Nkrumah and the Ghana Revolution

In my perhaps foolish quest to gradually read every book ever written by C.L.R. James, I finally tackled Nkrumah and the Ghana Revolution. Focusing on the movement for Ghanaian independence and the relationship between the masses and leadership (as embodied in Nkrumah), the relatively short work provides an interesting avenue to consider The Black Jacobins and the role of colonial peoples in shaping world revolution. Like Toussaint Louverture, Nkrumah emerges as a leader made by the masses, absorbing the best of the West and applying it to the particular conditions of the underdeveloped colony of the Gold Coast. Moreover, Nkrumah would, like Toussaint, make some of his own mistakes once in power to protect the revolution. 

While the appendix material makes one perhaps wonder to what extent James was taken in by charismatic post-independence leaders, there is undeniably much of use to be learned from the experience of the Ghana independence movement, especially in consideration of the all-pervasive myth of African incapacity for self-government. Even the so-called backwards colonial peoples who suffer from illiteracy and allegedly primitive social organizations (tribe and chiefs in the villages) are capable of the most remarkable organization, taking advantage of new technology to demolish every argument of the West against African self-rule. This shows, like the enslaved Africans of Saint Domingue, the capacity of the masses to usher in revolutionary change and shape the course of history.

Unfortunately, the text does not fully analyze the fall of Nkrumah's administration, but it points to the larger structural impediments to the African state (especially the political economy of corruption as intimately linked to the prominence of the state in the control of the economy, unlike the West where corruption could flourish in their more developed private sectors). So, all things considered, Nkrumah and the Ghana Revolution is an interesting work in terms of the larger political significance of The Black Jacobins, which foresaw African independence. Now I must read what James had to say about party politics in the West Indies and more of his analysis of the Russian Revolution. 

Mariners, Renegades and Castaways

I finally finished Moby-Dick, just to be able to read Mariners, Renegades and Castaways, a well-known essay by C.L.R. James on Herman Melville and the world in which we live. I find that we sometimes limit James to just a Caribbean or colonial context, ignoring his provocative works on American life, civilization, and literature. His work on American Civilization, as well as his study of Melville, are intimately linked to 14 years of life in the US and his experience with the barbarous, unjust treatment of immigrants and political dissidents by the US government. As a man from Trinidad who had lived in Europe and engaged with the international Left even before stepping foot on US soil, he was nonetheless very much shaped by his experience in this country. After all, much of his theoretical essays and provocative work on the question of state capitalism, the role of the masses, and anti-vanguardism seem to be a product of his time in the US. 

Although much has been written about the flawed aspects of James's analysis of Ahab and Melville, there is a recurring fear of the totalitarian personality as revealed in Ahab. Reading Melville makes it quite clear, too, how the US by the mid-19th century was a distinct civilization and Melville saw something of the coming crisis of the modern world. Ishmael, the powerless intellectual, Ahab, driven by totalitarian impulse, the diverse and motley crew of a modern, global industry of whaling (and the "savage" harpooners), and the inevitable downfall wrought by obsession and the irrational pursuit of Moby Dick do suggest some merit in James's analysis of the novel. Nonetheless, his study of Melville should be read in light of a Jamesian perspective on US civilization. 

It is in the failure of the diverse, international crew of the Pequod to come together in spontaneous creativity to end their alienation and seize the means of production that unavoidably leads to the demise of the ship. The officers, such as Starbuck, are too attached to their Quaker roots and the ideology of capital to resist, while Ishmael, though ensconced in a milieu of laborers, and friend of Queequeg, remains detached. Philosophy has not yet become sufficiently proletarian. And though a spirit of camaraderie exists among the crew, including the prominence of "savages" to challenge the dominant racial ideology of the day, they lack, in spite of technical proficiency, the wherewithal to overthrow Ahab (succumbing in awe to his attempts to exhibit control of nature or the allure of the doubloon). Nonetheless, there is something quite alluring in Jamesian thought on the US, and the role of mass culture and creative impulses in revolutionary change. It's a welcome change from something like Adorno, who took a rather dismal view to US mass culture, and perhaps remained so blinded by that European conception of high culture that he was unable to see the new "socialism" fermenting. 

American Civilization

American Civilization is one of those pivotal texts of CLR James often ignored or omitted from discussion. However, upon reading it, one gains new insights with regards to how James conceived the relationship between popular movements and their leaders. It also serves as a testament to the intellectual development of the Johnson-Forest Tendency of ca. 1950. Indeed, inklings of a rejection of vanguardism and the autonomous socialist vision of James manifest in American Civilization, which also triumphs for its forward-looking conception of American popular culture, individualism, and the the threat of totalitarianism. 

Indeed, American Civilization is refreshingly bereft of most of Adorno's disdain for US popular culture, while sharing a similar concern with the danger of alienation and totalitarian Plans. Like his other works of the period, James commits himself to a rejection of Stalinism, overly centralized bureaucracies, Catholic Humanism, and the disconnect between intellectuals and workers. Instead, the separation of labor of the body and mind is increasingly unnecessary as laborers have mastered new technology and benefit from mass produced literature, arts, and production. To paraphrase another line of James, philosophy must be proletarian. 

One supposes the remaining question is, what does one make of the actual trajectory of US civilization after 1950? The miners, UAW workers, and others, supposedly responding to a collectivized individual need for control of production, may be found among wildcat strikes today. However, what happened to the new socialism? The New Left and its failure during the resurgence of the Right and neoliberalism? I cannot help but think American Civilization successfully identified the problem of alienation and its impact on US popular culture and responses to it, but perhaps James incorrectly assumed the labor movement would, through spontaneous action and the need to control production, ultimately overthrow the capitalist order. To his credit, James avoids foretelling the future, but the struggle against alienated, mechanized existence seems as pressing as ever. 

Facing Reality

Facing Reality is the one essay by C.L.R. James that I have been meaning to read for the last year. Well, I finally completed it within the last week or so. Here are some of my rambling thoughts on this most anarchist of James's theoretical works. First, I must admit that I have long been sympathetic to forms of anarchism and direct democracy. James, Boggs, and Castoriadis develop a critique of the dominant Communist and Trotskyist parties as well as the Western liberal welfare state model. 

Indeed, to them, "Fascism, Corporate State, One-Party State, Welfare State, Totalitarianism, all of these are ways in which rationalism attempts to adapt itself to the modern community." Building on their insights from State Capitalism and World Revolution, James argues for the self-movement of the workers as the path toward socialism. Like The Invading Socialist Society, autonomous and self-directed action initiated by the working-class against union bureaucracy, the state, and employers is the beginning of socialism. 

Since the work was published after the Hungarian Revolution and in the midst of the Cold War, the analysis is centered on workers in the advanced economies of the US, Britain, France, and the USSR. Clearly, the influence of self-directed workers in Detroit's  auto industry influenced James, Boggs, and Castoriadis, pushing them away from vanguardist socialist parties of the Leninist mould. Indeed, like James's view of popular democracy in ancient Athens, the working masses, when trusted to act of their own volition, shake the world and challenge technocratic elites, the political forms of rationalism, and offer the only solution to the dilemma of state capitalism and nuclear annihilation. 

However, if James et al. were correct, why did things turn out so differently in the advanced industrial nations? The shifting spatial and social relations within the factory and global economy suggest that the authors were guilty of a romanticized and unrealistic perspective on the attainability of workers councils. I remain sympathetic and find their views of events in Hungary or wildcat strikes in the US fruitful for study, but when large industrial workplaces are less common in the US, how can the self-directed workers establish workers councils and seize the means of production? How can the libertarian socialism espoused here, opposed to vanguards, remain relevant to 2018? Even if it proved to be somewhat prophetic about social change in the 1960s and in terms of Solidarity in Poland?

Despite its limitations, Facing Reality is one of the more intriguing theoretical works of James. It shows, as scholars like Matthew Quest have argued, how James's Marxism was influenced by anarchism (libertarian socialism?) and a rejection of central aspects of Leninism. Furthermore, it persuasively suggests the capacities for the masses are far more developed than we realize. Instead of a fear of the crowd, James and company argue that the masses know their interests and can act in it, for a more egalitarian society. The professional bureaucrats and technocratic elites block this aspiration among the working-class, hence the critiques of rationalism and a call for philosophy to become proletarian. Indeed, this central insight to the role of the division of labor and knowledge in a society is one I find powerful. If we want a more egalitarian society, then every cook must be able to and allowed to govern. Perhaps unrealistic, but it remains a powerful idea.

Modern Politics

Modern Politics, a series of lectures given by C.L.R. James in 1960 (in Trinidad, land of his birth), is a fascinating overview of Western political thought and C.L.R. James explaining his view of the world. While his Marxism is a definite part of the lectures, it's profoundly interesting for how James views the legacy of direct democracy from the Greek city-state (as well as Aristotle and Socrates) and the influence of Rousseau, Kant, Hegel, and Marx in paving the way for a a solution to the problem of modernity (as he saw it in the 1960s). His belief in the dialectic and the power of the masses and revolution to create change also explains more persuasively why James held such a high opinion of popular culture and art meant for mass consumption by writers and artists. Such a perspective on literature, art, aesthetics, and the culture industry is welcome after reading Adorno's writings on US culture industry and jazz. His commentary on fascism, the Social Democratic Parties, Stalinism, and issues of race and gender are fascinating, particularly in the ways in which James does not speak directly to the countries of the world undergoing decolonization (Cuba and Ghana do appear frequently, however, as does the specter of the Cold War and imperialism from both blocs). One wonders to what extent the relationship between James and Williams shaped how much James felt comfortable saying overtly about labor and colonialism within the West Indies...

State Capitalism and World Revolution

CLR James's State Capitalism and World Revolution is a short but dense critique of Trotskyism, Stalinism, and the state capitalist dominant order of the world (as it was in the post-WWII period in an era of Fordism and planned economies with bureaucrats administering capital). Much has changed since the neoliberal order, but James offered profound critiques of limited definitions of socialism which assume state-owned property and industry rather than private control automatically meant a transition from capitalism and labor exploitation. As scholars like Matthew Quest have indicated, James's perspective here is central for understanding workers must have direct control of the means of production rather than bureaucrats, otherwise socialism is not achieved. James spends too much time basing his theory of state capitalism upon Lenin's criticisms of bureaucracy and nationalization for my taste, but this is a key insight upon which the failures of the Russian Revolution, Tito's Yugoslavia, and numerous other revolutionary moments provide learning moments on the central importance of the emancipation of labor.

In addition to the theory of state capitalism, James develops an intriguing idea in the final chapter. Philosophy, according to James, must be proletarian in order to overcome the role of the division of labor in manual and intellectual workers. If this division is not overcome, bureaucracy and bourgeois rationalism can only culminate in state capitalism, fascist reaction, and the reactionary (anti-egalitarian, anti-democratic) Christian Humanism. One wonders how this plays out in terms of bureaucracy, the neoliberal phase, and the contemporary crisis we face globally. How useful is the theory of state capitalism for today and where does one begin to see the future of the emancipation of labor in a post-Fordist economy?

Minty Alley

"He had, at sixteen, after much cogitation, but without preliminary, put his arm around a girl's waist and been soundly slapped. Since then he had never repeated the experiment, and often experienced difficulty in looking young women fully in the face."

Minty Alley, the only published novel of C.L.R. James, the Trinidadian Marxist, illustrates James's writing talent. Telling the story of Haynes, a sheltered middle-class young man, class, race, gender relations, and the rowdy characters in a boarding house on Minty Alley breathe life into a past Trinidad. James's great sense of humor shines throughout the text, as Haynes finally becomes a man as a "master of the house" and his relationship with the "fair sex" improves. Although very proper and English in prose as well as the dialogue for Haynes, the use of Trinidadian vernacular, one instance of patois, and the novel's colorful, determined, and newsworthy lower-class characters reveal early on how James always identified with the masses and "national" Trinidadian culture of the yard. 

The suffering of women, in particular, at the hands of the playboy, Benoit, reveal another side to James one does not find in The Black Jacobins or his other work, for example. One could rant ceaselessly without end on the complex gender dynamics of this short work, a project I may return to in the future. Moreover, Philomen, the abused Indian servant of the landlady, Mrs. Rouse, provides another example of racial and class stratification in the divided colony, a dynamic Naipaul and Selvon explore from different perspectives. Yet, here in a novel written in the 1920s, one senses where Naipaul's Trinidad fiction is coming from in describing the "Indian countryside" and the "Creole" or "Black" city. 

For those eager to read James's admirable attempt at the novel form highly recommended. Early Anglophone West Indian literature provides includes similar work to Minty Alley, which paved the way for explosion of literary production in the subsequent generation. Besides, reading Minty Alley demonstrates an early ancestor of Naipaul's Miguel Street and its comic sensibilities. One wishes James had completed that second novel, alas, but Minty Alley actually shows, from a literary angle, how James, himself not too different from Haynes in class background, came to identify with the popular classes and escape the sheltered world of petit bourgeois life. 

A Way in the World

"Lebrun's political resolution was very far from this sensationalism. It enabled him, not to embrace the period of slavery, but to acknowledge it without pain, and, presenting it in his own way, to make a claim for its universality, and even its precedence."

V.S. Naipaul's A Way in the World is a marriage of sorts between The Enigma of Arrival and In a Free State. The autobiographical narrator reflecting on his writing and Trinidad is juxtaposed with a pan-Caribbean vision of Trinidad's presence in much larger historical developments through a story suite. Columbus, C.L.R. James, Raleigh, Francisco Miranda, Venezuela, Trinidad & Tobago, an unnamed East African country resembling Uganda, and other locales are connected through this rather ambitious project, unfortunately marketed as a novel in the US. 

Like the best of The Enigma of Arrival, Naipaul's autobiographical narrator's experiences in a rapidly changing Trinidad he no longer recognizes, combined with a strange pan-Caribbean perspective, connecting with yet dissociating himself with a C.L.R. James-inspired radical, Lebrun, Miranda's constant reinvention, a fellow West Indian from Guadeloupe living in Francophone West Africa, and a co-worker in the civil service before Naipaul left Trinidad for Oxford in 1950. In one unexpected admission, the Naipaul-like narrator even admits to the influence of George Lamming and other Caribbean peoples on his writing! So, perhaps Derek Walcott was wrong to suggest Naipaul completely turned his back on the "Negroid" creative genius of the Caribbean?

But, I digress. A Way in the World is a Naipaul work I will return to in the future. The use of Amerindian symbolism, autobiographical aspects, and Naipaul's intriguing self-distancing from a larger Caribbean "radical" collective identity or movement are fascinating, but the work was dragged down by the lengthy Miranda episode on the "Gulf of Desolation" between early English Trinidad and Venezuela. Surprisingly clear and unafraid to juxtapose brutality of slavery, indentured labor, and the South American independence struggles, Naipaul somehow loses his way. The final chapter continues a circular or cyclic theme of identity or movement, but seemed only relevant to the previous chapters in the text as an unsubtle critique of black nationalism, what Naipaul seems to suggest is a "racial sacrament" of black nationalism or racial politics. 

So, as an overall read, A Way in the World contains some compelling narratives, but begins to lose its way in the penultimate and final chapters. The characterization of the fictionalized C.L.R. James character is likewise intriguing, but fundamentally misrepresents James/Lebrun to fit Naipaul's worldview. One can, to a certain extent, understand Naipaul's desire to avoid becoming part of a larger group or collective, to be able to reinvent oneself through identity or writing, but the Naipaul perspective cannot be divorced from incorrect or misleading views on race and anti-colonial politics. 

A History of Pan-African Revolt

"All the things that Hitler was to do so well later Garvey was doing in 1920 and 1921."

A History of Pan-African Revolt, first published in 1938, is a seminal text in the Pan-Africanist and Marxist tradition. In the short work, Trinidadian Marxist C.L.R. James presents an overview of black resistance to slavery, colonialism, and labor exploitation in the US, Africa, and the Caribbean. As a Marxist, James emphasizes labor and class, yet also identifies religion as a tool for fomenting further anti-colonial movements, such as Simon Kimbangu and Chilembwe. James also presages future work on Africa, the West Indies and African American history by emphasizing black agency, constant struggle, and the importance of slavery in the development of industrialization and capitalism.

Strangely, James compares Garvey to Hitler as a demagogue, but is likely correct on Garvey's weak or nonexistent program for blacks. Yet, James recognized the importance international black solidarity, as well as the need for black mobilization on its own to combat capitalism. So, James supported independent black revolts while also seeing the need for unity across racial lines or national borders, such as the I.C.U. in South Africa and resistance from white workers.

Besides his critique of Garvey, one may also take issue with the rather rosy depiction of race relations during Trinidad's labor unrest in the 1930s, a world in which relations between Indians and Afro-Trinidadians are perhaps generalized as more effective for the labor cause than the reality. I'll have to research the 1930s in Trinidad in depth to properly ascertain the accuracy of James and his characterization of Trinidadian society. Likewise, James writes an epilogue which is too generous to Nyerere's Tanzanian socialist project, which was an utter failure according to Robin D.G. Kelley's introduction. 

Unquestionably, there are limitations to this visionary work, but as a progressive documentation of the continuous struggle of the black masses in Africa and the Diaspora, James provides a necessary perspective linking the fight for economic justice to that of anti-racist movements. Moreover, James places the massacre of the remaining French population in Haiti under Dessalines to an environment of British pressure, illustrating how independent Haiti's independence was limited by the reality of the 19th century world. Thus, as a document of black resistance from slavery to colonialism, James demonstrates that there is no contradiction in socialism and racial justice.

Toussaint Louverture

CLR James's play on the Haitian Revolution, Toussaint Louverture, is an excellent companion to his classic, The Black Jacobins. Focusing on Toussaint Louverture as a tragic hero, which is not uncommon when writers of African descent wrote literary works on the "fathers" of Haitian independence, the play, written in 1934, foreshadows arguments of James in the future. For instance, the presence and influence of the masses is a consistent theme in the play, although it is certainly centered on Toussaint Louverture. The play also features historically accurate portrayals as well as some composites, but the omission of certain actors (such as Sonthonax) is intriguing and raises more questions. Indeed, James even includes Macaya (rendered here as Macoya) in the narrative, the African-born slave revolutionary whose seeming monarchical leanings complicate the question of ideology and the role of the French Revolution. 

As a play, the work functions quite well with the tragic hero of Toussaint Louverture and powerful monologues. Little action or combat scenes are in the play, but its an intriguing work that reflects the importance of Haiti and the Haitian Revolution in the Black Atlantic of the 1930s. For example, Christian Hogsberg's introduction explains the context of the play in the leftist scenes of London as well as opposition to the Italian invasion of Ethiopia and European colonialism in Africa and the West Indies. Included in the text are additional essays and writings, as well as reviews of the play. One of the supplementary readings is an essay by CLR James refuting white supremacy, which argues against it using Toussaint Louverture. 

Thomas O. Ott's The Haitian Revolution, 1789-1804

Ott's The Haitian Revolution, 1789-1804 is a useful overview of the Haitian Revolution, but the author's political biases ruins the conclusion for me. His designation of C.L.R. James as a "negro racist" when discussing the Haitian Revolution's legacy was too much for me. It seems that any Black Marxist is automatically a racist in Ott's mind...

The Black Jacobins and the Long Haitian Revolution

Watch an interesting presentation on the Haitian Revolution and The Black Jacobins by Caribbean scholar Anthony Bogues. He discusses influences on the writing of the seminal text, and the role of French Revolution and Marxist historiography.

The Black Jacobins

"But if, to re-establish slavery in San Domingo, this was done, then I declare to you it would be to attempt the impossible: we have known how to face dangers to obtain our liberty, we shall know how to brave death to maintain it."

CLR James has written the seminal English language text on the Haitian Revolution. After re-reading it for the third time, it becomes clearer how influential his analysis and prose of the text was to understanding Toussaint Louverture. The Black Jacobins places the Haitian Revolution in the broader history of revolution, compares it with the French and Russian Revolutions, notes parallels between Saint Domingue and colonial Africa (predicting decolonization), and still manages to put together social and class analysis within a broader critique of slavery, capitalism, and colonialism.

His influence on the work of Eric Williams is conspicuous in how the author links the merchant bourgeoisie of France to the slave trade and the ulterior motives of British abolition of the same trade. James's second edition of the work includes an appendix with a brief analysis of the Caribbean after the Haitian Revolution to the Cuban Revolution, thereby placing the 'Black Jacobins' into the larger picture of Caribbean history and struggle, too.

Of course, The Black Jacobins has its flaws, too. It is a product of its time and the particular colonial British West Indian education of James, who occasionally refers to the black masses of Saint Domingue as lacking in culture, and the like. Considering the original publication in the 1930s, and the type of education and knowledge accessible to Caribbean scholars regarding Africa, it is no surprise James does not really delve deeper into African influences and cultures in Saint Domingue beyond Vodou.

His treatment of the Haitian Revolution is most certainly centered on Toussaint Louverture and the military leadership of the blacks, as well as how Enlightenment ideology and the French Revolution shaped the political beliefs and ideals of the 'Black Jacobins.' James's portrayal of Toussaint is complex and certainly one of the more significant influences on how Madison Smartt Bell approaches the historical figure in a biography I reviewed here.

Unfortunately, Dessalines is not given the equal attention, nor are his motives and interests as clear, so James reduces Dessalines to a 'soldier' who did what was necessary to consolidate independence. Rigaud, Sonthonax, Leclerc, the early slave uprising of 1791, Toussaint receive far more coverage and more nuance than Dessalines, who James even refers to as 'barbarian.'

While one could take issue with his overt political bias and sometimes unnecessary wit, James manages to dismiss with thorough research many white supremacist takes on the Haitian Revolution. For instance, many European and North American scholars saw the blacks of Saint Domingue as unusually violent and savage in their reprisals against French colonists, but it was truly inherent violence and barbarism of colonists and the French forces that exceeded the responses of the oppressed. James also elucidates how white Americans and British influenced the massacres of the remaining whites in Haiti after independence, blaming the business interests of the two nations in wanting to prevent a strong French presence.

On the color and race question, James, coming from a Marxist perspective, sees the latter as subsidiary to the former. And while, at times, alluding to racism among the three groups in Saint Domingue, James is careful to note class distinctions and status among blacks, mulattoes, and whites that complicate easy assumptions about race relations. At times I felt as if James was stretching the truth to refer to the working masses of France as having abolitionist sympathies, given how weak the abolitionist movement in France was, say, compared to Britain. However, James complicates easy assumptions about Toussaint Louverture's conflict with Rigaud, preferring not to blame color as some lazy analysis might.

Overall, James has written a timeless study of the Haitian Revolution. His political bias notwithstanding, James persuasively links capitalism, slavery, and colonialism in a compelling narrative that explains the who, where, when, and why of Toussaint Louverture. While new sources have come to light that challenge some of the assertions of the author (Bell suggests Louverture had been free several years by 1791, and was a successful free black who owned a few slaves) and scholars know they must study the African dimensions of the Haitian Revolution and the role of subaltern agency.

Below are a few favorite quotes from the text:

"Men make their own history, and the black Jacobins of San Domingo were to make history which would alter the fate of millions of men and shift the economic currents of three continents" (25).

"But he accomplished what he did because, superbly gifted, he incarnated the determination of his people never, never to be slaves again" (198). 

"General Hédouville does not know that at Jamaica there are in the mountains blacks who have forced the English to make treaties with them? Well, I am black like them, I know how to make war, and besides I have advantages that they didn't have; for I can count on assistance and protection" (221).

"The cruelties of property and privilege are always more ferocious than the revenges of poverty and oppression" (88).

"The struggle of classes ends either in the reconstruction of society or in the common ruin of the contending classes" (128).

"The rich are only defeated when running for their lives" (78).

CLR James with Studs Terkel (1970)

Source

Listen to an important interview with CLR James on Terkel's radio program in Chicago. The two discuss Black Jacobins, Haiti, the Haitian Revolution, and the conspicuous presence of West Indians in the Black struggle.