Official statement on former editor, and historic leader of the International Trade Union Committee of Negro Workers, George Padmore’s expulsion from the Communist movement for ‘nationalist deviations.’

‘Expulsion of George Padmore from the Revolutionary Movement’ from The Negro Worker. Vol. 4 No. 2. June, 1934.

The following statement of the INTERNATIONAL CONTROL COMMISSION regarding the expulsion of George Padmore has been received by the International Trade Union Committee of Negro Workers:

Padmore, a member of the Communist Party, despite repeated warnings did not break off his connections with the exposed provocateur Kouyauté and lived in the apartment of the provocateur Jacques. In order to deceive the Party organs, Padmore repeatedly stated that he had already broken with Jacques. Such conduct on the part of Padmore might lead to arrests as it made the work of the provocateurs easier.

Padmore carried on work which undermined the class unity of the toiling Negro masses, and under the pretense of advocating the necessity for the unity of all Negroes on a racial basis, he tried to lay the path for unity with the Negro bourgeois exploiters and with their agents, the national-reformists, which could not help leading to the interests of the Negro toiling masses becoming subordinated to the exploiters.

Padmore began to work openly for the benefit of national bourgeois organisations. With this aim Padmore entered into negotiations with the national reformists on the question of “saving Liberia” and collecting funds to cover the expenses of Liberia. Instead of mobilising the masses for the struggle for the genuine independence of Liberia against the imperialists who enslave Liberia and against the Liberian bourgeois government which bargains with the imperialists, Padmore took his stand openly on the side of the Liberian government.

At a meeting on February 23, 1934, the ICC decided to expel Padmore from the Communist Party for contacts with a provocateur, for contacts with bourgeois organisations on the question of Liberia, for an incorrect attitude to the national question (instead of class unity striving towards race unity).

Statement of the International Trade Union Committee Of Negro Workers.

George Padmore, former Secretary of the I.T.U.C. of N.W. and Editor of The Negro Worker has been expelled from the ranks of the Revolutionary movement. The charges upon which the action of the International Control Commission is based, are very serious charges. Such people as Padmore, who maintain relations with provocateurs, who associate themselves with National Reformist and Anti-working class organizations and who, under the guise of “helping” Liberia, collect funds in order to “buy off” the Imperialists to whom Liberia is indebted (an obvious swindle scheme) can not be tolerated within the ranks of the working class movement. The actions of Padmore could have but one result; to undermine the unity of the Liberian workers in their struggles against exploitation and oppression by the Imperialists and the Americo-Liberian ruling class; to weaken the working class movement under the slogan of race unity instead of class unity, thereby strengthening the hands of the Imperialist oppressors and their Negro allies.

After his removal from the post of secretary of the I.T.C.U. of N.W., Padmore failed to hand over the contacts and other properties of the Committee. The reasons for this is no doubt his intention of using these for his disruptive activities and for his private purposes.

Because of his disruptive activities and on the basis of the above stated decision, the I.T.U.C of N.W., decides to expel Padmore from its ranks and calls upon all members of the Executive Committee, supporters of the I.T.U.C. of N.W. and The Negro Worker, to break off all relationship with him, as such continued relationship will only mean giving aid and support to his anti-working class activities.

The I.T.U.C. of N.W. Charles Woodson Secretary.

First called The International Negro Workers’ Review and published in 1928, it was renamed The Negro Worker in 1931. Sponsored by the International Trade Union Committee of Negro Workers (ITUCNW), a part of the Red International of Labor Unions and of the Communist International, its first editor was American Communist James W. Ford and included writers from Africa, the Caribbean, North America, Europe, and South America. Later, Trinidadian George Padmore was editor until his expulsion from the Party in 1934. The Negro Worker ceased publication in 1938. The journal is an important record of Black and Pan-African thought and debate from the 1930s. American writers Claude McKay, Harry Haywood, Langston Hughes, and others contributed.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/negro-worker/files/1934-v4n2-jun.pdf