The Fire of Claudia Jones: Fueled by Political Hope

Having just read Claudia Jones' 1940 essay "Jim Crow In Uniform," her passion jumps off the page.  Her criticism of the US War effort does not stay shrouded in pessimism, but she roots her progressive ideals in political hope.  That political hope was in the Communist Party USA and in particular the Young Communist League.  Keep in mind, Jones is 25 years old when she writes this, and through this organization she unloads a massive activist energy in her essay.

Jones aptly points out the contradictions of black support of what she calls "the Second Imperialist War," recognizing the true war profiteers, at the expense of working class lives.  While relaying injustice after injustice and the hypocrisies of the mistreatment, even lynchings, of black soldiers returning home from war, she exudes a resounding faith in the fight for a new social order.

Much of Jones' opprobrium for the state can be translated into our present day.  Unfortunately, I do not think her political hope could be tied to anything within our current political landscape.  While CPUSA was still a party on the margins in the 1930s and 40s, the Communist party enjoyed a substantial amount of organizing, especially among the working class.  However, Cold War McCarthyism and state sanction ideological repression of the radical left, has forced these ideas into the often inaccessible realm of academia.  Neither of the two parties in the US offer any serious solutions to racial inequality and the plight of the working class.  And as long as the absurd amounts of monetary influence are allowed in our campaigns, an alternative party (i.e Green) stands no chance at contending in the political arena.

A source of hope for social change today seems to lie in the Movement for Black Lives, but the political power and salience of this movement will not be found in the party of Clinton.  I think Jones would point to the youth of today as the energetic source of the revival of a progressive political movement.  Unfortunately, at this time, we have no organized party to give our energies to...