The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1932-05-12
NEGRO SOLDIERS AND
YANKEE IMPERIALISM

southerners who were presumably, better able
to handle the Negro"
After the spanish-Anerican war, during the
Philippine instruction, the Twenty-fifth Imam
try regiment was sent to these islands to carry
through the qualification" of the revolutionary
Philippine masses. How these Negro toilerS re-
acted to this situation is very interestingly set
forth by Stephen Bonsal in an article which ap-
peared in the North American Review" on June
T. 1907 In an article entitled 1.-THE Negro Sol
der in War and Peace" Bonsal writes:
IN the Philippines, the services Of the Negro
regiments have not attracted much favorable
comment, though 1 believe that, under fire and
in the open field, their behavior has been SOL
dierly. In the earlier days of the occupation, it
was a subject Of congratulation among officers
that the colored troops got on more quickly and
in closer touch with the native populations than
did their white brothers in arms. Many OF the
Negroes learned the native Languages with sur
prising facility. Soon, however, these acquires
nents came to be anything but subject OF con-
graduation.
while the white soldiers, unfortunately got on
badly with the natives, the black soldiers got on
much too well. until the time came, in 1901,
when many obServant officers expressed the
opinion that the color line had been drawn to
our disadvantage, and that the Negro soldiers
were in closer sympathy with the aims Of the
native population than they were with those Of
their white leaders and the policy Of the United
States.
1.-THE assertions from the Negro regiments were
large-nuch larger I believe, than from the
white organizations: And these assertions were
of different character. The white deserted be-
cause he was lazy and idle and found service life
irksonme e. But the Negroes deserted in scores
and for the purpose of joining the insurgents,
and many of them, like the celebrated Fagin,
became leaders and fought the white troops OF
their former comrades with ZeSt and ability
Emphasis mine, o. HI
The statement made by this jingoist against
the white soldiers is a lie. They did not desert
because they we're lazy. Because many Of them
were poisoned by the imperialist theology of
white superiority, the great majority Of the de-
serterS did not go over to the FiipinoS. But
their desertion was in itself a revolt against
the rotten food and army slavery in a hot cli-
mate and miserable pay.
That the Negro soldiers were able to find
common cause with their oppressed Philippine
brothers is natural and demonstrates the revolu-
tonary potentiaIties of this section of the work
ing class. That these troops, without con-
scious revolutionary leadership, could react in
the most revolutionary manner and feel their
revolutionary kinShip to the oppressed Filpinos
who were fighting against American imperiahst
oppression gives the direct lie to the Lovestone-
Pepper theory of "the reactionary Negro masses" "
Thanks to these theories, that have been DOM
inant in the American labor movement, the i'm
portance of the role Of the Negro toilers in the
common fight of the working class against the
imperialist war Vaccinations had not been suf-
ficiently understood by large section of the
I American workers. The Negro bourgeois reform
ist tools of the American inperiaIsts, have also
faithfully carried through their treacherous role
Of hiding these facts from the Negro workers in
order to make them believe that they have no
revolutionary traditions of struggle. and have
always been submissive. ......
1t is necessary to add here that the Negro
troops, after these incidents, we're speedily re-
moved from the Philippines, and that very few
have been used since by the United States to
'pacify" colonials. After this, the whole policy
of American activities on these islands was
changed, and the rigid color line" formerly
drawn against all classes Of the natives was
withdrawn, and an attempt made to reconcile
the native bourgeoisie to American occupation
by granting them small share of the Oppor-
tunity to exploit the Philippine masses.
This experience with the Negro troops proves
that the Negro toers in uniform will not lend
themselves so easily to the schemes of the I'M
perialists to crush the resistance of the colonial
masses. The Negro workers, along with the rest
of the working class are learning that when they
help the inperiasts to exploit the colonial toll
ers they are but Tightening the yoke Of oppres-
sion around their own neckS
Workers and Working Class Organiza-
tions Protest the MeIrOSe Park