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{ "content": "Patrice LumumbaInterviewWashington, July 28, 1960, TASSSource: Patrice Lumumba, The Truth about a Monstrous Crime of the Colonialists, Moscow, Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1961, pp. 53-55.Written: by Patrice Lumumba;Transcribed: by Thomas Schmidt. Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba of the Congo, who is now in Washington, gave the following interview to a TASS correspondent.Question: How, in your opinion, is the U.N. Security Council decision on the rapid withdrawal of Belgian troops from the Congo being fulfilled?Answer: Belgium has already proved that she has no respect for Security Council decisions. The Belgian Government is continuing its aggressive actions and savage reprisals against our people. It will be recalled that as far back as July 14, the Security Council demanded in a resolution that Belgian troops should leave the Congo; it sent U.N. armed forces to our country to back up this decision. But since then not a single Belgian soldier has left the territory of the Congo. Every day the troops of the Belgian colonialists kill soldiers of our national army and massacre hundreds of Congolese civilians. These facts are not widely known in the world because the Belgian colonialists have got the press of other Western countries to write as little as possible about the doings of Belgian soldiers in the Congo.Our government and Parliament have from the very first demanded that Belgian troops should leave the Congo. The pertinent Soviet proposal tabled in the Security Council was the only proposal fully conforming to our people's interests. We continue to demand and declare that the immediate withdrawal of Belgian troops is the only way of restoring law and order in the Congo. That is why we ask all democratic and peace-loving countries to support our demand. The last Belgian soldier should have left the Congo long ago. The U. N. troops, which arrived to ensure implementation of the Security Council's resolution, have now been in the Congo for over a fortnight. But the situation has not changed. I must say that the Security Council's resolutions are being fulfilled anything but properly, although the Council had already passed two resolutions—on July 14 and 22—on the need to withdraw Belgian troops from the Congo. Such a small country as Belgium allows herself to behave in this way only because the Congo now lacks the weapons to throw out the Belgian colonialists.Question: What is the situation in Katanga? What is your opinion of Katanga's so-called secession from the Congo recently announced by Mr. Tshombe?Answer: There has never been a Katanga problem as such. The gist of the matter is that the imperialists want to lay their hands on our country's riches and to continue exploiting our people. The imperialists have always had their agents in the colonial countries. Tshombe, in particular, is an agent of the Belgian imperialists. Everything he says and writes is not his own. He merely mouths the words of the Belgian colonialists. It is well known that Tshombe is an ex-businessman who has long since thrown in his lot with the colonial companies in the Congo. But very few people know that just recently, as a result of dishonest machinations and overdrafts, Tshombe owed Belgian companies in the Congo more than ten million Belgian francs. He was arrested and was to be tried. But in view of the situation that took shape, Tshombe was \"pardoned\" and released by the Belgians and since then he has been obediently carrying out all their orders.Question: What is the Congolese people's view of the Soviet Union's stand on the Congo's struggle to attain genuine independence and territorial integrity?Answer: The Soviet Union was the only Great Power whose stand conformed to our people's will and desire. That is why the Soviet Union was the only Great Power which has all along been supporting the Congolese people's struggle. I should like to convey the heartfelt gratitude of the entire Congolese people to the Soviet people and to Prime Minister Nikita Khrushchov personally for your country's timely and great moral support to the young Republic of the Congo in its struggle against the imperialists and colonialists. I should also like to thank the Soviet Union for the assistance in food which it is extending to the Congo. Marxism and Anti-Imperialism in Africa |Patrice Lumumba Archive" }

{ "content": "Patrice LumumbaStatement at a press conference inLeopoldvilleAugust 17, 1960Source: Patrice Lumumba: Fighter for Africa’s Freedom, Moscow, Progress Publishers, 1961, pp 61-64.Written: by Patrice Lumumba;Transcribed: by Thomas Schmidt.At my yesterday's press conference I stated the grave reasonsthat prompted the Government to ask the President of the SecurityCouncil to examine the question of immediately sending a group ofneutral observers to the Congo to ensure control over theimplementation of the resolution of July 14, 1960. Certain circleswith interests in the Congo have qualified our position as a lackof confidence in the U.N. As I stated yesterday and repeat again,the matter here is not in a lack of trust or in any suspicion withregard to the U.N. On the contrary. The Government and the peopleof the Congo continue to trust the U.N. and its Security Council.What we have condemned, and that can be proved, is only the methodby which the U.N. Secretary-General sought to implement theSecurity Council's resolutions. He acted as though there were noGovernment of the Republic.The Congolese people regard his contacts and meetings withTshombe as well as the assurances that he gave Tshombe as treachery. Tshombe did not conceal the factthat he had official assurances from the U.N. Secretary-General. Inconformity with the Security Council's resolutions, Mr.Hammarskjöld should not have had talks with Tshombe.Furthermore, the Secretary-General did not once show any desire toconsult with the Government of the Republic as he was officiallyadvised to do by the resolution of July 14, 1960. Consequently, aline must be drawn between the personal actions of Mr.Hammarskjöld, which we brand in the name of truth and justice,and the far-sighted policy of the United Nations. In the Congonobody approves the steps that have so far been taken in the Congoissue by the U.N. Secretary-General. His interpretation of theSecurity Council's decisions clearly shows us his intentions. TheGovernment is aware that certain circles seek to turn the Congointo a second Korea. And in order to achieve this purpose byroundabout ways, implementation of the decisions of an organ of thehighest international authority is being delayed. Many crimes havebeen perpetrated in Katanga because of the U.N. Secretary-General'sdelay in carrying out the decisions of the UnitedNations.The fact of the matter is that several scores of Congolese,military personnel and civilians, were shot two days ago. Theserepugnant crimes have been concealed from the public. Surely theU.N. Secretary-General knows about it. The conspiracy of silencedesigned to delude world public opinion is noteworthy. The Belgianpress and the correspondents sent to Katanga assert that orderreigns there, whereas in reality arbitrary shootings and arrestsare occurring every day as a consequence of Tshombe's compact withBelgium. Every day I receive disturbing news from various parts ofKatanga and every day the people of Katanga Province are asking theGovernment to intervene and deliver them from the oppression of theBelgium-Tshombe group. Conscience will not allow the Government topermit such a situation to continue in the country. We wanted to go to the Security Council tocondemn this situation, for all to hear, believing that if ourofficial delegation were absent the Security Council might bemisinformed. I asked the U.N. Secretary-General to postpone hisdeparture for 24 hours to enable our Government delegation toaccompany him. Our request was turned down. And yet in his letterof August 15, 1960, he assured me that the Security Council wouldmeet only after the arrival of our delegation. To my great surpriseand to the surprise of the whole of Congolese public opinion, Ilearned that the Security Council is to meet tomorrow morningalthough the delegation of the Congo has not left the countrybecause of transportation difficulties.This morning I cabled the President of the Security Council,asking him to postpone the meeting until the arrival of adelegation from the Congolese Government.I hope that this well-founded request is complied with.Moreover, I hope that the Government will not be compelled torenounce the services of the U.N. In the event a decision we shallconsider as undesirable is taken, that is to say, if a group ofneutral foreign observers will not be sent with instructions toensure control over the implementation of the Security Council'sresolutions, the Government will, to its regret, be forced toconsider other, speedier measures. More than a month of our hopesin the U.N. and of waiting has passed. It is over a month now thatwe have been waiting for its resolutions to be carried out.It does not do for any country to lecture us or to tell us whatroad we should take if there is no desire to help us in the way wehave asked and if it is contemplated to use our request formilitary aid to pursue other political aims. We are prepared towithdraw this request. Nobody can enter the Congo and no foreignpower can set foot in our country and interfere in its affairs ifit has not been specifically requested to do so by the legalGovernment of the Congo Republic. The Congo is a sovereign,independent and free state with the same rights as France, Belgium,Britain and the U.S.A. We are the masters of our own destinies andwe shall make the Congo into what we want her to be and not intowhat others want. Those who reproach me for telling the truth andexposing certain manoeuvres are giving themselves away in the faceof this truth, because it will triumph in the very near future.Together with our people we shall defend our country to the end,regardless of the plots and manoeuvres of the Belgian colonialistsand their allies. History will show who is right. Marxism and Anti-Imperialism in Africa |Patrice Lumumba Archive" }

{ "content": "Patrice LumumbaConcluding speech at the All-African Conference in LeopoldvilleAugust 31, 1960Source: Patrice Lumumba: Fighter for Africa’s Freedom, Moscow, Progress Publishers, 1961, pp 26-33.Written: by Patrice Lumumba;Transcribed: by Thomas Schmidt.Your Excellencies,Delegates,Ladies and gentlemen,Dear comrades,On behalf of the Government and people of the Republic of the Congo we salute you for the magnificent work that you have done.Solemnly opened on August 25 under the banner of solidarity, the All-African Conference, which we invited to Leopoldville, has successfully completed its work. You have worked as a team in a spirit of understanding and have placed the interests of Africa above our individual interests and features. The success of this Conference gives us grounds for believing in Africa's future. Africa's unity will not be possible until all her children become united among themselves.This has been profoundly grasped by us and that is why we are here together in this hall.We have only just completed a tour of the interior of the Republic. We were accompanied by delegates from African countries and by African and foreign journalists, whom we invited. Everybody has seen the enthusiasm of the people and their trust in their Government and leaders. Everybody has seen how the Congolese trust their African brothers and how sincere the inhabitants of our country are in their striving for peace and order. Everybody could see the real face of the Congo and its people.The colonialists have created a false problem. It is, as you know, the Katanga drama, which conceals an entire headquarters of saboteurs of our national independence. This headquarters, which at present operates covertly, through intermediaries, has the sole object of stirring up trouble, creating difficulties for the Government, discrediting it abroad through carefully organised propaganda, and re-enslaving the Congo. And all this for the sole purpose of securing their own selfish interests.The colonialists care nothing for Africa for her own sake. They are attracted by African riches and their actions are guided by the desire to preserve their interests in Africa against the wishes of the African people. For the colonialists all means are good if they help them to possess these riches.Luckily for us, the Congolese people and their Government have shown themselves to be vigilant. Our struggle is aimed at liberating the country, restoring peace and consolidating social justice.The Congo became independent under conditions which did not exist in any other African country. In other places the transition from the colonial regime to independence had intermediate stages, in the Congo everything proceeded differently. We gained our sovereignty without any intermediate stage. One single step took us from one hundred per cent colonial dependence to one hundred per cent independence.We took over the country's leadership on June 30, 1960, and only a few days later, without giving us time to organise ourselves, the Belgian Government used a false pretext to launch flagrant aggression against us. We replied to these acts of provocation and force by appealing to the United Nations.In so doing the Government of the Republic wished to avoid war and the extension of disorders in the Congo. We placed our trust in the United Nations, convinced that it would be able to come to our assistance.Our endless appeals to that international organisation and the many trips that members of the Government and I have undertaken to U.N. Headquarters in New York bear out how much we desire the incidents in the Congo to be stopped peacefully.The only reason for any divergence of opinion between the Government of the Republic and the U.N. Secretary-General is that in all their actions in the Congo, contrary to the resolutions of the Security Council, the representatives of the United Nations never consulted us.These incidents could have been avoided if from the very beginning there had been a spirit of co-operation between representatives of the United Nations and the Government of the Republic. We have never tried to cast a doubt on the work that the United Nations is doing in Africa.Who will deny that the joint efforts of the United Nations prevented many disasters in the world?Who will deny that for many long years the colonial peoples placed their hopes in the United Nations?We ourselves have appealed to the United Nations many times during our struggle against the Belgian colonialism.On behalf of the Government and people of the Republic of the Congo we confirm our trust in the U.N. and in the different nations composing it. Our greatest desire is that this organisation should pursue its aims with greater efficacy for the happiness of mankind. The Government of the Republic will not stint any effort to help maintain peace and international security.We have solemnly appealed to the National Army and the forces of the United Nations to combine their efforts in their mission to pacify the country.Agreement between United Nations representatives in the Congo and the Government of the Republic is absolutely indispensable. It would facilitate harmony and understanding between U.N. troops and the Congolese army.We salute the magnificent work the United Nations is doing in the Congo today.We thank all the countries which have responded to our appeal and continue to render us all possible aid.Many countries have spared no effort to help the Congo with food, medicines, materials and other forms of aid.I cannot pass over in silence the fact that the Congolese appreciate the gestures of human solidarity from the friends of our freedom.Similarly, we pay tribute to troops of the National Army for their fidelity. They are serving the Republic with a civic spirit and patriotism.From the very outset of these events, our troops have known no rest and their ideal is to serve the Republic, their country, to defend the people and the integrity of the Republic, and they are prepared to die for this ideal. They are possessed with the idea of entering Katanga without delay and liberating their brothers. They burn with impatience. This consciousness of our soldiers is encouraging the entire people." }

{ "content": "The Congo, dear delegates from the African countries, is inhabited by a peace-loving people, but they have decided to defend the unity of their beloved country. They are a people who really want peace and order and stretch out their hand to everybody who sincerely wishes to help them.Europeans of goodwill, Belgians of good intentions will always find a friendly welcome in our country. We want to turn the Congo into a great, free and flourishing nation, into a land of democracy and freedom.We are profoundly inspired by the trust that the African states are showing us today, and you may be sure, dear delegates, that we shall do everything in our power to justify that trust.The solidarity that you have demonstrated by gathering in Leopoldville today is a vivid lesson for our people. That is why we are making a fraternal appeal for unity to all our compatriots. Unity alone can help and save us. We are very proud to note today that this has been excellently understood by the Congolese people.Since Africa is showing her solidarity with regard to us, we, in our turn, must be more united than ever before. It is this unity, dear brothers in struggle, dear brothers in poverty, that strengthens us and enables us to hold out against the intrigues and plots of the colonialists.The presence in Leopoldville of representatives of all African countries is helping the cause of Africa. The Western world has realised that it can no longer continue its game without the risk of completely losing Africa's friendship.The Western world now appreciates the value that Africa attaches to her freedom and dignity. It has realised that if it wants to live in friendship with Africa it must respect Africa's dignity and rights.That is the decisive step that has been taken today towards the speedy and complete liberation of Africa and her normal co-operation with the rest of the world. Peace will not be complete in Africa until the West stops its. colonial activities.We declare that the Government and people of the Congo have no hate or hostility for Belgium or any other European nation. And yet no sooner had the Belgian Government announced the withdrawal of its troops from Katanga than it replaced them with other troops. They include, for example, the hundred Belgian gendarmes recently arrived in Katanga under the guise of \"technical advisers\", who will \"teach\" and \"train\" Tshombe's police.Moreover, before leaving Elisabethville, General Gheysen, commander of the Belgian occupation force in Katanga, demanded the creation of a neutral zone between Kasai and Katanga and the neutralisation of the bases in Kamina and Kitona. The Belgian general did not limit himself to recommendations. He took action. The roads, bridges and strategic points in Katanga were mined under the direction of the Belgian army and on direct instructions from the Government in Brussels.At the same time, the entire white population in Katanga was put in a state of mobilisation. Every European received a mobilisation notification signed by the commander of the Volunteer Corps and the Belgian Territorial Administrator.I shall read you the official mobilisation order.\"Kabalo Territory,\"Volunteer Corps,\"Mobilisation Order:\"M. Gerard Vanderschrick,\"ATA, Kabalo\"An additional 25 cartridge clips have been made available for your weapon.\"Your mission is:\"To remain at the Territory Bureau, where you will be at the disposal of the Commander of the Volunteer Corps, who will give you your assignment in patrol or guard duty.\"Before reporting to the Territory Bureau you have sufficient time (fifteen minutes after the receipt of this order) to take your family to the Hotel Verret—which has been set aside for non-combatants—where they will be assured the necessary protection. You are to take with you a suitcase with clothes, a water filter, pots and a minimum supply of food.\"Commander, Volunteer Corps, \"J. Bruhiere. \"Territory Administrator, \"H. Callens.\"This document has been turned over to the press.The Volunteer Corps is a military organisation created and maintained by the Belgian Government. It has demonstrated its resolute unwillingness to leave Katanga.The object of this manoeuvre of the Belgian Government is quite obvious: if, for the sake of appearances, it officially withdraws its troops it will, in reality, strengthen and reinforce its occupational potential by sending other military personnel under the guise of \"technicians\" and mobilising all Belgian nationals residing in Katanga. On behalf of the Government and people of the Congo, we are making it clear that it is not a matter of neutralising the bases at Kamina and Kitona, but of their total and complete evacuation.We do not want any foreign military base in the Congo, even if it is controlled and maintained by the United Nations.Not a single square metre of Congolese territory must belong to any foreign power, and nothing can and must be done in our country without the permission of its Government, which is the custodian of the legality and sovereignty of the Congolese people.We are simply a people who have suffered long from abasement of our dignity and our rights. We are a patient people.We know that nothing durable can be achieved by continued rancour, and we therefore demand that the Belgians and their allies stop all activity engendering disunity and hostility.The Government, supported by the people, will soon begin exploiting the country's wealth with the aid of a vast programme of investments.Political independence has no meaning if it is not accompanied by rapid economic and social development. We can achieve this progress only by tireless effort. With our own hands we shall soon build up our own economy.The Government of the Republic of the Congo shall make an effective contribution to enable Africa to liberate herself immediately from foreign rule. We ardently desire to see the rejuvenation of Africa despite our regional, language and philosophical differences and the difference in manners and customs.A free Africa, a united Africa, an undivided Africa, a determined Africa will play a great role in creating a better world, a fraternal world.Such, Your Excellencies and dear delegates, are the thoughts and profound hopes of the people and Government of the Republic of the Congo." }

{ "content": "We wish all of you a happy return home and ask you to be our intermediaries in conveying to your governments and peoples our sincere gratitude for the support you have given us in this period of ordeal that we are living through.United as the children of one family, we shall defend the honour and freedom of Africa.Long live African independence and solidarity!Long live the union of independent African states! Marxism and Anti-Imperialism in Africa |Patrice Lumumba Archive" }

{ "content": "Patrice LumumbaSPEECH AT THE CEREMONY OF THE PROCLAMATION OF THE CONGO'S INDEPENDENCEJune 30, 1960Source: Patrice Lumumba, The Truth about a Monstrous Crime of the Colonialists, Moscow, Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1961, pp. 44-47.Written: by Patrice Lumumba;Transcribed: by Thomas Schmidt.Men and women of the Congo,Victorious independence fighters,I salute you in the name of the Congolese Government.I ask all of you, my friends, who tirelessly fought in our ranks, to mark this June 30, 1960, as an illustrious date that will be ever engraved in your hearts, a date whose meaning you will proudly explain to your children, so that they in turn might relate to their grandchildren and great-grandchildren the glorious history of our struggle for freedom.Although this independence of the Congo is being proclaimed today by agreement with Belgium, an amicable country, with which we are on equal terms, no Congolese will ever forget that independence was won in struggle, a persevering and inspired struggle carried on from day to day, a struggle, in which we were undaunted by privation or suffering and stinted neither strength nor blood.It was filled with tears, fire and blood. We are deeply proud of our struggle, because it was just and noble and indispensable in putting an end to the humiliating bondage forced upon us.That was our lot for the eighty years of colonial rule and our wounds are too fresh and much too painful to be forgotten.We have experienced forced labour in exchange for pay that did not allow us to satisfy our hunger, to clothe ourselves, to have decent lodgings or to bring up our children as dearly loved ones.Morning, noon and night we were subjected to jeers, insults and blows because we were \"Negroes\". Who will ever forget that the black was addressed as \"tu\", not because he was a friend, but because the polite \"vous\" was reserved for the white man?We have seen our lands seized in the name of ostensibly just laws, which gave recognition only to the right of might.We have not forgotten that the law was never the same for the white and the black, that it was lenient to the ones, and cruel and inhuman to the others.We have experienced the atrocious sufferings, being persecuted for political convictions and religious beliefs, and exiled from our native land: our lot was worse than death itself.We have not forgotten that in the cities the mansions were for the whites and the tumbledown huts for the blacks; that a black was not admitted to the cinemas, restaurants and shops set aside for \"Europeans\"; that a black travelled in the holds, under the feet of the whites in their luxury cabins.Who will ever forget the shootings which killed so many of our brothers, or the cells into which were mercilessly thrown those who no longer wished to submit to the regime of injustice, oppression and exploitation used by the colonialists as a tool of their domination?All that, my brothers, brought us untold suffering.But we, who were elected by the votes of your representatives, representatives of the people, to guide our native land, we, who have suffered in body and soul from the colonial oppression, we tell you that henceforth all that is finished with.The Republic of the Congo has been proclaimed and our beloved country's future is now in the hands of its own people.Brothers, let us commence together a new struggle, a sublime struggle that will lead our country to peace, prosperity and greatness.Together we shall establish social justice and ensure for every man a fair remuneration for his labour.We shall show the world what the black man can do when working in liberty, and we shall make the Congo the pride of Africa.We shall see to it that the lands of our native country truly benefit its children.We shall revise all the old laws and make them into new ones that will be just and noble.We shall stop the persecution of free thought. We shall see to it that all citizens enjoy to the fullest extent the basic freedoms provided for by the Declaration of Human Rights.We shall eradicate all discrimination, whatever its origin, and we shall ensure for everyone a station in life befitting his human dignity and worthy of his labour and his loyalty to the country.We shall institute in the country a peace resting not on guns and bayonets but on concord and goodwill.And in all this, my dear compatriots, we can rely not only on our own enormous forces and immense wealth, but also on the assistance of the numerous foreign states, whose co-operation we shall accept when it is not aimed at imposing upon us an alien policy, but is given in a spirit of friendship.Even Belgium, which has finally learned the lesson of history and need no longer try to oppose our independence, is prepared to give us its aid and friendship; for that end an agreement has just been signed between our two equal and independent countries. I am sure that this co-operation will benefit both countries. For our part, we shall, while remaining vigilant, try to observe the engagements we have freely made.Thus, both in the internal and the external spheres, the new Congo being created by my government will be rich, free and prosperous. But to attain our goal without delay, I ask all of you, legislators and citizens of the Congo, to give us all the help you can.I ask you all to sink your tribal quarrels: they weaken us and may cause us to be despised abroad.I ask you all not to shrink from any sacrifice for the sake of ensuring the success of our grand undertaking.Finally, I ask you unconditionally to respect the life and property of fellow-citizens and foreigners who have settled in our country; if the conduct of these foreigners leaves much to be desired, our Justice will promptly expel them from the territory of the republic; if, on the contrary, their conduct is good, they must be left in peace, for they, too, are working for our country's prosperity.The Congo's independence is a decisive step towards the liberation of the whole African continent." }

{ "content": "Our government, a government of national and popular unity, will serve its country.I call on all Congolese citizens, men, women and children, to set themselves resolutely to the task of creating a national economy and ensuring our economic independence.Eternal glory to the fighters for national liberation!Long live independence and African unity!Long live the independent and sovereign Congo! Marxism and Anti-Imperialism in Africa |Patrice Lumumba Archive" }

{ "content": "Oleg ORESTOVTHE CONGO BEFORE AND AFTER THE ARREST OF THE PRIME MINISTER(From the diary of Oleg ORESTOV, \"Pravda\" correspondent)Source: Patrice Lumumba, The Truth about a Monstrous Crime of the Colonialists, Moscow, Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1961, pp. 99-105.Written: by Oleg ORESTOV;Transcribed: by Thomas Schmidt.LEOPOLDVILLE, August 5Yesterday the Council of Ministers of the Congo passed a decision on the expulsion from the country of the former Belgian Ambassador Van den Bosch. He was ordered to leave the country not later than Monday. Minister of Information Kashamura explained to correspondents that diplomatic relations with Belgium had been severed when the Belgians started their aggression against the Congo, but the Ambassador had illegally remained in the country.Kashamura added that the former Ambassador was carrying on his political activity and making statements that were damaging the interests of the Congo, and the Council of Ministers had, therefore, been compelled to take resolute measures.On the day before his expulsion Bosch called the Belgian correspondents together and told them that the relations between the Congo and Belgium were governed by an agreement signed on the eve of the Congo's independence and that this agreement could not be annulled unilaterally. The former Ambassador forgot to add that an event like Belgium's armed aggression against the Congo had taken place after the agreement had been signed and that as a result the relations between the two countries could not remain normal. Commenting on this illegal press conference, the newspaper Congo wrote: \"The Government decided to close the Belgian Embassy, but the latter is openly laughing at this decision. The Belgian diplomat has the effrontery to assert that the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Congo asked him to remain at his disposal.\" The newspaper added: \"The former Belgian Ambassador is scoffing at our independence.\"LEOPOLDVILLE, August 25Public opinion in the Congo is continuing to demand that Belgian aggression should be stopped immediately. In a conversation with a group of correspondents, Prime Minister Lumumba declared that the Security Council had condemned the Belgian intervention in the Congo and that he hoped the Secretary-General would fulfil his commitment to clear the country of all Belgian troops within eight days.Lumumba further stated that he protests against the attempt to leave \"technical specialists\" in the Congo because that was a mask for Belgian military personnel. He showed the note of protest that had just been sent to R. Bunche, the U.N. Secretary-General's special representative in the Congo. In this document Lumumba pointed to a report in the Belgian newspaper La libre Belgique, which stated that 20 Belgian gendarmes were to be sent to Elisabethville as \"technical aid to Katanga\". Lumumba was surprised that Belgian gendarmes were being sent to the country as \"technical aid\" on the eve of the withdrawal of Belgian troops from Katanga and the dismantling of military bases there. He demanded that the U.N. should forbid their departure for the Congo as that would be a violation of the Security Council's resolution.Some days ago Belgian military personnel arrived in the port of Matadi and high-handedly announced they had come for the military vehicles they had left behind. They were at once arrested by the Congolese police. Speaking of this incident to correspondents, a U.N. representative was forced to admit that there was an \"understanding\" between the Belgians and R. Bunche under which the Belgian military were allowed to return to the Congo for their \"property\". The U.N. representative claimed that Bunche had not had time to notify the Congolese authorities.In Leopoldville yesterday the police arrested seven armed Belgians and turned them over to the security forces. These men were employees of the Sabena Airlines and had been making for the border. Today the police discovered three Belgians operating an illegal radio transmitter in a house in the heart of the city. Weapons were found in the house. The arrival of a large contingent of police saved the spies from the angry crowds of Congolese.The colonialists are aiding and abetting each other. A French aircraft has just landed in Kasai Province with emissaries of the traitor Tshombe and Belgian agents who plan to distribute arms to the local tribes and foment fresh disorders.In reply to our questions Lumumba said that the Secretary-General has denied military assistance to the Republic of the Congo, and the Congolese people have decided to take action and restore order in the country themselves. Large contingents of the Congolese Army had already been dispatched to Kasai Province, where an armed clash inspired by agents of the imperialists had broken out between the tribes. \"Our government,\" Lumumba said, \"is morally bound to protect the population of Katanga Province even if the U.N. considers that its forces cannot 'interfere' in the matter. We are confident that we shall have the full backing of Katanga's population, which is whole-heartedly supporting the Central Government.\" The Prime Minister added that the puppet Tshombe regime would collapse as soon as Belgian troops would leave the military bases and Katanga Province.ACCRA, December 6All the newspapers are carrying alarming reports that Lumumba, who was seriously wounded by Mobutu's bandits, is being held in unbearable conditions in a military camp in Thysville. Reports from the Congo state that Mobutu's brigands had shaved his head and were keeping him imprisoned with his hands tied despite his serious wounds.This time, too, U.N. representatives did nothing to save Lumumba. After arresting Lumumba, the self-appointed Colonel Mobutu became more arrogant than ever. Backed by the U.S.A., Belgium and other Western Powers, he now says that he will hold power indefinitely. He told a foreign correspondent that \"as a political leader Lumumba is now finished\". Mobutu's gangs are continuing their rampage. They attacked the town of Kikwit, where they disarmed the police and butchered the people. Twelve people were killed, more than 30 wounded and the rest of the population fled to the forests." }

{ "content": "Mobutu's brazenness is imitated by his supporters under the traitor Kalondji in Kasai Province. Kalondji told Mobutu that he could transfer Lumumba to a jail in Bakwanga, which is controlled by Kalondji's gangs, saying that there he would be out of the reach of the U.N. forces. At the same time Kalondji demanded the arrest of Mkenji, the Prime Minister of the province, for speaking openly against the outrages committed by Mobutu's bandits.Mobutu and his clique are worried by the news from Orientale Province and its capital, Stanleyville, where the national and genuinely democratic elements are especially strong. According to reports, Stanleyville stood firm against the dictates of Mobutu and the imperialists and was gathering forces to fight for complete independence. Frightened by this news, Mobutu made the delirious statement that if the U.A.R. and the Sudan support the national forces in Stanleyville he will \"block the channels of the Nile's tributaries\". The lunatic \"colonel\" announced: \"In the last resort I will turn my army into an army of navvies and stop the water from flowing in the Nile.\"ACCRA, December 8According to people coming to Ghana from Leopoldville, the Congolese capital has been turned into an inferno. Today your correspondent interviewed E. Muenge who was in the Congo with a Ghanian technical aid team and has just returned to Accra. Asked what the situation was like in Leopoldville now, he said:\"After the Soviet Embassy and the representatives of the socialist countries left the Congo, Mobutu began his campaign against the independent African countries. By that time he had closed all the national progressive newspapers. Only two newspapers are being published and they are run by the Catholic priests and obvious Belgian stooges. This 'press' has launched a vile campaign against Ghana, Guinea, the U.A.R., Morocco and India. A Mobutu 'security officer' came to Welbeck, the Ghanian diplomatic representative, and handed him an 'order' to remove the Ghanian Embassy from the Congo. We were astonished to see that this order had been signed by President Kasavubu earlier. He was in New York when the incident occurred. This confirmed that Kasavubu had acted jointly with Mobutu and had prepared the ground so that during the attack on the Ghanian Embassy he would not be in the Congo and would be able to deny that he bore any responsibility. On November 21, Mobutu sent lorries filled with troops to the residence of the Ghanian Ambassador. Tunisian units of the U.N. force also arrived on the scene and when 'Colonel' Kokolo, Mobutu's right-hand man, tried to enter the house they stopped him. When that happened Mobutu's soldiers opened fire on the Tunisians. Kokolo made an attempt to get into the house through a window and was shot dead by U.N. soldiers. The firing lasted all evening and night until dawn. Nathaniel Welbeck left the Congo after receiving instructions to do so from his government. It is characteristic that the U.N. leaders did nothing to protect even the Leopoldville aerodrome against Mobutu's gangs. Some time ago they prevented representatives of Lumumba's Government from entering the aerodrome and even threatened to open fire if Lumumba officers appeared there. But now they calmly stand by and watch Mobutu's men lording it in the aerodrome, threatening the pilots of incoming aircraft, searching the aircraft and laying down the law as to which aircraft 'can' land in Leopoldville and which 'cannot'. After the departure of the Ghanian Embassy a similar campaign was started against the Embassy of the U.A.R. Attacks are planned against the embassies of other African countries, Guinea and Morocco in particular.\" Marxism and Anti-Imperialism in Africa |Patrice Lumumba Archive" }

{ "content": "Patrice LumumbaFrom the letter to the President of the UNGeneral AssemblyNovember 11, 1960Source: Patrice Lumumba, The Truth about a Monstrous Crime of the Colonialists, Moscow, Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1961, pp. 50-2.Written: by Patrice Lumumba;Transcribed: by Thomas Schmidt.The continuing political crisis provoked by the head of state,Mr. Kasavubu, on September 5, 1960 makes imminent the grave dangerof the Congo's complete break-up. A regime of anarchy anddictatorship has replaced the democratic regime established by theCongolese people on June 30, 1960. A tiny minority, advised andfinanced by certain foreign powers, is engaged in subversiveactivity night and day. The capital of the republic is a scene ofdisorder, where a handful of hired military men are ceaselesslyviolating law and order. The citizens of Leopoldville now liveunder a reign of terror. Arbitrary arrests, followed bydeportation, arc a daily and nightly occurrence, and many personsare reported missing. Murder, burglary and rape of married womenand young girls are committed almost daily by individuals bereft ofevery sense of morality and patriotism, who profess to be in theservice of the national army and of Mr. Kasavubu. The presidents ofthe provincial governments of Stanleyville and Leopoldville, Mr.Finant and Mr. Kamitatu, recognised leaders, elected by the people,and governing between them more than six million inhabitants to thesatisfaction of all concerned, are at this moment subjected toevery conceivable form of brutality and torture. These twoprovincial presidents-men wholly dedicated to the task of improvingthe well-being of their people-were taken by surprise by Mobutu'sthugs respectively on October 13, 1960 at Stanleyville and November10 at Leopoldville and are now in concentration camps set up atLeopoldville by Messrs. Kasavubu and Mobutu.The only fault of these worthy representatives of the people isloyalty to their country and disapproval of the unlawful acts ofMr. Kasavubu and his followers at Leopoldville, acts which areleading the country straight to disaster.Mr. Joseph Okito, President of the Senate, the second highestdignitary in the state, has had the same experience. He has severaltimes been arbitrarily arrested, beaten and then set free. Similarcrimes are daily committed against the membersof the majority group in Parliament and the members of the legallyconstituted government. They have even been officially prohibitedto leave Leopoldville and return to their provinces to meet theirconstituents and join their families; they are restricted in theirmovements in Leopoldville, which after all belongs to the entirenation. At Leopoldville the majority parties in Parliament areforbidden to publish newspapers. All loyal army personnel andgovernment officials, who wanted to have no truck with the unlawfulactivities and the policy of national demolition pursued by thehead of state and his handful of supporters at Leopoldville, havebeen dismissed from their posts, maltreated and turned out into thestreet. Hundreds of loyal soldiers who oppose Mobutu are sent backdaily to their villages; others are now in the Binza concentrationcamp. Soldiers are recruited on the basis of ethnic kinship withthe head of state and his minority supporters, the purpose being toterrorise those who do not share their views and opinions. Thosewho honestly and loyally champion the cause of the people are nowbeing butchered. The provisional institutions envisaged under theFundamental Law drawn up by the former colonial power have beenundermined and trampled in the dust by the head of state. Becauseit does not agree with him, Parliament has been high-handedlydismissed in violation of Articles 21 and 70 of the FundamentalLaw. Mr. Kasavubu confuses the parliamentary regime, which is oursystem, with the presidential regime. That is why he assumes thepowers vested in the Prime Minister under Article 36 of theFundamental Law. It is not for the head of state but for the PrimeMinister and my lawful government to send delegations to the UnitedNations, as I have done on three occasions. Parliament, thecountry's supreme organ, voted full powers to my government onSeptember 13, 1960. The confidence placed in my government by theentire nation is steadily increasing. The United Nations is notentitled to choose any course other than the one indicated byParliament. Certain slates, which are members of the UnitedNations, instead of conforming to the decisions taken by thesovereign Congolese Parliament, ignore them and support only theminority working against the will of the majority. Instead ofhelping the Congolese leaders to effect apeaceful settlement of the conflict provoked by Mr. Kasavubu,certain powers are doing their utmost to widen the breach betweenus, their plan being indirectly to bring about the dismemberment ofthe Congo. In this connection, the Congolese people as a wholedeplore the attitude of the United States Government; it is withgreat regret that I call the General Assembly's attention to thefact that, as eloquently testified by the documents seized, the 30million francs recently confiscated at Stanleyville from a group ofpersons plotting to seize power by a coup d'etatcame from United States sources. In view of theforegoing, and of the fact that the United Nations has provedunable to find a prompt solution in accordance with the expressedwill of the people, I propose, with the backing of the millions ofinhabitants I lawfully represent, that the solution of theCongolese problem should be left to the Congolese peoplethemselves.No one will then be able to accuse the United Nations ofpartiality in any eventual decision, or of interference in theCongo's internal affairs. With this end in view, I propose that apopular referendum be held without delay with the participation ofall the citizens of the republic, under the direction of theprovincial assemblies and governments but under the supervision ofa commission of United Nations observers. The said commission woulddo everything to ensure that all electors cast their votes freely.Steps would also be taken to prevent any fraud. The referendumwould relate to the adoption of a presidential regime, to befollowed by the election of the President of the Republic by directsuffrage. Such a referendum would enable the people to choosefreely and directly the leaders they want and thus to put an end tothe present crisis and to all the backstage manoeuvring. This isthe one and only way of restoring immediate peace and order in theCongo and so serving the interests of the mission undertaken by theUnited Nations in our country.Please accept, Mr. President, assurances of my high esteem.P. E. LUMUMBA Marxism and Anti-Imperialism in Africa |Patrice Lumumba Archive" }

{ "content": "Patrice LumumbaMAY OUR PEOPLE TRIUMPHSource: Patrice Lumumba, The Truth about a Monstrous Crime of the Colonialists, Moscow, Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1961, pp. 48-49.Written: by Patrice Lumumba;Transcribed: by Thomas Schmidt.Weep, O my black beloved brother deep buried in eternal, bestial night.O you, whose dust simooms and hurricanes have scattered all over the vast earth,You, by whose hands the pyramids were rearedIn memory of royal murderers,You, rounded up in raids; you, countless times defeatedIn all the battles ever won by brutal force;You, who were taught but one perpetual lesson,One motto, which was—slavery or death;You, who lay hidden in impenetrable junglesAnd silently succumbed to countless deathsUnder the ugly guise of jungle fever,Or lurking in the tiger's fatal jaws,Or in the slow embrace of the morassThat strangled gradually, like the python....But then, there came a day that brought the while,More sly, more full of spite than any death.Your gold he bartered for his worthless beads and baubles,He raped and fouled your sisters and your wives,And poisoned with his drink your sons and brothers,And drove your children down into the holds of ships.'Twas then the tomtom rolled from village unto village,And told the people that another foreign slave shipHad put off on its way to far-off shoresWhere God is cotton, where the dollar reigns as King.There, sentenced to unending, wracking labour,Toiling from dawn to dusk in the relentless sun,They taught you in your psalms to glorifyTheir Lord, while you yourself were crucified to hymnsThat promised bliss in the world of Hereafter,While you—you begged of them a single boon:That they should let you live—to live, aye—simplylive. And by a fire your dim, fantastic dreamsPoured out aloud in melancholy strains,As elemental and as wordless as your anguish. It happened you would even play, be merryAnd dance, in sheer exuberance of spirit:And then would all the splendour of your manhood, The sweet desires of youth sound, wild with power,On strings of brass, in burning tambourines.And from that mighty music the beginningOf jazz arose, tempestuous, capricious,Declaring to the whites in accents loudThat not entirely was the planet theirs.O Music, it was you permitted usTo lift our face and peer into the eyesOf future liberty, that would one day be ours.Then let the shores of mighty rivers bearing onTheir living waves into the radiant future,O brother mine, be yours!Let the fierce heat of the relentless middaysunBurn up your grief!Let them evaporate in everlasting sunshine,Those tears shed by your father and your grandsireTortured to death upon these mournful fields.And may our people, free and gay forever,Live, triumph, thrive in peace in this our Congo,Here, in the very heart of our great Africa! Marxism and Anti-Imperialism in Africa |Patrice Lumumba Archive" }

{ "content": "Patrice LumumbaStatement at a press conferenceAugust 19, 1960Source: Patrice Lumumba: Fighter for Africa’s Freedom, Moscow, Progress Publishers, 1961, pp 64-7.Written: by Patrice Lumumba;Transcribed: by Thomas Schmidt.This morning Mr. Bunche handed me a note from the U.N.Secretary-General.In it Mr. Hammarskjöld gives an account of a trivialincident between U.N. forces and the Congolese army. TheSecretary-General and his representatives in Leopoldville havedeliberately exaggerated this incident with the sole purpose ofusing it to further their aims on the eve of the Security Councilmeeting. Their purpose is to influence the opinion of the SecurityCouncil members in favour of the Secretary-General, who hascompromised himself by his actions in Katanga. This manoeuvre mustbe publicly exposed.What really happened is this. The Government of the Republicdecreed a state of emergency throughout the country. On the otherhand it was found that many foreigners are entering the Congowithout the agreement of the Government of the Republic. For themthe Congo has become an international market. These people arespying and continuously instigating disorders in the country.In this situation it was decided to check the identity of allpassengers of aircraft belonging to foreign powers. This check wasconducted with every sign of courtesy.Upon the arrival of two aircraft transporting Canadian militarypersonnel, the security forces wished to check the identity ofthese passengers. But the latter flatly refused to produce theiridentification papers and hurled coarse language at the Congoleseofficials.And even graver was the fact that Swedish troops of the U.N.force prevented the legal authorities from carrying out thischeck.It was, first and foremost, this attitude of the passengers andthen the behaviour of the European troops of the U.N. that startedthe incident.Let me point out that every day troops of the National Army areattacked and unjustly insulted by U.N. European military personnel.The latter seek to take the place of the Government of the countryand the legal authorities.Moreover, some days ago I notified Mr. Bunche, theGeneral-Secretary's special representative, of the Government'sdecision to have all the airfields in the Republic turned over tothe exclusive control of troops of the National Army.The United Nations representatives refused to comply with thisdecision of the supreme authority of the Republic.In view of this insolent attitude of the United Nations whitetroops sent into the Congo, the Government was compelled to demandtheir immediate withdrawal and allow only African troops to enterthe Congo under U.N. control. This will enable us to avoid a coldwar, because some states are now using units sent to the Congo fromcertain European countries to further their own interests. This hasalready been proved, and for the benefit of the Security Council Istress once again that the Government of the Republic has passed adecision on the withdrawal of all military units belonging toEuropean nations.We have stated, on the other hand, that the United Nationsspecial representative in the Congo has distributed U.N. armbandsamong Belgian nationals and that they have used this badge toattack the Congolese population.The U.N. Secretary-General declares in his note that he will beobliged to ask the Security Council to reconsider the entire UnitedNations action in the Congo. This blackmail by theSecretary-General does not surprise us.To this my reply is that for its part the Government of theRepublic is prepared to renounce the services of the UnitedNations, because the Congo, a sovereign and independent country, isnobody's property. We can easily and quickly restore order byourselves and with the direct assistance that we can get from anumber of countries, which have already given us their selflesssupport.The Government of the Republic:1. condemns the personal actions of the U.N.Secretary-General;2. demands the immediate withdrawal of white troops, who werebehind the latest incidents and who have shown bad intent withregard to the Republic;3. demands and repeats its request that a group of observersfrom neutral countries, a list of which has already been submittedto the Security Council, be sent to the Congo;4. confirms its desire loyally to co-operate with the UnitedNations in establishing peace on earth.Patrice Lumumba concluded his statement by pointing out that itwas only the intervention of some African states that forced theSecretary-General to give up his intention of placing the CongoleseGovernment before an accomplished fact by convening the SecurityCouncil before the arrival of a Congolese delegation.He confirmed the trust of the Congolese Government in the UnitedNations and the Security Council. \"We appealed for the services ofthe United Nations ourselves,\" he emphasised. \"If some countriesaspire to use the Secretary-General for their own purposes, we sayto them that they will be condemned by the African peoples.\"Lumumba pointed out that even if circumstances compelled theCongolese Government to renounce the services of the UnitedNations, it would not mean that the Congo would withdraw from thatorganisation because it did not identify the actions of individualswith the ideals of the United Nations. Marxism and Anti-Imperialism in Africa |Patrice Lumumba Archive" }

{ "content": "Romano LEDDAMEETINGS WITH LUMUMBASource: Patrice Lumumba: Fighter for Africa ’s Freedom, Moscow, Progress Publishers, 1961, pp 93-104.Written: by Romano LEDDA, Italian journalist;Transcribed: by Thomas Schmidt.\"You say you are an Italian journalist and wish to get a visa for the Congo? Why do you wish to go there?\" those were the first words Patrice Lumumba said to me in Conakry at the residence of Sekou Toure.Why? It was the beginning of August 1960. The whole world was watching Lumumba, and this man whom nearly two hundred journalists were hunting all over Africa was asking me: \"Why?\" For more than ten days I had waited in suspense in the hope of finding an aircraft that was going to the Congo from the Guinean capital. I was beginning to grow desperate when Lumumba arrived on his tour of the capitals of African states. I pinned all my hopes on my talk with him and therefore prepared a long speech. With his simple question he made that speech unnecessary, and all I could do was to mumble some words that sounded banal to my own ears.I watched him as he looked through my papers.... Tall and very thin, the Head of the Congolese Government bore the marks of the suffering he had gone through in prison and of the strain of his present work. The austere black suit gave his elegant figure and his entire appearance a modesty that was devoid of any ostentation. But his face was what really attracted me: small, with a sharp chin and a goatee that made him look wily and even sly, it became unusually naive-looking and good-natured as soon as the lips parted in a broad smile.And then the eyes. Infinitely lively, they reflected all the anxieties and sufferings of the last months of his life: the sufferings of a prisoner of the Belgians, the pride of the Prime Minister of the Congolese Republic, love for the people, abhorrence of injustice, responsiveness to the pulse of Africa, the fury of struggle, and responsibility before history. It seemed as though one image was superimposed over another, changing the picture of Lumumba that I had brought with me from Europe and my first superficial impressions, but making it impossible as yet to form a firm opinion of him.\"I'm sorry,\" he said with a foxy smile, \"but unfortunately I cannot give you a visa for the Congo because all the airports are under U.N. control. All I can offer you is to come with me in my aircraft. But you will have to be patient. You will have to follow me to Monrovia, Accra and Lome. We'll go on to the Congo after that.\"...It was more than I had hoped for. For nearly three days I travelled with Lumumba and could see him almost at any time I liked. I found that this person, so hated and slandered in the West, was really one of the most generous and most earnest men in the African continent, one of the most courageous fighters and one of the most gifted and modern-thinking leaders of the national, anti-imperialist movement.* * *The official reasons for our meetings with Lumumba were the communiqués on talks first with Tubman, then with Nkrumah and, finally, with Sylvanus Olympio. But in the aircraft and after official banquets he frequently looked for us to have a talk, hear our opinions and sometimes, if there was a need for it, to discuss what one or another journalist was planning to write.In Lome, Togo, for example, we witnessed the political meetings between Lumumba and Olympio. Hostile to any form of \"protocol\" (but by no means ignoring the importance of the position he occupied), Lumumba wanted us to sit with his delegation in the meeting room, declaring that he had \"nothing to hide from the world\". That is why, when the talks ended, we remained behind and got into a conversation. Lumumba had recently returned from a visit to the United States, and Tom Brady of The New York Times asked him what he thought of the country. Lumumba said he found it a wonderful country and that he had been given a magnificent reception.\"As a matter of fact,\" he noted, \"some centuries ago America fought for her independence against foreigners. It would seem that the Americans should never forget it, but it looks to me as if they are beginning to forget.\"\"Why do you think so?\" Brady asked.\"Look what's happening in the United Nations,\" Lumumba replied. \"We gazed at the world, at the whole world, with trust. I am not a Communist, although you maintain that I am. But America, no matter how things go, is on the side of the colonialists. Perhaps she's not on the side of Belgium, but it's obvious that in using the U.N. she has her eye on our riches. It's like that business over the aircraft, for which I was attacked by newspapermen. I flew to America in a Russian plane. That is true. I asked the Americans for a plane, but they refused to let me have one after procrastinating with their reply for two whole days. What was I to do? I asked the Russians for a plane, and they put one at my disposal in two hours. Now it is said that I am a Communist. But judge for yourself what was more important: to be regarded a Communist or to turn down an opportunity to go to the U.N. to defend our interests there? Judge for yourself.\"After this many people said Lumumba was an empiricist, that he manoeuvred wherever he could, turning this way and that, shifting and dodging. I do not share that opinion. At that time he was only learning to administer a state that had risen from nothing, and in everything he did he proceeded from his own perception of the world. Man was the main thing. All else was mystification. All men want to be free, and that is why all people can and must help the Congo. The only \"but\" here is that this aid must in no way restrict the Congo's freedom." }

{ "content": "Pursuing this general line, he trusted everybody, even adventurist businessmen who, seeking publicity, spoke of unreal projects and gave out that they were planning to put money into them. This went on for the first few weeks after he came to power. But later, in August 1960, he began to be more discriminating. This was dictated by the nature of the struggle, whose objective was to win political and economic independence for the country. Neither Tom Brady nor any of the others who called Lumumba a \"frenzied Communist\" understood this at the time.Keen, enthusiastic and determined to fulfil his role as leader of the Congolese, Lumumba was a calm person by nature and, despite his youth, inclined to meditation. He was thirty-four, but he was weighted down by the entire burden of seventy-five years of grief, slavery and poverty. He had absorbed into himself, as it were, all of his people's sufferings.The whole Government came to the aerodrome to meet him when we landed in Leopoldville. A small group of journalists, myself among them, accompanied him to his home. Formerly the residence of the Belgian governor, the house was built in the taste of a Flemish sausage-maker: salons decorated in baroque alternated with small, colonial-style drawing-rooms, and the only really beautiful things in it were the tragic and grotesque totems from the African bush. Lumumba refused to move into one of the magnificent villas built by Belgian businessmen on a hill. He turned the house virtually into a camp, dividing the rooms into living premises and offices.His wife and three children waited at the entrance. The small woman, who was still unused to the role of wife of a man the whole world was talking about, and the man, who for a moment forgot everything about him, merged in a long and moving embrace. With a happy look on his face he introduced his three children, François, Juliana and Patrice, the eldest, who asked his father if he had brought back a cowboy hat.A few minutes later (it was about 11 p.m.), Lumumba made a short statement to more than two hundred newsmen about his trip to America and his African tour, and then got the Government together to analyse the situation. The meeting ended at about four in the morning. I later learned that he worked eighteen hours a day, because he had to look into all sorts of problems, even trifling ones. He patiently endeavoured to satisfy all callers.There were many volumes in his bookcase: speeches by Sekou Toure and Nkrumah, magazines, poetry, and a biography of Simon Kimbangu.\"All these books,\" he said, \"reached me in the past few years through underground channels. They were our daily bread in the days when we had the luck to be out of prison.\"I saw Lumumba nearly every day at his routine press conference. He would walk into the big room, make a short statement and then answer questions for about an hour. At these press conferences each newsman, who was in any way fair, could appreciate Lumumba's statesmanship despite the young Prime Minister's native simplicity and inexperience. He was guided by modern ideas suggested to him by the experience of revolution, which although modern in spirit clashed with the reality that was only just crystallising, with tribal differences, ethnic contradictions, and the grim heritage of colonial rule.There was, I remember, an amazing press conference in connection with events that disturbed the peace in the city and brought rival tribes into collision. At that press conference Lumumba spoke of national unity, of the honour of being conscious that one was a Congolese and not a Baluba or a Batetela. He spoke of the sacrifices that the people would have to make to create a nation, of the patience that was needed to put an end to the deep-rooted enmity. He was afraid of a war between the Congolese and did his utmost to avert it. That was why he tolerated in his Government even his enemies who were already plotting against him.* * *Although these contacts were considerable, each of us wanted to know more, to speak to Lumumba personally, to get interviews from him and learn what was uppermost in his mind. But that was impossible. Pressure of work put him out of our reach.And yet I had the great luck to see him outside a press conference.We newsmen were told to come at four o'clock, but the hour hand showed five and still Lumumba did not appear. The newsmen became nervous and grumbled, and one of them, I do not remember who he represented but he was undoubtedly a racialist, declared:\"We can't let a Negro, even if he is a Prime Minister, keep us waiting so long.\"There are scoundrels among newspapermen as well.There were about thirty people, and gradually all of them followed the racialist out of the room. Only an East Berlin correspondent and I stayed behind. Lumumba, who had been informed of everything by his secretary, appeared a few minutes later. I could see he was angry. But he quickly gained control over himself and, courteously asking us to take a seat, said:\"It's idiotic. Any racialism, white or black, is simply idiotic. I know,\" he said, turning to me, \"that you are a Communist. But that's not the point. You are a cultured person like your comrade here. Tell me, what can I do for you?\"That was when I got my interview.I got my second close look at Lumumba at the aerodrome in Leopoldville. I was at my hotel when somebody from the office of the Council of Ministers telephoned and told me to drive to the aerodrome. I got there at the same time as Lumumba. With him were General Lundula, Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports Mpolo, and two soldiers. He got out of his car, went to the hangar alone, opened the door and shouted:\"In the name of the Congolese Government you are arrested.\"" }

{ "content": "In the hangar were about sixty Belgian paratroopers. They were armed to the teeth and were guarded by U.N. Swedish troops. It was a unique situation. It is quite unusual for a Prime Minister personally to arrest people. And if an unarmed man with only a few companions sets out to arrest armed paratroopers he must be brave as a lion. Lumumba had that courage. It was a sober, conscious courage, a courage that is ruled by common sense and gives birth to true heroism.There was nothing the Belgians could do. Ten minutes later the stunned paratroopers climbed into a lorry that was waiting for them.Five minutes after they were gone Lumumba laughed over the episode and said:\"If we had decided to wait until this was done by the U.N. Secretary-General, we would have found the paratroopers under our beds.\"Although Lumumba called upon his people to have full trust in the U.N. because he wanted to avoid bloodshed, he was perfectly well aware that Hammarskjöld's behaviour was the principal reason for the disorders. Now he was looking for a solution that would not infringe upon the Congo's territorial integrity or restrict its economic and political independence. The solution lay in appealing to the people, in mobilising them and drawing them into direct participation in the Congo's struggle against old and new colonialism.The Congolese were his people. It seems to me that I never saw Lumumba so happy and confident as when he toured Orientale Province and visited Stanleyville. It was where during the rule of the Belgians Lumumba had struggled, suffered and worked to create the first modern Congolese party that would stand above tribal discord and be linked up with the African national movement. It was where day after day for five years he had trained personnel, established branches of his party in every village and united the entire province around his programme.* * *The huge, jubilant crowd of politically mature people that welcomed him on his arrival was different from the crowds in other parts of the Congo. It was a triumph. One could feel that Lumumba had merged with his people. I remember his old father. His face bore the marks of poverty and he had the coarse hands of a man who had hunted for food with bow and arrow. Now these hands embraced the son, who was carried aloft by young people chanting: \"Uhuru—Freedom!\"On the next day we were in the bush. Women, old men and children poured out of every village to the river bank to celebrate, honour and speak with Lumumba, their \"son, the son of the earth, their brother in grief and hope\". A long Moslem gown, symbol of authority, was put on him. He laughed, shaking hands with everybody, and in each village he spoke, sang and danced with his people, inviting us to join in the dancing.That evening he made one of the most important speeches of his short career. Starting a very interesting conversation with the people at the stadium in Stanleyville (the peasants asked questions and he replied, and then he asked them for advice and they gave it), Lumumba spoke of the profound transformations that were needed to place the Congo's enormous wealth into the hands of the people, of the new state system under which tribes had to disappear, of popular initiative and the liberation of Katanga, of the future united and peace-loving Africa. He spoke in Lingala and then translated his words into French for our benefit, for the three or four European newsmen accompanying him.Other Europeans suddenly appeared in the stadium. They were Belgians who had refused to leave the Congo and wanted to co-operate with Lumumba's Government. With a happy smile, he called them to the rostrum, introduced them to the people as brothers and, addressing us, said:\"Tell the whole world about this. We are not opposed to white people. We do not mean harm to anybody. People of every colour must be friends. That is our goal.\"In the evening we had dinner with him at the residence of the provincial governor. There was nervousness, tension in the air. I was told that important news was expected from Katanga. An hour later we heard a car drive up, and Lumumba started. He rose, ran to the door and cried:\"They've come!\"They were several Baluba who had arrived from Katanga. In order to slip through the Belgian guards, they had made the journey in an ambulance. Throughout the week's journey they had had only one hour of fresh air at night and several bananas as their entire ration. In rags, hungry, and seeming to fall asleep as they walked, they looked like phantoms. I hurried over to them. The Baluba chief, who was fighting Tshombe, shouted when he saw me with a notebook in my hand:\"We haven't come here for a press conference. Lumumba, we've come for fighting men.\"Lumumba embraced each one of them in turn, questioned them and solicitously looked to their needs with a tenderness I never suspected him capable of. And yet such was Lumumba. On the following morning our cars came across a large group of ragged soldiers, with whom were women and children. Lumumba stopped his car and wanted to know who they were. They proved to be Congolese soldiers, who had been transferred to Ruanda-Urundi and had refused to serve the Belgians. The Belgians had requisitioned all their property and told them they could walk back to the Congo. It was the first time I saw tears in Lumumba's eyes. He took all the money he had on him, emptied the pockets of his Ministers and gave it all to these people. At the same time, in spite of the financial crisis in the Congo and the shortage of funds, he ordered these people to be given housing and 50,000 francs for immediate needs, and enlisted in the Congolese National Army." }

{ "content": "Such was Lumumba. He shared all he had with his people. When he became Prime Minister he did not draw a salary, ate very frugally and in no way took advantage of his high position. Many of the Ministers, of course, did not act in the same way. There were Ministers who spent money right and left (they had never had money before), and frequented luxury cabarets and bars, learning of their existence for the first time. They enjoyed all the blessings of authority, and all of them were on the other side of the fence, with the Belgians, with the colonialists.I saw how Lumumba lived with my own eyes. One day I went to see a doctor at an out-patient clinic and there met his wife, small Patrice and his driver Maurice, a devoted and intelligent young man. Maurice told me that Lumumba was looking for me. He had been given an Italian magazine rifle and wanted to show it to me. I went to his home and, as usual, found him immersed in a multitude of affairs. He invited me into his flat. It consisted of a tiny room with three beds for the children, another room with a bed, wardrobe and chest of drawers for himself and his wife, a small and very simply furnished dining-room and a kitchen. They had no servants. His wife, a small, pregnant woman, did the cooking for the family and also for Maurice and Lumumba's brother Louis. They were expecting another child and were thinking of getting another flat. This was Lumumba's only plan for his family.* * *Later I saw Lumumba at the All-African Conference in Leopoldville, where he made one of his most magnificent speeches. In it he gave full voice to his nationalist convictions, his all-absorbing love for the Congo and his ideal of a united Africa. One of the phrases sat deep in my mind. I should say it revealed most fully what he felt and wished. He said:\"We were offered a choice between liberation and the continuation of bondage. There can be no compromise between freedom and slavery. We chose to pay the price of freedom.\"The last time I saw him was before my departure from the Congo. It was a Saturday. I went to say good-bye to him and thank him for his assistance. I doubt if he ever knew my name. To him I was simply an Italian journalist, a correspondent of one of the few European newspapers that watched the struggle of the Congolese people with sympathy and understanding.I found him, as usual, at work. The situation was not very good, but at least it was calm. No one expected a coup d'etat (it took place on Monday). At the time Lumumba was working on two or three decisive problems: the liberation of Katanga, relations with the U.N., and aid from abroad in order to allow the Congo to hold out. Famine was knocking on the door. Lumumba took a few minutes off for a talk with me. He spoke optimistically of the future. He had profound faith in people. I wished him every success and a long life. Once more he told me that his life was of no importance whatever but that he was firmly convinced that no Congolese would ever raise his hand against him.\"We are all blood brothers.\"His last words to me were:\"You will probably come back to the Congo and we'll meet again. You will find a free, rich and flourishing country with no survivals of slavery.\"That is what he wanted most of all, and for that he was murdered. Marxism and Anti-Imperialism in Africa |Patrice Lumumba Archive" }

{ "content": "Tomas KOLESNICHENKOPATRICE LUMUMBA'S SECOND LIFESource: Patrice Lumumba: Fighter for Africa’s Freedom, Moscow, Progress Publishers, 1961, pp 110-113.Written: by Tomas KOLESNICHENKO, Soviet journalist;Transcribed: by Thomas Schmidt.This man has two lives. The first was cut short by the colonialists. The second will last eternally.Patrice Emery Lumumba, a young African with attentive, radiant eyes, has for ever taken his place in the ranks of heroic fighters who sacrificed their lives for human happiness. In the Congo we clearly saw this second life of the country's first Prime Minister, who chose torture and death rather than submit.He has remained eternally young, fighting and unconquerable.Time has not yet stilled the pain. It seems only recently that he lived, laughed and frowned. \"He made a speech at this very aerodrome,\" we were told by Albert Busheri, commissioner of Paulice in Orientale Province, whom we met in the spring of 1961. \"The heat was unbearable, but the people stood absolutely still while Patrice spoke.\"\"What did he say?\"\"I don't remember the words, but I can still hear his wrathful voice accusing the Belgian colonialists of crimes, of the infinite suffering they caused our country. Then a note of excitement crept in when he spoke of what our country would be like when it became independent. As I listened to him, I pictured a new Congo to myself, a Congo with factories, new houses, schools, hospitals, and new people—doctors and engineers—not Belgians but Congolese. There's nothing of that now.\"A sad look appeared on Busheri's face. After a moment's silence he went on:\"We have a fine hospital here in Paulice, but it's not operating. There's not a single doctor in the town. But in spite of everything this country will be what Lumumba wanted it to be. You'll see....\"One evening we learned that in Paulice there was a man who was called Lumumba's teacher.It was already night when we knocked on the door of a small house on the outskirts of the town.... Paul Kimbala was an elderly man. Our guides respectfully called him \"father\". He rose heavily to his feet, went to another room and came back with a tattered book. On it its owner had written in his own hand: \"Patrice Lumumba\". We carefully turned over the yellowed pages. A volume of lectures on logic, it had belonged to Lumumba. \"I'm going to turn it over to a museum. We'll have Lumumba museums one day, and towns will be named after him,\" Kimbala said.\"Like Lumumba, I am a Batetela. We come from the same village. I knew his father well. His father was a Catholic and Patrice went to a Protestant school. Mission schools were the only places in the Congo where one could get an education. But he did not stay in that school long. Religion did not interest him and he was expelled. Later he came to live with me in Stanleyville. He worked and continued with his studies. He was an amazing youth. There was a library near our house and he used to spend every free moment in it. Every evening, I remember, he used to come home with a large heap of paper, which was covered with writing. 'They're extracts, father,' he said to me. 'They'll be useful to me.' I don't remember seeing him resting or simply making merry. Even when others would be singing and dancing or feasting, I would always see him with a book. Patrice was very persevering.\"Then he went to Leopoldville, where he studied in a Post Office school for six months. After he finished the school he wrote to me asking whether he should stay on in Leopoldville or return to Stanleyville. I advised him to return. He came back to Stanleyville and worked as the manager of a small Post Office branch 80 kilometres away from the town. All that time he regarded my home as his own. He married Pauline Opanga in my house. How happy he was at his wedding.\"In 1954 I moved to Paulice, leaving my house to Lumumba. I did not see him again until 1960.\"Kimbala grew thoughtful. The flame flickered in the kerosene lamp on the small table. We sat with bated breath and the prolonged shrill notes of the cicadas were all that disturbed the silence of the Congolese night.\"The last time I saw Patrice,\" Kimbala said, resuming his story, \"was in the summer of 1960, when he was the Prime Minister of the country. I visited him in Leopoldville. There were many people around him and it was impossible to get close to him. But I stood in the house and waited. Suddenly he saw me and came striding over to me. 'You came, father,' he said to me in our native Batetela. I had no money and asked him to help me. With an embarrassed smile he said: 'I don't have any money either, but we'll soon fix that.' He turned to the people around him and said: 'Who can give me some money?' Scores of hands were stretched out to him. It was our last meeting. I never saw- him again.\"Patrice was my pupil and I'm proud of him. I watched him begin his struggle. It was when he was working in a Post Office near Stanleyville. He and his friends frequently gathered in my house.\"... In Stanleyville we did not have to look long for Patrice Lumumba's house. Everybody knew it, and people from all over the Congo came specially to see it. There were many people near the house when we arrived. They carried portraits of Lumumba and stood in silence. And on a green lawn, in front of the verandah where Pauline Lumumba and her younger son Roland were sitting, a group of peasants dressed in ancient national costumes were performing funeral dances to the beat of a tom-tom. The dancers swayed slowly in time to the rhythm. The tiny bells sewn on their costumes jingled, forming a contrast to the hollow sounds of the tom-tom.The rhythm grew faster and soon the group was performing a war dance. The grief and hopeless despair in the beat of the tom-tom gave way to a call for vengeance...." }

{ "content": "Lumumba's family has a heavy burden of sorrow, but they are not alone. The people of the Congo remember their national hero.Darkness descends swiftly on the equator. When we left Lumumba's house, the lilac sky was covered with a black, star-spangled blanket. People were still standing near the house, and it seemed that the tall, thin man with the proud name of Patrice Emery Lumumba, who is living on, would appear at any moment. Marxism and Anti-Imperialism in Africa |Patrice Lumumba Archive" }

{ "content": "Patrice LumumbaAddress to Congolese YouthAugust, 1960Source: Patrice Lumumba: Fighter for Africa’s Freedom, Moscow, Progress Publishers, 1961, pp 33-36.Written: by Patrice Lumumba;Transcribed: by Thomas Schmidt.Today I am addressing the youth, the young men and women of the Republic of the Congo.In speaking to them, I am addressing these words to future generations because the future of our beloved country belongs to them.We are fighting our enemies in order to prepare a better and happier life for our youth.If we had been egoists, if we had thought only about ourselves we would not have made the innumerable sacrifices we are making.I am aware that our country can completely liberate herself from the chains of colonialism politically, economically and spiritually only at the price of a relentless and sometimes dangerous struggle. Together with the youth of the country, we have waged this struggle against foreign rule, against mercantile exploitation, against injustice and pressure.Young people who have been inactive and exploited for a long time have now become aware of their role of standard-bearer of the peaceful revolution.The young people of the Congo have fought on our side in towns, villages and in the bush. Many of our young men have been struck down by the bullets of the colonialists. Many of them left their parents and friends in order to fight heroically for the cause of freedom. The resistance that the young people offered the aggressors in Leopoldville on January 4 and in Stanleyville on October 30, 1959, deserves every praise.With deep emotion I bow in memory of these courageous patriots, these fighters for African freedom.The time is not far distant when large numbers of young men and women were driven out of schools by their white teachers and instructors on the suspicion of having nationalist ideas. Many brilliantly gifted young people turned down the opportunity to receive a higher education for the simple reason that they no longer wished to be indoctrinated by the colonialists, who wanted to turn our young men and women into eternal servants of the colonial regime.During the heroic struggle of the Congolese nationalists, the young people, even those who were still sitting at school desks, resolutely opposed all new forms of colonialism, whether political, social, spiritual or religious.Their only dream was national liberation. Their sole aim was immediate independence. Their only resolve was to wage an implacable struggle against the puppets and emissaries of the colonialists.Thanks to the general mobilisation of all the democratic youth of the Congo, the Congolese nationalists won independence for the nation. We received this independence at the price of a grim struggle, at the price of all sorts of privations, at the price of tears and blood.After independence was solemnly proclaimed on June 30, 1960, the colonialists and their black emissaries started a barbarous war in the young Republic of the Congo. They began this perfidious aggression because the nationalist Government now in power did not want them to continue exploiting our country as they did prior to June 30, the historic day when the people of our country said Adieu to the Belgian colonialists.Not having any support whatever, particularly among the working class, who have had their fill of colonial exploitation, the colonialists and their henchmen now want to force certain sections of the youth to serve them in order to be able to propagandise the revival of colonialism. That is why a certain part of the youth, luckily not a very numerous part, have plunged into national defeatism.Happily, the vast majority of the young people saw through this last attempt of the imperialists, who are turning into account the dissatisfaction of some malcontents, of those who failed in the elections because they did not have the confidence of the people.This nationalist youth recently held demonstrations in various towns in the Republic to show their absolute and total opposition to imperialist intrigues.Young people, I salute you, and congratulate you on your civic and patriotic spirit. Young people, specially for you I have created a Ministry for Youth Affairs and Sports under the Central Government. It is your Ministry. It is at your disposal. Many of you, without any discrimination, will be called upon to direct this Ministry, its different services and activities.Today, in the free and independent Congo we must not have a Bangala, National Unity Party, Association of Bakongo, Mukongo, Batetela or Lokele youth but a united, Congolese, nationalist, democratic youth. This youth will serve the social and economic revolution of our great and beloved country.You must energetically combat tribalism, which is a poison, a social scourge that is the country's misfortune today. You must combat all the separatist manoeuvres, which some of the preachers of the policy of division are trying to pass off to young and inexperienced people under the name of federalism, federation or confederation.In reality, young people, these names are only a new vocabulary brought by the imperialists to divide us in order the better and more conveniently to exploit us. Your entire future will be threatened if you do not oppose these manoeuvres, this new, disguised colonisation.You must be proud that you belong to a great nation, a great country, a mighty power. This power, which the imperialists envy today, is embodied in national unity. This unity must be the heritage that you, in your turn, shall leave to your children.The Government will soon send 300 young people to study in the U.S.A., 150 in the Soviet Union and 20 in Guinea, not to mention other countries.The Congo is no longer a national reservation, a national park, a zoo which we could not leave. Tomorrow you shall go everywhere to study, to learn a speciality, and to get to know the world. Workers, working people will have an equal share in these study missions.You shall go everywhere, to all the parts of the world. These contacts with the outside world, this direct confrontation with the reality of life will make you experienced people, whom the free and independent Congo needs today." }

{ "content": "You will go there not as representatives of Association of Bakongo, National Unity Party, Congo National Movement or African Regroupment Centre youth. You will be Congolese citizens, simply Congolese. And by your behaviour, devotion, intelligence and political maturity you must be a credit to your Congolese motherland.Young people, the Congo belongs to you. The national Government, the people's Government will do everything in its power to prevent the Congo from being torn away from you.Long live the Republic of the Congo!Long live the people's, democratic youth! Marxism and Anti-Imperialism in Africa |Patrice Lumumba Archive" }

{ "content": "Patrice LumumbaCorrespondence with United Nations GeneralSecretary Dag HammarskjöldJuly & August 1960Source: 1. letter: Patrice Lumumba, The Truth about a Monstrous Crime of the Colonialists, Moscow, Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1961, p. 71, the rest: Patrice Lumumba: Fighter for Africa’s Freedom, Moscow, Progress Publishers, 1961, p 49-58..Written: by Patrice Lumumba;Transcribed: by Thomas Schmidt.From a letter to DagHammarskj�ld, U.N. Secretary-General, July 26,1960New York, July 20, 1960I am informing you of the following facts: 50 soldiers have beenshelled in Shinkolobwe, seven soldiers have been killed inJadotville, 40 soldiers have been killed in Elisabethville and 12soldiers have been killed in Kolwezi.The Minister of Justice reports that thousands of Congolesecitizens have been fired on in Kipushi, Dilolo, Bukama, Manono,Kabalo, Albertville, Kabongo, Kamina and Kaniamba. In addition,European settlers are killing all Congolese appearing singly on thehighways.This report has come from the general of our national army Mr.Victor Lundula.The Minister of Justice of our republic informs us that theBelgian troops, now being withdrawn from the other provinces of theCongo, are concentrating in Katanga Province, where they have theirheadquarters. The Minister insists on the unconditional andimmediate withdrawal of Belgian troops from the entire territory ofthe country.In view of the gravity of the situation, I permit myself toinsist once again on the following demand that was forwarded to youearlier: \"Belgian troops must be immediately withdrawn from theCongo.\"I ask you to inform the members of the Security Council of these new facts from the Congo.P. LUMUMBAPrime MinisterFrom a telegram to DagHammarskj�ld, U.N. Secretary-General, August 5,1960I am happy the U.N. has decided to send troops to Katanga. I amaware that with the help of cunning manoeuvres inspired by Belgianofficers, whom the Government of Brussels has assigned to Tshombe,the Belgian Government has attempted to ignore the decisions of theUnited Nations. I firmly hope you will not give in to the blackmailof the Government of Belgium through its puppet Tshombe.I cannot understand how Dr. Bunche could go to Katanga todiscuss with Tshombe the question of the arrival of U.N. troops inthat province. Such negotiations with a member of a provincialgovernment contradict the decisions of the Security Council.The Security Council had, after all, instructed you to take thenecessary steps, in consultation with the Government of the Congo,to render us such military assistance as we may require. Youshould, therefore, negotiate with our Government and not withTshombe.In an effort to retain its troops in Katanga with the purpose ofstabilising the split it has provoked, the Belgian Governmentasserts that its troops were sent to Katanga Province on Tshombe'srequest.With that decision the Belgian Government admits that itinitiated the breakaway of Katanga Province. In its resolution ofJuly 22, the Security Council called upon all states to refrainfrom any action that might hinder the restoration of public orderand the exercise of authority by the Congolese Government.Similarly, it requested these states to refrain from any actionthat might undermine the territorial integrity and the politicalindependence of the Republic of the Congo. By placing its troopsand military advisers at Tshombe's disposal to facilitate thesplitting up of the Congo and to obstruct the actions of the UnitedNations, the Belgian Government openly hinders the restoration ofpublic order in the Congo and the exercise of authority by theCongolese Government.Patrice LUMUMBAFrom a letter to DagHammarskjöld, U.N. Secretary-General, August 14,1960As it has informed Mr. Bunche, the Government of the Republic ofthe Congo can in no way agree with your personal interpretation,which is unilateral and erroneous. The resolution of July 14, 1960,explicitly states that the Security Council authorises you \"toprovide the Government (of the Republic of the Congo] with suchmilitary assistance as may be necessary\". This text adds that youare to do so \"in consultation with\" my Government. It is,therefore, clear that in its intervention in the Congo the UnitedNations is not to act as a neutral organisation but rather that theSecurity Council is to place all its resources at the disposal ofmy Government. From these texts it is clear that contrary to yourpersonal interpretation, the United Nations force may be used \"tosubdue the rebel Government of Katanga\", that my Government maycall upon the United Nations services to transport civilian andmilitary representatives of the Central Government to Katanga inopposition to the provincial Government of Katanga and that theUnited Nations force has the duty to protect the civilian andmilitary personnel representing my Government in Katanga. Paragraph4 of the Security Council's resolution of August 9, 1960, which youinvoke in order to challenge this right, cannot be interpretedwithout reference to the two earlier resolutions. This thirdresolution which you cite is only a supplement to the two precedingresolutions, which remain unaltered. The resolution to which yourefer confirms the first two. It reads: \"... confirms the authoritygiven to the Secretary-General by the Security Council resolutionsof July 14 and July 22, 1960, and requests him to continue to carryout the responsibility placed on him thereby.\" It follows from theforegoing that Paragraph 4 which you invoke cannot be interpretedas nullifying your obligations to \"provide the Government with suchmilitary assistance as may be necessary\" throughout the entireterritory of the Republic, including Katanga. On the contrary, itis the particular purpose of this third decision of the SecurityCouncil to make it clear that Katanga falls within the scope of theapplication of the resolution of July 14, 1960.My Government also takes this opportunity to protest against thefact that upon your return from New York en route to Katanga, youdid not consult it, as prescribed in the resolution of July 14,1960, despite the formal request submitted toyou by my Government's delegation in New York before your departureand despite my letter replying to your cable on this subject. Onthe contrary, you have dealt with the rebel Government of Katangain violation of the Security Council's resolution of July 14,1960.That resolution does not permit you to deal with the localauthorities until after you have consulted with my Government. Yetyou are acting as though my Government, which is the repository oflegal authority and is alone qualified to deal with the UnitedNations, did not exist. The manner in which you have acted untilnow is only retarding the restoration of order in the Republic,particularly in the Province of Katanga, whereas the SecurityCouncil has solemnly declared that the purpose of the intervention" }

{ "content": "is the complete restoration of order in the Republic of the Congo(see the resolution of July 22, 1960).Furthermore, the talks you have just had with Mr. Moise Tshombe,the assurances you have given him and the statements you have justmade to the press are ample evidence that you are making yourself aparty to the conflict between the rebel Government of Katanga andthe legal Government of the Republic, that you are intervening inthis conflict and that you are using the United Nations force toinfluence its outcome, which is formally prohibited by the veryparagraph which you invoked.It is incomprehensible to me that you should have sent onlySwedish and Irish troops to Katanga, systematically excludingtroops from the African states even though some of the latter werethe first to be landed at Leopoldville. In this matter you haveacted in connivance with the rebel Government of Katanga and at theinstigation of the Belgian Government.In view of the foregoing, I submit to you the followingrequests:1. To entrust the task of guarding all the airfields of theRepublic to troops of the National Army and the Congolese police inplace of United Nations troops.2. To send immediately to Katanga Moroccan, Guinean, Ghanaian,Ethiopian, Mali, Tunisian, Sudanese, Liberian and Congolesetroops.3. To put. aircraft at the disposal of the Government of theRepublic for the transportation of Congolese troops and civiliansengaged in restoring order throughout the country.4. To proceed immediately to seize all arms and ammunitiondistributed by the Belgians in Katanga to the partisans of therebel Government, whether Congolese or foreign, and to put at thedisposal of the Government of the Republic the arms and ammunitionso seized, as they are the property of the Government.5. To withdraw all non-African troops from Katangaimmediately.I hope that you will signify your agreement to the foregoing. Ifmy Government does not receive satisfaction it will be obliged totake other steps.My Government takes this occasion to thank the Security Councilfor the resolutions it adopted, of which my Government and theCongolese people unanimously approve and which they would like tosee applied directly and without delay.P. LUMUMBA, Prime MinisterFrom a letter from DagHammarskjöld, U.N. Secretary-General, to the Prime Minister ofthe Republic of the Congo, August 15, 1960LeopoldvilleSir,I have received your letter of today's date. In it I findallegations against the Secretary-General as well as objections tothe Secretary-General's interpretation of theresolutions with theimplementation of which he has been entrusted. In your letter youalso submit certain requests which appear to derive from a positioncontrary to my interpretation of the resolutions.There is no reason for me to enter into a discussion here eitherof those unfounded and unjustified allegations or of theinterpretation of the Security Council's resolutions. As far as theactions requested by you are concerned I shall naturally follow theinstructions which the Council may find it necessary or useful togive me.I have the honour to be, etc.DAG HAMMARSKJÖLDFrom a letter to DagHammarskjöId, U.N. Secretary-General, August 15,1960LeopoldvilleThe letter I addressed to you on August 14 on behalf of theGovernment of the Republic of the Congo contains no allegationsagainst the Secretary-General of the United Nations but ratherreveals facts, which should be made known to the Security Counciland to the world at large. The Government of the Republic is wellaware that the position you have adopted is in no sense that of theSecurity Council, in which it continues to have confidence. It isparadoxical that you decided to inform the Government of theRepublic only after making arrangements with Mr. Tshombe and theBelgians surrounding him. Furthermore, you at no time considered itadvisable to consult the Government of the Republic as theresolution of the Security Council recommended you to do. TheGovernment considers that you refused to give it the militaryassistance it needs and for which it approached the United Nations.I should be grateful if you would inform me in clear terms whetheryou reject the specific proposals contained in my letter of August14.In expectation of an immediate reply, I have the honour to be,etc.P. LUMUMBA, Prime MinisterFrom a letter from the United NationsSecretary-General to the Prime Minister of the Republic of theCongo, August 15, 1960LeopoldvilleSir,I received your letter of August 15 in reply to my letter of thesame date. I presume that your letters have been approved by theCouncil of Ministers and that you will inform the Council ofMinisters of my replies. I have nothing to add to my reply to yourfirst communication dated August 14 and received today at noon.Your letter will be circulated to the Security Council immediatelyat my request. If the Council of Ministers takes no initiativewhich compels me to change my plans, or has no other specificproposal to make, I shall go to New York this evening in order toseek clarification of the attitude of the Security Council.I have the honour to be, etc.DAG HAMMARSKJÖLDFrom a letter to DagHammarskjöld, U.N. Secretary-General, August 15, 1960Leopoldville,Sir,I have just this moment received your letter of today's date inreply to the one I sent you an hour ago. Your letter does not replyat all to the specific questions or concrete proposals contained inmy letters of August 14 and 15. There is nothing erroneous in mystatements, as you maintain. It was because I publicly denounced,at a recent press conference, your manoeuvres in sending to Katangaonly troops from Sweden-a country which is known by public opinionto have special affinities with the Belgian royal family-that youhave suddenly decided to send African troops into thatprovince.If no member of the Security Council has taken the initiative toquestion the validity of your Memorandum and your plans of actionit is because the members of the Council do not know exactly whatis going on behind the scenes. Public opinion knows-and the membersof the Security Council also know-that after the adoption of thelast resolution you delayed your journey to the Congo fortwenty-four hours solely in order to have talks with Mr. PierreWigny, Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs, administrator of miningcompanies in the Congo and one of thosewho plotted the secession of Katanga.Before leaving New York for the Congo, the Congolese delegation,led by Mr. Antoine Gizenga, Vice-President of the Council ofMinisters, urgently requested you to contact my Governmentimmediately upon your arrival in Leopoldville and before going toKatanga-which was in conformity with the Security Council'sresolution of July14, 1960. I personally laid particular stress on" }

{ "content": "this point in the letter I sent to you on August 12 through theintermediary of Mr. Ralph Bunche, your special representative.Completely ignoring the legal Government of the Republic, yousent a telegram from New York to Mr. Tshombe, leader of the Katangarebellion and emissary of the Belgian Government. Mr. Tshombe,again at the instigation of the Belgians placed at his side,replied to this telegram stipulating two conditions for the entryof United Nations troops into Katanga. According to the revelationsjust made by Mr. Tshombe at his press conference, you entirelyacquiesced in the demands formulated by the Belgians speakingthrough Mr. Tshombe.In view of all the foregoing, the Government and people of theCongo have lost their confidence in the Secretary-General of theUnited Nations. Accordingly, we request the Security Council todayto send immediately to the Congo a group of observers representingthe following countries: Morocco, Tunisia, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea,the United Arab Republic, the Sudan, Ceylon, Liberia, Mali, Burma,India, Afghanistan and the Lebanon. The task of these observerswill be to ensure the immediate and entire application of theSecurity Council resolutions of July 14 and 22 and August 9.I earnestly hope that the Security Council, in which we placeour full confidence, will grant our legitimate request. Adelegation of the Government will accompany you in order to expressits views to the Security Council. I would, therefore, ask youkindly to delay your departure for twenty-four hours in order topermit our delegation to travel on the same aircraft.P. LUMUMBAFrom a letter from the U.N.Secretary-General to the PrimeMinister of the Congo, August 15,1960Sir,Your third letter of today's date has just been received. I havetaken note of your intention to send a delegation to the SecurityCouncil to request the dispatch of a group of observers to ensurethe implementation of the Council's resolutions. This request wouldseem to be based on the statement which you have made that you nolonger have confidence in me.I shall not discuss your repeated erroneous allegations or thenew allegations added to those which you have already addressed tome. It is for the Security Council to judge their worth and toassess the confidence which the member countries have in theSecretary-General of the United Nations.As regards the questions asked in your letters, to which you sayyou have had no reply, I refer you to the explanatory memorandumtransmitted to you by Mr. Bunche. In it you will find all thenecessary information.You have requested me to delay my departure in order to enablethe delegation of the Congo to travel on the same aircraft with me.I do not see the advantage of that arrangement, since it goeswithout saying that the Council will not meet until after thearrival of your delegation. In these circumstances, and as I havemade all the preparations for my departure, I shall leave asindicated to you in an earlier letter today.DAG HAMMARSKJÖLD Marxism and Anti-Imperialism in Africa |Patrice Lumumba Archive" }

{ "content": "Patrice LumumbaSolemn Appeal to the President and members ofthe Security Council and to all the member states of the UnitedNationsSeptember 10, 1960Source: Patrice Lumumba: Fighter for Africa’s Freedom, Moscow, Progress Publishers, 1961, pp. 67-70.Written: by Patrice Lumumba;Transcribed: by Thomas Schmidt.In a Memorandum dated September 8, 1960, and addressed to theSecretary-General of the United Nations and the President of theSecurity Council, the Government of the Republic of the Congo drewattention to the United Nations' flagrant interference in theinternal affairs of the Congo. Conclusive proof was given of thisinterference. The statement just made in the Security Council bythe U.N. Secretary-General that Mr. Kasavubu had the right todepose the Government only confirms this interference.Moreover, the position adopted by the Secretary-General runscounter to the sovereign decisions of the Congolese Parliament,which in two ballots, with a considerable majority of votes in eachballot, annulled the decree illegally issued by Mr. Kasavubu.It is not the U.N. Secretary-General's business to interpret theFundamental Law of the land; that is the duty of the CongoleseParliament. Article 51 states that the \"formal interpretation oflaws is the exclusive responsibility of the Chambers\". In theirinterpretation, in particular, of Article 22, according to whichthe \"Head of State appoints and deposes the Prime Minister andMinisters\", the two Chambers of the Congolese Parliament, whichannulled the decree of the Head of State, came to the conclusionthat a government can be appointed or deposed only after Parliamenthas passed a vote of confidence or no confidence.The Head of State cannot appoint a government without thesanction of Parliament and that, to an equal degree, applies to thedeposition of a government, which must follow the same procedure.Furthermore, in their interpretation, the Congolese legislativeChambers declared that insofar as the Government, headed by PrimeMinister Patrice Lumumba, and the Head of State Mr. Kasavubu, hadbeen approved separately by Parliament, only the latter had theright to depose the one or the other.Basing itself on the confidence unanimously expressed in theGovernment by Parliament, which is the only sovereign body in thecountry, the Government of the Republic lodges a further protestagainst the interference of Secretary-General Hammarskjöld inthe internal affairs of the Congolese nation. This interference isa grave threat to confidence in the United Nations and its prestigenot only in the Congo but also throughout Africa and, essentially,throughout the world. In addition, the Government of the Republiclodges a further protest against the repeated refusal of the UnitedNations authorities in the Congo to co-operate with the Governmentin implementing the Security Council's resolutions. In theinterests of universal peace, the Government urgently requests theUnited Nations:1. Firmly to recommend to the Secretary-General and hiscolleagues in the Congo that they should cease interfering in theinternal affairs of our Republic directly or indirectly.2. Not to adopt any further resolutions on the Congo insofar asthe resolutions already adopted are perfectly clear and specificbut have not been fully implemented because of the perfidy of theBelgian Government and its allies, who are continuing to help theillegal and rebel Government of Katanga with supplies of aircraft,arms and ammunition and with liaison and line officers.To this is added the fact that the United Nations authoritiesare deliberately holding up the implementation of the concrete andunequivocal decisions of the Security Council.The Congolese Government cannot be deceived by these intrigues,which are turning the dispute between the Congo and Belgium into adispute between the Government of the Congo and the United Nationsonly ten days after our Republic formally became a member of theU.N.The Government most emphatically protests against the contentionof the Secretary-General that troops of the National Army must bedisarmed. Being perfectly aware that the troops of the NationalArmy did not submit to a similar demand by Mr. Kasavubu, whoordered the Congolese militia to lay down their arms, theSecretary-General would like to continue with a demonstration offorce only in order to start a war in the Congo in which theCongolese population would find itself in conflict with the armedforces of the United Nations.The sole purpose of all this is to establish an internationaltrusteeship over the Congo. Moreover, by such arbitrary actions asthe seizure of our national radio station and all the airfields inthe Republic, the Secretary-General seeks to deprive the Governmentof the means of broadcasting and to prevent any outflow ofinformation in order to allow Tshombe and the illegal radiostations that have been recently set up near Leopoldville tocontinue theirattempts at a coup d'etat. Thesestations are daily spreading active anti-Government propaganda,lies, slander and insults in order to discredit the legalGovernment, which has the support of the overwhelming majority ofthe people.This morning the Government informed the U.N. Headquarters forthe fifth time that it must regain the use of its national radiostation. Anxious to restore peace and order in the Congo and toretain good relations with the United Nations, the Government ofthe Republic of the Congo solemnly and passionately appeals to allthe countries of the world to take steps to prevent the Congo frombeing turned into a battlefield of a third world war.P. LUMUMBA Marxism and Anti-Imperialism in Africa |Patrice Lumumba Archive" }

{ "content": "Patrice LumumbaStatement at the Closing Session of the Belgo-Congolese Round Table ConferenceFebruary 20, 1960Source: The Belgo-Congolese Round Table Conference, Bruxelles, Impr. C. Van Cortenbergh, 1960, pp. 43-44.Written: by Patrice Lumumba;Transcribed: by Thomas Schmidt.Mr. Prime Minister,Mr. President,Gentlemen of the Belgian delegations,My dear Congolese brothers,At this moment when the Round Table Conference is closing down, we beg to be allowed to speak in the name of the Congolese National Movement and to express its thoughts and feelings.We are particularly satisfied with the results of the negotiations which we have just conducted with the representatives of the Belgian Government and Parliament.We demanded the immediate and unconditional independence of our country. We have just won it.We demanded that this independence should be complete and absolute. The Belgian Government, in compliance with our demand, assures us that Belgium will retain no measure of control after June 30, 1960. On that date, the Congo will accede to international sovereignty. The Congolese Government and the Belgian Government will be proud to sit side by side at international assemblies where they will defend their common interests.We demanded that, between now and June 30, the Congolese be closely associated with the government of the country. We have just obtained satisfaction by means of the creation of permanent colleges attached to the Minister of the Congo, the Governor General and the Provincial Governors. From to-day on, until the proclamation of independence, the political and administrative management of the Congo will be assumed jointly by the Congolese through these colleges, and by the representatives of Belgium. No decision will be taken without our consent, either in Belgium or in the Congo.We are overjoyed at these magnificent results, obtained by means of peaceful and friendly negotiations.Belgium has realised the store we set by our liberty and our human dignity. She understands that the Congolese people is not unfriendly towards her, but that they merely demand the abolition of the colonial status which shamed the twentieth century.The good will and good faith of the Belgian representatives at the Round Table Conference were truly remarkable. We encountered no systematic opposition from Belgian members of Parliament. We may assert that the Round Table Conference was to all intents and purposes conducted by the Congolese, for every time we came to an agreement between ourselves on one point or another, the Belgian Government and Parliamentary delegates rallied to it. We are all grateful to them for this.We are now about to return home “with our independence in our baggage”, proud to be able to give our people the joy of knowing themselves free and independent.While our brothers in Kenya, Nyasaland, South Africa and Angola are still fighting for their accession to autonomy, we ourselves have acceded to the rank of a sovereign state with no transition.The fact that Belgium has liberated the Congo from the colonial regime we were no longer prepared to accept, has won her the friendship and esteem of the Congolese people.We desire this friendship to be enduring and free of all forms of hypocrisy. We shall thus prove to the world that the principle of friendship between nations is one of real significance.From to-day on we shall forget the mistakes of the past and all the causes of dissension, and concentrate solely on the wonderful future that unfolds before us.We beg you, Mr. Prime Minister, to be kind enough to convey to His Majesty King Baudouin our heartfelt expressions of liking and friendship.We hope that he will do us the honour of being present at the proclamation of our independence.We thank His Excellency the Minister of the Congo and all the Belgian Members of Parliament for their kind attention to our statements.We would also thank His Excellency Mr. Lilar, who presided over the Round Table debates with patience and deep understanding.We would also salute that great and worthy jurist, His Excellency Mr. Rolin; his personal contribution was invaluable to us during the work of this Conference.Finally, we would like to take this opportunity of thanking Mr. Van Hemelrijck, former Minister of the Congo, who paved the way to Congolese Independence. We hope he will be present at the proclamation of the Congo's independence, and that no more tomatoes will be flung at him.The fact that this Conference closes in amity and to the satisfaction of all the Congolese delegations is a good omen for the relations which are to be established between the Congo and Belgium. These relations will be stamped with the seal of friendship and mutual help between our two countries.Our independence, which is to be proclaimed four months from now, is only the first stage in our emancipation. Having conquered our political liberty after a fight lasting many months, we must now bend every effort to achieve:1. the creation, in all parts of the Congo, of an atmosphere of confidence and calm so that the new institutions may be set up in a spirit of joy and fraternal co-operation;2. the eradication of every vestige of colonialism, notably by the immediate elimination of every trace of racial discrimination and the unjust laws passed under the colonial regime;3. the immediate cessation of the oppressive measures currently being taken against the local population in some regions of the Congo;4. the consolidation of national independence by the creation of a stable and prosperous national economy. Our independence will have no significance unless it contributes to the improvement of living standards of the worker and peasant classes.We shall also fight against every attempt to dislocate our national territory. The greatness of the Congo is based on the preservation of its political and economic entity.As for the Europeans living in the Congo, we would ask them to stay and help the young Congolese State in building up its national strength. We need their help. We guarantee them the security of their property and their persons. It is with their collaboration that we wish to create the Congolese nation, in which all will find their share of happiness and satisfaction." }

{ "content": "The doors of the Congo are wide open to all men of good will wishing to help us. On the other hand, we shall not tolerate any persons or powers with imperialist aims. We prefer liberty with poverty to wealth with tyranny.Capital investment in the Congo will be respected, for we are an honest people. As for the Belgian civil servants now working in the Congo, we would ask them to serve our government with the same loyalty as they served the Belgian government. They may all be proud of their humanitarian contribution to a work of national reconstruction.A young State, we shall need the advice and technical assistance of Belgium. We sincerely hope that this assistance will not be refused.We would appeal fraternally to the democratic youth of Belgium to come and serve the Congolese State. Here you will find a brotherly nation in need of other brothers.As for the tribal chieftains, we would ask them to acknowledge the need for evolution and to co-operate with the political leaders in building their country. We shall reserve them an honourable place in our future institutions.Citizens of the Congo, we ask you to unite and combine your efforts so as to build a great, united, strong hardworking and prosperous nation in the heart of Central Africa.Long live the Independent Congo.Long live Belgium.Long live the friendship between our two peoples. Marxism and Anti-Imperialism in Africa |Patrice Lumumba Archive" }

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{ "content": "Patrice LumumbaRadio Broadcast MessageSeptember 5, 1960Source: Patrice Lumumba: Fighter for Africa’s Freedom, Moscow, Progress Publishers, 1961, pp 37-38.Written: by Patrice Lumumba;Transcribed: by Thomas Schmidt.The National Radio has just broadcast a declaration by the Head of State, Mr. Joseph Kasavubu, according to which the Government headed by me must be dismissed.On behalf of the Government and the entire nation I formally reject this information.The Government has had no talks on this subject with the Head of State. The Government, which has been democratically elected by the nation and has won the unanimous confidence of Parliament, can only be dismissed when it loses the trust of the people.Today the Government enjoys this trust and has the backing of the entire people.Having adopted the decision to defend the people at the price of blood, refused to sell the country to the Belgian colonialists and their allies, and frustrated the intrigues of those who still aim to exploit our nation, the Government will defend the rights of the people with honour and dignity.The Government remains in power and shall continue fulfilling its mission.I ask the population, which has vested us with trust, to be calm in the face of the manoeuvres of the saboteurs of our national independence.We elected the Head of State ourselves even though he did not have the trust of the people. We can use the same right and withdraw this confidence if he goes against the interests of the people.Congolese people, be vigilant. The enemies of our country and the accomplices of the Belgian imperialists are unmasking themselves.Congolese officers and non-commissioned officers, remain at your posts in order to defend the country as heroically as when you fought against the Belgian aggressors. Marxism and Anti-Imperialism in Africa |Patrice Lumumba Archive" }

{ "content": "Patrice LumumbaSpeech on June 30, 1960, Zaire’s Independence DayMen and women of the Congo,Victorious fighters for independence, today victorious, I greet you in the name of the Congolese Government. All of you, my friends, who have fought tirelessly at our sides, I ask you to make this June 30, 1960, an illustrious date that you will keep indelibly engraved in your hearts, a date of significance of which you will teach to your children, so that they will make known to their sons and to their grandchildren the glorious history of our fight for liberty.For this independence of the Congo, even as it is celebrated today with Belgium, a friendly country with whom we deal as equal to equal, no Congolese worthy of the name will ever be able to forget that is was by fighting that it has been won [applause], a day-to-day fight, an ardent and idealistic fight, a fight in which we were spared neither privation nor suffering, and for which we gave our strength and our blood.We are proud of this struggle, of tears, of fire, and of blood, to the depths of our being, for it was a noble and just struggle, and indispensable to put an end to the humiliating slavery which was imposed upon us by force.This was our fate for eighty years of a colonial regime; our wounds are too fresh and too painful still for us to drive them from our memory. We have known harassing work, exacted in exchange for salaries which did not permit us to eat enough to drive away hunger, or to clothe ourselves, or to house ourselves decently, or to raise our children as creatures dear to us.We have known ironies, insults, blows that we endured morning, noon, and evening, because we are Negroes. Who will forget that to a black one said “tu,” certainly not as to a friend, but because the more honorable “vous” was reserved for whites alone?We have seen our lands seized in the name of allegedly legal laws which in fact recognized only that might is right.We have seen that the law was not the same for a white and for a black, accommodating for the first, cruel and inhuman for the other.We have witnessed atrocious sufferings of those condemned for their political opinions or religious beliefs; exiled in their own country, their fate truly worse than death itself.We have seen that in the towns there were magnificent houses for the whites and crumbling shanties for the blacks, that a black was not admitted in the motion-picture houses, in the restaurants, in the stores of the Europeans; that a black traveled in the holds, at the feet of the whites in their luxury cabins.Who will ever forget the massacres where so many of our brothers perished, the cells into which those who refused to submit to a regime of oppression and exploitation were thrown [applause]?All that, my brothers, we have endured.But we, whom the vote of your elected representatives have given the right to direct our dear country, we who have suffered in our body and in our heart from colonial oppression, we tell you very loud, all that is henceforth ended.The Republic of the Congo has been proclaimed, and our country is now in the hands of its own children.Together, my brothers, my sisters, we are going to begin a new struggle, a sublime struggle, which will lead our country to peace, prosperity, and greatness.Together, we are going to establish social justice and make sure everyone has just remuneration for his labor [applause].We are going to show the world what the black man can do when he works in freedom, and we are going to make of the Congo the center of the sun’s radiance for all of Africa.We are going to keep watch over the lands of our country so that they truly profit her children. We are going to restore ancient laws and make new ones which will be just and noble.We are going to put an end to suppression of free thought and see to it that all our citizens enjoy to the full the fundamental liberties foreseen in the Declaration of the Rights of Man [applause].We are going to do away with all discrimination of every variety and assure for each and all the position to which human dignity, work, and dedication entitles him.We are going to rule not by the peace of guns and bayonets but by a peace of the heart and the will [applause].And for all that, dear fellow countrymen, be sure that we will count not only on our enormous strength and immense riches but on the assistance of numerous foreign countries whose collaboration we will accept if it is offered freely and with no attempt to impose on us an alien culture of no matter what nature [applause].In this domain, Belgium, at last accepting the flow of history, has not tried to oppose our independence and is ready to give us their aid and their friendship, and a treaty has just been signed between our two countries, equal and independent. On our side, while we stay vigilant, we shall respect our obligations, given freely.Thus, in the interior and the exterior, the new Congo, our dear Republic that my government will create, will be a rich, free, and prosperous country. But so that we will reach this aim without delay, I ask all of you, legislators and citizens, to help me with all your strength.I ask all of you to forget your tribal quarrels. They exhaust us. They risk making us despised abroad.I ask the parliamentary minority to help my Government through a constructive opposition and to limit themselves strictly to legal and democratic channels.I ask all of you not to shrink before any sacrifice in order to achieve the success of our huge undertaking." }

{ "content": "In conclusion, I ask you unconditionally to respect the life and the property of your fellow citizens and of foreigners living in our country. If the conduct of these foreigners leaves something to be desired, our justice will be prompt in expelling them from the territory of the Republic; if, on the contrary, their conduct is good, they must be left in peace, for they also are working for our country’s prosperity.The Congo’s independence marks a decisive step towards the liberation of the entire African continent [applause].Sire, Excellencies, Mesdames, Messieurs, my dear fellow countrymen, my brothers of race, my brothers of struggle— this is what I wanted to tell you in the name of the Government on this magnificent day of our complete independence.Our government, strong, national, popular, will be the health of our country.I call on all Congolese citizens, men, women and children, to set themselves resolutely to the task of creating a prosperous national economy which will assure our economic independence.Glory to the fighters for national liberation!Long live independence and African unity!Long live the independent and sovereign Congo![applause, long and loud]  Patrice Lumumba Archive" }

{ "content": "Patrice LumumbaFrom a letter to the President of the Security CouncilAugust 1, 1960Source: Patrice Lumumba: Fighter for Africa’s Freedom, Moscow, Progress Publishers, 1961, pp 46-8..Written: by Patrice Lumumba;Transcribed: by Thomas Schmidt.The trend of events in the Congo is causing my Governmentserious concern.....The Belgian Government promised to withdraw its troops from theCongo as soon as the United Nations troops reached there.United Nations troops have been arriving in the Congo since July16, but not a single Belgian soldier has left Congolese soil.We are at present confronted with a deliberate refusal by theBelgian Government to comply with the decisions of the highestinternational authority, the Security Council.The Vice-Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Republic ofthe Congo informs me in a telegram recently received in New York, acopy of which is attached, that the Congolese soldiers are beingdisarmed, whereas the Belgian soldiers are remaining in theterritory together with all their arms. I would particularly drawyour attention to the fact that no contingent of United Nationstroops has so far entered Katanga, because this is opposed by theBelgian Government solely in order to strengthen the secessionmovement it has instigated in this province using Tshombe as ascreen, in contravention of the relevant resolutions adopted by theSecurity Council.There is now no justification whatever for the presence ofBelgian military forces in the Congo.The arguments put forward by the Belgian Government for themaintenance of its troops in the Congo contrary to the decisions ofthe Security Council are merely false pretexts. The BelgianGovernment's intention is to disorganise the country and involveour Government and our people in numerous economic and financialdifficulties.To give just one example, the Belgian Government recentlyremoved our gold reserves which were in our Central Bank in theCongo. Such measures of economic strangulation are taking place inmany other sectors.I would also inform you that the people of Katanga emphaticallyrepudiate the attempts at secession, which the Belgian Governmentis in the process of organising in that province with the help of anumber of collaborators, among whom is Mr. Tshombe. The presentobjective of the Belgian Government and of a few groups whichsupport it, is to bring about the division of the Congo inorderto obtain a hold over our country. Theparamount problem in the Congo is that of the immediate withdrawalof all Belgian troops from Congolese territory.I reserve the right to request a meeting of the Security Councilto consider whatever measures may prove necessary.P. LUMUMBA, Prime Minister Marxism and Anti-Imperialism in Africa |Patrice Lumumba Archive" }

{ "content": "Patrice LumumbaFrom a telegram to the President of the Security CouncilAugust 1, 1960Source: Patrice Lumumba: Fighter for Africa’s Freedom, Moscow, Progress Publishers, 1961, p 48f.Written: by Patrice Lumumba;Transcribed: by Thomas Schmidt.It has come to my knowledge that resorting to insidiousmanoeuvres and using Tshombe as its instrument, the BelgianGovernment is taking recourse to blackmail in order to prevent thearrival of United Nations troops in Katanga. All of Tshombe'sactions are dictated by Belgian officers, whom the BelgianGovernment has placed at his side as advisers.Clearly, the Belgian Government is torpedoing the fulfilment ofthe decisions of the United Nations.... The Security Council hasvirtually authorised you to take, in consultation with theGovernment of the Republic of the Congo, the necessary steps inorder to provide us with whatever military assistance we may need.With the purpose of keeping its troops in Katanga and therebyconsolidating the secession of Katanga, which it instigated, theBelgian Government alleges that these troops were sent into Katangaat Tshombe's request. With this statement the Belgian Governmentadmits that it instigated the secession of Katanga.By placing its troops and military advisers at Tshombe'sdisposal in order to facilitate the splitting up of the Congo andhinder the actions of the United Nations, the BelgianGovernment isobviously opposing the restoration of legality and order in theCongo and the exercise of authority by the Government of theCongo.I reaffirm my demand to you that United Nations troops be sentinto Katanga immediately. Any delay in the strict fulfilment of theSecurity Council's decisions may seriously affect the prestige ofthe United Nations, as well as the security of the Congo, whichwill be a threat to peace in Africa. In the event United Nationstroops are not brought into Katanga by Saturday, August 6, inconformity with the obligations undertaken by the United Nations,by you and by my Government, I shall be compelled to re-examine myposition. I continue to hope....P. LUMUMBA Marxism and Anti-Imperialism in Africa |Patrice Lumumba Archive" }

{ "content": "Patrice LumumbaLETTER TO A. M. DAYAL, SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE U.N.SECRETARY-GENERALThysville, January 4, 1961Source: Patrice Lumumba, The Truth about a Monstrous Crime of the Colonialists, Moscow, Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1961, pp. 68-69.Written: by Patrice Lumumba;Transcribed: by Thomas Schmidt.Mr. Special Representative,On December 27 last, I had the pleasure of receiving a visitfrom the Red Cross, which occupied itself with my plight and with the plight ofthe other parliamentarians imprisoned together with me. I told them of theinhuman conditions we are living in.Briefly, the situation is as follows. I am here with seven otherparliamentarians. In addition there are with us Mr. Okito, President of theSenate, a Senate employee and a driver. Altogether there are ten of us. We havebeen locked up in damp cells since December 2, 1960 and at no time have we beenpermitted to leave them. The meals that we are brought twice a day are verybad. For three or four days 1 ate nothing but a banana. I told this to the RedCross medical officer sent to me. I spoke to him in the presence of a colonel fromThysville. I demanded that fruit be bought on my own money because the food thatI am given here is atrocious. Although the medical officer gave his permission,the military authorities guarding me turned down my request, stating that they werefollowing orders from Kasavubu and Colonel Mobutu. The medical officer from Thysvilleprescribed a short walk every evening so that I could leave my cell for atleast a little while. But the colonel and the district commissioner denied me this.The clothes that I wear have not been washed for thirty-five days. I am forbiddento wear shoes.In a word, the conditions we are living in are absolutely intolerableand run counter to all rules.Moreover, I receive no news of my wife and I do not even knowwhere she is. Normally I should have had regular visits from her as is providedfor by the prison regulations in force in the Congo. On the other hand, the prisonregulations clearly state that not later than a day after his arrest a prisonermust be brought before the investigator handling his case. Five days after thisa prisoner must again be arraigned before a judge, who must decide whether to remandhim in custody or not. In any case, a prisoner must have a lawyer.The criminal code provides that a prisoner is released from prisonif five days after he is taken into custody the judge takes no decision on remandinghim. The same happens in cases when the first decision (which is taken five daysafter a person is arrested) is not reaffirmed within fifteen days. Since our arreston December 1 and to this day we have not been arraigned before a judge or visitedby a judge. No arrest warrant has been shown to us. We are kept simply in a militarycamp and have been here for thirty-four days. We are kept in military detentioncells.The criminal code is ignored as are the prison rules. Ours ispurely a case of arbitrary imprisonment. I must add that we possess parliamentaryimmunity.Such is the situation and I ask you to inform the United NationsSecretary-General of it.I remain calm and hope the United Nations will help us outof this situation.I stand for reconciliation between all the children of this country.I am writing this letter secretly on badpaper. I have the honour to be, etc.Patrice LUMUMBA,Prime Minister" }

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{ "content": "Yuri ZHUKOVSUCH WAS LUMUMBASource: Patrice Lumumba, The Truth about a Monstrous Crime of the Colonialists, Moscow, Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1961, pp. 89-99.Written: by Yuri ZHUKOV;Transcribed: by Thomas Schmidt.I am writing these lines at night. The teletype is ticking away, hurrying to overtake time. Coils of yellowish tape filled with tiny letters steadily pile up as a violent storm of news rages in the ether: the whole world is turbulently protesting against the murder of Lumumba. And out of this tempest comes a brief cynical dispatch from Elisabethville via New York, stating that Lumumba's body had been burnt. One of Mobutu's airmen, a certain Jack Dixon, who transported the captive Lumumba to Elisabethville, told correspondents: \"They tore the hair from his head and tried to force him to eat it....\"They tore the hair from his head and tried to force him to eat it. I do not know who this airman with the Anglo-Saxon name is, but his cold-blooded and inhumanly unemotional description of the tortures to which the man he was taking to the executioner was subjected sounds like something out of S.S. records.As I gazed at this unevenly torn piece of teletype, somewhere in the distance I saw the proud and energetic face of a great man who remained unconquerable no matter how he was tortured, and who, even after his death, struck such fear in the hearts of his executioners that they hastily burnt his body and scattered the ashes. As I looked back I felt I could not resist the temptation to describe my meetings with this fascinating man during the days when Hammarskjöld's sleek officials were bowing to him with servile smiles, when the misfit reporter Mobutu, who by a turn of destiny became Chief-of-Staff, vowed fidelity, and the Judas Bomboko, who was hatching a conspiracy, was following him like a shadow. We arrived in Leopoldville in the latter half of August 1960 to discuss cultural relations with the Minister of Education of the Congo: the young republic was asking for doctors, for aid to organise the training of specialists in the Congo herself and abroad, and technical assistance to repair a radio station, whose transmitter had been partially put out of commission by the colonialists when they left Leopoldville.After a long non-stop flight, our aircraft landed on the splendid concrete-paved runway of a modern aerodrome. There was a deathly stillness when the screaming of the motors died down. It seemed as though we had landed on an uninhabited island. With the exception of several big-bellied U.S. military transport planes used to airlift U.N. troops to the Congo, the aerodrome was deserted. We pushed open the door of our aircraft and found that we had to solve the problem of how to climb down to the ground. While we debated this problem we saw a gangway moving slowly in our direction. It was being pushed by several men, black and white. They made friendly gestures.Soon we found that they were Pierre Mulele, Minister of Education, a thin young man with a small curly beard, and officials from the Soviet Embassy who had come to meet us. The U.N. officials in charge of the aerodrome had by this time dismissed the entire personnel of the aerodrome and were doing nothing to return things to normal. We were given a very warm welcome and were soon sitting in the Minister's close office and talking of everyday and yet very important matters....Driving past the Parliament building, we saw the flags of many African countries waving over the entrance. A conference of leading public figures of the Congo, Ghana, Guinea, the Cameroons, Togo, Ethiopia, Liberia, the Sudan, Morocco, the United Arab Republic and Angola had just been opened in the Congolese capital by the Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba. On the next day we read his courageous and moving speech in the newspaper Congo, which has the words \"The first Congolese daily newspaper owned by Africans\" splashed across the top of the front page.\"For my government, for all of us Congolese,\" he said to the delegates, \"your presence here at this moment is living proof of African reality, the reality that our enemies have always disallowed. But you know that this reality is stubborn and that Africa is hale and hearty. It refuses to die.... We all know and the whole world knows that Algeria is not French, that Angola is not Portuguese, that Kenya is not British, that Ruanda-Urundi is not Belgian.... We know what the West is aiming at. Yesterday they split us up on the level of tribes and clans. Today, when Africa is steadfastly liberating itself, they want to divide us on the level of states. In Africa they seek to set up opposing blocs, satellite states and then, on that basis, to start a 'cold war', to widen the split and to perpetuate their trusteeship. But I know that Africa wants to be united and that it will not give way to these machinations....\"In the meantime Leopoldville was taking on the appearance of a besieged city. Military trucks and jeeps filled with helmeted soldiers armed with automatic rifles and submachine-guns sped across the deserted streets of the city. The colour of the helmets showed who these troops were: red-stripped white helmets were worn by the military police, dark-green helmets by the armed forces of the Congolese Republic and blue helmets by the U.N. force. There was unrest at the big Leopold military camp, which for some time now was attracting the special attention of correspondents. There was hardly any discipline in the camp: the men were openly grumbling that they were not getting their pay and that the food was bad. Their wives, who lived with them, complained that they had nothing to feed their children with. Mobutu, the Chief-of-Staff, whose duty it was to restore order and supply the army with all elementary necessaries, was playing a double-game: he vowed loyalty to the government, promising an early offensive against Katanga, where the traitor Tshombe had entrenched himself, and at the same time was doing all in his power to turn the soldiers against the Prime Minister...." }

{ "content": "In the evening the Prime Minister gave a dinner for the delegates to the All-African Conference. The entire diplomatic corps and foreign visitors to Leopoldville were invited. A military band played in a shady flood-lit garden on the bank of the mighty African river. The envoys of the different African countries, dressed in their colourful costumes, began to arrive. The ambassadors of the Western countries were present, dressed in tuxedoes and frock-coats. Some of them tried to make a show of courtesy but did not always succeed.The guests were met by the Prime Minister, a lanky man of about thirty-five. His energetic, animated face instantly impresses itself on one's memory—the piercing, glowing brown eyes that reflect profound assurance and spiritual dignity seem to look into your very soul.This man appeared on the political scene very recently, only three years ago. But these were years of intense activity, years when he and his friends acquired tremendous experience.Upon being told that we were from Moscow, Lumumba warmly greeted us and invited us to come to see him on the next day. At the reception we met some of Lumumba's friends: Deputy Prime Minister Gizenga, a short, cool and sober-minded man; the young and cheerful Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports Mpolo; and the somberish Minister of Information Anicet Kashamura, who said that the Belgian specialists still working in his Ministry were giving him a pain in the neck.I sat at the same table with a Guinean delegate in long snow-white robes and a Moslem fez. In front of us sat the ambassador of a Western country with an absent-minded smile on his face and the Minister of Foreign Affairs Bom-boko, dressed in a tuxedo. He was playing the role of a genial host who deeply regretted that due to circumstances beyond his control his guests were not really enjoying themselves.\"Of course,\" he was saying to his neighbour with much agitation, \"as a civilised person I am revolted at the policy of unjustified arrests. But what can I do? You must understand my position….\"\"You're right in principle,\" my neighbour suddenly responded. \"But not one of the Western correspondents, who write so much about unjustified arrests, has yet been able to give a single concrete example. Don't you think, Your Excellency, that a few arrests would be justified here in Leopoldville? Our friend Patrice Lumumba is much too generous.\"Bomboko frowned and grew silent, concentrating on the food before him. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister rose and took the floor. He spoke with passion, like the born orator he was. He said that the movement for freedom and unity that was now sweeping across Africa was irreversible. An end would be put to the colonial system once and for all. He called upon the representatives of the Western Powers to show a sober understanding of reality and to co-operate with the Republic of the Congo as with an equal partner.\"We stretch out our hand to everybody who desires such co-operation,\" he said, \"to the Americans and to the Russians, to the French and the British, and even to the Belgians, if they are prepared to stop their intervention.\"The Western guests smiled courteously, but from the expressions on their faces it was obvious that what the Prime Minister said was not to their liking. My neighbour leaned over to me and whispered in my ear:\"You can't expect anything good from them. Mark my words, Lumumba is standing on ceremony with their agents to no purpose. He shouldn't have forgiven Bomboko and some other people after their conspiracy was exposed.\"The band struck up again. Waiters noiselessly served ice-cream on dishes with ice-cubes covered with the blue flames of burning rum. On the surface everything seemed to be quiet and peaceful. Bomboko smiled at the guests, the ambassadors were engaged in polished chatter. The Commander of the Armed Forces Victor Lundula, who fought against the Nazis in the Second World War, alone had no ear for all this conviviality. Dressed in a coarse grey cloth suit, he kept rising from his table and returning, and messengers kept running up to him. As we learnt later, troops were moved to the borders of Katanga Province while the reception was in progress. A military clash was becoming imminent in that province. At the time we knew nothing of this nor of the fact that the Chief-of-Staff Mobutu, that uncomely thin man in large spectacles who was meekly reporting something to Lundula, was preparing the operation in such a way as to send all troops loyal to Lumumba to the south and to leave in Leopoldville only those men, who, led by Belgian officers carrying on underground, would not stop at overthrowing the legal government….In the morning we went to the Prime Minister's residence, a small house on the bank of the Congo River, in which tiny islands of vegetation were floating by. Gay children's voices could be heard behind the thickly overgrown fence. Curly-headed youngsters were sliding down the banister of the porch. They were the Prime Minister's children; with a curiosity that was mingled with pride they gazed at the helmeted sentries armed with submachine-guns and standing rigidly as though they were statues: the children could not yet get used to seeing their father guarded by such important personages.The little drawing-room was filled with scores of people seeking an audience with the Prime Minister. You could feel they had been waiting for a long time. In vain did the tired secretary try to persuade them to take their affairs to the pertinent ministries. They insisted on seeing Lumumba: the merchant who wanted a license for his business, the official applying for a transfer to another town and the teacher asking for a rise in his salary. The state apparatus of the young republic had not yet been knit together properly—there was still a lack of experience, and a multitude of cares distracted the Prime Minister from affairs of state." }

{ "content": "We were taken to Lumumba through a back entrance, where, incidentally, there was also a crowd of people trying to slip through to the Prime Minister. When we entered his office, Lumumba dismissed the large group of officials crowding round his desk, which was piled high with papers and books, and sat down beside us on an old divan. Our conversation was interrupted time and again by telephone calls. People rang him up on all matters and every minute there was something he had to look into and settle.While Lumumba spoke over the telephone we looked round his small and simply furnished study. An automatic rifle lay within easy reach on a shelf. There was a portable radio transmitter. After two plots to murder him had been uncovered the Prime Minister has been compelled to take certain precautions. There was an infinitely weary look on his face, but his eyes continued to burn with indomitable energy. He had not slept at all in the past twenty-four hours and yet he was planning to fly to Stanleyville in the evening to be on hand to meet the Soviet aircraft bringing foodstuffs that the Government of the Soviet Union was sending as a gift to the people of the Congo. Two members of the government, Lumumba told us, were going to the port of Matadi to receive the Soviet lorries that were coming by ship.\"We greatly appreciate this aid,\" the Prime Minister said with feeling, \"as a testimony of the friendship that your people have for us. I would like you to tell Soviet people that what they have done for us during these difficult days will never be forgotten.\"Lumumba eagerly questioned us about the results of our talks with the Minister of Education. He wanted the republic to have cultural relations with all countries, the Soviet Union included. He spoke with pain and anger of the backwardness into which the colonialists had forced his people. The colonialists had made fabulous fortunes by shamelessly exploiting the country's colossal deposits of uranium, gold, diamonds, copper and coal. And what had they given in return? During the period of their rule the population had decreased by almost fifty per cent. Starvation and disease were rife. The Congolese people now had to begin building up their country from the beginning and required immense aid. But where was that aid to come from? The government of the republic had expected much from the U.N., when it had open-heartedly asked it to send an international force to drive the colonialists out of the country and help restore order. But it looked as if by inviting this force the Congolese had got themselves out of the frying-pan only to fall into the fire. Hammarskjöld was behaving in much the same way as King Baudouin had....The Prime Minister smiled bitterly. His long nervous fingers twitched: he was deeply agitated by what was happening. The U.N. force was at one with the colonialists. No sooner would the government uncover one plot than another would be hatched. Out of a feeling of tact Lumumba avoided mentioning the principal plotter, Kasavubu, the President of the Republic. It was no secret that this man, a product of the Belgian Catholic mission schools, was the chief stooge of the colonialists and that instigated by them he was planning the overthrow of the government....The Prime Minister spoke of the problems that he was now working on to start the country's development: the creation of a network of hospitals, the preparations for the coming school year, the problem of where and how many young people to send to turn them into the highly trained specialists so acutely needed by the country, the problem of strengthening the state apparatus....He described the cordial reception that the All-African Conference gave to the message sent to it by Soviet Prime Minister Khrushchov.\"That's who is our real and sincere friend,\" Lumumba said. \"I have never met him personally, but I hope we shall meet some day. Please tell Mr. Khrushchov that our people thank him with all their hearts for his concern and support. We are confident that friendly relations based on mutual respect of each other's sovereignty will develop between our countries. The imperialists are doing their utmost to disrupt the Security Council's decision on the withdrawal of Belgian troops from the Congo. We Africans are, perhaps, still naive, but we sincerely believed in the U.N. Charter and hoped that it would be observed by the nations that had signed it. That was why we approached that organisation for help. But look what came of it?\"Again a bitter smile came to his lips and he spread out his arms. An angry spark suddenly lit up his eyes.\"Never mind. Perhaps this will cost us dearly, very dearly, but the lesson will be learned by Africa. The peoples of Africa will realise who are our friends and who our enemies and how to distinguish between them....\"We are not enemies of any country,\" Lumumba continued, \"and we are prepared to co-operate with all countries. I made myself sufficiently clear on this point yesterday. But we are against oppression and exploitation. We did not free ourselves from bondage to the Belgians simply in order to put another yoke round our necks. No matter how events shape out, even if they will be unfavourable for us, it will be useful for Africa, which is now watching us and closely following what is happening here—it will be a university of struggle for it....\"He was about to add something, but the door opened with a bang and a group of military men strode into the room. They spoke excitedly in their own language.The Prime Minister rose and, turning to me, said quietly in French:" }

{ "content": "\"You must excuse me but something important has just happened. A group of Belgian officers in civilian dress have landed on the aerodrome. The U.N. has taken over control of the aerodrome on the pretext that that is a necessary step to avert civil war. We were told that it was a 'neutralising' operation. Now you see what that word means. We are now going to catch those Belgian scoundrels....\"He repeated his request that we convey his heartfelt greetings and gratitude to the head of the Soviet Government, said good-bye, quickly walked out into the street, sat in a jeep filled with soldiers and drove off to the aerodrome.I never had another opportunity of speaking to him, but I shall always remember this fearless and strong man, his expressive face with the small jet-black goatee, his big and deeply human sparkling eyes, his quick gestures, his light and fast gait, and his unique manner of speaking with clipped phrases and accentuated intonations that reflected his deep conviction of the righteousness of every word he spoke.He was a remarkable man in every respect and had his life not been cut short at the very beginning of his political career by those who feared him, he would, undoubtedly, have become one of the most outstanding personalities of our epoch. A man of talent and will, he could find his way out of the most difficult situations. Recall how on three occasions in succession, when his enemies were already preparing to celebrate their victory, he sharply changed the most impossible situations and invariably proved to be the master.Following up his coup, Mobutu sent his picked cutthroats to arrest Lumumba. The Prime Minister opened their eyes for them and they went away feeling that the man who should have been seized was the one who had signed the warrant for the arrest of the Prime Minister.Mobutu imprisoned Lumumba at the Leopold military camp. There Lumumba spoke to the soldiers. They cheered him and he left the camp in triumph.Mobutu again seized him and held him in captivity in another camp, in Thysville. There, too, Lumumba showed his jailers that his was the just cause and they again released him.Mobutu hurried to turn his indomitable captive over to the hangman Tshombe in Katanga Province, and there he was murdered.But even in death Lumumba cows his executioners. As I write these lines crowds of angry people are gathering outside Belgian embassies throughout the world and protesting against the crime perpetrated in far-away Katanga. In Cairo infuriated demonstrators broke into the Belgian Embassy, where they tore down the portraits of King Baudouin and put up portraits of Lumumba in their stead: his eyes looked wrathfully through the glasses, reducing to ashes those who were seeking to restore the colonial yoke in Africa.Such was Lumumba. Even after death he remained in the ranks of his people, who are continuing their struggle for freedom. Marxism and Anti-Imperialism in Africa |Patrice Lumumba Archive" }

{ "content": "N. KHOKHLOVTHE GOAL PATRICE SOUGHT TO ACHIEVESource: Patrice Lumumba, The Truth about a Monstrous Crime of the Colonialists, Moscow, Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1961, pp 105-115.Written: by N. KHOKHLOV, Izvestia Special CorrespondentTranscribed: by Thomas Schmidt.The whole of mankind now sees the Belgian colonialists as vicious plunderers. The myth that the former Belgian Congo was a model colony has collapsed. In the African continent Brussels had seized a whole country, pillaging it for nearly 80 years. During this long period Belgian writers produced a huge number of books on this vast tropical colony. Fat tomes and slim brochures importunately preached the single idea that the modern Congo had been created by the monarchs in Brussels. Like the Lord in Heaven who is supposed to have created everything terrestrial, the Belgian kings \"created\" an entire country. \"Without kings, without Belgium there would have been no Congo!\" the imperialist pen-pushers cried from the roof-tops. That, in essence, was how the Congolese nation was robbed spiritually. That was the substance of colonial propaganda. What official Brussels called its \"civilising mission\" was nothing but brigandage and the forbidding reality of the capitalist world.The Congo is one of the oldest countries in Africa. Its name is derived from the Congo, which is one of the greatest rivers of the world. The country has a territory of 905 square miles, which is 77 times bigger than the territory of Belgium. It turns out that a small European colonial vulture conquered and exploited a territory that is almost 80 times the size of the kingdom of Belgium.A census has never been taken of the population of the Congo. The colonialists estimated the number of inhabitants \"by eye\". It is believed that in the Congo today there are at least 14 million inhabitants. Historians assert that the population of the Congo decreased by half in the past century, i.e., during the period of Belgian domination. In the recent past the Congo was one of the main sources of slaves for the West. Historical researches point to the astounding fact that European traders in \"live merchandise\" shipped over 13 million slaves from the Congo. More than five million unfortunate inhabitants of Equatorial Africa perished in the voyages across the Atlantic.In the African languages the Congo means \"Great Water\". The earliest mention of this far-away and fabulously rich country is to be found in the notes of the Carthaginian Hanno and the Arab navigator Pateneit. The numerous peoples of the Congo had their own highly developed culture, which was almost completely effaced by the strangers from Europe, who took from the Congo everything they could: people, rare species of trees, gold and pearls, ivory and the skins of rare animals. Henry Morton Stanley, who is also referred to as one of the \"creators\" of the Congo, wrote:\"Every tusk, piece and scrap in the possession of an Arab trader has been steeped and dyed in blood. Every pound weight has cost the life of a man, woman or child, for every five pounds a hut has been burnt, for every two tusks a whole village has been destroyed, every twenty tusks have been obtained at the price of a district with all its people, villages and plantations.\"In the period between 1857 and 1876 alone, nearly 800 Tons of ivory was shipped out of Africa annually. In other words, the colonialist barbarians destroyed not less than 51,000 elephants a year.No one can say how much precious metal was taken out of the Congo or give the quantity of diamonds that was wrung out of the diamond-fields scattered along the Kasai and Lulua rivers. It would be an impossible task to state the number of ships that sailed away loaded with ebony and jacaranda, with baobab and sequoia, with bamboo, or with crocodile skins. The Baluba people have no other name for a Belgian than pene toto, which means \"money-grabbing\". For a piece of copper wire or for a handful of glass beads that were used as ornaments by tribal chiefs, the Belgian colonialist received in exchange bags of gold dust and bottles filled with diamonds. He killed hippopotamuses and crocodiles, giraffes and deer, leopards and the rare okapis. For a song he acquired the priceless masks of the Bashi, Lulua and Baluba tribes and bought up the works by artists of the poto-poto school, which is famous throughout Africa. The Brussels merchants began to bring from the Congo even giant canoes hollowed out of the ancient trees growing on the banks of the great African river. Jungles were cut down and the dense, luxuriant forests were laid waste. The once flourishing flora and fauna began to grow sickly. The Congo became a \"dying land\".The bronze statues of Belgian kings, sticking into the air in Leopoldville, Luluabourg, Bukavu, Stanleyville, Elisabethville, Matadi, Boma and many other Congolese towns are unique landmarks of pillage and colonial piracy. Leopold II issued an edict decreeing the chopping-off of the hands of Congolese who did not bring the fixed amount of rubber, coffee or ivory. To this day one can meet in the Congo old men with amputated left hands as sinister reminders of the Belgian monarch. Who was left-handed lost his right hand.Since those days Belgian \"civilisation\" has changed to some extent, taking on a more \"modern\" appearance. The Congolese no longer had their hands mutilated: they were savagely flogged instead. There were purely mercantile considerations behind this fiendish \"humanity\": it was unprofitable to chop off a man's hands as that deprived him of his capacity for work. The colonialists turned to the whip and lash." }

{ "content": "The Congo is a grim reproach to and a stern accusation of the colonial system of oppression. Occupying a twelfth part of the territory of Africa, the Congo lived in darkness and her people were doomed to extinction. A handful of Belgian magnates wallowed in wealth while the population of the tropics knew nothing but hardship and privation. The Belgian Union Minière controls billions of francs, but the Congolese does not have two francs with which to buy a box of matches. After a few years in the Congo, the Belgian official builds luxurious villas, buys the latest American cars and can command a comfortable life for the rest of his days. A Congolese has to work for a year to earn the price of an aircraft ticket from Leopoldville to Elisabethville. An American car costs from 220,000 to 250,000 francs, a sum that a Congolese can never earn even in 50 or 60 years.Many of the Belgians in the Congo have private helicopters, sea-going vessels and launches, to say nothing of cars. The Congolese has what his grandfather and great-grandfather had before him: a wretched hut made of bamboo and palm leaves, a ragged singlet and a loin-cloth. The Belgian imports wild goat meat into the Congo from the Portuguese colony of Angola, drinks the choicest of French wines and treats himself to oysters brought in refrigerators from Antwerp. The food the Congolese eats consists of manioc, which, ground into flour, was eaten by the local inhabitants a hundred, two hundred and a thousand years ago.The colonialists enmeshed the glorious Congolese people in chains of spiritual slavery. When I went to the Congo I wanted to meet Congolese writers, scientists, doctors and teachers. But there were none to meet. This former Belgian colony with its population of 14 million people does not have a single doctor, scientist or teacher of its own. What an unspeakable disgrace this is to civilised and cultured Belgium! In the Congo not a single newspaper is published in the local language: all publications belong to the Belgian Catholics. The French language has trampled and supplanted the Lingala, Ki-Kongo, Chikoba and Kiswahili languages that are spoken by millions of people. Brussels eradicated the whole of Congolese culture, flinging a many-million-strong people into the abyss of medieval darkness. This was the modern barbarism that Patrice Lumumba, ardent patriot and great son of his people, struggled against. The nation spoke through his lips, declaring relentless war on colonialism. Lumumba sacrificed his life for a united, sovereign Congo. His ideals live in the hearts of Congolese patriots, who are determined to consummate these bright ideals in the name of which a hero of our day has died.* * *The horrible news that Patrice Emery Lumumba was murdered in cold blood in the Katanga lair was for all of us like a blow by a home-made Congolese battle-axe. The destiny of this heroic man, a devoted patriot and an ardent fighter against the accursed colonial regime, is inseparable from the destiny of his homeland. Patrice, as he is lovingly and simply called by the Congolese people, was always in the front ranks of the patriots who courageously and proudly bid defiance to the imperialist vultures. The tragedy of Lumumba as a politician, man and fighter reflects the bottomless grief of the 14-million-strong Congolese people. The Congo and Lumumba, Lumumba and the Congo are interlaced and each of them stirs us and evokes vehement hatred for the organisers of this orgy of blood.Who was Patrice Lumumba? What were the ideals to which he was dedicated heart and soul?Lumumba was born on July 2, 1925, in Sankuru Region, Kasai Province. He belonged to the Mutetela ethnical group. After finishing secondary school he went to work, finding employment in various colonial firms and offices. He was a post-office employee and worked in a factory run by a Belgian. At the same time he plunged into literary and journalistic activity, writing poems and publishing articles about the terrible plight of the Congolese. In Stanleyville he founded the newspaper Uhuru (Freedom), which today is one of the most popular in the Congo Republic. Lumumba was the director of the weekly Indepéndance. In October 1959, he published a declaration on the establishment of the Congo National Movement Party. This was the organizational culmination of the extensive work that was done by Lumumba and his associates to mobilise and unite into a single party all the progressive forces standing shoulder to shoulder in the liberation movement. The Party advanced the slogan of \"Independence Now!\"The Belgian colonialists flung Lumumba into jail twice. But long before independence was proclaimed Lumumba's popularity and influence among his people was such that it could not be ignored by the official Brussels. The Belgian King had a long conversation with Lumumba during one of his visits to the Congo. Lumumba was promised a high position and an untroubled life in a new pro-Belgian and, essentially, colonial government of the Congo. Lumumba remained true to his political convictions and with unflagging energy went on defending the rights of the enslaved Congolese people.It is characteristic that in the elections in Orientale Province Lumumba's Party received 90 per cent of the votes. This took place at a time when the leader of the Party was in jail.The so-called round-table conference, held in the Belgian capita) early in 1960, was planned by official Brussels as a rehearsal to determine the role Congolese leaders would play in the future \"independent\" government at Leopoldville. The colonial officials had already selected \"suitable\" candidates: Jean Bolikango, for example, could be president, and Joseph Kasavubu prime minister.The conference organisers endeavoured to avoid even the mention of Lumumba's name. But the plan hatched in Brussels was upset as soon as the conference began. Lumumba's supporters demanded that the head of the Congo National Movement Party be admitted to the conference.\"If Lumumba is not invited we shall leave Brussels,\" Congolese patriots declared." }

{ "content": "Lumumba was in jail at the time. The Belgians had no alternative but to release him immediately and bring him to Brussels by aircraft. It is said that when Lumumba entered the conference room his arms still bore the bloody marks of shackles: they had been taken off only a few hours before.In Leopoldville I, like all the other Soviet correspondents, saw Lumumba many times, went to his residence and attended his press conferences. I would say that simplicity and fidelity to principles are the qualities that distinguish Patrice Lumumba most of all. He began one of his press conferences with the words:\"I have invited you, gentlemen, to talk with you, to seek your advice and to exchange opinions. I hope that you will be objective in reporting the events in my country and keep world opinion informed of the truth.\"That was Lumumba's way—warm and stimulating.There was no correspondent in Leopoldville who did not have the greatest of respect for Lumumba. Everything about this outstanding personality was attractive: his ardent calls against colonialism, his passion as a political leader and his ability to engage an adversary in open and honest battle. Here is what the British Foreign Report wrote about this remarkable leader of the Congo: \"Hard-working, physically courageous and a charmer, his strength is that he is the only genuinely nationalist, anti-tribal and anti-regional Congolese leader.... Mr. Lumumba seems to be the only Congolese politician with the necessary ambition and qualities to hold the Congo together as a unitary state.\"Lumumba showed that he was a convinced and consistent opponent of tribalism, of tribal wars. A native of Kasai, which is inhabited by dozens of ethnical groups, tribes and nationalities, Lumumba knew what the tribal wars cost the Congolese people and time and again urged that an end be put to hostility between tribes once and for all. The membership of Lumumba's Party is a practical embodiment of his ideas, for it embraces almost all the nationalities of the Congo and there are branches of his Party in every province.Patrice Lumumba worked in an exceedingly difficult situation. The treasury was empty. There was no national army. The state apparatus was weak. The government had no means of transportation. There had been several cases of Belgian aircraft taking off with Lumumba on board only to return to the airport after circling over it. The colonialists resorted to base means to deprive the Prime Minister of all opportunity of touring the republic and speaking to the people.\"Westerners and U.N. representatives are the only people I meet,\" Lumumba said in such cases. \"I have to speak French, when all the time I yearn to discuss things in my native Lingala, to meet with the peasants.\"Yes, with his people he spoke in Lingala. Those were stirring scenes! When he arrived in Stanleyville, tens of thousands of townsfolk and villagers came to meet him. The Elaeis palms seemed to shake with the mighty shouts of:\"Congo! Lumumba! Uhuru!\"In Stanleyville I saw that if you wanted to make a Congolese smile and well disposed towards you you had to greet him with just the one word Lumumba.Lumumba showed a very eager interest in the Soviet Union. He was always glad to meet and talk with Soviet people. While in Stanleyville, he found the time to talk with Vasily Shishkin, head of a team of Soviet doctors who worked in the province. He asked how the Soviet doctors were getting used to the tropical climate, what accommodations they had, how they were supplied with food, and so on.\"You come straight to me if you have difficulties,\" he said to Shishkin.Lumumba was the one who said that the Soviet Union was the only Great Power whose position was in accord with the will and views of the Congolese people. This evaluation of the Soviet Union's policy of disinterestedly supporting the fighting people of the Congo served as grounds for accusing Lumumba of favouring communism. He was asked about this during receptions in Leopoldville and during his trips abroad. His reply was:\"We are neither Communists, Catholics nor socialists. We are African nationalists. We reserve the right to choose our friends in accordance with the principle of positive neutrality.\"Lumumba had the uncanny gift of instantaneously exposing the plots of the enemies of a united Congo, The local and overseas colonialists alike feared his speeches. Hammarskj�ld preferred not to meet him: the U.N. Secretary-General was unable to reply to the direct questions asked by the Congolese Prime Minister. In Leopoldville Hammarskj�ld engaged in a \"business\" correspondence with Lumumba's Government from a sumptuous hotel.We are speaking and writing as though Lumumba were alive, just as we had seen him. A tall and well-made man looks openly at you through glasses with slightly short-sighted eyes. He speaks in a soft, pleasant voice. He has the manners of an intellectual and the heart of a fighter. After a session in Parliament, when he had to take the floor three times, he rode home to play with his four children. He is a fond father....It is hard to believe that what happened to Patrice Lumumba took place in the second half of the twentieth century. Just think of it! The lawfully elected Prime Minister of a young African republic was seized by the bandits of the usurper Mobutu, thrown into a dungeon in Thysville and then transported by special plane to Katanga. Regretfully we do not have all the facts of the brutal slaying of Lumumba and his comrades-in-arms, President of the Congolese Senate Joseph Okito and Minister of Defence Maurice Mpolo. But it is obvious that Lumumba's \"escape\" was a fake and that it was made public after the prisoners of the Katanga jail had been put to death. Could it be that what President Modibo Keita of the Mali Republic spoke of a few days before the terrible news crashed down upon the world was actually what happened? Speaking of the physical reprisal that was being prepared against Lumumba, Keita declared:" }

{ "content": "\"Eight hundred thousand Belgian francs are to be collected in Paris and sent to Brazzaville, from where this money will be taken to the Congo. Hired assassins are to be paid from this first instalment. Lumumba's second escape will be engineered to allow the assassins to commit their crime. It would not be superfluous to recall that during Lumumba's first escape certain Belgian newspapers reported: 'It was stupid to arrest him! We could have settled this devilish problem at once!'\"What was \"not settled\" at once was done later.Foreign observers saw Patrice Lumumba and his comrades-in-arms for the last time at the Elisabethville aerodrome on January 17, 1961. They were blindfolded and covered with blood.No one must forget the condemnatory fact that the U.N. Command in the Congo perpetrated a crime when on two occasions it surrendered and betrayed the head of the legal Government of the Congo Republic: the first time into the hands of Mobutu and Kasavubu, and the second time into the hands of the Belgian aggressors and Tshombe.Patrice Lumumba never camouflaged his political convictions. On behalf of his Party and on behalf of the Congolese people he demanded the full and final abolition of the colonial system. He never sought a compromise with the imperialists and their creatures. That was why he was hated in colonialist circles. That was why plots were organised against him in Leopoldville and in Brazzaville on the far bank of the Congo.The murder of Patrice Lumumba shocked the whole world.Lumumba became a legend, a symbol, a banner of struggle. The whole world now realises the full significance of the loss. Lumumba was not released as was undeviatingly demanded by world public opinion. He was tortured to death. The American Washington Post and Times Herald can now stop worrying that \"Lumumba's release will be an obvious risk for the Western Powers\". We know that behind the Katanga hangmen there are definite \"white\" faces. Sitting in an international organisation they squeezed out of themselves official \"condolences\" that sounded as though they were glued together with pieces of gutta-percha. They will always be haunted by the ghost of the dead hero and martyr! It is time the whole world forcibly declared that the post of U.N. Secretary-General is incompatible with villainy. May the wrath and grief of millions of Congolese and of hundreds of millions of ordinary folks the world over finally force the overt and covert accomplices of the crime in a nameless Katanga village out of their high posts in the U.N.!Lumumba is no longer among the living. The Congo lost a great son. He perished in the prime of his anti-colonial, patriotic activity. A prime minister may be unlawfully removed and assassinated, but the idea of the Congo's unity cannot be put down. Lumumba is no more. But his staunch supporters and his Party remain. Writing about them, the newspaper Uhuru said:\"The Congo National Movement Party is the motor of our entire movement. Its credo and ours is unity.\"Belgium should have realised that the views expressed by Lumumba were the views of the majority of the Congolese people. Lumumba always forestalled the designs of those who shape Belgium's foreign policy. We call upon the entire people to participate in political activity and support the national movement that was created and organised by Lumumba's Party. For those who are fighting for the future of our country we bring to mind a piece of ancient wisdom, which says that the substance of life is not that man should fall, but, on the contrary, that he should continually rise. At this culminating period we call upon you to support unity. History and the people will appraise the efforts we are making today. Long live a united and indivisible Congo! Long live Lumumba and freedom!\"\"Lumumba and freedom!\", \"Lumumba and independent Congo!\" are the slogans with which thousands upon thousands of Congolese are rising to the struggle against the Belgian aggressors and their satellites. Lumumba's bright life inspires people to the performance of great deeds. The savage murders are evidence of the agony of the outworn system of slavery. Lumumba's very death is mobilising the Congolese to the struggle for freedom and independence, for the sake of which Africa's national hero Patrice Lumumba lived, worked and suffered with such supreme courage to the last drop of his blood. Marxism and Anti-Imperialism in Africa |Patrice Lumumba Archive" }

{ "content": "Patrice LumumbaSpeech at the opening of the All-African Conference in LeopoldvilleAugust 25, 1960Source: Patrice Lumumba: Fighter for Africa’s Freedom, Moscow, Progress Publishers, 1961, pp 19-25.Written: by Patrice Lumumba;Transcribed: by Thomas Schmidt. Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba speaks at the opening of the All-African Conference in Leopoldville, August 25, 1960Ministers,Ladies and gentlemen,Dear comrades,The fighting Congolese people are proud and happy to receive their brothers-in-arms in their country today.For my Government, for us Congolese, your presence here at such a moment is the most striking proof of the African reality whose existence our enemies have always denied and are still attempting to deny. But you, of course, know that that reality is even more stubborn than they, and Africa lives on and fights. She refuses to die to justify the arguments about the backwardness of our history, a history we have made with our hands, our skins and our blood.It is at conferences such as this that, we first became conscious of our personality, of our growing solidarity. When at our first conferences, which were held in various cities in Africa, we brought up the problem of decolonisation the imperialists never expected we would be successful. However, since the first Conference of the Peoples of Africa in Accra in December 1958 we have traversed the entire road of the liberation of our continent together.You will recall the upsurge of the liberation struggle of the peoples of Angola, Algeria, the Congo, Kenya, Mozambique, Nyasaland and Rhodesia after the Conference in Accra, and of Ruanda-Urundi today. You will remember that a decisive step forward was taken after that historic Conference. Nothing, neither bullets, nor repressions, could stop this popular movement.The work of this Conference is aimed at accelerating the movement for the independence of the African continent.Ministers, dear fighters for the freedom of Africa, it is your duty to show the world and those who sneer at us that nothing can deter us from liberating Africa, which is our common aim. We can achieve this aim only in solidarity and unity. Our solidarity will have meaning only when it is boundless and when we are convinced that Africa's destiny is indivisible.Such are the deep-going principles of the work you will have to do. This meeting will prepare the ground for a Summit Conference at which our countries will have to speak on:1) the unqualified support of all the African states in the general struggle for a Pan-African bloc;2) a policy of neutralism with the purpose of achieving genuine independence;3) the breaking down of colonial barriers through cultural exchanges;4) trade agreements between the African states;5) Africa's position with regard to the European Common Market;6) military co-operation;7) the building in Leopoldville of a powerful radio station with the aid of all the African states;8) the creation of a research centre in Leopoldville. Ministers, you have come into contact with the reality of the Congo here, in the very heart of the crisis that we shall have to resolve.Your confidence in the future of our continent will unquestionably help you to complete your work successfully. Your principal purpose is to prepare a meeting of our Heads of State, who will in deed establish African unity, for whose sake you have responded to our appeal.You know the origin of what is today called the Congolese crisis, which is actually only a continuation of the struggle between the forces of pressure and the forces of liberation. At the very outset of the Belgian aggression, my Government, the guarantor and representative of the sovereignty of the Congolese nation, decided to appeal to the United Nations. The U.N. has responded. And so has the free world. Belgium has been condemned. I went to New York to show world public opinion the moving forces of the Congolese drama.Upon our return from the United Stateswe replied to the invitation of the Heads of the free African states, who publicly adopted a definite position and unanimously extended to us their fraternal support. From this rostrum I express my gratitude to President Bourguiba, His Majesty Mohammed V, President Sekou Toure, President Tubman, President Nkrumah and President Olympio, whom I had the honour to meet at this decisive moment. I regret that material difficulties prevented me from replying to the invitation of President Nasser and His Majesty Haile Selassie.All of them, fighting for African unity, have said \"No\" to the strangulation of Africa. All of them immediately realised that the attempts of the imperialists to restore their rule threaten not only the independence of the Congo but also the existence of all the independent states of Africa. They all realised that if the Congo perishes, the whole of Africa will be plunged into the gloom of defeat and bondage.That is further striking proof of African unity. It is concrete testimony of the unity that we need in the face of imperialism's monstrous appetite.All statesmen are agreed that this reality is not debated but fought for so that it may be defended.We have gathered here in order that together we may defend Africa, our patrimony. In reply to the actions of the imperialist states, for whom Belgium is only an instrument, we must unite the resistance front of the free and fighting nations of Africa. We must oppose the enemies of freedom with a coalition of free men. Our common destiny is now being decided here in the Congo.It is, in effect, here that the last act of Africa's emancipation and rehabilitation is being played. In extending the struggle, whose primary object was to save the dignity of the African, the Congolese people have chosen independence. In doing so, they were aware that a single blow would not free them from colonial fetters, that juridical independence was only the first step, that a further long and trying effort would be required. The road we have chosen is not an easy one, but it is the road of pride and freedom of man." }

{ "content": "We were aware that as long as the country was dependent, as long as she did not take her destiny into her own hands, the main thing would be lacking. This concerns the other colonies, no matter what their standard of life is or what positive aspects of the colonial system they have.We have declared our desire for speedy independence without a transition period and without compromises with such emphasis because we have suffered more mockery, insults and humiliation than anybody else.What purpose could delays serve when we already knew that sooner or later we would have to revise and re-examine everything? We had to create a new system adapted to the requirements of purely African evolution, change the methods forced on us and, in particular, find ourselves and free ourselves from the mental attitudes and various complexes in which colonisation kept us for centuries.We were offered a choice between liberation and the continuation of bondage. There can be no compromise between freedom and slavery. We chose to pay the price of freedom.The classical methods of the colonialists, which we all knew or partially still know, are particularly vital here: survivals of military occupation, tribal disunity, sustained and encouraged over a long period, and destructive political opposition, planned, directed and paid.You know how difficult it has been for a newly independent state to get rid of the military bases installed by the former occupying powers. We must declare here and now that henceforth Africa refuses to maintain the armed forces of the imperialists in its territory. There must be no more Bizertes, Kitonas, Kaminas and Sidi Slimanes. We have our own armies to defend our countries.Our armed forces, which are victims of machinations, are likewise freeing themselves from the colonial organisation in order to have all the qualities of a national army under Congolese leadership.Our internal difficulties, tribal war and the nuclei of political opposition seemed to have been accidentally concentrated in the regions with our richest mineral and power resources. We know how all this was organised and, in particular, who supports it today in our house.Our Katanga because of its uranium, copper and gold, and our Bakwanga in Kasai because of its diamonds have become hotbeds of imperialist intrigues. The object of these intrigues is to recapture economic control of our country.But one thing is certain, and I solemnly declare that the Congolese people will never again let themselves be exploited, that all leaders who will strive to direct them to that road will be thrown out of the community.The resonance that has now been caused by the Congolese problem shows the weight that Africa has in the world today. Our countries, which only yesterday they wanted to ignore as colonial countries, are today causing the old world concern here in Africa. Let them worry about what belongs to them. That is not our affair. Our future, our destiny, a free Africa, is our affair.This is our year, which you have witnessed and shared in. It is the year of our indisputed victory. It is the year of heroic, blood-drenched Algeria, of Algeria the martyr and example of struggle. It is the year of tortured Angola, of enslaved South Africa, of imprisoned Ruanda-Urundi, of humiliated Kenya.We all know, and the whole world knows it, that Algeria is not French, that Angola is not Portuguese, that Kenya is not English, that Ruanda-Urundi is not Belgian. We know that Africa is neither French, nor British, nor American, nor Russian, that it is African.We know the objects of the West. Yesterday they divided us on the level of a tribe, clan and village. Today, with Africa liberating herself, they seek to divide us on the level of states. They want to create antagonistic blocs, satellites, and, having begun from that stage of the cold war, deepen the division in order to perpetuate their rule.I think I shall not be making a mistake if I say that the united Africa of today rejects these intrigues. That is why we have chosen the policy of positive neutralism, which is the only acceptable policy allowing us to preserve our dignity.For us there is neither a Western nor a communist bloc, but separate countries whose attitude towards Africa dictates our policy towards them. Let each country declare its position and act unequivocally with regard to Africa.We refuse to be an arena of international intrigues, a hotbed and stake in the cold war. We affirm our human dignity of free men, who are steadily taking the destiny of their nations and their continent into their own hands.We are acutely in need of peace and concord, and our foreign policy is directed towards co-operation, loyalty and friendship among nations. We want to be a force of peaceful progress, a force of conciliation. An independent and united Africa will make a large and positive contribution to world peace. But torn into zones of hostile influence, she will only intensify world antagonism and increase tension.We are not undertaking any discriminative measures. But the Congo is discriminated against in her external relations. Yet in spite of that she is open for all and we are prepared to go anywhere. Our only demand is that our sovereignty be recognised and respected.We shall open our doors to specialists from all countries motivated by friendship, loyalty and co-operation, from countries bent not on ruling Africans but on helping Africa. They will be welcomed with open arms.I am sure that I shall be expressing the sentiments of all my African brothers when I say that Africa is not opposed to any nation taken separately, but that she is vigilant against any attempt at new domination and exploitation both in the economic and spiritual fields. Our goal is to revive Africa's cultural, philosophical, social and moral values and to preserve our resources. But our vigilance does not signify isolation. From the beginning of her independence, the Congo has shown her desire to play her part in the life of free nations, and this desire was concretised in her request for admission to the United Nations." }

{ "content": "Ministers and dear comrades, I am happy to express the joy and pride of the Government and people of the Congo at your presence here, at the presence here of the whole of Africa. The time of projects has passed. Today Africa must take action. This action is being impatiently awaited by the peoples of Africa. African unity and solidarity are no longer dreams. They must be expressed in decisions.United by a single spirit, a single aspiration and a single heart, we shall turn Africa into a genuinely free and independent continent in the immediate future.Long live African unity and solidarity!Forward, Africans, to complete liberation! Marxism and Anti-Imperialism in Africa |Patrice Lumumba Archive" }

{ "content": "Patrice LumumbaLetter from Thysville Prison to Mrs. Lumumba Source: Patrice Lumumba, The Truth about a Monstrous Crime of the Colonialists, Moscow, Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1961, pp. 230-231.Written: by Patrice Lumumba;Transcribed: by Thomas Schmidt.My dear wife,I am writing these words to you, not knowing whether they will ever reach you, or whether I shall be alive when you read them.Throughout my struggle for the independence of our country I have never doubted the victory of our sacred cause, to which I and my comrades have dedicated all our lives.But the only thing which we wanted for our country is the right to a worthy life, to dignity without pretence, to independence without restrictions.This was never the desire of the Belgian colonialists and their Western allies, who received, direct or indirect, open or concealed, support from some highly placed officials of the United Nations, the body upon which we placed all our hope when we appealed to it for help.They seduced some of our compatriots, bought others and did everything to distort the truth and smear our independence.What I can say is this—alive or dead, free or in jail—it is not a question of me personally.The main thing is the Congo, our unhappy people, whose independence is being trampled upon.That is why they have shut us away in prison and why they keep us far away from the people. But my faith remains indestructible.I know and feel deep in my heart that sooner or later my people will rid themselves of their internal and external enemies, that they will rise up as one in order to say 'No' to colonialism, to brazen, dying colonialism, in order to win their dignity in a clean land.We are not alone. Africa, Asia, the free peoples and the peoples fighting for their freedom in all corners of the world will always be side by side with the millions of Congolese who will not give up the struggle while there is even one colonialist or colonialist mercenary in our country.To my sons, whom I am leaving and whom, perhaps, I shall not see again, I want to say that the future of the Congo is splendid and that I expect from them, as from every Congolese, the fulfilment of the sacred task of restoring our independence and our sovereignty.Without dignity there is no freedom, without justice there is no dignity and without independence there are no free men.Cruelty, insults and torture can never force me to ask for mercy, because I prefer to die with head high, with indestructible faith and profound belief in the destiny of our country than to live in humility and renounce the principles which are sacred to me.The day will come when history will speak. But it will not be the history which will be taught in Brussels, Paris, Washington or the United Nations.It will be the history which will be taught in the countries which have won freedom from colonialism and its puppets.Africa will write its own history and in both north and south it will be a history of glory and dignity.Do not weep for me. I know that my tormented country will be able to defend its freedom and its independence.Long live the Congo!Long live Africa!Thysville prisonPatrice LUMUMBA Marxism and Anti-Imperialism in Africa |Patrice Lumumba Archive" }

{ "content": "Patrice LumumbaStatement at a press conference inLeopoldvilleAugust 16, 1960Source: Patrice Lumumba: Fighter for Africa’s Freedom, Moscow, Progress Publishers, 1961, pp 59-61.Written: by Patrice Lumumba;Transcribed: by Thomas Schmidt.I have asked you to this press conference primarily to announceto you an important decision that the present situation has forcedthe Government of the Republic to take.You shall see that we are conscious of the gravity of the hourand are not shirking our responsibilities. The reason for callingthis conference is that I wanted to determine the present situationwith you.Yesterday, from the U.N. services, you received a version of thedivergences between the U.N. Secretary-General and our Government.Some people are seeking to present this dispute as a question ofpersonality, of personalities. I should like to emphasise here andnow that the U.N. Secretary-General is a high officer in theservice of an institution that we respect to the point that we haveappealed to it (for aid-Tr.). However,here the question is to examine, on the basis of facts, theSecretary-General's mission and the manner in which he has or hasnot fulfilled this mission.Everything was perfectly clear in the evening of July 14 in NewYork, when the Security Council decided, I quote the text of theresolution, \"to authorise the Secretary-General to take, inconsultation with the Government of the Republic of the Congo, allnecessary measures with a view to giving that Government themilitary assistance it requires until such a time when the nationalsecurity forces, thanks to the efforts of the Congolese Governmentand with the technical assistance of the United Nations, are, inthe opinion of that Government, fully capable of carrying out theirtasks\".From this it is quite clear that the Secretary-General had nobusiness giving his own interpretation of the order instructing himto extend to our Government unrestricted military assistance, whichwe required and still require and with regard to which we are thesole judges.We asked the U.N. for assistance, and it responded to ourappeal. Our attitude towards the United Nations remains one of fulltrust. Strong and confident of our right, we are profoundlyconvinced that the U.N., which has already demonstrated its insightand impartiality with regard to us, will straightforwardly carryout the decisions it has adopted.Let me emphasise once again that the matter concerns themaintenance of peace among nations.That is why we regret some of the actions that have been takenby the Secretary-General, and you are bearing witness that theseactions are only prolonging the crisis, which we are the first todeplore.Incidents, which U.N. troops should have stopped long ago, aretaking place every day because of the behaviour of the aggressiveBelgian forces and because of certain ambiguities created by somegroups.On the other hand, all the Belgian magistrates have fled,leaving their offices in indescribable disorder, with the resultthat civil courts no longer exist.We have decided to take immediate steps to hold in check alltrouble-makers, white or black, in order to enable our people toretrieve their dignity and to restore legality and peace.I shall now read you the ordinance that was promulgated by theGovernment today.[P. Lumumba reads the text of the ordinance.]I shall now give you some figures to show that with goodwilleach can make his contribution towards the solution of ourproblems.In the period from August 1 to 8, the Matadi-LeopoldvilleRailway transported 6,000 tons of timber. During thepast week thisfigure has been nearly trebled to 17,500 tons. In other words, inthe past eight days we have restored the normal rhythm.This encouraging result was achieved with only 5 per cent of theformer European personnel. We greet the work that has been done bythese people. The Government of the Republic takes this occasion toreaffirm the friendship of the Congolese population for the Belgianpeople. It confirms that it is ready to restore diplomaticrelations with Belgium as soon as Belgian troops withdraw from theCongo, including the bases at Kitona and Kamina. We are prepared torenew friendly relations. Marxism and Anti-Imperialism in Africa |Patrice Lumumba Archive" }

{ "content": "Jean BULABEMBAA LIFE GIVEN UP FOR THE PEOPLESource: Patrice Lumumba: Fighter for Africa’s Freedom, Moscow, Progress Publishers, 1961, pp 80-90.Written: by Jean BULABEMBA, Congolese journalist;Transcribed: by Thomas Schmidt.\"There is no compromise between freedom and slavery,\" said Patrice Emery Lumumba, who sacrificed his life to bring real freedom to his people. Those who consider freedom as their exclusive prerogative murdered him in an effort to strangle Congolese nationalism.\"Africa will write her own history, and in both north and south it will be a history of glory and dignity,\" Lumumba wrote a few days before his death. The Congo already has its own history, but so far it is only a history of struggle, a history of a transitional period. The history of glory and dignity Lumumba spoke about will come.Lumumba personifies the Congolese people. He chose the road of suffering, torture and, lastly, death rather than become a slave of the imperialists. He was firmly and deeply convinced that sooner or later his country would be completely independent. Like their leader, the Congolese people prefer to bear every form of suffering rather than see their freedom mutilated and trampled upon by those who for more than 80 years of colonial rule kept them in such poverty and bondage that they are themselves ashamed of it.The Congolese people are carrying on their struggle for true independence.LUMUMBA AND THE CONGOLESE PEOPLEThe movement for the Congo's liberation had its own features. At first, when real nationalists led by Lumumba demanded complete independence, some political leaders in connivance with colonialist circles called for the creation of a commonwealth with Belgium. Shorn of its trimmings, it meant the retention of colonial rule in the Congo pure and simple. One man realised earlier and better than any other political leader what had to be done to carry the national-liberation movement to victory. His name was Patrice Emery Lumumba and his prime concern was to make his people conscious of themselves as a nation.He was the first Congolese leader to come into contact with the people, to discuss their country's problems with them and to take their will into consideration. In 1958, when he returned from Accra, he organised a rally in Leopoldville's Victory Square. More than 15,000 men, women, young people and old folk flocked to the square to listen to him. It was the first time in the Congo's history that the people responded to a call from a compatriot. Until then they had been taught to obey only the instructions of the white man.The rally's success surpassed all expectations. I was there. With other Congolese political leaders standing beside him, Lumumba spoke of the Conference in Accra in a clear and simple manner. The people listened to him quietly and attentively.Confident in himself and speaking off the cuff, he told the people of the difficulties lying on the road to independence. He repeatedly stressed the need for unity and national consciousness. \"We are not unlike any other inhabitants of the world. The Congo is our country. We must be the masters in our homes. So let us this day begin the struggle for our rights. Let us unite and go forward to independence,\" he said.The word \"independence\" struck a responsive chord in people's hearts. At that moment Lumumba established direct contact with his hearers. He had touched on their most cherished hopes. The people saw that he was the man to lead them to freedom. For his part Lumumba felt the response of his listeners.He continued: \"The colonialists seek to divide us in order to go on ruling us. Let us prove our maturity. Let us live like brothers. Independence is our birthright. We don't need anyone to present it to us because this country belongs to us. If the colonialists choose to ignore our lawful demands, we shall do everything to wrest our independence from them.\" The crowd responded with shouts of \"Independence! Long live Lumumba! Independence!\"While the people voiced their heartfelt approval of Lumumba's statements, the few Belgians present in the square virtually writhed in fury. A Belgian official standing beside me turned purple with rage. In the meantime Lumumba went on speaking on the subject of national independence and the struggle to achieve it. Following Congolese custom, the speaker and his listeners began a dialogue. \"Do you want to be the masters of your country?\" Lumumba asked. \"Yes,\" the people thundered in reply. \"What is needed for that?\" Lumumba continued. \"Independence!\" the people replied. This meeting, called for Congolese by Congolese, ended on a note of jubilation. Lumumba was the first man to awaken the people's national consciousness, which was to change the future of this old Belgian colony.LUMUMBA AND THE CONGO'S POLITICAL LIFENaturally, the success of this Lumumba-organised rally required the continuation of political work among the people. Lumumba had no intention of tackling this task single-handed. He appealed to Congolese political leaders to unite in a single political bloc with independence as their common objective. He gave his political organisation the meaningful name of Congo National Movement (CNM), thereby underlining the aspiration for unity. Most of the political leaders responded favourably to Lumumba's appeal.The colonialists attentively followed developments. Feeling the threat to their policy they immediately resorted to bribery. Huge sums of money passed into the hands of some political leaders on the understanding that they would break with Lumumba and oppose his efforts.Drawing upon his own meagre resources, Lumumba toured the country and set up branches of the Congo National Movement which was gaining in popularity. The CNM's growing influence, due in large measure to Lumumba's efforts, furthered the development of the national-liberation movement in the Congo.In Orientale Province support for the CNM was so overwhelming that branches were set up even in villages inhabited only by 20 persons or so. Lumumba personally toured the villages, speaking to the people. He knew several Congolese dialects and had no difficulty communicating with the people. He became the most popular figure in the country." }

{ "content": "In the young states of Africa political activity requires exceptional endowments, particularly high spiritual qualities. The people loved Lumumba because they knew he shared their aspirations. Lumumba appreciated that political activity meant work with and among the people. He gave up a well-paid job and devoted himself entirely to politics. His travels about the country took him to the farthest corners. He appealed to the people and they responded to his appeals. He shared the unhappy lot of the Congolese nation and understood its sufferings, and the support he got from the people encouraged him to press for radical changes.Throughout his career as a political leader Lumumba preached fraternal love between all Congolese. And he practised what he preached. When Kasavubu was arrested following the events of January 4, 1959, in Leopoldville, Lumumba took steps to obtain his release.He looked for ways of forming an alliance with all Congolese leaders in order to begin a general offensive against the colonialists. In spite of the difficulties, he went to the people and said to them: \"Let us continue the struggle. Let us be solidly behind our brothers who have been arrested by the colonialists in an effort to divide us.\"LUMUMBA DIRECTS THE NATIONAL STRUGGLE FOR IMMEDIATE INDEPENDENCEThe political situation in the country grew tense after the arrests that followed the demonstration in Leopoldville on January 4, 1959. Developments in the Congo forced the Belgian Government to carry out a political and administrative reform.This reform was announced in a declaration by the King and Government of Belgium on January 13, 1959. It mentioned independence.The publication of this declaration sparked off a fresh upsurge of the struggle for national independence. The development of the national-liberation struggle depended on the positions adopted by the Congolese leaders. In this situation, the stand taken by Lumumba attracted nationwide attention and, in particular, the attention of Belgian political leaders.Lumumba suggested convening a round-table conference of Belgian and Congolese leaders to work out the ways that would lead the Congo to immediate independence. The colonialists rejected his plan, refusing to talk with Congolese leaders whom they regarded as \"unrepresentative\".The demand for a round-table conference received widespread support in Leopoldville and other major towns in the Congo. Lumumba's proposals were approved by all the nationalist leaders. At this decisive moment of the struggle for national independence Lumumba did his utmost to unite the efforts of all the political leaders. On his initiative, representatives of Congolese political parties gathered together several times to work out a common policy. Lumumba, of course, played an important role in these quests for a joint line and greatly influenced the decisions that were taken.When the Belgian authorities flatly refused to meet the Congolese leaders, whom they continued to regard as \"unrepresentative\", Lumumba appealed to the people to go out into the streets and peaceably demonstrate their aspiration for freedom.In 1959 he organised two congresses. CNM leaders gathered at the first congress, and at the second all the nationalist parties reached agreement on a joint plan of action.The CNM congress was held at a time when it was obvious that the colonialists would try to start disorders. While the congress was in session in the large hall of the Mangobo Commune in Stanleyville, Belgian-officered soldiers and gendarmes patrolled the street outside. The presence of the soldiers in no way cooled passions, but Lumumba succeeded in avoiding any worsening of the situation. He constantly called upon the population to remain calm and warned them against provocateurs. The congress adopted resolutions demanding independence without delay, the Africanisation of personnel and an immediate meeting between Congolese and Belgian leaders.Lumumba hardly slept at all during the days the congress was in session. After the sittings he could be seen in the secretariat offices, typing and helping out in other ways. He received delegations, discussed various problems with congress delegates and other visitors, wrote statements for the press and held press conferences.At this time there was tension between the civilian population and troops commanded by Belgian officers. This tension reached white heat when the congress of the nationalist parties opened. Lumumba went to Leroy, the governor of Orientale Province, and warned him that the behaviour of the army, which was in a mood to fire upon the crowds, was fraught with dangerous consequences.On Lumumba's suggestion the congress sent a telegram to the Belgian Government demanding that the colonial authorities arrange a meeting between Congolese and Belgian leaders without delay. The Belgian Government replied that it had no intention whatever of discussing the Congo's future with Congolese leaders. The reply came in the evening. The congress had hoped it would be more or less favourable. After reading the telegram, Lumumba said: \"I propose we break with Belgium,\" and the delegates unanimously shouted their approval.The Belgian officers observing the congress through the windows broke into the premises and threw tear-gas bombs. Lumumba courageously went to the Belgians and told them to leave the hall. It was the first time in the history of the Belgian colony that white officers were compelled to obey an African.Lumumba's courageous behaviour won the warm approval of the crowds outside. More and more people filled the street. In the face of the provocative actions of the troops, the people of Stanleyville armed themselves with spears, bows and arrows, knives and other weapons. The situation was becoming tense. The Belgian officers completely lost control over themselves and began to fire at the crowd after the Congolese soldiers refused to fire at their brothers. When the first Congolese was struck down by the officers' bullets, Lumumba went to the dead man, lifted him in his arms and wept. The sight of Lumumba weeping with bullets whistling in the air round him made the people reply to the fire of the Belgian officers. Some of the officers fell to the ground, their hearts pierced by arrows. Lumumba wished to stop further bloodshed, and in this confusion he called upon the people to remain calm. They obeyed him and dispersed, leaving the street to the troops." }

{ "content": "Disturbances broke out again that night. Lumumba was somewhere at the other end of the city, and when he arrived at the trouble spot it was already too late. Dead troops and civilians, black and white, lay on the road. The authorities ordered ruthless repressions. A warrant for Lumumba's arrest was issued on the next day.The news of Lumumba's arrest spread like wildfire in Leopoldville, capital of the Congo. The colonialists desperately looked for support among the Congolese leaders, but they could find very little of it. The rallies organised by the CNM drew huge crowds. Resolutions supporting Lumumba were sent to Brussels. Delegations of the different strata of the population went to the Belgian authorities in the Congo and demanded Lumumba's immediate release.Daily the political situation worsened. The elections to local organs of power, set for the end of 1959, drew near. The nationalist parties decided to boycott these elections. Though in prison, Lumumba continued to direct the activities of his supporters, and his letters reached their destinations despite the close surveillance. Naturally, he was assisted by Congolese troops. It is interesting to note that in spite of the strict measures that were taken by the colonial authorities, almost all of these troops were members of the CNM and had party membership cards.LUMUMBA AND THE BRUSSELS ROUND-TABLE CONFERENCEIn January 1960, the Belgian Government convened a round-table conference in Brussels. It was attended by Congolese leaders and Belgian representatives. At the time the conference opened Lumumba was transferred from Stanleyville to a prison in Jadotville that was notorious as a torture chamber. He was barefoot, handcuffed and bore the marks of beatings. He had been manhandled on the way.The Brussels conference opened without Lumumba, but his representatives were there. The proceedings dragged on for several days without any agreement being reached. The Congolese leaders made it plain to the Belgian authorities that the conference would break down unless the repressions against Congolese were stopped and Lumumba was permitted to attend the conference. This condition was complied with.In Brussels Lumumba was met by the majority of the Congolese leaders and journalists. He showed them his wounds. In a statement to the press he appealed to the Belgians and Congolese to reach agreement on the early achievement of independence by the Congo.His presence at the round-table conference cleared the atmosphere. He played a particularly noteworthy role in naming the day for the proclamation of independence. At the conference he publicly exposed the manoeuvres of some Belgian financial groups, who were seeking to split the Congolese and thereby divide the Congo. He even walked out of the conference, and only returned when Tshombe's lawyer, a Belgian named Humblet, was excluded from its sittings. He realised that the objective was to legalise Katanga's secession and called attention to the danger. The other Congolese leaders supported him and condemned the activities of Tshombe, who in view of the general discontent was compelled to give assurances that he had never advocated Katanga's secession. But subsequent events showed that this was a lie.An Executive Council, which included Congolese members, was set up during the round-table conference on Lumumba's suggestion. This Council was attached to the Governor-General of the Congo and, in principle, its job was to help prepare the proclamation of independence and the parliamentary elections.Upon their return to the Congo the national leaders were given a jubilant reception by the people. The Congolese were proud that their leaders had been successful. An election campaign began. Lumumba won the election in April 1960. This was frowned upon by the colonialists, who did their utmost to keep Lumumba away from power. But they came up against the people's determination, against Congolese reality. In spite of all their intrigues, Lumumba became the Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo. His deputy was Antoine Gizenga, who later carried on his work.LUMUMBA AND THE CONGO'S INDEPENDENCEThe colonialists' plots aimed at giving the country only formal independence were exposed by Lumumba long before June 30, 1960, the day the independence of the Republic of the Congo was proclaimed. He went to the people, explaining the political situation to them and uniting them. Rallies were held all over the country. Lumumba secured a basic agreement among the nationalist parties with regard to unity of action. These parties subsequently formed the Lumumba or nationalist bloc.On June 30, 1960, when the people of the Congo were celebrating their independence, the Belgians were already dreaming of regaining control over the country. But in spite of all their intrigues against Lumumba, he remained in power right up to the grimmest period of his political career.Six days after independence was proclaimed, the. people of the Congo ran into an emergency precipitated by the colonialists. Everybody knows what that emergency was. In those days and right up to the last minute of his life, Lumumba showed he was a great leader guiding the destinies of his people whom he had always served devotedly.Lumumba's life was a continuous struggle for the Congo's interests. With the support of the people he became the Head of Government and the leader of the national-liberation movement in the country. Today, when he is dead, his people remember him, his cause and his life.We are confident that the righteous cause for which many of the Congo's sons have given their lives will ultimately triumph. Marxism and Anti-Imperialism in Africa |Patrice Lumumba Archive" }

{ "content": "Charles Curtiss Archive   |   Trotskyist Writers Index   |   ETOL Main PageC.The N.T.W.I.U. at Work in Boston(October 1931)From The Militant, Vol. IV No. 28 (Whole No. 87), 24 October 1931, p. 3.Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).After a long period of passivity the N.T.W.I.U. has awakened to the fact that something must be done. And while this is not the first time this has been said, let us hope and see that this time it is not only put into words, but into deeds.During the past week, several meetings were held with leading comrades in an endeavor, finally, to consider seriously the united front policy. It must be said that it took long before we succeeded in getting a “leader” down to Boston and when Burochovitch finally came he received, together with a warm welcome the well-deserved criticism to the G.E.B. for the many shortcomings as well as for sending away some of the heads to Russia during a period of such acute struggles. At a time when the furriers in New York and the cloak and dress makers throughout the industry needed leadership the most, no leader could spare three days in Boston but could spend nine months in the Soviet Union – with the result that the needle trades suffered severely. And today we have a shadow of what once promised to be a broad movement. However, this shadow still has life and needs building up. Every thinking worker will agree that the needle trades union needs the immediate and intensive activity of all forces including the leadership. How, then, could Hyman leave for the Soviet Union with the farewell words: “When the workers will need me, I will come back”? When does Hyman think the time will be more pressing than the present? It is hardly believable that he thinks that the workers do not need him any longer, for he knows the situation thoroughly and also knows that the workers feel it too keenly to accept his statement literally. However, the future will undoubtedly tell the truth.The united front question is not new and has received much mention but never been made clear to the minds of the workers. Consequently we often hear: “Yes, a united front, but how is it to be enforced?” This question intensified the interest of the workers to find out this time just what the leadership had to propose. When we came to the meeting and after Burochovitch spoke for an hour, he failed, as so many times in the past, to bring forth clearly this idea. Calling to the workers to organize shop committees, make this their fighting body that will demand conditions, that the workers are not compelled to join the Industrial Union is not enough to clarify to the workers the united front policy. We must in a united front draw up a slogan for demands. Together with the Right wing workers who are still deceived by their corrupt leaders, bring our demands to these leaders, emphasizing that they shall not sign agreements for us without fighting for our conditions, and if they will not do this then we will fight without them and against them.The active membership meeting was followed by a mass meeting with Gold. “This meeting of about four hundred workers, the majority of whom are Right wingers, again proved that the existing conditions are opening the eyes of the workers to the realization that only the unity of all workers can lend them to victory. It was precisely with this in mind that so many answered the call to pave the way for successful struggles in the coming season when the agreements with the bosses expire in February. It was here that our speakers had a splendid opportunity to bring forward more clearly our policy to the workers, and failed again to some extent.However, let us call this the beginning of real earnest activity. Let us not neglect it as in the past. The time is now. Forward to a genuine united front of all workers in our conning struggles for victory. Top of pageCharles Curtiss Archive   |   ETOL Main PageLast updated: 5.2.2013" }

{ "content": "Main FI Index | Main Newspaper IndexEncyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet ArchiveFourth International, July 1940 C. CurtissThe American Telephoneand Telegraph Co. From Fourth International, Vol. I No. 3, July 1940, p. 79.Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL. AT&T, The Story of Industrial Conquestby N. R. DanièlianVanguard Press; New York. 460 pp.The American Telephone and Telegraph Company receives more income a year than do Chile, Finland, Norway, Hungary and Yugoslavia combined. The largest single corporation in the country, it has a total capital of more than $5,000,000,000; in 1929 it employed 454,000 workers. It operates between 80 and 90 per cent of the nation’s telephone system; controls 222 vassal corporations, including Western Electric which produces 90 per cent of the world’s telephone equipment; owns over 9,000 United States patents and is licensed for 6,725 more. But even more important in the eyes of the bourgeois world – since 1880 AT&T and its forerunners have never paid a dividend of less than $7 a share, and since 1921, it has paid even through the lean years of the depression, $2.25 each quarter with astronomical regularity.The corporation began with a total investment of less than $200,000 in 1878 and by a process of accumulation and centralization has reached the gigantic status of today. Management and ownership are completely separated. Control is vested in the hands of a virtually self-perpetuating board of directors, paid huge salaries, while the stockholders’ only function is to clip dividend coupons.The AT&T boasts of the democracy of its ownership, of the widespread distribution of stock. However, the figures revealed by US government investigators show us the following as of September 16, 1935:No. ofSharesTotalStockholders  TotalShares  %Stockholders  %Shares1–5244,566   702,36536.8  3.86–25279,9813,609,39142.219.326–99105,6104,933,62015.926.4100–999  32,9046,319,962  5.033.91,000–9,999       9912,121,336  0.111.410,000 and over         43   975,601negligible  5.2These figures are eloquent testimony of the “democracy,” of the modern corporation. Each stockholder of the group owning 10,000 or more shares owns more than 9,000 times as much stock as each shareholder of the 1–5 group. Less than 0.1 percent of the shareholders own more shares than do two-thirds.The House of Morgan has dominated AT&T since 1907. Since that time, Morgan has sold $1,500,000,000 worth of shares, yielding a banker’s commission of nearly $40,000,000 for this service. As a result of the connection with Morgan, the Company loaned $20,000,000 to the Allies in 1916.In order to escape income tax payments, unfavorable publicity, etc., various subterfuges are used that make even this picture a distortion of the facts, as the actual concentration is undoubtedly even greater than that shown.Yet, it is true that AT&T is the most “democratic” of the large corporations. One can only guess at the distribution of ownership in the other corporations. Study of the income tax statistics show that less than 0.5% of the nation receive 75 to 80% of the corporate dividends.The high dividend rates which so arouse capitalist admiration are not due to any miracle. The maintenance of the rate of profit through the depression years can only be explained by the intensification of labor, which is in the final analysis a form of cutting wages and raising hours. In 1937, business was above the 1929 levels, profits rose from $116,000,000 to $168,000,000, but the number of employees decreased by 134,000.It scarcely need be added that AT&T actively opposes unionism through participation in the Special Conference Committee, a company union supported by 11 other giant corporations.The modern corporation has made a wage slave of the scientist, the engineer and the inventor. Nowhere is this more clearly seen than in the Bell Laboratories, where research is carried on in both experimental and applied science. The labor power of the scientist is bought and sold on the labor market, the scientist-proletarian punches the time clock, receives wages, while the product of his toil belongs to the capitalists who hire him. That product is patents, the ownership of which becomes part of the capital of the corporation to be used either directly by it, or leased to other capitalists for use in the production of profits.A discovery in one field of science will often find uses in many others, sometimes far removed from its original aim. For example, De Forest’s vacuum tube is useful not only in telegraphy, but in long distance telephony, in radio, television and sound pictures. By control of this patent, as with others, the Bell System finds itself a factor in industries far removed from telephones.The control of patents, resulting from the work of the Bell Laboratories, the accumulation of large surplus funds demanding investment, the fear of competition, as for instance, from the radio, explains the constant tendency of AT&T to invade other fields, particularly those connected with its patents. Here they come into contact and clash with other industries. Competition is no longer a struggle for the customer, waged by a host of small concerns, but a war of giants to see who shall dominate a monopolized field. The chief instrument used in this war, besides finances, is the control of patents. It is a struggle, not mainly at the point of consumption, but in the laboratory.Two groups are dominant in the electrical communications and manufacturing field: the telephone group composed of AT&T and its subsidiaries; and the radio group, consisting of RCA, General Electric and Westinghouse. with the addition of some minor groups. (The telegraph companies are sinking into relative unimportance.) After a period of war between the groups a peace treaty was signed on July 1, 1926 delimiting the zones of monopoly of each, with an exchange of patents for use in those zones.Telephony, both wire and wireless, with the exception of broadcasting went to the telephone group; telegraphy and radio broadcasting was allocated to the radio group. Telephone equipment manufacturing went to the telephone group, while radio and communication household equipment is the domain of the radio group. Wire television and facsimile process went to the telephone group, while radio television and fascimile went to the radio group.The manufacture of radio transmission equipment is shared between the two." }

{ "content": "The only “no man’s land” in the agreement is sound movies. In this field intense warfare has raged. For a long time, the movie-goer could see on the “title page” of the talkie, only the trade mark “Western Electric Sound System” or “Western Electric Microphonic Recording.” But the radio group did not leave unchallenged the domination of the Western Electric.In order to bolster its position, the subsidiary of Western Electric, ERPI (Electrical Research Products, Incorporated) loaned money to studios and movie houses to aid them in placing Western Electric recording and reproducing equipment. Having loaned millions, the crash of 1929 found the AT&T taking over studios and theaters, becoming at one time the second most important financial interest in the movie industry.The Bell interests were not successful in maintaining a monopoly in the sound motion picture field. In June 1936, Warner Brothers, Fox Film, and Columbia Pictures installed RCA recording equipment in their studios to supplement Western Electric equipment.Capitalist economy has run its course. Its end result is the gigantic monopoly, in which the capitalist is a useless parasite. Of what use are the owners of the corporations? The picture which Mr. Danièlian draws of a single company, is to a great extent, true of all corporations and companies and American economy as a whole. The workers are exploited by these concerns; the consuming public is victimized through monopoly prices. Mr. Danièlian, writing in the style of Ferdinand Lundeberg does not draw any conclusions from his study as to the future of industry. The class conscious worker, will draw the only correct one: the necessity of the transition to socialism! Top of pageMain FI Index | Main Newspaper IndexEncyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet ArchiveLast updated on 26 February 2016" }

{ "content": "Charles Curtiss Archive   |   Trotskyist Writers Index   |   ETOL Main PageC. CharlesPriorities Joblessness Faces2 Million WorkersMonopolies Oppose Expansion ofProduction Facilities and Try to Limit Suppliesof Raw Materials for Small Companies(August 1941)From The Militant, Vol. V No. 34, 23 August 1941, p. 6.Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).Close to two million men and women will be thrown out of work within a few months as a result of “priorities unemployment.” They will be added to those now unemployed, numbering, according to Secretary of Labor Perkins, between 7,000,000 and 8,500,000 workers.Attention was focused recently on “priorities unemployment” by the closing down of the women’s silk stocking factories. Plants employing 175,000 workers have been ordered closed. This was caused by the government order forbidding trade with Japan and the requisitioning of the stocks of raw silk on hand for military use. No reserves of raw silk, which comes entirely from Japan, are on hand, in spite of government promises to build up such reserves. Nylon plants can supply only a fraction of the demand for silk.Besides the silk industry, “priorities unemployment” has already directly affected thousands of oil and aluminum workers. This latest form, of unemployment threatens particularly the auto, refrigerator and electrical appliance industries.Jobs of all workers employed in non-war industries using steel, oil, aluminum, iron, copper, brass, zinc, nickel, tin, rubber and cork are also endangered.“Priorities unemployment” arises from the government policy of granting preference to the war industries in the rationing of limited supplies of raw materials. As a result, plants working on non-military products are forced to curtail production: and in many cases shut down completely.On July 19, 1941, Leon Henderson, federal price-control administrator, ordered a reduction of 50 per cent in the manufacture of autos to begin by October. According to the United Auto Workers Union (CIO) this would mean a lay-off of 215,000 workers.Production of household refrigerators will be halved, throwing more than 27,000 out of work, while more than 3,000 workers will be unemployed as a result of curtailment of the domestic laundry and related appliance industry.Sixteen thousand aluminum-ware workers are already unemployed. Transportation LackMany industries will suffer from insufficient raw materials because of lack of train and boat transport facilities. The recent order of Secretary of Interior Ickes, closing all gasoline stations on the Eastern seaboard from 7 P.M. to 7 A.M. every day was due not to a shortage of gasoline but to insufficient tankers to bring the gasoline to its consumer outlet. In the city of New York alone 5,000 workers lost their jobs because of this decree.Industries as far removed from war production as printing will feel the pinch of “priorities unemployment.” On July 21, 1941, the OPM predicted a shortage of most types of paper due to lack of ships to carry newsprint and pulp from Canada.Industries using copper have had their supplies of this metal curtailed due, among other causes, to shipping difficulties which interfere with transport of refined copper from Chile.The OPM foresees that the transportation situation will become more serious as rail and boat lines become congested with defense shipments.A probable shortage of electrical energy in certain regions is expected as aluminum and other large consumers of electricity receive priority. Production of non-priority plants will suffer. Small Concerns HitParticularly hard hit have been and will be the small plants producing consumers’ non-priority goods. In Illinois, for example, a state commission disclosed that 24 such plants producing articles as diversified as watch parts and railway cars and employing a total of 3,569 workers face complete closing within 60 days at most. These small plants have great difficulty in getting government orders, as 75 per cent of this work is monopolized by a few large concerns.Not only will the workers directly engaged in manufacturing lose their jobs, but salesmen, warehousemen and other workers as well.An indirect form of “priorities unemployment” will result from the recent curtailment of installment selling. Automobile production will be particularly hard hit as 64 per cent of the output in autos is sold on installment: 60 per cent of all furniture and more than half of all mechanical refrigerators and other household appliances are also sold “on time.” Capitalist AnarchyIf we leave aside silk, shortages of steel and aluminum are at present the greatest causes of “priorities unemployment.” Yet, on July 10, Walter S. Tower, president of the American Iron and Steel Institute, falsely declared that there was no sound factual basis for expecting any shortage of steel. The steel monopolies are deliberately trying to maintain their dominant position by curbing competitive steel production. The big steel officials are trying to foist on the public the view that there really is no practical need for wholesale increases in capacity.I.W. Wilson, vice-president of the Aluminum Company of America, stated before the Temporary National Economic Committee that his company alone could not only supply all aluminum needed for national defense but also “ordinary domestic requirements and normal requirements.” The OPM has given the lie to this statement by admitting the need for 2,100,000,000 pounds of aluminum in 1942, while ALCOA has a top productive capacity of only 700,000,000 pounds. Workers Protest PlanlessnessThe AFL and the CIO have both protested the threatened job losses. The Auto Workers Union (CIO) and the United Electrical Radio and Machine Workers of America (CIO), whose member are most immediately and directly affected, have launched campaigns to resist “priorities unemployment.”By the example of “priorities unemployment” and similar lessons, the workers of the United States are learning that capitalism cannot overcome its anarchy of production, which is inherent in the profit system, even in the face of its greatest emergencies. America’s 60 Families, in their mad greed for profits, not only cannot put millions back on the job, but on the eve of direct involvement in the war are throwing millions more out of work.Thus, the capitalists are attempting to place the burden of their own incompetence on the workers in the form of unemployment, goods shortages, monopoly prices and real wage cuts. Top of pageCarter Archive   |   Trotskyist Writers Index  |   ETOL Main Page" }

{ "content": "Last updated: 27 May 2016" }

{ "content": "Charles Curtiss Archive   |   Trotskyist Writers Index   |   ETOL Main PageC.C.Mexican Nazis Attack Trotsky(June 1934)From The Militant, Vol. VII No. 24, 16 June 1934, p. 2.Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).There is in Mexico a fascist sheet, organ in Spanish of Hitler’s embassy in Mexico. Anti-labor, anti-Communist, anti-Semitic, with all the lack of originality and logic of that movement the paper, thanks to the subsidy it receives from the Nazis, appears, unnoticed by the great majority of Mexicans. Without doubt, the most religious supporters of this paper are the Jews, who pay 5 cents for every issue in a morbid curiosity to see what new strange fables about them appear.One thing must be impressed, and that is that this paper is the organ of Nazism. About five months ago a new ambassador arrived from Berlin bearing a membership card in the Nazis and a Baron and a Von before his name (need more be said).When the issue of the Trotsky expulsion from France came up, in this organ appeared an article by a renegade from Communism named Mullen. The article makes a show of erudition that in its shallowness is really painful to behold. But we do not want to criticize the article. Not being very much read it does not merit criticism. What we want to do is merely to comment upon it.The theme of this article is that the Jews are the only real internationalists, and that the expulsion of Trotsky from the Communist International is a victory for nationalism. That the struggle between Stalin the Georgian and Trotsky the Jew is really a struggle between nationalism and internationalism.Let us extract the true core of this matter and leave the rest. That core is that the struggle of the International Communists is in essence a struggle for internationalism, which does not represent the Jew or the Methodist but represents the interests of the worldwide proletariat. Will this frank appraisal by Nazism make some of the rank and file Stalinists think?The national-socialists of Germany find an ideological rapproachment with Stalinistic “socialism in one country”, and find common ground with it in the struggle against the internationalism of Trotsky. Top of pageCharles Curtiss Archive   |   ETOL Main PageLast updated: 23 April 2016" }

{ "content": "Charles Curtiss Archive   |   Trotskyist Writers Index   |   ETOL Main PageCharles CurtissWorkers ForumThe Death of Frank Halstead(20 July 1940)From Socialist Appeal, Vol. IV No. 29, 20 July 1940, p. 2.Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).Editor:It is with deep sorrow that we report the news of the death of Frank Halstead, of Los Angeles.Comrade Halstead was one of the founders of the Left Opposition movement in Los Angeles. Previous to that, he had been a member of the Young People’s Socialist League in the days before the War, a member of the Industrial Workers of the World, and an active member of the progressive group in the Machinists Union.When the writer of these lines arrived in Los Angeles, comrade Halstead was receiving and distributing a bundle of Militants, and speaking wherever he could for the Left Opposition, doing pioneer work in the then “white spot” of reaction. This period marked the beginning of the unemployed movement into which the small nucleus of the Left Opposition threw itself; beginning a left wing in the large unemployed co-operative movement. In this movement comrade Halstead was a leading figure, organizing the unemployed. Working side by side with comrade Halstead, I was able to see a real rebel in action; a rebel who combined a deep loyalty to and faith in the working class, with a clear forceful mind.After starting the Left Opposition movement on its way, comrade Halstead withdrew from the movement into the role of a sympathizer. He later joined one of the splinter movements.In spite of the differences between himself and our organization, the Los Angeles section of the Socialist Workers Party salutes a rebel. We are sure his work will be remembered by the working class.We offer our condolences to his wife and sons. Charles CurtissFor the Los Angeles sectionof the Socialist Workers Party Top of pageCarter Archive   |   Trotskyist Writers Index  |   ETOL Main PageLast updated: 22 May 2020" }

{ "content": "Charles Curtiss Archive   |   Trotskyist Writers Index   |   ETOL Main PageC.C.Strike Lessons on Pacific Coast(September 1933)From the Militants, The Militant, Vol. VI No. 43, 16 September 1933, p. 2.Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).Los Angeles. – It is sad to have to write to you that the workers on strike against Golden Bros. Millinery shop were defeated.The bravery of the strikers, their militancy on the picket lines, their courage before the clubs and saps of a degenerate group of police, the great number of arrests bravely endured (17 in number) were not able to overcome the objective fact of the strike being forced on the workers in the off season and the subjective condition of weakness in the Trade Union Unity League officialdom. (To grace them with the name of “leaders” would be sheer violence of the latter term).Victory could have been won, even though the strike took place in the slack season, but for the passivity and lethargy in the general activities – a condition due to the actions of the apparatus of the T.U.U.L. and not the strikers themselves.The chairman of the strike committee, comrade Louis Meyers insisted on a more militant attitude, but to no avail, as a result scabs manned the shops.After much effort, comrade Meyers succeeded in securing what amounted to a little more than a verbal agreement with his views.In spite of its weaknesses, the strike has created a tradition in Los Angeles. To all workers, particularly needleworkers, it showed how even the most brutal of police terror can be fought. Smashed picket lines were reformed. Jail did not daunt. In this manner strikes are won; not in the class collaboration of the conservative trade union fakers.A storm of strikes, in the needle trades above all, is in the offing. The first strikes, the forerunners, are already here. The NTWIU is conducting a number of small strikes. The Amalgamated ClothingWorkers has struck the Kurtzman Clothing Co. The international Ladies Garment Workers Union is planning a general strike and has been waging a series of minor strike battles in this situation it becomes yet more important for the I.U.W.L. members to finally learn too that the place of the Left wing is within the mass unions.To the strikers out now and to those who are yet to strike, the workers of Golden Bros. shop have taught lessons that we hope will not go unheeded.Although the strike has been called off, rearguard battles remain to be fought. These are the struggles for the freeing of the strikers arrested on the vicious anti-picketing ordinance, a piece of legislation aimed to maintain Los Angeles as the pride and joy of employers.These trials are now going on. First results have not been good. Two workers were fined $20 each. Two girl strikers, Elsie Meyers and Sally Wegdorow, have been fined $50 or 25 days in jail. This case has been appealed. Three girls are going on trial now.This fight cannot remain solely in the courtroom. Behind the victimized strikers all of Los Angeles labor must be mobilized.The fight against the anti-picketing ordinance concerns every worker who is ever going to strike whether he or she is in a union affiliated with the Trade Union Unity League, the A.F. of L., the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, or independent unions. For workers to strike without picket, lines is like soldiers marching to war without fire arms.Around the right to strike and to picket a broad united front can be formed. The acute need of the moment for all workers is the winning of this right. The most important ingredient of successful strikes is strong picket lines. The anti-picketing ordinance stands in the way.Only action by the workers can remove this anti-picketing ordinance, not legal argumentation before the bosses’ courts. Although this latter angle must, not be ignored, the following must be driven deep into the consciousness of stirring Los Angeles labor: “Only united action by the workers can do away with the anti-picketing ordinance, and open the road to higher wages, shorter hours and better conditions.” Top of pageCharles Curtiss Archive   |   ETOL Main PageLast updated: 9 February 2016" }

{ "content": "Main FI Index | Main Newspaper IndexEncyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet ArchiveFourth International, May 1940 C. CurtissCalifornia Agriculture – Ripe for UnionismA Book Review From Fourth International, Vol. I No. 1, May 1940, p. 31.Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL. Factories in the FieldBy Carey McWilliams334 pp. Little Brown and CompanyHighly centralized and trustified factory farms controlled by the banks, rapid elimination of the small independent farmer, a large super-exploited agricultural proletariat virtually without civil rights – this is California agriculture, ably depicted by Mr. Carey McWilliams in his book, Factories in the Field. And California merely shows the other states of the Union their immediate future. The adversaries of Marxism have always held up the farmers as a refutation of the Marxist concept of the centralization and concentration of industry and wealth. Once more the intellectual defenders of capitalism have been proved wrong.The “primitive accumulation” of the main item of agricultural constant capital, the land, was accomplished as ruthlesslyin California as elsewhere. The old Spanish and Mexican land grants, essentially feudal in their character, were bought for a song, or secured by force and cheating. In 1860, some 9,000,000 acres were concentrated in the hands of some 800 grantees.The railroads were granted, in addition to a Federal subsidy equivalent to the complete cost of extending the system to California, every other section of land along the right of way. In this manner, the railroads were given 18 per cent of the State government land.The third method of securing large stretches of land was through plain ordinary everyday swindling. For example, no limit was placed on the acreage of swamp land that a single person could buy. So one of the land barons hitched a team of horses to a rowboat and had it dragged over perfectly dry land, thereby “proving” the valuable land to be swamp and securing it for less than a dollar an acre.That patriotism pays, was rediscovered by the growers who bought at extremely depressed prices the land which the Japanese owners were forced to sell upon the passage of the California alien land laws.These methods together with the elimination of the small landowner by the ordinary process of concentration and centralization, have placed huge stretches of land under the domination of single companies or individuals.From all over the world low paid workers were inveigled into toiling upon this land. In the beginning the native Indians were used; then the bindle-stiff appeared, ex-miners and ruined farmers; then followed the Chinese, Japanese, the Hindus, Mexicans, Greeks, Italians, Filipinos, Negroes and last the “Okies” driven from the lands of Texas and Oklahoma by natural and social disasters.The growers have been able to use group against group to prevent the workers from organizing.From 1865 to 1880 the crop of first importance was wheat. Then followed fruit, sugar beets, vegetables, and finally cotton. The transition from dry, wheat farming to irrigated farming required huge engineering projects. California’s ranches and irrigation projects have been and still are a point of investmentfor world capital. Fifty per cent of the land in central and northern California, for example, is under the control of the Bank of America.The organization of the agricultural industry from a capitalist point of view is highly involved. The completely parasitic ownership is entirely distinct from control and management. For example, Mr. McWilliams points out:“... the owners of 309,000 citrus growing acres, valued at close to $618,000,000, sell their crops through the California Fruit Growers’ Exchange. The exchange picks, packs, pools, grades, ships and sells the orange crop ... The Fruit Growers’ Supply Company, an agency of the exchange, owns vast tracts of timber and a lumber mill, and thus buys boxes and crates at cost ... As Mr. Stokes (a grower) pointed out: ‘I irrigate my orchard with water delivered by a non-profit combination of growers. My trees are sprayed or fumigated by a non-profit partnership.’ The exchange even notifies the grower when he is supposed to start the smudge pots burning to protect his crop from frost.”The hiring of labor has reached an unusual degree of centralization and organization as well. The employers cooperate to keep wages down:“... the growers in a given area, involved in the production of a particular crop, would create an employment agency or exchange. This agency would estimate the labor requirements for the coming harvest season, fix a prevailing wage rate, and then proceed to recruit the necessary workers ... Under this practice, the workers more and more began to be employed by the industry rather than by individual growers.”The success of the employers in keeping wages down can be estimated by the fact that it is more advantageous for the workers to stay on the miserable relief than to work in the fields. As a matter of fact the growers have forced the relief administration to drive workers off the relief rolls, otherwise the growers could get no workers at the wages they offer. This is the basis of their drive to have relief placed in the hands of the counties. In 1937, wages of a migratory agricultural family were estimated at $350 to $400 a year, which is an increase from 1935 when wages were $289.The agricultural workers, even the “Okies,” are considered an inferior breed. They are not allowed to vote because of residential requirements. Labor laws do not include them as the legal fiction holds that agriculture is not an industry. Attempts at organization and strikes are met with brutal repression jointly by vigilante fascist groups and the local governments. The growers control legislation through their control of the state senate,and, with reason, oppose all moves for a unicameral legislature.Here we have all the factors of a colony: foreign, often absentee, capital, trustification, control by the banks, a super-exploited proletariat without rights." }

{ "content": "Such is the background for the waves of desperate and heroic strikes which in the last decade have shaken the state like earthquakes. Dozens have been killed, hundreds wounded and hurt, thousands arrested, many imprisoned for years. But the strikes continue. They have been mainly under the leadership of left-wing groups (IWW, CP, SWP) as the aristocratic craft union bureaucrats of the AFL look down with disdain upon the agricultural worker.The agricultural industry in California is over-ripe for a basic social change. While we disagree with some of the ideas expressed in the book (his estimate of the national government which Mr. McWilliams pictures as a saviour for the agricultural workers; and his estimate of the subsistence homesteads), we thoroughly agree with his conclusion when he says:“Agricultural workers can be organized. Once they are organized they can work out the solutions for most of their immediate problems ... But the final solution will come only when the present ... system of agricultural ownership in California is abolished. The abolition of this system involves at most merely a change in ownership. The collective principle is already there; large units of operation have been established, only they are being exploited by private interests for their own ends. California agriculture is a magnificent achievement: in its scope, efficiency, organization and amazing abundance.”The book by Mr. McWilliams is clearly and interestingly written, and we urge that every worker interested in one of the great tasks facing American labor, the organization of agriculture, read it. Top of pageMain FI Index | Main Newspaper IndexEncyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet ArchiveLast updated on 26 February 2016" }

{ "content": "Charles Curtiss Archive   |   Trotskyist Writers Index   |   ETOL Main PageC. Curtiss“Services No Longer Required”(April 1930)From The Militant, Vol. III No. 14, 5 April 1930, p. 7.Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).The Roman slave holder had his “labor troubles”. The slave uprising led by Spartacus in 70 A.D. proves that. The Southern U.S. plantation owner, master over many negro chattels, many centuries later had “labor troubles” also. The Fugitive Slave Act bears proof of this. The medieval baron, lord over many serfs, also had his “labor troubles”. Wat Tyler’s Rebellion, the Peasant Wars in Germany, testify how bloody these “labor troubles” became. Today a pick up of any capitalist newspaper will show the modern capitalist and his “labor troubles”.There is one essential difference between the labor troubles of chattel slavery, of feudalism and wage slavery or capitalism. Today the slave struggles for a chance to work, for employment. Then the slave would revolt to flee from employment. Today, police are called to club unemployed into starving idleness; then soldiers were called to keep the slaves at work. Then, stringent laws providing for terrible punishments like crucifixion, hanging, quartering, mutilating and flogging were meted out to any slave or serf fleeing his work. Now terrible punishments like jail terms and police beatings are handed out to any worker having the audacity to demand work.In a few words, and this illustrates the superiority of the capitalist mode of production – for the master class – over any other: formerly the master sought the slave, now the slave seeks the master. He stands in line, he spits in his own face by offering to work for less food than his fellow worker; occasionally now he demonstrates and then the papers scream. Once in a great while he revolts – all for a chance to slave. “Services No Longer Required”Essentially there are two sorts of unemployment, the unemployment of the blue bloods, the parasites, who while unemployed waste millions in degenerate orgies. For this class of leeches useful employment is a terrible nightmare. Then there is the unemployment of the wage slave – a terrible nightmare that haunts the mind of the worker. As he sees the job-line lengthen, however worn out and sped up he may be, he will manage an extra burst of energy so that he may not be the next one told that his “services are no longer required”.There are many millions of this type whose “services are no longer required”. He goes from shop to shop offering his labor power, but the market is glutted with this material. As he walks he begins to think, a dangerous sign for the capitalists. Perchance a “Red”, an “agitator”, may give him some literature and he discovers:Capitalism uses a new and much more efficient method than the cat-o’-nine-tails to make the workers slave. That is hunger. We are told that we are free and the bosses are free. He is free to offer us terms of any kind – we are free to starve unless we accept these terms.As we work, we create profits, such huge profits that even in their wildest extravagances the bosses cannot spend them. So there proves to be no more market for that commodity we are hired to produce; no more profits can be gotten so the free boss lays off the free worker to freely starve in the midst of a land of full warehouses which the worker filled. Over-Production – Yet Poverty for MassesThe workers starve because they have grown too much, they wear rags because they wove too much; they live in hovels because they erected too many homes; they freeze because they have mined too much coal. This is the paradox of capitalism.Capitalism, greedily demanding more and more profits, puts faster machines into the shops which produce goods and profits at a faster and faster rate. More workers are thrown on the streets.What of the worker thrown out of work?Some of our suave, moral uplifters may take a look at this: during periods of unemployment, there is an increase of prostitution, murders and suicides. Our clergymen of every denomination rail at the morals of the people and point at the mounting crime wave, but of course do not dare to examine the economic cause or the capitalist system.During periods of unemployment, disease and death rate increase. Among workers these are always high, but during hard times they rise to terrible levels. Fed on adulterated foods, shoddy clothed, poorly housed, the workers become more vulnerable than ever to disease.Child labor increases as children are forced to leave school and provide for the family. While old workers leave the factory at one door, their own children enter at another – at lower wages. We have the case at present of unemployment generally and child labor specifically mounting at the same time.During periods of unemployment the wages of those at work are slashed by the boss. The answer to any resistance is: “there are plenty outside who want your job.”These are but a few of the effects of unemployment upon the workers. Every worker must ask himself: What is to blame? Communists Have Unemployment SolutionThe skilled worker says: the machine; the adult: the youth; men: women; white: the Negro; the native: the foreigner; the deluded Republican workers says its the Democratic administration; the Democratic worker says its the Republican administration.None of these are true. The youth, the women, the Negro, the foreigner, the Republican and Democrat all suffer from unemployment. While one group blames another, the boss has a hearty laugh as he sees the divided and thereby powerless workers quarreling among themselves.The socialists have no cure for unemployment as socialist governments have proven in Europe: witness England, Germany, etc." }

{ "content": "Only by overthrowing the system of capitalism will unemployment be done away with. The society of Communism alone can eliminate the terror of unemployment. Capitalism will be replaced by employment and plenty for all. To help bring this about all workers should join the Communist League of America (Opposition) and help fight for the overthrow of capitalism and the establishment of Communism. Top of pageCharles Curtiss Archive   |   ETOL Main PageLast updated: 21.9.2012" }

{ "content": "Charles Curtiss Archive   |   Trotskyist Writers Index   |   ETOL Main PageCharles CurtissLos Angeles’ “Radical” S.P.(April 1931)From The Militant, Vol. IV No. 7, 1 April 1931, p. 6.Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).LOS ANGELES, Calif.—“Permit or no permit, we are going to parade.”“They can’t stop us from marching to the city hall.”“The cop who wields the first club makes history.”The above are characteristic statements made by William Busick, chairman of the executive board of the Socialist party of California, to 3,000 unemployed workers in the socialist-controlled unemployed conference. These words were greeted by the hungry workers with enthusiasm.The city council, however, refused the permit and Busick, the bombastic, promptly changed his tune and urged the workers“... to accept defeat ... and march to the polls, and use our organization as a power for law, order and the return of constitutional government.”This, I think, is the premier attempt of the socialists to use the unemployed, and deserves careful attention and analysis by every worker. As the crisis drives deeper, the misery of the workers increases and similar socialist activity will appear elsewhere.A number of questions spring to our mind. How come that the Socialist party is organizing 3,000 workers in three weeks, while the T.U.U.L. has not even one-tenth that number after 18 months of effort? Why were the socialists refused a permit to parade? Why were the rank and file so docile in the face of betrayal?The reason the socialists succeeded in rallying the unemployed where the Left wing has failed is that the socialists had never attempted to do anything in the situation. They were a last hope.The Communists had been tried by the workers and found wanting. The hungry workers looked to the Left wing to lead them to bread, they were led instead in unsuccessful demonstrations.With each demonstration for the last ten months the futility of following the present leadership of the Left wing becomes more and more apparent and the disappointment of the masses in the leadership of the Left wing is shown in the constantly decreasing number attending the demonstrations. The Socialist party, an untried factor, entered the situation and a staunch and determined mass fell into line behind it. The workers discouraged in the would-be leaders of the T.U.U.L. fall easy prey to glib charlatans.Why were the socialists refused a permit to parade? The answer is to be found with the Communists. The Communist-led councils have never been able to develop into a real force for the struggle against misery and the city council felt that the danger from this source was not great enough for the socialists to enter as lightning reds to detract the masses from militant action. They felt that the hungry, as led by the Communists, could as yet be met with gun, bomb and club.Chief of Police Steckel, in a burst of candor stated: “If your parade is going ahead against the wishes of the city council some of your people will be killed. We have to take steps to protect constituted authority.” (“Constituted authority and government,” it may be remarked, has an unbroken line of defense reaching from Steckel to “Red” Hynes, to Busick.)For his eagerness to serve the powers that be by disrupting the movement (the “socialist” demonstration was called for February 6, four days before the previously announcement T.U.U.L. demonstration), Busick received a sound drubbing.Had there been sufficient pressure from the rank and file, pressure of a sort that only the Left wing could generate, possibly Mr. Busick would have carried out his threat in spite of his masters’ opinions. That Left wing was absent, had no contact with this mass of eager material and Busick was left to carry out his betrayal unhindered. This is the reason the masses took this betrayal so docilely.The sheer helplessness of the official leadership of tine Communist party in this situation is obvious. It is due to two causes.The putsch-like ordering of demonstrations. Demonstration has followed demonstration but from each one, from each attempt to reach the city hall, the workers have returned without work and without wages. With the decline of the workers’ support, the brutality of the police has grown and recent demonstrations have become ultra-Leftism personified; the gathering of a few Left wing workers, the shouting of a few slogans, the raising of a few banners, the scattering of a few leaflets and a windup of bomb and billy. The situation demands a digging in, organizational work and flexibility of tactics that will make our demonstrations assemblages of strength and not of weakness. The second factor that prevents us from being effective is the absolute rejection of the united front tactic by the Stalinists. An appeal to the unemployed workers in the socialist council for joint action between them and us would have had and can still have telling effects. Busick would oppose the united front but with the cry of solidarity we could expose Busick as an agent of the bosses and establish contact with the rank and file.Another tragi-comedy is that those who in the “second period” were quite willing to make a united front with any faker, in the “third period” can see no distinction between the misleaders and the misled, and hold that a united front with the socialist unemployed conference would be the same as a united front with the socialist misleaders. It goes without saying that Busick and his ilk should be severely criticized by the Left wing in any united front.By the way, the “third and last period of post-war capitalism” that was repeated in every paragraph of the Daily Worker, and with which every unit literature agent opened his report has, of late, been making but shy appearances few and far between. Explain, Jorge!The ultimate source of the poison that is making our movement impotent is to be found in the tactics of the revisionist Centrists. Only by a return of the movement to the Marxist-Leninist course pointed out by the Left Opposition can our movement be rendered healthy again. Top of pageCharles Curtiss Archive   |   ETOL Main PageLast updated: 4.2.2013" }

{ "content": "Charles Curtiss Archive   |   Trotskyist Writers Index   |   ETOL Main PageC. CurtissThe Misery of India’s Youthful Toilers(June 1930)The Young Vanguard, The Militant, Vol. III No. 23, 14 June 1930, p. 8.Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).It would be ridiculous to expect from the British (and their junior partners, the native) ruling classes that have made of India a huge welter of poverty, pestilence, superstition and ignorance anything but the most callous treatment of the young toilers in field and factory. But even we, none too pampered by Hooverian prosperity were deeply shocked to read of the terrible conditions the young workers and peasants are forced to live and work under. Speaking generally, an idea can be gained by noting the fact that infant morality reaches the rate of 206 per thousand all over the peninsula as compared with 91 in the United Kingdom. In the textile city of Bombay this reaches the sickening total of 667 on the average and 828 in the workers centers. Behind these figures can be glimpsed the terrible poverty, poor housing and poor food that grips the nation, the five acres of land that compromise the average holding, causing the terrible holocausts that sweep the country in the shape of epidemics and pestilences.The margin between bare existence and non-existence is so slight that the child, when barely able to balance itself must go into the field to work. School is out of the question even if such facilities were present. The British Empire, that carrier of enlightenment, does not deem it necessary to spend more than 11 pence per head in India for education (local, district, national and from the empire) as against the two pounds spent in the British Isles, which has none too a high a standard. When Prince Albert Victor (the royal gentleman on the tins of tobacco) who was the grandson of Queen Victoria visited Poona in 1882, the following doggerel greeted him:“Tell grandma we are a happy nation,But 19 crore [1] are without education.”Of the 269 millions in India today but 22 million know an alphabet. The huge profits, the great taxation, the usury is returned in no form whatever to the masses of India.It the conditions of the ryots (peasants) are bad, they are infinitely above those of the factory workers. In 1926 there were 1,500,00 factory workers of whom 250 were women and 70,000 are children below 15 years of age. (These figures are a factory population of 2,650,000 with the percentage of women and children doubtless holding their own if not actually gaining.)Textile is the chief industry in India. Nowhere has King Cotton been a benevolent monarch; his history is one of blood, particularly of women and children whether in England in 1844, in Gastonia or in India from 1919 on.Read the section of Marx’s Capital dealing with conditions in the spinning mills darken the picture and an idea is gleaned of the conditions of the mill cities of India today.There is a total of 374,380 workers in the cotton industry of India of whom 70,000 are women and over 15 thousand are children.Wages in the Cotton Industry by Days [2]Adults RupeeAnnaPiesAhmedabad1  5  0Bombay1  5  6Sholapur 1511Other Centers1  1  8Big Lads and ChildrenAhmedabad 11  4Bombay 11  1Sholapur   9  1Other Centers   811These wages allow the workers a diet on par with that of a Bombay criminal prisoner, a chawl (tenement room), each chawl containing on the average 4 persons.It is said that conditions in the mills owned by native capitalists are worse than in those owned by the Britishers. (Although this comes from reliable sources it seems hardly likely – the conditions in the British-owned mills challenge worsening. In the jute mills of Calcutta and Bengal, where most of the jute in the world is produced the average wage for children is 9 pence per day. In 319,000 workers in 76 jute mills investigated 50,000 were women and 29,000 children.And so it is in the entire country. On the plantations of Assam hundreds of thousands of farm laborers, entire families including babes toil for a few pence per day. Fabled spices of India!Women and children even dig coal in India, bringing coal to the surface in baskets – human beings are cheaper than hoisting machinery. Of the 250,000 miners, 9 thousand are women and a similar number children.As for social legislation for children and youth, the little that has been forced through is flagrantly disregarded. Twelve years is the minimum age at which children are permitted to work in factories employing more than 10 workers and using motive power. Between the age of 12 and 15 half time is allowed or 30 hours per week.A far different side of the story is the profits of 200 and 300%. It was a bad year when only 125% was secured on capital investment.Footnotes1. A crore is 10,000,000.2. A rupee is about 32.4 cents. An anna is one-sixteenth of a rupee or 2 cents and a pies is one-twelfth of an anna or about one-sixth of a cent. Top of pageCharles Curtiss Archive   |   ETOL Main PageLast updated: 12 February 2020" }

{ "content": "Charles Curtiss Archive   |   Trotskyist Writers Index   |   ETOL Main PageCharles CurtisThe Strike in K.C.(October 1929)Letters from the Militants, The Militant, Vol. II No. 16, 15 October 1929, p. 8.Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).Kansas City, Mo.Dear Comrades:Before leaving St. Louis, the comrades there were arranging an affair for the Militant. They are sure on the job there and few as they are, they are many more times as active as the Party under Delbert Early’s guidance. They are making valuable connections in the labor movement and with the correct policy they will soon be an important factor in St. Louis. I just received a letter stating that their Gastonia meeting was successful.In K.C. we have an interesting situation. The local Loose Wiles Biscuit Co. tried to introduce a speed-up and there was a spontaneous walkout. The workers are mostly young girls and their spirit is splendid. After walking out they turned their minds to organizing and the local A.F. of L. boys organized them. The first day of the strike, Stephens, the Party D.O. issued a leaflet in the name of the T.U.U.L. It had the whole bible in it, nothing omitted – rationalization, speed-up, war danger, betrayers of labor, an attack on the A.F. of L. and telling them: “Our organization is representative of the masses of workers in the United States who are organizing into fighting unions and shop committees in every industry!” He appeared at the first organization meeting of the union where he changed his mind about whom he represented, and it became instead the I.L.D. I spoke after him and tried to point out the next step – organization – and I sounded a militant note by urging the spreading of the strike to the other plants of the National, etc., and other cities and completely shutting down the plant. The remarks were well received by the workers.We are arranging an affair in K.C. for the Militant in two weeks. Comradely,Charles Curtis Top of pageCharles Curtiss Archive   |   ETOL Main PageLast updated: 11.11.2012" }

{ "content": "Charles Curtiss Archive   |   Trotskyist Writers Index   |   ETOL Main PageC.C.The Movement in MexicoRevolutionary Events as Seen by Our Own Correspondent(February 1933)From The Militant, Vol. VII No. 7, 10 February 1934, p. 3.Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).Mexico City. – There is no lack of activity or signs of activity of the Bolshevik-Leninists in Mexico City. In fact, judging by the number of posters, signs, etc., on the street the Internationalists are as active or nearly as active as the Stalinist party.The first day in town I noticed a statement of our comrades on the Montevideo Congress, printed and pasted all over the workers’ section.Then in my walking through the town I saw painted in a great number of places “Viva la Oposicio de Izquierda Communista” with sickles and hammers. I also noticed a mimeographed statement of the opposition on the 7th of November all over the working class sections of the city.There is another sign of activity of the Internationalist Communists. This is the great attention and amount of space given them in the Stalinist organ, the Machete. Every issue of this rag is filled with rabid frothings, lies, slander, provocation, denunciation – this is their “ideological” campaign. Stalinist ProvocationThe four numbers I have seen of this paper each contained lengthy attacks. In one attack, they gave the name of one of the leaders of the group, and where he worked – all the police had to do was pick him up and send him to the Islas de Tres Marias on this information.When I showed this to a Stalinist party sympathizer he, stated, “Oh, the police don’t bother the Trotskyites”. I said that I didn’t believe him. In a little while you will see the truth of this statement.The story itself was a delirious lie. The truth is the contrary of all the statements Machete made. Our comrade did not help the boss cut the workers’ wages – he organized the workers against this cut in wages. For this he was thrown out on the street jobless.It was through this statement that I made contact with the group. I went up to the shop where the comrade was supposed to have done his counter-revolutionary work and asked where I could find this man.The workers did not manifest any signs of indignation when I said I was his friend. On the contrary, one worker volunteered to show me where he lived and accompanied me there. He did not curse comrade L. or abuse him, but rather spoke of him with affection and admiration. This worker, by his intelligent class conscious conversation, showed that not a faker, or government agent had worked for some time beside him but a class conscious revolutionist. Young InternationalistsI made contact with our comrade, who at present is working in a little shop. After I showed him your letter and had talked with him, he gave me the following information:We have in Mexico City a group of 47, about 25 active. The majority are young, none of them work for the government, all are workers. How different from the Stalinist Party: He invited me to a meeting of the group the following night.I accompanied this comrade on the meeting night. We entered a room, then went upstairs. Everyone who entered was first seen from above.The first thing I noticed about the comrades was that the majority were young. I mean really young, – 17 to 22 was the majority. There were a few older workers, obviously unskilled laborers, one of whom brought the latest copy of the Machete with a slanderous cowardly attack upon us in it.The first order of business was the reading of this article and its refutation. Then a class took place in historical materlalism. (This was an educational meeting.) Persecution of ComradesWhen the meeting broke up, one of the comrades in conversation with me accidentally let the remark drop that he had done time on the Islas de Tres Marias. I was amazed.Here was a youngster of barely 17, a child, who had spent six months on the Devil’s Island of Mexico. He had, besides, been arrested innumerable times.When I expressed my amazement he showed me three other comrades ranging in age from 15 to 22 who bad also been picked up with him and had served time. Two were 22, one was 16, and one 15.I was rather bitter when I thought of this party sympathizer’s statement: “The police never bother the Trotskyites.” I looked at the child who had contracted dysentry on the islands, and who would never be the same – this was the agent among the working class sent by the government. Marxist EducationPoverty-stricken, harassed by the government, our comrades in Mexico work on. They are developing all sides of their work. They are educating themselves in Marxism. They are doing work among the masses. They are internationalists and so are preparing a Boycott Hitler Campaign. They are also planning to set up an apparatus for legal work. They are organizing syndicates (unions). They are going to carry on the Boycott Campaign in two ways – first, a statement by the group and then in a united front form. The statement will be printed and distributed by the League and pasted on walls all night, and at great risk, lest the pro-government Trotskyites are picked up by the government they are so devotedly serving and sent by that government to the Island. But our comrades here are internationalists in theory, and in fact – and are willing to suffer for their internationalism if necessary.The comrades here have something that is unique in our international organization – a group of children organized in a Red Pioneer Group. These children learn about the class struggle both from books and in participating in the battle. They organize demonstrations of the children for free books and papers. Demagogy of Government" }

{ "content": "The government, a master in demagogy (it is in reality a Social Democratic government), has, with a loud blast, inaugurated “Socialist Education”. They do not, with all their “Socialist education”, give the workers’ children adequate school facilities or free books or paper, thus making the loudly proclaimed compulsory education illusory. Our Pioneers are educating the struggle of the workers’ children. Some of these grammar school children in the group have more than once seen the inside of the jail of the Mexican Workers and Peasants government (so the government describes itself).It must be understood that the work has many shortcomings. This is inevitable, granting the conditions. The comrades find it difficult to buy books and read, they are so expensive. The illegal paper, the Izquierda (Left), has difficulty in coming out due to the high cost of stencils and papers. Trotsky’s Works PopularThe book stores here prominently display Trotsky’s books and they seem to have a good sale among the students and intellectuals. I have seen all of Trotsky’s work on display – printed in Spain and Chile in the main. The tragedy is that they are so expensive. Sixty centavos, which is the cost of the cheapest pamphlet amounts to nearly half a day’s wages for an unskilled worker. It amounts to half a week’s wages for a young worker. Marx’s, Engel’s, Trotsky’s and Lenin’s works are loaned among the comrades until the print on the cheap paper becomes indiscernable and the book is in tatters.The Militant also plays a great role in the education of the comrades. By dint of great labor important articles are translated and are read to the comrades. Unfortunately, since none of the comrades know English, this can only be done at all-too-rare occasions. Top of pageCharles Curtiss Archive   |   ETOL Main PageLast updated: 9 February 2016" }

{ "content": "Charles Curtiss Archive   |   Trotskyist Writers Index   |   ETOL Main PageC.C.Labor Shows Militancy in Los Angeles Conflicts(August 1933)From the Militants, The Militant, Vol. VI No. 39, 12 August 1933, p. 2.Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).Los Angeles. – The seventh week of the strike at the Golden Bros. Millinery Shop finds the workers with spirit high and ranks intact. Picket lines have been maintained in the face of the “Red” squad, which probably is the most degenerate collection of strikebreakers in the country.Eight women have been arrested. The picket line has been subject to most brutal attacks, in which pickets, women as well as men have been slugged and beaten. The events of Friday, July 24, will give an idea of the activities of the “Red” Squad as well as the courage and valor of the strikers.At 5 o’clock as the picket line was forming, Pfeifer, lieutenant of the “Red” Squad began donning a pair of gloves. Every picketer knows what that means. The gloves cover brass knuckles. Unflinchingly the strikers maintained their ranks. Squad cars rolled up. Police unloaded from these cars. With face pale the picketers continue. “Clear the Streets”“Clear the street, officers!” commands Pfeifer. The street are “cleared”. Fighting every inch of the way the picketers are forced down the street. On the corner of Eighth Street, the picketers resistance increases. Pfeffer becomes panic-stricken. “Take your saps out officers – and use them,” he shouts. No picketer is intimidated.The chairman of the strike committee is punched. The picketers demonstrate. Brass knuckled fists strike and blackjacks fly. Comrade C. Curtiss is knocked to the ground. He recovers his feet and is whisked off to a doctor where a number of stitches are taken into his scalp.The picket line stands its ground. The next day all the picketers are there again, early in the morning, Spanish and English speaking, young and old, in a display of solidarity that is making working class tradition on the west coast. Old time western rebels pay a tribute as the most militant strike in Los Angeles since the McNamara trial. In the heart of reaction, in Los Angeles the “white spot” of Harry Chandler’s Los Angeles Times to maintain a picket line is a heroic deed. The tribute is well earned. General Strike NeededEvery militant in the entire needle trades is watching this strike. One thing becomes obvious and that is, that in order to firmly establish union conditions it is necessary to project the idea of a general strike into the millinery industry. Faced with the highly organized association it is absolutely necessary to organize all workers in the entire industry. In the millinery trade the New Deal is a joke. The minimum the bosses agreed to in their code is $2 lower than the minimum for women in California. The idea of a general strike will undoubtedly find a fertile field awaiting it in the underpaid, speed-up millinery workers. Agricultural Workers StrikeThe. recent strike of the 5,000 agricultural workers has been ended with a “victory” for the strikers and the recognition of a union formed under the aegis of the Mexican Consul. Wage rates had been increased to a minimum of $1.50 for a nine hour day, with all overtime and part time paid at the rate of 20 cents an hour. Before the ink was dry on the agreement the ranchers began breaking the contract.The situation is still ripe for an aggressive strike. The workers demands have not been satisfied yet – not by far. T.U.U.L. OutwittedThe TUUL Agricultural Workers Union was completely outwitted by the Mexican Consul. The leadership of the TUUL while courageous in action was very weak in strategy. Now it is necessary to make a quick shift in the orientation of the Agricultural Workers Union.The former status of complete un-organization has been changed to a condition where there is a semi-company, nationalist union in the field with a large membership of agricultural workers.In this case the tactics of the T.U.U.L. must be to function within the class collaborationist union as a Left wing, and from within transform this union into a genuine class struggle union. Will the leadership of the TUUL be able to execute this maneuver or will the dualism and sectarianism that is embedded in the ideology and practice of the TUUL and the party keep the union upon the futile path of ultra-Leftism? Hollywood Film StrikeHollywood’s famed industry, the movies, has been the latest to he drawn into the wave of strikes. On Saturday, July 22, 650 sound technicians, a highly specialized and trained group of workers struck against a wage rate of as low as $38 per week for work that often lasted until midnight or later.When the studios advertized for scabs to take the place of the men who had struck, a strike was called by four other unions bringing the total strikers up to nearly 5,000. Despite the solidarity shown by these unionists the sad truth is that under the influence of craft unionist ideology many unions are still working for producers whose shops have been struck. More will be heard of this strike later. The Strikes and the Left wingStrikes increasing in number involving all sections of the working class from unskilled farm hands to highly educated sound technicians and camera men – the question of aggressive action and leadership of future strikes becomes of paramount importance to the Left wing.The training of cadres of militants capable of participating in and leading these struggles and the drawing of lessons from these strikes, from the successes and even more from the failures – this is the present task of the TUUL and the party as well as the entire revolutionary movement." }

{ "content": "Is the TUUL seriously undertaking this work? Judging by the farcical bureaucratic manner in which conventions of the TUUL are called the answer is, NO. A few days ago the Los Angeles TUUL held a general pre-convention discussion membership meeting. Few letters were sent out. The rank and file of the furriers and milliners – the majority of the TUUL – were in ignorance of the meeting. The strikers were meagerly represented.While this highly important and poorly attended meeting was in session the Friends of the Soviet Union were holding a mass meeting for Soviet recognition. 2,000 people packed the house. This is party policy! Two thousand people listen to lawyers, doctors, rabbis, preachers spread opportunism among the workers and an infinitesmal part of that at a meeting of the TUUL in the midst of a series of intense strikes!Slowly, but surely, the ideas of the Left Opposition are gaining hearing and response. Our activity on the picket line, in the union, in the Unemployed organization has gained us the respect of the workers generally and especially the thinking Communists. Above all amongst the youth our literature is being avidly read as the facts that our correctness in action in the everyday struggles of the workers is based upon Bolshevik clarity and theory is recognized. Top of pageCharles Curtiss Archive   |   ETOL Main PageLast updated: 24 October 2015" }

{ "content": "Charles Curtiss Archive   |   Trotskyist Writers Index   |   ETOL Main PageC. CharlesThe Stalinist Theory of“Socialism in One Country”Soviet Disasters, Defeat of Revolutions Are Fruits of This Theory(22 November 1941)From The Militant, Vol. V No. 47, 22 November 1941, p. 5.Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).The defeats of the Red Army are the latest fruits of the false “theory of socialism in one country,” which is the fundamental idea of the ruling Stalinist clique.False theories bring tragic results.For example, many so-called socialists preached the idea that the way to achieve socialism was by a gradual transformation of the capitalist governments and industry, bit by bit.When they had the opportunity, they refused to take control of the government and place industry under the control of the workers. Instead they strengthened capitalism when it was weak, so that they could, according to their illusion, gradually transform capitalism into socialism. They became doctors of capitalism instead of its undertakers.Their fallacious theories together with the treachery of Stalinism led to the victory of fascism. Theory of the Russian RevolutionThe greatest historical achievement of the human face, the Soviet Union, was the result of the correct theories of Bolshevism under Lenin and Trotsky.The central idea of the Russian revolution, was that the Russian workers’ and peasants’ revolution was the first of a series of revolutions that would establish socialism in the entire world. Through the dark year of hunger and intervention this inspired the Soviet masses. The Russian workers in making their revolution knew that unless the workers of other countries, more industrially developed, joined hands with the Soviet Union, first in a socialist United States of Europe and then a socialist world, the Russian revolution would in the last analysis go under. Either capitalism would conquer the Soviet Union or the workers of tire world would vanquish international capitalism.Stalin, who was practically unknown during the period of the Russian Revolution, came forward with a “new” idea after the defeat of the German workers in 1923. the death of Lenin in 1924 and the coming to power of a privileged bureaucracy in the Soviet Union. This bureaucracy was interested only in maintaining its own power rather than in achieving the aims of the revolution. Stalin’s “new” idea was the theory of “socialism in one country.” In the words of Stalin this meant: Stalin’s Theory“... that the proletariat, having seized power in Soviet Russia, can use that power for the establishment of a fully socialized society there. For this ... it is not essential that there should have been a victorious proletarian revolution in these lands.” – Problems of Leninism, by Joseph StalinIn other words, Stalin held that the Soviet Union could achieve socialism by itself if allowed to exist in peace by the imperialists.Let us first examine this idea.Modern economic life is marked by internationalism. For any industry to function it must have raw materials that come from all over the world.Even the United States, the most developed and richest country in the world, would weaken and decline economically if it did not import products from the rest of the world.Not only does every industrial country buy raw materials but increasingly it buys finished goods as well.Just as it must import, so must every country sell to the rest of the world, to keep its industries in operation.With greater industrial development comes greater connection with the world. Primitive economy has little of no trade or exchange. Modern economy is based on an ever-increasing world trade and international division of labor.Socialism is more advanced than capitalism. It must develop and extend the international division of labor already achieved under capitalism, thereby giving greater well-being to the people of the entire globe. Under socialism, we will not go backward into a self-contained, national economy, as Stalin with the reactionary theory of “socialism in one country” proposes, but to even greater internationalism.The practical results of the theory of “socialism in one country” Were disastrous to the workers of the world, including those of the Soviet Union. What Happened to the C.I.Since socialism could, according to Stalin, be achieved if the capitalist countries did not intervene, it was no longer vitally necessary for the workers of other countries to overthrow capitalism in order to achieve socialism in the USSR. All that was necessary was that the Soviet Union not be attacked.From this idea it was a short step to make of the Communist International an organization whose primary aim was to defend the Soviet Union instead of overthrowing capitalism. And from this, it was an even shorter step to make of the Communist International an organization whose only aim was to defend the Soviet Union.The defense of the Soviet Union is of course a duty of every worker. Every attack on the Soviet Union by capitalism, which in its search for profits would like to open the Soviet Union as a market for their goods and as a source of raw material, and to enslave the workers there, must be beaten back by the workers of the Soviet Union and the workers of the capitalist countries. Capitalist Attitude to the USSRThe capitalists have, besides their economic purposes, a political aim in desiring to smash the Soviet Union. They hate and fear the Soviet Union because they are afraid that the example of the Soviet people who threw out the Czars and the capitalists, will be an inspiration to the workers of the capitalist nations.But the real defense of the Soviet Union can only come when the workers of other countries of Western Europe and the United States establish their own government and join hands with the Soviet Union. The real security of the Soviet Union is world socialism. The real defenders of the Soviet Union are the fighting, anti-capitalist workers. The real defense of the Soviet Union is part of the workers struggle against capitalism." }

{ "content": "Under the theory that he could build a complete socialist society if he were not attacked, Stalin sold out working class movements all over the world in return for pacts with the capitalist governments. He placed his hope in defending the Soviet Union, not on the workers movement all over the world, but on agreements and alliances with this or that capitalist nation.These capitalist powers demanded from Stalin in return for diplomatic pacts that Stalin through his control of the Communist parties stifle the militancy of the workers, and even put down workers’ revolts.No Trotskyist is opposed to the Soviet Union making pacts with capitalist countries. We are opposed to selling out the working class as a price for these pacts. A capitalist government does not change its reactionary character because it signs a pact with the Soviet Union. It is still an enemy of the workers, the Soviet Union, and of socialism, and the workers must continue their struggle against it.Elsewhere in The Militant Comrade Lydia Beidel in her series of articles on the Crimes of Stalin is telling, country by country, some of the consequences of the theory of “socialism in one country.”I will just give three examples to show how the Stalinist policy not only weakens the struggle of the workers of the world but also the defense of the Soviet Union. The Franco-Soviet PactIn 1934, when Germany under Hitler was arming itself for the present war, France and the Soviet Union signed a military pact which was directed against Germany.Part of this pact called for the cessation of the struggle of the workers in France against French capitalism. The French workers, who could easily have taken government power then if they had a correct leadership, were told to support the French capitalists who were “friendly” to the Soviet Union.Finally, as was to be expected, after the French working class was smashed, French capitalism turned upon the Soviet Union and broke its pact with it.In America, the workers are told by the Communist Party that they must not go on strike for better wages or conditions and that they must support Roosevelt because Roosevelt and Stalin are coming together on the international scene. This is Stalin’s method of defending the Soviet Union. He does not build up the working class struggle for immediate gains and for the ultimate achievement of socialism. Instead he tells the workers through his Communist Party to follow Roosevelt. The end will be that the American capitalists will try to crush the independent workers’ movement, and then turn upon the Soviet Union.The tragic results of the theory of socialism in one country come out most clearly in relation to the present war between Hitler and the Soviet Union.In order to meet Hitler’s attack Stalin was forced to form an alliance with British imperialism. Everyone knows that Churchill hates the Soviet Union and the workers’ cause as much as does Hitler. Churchill and British capitalism seek the defeat of the Soviet Union at the same time as the defeat of Hitler, so that Great Britain can dominate the world. Churchill and the USSRChurchill will inevitably turn against the Soviet Union. Yet, in order to get this pact with Churchill, Stalin forces the Communist Party of Great Britain to give up its struggle against Churchill. Stalinism lulls the British workers to sleep with fairy tales about Churchill and English imperialism and tells the workers they should not struggle for a workers government.Stalin gives this in return for a piece of paper which bitter experience shows the capitalists have no qualms about tearing up and throwing in Stalin’s face after he has done the dirty work.Not only does Stalin give up the struggle against the capitalists of Great Britain, he does not even struggle against the capitalist class of Germany, which put Hitler in power. He does not address any appeals through the Communist International to the German masses to rise against German capitalism and establish a Union of Socialist Soviet Republics of Russia and Germany. He does not dare do so, because if he did, Churchill would object. Churchill does not want to overthrow German fascist capitalism; he does not even want this idea spread around; he wants to eliminate only an imperialist rival, not the system of capitalism itself.Because Churchill objects the Stalinist International does not carry on effective international socialist propaganda against German fascism to arouse the workers of Germany to overthrow Hitler, and thereby disintegrate the fascist rear. Stalin and the German WorkersStalin tells the German workers to overthrow Hitler, not with the idea of establishing a workers government in Germany but with the idea of bringing back the capitalist republic. Stalin goes only this far. The German workers, however, know that the capitalist republic only brought unemployment and crisis to them. They cannot be rallied to fight against Hitler with the slogan of a capitalist republic.The ideal of world socialism that inspired the Russian masses in 1917 is the only thing that can arouse the German masses against Hitlerism. Stalin, with his theory of “socialism in one country” and fear of antagonizing Churchill, alienates the German workers and peasants, the real friends of the Soviet Union, by adopting the capitalist war-program of Roosevelt and Churchill which holds out only a new Versailles Treaty to the German people in case of defeat.The theory of “socialism in one country” has resulted in the defeats of the workers of the world and the weakening of the Soviet Union through these defeats.The future of the Soviet Union depends on the establishment of workers and farmers governments in Europe. For this to take place the workers must reject the theory of “socialism in one country” which has resulted in so many defeats in the past 17 years and put in its place the original idea of the Russian Revolution: world socialism! Top of pageCurtiss Archive   |   Trotskyist Writers Index  |   ETOL Main PageLast updated: 7 April 2019" }

{ "content": "Charles Curtiss Archive   |   Trotskyist Writers Index   |   ETOL Main PageC. CharlesPartial Victory for U.S.Won at Rio ConferenceA Compromise Resolution on Rupturewith Axis Adopted by American Ministers(31 January 1942)From The Militant, Vol 6 No. 5, 31 January 1942, pp. 1 & 2.Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).As the Rio de Janeiro Conference of the Foreign Ministers of the Americas draws to a close, the breaking off of diplomatic relations with the Axis powers by 19 of the 21 Latin American countries can be recorded as a partial victory for the United States. Ten of the 21 nations are at present at war against Japan, Germany and Italy.The aim of the United States at the conference was first and above all to secure full control of the raw materials and food produced in Latin America and thus prevent the Axis powers from getting any of these vital exports. To a large extent, Sumner Welles, the United States’ representative at Rio, was successful in this respect.Two of the South American powers are still holding out against an immediate break with the Axis: Argentina and Chile. Argentina is the most adamant, while the exact action that Chile will take is still doubtful. Unanimous Vote Veils DifferencesA unanimous vote was secured on a compromise resolution which declared:“The American republics, in accordance with the procedure established by their own laws and within the position and circumstances of each country in the actual continental conflict, recommend the rupture of their diplomatic relations with Japan, Germany and Italy, since the first of these States has attacked and the other two have declared war on an American country.”This statement replaced one to which Argentina had raised violent objections because it said more categorically the American countries “cannot continue” relations with the Axis.During the last days of the conference foreign minister after foreign minister of Latin America arose and announced that the country he represented had broken or was breaking with the Axis.But that the unanimity on the resolution means little was shown the day after its, adoption when Acting President of Argentina Ramon S. Castillo “reassured” the German envoy and issued a statement that Argentina:“Would neither go to war nor toward a rupture, but would accept any formula that reaffirmed continental solidarity and unity” that “left each country free to adopt decisions that its special situation and circumstances counseled.”Without doubt economic pressure by the United States will continue against Argentina and Chile to bring them into line with the war plans of the United States.The position of Argentina and Chile does not flow from an active connection with the Axis powers, but rather results from the following factors:Fear that the Axis will respond to a break by them with a declaration of war and that the Allied forces will not be able to effectively help in the defense of Argentina and Chile in such an event. The desire to strike a better bargain economically in return for the support demanded by the the Allies. The wish of the ruling classes of these two countries to take advantage, while the industrially dominant powers such as the U.S. are occupied in the war, of the opportunity to strengthen the position of Argentina – and Chilean-owned industry.Before the war the Argentinian and Chilean capitalist classes could not hope to compete with the already entrenched foreign capitalists who dominated the South American markets with their exports. Argentina and Chile, although very important food and raw material producing regions, are the two most industrially developed countries south of the United States, and sections of their ruling classes are ambitious to become the dominant industrial powers.The other countries in South America are nearly exclusively food and raw material producing and exporting countries. Their only markets at present are the Allies, who are in a position now to secure their support. On the other hand, the Axis powers cannot buy or sell to Latin-America because of Allied control of the seas.The resistance of Argentina and Chile to United States pressure must necessarily be of the most limited and timid character. First of all, the capitalists of these countries who export to the Allies will strive, in case of real difficulty, to mold the policy of the governments so as to have them come to an agreement with their chief customers.Secondly, while certain other sections of the capitalist classes in these countries would like the chance to build their industries against the United States and British competition, the Allies still have control of maritime transport and supplies of machinery and certain raw industrial materials. These native capitalists will have to come to terms with the Allies. Dare Not Rouse MassesAbove all the ruling classes of Argentina and Chile dare not call forth a mass movement of the people in a struggle for real independence from foreign control of their industrial and political life. The ruling classes fear that the masses would not stop with the foreign capitalists but would continue their fight against their native exploiters as well. Fearful of arousing the masses, the capitalists are reduced to nearly futile gestures.If the conference did nothing else, it exposed a lot of the current talk about a “war for democracy”. The scene of the sessions was itself deeply symbolic. It was the meeting place of the Brazilian Congress before the Congress was dissolved by the self-appointed President-for-Life of Brazil, Getulio Vargas, Welles’ chief aide at the conference.Foreign ministers arose and solemnly spoke in the name of democracy when their own countries are now being ruled by brutal dictators. The last thing in the world that the Vargases want is democracy and they would fight to the last drop of blood to prevent it from coming to their own countries. These dictator governments do not represent the masses; they are pliant and willing tools of American and British oil, agricultural, mining, industrial, commercial and banking interests." }

{ "content": "The United States and British, diplomats may be successful in convincing the ruling classes of Latin America of the benefits of support of the Allies. But they cannot convince the masses of Latin America who see little difference in being ruled by American- and British-supported dictators (who now dominate Latin America) or Axis-supported dictators (who would like to dominate Latin America).For the great majority of the masses, imperialism means hunger, want, ignorance, super-exploitation and lack of democratic rights.This is why the present governments in this country and Britain cannot rally the people of the colonies and semi-colonies, even with talk about democracy and destroying dictatorship. Only Workers and Farmers Governments in these countries can really arouse the spontaneous, complete and enthusiastic support of the colonial masses for a war against fascism.Such governments would be concerned with the freedom, not the oppression of the nations now enslaved by imperialism; with the improvement of their standards of living and not with their super-exploitation as is the case at present under the rule of international capitalism. Top of pageCurtiss Archive   |   Trotskyist Writers Index  |   ETOL Main PageLast updated: 2 Julyl 2021" }

{ "content": "Charles Curtiss Archive   |   Trotskyist Writers Index   |   ETOL Main PageC.C.A Ferment in the Chicago Y.C.L.(October 1931)From The Militant, Vol. IV No. 26 (Whole No. 85), 10 October 1931, p. 3.Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).On September 14, 1931, three former members of the Executive Committee of District 8, Young Communist League, issued a statement to all members on why two. Norman Satir and Ruth Andras, have been expelled from membership, and one, Nathan Gould, is about to meet the same fate (he has since been expelled also).The charges of these comrades are: that based on a system of bureaucracy, a regime of terror, of expulsion, an incapable district and national leadership has attached itself to the Y.C.L. and prevents the League from efficiently fulfilling its role.The same leadership, in order to maintain its position, has had to line up comrades against Satir who had taken a critical attitude towards the activity of the National Committee, spread lies and slanders, suppress articles written for the pre-convention discussion, not allow anybody time to present any position opposing the National Committee and that the party leadership has condoned and encouraged the younger bureaucrats.The document charges that the last convention of the Y.C.L. was not a Communist convention, because there was no pre-convention thesis, nor discussion involving the membership. The statement goes on to tell what the League bureaucracy is attempting to hide: political bankruptcy (if that term can be applied to a leadership which never was capable). According to the Y.C.I. letter, the National Committee of the American League has:been absent from the economic field;not formulated any youth demands;no shop nuclei;no anti-militarist work;no opponent work;crisis in sports and Pioneers;League still isolated.To these, the trio add four additional points;no single shock plan was completed;the ideological level of the League is at its lowest;bureaucracy is the prevailing system;the National Committee is entirely incapable of independent analyses or formulation of correct policies;all gains that were made, were made after the Y.C.I. threat of removal and these gains are microscopic.According to the present leadership, the League membership fusing “third period” mathematics) is “around 3,000”. Even if these figures are correct, they show a great discrepancy between potential possibilities and actual results. Yet, many join the Y.C.L. continuously, but go through it like water through a sieve. Why?The main reason for this, the statement goes on to say, is the low ideological level of the membership. Theory, while openly paid lip-service, is secretly sneered at as a pre-”third period” prejudice. Then the document says:“To expect the leadership to change their attitude on this matter is hopeless. Because this leadership can only exist as long as widespread ignorance prevails ... political consciousness would mean the doom of this ‘leadership’.”Secondly, the strangling hold of the bureaucracy. Democratic centralism – the highest degree of democracy with the highest degree of centralism, becomes the handing down of decisions by the higher committees to the lower ranks with the air of a royal decree, or infallible papal bull. The ranks must say, “To hear is to do.” The efficient methods of Communist leadership are replaced by the carrying out of decisions by a membership who have no understanding of the reasons for the decision. Self-criticism becomes greatly similar to the confession-box proceedings of the Catholic Church. Like the Catholic Church, too, the only ones allowed to receive confession, to give chastisement or to allow absolution are higher bodies, while the “very, very low”, if they attempt criticism, become “enemies of the working class”.Thirdly, the document goes on to show how these leaders are created. Not the most developed, ideologically and practically, but the “politically dishonest, opportunist and careerists – who will agree with everything that the higher bodies propose ... ignoramuses” rise to the leadership. The proletarian leadership becomes merely a blind They take no real part in the work of the leadership.The practical proposals of these protesting comrades then follow:A broad and free discussion.The discussion must be followed by a real convention.The present leadership must be replaced by tempered young Communists.Regular reports to the membership by the leaders.Democratic centralism – free elections by and responsibility to the membership.Broad discussions on all important questions.Right of Communist criticism of leaders.Bureaucracy must be destroyed.Raise the theoretical level.Proper relations between the Youth and the party.With a call to the membership not to heed the bureaucrats’ instructions to disassociate themselves from the signing comrades, the statement ends: “Oust the bureaucrats! Build the League!”The following is the statement of the Youth Committee of the Chicago branch of the Communist League of America (Opposition) on the recent developments in the Y.C.L.:In Chicago, the statement of Norman Satir, Ruth Andras and Nathan Gould against the bureaucracy in the Y.C.L. has met with a warm welcome from the members of the Y.C.L. This in spite of a long and arduous campaign of slander.While young comrades are not as well versed or experienced and therefore more easily misled than the older comrades, the psychological factors make bureaucracy more repugnant among the youth than ever among the adults. These signs of stirring life, which the Left Opposition always knew to be present, is a favorable portent.The statement has obvious shortcomings. It fails to answer the whereas of this bureaucracy. Its source, according to the statement, is a mystery, it sprang up from nowhere. That source is the Y.C.I. leadership and behind them the Stalinist revisionists of the teachings of Marx and Lenin in the C.I. Unless these comrades recognize this, their correct labors will be ineffectual. Every leadership will tend towards bureaucracy for the ideas of the Stalinist revisionists, not having ideological correctness, can only be defended by bureaucracy.How long will a leadership that is honest and theoretically firm stand for “socialism in one country”; the Anglo-Russian Committee betrayal, the Chiang Kai-Shek alliance, the “third period”, “social-Fascism”, for the dubbing of Trotsky and the International Left Opposition as counter-revolutionists? The only kind of leadership the C.I. and the Y.C.I. bureaucrats can tolerate are bureaucratic ignoramuses. Any other kind could not tolerate the C.I. and Y.C.I. leaders." }

{ "content": "The decline in membership is an international phenomenon when we discuss quality. When we discuss quantity, with the exception of Russia, where the reason for the exception is obvious, and Germany, where the situation is so favorable that members stream in, in spite of the bureaucrats, the same holds true in the entire International. The same causes in our brother Leagues produce the same effects as in the American League.Our support of their statement will undoubtedly cause these comrades to be subjected to the epithet of “Trotskyists” which the bureaucrats will fling at them, as though that disposes of the questions raised. Do not permit this to divert your attention from the fight. Spread the rebellion, district and nation wide! Our support as our criticism, is given in a comradely fashion. The ousting of the bureaucracy, the re-arousing of the interest in Marxism, the study of the tactics and strategy of the movement, leads every sincere young revolutionist forward on the path towards the International Left Opposition.We urge all comrades to study the position of the Left Opposition.Youth Committee, C.L.A.(O.) Chicago branch Top of pageCharles Curtiss Archive   |   ETOL Main PageLast updated: 4 December 2014" }

{ "content": "Charles Curtiss Archive   |   Trotskyist Writers Index   |   ETOL Main PageC. CharlesBritish Labor Party Leaders BetrayMasses of Both India and EnglandSupport Tories’ War Aims and Labor Policies(7 March 1942)From The Militant, Vol. VI No. 10, 7 March 1942, p. 3.Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).In their manifesto giving the official statement of their views on the war and the post-war aims, issued on Feb. 27, tire executive committee of the reformist British Labor Party once more comes to the support of the British, capitalist class.The prestige of the capitalist class of Great Britain is clearly at the lowest point in decades.The workers are seething with discontent over the conduct of the war which has resulted in a series of military defeats. On the production front the workers are beginning to oppose the profits-first policies of the capitalists.The reshuffling of the British cabinet was a desperate attempt to allay this mass discontent by the ancient device of providing scapegoats.Now when there is a great opportunity to raise the banner of socialism in the British Isles, to advance the ‘idea of a workers’ struggle against fascism, to drive the Tories out. of office, the leadership of the British Labor Party issues a sell-out statement.This statement will be analyzed at greater length in coming issues of The Militant. Now we will mention only a few points.In the most nationalistic way this party, the largest section of the Second International declares that the “peoples of Germany, Italy and Japan must be brought to realize the power which peace-loving nations can mobilize against aggression is overwhelming in its strength and absolute in its assurance of success.” Helps Axis RulersIs there any hotter way of doing the work of Hitler, Hirohito and Mussolini than lumping the masses of Japan, Italy and Germany, who did not want the war and who have nothing to gain from the war, together with their capitalist rulers, who want and hope to profit by the war?The leaders of the Labor Party solidarize themselves with the super-Versailles war aims of Churchill and Roosevelt, glossing over the capitalist nature of these war aims with fine words about the “four freedoms.”Thus the Axis rulers are able to keep their toilers in line by the masses’ fear of another Versailles peace of victors and vanquished. Hitler, Mussolini and the rulers of Japan point at the Labor Party and say to their masses: “You are sure to get another Versailles treaty unless we win. Even the Labor Party stands for such a peace.”The result of the Labor Party manifesto, therefore, is not only to strengthen the position of British and American capitalism, but the position of the Axis rulers as well. Masses StirringThe final word will be said, however, not by the heads of the Labor Party, but by the British masses. There are many signs that the policies of the Labor Party leaders are opposed by the great masses of Britain.At the time of the outbreak of the present war, the Labor Party made an agreement with the Conservative Party (Tories) not to place any candidates up against the other in the event of an election. If a seat in Parliament were to be vacated for any reason and if this seat were previously held by the Conservative Party, the Labor Party would not place any candidate up against that of the Conservative Party. The Conservative Party, in turn, agreed not to launch a candidate in opposition to that of the Labor Party.The relationship of forces as it existed at the time of the outbreak of the war was frozen. The Labor Party delivered itself up bound hand and foot to the British ruling class and their party which was in control of Parliament.The masses within the Labor Party are now beginning to stir in opposition to the policy of the leadership. This was manifested most sharply last December at the time of the vote on conscription of all men and women in England for war or work. Division Among the DeputiesIn this discussion, the leader of the so-called left wing, Mr. Shinwell, stated in debate with his own party leaders:“The male labor of the country and to a large extent the female labor of the country is conscripted. In effect, everything is conscripted with the sole exception of’ the vested interests. Labor did not enter the government for this. Has the Labor Party not always declared that if Labor was conscripted there must be a quid pro quo (this for that)? Did they not abandon that principle when they went in?”Shinwell of course does not represent the real interests of the masses. He fights shy of giving a concrete socialist answer to the problem. He ambitiously hopes to capitalize on the growing opposition of the masses to the sellout policy of the Labor Party officials.But the important thing is that the masses are in increasing opposition to the policies of the leaders of the Labor Party. This opposition showed itself, in nowhere near its real strength, by the vote of 30 members of the Labor Party in Parliament against the official policy of the Labor Party on the question of “conscription of wealth.”Another sign of the veering away of the masses from the official Labor Party is the increase in votes of the centrist Independent Labor Party in the recent bye-elections when they polled from 15% to 29% of the total vote. This vote was recorded in spite of the fact that the Communist Party ardently supported the Tories in the elections.The British Socialist Appeal, organ of the Workers International League, a Trotskyist group, demands that the Labor Party end’ the coalition with the Tories and strive for power upon a program of socialist demands. Strikes IncreaseJust as the Labor Party agreed to a coalition with the Tories on the political field so did the trade union leaders agree with the employers to a “truce” on the economic field. Without consulting the masses, they adopted a no-strike compulsory arbitration policy that cripples the workers’ efforts to better their conditions." }

{ "content": "The standards of living of the workers are constantly falling as the effects of goods shortages and higher prices are being felt ever more sharply.The workers’ resentment is increased because at the same time, the bosses’ profits are not being curtailed but are even rising. The British Economist points out that 2017 companies which had reported by Jan. 1, 1942, showed a total profit of 389 million pounds for 1941 over 375 million pounds for 1940.As a result of these factors, and in spite of the official policy of the trade union leaders, workers have struck in numerous cases. For example:The aircraft workers in the Napiers Plant in Liverpool struck: a “token” walkout of a half-hour took place in all the shipyards on the Clyde; 5,000 men walked out in the Rolls Royce plant; several thousand Kentish coal miners struck and succeeded in raising their pay from 6 shillings, 9 pence a day to 15 shillings, 2½ pence a day.(More on Great Britain next week) Top of pageCurtiss Archive   |   Trotskyist Writers Index  |   ETOL Main PageLast updated: 22 August 2021" }

{ "content": "Charles Curtiss Archive   |   Trotskyist Writers Index   |   ETOL Main PageC. CharlesCommune Charted Wayto Workers’ FreedomAfter the French Defeat of 1871, the Workers of Paris Set Upthe Most Democratic Government Modern History Had Ever Seen(21 March 1942)From The Militant, Vol. VI No. 12, 21 March 1942, p. 4.Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).“Working-men’s Paris, with its Commune, will be forever celebrated as the glorious harbinger of a new society. Its martyrs are enshrined in the great heart of the working class. Its exterminators history has already nailed to that eternal pillory from which all the prayers of their priests will not avail to redeem them.” – Karl Marx, The Civil War in France, May 30, 1871.The Franco-Prussian War of 1870 showed the French workers that the capitalist class of that country was rotten to the marrow, interested only in huge profits. The war saw the siege of Paris by the Prussians. During the siege the Parisian people were armed as a measure of defense. The war witnessed the fall of Napoleon III and the rise of the capitalist republic.The French capitalist class, monarchist and Republican united, were mortally afraid of the armed anti-capitalist Parisian workers. After signing an armistice with Bismarck, head of the Prussian forces, the first task that faced the French capitalists was the disarming of the workers of Paris.As the initial step in this direction, several regiments crept into Paris before dawn on March 18, 1871, with the purpose of stealing the cannon which belonged to the Paris people. Soldiers Go Over to WorkersThe move was discovered. The thoroughly aroused masses thronged out of their homes. The soldiers sent to take the cannon went over to the side of the workers. The workers took over the city. War was declared between Workingman’s Paris and the French capitalist class with its headquarters in Versailles. On the 26th the Commune, composed of representatives from each section of the city,’was elected. On the 28th it was installed.For 71 days the Red Flag waved over Paris.Unfortunately the Paris workers, hoping to avert a civil war, did not at once march against Versailles. Versailles was given a chance to strengthen itself. The Communards paid dearly in blood for their illusion that the capitalists would not wage a civil war against them.The French capitalist forces, with the solidarity of Bismarck, placed another siege against Paris. Most of the energy of the Commune had to be given to military defense.In spite of this, the Commune passed important social legislation.All house rents were remitted from October 1870 to April 1871. Night work was eliminated for bakers. The pawn shops were abolished and all pawned goods belonging to Workers and small independent craftsmen were returned free to their owners.The Commune ordered a census to be made of all factories and workshops which had been closed by their employers. The aim of this was to have these plants operated by and for the workers previously employed in them. The workers were to be organized in producers’ cooperative societies. Commune Upholds Workers InternationalismIn the field of political and cultural activity, the Commune:Abolished the standing army and conscription and established the National Guard to which all citizens capable of bearing arms had to belong as the sole force with the right to have arms. Granted full rights to all foreigners since the “flag of the Commune was the Universal Republic.” Destroyed the column erected by Napoleon I in 1809 as a monument of national vanity and international jealousy. These were symbols of the internationalist character of the Commune. Publicly burned the guillotine. Decreed the strict separation of Church and State. Fixed the maximum pay allowed to an official of the Commune at 6000 francs per year ($1200).On May 28, the Versailles troops, now overwhelming in number, crushed the last heroic barricade of the Commune.Terrible revenge was wreaked upon the Communards. From 20,000 to 80,000 working men, women and children were killed either in Paris or died in exile. Their crime: striving for a free world. Commune Showed Road to SocialismThe Commune gave the answer to the problem of how the transition between capitalism and socialism will take place. It proved that the workers cannot use the machinery of the capitalist state as an instrument of this transition. Even the most democratic of capitalist governments abounds with checks and hindrances of the popular will, has artificial divisions between the various departments of governments, creates a strong bureaucracy and army separated from the people.The capitalist state must be replaced by a workers state, a time democracy. According to Lenin, who made a deep study of the Commune and its lessons, proletarian democracy, or proletarian dictatorship, has the following characteristics:The source of power, is not law previously discussed and enacted by parliament but the initiative springing straight from the underlying mass of the people, on the spot ...; It involves the replacement of the police and army, which are separated from the people and opposed to it, by the direct arming of the whole nation; peace and order are maintained under such a government by the armed workers themselves, by the armed nation; The bureaucracy is either cashiered (fired) in favor of representatives of the people or held strictly under popular control.The Commune was the first expression of the dictatorship of the proletariat. The Soviets under Lenin and Trotsky was the second historical example of the rule of the workers. Commune Will Be Re-establishedThe greatest promise for the future is in the recent news we have received from France. Not only has the fighting spirit of the French workers not been broken by Hitler and Petain, but the great weakness of the Commune is being remedied. That historical weakness was the absence of a revolutionary Party. This shortcoming in 1871 was inevitable. It was the price the Parisian workers paid for being the great pioneers. We are informed that the Bolshevik Party of the Fourth International of France is functioning and gaining new support among the workers.The French workers will reconstruct the Commune on stronger foundations under the leadership of the Fourth International. Top of page" }

{ "content": "Curtiss Archive   |   Trotskyist Writers Index  |   ETOL Main PageLast updated: 22 August 2021" }

{ "content": "Charles Curtiss Archive   |   Trotskyist Writers Index   |   ETOL Main PageC.C.Illinois Conference OpensMiners Are Militant but Right Wing Forces Are Organized(October 1932)From The Militant, Vol. V No. 41, 8 October 1932, p. 1.Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).SPRINGFIELD, ILL. – Over 200 delegates, representing at least 22,000 miners of all sections of the state, from the terror-ridden southern counties (Franklin, Williamson and Saline) to the far northern Peoria-Wilmington fields, assembled in constitutional convention to decide upon the form and aims of the organization of coal miners to replace the shell of an organization left by the Lewis-Walker-Coal operators’ combine.The opening of the convention on Monday, October 3 was marked by a parade of 3,000 coal miners and their women folk. The demand for clean fighting unionism has reached into elements hitherto dormant or nearly dormant. The spirit of the well-organized women’s auxiliary is distinguished by its militancy.The convention heard the secretary of the West Virginia Miners’ Union with great attention and evinced their solidarity with that movement there. The applause left no doubt of the position of the Illinois miners on the question of national unity when Shearer, the secretary of the W.Va. Miners Union, raised this point in his speech.The convention was very jealous of the rights of the membership. As a reaction to the mandatory fashion of the Lewis bureaucracy, this swing to rank and file-ism goes to nearly ridiculous extremes. The spirit, however, is very healthy and very vigorous in its extreme care for democracy.As yet no Left wing has appeared in the convention. The proposal to hear a speaker from the N.W.U. was turned down. The first day was only taken up with routine business.The spirit of the delegates can be shown by the fact that many were forced to sleep on the floor of the city hall. All sorts of vehicles were pressed into service to bring these striking miners into Gillespie. The heroism of the underground, illegal Progressive Miner’s of America groups in Franklin County was unconsciously and unwittingly expressed by the delegates from there. To belong to the P.M.A. means the loss of the job, and relief is automatically stopped. To be active is only possible by threat of life.The president, Pearce, in his opening address gave a review of the month’s activity since the provisional convention. The problem of Franklin County and the absorption of the miners therein into the state-wide strike will be a most important topic.The Right wing, however, is active and seems organized. Their refusal to allow a speaker of the N.W.U. to speak was marked by demagogy, illogic and the conspicuous waving of the red herring.The Left Opposition is proposing to the C.P. joint Left wing action.The above is a brief summary of the first day’s important news items. More later. Top of pageCharles Curtiss Archive   |   ETOL Main PageLast updated: 4 December 2014" }

{ "content": "Charles Curtiss Archive   |   Trotskyist Writers Index   |   ETOL Main PageC.C.Militant Strikes on West Coast(July 1933)On the Workers’ Front, The Militant, Vol. VI No. 33, 1 July 1933, p. 2.Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).Los Angeles. – The city of Los Angeles has witnessed, and is witnessing, the beginning of a wave of strikes as the workers are commencing to think that it is as well to starve fighting as to starve working. About six weeks ago, the Cleaners and Dyers struck. This union is affiliated to the American Federation of Labor: A strike of upholsterers is now going on.The two most important strikes, however, are those of the agricultural workers and of the milliners who are in the Left wing Needle Trades Workers Industrial Union.The Mexican agricultural workers are a super-exploited section of the Southwestern proletariat. These workers are generally migratory or semi-migratory. Entire families work in the fields, from the little children of six and seven to the adults. The wages paid range from six cents an hour for seven year olds to eight cents an hour for twelve year olds and thirteen cents an hour for adults. Payments for work is highly speculative, as the Mexican laborer, under constant threat of deportation, is very reluctant about going to the legal channels to collect his wages. The ranchers knew this and have been quick to take advantage of the Mexican agricultural proletariat.Beginning as a spontaneous struggle the strikers in this field have now reached the number of 5,000. Arrests of pickets are a daily occurrence but in spite of this the strikers’ morale is still high.A curious phenomenon in this strike is the attitude of the Mexican government. Ex-president Calles has sent the strikers $750 and President Rodriguez has sent them $1,000. The explanation for this most probably is that in order to succeed in present-day Mexican politics with the radicalized workers and peasants one has to be “socialist” or “labor” or “agrarian”. Milliners in Militant StrikeAnother strike now going on is that of the milliners led by the Needle Trades Workers Industrial Union. About four or five weeks ago, Golden Bros., the second largest shop in the city attempted to celebrate the “New Deal” in a fitting fashion. They introduced a piece-work, speed-up system. The workers, amongst whom were a nucleus of Left wingers, stopped work without going down into the street and brought the Golden Bros. to their knees.The victory at Golden Bros. became the talk and inspiration of the millinery workers who are most desperately in need of militant organization. The union is growing daily. It has increased its membership ten-fold at least in the last month, since the triumphant stoppage at Golden Bros.The millinery trade has a large representation of Communists and sympathizers. The new spirit amongst the workers also had a thawing effect upon the Communists and Left wingers. Long silent, they have once more begin agitating. The next fruits of their agitation has been a strike at Lubes Hat Works, where forty workers walked out demanding the 44-hour week, (they were working 48 hours) division of work, recognition of a shop committee and the cessation of wage cutting.A picket line was thrown around Lubes. This line was re-enforced with girls from other shops, particularly from Golden Bros, in a demonstration of solidarity. The “Red Squad” did not succeed in intimidating the girls and men on strike. In forty-eight hours, the bosses at Lubes surrendered to all the demands of the workers.If the millinery market was astir with hope after the first victory at Golden’s, the condition of the workers’ minds after the second brilliant victory can only be left to the imagination. The workers were inspired, but the bosses’ chief emotion was one of fear and alarm.Mr. Sam Golden is the vice-president of the Millinery Ass’n, the bosses’ organization. In an evidently planned attack, the bosses of the Golden Bros. shop began to lay the ground work of again attempting to introduce the piece-work system. The workers who are nervously alert demanded of the Golden Bros., the giving up of these plans. When the Messrs. Golden refused, the workers walked out to the number of 70 out of 90 employed. Of the 20 remaining, most of them were relatives. This was about a week ago.The first day of the strike witnessed the arrest of two pickets, comrade Elsie Meyers and Helen Costello. This did not in any way frighten the strikers. Picketing kept right on in spite of the almost unbelievably brutality of the most, despicable collection of human filth which bears the title of “Red Squad”. Thursday night six more pickets were arrested. They are still in jail as charge after charge is being placed against them making bail impossible to secure. The original strikers, however, are out nearly one hundred per cent.Strike meetings, held under the leadership of the chairman of the strike committee, comrade Sam Meyers, an active Left Oppositionist, are as enthusiastic now as on the lirst day of the strike. The workers are girding themselves for a long time struggle. The bosses arc doing likewise.The Chamber of Commerce presented Mr. Golden with a $5,000 check to be used in keeping Los Angeles the “white spot” of the country.However, like a pack of wolves, the other manufacturers are snatching the Golden Bros.’ orders away as deliveries are not made. Mr. Golden’s bank credit is none too high. Victory is possible for the strikers provided the leadership of the union can formulate and apply correct policies.The need at the moment is a mass picket line. This picktet line should bear the character of a united front. The issue is elementary and appeals to the proletarian instincts of every workers of every type of labor organization. Will the leadership of the union make this appeal to every progressive labor organization or will they retain their old position of “united-front-from-below” only? Or what is still worse, will they give lip service to the idea of a genuine united front and sabotage it in action?" }

{ "content": "The strike can be won provided a correct policy is followed. The L.O. in Los Angeles will attempt to point out this correct policy inside of the union and in the struggle, itself..This strike wave particularly in the N.T.W.I.U., the only T.U.U.L. group of anywhere near a bona fide character in Los Angeles, has caught the party unprepared, Long paralyzed by the ultra-Leftism of the C.I., the worker Communists are re-learning the art of leadership in the every day struggles of the workers. Once liberated from the effects of the “Third Period” they are becoming skillful Communist organizers and not parroting sectarians. In the class struggle itself, the correctness of the views of the Left Opposition are being shown. The worker-Communist, after these struggles, will not be the easy prey for a pencil-pushing, “infallible” bureaucrat.The activities of the L.O. in the agricultural fields, in the Needle Trades workers, in the unemployed organizations are putting the Left Opposition on the map. Our influence is growing rapidly, and while our membership is growing in an extremely slow pace disproportionate’ with the growth of our influence, organizationally too, we can mark some progress. Top of pageCharles Curtiss Archive   |   ETOL Main PageLast updated: 25 October 2015" }

{ "content": "Charles Curtiss Archive   |   Trotskyist Writers Index   |   ETOL Main PageC. CharlesOn the 18th Anniversaryof Lenin’s Death(17 January 1942)From The Militant, Vol 6 No. 3, 17 January 1942, pp. 1 & 4.Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).January 21, 1942 marks the 18th anniversary of the death of V.I. Lenin, who together with Leon Trotsky led the Russian workers and peasants in 1917 in the revolution which established the Soviet Union.Lenin, the architect of the Soviet Union, built well. He laid the foundations of the Soviet Union deep and strong. Neither Hitler’s assaults nor the undermining effects of Stalinist rule have yet been able to destroy Lenin’s work.Everywhere Hitler triumphed until he turned east against the Soviet Union. In Lenin’s Soviet Union, after months of bitter fighting and retreats, the morale and fighting capacity of the Soviet masses remain so high that Hitler’s troops were brought to a dead halt for the first time, and now are actually retreating. Why Soviet Morale Is HighThe capitalist journalists and statemen either do not see, or pretend they do not see, the real cause for the enthusiasm and morale of the Soviet masses which is:In place of the ownership of the factories and land by a small minority of capitalists and landlords, the Russian Revolution under Lenin’s leadership established the national ownership by the workers and peasants of the means of production.The Red Army and Soviet masses are fighting for their own revolution and not for a band of parasites. They are fighting for their socialist future.In the Soviet Union alone Hitler has not found any Fifth Column to carry on his work behind the lines. The Fifth Column was destroyed – mark well the date, ex-Ambassador Davies and you Stalinist pen-prostitutes – in 1917, when under Lenin’s guidance, the government of the capitalists and landlords was replaced by the Soviet government of workers and peasants and when the factories and land were nationalized.Everywhere else, Hitler’s Fifth Column has found a base among the large industrialists, bankers and land-owners, who prefer the foreign invader, Hitler, to revolution by their own workers. Soviet Union Resists StalinismStalinism reduced the Soviets and trade unions to fictions; established a bureaucratic dictatorship over the Soviet Union, employing a vast GPU terror to enforce it; purged the Red army of its most able officers; saddled the country with a privileged bureaucracy, and murdered the Bolshevik Old Guard, Lenin’s comrades-in-arms, on monstrous frame-up charges of being Hitler’s agents.If Lenin were alive today, he would be accused by Stalin of being a Fifth Columnist and Trotskyist!Stalinism has aided in the destruction of the international working class movement by its criminal policies and thus isolated the Soviet Union.Yet, Stalin could not destroy the forces of the Russian revolution as long as the main work of Lenin, the abolition of capitalism and the nationalization of the means of production, persist. Lenin Was a MarxistLenin could give leadership to the Russian revolution as well as the workers’ movement of the world, because he was above all a Marxist. He mastered the ideas of Karl Marx, the founder of scientific socialism. An important part of Lenin’s work was the defense of Marxism, not only against the capitalists, but also against such “socialists” as Bernstein and Kautsky who wanted to revise Marxism in line with their own opportunist ideas.Lenin developed Marxism and applied it to the present period of capitalism. Modern capitalism, he showed, must conquer and exploit foreign territories so that the trusts and monopolies can continue to reap profits. Modern monopoly capitalism brings the millions of Asia, Africa and South and Central America within its arena of exploitation. Using Marxism, Lenin analyzed present day world economics in his book on Imperialism.Lenin showed the need for close unity of the labor and socialist movement of the advanced countries with the masses of the colonies and semicolonies. Lenin was an internationalist in the true sense of the word. Lenin During World War IWhen the first world war broke out, Lenin was one of the few socialist leaders who did not betray international socialism. Other “socialist” leaders became cabinet members in capitalist governments; Lenin told the truth. He showed the aim of the war was to determine which group of capitalists would dominate the earth and reap profits from the labor of the toilers of the world. He was merciless in his exposure of those “socialists” who had sold themselves to the capitalists.These were the most difficult years in Lenin’s life. To speak to five or six workers was a grand occasion for him. Yet Lenin remained confident that the workers would rally to international socialism.Above all, Lenin emphasized the importance of the party to the toilers in their struggle for emancipation. The party is the vanguard, the most far-seeing and self-sacrificing section of the class, which organizes itself into a self-disciplined group to carry on Marxist education and organization for the transition to socialism. Lenin created the Bolshevik Party of Russia which led the Russian revolution in 1917; two years later, in 1919, he formed the world party of Bolshevism, the Third International.Fourth International, SWP, Leninists of TodayThe Trotskyists, the Fourth International abroad and the Socialist Workers Party in the United States, are the Leninists of today.Just as Lenin struggled against those who would falsify and emasculate the ideas of Marx, so the Trotskyists battle against the Stalinists who falsify and emasculate the ideas of Lenin.Just as Lenin struggled against the “socialpatriots” for working class internationalism during World War I, so the Trotskyists today struggle against the Stalinists for working class internationalism during World War II.Just as Lenin struggled against the “yellow socialists” who betrayed the interests of the workers in the first World War, so the Trotskyists struggle against the Stalinists who betray the interests of the workers in the second World War.As Lenin fought for socialism, so now the Trotskyists fight for a socialist world against the Stalinists and all who say that “socialism is not on the order of the day.”" }

{ "content": "The capitalist system had matured for a change to socialism in Lenin’s life time; it had reached and it now remains in a stage of decay and can produce only unemployment, crisis, fascism and war.The way to honor Lenin’s memory today is to continue the struggle, against capitalism to which he devoted his entire life.Stalinism and Leninism are worlds apart.The spirit, ideas and work of Lenin live in the Trotskyist movement. Top of pageCurtiss Archive   |   Trotskyist Writers Index  |   ETOL Main PageLast updated: 22 August 2021" }

{ "content": "Charles Curtiss Archive   |   Trotskyist Writers Index   |   ETOL Main PageCharles CurtissThe Communist Fight against Imperialist War(January 1930)From The Militant, Vol. 3 No. 3, 18 January 18, p. 4.Marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).Talk! talk! talk! Peace! Naval reduction! Disarmament! Abolition of War! Geneva Conferences! London Conferences! League of Nations! Kellogg Pact – and while all this hypocritical cant is filling the air to the confusion of many workers, arsenals are being filled, gases compounded, troops drilled, battleships built, industries organized, all for the next August 1, 1930.Young workers and farmers, you who do the fighting and dying for the greater glory (and profit) of your capitalist masters, engrave this deeply into your consciousness: Twelve years after “the last war, the war to end wars”, the world is bristling with armaments even more so than the week before Sarejevo in July 1914. The black clouds have gathered – a tiny spark and the storm of death will have broken.The Role of the Socialists Loudest in their vehemence, most touching in their oratory, holding the attention of millions of workers are the bellwethers for capitalism, the leadership of the international social democracy and the pacifists, trying to convince the workers of the possibility of disarmament, of the abolition of war under capitalism, meanwhile, with might and main aiding their imperialist in arming, such as MacDonald, Mueller and Paul Boncour.The Communists are blunt: under capitalism war is inevitable. If you, fellow-worker, desire to abolish war, we say: Abolish capitalism with all its misery and replace it with the proletarian dictatorship – with a system of production for use and not for profit – all over the world.Some “scientists” say, in the spirit of Bismarck, that war is nature’s way of removing the unfit, the way “the law of the survival of the fittest” operates nowadays. Nonsense! It is precisely those who are sickly and weak and crippled and old who stay at home to survive and deteriorate the race, while the strong, the healthy and the young, without scar or blemish, who lay down their lives as blood sacrifices to Mammon on the altar of war.So, as the chief sufferers, those most endangered, the young workers traditionally lead the fight against capitalist war. But how? Whose method shall be used?War calls for a radical cure, for a revolutionary surgeon’s knife to exterminate class society, and not a reformist salve to heal the ulcer and retain the body of capitalism. So those who would apply the salve, the leadership of the Socialist Parties and Socialist Youth Leagues are excluded as capable of fighting war. From Bosses’ War to Class WarEssentially the problem is how to turn the imperialist war into a war of the working class against the master class. The reformists do not desire whatsoever to turn the war against capitalism. The task remains for the Communists.But the days when Leninist policy dominated the Communist movement are long past. Today, within the Communist movement we have three currents, the Right, the Center and the Left.Based theoretically on the monstrosity of “socialism in one country”, which it shares with the Centrists, the Rights have taken the next step down the hill to reform the next step following “socialism in one country”. They have declared their “right” to “national” Communist Parties” (a contradiction in terms as ridiculous as a square circle), negating the very principles of internationalism which is fundamental in our movement and especially in the fight against war. The Right wing “Communist” is checked off as incapable. The Centrists waver between the Right and Left, and anyone who hesitates in the class struggle is lost. A bold, determined policy is needed. They lag behind the masses or overtake and jump far ahead of them into adventurism and lag behind again.The Left wing under the leadership of Trotsky and Rakovsky and many other fighters against the last war stands foursquare on an International Leninist platform. It is the embodiment of internationalism, of the fight against war and capitalism.With the old battle-cries, first used by Lenin, Liebknecht and Trotsky, with which the masses overthrew the czar and Russian imperialism, and shook many a haughty empire, we shall also turn the next imperialist war into a victorious class war of the proletariat. The young workers must be in the front ranks. Top of pageCharles Curtiss Archive   |   ETOL Main PageLast updated: 21.8.2012" }

{ "content": "Main FI Index | Main Newspaper IndexEncyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet ArchiveFourth International, November 1940 C. CharlesAmerica’s Productive Capacity From Fourth International, Vol. I No. 6, November 1940, p. 175.Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL. Productivity, Wages and National Incomeby Spurgeon BellThe Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C., 1940; pp.344, including index.Between the years 1923–1924 and 1936–1937 productivity, the power of a unit of labor to achieve a desired result, increased in manufacturing by 50%; in mining by 89%; in railroads by 43% and in electric light and power by 111%. We use the average of the year 1936–1939 because this marks the high point in industrial production achieved since the crash, although the present year (1940) promises to equal and possibly surpass it. The above four industries account for 75% of the wage workers in the country, and without a doubt similar rates of increase in productivity hold true for the other industries.Has the greatly increased productivity that has marked these fifteen years resulted in economic benefit to the masses? asks Mr. Bell in his book.First, has this greatly strengthened power of man over nature meant an increased output? In 1937, the high year since 1929, according to information given by the Federal Reserve Board, total industrial production reached 109% of the average of 1923–25. In manufacturing production was 124%, in railroading 112%, in electric light and power, the only really expanding industry, it reached 238%. Thus realized production was far below what the potential productivity and increased labor supply makes possible. In the meantime the population increased by about 115%.How did wages fare in this period? In the words of Mr. Bell: “Annual earnings of workers attached to industry have shown a very substantial decline. In terms of money…over 30% and even with allowances for a change in the cost of living it was something like 20%” (computed in real wages – the amount of goods and services monetary wages can buy). In this period, hourly wages increased roughly 20% in monetary terms and 45% in buying power; weekly wages were reduced 10% in money and increased 10% in buying power.The real gain to the working class in this period is in shorter hours for the employed workers. Working 20% less time, the employed worker was able to buy as much as he formerly did. However, when one considers that very few workers are employed throughout the year, and when one considers the class as a whole, both employed and unemployed, the decrease in real and monetary wages has been, as pointed out, drastic.The salaried employee in the manufacturing, railroad and electric light and power industries, received $34 less in his annual pay envelop. This would mean a real increase in wages of about 13.6% for each employee, working substantially fewer hours. However, and this is a point that Mr. Bell does not mention, the concept “salaried employee” is a very misleading one: it runs from the corporation official earning $100,000; $50,000; $25,000 or $10,000 a year to the typist who draws $14 or $16 a week. These high “salaries” are merely a form of disguised profits. The improvement in the position of the salaried employee is exaggerated, to speak conservatively.A decrease of 6% was registered in this period in the income of the capitalist class, from $5,070 millions in 1923–24 to $4,768 millions in 1936–37; in the rate of return to capital the figures are 6.37% and 5.55%, a decrease of 13%. This does not take into consideration hidden profits.Did prices fall proportionately to the increase in the rate of productivity? In manufacturing prices fell by 33%, in railroads by 20% and in electric light and power by 40%. Or by another method of computation, in manufacturing the unit wage cost fell to 76 while wholesale prices fell to 83.7; in the railroad industry the unit wage cost fell to 78.6 while the unit price on freight fell to 85.9 and the passenger unit price fell to 60.9, thanks to bus competition; in mining the unit wage cost fell to 56.1 while the wholesale price was 81.4; and in electric light and power, the unit wage and salary cost sank to 62.9 while revenue per kilowatt hour was 76.6. These are two different methods, and space does not allow us to go into the basis of the difference in result.Prices are substantially above the level that increased productivity would allow. The old motive force for a lowering of price with a reduction in the amount of labor involved in producing a commodity is for long periods non-operative in this day of concentration and monopolization of industry.Capitalist economists are smugly proud of the hourly wage increase from 50.3 cents in 1933 to 58.3 cents in 1934, 62.2 cents in 1935 and up to 71 cents in 1938.Yet there was no scarcity in labor due to boom conditions with a resultant increase in the price of labor. Labor was not scarce – the opposite is true. Production did increase it is true but even so there was a large proportion (26%) of the labor supply unoccupied. In the prosperous period from 1923 to 1929, with a far less supply of labor, money wages went up only 5.7 cents an hour and real wages 6.8 cents an hour. Yet in 1933-38 real and monetary wages increased tremendously. Why this difference? The answer is not to be found in the workings of the capitalist system, but in the intervention in these workings of the labor movement. The answer to the question, why did hourly wages go up, is not a benevolent Washington government, but the growth and militancy of the trade union movement. This was absent in the previous period.Mr. Bell believes in the capitalist system. He does not see that capitalism is a barrier to economic progress not only because of the large share of the income taken by the parasitic ruling class [1], but also because the present social system stands in the way of even an approach to the full utilization of the productive potentialities its laboratories and research institutes have discovered." }

{ "content": "Capitalism has thrown the country into an economic crisis that has resulted in the loss between 1929 and 1938 of 200 billion dollars. Just as it must undergo periodic crises to keep functioning so it must undergo periodic wars. It keeps the consuming power of the masses of the people down by low wages and high prices. Capitalism has shown the world how to produce. That has been its great historic function. Now it must give way to a new society that will be able to use this productive potentiality.The forces of production have come in conflict with the property relations of society. This conflict can be “reconciled” temporarily on the Procrustian bed of fascism, or can be really solved by socialism, which will end private ownership of the means of production and thereby give their development an enormous impetus.For the facts and figures contained in this book we recommend it. It is an excellent case book for the study of Capital – which I imagine was furthest from the writer’s mind when he wrote it. Top of page Footnote1. The following figures give the proportion of the income from each industry appropriated by the capitalist class in 1936-37:Manufacturing  24.7Railroads22.4Electric light and power64.1 Main FI Index | Main Newspaper IndexEncyclopedia of Trotskyism | Marxists’ Internet ArchiveLast updated on 26 February 2016" }

{ "content": "Charles Curtiss Archive   |   Trotskyist Writers Index   |   ETOL Main PageC.Two Philly Oppositionists Held for Sedition(March 1931)From The Militant, Vol. IV No. 5, 1 March 1931, p. 1.Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).Two of our comrades, members of the Philadelphia branch of the Communist League of America (Opposition) have been arrested on charges of sedition and are being held under $1,000 bail for distributing leaflets in front of a “shelter for homeless men” and for calling on the employed and unemployed workers to demonstrate on International Unemployment Day at the mass meeting of the unemployed on City Hall Plaza.Comrades Goodman and Morgenstern were distributing our unemployment leaflet. The passage in the leaflet (The Open Letter to the Central Committee of the party) for which they were indicted and which the District Attorney termed seditious, reads as follows:“There can be no solution to the unemployment problem under capitalism. The solution can be found only in the Socialist revolution and, finally, on a world scale.”For calling upon the workers to fight against unemployment and for the six hour day, against capitalist rationalization and for unemployment insurance paid by the bosses and their government, for long term credits to the Soviet Union (where unemployment does not exist) in order to gain employment for more American workers and at the same time to help put through the Five Year Plan and lastly, for pointing out to the workers that unemployment can be abolished only by the world revolution, our two comrades have been snatched up by capitalist class justice. Together with scores and hundreds of other courageous working class militants they are threatened with imprisonment and with isolation from their class brothers in struggle.Under the outrageous Flynn Sedition Law of the state of Pennsylvania the Communist fighters Peltz, Holmes, Resetar, Muselin and Zima have already been incarcerated, while Bill Lawrence, Tess Ryder and Anna Lynn are awaiting sentence and Leon Goodman and Berman Morgenstern are up for trial. The ravages of capitalist justice must not be allowed to go on unhampered. The entire revolutionary working class of America must be aroused to action in defense of their valiant pioneers. Comrades Goodman and Morgenstern, as well as the other arrested Communists need the help of the united forces of the whole communist and Left wing movement in this country, in the fight for their freedom. Thus far, they have been furnished only with an attorney by the Civil Liberties Union. The local organization of the I.L.D. has been appealed to for help, and we are awaiting their response.On Sunday, March 1, an Anti-Sedition Conference has been called by the I.L.D. in Philadelphia, to organize the struggle against the Flynn Sedition Law as part of the struggle against capitalist class justice all over the country. This Anti-Sedition Conference must be made into a real, united front conference in defense of all class war prisoners, into a real fighting weapon of the working class.In these times of deep capitalist crisis and growing workers’ unrest, the savage onslaught of the bosses and their government against the liberties and rights of the workers, as well as against their living standards, can be repulsed only by the combined efforts of the entire working class, by the fighting unity of its revolutionary vanguard. Only a broad united front of struggle, composed of all elements fighting capitalist justice on a revolutionary class basis can save Goodman and Morgenstern, Peltz, Holmes, Lawrence, Ryder and Lynn and the others from the fangs of the bosses and their government. Top of pageCharles Curtiss Archive   |   ETOL Main PageLast updated: 4.2.2013" }

{ "content": "Charles Curtiss Archive   |   Trotskyist Writers Index   |   ETOL Main PageCharles CurtissFather Manuel and Comrade Epstein(February 1931)From The Militant, Vol. IV No. 3, 1 February 1931, p. 6.Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).SAN ANTONETHIS IS THE MANEL PADRE MANUELGOD IS WITH USCROSSES, ROSARIES, MEDALLIONS,HOLY PICTURESHARRY EPSTEIN423 Delmar St.,San Antonio, TexasThis legend, illustrated by a picture of the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child, encircled by a host of angels, is inscribed on a calendar hanging from the wall of many Mexican workers’ homes in San Antonio.God’s sun has rarely shone on so pious a creature as Father Manuel. A perfervid proselyte, a man of piety and devotion. A true defender of the catholic faith.“I went to six o’clock mass this morning,” he reproaches his customers, “why were you missing?”“Verily, God must be in him”, murmurs every good catholic, leaving him with a benediction.The good people of the Catholic fold in San Antonia know him as Father Manuel when he changed his personality by a draught of the magic chemical. And even so is Father Manuel. At the stroke of six, the holy father is wondrously transubstantiated, out of the body of Christ, and into the person of Comrade Epstein, leader of the San Antonio branch of the Communist Party of the United States, section of the Communist International! Hard to believe? But it is nevertheless true.Mr. Hyde, in his transformation, would trample children to death in his road rage. Comrade Epstein tramples underfoot the Trotskyist traitors. The welkin rings with his denunciation of these counter-revolutionists! How he demands their blood – nothing less! Just as he affirms his faith in Pius XI up to six o’clock, he affirms his faith in Stalin I after six. He shuns the sullying contact of the infidel before six, and of the Negro and Mexican “ignorant workers” after six. The sacred fire burns within him at all time.At six in the morning, he is again transubstantiated. Comrade Epstein once more becomes Father Manuel. Again, like a humble friar, he wends his way from door to door, urging the benighted to greater piety and selling them his crosses, rosaries, medallions and holy pictures. Of such is the Kingdom of God. This is the resurrection and the faith.This is a true picture of a party member in San Antonio. We invite the Daily Worker to challenge it. The rest of the party membership there is not much better. They make an economic living by fleecing the Negro and the Mexican, and save their political soul by shrill protests of loyalty to the latest party “line”. It goes without saying that they consider Trotsky worse than wrong. How long will this rubbish be tolerated in the party?* * * *After this was written, the Daily Worker published a statement announcing the expulsion of Epstein. The other Epsteins of varying shades remain. It is barely necessary to add that the statement also makes an attack on the “Trotskyists” and on comrade Curtiss in particular. The attacks on the Opposition are not new; they are an unoriginal repetition of Father Manuel’s political philosophy. The attack on comrade Curtiss is, of course, a typical Stalinist “payment” to the Opposition for the crime of having pointed out in time an open sore in the movement which the Stalinists themselves only discover long afterwards. Top of pageCharles Curtiss Archive   |   ETOL Main PageLast updated: 5.12.2012" }

{ "content": "Charles Curtiss Archive   |   Trotskyist Writers Index   |   ETOL Main PageC. CurtissArmed Vigilantes TerrorizeCalif. Agricultural WorkersTar and Feather Union Organizers in Desperate Attemptto Stem Unionization: But Crops Rot in Field(August 1935)From New Militant, Vol. I No. 36, 31 August 1935, pp. 1 & 2.Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).SANTA ROSA, Calif., Aug. 23. – Santa Rosa is the chief town in Sonoma county from which come the big, red, juicy, Gravenstien apples and hops. The crops are ripening now. The trees are loaded ; the branches sagging to the earth. Labor is needed to harvest the apples and hops. The cry is for labor, labor.Labor does not respond to the cry because the wages offered are not sufficient to maintain even the low standard of life the agricultural workers are accustomed to. The workers are organizing and forming into unions.A few weeks ago there was a strike of apple-pickers in Santa Rosa. The workers called a meeting. Vigilantes crashed into this strike meeting, dispersing it, and beating up workers. From this period, the vigilantes have been terrorizing Sonoma county. The highest point to date was reached on the night of Wednesday, August 21, when two active militant workers, accused of being Communists, were tarred and feathered and then marched through town for eight hours. Patriotism and a Drunken MobThe night riders began their activities by taking Jack Green, a sign painter of Santa Rosa. Jack Green for many years was president of the Central Trades and Labor Council of Sonoma County, and up to two months ago was president of the local union of sign painters. He is at present a delegate to the Central Trades and Labor Council.They then descended upon S. Nitzburg, a rancher. Shotgun fire met them at Nitzburg’s ranchhouse. The brave mob of 300 then fell back, and sent for tear gas. When the gas arrived it was shot into the ranchhouse, driving Nitzburg and his family out. They rounded up three others, manhandling women in their attempts to capture their victims. The five were ordered to kiss the American flag. Nitzburg and Green refused, while the others “acceded”. Finally they beat Nitzburg and Green into doing likewise, but as a reprisal for their refusal, they shaved the heads of the two and then dumped tar and feathers over them. Shouting, the triumphant mob, many of whom were drunk, paraded the two through the streets of Santa Rosa.The vigilantes instructed all five to leave town immediately.At present, the vigilantes, encouraged by the great feat of 300 vanquishing five, are mouthing threats of invading San Francisco and “cleaning up” on the waterfront unions. Their reception by the maritime unions will be warm. They will be met with open arms, and doubled fists.The local police and authorities undoubtedly cooperate with the vigilantes. While the victims were being paraded up and down the main streets of Santa Rosa for a period of eight hours, the police did nothing The police of Santa Rosa have not yet been able to answer the question: how did the raiders get the tear gas bombs that were used against Nitzburg and others. No one else but the police had the bombs nor the guns to fire them. Police CooperationSanta Rosa is not a large town and three hundred men could not organize themselves without police knowledge and connivance. It is definitely charged and proven that public officials, police officials and prominent “honored” citizens were active in the raiding.U.S. Attorney General Webb, who had given sanction to the vigilantes, by refusing to act in earlier cases in Santa Rosa, had the following statement to make in reply to a demand of the Civil Liberties Union for investigation and action: “There is nothing to investigate.”Let some strikers say “scab” to some strikebreaker and Mr. Webb will be sure to call out all the forces at his disposal to restore “law and order,” meanwhile beating and arresting workers by scores. This attack upon the lives of five workers evokes nothing out of himbut the implicit support of the vigilantes. Knowing the character of the capitalist state machinery, this need cause us little surprise, no matter how discomfited the San Francisco News, a liberal paper, may be by the declaration of Webb. The San Francisco News in its timid protest against the Vigilantes has the following to say:“We have every sympathy for growers who see their entire year’s work menaced by a few agitators.”How about some sympathy for the underpaid workers, with their substandard existence wages! The position of the News is summed up in the statement:“Could the mob take a better way to arouse sympathy for its victims and to weaken any legitimate case there may be against them?”The victims’ sole crime was that they took a position for the organisation of the field workers. To the capitalist class this is a heinous crime. And the News’ position is that the vigilante methods do not work in suppressing this crime – these methods merely arouse sympathy for the victims. The News prefers the more regular channels of suppression as offering a more efficient instrument of oppression. To the workers of the state, there is but little to choose between the News’ method of “sympathizing” with the growers and the vigilante methods. Made-in-CaliforniaHearst-inspired vigilanteism which is sweeping the state is a Made-in-California variety of fascism. The terror practiced by the small growers, storekeepers, petty officials and hoodlum elements, in the interests of big business, will have to be met determinedly, or the cause of labor will be doomed. Vigilanteism has become a common occurrence Jackson, Pixley, San Francisco Richmond, Imperial Valley, Santa Rosa and other places have been scenes of raids by vigilantes against labor unions. The only way the workers can defeat the vigilantes is not to meet it with moans of anguish and appeals for sympathy but by having groups of workers ready and willing to fight for labor by all means – matching weapon for weapon with the vigilantes." }

{ "content": "Contrary to the hopes of the master class the jailing of eight workers, at Sacramento, a few months ago has not stifled the labor movement. It continues. Struggles are developing in agriculture, mining, industry and on the waterfront We have recounted in brief the situation in Santa Rosa. Word comes that the Mexican Agricultural Workers Union of Los Angeles and surrounding counties is preparing to go out on strike. The Jackson miners are still holding out. On the waterfront the probabilities are that there will be a struggle with the expiration of the contract, on September 30. The river bargemen are on strike. Five locals of agricultural workers have been charted in one county by the Bakersfield Central Labor Council.The capitalist class places a lot of hope in the vigilantes as a weapon against the workers.* * *P.S. The terroristic action of the vigilantes has resulted in creating a labor shortage in Sonoma County which may mean that the crops will rot unharvested. This was the announcement of J.A. Stellern, state director of national re-employment. Mr. Stellern said 1,500 men are needed for work at once in the harvest around Santa Rosa, and emphasized the point that only men active in fomenting labor trouble and strike movements are “in disfavor” there.Behind all the obscene exhibition of flag-kissing and frenzy stands the economic interests of the growers. The motive behind this 100 percentism is cold profit. Patriotism is the refuge of all anti-labor forces. Top of pageCarter Archive   |   Trotskyist Writers Index  |   ETOL Main PageLast updated: 22 February 2016" }

{ "content": "Charles Curtiss Archive   |   Trotskyist Writers Index   |   ETOL Main PageC.First Mass Meeting in Los Angeles(March 1933)From The Militant, Vol. VI No. 17, 8 March 1933, p. 2.Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).Los Angeles. – The first official appearance of the Left Opposition before the workers of Los Angeles was the mass meeting on the question of the The Crisis in Germany. The results of the meeting of March 3 left the newly formed branch highly enthusiastic.Over 85 workers including a score of members of the party and Y.C.L. listened to the presentation of the position of the International Left Opposition. The hall chosen for the meeting was far too small. Every inch of standing space was taken and the meeting overflowed. The door was kept open to allow the workers who could not be accommodated within the hall to hear the speeches and discussion.The speakers of the evening were S.M. Rose and C. Curtis. Comrade Sam Meyers was the chairman.After the speakers of the evening had concluded the floor was thrown open to discussion. The comrades of the YCL and the party are marked here as elsewhere by a lack of any serious education. (They have, however, plenty of that which goes as Marxism-Leninism in the present day.)Driven into the corner by the irresistible flow of Marxism, one young comrade resorted to the inevitable retreat of an exposed person: slander. The meeting, finally, adjourned at midnight. We are sure that the comrades and workers are going to seriously consider the L.O. position, and are going to raise the issue within their organizations.It is noteworthy that the C.P. here has not taken notice of the German events. The necessity sensitiveness of a Communist to international events has been blunted by the years of the Stalinist regime. “More important things ... shop campaigns, unemployed work ...” the bureaucrats mumble.More important things than the defeat or victory of the most powerful working class movement outside the USSR!* * *The meeting resulted in a number of contacts for the L.O. and quite a sale of literature.The comrades of the L.O. are very active in the mass unemployed movement and are the recognized spokesmen within the movement for the Left wing. The Left wing of the Unemployed Cooperative Relief Association (an organization of 40,000 heads of families), through the initiative of the L.O. has invited the C.P. into active participation in the work. The comrades of the C.P. are having quite a time of it. At one meeting we are counter-revolutionists, and at another we are comrades-in-arms, battling together. Top of pageCharles Curtiss Archive   |   ETOL Main PageLast updated: 23 July 2015" }

{ "content": "Charles Curtiss Archive   |   Trotskyist Writers Index   |   ETOL Main PageC. CurtissOpposition and Unemployed in Los Angeles(May 1933)League Activities, The Militant, Vol. VI No. 27, 20May 1933, p. 2.Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).Los Angeles – Part of the machinery set intomotion-by the United Front anti-Fascist letter of the C.I. was ananti-Hitler united front conference in Los Angeles on April 28.This conference was not called by the Communist party but by aunited front provisional organization of German groups.Proof that the “united front from below under revolutionaryleadership” has gone the way of the “third period”and the “struggle for the streets” was had by the factthat neither the Communist party nor the Young Communist League wererepresented officially.We presume, their assumption was that their presence there wouldfrighten from the “broad united front” the three branchesof the ILD, the IWO, the FSU, the friends of the Polish PoliticalPrisoners, the LSU, the Icor, and the Unemployed Council as well astwo or three German speaking organizations: Workingmen’sBenefit, Maennerchor, etc. And by no means shall we forget theCremation Society who were present, too.The only Communist organization openly participating was the LeftOpposition.A delegate of the Left Opposition was placed on the resolutionscommittee. In this committee he proposed three resolutions, inaddition to the two already proposed. One of the resolutions, on thestruggle against fascism, stood for a united front with all labororganizations against the fascist attacks, particularly with thesocialist party. The socialist party was condemned for refusing toparticipate in this conference.Other resolutions, on anti-Semitism pointed out that the struggleagainst Fascism and anti-Semitism by the Jews could only be waged bythe lower social strata allying themselves with the proletariat, anddemonstrated that only a new social order could abolish religious andracial prejudices.The third resolution on the Defense of the Soviet Union showedthat Hitler represented the spearhead of the attacks on Russia, andthe labor movement particularly in the countries intervening betweenRussia and Germany must join the anti-Fascist bloc. (The party votedagainst the resolutions of the L.O.)The party seems determined to to make of the anti-Hitler strugglean affair of fraternal German and Jewish groups instead of a laboraffair. The local branch off the Opposition took a determinedposition against this. The consensus of opinion of revolutionarieshere is that Stalinism is ready for a nice sanitary disposal.Call the Cremation Society! Activity of the Left OppositionThe comrades in the Los Angeles branch of the League are veryactive in the class struggle particularly in the mass unemploymentmovement, the Unemployed Cooperative Relief Association in which theyare very influential. The organization is slowly progressing. We aredeveloping a group of erstwhile scissor bills into class consciousbattlers, although in this as well as in other activities we sufferacutely from lack of forces.The organization has demanded $50,000 monthly from the city. Thismorning’s newspapers state that Mayor Porter has appropriated$20,000. The cause for this “liberality” is a dual one, acombination of pre-election political activity, and the forestallingof our movement by a political concession.The movement has also gone on record for the freedom of Mooney,has elected a delegate by proxy to the Free Mooney Congress inChicago.Some time ago, when the U.C.R.A. placed an evicted family’sfurniture back into the home, the man, Tibbs, was arrested. After anine day trial, costing the authorities at least $1,000, the verdictwas “not guilty.” This was a victory for the unemployed.The unemployed are turning on their disconnected gas, light andwater in the tens of thousands. A number of half-hearted arrests havetaken place on this account, too.Friday, April 27, a member of the organization was placed on thestreets. The unemployed determined to make a demonstration in theform of a continual meeting 24 hours daily at a pitched tent beforethe workers former home. This tactic had won shelter for the familybefore.In the small hours of the night, when the members keeping vigilhad dwindled to 35 warming themselves before bonfires, the police and“red squad” swooped down and brutally beat theunemployed. It was not that horror of horrors, a “red”,that was clubbed but one of themselves. The unemployed are aroused.So the lessons of the class struggle, of private property, of therole of the state are being beaten home. We are busy drawingconclusions, organizing the instinctive rebellion into revolutionaryMarxist paths. Top of pageCharles Curtiss Archive   |   ETOL Main PageLast updated: 4 September 2015" }

{ "content": "Charles Curtiss Archive   |   Trotskyist Writers Index   |   ETOL Main PageC. CharlesPlenum Greetings Sent to Natalia Trotsky(12 October 1941)From The Militant, Vol. V No. 42, 18 October 1941, p. 3.Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).The following is the message of solidarity sent to Natalia Sedov Trotsky in Coyoacan, Mexico, by the National Plenum-Conference of the Socialist Workers Party, meeting October 11–12 in Chicago, Illinois:We are closing this evening the best attended and most enthusiastic conference in our history. The unanimous vote on the political resolution which is based on the life teachings of Comrade Leon Trotsky expressed our firm unity. As we successfully conclude our work, we send you our warmest comradely greetings. C. Charles,Chairman of Session,Plenum-Conference Socialist Workers Party Top of pageCurtiss Archive   |   Trotskyist Writers Index  |   ETOL Main PageLast updated: 7 April 2019" }

{ "content": "Charles Curtiss Archive   |   Trotskyist Writers Index   |   ETOL Main PageC.C.America vs. Japan in Latin America(April 1934)From The Militant, Vol. VII No. 17, 28 April 1934, p. 2.Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).The key to many of the policies of American imperialism, both in relation to Latin America and to Japan, may be found in the following facts and figures, the latter taken from a Panama newspaper.A veritable flood of goods from Japan is reaching the Latin American market which, for the last 15 years, has been considered reserved for the U.S. While the amount of goods bearing the tale “Made in U.S.A.” is diminishing, the goods bearing the words “Made in Japan” are increasing in number, relatively to the amount of imports from other countries and absolutely in relation to the figures of each preceding years.Silks; cambrics; food-stuffs; paper goods; articles of porcelain, crockery, glassware, and china; drug, medical and toilet articles, leather goods; bamboo; canvas shoes; rubber articles; toys; celluloid – these are the chief articles of import. Japanese ExportsThe value of the imports from Japan to Paraguay in pesos de oro:1924140,2311925223,6781926242,0731927276,9441928308,597To Peru, in Japanese yen:19281,758,65119292,601,54519302,234,7741931729,2051932840,5741933(first six months only)1,857,807In Panama, where three years ago Japanese goods were unknown, they now hold second place. The figures given are in Panamanian dollars, and for the months cited only.Before May, 1931, there was a monthly import of less than $15,000.May 1931$ 29,180Nov. 193140,308July 193394,025Aug. 1933109,745Tendency Alarms U.S.These are but examples of a general tendency that is causing, to say the least, a great deal of anxiety in the U.S. These figures are not large, but the fact that Japan’s exports to the Latin American markets can gain, as in Brazil, where for the first hall of 1933, the increase was 113%, to Cuba, a relatively changing position, a 173%, and to Peru, where the increase was 322%, is symptomatic of process that in the final analysis can only be changed by imperialist war.In this time of crisis every shred, scrap and crumb of foreign market assumes a great importance. A teaspoonful of water to a man dying of thirst is much more important than a well of water in a region where there is plenty. These two facts – of Japan’s increasing foreign trade in Latin America and the great demand for every dollar’s worth of market by the U.S. – must be taken careful account of when reading the reports of international conferences. U.S. Exports to South AmericaPart of the meaning behind the Pan-American congresses, treaties, etc., can be found in these figures of U.S. exports to South America. These figures are taken from the World Year Book:1928$480,814,0001929539,309,0001930337,508,0001931158,691,000193297,132,000These figures for 1932 are less than 20% of those for 1929. The same process is at work on a world scale as the following figures for the world export of the U.S. show:1928$5,128,356,00019295,240,995,00019303,843,181,00019312,424,289,00019321,611,016,000Do the Figures Spell War?Japanese exports in these years decreased also, but nowhere near the degree of the other powers.            In Yen19281,971,955,00019292,148,618,00019301,469,852,00019311,146,981,00019321,409,992,000While in 1932 U.S. exports dropped to 31% of the 1929 figures, Japanese exports only dropped, at the end of the year 1932, to 67%.Does this inequality mean war in which the American and Japanese wage slaves will, among other things, fight to determine whether Japanese or North American goods shall be found in the bazaars of India, the fairs of South America and the market places generally of the world? Top of pageCharles Curtiss Archive   |   ETOL Main PageLast updated: 23 April 2016" }

{ "content": "Charles Curtiss Archive   |   Trotskyist Writers Index   |   ETOL Main PageC. CurtissWorkers ForumA Paper Where Workers Will Feel at Home(21 November 1939)From Socialist Appeal, Vol. III No. 89, 21 November 1939, p. 2.Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).Editor:When the Twice-a-Week Appeal first came out, full of good features, well written, popular, attempting to address itself to workers and become a mass paper, we used to take 200 an issue, and dispose of them. Our Sunday mobilizations, when the comrades used to assemble to go door to door in the working class sections of town with the paper, were full of enthusiasm and good-natured competition to see who would sell the most papers. Alas, all that is slowing up. To organize each mobilization requires more effort than the previous one. Who is to blame? Comrades Not at FaultSome would say the comrades, and without a doubt, this is true to a minor extent, as the work began to become a familiar routine. Still, this is not by far the most important factor. I think more responsibility falls upon the paper itself because the comrades find it more difficult to sell the paper now than when the Twice-a-Week first appeared. Our own comrades do not have the will to sell the paper when it is not well written and not directed to the workers.Before the Twice-a-Week, our major outlet was the radical gatherings and radical contacts. With the appearance of the Twice-a-Week, we had been hoping for a change in the paper, which for a brief period was realized. In that period we attempted to address our paper not only to the old elements but get new readers among the workers. But that period seems to have come to an end. An Alarming SymptomI would like to take up another point, and that is the question of repeat sales. After selling a paper to a worker, when we come back to sell it to him again, we find greater sales resistance. In other words, even after reading the paper, which we hoped would break down his indifference or hostility towards us, we nearly invariably find that it is more difficult to sell the paper again. The answer to this dilemma is found in the difference between our sales talk and the paper. While attempting to sell the worker or working class housewife a paper, we play up what we think the worker would be interested in. In other words, we paint for him a picture of an imaginary paper which arouses his interest, but when the worker looks at the Appeal, it is quite different than the description of it given by the comrade.Of course, we, here, do not agree with the comrade from Detroit, who said that the workers are not interested in India, Ireland, etc. It is the task of the paper to show the importance of the events to the workers’ immediate struggles, but it must be done in an interesting fashion, and the interest and concern of the workers in international problems will be built up. What Is NeededAn average worker does not feel at home in our paper. It is only the radical worker who does. It is important to keep these informed of what goes on but, it is as important that the worker from the shop, or on relief, also be interested in the paper, and this is proven by the fact that he does not write for the paper. Where is the worker’s correspondence that the paper should have? Where is the correspondence from the unions ? Where is the question box that a worker’s paper should have ? Where are the interesting stories that a paper should have ? Where are the absorbing lessons on What is Socialism, written simply and understandable to all? This list could be continued.I hope that this will not be confused with the phenomena that often appears in our movement of anti-anti-Stalinism. The struggle against Stalinism must not be given up, but neither must it be “raised” to the level which only a few workers can understand. The basis for, our opposition to Stalinism must be made clear to even the simplest worker. Much of our articles against Stalinism is aimed, if not at the summits of Stalinism, certainly not to the rank and file CP member or sympathizer who cannot understand it and for this reason, ignores it, or looks upon it as a struggle between two groups of “college professors.”I would like to again repeat the central slogan: The Socialist Appeal must be a paper in which every worker will feel at home.Los AngelesC. CurtissThe Road to a Real Workers’ NewspaperComrade Curtiss’ letter merits the attention, not only of the staff of the Socialist Appeal, but of all party branches and workers who read our press. The facts he adduces are attested to from all parts of the country. Where is the solution ?A European comrade with the richest experience in the mass movement some time ago estimated the paper in these terms:“The paper is very well done from a journalistic point of view; but it is a paper for the workers and not a workers’ paper.“As it is the paper is divided among various writers, each of whom is very good, but collectively they do not permit the workers to penetrate to the pages of the Appeal. Each of them speaks for the workers (and speaks very well), but nobody will hear the workers. In spite of its literary brilliance, to a certain degree the paper becomes a victim of journalistic routine. You do not hear at all how the workers live, fight, clash with the police or drink whiskey. It is very dangerous for the paper as a revolutionary instrument of the party. The task is not to make a paper through the joint forces of a skilled editorial board, but to encourage the workers to speak for themselves." }

{ "content": "“The whole party must participate in the paper not only financially but politically and journalistically. The paper must have correspondents, researchers and reporters everywhere. Three lines from a shop or a meeting can often give more than a well written article by the staff. Only such a paper can penetrate into the masses and receive great support from them.“A radical and courageous change is necessary as a condition of success. The paper is too wise, too scholarly, too aristocratic for the American workers and tends to reflect the party more as it is than to prepare it for its future.” Why We HaltedThe course of the paper began to move in this proposed direction; that was the period of which Comrade Curtiss speaks as the time when the Los Angeles comrades were able to sell the paper easily. However, since the outbreak of the war there has been, to a considerable extent, a retrogression. One reason is that the comrades tend to separate the daily events of the class struggle from the war situation, and fail to write into the Appeal about the actual life in which they are engaged. This is the main explanation for the cessation of direct reports from the fields of struggle.Another reason for the failure of the Appeal to continue its transformation into a real workers’ paper is the necessity, imposed by the war, of devoting a considerable part of the paper to analytical articles, in order to arm the advanced workers for the struggle against social-patriotism. But it is certainly possible to combine this work with material more directly attractive to the workers, to constitute a paper with a popular tone. What’s To Be DoneThe staff’s main shortcoming along this line has been its failure to remain in regular contact with the field, suggesting subjects for direct reports and workers’ correspondence, encouraging those who write in, etc.The Staff, however, in and of itself, cannot solve the problem! A widespread understanding among party members, Yipsels, and our worker-readers, that their voices must be heard in the paper, is the beginning of the solution. Let the workers write our paper! The Appeal Staff Top of pageCarter Archive   |   Trotskyist Writers Index  |   ETOL Main PageLast updated: 22 May 2020" }

{ "content": "Charles Curtiss Archive   |   Trotskyist Writers Index   |   ETOL Main PageC. CurtissClass Struggle Issues ArouseWest Coast Maritime Unions(18 December 1935)From New Militant, Vol. 1 No. 52, 28 December 1935, pp. 1& 4.Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 18. – The issue of job action has assumed great proportions on the West coast.The recent convention of the maritime federation (organization of all waterfront crafts on the coast) has attempted to resolve this question of job action, with what success remains to be seen.Job action is a term that describes a multitude of activities. But speaking generally it is action taken right on the job by the men involved in order to gain a demand or a set of demands.Above all the seamen have been forced to take recourse to job action. The “award” they received some time ago has proven to be a cruel farce, and in order to maintain conditions of living and safety, the seamen have been compelled to utilize job action as an ultimate weapon.The conditions under which the seamen live and work are described by Barry Lundberg, leader of the Sailors Union of the Pacific, and president of the Maritime Federation: Conditions of Seamen“The seamen are still working 56 hours a week or more for an average pay of $60 per month. No holidays for the seamen. It is only natural and just that they have a demand to claim overtime pay after working these long hours instead of time back.“The living and eating quarters of the seamen as a rule are in terrible condition, poor heating and ventilation systems, rotten sleeping quarters, messrooms so small that men must wait in turn for another to eat. This condition and many others exist on most of the ships. The only way these conditions were remedied was by the action of the men themselves, refusing to live and work under such conditions. This action the men were forced to take, as the new existing labor relations hoard never was able to get anything for the men. The shipowners always manage to stall and block action.”The Portland local of the Sailors Union of the Pacific, for example, in a letter sent to the Voice of the Federation, organ of the Maritime Federation, has the following to state, in part: Job Action Gets Results“After the 1934 strike the men were forced to job action practically all of the time, in order to force the shipowners to give them their due rights. On the strength of the united action of various ship-crews, the owners and the government were finally forced to hand down the present award, which they so recently have broken by denying the men collective bargaining. Job action forced the American Hawaiian, the Shepard Line, and various other companies to recognize the I.S.U.“We could name hundreds of other cases where job action was the only weapon whereby the seamen got their just rights.”Let us quote from another letter sent into the Voice, this time by a member of the American Radio Telegraphers Association, and approved by the Seattle local of that union.(These articles were written in answer to an editorial published in the Voice giving the pros and cons of job action. The editorial was entitled Job Action, or Else!)“Job action is not the spontaneous demonstration of the will of the crew as the author of Job Action or Else! states. It is rather the last resort of men who have fully acquainted the ship operators or owners with a condition they do not care to sail under. After being refused the request, the crew has no alternative but to use job action.“Following is the case of the crew of the S.S. Suweid of the Nelson Line. The crew of the S.S. Suweid knowing the ship not to be any too seaworthy, decided that they wanted the added protection of radio in the event an S.O.S. should have to be sent. For the information of those who do not know, the Nelson line has been operating a fleet of ships in the intercoastal trade. It has carried as many as nine passengers on a ship without radio equipment. None of the Nelson ships are very modern seacraft. Out-moded laws have no jurisdiction over the specific case mentioned above. The steamship companies will tell you that they do not carry radio on ships where there are less than fifty lives aboard. In point of law they are right. But how about the crew? Have they no right to state under what conditions they will take chances with a watery grave?“The case of the Suweid is no isolated one in job action. The crew were granted their just demands. Wireless apparatus was installed and a competent radio officer was placed in charge of the equipment.”One thing becomes clear from the above extracts, and that is that in the opinion of the men themselves (and who should know better than they) JOB ACTION GETS RESULTS.Yet job action has been under steady attack by right wing elements as well as by Stalinists, who under guise of being for “organized” job action, steadily oppose the virile action of the seamen, and emasculate job action. Lundberg Answers ConservativesHarry Lundberg, representative of the seamen, in answer to the editorial Job Action or Else! has the following to state:Objection: “They (opponents of job action) believe that indiscriminate, unorganized job action will prove a boomerang. That it will not only fail, but that it will definitely harm the maritime workers’ movement.”Reply by Lundberg: “Job action is never indiscriminate, unorganized or unjust. As long as the men mutually agree, they have a just grievance which cannot be adjusted otherwise than through job action.”Objection: “Job action, like any other spontaneous elemental effort on the part of men goaded to extremity, has its drawbacks. Where emotion and antipathy can occasionally dilute cool reason, mistakes are bound to occur.”" }

{ "content": "Reply: “Job action is not spontaneous. Neither is it emotional. The men who use job action are the men on the job who are discriminated against. Who knows better than the man on the job. Surely not the committee which is in most cases slowing up or holding back the progress of the seamen.”There are elements within the Maritime Federation who fear the organized mass movement of the workers. These are the right wingers who, basing themselves upon some of the better situated sections of the maritime workers, now find themselves in the position where they are in deadly fear of any disturbance of the status quo and their position. In answer to the demands of the underpaid, overworked elements for better conditions, they lift an admonishing finger. That there are dangers in job action is true, but these dangers must not blind us to the correctness (as proven by the effectiveness) of the seamen’s position for job action. Stalinists on Reactionary SideOpposition to job action is perfectly understandable from the point of view of a right wing bureaucrat who fears motion of the masses as the devil himself. The Stalinists, however, have also come out against job action, by coming out for “organized” job action. (The seamen stood for “unorganized” job action according to these worthies.) In the final analysis this means no action at all, as proven by their attacks upon patrolmen (stewards) of the seamen, who had come out in favor of crews taking action. For their pains the Stalinists received the following reply by Chas. Cates, second patrolman of the Seamen’s Union:“The editor of the Waterfront Worker, the anonymous organ of the C.P. on the waterfront, has taken it upon himself to ridicule and condemn the actions taken by the patrolmen of the Sailor’s Union.“He (the editor of the Waterfront Worker) also states that this job action was taken without the consent of the rank and file.“Now this action was taken right on the job by the men themselves with one idea in mind. And that idea was to get the full support of the Sailor’s Union, and not a lot of scares and threats that they would be breaking the award and probably be the cause of a coastwise strike.“It was proven that job action is bringing results.“I say instead of discouraging such action, steps should be taken to encourage job action.”About the same time as the article appeared in the Waterfront Worker an editorial appeared in the Western Worker, organ of the Communist Party, attacking Harry Lundberg, leader of the elements standing for job action. The heading of this editorial is entitled We Need Maritime Unity – Not Beef Squads. Workers Slam StalinistsHarry Lundberg answered this editorial in an article that was unanimously endorsed by the Sailors’ Union.The following is the heading of this statement by Lundberg.Sailors’ Union Condemns Editorial“The following answer to the vicious attack appearing in the Western Worker received the unanimous and enthusiastically acclaimed endorsement of the Sailors’ Union at their last meeting.”The statement then went on to sharply condemn the attack on Lundberg, giving a picture of what actually took place rather than the distorted piece of fiction of the Western Worker.In reply to this sharp statement made by the sailors, the Western Worker published a snivelling, creeping, crawling article of which the main theme was that an attack on the Western Worker is support for the shipowners.In answer to this hypocritical statement let us refer that paper to an article written by two seamen, panning the little brother of the Western Worker, the Waterfront Worker:“The San Francisco Chronicle, the American Seaman, organ of the official right wing in the Seamen’s Union, both took the same stand as the editorial in the Waterfront Worker in condemning job action. SO WHAT? In our opinion this is certainly no compliment to the Waterfront Worker, or any other so-called rank and file publication. Instead of questioning the sincerity of the writers of these three men (patrolmen who pushed job action) we believe that the sincerity of the writers of the article in the Waterfront Worker should be questioned.”The Stalinists in this crucial question are following the logic of their extreme right turn. Within the mass movement they are a fetter upon its development. The Stalinists will have to be removed as well as the right wing in order for the union to make any further steps in advance. Maritime Federation Resolution AmbiguousA number of weeks ago the controversy was laid over for solution to a specially called convention of the Maritime Federation. The Maritime Federation has issued an ambiguous resolution, which generally supports the Stalinist version of job action – organized job action. Let us quote the resolution :“Whereas, we believe and have demonstrated on numerous occasions that job action rightly used, with proper control, has been the means of gaining many concessions for the maritime workers on the Pacific coast, and“Whereas, in as much as job action is and should be action taken when any group of maritime workers desire to gain a concession without openly resorting to a strike, and“Whereas, in order to eliminate confusion and insure coordination of efforts in the best interests of all maritime groups concerned, it is apparent that an organized method of procedure for job action be laid down by this convention, therefore be it“Resolved, that the term job action shall mean only action taken by any maritime group in attempting to gain from their employers some concessions specifically provided for in their respective agreement or awards and shall also mean action taken to enforce the award or agreement to the best interests of the maritime groups concerned, or to prevent employers from violating agreements or awards, and be it further“Resolved, that job action should be confined to a job such as a ship, dock, shop, or warehouse, unless otherwise agreed by all maritime groups affected or liable to be affected should be notified and the. issue in question be placed before them, and be it further" }

{ "content": "“Resolved, that a committee of all maritime groups affected on the job be formed on the job to consolidate action and prevent misunderstandings; such committees’ authority not to exceed the constitution of the Maritime Federation of the Pacific Coast, and be it further“Resolved, that when job action reaches a point in the opinion of the majority of the maritime groups affected by having their members pulled off the job, and that to go further may jeopardize the Maritime Federation as a whole, the matter shall be referred where and when possible to the district council for further action or adjustment.”Instead of a sharp statement endorsing any action taken by the seamen in order to maintain and better their conditions, this resolution, endorsed by the Stalinists, comes out with a lot of ifs and whereases. In reality, this resolution does not answer any question, and leaves the important question still open: will the maritime leadership wholeheartedly support job action or will it try to spend its time proving to the San Francisco Chronicle, and the “good” shipowners how level-headed and sane they are. For a Class Struggle PolicyUnqualified support of any group of workers struggling to better their conditions! No conditions must be given to this support! A class struggle policy, not a class-collaborationist policy will benefit the worker on the waterfront as a whole. And as part of the solution of this question we must present the following: the need for an industrial union on the waterfront instead of a federation of unions. The Maritime Federation was a progressive step over the lack of unity previously the rule off the waterfront. The first step should be followed by a second one: the organization of a Marine Transport Industrial Union. The conflict between one section and another section of the workers will then be done away with. The present situation with a number of agreements and awards, instead of one agreement, has many of the drawbacks of craft unionism.It is necessary to also point out that the role of the Stalinists as progressives is a false one. Posing as left wingers, as rank and filers, their action has proved that in the final analysis they are an obstacle in the workers’ struggle. In reality they are closer to “progressives” of the John L. Lewis and Gorman type than to the rank and file. The creation of a genuine left wing union movement, free of Stalinist influence, is on the order of the day. Top of pageCarter Archive   |   Trotskyist Writers Index  |   ETOL Main PageLast updated: 3 February 2018" }