The League Against Imperialism responds to the mass demonstrations on Balfour Day in the aftermath of ‘Arab Revolt’ of 1929 in Palestine.

‘For the Struggle for Freedom of the Arab People’ an Appeal of the League Against Imperialism from Pan-Pacific Monthly. No. 33. December-January, 1930.

THE events in Palestine go to prove the fact that the Arab national question constitutes today one of the most important items of world politics. Also the Arabs have the right to abolish the dismemberment of their countries and to form a united, strong, independent, perfectly free State, a great Arab national State, the form and fate of which are to be determined not by the exercise of force of imperialist foreigners but by the will and the interests of the toiling masses of the native Arab population, peasants, workers and bedouins.

The League Against Imperialism and for National Independence, impressed by the splendid demonstration strike on November 2nd in Palestine and in view of the powerful development of the national movement in all Arab countries, sends cordial greetings to all fighters for Arab National emancipation. It considers it necessary in connection with the struggle for Arab national emancipation, to express two ideas which arise from the general experience of the international struggle against imperialism.

The Arab people must not believe in the hypocritical manoeuvres and the honeyed words which the British imperialists use every time their position is endangered, while at the same time employing bombs and machine guns (the fraudulent Treaty with Egypt, the investigation commission in Palestine, the play with Iraq, etc.) The Arabs must realize that the so-called “Labor Government” of MacDonald was purposely entrusted with government power in Great Britain in order to damp down the growing revolutionary indignation of the masses in the suppressed countries by means of deceit; to corrupt the leaders of the nationalist movements by means of hypocritical promises, and in this way to consolidate and extend the bases of imperialist exploitation.

The second experience of the international struggle against imperialism teaches that a people can conduct a successful struggle for national emancipation against the imperialist power only if the leadership sets up a programme of social demands of the great majority of the nation, of the toilers, fights for it itself and places the organization of the national struggle not in the hands of a small group, a narrow circle of rich landowners or religiously influential and privileged individual persons, but in the hands of the broad masses of the toiling population. It is necessary that in every city, in every village, in every bedouin group there exist a fighting committee against imperialism and for national emancipation and unity. These committees which are to be composed of the most tried fellahin, workers and bedouins, shall make all decisions regarding the organization of the anti-imperialist struggle in their districts. They shall also elect in every separate country a Central Arab national-revolutionary Committee, and these committees shall in turn elect for the whole area an “All-Arab National Revolutionary Council.” Such an organization, built from below, is capable of mobilizing all the forces of the people in the struggle for national liberation. It is at the same time a guarantee that the struggle will not be ended before a real victory is achieved. Hence the creation of a broad, militant organization is the command of the hour.

In the fight for this aim the Arab people can reckon upon the active support of the League Against Imperialism and for National Independence. The Arab national movement has reached such a stage that it appears expedient to establish a close connection between it and the international organization, the League Against Imperialism. Form therefore in every country a section of the League Against Imperialism! Form in all important districts local branches of the League. Such local branches can also be formed in the big villages. Unite the sections of the various Arab countries in an “All-Arab Committee of the League Against Imperialism.”

Long live the liberation struggle of the Arab People!

Down with the imperialists, down with the dismemberment of the Arab countries, the mandatory system and the Balfour Declaration!

Long live the Federative, really free and independent great Arab State!

The Pan-Pacific Monthly was the official organ of the Pan-Pacific Trade Union Secretariat (PPTUS), a subdivision of the Red International of Labor Unions, or Profitern. Established first in China in May 1927, the PPTUS had to move its offices, and the production of the Monthly to San Francisco after the fall of the Shanghai Commune in 1927. Earl Browder was an early Secretary of tge PPTUS, having been in China during its establishment. Harrison George was the editor of the Monthly. Constituents of the PPTUC included the Australian Council of Trade Unions, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, the Indonesian Labor Federation, the Japanese Trade Union Council, the National Minority Movement (UK Colonies), the Confédération Générale du Travail Unitaire (French Colonies), the Korean Workers and Peasants Federation, the Philippine Labor Congress, the National Confederation of Farm Laborers and Tenants of the Philippines, the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions of the Soviet Union, and the Trade Union Educational League of the U.S. With only two international conferences, the second in 1929, the PPTUS never took off as a force capable of coordinating trade union activity in the Pacific Basis, as was its charge. However, despite its short run, the Monthly is an invaluable English-language resource on a crucial period in the Communist movement in the Pacific, the beginnings of the ‘Third Period.’

PDF of full issue: http://www.fau.digital.flvc.org/islandora/object/fau%3A32145/datastream/OBJ/download/The_Pan-Pacific_Monthly_No__33.pdf