JIM CROW IN WORLD AFFAIRS
Howard, Harry Paxton
Jim Crow In World Affairs By HARRY PAXTON HOWARD THERE were no Africans at the council table in London last month, when the question of the disposal of Italy's African colonies was brought up. The...
...It was also interested in Eritrea on the Red Sea...
...The Arab League, it should be noted, presented "trusteeship" as a possible alternative to immediate self-government...
...Neither Mr...
...Byrnes' native state means the permanent monopoly of power by the Democratic Party, controlled by an oligarchic machine maintaining its power by limiting voting rights among its citizens...
...It was a Jim Crow conference...
...THE political ideals we have professed for eastern Europe are in line with what are known as American and British concepts of democracy—as contrasted with the Soviet use of the word...
...The Soviet Union, Mr...
...Should they be given back to their former Italian bosses...
...ALL of these Powers, it is curious to note, had formally subscribed to "certain common principles," on which they officially based any hopes they may have had "for a better future for the world...
...It had already come out for 'self-government as the best decision for Eritrea, Somaliland, and other colonies...
...Even while the foreign ministers w,ere marking their cards preparatory to the conference at Loridon, Harry Sinclair announced a concession for the oil resources of Ethiopia by which the Ethiopian Government granted that company the exclusive right "to explore, prospect and drill for, extract and render suitable for trade" the petroleum and its derivatives in that country—and exclusive rights to dispose of any oil produce by the company under the agreement...
...It did not, of course, demand it in that phrase...
...Third, they respect the right of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they will live...
...These were the alternatives presented at London—and no others...
...African peoples were not even represented at London...
...On one thing only were they all agreed: Sovereign rights and self-government were not going to be restored to these African peoples...
...What it wanted was an "individual trusteeship" for the Soviet Government in Tripolitania in North Africa...
...This American proposal, however, was opposed by the Soviet Government...
...Britain for a time expanded, thanks to American support...
...Hundreds of thousands of African soldiers in various uniforms—not to mention Americans of African descent—had contributed their share to Allied victory...
...This would have been in accordance with the Atlantic Charter...
...Molotov explained, was extremely interested in the future development of the Mediterranean and Africa...
...Should they be divided between the old British and the new Soviet empires...
...Carolinian laws against racial intermarriage are notably similar to Hitler's laws against this "crime"—and preceded the Nazi laws by a couple of generations...
...Moscow wanted a couple of African colonies for itself, and said so...
...The Egyptian king tried for the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan—and for Eritrea, if it were not returned to Ethiopian sovereignty...
...They were not wanted...
...Perhaps they did not grasp that the Atlantic Charter was merely a "scrap of paper" —otherwise known as "bait for suckers...
...Central Africa, under a French Negro governor, had courageously rejected Axis ascendancy, and was the first base for the "Free French" movement in "French" territory...
...Moscow's counter-proposal contained no mention nor suggestion of its one-time propaganda appeal for a "Black Republic" in Africa, or "self-determination" for the "Black Belt," or denunciation of "British Imperialism" and "White rule...
...Molotov nor Mr...
...They sat in London and wrangled, these representatives of the "victorious" Powers which had subscribed to these principles, as to which White Power should rule these colonies which had been forcibly deprived of their sovereign rights and self-government by Imperialist Italy...
...In European terms, it is not merely a one-party dictatorship but a racial dictatorship...
...A Soviet "mandate"4n Africa would probably use African officials—just as it uses Mongolian Communists in Mongolia...
...But that is another matter...
...The state, indeed, has racialist laws and practices with ominous similarities to certain European doctrines and practices...
...THE Soviet Government, it should be added, is not "racial...
...This curious "democracy" is distinctly racial...
...In this respect, their concept of "democracy" differs somewhat from that of Mr: Byrnes...
...His claims were ignored...
...We have also, formally, declared our opposition to racialism and "racial" regime—so far as Europe is concerned...
...Theirs is a political elite, but not a racial one...
...But now a new Power is demanding a cut of the African spoils...
...The Dark Continent will still remain under White ascendancy...
...The first three of these "basic" principles were: First, their countries seek no aggrandizement, territorial or other...
...In practice, how- ever, the difference is less evident...
...This is not to say that Americans are not interested in these brown and black peoples of Africa and the Near East...
...But the head of the American State Department, who represented us at London, happened to be a gentleman from South Carolina, where "democracy" has some curious meanings also...
...The delegates were squabbling over the spoils of empire...
...Or should they be ruled by an "international police force" of the White empires jointly...
...The points which have been stressed by the British Labor Government, with American support, in eastern Europe, have been that these peoples have the right to representative government, with civil liberty, with different parties freely participating in elections, as against the system of one-party rule...
...It was strictly Jim Crow...
...The Soviet Empire is expanding, and calling for what is to be in effect a colony on the Mediterranean—and another on the Red Sea...
...The Emperor of Ethiopia had first claim, on historical grounds, to Eritrea and "Italian" Somaliland...
...And they fully agreed that whatever else was done with Africa, it should not be restored to the Africans...
...But there would be no more freedom, self-government, or democracy than exists anywhere else under Communist' rule...
...IT could not be said that Africans had not contributed to Allied victory...
...The Emperor of Ethiopia, denied arms at the time of the Italian invasion, had fled the country, refusing to acknowledge subjection to Mussolini, and continued to proclaim Ethiopian sovereignty until the time came when his forces could aid in the ousting of the invaders...
...The Arab League proposed a joint Arab "trusteeship"—if it was "trusteeship" that the Powers wanted...
...There is oil in Ethiopia, oil in Arabia, oil in Iran...
...Didn't these dark-skinned people know that "trustees" had to be White...
...It can be fairly said that various "races" have opportunities in the Soviet Union—whether among the Communist ruling class or in the slave labor camps...
...Second, they desire to see no territorial changes that do not accord with the freely expressed wishes of the peoples concerned...
...Democracy in Mr...
...Perhaps, at some future conference, Harry Sinclair will have a "representative" sitting in, so that Ethiopa may be "represented...
...This was somewhat "annoying...
...The American delegation went to London prepared to restore administration of the colonies to Italy, under a kind of international supervision, but the demands of other White Powers were known to be such that it was decided to alter this to an "international trusteeship" of the Council of Foreign Ministers—which, in relation to the peace treaty with Italy, meant the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, and France...
...Many Americans thought that was one of the things we were fighting against...
...During World War I, German and Turkish power in Africa were ended, and Britain and France gained effective ascendancy with Italy as a third Power...
...During the second World War the Italians went down and France was seriously weakened...
...Byrnes wanted any Africans in at the London Conference...
...Some Americans are very much interested...
...All other African empires are now "lesser" empires...
...But neither Black sovereigns nor Black soldiers were present at London...
...The Egyptians, rejecting Axis overtures, had remained loyal to their alliance with England and furnished the effective base from which Britain held fast—with American support in the latter period—against the deadly Nazi drive towards the Suez Canal...
...His claims were ignored...
...and they wish to see sovereign rights and self-government restored to those who have been forcibly deprived of them...
Vol. 9 • October 1945 • No. 42
