This book celebrates an important

symbolic event for anti-racism in

Britain. In 1985, the Dalston Library

in Hackney, north-east London, was

renamed the C.L.R. James Library.

Behind the decision to name the library

after the great Trinidadian Marxist and

Pan-Africanist lies an inspiring hidden

history of resistance to racism.

With rare interviews and contributions

from the activists who made it happen,

the book commemorates a key

moment when black self-organisation,

municipal socialism and wider anti-racist

campaigning came together and won.

It also includes a previously

unpublished speech given by C.L.R.

James in 1983 to Hackney Black

Alliance. The speech still has great

resonance for us today as attacks

on our multicultural society see old

arguments take on new forms and we

continue to struggle for “an equal

society, egalitarian in everything –

education, social life, social behaviour

and everything.”