CLR James: Conversations and Interviews, 1938-1989

C.L.R. James, “Six Questions to Trotskyists – And Their Answers,” Controversy, vol. 2 nos. 17–8 (February–March 1938).

Leon Trotsky (with JR Johnson aka CLR James et. al) on Black Nationalism: Documents on the Negro (1933-39), published in Bulletin of Marxist Studies No. 4, George Breitman, ed. (1962).

Mr. C. L. R. James interviewed by A. Mainame, Herskovits Library of African Studies Audio Collection, Northwestern University, (circa 1960s?).

C. L. R. James lectures and interviews collection, New York Public Library, 1963-1969.

“On Literature, Exile, and Nationhood,” CLR James interviewed by Robert A. Hill for “Towards a New Culture,” Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, February 13, 1967, transcribed and printed in You Don’t Play with Revolution: The Montreal Lectures of C.L.R. James, David Austin, Ed. (Oakland: AK Press, 2009), pages 217-225.

C.L.R. James: You Don’t Play with Revolution,” McGill Reporter (Montreal), 1 no. 7 (November 4, 1968). h/t David Austin.

C.L.R. James and Studs Terkel discuss the Black Jacobins on WFMT Chicago (1970).

Interviews: C. L. R. James, The Black Scholar, vol. 2, no. 1,(1970) [$$$].

Patrick Griffith, “CLR James and Pan-Africanism: An Interview,” Black World/Negro Digest (November 1971).

Kas-kas: Interviews with three Caribbean writers in Texas: George Lamming, C. L. R. James, [Wilson Harris, edited by Ian Munro and Reinhard Sander (Austin: African and Afro-American Research Institute, University of Texas at Austin, 1972).

C.L.R James talks to Geri Stark, Information Officer, Sixth Pan African Congress, 1974.

CLR James talking to Stuart Hall, BBC, 1976. (Also see this post from the Stuart Hall Library).

CLR James interviewed by Dawad Wayne Phillip, Amsterdam News, June, 1977.

A Meeting with Comrade James, New Society, 26 June, 1980.

Tariq Ali, “A Conversation with C.L.R. James,” Socialist Challenge, 3 July 1980, pp 8-9.

Tariq Ali en discussion avec C.L.R. James (French translation of 1980 Socialist Challenge interview), Revue Periode, 14 Janvier 2016.

Radical Pan-Africanism in the 1930s: A Discussion with C.L.R. James, Radical History Review 24 (Fall 1980), 68-75. [$$$].

Extract from transcript of Kenneth Ramchand interviews with CLR James, OWTU Guest House, San Fernando, Trinidad & Tobago, September 5th, 1980.

“Interview: James Early, E. Ethelbert Miller, and Noel Ignatiev with C.L.R. James, October 1980 and January 1981,” Urgent Tasks, no. 12 (Summer 1981).

Language and the seizure of power: an interview with C. L. R. James by Chris Searle, Brixton, August, 1982. Published in Race and Class, 50 no. 1 (July 1, 2008), 79-87. [$$$]

Talking History: C.L.R. James and E.P. Thompson (H.O. Nazareth, Dir., 1983).

Pamela Beshoff, Conversation with CLR James, Jamaica Journal (February-April 1986).

CLR James and British Trotskyism (interviewed by Al Richardson, Clarence Chrysostom & Anna Grimshaw on Sunday 8th June & 16th November, 1986 in South London. Originally published as a pamphlet by Socialist Platform Ltd in 1987.

“The Making of a Literary Life: C. L. R. James Interviewed by Paul Buhle, May and September, 1987, Brixton,” in C.L.R. James’s Caribbean, P. Henry & P. Buhle, ads (London: Macmillan, 1987),  56-62.

Black struggles in Britain: interview with CLR James, Critical Social Policy 7 no. 21, (December 1, 1987), pages 49-55 [$$$]

John Fitzpatrick, “You never know when it’s going to explode (CLR James interviewed in Brixton, April 1989),” Living Marxism (April 1989). Podcast available here.

Also see: CLR James: Selected Works, Online University of the Left.