Only connect: the political manifesto of C.L.R. James for the US and the world

The article presents a critical reading of American Civilization, which C.L.R. James wrote between 1949 and 1950 and was published four years after his death in 1989. While the manuscript has been previously analysed for its contribution to cultural studies or interpreted as evincing his humanism − over-appreciative of American culture − the author here outlines his Marxist thought and politics. By placing James in the historical context of the scientific and political literature that marked his US moment (1938−1953), he explains that James pointed out how the US looked for a reactionary doctrine to suppress ‘the struggle for happiness’ of workers, blacks, and women by disciplining their labour and social relations within racial and sexual hierarchies. American Civilization not only brought to light an unexpected ‘antagonism of workers against work itself’, but, more importantly, outlined James’s revolutionary vision – today more relevant than ever – of the potential connection between workers, blacks and women’s antagonisms.