Red Seas : Ferdinand Smith and Radical Black Sailors in the United States and Jamaica

by Horne, Gerald

• ISBN13: 9780814736685
• ISBN10: 0814736688
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-06-30
• Publisher: New York Univ Pr

Summary

View the Table of Contents. Read the Introduction.Red Seas is biographical history at its best. It provides a glimpse into the life of one of the most powerful Black labor leaders in U.S. history, describes the trials and tribulations, the successes and failures, of building an independent, Communist-led union, and gives the reader a general feeling for the times. Horne has done all trade-unionist and working-class people a service with Red Seas. It is highly recommended.--Political Affairs The political connections of Harlem and the British West Indies have been crucial for at least a century, but until recent times almost invisible except to those intimately involvedà. We are now, at long last, beginning to get a better grasp, and Gerald HorneÆs Red Seas is a huge contribution to our understanding.--Paul Buhle, Monthly ReviewHorne's latest work is a forceful tract that all scholars writing about radical maritime politics, unionism, and race must take into account. Horne thus sets the standard for future scholars in this area.--Working USAIn our own age of global commerce and U.S. hyperpower, what could be more instructive than the story of Ferdinand Smith, the Caribbean Communist who led a genuinely international, multicultural union in the years that birthed the American century? Gerald Horne's remarkable biography should be required reading for those who want to glimpse the potential power of that seafaring proletariat, in the last century as well as ours.--Nelson Lichtenstein, author of State of the Union: A Century of American LaborôA major achievement. It not only illuminates the maritime sources of 20th century working class black radicalism, but reveals its ongoing and complicated interplay with racism and class struggle on a global scale.ö--Joe W. Trotter, Jr., Carnegie Mellon UniversityA brilliant political biography--we are in Gerald Horne's debt for bringing to life a towering figure of the 20th century. A radical labor leader in the US and Jamaica who felt the sting of anticommunism on both shores, Ferdinand Smith also laid the groundwork for the modern civil rights movement. --Martha Biondi, author of To Stand and Fight: the Struggle for Civil Rights in Postwar New York CityExhaustively researched, this is a pioneering, insightful, sympathetic, and brilliant portrait of the life of Ferdinand Smith. A wonderful book.--Colin Palmer, Dodge Professor of History, Princeton UniversityDuring the heyday of the U.S. and international labor movements in the 1930s and 1940s, Ferdinand Smith, the Jamaican-born co-founder and second-in-command of the National Maritime Union (NMU), stands out as one of the most--if not the most--powerful black labor leaders in the United States. SmithÆs active membership in the Communist Party, however, coupled with his bold labor radicalism and shaky immigration status, brought him under continual surveillance by U.S. authorities, especially during the Red Scare in the 1950s. Smith was eventually deported to his homeland of Jamaica, where he continued his radical labor and political organizing until his death in 1961. Gerald Horne draws on SmithÆs life to make insightful connections between labor radicalism and the Civil Rights Movement--demonstrating that the gains of the latter were propelled by the former and undermined by anticommunism. Moreover, Red Seas uncovers the little-known experiences of black sailors and their contribution to the struggle for labor and civil rights, the history of the Communist Party and its black members, and the significant dimensions of Jamaican labor and political radicalism.

Author Biography

Gerald Horne is Moores Professor of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Introduction: Sailing from Jamaica	1	(15)
Sailing the Red Seas	16	(19)
Perilous Waters	35	(22)
The Black Ocean	57	(24)
Few Safe Harbors	81	(19)
Wind in Their Sails	100	(21)
Storm Signals	121	(22)
Storm, at Sea	143	(24)
Walking the Plank	167	(24)
Black Labor at Sea	191	(26)
Dropping Anchor in Jamaica	217	(27)
On the Beach	244	(23)
The Final Voyage of Ferdinand Smith	267	(18)
Epilogue	285	(8)
Notes	293	(40)
Index	333	(26)
About the Author	359