over! Africa,

>

Imperial

over Africa

ist shadows

By SAM
AARONOVITCH

—LONDON

&/ AR plans of the imperial--

ists have cast their shadows

The year 1949 is

or them a time when cheap, half-
Starved African labor will help
deliver up greater quantities of

raw materials

and foodstuffs;

When Africa will be increasingly
covered by a network of military
Toads, railways and air fields. _

Truman’s recent speech fore-

shadows a new American drive in-
to Africa; but, in fact, Wall Street
has been moving in for some time.

American capital already has a

strong grip on Northern Rhodesia
in copper and vanadium. In

South Africa,

moving towards’

fascism, U.S. corporations like
General. Motors help to put more
Weight in the jackboot.

/f0ad into Africa;

America has her own private
through the

Puppet state of Liberia, whose
Suise of independence is thinner
than that of Transjordan.

A new section of American big
business has moved into this roost

Of the Firestone Rubber Company.

Leading representatives of im-
Portant steel, electrical, automo-
bile, insurance and other corpora-

tions have come together with an
admiral and an ex-ambassador to
form Stettinius’ Liberia Com-
Pany. Their agreement with the

Liberian government

provides

that for 80 years the government

must

“contribute every govern-

Ment facility and the necessary
Safeguards and privileges lawful
and appropriate to the execution
®f this agreement.”

Liberia is also an American mil-

itary base. For what purpose?

American monopolies look to

_ Africa as a new outlet for invest-
ments, a new “Western Frontier”

that will

uplift an economy

threatened by slump.

Red by the U.S., put firmly in |

Western Union, paid and equip-

one debt, means that the greater
_ Part of the colonial world falls
into the \gtip of Wall Street.
French and Belgian Africa are
already delivering up uranium and
other vital products, “

Britain’s four-year “plan,” based
©n American directives as to its
&ssumptions, has alll the hall-

Marks of a dollar plan in its pro-

Posal for “development of over-
S€as territories,”

ernment
in 1

The “plan” states:

“The United Kingdom gov-
for their part intend
collaboration with the colon-
S0vernments to take all pos-_

ae Steps to increase the pro-

‘ction of materials which the

' United States government may

require and are already con-

‘sidering the measures to be
taken for this purpose. They
‘recognize the importance which
the United States government
attaches to chrome and manga-
nese.”

Britain’s colonial plan seeks:
first, to find more dollars by
exporting more colonial products
to the U.S., and second, to build
up in Africa a war base and
source of strategic materials.

Today, the colonies earn for
Britain 150 million dollars a year.
By the end of four years this
figure is to be doubled.

The London Daily Worker was
perhaps the first and almost the
only newspaper to predict the
course of the groundnuts scheme.
Up to now, £2,500,000 ($10,000,000)
was to have been spent; but, in
fact, £12,000,000 ($48,000,000) has
been disbursed, partly in dollars,
This year 450,000 acres were to
have been cleared. The real figure
is more likely to be 50,000 acres.

What fundamental change
has this government plantation
brought in the wages and condi-
tions of its 20,000 African em-
ployees? What new relationshiy
exists between European and
Africans? What has become of
the mass education schemes that

-were talked about?

oe
The government is the “stooge”

‘for schemes that private enter-

prise finds too risky.
But it would be folly, to criti-

cige these schemes on the simple |

ground that they have been.
proved inefficient. No genuine So-
cialist can support colonial ex-
ploitation, efficient or otherwise.

The tragic farce of the peanut
plantations should not allow us to
forget the remorseless exploita-

tion of the African carried on

without limelight.

Each year the copper magnates
draw millions of pounds from Nor-
thern Rhodesia. Imperial Chemi-
cal Industries and Unilevers ex-
pand and prosper on the labor
of Africans.

Each year the finest cocoa-
bearing areas of the Gold Coast
increasingly give way to a deadly
disease whose ravages were only
too clear before the war. The
lop-sided agrarian conomy and
government neglect of adequate

research have now led a whole.

people to the brink of disaster,
while suspicion of an,alien gov-
ernment prevents remedial meas-
ures.

“Imperialism degrades agricul-

_ ture in the colonies. British im-

perialism is harvesting not only
dollars, It is harvesting the oppo-
sition and hatred of African
peoples.

“Recovery,” says Britain’s four-
year “plan” “ must not be bought
at the price of arbitrary and ex-
cessive interference with the
rights of the individual.”

Nowhere is the hypocrisy of
“democratic planning” and “West-
ern civilization” revealed more
clearly than in Africa.

Were the people of Tanganyika
consulted on the groundnuts pro-
ject They were not. And what
steps were taken to discuss with
the population of British Africa,
the “plan” submitted to America

of the raw materials and food-

stuffs they are to produce?
os :

Preparations go forward for in-
creasing repression in Africa. The
report on the Gold Coast disturb-

ances proposed extending the se-
dition laws, improving “intelli-
gence” work among Africans and
ensuring better supplies of tear
gas,

On two occasions the Kenya

government has attempted to de- ©

port Makhan Singh, a leading
trade unionist. Thanks to pro-
tests in Britain and in East Afri-
ca, they have failed. But they
still hold Chege Kiba-chia, leader
of the Mombasa strike in 1947,
without public trial.

In Nigeria, there is a new flow
of sedition cases—ten in Novem-
ber alone. A local newspaper re-
ports the first day of oné of
these trials:

“The arrival of each of the
four men charged with sedition
was heralded by cheers from
the large crowd gathered in the
precincts of Saint Anna Court
No. 1 yesterday. . , . The cheers

became incessant and the mag- —

istrate, Mr. F. O. Lucas, had
to order someone to ‘find out
what is wrong!’ A police officer
reported that the people on the
streets were cheering their men.
Upon the magistrate inquiring
further as to what men, the offi-
cer replied: “Those coming up
on charges of sedition, sir!‘”. ..
If these cases are linked with
the growing militarization of Af-

rica, with the network of bases,

strategic roads and aerodromes,
it becomes clear that these Bri-
tish “police states” are now part
of plans for war against social-
ism and the colonial peoples.
e

' Imperialism, however, has dis-
covered Africa too late. The na-
tional movement of the African
peoples has been advancing with
great strides.

: Nothing will prevent the Afri-

+

@ In her attempts to comsolidate
her position in Africa against
the growing demands of the
native peoples for freedom, :
Britain is wooing such African «
leaders as the Emir of Kat-
Sina (in forefront, at left) and

Nana Sir Taibu Darku

London last summer.

can peoples from winning their

liberation.

They, like the British working
class, are the victims of Anglo-
American imperialism. The year
1949 must see a strengthening of
our alliance in the fight for peace
and the improvement of living.

standards.

The interests of the colonial

(fore-
front, above), Gold Coast chief,
both of whom attended the
African Colonial Conference in

peoples certainly require the full
development under their own
control, of their resources, and
particularly the developmént of
industry; which means : breaking
the power of Unilevers and the
like, and ending the British dic-
tatorship in Africa.

By MEL COLBY

CCORDING to _ Business
Week, an organ published
for the chief benefit of U.S. and
Canadian Chamber of Com-
“merce, an employer may be ac-
cepting a bad risk if he hires

a man whose wife is working.
“If she is working,” Business
Week asks, “are the combined
incomes providing such a good
living that the husband’s in-
centive to excel is deadened?”
Business Week raises a good
point, as we can prove by the
ease of one Claymore Schnook,

a man who allowed his incen-
tive to go completely to pot

- when his wife went to work.
_. For years Schnook had been
happy at his work, a simple
heart-warming task consisting
of pushing loaded box-cars
from the main railroad line up

to. the company warehouse.

He was a good worker and
on one occasion the plant

| manager, J. K. Snagsby, had
_ given hima friendly pat on the

predict that in another 25
years you will receive’a Silver
Star for Meritorious Service.”
Snagsby then picked up his
whip and sauntered off on his
inspection tour. : Fe

_ back as he said: “Schnook, the, —
firm has its eye on you, andT |

"Eventually Schnook got mar-
’ ried. He fought against this

step for a long time as he real- —

ized in his case that it would
be impossible for two to live as
cheaply as one—unless one of
them didn’t eat; but he and his
girl saw a movie in’ which
Lana Turner married a lion
tamer (Clark Gable) and lived
happily ever after on $16 a
week. It may have been the
penthouse in which the Turn-
er-Gable team eked out their
existence, or the cocktail par-
ties they gave, but whatever
the influence, Schnook took
the plunge. ere bea
The firm was extremely gen-
erous when it learned of the
affair and presented Schnook

-.and his bride ‘with a lavish ~

hand-knitted teapot warmer as’
a token of its esteem and af-
fection. They also gave him a
week off for a honeymoon, ex-
plaining that the reason they
docked his pay was that p 3
its were only up an insignifi-

year.

Somehow or other the
Schnooks got along, although ~

both of them admitted to a re-

pugnance for canned beans
It was
about this time that an off-

after the first year.

cant 21 millions over last ~

spring made its arrival, an in-
cident that Claymore Schnook
had not budgeted for.

Little Schnook developed a
fierce love for food, and in no
time at all was) demanding
Grade A pasteurized milk, filet
mignon steaks and pablum.
This was the situation when
Mrs. Schnook® decided that the
time had arrived when she ©
would either “have to go to
work herself or exploit Little
Schnook as child labor.

The additional income that
Mrs. Schnook brought in had

“a marked effect on the house-

hold. The Schnook’s began to |

indulge in such fantastic plea-

' sures as paying the rent the
jay it was due, tossing the can-
ary an additional seed, fatten-
ing up the goldfish. Claymore
Schnook bought ihmself a new.
tie. Se

It was the tie which brought
about his downfall. Schnook
was casually pushing a box
car loaded with iron ore up
the company tracks when
plant manager Snagsby hap-
pened by on one of his period-
ical inspection tours.

“A new tie, eh, Schnook?” he.
asked, surveying the purple
and yellow polka dots with a
jaundiced eye.

‘

Does your wife deaden your incentive ?

“Yessir,” said Schnook hap- _
pily, “the wife got herself a
job and I thought I’d splurge
a little.” 2

‘Hmmmm,” answered Snags-
by. “You know, Schnook, Ive

noticed lately that you don’t
' ‘seem to have the same incen-

tive for your work. You push
a boxcar as if you were under
a strain.” =

Sot meal, sire 5 4”

“The truth is,” Snagsby con-
tinued, “that your mind is
probably on your wife’s salary.
Combined incomes provide such

.a good living that the. hus-

band’s incentive to excel is
deadened.” — eae

“It isn’t that,” Schnook as-
sured him. “My wife's income
from straightening twisted
paper clips is very modest.”

It ‘was too late, however,

Schnook had already defied
the law of Free Enterprise,

- which is that two can live as

cheaply as one; and that a
working wife deadens a hus-
band’s incentive. At the end

of the week his pay was cut

in half and he had to go home _
and inform his wife that Little
Schnook would have to go to

- work in the cotton fields.

’

° :
PACIFIC TRIBUNE — APRIL 45, 1949 — PAGE E ©