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When maltreatment is meted to these men, and they complain to the foreman who was sent out with them, he would write to the chief about the maltreatments asking him to come and investigate. Of necessity, the chief writes to the mine magnates about his visit and on his arrival he is sent for at the station by the mine magnates and before he sees his so-called men he is given a cheque and thereby becomes speechless when he meets his men. He would speak to them in polite manner telling them to be loyal to their masters, that he has spoken to the mine magnates in their interest and that their conditions will be ameliorated.  When he is gone, to their surprise and disappointment, they see their old maltreatment of which they have complained still going on. They are locked up in compounds like beasts of burden, thus keeping them away from the Trade Union Organizers. 

They contract mine Phtysis to which they receive no compensation, they are sent home where they will be regarded as the do-nothings, for an unemployed Negro in South Africa is not regarded as unemployed, but as a vagrant and vagabond.

In conclusion I say:
Down with the Chiefs!
Down with the mine magnates!
Long live the International Working Class Movement!
Defend Soviet Russia, the first workers' State!

Comradely yours,

J.P. Sepang,
Negro Trade Union Organizer.


Death of Comrade Macaulay 

As we go to press news has reached us of the death of Comrade Frank Macaulay of Nigeria, West Africa.

Comrade Macaulay, like his father, the well known African politician, Hubert Macaulay, always took a great interest in the problems of the working class of Nigeria.

Comrade Macaulay's early activities however, were greatly handicapped by the petty-bourgeois nationalistic tendencies which have dominated the revolutionary movement in Nigeria up to the present time. It was only at the First International Congress of Negro Workers held in Hamburg in July 1930 and the Fifth Congress of the R.I.L.U. that Comrade Macaulay, who represented the toiling masses of Nigeria as a delegate had the first opportunity of coming into contact with the revolutionary labour movement.  He immediately recognized the reformist policies with the Nigeria Democratic Party had been following and took an active part in the deliberations of the Congresses which he assisted in working out valuable political directives to aid the West African labour movement. 

Comrade Macaulay was elected a member of the Executive of the International Trade Union Committee of Negro Workers, and on his return to Africa immediately put himself the task of helping the workers of Nigeria free themselves from the reformist and petty-bourgeois tendencies of the leaders of the Democratic Party and other non-working class organizations. 

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At this time when the imperialist powers are preparing for war and intervention in Soviet Russia and have already started in China, it is significant to recall that it was Comrade Macaulay who moved the resolution on the Danger of War and Negro Workers which was unanimously adopted at the Hamburg Congress.  We shall print this resolution in the next issue of the "Negro Worker" for the benefit of the African toiling masses.

 Comrade Macaulay is dead, but his activities have not been in vain, for the workers have recently organized the Nigeria African Trade Union in Lagos as the basis for building a broad working class movement on the principles of the revolutionary class struggle.

Workers Bookshelf

In Africa and other colonies the officials maintain strict censorship over all forms of literature in order to prevent the workers from reading books that will open their eyes and prepare them politically for the tasks of organizing and leading their struggles against the oppressors.  The Criminal Investigation Department and other native spies and pimps of the white ruling class terrorize the workers, as the letter from a Nigerian correspondent points out, by making it a criminal offense for even the "Negro Worker", to be found in the hands of a native.

It is the policy of all colonial governments and the capitalist class in general to prevent workers from educating themselves in the knowledge of the class struggle. 

We have decided to publish a list of books and pamphlets, which every Negro worker and revolutionary fighter should read.

[[image]]
[[caption]]  Comrade Forster Jones, leader of African Seamen, greeting a meeting of German Workers in Hamburg [[/image]]

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