Future in the Present by C.L.R. James

by C.L.R. James

Genres: Essays, Nonfiction

Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

C. L. R. James (1901–1989), a Trinidadian historian, political activist, and writer, is the author of The Black Jacobins, an influential study of the Haitian Revolution and the classic book on sport and culture, Beyond a Boundary. His play Toussaint Louverture: The Story of the Only Successful Slave Revolt in History was recently discovered in the archives and published Duke University Press.

Reviews

[Brett Dulle · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Future in the Present is a collection of the writings of C.L.R. James made of various articles, essays, and chapters from other books, spanning from the 1929 to 1971. While this book lacks the power off his classic The Black Jacobins, all the essays here are quite interesting and very well written. Since there is not much information online about this book, what follows is mostly a summary of the chapters. The collection actually doesn’t open with an essay, but a short story; “Triumph” is story of a poor Trinidadian woman who finds a man who will support but is boring, so she keeps her charismatic yet unstable lover, and finds her livelihood threatened when a resentful neighbor decides to tattle to her boyfriend. “The Case for West-Indian Self-Government” is an abridged version of a pamphlet he wrote arguing for independence of the West Indies. He starts by explaining the racialized society of the West Indies and analyzes the colonial government. He argues against the excuse of “self-governance when fit” by showing that the West Indian is every bit the equal the English and colonial rule checks the ambitions and abilities of it’s population. “Stalin ruins the Chinese Revolution” is another essay where the title perfectly explains the contents. Stalin’s policy of collaboration between the Chinese communists and the right-wing Guomindang, was doomed to failure. The same case is presented, greatly expanded, in the book The Tragedy of the Chinese Revolution. “Revolts in Africa” is a chapter from his book A History of Pan-African Revolt and recounts various African revolts against their colonial rulers. “British Barbarism in Jamaica” is an article written during a time of riots in Jamaica and argues for a change in the colonial government in Jamaica and calls on the white working class in the England to support the Jamaicans. In “Down with Starvation Wages in South-East Missouri”, James claims to play secretary to striking sharecroppers in Missouri who demand a livable wage. Again there is a call for white workers to support their black comrades. “Laski, St. Paul, and Stalin” is a review of a book comparing early Christianity and Stalinism as a “source of values for a decaying society”. It moves beyond being a book review to being a statement of the importance of Christianity to world history and a moving critique of Stalinist totalitarianism. “The British Vote for Socialism” looks at the electoral history of the Labour party and their radical promises which go unfulfilled. “A Revolutionary Answer to the Negro Problem in the U.S.A.” is James’ defense of the Black protest movement in the U.S. Following a quote from Lenin, James believes the independent Black movement in the U.S. can provoke a major proletariat movement in the U.S., if it can’t there will eventually be a major repression of the blacks in America by the bourgeoisie. “The Class Struggle” is a critique of Stalinism and, to a lesser extent, Trotskyism. Both are attacked since both are a “radical reorganization of society with the proletariat as object and not as subject, i.e. with no essential change in the mode of labour.” This is seen especially in the bureaucratization of the government under Stalin, since a bureaucracy is largely separate from and above the workers. “Fiction and Reality” is taken from James’ book about Hermann Melville. James considers Moby Dick the second greatest work of creative writing and Captain Ahab one of the few truly original character in literature. The chapter looks at Melville’s writings leading up to Moby Dick to see how such a significant character was developed. “Every Cook Can Govern” is James’ celebration of Athenian democracy, which is “the government under which flourished the greatest civilization the world has ever known.” “The Worker’s Councils in Hungary” carries on the themes of the previous chapter by celebrating worker’s control of the government in Hungary after the revolt of ’56. He shows how the workers were able to govern effectively without the need of a bureaucracy. “The Artist in the Caribbean” opens with his thoughts on what makes a supreme artist and his disappointment that while there are many very talented artists in the Caribbean, there is not yet a true supreme artist. James believes that Caribbean expats must return home to develop their talents, and that Caribbean society must “create the conditions under which an artist can flourish.” “The Mighty Sparrow” is a profile of a young artist in Trinidad that could potentially be the supreme artist James wrote about in the previous chapter. Mighty Sparrow is a calypso singer who sings satirical and bawdy songs that reflect the feelings of the people of Trinidad. “W.E.B. DuBois” is a short biography of the American historian and his achievements. In particular he is praised for a his political leadership, not only in America, but on behalf of Blacks in Europe and Africa, as well as his monumental study Black Reconstruction, which he considers one of the greatest works of history ever written. “Garfield Sobers” is a profile of the legendary cricketer who is “a West Indies cricketer, not merely a cricketer from the West Indies.” “The Olympia Statues, Picasso, and Michelangelo” compares the similarity in composition and theme of three masterpieces of art that span nearly two millennia. “The Atlantic Slave Trade” starts by looking at the beginnings of the slave trade but becomes a history of the U.S. centered on the slave as well as the abolitionists. Interestingly, he compares the abolitionist movement to the French and Russian revolutions as times where the intellectual class and working class united to change society. “George Jackson” is James’ praise for the book Soledad Brother: The Prison letters of George Jackson, a book he calls “the most remarkable political documents that have appeared inside or outside the United States since the death of Lenin.”