The Future in the Present Vol. 1: Selected Writings of C. L. R. James

This was the first of a series of anthologies published during James’ lifetime by publishers Allison & Busby that looked to bring together the best of James’ writing and introduce him to a new audience. The Future in the Present collects some of James’ most well regarded essays including his early short story Triumph, his early polemic The Case for West-Indian Self-Government, the Civil Rights Movement predicting The Revolutionary Answer to the Negro Problem in the USA, and Every Cook Can Govern. “C.L.R. James is one of the most remarkable writers of our generation. He is a scholar , journalist, an historian, a practical politician, a cricketer. Yet he has integrated these activities into a unified life . . . His writings over the past century, here, in the West Indies, in America or in Africa, reveal the eye and heart of an artist, a humanist, one of this century’s most genuine Socialists.” — Labour Weekly Contents 5 C. L. R. James: A Biographical Introduction 7 1. Triumph 11 2. The Case for West-Indian Self-Government 25 3. Stalin Ruins the Chinese Revolution 41 4. Revolts in Africa 70 5. British Barbarism in Jamaica: Support the Negro Workers' Struggle! 86 6. Down With Starvation Wages in South-East Missouri 89 7. Lasld, St Paul and Stalin 95 8. The British Vote for Socialism 106 9. The Revolutionary Answer to the Negro Problem in the USA 119 10. The Class Struggle 128 11. Fiction and Reality 142 12. Every Cook Can Govern: A Study of Democracy in Ancient Greece 160 13. The Workers’ Councils in Hungary 175 14. The Artist in the Caribbean 183 15. The Mighty Sparrow 191 16. W. E. B. Du Bois 202 17. Garfield Sobers 213 18. The Olympia Statues, Picasso’s Guernica and the Frescoes of Michelangelo in the Capella Paolina 226 19. The Atlantic Slave-Trade 235 20. George Jackson 265 Index of Names 269