A Fighting Dream: The Political Writings of Claudia Jones

by Claudia Jones, Gerald Horne (Contributor), Eugene Puryear (Contributor)

Claudia Jones stood at many crossroads. Her world was one of heated battles for Black liberation, of anti-fascism in the build-up to World War II, of national liberation struggles across the Global South, of the US government persecuting her and her comrades for their activism and membership in the Communist Party. And as a Black woman, she was also determined to bring to light how race and gender are embedded in and essential to the struggles of the working class.

At a time when the hegemony of imperialism and capitalism remain strong while new contradictions and signs of struggle arise, Jones’ political writings are a lesson in identifying the most urgent tasks for moving socialism, the political project of the working class, forward. From her poetry, to newspaper articles, to pamphlets, to speeches, A Fighting Dream: The Political Writings of Claudia Jones brings her to us as she was: unrelenting, fearless, and a Communist.

Claudia Jones challenges us all to stand with our principles, to build organization, and to clearly see how understanding the intersectional aspects of our struggle is crucial for the liberation of humanity and the planet.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, History

314 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

[Jeffrey Pedro · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘But fear is at the heart of the present bipartisan policy - a fear of the peoples’ rule at home and abroad. History teaches that it is not the peoples’ victories that lead to fascism, but their immobility and disunity in the face of reaction’s assaults. The finance capitalists move towards fascism when they become convinced that they can no longer rule in the old way; they adopt fascist methods of terror and rule rather than adhere to the most elementary democratic process at home and abroad. In resorting to this policy of external and internal aggression, they raise the hysterical cry of “aggression” against all who resist that very aggression. Thus, they howl “Soviet imperialism” and slander all movements of peoples anywhere for national liberation and national reconstruction upon democratic foundations as “internal aggression”’

Claudia Jones was a Black, feminist, communist who was persecuted and deported due to her political activism here in the U.S. during McCarthyism. Her writings highlight her understanding of imperialism’s destructive tendencies toward exploitation, extraction, and oppression of nations and their people. This book is a compilation of her work and it guides its readers to better understand the struggle for liberation on a global scale.

[V 🐈‍⬛ · Rating 4 out of 5]

realized i never reviewed this book. since this was mostly a compilation of her essays, i didn't get the full biography of Claudia Jones i wish i had gotten. but her contributions were clear-- internationalism in a true sense. during the period of WW they were literally fighting fascism, communists had to hold the contradictions of allying with Western liberal nations for the bigger project of defeating the rise of fascism. i also drew a lot of parallels when Claudia Jones was discussing the treatment of Caribbean immigrants in the workforce in Britain, the "colorbar"-- a lot of the rhetoric that was used to demonize immigrants at the time is deployed against immigrants from Latin America, particularly from Venezuela in New York. learning more about the McCarthy area, her unwavering stance taken in her trial, that whole speech is iconic. this was the time period when the Communist Party took the stance that Black people in the US constituted an oppressed nation.

Claudia Jones was the OG intersectionalist, addressing the superexploitation Black women face in the US. the shift in her and her family's status as soon as they entered the US. her having to work as a laundry attendant despite her aptitude for college. going on to found the West Indian Gazette in the UK. truly a monumental figure in the Communist movement, both in the US and the UK.

[Mark Swartz · Rating 5 out of 5]

A phenomenal collection. Essential reading. A few highlight texts:

- ‘Jim Crow in Uniform’
- ‘Hitler’s New Order: Know What We Are Fighting!’
- ‘An End to the Neglect of the Problems of the Negro Woman!’
- ‘Autobiographical Letter to William Foster’
- ‘Un-American Committee and the Negro People’
- ‘I Was Deported Because I Fought Color Bar’
- ‘Visit to the USSR’
- ‘ISLAND AFLAME—The Story of Cuba’
- ‘Behind the Congo Uprising’

And many others!