The analysis of white nationalism in this rather extraordinary 1921 article from a founding member of the Communist Labor Party of California, originally from an early West Coast paper of the still-forming Communist movement and reprinted in the African Blood Brotherhood’s Crusader, could be written today.

‘The White World Supremacy’ by C. Covington Coleman from The Crusader (A.B.B.). Vol. 4 No. 3. May, 1921.

White Radical Warns That It is Not to Be of the Workers. But of the White Capitalists in Murderous Exploitation of All Workers–Sees Ku Klux Klan at Work–From “The Western Worker.”

THERE appeared in the December 1895  issue of the Contemporary Review an article entitled “1920.” In this article Cecil Rhodes formulated his world-policy for painting “the map of the world a British red,” and for the ultimate “White” domination of the Earth.

Mr. Rhodes contended that three things must happen by “1920” in order to realize the above goal. (1) Germany must be crushed and eliminated as a military and economic world competitor, else by “1920″ Great Britain’s world supremacy would be threatened by Germany’s supremacy. (2) An alliance must be made between the United States and England by “1920,” which would look toward the re-absorption of America into the British Empire. Otherwise Great Britain’s world supremacy would be threatened by the supremacy of the United States. (3) The world after “1920” must be dominated by the Anglo-Saxon and (old) Russia.

This was the scheme and dream of Cecil Rhodes twenty-five years ago. And it came near becoming a reality. Germany, if it had been realized, would have answered for the other two items of Rhodes’ policy. The only change being necessary was the substitution of France for Russia, and the plan would have been complete.

Above all else it would have been a “White” League. The so-called Colored Races were to have no important place or part in it. They were all, with the exception of Japan, to be treated as Mandatories of the Big Three. And even Japan was eliminated by reason of her color as one of the big Mandators.

The League of Nations to be sure has not made very much headway. Never the less the movement for White supremacy is marching right ahead. England in India, Africa and Mesopotamia; France in Africa and Syria: America in the Islands of the sea and the countries of Central America; and all three in China and the Far East. So that we might still write very appropriately, as their slogan, “The White Nations Uber Alles!”

White Nationalism.

While White Imperialism is at work abroad there is growing up at home a White Nationalism. Particularly is this true of the two great Anglo-Saxon nations, England and America. To see clear evidences of this one has only to follow the development in connection with Ireland.

Here one sees the staunch determination of England to rule the home roost. Then, too, her anti-Semitic agitation–which has been so beautifully copied by our great American Pacifist-Internationalist, Henry Ford–is obviously a movement in the interest of White supremacy at home.

But if we turn to America, we have even better examples of this process. Take the recently enacted anti-Japanese legislation in California which prohibits “our little brown brothers from the Orient”–to use a former expression of the Los Angeles Times–from buying or leasing land or other real estate. Californians believe, they tell us, in holding California for White Californians.

As an even better example of this process, let us turn to the South Land where the Ku Klux Klan is operating without law. I quote as follows from a recent article in the Survey entitled, “Liberty, Limited”:

“Senator William C. Kenyon, chairman of the committee investigating campaign expenses, is in receipt of a letter from another Florida Republican (white), which gives an eye witness’s description of the Orlando riot in which a considerable number of people were killed and which has been only briefly reported in the press. It says:

“The addresses of our speakers were practically all made out in the open where everyone was invited to attend, and our speakers entirely steered clear of the race problems. On the contrary, every Democratic speaker and newspaper in the State (the entire press) immediately set up a howl that the election of a Republican President or Republican officers meant Negro domination, black heels on white necks, Negroes in office and a return to carpet bag days.

“The result of this agitation upon the part of the Democrats was that in Jacksonville, the largest city in the State, the Ku Klux Klan was revived, and on the night of October 30 paraded the streets of Jacksonville, 1,000 strong, in disguise, with a herald announcing that they stood for white supremacy, and the natural result was that while there were approximately 10,000 Negro voters registered in Duval county and a large number of white Republicans, less than 5,000 Republican votes were cast.

“In Orlando, a like band of KKK paraded In Orlando, a like band of KKK paraded the streets on October 30, 500 strong with a similar herald. They paraded through the entire Negro section and around the Negro churches to intimidate and frighten the Negro voters.

“At Ocace it was rumored for weeks in advance that not a single Negro would be permitted to vote.

“I asked certain of my white friends there to see that the Negroes did not go to the polls in crowds but that they should be instructed to go quietly, one or two at a time and attempt to cast their ballots and in the event that this right was denied to go quietly back to their homes. But, as near as I can arrive at the facts, about 4 o’clock, a Negro named July Perry went to vote and was denied upon the ground that he had not paid his poll tax, when as a matter of fact the records of this county (if they have not been doctored since) will show that he has paid his poll tax. The Democratic press claimed that he made a threat that he was going to get his gun and see that he did vote. I do not believe that any one situated as he was would have been foolhardy enough to make such a threat. After the polls closed, a number of armed men went to his house without a warrant to arrest this Negro. Two white men were shot in the Negro’s backyard. From that time on for two or three days the community ran riot. I do not believe it will ever be known how many Negroes were killed. Every Negro school house, church and lodge room in that vicinity was burned, in some instances with women and children occupying the house, and thus burned to death. Even today, four days after the election, conditions in Orlando, a city of 10,000 inhabitants, are such that we have to advise every Negro to stay off the streets for fear that the riot will be renewed and there are even threats made to tar and feather the leading white Republicans and drive them out of the community.”

The foregoing is a fair sample of conditions which exist in most parts of the State.

You will observe from the foregoing that the Constitution has become a mere “scrap of paper.” And this situation can probably be duplicated in most every Southern State. Moreover we are told that the organization is rapidly spreading. I quote below a recent press item:

“Houston, Texas–Requests are coming in daily from all over the North and East for the establishment of branches of the Ku Klux Klan, according to Col. W.J. Simmons, national head of the organization and the only acknowledged member. He states that the Klan has done good work, secretly in the past year in various States of the union, especially in California.”

Thus it would appear that not only in the Land of Dixie and California, is the movement for White supremacy at work, but even in the “North and East” as well. And one naturally asks what “rising tide of color” there is in these sections of America that must be suppressed by the Ku Klux Klan? Or to put it another way; does the White Race “Uber Alles” really depict the goal of the “Whites?”

White Capitalism.

This leads to a third observation, which gives meaning to the other two and shows what is really meant by White-World Domination. You will remember that according to Rhodes’ plan Russia was to be a part of the white-world supremacy. But she is now eliminated therefrom. Why? Because Russia is no longer a great Capitalist nation. She is today a “Workers’ Republic.” And this leads one to the conclusion that it is the “White” Capitalists “Uber Alles” that is at the bottom of the whole idea of world domination. For whether the white supremacy functions Imperialistically or Nationalistically it is always Capitalistically. If we look abroad to India or Africa, Haiti or Hawaii, Russia or Siberia, we see always “White” Capitalism seeking supremacy. If we observe at home we see behind the “Black and Tans” and the Ku Klux Klan–in the background of the “Yellow Peril” and the “Red Menace”–the spectre of “White” Capitalism.

Hence the workers and ranchers who are falling for this white-world supremacy must not forget Whose Supremacy it is to be. For it is not to be the supremacy of the white workers–not according to the present plan. The only part the workers are to have is the part they have always had–the part of Slaves. And it was never more evident than it is today that that is the only part that the Capitalists intends they shall ever play. It is to this end that the “Cossacks of Whitehall,” the “Black and Tans” and the Middle Class Unions are functioning in England. It is for the self-same reason that Ku Klux Klan, the Better American Associations and the Legion are active in the United States. The ideal of the White Capitalists is the “Open Shop”–the American Plan. The dream of the White-World Supremacy is the dream of a “White” world for the White Capitalists of the world.

This is the meaning of White World Supremacy. The only solution for the situation it presents is in the slogan given to the workers by Karl Marx. “Workers of the World Unite; you have nothing to lose but your chains; you have a world to gain.” And unless the workers of the world, regardless of race or color, unite, and inscribe upon their banner the slogan of Marx we are in for a reign of “White” tyranny.

But we have faith that the workers will efface the dream of Rhodes and make the science of Marx come true, in a united all powerful world wide Proletariat.

The Crusader was published in New York City between 1918 and 1922, becoming the paper of the The African Blood Brotherhood for African Liberation and Redemption and the earliest Black Communist publication in the US. Founded by Cyril V Briggs, who had arrived to the city from the Caribbean in 1905, at first it was the journal of the Hamitic League of the World, a Pan-African group led by George Well Parker. Increasingly in sympathy with the Russian Revolution and new Communist International, in October 1919 the paper announced the African Blood Brotherhood and its adherence to Marxism. In June 1921, The Crusader officially became the journal of the ABB and the Black publication of the US Communist movement. Antipathy with Marcus Garvey’s movement led the Communist Party, at the insistence of Claude McKay, to withdraw support and Its last issue was in January, 1922. The African Blood Brotherhood with dissolve into the Workers Party of America with many activists joining the American Negro Labor Congress in 1925.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/crusader/v4n03-may-1921-crusader-r.pdf