The future in the present - C.L.R. James

This was the first of a series of anthologies published during James’ lifetime by publishers Allison & Busby that looked to bring together the best of James’ writing and introduce him to a new audience. The Future in the Present collects some of James’ most well regarded essays including his early short story Triumph, his early polemic The Case for West-Indian Self-Government, the Civil Rights Movement predicting The Revolutionary Answer to the Negro Problem in the USA, and the essay our project takes its name from: Every Cook Can Govern.

Although out of print, these anthologies are worth seeking out as they encapsulate the breadth and depth of James’ political intellect, from the stories he wrote in his 20s through to his later writings written in his 70s an 80s.

Contents:
Biographical Introduction
Triumph
The Case for West Indian Self- government
Stalin Ruins the Chinese Revolution
Revolts in Africa
British Barbarism in Jamaica: Support the Negro Workers’ Struggle
Down With Starvation Wages in South-East Missouri
Laski, St Paul and Stalin
The British Vote for Socialism
The Revolutionary Answer to the Negro Problem in the USA
The Class Struggle
Fiction and Reality
Every Cook Can Govern: A Study of democracy in Ancient Greece
The Workers’ Councils in Hungary
The Artist in the Caribbean
The Mighty Sparrow
W. E. B. Du Bois
Garfield Sobers
The Olympia Statues, Picasso’s Guernica and the Frescoes of Michelangelo in the Capella Paolina
The Atlantic Slave-Trade
George Jackson