Italian workers are conspicuous in their presence denouncing the invasion of Ethiopia as tens of thousands protest in Harlem.

‘’Hands Off Ethiopia!’ Is Demand of 100,000 in Harlem Rally’ by Cyril V. Briggs from The Daily Worker. Vol. 12 No. 186. August 5, 1935.

Negro, White Workers Pledge to Fight War and Fascism

The streets of the Negro and Italian sections of Harlem resounded to thunderous shouts of “Hands Off Ethiopia! Down With War and Fascism!” on Saturday afternoon as 100,000 persons took part in a giant united front anti-war demonstration, sponsored by the Provisional Committee for the Defense of Ethiopia and the American League Against War and Fascism, with the active support of hundreds of other organizations, including many Italian and Negro groups.

Thousands of workers cheered the marchers from windows and roofs of houses, while tens of thousands of other workers swarmed along on the sidewalk keeping step with 40,000 marchers in the parade as they swung along in serried ranks, with banners flying, bands playing and shouted protests against war and fascism, and against Mussolini’s projected attack on Ethiopia, in particular.

Greatest Parade

It was the greatest parade Harlem has seen in many years. Its broad united front character, involving Negro churches and organizations, pacifist groups. Italian and German anti-Fascists, Communist Socialist and A. F. of L workers, independent unions and workers’ clubs, gave notice to the imperialist war-mongers of the determination of the American people to defend themselves against the horrors of another imperialist world slaughter.

The first contingent of the parade, made up mainly of Harlem organizations, started out at 1:45 p.m. from Lenox Avenue and 125th Street, marching South. It was headed by Italian and Negro leaders in the anti-Fascist, anti-war struggle, and the Provisional Committee for the Defense of Ethiopia. Next in line was a uniformed body of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, A.F. of L., with their band.

At 129th Street and Seventh Avenue, it was joined by the second contingent, which had assembled at 120th Street and Second Avenue and paraded through the Italian section before turning west. The united parade then swept up Seventh Avenue, and through 143rd Street to the square at 141st Street and Edgecombe and Bradhurst Avenues. As the head of the parade entered the square, it was greeted with cheers from several hundred workers who had already assembled around a huge platform erected for the occasion and equipped with loud speakers. Negro workers crowded the windows of the houses adjoining the square and in many instances served iced water to the thirsty marchers from ground floor apartments.

Each organization was lustily cheered as it entered the square.

In wave after wave of spontaneous cheering for the Italian organizations, the rapidly increasing crowd at the square showed its recognition of the significance of the united front of Italian anti-Fascists with the Negro people of Ethiopia in their fight against Italian Fascism.

Placards Flay Fascism

Placards carried by the marchers called for support of the struggles of the anti-Fascist masses of Italy and the Ethiopian people against Mussolini, for the military defeat of Italian Fascism in Ethiopia, for the stopping of shipments of munitions to Italy, for the turning of imperialist war into civil war, and for the freedom of Angelo Herndon, the Scottsboro Boys, Tom Mooney and Ernst Thaelmann. There were many Ethiopian flags on display.

The meeting at the square was opened by Rev. William Lloyd Imes, Grand Marshal of the parade, whose first remarks were greeted with stentorian shouts of “Hands Off Ethiopia! Defend Ethiopia!” An invocation was delivered by Rev. George Frazier Miller, Negro pastor of St Augustine’s M.E. Church, Brooklyn.

Many Speakers

The speakers included Paul Reid, national secretary of the American League Against War and Fascism; A. Johnson, of the Provisional Committee for the Defense of Ethiopia;. Tito Nuncio, editor of L’Unita Operaia, revolutionary Italian paper; Miss Eleanor Brannon, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom; S.A. Cowan, founder and. president of the Pioneers of Aethiopia; Capt. A.L. King, of the Universal Negro Improvement Association; Robert Minor, of the Central Committee of the Communist Party: Ashley L. Totten, secretary and treasurer of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, A.F. of L Rabbi Michael Alper, acting chair man of the National Religious Committee of the American League Against War and Fascism; Timothy. Holmes, of the Trade Union Committee of the New York Urban League, and Allen Taub, secretary, New York Council, of the American League.

The meeting adjourned at seven. o’clock after hearing a report by Harry Maurer, head of the delegation of Negro and white supporters of the Aug. 3 March Against War, which last week visited the U.S. State Department and the Italian Embassy in Washington to protest the Italian war plans. Resolutions protesting plans of Italian Fascism to attack Ethiopia and race and religious persecution by the Nazi regime in Germany were adopted.

The Daily Worker began in 1924 and was published in New York City by the Communist Party US and its predecessor organizations. Among the most long-lasting and important left publications in US history, it had a circulation of 35,000 at its peak. The Daily Worker came from The Ohio Socialist, published by the Left Wing-dominated Socialist Party of Ohio in Cleveland from 1917 to November 1919, when it became became The Toiler, paper of the Communist Labor Party. In December 1921 the above-ground Workers Party of America merged the Toiler with the paper Workers Council to found The Worker, which became The Daily Worker beginning January 13, 1924.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n186-NAT-aug-05-1935-DW-Q.pdf