THINKING/ACTING DIALECTICALLY: C.L.R. JAMES, THE AMERICAN YEARS

Today I stumbled upon a speech from Grace Lee Boggs given in 1993 on her years working with the philosopher revolutionary C.L.R. James, needless to say the biggest philosophical influence here. She herself is an accomplished writer, thinker, and activist and played a prominent role within the Johnson-Forest Tendency, a political faction that existed within the Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party and its eventual split-off, the Workers Party during the 1940s.

Were to draw the relevance? Well, as my most recent post on Hip-Hop and Hot Wings has kicked off a six-page thread on hiphopkc.com, and covering everything from hip-hop's changes, to philosophical thought, to allowing hip-hop to be a gauge for coming social transformation, I saw this speech as highly relevant given its emphasis on dialectical thinking.

Honestly, it doesn't say much about the method itself, but is more of a historical summary of GLB's twenty-year experience with James, the Johnson-Forest Tendency, and the 1951 SWP split-off, Correspondence. But it is a good summation of that period and of James' own vices. Her Detroit Summer program I don't have much to say about, as I don't know much about it, but it is hardly an thorough application of Hegel's Logic, whom she is quite familiar.

She is indeed a brilliant thinker and stands on her own as a contributor to not only philosophy, but the struggle of American people. Last June, GLB celebrated her 91st birthday.

You can read the piece here.