IT ONCE was a forlorn mound of earth that lay next to Karl Marx’s tomb in London’s Highgate Cemetery, unmarked and unadorned.

Few people were aware that it contained the ashes of communist civil rights leader Claudia Jones who died prematurely in 1964 at the age of 49.

It was only as a result of the efforts of a group of community activists that a gravestone was finally erected 20 years later following a fundraising campaign.

Today, Saturday February 19, it will be the focus of an event to celebrate both Jones’s birthday, February 21, and the day she made her historic statement at her trial for sedition, February 2 1953, in which she declared she had been convicted for her communist beliefs and her fight for “unequivocal equality for my people.”

Among the speakers at the graveside gathering, which is being organised by the Communist Party of Britain, will be Winston Pinder.

Pinder was a member of the official communist welcome party sent to meet Jones at Victoria station following her deportation from the US in December 1955 shortly after her release from prison. 

Thereafter, he worked closely with Jones, who would go on to play a pivotal role in the anti-racism struggle in Britain, particularly in the aftermath of the 1958 Notting Hill riots.

A brilliant organiser, orator and writer, Jones also set up the West Indian Gazette newspaper to serve as a campaign platform for social justice and anti-imperialist campaigns in Britain and abroad. 

“Claudia was a remarkable person and I regard her as my political mentor,” Pinder said, recalling the long discussions they frequently had together.    

“When she launched the Gazette she asked if I would help to sell it, which I did, outside the Tube station near to where I lived. It always sold well because it was the only paper that gave West Indians a voice at the time.”

Jones died of a heart attack at her home not far from Highgate Cemetery, her health broken by her four incarcerations in US jails. At her request, her ashes were interred next to Karl Marx’s tomb following a large funeral at Golders Green, but a headstone was never erected. 

It was Pinder, one of the few people alive today who knew Jones, who led the campaign to raise money for one in 1984.

At the time, he was a youth worker with a record of political activism that stretched back to the anti-colonial movement in the Caribbean, which he had left in the early ’50s.

“It is hard to believe now, but Claudia was practically forgotten then and most people didn’t even know where she was buried,” said Pinder. “I felt it was my duty to change that.”

With the help of a group of youngsters who attended a drop-in centre he ran, a campaign was launched to raise £1,500 for the stone.

Among those who contributed to the fund was pensioner Bill Fairman, who cashed in his life insurance policy to do so, and Tony Benn, MP for Bristol South East at the time.

The biggest donations came from the Cuban and Chinese embassies, which each gave £300. 

Both countries sent envoys to the ceremony in January 1984 to install the stone, which was carved out of polished Cornish granite and bore the inscription “valiant fighter against racism and imperialism.” 

Also there was Morning Star journalist Mikki Doyle, who had been deported from the US on the same boat as Jones amid the anti-communist witch-hunts, and author Buzz Johnson.

Johnson had just published I Think of My Mother: Notes on the Life and Times of Claudia Jones, the first book in Britain to be written about the activist.

Among the other speakers today will be Robert Griffiths, general secretary of the Communist Party of Britain, human rights lawyer Jacqueline McKenzie and Claire Holder, lawyer and former director of the Notting Hill Carnival.

Members of Caribbean Labour Solidarity, the RMT union, Liberation and the Young Communist League will be out in force, while Cuba and China have been invited to send a representative. Also present will be some of those who helped to raise money for the stone alongside Pinder. 

David Horsley, author of the recent book, The Political Life and Times of Claudia Jones, said: “Today’s commemoration of Claudia Jones, which I hope will become an annual event, is so timely.

“Claudia’s deeds and words serve as an inspiration in today’s struggle against racism, poverty and war, and for justice, peace and freedom.” 

Starts 12pm, February 19, Highgate East Cemetery, Swaine’s Lane, London N6 6PJ.