The polemics of C.L.R. James and contemporary Black activism /Ornette D. Clennon.
Polemics of Cyril Lionel Robert James and contemporary Black activism
- Cham, Switzerland : Palgrave Macmillan, (c)2017.
- 1 online resource
- Palgrave pivot .
Includes bibliographical references.
The Polemics of C.L.R. James and Contemporary Black Activism; Preface; Acknowledgements; Contents; 1 Introduction -- Finding C.L.R. James; Works Cited; 2 A New Dawn. A New Day: Dialectical Materialism; Introduction; A New Democratic Thinking?; James' Dialectical Materialism; Hegelian Dialecticism a Form of Neoliberalism. Really?; Bureaucratic Democracy Creating the Deception of Social Unity; Transposing the Deception of 'Social Unity' to the Market; Dialectism in Community Action?; Conclusion; Notes; Works Cited; 3 All Together Now! The Rise of British Nationalism; The Decline of Empire. We're All in This Together. Sound Familiar?War, Metaphor and Social Unity; Domestic Colonialism; What's Empire Got to Do with Brexit?; Brexit and Dialectical Materialism; Multiculturalism and Pan Africanism, to be continued. and Conclusion; Notes; Works Cited; 4 When Will The Revolution Be Televised? The Decline of the Trades Unions and the Rise of the Consumer; Introduction; A 'Social Unity' Amongst Workers?; So Why Do Trades Unions Seem to Be 'Inherently' Resistant to Racial Equality?; Tripartism, Privatised Keynesianism and Democracy; A Grass-roots Revolution in the UK?; Conclusion; Notes. Works Cited5 We Don't Need No Education. (Unless You're Black). De-Colonised Education as a Tool for Political Activism; Introduction; Race and Class; The Relevance of Theory for Grass-roots Activism; Education as "A Battlefield, a Theater of Conflict"; Citizenship and Enterprise Education; A Jamesian Dialectical Cooperation?; Conclusion; Notes; Works Cited; 6 We Are The World. Racial Capitalism and Its Links with Pan Africanism; Introduction; Bureaucratic Deceptive 'Social Unity'?; Race as Class; James' Dialectical Materialism; Dialectical Materialism and Pan Africanism. Contemporary Pan Africanism -- A Collection of Social Movements?Pan Africanism -- Sociogeny for the Twenty-First Century; Pan Africanism -- Fundamental Garveyism; Pan Africanism -- International Consensus and Cooperation; Conclusion; Notes; Works Cited.
This book draws on case examples of contemporary black activism in South Manchester and contrasts them with events that surrounded C.L.R. James and his activism between 1935 and 1950. In doing so, the author considers what Brexit, the Labour Party and Theresa May's audit on racism in the UK have in common with the wartime decline of the British Empire, the rise and fall of the trade unions and the Italian invasion of Ethiopia. Clennon dialogues with James' theoretical frameworks around capitalism, neoliberalism and post-colonialism, and uses this creative interplay of ideas to help make sense of contemporary events and issues of social justice from a UK ethnic minority perspective. Using Fanon, Gordon, Marx and Chakrabarty amongst others, the study explores James' take on dialectical materialism and uses this as an ongoing analytical tool throughout the volume with which he weaves an uneasy path between post-colonial and post-Marxist theories. The Polemics of C.L.R. James and Contemporary Black Activism will be of interest to students and scholars across a range of social science disciplines, including sociology, cultural studies, education and black studies.