ACTIVISTS gathered in Highgate cemetery in London on Saturday to commemorate and celebrate the life of pioneering communist Claudia Jones.

Ms Jones, who is buried next to Karl Marx’s tomb, was born in Trinidad in 1915 and died in London in 1964.

Her family moved to Harlem in New York in 1924, where she later cut her teeth as an organiser and journalist in the Communist Party of the USA.

Ms Jones’s work with the communists saw her deported from the US to Britain in 1950, where she joined the Communist Party of Great Britain and founded and edited the first commercial black newspaper in the country, the West Indian Gazette and co-founded the Notting Hill Carnival.

Communist Party chairwoman Ruth Styles introduced a number of speakers including Caribbean Labour Solidarity activist Luke Daniel.

Mr Daniel said that if Ms Jones was around today “she would be encouraging us in her fine speeches to put the final nail in the coffin of capitalism.”

Communist Party general secretary Robert Griffiths said: “As a Marxist, Ms Jones understood and explained how capitalist exploitation, racism and the oppression of women, were and are so closely related.

“She was one of the first to speak and write about the triple oppression of working-class black women.”

He added: “She insisted that they are vital components of the revolutionary process.”

Young Communist League Women’s Officer Judith Cazora told the Morning Star: “Claudia Jones is an example of what we all need to follow.”

Veteran black activist and scholar Cecil Cutzmore told the Star: “Claudia was one of the most important figures in diaspora African history and I try to be present at anything that remembers her contribution.”

Cuban ambassador Barbara Montalvo and representatives from the Chinese embassy joined others to lay wreaths on the grave of Ms Jones.