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The Labour Movement
Appeal to the Negro Seamen and Dockers!
Comrades! Oppressed and Exploited Negro Class Brothers!
The International of Seamen and Harbour Workers greets you and appeals to you to organize within the ranks of the revolutionary water transport proletariat to fight against the terrible exploitation and robbery imposed upon you by the capitalists, the shipowners, the lighterage companies, as well as their white and black agents-- the headmen, the stevedore-bosses, the foremen and managers, and all other betrayers of the Negro workers and dockers.
I. What is the I.S.H.?
The I.S.H. is the only water transport international which fights for all seamen, stevedores, boatmen and fishermen, irrespective of race, colour or nationality.
In order to bring about the greatest unity between the white, black and yellow water transport workers and to establish a united fighting front against the offensive of the capitalists, the I.S.H. will hold a great world congress in the port of Hamburg, beginning on May 20th 1932.
At this congress delegates will come from every capitalist country as well as the colonies, and will draw up a fighting program for the struggle against wage cuts, long hours, bad working conditions, unemployment and starvation, as well as the new imperialist war and intervention against the Soviet Union which has already started in the East.
Because the Negro workers in Africa, England,  Francé, America, and the West Indies are among the worst paid and treated slaves of the shipowners and other capitalists, the I.S.H. is especially inviting all Negro seamen, dock workers, fishermen and boatmen to elect delegates and to send them to the Congress on May 20th. This, in brief is the program the I.S.H. which gives its fullest support and assistance to the Negro seamen, dockers and other water transport workers, wherever they may happen to live.
II. The Seamen are treated like Slaves.
Comrades! We all know of the terrible conditions which are imposed upon the workers at sea and especially upon the sailors and dockers of the coloured races. This regime of enslavement is getting worse from day to day.  Unemployment and starvation, that is the fate of many thousands of Negro sailors and dockers who are standing in lines before the docks and registering offices of the shipping companies waiting for a job. And those few who finally succeed to find work are forced to make longer and longer hours for wages which the bosses are cutting down every month.
Comrades! Why have the conditions of the seamen and dockers become so bad? At present, all capitalist countries of Europe and America are undergoing a terrible crisis. This has caused the laying up of many thousands of ships, because there are no cargoes to be transported. And in order to be able to continue distributing great profits to the shareholders and directors, and paying high salaries to the agents and other officials of the shipping companies, these capitalist robbers are cutting down the wages of the workers and are lowering their standard of life. 

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III. The Policy of "Divide and Rule".
In order to be able to carry out this policy of worsening the conditions of life of the sailors and dockers, the employers, their agents, the reactionary trade union leaders of America, England and France, are fostering race hatred among the white sailors and dockers against their coloured class brothers. In this way the Negro workers become the victims of the worst forms of discrimination; the bosses give them the heaviest and dirtiest work, and pay them lower wages than to the white workers. The Negro sailors are put in the most dirtiest and overcrowded parts of the ships. They are being given the worst food and they are forced to work under the most terrible conditions.
The International of Seamen and Harbour Workers also calls upon all white workers, who are conscious of their duty to their class brothers, to join hands with their coloured brothers in America and in the colonies and together with them fight against the policy of "divide and rule" of the bosses; fight against unemployment, against wage cuts and the lengthening of working hours. Only the united front of all seamen and dockers irrespective of colour, nationality or race, can improve the living conditions of the working class.

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Unemployed African Seamen Deported from Liverpool.

IV. Betrayal of the Reformist Leaders in America.
The Negro dockers in America are in the disadvantage as far as their jobs are concerned in the most unjust manner, and they are ordinarily receiving lower wages than those given to the white workers. The recent long and bitter strike of the dockers in New Orleans against a wage cut of 15 cents (the great majority of the strikers were Negroes) has been completely betrayed by the treacherous leaders of the "International Longshoremen Association", who forced the strikers back to work.
The reactionary trade unions of the American Federation of Labour which are controlled by the worst burocrats, refuse to accept Negroes in their ranks and when compelled to do so they organize them in separate local groups, with the object of selling them to the bosses and using them as strike breakers against the white workers. This is especially true for the International Union of Sailors in America and the International Longshoremen Association. 

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