The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-06-14
THE WORLD CRISIS AND THE
NEGRO WORKERS

Carbbeans. The crisis is throwing hundreds
of thousands of Negroes out of the plantations
and they have nowhere to go to. Those who
remain, on the most unbearable conditions,
working II hours day under the scorching
tropical sun, have to suffer cuts in their al
ready low wages, which do not suffice to make
ends meet. Predatory American imperialism,
as though in compensation for its limited COL
onial possessions is not satisfied with the
stupendous dividends, and demands more and
more contributions. Bribing the local bourg-
eoise and the mock-presidents with crumbs off
its table. American imperialism is striving to
transfer the entire burden of the crisis onto
the shoulders of the workers. The uprisings
in Haiti and San Domingo, the mass strike in
Cuba, were replies of the toilers of the West
Indies to the capitalist offensive The Negro
workers played a most prominent part in these
-rst moves in the heroic struggle.
Finally, Africa-the "Black Continent"
which during the world war supplied echelons
Of cannon fodder for its British and French
masters.
But few years ago the very idea of labor
movement in Africa and action of the Negro
masses against imperialism seemed to the Eu-
ropean bourgeoisie to be a joke. Times have
changed however. The submissive Negro slave
could be treated formerly worse than cattle,
they could be driven far from home into COM
pounds surrounded by barbed-wire BARRIERS
1hey could be forced to work from morn to
night for nothing under the whip of the over
seers, and they were eXterminated by the thou
sands each mile of new railway being bedded
with human bones, all in the name of civil
hation and progress. These slaves, however,
have awakened and desire no longer to remain
slaves. The uprisings and unrest in South
Africa and Nigeria, in the Belgian Congo and
in French Equatorial Africa, are but the first
gathering of the clouds for the storm that is
brewing. The ground in Africa too is beginning
to burn under the feet of the imperialists. The
economic crisis is greatly Fastening the awaken
ing of the Negro masses of Africa. From
Cairo to Cape Town, from Sierra Leone and
Matadi to Uganda and Durham, the entire
Black Continent at the present time is feeling
the effects of the crisis. The mining industry
in South Africa is being restricted, stocks of
unsold agricultural products and wool are pill
ing up The Belgian Congo is passing through
a deep going crisis; the British colonies in
Western Africa, Kenya, and Uganda are in the
same position. The upheaval on the world
market has spread even to the most far-flung
parts of Equatorial Africa. Everywhere it
results in the ruin of the Negro population
and sharp intensificaton of imperialst oppres-
sion, and in the spontaneous movements among
the natives.
mo efforts OF the lmperlallSlS, no attempts
to drown the first movements of the Negro
masses in rivers of blood will be able to stop
the development of their struggle. On the con-
trary, this will only pour oil onto the fire,
which will burn up still more brightly and
strongly. In this setting the International Con-
ference of Negro workers will be of world
wide Importance. For the first time, under its
auspices, the representatives of the toiling Ne
gro workers from all corners of the earth will
be brought together, it will draw up the tasks,
methods of organization, objects; it will link
up the struggle of the Negro toilers with the
struggle of the toilers in Europe, America, and
the Asiatic colonies, with the international or
CARNATIONS of the revolutionary proletariat.
The disunited outbreaks of the spontaneous
struggle will develop into class conscious, stub
born, systematic work to organize the Negro
masses against capital, against race oppression,
against imperialist wars. Already now con-
siderable strata of Negro workers are becom-
ing the vanguard of still greater sections of
the black agricultural population who eX-
plotted by capital to a no less extent than the
workers. The tasks and perspectives of the
conference are colossal.
A new fire will burn up from this small
spark, which in the very near future will make
itself felt for world imperialism.