M.I.A. Library: C.L.R. James


C.L.R. James Archive

CLR James as a young man

1901 – 1989

“This independent Negro movement is able to intervene with terrific force upon the general social and political life of the nation, despite the fact that it is waged under the banner of democratic rights ... [and] is able to exercise a powerful influence upon the revolutionary proletariat, that it has got a great contribution to make to the development of the proletariat in the United States, and that it is in itself a constituent part of the struggle for socialism.”.
Revolutionary Answer, 1948

* * *
Biography



 

Works:

Notes on Dialectics

Dialectical Materialism & the Fate of Humanity

World Revolution 1917-1936

 

Articles on Marxism, Revolution and Black History

Intervening in Abyssinia
New Leader, October 1935.

I.L.P. Abyssinian Policy
I.L.P. Discussion, October 1935.

“Civilising” the “Blacks”; Why Britain needs to Maintain Her African Possessions
New Leader, May 1936.

Popular Front in Past Times
Fight, December 1936.

The Leninist Attitude To War
Fight, January 1937.

The Leninist Attitude For Spain
Fight, April 1937.

The Second Moscow Trial
Fight, April-May 1937.

Trotskyism
Controversy, October 1937.

Six Questions to Trotskyists – And Their Answers
Controversy, February-March 1938.

The Voice of Africa
International African Opinion, August 1938.

Sir Stafford Cripps and “Trusteeship”
International African Opinion, September 1938.

Preliminary Notes on the Negro Question
SWP Internal Bulletin, June 1939.

Notes Following the Discussions
SWP Internal Bulletin, June 1939.

The Right of Self-Determination and the Negro in the US
SWP New York Convention Resolutions, July 1939.

The Communist Party’s Zigzags on Negro Policy
Socialist Appeal, 15 August 1939.

The 1919 Race Riots in Chicago
Socialist Appeal, 29 August 1939.

The SWP and Negro Work
SWP New York Convention Resolutions 1939.

The Destiny of the Negro – An Historical Overview
Series in Socialist Appeal, November–December 1939.

Revolution and the Negro
New International, December 1939.

Why Negroes Should Oppose the War
Socialist Workers Party pamphlet, 1939.

On Gone with the Wind
Socialist Appeal, 30 December 1939.

On Gone with the Wind
Socialist Appeal, 13 January 1940.

The Economics of Lynching
Socialist Appeal, 11 February 1940.

Native Son and Revolution
New International, May 1940.

On Native Son by Richard Wright
Book review in Labor Action, 27 May 1940.

“My Friends”: A Fireside Chat on the War
Workers Party pamphlet, June 1940.

Refugees – in Belgium and the Congo – in War, in Peace
Labor Action, 10 June 1940.

Marcus Garvey
Labor Action, 24 June 1940.

Capitalist Society and the War
New International, July 1940.

The Speech That Was Not Made at NAACP Meet
Labor Action, 8 July 1940.

Labor Will Take Care of Its Own Union Problems
Labor Action, 29 July 1940.

State and Counter-Revolution
New International, August 1940.

Labor Will Take Care of Its Own Union Problems
Labor Action, 5 August 1940.

Negro and White Workers Must Stand Together
Labor Action, 12 August 1940.

We Must Fight Against Any Kind of Enslavement
Labor Action, 19 August 1940.

Beware of Those Who Act for the Boss Class!
Labor Action, 26 August 1940.

Trotsky’s Place In History
New International, September 1940.

A Tribute to Our Fallen Leader, Leon Trotsky
Labor Action, 2 September 1940.

Which Type of Leader Should Negroes Follow?
Labor Action, 2 September 1940.

Where Will You Find Friends of the Negroes?
Labor Action, 9 September 1940.

The Negro Must Have His Share of the New Jobs
Labor Action, 16 September 1940.

Stand Together, Fight For Jobs – That’s the Way
Labor Action, 23 September 1940.

On the History of the Left Opposition
Discussion with Trotsky from Fourth International, January 1941.

The Bolsheviks in the War
Review of a book on the Bolsheviks during WWI from New International, February 1941.

Negroes! Beware the Imperialist Use of Ethiopia! – 2
Labor Action, 17 March 1941.

We Must Aid Africa’s Anti-War Militants
Labor Action, 24 March 1941.

Negro Committee Asks Jobs for 100 Bus Drivers
Labor Action, 31 March 1941.

Russia – A Fascist State
New International, April 1941.

It Is Up to The Transport Workers Now!
Labor Action, 7 April 1941.

Guard Against the Trap Set by Henry Ford
Labor Action, 14 April 1941.

Ireland and the Revolutionary Tradition of Easter Week
Labor Action, 14 April 1941.

Merguson Has an Obligation to the Negroes
Labor Action, 21 April 1941.

Negro Masses and the Struggle for World Socialism
Labor Action, 21 April 1941.

A New Joke – “Jim-Crow Helps The Negro Race”
Labor Action, 5 May 1941.

Ford Tries to Feed the Negro Poisoned Bait
Labor Action, 12 May 1941.

Marshall Field, Negro-Hater, Turns “Friend”
Labor Action, 19 May 1941.

Judas Pickens Takes the Stump for War Bonds
Labor Action, 26 May 1941.

Max Eastman Dives Into Jingo Waters – So Perish All Traitors!
Labor Action, 26 May 1941.

Imperialism in Africa
New International, June 1941.

To and From the Finland Station
New International, June 1941.

From Jobs to the Struggle for Socialism
Labor Action, 2 June 1941.

We Must Strike a Mighty Blow at Jim-Crow Now
Labor Action, 9 June 1941.

All Out July 1 for the March on Washington
Labor Action, 16 June 1941.

FDR’s Latest Trick Is So Old It’s Moth-Eaten
Labor Action, 23 June 1941.

Beware of Those Pushing You Into the War
Labor Action, 7 July 1941.

Negroes, We Can Depend Only on Ourselves!
Labor Action, 14 July 1941.

Negro Protest Runs Too Deep to Be Squashed
Labor Action, 21 July 1941.

We Must Force the Job Issue by Mass Action
Labor Action, 28 July 1941.

Russia and Marxism
New International, September 1941.

With The Sharecroppers
Labor Action, September 1941.

Resolution on the Russian Question
Resolution submitted by C.L.R. James to the 1941 convention of the Workers Party of the United States

Letter on the nature of the Russian economy
New International, April 1942.

The Way Out for Europe
New International, April 1943.

Production for the Sake of Production
Polemic against Joseph Carter on Marxist Political Economy Workers Party Bulletin, April 1943.

Beatrice Webb, Reformist
New International, May 1943.

The West Indies in Review
New International, June 1943.

The Race Pogroms and the Negro
New International, July 1943.

The Philosophy of History and Necessity
Polemic against Sidney Hook from New International, July and October 1943.

Socialism and the National Question
New International, October 1943.

In the American Tradition
New International, November 1943.

Negroes in the Civil War
New International, December 1943

The European Socialist Revolution
New International, December 1943

The Historical Development of the Negro in the United States
Workers Party document, 1943.

In the International Tradition
New International, January 1944.

Laski, St. Paul and Stalin
New International, June 1944.

The American People in ‘One World’
New International, July 1944.

The Course of the War
New International, August 1944.

The French Rats and the Sinking Ship
New International, September 1944.

Which Way for PAC
New International, December 1944.

Germany and European Civilization
New International, November 1944.

Reconversion
New International, March 1945.

Public Awareness of the Negro Question
Labor Action, 2 April 1945.

White Workers’ Prejudices
Labor Action, 23 April 1945.

The Lesson of Germany
New International, May 1945.

The British Vote For Socialism
New International, September 1945.

From the Master-Slave Dialectic to Revolt in Capitalist Production
Extract from a polemic by C.L.R. James, against the IKD, 1946.

Historical Retrogression or Socialist Revolution: A Discussion Article on the Thesis of the IKD
New International, January 1946.

On Karl Marx and the 75th Anniversary of the Paris Commune
Labor Action, March 1946.

The Task Of Building The American Bolshevik Party
Document from Bulletin of the Workers Party, March 1946.

The Program of the Minority
Minority document for Workers Party convention, May 1946, with Dunayevskaya et al.

Joe Louis and Jack Johnson
Labor Action, 1 July 1946.

After Ten Years
An assessment of Trotsky's Revolution Betrayed, ten years on, 1946.

Lenin on Agriculture and the Negro Question
Labor Action, 13 January 1947.

One Tenth of the Nation
Labor Action, 24 February 1947.

Negroes and Bolshevism
Labor Action, April 1947.

The Rapid Growth of the NAACP
The Militant, 22 September 1947.

Trotskyism in the United States, 1940–1947. Balance Sheet.
Published by the Workers Party and the Johnson-Forest tendency.

The Invading Socialist Society
With Raya Dunayevskaya and Grace Lee Boggs, published by the Johnson-Forest tendency.

The Revolutionary Answer to the Negro Problem in the USA
Fourth International, Vol.9 No.8, December 1948.

Henry Luce and Karl Marx
Fourth International, March–April 1948.

Winston Churchill – Tory War-dog
Fourth International, February 1949.

The Two Sides of Abraham Lincoln
The Militant, 14 February 1949.

“The Talented Tenth”: Negro Leadership and Civil Rights, Road Ahead in Negro Struggle
2 articles on the problems of the Civil Rights struggle from Fourth International, April 1949.

Cromwell and the Levellers, Ancestors of the Proletariat
2 articles on the English Revolution of 1649 from Fourth International, 1949.

Price of Imperialism to the People
Fourth International, August 1949.

Stalinism and Negro History, Herbert Aptheker’s Distortions
2 articles on Stalinism from Fourth International, November and December 1949.

Key Problems in the Study of Negro History
The Militant, 13 February 1950

Two Young American Writers
Book review in Fourth International, March–April 1950.

Capitalism and the Welfare State
Extract from an unsigned editorial in Fourth International, May–June 1950.

State Capitalism and World Revolution
Written in 1950 in collaboration with Raya Dunayevskaya.

On the Woman Question: An Orientation
A discussion held on September 3rd, 1951.

Every Cook can Govern
A Study of Democracy in Ancient Greece, 1956.

Lecture on Federation (West Indies and British Guiana)
Speech delivered at Queens College in then British Guiana on West Indian Federation, June 1958.

Marxism and the Intellectuals
Pamphlet published with Martin Glaberman, 1962.

Indomitable Rebel
Review of The Prophet Outcast, Trotsky: 1929–40 by Isaac Deutscher, 1963.

Lenin and the Vanguard Party
Controversy, Vol. 1, No. 3, Spring 1963.

Revolutionary Creativity
Review of two books on Russian Marxism, 1964.

West Indians of East Indian Descent
Exploring race relations between Trinidadians of East Indian descent and Trinidadians of African descent.

On The Vanguard
Speech at a Conference of Oilfield Workers Trade Union in Trinidad, October 1965.

Black Power
Talk in London in 1967.

World Politics Today
Article in Speak Out, March 1967.

Che Guevara
Article in Speak Out, November 1967.

World Revolution: 1968
Article in Speak Out, June/July 1968.

Reflections on Pan-Africanism
Transcript of speech given on 20 & 21 November 1973.

Interview with Ken Ramchand in San Fernando
Trinidad & Tobago, September 5th, 1980.

Walter Rodney and the Question of Power
Talk given a memorial symposium titled, Walter Rodney, Revolutionary & Scholar: A Tribute, held on 30 January 1981 at the University of California, USA.

Free For All: The nine year old leader
Article in Race Today, Vol. 14 No. 3, May–June, 1982.

Interview with British Trotskyists
South London, November 16th, 1986.


Further reading:

George Rawick Archive
Raya Dunayevskaya Archive
George Padmore Archive
Lenin’s Annotations on Hegel’s Logic
Frantz Fanon Archive
The C.L.R. James Institute [off-site link]

Archive maintained by Damon Maxwell.


 

Last updated on: 2.10.2013