The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-08-22
Rx LANES W. FORD

BY JAMES W, FOHD
In Negro" a book by Nancy
Cunard, appears an article by
George Padmore entitled, Ethiopia
Today-The Making of a Modern
State"
In this article, Padmore strays
a thousand miles from Communism,
goes completely into the camp Of
the petty bourgeois nationalists,
ignores the role of Soviet Russia as
the friend of oppressed peoples and
small nations, and falls headlong
into the lap Of Japanese imperialism
which he halls as the friend of the
darker races" A few sentences
from this article will suffice to
expose Padmore's mockery Of Com
munist political analysis, his
stupidity and treachery. The fol-
lowing sentence sets forth Pad
more's premise:
'It is less than ten years ago
that Ethiopia suddenly emerged
out of a condition OF isolation.
Since then, her orr n a I'll on
towards mOdernity and her reIa-
tiOnship with the capitalist coun-
tries of the West has been so
rapid, that she is today full
Pledged member of the League of
Nations, and maintaining en-
bassies in such important capitals
as London, Paris, Rome, Berlin
and Washington"
Make the latter part of this
statement read: Ethiopia today a
full-fledged capitalist state, with
embassies in the leading capitalist
cities in the world" then we draw
Padmore's logical conclusion: that
the salvation of Ethiopia lies in the
country becoming a bourgeois cap
italist state.
The false idea of Japanese i'm
perialism as the friend of the
darker races" is more fully en-
larged upon by Padmore. He says
that commercial treaty has been
made between Ethiopia and Japan
"an alliance which might have
tremendous and far-reaching i'm
portance not only for Ethiopia
but for all BLACK AFRICA
(Emphasis-Padmore's)
He develops the idea still further
by the following words:
Philippians, like the Japanese,
are proud and independent
people jealous of their national
freedom and conscious of the fact
that they are the first non
European people since the Haitian
Revolution to defeat the white
race at arms-the Abyssinians
over Imperial Italy in 1896; Japan
over Czarist Russia in 1906"
Emphasis, mine J.WF.)
Here one sees not only the com.
plete smoothing over of the class
relations but the stirring up of bit.
ter race poison. Any one VIII
knows anything at all about thu
Haitian Revolution knows that i
was not question of race agains
race. 1t was struggle of tn,
slaves, led by Toussaint LOuvertur,
against slavery and the domination
of the rising French imperialist
over Haiti. In this struggle it S,
happened that whites were alice
with blacks against France and il
some cases blacks allied will
whites to continue the enslavemen
of the blacks.
History also records the impor
tant fact that Toussaint L'Ouver
ture stopped sharp in his track
and demanded that group OF
Polish people (mostly immigran
workers and peasants who lived a
that time in HaitD should hav
protection as national minority
Or let us take the Russo Japanes
War. Has Padmore forgotten G?
that the Bolsheviki as early as 1870
fought against the invasion Q
Japan by the Czarist armies as al
act of aggression against the Jap
anese people and an act against tn
interests Of the Russian worker
and peasants? OF course Padmor
is aware of this act of interna
tionalism on the part of the Boil
| sheviki.
Then why does Padmore issu
! the slogan defeat the white rae