a phi or mo-
m nt. It' not. It i in reality, a te-
oortance in Ameriea today. All
of city rcity, B
; and the neral opin­
they will dominate to
th perso ho
. This im heavy
ponsibility which ahoilril!lll:l t
th ry h ofB thinking about i particular
future . thin the United States.
TIl peopl who dominate the inner citi nu­
merically canno ibly wor out a plan or have
any programme by which they can improve their
own situation which does not take into consideration
the city as a whole. A new situation has arisen for
the urban Black, for thinking in terms of the whole
city m that you are automatically thinking in
tenns of th te and from the state you find
you If facing t whole nation.
Ameri . a continental area which is very strik­
ingly regional - both geographically and histori­
cally. At th p nt time the different regions can
be distinguished by their particular eoonomies and
particular political past. There is one unit of people,
however, which is only on the surface divided by the
regional areas in which it lives. The Black people in
the United States are the most socially united group
in the country; they all have one unifYing charac­
teristic - they suffer from that historical develop­
ment which has placed them in the role of second
class citizens. There is no other national group
which automatically constitutes one social force
with a unified outlook and the capacity to make
unified moves in politics and to respond to economic
problems.
�ltertoday than h
th mo ment of the B
young man, Goo J n,
roo in B urban Ameri How t young
man, going into prison at the age of eigh n and
being in solitary ronfinement for a number of
how he managed to develop the political and
id that h did is due to the unoundin
experien of urban Blacks. Furthermore,
evidence that in t urban the are today
being developed political persons, not of the litenuy
type of which DuBois is the m t notabi exampl ;
but her there are Black people who, living in th
mids of one of the most developed societi of the
orld, develop an understanding and pe tion
into �he fundamental realities of their own particu­
lar ituation and of the world in general. •
I want to draw your attention to the fact that in
Europe today the young-politically minded peopl
and those who feel that the preeentcris' ofmodem
society cannot continue without resolution, read
books written by Fidel Castro, Martin Luther King.
Eldridge Cleaver, Stokely Carmichael, Angela
Davis, George Jackson. These are the people who
are read in the advanced political circles in the
universities of western civilization. Whereas for­
merly the wor of Marx and lenin - and particu­
larly their ideas about the development, freedom
and emancipation of nationally oppressed people -
were the key works studied by political theoris
there is another movement today. The great up­
heavals in France in 1968, one of the most tremen­
dous political upheavals that has taken place in
Europe, was organized under the slogans ofHo Chi
Minh. The students had nobody that they could
think about. In other words, people of the Third
c. L. R. James
readers of books but who are moved by events. It
demonstrated that a great political development
was taking place in the sense of what was actually
happening and it showed what possibilities were
opening up for future developments in the popula­
tion
Black people have emerged as a prominent fea­
ture in the social and political life of America. Eve­
ryone is affected by that. But there is much more
involved - the women's movement, the Chicanos
and many other groups have followed the dynamism
of Black people. Only one notable section has not
moved, the proletariat - the great body of working
people whose movement in politics has such decisive
significance today. It is absolutely certain, though,
that they will have been affected by what is going
on around them in society.
In the recent past it used to be dynamic elemen ,
revolutionary elements in Europe which stimulated
the organization of movements in Africa. I am not
saying that there were not Africans fighting for
many generations against imperialism in Africa;
'but it used to be the ideas growing out of the political
developments of western civilization which were
taken up by leaders in Africa. Today something new
has emerged: Portugal which dominated areas of
Africa for 500 years has not only lost control over
them; but the revolutionary developments in Africa
have affected the future of Portugal itself. In other
words the movement is in the opposite direction -
instead of movements from Europe stimulating
revolutionary developments in Africa liberation
struggles in Africa have unleashed movements of
tremendous importance in Europe itself I wish to
draw it to the attention of Blacks, students and
others who do political work, because this is part of
the new world we are living in Portuguese soldiers
have said that in their contact with African fighters
in Angola and Mozambique, either th prisoners
they captured or when they themselves were taken
prisoner, they talked to one another, they exchanged
ideas and they found that the average Portuguese
peasant was not in a very different ituation from
the peasants in Africa whom they were fighting.
This meant that there existed a close association of
ideas among not only thinkers, writers and histori­
ans, but among ordinary people.
I believe that if Black people in American cities
watch what is happening to them, observe also what
is taking place among the white people and famil­
iarize themselves with the situation in European
countries where great numbers of people from the
underdeveloped areas are filling important posi­
tions in the workforce, they will fwd that there is a
unified experience and a unified conception of future
development which puts them, the urban Blacks of
the United States, in the very forefront of those who
are thinking and working out the kind of life they
wish to live in the future.
II problems today particularly the
emancipation of the underdeveloped
countrie are matter, in, which the
orld in eneral i in 01 ed: and at the
centr of fri an eman ipation
. particularly in' the development of ideas
and international trategy, are the
urban lac of merica. '
Here we must go further and place the situation
within the rontext of an international perspective.
It is from America's urban Blacks that many people
all over the world have historically gained a con­
sciousn of the problems that Black people suffer
and their attempts to overoome them. It was from
the urban areas of the United States that Marcus'
Garvey, one of th greatest propagandists and or­
ganizers of the twentieth century, and Dr DuBois,
whose historical and sociological work has not only
been of original and far-reaching quality, but con­
tinues to grow today-it was from here that they and
th who followed them had the opportunity to get
experience and make contact with the people and
things that matter. Today the situation is not too
different in that many of the general international
ideas rome from America, from people who have
immense opportunities, - financial, social, scholas­
tic - open to them which other territories, particu­
larly Black territories, have not got.
Th whole situation of Blacks has been altered by
the achievements in Mozambique and Angola. The
Africans are now able to halt the attempt of imperi­
, alists to dominate the continent; and not only to halt
.. it, but to actually take charge of their own affairs.
Bu t to take charge of the affairs of a continent is not
a continental matter- it is a matter which concerns
the whole world. The future of Africa is not solely
dependent on the African people, just as the eman­
cipation of Africa cannot be understood as purely an
African matter. There should be no misunderstand­
ing about that. All problems today, particularly the
emancipation of th underdeveloped countries, are
matters in which the world in general is involved;
and at the centre of Africari emancipation, particu­
larly in the development of ideas and international
strategy, are the urban Blacks of America.
If you want to find proof of this fact with respect
no only to th retical ideas, but to what has actually \
happened, look at the political figures that have
dominated political life in the United Sta during
the last two decades, Who have they been? Martin
Luth r King, Malcolm X (it is to be noted that his
reputatIon and the power of his id are much
World and particularly the writings and speeches of
Blacks from America's cities, are occupying a key
place in the revolutionary thinking of European
students. I believe that Black people in America
must recognize the opportunities whichhistory has
placed in their hands, not only in regard to the
advancement of their own situation but in regard to
the ideas and activities of oppressed people the
world over.
I lived in the United States from 1938 to 1953.
Never did it once c:roes my mind or the minds of my
highly educated, political colleagues that within a
few years the mayor of Los Angeles, the second
largest .eity, would be a' Black man; or that Black
men would be mayors in St Louis, Newark and
Detroit that great industrial city. These are extraor­
dinary events for a person like myself who has
always been keenly aware of the situation of Black
people in America. What all this means is that these
people have been elected, not because Black people
dominated the areas, but because both Black and
white people felt that something new was required.
I don't think too many people believe that these
Black men are going to fundamentally alter the
situation of the cities; but neverthel they are
going to make changes and the fact that they have
become mayors will have a great political effect upon
the thinking of white people aa well as Black. I tell
my friends that the thing I look forward to seeing is
a Black mayor of New York. They tell me that it is
impoesible. I don't agree with them at all because it
is to ignore what has taken place over the last few
. The fact is that the. . ibility arises from the
� uvers, combinations and rej ions which can
create th possibility in the tangled and complicated
political developments of United States politics.
It was th Black. people beginning agitation in
Montgomery, Alabama which started what was
known as th New Left movement in the United
States. Whether this New Left movement has devel- .
oped or not developed, whether the Black. Panther
movement has failed or not, does not matter to me.
What matters is that t events took place and
came to the attention of many people who are not,
, ortu ue e oldier. have 'aid that in
their contact with frican fighter. in
n ola and .ozambique, either the
prisoner: they captured or when they
tn mselve ere tak n prisoner the
talked to one another, they exchanged
ideas and the found that the average
ortu ue e peasant not i a ery
differ nt ituati n from th pe an
frica hom the' ere fighting.
meant that there e · ted a clo e
ociation of ide among not only
tho inker. riter. and hi orian, but
amon ordinary pe vie.