After Indian-born Communist Member of Parliament Shapurji Saklatvala’s anti-imperialist speech on July 9, 1925 denouncing the British Empire, he was banned from a planned U.S. lecture tour. In response, U.S. Communist began a campaign, the center of which was to publish the offending speech in tens of thousands of copies, rally in Solidarity, and demonstrate in front of British interests. Articles below from The Daily Worker include, ‘Expulsion of Saklatvala Bares Dictatorship of Employers of Fraudulent Cloak of Democracy,’ ‘Saklatvala Was Barred for His Speech on India,’ ‘Demand Admission of Saklatvala!’ and ’Flood U.S. With Saklatvala Pamphlets,’ all from September, 1925.

‘Expulsion of Saklatvala Bares Dictatorship of Employers of Fraudulent Cloak of Democracy.’ Daily Worker. September 19, 1925.

EXCLUSION OF SAKLATVALA BARES DICTATORSHIP OF EMPLOYERS UNDER FRAUDULENT CLOAK OF “DEMOCRACY”

The Central Executive Committee of the Workers (Communist) Party has issued a statement exposing the exclusion of Shapurji Saklatvala, Communist member of parliament of Great Britain, as an attempt of the American capitalist government to hide the truth about its fraudulent “democracy.”

Saklatvala was a British delegate to the Interparliamentary Union at Washington early in October. He was barred from the country by Secretary of State Kellogg, just after the latter had conferred with President Coolidge on the matter. The barring of Saklatvala shows that the Coolidge government is afraid of the truth, Saklatvala said, after receiving word of the action.

The statement of the C.E.C. follows:

The exclusion of Shapurji Saklatvala, the Communist member of the British parliament from the United States by edict of the state department exposes the true character of the government under our “American democracy” as an agency of the capitalists to protect their system of profit making.

Saklatvala was coming to the United States to attend the sessions of the Inter-Parliamentary Union. Since he is a Communist, a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain and of the Communist International, he would have undoubtedly have expressed at the meetings of the Inter-Parliamentary Union the Communist view in regard to the true character of the existing parliamentary government.

He would have torn away the mask of “democracy” behind which the parliamentary governments of such countries as Great Britain, France and the United States hide the fact that the governments of these countries are really dictatorships of the capitalists, and that the main reason for which these dictatorships exist is to compel the workers at home to submit to the exploitation of the capitalists and to fight the imperialists’ battles of the same capitalists in foreign lands.

Coolidge Tears Off “Democracy” Mask.

It was because Saklatvala would have brought this message to the United States and would have told the workers of this country how the British workers are organizing their power for the overthrow of the capitalist dictatorship in their country, that Secretary of State Kellogg in co-operation with President Coolidge, both acting for the American capitalists, denied Saklatvala the right to enter this country.

Curiously enough, the denial of admission to Saklatvala to enter the United States achieves the very purpose for which Saklatvala was coming to the United States. In denying the representative of the British workers to enter the United States, while the representatives of the every autocracy and hangman government in Europe freely cross our borders, the American government of Morgan, Kellog and Coolidge drives home the very point that Saklatvala would have made—that the American “democracy” is a fraud and a sham hiding the rule of the capitalists of this country.

Central Executive Committee, Workers Party of America, C.E. Ruthenberg, General Secretary.

‘Saklatvala Was Barred for His Speech on India’ September 20, 1925.

British Fear Exposure of Colonial Mis-Rule

While the state department clung to its contention that Shapurji Saklatvala, Communist member of the British parliament, was barred from attending the inter-parliamentary union, to which he was a delegate, because of his “Communistic attachments.” It is now definitely known that Saklatvala was denied admittance because of a request of the British government. Itself unable to prevent Saklatvala’s coming, and afraid that he would expose the fearful exploitation of the workers of India by British imperialism, the Baldwin government asked the state department to deny the Communist a passport. Secretary of State Kellogg, after a conference with President Coolidge. acceded to this request.

Exposed Imperialism

Several congressmen declare that in the next session of congress they will attempt to have a law passed curbing the autocratic powers of the secretary of state to bar foreign visitors. Senator Borah of Idaho, who criticised the exclusion of the Indian member of parliament, made public what Washington generally considers the real reason for Britain’s aversion to his visiting the United States.

In a speech in the house of commons, Saklatvala flamingly denounced British mis-rule in India, in which he contended that if Britain practiced in England what she is practicing in his country. There would not be a man or woman who would not rise and light to the bitter end to proclaim their rights.

Saklatvala’s Crime

“British imperialism must go If humanity is to progress. You call us ‘seditious’ when we protest against these things. But when you rise in revolt in this country against the ruling classes It Is called ‘the spirit of democracy.’ In India, it is ‘sedition, conspiracy and propaganda.’” Commenting on this. Senator Borah said: “I think anyone who reads his speech will conclude that Saklatvala’* crime was discussing conditions in India.”

One of the utterances of Saklatvala” to which Kellogg made objections was, “We declare that war Is a part of the capitalist system and can therefore only be abolished with the overthrow of capitalism. This means that the whole working class movement must be organizationally and ideologically prepared to fight war by the transformation of the imperialist war when declared into the civil war and the seizure of power by the working class.”

‘Demand Admission of Saklatvala!’ Daily Worker. September 26, 1925.

THE resolution adopted at the big Union Square demonstration in New York City, against the barring of Shapurji Saklatvala, the Communist member of the British parliament, was as follows:

WHEREAS, Secretary of State Kellogg has instructed the London consul general to revoke the visa granted to Shapurji Saklatvala, a member of the English parliament representing the organized labor movement of that country at the interparliamentary union at Washington; and

WHEREAS, Shapurji Saklatvala has carried on a valiant struggle on behalf of the exploited mass against English imperialism in the Far East, in China, Egypt, and particularly in India and Ireland; therefore be it

RESOLVED, by the joint demonstration meeting at Union Square, New York City, September 21, that we vigorously protest the action of the secretary of state in excluding Shapurji Saklatvala as an act hostile to the interests of the organized labor movement of the world, as an act of unauthorized and unjustifiable discrimination against the foreign-born workers and as a high-handed attempt to limit the freedom of speech in the United States; and be it further

RESOLVED, that we demand the immediate admission of Saklatvala into this country; and be it further

RESOLVED, that copies of this resolution be sent to the secretary of state at Washington, D.C., and to the press.

Meeting arranged by the Civil Liberties Union, Workers (Communist) Party of America, Friends of Freedom for India, International Labor Defense, Young Workers League, Association for the Recognition of the Irish Republic.

‘Flood U.S. With Saklatvala Pamphlets’. Daily Worker. September 26, 1925.

SPEECH BANNED UTTERANCES OF BRITISH COMMUNIST BEING PRINTED FOR AMERICAN WORKERS IN PAMPHLET

Insite of the ban that the state department at Washington has placed on the entrance to the United States of Shapurji Saklatvala, the Communist member of the British parliament, this working class fighter will be heard by multitudes of American workers.

The Workers (Communist) Party has already on the presses, for publication in pamphlet form, the speech that Saklatvala made in the British parliament, for which the state department at Washington bars him from participation in the interparliamentary union to take place in Washington, D.C. This speech will be given the widest circulation possible at the great demonstrations already announced for all parts of the country. The DAILY WORKER prints a few excerpts from the speech that is to be circulated in America.

Cites Overthrow in China.

“It may be said, indeed it is said, for it is a Western idea that the Asiatic people always allow a good deal of latitude to their monarchs.

That is Western ignorance,” declared Saklatvala in the British house of commons during a discussion of the independence of India, “Eastern people have never tolerated anti-democratic rights and privileges in their monarchs. You see in the twentieth century, the Chinese people have overthrown their monarchy which was 3,000 years old, because the monarchy did not square in with the democratic opinions of the people.

“The Persians have overthrown completely one monarchy after another and have put their monarchs under lock and key for not obeying the people’s wishes. You see the same thing in Turkey.

“No Eastern country would tolerate as the British people have tolerated the humbug and nonsense from the governing classes; they have overthrown them and established the people in power.

Will Not Yield to Terrorism.

“I for one will not yield to terrorism,” declared Saklatvala in answer to a charge of Communism in the house of commons. “I am going to carry on subversive propaganda, revolutionary propaganda, Communist, propaganda with the assistance of the Russians, and the Chinese and the Germans and the British. I am not alone in that. The government has kept quiet about the great Indian railway strike. I put it quite definitely, that taking in comparison with any other country, you pay the most miserable wages, and give the most miserable conditions, and deprive the population, which works you and for the prosperity of your great empire, of their rights and inflict on them political indignity and humiliation worse than can be found in any part of Asia.”

Protest meetings are being arranged in Philadelphia, Boston, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, San Francisco, Minneapolis and other cities by the Workers Party to protest the exclusion of Saklatvala.

A Chicago protest meeting will be held Monday evening. Sept. 28, at Norwest Hall, North and Western Aves., and conducted by the All-America Anti-Imperialist League.

William F. Dunne, editor of the DAILY WORKER, and Manuel Gomez, secretary of the All-America Anti-Imperialist League, and Hindu and Chinese speakers representing other organizations will speak. Admission free.

Announce Meeting for Detroit.

A protest meeting of the Detroit workers will be held Monday evening, Sept. 28, at the House of the Masses, 2646 St. Aubin St. There will be speeches made in English, Chinese and Hindu by speakers representing various organizations.

Big Demonstration in New York. NEW YORK, Sept. 24. A united front demonstration of six organizations took place Monday at the initiative of the Workers (Communist) Party as a protest against the exclusion of Saklatvala by the state department at Washington. Thousands of workers jammed the narrow street just off Union Square where the meetiing was held. The estimates of the capitalist press range from 1,200 (New York Times) to 8,000 (Daily News) as the number of workers that rallied on only three days’ notice to voice their solidarity with the excluded British Communist and demand his admission into this country,

Hail Defender of Workers. Resolutions hailing Saklatvala as the defender of the workers and oppressed peoples of the British empire, denouncing international imperialism and branding the action of the state department as the beginning of a new campaign against all but the most servile of the foreign-born workers, were unanimously adopted and every one of the ten speakers representing the six organizations that co-operated was enthusiastically applauded.

In addition to the Workers Party, the Civil Liberties Union, the Friends. of Freedom for India, the Association for the Recognition of the Irish Republic, the International Labor Defense and the Young Workers League were represented by speakers.

Socialists Absent. Norman Thomas, candidate for mayor on the socialist ticket was conspicuous by his absence although he was specifically invited, and his act of treachery in breaking labor’s solidarity in its united demand for free entrance of militant foreign-born workers Into the United States and against British and American imperialism, was scored by the chairman, William W. Weinstone, and branded by the Workers Party candidate for mayor. Benjamin Gitlow, as “a rejecting of a united front with the workers and the forming of a united front with Coolidge and Kellogg and every enemy of freedom of speech for the workers in this country.”

The assembled workers roared their approval of an invitation on behalf of the American working class to Saklatvala to visit the United States, when Saleindra N. Ghose, a Hindu, representing the Friends of Freedom for India, declared:

“If the working class of America demand the presence of Saklatvala in this country he will be here within a month in spite of Mr. Kellogg and in spite of Secretary James J. Davis of the department of labor.” Peter Golden, representative of the Association for the Recognition of the Irish Republic declared: “Saklatvala was banned because this goernment feared he would say some true but unkind things about that holy of holies, the British empire. Fear Communist. “Mussolini, who rules by assassination would be admitted, I did not know that the United States was so fragile a thing that it feared destruction thru a series of speeches by Saklatvala. The state department is making itself an accomplice of the enslavement of Ireland and India,  when it bars this fighter for the freedom of all the oppressed nations of the world.

Arthur G. Hays, who spoke on behalf of the Civil Liberties Union, was introduced by the chairman as one who had battled for freedom of thot in Dayton, Tennessee as associate counsel with Darrow in the Scopes trial. He made a plea for “free speech” in general and charged the Workers Party with being interested only in free speech for itself. Gitlow, who spoke shortly after him, took up the challenge and declared: “Yes, the Workers Party is not interested in free speech for the capitalists. What capitalist reactionary was ever excluded from our shores? What capitalist was ever denied free speech? The master class owns all the avenues of thot, the press, the pulpit, the school, and owns the government besides which it uses to suppress the workers, exclude the foreign-born militants and deny the right to speak and organize the workers in this country.

Trade Union Unity.

The dominant note of William Z. Foster’s speech was “World Trade Union Unity.” “The American working class is perhaps the most conservative in the world,” he declared. “But only ten or fifteen years ago. the British workers were even more conservative. Now the empire is cracking, it has lost its dominant position, there is a permanent economic crisis, and the British working class sees that its only way out is to imitate the Russian working class. That is why it is turning from MacDonald and Henderson to Purcell and Cook and Saklatvala. That is why it is working for trade union unity, and that is why the Scarboro conference took great strides toward a conscious revolutionary position. The Ameri can working class will yet follow the example of its British brethren.”

Jay Lovestone spoke on the real meaning of the exclusion of Saklatvala. He pointed out that rival imperialisms will always bury their differences face to face with the workers and revolting oppressed peoples. That is why there is a united front of the British and American governments against the colonial and backward nations.

Rally to C.I.

“India is the greatest colonial nation. Its revolt is the symbol of the revolt of all subject peoples and Saklatvala, Indian and Communist is the symbol of the union of the revolutionary proletariat with the oppressed colonial and semi-colonial peoples in a united struggle under the leadership of the Communist International to overthrow imperialist capitalism. The answer to the united front of the British and American imperialist governments is a closer united front of the workers and suppressed nations of the world under the banner of the Communist International,” declared Jay Lovestone,

Charles Krupibein pointed out the significance of the Kellogg action and the department of labor statements as the beginning of a new war of deportations against the foreign-born workers and called upon his hearers to form United Councils of Foreign-born Workers to protect the militant foreign-born from this new attack.” Rebecca Grecht described the “Indias and Irelands” of America to be found in the Philippines and Latin-America. She pictured the rising tide of colonial revolt which, leagued with the revolutionary workers would secure freedom for all subject nations.

Herbert Zam, on behalf of the Young Workers’ League, declared that the principal burden of fighting militarism and the use of the army to enslave colonies or break strikes. falls upon the working class youth. He pictured the heroic fight of Liebknecht against militarism and war and pledged the Young Workers’ League to imitate his example.

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.