In any case, it was the community and they called a one of the most rewarding aspects of . . . . meeting for the Friday. About 60 of association with James. For we who Yesterday the Rev. Luther King them, upper class Negroes, got were Americans it was, in the years and his wife had lunch with us and together and they decided to call for after his expulsion from the United stayed here from 12.30 until nearly 5 a boycott. The idea was not entirely States, almost the only contact we p.m. With us was George Lamming, new, because some months before, a had with the man who founded our the West Indian writer who has just girl of 15 had defied the bus tendency in 1941. received a distinguished literary regulations and people had spoken of Unfortunately, most of James's prize, the Somerset Maugham award the necessity of doing something and correspondence is scattered over most of L500 for his book IN THE had talked about the boycott, but it of the earth. Some of it, I am sure, CASTLE OF MY SKIN. The award passed, as so many of these things will never be recovered. A few demands that the winner must travel pass. They decided to call for the boycott and started off at once to individuals, in the U.S. and elsewhere, and he is going to Ghana. There was inform people by phone. They also have small collections of James's also with us Dr. David Pitt, who is prepared a document telling the correspondence. The letters which likely to be the first West Indian or people not to travel on the buses from follow are a part of the Martin African to run for Parliament in Monday morning. The news spread, England. His constituency is likely Glaberman and Jessie Glaberman and on the Monday morning there to be Hampstead, and of course he is Collection in the Archives of Labor began one of the most astonishing running as a Labour Party candidate. and Urban Affairs at Wayne State events in the history of human University in Detroit. Most of this He also was in Ghana. struggle. The Negro population of correspondence covers the period After about two hours of general Montgomery is about 35,000. From during which there was an organized conversation, Luther King and his the Monday morning and for about "Johnsonite" Tendency in the U.S. wife began to speak about the events one year afterwards, the percentage of The first letter was written as a in Montgomery, Alabama. I shall Negroes who boycotted the buses report on a visit with Martin Luther include a chapter on their ex- was over 99%. The Commissioner of King in London. It was sent as an periences in the book on Ghana, and Police and the head of the Bus addendum to a short letter addressed as I give you an account here of what Company have stated that never on to "Dear Friends" and dated March he said, I shall introduce one any day did more than 35 people ride 25, 1957. The language and or two parallels from the Ghana the buses. concerns obviously reflect the time in experience. The more I look at this In addition to calling for the which it was written. "CPP" in that the more I see that we are in the boycott, the committee had called letter is the Convention Peoples heart of a new experience which for a meeting on Monday evening Party, which Nkrumah headed demands the most serious analysis. at the Church of the Rev. King.

76 When they saw the tremendous suc- cess of the boycott they were ner- vous about going through with the meeting. King says that they thought along these lines:—

The boycott has been a tremen- dous success and if we have a meet- ing now and nobody turns up, or very few people, then the whole movement will be exposed as a fail- ure, (and at some other time I shall give my own experience of what the failure of a movement in the South can mean. It is usually the signal for fierce reprisals by the whites.) King and the others, however, decided that they would go through with the meeting. From about 3 o'clock in the afternoon there were people waiting to get into the Church When he was called upon to speak, and inwardly confident of all who for the meeting at 7 p.m. The without any notes, he delivered his have interested themselves in Africa, Church itself could hold only a few address, and from that moment he and if you look on page 207 of this hundred people, but there were became the guiding principle of the book which bears the date, May Day thousands packed around it, but movement. 1948, you will see that Padmore is luckily the Church had loudspeakers King was elected Chairman of the still thinking that "the strained so that they could hear. Half an hour committee by a unanimous vote. He relationship which existed between before the meeting began, King, who himself had had someone else in the chiefs and intellectuals, . . . is had been elected Chairman of the mind to propose. It turned out that giving way to a united effort between they had thought of him as Chairman the chiefs and people." I do no committee, left the company and because in his preaching he had injustice to George when I say that as went outside for half an hour's always emphasized a social gospel, late as 1948 he shows no knowledge meditation. He recognized that this that is to say preaching with an or indication of the tremendous movement had to have some emphasis on the improvement of the power of the mass movement, which political policy to guide it. He had social situation of the community, the CPP would soon unloose. At that had no idea whatever of being a and not with the emphasis on time the movement had taken the leader for the struggles of his individual salvation. That was all, but form of the boycott of European and people. He was a young man of 28 it had singled him out in the minds of Syrian merchants, and later the years of age, but he had read his fellow preachers, and other march of the ex-servicemen who had philosophy and he had read also the members of the upper class Negro been shot down. Nkrumah and five writings of Gandhi, but with no community who formed the others were arrested and deported for specific purpose in view. In the committee. six weeks. It was only one year later course of the half hour's meditation, After that, the movement was on in June 1949 that the CPP was however, the idea came to him that its way and for one whole year never formed and launched with a rally of what was needed to give this looked back until victory was won. 60,000 people, and when it did get movement a social and political It is one of the most astonishing underway, just as the masses in under-pinning was the policy of non- events of endurance by a whole Montgomery, Alabama, it never violence. But as he explained, non- population that I have ever heard of. looked back. violence as he conceived it, had There are other details which on nothing passive about it. While it another occasion I shall go into. But (2) The significance of the lead- stopped short at armed rebellion, it there are a few points I want to make ership. is incessantly active in its attempt to at once. (a) At first sight it would seem impress its determination and the (1) The always unsuspected power that Nkrumah had had a long strength of its demands upon those of the mass movement. training. Whereas King had had none upon whom it is directed. Some of you may have beside at all. (This is undoubtedly true and King worked out his policy in you Padmore's book, Africa: Brit- the question of the various trends that half hour and submitted it ain's Third Empire. Now Padmore of thought which went to to no committee. There was no time. is one of the most forward looking the development of Nkrumah is an

77 extremely important one which in pelled to go on by the thousands who sion of the meeting. The question of the book I shall go into in detail.) were lining up since afternoon for the "hate," for example, was one of the But with all due regard to the small meeting that they had called that important ones raised in the dis- scale of the Montgomery occasion night. cussion. In the summary it was noted and much larger scale of the action (By the way, just as in Ghana, the that although we believe in the basic of the CPP in Ghana, the similarities historical accidents are for the most goodness of all men (that is why we between the two, in my opinion, are part on the side of the advancing are socialists), that is an abstraction greater than the differences. King's mass movement, and some of them, which does not move people. People programme was created on the spur as in Ghana, are as funny as hell. A begin to act to change the society of the moment, so to speak. Further, coloured servant took one of the precisely when they are so fed up in Chapter 10 of his autobiography, leaflets to her white mistress on the with all the degradation, it is obvious that if even Nkrumah Saturday morning. The mistress discrimination and humiliation that was clear in his own mind as to called up the local newspaper and the is forced on them that they hate that what positive action meant, not only whites, anxious to know what these society completely and un- the Government did not understand Negroes were up to, published it. A equivocally, and all who identify it, but the public did not either, and lot of Negroes who had not heard themselves with it in any way what- on pages 110 to 112 you can see the anything and could not possibly have ever. One questioner insisted, you frantic haste and the circumstances heard in time learnt about what was may recall, that nothing creative in which Nkrumah wrote down for involved from this gratuitous could come from hate. The reply the first time a pamphlet with the stupidity of the white newspaper. made it clear that if hate resulted in significant name, "What I mean by Rumour spread that some Negroes just one person striking back instead Positive Action." were intimidating others from riding of submitting to police brutality, it In other words, both of them put the buses. The Commissioner of brought a new society that much forward decisive programmes which Police, in order to prevent this, closer. the crowd caught up almost in appointed two motor cycle riders to The essential point made by the passing. go along with each bus. The sight of meeting, it seems to me, was this: It You will note how close the idea them scared off all those Negroes is not a matter of whether we agree of positive action is to King's spon- who may possibly have had the idea with every point of program or of taneous conception that non-vio- of taking the bus.) policy which you put forward. We lence was in reality the opposite disagree with some of your views side of an unceasing attack upon the * * * * just as people within your enemy. organization or within ours disagree (b) The critical moment in the September 30, 1963 on specific points of policy. What history of the CPP is the decision at Dear Luke Tripp, we all have to understand is that the Saltpond to break with the UGCC. I would like to thank you and policies of Negro organizations do All who have studied this episode, a Uhuru for your participation in our not have to pass muster with anyone highly important one, know that meeting on the Negro revolt on but the masses of Negroes Nkrumah and the leadership had Friday, Sept. 20, 1963. Your par- themselves. No one else has any more or less decided for the time ticipation helped make it a meeting right to stand in judgment. And our being not to break and it was the of great value and significance. basic pmnt of agreement and support rank and file delegates and the The presentations were divided is, first, that the Negro movement is crowd outside who practically into three parts: A personal state- and should be led by Negroes, and, dragged Nkrumah from the confer- ment of great power and feeling by second, that the actual struggle itself ence hall and told him to go inside Francis H. Mitchell, who witnessed places the Negro movement in and resign. I am positive that at much of what happened in the fundamental opposition to capitalist these and other critical moments struggle in the South as an Associate society and spearheads the fight for when the leadership seemed to wa- Editor of Ebony; a theoretical socialism. ver, it was always the demonstration statement presenting the viewpoint Let me thank you again for your by the mass of its force and of Facing Reality by myself; and participation in our meeting and determination and its confidence in your militant statement of principles express the hope that the opportunity them, that enabled them to take the and views for an organization taking may arise for us to collaborate again forward step. an active part in the struggle. in the future. You note the precisely similar I believe that the combination of Fraternally yours, situation with the Montgomery these points of view helped to clarify Martin Glaberman committee on the Monday afternoon many things for us and for the when they were ready to call audience, some of which were dealt * * * * the whole thing off, but were im- with in the summary at the conclu-

78 Oct. 14th, 1963 ist society," that is true but I don't sections of the working class. What My dear Marty, like your saying that in that way we have to (and can) demonstrate is This is in reply to your letter to because that is not what is essential not that white workers are pro-Negro Luke Tripp. I notice some sentences at the present moment. We can say or can be taught to be pro-Negro or in it to which I wish to draw your that in a certain way in our analysis that they can be won over to support attention. As long as you see what I that we publish in our own name of the Negro movement (although that am getting at, there will be no need our analysis of capitalist society. will undoubtedly happen on for me to polemicize with you or to But I am pretty sure that it is incor- particular questions) but that the go into it at length. In the paragraph rect, in fact very wrong to make this white workers are revolutionary, that before the last you say, a part of a letter to a leader of the they are struggling against this Negro struggle. And what is worse, "What we all have to understand society and for a new society and is that the policies of Negro organi- you go on to say, the struggle that therefore they will have to join zations do not have to pass muster "spearheads the fight for socialism." with the Negroes against the with anyone but the masses of Ne- My dear Marty, it does nothing of groes themselves." the kind. That is not only a mistake common enemy. The Northern That is simply not true. A massive in the approach to the Negro people, coalition of classes before the Civil movement like the Negro movement is but is a very serious theoretical War is a valuable example: Negroes, bound to consider the effect of error. Don't mind my calling it farmers, industrial capitalists, whatever it says upon others besides error. I know that you know sections of the working class united, Negroes. The point is of course that differently. But you above all not on their view of the Negro but in Negroes have to take their positions especially today have to be careful. the struggle against a common and not be concerned about The 1948 resolution and speech state enemy. And, of course, that coalition "pleasing" or "not pleasing" sections with great precision and I assure you was much more unstable and of the white population. No doubt with deep roots in the theory and temporary than the inevitable one history of our movement precisely you are aware of that. But the between the working class and the what the Negro struggle can and I Negroes. This is something which no phrasing could be misinterpreted and have no doubt will do. But it does it is as well that we make that clear one sees (although John Lewis of not "spearhead" the fight for SNCC seems to come close) and the at this time when the false socialism. I go into this in some implications of what is a genuine best of them cannot get beyond the detail first because it is not a private need to win over whites to the Negro desire for independence are in letter and secondly because it shows struggle because the Negroes are a fact making headway. You go on to more than ever the urgent necessity minority and need allies. The social say, of your discussing the question and "No one else has any right to placing down in ordered form what democrats in the Negro movement stand in judgment." is the attitude of a Marxist and a (Randolph, Bayard Rustin) can't That is simply untrue. Everyone revolutionary socialist to this overcome that limitation and find has every right to stand in judgment. remarkable struggle. Unless you all that by pushing for an alliance with Then comes a final sentence which do this, this kind of thing is bound to labor they appear as compromisers not only contradicts what has been happen. and Uncle Toms. said before but contains a first-class Yours as ever, With very best wishes, error of its own. J Marty "And our basic point of agree- ment and support is, first, that the * * * * * * * * Negro movement is and should be led by Negroes, and, second, that August 31, 1964 11 Sept. 64 the actual struggle itself places the Dear J, My dear Marty, Negro movement in fundamental , . . . I am making a public reply to opposition to capitalist society and The question of the white working one section of your letter of Aug. spearheads the fight for socialism." class and the Negro struggle is a 31. It seems to me that at this late crucial one and I added a section on stage you are still fighting the ques- That the Negro movement should it to the document, which you have. tion of the subjective attitude of be led by Negroes is of course a new The basic thing, it seems to me, is to white workers to Negroes (and vice stage of the struggle which has get away from this subjective versa) and similar irrelevancies. I enormous implications for Negro business of educating workers cannot understand that after all independence. But when you go on against prejudice. The alliance be- these years of Marxism and all that to say that "the actual struggle itself tween Negroes and whites is not we have been saying and teaching places the Negro movement founded on the views but on the that this question is a question in fundamental opposition to capital- objective conditions of life of both which you seem to be taking up as

79 From the very start that is the position that must be the centre of what we have to say. And if at this stage you have to be convincing the membership that it is not the sub- jective attitude of whites to Negroes that will be decisive, then it is obvious that we have not got in our own minds what is our special independent contribution to the whole business and to which every- thing else that we do is subordinate. I can't go on with this any more. I suggest that you publish the section of your letter which deals with this as a preliminary to my reply. I want to end with the following. I have found in Marxists in general and particularly in American Marxists that they accept the doctrines in theory and devote their attention to it in practice. But over and over again you will see in some of the most devoted Marxists that there is a little piece that they keep for themselves to which Marxism does not apply; yes, they are completely Marxists, but in regard to this they are going to keep an independent opinion. I may add first that this special piece that they keep to themselves which is usually the be- ginning of their ruin could quite often be exactly something like this on the Negro question. So then I suggest that you print at once for the membership and friends your extract and this letter. And if it is not fully understood by anybody, let them write to me, and I will clear up this matter once and for all. I shall reply to your letter in full later. J if it is something new in the bourgeois government. He put for- organization. ward his programme, All Power to Let me say with the utmost finality. the Soviets. He said, the workers There is no question, absolutely none don't believe in all power to the so- whatever, for a Marxist of what is viets, they believe in the bourgeois the subjective attitude of white government; therefore our business Martin Glaberman was managing workers and white people to is: "Patiently explain." He didn't end editor of Correspondence, editor of Negroes. It was your business to be- his programme and policies with this. Speak Out, and chairman of Facing gin by making clear that this was Reality; he has long been a collabo- our position. I feel depressed at He began that way. He said, this is rator with C. L. R. James. having to do it but I want to draw the objective situation. This is the your attention to Lenin in March necessary move that the classes will 1917. He admitted freely that the be compelled to follow and this is workers still had belief in the new the line that we put forward.

80 Interview The following has been excerpted movement as Vanguard Parties was back impossible, and the conditions from two interviews of C. L. R. nonsense. I said six or seven million themselves cry out: James, the first by James Early and for Italy. I underestimated. There are Hic Rhodus, hic salta! Ethelbert Miller in October 1980 and now ten million in Poland. I am Here is the rose, here dance! the second by Noel Ignatin and Paul confident that Poland would also Buhle in January 1981. The interview have given Lenin no trouble. Lenin Marx makes it clear that all sorts of was transcribed and edited by Paul knew that the International would things will happen until the time Buhle. face disaster in the coming War, and when there is nothing to do for new parties would rise up. The kind workers but to take over. That's why Q. What would you say your of development he had in mind — Marx says the workers will do what greatest contributions have like Marx and Engels — was like what they have to do. This statement was been? happened in Poland. I was confident written in 1851 and he never A. My contributions have been, that kind of party was coming, in returned to it again. He had made it number one, to clarify and extend the 1948. Marx had seen it in 1848, had clear. He knew that in 1789 France in general had gone democratic. The heritage of Marx and Lenin. And studied it. number two, to explain and expand Thus Marx says in the Eighteenth Constituent Assembly had been created by the people themselves. the idea of what constitutes the new Brumaire: society. Later on, he had the case of the Paris Proletarian revolutions, like those of Commune: that was the dictatorship Q. What do you believe is your the nineteenth century, criticize of the proletariat, its own working most important work? themselves constantly, interrupt existence. A. .Votes On Dialectics, at the themselves continually in their own Lenin said not the Party was present time, particularly after the course, come back to the apparently essential but three things: the country events in Poland. I wouldn't have said accomplished in order to begin it in turmoil, the advanced class, that afresh, deride with unmerciful thor- advanced class in conflict with a so before. Now it is important to oughness the inadequacies, weak- understand that Poland is no accident ruling class that does not know what nesses and paltrinesses of their first to do. Under these conditions, but part of revolutionary working attempts, seem to throw down their class developments as foreseen by adversary only in order that he may insurrection becomes an art. What Marx and Lenin and Mao. draw new strength from the earth was going to make the Revolution? I would like to quote the fol- and rise again, more gigantic, before Not the party, Lenin said: the so- lowing from Notes On Dialectics: them, recoil ever and anon from the viets. Mao concluded there were two "When a revolution takes place in indefinite prodigiousness of their things in his own life that mattered, Italy, it will mean that the victorious own aims, until a situation has throwing the Japanese out of party will within a few days of the been created which makes all turning China and the Cultural Revolution, victory number in all probability some six or seven million workers alone — all organized labor. There are two million already, and those in the unions who follow the Communist party are even more. We have a similar situation in France. The Communist party in the only advanced country in Eastern Europe made one in every three a member of the Party." It was clear to me in 1948 that the future development of parties would not be the development of parties as in the Second Interna- tional, with some leaders in parlia- ment and unions, but a massive up- heaval foreshadowed by the Fascist parties, of millions of people. To talk about the new revolutionary

81 which aimed to make the proletariat in the building of civilization very and peasantry rather than the party formation of Culture in Africa. In the masters of the State. Marx, Lenin that respect I am a Black man and Mao were all trying to point out number one, because I am against that something new had appeared, what they have done and are still and that is what is important. doing to us; and number two, I It happened in Hungary. When have something to say about the the ruling party members heard there new society to be built because was a revolution going on, some of have a tremendous part in that them went out to join it! That is which they have sought to discredit most comic to me. It happened again in France, in 1968. The only Q. In this light particularly. thing that saved DeGaulle was the There any work that you Communist party. Now Poland is wish you would have had decisive. It shows a mass upheaval, a the opportunity to write, tempest, an earthquake, just the but did not? events Marx and Lenin had in mind. A. If I had remained in the U.S., I would have written a serious study of the Negro Question. Then I Q. Does the small party have would have prepared for what any role? happened in the 1960's. Of course A. Marx wrote in the Critique of It depends upon the revolutionary it was no surprise to me. the Gotha Program, you must movement. Euro-Communism will understand that the unity of the split, go with the revolution or not be Q. And the significance of a new working class does not depend upon powerful enough and form neo- edition of Black Jacobins, as Stalinist parties. My whole thesis is you work on your the International Workingmen's that these Communist parties are autobiography? Association. You can't make it de- parties, not tools of the Kremlin as A. That this book, written in pend on that organization. I had this Trotsky said (i.e., everything was 1938, is still eagerly sought in 1980 out with Trotsky. I said, why is it going well but the Stalinists made a is an extraordinary event. The that the working class movement in mess of it — a purely subjective autobiography is all my life, since I France is rising but the Trotsky-ist idea). Communist parties are part of was six years old, a life of books and movement is going down and down? the development of the capitalist looking at the world from an He said, well, there's no cor- society, a part that knows the old intellectual point of view: personal, respondence between the rise of the capitalism cannot continue but is political and intellectual. Since I have movement and the rise of the party. afraid of the proletariat, so joins up come to the Caribbean, a great deal of He said a few more things but I with something larger. Once Socialist my time has been spent in seeing didn't pay any attention. And I parties belonged to the Second how much I failed to understand worked it out afterward. There was International, which failed; then when I was young and my whole life no need for that kind of party any- Communists belonged to the Third was toward European literature, more. If you had been trying to form International; and now these Euro- European sociology. Now I'm beginning to see and it is helping me a Vanguard Party in Poland this Communist parties have a foot in both camps, the U.S.A. and the to write. year, or in Hungary in 1956, you U.S.S.R.; they play both sides. Only would have been stranded. As Lenin what took place in Poland can solve saw from the Soviets: a new that. Universal has been reached. Of course, the small group Q. You have said that you are a can help the workers. It is doing so Marxist, a Leninist and a in Poland today. But they must help, Black man. What is the spe- not go around trying to tell people cial relation of these identi- that the Revolution depends upon ties? realizing them as leaders. A. I am a Black man in the sense that Blacks are maltreated in the Q. What is the importance of world up to this day, as no section Euro-Communism? of society is maltreated. And part of A. No one can tell what will the maltreatment is the discrediting happen to Euro-Communist parties. of the great achievements made

82

Williams was no genius...

the oil saved him

by Harry Partap "no visible sense of direction of the see what I mean. party because Dr. Williams had QUESTION: But surely, before The late Prime Minister Dr. Eric depoliticized and miseducated every 1963, there was something in Dr. Williams was not a man of talent aspect of the country." Williams' character which attracted neither was he a genius, but he was a He, however, noted that the you to him? man of great ability. country would not go into an elec- JAMES: But why do you want to This was the sharp verdict of Dr. tion without a sense of direction. know about events before 1963? It Williams' one-time mentor, teacher Said James: "It is not the nature of is more important to look at the and fellow nationalist C. L. R. people to drift. They will decide and period 1963 to 1981. I have sym- James, who insisted that the late decide decisively." pathy and respect for his family and prime minister's leadership was a This is how James, who was once political friends and the mass of disaster for the people of the put under house arrest by Dr. Wil- people who saw the changes taking country. liams during the social unrest of the place as the work of Dr. Williams Following the death of Dr. Wil- mid-1960's, responded to questions and would look upon his death as liams, I thought it would be inter- on his early association with the something of a catastrophe for the esting to hear what 80-year-old departed political leader and prime country. But there are a lot of James had to say. I found him tucked minister: people today who say how they love away in an Oilfields Workers Trade Dr. Williams. I do not believe that Union bungalow overlooking the QUESTION: You have been de- at all, because the proof of that is in Mon Repos Housing Scheme, in San scribed as the late prime minister's the newspapers circulated in the Fernando. mentor during the formative years country carrying the people's views Death did not heal the political of the People's National Movement over the last 25 years. bruises and James unleashed some (PNM) in 1956. What was your re- QUESTION: But then, what ac- strong sentiments against the political action to the death of Dr. Williams counts for the spontaneous flow of leadership of the late prime minister and what was your association with tribute to Dr. Williams from his while the rest of the country sang him like? countrymen since he died? JAMES: This long association JAMES: I will answer you. You praises and showered open emotions with Dr. Williams came to a sharp tell me what accounts for the fact of grief and loss. end in 1963, so that from 1963 to that both daily papers were attack- He criticized Dr. Williams for the present day, I have had no claim ing him as a person who was a danger allowing no member of his nationalist of relation with him at all. But I to the country. Why were they movement to have personal views. must make it quite clear to doing this? The fact is he was not "You had to have none, your everybody that I believed that his leading the country anywhere. No- business was to do what he wanted leadership of the people of Trinidad body knew exactly where he was done," James said. and Tobago was a disaster for the leading the people. Williams himself This is why, argued James, the people. did not know. The country had new prime minister, George Cham- bers, does not have any views on come to a crisis; he had nothing to QUESTION: Do you still hold say. That is the plain truth of the which people could assess his capacity that view now? to lead the nation. matter. But people felt strongly JAMES: I have always held that about the fact that he was there as James, popularly described as the view, so that this long association the first prime minister who led the political mentor of the late prime with Dr. Williams is a complete fic- country for 25 years. People seem to minister, expressed doubts about the tion. I have already stated elsewhere forget every other thing, but that future of the ruling People's why I left him. The road he was will not make me change my National Movement, claiming that going I could see was the road to opinion. "Dr. Williams himself did not know disaster. I keep saying this country what was going to happen to the was going to explode the way QUESTION: But despite what you party." And he insisted that Dr. he was going and everybody say, there is still a lot of sympathy Williams "left nothing with anybody." thought so too. You read the two for the man. How is that? James contended that there was daily newspapers and you would JAMES: Let me say I understand

83 that sections of the population must view his death with concern and feel that an era has come to an end. But I cannot have any sympathy for all those who jump up today saying Dr. Williams, Dr. Williams, we loved you so much. Everybody said they loved him so much, but I do not believe it. I believe they are trying to exploit a situation and hope that this will allow the continuity of the past into the present.

QUESTION: You still have not told me what attracted you to Dr. Williams. JAMES: Williams, in my opinion, was a very bright man with certain limitations. He was not a man of genius. There are two men of genius in the Caribbean, Toussaint L'Ouverture, who led the Haitian Revolution, and Fidel Castro, who still leads the Cuban Revolution. saved everybody. political campaign. He came here And then, there are men of talent with ideas he got from George Pad- like Andrew Cipriani, Grantley Adams QUESTION: It had been said that more and C. L. R. James. We had and Michael Manley. Williams was Dr. Williams was the PNM. Now that been carrying on a great agitation not a man of talent, neither was he a he is dead, what, in your view, in London against continued colo- genius. But he was a man of great would be the future of the party? nial rule and Dr. Williams was there. ability. He could get information and JAMES: I don't know what is He used to come from Oxford and gather it up with tremendous speed going to happen to the party. I want stayed at my house. He read my and great concentration. But anything to tell you, and I say this with a lot books and papers. He would even creative — that he did not have. of confidence, that Dr. Williams send his papers to me for himself did not know what was comments. He was fully educated QUESTION: How do you justify going to happen to the party. He left as to what was the current thinking this assessment? nothing with anybody. on freedom and colonialism. When JAMES: The proof is, what has he came here, it was these ideas he he left the country? Take unem- QUESTION: So you are saying was putting forward. But the minute ployment. Has he even had anything that Dr. Williams did not offer any the British Government told him it creative to say about this problem? sense of direction to the party which was o.k., that was it. He was their And people seem to forget the he founded? man. He had to stay. events of 1970. Let me tell you the JAMES: There was no sense of prosperity in oil now experienced by direction at all and I was saying this QUESTION: Are you saying he this country had nothing to do with since 1969. Where was the Williams was acceptable to the British Gov- any policy of the Williams regime. who stood up and spoke in Wood- ernment and they preferred to deal ford Square, the university? Why did It was a result of the decision by with him? he disappear? That Williams nobody JAMES: Precisely. OPEC countries. And when they had seen him for years. Because he asked him to join, he refused. And wanted the power then, and that was when he wanted to join they refused, QUESTION: Was that the reason he the only way he could get it, but stayed in power for so long? JAMES: because OPEC did not want an having got it, that Williams You tell me. agent of the British Government in disappeared. their fold. In 1970, the whole QUESTION: What is the future country moved against him and QUESTION: But, then, what kept position of the country? Do you see in 1974, he was all ready to the man in power for so long? any changes? go because the country was JAMES: For one reason. Williams JAMES: The country did not bankrupt. The oil saved him. It came in 1955 and started a know what was happening. The

84 PNM do not know where to go. Karl Hudson-Phillips came forward but he has also said nothing so far. There is no clear cut political state- ment from Hudson-Phillips. So here we are within a few months of an election and nobody is saying any- thing new. Let me emphasize that the same thing is happening throughout the Caribbean. So far, the only Carib- bean politician who attempted to get out of this decay was Michael Manley. But you saw what hap- pened.

QUESTION: But do you think the country would go into an election with the lack of direction you spoke about? JAMES: I don't think so. People will not continue to drift. It is not in the nature of people to drift.

QUESTION: Do you believe that the violence you spoke about else- where last year is still an option now that Dr. Williams is out of the way? JAMES: Yes, unless something takes place politically. If the country attitude is necessary and this has to PNM and all of them have made it continues to drift as it had been come from the people. Cipriani their business to keep on saying doing under Williams, then I am started something, then Butler started Weekes is a good man in union busi- afraid that violence would come. something new. Williams came and ness but not a politico. people thought he had something What will happen now, I do not QUESTION: Finally, do you see know, but surely something has to new, so now we will have to wait and see. any changes in the direction of the happen. PNM coming from the new prime QUESTION: Do you see anyone minister, George Chambers? QUESTION: Do you think the with the capacity and political JAMES: I do not know what are Organization for National Recon- support to fit the role of leader for his views. Dr. Williams never allowed struction, led by Mr. Hudson-Phil- this new era? anybody to have views. You had to lips, can stop this drift you spoke JAMES: I do not see any. But have none. Your business was to do about? there are people of a high caliber what he wanted done. Williams' main JAMES: Do you see any new di- who could do the job a lot better than concern was to hold on to power and rection in the ONR? Why is Hud- those we have at present. One is to destroy anybody who looked as if son-Phillips saying he is available? George Weekes. He is a first class he would be any kind of rival. This is He is available for what? He has not union man and a good politician. why nobody knows what Mr. Cham- come out yet with any precise state- Also there is Raffique Shah, who I bers' views are. ment. As for the (three-party) Al- know does not have any racial liance, Lloyd Best has been saying prejudices. Harry Partap covers the San Fer- the same things he said 10 years nando desk of the Trinidad and ago, but no one is listening to him. QUESTION: But these two men Tobago Express, from the April 7, you have named do not enjoy mass 1981 issue of which this article is QUESTION: What then is the al- political support and it certainly reprinted. ternative to the PNM? ONR or the contradicts your view that they could Alliance? be national leaders. JAMES: A whole new political JAMES: Because the Press, the

85 A critical reminiscence

by James and Grace Lee Boggs struggle, he said, had to be enlarged country in 1953 he became a cos- and enriched by the values which mopolite. In the United States, al- When most American radicals have been created by civilization though he had been to some extent think about a revolution in the down through the years. The sec- underground, he had in the Johnson- United States, they visualize the ond American revolution, he said, Forest Tendency an organization, a oppressed masses, workers, Blacks, will have to be grounded in the base, of Americans of very different women, rising up to sweep away the unique historical development of types: Blacks, workers, youth, bourgeoisie and institute a new capitalism and racism in this country. women, middle class professionals socialist society. So preoccupied are James was always trying to rec- and intellectuals. All of us were they with the social forces — which oncile the two strands of the French passionately concerned with the are necessary for any revolution — Revolution and the American American revolution, although we that they lose sight of the role which revolution which have shaped the had some very idealistic views about revolutionary theoreticians must play modern age. Like Marx, he saw the American workers derived from in creating the new, different and French revolution as a prototype, reading Marx. After 1953, James no longer had the challenge of the challenging ideas without which no but at the same time he sensed the mass uprising can go beyond United States, which had never unique quality of the American failed to excite him. He went to rebellion to revolution. Or they experience. Since the Russian Revo- believe that the last word on Trinidad, formed a group based on lution there have been continuing class struggle being the answer to revolution was written by Marx and struggles and splits inside the U.S. Engels in 19th century Europe or everything, and left. It seemed as radical movement around the "ex- Lenin and Trotsky in 20th century though he was experimenting. His ceptional" character of the Ameri- Russia. lectures on the West Indies were From the moment that C. L. R. can revolution. Because of his brilliant but they lacked the feeling James came to the United States via unique background, James brought for the American revolution which Europe in 1938, he was recognized a new and exciting breadth to this had been fed by the passions of by the leaders of the Trotskyite or- struggle. those-of us in the organization who ganization as a revolutionary intel- Projecting the American revolu- were very much a part of his life and lectual who could inject new life tion and the American working class of whose life he was also very much into a radical movement bogged as the heir to all the achievements of a part. down in sectarian disputes around Western civilization, he inspired a In the years to come historians of "the Russian Question." Born in few of us, known as "thre Johnson- radical politics will be examining and Trinidad, that peculiar crossroads of Forest Tendency" first inside the re-examining James's lifelong Europe, the Western Hemisphere and Workers Party and then inside the contributions to revolutionary poli- Africa, he brought with him not only Socialist Workers Party, to fantastic tics mainly because of his identifi- a tremendous knowledge of studies. We struggled to understand cation with Pan-Africanism. Some European civilization going back Marx in the light of European will accuse him of having been too thousands of years but a passionate history and civilization, reading close to western civilization to ap- belief in the contribution that Black Capital side by side with Hegel's preciate the role which that civili- people must make to their own Logic in order to get a sense of zation played in the systematic liberation and can make to the ad- dialectical and historical materi- underdevelopment of the peoples of vancement of all humanity. alism. We explored the world of Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Challenging the rigid and dogmatic Shakespeare, of Beethoven, of Mel- Middle East. Others will proclaim ideas of revolution which were held ville, Hawthorne and the Abolition- him as one of the great architects of by all tendencies in the socialist ists, of Marcus Garvey and Pan- Pan-Africanism and the African movement, he insisted that the Black Africanism. struggle against colonialism. Those of movement has independent validity, At the same time most of us us who were so close to him in the not only as an expression of the worked in the plant, struggling to '40's and early '50's will always hopes and aspirations of Black squeeze every ounce of revolution- remember him for introducing us to Americans but as a catalyst for the ary significance out of what Ameri- revolutionary ideas and politics on American revolution. So it must not can workers were saying and doing. such a high level. We will honor him be subordinated to the While he was here, C. L. R. James also for challenging us to grapple struggles of the workers against the had a real feeling for the American with the contradictions of bosses. The whole concept of class revolution, but when he left the our country and with the perspec-

86 tives of an American revolution. his fantastic talents. As we continue Grace Lee Boggs was, along with That he did not or could not see to struggle to build the organization Raya Dunayevskaya, a major col- himself assuming the responsibility necessary to lead the second Ameri- laborator on several of James's for creating an American revolu- can revolution, we will treasure the works; was editor of tionary organization can be traced, in lessons we learned from him and Correspondence, later author of The part, to his belief in spontaneity. But particularly the drive that he in- American Revolution: Pages from a it also had to do with the fact that his stilled in us to be always asking Negro Worker's Notebook, among only roots were in Trinidad, ourselves, "What else do we have to other books. They are now active in which was too limited an arena for do to go beyond?" the National Organization for an American Revolution.

Revolutionary artist

by Stanley Weir Burnham, James Carter and Martin of "state capitalism" was the result. Abern, was unable to believe that For all factional tendencies, James's I have visited with C. L. R. James Russia was any longer a workers' included, the Workers' Party only a handful of times in the last state in any form, "degenerated" or provided a valuable base for the thirty-three years. I knew him best otherwise. The division of Poland generation and testing of alternative during and in the period immediately and the invasion of Finland at Sta- ideas. While only six hundred in following World War II. Early in the lin's command had finally polarized number, as compared to the war I was taken to his cold water the debate. A split in the movement Communist Party which contained tenement room in uptown Manhattan occurred in which many of the in- the overwhelming majority of the to be introduced to him. He was tellectuals and youth left the ortho- left, the Workers' Party provided surrounded by piles of newspapers dox Trotskyist group (Socialist basis for practical development of and magazines from around the Workers Party) of James P. Cannon theory. Most of its membership was world and was involved in reading and formed the Workers' Party. They employed in heavy industry. Its and annotating articles from them as were dubbed "Shachtman-ites," but weekly newspaper, Labor Action, we entered. He was ill, but had just C. L. R. played an important part in circulated in the tens of thousands. finished a draft of an article on the In nearly every branch there were national liberation movement in the formation of the new group, the only sizeable Marxist organization people who influenced or led in the Western Europe. Just feet away, formation of progressive union Grace Lee Boggs was in the process in America to refuse political support of the War. Like Shachtman, James caucuses that were trying to keep the of typing it at high speed. I was a employers from using the war effort believed that it was impossible to merchant seaman at the time, as an excuse for taking back gains defeat the forces of fascism from a twenty-one, and only months earlier made by workers during the '30's. In capitalist base. It was felt that such had been recruited to the Workers' turn, this automatically had them Party. In large part, the meeting and an effort and war could only end in a play a prominent role in rallying ensuing discussion caused me to devastation which would increase the resistance to the Communist Party's make New York my home port for degree of totalitarian rule world super-conservative policies inside extended periods. wide. Instead the Workers' Party unions and Black communities. James had been in this country raised the idea of the Third Camp, Many thousands of rank and filers only a few years when the war broke maintaining that to continue to raise whose struggles had until recently out. After having led the formation the concept of an independent been led by the Communists faced a of the Trotskyist movement in socialist alternative to the policies of leadership vacuum as entry into the England he had felt, it was my both Washington and the Kremlin war progressed. Suddenly, the impression, the need to be in a major was a necessity. But unlike Communists made all-out attempts industrial society which contained a Shachtman, James felt that Russia in to put unions on record for a significant Black population. no way represented a separate though wartime and post-war "No Strike Immediately upon his arrival he reactionary or "bureaucratic Pledge," "National Labor involved himself in the bi-racial collectiv-ist" alternative to both Conscription," and "A Return to Southeast Missouri sharecroppers' socialism and capitalism. While he Piecework." Furthermore, they strike. At the same time the Trot- agreed with the Shachtman position sought to postpone efforts to obtain skyists here were in deep debate on in many ways, James pointed to the a Fair Employment Practices Act for the nature of the Russian State. nature of social relations in Russian the war's duration. By default, James, like Max Shachtman, James production and insisted that a form responsibility for leadership

87 was in large part placed on those ticism. Not long after the War, he led the strengths of others. In the who opposed the Communists from his group back into the Socialist Workers' Party, for example, when a radical and not conservative posi- Workers Party. But this re-associa- the demoralization began to raise a tion. The ground was laid for an al- tion was to have short life. The Bol- tendency which felt that the liance between militant rank and shevik success in the 1917 revolu- "problems" of Blacks might some- filers and socialists who were to the tion against the Tsar had shown that how be resolved without a socialist left of the Communists. C. L. R. small groups could grow into mass revolution, James countered with- James, among others, did not side- parties almost overnight. We had out ambiguity. More, he put forth step. been operating as if that was a the idea that to survive and build By 1942, C. L. R. James had permanent condition. It could now for a new and integrated society. formed a total faction inside the be seen that periods of this sort are Black Americans would need to form Workers' Party. This development temporary, that longer-range views their own separate struggle was inevitable and necessary for are necessary and that attempts to organizations, a development that survival on the part of any grouping adapt the Bolshevik vanguard party would come and of which he had with significant differences from the model to all societies under all con- no fear. majority. While the Workers' Party ditions results in a form of elitism. James was the first and only was consciously structured with On the agenda was the need for the leader in the entire Trotskyist specific democratic practice formation of tendencies whose movement, or any socialist move- guarantees to avoid the development function would be the development ment, from whom I heard discus- of bureaucracy. We were still of theory for socialist experiment sion of the special form of workers' operating on an interpretation of that could be both revolutionary and control v/hich develops in every Lenin's vanguard party concept. The democratic — in relation to a new workplace naturally and informally. presence of James's grouping of epoch. The going was to be hard for He knew of the existence of infor- workers and intellectuals, among all. mal cultures and that they were the others, operationally maximized In less than two years after joining basis from which to broach the en- those guarantees. the Socialist Workers Party, it tire question of workers' control. Trotsky's evaluation of the ob- became necessary for James to lead In a somewhat abstract discussion jective situation going into the Sec- his group out again in a try at go ing- within the Workers' Party in about ond World War had been that the it-alone. By the 1950's the 1946, James wrote a document end of the conflict would see the organization suffered two internal containing a sentence which went disintegration of Stalinism in Russia splits. After continued government something like the following: "It is and the outbreak of further revolu- harassment of James during the not impossible to conceive there tions in Europe. This did not hap- McCarthy period, he was forced to could be workers' councils within the United States in two years." His pen. Even by mid-war, it became return to England. Within a few opponents crowed that this was clear that the displacement of work- years and despite heroic efforts, in effect, the group dissolved. proof of a deep-seated romanticism ing class forces in Europe had be- None of the above experiences overriding all his expectations for come so total that there were no caused C. L. R. James to give up a American workers and Blacks. If more critical mass groupings to win life design based on opposition to his prediction was firm, time-table over. The rank-and-file associations oppression. It was native to him re- intended, he was clearly mistaken. that had been hidden strengths were gardless of changing political cir- But that does not take away the fact displaced, rearranged, even atomized. cumstances. Splits, for example, are that his methodology and approach New conditions were an aid to an experience which often have were absolutely correct. I feel sure organization from the top down only. devastating effects on the partici- that he had not read any of the Each expansion of Russian control pants of both sides. To survive them literature that has come out of the in Europe, moreover, brought the takes a degree of objectivity. James Hawthorne experiments, but he roundup and disappearance of understood that political- listened to workers. For me, he Trotskyists. There would be no quick organizational divorce is often what introduced the ideas which dem- recouping of the Russian Revolution people must do when they find it onstrated the value of what is done or any revolution in Western Europe. necessary to test new ideas. But this socially from below on the job to The Shachtman leadership, hav- goes only a little way to explain why get out production and to survive. ing lost the basis for any success in James has continued to be a major All differences recede behind that, the Third Camp perspective for the presence in the resistance community and I, like many others, am deeply foreseeable future, in major part lost of the world. indebted. its perspective. The goal became It has always seemed to me that It wasn't all just politics. In my "to hold on," waiting for a the strength of C. L. R. was some- early twenties, C. L. R. was (and re- break. James did not share the pes- how tied up in his self-respect and mains) one of the most attractive simism and was accused of roman- consequent ability to have faith in personalities I had ever met. In fact,

88 in the 1940's he was one of the few tractive women without formal in- other ways by his novel, Minty Alley, leaders that I knew in any movement troduction. To mind springs a late and by Mariners, Renegades and who from childhood had experienced supper in the Village at Connie's Castaways. He is an artist upon real social adjustment. A teenage star Calypso Restaurant after seeing "The whom history imposed the need for in cricket, the major sport of Trinidad Glass Key" starring Alan Ladd. Our full-time participation in revolu- at the time, he had early developed an table companions had never heard tionary politics — an artist who ease which allowed him to relate cinema analysis used so effectively to came to the world movement with without difficulty in almost any social relate the depths of alienation in our the natural strengths of the heritage stratum. society, but I knew as I switched that is the history of Black revolution I particularly appreciated the en- attention momentarily from them, to in the Caribbean. thusiasm with which he ate good myself, and back to James, neither food and drank good booze, had I. Stanley Weir is currently co-pub- his eagerness and insight For me, it would be impossible to lisher of Miles & Weir Books, with when evaluating moving pictures, and, comprehend James without seeing its Singlejack Series of workers' at a time were both single, his him as an artist and literary literature. ability to initiate discussions with at- critic first, as is indicated among

Young Detroit radicals, 1 1955-1965

by Dan Georgakas lated to workers' self-organization at missed a chance to speak about the the point of production and lessons No Strike Pledge of the war years, I first heard of what was then that could be drawn regarding how when asked to make a "patri- Correspondence (soon to split into methods of radical organization. At otic" pledge not to strike, the two groups, one taking the name the time I was disturbed by the ap- workers agreed enthusiastically, but Facing Reality) at a meeting of the parent strength of right-wing ele- as soon as the pledge was used News and Letters group, where a ments in the Hungarian movement against them in the workplace, the speaker noted that their former and was not convinced that the same workers had no hesitation about comrades had started a new round of workers had really directed the re- striking. Even though we were not public meetings. I had been volt, much less that they had direct convinced at the time about the introduced to News and Letters by an ed the revolt from their factories. radical nature of the Hungarian English teacher at Wayne University, My inability to grasp the Corre- revolt, we were convinced that if the spondence Hungarian analysis was but I was not overly impressed by facts as Correspondence presented what seemed to be little more than a shared by the other young radicals, them were reality, then indeed it publishing committee for the Black and white, then becoming ac- thoughts of Chairwoman Raya tive in the city. Nonetheless, the marked a new phase of socialist Dunayevskaya. I decided to check out discussions were not in vain. Al- development, a phase not unlike the the rival group. though most of us did not make the emergence of the first Soviets. The period was the late 1950's and connections to theories of the van- The person who made the strongest one of the major issues under guard party or think too deeply about immediate impression on us, discussion by Correspondence was the the development of the European particularly among the Blacks who significance of the Hungarian working class, we did become would become the nucleus of the Revolution. Marty Glaberman and engaged with other basic concepts. League of Revolutionary Black Seymour Faber were particularly Paramount among these was that Workers, was James Boggs. He had passionate about this subject. I felt what was really important in ana- been through numerous rank-and-file that I had come in during the middle of lyzing social ferment was to deter- movements and racial initiatives a running debate about something mine what the workers were doing. within unions, and he spoke extremely important, but somehow, Simple as that may seem, it was eloquently about his experiences. no one got around to spelling out the quite different from the usual em- Although Marty and others in the underlying principles. It phasis on what parties are doing and group also worked in factories, would be many years before I saying, and even what workers Boggs was the only one who seemed comprehended how Hungary re- are saying.3 Glaberman never to be the kind of militant who

89 spoke and acted in terms that had immediate application. When he spoke about workers, he described the kind of people we all knew rather than the idealizations projected by other radical groups and even other members of his own circle. Boggs was especially intriguing when he enumerated the shortcomings of the class and its internal problems, emphasizing underdevelopment among Black as well as white workers. Later, of course, he and his wife would develop these ideas more fully in a number of writings.4 A number of people involved in the Correspondence-Facing Reality orbit were also involved in the de- fense of Robert Williams. At the time, non-violence was being touted as a strategy and tactic for the emerging civil rights movement. Wil- liams' response of armed self-defense to KKK attacks in North Carolina seemed to make a lot more sense. That he was charged with Such information surfaced in book, was mainly interpreted in a kidnapping a white couple when he personal conversations with kind of Maoist fashion as an example had actually been protecting them individual: or as background on of how an underdeveloped Third from potential mob violence seemed a specific issues I got the impression World nation could defeat the most typical example of the kind of that the group was a bit schizoid powerful imperialists of its day ''justice" militants could expect in about its relationship to James: they through a protracted people's war. But groups like Facing Reality had state and federal courts. Williams' were extremely attentive to his little input to offer on specifics. newsletter, The Crusader, published views on all subjects, but did not wish to become one more cult wed When they did speak out. they mainly during his self-exile in Cuba to a leading personality in exile seemed to know less about the and then China, was widely read in whose every whim could convulse details and nuances involved than Detroit. Early on, people thought he the faithful. Consequently, while his other sources available to us. Even was a bit daffy, but they supported letters from Britain were read and though James's groups had published his thesis of armed self-defense. studied within the immediate circle, important material on Africa, they Individuals in his support group were in public events his leadership was seemed unable to cope with the active in a series of local groups — played down. A complicating factor reality of the new guerilla movements the Negro Action Committee, was that James seemed distant in in southern Africa and Latin UHURU, the Inner City Voice — style from the kind of informal America. which lead to the creation of the give-and take Detroiters preferred. For our part, we were neither League of Revolutionary Black When visiting the Detroit area in the particularly pro- or anti-U.S.S.R. Workers. 1960's (forced sometimes to speak What we saw was that the U.S.S.R. In contrast to the influence of across the border in Windsor, was not then actively leading or en- Glaberman, Boggs, and personalities Ontario), he seemed too much the thusiastically supporting revolutionary of the civil rights movement, the Great Author to attract the scrappy struggles around the world. The influence of James was indirect. younger generation in personal nation that seemed most promising Some of his books were thrust at us terms.5 in that respect was China. Luke and had quite an impact, but there Perhaps the single greatest barrier Tripp and Charles Johnson used to was little attempt to present his between the perspective of the say that whatever the Man says is ideas in a systematic manner. young radicals and the James group bad, is good.6 It followed that since Nor was there any effort to explain was the different attitude regarding China was the number one how News and Letters, Correspond- socialist revolutions in the Third villain of the hour, China was the ence, Facing Reality, et al. had World. Ironically, The Black nation to learn from. Another evolved out of Trotskyist politics. Jacobins, James's most widely read Detroit comrade of mine expressed

90 the same thought by indicating that part in Cuba support committees, el to the Middle East as guests of the intelligent way to read the New visited at the United various Arab hosts, and the major York Times was to assume the op- Nations, and took part in trips to attempt to remove the League from posite of whatever was printed was Cuba that defied the State Depart- control of 's true and work backwards. ment ban on travel to the island. daily newspaper would center on the Behind these jests was a genuine Another foreign policy focus for us support Mike Hamlin, John Watson, knowledge of the particulars of the was Palestine. Detroit happens to and others gave to the Palestine Chinese Revolution. We were pri- have the largest Arab population in Liberation Organization.7 marily concerned with the history of the United States; and from the early These international concerns, im- that struggle while the older radicals, 1960's onward, anti-Zionist positions portant as they were to all of us, whatever their affiliation, seemed to that were not anti-Semitic were were eclipsed by the Black liberation be obsessed with ideology. The older carefully articulated in speeches, struggle in the United States. In radicals gave the impression that if publications, and activities of a new addition to purely local initiatives they could show parallels between generation of Detroit-based Arabs such as the Northern High School Mao and Stalin, the discussion on with a radical perspective. strike, there were contacts with China was sealed. This greatly Discussions about the differences national groups. Typically, the irritated those of us who saw the between various Palestinian groups Detroit area SNCC group was dis- Chinese Revolution as a process that and debates about the efficacy of solved early in the 1960's by the had transformed the lives of millions terrorist tactics were the norm of national office because we wanted to of people and which still had political discussion. With the influx take direct action in the North at a enormous revolutionary vitality and of Yemeni and Palestinian immi- time when SNCC wanted to preserve potential. grants into the automobile plants, an the North as a fundraising base. If China was important, it was alliance between Black and Arab James Forman, who was responsible also distant — geographically, cul- workers took on a pragmatic edge, for this ouster, would, six years later, turally, and generationally. Cuba was inside the plants and out. One of the become an ally of the people he had close, extremely close. When the first major public activities of the bumped, when they would unite in revolution came to power, we were young Arab militants of the 1960's an effort to create a Black Workers delighted. A socialist revolution had was a series of legal actions and Congress. In spite of this temporary been made in Uncle Sam's back demonstrations aimed at Mayor falling-out over tactics, Detroit Black yard by people culturally similar Hubbard of Dearborn, infamous for radicals preferred SNCC over the to ourselves and only a few years as the area's number one rac- other mainline civil rights groups and years older. Individuals who would ist official. Eventually, Blacks were very supportive of people like be at the core of the League took involved with the League would trav- H. Rap Brown. There was always strong antipathy to Martin Luther King and admiration for Malcolm X throughout his various ideological phases. Resistance to serving in the white man's army for any purpose was a given, and when draft notices were received by local militants there was resistance of various types. The most dramatic was in 1965, when a campaign was launched to urge 50,000 angry Blacks to appear at the Fort Wayne Induction Center to “Destroy the Draft.” Among those involved were General Baker, John Robinson, Sidney Fields, Charles Thornton, John Watson, and John Williams.8 Facing Reality made a real con- tribution in connecting our inter- nationalism and our immediate struggles. We were seeking an analysis that could specifically relate the racism that permeated American society to international revolutionary

91 currents and to the grim realities of Perhaps Facing Reality was most anxious to make a bid for leadership an advanced capitalist economy. influential in its views of a workers' roles in local and national struggles Marxism became accepted as the press. It was not accidental that the were not impressed. best general analysis available, but Inner City Voice was the immediate Undoubtedly the most painful people wanted a specific critique of precursor of the League or that the moment for Facing Reality was when our particular time and place, an use of Wayne State University's its members realized that, at the very analysis that could lead to a program newspaper as the de facto daily time when new student. Black, and of action. Facing Reality, through its organ of the League was one of the worker organizations were on the general emphasis, opened the road to organization's most inspired and rise, the group had not grown in some answers. successful ventures. Although nei- numbers or obvious influence. The More than any other group, Facing ther Lenin nor Marx was widely decision to dissolve the organization Reality provided the historical, and read by the League activists, Lenin's at that point was a brave and honest ideological base for concentrating pamphlet on the press, Where To one, a course motivated by a sense of organizing activities at the point of Begin (1903), was well known, realism and modesty lacking in most production. This re-enforced the mainly through the Facing Reality leftists. The move also indicated that existing skepticism most of us felt group, and one of the major goals of in some decisive way, the influence about relying on the courts, churches, the League was to establish its own of Facing Reality (and that of neighborhoods, electoral politics and printing facilities, a project which James's ideas) was destined to be schools as the main focus of fell just short of success. On the manifested in less public, more agitation. The accent on the work- issue of a press, Glaberman's personal if hardly less important place drew an early and distinct line influence on John Watson was con- ways, and through the printed word. between programs tailored to the siderable. Facing Reality had all along set a needs of workers, employed or The paradox involved in Facing high standard for personal ethics, unemployed, as opposed to those Reality's relationship with the respect for culture and non-sectarian which appealed to street people, younger radicals was that the fervor communications. These virtues usually referred to by us even in the and insight the group brought to its became increasingly important as the early 1960's as lumpen. Furthermore, analysis of workers' movements decade of the 1960's wore on. The Facing Reality provided a elsewhere and at other times seemed group always talked a great deal sophisticated critique of the United to be absent from its commentary on about the importance of the Automobile Workers and a thesis for our immediate reality. The or- committees of correspondence in the ganization gave the impression of supporting the demands of Black American Revolution. Often, the being a spent entity in terms of workers over those of white workers homes of Facing Reality people, direct action and even in offering when they were in apparent conflict. particularly Marty and Jessie theoretical solutions to the strategic With its talk about workers' councils, Glaberman, were a flesh and blood and tactical problems at hand. When committee of correspondence. People however fuzzy the details, Facing the League of Revolutionary Black coming into town or members of Reality illuminated a way of Workers was on the brink of cap- rival groups or residents of different thinking about organizing workers turing some of the UAW locals, for areas of the city used the that did not require a vanguard party. instance, and most radicals in the city were deeply concerned with Glabermans to stay in touch with helping them win, Marty Glaberman one another. If Marty often seemed would point out that the League more interested in setting up a might be in worse shape for having speaking engagement or publishing to enforce the union contract if it a pamphlet or getting another James won. Likewise, when radicals title into print than in taking action, proposed running for judge and he never operated on a subjective or mayor, Glaberman wondered aloud self-serving basis. It was Marty who if winning might not prove more put me in touch with Paul Buhle, disastrous than losing. This position who was then putting out Radical seemingly echoed the old IWW America. Later, Paul would pass refusal to sign contracts with along my name to Gary Crowdus, employers. Abstractly correct or not, who was trying to get together a it seemed like workerist anarchism staff for the fledgling Cineaste. returning through the back door. When Italian militants from With a Facing Reality agenda for Florence and Turin came to direct action apparently absent, Detroit, they usually stayed with Detroiters clamoring for relief Marty and Jessie and were put from existential burdens and radicals in touch with whomever they wanted

92 tion of Awake and Sing. Later, in the League groups lived near Boggs and early 196U's, we were both involved would drop by for personal and po- in theatrical productions of the litical chats. The Glabermans served a Unstabled Coffeehouse. He played similar role for others, Blacks and John L. Lewis in a play we put on whites. In my own case, I remember for UAW workers in Flint. Lily a talk we had about my decision to Tomlin, Rev. Malcolm Boyd, go to Europe. I wondered what their William Snodgrass, and Woodie King political position on it would be. Jr. were among other local writers They said that the revolution was and performers involved with the not such an invalid that everyone coffeehouse at various times. As had to stay home and nurse. They chance would have it, Marty and felt that as long as I had not forsaken Jessie Glaberman were the first my political views, what was good people to put me in touch with the for me personally would work out to group. This linkage of culture and be constructive for my comrades as politics seemed natural to us. well. Jessie was particularly alarmed James's book on cricket was well at how the movement burned out known, and people immediately people or made them crazy with grasped the social implications of personal frustration. When we had to see, whether the Glabermans were what West Indians had done to the this talk, I thought I was going to go on good terms with them or not. British sport as Black athletes were to Greece. It turned out that I went This kind of interaction went on all just beginning to enter the various to Rome and because of contacts the time and was all the more professional major leagues. made there, some five years later, I impressive because it was never put It is against this rich cultural was able to arrange for members of in the context of building a Facing background that one can think more the League to be guests at various Reality organization or even a Facing charitably about John Watson's and workers' conferences sponsored by jxeality network. The group, in Ken Cockrel's hopes for Black Star Italian militants. No one could short, lived up to its commitment to Productions.10 After completing possibly guess at the time of our communication. Finally Got the News, the League conversation that there would be a The influence of Facing Reality hoped to involve Jane Fonda and League or an extra-parliamentary on the arts was considerably stronger Don Sutherland in a film about Rosa movement in Italy. I've thought about this incident many times than any of the other leftist groups in Luxemburg. Few people not directly because I know of several in- the city. There was never any involved realize how close film question of pushing socialist realism dividuals in Detroit who belong to projects of this kind came to groups of 12 to 50 and have to or imposing a political line. The first realization. Without belaboring the of my poems ever printed were mortify themselves to get "permis- point or unduly emphasizing the sion" for summer travel or to pursue published in Correspondence, exactly impact of Facing Reality, I think the as composed. In 1958 when I "personal" projects. group provided a definition of founded a literary magazine called Another warning about leftist culture that was far more profound Serendipity, the Facing Reality megalomania was offered to me by response was to make me aware of than that which surrounded most George Rawick. He asked me to Mariners, Renegades and Castaways. political movements of the 1960's. consider how it felt to be a socialist Most important was the support For us, culture was never a tag on to militant at the outbreak of World Facing Reality extended to all politics but part of the center. We War II — to know that in all the efforts toward self-publishing, assumed that sophisticated art went world, among all the brave workers whether the focus was political or hand in hand with sophisticated and activists, only a handful of artistic. We could feel we were part politics. One did not go to workers Trotskyists understand the real is- of a tradition that was much richer with a debased version of either. sues, and that among that revolu- and far more sophisticated than that That "the personal is political" has tionary remnant, only your minority of Ferlinghetti's City Lights Press in become a given for the radical tendency has the right line. San Francisco, the immediate inspira- movement of the late 1970's and Interchanges like this could be tion for the literary small press 1980's. Here, too, Facing Reality multiplied many times, and I believe movement of the 1960's.9 was ahead of the times. Many of the the biggest impact of James's ideas Frank Monico, one of the Facing younger radicals felt confident in on us came through such ex- Reality stalwarts, was also an seeking out the Glabermans or periences. The Detroit radical scene established local actor. I had first James Boggs for personal advice. would not have been the same seen him in a mid-1950's produc- A number of people involved in pre- without those ideas and their power

93 over major and minor personalities interested in the socialist transfor- son's home for a short period. Suck who would take roles in local strug- mation of society. If the influence an intimacy never developed with gles. Certainly the influence might was less than it might have been, it James, and I think I am the only have been greater if the set of ideas was far greater than that of many Detroit radical of my circle to have had been systematized and abstrac- larger and better-financed groups. made the effort of visiting James in tions reconciled with the tasks before Many of the books and pamphlets Great Britain in the early 1960's. 6. Luke Tripp had a long history of po- us. But the problem is more complex produced remain, and in the light of than whether individuals had the will litical activism and was a member off the Polish strikes of 1980, the ideas the seven-man Executive Committee for such a task or made a strong developed by James and his groups of the League, its organizational center. enough effort. Those were new and are more relevant than ever. Charles Johnson was a prominent strange times for the veterans of activist in Detroit until he moved to revolutionary struggles of the 1940's New York City in the mid-1960's. He and 1950's. In addition, Facing Footnotes remained in personal contact with the Reality people did not know whether League but did not become involved to regard us younger radicals as 1. This memoir has been written with- in its affairs in any significant fashion. college students who would out consulting any written materials 7. Mike Hamlin and John Watson were eventually enter the middle class from the time covered. As requested members of the Executive Committee by the editor, I focused on my per- world, or advanced workers who of the League and frequent public ception of the influence of the spokespeople. might one day become part of the thought of C. L. R. James on indi- leadership of a Detroit workers' 8. General Baker and John Williams were viduals who later became involved members of the Executive Committee council. As a group, we did not with the League of Revolutionary of the League. really know either. Some of the Black Workers and on the influence 9. There was a strong self-publishing people mentioned in these pages of James on my own thinking. movement among 'Black writers in have become writers or full-time 2. When the names of political groups the city, as Black writers were then intellectual workers; some have re- and their publications are identical, I virtually excluded from literary an- mained factory workers; some are have used italics to indicate the thologies of major publishing houses. members of vanguard parties; some publication and regular typeface to Dudley Randall began the influential have returned to survival in the indicate the group. Broadside Press in the 1960's. His streets; and some have gained elec- 3. Scholars trying to evaluate the ideo- press and mine had one joint venture, tive office without lowering their logical orientation and level of vari- a wall poster by M. B. Tolson. . This socialist banners. Facing Reality ous Black groups in Detroit (1955- kind of interaction between the Black 1970) should be wary when dealing artistic community and radicals was members had known some of these with printed materials. The divergence considerable but totally unstructured. people since their high school days, between rhetoric and reality can be Glanton Dowdell, sometime artist, had been supportive in the abstract enormous, as outlandish language sometime stickup man. and a League and often helpful in various political and extreme positions were tactics activist, was another figure who could initiatives, but had never locked into used to influence politicians, funders, bridge culture and politics. the new movement in a sustained or and political foes. These materials 10. Cockrel was a member of the Execu- final manner.11 often were deliberately misleading. tive Committee of the League and its Of course, no Marxist group suc- 4. When James Boggs' The American legal voice. ceeded in placing its imprint upon Revolution: Pages from a Negro 11. Boggs was asked to be part of the the movement of the 1960's, a Worker's Notebook was published in pre-League and then League activi- movement that, for its part, perished 1963, it was widely admired in De- ties, but a role could never be nego- without leaving many institutional troit radical circles. I believe it was tiated. bases that could help guide read by almost every person who later following generations. From that became a member of the League's Executive Committee. perspective, the modest successes of 5. A contrast can be shown here with the small group of people around Dan Georgakas, a New York-based the immediate influence of a man like writer, is co-author of Detroit: I Do Correspondence/Facing Reality are Harry Haywood. Long before quite remarkable. They were able to Mind Dying. Cartoons in this article Haywood's Black Bolshevik was pub- were reprinted from Corre- preserve and pass along a sophis- lished in 1978, his views and experi- ticated body of analysis, making it ences were known to the Detroit rad- spondence. accessible in some degree to a new icals through extensive personal generation of rebels and activists contact. Haywood lived in John Wat-

94 Only connect by Ferrucio Gambino new debate on "the Negro question' tionale. Their German fellow-workers in the United States, he was able to joined in. . . . In the afternoon link the self-activity of the illegal tracts appeared as from no- I proletariat in the industrialized where. . . . In the working men [sic] countries with the self-activity of slums in Wedding and Moabit such "In our neighborhood, we were inscriptions abounded as "Hitler feeling that we were with the others, the proletariat in the colonized dead, Berlin stays red."4 with the Ethiopians, with the countries. Spanish," said Margitt, a rank-and- file militant woman in the Po Val- II It was the sign of the tragic clash ley, Italy, as she recalled the mid- between the potential of human lib- 1930's.1 More or less at the time "We want a decent wage. If we eration inherent in such revolts as in when Margitt and her comrades were get it, we will work. If we don't get it Southeast Missouri, Turin and Berlin debating the burning issues of those we will not work. . . . We may have on the one hand and the iron cage of years and printing illegal leaflets in to die for democracy in Java or in the Yalta diktat on the other that Iceland. We can die for 30c an hour inspired small groups of Marxists the basement of her house, C. L. R. 3 James heard George Pad-more here first." In the late spring of 1942 throughout the world to rescue the knocking at the door one night in so demanded a pamphlet that C. L. universal experience of the 1934, on his last journey back from R. James wrote under the dictation proletariat during and after world Moscow,2 The re-establishment of of the protagonists of the war two from the fangs of the cold harmonious relations between Stalin sharecroppers' strike in Southeast warriors in the whole range of their and "the grand democracies" had Missouri. It was an early example of livid colors. The convergence of the left no room for those like Padmore the resistance to the no-strike pledge, self-activity of the masses against who had devoted all their energies a few months ahead of the United exploitation with the contribution of to build an internationalism Mine Workers wildcats that would dedicated intellectuals in legitimizing comprehending anti-colonial set the pace to the collapse of the such self-activity took unique struggles. tight regimentation of the working features in the United States in the The dawn of this century was a class that the U.S. state and the 1940's and 1950's under the strange time to be born at: too late to union bureaucracy intended to leadership of C. L. R. James, but was be part of the first world war enforce throughout the war and post- not a trait unique to the United States generation, too early to be part of the war reconversion. A few months in those years. For those like me who second world war generation. In later also, in February-March 1943, discovered Marxism later, journals between lay the vast gulf of the the working class in Turin struck such as Labor Action and 1920's and 1930's, with the pro- production on a scale that had been Correspondence provided a glimpse fusion of revolutionary activities in unheard of in fascist-dominated into the debates of those years. What the name and for the sake of so- continental Europe. The workers in is less easily perceivable today is the cialism in one country. That dedica- Turin took action against the most intensity of their reflection and tion burned out a large part of a vicious war machine that had ever anticipation of future developments, generation of revolutionaries who confronted an urban proletariat in the their setting an example of agitation would more often identify with West. Today no historian would and propaganda to other countries foreign lands than with their native dispute the notion that those strikes and other groups, their boldness in grounds as potential crucibles for decided the fall of Italian fascism in sizing up the conditions of the deep social change. Born at the be- July 1943. The consequences were working class in the U.S. and ginning of this century, C. L. R. far-reaching: elsewhere in light of working class James was among the few intellec- needs, and not of ossified tuals of his generation who avoided The first eyewitness accounts from bureaucracies: the easy trap of transferring alle- Germany on Berlin's reaction to the giance to distant Central Commit- fall of Italian fascism reveal that the The productive system of the United tees. In the organization of the Af- Reich capital experienced its most States created the basis of the Negro situation and it is the productive system rican Bureau and in the agitation and troublesome day since Adolph Hitler assumed power. . . . Numerous which is creating the basis of propaganda against the Italian Italian metal workers in the Sie- its solution. It is the mass invasion of Ethiopia, in projecting mens-Schuckert plant took the lead production industries which have the long trajectory of Caribbean in the Monday pause to celebrate within recent years placed whites and fight against imperial domination the news, just announced by the Negroes together on a basis of into the future, and in forcing a Reich radio, singing the Interna- equality in that most fundamental

95 social sphere — the process of pro- sides. Now on a mass basis, this Footnotes ductive labor.5 alliance was still developing along the pattern worked out in Detroit in 1. Danilo Montaldi, Militanti politici di And in anticipation of Montgom- the 1940's. C. L. R. James was at the base (Einaudi, Torino, 1971), page 171. ery, Alabama: center of the conference on liberation It is hoped that this book, as well as in London in the summer of 1967, other works by Danilo Montaldi, can When you get on a bus, do you once again ahead of the European be published in English soon. A young know how it feels to be told to go events that would unfold months participant in the Resistance in Cre- to the back when there are plenty mona, Montaldi became the bridge-man 6 later at an accelerating speed from of seats in front? between and France. Having been a protagonist its intercontinental ramifications on in the struggle for the demise of III the one hand and the Italian non- colonialism, it was now possible for Stalinist groups on the left of the Italian him to rebuild the bridge between The Berlin workers' revolt of 1953 CP and SP on the other. Of him it can different sections of the proletariat in be said that nobody in post-WWII Italy and the Hungarian Revolution of the First World and the Third World listened more carefully than he did to 1956 did not take the most alert by looking at the Black movement the voice of the Po Valley proletariat participants to postwar proletarian in the United States as the main and shared more communally political politics by surprise. What the workers reference point. McCarthyism had experiences and organizational skills. in Budapest had accomplished for all dealt its sharpest blow when it had He died in 1975. The only work of his of those who had stuck to resistance succeeded in expelling C. L. R. that studies an elite was published shortly before his death: Saggio sulla against state and corporate James from the United States. It was exploitation was now clear: the politico del PCI, 1919-1970 (Quaderni the Black movement of the late Piacentini, Piacenza). dissenting voices in the European left 1960's that brought him back, and it and throughout the world could now 2. The Stalinist condemnation of Pad- was that movement that provided more is to be found in Greenwood, "A be listened to while the most brutal inspiration and guidance to groups traits of Stalinism were retreating to Betrayer of the Negro Liberation and individuals in Europe. The first Struggle," Inprekorr (English edition), the background. This was the time interview abroad to the League of No. 37 (June 29, 1934), page 968. when tiny groups and individuals in Revolutionary Black Workers was Whoever believes that "during the Southern Europe discovered and read published in Potere Operaio around twentieth century the prestige of the "the American comrades" — two the same time when Black Jacobins Russian Revolution and its subsequent words that at long last it was possible appeared in an Italian translation. consolidation of state power long guar- to put together again — "the The publication of Black Jacobins anteed the hegemony of the Stalinist American comrades" who contributed Third International over revolutionaries led to some radical rethinking not throughout the world" (Eugene D. to Socialisme ou Barbarie. It was a only of world history and world time when discussion started about Genovese, From Rebellion to Revolution accumulation but also of the very [Louisiana State University Press, Baton Danilo Montaldi's translation into notion of imperialism, class, and Italian of Paul Romano's The Rouge and London. 1979], page 125) social formation. The interview of would be well advised to re-examine American Worker and Daniel Mothe's the League to Potere Operaio led to the history of Pan-Africanism as well as Journal d'un Ouvrier. The more than the well-known slogan of other anti-colonial movements after the conditions of the working class Potere Operaio: "Turin, Detroit, Stalinist alliance with "the grand looked strikingly similar throughout Togliattigrad, class struggle will democracies." the so-called First World — and, we win." It signalled the death knell of 3. C. L. R. James, The Future in the argued at that time, it could not be the isolated within the narrow Present. dissimilar in the Second World. confines of the official left's "Italian 4. New York Times, July 31, 1943. page 1, State capitalism was a living in a correspondence from Stockholm road to socialism." that was based on Swedish category whereby we could relate in "Only connect," opening up solidarity to the people who were businessmen's direct report from Berlin. channels of communication inter- bearing the brunt of the opposition 5. J. R. Johnson [C. L. R. James], "One nationally, this is at least as urgently to "actuated socialism." Tenth of the Nation," Labor Action. on the Italian agenda in the 1980's as October 21, 1946, page 2. The spring of 1968 may have it was in the early 1960's — in spite 6. J. R Johnson [C. L. R. James], "One- been a difficult season for what of a new dimension of massive Tenth of the Nation," Labor Action. would later be known as the Italian arrests, authoritarian threats, December 23, 1946, page 2. extra-parliamentary left, but after and attempts to atomize Ferrucio Gambino is a veteran Italian the April strikes at Fiat the battle for collective interests. "Only connect" activist, and professor of history at remains the working class keynote. an alliance between workers and the University of Padua. students became possible to both It spells the name of C. L. R. James.

96 Minty Alley by D. Elliott Parris sumed, but not discussed. The white colonial officials who no doubt Minty Alley, first published in managed the affairs of Trinidad at London in 1936, is C. L. R. James's that time, and who controlled its only novel. Had he written nothing economy, are nowhere in the novel. else, had he not established himself The race relations that concern later as a major historian and political James here are not between White theorist, this novel, written in his and Black, but between African and youth before he departed Trinidad in East Indian fellow Trinidadians. The the mid-1930's to establish himself class struggle here is not that of in Europe as one of the most Bourgeois versus Proletariat, but the celebrated of West Indian exiles, struggle of petit-bourgeois, educated would have earned him a lasting Mr. Haynes to come to grips with reputation as a literary artist. On the life and the vitality of living strength of it he has gained the personified in the lower class reputation of being a major residents of No. 2, Minty Alley, forerunner of the Caribbean literary where economic circumstances have movement in English, which has forced him to become a boarder and class that Haynes represents. All we flourished mainly after 1950. But fellow resident. learn about Haynes is that his edu- Minty Alley foreshadows and even The landscape of Minty Alley is cation (he is a high school graduate) goes beyond much that was to fol- sparse. Emphasis is on characteriza- and his socialization prepared him low in West Indian fiction. tion rather than setting. Much of for nothing more than to be a book James's novel displays a concern later West Indian fiction is rich in store clerk while he waits to go on for class, color, and race relations in descriptive passages of the landscape to higher education. In terms of real the Caribbean that would be central and lengthy explanations of cultural living, his life is a blank when he ar- to the works of writers who were to life against which the plots unfold, rives at No. 2, Minty Alley. It is follow, such as Mittelholzer, Nai- practices partly dictated by the there he is to be confronted with life, paul, Lamming and Selvon. Unlike first as a voyeur, and then, ever so Mittelholzer, however, James's view conscious awareness of some authors that they are writing for a gradually, as a participant, as he of the society reflects an identifica- observes and eventually gets drawn foreign audience. But James wrote tion with those at the bottom rather into the life of the working class Minty Alley for the familiar; de- than at the top. The sensibility he residents, who include his landlady wishes to celebrate is that of the scription is kept to a minimum, to Mrs. Rouse; her niece Maisie; Mr. peasant and proletariat, the people of what is necessary for the interests of Benoit, common-law husband of the "yard." Unlike Naipaul, James the plot. The author's skills are those Mrs. Rouse for eighteen years; the displays no hysterical embarassment of the playwright, a keen ear for the nurse, boarder and best friend ol about Caribbean identity, but depicts nuances of dialogue and a deft Mrs. Rouse, who steals Benoit away; it as it is with realistic candor and dexterity with character revelation the nurse's young son, Sonny; Miss implied love. Lamming and Selvon and development. If transposed to Atwell, another boarder and would therefore seem to be more the stage as a full-length play, Minty Philomen, the trusted East Indian closely his disciples; but much of Alley would hardly need a change of servant. their work is created within the scenery. Most of the events that take This novel is important as a polit- framework of protest — protest place in the novel occur at No. 2, ical statement more in terms of what against the colonial system that Minty Alley, and what happens is implied than in terms of what is imprisoned Caribbean societies for elsewhere is most often retold to the directly stated. The implications are over 350 years. Minty Alley is no residents there, sometimes in more many. First, the novel implies that protest novel. Though written in the than one version, depending upon the vitality of Caribbean identity is 1930's, when the fires of nationalism who brings the news. to be found in its working class, the were beginning to enflame the region, Although the hero of the novel, people of the "yard," people like the novel pays scant attention Mr. Haynes, is from a petit-bour- the residents of Minty Alley. to the political causes that ultimately geois background, C. L. R. James Moreover, while possessing great account for the circumstances shows very little interest in this sensibility and a keen of poverty which encircle novel in analyzing the psychology common sense, the lower class its characters. Colonialism is as- of the West Indian lower middle still looks with respect on the petit- bourgeois educated class for guid- these two women on the advice of Indian. ance in areas that require more for- an obeah priest that the East Indian's Because we know what the mal training, as the residents of presence in her home is the sole young James went on to become we Minty Alley turn to Mr. Haynes for cause of all Mrs. Rouse's problems, cannot help but draw these political assistance in legal affairs and other also implies that superstition and implications from the novel. But the business, and respect his judgment. ignorance can easily sever the fragile focus of the young writer, James, in But just as Mr. Haynes is depicted as bonds between the two communities, Minty Alley is kept the human lacking in confidence and as un- as they struggle to deal with the interest of the drama that he prepared for emotional and physical reality of their circumstances. In unfolds, and as we watch these involvement in life, the novel implies retrospect, then, James's vision of the vibrant characters emerge from that the Caribbean petit-bourgeois 1930's seems prophetic of the the pages, as we weep with their class had been rendered relatively nationalist struggle that was to be sufferings and exult with their joys, impotent by its education and stood waged in the Caribbean in the we become clearly aware James's to benefit from more exposure to the decades to follow, a struggle that humanism, a quality that stayed passions of the lower class. Mrs. saw the alliance of the petit- with him and permeates his later Rouse's initial trust and love for her bourgeois leadership class with the historical and political writings. East Indian maid, Phil-omen, imply working class, whose strength lay in that racial differences need not the acquisition of the vote and newly D. Elliott Parris, from the West impede a strong alliance organized trade unions; a working Indies, is a Professor of Afro- between African and East Indian class that in some cases was to American Studies and Caribbean Caribbean peoples, but the later experience internal division along Studies at Howard University. break in the relationship between the lines of African versus East

A profound thinker by Peppino Ortoleva had taken place, which a revolu- uncomfortable for a determinist (translated by Noel Ignatin) tionary could make use of in his Marxism: an anti-colonial political activity. revolution preceding the epoch of One of the best ways of distin- I reread The Black Jacobins this imperialism, a revolution that guishing a truly profound thinker past month. Naturally, I found there carries to power slaves who have from others perhaps suggestive and what I had found when I read it the not reached the stage of wage labor: intelligent but superficial is the fact first time. But this time I had no accident that Marxism, before that the former's writings are able to different problems while I was reading James, had not taken up that great be read in different ways in different it: the recurring triumph of the revolution so difficult to place on times, to give, to each new question, enemies of mankind, even within the the agenda of evolution. And then, a new answer. In other words, the ranks of the revolutionaries (a what on first reading had appeared profound thinker is worth rereading. problem which C. L. R. James had to me simply as literary felicity C. L. R. James is one of these addressed many times in the course now revealed its true root: the thinkers. of his, fortunately, long life), re- attention to the political, but also I read The Black Jacobins, the first quired of me, and requires of me, ethical choices of the individual, the time, almost ten years ago. At that that I take up the challenge of what refusal to reduce to pure symbol or reading it seemed to me singularly seems to me the most intimate symptom the superindividual well written (a quality found too weakness of the Marxist philosophy entities the field. And this is valid rarely); but above all it seemed an of history, and perhaps of any phi- not only for the great Toussaint but exemplary analysis of a revolu- losophy of history, the obstinate for the protagonists of that great tionary process: able to pick up all claim to give a unitary, global and event. The concept, by itself banal, the complexity and richness without linear sense to historical develop- "history is made by man," is underestimating the aspects of ment. Rereading it in this light, it applied by James in a non-banal tortuousness and uncertainty, able to was easy to see The Black Jacobins fashion: that it is to the individual, pick up, in mutual interdependence, as an openly and fruitfully heretical well as to the collective movement, but also partial autonomy, the work, and to understand the con- that one must look. Because it is social, political and economic sistency of that heresy with other individual hands, and not only those components. It constituted, in sub- singular and important aspects of of the collective movement that are stance, a mine of suggestions and the author's work. weighed the choices that lead from observations on a revolution which The choice of subject is already a given situation to one

98 of the many future possibilities, nary permanence of what we have and the Garveyites, the African lib- that make history. sometimes called the "need for eration movements (which everyone The secret of that rebellious and communism," that one can also call had ignored, thinking that it would non-deterministic Marxism is found, the need for human liberation. To always be Europe that decided the perhaps. at another point in James's that permanence of class op- fate of the world) and the American where (as in Dialectics and History) pression, that cuts across human workers, on whom already at thit he underlines that the will of the history in its entirety, is counter- time, no Marxist was ready to bei, a oppressed mass to impose its own posed, therefore, the need for penny. It is thanks to that dialectic rule and its own free sociability is liberation: a clash which, in actual that James has been able to teach us not limited to a specific phase history, is as determinant as the to read not only history, but Melville economic and social development, to regular succession of the forces and and baseball, transforming his a particular technology or class relations of production. limitless and thirsty curiosity into a structure, but crosses history, at It is thanks to that complex, non- tool of knowledge. least Western post-Christian history, evolutionary dialectic that James is in its entirety. In his reading of able to identify, in history and in Peppino Ortoleva teaches American history, therefore, the dynamic of society, the true protagonists, studies at the University of Torino development and of the succession. those who do not wait on orderly and is a long-time participant in the of various modes of production progress to make themselves extra-parliamentary Italian left. is intertwined with the extraordi- felt: he could understand Toussaint

Philosophy and culture

by Dave Wagner who withdrew into theory and lathe of history.) sealed the tomb after them with the So it seems intellectuals must ac- Toward the end of his 1947 declaration that theory was all that cept their ambiguous relationship essay,. "Dialectical Materialism remained of practice; equally for with History, frustrating as that may and Fate of Humanity," C. L. R. those who impatiently — and, as be. Most philosophers would have James says something very they sometimes correctly imagined, let the matter rest at the point, but simple and very remarkable: heroically — stepped forward to not James. In the late 1940's we "accept" the leadership of history find him delivering a series of The dialectician [i.e., the serious before being ground down by it. letters on Hegel's Science of Logic philosopher] is often seriously That's the rebuke. to his working class following in thrown back by the fact that the The consolation, of course, is the great masses of workers do not Detroit. It is one of the finest seem to think in a way that assertion that for the masses "the introductions to Hegel ever written. corresponds to these ideas. He matter goes deeper." Despite the re- The conversational tone, always one should remember that the peated failure of American intellec- of the benchmarks of James's genius number who thought of socialist tuals to make decisive interventions and key to his ability to tie revolution in Russia in February into the historical experience of the philosophy to daily life (the culture 1917 was pitifully few. There is no masses in recent history (even when of the masses), was never more record of one single republican in conditions seemed suitable for an France of July 14, 1789. How graciously put to use. many of the Founding Fathers "explosion," in James's term), the "Hegel," he told the Detroit advocated independence in 1776? process continues in the daily ex- readers, "is going to make a tre- The anticipation of these ideas perience of ordinary people. Hope mendous organization and analysis accumulate and then under is not absent. of thoughts, categories, etc. But he suitable conditions explode into a James's use of the metaphor of takes time out to say, and we will new quality. But with the masses "explosion" is contained and ex- forget this at our own peril, that the matter goes deeper. They do panded in another more modern and categories, the forms of logic, in not think as intellectuals do, and this intellectuals must understand. equally Hegelian metaphor: that Desire, Will, etc., are human feelings history at points reaches a "critical and actions." (James's emphasis) I have always taken this as a mass" in which "suitable conditions" History, in other words, is the rebuke and a consolation. bring together the power of animation of muscle and bone by On the one hand, critical thought with the objective hope and desire. James’s insight can serve as situation of the mass of In James's writings there is a a tombstone for the New humanity. (Yes, it's only a meta- wholeness that suggests itself in Left, an epitaph both for those phor, but it's been turned on the each part. And so we have the flesh

99 and blood masses in his own novel, The glimpse of Maisie in this ac- hands. Of course! No matter how Minty Alley, in which. James as an count is the glimpse of daily life in serious, sincere (in that romantic intellectual says good-bye to the Hegel's categories, a free play of preoccupation) or accomplished a experience (but not the understand- perception that gives James more human personality may be, it i ing) of the masses in his farewell to sheer range than any other modern incapable of the inhumanity of the spontaneous, beautiful, won- dialectician who has dared to live kinghood. There is too much to derfully vindictive and wholly hu- and write as a whole person. reconcile. To write about the great est kings in their fullest glory is an man Maisie: I've been dealing with some of the more obscure of James's works immanent critique of the existence here, and I can't help but conclude of kings. History, after all, works with a reference to one of the most through the daily activity of off Maisie had disappeared, but suddenly obscure — but one that gave me a members of the species. Kings are there was a shout from a few of the boost in literary matters I will never finally going to be left behind. people who had crept into the yard As, of course, in the Jamesian to witness the disturbance. She had forget. Somewhere on the flip side of view, are intellectuals to whom the slipped through the window at the Maisies of the world are lost. In back. By the time Haynes [James?] James's 33-rpm recording of a lec- ture comparing and contrasting James we have the hope of finding reached round he could just catch a them — and ourselves — again. glimpse of her walking up Victoria Melville and Shakespeare, James Street, bareheaded, her head and observes that all the Bard's histories are concerned with one theme: the neck still plastered with mud from Dave Wagner, a longtime activist in Mrs. Rouse's tumble, and a small impossibility of being a king. the Newspaper Guild, is an editorial crowd walking behind her. Gone. With that, the key to at least writer for a Wisconsin daily paper. And gone for good. a third of Shakespeare fell into our

N, A Mariners, Renegades, cussed. To a peculiar degree, and ir a way deserving study by radical writers, James combines the func- and Castaways tions of critic and storyteller, of popularizer and analyst. Second, Mariners in its fascinating observa- by David Roediger James would take up decades later, notably the profound Hegelian Be- tions on the working crew of the C. L. R. James's Mariners, Rene- nito Cereno. The absence of lesser- Pequod and especially of Queequeg, gades and Castaways, like most known Melville fiction, probably Tashtego and Daggoo, opens the American-published writing of lasting unavailable to James at the time, way for analysis of Melville's per- value from the past half-century, reminds us that writing from jail is ception of capitalism as a world appears ephemeral in the extreme. A hardly the adventure some romantic system and of the industrial meta- self-published little paperback on critics imagine it to be. On the other phors in his sea-set novels (a theme Herman Melville's fiction, a rare hand, James's contact with the recently addressed in a clever chapter book almost from its appearance, renegades and castaways of Ellis of Ron Takaki's Iron Cages. which Mariners is nonetheless a minor Island breathes fire into the book owes much to James). James, more classic. Written largely while James and a final section on the confine- than any other modern author, sat in an Ellis Island prison awaiting ment stands as an interesting memoir appreciates, finally, the humor of a McCarthyite deportation hearing, of the period, especially because Melville, noting at one point, the book is no academic treatise. James comes to grips with the mixed "Almost every sentence [of a Instead, it concentrates upon a motives and the humanity of some section of Moby Dick] can be the sustained and brilliant explication of Communist prisoners whom he subject of a comic strip." That two books, Moby Dick and Pierre, might have dismissed as his "Sta- James could write such a line, and with brief asides treating other of linist opponents." mean it as high praise, suggests the Melville's famous works. The Three further considerations degree to which imagination and central thesis of Mariners, that (among many) mark Mariners as a shrewdness coexist in his criticism. Melville was the first great critic of groundbreaking work. One is that bureaucratic capitalism and James succeeds in writing a work of David Roediger teaches history and totalitarianism on a world scale, literary criticism which can be readily an occasional course on Melville at would have benefitted from appreciated by those who have Northwestern University. He is also consideration of other works that no familiarity with the books dis- Books Editor at In These Times.

100 Pioneers of West Indian "No nation now Surrealism but the imagination." — Derek Walcott

by Franklin Rosemont The founders of surrealism were Caribbean the descendants of the Europeans, but their rigorous prac- Negro-African slaves held for three Although unremarked by his tice of poetry led them to criticize centuries in the stultifying conditions commentators, C. L. R. James's mercilessly the dominant values and of the proletariat. Léro affirmed that encounters with surrealism have been institutions of Christian/bourgeois only surrealism could deliver them sufficiently numerous and significant civilization. Surrealism is the cul- from their taboos and express them to warrant a closer look. Let no one mination of a long succession of in their integrity." be misled by the disparaging avant-gardes arising out of European The journal included Léro's allusion, on the last page of The High Culture, but it also rejoins and devastating critique of what then Black Jacobins, to "the dabblers in extends the dreams and aspirations passed for poetry in the French West surréalisme." The evidence suggests of ancient "accursed" traditions, Indies. In opposition to this that this aspersion was directed not long-forgotten heretical movements, sentimental, lifeless verse, crushed against surrealism, but against "primitive" societies, as well as under the dead weight of white co- dabblers — an attitude with which emancipatory popular currents in the lonialist values, Léro hailed not only the surrealists would heartily industrialized countries. In this sense the example of his European sur- it can be said to represent, realist comrades but also "the rising concur. Chronologically, surrealism parallels epochally, the dialectical wind from black America" — the the two movements with which supersession of Western culture. work of Langston Hughes and Ja- James's life has been most closely From the start, the surrealists were maica-born Claude McKay, as well intertwined: Leninist Marxism and especially active in the struggle as the great creators of jazz. Sur- Pan-Africanism. As an organized against racism and imperialism. Their realism thus had a hand in develop- revolutionary cultural movement, orientation in this regard clearly was ing international Black solidarity. surrealism began in France in 1924 influenced by Marxism, but it also In Légitime Défense we can dis- with the publication of André Bre- had a specifically surrealist character. cern the origins of what would a ton's first Surrealist Manifesto. Its The surrealists have been vociferous few years later be known as Negri- basic aim was then, as it is now, a in their appreciation of the cultural tude. In its twenty-four vibrant thoroughgoing revolutionary social contributions of nonwhite peoples: pages between blood-red covers, we transformation, the elaboration of a their art, their dances, their whole see the first brave steps of an indig- truly free society in which the in- ways of life, so admirably enous French-language Caribbean spiration and exaltation customarily counterposed to the abject literature. regarded as the prerogative only of miserabilism that has increasingly In the English-speaking Caribbean, poets and artists will be acknowledged infected Western culture throughout during the same period, much the as the common property of all. The this century. This appreciation same role was played by two surrealist program is ably summed underscored the surrealists' journals with which James was up in the battle-cry of the solidarity with the Scottsboro closely associated: Trinidad and The movement's great precursor, the defendants in the U.S. the Viet- Beacon, both published in Trinidad. Uruguayan-born poet Lautréamont: namese guerrillas, the Rif tribesmen Like Légitime Défense, these "Poetry must be made by all!" of Morocco, and the emerging revo- journals were characterized above all Starting from a position of radical lutionary movement in the Carib- by revolt, nourished by the growing ''idealism," the surrealists quickly bean. self-assurance of the forces of West advanced through, the successive West Indian surrealism began in Indian emancipation. And like stages of modern European thought 1932, when a group of Martiniquan Légitime Défense, these journals and soon recognized themselves as Blacks sojourning in Paris published a were not narrowly literary; along Marxists. This theoretical clarifica- journal, Légitime Défense. Its central with poetry and fiction they tion and political commitment were figure was the poet and theorist concerned themselves with art, accompanied by the rapid growth of Etienne Lero. "More than a review," music, social criticism and politics. the movement worldwide. By the end Leopold Senghor wrote many years That the Trinidad group did not of the 1920's surrealism was later, "Légitime Défense was a cul- adopt surrealism is hardly surprising, flourishing not only throughout tural movement. Beginning with especially in view of the general Europe, but also in Argentina and a Marxist analysis of the society of delay in the development of sur- Japan. the West Indies, it discovered in the

101 realism throughout the English- speaking world. A discussion of this question here would take us too far afield; suffice it to say that the first surrealist group in England was or- ganized only in 1936, and yet an- other thirty years would pass before an indigenous surrealist group would be formed in the United States. James and his co-thinkers, how- ever, were committed at that time to the principles of literary realism. James's only novel, Minty Alley, is firmly situated in the realist tra- dition. But one cannot fairly gen- eralize, on this evidence alone, that he would have disdained the views of Légitime Défense. Surrealism is not, in any case, simplistically and absolutely "against" realism. It would be more correct to say that the decisive influence of surrealism surrealism includes realism as one of surrealism's most outstanding figures. — and of Breton particularly — on element in a larger synthesis. Légi- his life. His journal Tropiques time Défense printed an excerpt In his preface to Red Spanish Notebook, James refers to Péret as (1941-45) unquestionably represents from Claude McKay's Banjo; André the high point of surrealism during Breton had only the highest praise "the great French poet" and one of the second imperialist war. for Jacques Roumain's Masters of the leading revolutionists in Spain. the Dew. Surely Minty Alley is In addition to writing numerous The activity of the Tropiques volumes of extraordinary poems and comparable to these. group exemplifies the immense tales, as well as important critical The community of interests be- ground covered by West Indian sur- studies of Brazilian slave revolts and tween Léro's Martinique group and realism in its first decade. The orig- pre-columbian art, Péret was a inal impetus of a small nucleus of James's Trinidad group could be lifelong political activist — in France, said to constitute an objective link exiles had effloresced into one of Brazil, Mexico and in revolutionary the largest and most active sections between surrealism and the author Spain, where he served as a militia- of The Case For West Indian Self- of the surrealist international. By man in the Durutti Division. the mid-'40's the surrealist presence Government. As West Indian sur- In his 1962 epilogue to The Black was evident throughout the islands. realism expanded throughout the Jacobins James devoted several Juan Breá died in 1941, but sur- '30's and after, and as James multi- pages to an appreciation of the realist perspectives were defended plied his international relations, his Martiniquan poet Aimé Césaire and in Cuba by the painter Wifredo association with surrealism became his Return to My Native Land, Lam, the sculptor Agustin Carde- direct and personal. which James heralded as "the finest nas, and the poet José Alvarez Bara- In 1937 he wrote the preface to and most famous poem ever written gaño, later a guerrilla in the 26th of Red Spanish Notebook, an impor- about Africa." It also happens to be July Movement. Carlos Franqui, a tant firsthand account of the Span- one of the greatest poetic triumphs leader of the Cuban Revolution, ish Revolution, by Juan Breá and of surrealism. Originally published in was also an ardent supporter of Mary Low. "The pulse of the revo- a journal in 1939, its first integral surrealism. lution," James wrote, "beats through publication in book form was In Haiti, Clément Magloire-Saint- every page." Fighters in the workers' prefaced by Breton (Paris, 1947). Aude's Dialogue of My Lamps, Ta- militia, the Cuban Breá and his Lydia Cabrera's Spanish translation boo and other works situated him Australian companion were appeared four years earlier (Havana, among the finest surrealist poets. also militants of international 1943), prefaced by Péret and In the Dominican Republic surrealism. Their collection of es- illustrated by the Cuban surrealist a group formed around the journal says, La Verdad Contemporanea Wifredo Lam. La Poesia Sorprendida. Among (Havana, 1943), was the first full- Although he is better known as them was the Spanish exile E. F. length work of surrealist theory the leading protagonist of Negri- Granell, painter and poet, a militia published in the Caribbean; it was tude and a prominent political fig- leader in the Spanish Revolution, prefaced by Benjamin Péret, one ure, Césaire has repeatedly affirmed and author of a lyrical celebration

102 use of the discoveries of psycho- analysis. Both had a long association with the Trotskyist movement, and even with Trotsky himself. Both participated in the 1968 Cultural Congress of Havana. Both have long appreciated the revolutionary significance of the Rastafarian agitation in Jamaica. Both have long been admirers of the writings of Wilson Harris, the great poet and novelist from Guyana, author of The Palace of the Peacock and other magisterial works. And both have drawn deeply on the inspired and inspiring traditions of Black music; James's vivid appreciations of calypso, for example, in his Party Politics in the West Indies and elsewhere, harmonize perfectly with the theses advanced by the surrealist Paul Garon in his pivotal study, of West Indian folklore, Isla: Cofre tirely realizable and, indeed, urgent. Blues and the Poetic Spirit. mitico. Granell later organized an Admirably free of the ancient curses, We cannot conclude, however, important surrealist exhibition in West Indian surrealism proves that without a salute to Toussaint Puerto Rico. everything under the sun can be L'Ouverture, that grand historic At the end of the war, in a always new. personage who always has been one "Speech to Young Haitian Poets," In this short paper it is possible to of surrealism's heroes — one of those Breton avowed that "the greatest touch on only a few points of contact who have given the cause of human impulses toward new paths for sur- between James and the surrealists. freedom its greatest social realism" were coming, precisely, Several other conjunctions and from Black West Indians. Breton's affinities would require a more resonance — and who is also, of book, Martinique: Snake-Charmer detailed presentation. Both James course, the subject of James's greatest (1948), demonstrates that the Ca- and the surrealists, for example, book. Today it is to The Black ribbean had become a focal point of constantly refer their activity to the Jacobins that one must turn to know the movement. That it has remained philosophy of Hegel. Both regard the truth, the grandeur, the burning a focal point ever since is indicated Herman Melville as a central source. actuality of the San Domingo by the large number of West Indian Both have made effective critical Revolution. artists represented at the World Surrealist Exhibition in Chicago, 1976. In his introduction to the New Beacon reprint of J. J. Thomas's Froudacity, James observes that a particular historical situation "has produced a particular type of social and intellectual activity which we can definitely call West Indian." Aimé Césaire emphasized that for him, as a West Indian, surrealism was "more of a confirmation than a revelation" — above all, a "liber- ating factor." These insights help define the specificity of Caribbean surrealism: its sense of life brought to the highest tension — its dazzling awareness of human possibilities scarcely even dreamed of yet en-

103 Bibliographical Note

Légitime Défense and Tropiques, long unobtainable even in libraries, have re- cently been reprinted by Editions Jean- Michel Place in Paris. An English transla- tion of the Légitime Défense manifesto was published in Arsenal/Surrealist Sub- version No. 2 (Chicago, 1973). Red Spanish. Notebook has been re- printed by City Lights (San Francisco, 1979), with a new introduction by E. F. Granell. Aimé Césaire's Return to My Native Land is available in a bilingual (French and English) edition from Présence Afri- caine (Paris), and in another translation from Penguin (New York and London). An English translation of Cadastre has been published by The Third Press (New York, 1973). His Discourse on Colonialism is available from Monthly Review. André Breton's essay on Aimé Césaire, André Breton was forced to seek matters is that at several crucial his "Speech to Young Haitian Poets," the asylum in the U.S. during World junctures he has made surrealism's anti-imperialist manifesto "Murderous War II, when the Nazi occupation evidence his own. What matters Humanitarianism" and other writings re- made it impossible for him to re- even more is the degree to which, lating to the West Indies are included in What Is Surrealism? Selected Writings of main in France. In his first U.S. starting from very different points André Breton (New York, Monad Press; interview the founder of surrealism of departure, they have arrived at London, Pluto Press, 1978). Breton's told of a dream in which he was Za- the same conclusions. And what essays on Lam, Cardenas and other West pata, "making ready with my army matters above all is that the points Indian artists are included in Surrealism to receive Toussaint L'Ouverture the of contact noted here have implica- and Painting (New York, Harper & Row, following day, and to render him tions capable of great development. 1972). the honors to which he was In recent years James's work has The best monograph on Lam is Mi- entitled." Returning to France after been an important and growing in- chel Leiris's Wifredo Lam (New York, the war, Breton stopped in Haiti, fluence on surrealism. And surely Abrams, 1972). where he was invited to speak at the his young political followers are Paul Garon's Blues and the Poetic university in Port-au-Prince. As he discovering for themselves the sur- Spirit is published in England by Eddi- son Press and in the U.S. by DaCapo. See reaffirmed surrealism's fundamental realist adventure. These distinct but also "Black Music and the Surrealist Rev- aims and saluted the island's related currents are helping to fulfill olution" in Arsenal/Surrealist Subversion revolutionary heritage, the students James's dream of a new and No. 3, and the surrealist supplement to found his words "electrifying." They specifically West Indian revolution- Living Blues magazine (Chicago, January- published his speech in the school ary theory and practice, an urgent February 1976). The second issue (1980) paper and, under the headline task not only to guide the destiny of of The Insurrectionist's Shadow, journal "Hommage à André Breton," the Caribbean but also, in James's of the Surrealist Group in Australia, is adopted an insurrectionary tone. words, to "regenerate the bankrupt entirely devoted to Black music. Several students were suspended, West" and, indeed, to help For a list of currently available surrealist but they organized a university- transform the whole world. publications in English, write to Black wide strike. Soon the strike won the It is remarkable that both James Swan Press, 1726 West Jarvis Avenue, support of the workers. In terror, and the surrealists avoided the pes- Chicago, Illinois 60626, U.S.A. dictator Lescot fled the island. All simism, disillusion and despair that Franklin Rosemont is the editor of permeated Western intellectual life this happened with incredible Arsenal/Surrealist Subversion. swiftness, almost like a dream. — even "revolutionary" intellectual It is in the light of this signal life - after World War II. They event that I like to regard the com- avoided it, I am convinced, largely mon ground shared by C. L. R. because of their West Indian expe- James and the surrealist movement. rience. Today more than ever we Whether James has ever made look to the islands with mounting a special study of surrealism is not, expectations, sure that the old of course, what really matters. What promises will yet be kept. 104 Facing Reality

by Paul Lawrence Berman movement resembled a decapitated life worker. On what to think about chicken, it was the American New the Soviet Union, for instance, he C. L. R. James's Facing Reality Left in the age of President Nixon. was able to sweep away the tortur- had a considerable impact ten years Many of us, in this circumstance, ous uncertainties of the traditional ago on certain intellectual-minded searched among the classic anarchist Left by noting that for real workers, circles of the New Left, and looking writings for a useful alternative. life under Communism lacked even back, it is easy to see why. In the Anarchism had a direct appeal. Like the primitive rights workers enjoy in early 1970's the New Left had en- Leninism, it cried out unrestrainedly democratic capitalist societies. He tered its Leninist phase and at the against injustice and oppression. It was full of practical suggestions for same time had begun to disintegrate. was four-square for social socialist activity that were decidedly Quite a few of us thought these two revolution, four-square for the different from the shoddy developments had something to do victims of exploitation. At the same manipulations that many of us with one another. Leninism, we time it offered a view of radical ac- associated with "vanguard" politics. thought, at least in the form in which tion and of a self-managed, libertarian He advised socialists to provide we encountered it, was leading the socialist future that was much closer workers with accurate information, Movement to doom and disaster. No than conventional Leninism to the so that workers could make their sooner would a group of student feelings and instincts that had own decisions. The socialists should Leftists, or Black militants, or Puerto originally impelled many of us into help workers express themselves, Rican activists, start waving around the movement. We liked anarchism's which is different from preaching at volumes from the Little Lenin skeptical nature. We liked the fact them. Of course the socialists should Library than they would proclaim that it criticized the state and that it preserve and develop socialist theory. themselves to be the secret of world contravened the standard Marxist- And they should put forth their own revolution, or anyway would claim Leninist argument for a left-wing views, in his words, "as a to know what the secret was. And dictatorship (Marx's and Lenin's contribution to that democratic soon they would plunge into a subtler views played little part in interchange and confrontation of ghastly cycle of intolerance, these New Left debates). And we opinion which is the very life-blood dogmatism, splits, bloody purges, appreciated anarchism's of socialist society." and ultimately, of course, despair. compatibility with the egalitarian This last point about democratic Perhaps Lenin was not to blame for and anti-authoritarian thrust of interchange and confrontation of this — perhaps he was rolling in his feminism in that period. Anarchism opinion was especially important. It crypt. But many of us suspected that consequently underwent a boom: all seemed to many of us that a certain in crucial ways he was, in fact, but a handful of the anarchist — I do not hesitate to use the word responsible. Those Little Lenin classics came back into print; nu- — totalitarian impulse had become editions were not doing anyone any merous anthologies, including one I part of the standard ideological good. assembled, received general distri- baggage of the Left. A large Only what theoretical alternative bution. And yet the classic anarchist number of militants were afraid of was there? The New Left, rich in texts did not solve our dilemmas public debates within their own numbers and courage, was dirt-poor either — this was immediately ranks, and were unable to distin- in knowledge, theory, and experi- obvious. guish between dissension and chaos. ence. By the early '70's the presence It was Paul Buhle and Radical In the papers and journals put out of an older, presumably wiser America who introduced James's by the various organized sects, you generation of radicals had virtually Facing Reality into the (mostly would almost never see views that disappeared from Movement ranks. student) milieu in which this anar- the party leaders disagreed with. To A hodge-podge of priests, nuns, and chist-Leninist debate was being con- disagree was to condemn, and many earnest professors exercised what ducted. James had written the book an honest radical seemed to consider passed for leadership. The old-line in 1958 in a period when he himself it his duty to protect his own socialists, called "democratic," had and his comrades were struggling comrades from the virus of incor- long ago indignantly repudiated the out of the "vanguard" fallacies of the rect opinion. James did not share younger generation. The Old Left old orthodox Trotskyist movement. this conception. groupuscules showed an alarming The book impressed us with what we His most original advice to social- tendency to horrify anyone who saw felt was its authentically ists was to keep an eagle eye on the them in action. Various middle- proletarian outlook. By this I mean changing forms and contents of aged radicals were looking to 19- that James never mistook an workers' struggles in order to iden- year-olds for leadership. If ever a ideological assumption for a real- tify what about these struggles re-

105 Bakunin's writings will recognize a Bakuninist resonance to James's anti- state proletarianism. Those of us who noticed this in the early '70's felt quite excited by our discovery. Surely here, we thought, in James's careful social analysis was the argument that would show the foolish Leninists of the time the error of their ways. Reading on, though, the thought also began to dawn that here too was the book that would show those of us who were drawn to anarchism the error of our own ways, For if there was a Bakuninist resonance to James's book — and there is — there was also much more, James had improved on anarchism His veals the existence already, before a reminds me of nothing so much as book was a theoretical advance. revolution, of a socialist society in Rosa Luxemburg's similar forceful- The book improved on anarchism embryo. The truly "urgent task," to ness in the opening pages of The in the first case simply by being borrow Lenin's phrase, is in short that Mass Strike — an instance of pro- modern. Modern anarchist thinkers of "visualizing the content of testing too much. For without existed, of course, Paul Goodman socialism." By this James did not question, Facing Reality expresses and prominent mean Utopian dreaming but instead some anarchist ideas. among them — neithei of whom sharp observation of the here-and- "The whole world today lives in was without a following or without now of workers' activity where the the shadow of the state power," the intelligent things to say But these "facts of the future" (someone else's book begins. "This state power is an modern anarchists by anc large paid phrase, not James's) are also facts of ever-present self-perpetuating body scant attention to industrial workers the present. To illustrate what he over and above society. It or the problems of the working class meant by this, James pointed to the transforms the human personality in general, and slighted the historic Hungarian revolution of 1956. The into a mass of economic needs to be role of Serious workers' councils that arose there, he satisfied by decimal points of anarchist thinking on industrial concluded, showed what historical economic progress. It robs everyone organization and class struggle stage of development the interna- of initiative and clogs the free de- hadn't been done since the collapse tional working class had reached, velopment of society. This state of Spanish in the 1930's. and showed that democratic workers' power, by whatever name it is called, James made up this lack in our councils, not the all-powerful state, One-Party State or Welfare State, view, and in this respect alone this destroys all pretense of government is the fundamental form of authentic book was bound to have an impact. by the people, of the people. All that socialism. Facing Reality improved on remains is government for the Now, not once in any of this, nor anarchism in another respect too people. in any of his other works, did he "Against this monster, people all however — improved, if that is the acknowledge that these views had over the world, and particularly or- word, on it by being, in the end not anything in common with classical dinary working people in factories, really an anarchist book at all, For anarchism. He has always called mines, fields, and offices, are rebel- although James's conclusions and himself, in spite of everything, a ling every day in ways of their own choice of topics were plainly in the Leninist —.though I think that even invention. ..." anarchist mode; and though he some of his most fervent admirers A brilliant beginning to the book, articulated a visionary sense of so- will admit privately that James's in my opinion, but also a not unfa- cialist potential that was fully ac- definition of Leninism is a bit miliar line of thought. A moment ceptable to anyone with a fondness idiosyncratic, not shared by 99.99% ago I referred to the author of the for Bakunin — nevertheless his of the rest of the world that calls phrase about the facts of the future method of analysis was not that of itself Leninist. As to anarchism, in all existing within the facts of the pres- anarchism. Perhaps it is misleading of his writings he condemns ent. That author was Bakunin, and I to speak of an anarchist methodology it forcefully. But I must say, think that anyone who has read at all. Anarchism as an intellectual James's forcefulness on this point Dolgoff's or Lehning's editions of tradition has insights — lots

106 along such lines is a main current of the modern period. In the United States the groups around Root and Branch and Telos magazine have in my opinion been particularly effec- tive at this — though I realize any number of people would gladly clobber me with a baseball bat for thinking such a thought. Perhaps the most profound exemplar of this modern theoretical tendency, and the thinker most like James in adhering absolutely to Marxist orthodoxy in philosophic matters, is the Yugoslav philosopher Mihailo Markovic, whose main concern has been to contrast the official Communist Marxism with the writings of Marx himself, which Markovic reveals have a libertarian content. It should be mentioned that Fac- ing Reality is not exactly the best known of works. There have been several editions since it was first published, each, it seems, obscure and harder to find than the last. At one point three or four years ago, some labor militants who were comrades of mine in New York were passing it hand to hand in xerox. The book does not deserve of insights, lots of true ones — but flesh-and-blood events of the world this obscurity. It is passionate, no particular method of analysis that around him to cling to musty old logical, original, practical, visionary, Proudhon, Bakunin, Kropotkin, doctrine. James used his respect for inspiring, instructive, and (rarest of Rocker, etc. can be said to have working people to argue, for in- rarities among books of socialist shared. Anarchist thinkers who have stance, that the allegiance of Amer- theory) knowledgeable about the come after them have thus had no ican workers to the Democratic Party United States. I would say that, for established system of analysis to fall is not altogether stupid. Right or the American Left in this last back on, and have all too often wrong (and I happen to believe he quarter century, this book, Facing substituted for system a rote re- is right), this was a point that an out- Reality, is our underground classic. peating of the old insights, thereby and-out anarchist, who might agree reducing insight to dogma. with James on everything else, Paul Lawrence Berman is a book James, in Facing Reality, on the cannot even consider without critic for the Village Voice. other hand, was by no means a dog- shooting himself in the doctrinal matist of the anarchist type. He was foot. an observer, an analyst, above all a James had managed, in brief, to dialectician, able to see the sweep of restate the theory of socialism in a history, the meaning behind the way that recognized the validity of confusion of conflicting and major libertarian insights and yet misleading ideologies. That is, he still preserved, through its reliance was a true Marxist, philosophically on Marxist dialectical and historical (if not politically in the conventional methodology, suppleness and solidity sense), and on the basis of this was of mind. No mean achievement. able to liberate — to Certainly he is not the only separate out the core of useful thinker in recent decades to come anarchist insights from the up with a version of socialism that doctrinaire insistences that for many wittingly or unwittingly incorporates years have crippled anarchist elements of anarchism within activity. He was too attached to the a larger Marxist framework. Theory 107 What if C.L.R. James had

met E.P.Thompson in 1792?

by Peter Linebaugh the labors (and experience!) of one made a new kind of poetry. Some- to the other, posing the possibility of times when these sober voices grow We can't hope to know what they a working class unity to the triangle. louder than usual, we hear first the would have said to each other, for James, like Thompson, does not see world-cracking phrases of Tom they saw such different things. Yet, labor as an appendage or aspect of Paine. for us, it is impossible to even walk capital: on the contrary, he shows We can remark now, after the in that decade without the legs of how the Voodoo drums of August publication of The Making; how Thompson and James. We can ask 1791 in sounding revolt sent a English is the scene — the starting where they might have met and who message of liberty to the powers of up of a new society and the careful might have introduced them. Let us Europe stating the unequivocal and attention to the layers of language, compare the openings of The Making independent existence of the Afro- but in 1792, at the birth of the first of the English Working Class (1963) American working people. strictly working class political and The Black Jacobins: Toussaint In 1792, then, it would have been organization, these were momentous L'Ouverture and the San Domingo an Afro-American and an ex-slave tidings. Revolution (1938) to see if they can who introduced James to Thompson. No doubt about it, Thompson and help answer these questions.1 But how would an Englishman have James would have met at a political James opens his book with Chris- met such a man? meeting in a London pub, and the topher Columbus praising God and Perhaps in the warm, smoke-filled question is not how an Englishman inquiring for gold and with Liverpool room of "The Bell" off the Strand would have met an Afro-American slavers scouring the Guinea coast. where Thompson's book opens in but the other way around. Within a few pages James has January 1792. We find ourselves The two themes, the surge to freedom of the Afro-American spanned three centuries from 1492 to seated with pipes and porter in the slaves and the making of the English 1792, introduced us to massacre, congenial company of Thomas Hardy, shoemaker and student of the working class, can no longer be genocide, and what Malcolm X separated as part of the fragmenta- called "the world's most monstrous American revolution, with some of his colleagues, artisans and "free-born tion of nations or of labor powers crime," crossed and re-crossed the that a capitalist unity requires. Let Atlantic to take us to three continents Britons" all. A miniature scene perhaps when compared to Atlantic us look at six scenes from the life of before leaving us in San Domingo, Olaudah Equiano, in whom the vistas, and one in which apparently the revolutionary apex of that famous themes converge. Slave, mariner, just another discussion of dues, triangle whose base angles were barber, castaway, and founder of membership, and rules is taking formed by England (capital) and what has been called "proto-Pan- place (the London Corresponding Africa (labor). The sugar and tobacco Africanism," he's the boomerang of Society is being formed); however, 2 circuits provided capitalist unity to the triangle trade. being in England we must listen First: Education and the Sea. In the triangle, a unity requiring the carefully. Thompson teaches our ear maximum distance between the two 1761 we join Equiano aboard the patience as he takes us closer to the Aetna. He is sixteen and already an largest concentrations of labor — on accents and undertones of the talk: one side of the ocean the African experienced man. In the Bight of we hear 17th century Dissent and Benin he'd seen a slaver's captain masses on the plantations ("they 18th century constitutional talk. By were closer to a modern proletariat flog an English sailor to death. He'd analyzing a single inflection from seen a Highlander scalp an Indian than any group of workers in the Putney debates — when the chief at the siege of Louisburg, and existence at the time"), and on the Levellers strode on the world as a powder monkey 'tween decks other side, the working class of stage — Thompson has us poised he'd faced death and the French "England's green and pleasant land." between two epochs in the history fleet off the coast of Gibraltar. His- Despite capital's fantasies, the two of English and world democracy. If torians today might find aboard the sides of the ocean had to be joined: a curse blasts our ear, he shows Aetna a "total institution" like the "mariners, renegades, and castaways," that this is energy from the prison or the factory, and there are the first true workers of the world, London street whence in the similarities, but looking at it with effected this miracle by carrying previous two years William Blake the eyes of Melville or Traven, it

108 will appear not quite so "total." "City of Brotherly Love," the mass flog slaves." This he had not seen. Thanks to Daniel Queen, his mess- power of the Great Awakening and And he would have heard tales of the mate, Equiano learns not only to read the trans-Atlantic brotherhood of the maroons. On Sundays Equiano joined and write, but to shave and dress hair Methodists: Equiano is present at the African assemblies "at a large and to read the Bible. They stay up gestation of great events. commodious place called the Spring all night under the stars: Daniel Third: "Liberty" and a General Path. Here each different nation of Queen expounding the Bible and Strike. In the winter of 1767-1768 Africa meet and dance after the Equiano making succinct and Equiano is in London cutting hair manner of their own country." What a materialist observations comparing and shaving beards in Coventry triumph the sight and sound of a the "tribes of Jaweh" with his Court, Haymarket. At night he takes French horn would have made! He African experiences, a habit of arithmetic lessons and learns the took or found music wherever he comparative ethnography that will French horn from one of his went: once cast away in New never leave him. How did Queen ex- neighbors. It is a very hard winter. In Providence (Bahamas) he passed the pound the Bible, we wonder? What January the weavers go on strike happiest time of his life with some else from the English Revolution did (silk cloth is the most important in- free Black people and "the melodious he teach besides Milton? dustry after the port). Many thou- sound of the catguts under the lime Second: The Wage and the Meth- sands of them march across London odists. Five years later we see Equi- with drums and banners, chanting and lemon trees." Amid the trans- ano in Philadelphia, where he sells "Wilkes & Liberty" to petition the Atlantic Babel of tongues, music was four barrels of pork to the Quakers, King. Certainly, Equiano would have a passport, a declaration and an "a very honest discrete sort of Peo- heard them, for their route passed invitation. Among the deceits and ple." Class relations in 18th century Pall Mall. And of course in a equivocations made possible even by England were characterized by the Westminster barber shop he would Milton's tongue, music offered a incomplete imposition of the money- have taken part in the libertarian talk surer guide. In Naples or Turkey, in form, which is to say, that work-PIN of Wilkes, the free press, general Georgia or Nicaragua, in London or took their income in the form of a warrants, and Parliamentary privilege. Kingston he sought out the rhythms customarily regulated cut in the In these years Granville Sharp was and melodies of the people, product. In the West Indies trade this formulating his anti-slavery views. compared them to those of his free freightage or mariner's portage Who trimmed his beard? Equiano Nigerian childhood, and found an- was simply called the crew's cannot live on his wages, so in May other vocabulary of freedom. Music "Privilledge" or "Benefitt," and he ships out to Smyrna, but he has to brought people together, in Kingston, slaves evidently possessed it too. wait for the ships to sail because the for example, an accomplishment Having sold his pork he went to sailors and coal-heavers have shut feared by rulers everywhere, and Church. Passing a Quaker meeting the port in a general strike which justly so. What else did the music house where a tall woman was even Admiralty frigates cannot break. do? Did it tell stories of "Tackey's speaking, he stopped and stared. While waiting he would have heard Rebellion"? What promises did it Would this have been Rebecca Jones, about "The Massacre of St. George's bode, what vows seal? the Quaker evangelical and ardent Fields," where eleven people were 3 Fifth: 1787 — Annus Mirabilus of abolitionist? He asked what she was slain protesting Wilkes' Abolitionism. Back in London, most preaching but none would say. It is imprisonment, and he may have seen likely in St. James's with the true that in 1761 the Philadelphia the destruction by five hundred independent electors of Westminster, Friends had voted to prohibit slavery sawyers of the first steam-powered with access to the Nonconformist among themselves, but even five saw mill. Did he participate in these churches and proximity to the Black years later there was a lot of tension events? What would he have made of ghetto — "St. Giles's blackbirds" — on that score. Later that morning he them? Equiano divides the leadership of saw a church so crowded that people Fourth: Before the Blues. In De- had mounted ladders to peer in the cember 1771 we find Equiano under London's Black population (between windows. He squeezed in and saw the hot Jamaican sun. Four and five 4% and 6% of the population) with George White-field, the great years earlier there had been large Ottobah Cugoano: indeed their work Methodist who went among slave revolts and the Jamaican for abolition in 1786 and 1787 can be "Harlots, Publicans, and Thieves." planter class had trembled. So here compared in historic importance to He heard him preach and saw him for the second time (Wilkes' London the Pan-Africanist work conducted in sweat ever as much as Equiano did was the first), he'll encounter the those same London streets by C. L. "in slavery on Montserrat beach." unmistakable experience of the R. James and George Padmore 4 The wage-form not yet possessing power of oppressed masses in mo- exactly 150 years later. How well its purely capitalist character, tion. It's here where he confronts the Cugoano mastered the English mind: the tense early development contradictions of slave rule: he as the first African to call for the of Quaker abolitionism, the sees "negroes whose business it is to abolition of the slave trade and the

109 emancipation of slaves and "reason- He'd suffered an accident in a recklessly sought "the laws of de- able wages" for the freedmen, he Shropshire coalmine. He's in Shef- velopment" with an Ahab-like expressed his arguments in the field in August 1790 at the height of mania. Burning for the future and thunderous terms of the Old Testa- a furious grinders' strike against the searching for a fulcrum that was ment and the balanced money- scissor smiths: this is the city which neither Stalinist nor liberal, they changing terms of Adam Smith. will have the most militant and least both returned to the 1790's, the last Words alone do not move masses of ambiguously plebian Corresponding great worldwide crisis, to analyze people, nor do they sail ships. Equi- Society. He did odd jobs in London, the movement of the workers of the ano, the man of action, intelligence, and perhaps took to trimming hair world. Neither of them, as far as I and astonishing experience, at the and shaving beards in Coventry know, saw Equiano sitting in the age of 42 makes his move: He gets Court again. If so, he would have back of the room at "The Bell," himself appointed Commissary for been only around t le corner from ready to pass his experience on: Stores for the Black Poor going to Thomas Hardy's place where "Brother Thompson, may I present Sierra Leone. This, the first back-to- Thompson begins his story of the Brother James?" Africa movement, brought to making of the English working class. completion the boomerang of the Two years ago in 1979 at Dr. Footnotes triangular trade, but its ambiguities George Rawick's seminar at the ("Doth a fountain send forth at the University of Missouri in St. Louis, 1. Besides these two books my essay same place sweet water and bitter," Professor James Walvin of the Uni- relies on C. L. R. James, Mariners, Cugoano wrote) and corruptions led versity of York (England), who Renegades and Castaways: The Story of Herman Melville and the World knows as much about the history of to Equiano's dismissal. We Live In (New York, 1953). Sixth: Black and White. After this Black people in England as anyone, 2. There are many editions of Equiano's personal defeat (some 411 men and stated that Olaudah Equiano and The Interesting Narrative of the Life two score prostitutes arrived in Thomas Hardy had indeed met, that of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Freetown — another story), Equi- they knew each other and had Vassa the African and these I have ano picked up the pen and wrote an probably worked together back in not, unfortunately, been able to autobiography, The Interesting Nar- 1792. compare. I have had to rely on two rative (1789), which besides showing Also in 1792, at the news of yet abridged editions, Paul Edwards (ed.), an exact and sympathetic under- another of Toussaint's victories, one Equiano's Travels (New York, 1967), and Francis D. Adams and Barry standing of his Nonconformist audi- of his defeated generals said, "This Sanders, Three Black Writers in ence and in addition to being, like man makes an opening everywhere," Eighteenth Century England (Bel- the autobiographies of Douglass, and that is how he got the name of mont, California, 1971). Nkrumah, or Malcolm X, a great "L'Ouverture." The same can be said 3. When there is evidence that former testament of human liberation, it of Thompson and James. One slaves like Cugoano and Equiano ac- took Equiano onto a new organizing opened to view the stamina and tually had to goad early abolitionists path: it was a means of travel and a creativity of the English working to activity sometimes, it is astonishing to me that there are not even way of opening doors. Between class at the moment of 1790 and 1792 he tramped up and references to them in David Brion industrialization, rescuing it from Davis, The Problem of Slavery in the down the British Isles (blazing a trail "the enormous condescension of Age of Revolution, 1770-1823 (Ithaca, Frederick Douglass would follow posterity." The other opened up New York, 1975). fifty years later) selling his book continents and races to the histor- 4. James Walvin, The Black Presence: A and helping to form abolition ian's gaze, while rebuking the rac- Documentary History of the Negro committees in England, Scotland, ism of both capitalist and Comin- in England, 1555-1860 (New York, Ireland, and Wales. Who else but a 1971) has been helpful, and the early man of the world could have moved tern orthodoxies. Just as one was chapters especially of Imanuel Geiss, so easily among these four king- written within earshot of "the The Pan-African Movement: A His- doms? Conversant with Quaker and booming of Franco's heavy artillery tory of Pan-Africanism in America, Dissenting networks, he was wel- [and] the rattle of Stalin's firing Europe and Africa, translated by squads," so in the other the echo Ann Keep (New York, 1974), have comed into middle class reform been indispensable. groups. He's in Manchester as its still sounds in the ear of Khrush- Constitutional Society is formed. In chev's tanks rumbling across Free- Peter Linebaugh teaches history at Sheffield he departs just before the dom and Kossuth bridges into the the University of Rochester. Society of Constitutional Infor- streets of Budapest. The Pan-Afri- mation is founded. Besides these canist and the New Leftist rejected entrees, Equiano has the sailor's the academic philosophy of history passport into working class settings, a which was compulsively transfixed story only hinted at in the six editions by the "triumph of the capitalist already published of his book. mode of production" and which

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Black women writers

by E. Ethelbert Miller Morrison and Shange. A famous women. I find James's comments Englishman once said, never — you pivotal in understanding what he He stayed not far from where I cannot ignore reality. And reality sees in the work of such writers as lived. The Chastleton on 16th street begins with common people. These Morrison and Walker. James states in Washington. On several occasions I people — these black women — the following: were not writing ten years ago. This went to visit him. James was al- is something new. They're the prod- 1. I have made clear that in my view ways the same. I would find him in uct of the sixties in a way. bed, surrounded by books and news- the great artist is the product of a papers, the television always on. The use of folk material, the focus long and deeply rooted national Any impression that James was tradition. I go further. He appears on the Southern landscape, the at a moment of transition in na- ill was immediately displaced by the personal relationships between Black tional life with results which are conversations that would develop. men and women can be found in the recognized as having significance One could witness him thinking, work of several Black women writing for the civilized world. analyzing, reaching new conclusions today. As James 2. But the universal artist is universal about the world, explaining daily because he is above all national. events by making references to 3. A supreme artist exercises an in- history. fluence on the national conscious- Now and then I took James books ness which is incalculable. He is written by Black American women created by it but he illuminates writers. He was deeply impressed by and amplifies it, bringing the past what they were writing. He felt that up to date and charting the future. the work of Morrison and Shange What James states is similar to what was important. He was moved Richard Wright wrote in 1938 in his especially by the novels of Alice ''Blueprint for Negro Writing": Walker. Negro writers must accept the na- tionalist implications of their lives, not in order to encourage them, but in order to change and transcend them. They must accept the concept of nationalism because, in order to Toni Morrison transcend it, they must possess and understand it. states in his interview, it is a product of the sixties. The Black woman According to C. L. R. James, writer who emerged in the seventies Morrison, Walker and Shange have extended as well as transformed the begun to write about the common Black Arts movement. Their work people. This has placed their work adheres to the Black aesthetic in within the confines of nationalism. regards to elevating the lives of Black By developing women characters in people. What is important and is Walker fiction, they add a new dimension to pointed out by James, is that the literature. C. L. R. James's opinions In an interview conducted by Dr. Black aesthetic is no different from are indicative of his ability to grasp L. Anthony-Welch and published in any other aesthetic. the changes occurring in our society. Sturdy Black Bridges (1979) edited In 1959, James delivered a lecture He suggests that Black writers can by Bell, Parker and Guy-Sheftall, at the Mona, Jamaica, campus of the make significant contributions to the James mentions how Black women University of the West Indies. This world — that is what they are doing. writers possess a view of society talk is published in his collection of which is based on what the common selected writings, The Future In The E. Ethelbert Miller is Director of the and ordinary people are doing. In his Present, as "The Artist In The Ascension Poetry Series at Howard own words: Caribbean." James makes three University. statements which I believe support That's why the black society is so his present enthusiasm for the torn with Alice Walker and Toni literature created by Black

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The Gospel According to

St. James

by Gregory Rigsby being is not a just pursuit of man. tionship. The law of relationship Rather, he is insisting that merely governs the cosmos, and only when To me, the characteristic which material wealth, that is material men reflects this cosmic law in his best defines the essence of C. L. R. wealth alone, will not provide man dealings with his fellow-man will he James is his faith — his abiding faith with the happiness he seeks. Man achieve true happiness. In his short in Truth. More than that, and this is finds his happiness in the quality of stories and in his novel Minty Alley, the very substance of his faith, C. L. his relationship with his community. James creates this human fel- R. James sincerely and honestly Individual well-being does not lowship. As early as 1929, in his believes that he knows something of constitute the good life; rather, man short story "Triumph," James de- the Truth — some important achieves happiness when he becomes liberately sets the action among fraction of it. In his work is reflected an organic part of a living characters who did not enjoy a high as hot a zeal as that of any community and actively participates in standard of living — the porters, the missionary who was willing to give helping to realize the purpose of his prostitutes, cartermen, washer- his life for his faith. This is his claim community. James unequivocally women, and domestic servants of to sainthood. In proper time, the condemns this modern narcissism, the city. Yet, despite their material hardships and sufferings which C. L. this self-obsession of modern man deprivations, these people enjoy a liveliness and vitality which is the R. has endured for what he believes (Ahab in Melville's Moby Dick is the is the truth will be chronicled, it is essence of the good life. The law of prototype), this modern religion of well-nigh impossible for any relationship governs this back-yard , where everyone thinking person to hear C. L. R. community. Here is one of the char- continually consults himself as a express his views or to read his acters speaking to a neighbor whose separate entity, viewing the penetrating analyses of society and man has left her stranded and des- not get caught up in the truth that phenomena of life and all titute, with no money, no food: "As this man is expounding — not his transformations of the universe as a long as you livin' here an' I cookin' truth but the truth (or a facet of it) truth peculiar to himself. Con- I wouldn't see you want a cup o' tea through his eyes. This is the demning Ahab in Mariners, Rene- an' a spoonful o' rice." This is the saintliness of the man; this is the gades and Castaways as "the most stuff of which happiness is born; this essence of his work — the fierce dangerous and destructive social type is charity — not a condescending tenacity with which he has pursued that has ever appeared in Western giving but an unself-conscious Truth. So much for St. James! Now Civilization," James pin-points the sharing. Describing his idea of the for his gospel! source of Ahab's degeneration: "he is good life, James focuses on the Perhaps I should begin by telling a man who wants to live fully and communal oneness of these you what C. L. R. James does not completely according to his beliefs." materially deprived people: "They consider "the good life." He does not Indeed, the major focus of James's shared their rum and their joys and consider that a higher standard of study of Moby Dick is the debilitating troubles." Significantly, for James living will provide the good life. and corrupting influence of happiness is not the absence of Describing the good life in his work individualism which tends to separate hardships and miseries but the frat- Modern Politics, James writes: "It and isolate men from one another. ernizing and sharing of the good [the good life] is not (his emphasis), Individual well-being ("a higher with the bad. Later in the story it never has been, merely a question standard of living"), be it reflected in James creates a new Eden — no of what the vulgarians call 'raising wealth, or prestige, or intellectualism, Adam, master of the beasts and the standard of living.' Men are not never in itself brings the good life. eating as many apples as he wants, pigs to be fattened." Two Counter-pointing the isolation but human beings who on Sundays observations ought to be made about born of individualism is the con- would sit together, drink together, this question: first, the appositional geniality which communal brother- sing hymns together. James caps the and emphatic clause, "it never has hood breeds. James believes that if description of this scene, "ev- been," and second, the word man genuinely wants to extricate erything would be peaceful and "merely." Let us begin with himself from his present hell, he happy." It is clear, then, that for the second observation first. James has to align himself with the James, peace on earth and good will is not saying that material well- principle, the law, as it were, of rela- among me are one and the same

112 thing. So, too, Minty Alley is set tain the communal relationship which mingo (Haitian) Revolution in his among "ordinary people" who are charges their work and actions and masterpiece The Black Jacobins as an busy with the business of living. keeps them vitally alive. That is a action in itself, but depending on Does this mean that James con- political problem. To understand where you see the beginning of this dones poverty and applauds depri- James's answer to this question, we slave revolution and where the end, vation? Is he suggesting that lack of must gloss on the observation of the The Black Jacobins, as the title of the food to eat or clothes to wear, or that quotation which I made earlier — "it book suggests, can be seen as an inadequate housing is necessary for [the good life] never has been [a incident in a larger action, the the good life? Of course not. What higher standard of living]." French Revolution. So, too, for James is saying is that among these We must clearly understand that James, Pan Africanism is an inci- people, where nobody is anything, C. L. R. James has a "sense" of his- dent in a larger action, the world- among these people who owe no tory. I use the term "sense" in a very wide revolt of the oppressed masses. allegiance to anybody or anything deliberate manner as opposed to James is convinced that in these except the relations with one another, "non-sense." James sees all history as various actions, be they enacted by slaves on a Caribbean island, or by among these people who live and the unfolding (evolving?) of an work and play together, one can the bolsheviks in Russia, or by the action. Here again my use of struggling working people in a back- find the essence of happiness, language is deliberate. "Action" is the essence of the good life. The yard or in an alley in Trinidad, or used in the Aristotelian sense of a problem then is how to improve by the detainees on Ellis Island, or the material well-being of these beginning, a middle, and an end. by the crew on the Pequod, or by back-yard people and still re- For example, he sees the San Do- his ownself in his life experiences, wheresoever and by whomsoever these actions are enacted, there is contained in them some principle, some pattern, some law governing the relations of these people in- volved. This is the truth about which James is certain. James knows with every cell of his body that a proper empirical examination of actions will reveal the law of social behavior, the law which I have termed above, the law of relationship. This is why James can say with authority when speaking about a higher standard of living, "this never has been," and by implication, "this never will be," the criterion to define "the good life." James believes that he has identified the essential truth about human behavior — a system of mutuality.

Here let me inject that I think that it is James's own experience and his own self-analysis which gave the direction and character to his critical thought far more than any- thing he learnt from Thackeray or Rousseau or Kant or Hegel or Karl Marx himself. Let me use just two examples from his quasi-autobio- graphical work, Beyond a Bound- ary, to make my point. As a nine- year-old boy, James won an exhibi- tion to one of the best high schools in the country. To win an exhibit-

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tion in the early decades of this the protagonist's recognition (and term. In this way, all people had a century was a major achievement feeling of guilt) that his education chance to serve as a member of the which brought prestige to one's separated him from his closest administration. It is this direct de- school, to one's family, and, most of friends. I am suggesting that this is mocracy, modified to accommodate all, to one's self. But to be "the what C. L. R. James, as a young modern circumstances, which will youngest boy ever to have won an boy, instinctively felt was happening allow for a general improvement in exhibition," that was an achievement to him, and he resisted it. He resisted everyone's material well-being par excellence. The little boy was it with every sinew, every fiber, without the loss of the camaraderie lionized by his family, relatives, every muscle of his ten-year-old enjoyed by the people who lived in friends, teachers, newspapers — body. Writing about his high school Minty Alley. So thought James and years James is explicit: "My "Congratulations poured in from all so too he taught. He describes his scholastic career was one long night- over the island." To add insult to ideal society, his republic, his city of mare to me, my teachers and my injury, this nine-year-old boy comes the people as "a form of government family." Modern psychologists might second in an island-wide essay con- which reproduces, on a more highly say that he was afraid of success. I developed economic level, the test among sixteen- and seventeen- think, more correctly, that he relationship between the individual year-old competitors. Now he is rejected, albeit unconsciously, the and the community, that was placed on a pedestal, and as any isolation which intellectual ex- established so wonderfully in the little boy, he laps up the adulation cellence within a colonial educational and attention. But deep down, per- system bred. It isn't that he played Greek city-state." Emanating from haps beyond levels of which C. L. R. too much cricket and so fell back in the law of relationship, as it were, is himself was aware, the boy was not his studies; it is that he chose the a collective will of the people, "the satisfied; he was not one with his camaraderie of the cricket field over general will," Rousseau calls it. This peers. Earlier in this same book, the isolation nourished by the "general will" is real to James. He James recalls sitting at the window intellectual elitism which was being captures it in Beyond a Boundary: in his house overlooking the local bred into him. This was the "whenever Matthew sank down and playground ("my grandmother and awakening in James's breast, a made [a sweep to leg], a long, low my two aunts . . . preferred me . . . in revelation if you like, of the law of 'Ah!' came from many a spectator, the house where they could keep an relationship. When he came to Karl and my own little soul thrilled with eye on me") and waiting for a local Marx, James brought the truth with recognition and delight." Society has cricketeer to make a stroke — a cut him; in Marx he found a structure to learn to trust this general will of — the likes of which James claims and a methodology which clarified the ordinary people — the grocer, he has never seen bettered in his life. and confirmed what his experience the waitress, the porter, the dish- When Arthur Jones went to bat, had already taught him. washer. everybody waited to see him cut. In Modern Politics, James exam- How James tells it interests us: "The ined all of Western civilization as It will be a mistake to leave with crowd was waiting for it, I at my one action. The beginning is Greece; the impression that James rejected window was waiting." Notice the the middle is comprised of the com- individual worth. Indeed, it is for separation! James does not brood on plication and conflicts of major individual freedom which he thinks this; in fact, he is infected with the movements and thinkers; the end is all government must work. Each in- anxious waiting of a crowd that in the beginning. Since James sees dividual is like an incident in a larger anticipates a show of athletic history as evolving toward a world action, the society, but the growth mastery by one of its local heroes. society similar to what existed in the and development of the society When he was not watching cricket, Greek city-states, he concludes that depends on the free activities of the he sat at his window reading vora- the political structure which the law individuals. Individual worth is best ciously. I am not suggesting a lonely of relationship demands exists in its, expressed when a person knows that boy who seeks retreat in the world of essential form in the Greek city- he is vitally and meaningfully books. Not at all! James is a lively states. The form of government participating in the development of boy ("adventurous" he calls himself) which existed in these city-states was his society. Even as a member of a who has to be reined in, and his called direct democracy. Direct family feels his fullest self- energy spills over into books. It is democracy means that "the public expression when he uses the this circumscription of his liveliness assembly of all the citizens was strengths of his family tradition and together with his intellectual the government." In other words, family values to help nourish the achievements in competitive tests every man helped in a direct further development of his family, so which tended to isolate him. manner to shape the laws which must an individual feed on and, in I have heard C. L. R. lecturing on governed him. Administrators return, nourish the members of his George Lamming's In the Castle of were chosen by lot, and invariably community. James expresses the My Skin, and James's focus was on no one was allowed to serve a second idea more precisely and more grace-

114 fully: "The citizen is alive when he Sparrow, the B. B. King of calypso, tion forced upon him by his posi- feels that he himself in his own na- he writes: "It is not his unusual per- tion of command." So, too, in re- tional community is overcoming sonal gifts . . . [for] he is so ob- jecting parliamentary democracy and difficulties. He has a sense of mov- viously a man of the people." Again, political parties, James observes that ing forward through the struggle of commenting this time on a West these elected leaders, "Once you put antagonisms or contradictions and Indian intellectual, J. J. Thomas, them there ... acquire, not through difficulties within the society, not by James observes: "It was the malice, not through vice . . . but fighting against external forces." No Caribbean human condition which from the objective circumstances — bureaucratic organization nor party produced Jacob Thomas. To know they acquire a life of their own which direction generates societal growth. him well is to know ourselves is separate from the life and interests It is from the interaction of better." Always there is the dialectic that they are supposed to serve." individuals who wake up the society between the individual and society. Again, it is the historical itself that the society moves The individual obviously has to circumstances, the law of historical forward. For this self-movement of bring certain capacities, but the development which shapes the society to take place, each individual essence of his achievement is not the individual. must be free. Each individual must result of the work of his brilliant I want to end on this observation realize that, as Rousseau's Social individual effort, but is due in reality concerning James's concept of the Contract stipulates, society has no to his historical past. But the knife individual. To elevate him is to ele- rights over him. Each man must be cuts both ways. Degenerate men are vate the Caribbean. There is all the his own master. substantially the bitter fruits that need to pay homage and acknowl- Yet, though individuality or per- result from the situations in which edge the great intellectual achieve- sonal freedom must always remain their historical past has placed them. ments of C. L. R. James, for he em- intact, individualism or the cult of For example, James sees Ahab, not bodies in all of his work, the burn- self-isolation must be destroyed. as a madman obsessed with a white ing desires of the Caribbean people, When James looks at a Caribbean whale because of his own malicious nay, of all progressive people of the sportsman, Garfield Sobers, the ways, but as the culmination of world, a desire which is so aptly Willie Mays of cricket, he writes: "I a certain type of man which couched in the West Indian's wishful see Sobers always ... as ... the fine Western society has been cultivating. thinking — "All ah we is one!" fruit of a great tradition." James sees It is the life that he lives that Sobers as the embodiment of makes Ahab what he becomes. Gregory Rigsby is a West Indian who the whole history of the British West Ahab does not like the life he teaches at the University of the Indies: "he is one of us. We has to live. James explains: District of Columbia. are some of him." So, too, "Ahab's isolation from the men when James looks at the Mighty with whom he works [is] an isola-

A meeting with

Comrade James

by David Widgery of Caribbean politics, of calypso, in Accra, wandering into a Havana Sartre, cricket and his beloved Uf- revolutionary congress with a volume "People are treating me with far fizi gallery. His speech is as fresh of Michelangelo plates. In his wiry, greater concern than before," C. L. and pungent as his sandwich. eight-decade-young frame is the R. James grimaces. "It's very tiring." To the best of my ability, I have historical eloquence of E. P. James has his feet up in room 384 of attempted not to hero-worship this Thompson, the cricketing connois- the Mayfair Hotel. Beside him lies a man who, if Marxists believed in seurship of John Arlott, the revolu- John Berger paperback, a brown such things, would be the greatest tionary ardor of Tony Cliff and the cardboard folder of manuscript, his living Marxist. And failed. For my preciousness of John Berger, all wheelchair and a ham sandwich generation, James is the essence of mixed up with a wit and a way with plastered with English mustard. political legend: organizing the Af- paradox which is entirely West "My feet are tired but my tongue rica Bureau with George Padmore, Indian. is not. I do not intend to give in." bearding Trotsky in Coyoacan, or- The outlaw James had better be He talks with a rare passion ganizing sharecroppers in Missouri, resigned to his eminence. The three and erudition: of bolshevism, hailing Nkrumah as the Black Lenin volumes published this week by Al-

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lison & Busby bring together a body In a decade in which Stalinist the analysis — international, politi- of work previously passed from mythology dominated the left, cal, philosophical. But the action, hand to hand as mimeos, photostats James came to his own conclusion: the activity, always followed. I got a and battered American paperbacks. "I realized the Stalinists were the glimpse of what bolshevism of the One volume" is a collection of greatest liars and corrupters of his- old school meant." James had been "notes" on Hegel, Marx and Lenin; tory there ever were. No one con- lured to North America by the two more bring together stories and vinced me of this. I convinced my- Trotskyist, James P. Cannon — some essays. (A final selection of essays self. But having come to this con- say to remove a "troublesome" is promised, and the headstone, a clusion, I wanted to meet some element in British Trotskyist volume of autobiography, is on the Trotskyists." politics. And in America, James way.) But the centerpiece of the He eventually tracked down this soon found himself at odds with the present triptych of publications is endangered species in Golders orthodoxy, in the same way that The Black Jacobins, an account of Green, noting with some amusement Cliff in London and Cardan in Paris Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San that "I was much more familiar with were to break with official Domingo revolution, which James the political material than the people Trotskyism. wrote in Brighton in 1937. The who ran the group." James faced another crossroads. extraordinary narrative power and He had friends and, by now, a good analytic intensity of this well-known As disaster overwhelmed the Ger- job as a cricket correspondent in but widely unread book is famous. man left, and Stalin switched to the London. To remain in America and But James's motive for writing it is desperate alliance-mongering of the work through his disagreements with not. "I decided," he told me, "that I Popular Front, James — now the Trotskyism was a commitment to ten was going to write the story of some editor of the Revolutionary Socialist years of intellectual work. But James Blacks who were not persecuted League's paper, Fight — made accepted the commitment and once and sat upon and oppressed, but regular clandestine visits to the Paris again kept his rendezvous with history. who did something." The book is exile grouping of revolutionaries He helped to develop a theory of not only a pioneering exposition of around Trotsky. "They were very global state-capitalism. He rejected Black pride but is also stamped with serious days," James admonishes, inflecting the adjective "serious" as the bolshevik concept of a vanguard James's head-on collision with party and emphasized shopfloor or- Marxism. only an old-time Trotskyist can. "There was a German boy very ac- ganization as the seed of the new Cyril Lionel Robert James was society. This meant rediscovering born near Port of Spain in 1901. He tive in our movement. One day we found him at the bottom of Seine." the Young Marx. It is this necessary was the son of a teacher, won a reshaping of the Marxist ingredients scholarship to Queen's Royal Col- Trotskyism Repressed which is presented in Notes on Dia- lege school (30 years later, V. S. lectics, one of the reprinted volumes. Naipaul went there, too), and then James reckons it is "one of the most became a schoolteacher himself. He James was, with D. D. Harber, the British delegation to the founding important pieces that I have done. also began playing club cricket and I'm waiting to see what people are writing stories. It was Learie Con- conference of the Trotskyist Fourth International in 1938. This tiny going to say about it." stantine, the Trinidadian cricketer, The book was "written in Reno then playing in the Lancashire body was established with the hope that, in the holocaust to come, a when I was seeing about a divorce." League, who suggested James should It represents the condensation of one clearsighted International might find come over to England. of the remarkable political col- a way through the chaos. But Trotsky He arrived from Trinidad in 1932, laborations of modern times: James's and, effectively, Trotskyism equipped with an exceptional political and intellectual prowess, grounding in the European classics. succumbed to the terrible repression. Raya Dunayevskaya's understanding But at Constantine's home in the In his last years, the Old Man of the Russian material, and Grace small Pennine town of Nelson, he blazed with political imagination, Lee's German studies. It is written was presented with volume one of intrigue and epistles, as if beaming with a fearsome intensity, calling out Trotsky's History of the Russian out his political SOS. James was names and ferociously bashing down Revolution and Spengler's Decline of duly summoned to Trotsky's fortress the arguments. It is Marxist the West. "It was then necessary to in Mexico City. I have read their philosophy at red heat and ought to read the relevant volumes of Stalin. transcribed discussions and they give be read by those tepid academics And, of course, I had to read Lenin a rare glimpse of the Great who at present monopolize the in order to trace back the quarrel. Exile debating with an intellectual science in Britain. And thereby I reached volume one equal. "Although we disagreed, The making of C. L. R. James is of Das Kapital and The 18th I was tremendously impressed," also presented in the beautifully Brumaire of Marx himself." James recalls. "Trotsky started with edited collection of essays which,

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mendous mess the imperialists left with Edward Thompson's recent Hitler, Stalin, Vietnam writings, will do a great deal to re- them in. What is happening in vive the fortune of the genre. They Kingston today is precisely what Liberal reviewers of his earlier demonstrate the sweep, drive and happened in Chile under Allende. collections of essays, The Future in attack of James's Marxism. They The same procedures are being car- the Present (published in 1977), move from early fiction, through ried out: de-stabilization, economic found it hard to conceal a certain polemic against racism, to the criti- manipulation, sabotage, the strategy surprise that such intelligence and cal essays he wrote under so many of tension. And Seaga [the Ja- such compassion could issue from Trotskyist pseudonyms on the liter- maican opposition leader] promises such a committed Marxist. But this ature of Shakespeare, Melville and everything but will bring nothing." is not remarkable at all. James's ex- Mailer. (In the early years of New James now plans to return to cellence is because of his political Society, he wrote on both West In- Trinidad as a guest of the oilfield vantage point, not despite it. "I have dians and cricket; but those articles workers' union. "This organization seen nothing," James states firmly, are not collected here.) is the most powerful political crea- "to shift me from the Marxist view And James has as good an ear as tion of the people of Trinidad and of the world I adopted in 1934. I his eye. He writes beautifully in Tobago since the abolition of slav- have watched nothing but the these essays about the Mighty Spar- ery. It is not that some intellectuals decline of this capitalist society. I row, Trinidad's most famous calyp- have got hold of it. It has been have seen the first war, Hitler, soan, whom he describes "as the made by the people themselves." Stalin, the Gulag, Vietnam. And now most intelligent and alert person I James, the Black Cassandra, had do I think Carter and Ronald met in the Caribbean," and with sent a public telegram of warning to Reagan and Mrs. Thatcher are going great feeling about the young Paul the young left-winger, Walter Rod- to fix anything?" He waves con- Robeson, with whose Moscow-line ney, two months before his assassi- tempt softly about the bedroom. politics he so fundamentally dif- nation in Guyana last month. There "And it would seem to me that all fered (though he and Robeson ap- is pain, but not disbelief, in his face this frantic maneuvering in the La- peared together in the 1930's, at the as he remembers his young friend. bor Party and the trade unions is Westminster Theatre, in a dramatized One is reminded just how many po- once again to keep the workers in litical deaths James has had to wit- version of Toussaint's story). We order." agreed to disagree about reggae but ness, grieve and endure. Then his voice lowers again, and James pays tribute to the tre- I retain important reservations hangs suspended, as if addressing an mendous effectiveness of Rasta mu- about James's Leninist libertarian- auditorium. "More and more people, sic: "The are leftists, with ism. He has been insufficiently con- especially Black people, are alert. no particular programme. But their sistent in applying his own criteria They reject the political choices critique of everything the British for socialist self-emancipation to offered them and are looking for a left behind, and those Blacks who Nkrumah, Castro and other revolu- new way out of the mess. They are follow it, is very sophisticated." tionary nationalists. His devastating the ones who are now turning to critique of "vanguard" parties — Marx and Lenin to see if they have those toy bolsheviks who ape and James came back to England after something to say." the second world war, and re- misunderstand Lenin's politics — is They should also be turning to C. married. He now divides his time in danger of writing off altogether L. R. James, who has already an- between London and the West In- the need for the sinews of socialist swered some of the questions events organization. But this is very small dies, with interludes as, for exam- have yet to pose. ple, a visiting professor at United beer beside one's respect, admira- States universities or colleges. tion and affection for a revolution- When I saw him, he was just back ary intransigent who inhabits both from Kingston, Jamaica, where "na- classical and Marxist culture like a turally, I had talks with Manley. familiar home. He moves from an- David Widgery is a frequent con- But the crisis in the Caribbean is cient Greece, to the Detroit auto tributor to New Society, from the not the problem of the capacity of plants, and then to Florence, in as June 26, 1980 issue of which this the individual leaders: it's the tre- many sentences. article is reprinted.

117 A unique Marxist thinker by Wilson Harris run sometimes concurrently since revolutionary France and the trage- the genius of art lies, in part, in a dies of the age of Napoleon. C. L. R. James is, I believe, a "shock of tone, a shock of beauty, a At the other extreme, James's great West Indian of complex spirit. I shock of perception" that helps us to Beyond A Boundary, which appeared recall a conversation with him on the unravel biased habit built into the in the early 1960's, witnesses to the plane that was taking us from ways one may have been conditioned English legacy of cricket as an Madrid to Havana, Cuba, some years to perceive the world. extension of the ideal and subtle ago to attend a UNESCO conference C. L. R. James's preoccupation physicality of the Greek pantheon on Caribbean literature. We became with such issues makes him a unique that casts its shadow upon immersed in the problem of "light" in Marxist thinker whose dialectic is practitioners of the game in the West the paintings of such artists as El attuned, it seems to me, to necessity Indies and around the globe. Greco, Titian, Piero della Francesco, for individual originality as much as C. L. R. James has written a great Van Gogh, Turner and Rembrandt. it is involved in analyses of historical deal, many articles and important Through the window of the plane — process in the life of the people or books — as his critics have attested far above the Atlantic Ocean and the the body-politic. The significance of — and I wonder in what degree the Caribbean Sea — we could see a this may not be immediately self- body of his work may lie within two huge otherworldly continent evident in an age such as ours in extremities, namely, The Black saturated by an enormity of sun, and which ideologies have little or no Jacobins, on one hand, within which we could not but pause and wonder independence in themselves and are the freed slave of genius Toussaint at the quality of obsession with both virtually delegates of robot genetics confronts the fascinations of darkness and light in some Caribbean and undifferentiated mechanics of Napoleonic tyranny, and Beyond A poetries and fictions. What is light, thought. Boundary, on the other, in which we asked ourselves, in imageries of The Black Jacobins, which James body-epic becomes a variable of the plastic word as this borders on a wrote in the 1930's, was a daring mind of theatre. sensation of paint, sculpture, and work of individual scholarship in organic metaphors of music as tone assessing the universality of Tous- of verbal narrative beyond mimicry saint L'Ouverture within the frac- Wilson Harris, a West Indian novelist of sound? tured limits of his age that possessed living in Britain, is the author of "Light" is as much a naked tone its roots not only in the Palace of the Peacock and other or quality as a dazzling mirror; these Middle Passage but in pre- and post- works.

Personal notes by George Rawick Indian literary journal, and inter- Kwame Nkrumah, the leader of the vened in the struggle for independ- struggle for Gold Coast independ- The most important lesson to learn ence primarily with several impor- ence and the first head of state of an from the life of C. L. R. James is tant pamphlets. independent Ghana; Jomo Kenyatta, something that he has told virtually In the early nineteen-thirties, in head of the struggle for Kenya's everyone around him: "Do your own England, James and a few others, freedom and the first Kenyan chief work, do it well, and if it is right it starting with nothing but their ideas of state. will make its way." This old- and their commitments, gathered Also in the same period, James fashioned adage is basically a around them figures who were to found time to write a play about the statement of revolutionary patience become major leaders of the life of Toussaint L'Ouverture. The and revolutionary determination. struggle for African independence: In the nineteen-twenties and the George Padmore, James's boyhood play was produced in London with early thirties, James was a teacher friend from Trinidad, whose struggle Paul Robeson playing the lead role! and literary figure in Trinidad, dedi- for Pan-African solidarity and And as has been true all his life, cated to the politics of West Indian African freedom were to lead to the James moved around the British nationalism. He wrote what was one Gold Coast rebellion and the crea- Isles and elsewhere, giving talks to of the first West Indian novels, tion of modern Ghana, the first large and small groups, writing Minty Alley, founded the first West step in the liberation of Africa; articles for prominent and obscure

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journals, having conversations with vey, had put forward a nationalist Spheres of Existence, 1980, and of an endless stream of people who position. But James's achievement course in that monumental biog- sought him out, and, ultimately most was that he united this current of raphy, The Black Jacobins. It is significantly, probing for that Black thought and struggle with characteristic that James begins his relationship with the mass of the Marxism, and in so doing, trans- magnificent essay "The Olympia population that would release in formed some part of the central Statues, Picasso's Guernica and the himself his own, most focused and Marxist heritage. Neither Garvey nor Frescoes of Michelangelo in the valuable energies. James made this idea grab hold of Capella Paolina" with a discussion of In 1938, James argued with Trotsky the minds of numberless Black men himself, his own early relationship to in Mexico about Black nationalism, and women — they merely created horses (horses dominate the pushing Trotsky to an understanding channels through which the idea Guernica, one must remember) and that the revolutionary must support could flow and be expressed. his own early memories of Michel- American Blacks choosing national In 1939 James came to the United angelo and Raphael. self-determination and independent States and stayed until deported in Not only has James written on struggle, if those would be the 1953. In 1940 he went into the Toussaint, Picasso, Michelangelo, choices they would make. In this, bootheel of southern Missouri, along and Raphael, he has written on James moved Trotsky from the the Mississippi River, to organize cricket players, including such great West Indian cricket players as Gar- narrowness and elitism of his Black and white tenant farmers and field Sobers and Learie Constantine, organization which was fixated upon sharecroppers. He carried with him a on the great calypso singer The hammering out for each and every copy of Hegel's Logic, which he studied on the side of backcountry Mighty Sparrow, and on W. E. B. sector of struggling humanity a dirt roads while waiting to speak to DuBois, George Jackson, and Paul complete revolutionary program and those he had come to organize. If Robeson. It is not surprising that back towards coming to understand one reads James's Notes on Dialectics, James's early work on West Indian and to be linked with those which was originally produced in nationalism was written as a bio- "molecular forces of history" which 1948 as a series of letters, there is a graphical essay: The Life of Captain Trotsky had so brilliantly portrayed blending of the ideas of Hegel and Cipriani. in his great history of the Russian Marx and those of the most But above all, James has been Revolution. James has never swerved submerged sector of the proletariat. concerned with the activities and from this faith in the self-activity of These workers understood through potentialities of the ordinary man and ordinary people making their own the text of their own lives the woman at all times. In such writings history. concreteness of the struggle between as Every Cook Can Govern and At the moment in the nineteen- Master and Slave. Philosophy James's great essay on human thirties when the Third International becomes proletarian in James's history, Modern Politics, this focus would come up with the pitiful shot- writing not only because he on the ability of ordinary people to gun wedding between the slogan understood Hegel and Marx but transcend the present is the domi- "self-determination for the Negro because James's life has combined an nant theme. people in the black belt" and "Black incredibly rich study of the full range Even James's very conception of and white unite and fight," James of Western thought with the most the process of the transformation of understood and developed the idea of concrete study of the lives of society is based on a revolutionary the autonomous struggle of Black ordinary men and women, and par- view of the human personality. The people, an autonomy strong enough ticipation in their struggles. Read Hungarian Revolution, for example, not to be submerged in or James's novel of the nineteen-twen- was made by modern men and subordinated to the struggle of the ties, Minty Alley, and you will find women, transformed by the modern white, male working class of the the daily details of working class life world and transforming it, modern metropolitan center of capital. This in Trinidad become a vibrant men and women who instinctively notion of autonomy of struggle was political document and a very good knew, for example, that in the carried through by James and those novel. modern world the first thing one who worked most closely with him One of the keys to James's does in a revolution is to capture to include not only Blacks but all thought is his very intense concern the television station. James makes other national groups, women, youth, for questions of human psychology, quite clear what his view of even artists and writers. the psychology of the individual as a revolutionary activity is all about. I think that James's ability to person of his or her own times. Not "New" men and women make, understand the entire question of the only do these concerns permeate in the bowels of the old society, a Black struggle came from the fact Mariners, Renegades, and Castaways, new society. This new society and that he personally shared in this they appear again and again in these new people make the struggle and that other West the essays published as The revolution in order to defend their Indians, most notably Marcus Gar- Future in the Present, 1977, and in new lives and their new society.

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James's concern with the human England as a semi-professional and remember sitting with him in the personality permeates his everyday has been for the past forty years bleachers at the Oval, one of the conversation. There is -something universally acknowledged among great London cricket pitches, among about the method which is that of the those deeply interested in cricket as a West Indian crowd, being taught novelist, the playwright, the literary the finest cricket reporter in the the game by him and being infected essayist, all of which of course James world. His writing on cricket reached with his enthusiasm. In many other is, in addition to being a political its highest point in his magnificent ways, I had the privilege of sharing figure and a Marxist revolutionary. Beyond a Boundary, half personal with James the details of everyday Whether he is talking with a famous memoir, half profound work on life for several years in London. cricket, published in the sixties. John Buying salt-cod and salt-beef in a novelist from Barbados, an infamous Arlott, known as England's London West Indian market, joking American trade-union hack, a outstanding native-born cricket with the vendors. Playing the slot seventeen-year-old American reporter, referred to this book as the machines in London pubs. Betting a working class young woman, a finest volume ever written on few shillings on the horse races. young unemployed "printer's devil" cricket. Watching him take out one of the from Trinidad, a working journalist For many years James co-edited dozen postcard prints of Picasso's who had been a dairy farmer, a the most serious, scholarly journal Guernica which he had around so Pakistani auto worker in London, the about cricket, The Cricketer's Jour- that he could study it at every spare Polish woman cleaning the hotel nal. It was a cross between The moment. Buying two and three room in Windsor, Ontario, or an Sporting News and The Journal of copies of every newspaper and American university professor, James Sports History, exclusively devoted journal so that he could tear out the constantly asks question: "Where are to cricket. His co-editor of this clippings and give them to others. you from?" "What did your mother journal was a Major in the British Buying several copies of books he is and father do?" "You lived on a army, a War Office stalwart, a Tory, interested in so that he can always farm? How did you milk the cows, and an old-India hand, who spoke have one around. Drinking scotch by hand or machinery? How many with that peculiar accent that sounds before dinner. Listening to James tell cows a day? What else did you do on as if one had a mouthful of marbles. the many sly jokes he is fond of and the farm? Did your family make They deeply respected each other's repeating the punch line. Trying to much money? Your father had to dedication to and knowledge of follow his meticulous sense of time, work at a gas station in order to listening to him begin a lecture with cricket even though they were of make ends meet? What does he do "It is now 8:14. I will lecture until course political enemies. today?" "You work in an automobile 8:44." Going with James to see the And yet cricket for James was factory? What exactly do you do? film "Dr. Zhivago," which certainly neither simply a way of making a What are the working conditions is not particularly sympathetic to the living nor a private indulgence. For like? Are the toilets clean? How Bolshevik Revolution in the midst of James, cricket is essential to the many breaks do you get during the which it is set, and hearing him tell West Indian struggle for freedom, day?" James in his life has followed me that every would-be for his development of his views on the example of Kari Marx, who even revolutionary ought to see it — not, the human personality, and a mark went so far as to have a of course, to persuade them to op- questionnaire about working of his respect for an important aspect pose the revolution but, I believe, of the life of the West Indian masses. conditions passed out to workers. because it shows that revolutions are James has always thought that not games to be played at but In the late nineteen-sixties and public sports were central to the life serious, wrenching affairs, filled with early seventies, James did some of of the working class and the popular death and destruction. his finest writing — on the game of masses throughout the world, that cricket. From the time in the early through sports they expressed But more than that. Partially, I nineteen-thirties when James first crucial aspects of their personalities. believe, James liked "Dr. Zhivago" came to England, he wrote on For example, Correspondence, the because it deals with the struggles of cricket, the sport which is middle- newspaper of James's organization class in England and in the West a literary man to continue his life Indies is the game of the broad, in the United States in the late fifties and poetry writing in the midst of popular masses. James has both made and early sixties, had a regular, the revolution. James was never part of his living and found release lively column on professional sports. enthusiastic about the artist or writer for his passion for the game by The baseball reporting was, in my becoming political. He has writing on cricket for such English opinion, particularly fine and laced always seen them as having a partic- journals as the Manchester with comments of much historical ular, unique function. In Mariners Guardian. He played cricket as and sociological insight. he tells us that the real business a young man both in Trinidad and Thinking of James on cricket, I of an artist is "the study of human

120 personality and human relations." "right," but he must be heard. Or so concern with Western Civilization. James tells us that "Melville is not I understand James. For James all of James can usually take the artifacts an agitator. He is a creative artist this is important, for the communist of everyday life and culture and find who is moving steadily towards that revolution comes not to destroy within them something of value, of rarest of achievements — the Western Civilization but to fulfill it. significance, of importance. That is creation of a character which will We cannot create a desert and find no mean achievement. sum up a whole epoch of human in it the new society. With all of its history." Writing on the West Indian limitations, panderings to writer Wilson Harris, James suggests reactionary ideas, and sheer roman- George P. Rawick is a prominent that the artist lifts us from the ticism, "Dr. Zhivago," I think James author on Afro-American and labor "everyday" to the peak, to the was telling me, is a film that has a history, now Professor of History at transcendent, the boundary limit germ of truthfulness because it the University of Missouri, St. situation. treats the writer with this particular Louis. He spent several years in the Not that the artist need be care and has, ultimately, this early 1960's with James in London.

Black Scholar

by Richard W. Thomas Black history. Most white history riences in the Caribbean, United States, and Africa were all linked by I first became aware of the sig- professors in predominantly white survival and struggle, we were drawn nificance of C. L. R. James's works universities considered Black history in the history education of Black as outside of the purview of toward James's A History of Pan- students in predominantly white mainstream American and European African Revolt. This "Pan-African" "universities during a European His- history. Most certainly, Black history perspective was particularly helpful tory Survey class in the mid-1960's. could not shed any light upon such for those of us involved in Black Luckily for me and the few Black monumental "white" historical events radical student organizations students in the course, I had already as the French Revolution! In short, composed of West Indian, African read with great interest and pride James's Black Jacobins helped us to and Afro-American students; it James's book, The Black Jacobins, challenge this view of white history. provided us with a common historical which vividly described the story of We were able to show the historical legacy bound up in capitalism, Black revolt in French San Domingo connections between European racism and imperialism, and made (known today as Haiti). The his- economic and political developments ever clearer to us our common and torical evidence of the connection and the slave trade, and more interrelated historic struggles against between this Black revolt and the importantly for us as Black students, these forces. The book proved French Revolution enabled me and the intimate connection between the indispensable for those of us who the other Black students to do battle French Revolution and the Black were en route to careers as with an arrogant white professor revolt in San Domingo. For Black professional historians. A History of who was determined to relegate the students in a lily-white "European" Pan-African Revolt greatly aided us significance of this Black revolt to survey course, such historical in comprehending the little more than a localized slave riot. connections helped to foster an interconnections among Black Under my constant questioning, the understanding of the role and nature struggles in San Domingo, Africa professor was forced to of Black events in modern history. and the United States. This Pan- acknowledge the international sig- Another book by James, A History African perspective laid the foun- nificance of this Black revolt (the of Pan-African Revolt, contributed dation for many of us who years later only successful slave revolt in mod- even more to our historical education would become interested in working ern history), as well as its impact as Black students. Even if in the field of the . upon the course of European and predominantly white universities American history. It was not easy for managed to come up with a few By far the most dramatic impres- a white American professor teaching token courses in Black history (usu- sion made on me by C. L. R. James a European survey course to ally taught by someone trained in was his appearance on the campus of acknowledge the contribution of a another field and "drafted" to teach a Michigan State University in the late Black slave, Toussaint L'Ouverture, Black course as a sop to radical 1960's. He had been invited by the to the success of the French Black students), these courses late James Hooker, a specialist in Revolution. were very seldom devoted to a African history, who had just This white professor was not systematic "comparative" per- completed a book on George Pad- atypical in his assumptions about spective. Realizing that Black expe- more entitled Black Revolutionary.

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James's physical appearance made would confirm my "need" for a to him I was just another faceless an immediate imprint on my mind. "dark" model. James had just fin- Black undergraduate history student He was dark during a time when the ished a splendid discussion about in search of some meaning in the Black revolution in America was his experience with Kwame Nkru- Black struggle, but to me James was still wrestling with color prejudice mah and George Padmore when he one of my first "dark" intellectual within the Black community; dark- asked those of us with tape recorders models in a white world which skinned Afro-Americans on white to turn them off. He then mentioned emphasized pride of white skin and college campuses were waging a one of the reasons why Pad-more in a "Black" world which was still struggling with the question of struggle against white racism and and he had left the West Indies: whether Black was really beautiful. fighting against the overt and covert "dark" Blacks could not succeed "color-struck" syndrome of fellow very well at home. This struck me Afro-Americans. As trite as it might deeply. Other dark Afro-Americans seem today, I was doubly proud of and I were not alone in this double that grand old man: he was not only Richard Thomas is a labor historian a Black man but also a "dark" Black battle; even the great C. L. R. James specializing in Black labor history man. (By this time I was still had felt his own people's color bias! and labor and race relations. He is recovering from having James discussed other things that an Associate Professor in the Col- read DuBois' references to Garvey evening, among them DuBois' Black lege of Urban Development at as "Black and ugly.") During Reconstruction. After the talk, Michigan State University, East the latter part of his lecture, James I had a brief chat with him. Perhaps Lansing, Michigan.

Conversation Mississippi activist Ken Lawrence was in a different shape and form, ciently appreciated, and which I am interviewed Vincent Harding in but he was his usual very disciplined trying to clarify in the second vol- March at Tougaloo College while and very caring self, and he read it ume of my history of our struggle, Harding was Tougaloo's humanist- carefully, and expressed great because I'm trying to talk about the in-residence. appreciation for it, and raised some way in which, in very different crucial questions about what I was senses, he and DuBois and Robeson KL: I recall a number of years ago doing and how. And I think that both were a kind of bridge from one seeing a list of materials made the sense of appreciation and period of our struggle to another — available by the Institute of the encouragement, and the critical in a sense from the pre-World War Black World, a significant portion of questions were of tremendous value Two period to the post-World War which were tapes of talks given by C. to me in my thinking about what I Two period. I think that C. L. R. L. R. James and articles by him, and was doing, and how I should be do- deserves careful thought, in his work, so forth. So I know that his work and ing it. So C. L. R. is someone whom I in his energy, in his insight into the his thought significantly shaped what appreciate very, very much, from particular and special role of Black that perspective of his very open re- people in the transformation of you were trying to do then. sponse to my own initial struggle to American society. He was of great develop the work that's now begun importance to me and I've been VH: I think that for me, I have a to be published as There Is A River. trying to present that as a part of the two-part debt to C. L. R. One is The other thing on a personal history of our struggle. organizationally, primarily through level is that C. L. R. was always a So, on a number of levels I feel his relationship to the Institute. The kind of inspiration to me as one of this personal debt, and of course other is personally. I think I should the persons who was in very many have always seen his work, especially say something about the personal deep senses a truly revolutionary Black Jacobins, as a kind of ex- level first. scholar — a revolutionary scholar emplary model of the historical de- I think that the most direct con- who was based, for a long time, out- velopment of a history of a people's tribution by C. L. R. has been that side the traditional institutions of struggle. And reading that, and he was one of the persons who ini- scholarship. And that is another im- thinking about it, and reflecting on it tially read the first version of the portant personal model for me, and I and hearing him talk about it has manuscript that I've been working have great appreciation for that. been quite helpful to me. on for a long time on the history I also felt that he has a role in And I guess the other thing of the Black struggle for freedom the history of our struggle in about C. L. R. that is related to in this country. He read it when it this country that has not been suffi- the point at which I began, is that he

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has always been the warmest and for him. He stayed with my family ment and discussion it took. But he most encouraging kind of, in a sense, several times. I think that from my was one of the most persuasive father in the work, and has made own experience I would have to say people I ever encountered. every effort whenever he could, that it parallels much of what you've certainly to encourage me — both in said. You were more careful, either VH: The other side of that, my own individual work and in the in your choice of words, or else though, is that C. L. R. has not been development that we were engaged in perhaps you were more self- able to — at least the last time I when we were founding and motivated in your response than I'd heard about it — has not been able developing the Institute of the Black have been. I know from my to be pressed in the same way by World. So that's a second area, the standpoint it's fair to say that some others about doing some of the tasks relationship of C. L. R. to the of the most important work that that he must do. That whole development of our institute, because I've done, both on my own and question of his autobiography, and he was certainly one of the earliest with other people, was like that. the priority that has to be given to it supporters of what we were trying to But I think, for example, the largest for the sake of us all. It's been very do in developing an institution for project of my career was certainly very hard for some of us who love which there were very few models, the collecting and editing and pub- him to know how to deal with him that would try to take a radical lishing the slave narratives, and that on the many things he's allowed to perspective on the history of Black was entirely his conception. get in the way of that critical task in people in America and try to develop It was his urging, that this was his own life. I don't know where he one of the most important tasks is on it now, and I hope that I'll be a radical perspective on the future of that could be undertaken, and his very surprised to be told that he's Black people in America, and try to insistence — that's what I was get- making great progress on it, but I'm share that perspective with as broad a ting at — his firmness, he wouldn't very worried about that and I wish grouping of people as possible. let us lose sight of the importance that there was somebody who could C. L. R. was not only supportive of it to the more day-to-day work push C. L. R. in the same way that in terms of encouraging us to do this of being a revolutionary, which is he has pushed many of us. work — those of us who were always something that's standing working at the organizing of it — but there ready to consume you. You he made himself available to come to can always get drowned in all of the KL: I feel some of the same frus- some of our early seminars when we emergencies that arise. And never- theless it was his insistence — and tration. In that particular respect I'm were establishing the legitimacy of the tyranny almost — driving us, that almost amused to recall that the last institution. And his work, especially these tasks need to be done, you time I asked him where he was on his presentations having to do with have to find time for them what- the project, he said, "I'm writing how he developed Black Jacobins, ever else you have to do, you have volume one." I bet he still is. and some of the other things that he to do this too, that is the reason Let me ask you something on a presented as a part of his time with why those jobs got done. And I different level. I've learned over the us, were all important think without that, which certainly years from talking to a lot of people contributions to the life and work at qualifies as encouragement, but a who have been influenced by him the early stages of the institute's great deal more than that — a firm enormously that he's intervened in development. He also was a faithful guiding hand — without that, I know the world he's lived in in more ways financial contributor to the institute, it never would have gotten done. than most people would be able to in and one of those nurturers and several lifetimes, and he's had one encouragers who constantly need to VH: That's right — very powerful kind of meaning to West Indian come from one generation to the aid encouragement. nationalists, and another kind of of another generation. meaning to American and British One of the things I might say KL: And I would say the same Marxists, and another kind of about C. L. R. is that he had a very kind of thing about his criticism meaning to younger Black freedom warm spot for my family as well. too. He was always very forceful, fighters in the civil rights and Black He stayed in our home on a couple but by the same token he never Power and revolutionary workers' of occasions and we just considered talked down to or up to anybody, movements. And yet the diversity him to be a very special human be- that I saw in my life. He would al- of those movements is as great ing. I have a lot of memories, good ways take the issues for what they as ever; there's not an awful lot memories. were, and if he was wrong you'd of coming together. But certainly have to convince him, and if he he sees a unity of purpose and KL: I share many of the same wasn't, you were going to be con- vision of all those movements. personal attachments and feelings vinced, no matter how much argu- What do you think about that?

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VH: It's an example of the fact the South Side ghetto to university One of the things I remember that on certain political levels we audiences. I remember listening to with a combination of sadness and can't necessarily use the' geometric what was ostensibly the same speech humor was a long conversation that theorem that things equal to the given on several occasions. The title C. L. R. and Harry Haywood had in same thing are equal to each other. of it was "The Contribution of West our house in Atlanta. It was focused The other side of that is, it may well Indian Blacks to Western to a large degree — and I just found be that because of his sense of Civilization." The version that he it somewhat ironic and, as I said, overview, C. L. R. has seen a funda- gave at the left somewhat sad, even though a lot of mental unity that people who are everyone in the room breathless, the development of the conversation much too engaged in the day-to-day just breathless. And I asked him also had its humor to it — to see struggles, both for their goals and afterward why that had been so these two really experienced and for the particular life of their par- different from the previous couple of gifted Black men literally arguing ticular organizations, may not be times I had heard the talk of that about which expression of Marxist able to see or may not want to see. title — because it was from the same ideology and organization was really But I'm not surprised by the fact that lecture notes, took the same amount best. I think with that experience it people don't see the same kind of of time, and so forth. He said, took both of them out of the overview, or sense of oneness, that "You've got to read your audience. mainstream of so much of Black C. L. R. has, partly because he's had You've got to know at every point life, and took their strengths away the benefit of a tremendous amount how far you can push them, and I from that mainstream. I just have of experience and a reach of knew that I could take them all the the feeling it would have been so organizational contacts — that in its way, and it was the first chance I'd much healthier if both of these men very self, the fact that he has been had." I think I learned something might have found some common able to encompass experience and ground and might have found ways from that, at least I tried to. people within this whole of using their energy beyond those When C. L. R. spoke here at Tou- organizational gamut, gives him a kinds of arguments that grew out of galoo College in 1972, it was the kind of perspective that is not avail- the experiences of the late twenties only time I've ever seen a speaker able to many of the kinds of people and thirties, that for them were very who are working at these particular here, at whose speech attendance fresh wounds and very hard sorts of tasks. So I think it's pretty was not required, first of all pack experiences. It's just amazing to me understandable that it's quite possible the hall, and secondly, by the time how alive they still were to them. I for him to have a sense of over- he'd been speaking about five min- guess having approached maturity arching vision that is not shared by utes, everyone in the room was tak- myself in the sixties, it was just many of the particular people in the ing notes. They knew that this was very hard to feel the real signifi- particular fields. something they didn't want to get cance of some of those ideological One of the things that is simply in away from them. That too was a arguments that they were carrying passing that I'd just like to throw in marvel to behold; not many people on at that time, that had grown out is that one of my best memories of have those abilities. A few hours of a period of 25 or 30 years before. C. L. R. is the style of his lecturing earlier he had astonished the faculty It was quite an encounter; I don't when he was with us at IBW, and of members who were having cocktails know if they've ever had a public course I've seen him do it elsewhere with him by giving an impromptu exchange of all those lines, but the — this wonderfully disciplined way lecture on the fact that Mississippi private one was very powerful. of sitting down and taking out his had produced only two important watch and scattering his notes in writers — Richard Wright and KL: If not they, he's certainly had front of him and saying: "It is now William Faulkner — and what that similar exchanges with similar 7:45, and I will speak until 8:45 and meant to him. people over the years that I've wit- then I will answer questions," and nessed. I had, I think, much the going on to do precisely that. VH: In the early seventies, C. L. same feeling that you're expressing R. was very well known and highly in a different context. It wasn't even KL: Yes. A lot of times that was a respected in the circles that I was a in his presence, or with him very deceptive thing, in fact. Many part of. One of the major problems confronting anybody. It was when I times when he was in Chicago, right that I recall us having in that '70 to read for the first time Mariners, after he had been allowed to return '75 period was to get C. L. R. to stop Renegades and Castaways, which is to the United States, he was taking speaking engagements all probably one of the most brilliant lecturing in a variety of places to all over the country, because if he had things he's written in his life. Par- different kinds of audiences, ranging wanted to he could be going ticularly when we don't have such an from activists who lived and practically every day to speak urgent need for his political worked in the deepest parts of somewhere, especially on campuses. contributions, it will stand as a mile-

124 stone to what we are and where book. From his standpoint it's ally, that it was sort of forbidden, we've been and where we're going, I probably a vital statement of some- not proletarian enough, or some- think, in the most universal kind of thing important, but I could never thing like that. He certainly rescued way. see it that way. On the other hand me from that; not only were my But the last chapter of Mariners, that book has certainly inspired me, interests, in literature or music or which is a polemic against Commu- particularly as somebody who got whatever, legitimate, but they were nist Party people, was so dissonant involved in things a little bit before essential to the world we're trying to that it shocked me, and I've never the sixties, so I still had many of the create. been able to reconcile the two parts diseases that were imposed by what of that book. And yet there's no we called the Old Left once we got Vincent Hording is the director of the doubt that it was burning him deeply into the sixties — particularly Institute of the Black World and while he was there waiting to be a certain attitude toward culture author of The Other American deported as he wrote the rest of the and intellectual pursuits gener- Revolution.

Nello

by John Bracey the sweep of C. L. R.'s analysis. and legitimatize our curiosity that As often as possible C. L. R. ranged far and wide in the general It is a most pleasant task to be able would come to dinner with my wife areas of history, politics, philosophy to offer a word or two on the and a few friends on Thursday and culture. He was quite skillful at importance of the life and work of C. evenings. He was quite explicit as to pointing out the linkages between L. R. James (Nello). when he should be picked up from the experience of Blacks and that of I learned of C. L. R.'s existence his apartment, and when he should the rest of the world. I can recall a when I read The Black Jacobins in an be returned. We did our best to discussion where several comrades undergraduate course on Negro provide the fare that he suggested, and I were railing against Europe History at Roosevelt University. The and were even fortunate enough on and its evils. C. L. R. intervened book had a tremendous impact on one occasion to obtain some Red with "But my dear Bracey, I am a my understanding of the revolu- Snapper which really made the Black European, that is my training tionary process and of revolutionary evening. Those dinners-discussions and my outlook." C. L. R. said this personalities. It remains after forty were among the most interesting and without apology, and without seeking years one of the finest works of intellectually stimulating experiences our acceptance. He was merely historical and Marxist scholarship that I have ever had in or out of (merely?) saying that to blindly that I have read. academia. What C. L. R. ac- reject all things originating in or I first met C. L. R. in Fall, 1969, complished in his firm, but subtle, influenced by Europe would mean when as one of a number of demands way was to help smooth over some rejecting not only people like of Black student activists at of the rougher edges and to loosen himself, but rejecting a significant Northwestern University in the wake up some of the more rigid dogma- part of our own cultural and intel- of a building takeover in the Spring, tism of the views of myself and lectual baggage. The clear implica- 1968, he was asked to teach West other young Black radicals. C. L. R., tion was that we were much too Indian history and politics as one of now that I think about it, was one of intelligent to do that. C. L. R., as a our new offerings in Black Studies. those "soft" Marxists (for lack of a good Marxist, upheld the best of He was simply beautiful. He taught a more precise term) very much in the what earlier societies produced in course based on a close reading of tradition of Raymond Williams, terms of literature, art, philosophy, The Black Jacobins and gave a series John Berger, and E. P. Thompson in and values. of lectures that began with the England, and say William A. Two additional incidents stick in ancient Greeks — Aristotle's Politics, Williams in the U.S. No base, my mind on C. L. R.'s outlook. Aeschylus, Sophocles — and ranged superstructure, conjunctures and First, C. L. R. cut short a discussion far and wide in world history ending over-determinations for him. of Marxist-Humanism by saying that in this century with the social and Marxism was a method and a cri- the phrase was redundant. To be a political writings of Julius Nyerere tique: a method to study people and humanist in the twentieth century of Tanzania. The series of the things that people have done and was to be a Marxist. Finally, shortly lectures published as Modern can do to make their way in the after C. L. R. arrived to teach Politics and the essay "Peasants world. The lived experience was the at Northwestern University, and Workers" in Radical proper focus of attention. we informed him that the library America (Nov.-Dec. 1971) convey C. L. R. also helped to open up had a copy of his World Revolu-

125 tion. At the same time a publisher bourgeoisie could accuse him of our disagreements) on the relative was reprinting it without his knowl- working for socialist revolution, but merits of various individuals and edge and charging some ridiculously he would never let them accuse him groups active during the late 1960's. I high price. C. L. R. had no copy of of stealing. C. L. R. James is a gen- still teach The Black Jacobins in a this major work of his and expressed tleman and a scholar in the fullest course on "Revolution in the Third a desire to obtain a copy. We offered meaning of those terms. World." I consider myself privileged to "liberate" the copy from to know him as my teacher, colleague the library and give it to him. C. L. R. went on to teach at Fed- and friend. Our rationale — C. L. R. created eral City College and to participate in it; it was a product of his labor and the Sixth Pan-African Conference. John Bracey is Associate Professor if anyone was entitled to a copy, We have met infrequently these of Afro-American Studies at the it was C. L. R. He was horrified past ten years. I remember University of Massachusetts at at our suggestion. He said that the our talks, and our agreements (and Amherst.

Meeting in Chicago

by Noel Ignatin period, someone challenged James's that I admired. notion of the inevitability of social- I had always been uneasy with I first encountered C. L. R. James ism, and asked about state repres- the vague anti-intellectualism that and his ideas in 1968, when I at- sion, "like the case of the tsar, who prevailed among the Stalinists. Cer- tended, on the invitation of my jailed the revolutionaries and used tain things I knew, for instance, that friend Ken Lawrence, a public military force to suppress the move- many of Shakespeare's characters meeting on the south side of Chi- ment." It was not a set-up question, were more real to me than people I cago at which James was the prin- although it might as well have been. passed daily in the street. What could cipal speaker. It was his first speaking "You could hardly have picked a be the role of culture in a movement tour following his readmission to the better example for my point," James which seemed to welcome country after fourteen years away, said, with a chuckle. "The tsar had a intellectuals so long as they and his comrades were happy and large army, the tsar had a huge confined themselves to grinding out proud to be able to introduce him to police force and a lot of prisons and defenses of the party line (in the the public. I myself was a Stalinist at (here James's accent grew stronger manner of Herbert Aptheker) but the time, with several important — that West Indian speech, most which placed them under immediate reservations. pleasing to the ear of all the tongues suspicion for their "doubtful" class The first thing that impressed me spoken on this green earth) . . . and background should they dare to about James, and made me want to wh' hoppened to de tsar?" advance a new idea? Was "culture" listen carefully and find out more The second thing that impressed to be merely a private indulgence, about him, was his style, which me about James was the complete tolerable if it didn't detract too much showed a mastery of his subject absence of condescension on his from the "real" movement? James, matter and a conviction that the part, his total unwillingness to play without sinking for a moment into ideas he was expressing were fresh down to his audience. This was im- academicism, exemplified a and important. His topic that night portant to me, who came from a different view, which I sensed when was the self-activity of the working tradition that had produced more I first heard him speak and which class, and he took for his text the than a few "popularizers" whose later became manifest to me when I next to last chapter of volume I of translations were far inferior to the read his book on Herman Melville. Capital, with its familiar words about originals. James's talk was, as any- Here was a man, James, an the new mode of production, which one who has ever read him knows, extremely close observer of the has "sprung up and flourished along filled with concrete references, made details of working class life, who with, and under" the old. Familiar, to illustrate his point: clarify, yes; argued straightforwardly that the yes, but how new was the reading he simplify, he would not do. He was struggle for the new society was a gave to them! Out of this chapter dealing with difficult ideas (not so struggle between different philos- he drew a vision of the working difficult, perhaps, but obscured by ophies as they are lived out. The role class striving inexorably toward generations of "simplifiers") and he of the "thinker" was to make the the socialist society, not out of seemed to be saying, I will explain ordinary citizen conscious of the loyalty to this or that political this as clearly as I can, but you process of which he or she was a part. program but out of its position must make some effort too. It And in Mariners, Renegades in capitalist society. In the question revealed an attitude toward people and Castaways, an essay which will

126 live as long as Moby Dick itself, zenship which he at one point of "misery, agony of toil, slavery," James shows how one great artist sought. It is testimony to the uni- etc. into something . . . far more was able to present, in personified versality of James's Marxism, that is interesting. (I should mention that form, the central conflicts of his to say, Marxism. James was able to get my ear on age. Taken purely as literary criti- I come from a family of intellec- this point in large part because of cism, Mariners' is a masterpiece tuals. When I left the university to Marty Glaberman's old pamphlet worthy of the novel it examines; it work in industry, I was driven not by Punching Out, which was of course contains the most lucid explanation the whip of hunger but by the desire a product of James's group. People of the creative process to be found to associate myself as closely as with whom I worked and to whom I in the entire body of writing about possible with the revolutionary class showed the pamphlet invariably literature. But it is more than that; it of our age. I am acutely aware of the responded in a way that showed it is a devastating blow to both aca- distinction and it is my conviction, had touched them more deeply than demicism and anti-intellectualism, after twenty years, that no individual the average Left tract, a fact which the presentation of a world view who joins the proletariat for any made no small impression on me. I that links thought and action. To me reason but externally imposed figured that a group that could it meant a great deal. necessity can ever acquire the produce such a pamphlet — there instinctive responses of a worker (an are perhaps only a handful that outcome not necessarily desirable), compare with it today, thirty years What was to be my attitude to- although some may approach fairly later — deserved a serious hearing. I ward my own country? Like many close. I felt from the beginning that I should also like to add that it was U.S. revolutionaries I faced a con- had something to learn from the only several years later that I came flict, between my feelings of shame workers. That is a fairly across similar ideas in reading at the crimes committed by U.S. commonplace notion on the Left, Gramsci, who writes, "The socialist imperialism and allowed by the particularly among those who have State already exists potentially in American people, and my own ties been influenced by the Chinese the institutions of social life to this country, to its people, land, Communist Party. But what to learn? characteristic of the exploited history, and traditions. (It is a con- The response of most Left groups to working class.") flict peculiar to revolutionaries; by that question was that intellectuals "Humble" is not a word one no means all socialists suffer from should become "steeled" by contact would apply to C. L. R. James; not it.) In Dialectical Materialism and with the oppressed. Upon further for him the modest cough and low- the Fate of Humanity, James wrote inquiry, "getting steeled" was soon ered eyes. Yet when I finally met of "the unending murders, the de- revealed to mean learning how to him for a face-to-face talk several struction of peoples, the bestial suffer stoically. Now, that was one years ago, his reaction, on learning passions, the sadism, the cruelties thing I didn't want to learn. It was what I did for -a living, was to ex- and the lusts, all the manifestations James who provided an answer that press regret that he had never had of barbarism." And then he added, met the needs both of my intuitive the opportunity to work in large- "But this barbarism exists only be- strivings and of reason. By scale industry. I naturally replied cause nothing else can suppress the repeatedly explaining and that his writings had been extremely readiness for sacrifice, the demo- demonstrating the proposition helpful to me in interpreting my cratic instincts and creative power of (found in Marx but later obliterated own experiences there. He said, "Yes, the great masses of people." It was as by those who did such general vio- people have told me that, but I am if the writer had reached out, placed lence to his, and Lenin's, teachings) still sorry I never had the chance his hand on my shoulder and spoken that the new society comes into ex- to experience it directly." All in those words directly to me. Of istence underneath and alongside the all, one of the two most re- course they did not make the conflict old, that the working class is not a markable people it has ever been go away; that would not have been "mass," open to socialist ideas, but is my privilege to see up close. (The proper. But they opened the door to instead the revolutionary class in the other was Willie Mays, also the best a new concept of citizenship, literal meaning of the word, that its in the world at his chosen occupa- one that allowed room for neither autonomous activities constitute tion.) facile apologetics nor masochistic socialism and that there is no self-hatred. Curious that this gift other socialism, James gave me Noel Ignatin is a member of Sojour- should come from one who was a point on which to keep my ner Truth Organization and editor of eyes fixed and transformed the himself not a native of the U.S. and Urgent Tasks. who was officially denied the citi- hours I spent at work from a time

127

C. L. R. JAMES AT 80

by E. P. Thompson

Tom Mann and C. L. R. James have one thing in common. On his eightieth birthday, Tom said, "I hope to grow more dangerous as I grow older." C. L. R. has already shown that he intends to do the same. What an extraordinary man he is! It is not a question of whether one agrees with everything he has said or done: but everything has had the mark of originality, of his own flexible, sensitive and deeply cultured intelligence. That intelligence has always been matched by a warm and outgoing personality. He has always conveyed, not a rigid doctrine, but a delight and curiosity in all the manifestations of life. I'm afraid that American theorists will not understand this, but the clue to every- thing lies in his proper appreciation of the game of cricket.