C. L. R. James
Part of a series on Trotskyism Leon Trotsky Fourth International Marxism Leninism Russian Revolution Concepts Anti-Stalinism Deformed workers' state Degenerated workers' state French Turn Permanent revolution Political revolution Social revolution Transitional demand United front World revolution Key Trotskyists James P. Cannon Tony Cliff Pierre Frank Ted Grant Joseph Hansen Gerry Healy C. L. R. James Pierre Lambert Livio Maitan Ernest Mandel Nahuel Moreno Michel Pablo Internationals Committee for a Workers' International Coordinating Committee for the Refoundation of the Fourth International International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) FI Centre of Reconstruction Fourth International (post-reunification) International Communist League International Marxist Tendency International Socialist Tendency International Workers' League List of Trotskyist organizations by country Branches Orthodox Trotskyism Third camp Communism portal v t e Cyril Lionel Robert James (4 January 1901 – 19 May 1989), best known as C. L. R. James, who sometimes wrote under the pen-name J. R. Johnson, was an Afro-Trinidadian historian, journalist, socialist theorist and essayist. His works are influential in various theoretical, social, and historiographical contexts. His work is a staple of subaltern studies, and he figures as a pioneering and influential voice in postcolonial literature. A tireless political activist, James's writing on the Communist International stirred debate in Trotskyist circles, and his history of the Haitian Revolution, The Black Jacobins, is a seminal text in the literature of the African Diaspora. Characterized by one literary critic as an "anti-Stalinist dialectician", James was known for his autodidactism, for his occasional playwriting and fiction, and as an avid sportsman. He is also famed as a writer on cricket.