From Comintern Negro Bureau chief to architect of Pan-African independence, the revolutionary journalist who broke with empire
"Pan-Africanism or Communism?" — rejecting Cold War binaries, his final book insisted African liberation must chart its own course
Trinidad-born Pan-Africanist theorist and journalist. Appointed head of the Profintern's Negro Bureau in Moscow in 1929, he led organising efforts among colonial workers. But he broke with the USSR in 1934 when Soviet diplomacy prioritised alliance with the colonial powers over liberation movements. From London he chaired the International African Service Bureau and organised the 1945 Manchester Pan-African Congress, setting the agenda for postwar decolonisation. As Kwame Nkrumah's closest advisor, he helped shape Ghana's independence and the vision of African unity.
Career timeline
- 1903Born in Arouca, Trinidad as Malcolm Ivan Meredith Nurse
- 1924–1927Studies at Fisk and Howard Universities; joins CPUSA (1927)
- 1929Reports to Comintern in Moscow; appointed head of Profintern's Negro Bureau; elected to Moscow City Soviet
- 1930Organises ITUCNW in Hamburg; edits monthly The Negro Worker
- 1933–1934Deported from Germany after Nazi takeover; breaks with Comintern over USSR's shift on colonial policy; expelled February 1934
- 1934–1945Settles in London; chairs IASB; organises 1945 Manchester Pan-African Congress
- 1947–1957Advisor to Nkrumah; publishes The Gold Coast Revolution (1953); supports Ghana's independence
- 1957–1959Moves to Ghana as Nkrumah's advisor on African affairs; dies in London 1959; ashes interred at Christiansborg Castle
Finnish-American labor militant and CPUSA General Secretary for 41 years, Moscow loyalist, four-time presidential candidate
'Socialism in America will come through the ballot box' — Hall to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, 1996.
A Finnish immigrant's son forged in the steel strikes, Hall led the CPUSA for 41 years as an orthodox Marxist-Leninist. Trained at Moscow's International Lenin School and imprisoned under the Smith Act, he seized party leadership in 1959, hewed unflinchingly to the Soviet line through every crisis, and ran for president four times, becoming the face of American communism during the Cold War.
Career timeline
- 1927Joined CPUSA; Young Communist League organizer
- 1931–1933Studied at International Lenin School, Moscow
- 1935–1937SWOC founding organizer; led 'Little Steel' strike
- 1939CPUSA leader, Cleveland
- 1942–1946US Navy machinist's mate, Guam
- 1948–1957Smith Act indictment; imprisoned 5+ years, Leavenworth
- 1959–2000General Secretary / Chairman, CPUSA
- 1972–1984CPUSA presidential candidate (4 elections)
The Black feminist Marxist who pioneered intersectional analysis, and created the Notting Hill Carnival
"A people's art is the genesis of their freedom" — slogan of the first Caribbean carnival, 1959
Trinidad-born Marxist-feminist theorist. Her 1949 analysis of the triple oppression of race, class and gender is recognised as a forerunner of intersectionality. Deported to Britain, she founded a major Black newspaper and organised the Caribbean carnival that gave rise to Notting Hill Carnival.
Career timeline
- 1915Born in Port of Spain, Trinidad; family emigrates to Harlem when she is eight
- 1936Joins the YCL; writer, associate editor, then editor-in-chief of the Weekly Review
- 1945–1955CPUSA Women's Commission secretary; elected to National Committee (1948); Daily Worker Negro Affairs editor
- 1949Publishes landmark essay pioneering intersectional analysis within a Marxist framework
- 1948–1955Four prison terms, Smith Act conviction; deported to Britain in 1955
- 1958–1964Founds West Indian Gazette; organises first indoor Caribbean carnival (1959)
- 1964Dies Christmas Eve; buried left of Karl Marx's grave, Highgate Cemetery
Marxist feminist philosopher who theorised the prison-industrial complex, co-founder of Critical Resistance
"I now declare publicly before the court, before the people of this country that I am innocent of all charges which have been leveled against me by the state of California." — courtroom declaration, 5 January 1971
American Marxist-feminist philosopher and foundational theorist of prison abolition. Joining CPUSA in 1968, she ran for Vice President in 1980 and 1984. Her 1970 arrest and sixteen-month imprisonment, ending in full acquittal, sparked a global solidarity campaign. Her landmark Women, Race & Class (1981) established intersectional analysis of race, gender and class; she went on to theorise the prison-industrial complex. In 1997 she co-founded Critical Resistance to advance abolition democracy. Distinguished Professor Emerita at UC Santa Cruz, she has stood at the crossroads of radical thought and practice for over five decades.
Career timeline
- 1944Born in Birmingham, Alabama; raised in the 'Dynamite Hill' Black middle-class neighbourhood
- 1965Graduates Brandeis magna cum laude; studies under Herbert Marcuse
- 1968Joins CPUSA; directs political education for Black Panther Party's LA chapter
- 1969Appointed assistant professor of philosophy at UCLA; fired for CPUSA membership, reinstated by court order
- 1970–1972Arrested, placed on FBI Ten Most Wanted list; acquitted of all charges after 16 months' imprisonment
- 1979Awarded the Lenin Peace Prize by the Soviet Union
- 1980CPUSA vice-presidential candidate, running mate of Gus Hall
- 1984CPUSA vice-presidential candidate, running mate of Gus Hall
- 1981Publishes Women, Race & Class, a classic of intersectional analysis
- 1991Leaves CPUSA; co-founds Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism
- 1991–2008Professor of History of Consciousness and Feminist Studies at UC Santa Cruz; retires as Distinguished Professor Emerita in 2008
- 1997Co-founds Critical Resistance, institutional anchor of the prison abolition movement
- 2003Publishes Are Prisons Obsolete?, a popular manifesto for abolition democracy
