George Padmore on Britain’s Black Record--September 1941
From Labor Action, Vol. 5 No. 43, 27 October 1941, p. 3.
Originally published in New Leader (London).
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive.
In a preceding article (printed in Labor Action, October 13 – Ed.), I think I said enough to prove that the Germans – our justified condemnation of Hitlerism notwithstanding – are not the only white folks with a BLACK RECORD. The truth is: imperialist powers cannot afford to turn up their noses at one another, for they ALL have black records. This is an historic fact which seems to have escaped such Britons as the eminent publicist, Lord Vansittart.
The treatment meted out to the defenseless Africans, by representatives of the social class to which Lord Vansittart belongs, shows that British imperialism can also behave like German Nazis when they lord it over a subject race.
The totalitarian regimes applied to the blacks (and to them only) in territories like the Union and Southern Rhodesia were in existence long before Hitler began to institute similar methods, in Europe. Hitler not only copied from British colonial practices, but also largely borrowed the theoretical foundation for his racial philosophy from the writings of another eminent English publicist, Houston Stuart Chamberlin, author of The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century.
Is it any wonder that the Fuehrer has expressed in Mein Kampf great admiration for the British Empire? Hitler has certainly learned much from the British imperialists, especially those who have settled in the colonies.
The Black Man’s Burden
The extent to which reaction has triumphed in the British colony of Southern Rhodesia is best shown by examining the character of legislation enacted in recent years by the Rhodesian government.
On the initiative of certain missionary societies, an ordinance under the title of the Preachers’ Bill was in 1936 presented to the Legislative Assembly, composed entirely of whites. Articles four and five of the bill recommended that:
“Wherever three or four natives are gathered together and conduct a religious service in the presence of a fourth native, which is either of a religious character or instruction in religion, the person conducting it will he liable to both fine and imprisonment unless he is in possession of a certificate granted either by the native commissioner or a missionary.”
Like true Pharisees, these are the people who are forever talking about religious freedom! Freedom for themselves, not the blacks.
When the text of the bill came before the House of Commons for imperial assent, MP’s attacked it so violently that Malcolm MacDonald, who was then Dominions Secretary, was forced to reject these discriminating clauses. For, had Parliament agreed to what the white Rhodesians were demanding, an African father reading the Bible to his family would technically be committing a criminal offense! And, as I said, the bill was sponsored by so-called Christian missionaries!
What was the reason for this un-Christian conduct? To prevent their black converts from organizing churches, independent of white control. Because of the racial attitude of the overwhelming majority of European “Christians” to Africans, many natives who have embraced Christianity have organized a distinct African church under their own management.
The Dutch Reformed Church, for example, refused to participate in the World Sunday School Convention held in South Africa in July, 1940, on the ground that it is against their racial principles for whites and blacks to associate on the basis of “equality, even in the presence of God.”
While opposed to “social equality” with non-Europeans, these men of God still want to control all religious activities among Africans.
Finger Print Passes
This particular bill was defeated thanks to opposition in the House of Commons, but other racial regulations which have had the most disastrous effect for the Africans were enacted. About the same time as the Preachers’ Bill was presented, the Rhodesian Parliament enacted an amendment to the Native Pass Consolidation Ordinance, which received the approval of the Dominions Office in London, this Act provides for the tightening up of control over the movements of Africans, as also do the Native Registration Act of 1936 and the Native Urban Location Ordinance. These regulations correspond to curfew and martial law established in the Nazi-occupied countries in Europe.
Any African, for example, living in a reserve area but wishing to move into a location or native ghetto, must first have his finger prints taken and comply with other identification formalities, after which he is granted a special permit by the European Location Superintendent entitling him to enter the ghetto for a certain period.
Unlike the Poles and Jews in Poland, the Africans are not forced to wear any distinguishing letters on their arms. The color of their skin is a sufficient badge’ of servitude!
Legalized Brothels
Africans living permanently in townships and European districts must observe curfew regulations. They are not allowed to be outside prescribed areas between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. without a special pass from the authorities. If an African not permanently residing in a “location” sleeps in a tenement (which, incidentally, are built by white labor under the industrial color-bar regulations), the person giving such hospitality is liable to imprisonment on a charge of “harboring,” unless permission was previously obtained.
Under the Registration Enactment Ordinance, assented to by Mr. Malcolm Macdonald in 1936, brothels are now legal in the industrial areas of Southern Rhodesia. This law was bitterly, denounced at the time by certain MP’s, especially Tom Johnston, Secretary for Scotland, but the Rhodesian government wanted it and Whitehall gave its approval.
The ordinance makes it legal for African women to set up brothels and provide mistresses for native miners doing their period of indenture in the mining areas. A man engages a woman to live with him and is under no obligation to support her or his children (if any) when he returns .to his home. The woman is left to take on a newcomer until she is out of service. The idea is that this system will induce a greater flow of labor to the mines from neighboring territories, as the future development of the industry depends upon a continuous flow of cheap labor from outside the colony.
This demand for slave labor is the chief cause of conflict between the industrialists and farmers in Southern Rhodesia and the Union of South Africa, and the reason why Sir Godfrey Huggins, the Rhodesian Prime Minister, is pressing the Churchill government to hand over Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland. This is a matter over which “we are not prepared to be put off,” declared Sir Godfrey, addressing a meeting in Salisbury as late as August 5, 1941.
George Padmore on Britain’s Black Record--September 1941, Part II
From Labor Action, Vol. 5 No. 45, 10 November 1941, p. 2.
Originally published in New Leader (London), 27 September 1941.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive.
The following article is continued from the issue of October 27. Written by George Padmore, internationally known Negro socialist, it is reprinted from the British New Leader, organ of the Independent Labor Party.
Demand For Cheap Labor
The question of Lebensraum for the 60,000 British settlers in Rhodesia was raised about the same time that Hitler was demanding more “living space” for the German Herrenvolk.
And the imperial government was adopting the same appeasement policy with Huggins as with Hitler. While Chamberlain was selling out the Czechs at Munich, a royal commission, headed by Lord Bledisloe, was dispatched to South Africa “to inquire and report into the question of amalgamating the two Rhodesias and Nyasaland.” Fortunately for the blacks, the war intervened before a deal could be fixed up between Whitehall and the imperialists in Southern Rhodesia. The imperial government is afraid that any surrender at this time might incite the natives of Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland to open rebellion, for the Africans in these countries told Lord Bledisloe and his colleagues that they don’t want to have anything to do with “Fuehrer” Huggins and his fascist regime. Their conditions are already bad enough, but Southern Rhodesia is no better than a glorified concentration camp for Africans.
Meanwhile the problem of meeting the demand for slave labor increases with the war effort. As Northern Rhodesia needs all the labor she can obtain for the Copper Belt, and the South African Union is drawing heavily on Nyasaland and the Portuguese colony of Mozambique, the Southern Rhodesian government is resorting more and more to the use of juvenile labor to meet the agricultural needs of the tobacco planters and other employers.
Rhodesian tobacco and maize are cultivated chiefly by cheap black labor. Africans are paid about 12 shillings six pence per month of 30 working days. Women and children get even less!
Child Labor
There is no colony, with the possible exception of Kenya, where child labor flourishes as in Southern Rhodesia. In passing the Juveniles’ Employment Act, a government spokesman declared that:
“It was in the best interests of the children, as it prevented them becoming vagabonds and waifs exposed to pernicious influences.”
This child labor regulation gives the native commissioner and officers of his department the right to arrange the hiring out of children to white employers for a period not exceeding six months at a time.
The labor regulations also provide for punishment by fines, imprisonment or flogging for any breach of contract. According to Hansard (28-3-39) 1,056 Africans were sentenced to corporal punishment in 1938.
Commenting upon the working of the Juveniles’ Employment Act, the chief native commissioner makes the following interesting observations on the history of child labor in the colony:
“For the past 30 years there has been no lack of voluntary – insistent, even – child labor. Wherever employment is offered, children have been among the first applicants for it ... There is probably no missionary’s home without it. ... The legislation was designed, as its traducers well know, to protect and control the ever-increasing stream of children, to legalize their claims for the wages they earned, and to ensure for the other part that their monthly engagement should not, to their own detriment, be lightly abandoned.”
The commissioner speaks about wages earned by children. Well, let’s examine the general scale of wages paid to adults in Southern Rhodesia.
In view of what I have already said about the regime in relation to the Africans, it will be no surprise to learn that trade unionism is not allowed among natives. The trade union movement in Southern Rhodesia, like the Labor Party, does not admit blacks to membership.
Moreover, the government is hostile to labor organization among Africans. Some years ago, African organizers connected with the Bantu trade union movement in the Union, known as the ICU (Industrial and Commercial Union), attempted to organize the native workers in Southern Rhodesia, but they were arrested and deported. As stated, it is unsafe to form a religious society in Africa much less an industrial organization for the purpose of obtaining higher wages, shorter hours and better working conditions. Colonial “blimps” consider native trade unionism synonymous with bolshevism!
The working day is usually between 10 to 14 hours. Thirty working days constitute a month. Miners get about 29 shillings 6 pence a month. Imported labor is paid less. Africans from Nyasaland get 25 shillings and those from Northern Rhodesia 18 shillings. They all receive rations – valued at 7 shillings 6 pence per month! Agricultural laborers get less than miners. The wage is 12 shillings 6 pence per month for men; 9 shillings for women, and 5 shillings for children. Some in domestic service only get rations. (A shilling is worth approximately 25 cents; a penny, 2 cents. – Ed.)
Live Like Animals
The Africans live and work under the most appalling social conditions. They live like animals and only a small percentage of them enjoy any sort of protection under social legislation.
Discussing the status of black miners, Lord Hailey in An African Survey (page 674), says:
“Compensation for industrial disability is provided under Ordinance 15 of 1922 as amended by Act 16 of 1930, but it is awarded on a fixed scale which makes no provision for natives drawing but low rates of pay.”
White miners, on the other hand, receive a minimum wage of 20 shillings per day of eight hours, plus free quarters and other social amenities. They are protected by all kinds of social legislation: Workmen’s Compensation Act, Miners’ Phthisis Act., etc., etc. It is no wonder that the white workers in the colonies constitute a labor aristocracy divorced from the life and struggles of colored labor. Imperialism not only exploits in the economic sense, but has succeeded in inciting the white proletariat against the blacks.
To maintain their political and economic domination over the Africans, the settlers are opposed to educating the natives. By keeping them ignorant they seek to justify their own racial superiority and right to rule.
Hitler is pursuing the same policy in Europe. In Poland and Czechoslovakia the Nazis are trying to suppress the national culture of the natives by destroying their schools, colleges and universities and by prescribing the books they may read. Since the African had no institutions of learning to destroy when they stole his land, the Rhodesian Herrenvolk have had it easier than the Nazis. But like the Germans they are determined to keep all “dangerous thoughts” away from the natives.
Originally published in New Leader (London).
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive.
In a preceding article (printed in Labor Action, October 13 – Ed.), I think I said enough to prove that the Germans – our justified condemnation of Hitlerism notwithstanding – are not the only white folks with a BLACK RECORD. The truth is: imperialist powers cannot afford to turn up their noses at one another, for they ALL have black records. This is an historic fact which seems to have escaped such Britons as the eminent publicist, Lord Vansittart.
The treatment meted out to the defenseless Africans, by representatives of the social class to which Lord Vansittart belongs, shows that British imperialism can also behave like German Nazis when they lord it over a subject race.
The totalitarian regimes applied to the blacks (and to them only) in territories like the Union and Southern Rhodesia were in existence long before Hitler began to institute similar methods, in Europe. Hitler not only copied from British colonial practices, but also largely borrowed the theoretical foundation for his racial philosophy from the writings of another eminent English publicist, Houston Stuart Chamberlin, author of The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century.
Is it any wonder that the Fuehrer has expressed in Mein Kampf great admiration for the British Empire? Hitler has certainly learned much from the British imperialists, especially those who have settled in the colonies.
The Black Man’s Burden
The extent to which reaction has triumphed in the British colony of Southern Rhodesia is best shown by examining the character of legislation enacted in recent years by the Rhodesian government.
On the initiative of certain missionary societies, an ordinance under the title of the Preachers’ Bill was in 1936 presented to the Legislative Assembly, composed entirely of whites. Articles four and five of the bill recommended that:
“Wherever three or four natives are gathered together and conduct a religious service in the presence of a fourth native, which is either of a religious character or instruction in religion, the person conducting it will he liable to both fine and imprisonment unless he is in possession of a certificate granted either by the native commissioner or a missionary.”
Like true Pharisees, these are the people who are forever talking about religious freedom! Freedom for themselves, not the blacks.
When the text of the bill came before the House of Commons for imperial assent, MP’s attacked it so violently that Malcolm MacDonald, who was then Dominions Secretary, was forced to reject these discriminating clauses. For, had Parliament agreed to what the white Rhodesians were demanding, an African father reading the Bible to his family would technically be committing a criminal offense! And, as I said, the bill was sponsored by so-called Christian missionaries!
What was the reason for this un-Christian conduct? To prevent their black converts from organizing churches, independent of white control. Because of the racial attitude of the overwhelming majority of European “Christians” to Africans, many natives who have embraced Christianity have organized a distinct African church under their own management.
The Dutch Reformed Church, for example, refused to participate in the World Sunday School Convention held in South Africa in July, 1940, on the ground that it is against their racial principles for whites and blacks to associate on the basis of “equality, even in the presence of God.”
While opposed to “social equality” with non-Europeans, these men of God still want to control all religious activities among Africans.
Finger Print Passes
This particular bill was defeated thanks to opposition in the House of Commons, but other racial regulations which have had the most disastrous effect for the Africans were enacted. About the same time as the Preachers’ Bill was presented, the Rhodesian Parliament enacted an amendment to the Native Pass Consolidation Ordinance, which received the approval of the Dominions Office in London, this Act provides for the tightening up of control over the movements of Africans, as also do the Native Registration Act of 1936 and the Native Urban Location Ordinance. These regulations correspond to curfew and martial law established in the Nazi-occupied countries in Europe.
Any African, for example, living in a reserve area but wishing to move into a location or native ghetto, must first have his finger prints taken and comply with other identification formalities, after which he is granted a special permit by the European Location Superintendent entitling him to enter the ghetto for a certain period.
Unlike the Poles and Jews in Poland, the Africans are not forced to wear any distinguishing letters on their arms. The color of their skin is a sufficient badge’ of servitude!
Legalized Brothels
Africans living permanently in townships and European districts must observe curfew regulations. They are not allowed to be outside prescribed areas between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. without a special pass from the authorities. If an African not permanently residing in a “location” sleeps in a tenement (which, incidentally, are built by white labor under the industrial color-bar regulations), the person giving such hospitality is liable to imprisonment on a charge of “harboring,” unless permission was previously obtained.
Under the Registration Enactment Ordinance, assented to by Mr. Malcolm Macdonald in 1936, brothels are now legal in the industrial areas of Southern Rhodesia. This law was bitterly, denounced at the time by certain MP’s, especially Tom Johnston, Secretary for Scotland, but the Rhodesian government wanted it and Whitehall gave its approval.
The ordinance makes it legal for African women to set up brothels and provide mistresses for native miners doing their period of indenture in the mining areas. A man engages a woman to live with him and is under no obligation to support her or his children (if any) when he returns .to his home. The woman is left to take on a newcomer until she is out of service. The idea is that this system will induce a greater flow of labor to the mines from neighboring territories, as the future development of the industry depends upon a continuous flow of cheap labor from outside the colony.
This demand for slave labor is the chief cause of conflict between the industrialists and farmers in Southern Rhodesia and the Union of South Africa, and the reason why Sir Godfrey Huggins, the Rhodesian Prime Minister, is pressing the Churchill government to hand over Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland. This is a matter over which “we are not prepared to be put off,” declared Sir Godfrey, addressing a meeting in Salisbury as late as August 5, 1941.
George Padmore on Britain’s Black Record--September 1941, Part II
From Labor Action, Vol. 5 No. 45, 10 November 1941, p. 2.
Originally published in New Leader (London), 27 September 1941.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive.
The following article is continued from the issue of October 27. Written by George Padmore, internationally known Negro socialist, it is reprinted from the British New Leader, organ of the Independent Labor Party.
Demand For Cheap Labor
The question of Lebensraum for the 60,000 British settlers in Rhodesia was raised about the same time that Hitler was demanding more “living space” for the German Herrenvolk.
And the imperial government was adopting the same appeasement policy with Huggins as with Hitler. While Chamberlain was selling out the Czechs at Munich, a royal commission, headed by Lord Bledisloe, was dispatched to South Africa “to inquire and report into the question of amalgamating the two Rhodesias and Nyasaland.” Fortunately for the blacks, the war intervened before a deal could be fixed up between Whitehall and the imperialists in Southern Rhodesia. The imperial government is afraid that any surrender at this time might incite the natives of Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland to open rebellion, for the Africans in these countries told Lord Bledisloe and his colleagues that they don’t want to have anything to do with “Fuehrer” Huggins and his fascist regime. Their conditions are already bad enough, but Southern Rhodesia is no better than a glorified concentration camp for Africans.
Meanwhile the problem of meeting the demand for slave labor increases with the war effort. As Northern Rhodesia needs all the labor she can obtain for the Copper Belt, and the South African Union is drawing heavily on Nyasaland and the Portuguese colony of Mozambique, the Southern Rhodesian government is resorting more and more to the use of juvenile labor to meet the agricultural needs of the tobacco planters and other employers.
Rhodesian tobacco and maize are cultivated chiefly by cheap black labor. Africans are paid about 12 shillings six pence per month of 30 working days. Women and children get even less!
Child Labor
There is no colony, with the possible exception of Kenya, where child labor flourishes as in Southern Rhodesia. In passing the Juveniles’ Employment Act, a government spokesman declared that:
“It was in the best interests of the children, as it prevented them becoming vagabonds and waifs exposed to pernicious influences.”
This child labor regulation gives the native commissioner and officers of his department the right to arrange the hiring out of children to white employers for a period not exceeding six months at a time.
The labor regulations also provide for punishment by fines, imprisonment or flogging for any breach of contract. According to Hansard (28-3-39) 1,056 Africans were sentenced to corporal punishment in 1938.
Commenting upon the working of the Juveniles’ Employment Act, the chief native commissioner makes the following interesting observations on the history of child labor in the colony:
“For the past 30 years there has been no lack of voluntary – insistent, even – child labor. Wherever employment is offered, children have been among the first applicants for it ... There is probably no missionary’s home without it. ... The legislation was designed, as its traducers well know, to protect and control the ever-increasing stream of children, to legalize their claims for the wages they earned, and to ensure for the other part that their monthly engagement should not, to their own detriment, be lightly abandoned.”
The commissioner speaks about wages earned by children. Well, let’s examine the general scale of wages paid to adults in Southern Rhodesia.
In view of what I have already said about the regime in relation to the Africans, it will be no surprise to learn that trade unionism is not allowed among natives. The trade union movement in Southern Rhodesia, like the Labor Party, does not admit blacks to membership.
Moreover, the government is hostile to labor organization among Africans. Some years ago, African organizers connected with the Bantu trade union movement in the Union, known as the ICU (Industrial and Commercial Union), attempted to organize the native workers in Southern Rhodesia, but they were arrested and deported. As stated, it is unsafe to form a religious society in Africa much less an industrial organization for the purpose of obtaining higher wages, shorter hours and better working conditions. Colonial “blimps” consider native trade unionism synonymous with bolshevism!
The working day is usually between 10 to 14 hours. Thirty working days constitute a month. Miners get about 29 shillings 6 pence a month. Imported labor is paid less. Africans from Nyasaland get 25 shillings and those from Northern Rhodesia 18 shillings. They all receive rations – valued at 7 shillings 6 pence per month! Agricultural laborers get less than miners. The wage is 12 shillings 6 pence per month for men; 9 shillings for women, and 5 shillings for children. Some in domestic service only get rations. (A shilling is worth approximately 25 cents; a penny, 2 cents. – Ed.)
Live Like Animals
The Africans live and work under the most appalling social conditions. They live like animals and only a small percentage of them enjoy any sort of protection under social legislation.
Discussing the status of black miners, Lord Hailey in An African Survey (page 674), says:
“Compensation for industrial disability is provided under Ordinance 15 of 1922 as amended by Act 16 of 1930, but it is awarded on a fixed scale which makes no provision for natives drawing but low rates of pay.”
White miners, on the other hand, receive a minimum wage of 20 shillings per day of eight hours, plus free quarters and other social amenities. They are protected by all kinds of social legislation: Workmen’s Compensation Act, Miners’ Phthisis Act., etc., etc. It is no wonder that the white workers in the colonies constitute a labor aristocracy divorced from the life and struggles of colored labor. Imperialism not only exploits in the economic sense, but has succeeded in inciting the white proletariat against the blacks.
To maintain their political and economic domination over the Africans, the settlers are opposed to educating the natives. By keeping them ignorant they seek to justify their own racial superiority and right to rule.
Hitler is pursuing the same policy in Europe. In Poland and Czechoslovakia the Nazis are trying to suppress the national culture of the natives by destroying their schools, colleges and universities and by prescribing the books they may read. Since the African had no institutions of learning to destroy when they stole his land, the Rhodesian Herrenvolk have had it easier than the Nazis. But like the Germans they are determined to keep all “dangerous thoughts” away from the natives.
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