Margaret Stevens - Red International and Black Caribbean

Red International and Black Caribbean

Black Critique

Series editor: Anthony Bogues

This series concerns radical black thought and politics, both historical and contemporary. The volumes explore and interrogate the ways in which radical black thinkers, activists and artists have formulated political, social and artistic ideas and practices. The series includes critical texts on the present conjuncture facing Africa and the African Diaspora in the Caribbean, North America, Europe and other parts of the world.

The main objective of the series is to produce a body of work which challenges conventional critical theory and foregrounds a radical tradition oftentimes marginalized.

Also available:

Edited by Amber Murrey

A Certain Amount of Madness:

The Life, Politics and Legacies of Thomas Sankara

Communists in New York City,
Mexico and the West Indies, 19191939

Margaret Stevens

First published 2017 by Pluto Press

345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA

www.plutobooks.com

Copyright Margaret Stevens 2017

The right of Margaret Stevens to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 0 7453 3727 2 Hardback

ISBN 978 0 7453 3726 5 Paperback

ISBN 978 1 7868 0163 0 PDF eBook

ISBN 978 1 7868 0165 4 Kindle eBook

ISBN 978 1 7868 0164 7 EPUB eBook

This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental standards of the country of origin.

Typeset by Swales & Willis

Simultaneously printed in the United Kingdom and United States of America

This book is dedicated to the people without shoes

. Front page of the first issue of El Libertador, literary organ of the All-American Anti-Imperialist League (courtesy of US National Archives, Washington, DC).

. Part of the platform of the American Negro Labor Congress (courtesy of US National Archives, Washington, DC).

. Ku Klux Klan terrorist flyer circulated in black working-class community, linking Communist influence with the fight against racism, no date (courtesy of US National Archives, Washington, DC).

. Penny Stamps created to raise money and political consciousness for the defense of the Scottsboro boys (courtesy of US National Archives, Washington, DC).

. First issue of The West Indian Organizer confiscated and sent to US federal authorities, 1933 (courtesy of US National Archives, Washington, DC).

. Front page of Bandera Roja (Red Flag), newspaper of the Communist Party of Cuba, agitating in defense of peasant commune called Realengo 18 (courtesy of US National Archives, Washington, DC).

. Front page of Bandera Roja, calling for defense of Haitian workers being deported during the workers coup of 193334 (courtesy of US National Archives, Washington, DC).

. Anti-capitalist critique of the bourgeois press, promoting Plain Talk instead as a tribune of the masses. Caption reads Points to this scene of injustice (courtesy of the National Library of Jamaica).

. Federal Bureau of Investigation report on purported Subversive Activities in the West Indies, focused on New York-based West Indian radical organizations, 1941 (courtesy of US National Archives, Washington, DC).

. Part of the transcript of an interview with a Haitian survivor of the Trujillo massacre, 1937 (courtesy of US National Archives, Washington, DC).

Tony Bogues is the visionary behind the concept of a series on black radicalism, and the placement of my book in this series is only because of his enduring support for my work which began while he was the advisor of my thesis. I thank him for the mentorship which was an admixture of research, teaching, conference presentations and conversations about my topic. He cemented the partnership with Pluto Press and introduced me to David Shulman, the commissioning editor, who shepherded this work through its most critical stages of publication. The Pluto team then finished the job. Thank you.