Timeline part 2 (1933-1937)
Election of Hitler in Germany.
The Case for West-Indian Self-Government. London: Hogarth Press (1933). Reprinted, New York: University Place Bookshop (1967); Detroit: Facing Reality Publishing Co. (1967) – shortened version of The Life of Captain Cipriani.
On being offered the job as Cricket Correspondent for the Manchester Guardian, James moves to London (Heathcote Street).
Association with Trotskyist Independent Labour Party (ILP) begins. Attends meetings in Hampstead.
Attends exhibition on African art: ‘the first real impact Africa had on me’
Cricket and I (autobiography of cricketer and friend Learie Constantine, written with Constantine)
Joins Independent Labour Party (ILP) – becomes chair of the Finchley Branch in London.
Mussolini invades Abyssinia (Ethiopia); League of Nations invokes sanctions.
Joins newly formed group:the International African Friends of Abyssinia (later renamed IAFE), which campaigns against Italy’s invasion of the country. This small organisation set up by George Padmore, Amy Ashwood Garvey, Ras Makonnen, James, Jomo Kenyatta, I. T. A. Wallace Johnson and a few others, has a major influence on the development and radicalisation of Pan-Africanism (in 1936 develops into IASB). Image of C.L.R. James courtesy of the Nelson Leader 1935.
Italy annexes Ethiopia.
Minty Alley. London: Secker & Warburg (1936). New edition, London & Port of Spain: New Beacon Books (1971). C.L.R. brought the manuscript with him from Trinidad. It was the first novel to be published by a black Caribbean author in the UK.
Spanish civil war begins.
Visits France to research the Haitian Revolution.
Toussaint L’Ouverture: the story of the Only Successful Slave Revolt in History (play). Produced by Peter Godfrey at the Westminster Theatre, London (March 1936). Starring Paul Robeson.
‘Abyssinia and the Imperialists‘ essay published in The Keys vol. 3 No. 5 (a journal which James regularly contributed to in the early 30s)
James and his Trotskyist Marxist Group leave the Independent Labour Party.
The exiled Leon Trotsky arrives in Mexico on board a Norwegian oil tanker after being condemned to death by the Soviet regime. He lives with the painters Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo.
World Revolution 1917-1936: The Rise and Fall of the Communist International. London: Secker & Warburg (1937). This attracts the attention of Leon Trotsky as a Trokskyist critique of Stalinism
International African Service Bureau (IASB) founded with George Padmore.
International African Opinion (IAO) published as mouthpiece of IASB with James as editor (only lasts 7 issues)
Italy withdraws from the League of Nations.