Part of imperialist Japan’s justification for invading China was to ‘protect Asia’ from U.S. and European imperialism, making appeals for support to those suffering under the West’s racist ruling class. Here, the R.I.L.U.’s International Trade Union Committee of Negro Workers rejects that appeal and urges Black workers to support the Chinese national liberation struggle.
‘Negro Workers! Support the Chinese People in their Struggle against Japanese Imperialism!’ from Negro Worker. Vol. 4 No. 2. June, 1934.
AN APPEAL TO THE NEGRO WORKERS
Support the Chinese People in their Struggle against Japanese Imperialism!
The Japanese Imperialists have served notice to the rest of the Imperialist powers that Japan considers China her special preserve and have issued a declaration to the effect that from now on she must be considered as the ruler and arbiter of East Asian affairs. In her declaration Japan states that she is called upon “to exert the utmost effort in carrying out her mission and in fulfilling her special responsibilities in East Asia” and that she will be against any undertaking of the other powers to supply China with military aeroplanes military instructors, technical and financial aid. The Japanese Ambassador to the United States declared that Japan “must act and decide alone what is good for China”.
Japan has already occupied and established her rule in Manchuria, she has conquered Jehol and she has brought North-China under the sphere of influence of Japanese capital. Now she is out to establish her complete domination over China to the exclusion of her rival Imperialist robbers, the United States, England and France.
What is the meaning of the Japanese declaration? It can be no other than that Japan proclaims China a Japanese protectorate. China will not be able to establish any undertaking with other powers without Japanese consent. It means the attempt of Japan to turn China which has hitherto been the sphere of influence and concessions, the source of raw material and the investment market of all the Imperialist powers, into an exclusive Japanese colony.
Japan’s declaration is an open challenge to American, British and French capitalism who under the «open door» policy and the Nine Power Treaty have divided China into spheres of exploitation and plunder. Japan’s policy is to leave this “door” open only for the exploitation of the Japanese Imperialists.
The Japanese declaration has no other meaning than the establishment of her overlordship and domination over the Chinese people. To destroy the last vestige of independence of China and turn the Chinese people into colonial slaves to be mercilessly exploited and plundered by the Japanese ruling class.
In her assumed role of the Gendarme of Asia, one of Japan’s immediate aim will be to crush the Chinese revolution and to destroy the Soviet territories, which comprise over one-sixth of China with a population of over 80,000,000 people and is under the rule of the workers and peasants. It is the Soviet power set up by the workers and peasants which has shown itself as the only force capable of liberating China. It is this Soviet power that has aroused the fear and hatred of the Japanese and other Imperialist bandits and which they seek by all means to destroy.
The adventures of the ruling Japanese military cliques who seek to hide their real war aims under the deceptive slogans of “Peace and harmony in the Far East,” can only result in a most devastating war in the Pacific.
These Imperialist adventurers, backed by the other Imperialist powers particularly Great Britain have time and again sought to provoke a war with Soviet Russia. They are now feverishly preparing for it. They have tremendously increased their armed forces near the Russian border waiting for an opportune moment to attack and attempt to destroy the first working class Republic.
It is the firm peace policy of Soviet Russia which has so far prevented a war. But it is also her tremendous strength and her powerful Red Army which have kept these brigands from attacking her.
The danger of a war in the Far East becomes even greater because of the simultaneous preparations of war in Europe, which becomes daily more threatening.
In the struggle against her Imperialist rivals for the mastery of the Pacific, Japan does not fail to utilize her propaganda machinery to influence and draw support from among Negroes and other colonial peoples for her Imperialist robber policy in the Far East. Utilizing the seething discontent and revolutionary feelings of the Negro masses against their white oppressors, the Japanese capitalists and their agents carry on a subtle propaganda among the Negro workers under the slogan of, “Japan is the defender and champion of the darker races.” The Negro misleaders, especially in the United States try to justify Japan’s robber policy by saying that “if Japan does not take over China, the white Imperialists will.” Thus they support Japan’s murderous policy against the Chinese people. It is nothing but a justification of Japan’s brutal exploitation and suppression of the Korean and Formosan people who are groaning under the iron heel of the Japanese ruling class.
The Japanese Imperialists are no champion or allies of the darker peoples. They are the allies of the white capitalists in the exploitation and oppression of the colonial toilers. For the workers, black, brown and white to break the chain of slavery and be free men and women, they must unite their forces and struggle to defeat all the Imperialist robbers. Only in this way can they secure their liberation.
Negro workers rally to the defence of the Chinese people against Japanese aggression! Show your international solidarity with the Chinese people by joining the world wide protest movement against the Japanese slave policy in the East!
Chinese worker tortured on rack by Chinese ruling class.
Join and get your organizations to affiliate to the “International Association of the Friends of the Chinese People,” an organization which is drawing into its ranks all the Anti-Imperialist forces for a worldwide protest movement against Japan’s robber policy in China. The international protest campaign under the leadership of the Association is being carried on under the following slogans: For the withdrawal of the Japanese and other Imperialist troops from China and Manchuria; For the abolition of the unequal treaties; For the right of assembly and freedom of the press of the Chinese people; For the release of the imprisoned fighters for Chinese freedom, especially Paul and Gertrude Ruegg; For the cessation of the Kuomingtan war campaign against the Chinese Soviet territory; For the recognition of the Soviet Government in China by all Countries.
Negro Workers! You who are the worst sufferers of Imperialist oppression should be foremost in helping to forge the chain of solidarity of the colonial and semi-colonial peoples and of all the Anti-Imperialist forces to defeat the Imperialist exploiters and robbers. Mobilize the Negro organizations to adopt and present protest resolutions to the Japanese Embassies! Mobilize the workers and organizations to participate in protest meetings! Support the protest movement of the International Association of the Friends of the Chinese People! Forward with the struggle against Imperialist exploitation and Slavery!
With Fraternal Greetings,
The International Trade Union Committee of Negro Workers.
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
