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ORGANIZATIONAL POINTS. 

Beginning with this issue, "The Negro Worker" will devote this space to a discussion of the all-important and vital question of Trade Union organization. The varied conditions and problems existing in the various colonies, coupled with the limitation of space, will only permit us to deal briefly and in general outlines with the forms and methods of organization of the workers in the most important and basic industries. We call upon the Negro workers to contribute to this discussion, by raising questions and problems with which they are confronted in their attempt at organizational work and by giving practical suggestions as to the possibilities and methods of organization.

We take as the first subject for our discussion, the problem of organization of the marine workers. - Ed. 

Organizational Tasks Among the Water Transport Workers.

The Negro seamen and dockers are among the lowest paid and worst treated marine workers. The attacks of the ship owners fall heaviest on the Negro transport workers. Their wages, already at a starvation level, have been cut in the recent period by another 50 tot 60 per cent. They work 12 to 14 hours a day under the most beastly conditions of speed up, bad and inadequate food and unsanitary sleeping accomodations [[accommodations]].
 
In the colonies the Negro marine workers receive an average of 2 shillings per day for long hours of hard toil under the broiling sun. They are subjected to the most unbridled terror, such as floggings, fines, and arrests. They are denied the most elementary human rights and through special shipping laws and contracts they are turned into virtual slaves of the shipping companies. Out of their starvation wages they are forced to pay fees to native headmen, agents, etc., who work hand in hand with the shipping companies to fleece the native workers, and speed them up. They try to divide the native workers on the basis of tribe and nationality thereby aiding in their subjection.

The whole inhuman exploitation of the colonial transport workers is a part of the Imperialist system of colonial robbery, police terror and national oppression. 

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The slave existence of the colonial seamen and Harbour workers, as well as the continued attacks on their miserable standards of living, have resulted in many strikes struggled among the Negro workers. The struggles and strikes waged by the Negro marine workers under conditions of extreme terror have proved their militancy and readiness to fight to better their living conditions.

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African dockers slaving for 1 s. per day.

The failure of most of these strikes, and the reason why the employers can force the workers to work for such miserably low wages under such unbearable conditions of exploitation and terror is mainly because the workers are UNORGANIZED. - Because of the lack of organization, the workers are at the mercy of the employers. To keep from starving, they are forced to accept almost any conditions. The employers use this weakness and shortcoming among the workers to terrorize and enslave them. The seamen and harbour workers must learn that the ONLY way they can fight effectively against the oppression of the shipping and dock companies to better their conditions is through their ORGANIZED POWER.

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