Internationalism in Practice: Claudia Jones, Black Liberation, and the "Bestial" War on Korea

by Claudia Jones, Gerald Horne (contributor), Denise Lynn (contributor)

Genres: Politics

142 pages, Paperback

Published February 1, 2024

About the author

Claudia Jones, née Claudia Vera Cumberbatch (21 February 1915 – 24 December 1964), was a Trinidad-born journalist. As a child she migrated with her family to the US, where she became a political activist and black nationalist through Communism, using the false name Jones as "self-protective disinformation". As a result of her political activities, she was deported in 1955 and subsequently resided in the United Kingdom. She founded Britain's first black newspaper, The West Indian Gazette, in 1958.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Lo · Rating 5 out of 5]

The real spirit of feminism is one that is resolutely opposed to imperialism and capitalism, sexism, racism, and chauvinism. It is anti-war except for class war. It is also affirms that these systems of oppression can only be uprooted through the struggle of socialism.

The real spirit of working-class politics is that the war economy is detrimental to growing unemployment and declining wages. Keynesian economic policies rely on an ever raging war to keep the GDP high and the war manufacturers happy. That is not only genocidal but also a fully faulty form of economics.

As Kim Il-Sung says, “the liberation struggle has an international character.” Whether it is the universal feminist movement or the connection between Black liberation and Palestinian liberation, they all need to be fought together to win.

[Silk · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The more frenetically the U.S. imperialists act, the more difficult their position becomes. U.S. imperialism is going downhill. Its sun is setting, never to rise again. The U.S. imperialists will undoubtedly be forced out of Asia, Africa, and Latin America by the peoples’ liberation struggle. The great anti-imperialist revolutionary cause of the Asian, African, and Latin American peoples is invincible."

Once again I am amazed at how relevant the writings of Claudia Jones and Kim Il-Sung are to this day, 60 to 80 years later. A great and important read dressing the parallel between the Black struggle in the U.S. (and by extension the world), that of the Koreans in Korea and that of the Cubans in Latin America, proving once again that true communism can only exist internationally, once the tentacles of U.S. imperialism in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and now even Europe, have been cut.

Not only offering a truly communist insight on the world, past and present, these writings provide a considerable historical, societal, political context regarding the place of Black women in the American post-slavery society and under the segregation, regarding the constant persecution and humiliation of—Black in particular—communists, regarding the ongoing war abuse of the U.S. and its allies worldwide, etc.

Simply brilliant.

[Nick Girvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Claudia Jones is a black liberation leader from the mid-20th century that I knew little about but was intrigued by her unique situation in the era of McCarthyism and the Korean War. Short and sweet, Internationalism In Practice is a small collection of some of her most important writings on the specific struggles of the black woman in the USA during her time, and the parallels to the imperialist war on Korea, the repression of communists and people of color in the USA, and the hypocrisy of Truman’s foreign policy. There are a few other short passages from relevant authors, including one in the end by Kim Il Sung following Che Guevara’s death, capturing the importance of the international struggle for socialism as the only tool to defeat racism, sexism, capitalism, and imperialism. Though Claudia was imprisoned for her outspoken Marxist-Leninist basis, this gave me feelings of hope, a good one to read in this time of sheer uncertainly and completely open U.S. desires to swallow up the world for the sake of capital. Comrades around the world, we have nothing to lose but our chains!

[J. Brudny · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. Jones' writings and Kim Il Sung's article are all great and relevant, as is the article featuring Horne and Yoon, but the rest of the contributions are, at best, just ok.