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From International Socialism, No.14, Autumn 1963, p.40.
Thanks to Ted Crawford & the late Will Fancy.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
Party Politics in the West Indies
C.L.R. James
Published by the author. 7s.
This book should serve as a mild but timely warning to socialists against the dangers of ‘advising’ bourgeois nationalist politicians and expecting more than is possible from the ‘colonial revolution’. Originally published in Trinidad under the title PNM Go Forward, it consists of James’ testament of his experiences there with the People’s National Movement and it’s leader Dr Eric Williams, Premier of the island. An international socialist of long standing and wide reputation, C.L.R. James (or J.R. Johnson) was invited to return to his native island in 1958 and persuaded to become editor of The Nation, weekly journal of the PNM. He subordinated his political principles to the service of the West Indian nationalist and Federal movement for two years. He would, it seems, have wished to create from PNM a mass revolutionary party, and claims to have considerably influenced Dr Williams to struggle against imperialism. It soon became apparent, however, that James’ ambitions were to be frustrated in every direction by the PNM hierarchy, as was demonstrated by Williams’ sell-out over the US base at Chaguaramas and the collapse of Federation. So in 1960 James resigned his post and left the West Indies to return to writing and study in England, and here fully documents the causes of his disillusionment. Colourful digressions are provided by James’ excursions into the political consciousness expressed by West Indian culture in the form of novels, poetry, cricket and calypsos, and glimpses of autobiography and work in progress. He devotes a stimulating and perceptive chapter to the foremost calypsonian, Sparrow, and his influence on the West Indian nation. Here again one may suspect over-estimation, but look forward in anticipation to the author’s promised study of W.G. Grace in English History.
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