What do you think?
Black Critique
Red International and Black Caribbean: Communists in New York City, Mexico and the West Indies, 1919-1939
*Selected as one of openDemocracy's Best Political Books of 2017*
This is the history of the black radicals who organised as Communists between the two imperialist wars of the twentieth century. It explores the political roots of a dozen organisations and parties in New York City, Mexico and the Black Caribbean, including the Anti-Imperialist League, and the American Negro Labour Congress and the Haiti Patriotic League, and reveals a history of myriad connections and shared struggle across the continent.
This book reclaims the centrality of class consciousness and political solidarity amongst these black radicals, who are too often represented as separate from the international Communist movement which emerged after the Russian Revolution in 1917. Instead, it describes the inner workings of the ‘Red International’ in relation to struggles against racial and colonial oppression. It introduces a cast of radical characters including Richard Moore, Otto Huiswoud, Navares Sager, Grace Campbell, Rose Pastor Stokes and Wilfred Domingo.
Challenging the ‘great men’ narrative, Margaret Stevens emphasises the role of women in their capacity as laborers; the struggles of peasants of colour; and of black workers in and around Communist parties.
This is the history of the black radicals who organised as Communists between the two imperialist wars of the twentieth century. It explores the political roots of a dozen organisations and parties in New York City, Mexico and the Black Caribbean, including the Anti-Imperialist League, and the American Negro Labour Congress and the Haiti Patriotic League, and reveals a history of myriad connections and shared struggle across the continent.
This book reclaims the centrality of class consciousness and political solidarity amongst these black radicals, who are too often represented as separate from the international Communist movement which emerged after the Russian Revolution in 1917. Instead, it describes the inner workings of the ‘Red International’ in relation to struggles against racial and colonial oppression. It introduces a cast of radical characters including Richard Moore, Otto Huiswoud, Navares Sager, Grace Campbell, Rose Pastor Stokes and Wilfred Domingo.
Challenging the ‘great men’ narrative, Margaret Stevens emphasises the role of women in their capacity as laborers; the struggles of peasants of colour; and of black workers in and around Communist parties.
322 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 20, 2017
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 31, 2020
A great text, extremely informative and well researched.
What Stevens offers is an account of the radical legacy of communists in the Black and Latin Caribbean and Mexico, along with the relationship between the New York Metropole of Communist organizing and the insurgent trade unionist and communist movements in the North and South American colonies and semi-colonies. Time and time again (specifically during the Comintern's position on colonialism and "the Negro Question" in 1928-1934, during the third period of global proletariat organizing) the commitment to anti-racist movement building was heartening. However, geographic chauvinism, supposed American superiority, anti-Black and anti-Indigenous paternalism ground progress to a halt.
"Communists had indeed remained committed to fighting racism and insisting upon international, multiracial support of workers around the world for working-class black militancy, even as they made significant strategic errors along the way, errors which can only serve as lessons for what not to repeat in the years to come"
What Stevens offers is an account of the radical legacy of communists in the Black and Latin Caribbean and Mexico, along with the relationship between the New York Metropole of Communist organizing and the insurgent trade unionist and communist movements in the North and South American colonies and semi-colonies. Time and time again (specifically during the Comintern's position on colonialism and "the Negro Question" in 1928-1934, during the third period of global proletariat organizing) the commitment to anti-racist movement building was heartening. However, geographic chauvinism, supposed American superiority, anti-Black and anti-Indigenous paternalism ground progress to a halt.
"Communists had indeed remained committed to fighting racism and insisting upon international, multiracial support of workers around the world for working-class black militancy, even as they made significant strategic errors along the way, errors which can only serve as lessons for what not to repeat in the years to come"
July 17, 2026
Extremely informative, and also very dry. It seems we keep reliving history over and over again. Erudite, well researched, and important.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews