The author explores the political life in Britain of black Barbadian Chris Braithwaite (c.1885-1944, also known as 'Chris Jones', a hitherto overlooked, yet outstanding figure in the history of the twentieth-century Black and Red Atlantic. As leader of the Colonial Seamen's Association and an important 'class struggle Pan-Africanist', he was the lynchpin of an anti-colonial maritime network in interwar London. Through his work in the Communist party in the early 1930s and then in the International African Friends of Ethiopia and the International African Service Bureau, led by George Padmore and C. L. R. James, Braithwaite's talents as organiser, speaker and writer came to the fore.
This dissertation will aim to advance scholarly understanding of the political and intellectual itinerary of the late Trinidadian intellectual and activist C.L.R. James during the six years he spent in Britain from 1932-38. In the process it will not only revise the existing interpretation of the importance of these years within James's own life and work, but also suggest that James's experience during the 1930s raises wider questions about the nature of British society and politics during this critical decade. This thesis will consider James's early identification with imperial Britishness growing up in a Crown Colony in the British West Indies, and his rejection of this and his radicalisation towards a wider solidarity with forms of black internationalism. James's 'class-struggle Pan-Africanism', developed in partnership with his boyhood friend and compatriot George Padmore, will be examined for the light it sheds on anti-colonialism. James's critically important experience in the Lancashire cotton textile town of Nelson will also be detailed, as will his subsequent relationship with other politically radical intellectuals and the wider British left and labour movement during this period. James's understanding of imperial metropolitan culture in Britain will be explored through a discussion of his early cricket journalism while his other writings for the Trotskyist and Pan-Africanist press illuminate much about race and revolutionary politics in Europe, the Caribbean and America. An attempt will be made to reconstruct the concrete historical context in which James wrote his play Toussaint Louverture, his study World Revolution and his classic history of the Haitian Revolution, The Black Jacobins.Overall, this thesis will suggest that during the 1930s James not only intellectually conquered imperial Britain and advanced understanding of the African diaspora but also emerged as one of the most significant and creative revolutionary Marxist thinkers in Britain during the Great Depression. (London, 1987), front cover.Plate 2. C.L.R. James, 1938 [Photograph].From George Breitman (ed.), Leon Trotsky on Black Nationalism and SelfDetermination (New York, 1980), p. 32.Plate 3. Amy Ashwood Garvey, 1940s [Photograph].From Tony Martin, Amy Ashwood Garvey, (Dover, 2007), p. vi.Plate 4. Ethel Mannin and Reginald Reynolds, late 1930s [Photograph].From Robert Huxter, Reg and Ethel: Reginald Reynolds (1905-1958), his life and .. xu 10 18work and his marriage to Ethel Mannin (1900Mannin ( -1984 (York, 1992 105The Trotskyist Movement in India and Ceylon, 1935-48 (Colombo, 2006). 109Plate 8. Fenner Brockway reviews C.L.R. James's World Revolution [Article] From New Leader, 16 April, 1937. Plate 9. C.L.R. James's copy of the Collected Works of VI. Lenin.Vol. XVIII [Frontispiece]. Copy courtesy of Kevin Morgan. Britain has given me at least some additional insight into 'the great philosophical conflicts of the day' that would not have been possible to gain had I never ventured outside the seminar rooms, libraries...
No abstract
Revolutionary Lives is a series of short, critical biographies of radical figures from throughout history. The books are sympathetic but not sycophantic, and the intention is to present a balanced and, where necessary, critical evaluation of the individual's place in their political field, putting their actions and achievements in context and exploring issues raised by their lives, such as the use or rejection of violence, nationalism, or gender in political activism. While individuals are the subject of the books, their personal lives are dealt with lightly except insofar as they mesh with political concerns. The focus is on the contribution these revolutionaries made to history, an examination of how far they achieved their aims in improving the lives of the oppressed and exploited, and how they can continue to be an inspiration for many today. This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental standards of the country of origin.Typeset by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton, England Simultaneously printed in the United Kingdom and United States of America
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