REVIEW “Triple Oppression” to “Freedom Dreams” By Alan Wald Black Internationalist variations: for Truth and Justice in 1951. The first was Feminism: 1) All three reject the declension formed around the political defense case Women Writers of the Black Left, narrative of the Old Left as a move- of Rosa Lee Ingram (convicted in 1947 for 1945-1995 ment destroyed or rendered impotent killing a white man in self-defense), and the By Cheryl Higashida in the post-World War II years; they for- second protested Cold War racism. Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 2011, ward an anticipatory narrative of linking Higashida and McDuffie find a further 250pages, hardback $50. Communism’s hard-fought battles to the manifestation of the “triple oppression” Radicalism at the Crossroads: coming political upsurge of the 1960s and argument in the statement of the Combahee African American Women Activists after. In this sense they enrich Jacqueline River Collective (1974-80), a Black feminist in the Cold War Dowd Hall’s 2005 thesis of “The Long Civil lesbian organization, while all three point 3 to its presence in the pages of Freedomways By Dayo F. Gore Rights Movement” by revising what Dayo magazine (1961-85), an African-American New York: New York University Press, 2011, Gore describes as “the historical periodiza- political and cultural journal supported by 229 pages, paper $23. tion that ignores Cold War black radicalism [in order to] uncover its connections to but broader than the Communist Party. Sojourning for Freedom: later decades of activism, including African Higashida alone pursues the evolution Black Women, American Communism, American civil rights activism after 1955.”4 and transformation of this thinking in works and the Making of Black Left Feminism More specifically, the three reinforce the of imaginative literature published through By Erik S. McDuffie argument of Nikhil Pal Singh’s 2005 Black 1995, tracking the interaction between a Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2011, is a Country: Race and the Unfinished Struggle sympathy for national liberation movements 311 pages, paper $23.95. for Democracy on behalf of the existence and a growing critique of heteronormativity. HARRIET TUBMAN, THE former slave of “a more or less consistent tradition of While her most brilliant chapter address- turned Abolitionist, once said: “Every great radical dissent” from the Great Depression es Lorraine Hansberry’s Les Blancs, she also dream begins with a dreamer.”1 The con- forward.5 provides impressively original readings of current publication of three evocative and 2) All regard the paramount intellectual Alice Childress’s A Short Walk (1979), Rosa absorbing studies of the “freedom dreams” bridge between Black women activists of Guy’s The Sun, The Sea, a Touch of the Wind of African-American women associated with the Old Left and later developments to be a (1995), Audre Lorde’s later poetry, and Maya the mid-20th century Communist move- hitherto hidden history of “intersectionality,” Angelou’s last three volumes of autobiog- ment is something of an event.2 today’s preeminent sociological method in raphy. Through an examination of the archi- feminist studies. 3) Through their examination of val record, combined with numerous oral Intersectionality, first fully elaborated in the biographies of several dozen Black histories and close readings of political and the late 1980s, refers to the examination of pro-Communist women, overlapping in a literary texts, Black Internationalist Feminism, interactions among manifold dimensions and few instances, the authors confirm the intel- Radicalism at the Crossroads and Sojourning modalities of social relationships and social lectual shallowness of over-arching applica- for Freedom provide at their very best some formations that contribute to social inequal- tions of the political category of “Stalinism.” compelling history with engaging portraits. ity.6 Higashida et al argue that the post- Despite its clarifying potential when used All are indispensable reading for the project World War II Communist Party’s concept in a sophisticated manner to treat an ideol- of intellectual decolonization of the Cold of the “triple oppression” of Black women ogy, social system or political organization, War era, a subject still marred by historical workers (that is, by race, class, and gender, “Stalinism” can be an oversimplifying lens obfuscations traceable to the polarized all of which must be addressed) was a deci- through which to evaluate the thinking, per- thinking of the time. sive anticipation of intersectionality. sonalities and life activities of diverse indi- As an ensemble, these books tell a Higashida and McDuffie also observe, viduals, not to mention works of the artistic hugely ambitious, wide-ranging story, one with somewhat differing emphases, that the imagination. that is almost always a delight to read. The term “triple oppression” initially emerged in A few of the names in these books will remarkably detailed chronicles are dense- Party circles in the 1930s, although all three be familiar from earlier studies — obviously with-thinking in the elaboration of at least are unanimous that the formulation achieved Party leader Claudia Jones (1915-64) and three themes held in common, with some a pre-eminent expression in a 1949 Political playwright Lorraine Hansberry (1930-65), Alan Wald, an editor of Against the Current, Affairs essay by Claudia Jones, “An End to outstanding Communist revolutionaries recently contributed essays on Marxists Willard the Neglect of the Problems of the Negro who died painfully young. But some of the Motley and Theodore Ward to Writers of the Woman.” other fascinating key players have hitherto Black Chicago Renaissance (University of The concept was subsequently articulat- appeared in historical studies and oral his- Illinois Press, 2011), and wrote the Foreword to ed through activism, especially the Women’s tories as human jigsaw puzzles, the pieces of Lloyd Brown’s Communist novel Iron City in the Committee for Equal Justice (an offshoot of their lives and activities scattered over time Northeastern University Press Library of Black the Communist-led Civil Rights Congress), and nearly lost. Literature. and the brief organization of Sojourners The list of protagonists begins with 24 JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2013 Grace Campell (1883-1943), perhaps the become increasingly comfortable as she is ponent of their struggle against heterosex- first Black woman Communist; Williana largely concerned with creative writing after ism and patriarchy. Burroughs (1882-1945), a teacher who the 1960s and 1970s. But there is a snag in worked frequently in the Soviet Union; that the “internationalism” of the pro-Com- A Janus-Faced Legacy Audley Moore (1898-1966), a Harlem munist tradition was originally circumscribed The effort to find a balance in judging Communist leader who became an initiator by Soviet foreign policy. It is always a mis- the Janus-faced legacy of Communism is of the Republic of New Afrika; take to confuse more often than not a thankless task. Pro- and Esther Jackson (b.1917), a well-meaning Soviet Communism in the United States founding editor of Freedomways. political aspirations was a courageous vanguard against racism, These and dozens of oth- with the realities colonialism and class exploitation that simul- ers constituted a tradition of of actual practice; taneously lauded a police state regime under 9 pro-Communist Black women, one’s analysis Stalin. even as the authors emphatically morphs into hagi- Faced with the palpable McCarthyite teach us that each activist and ography. repression of the 1950s, non-Communist Party political activists at the time should writer held membership in multi- Regrettably, have prioritized civil rights and liberties ple communities, some unspoken. for the pro-Com- especially in relation to the persecuted This diversity is demonstrated by munist tradition, minority of “Reds.” indicating their different routes “Internationalism” But 50 years later, a radical scholar has into and in some cases their tra- in 1936 in Spain the different task of finding some means to jectories out of the Communist meant following the treat these mostly-deceased pro-Communist movement; their contrasting orga- Soviet orientation protagonists with proper respect while not nizational roles and commitments; of crushing the being afraid to identify embellishments, flaws and their various personal lives, indigenous social and self-delusions in some of their diagno- in a few instances recalling the revolution; in 1939 ses. Every effort to tell this story seems to early 20th century “New Woman” in East Central Claudia Jones wrote about “triple be off-balance in its own ways. (a term for independent career Europe, endorsing oppression” in her 1949 essay. To be sure, the authors of these three women who pushed the limits of the USSR’s subju- books show once again that the Communist male dominated society), or even suggestive gation of the population of half of Poland Party was not politically seamless or its of a lesbian-feminism avant la lettre. and then moving north to attack Finland; interventions entirely stage-managed; to say in World War II, subordinating the colonial Problems of Political Terminology its members were wrong in their judgments revolution (such as in India) and the rights One of the most vexing challenges faced is not to declare them malleable instruments of the internally-colonized (most obviously by the authors of these books is to identify