George Padmore: A Pan-African
George Padmore: A Pan-Africanist from Trinidad
by Jerome Teelucksingh
Malcolm Nurse (1903-1959) adopted the alias of George Padmore in 1927. He was the grandson of an African slave, Alphonso Nurse, who was born on the Belle Plantation in the colony of Barbados in the British West Indies. Nurse later learnt the trade of masonry and migrated to the nearby island of Trinidad. Padmore’s father, James Nurse was a well-educated middle class Black and renowned Caribbean botanist.
George Padmore was born in 1903 in the rural village of Arouca but his childhood and teenaged years were spent in a middle-class suburb in Trinidad’s capital of Port-of-Spain. He attended the prestigious St. Mary’s College of the Immaculate Conception (CIC) in Port-of-Spain. At the age of 19 years he briefly served as a reporter for the “Trinidad Guardian”, a daily newspaper. Due to frequent arguments with the newspaper’s editor, Padmore resigned and in 1924 departed for the United States.
He was interested in pursuing a career in medicine and later law and attended Fisk University, the University of New York and Howard University. During a visit of the British Ambassador to Howard University, Padmore embarrassed the dignitary by publicly protesting against the suffering of Africa under British rule. The young Trinidadian was expelled but it marked a watershed as Padmore had begun a life of a fearless and militant revolutionary.
Whilst working among Blacks in Harlem, Padmore edited a newspaper- “Negro Champion” (later known as the “Liberator”). He decided to join the Communist Party in 1927 and began contributing articles to the “Daily Worker” in New York. Furthermore, he worked with the Communist Party’s American Negro Labour Congress.
In 1929 Padmore decided to migrate to Moscow in the Soviet Union and began lecturing on trade union activities of Blacks in the United States. During 1930-1935, Padmore is credited for the global organization of the Black working class.
Padmore was appointed head of the International Trade Union Committee of Negro Workers (ITUC-NW) which was the arm of the Red International of Labour Unions (RILU) or Profintern. In June 1930, the ITUC-NW began publishing the Negro Worker which Padmore edited. This newspaper was read by thousands of Blacks in North America, Europe and the Caribbean. Illicit copies of this publication served as a source of inspiration for the explosion of violent protests among oilfield workers in June 1937 in Trinidad. The vibrant ITUC-NW organized an international conference of Negro Workers in July 1930 in Germany.
Ideological differences led to Padmore’s disillusionment with Communism and the decision to relocate to Hamburg, Germany. In 1935, Padmore moved to London, England, reunited with his childhood friend and fellow Trinidadian, CLR James. Padmore continued a career as a journalist and published articles in working class and Black publications as the Crisis and Chicago Defender, Baltimore Afro-American, the Clarion, the Vanguard and the People. Issues addressed included self-government, racism, imperialism and trade unionism.
Padmore’s role as a voice for the oppressed and exploited working class is evident in his books and pamphlets- “The Life and Struggles of Negro Toilers”, “How Britain Rules Africa” and “Africa and World Peace”.
Whilst in London among his friends were Eric Williams (who later became the first Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago), Paul Robeson, Amy Garvey (wife of Marcus Garvey), and Jomo Kenyatta.
Padmore’s phenomenal organizational ability resurfaced after the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1935. Padmore assisted James who formed the International African Friends of Ethiopia. This anti-imperialist group was later transformed in March 1937 to the International African service Bureau (IASB) by Padmore who served as Chairman. Marcus Garvey, the Jamaican Pan-Africanist, residing in the United States was an influential leader whose Negro world was widely read by millions of Blacks. However, Garvey’s failure to support the striking workers in Trinidad during the strikes of June 1937 in Trinidad resulted in harsh criticisms from James and Padmore at Hyde Park in London.
By 1944, the IASB had been dissolved and Padmore along with other Pan-Africanist formed the Pan-African Federation (PAF) in England. Among Padmore’s illustrious friends was W.E.B DuBois of the NAACP in the United States. In 1945, Padmore writing from the headquarters of PAF, invited DuBois to send a representative to the historic Fifth Pan-African Congress which was to be held in Manchester, England. Furthermore, he informed DuBois of the trade union activities in the British West Indies and the support given to the Jamaican strike in 1946.
In June 1945 Padmore assisted in organizing the All-Colonial People’s Conference held in London, England. He also maintained regular contact with the West African Student’s Union (WASU).
Interestingly, though Padmore was a staunch Pan-Africanist and pro-Black, his work embraced other ethnic groups. By 1946, Padmore was instrumental in establishing the London-based “Asiatic African Unity Committee” comprising Indians and Africans with the intention of building a united front against imperialism. Furthermore, he had a close fraternal relationship with Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru of India, the external department of the National Congress and the All-India Student’s Congress.
In 1945 Padmore met Kwame Nkrumah, (a student from Ghana) in London. Nkrumah served as the regional secretary of the PAF in which Padmore was involved. Nkrumah never forgot Padmore’s friendship and organizational abilities. And, in 1957, Padmore was appointed political advisor to the Prime Minister of Ghana, Nkrumah. Padmore began a newspaper Voice of Africa which published by the Bureau of African Affairs in Ghana.
At the time of his death the indefatigable Padmore had been an inspiration for millions of Blacks. He had sown the seeds of anti-colonialism and laid the foundation of an indestructible anti-imperialist movement which resulted in many British colonies gaining political independence.
A Batsman for all Bowlers: C.L.R James
by Jerome Teelucksingh
Cyril Lionel Robert James was born on January 1, 1901 in the British West Indian colony of Trinidad. As a precocious teenager he attended the prestigious Queen’s Royal College in the colony’s capital of Port-of-Spain. James displayed early traits of being both a rebel and idealist.
His multifaceted career included teacher, intellectual, novelist, avid cricket analyst, occasional politician, newspaper correspondent, cultural theorist, brilliant historian and eloquent speaker. During the 1930s, he contributed fiction and book reviews to The Beacon, a literary publication, which was circulated mainly in Trinidad.
In 1932, James departed for England. Whilst in London he wrote cricket commentaries for the Manchester Guardian and his love for cricket eventually materialized in the masterpiece Beyond a Boundary (1963). This study was an indepth analysis of the early development of West Indian cricket which revealed the complex interaction of race and class.
The publication of his first book in 1932 and production of a play on Haiti, marked the second and critical phase in the development of James’ Pan-Africanism which ended in 1945. It was primarily during these formative years that James began to understand the power to influence persons through his radical writings. Sympathy for the colony’s Black working class was documented by James in The Life of Captain Cipriani, which was published in London. This was the first indicator of the potential of James to incite the working class. In highlighting the poor working and living conditions of the Indian and Africans, James had a major impact in radicalizing the Caribbean working class. Not surprisingly, Britain blamed the circulation of the book for the outbreak of the riots during 1937 and 1938.
The Pan-Africanist leanings of James was obvious with his play “Toussaint L’Ouverture”. It was initially performed in England in 1936 with Paul Robeson, of the United States, playing the lead role of Toussaint L’Ouverture. The play was eventually published in the highly acclaimed work—The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L’Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution (1938). The work not only depicted revolutionary politics but James also sought to emphasize the significance and interaction of race, color and class in the outcome of events in Haiti.
In response to the Italian invasion and occupation of Ethiopia in 1935, James founded the International Friends of Ethiopia (Abysinnia). There were prominent members as Jomo Kenyatta, Amy Garvey, I.T.A Wallace Johnson (a Sierra Leone nationalist) and George Padmore. After the crisis subsided, the group was transformed to a permanent organization- the International African Service Bureau (IASB). This proactive group became the bulwark against imperialism and highlighted the struggles for African liberation. James continued to display concern for African affairs and during July-October 1938, he edited its monthly journal- International African Opinion.
In England, James established a network of friends (politicians and scholars) and alliances that influenced his ideology. Among his comrades were T. Ras Makonnen (a Guyanese), Duse Mohammed Ali (an Egyptian) who was the founder of the African Times and Orient Review. During the 1930s, other groups in existence included the League of Coloured Peoples (founded by Harold Moody) and the Ethiopian Progressive Association.
James was involved with the Black workers in trade unions and radical working class groups throughout Europe and the United States. As a Trotskyite, and familiar with the operations of the Comintern, the workers of the world (including Trinidad) were on the priority list of James’ activities.
The activism of James was not confined to organizing anti-colonial and anti-imperialist groups but included occasional articles. For instance, in 1934, James agreed to submit a regular column to the magazine- African Review. Whilst in England, until 1936, James was a member of the Independent Labour Party (ILP); he occasionally addressed their meetings and joined the Marxist group within this organization. James also regularly submitted articles for ILP publications- Controversy and the New Leader. In 1936, James helped form the Socialist League and was the editor of its newspaper– Fight.
In 1938, James, accepted an invitation of the Socialist Workers’ Party (SWP) to undertake an extensive lecture tour in the United States. However, in 1940, James split with the SWP and assisted in the formation of the Workers Party. During the 1940s, James contributed articles to such worker-related publications as Labor Action, the newspaper of the Workers Party in the United States. And, for a short time, he was also a writer for another popular working class publication- Militant.
During 1936 to 1951, James resided in the United States. In 1952, he was deemed a rabble rouser and Communist threat by the authorities, briefly interned on Ellis Island and subsequently expelled from the United States. Traumatized but still undefeated, James found solace in England during the next six years. He was now well-known due to such literary and historical works as Minty Alley (1936), Notes on Dialectics (1948), and State Capitalism and World Revolution (1950).
In 1958, after spending more than two decades in North America and Europe, James decided to return to Trinidad. Prime Minister Eric Williams, who was of African descent and leader of an overwhelmingly Black political party, the People’s National Movement (PNM), welcomed James to Trinidad. In 1958, James was Secretary of the Federal Labour Party, the governing party of the newly formed West Indies Federation. However, this venture to promote Caribbean integration soon collapsed. Whilst in Trinidad, James edited the PNM’s paper- The Nation. However, the two men disagreed over a number of issues including the organization of the PNM, and James resigned as editor and bitterly broke ranks with the PNM. The rift with Williams widened as James openly criticized the tactics and hypocrisy of the ruling regime. James felt there was ‘no sense of direction’ of the PNM because Williams had ‘depoliticized’ and ‘miseducated’ every aspect of the country.
In August 1965, James and Stephen Maharaj formed the political party- the Workers and Farmers Party (WFP) which was launched in October 1965. James was also the founder and editor of the WFP’s paper-- We The People. The Executive of this working class political party included James, who served as its General Secretary and opted to contest the elections on a WFP ticket.
Despite its idealistic ambitions and claims at being representative of labour, the WFP never developed comprehensive, and necessary, ‘organic links’ with Trinidad’s working class. The Party received only 3% of the votes and all their candidates lost deposits. In Tunapuna, James was soundly defeated as he received only 2.8% of the vote.
The electoral defeat was a major blow to James’ ego and affected his political credibility. He soon left Trinidad and did not participate in future elections. It can be argued that James spent the best years of his life abroad and did not devote sufficient time in Trinidad for building a sturdy political foundation of the trade unions. Despite this shortcoming, his reputation among the working class remained intact.
By 1962, a frustrated James returned to England and became actively involved in the revival of Pan-Africanism during the late 1960s. In 1966, James returned to the United States to teach at Federal City College at Washington, D.C. During the following year he came into contact with radical Black nationalists and they founded the Drum and Spear bookstore and a community college- the Center for Black Education. Whilst in the United States, the residence of James served as a meeting place for discussion on issues such as Black liberation.
He was among the visionaries who initiated plans for a sixth Pan African Congress in 1974. However, James decided to avoid attendance and involvement because participating African leaders were interested in regional independence rather than unity for the African continent.
The OWTU was one of the few organizations that respected and admired the political beliefs of James throughout his life. On February 25,1980, George Weekes, President of the OWTU, appointed James as Labour Relations Officer of the union. His impact on the international stage and the influence of his works in the Caribbean did not go unnoticed.
For his contribution to the OWTU and trade unionism in Trinidad and Tobago, James received the OWTU’s highest and most prestigious award–the Labour Star. Subsequently, in 1987 James received the prestigious Trinity Cross– Trinidad and Tobago’s highest national award. As he approached the final years of his life, James’ mental capacities had not dimmed and he continued to pursue his love for writing until his death in 1989.
His publications and activities served as an inspiration to Pan-Africanists, academics, students and activists in Africa, Europe, the Caribbean and United States. The genius of James assumes even greater proportion when one considers the fact that James only possessed a high school education and never received a university education. The enigma of James rests largely upon his paradoxical class-based Afrocentrism and ability to overcome seemingly overwhelming obstacles.