C. L. R. James
| Famous as | Journalist, Writer, Historian, Theorist, Socialist |
| Born on | 04 January 1901 |
| Born in | Trinidad and Tobago |
| Died on | 19 May 1989 |
| Nationality | Trinidad And Tobago |
| Works & Achievements | Famous for his very popular cricket biography, 'Beyond a Boundary' |
C. L. R. James Childhood
C. L. R. James was born on 4 January 1901 in the British colony (of
the time) of Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean island located in the
north-eastern coast of Venezuela. James went to attend the Queen's
Royal College which was a high school in Port of Spain.
Career
James started out his career by taking up the job of a school
teacher. Eric Eustace Williams, who became the first Prime Minister of
Trinidad and Tobago, was one of his students there. James later turned
into a writer to become a cricket journalist. He formulated a group
along with Ralph de Boissière, Albert Gomes and Alfred Mendes to bring
out the anti-colonialist Beacon Group which comprised of writers who
were attached with The Beacon magazine. James went to Nelson in
Lancashire, England in 1932 to work as a biographer for his friend,
Learie Constantine who was a West Indian cricketer. James desired to
take up this opportunity to bolster his future literary career. He found
another fine platform while working for the Manchester Guardian and
helping his friend Constantine write his autobiography.
Years in London
James thought of moving his base to London from his small town home
in Lancashire, and he left his home and arrived in London in 1933.
James was a guiding light in the West Indies independence campaign.
James was in Trinidad when he started actively participating and campaigning
for the West Indies’ independence. James wrote and published his “Life
of Captain Cipriani” and the pamphlet “The Case for West-Indian Self
Government” during the campaigns. These were possibly his very first
published writings. With these movements James started becoming as a
great leader of mass movement and a champion of the Pan-Africanist
agitation and cause. In 1935 when the group, ‘International African
Friends of Abyssinia’ was formed, James became the Chair of the group
which was formed as a proper response to the fascist invasion of present
day Ethiopia.
International African Service Bureau was a group headed by James’
childhood friend George Padmore and soon James became a prominent member
and an active leader of the group. While in Britain James became famous
as a Marxist theorist. Soon he joined the Labour Party but with the
ongoing Great Depression James became a firm Trotskyist. By 1934 James
was a notable member of the Independent Labour Party but at the same
time he became an active member of a Trotskyist group.
In 1936 James headed and channelled his Trotskyist Marxist Group to
leave the Independent Labour Party and form an open party. In 1938
James’ newly formed group started going in for mergers with other groups
in order to form the Revolutionary Socialist League (RSL). RSL had
great many factions within the group. James was invited for a visit to
the USA by the Socialist Workers' Party leadership. During his visit
James was asked by John Archer to remove rivalry within RSL.
Writing Career
James had a busy political life during this time when he wrote a
play named “Toussaint L'Ouverture” which was staged in the West End in
1936 starring two eminent figures, Paul Robeson and Robert Adams. In
1936 James published yet another book, a novel, “Minty Alley” whose
manuscript was brought by James from Trinidad and published in London.
“Minty Alley” created ripples in the literary world as it was the first
time that a black Caribbean author had published a novel in the UK.
The following years marked the growing excellence of James’
literary finesse and popularity. In 1937 James wrote his outstanding
(best known works) non-fiction “World Revolution” which talked about the
historic rise and fall of the Communist International. This book was
critically praised by Leon Trotsky. In 1938 James wrote yet another
brilliant book, “The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San
Domingo Revolution” which was a fine historic account on the Haitian
Revolution, which later became the founding base guiding book that sowed
the seeds in the study of the African Diaspora.
Career in the USA
In the late 1938 James shifted his base to USA after his American
tour was sponsored by the Socialist Workers' Party (SWP). He stayed in
the USA for two decades. It was by 1940 that James started to have
grave doubts and unsure thoughts about Trotsky’s line of thought and his
analysis of the Soviet Union as a degenerated workers state could not
be smoothly accepted by James which led to James leaving SWP along with
Max Shachtman who later formed Workers’ Party (WP). James formed his
Johnson-Forest Tendency (which was a party spreading radical leftist
thought in the USA) with Raya Dunayevskaya and Grace Lee. Both WP and
JFT (Johnson-Forest Tendency) had shed their beliefs and attachments to
Trotsky's theory of Russia and formatted themselves into well developed
groups. At the onset of the World War II both the groups were free of
Trotsky’s views and started believing in state capitalism. JFT had
busied them in helping the autonomous movements of oppressed minorities.
JFT started seeing more proletarian in SWP than WP and so JFT started
believing in mass struggles. In 1947 JFT joined hands with SWP.
James continued in calling himself a Leninist although he had
rejected Lenin’s conception of the vanguard role of the revolutionary
party. James urged and called upon socialist groups and individuals to
form a force to support the emerging Black Nationalist movements. By
1949 James had openly rejected Lenin’s vanguard party which resulted in
J-F tendency having to leave Trotskyist movement and renaming itself as
the Correspondence Publishing Committee.
In 1955 Committee had internal rifts which led to half of its
members disbanding the Committee under the leadership of Raya
Dunayevskaya and forming a new tendency of Marxist-humanism which was
formed into the organization News and Letters Committees. The Committee
suffered a major blow yet again in 1962 with Grace Lee Boggs and James
Boggs, two key activists leaving the group to form their own group
having a Third Worldist approach. Some other Johnsonite (Committee)
members were left who were led by Martin Glaberman to form “Facing
Reality” which was advised by James. In 1970 “Facing Reality” was
dissolved.
Final Years
James was a great political writer who had brought about a new
school of thought within Marxism. James greatly influenced in building
the founding base for Autonomist Marxism. It was in 1953 when James was
forced to leave America as his visa had expired and he had allegedly
stayed in the USA for more than a decade and this led to James being threatened of deportation. James wanted to continue living in the USA
and his attempts made him write a study of Herman Melville” Mariners,
Renegades and Castaways: The Story of Herman Melville and the World We
Live In”. The copies of the book were privately published and sent to
every member of the Senate. James had worked on the book during his
detainment on Ellis Island. In 1958 James returned to his homeland,
Trinidad. On his return to Trinidad James started editing The Nation
newspaper for the pro-independence People's National Movement (PNM)
party and also busied himself in the Pan-African movement yet again.
James stated that Ghana revolution was inspiring for all revolutionaries
around the world and that it blatantly showed how to perform
decolonisation.
James guided the West Indies Federation which led him to fall apart
with PNM. In 1968 James got another invitation to the USA, where he
taught at the University of the District of Columbia. Finally, James
spent his last years in Brixton, London. In the 1980's James received
his Honorary Doctorate from South Bank Polytechnic (later to become
University of the South Bank, in London) award for his immense
socio-political work which included anti-racist movements and uplifting
of sports.
Cricket Writings
James was known as a renowned cricket writer, more so for his
autobiographical book, “Beyond a Boundary” written in 1963 which is an
internationally acclaimed book on cricket that is regarded as the best
book ever written on any sport. In 1960 during his role as the editor
for ‘The Nation’ James successfully campaigned for Frank Worrell to get
selected as the first black captain of the West Indies cricket team.
James’ writings on cricket clearly uphold the understanding of class and
race issues. James described cricket as a historical and social game.
Death
James died on 19 May 1989 in London.
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C. L. R. James Timeline: | ||||
1901 - C. L. R. James was born on 4 January
1932 - James went to Nelson in Lancashire,
England to work as a biographer for his friend, Learie Constantine who
was a West Indian cricketer
1933 - He left his small town home in Lancashire, Nelson and arrived in London
1934 – By 1934 James was a notable member of the
Independent Labour Party but at the same time he became an active member
of a Trotskyist group
1935 - When the group, ‘International African
Friends of Abyssinia’ was formed James became the Chair of the group
which was formed as a proper response to the fascist invasion of present
day Ethiopia
1936 - James headed and channelled his Trotskyist Marxist Group to leave the Independent Labour Party and form an open party
1936 - James was leading a busy political life
during this time when he wrote a play named “Toussaint L'Ouverture”
which got staged in the West End starring two eminent figures, Paul
Robeson and Robert Adams
1936 - James published yet another book, a novel,
“Minty Alley” whose manuscript was brought by James from Trinidad and
published in London
1937 - James wrote his outstanding (best known
works) non-fiction “World Revolution” which talked about the historic
rise and fall of the Communist International. This book was critically
praised by Leon Trotsky
1938 - James wrote yet another brilliant book,
“The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo
Revolution” which was a fine historic account on the Haitian Revolution,
which later became the founding base guiding book that sowed the seeds
in the study of the African Diaspora
1938 - James’ newly formed group started going in
for mergers with other groups in order to form the Revolutionary
Socialist League (RSL)
1938 - In the late 1938 James shifted his base to USA after his American tour was sponsored by the Socialist Workers' Party (SWP)
1940 - It was by this year that James started to
have grave doubts and unsure thoughts about Trotsky’s line of thought
and his analysis of the Soviet Union as a degenerated workers state
could not be smoothly accepted by James which led to James leaving SWP
along with Max Shachtman who later formed Workers’ Party (WP)
1947 - JFT joined hands with SWP
1949 - James had openly rejected Lenin’s vanguard
party which resulted in J-F tendency having to leave Trotskyist movement
and renaming itself as the Correspondence Publishing Committee
1953 - James was forced to leave America as his
visa had expired and he had allegedly stayed in the USA for more than a
decade and this led to James being threatened of deportation
1955 - Committee had internal rifts which led to
half of its members disbanding the Committee under the leadership of
Raya Dunayevskaya and forming a new tendency of Marxist-humanism which
was formed into the organization News and Letters Committees
1958 - James returned to his homeland, Trinidad.
On his return to Trinidad James started editing The Nation newspaper for
the pro-independence People's National Movement (PNM) party and also
busied himself in the Pan-African movement yet again
1960 - During his role as the editor for ‘The
Nation’ James successfully campaigned for Frank Worrell to get selected
as the first black captain of the West Indies cricket team
1962 - The Committee suffered a major blow yet
again with Grace Lee Boggs and James Boggs, two key activists leaving
the group to form their own group having a Third Worldist approach
1963 – His autobiographical book, “Beyond a
Boundary” which is an internationally acclaimed book on cricket is
regarded as the best book ever written on any sport
1968 - James got another invitation to the USA, where he taught at the University of the District of Columbia
1980's - James received his Honorary Doctorate
from South Bank Polytechnic (later to become University of the South
Bank, in London) award for his immense socio-political work which
included anti-racist movements and uplifting of sports
1989 - James died on 19 May
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