A TRIBUTE TO CLAUDIA JONES

Thursday 26 October 7pm
Marx Memorial Library, 37a Clerkenwell Green, EC1R 0DU

Book tickets here…

  • Claudia Webbe, Islington Councillor and member of the Labour Party’s National Executive Committee in the Chair
  • Winston Pinder, friend of Claudia, on Claudia’s life as socialist, organiser and writer
  • Meirian Jump, Archivist & Library Manager, on Claudia’s archives at the MML

Claudia Jones (1915-1964) was a political activist and tireless anti-racist campaigner. Her activity as a member of the Communist Party USA – during a period of McCarthyite attacks on the left in America – led to her imprisonment and deportation in 1955. She moved to the UK where she was instrumental in founding the Notting Hill Carnival in 1959 and established the first major black British newspaper The West Indian Gazette. She was an inspirational speaker, addressing numerous peace and trade union meetings. At her funeral in 1965 Paul Robeson gave the following tribute ‘It was a great privilege to have known Claudia Jones. She was a vigorous and courageous leader of the Communist Party of the United States, and was very active in the work for the unity of white and coloured peoples and for dignity and equality, especially for the Negro people and for women’.

Two contrasting reviews

We have just received notice of two reviews of Steve Cushion’s book “The Hidden History of the Cuban Revolution“.

One from “Solidarity” the newspaper of “Workers Liberty”, the other from “Special Warfare” which styles itself “The Professional Bulletin of US Army Special Operations”.

The first  says that “He reproduces the hackneyed Stalinist version of events“, while the US Army journal says “Perhaps Cushion’s most significant contribution is the detailed account of organized labor that fought the Batista regime in parallel to the guerrillas“.

Call for Papers

Weekend conference:-
‘Echoes of revolution 1848, 1918. Revolution, nationalism, and socialism’
Saturday and Sunday, 17 and 18 February 2018
School of History, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK

Organised and hosted by UEA School of History in conjunction with the journal Socialist History and the Institute of Working Class History, Chicago.

As the old European powers approached exhaustion in the Great War, a wave of revolutionary struggles broke out across the continent, from Ireland to Russia. Mass movements articulated class, social and national aspirations as states fragmented and empires, dynasties and rulers were toppled. But relations between these movements and their component parts were anything but simple. National claimants contested for control of disputed territories in the name of self-determination. Class and social movements struggled with one another over who should rule in the successor states, and in whose interests. These struggles left a lasting legacy which helped shape European politics for decades.

As a pivotal year in European history, 1918 begs comparison with other pivotal years, in particular 1848, in which many similar social and national aspirations came to the fore. This conference will look at and compare movements for radical social and political change of those revolutionary years. We are seeking papers of 5000 to 10000 words to be presented at the conference on any aspects of revolution, nationalism and socialism anywhere around the world during, around or across the years 1848 and 1918. Selected papers will be published in a special issue of the journal Socialist History. Attendance at the conference will be free of charge, but we ask that anyone wishing to attend registers in advance.

Proposals for papers and any enquiries should be submitted to Francis King. E-mail: f.king@uea.ac.uk
Deadline for proposals for papers: 15 December 2017

November 1918 Revolutionary Berlin

Essex Conference on Labour History

The sixteenth Essex Conference on Labour History will take place at The Labour Hall, Collingwood Road, Witham, CM8 2EE, (adjacent to Witham Railway Station), from 10.30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, 28th October, 2017.

The topics to be discussed include the traditional aims of the Labour Party, the centenary of the Russian Revolution and the Co-operative Party, and James Keir Hardie, founder of the Labour Party.

The conference is completely open and friends, relatives and acquaintances are welcome, whatever their political allegiances. Questions and other contributions will be invited from the floor, lunch will be provided by the Essex Labour Campaign Forum, with the cost included in the registration fee.

To register, please write, with the registration fee of £10 per person, to The Leys, 18 Park Hill, Harlow, Essex, CM17 (cheques payable to the Essex County Labour Party). Anyone not previously registered can pay at the door, but pre-booking is advisable to ensure enough food is provided.

Francis Beckett – ‘The Labour Party’s Traditional Objectives’
Francis King – ‘ Reflections on the 1917 Russian Revolution’
Stan Newens –  ‘ The Centenary of the Co-operative Party’
Barbara Humphries – ‘James Keir Hardie’