| Book Launch of Pan-Africanism and Communism in Harrow Hosted by the Mayor of Harrow, Nana Asante, in a most cordial atmosphere, some 100 people attended the launch at Harrow Civic Centre on September 20th of a new book by Dr Hakim Adi entitled Pan-Africanism and Communism: The Communist International, Africa and the Diaspora, 1919-1939. In his presentation, Dr Adi addressed why he had written the book and what he had hoped to achieve. He explained that it was Lenin himself in the 20th century who had first put what was then known as the "Negro Question" in its international context. Subsequently the Communist International was the first organisation to call for an end to colonial rule and set out a programme for the liberation, self-determination and emancipation for the African peoples in Africa and in the African diaspora. It was black communists, he said, inspired by the October Revolution and implementing the programme of the Communist International who were in the front ranks of those took up the dangerous work of organising in the American South, in West Africa and South Africa and the Caribbean in the face of British colonial tyranny, in the French and Dutch colonies, in Cuba and among those of African and Caribbean origin in Europe. This proud history, he explained, at the time and right up to the present day, has been either obscured or grossly distorted and great disinformation has been spread about it by those forces whose interest has been to block progress and maintain their domination. His book, he said, was an attempt to redress this. He had set out the facts, the evidence fully sourced, and he would leave his readers to draw their own conclusions. Without attempting to summarise such an extensive work, Dr Adi gave illustrations from the book of the various organisations that had been involved in the struggle, and the various personalities who had come to the fore, such heroic figures as Jacques Roumain and Paul Robeson, as well as others who had subsequently succumbed to the pressures and fallen by the wayside. He highlighted, among others, the number of women communists, not often acknowledged, who had been prominent. In a lively and fruitful discussion which followed Dr Adi's presentation, a number of important issues were raised. Among them was the significance of the period of struggle dealt with in his book for today. Dr Adi put forward that this was a different period, the issue was not to do what was done then, but to use the same scientific analysis of the actual conditions and find solutions to the problems of liberation and empowerment in today's conditions with that same courageous spirit. Workers Weekly congratulates Dr Hakim Adi on the publication of his book, the fruit of some ten years work, using archives, some only recently made available, in England, France, Russia and the USA. Pan-Africanism and Communism: The Communist International, Africa and the Diaspora, 1919-1939, by Hakim Adi, Africa World Press, Trenton, New Jersey, 2013, 445pp, is available via the usual outlets. |