Books, Works & Articles
80th Birthday Lectures
Edited by Margaret Busby and Darcus Howe. Published by Race Today 1984
“A collection of transcripts, including the question and answer sessions which followed, of the three lectures given by C.L.R James on the occurrence of his eightieth birthday in 1981. He had been an active historian and left wing activist all his life and had had a considerable effect upon Caribbean politics. These lectures, then, might be thought of as swan song, for all that they were pertinent to the times in which he spoke.”
Reviews
Christian Hogsbjerg: “In his Eightieth Birthday Lectures, organised by the Race Today Collective in 1981, James was challenged by a black nationalist for having “a blind spot about the racism of the white working class”. James responded, “it would be very strange if there wasn’t some racism in the white working class because in any society the ideas that are dominant in the ruling class will find a reflection in the elements of those who work.
“But while you can accuse me of having a blind spot in regard to the racism of the white working class, I would say you have a much blinder spot in regard to the progressive, revolutionary element of the British working class…that is a much more powerful element”.
http://socialistworker.co.uk/art/36695/How+Marxist+historian+CLR+James+understood+racism+and+revolutions
Contents
ON SOCIALISM
“Solidarity lin Poland is merely the development of a movement which began in the Commune, went On to the Soviet and now has reached the stage where the whole country has mobilised itself to put an end to government by the few. That is the movement towards socialism. ”
ON THE LABOUR PARTY
“You have to begin lin Britain I by absolutely cutting out clean any idea that the Labour Party or trades-unions will do anything. It will do nothing except try to keep as quiet as possible those movements that are still remaining alive.”
ON BLACKS IN BRITAIN
The children (of immigrants will not have been born abroad, they will be born here, they will go to school here, they will not know any foreign language, they will be British in their general outlook and they will feel it as their parents have not felt it when they are deprived of the things that every Britisher ought to have. so we must prepare for a situation that is constantly developing, putting you more and more into a situation where you will be in the vanguard of the revolutionary elements in the society.”