George Padmore
Encyclopedia
George Padmore born Malcolm Ivan Meredith Nurse, was a Trinidadian
communist who became a leading Pan-Africanist
in his later years.
George Padmore, was born June 28, 1903 in Arouca
, Trinidad
, then part of the British West Indies
. His paternal great-grandfather was an Ashanti warrior who was taken prisoner and sold into slavery at Barbados
, where his grandfather was born. Nurse worked as a journalist in the West Indies; then, in 1924, travelled to Fisk University
in Tennessee
where he studied medicine
. He later registered at New York University
but soon transferred to Howard University
.
and changed his name to George Padmore. Padmore officially joined the Communist Party in 1927 and was active in its mass organization targeted to black Americans, the American Negro Labor Congress
. In March 1929 Padmore was a fraternal (non-voting) delegate to the 6th National Convention of the CPUSA, held in New York City.
Padmore, an energetic worker and prolific writer, was tapped by Communist Party trade union leader William Z. Foster
as a rising star and was taken to Moscow to deliver a report on the formation of the Trade Union Unity League
to the Communist International later in 1929. Following the delivery of his report, Padmore was asked to stay on in Moscow to head the Negro Bureau of the Red International of Labor Unions (Profintern). He was even elected to the Moscow City Soviet
, an institution roughly equivalent to city councils in the west.
As head of the Profintern's Negro Bureau Padmore helped to produce pamphlet literature
and contributed articles to Moscow's English-language newspaper, the Moscow Daily News. He was also used periodically as a courier of funds from Moscow to various foreign Communist Parties.
In July 1930, Padmore was instrumental in organizing an international conference in Hamburg
, Germany
which launched a Comintern-backed international organization of black labor organizations called the International Trade Union Committee of Negro Workers (ITUCNW). Padmore lived in Vienna
, Austria
during this time, where he edited the monthly publication of the new group, The Negro Worker.
In 1931, Padmore moved to Hamburg and accelerated his writing output, continuing to produce the ITUCNW magazine and writing more than 20 pamphlets in a single year. This German interlude came to an abrupt close by the middle of 1933, however, as the offices of the Negro Worker were ransacked by ultra-nationalist gangs following the Nazi seizure of power. Padmore was deported to England
by the German government, while the Comintern placed the ITUCNW and its Negro Worker on hiatus in August 1933.
Disillusioned by what he perceived as the Comintern's flagging support for the cause of the liberation of colonial peoples
in favor of the Soviet Union's pursuit of diplomatic alliances with the colonial powers themselves, Padmore abruptly severed his connection with the ITUCNW late in the summer of 1933. He was called upon by the Comintern's disciplinary body, the International Control Commission (ICC), to explain his unauthorized action. When he refused to do so, the ICC expelled him from the Communist movement on February 23, 1934. A phase of Padmore's political journey was at an end.
One consequence of Padmore's travel to the Soviet Union
was an end of his time as a resident of the United States. As a non-citizen and a communist, Padmore was effectively barred from reentry to America once he had departed.
In 1934 Padmore resigned his positions and moved to London
, where he collaborated with C.L.R. James and other Caribbean
and African intellectuals. In response to the Italian invasion of Ethiopia James and Padmore organised the International African Service Bureau
,
of which he was chairman and James editor.
In his capacity as leader of the IASB Padmore helped organise the 1945 Manchester Conference which was attended by Kwame Nkrumah
, Jomo Kenyatta
, W. E. B. Du Bois, Jaja Wachuku
. This conference helped set the agenda for decolonisation in the post-war period.
When Ghana
became independent in 1957 Padmore moved there and served as an advisor to Nkrumah.
Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is an archipelagic state in the southern Caribbean, lying just off the coast of northeastern Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles...
communist who became a leading Pan-Africanist
Pan-Africanism
Pan-Africanism is a movement that seeks to unify African people or people living in Africa, into a "one African community". Differing types of Pan-Africanism seek different levels of economic, racial, social, or political unity...
in his later years.
Early years
Malcolm Ivan Meredith Nurse, better known by his pseudonymPseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
George Padmore, was born June 28, 1903 in Arouca
Arouca, Trinidad and Tobago
Arouca is a town in the East-West Corridor of Trinidad and Tobago located east of Port of Spain, along the Eastern Main Road. It is located west of Arima, east of Tunapuna and Tacarigua, south of Lopinot, and north of Piarco. It is governed by the Tunapuna-Piarco Regional Corporation...
, Trinidad
Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands and numerous landforms which make up the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. It is the southernmost island in the Caribbean and lies just off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. With an area of it is also the fifth largest in...
, then part of the British West Indies
British West Indies
The British West Indies was a term used to describe the islands in and around the Caribbean that were part of the British Empire The term was sometimes used to include British Honduras and British Guiana, even though these territories are not geographically part of the Caribbean...
. His paternal great-grandfather was an Ashanti warrior who was taken prisoner and sold into slavery at Barbados
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint...
, where his grandfather was born. Nurse worked as a journalist in the West Indies; then, in 1924, travelled to Fisk University
Fisk University
Fisk University is an historically black university founded in 1866 in Nashville, Tennessee, U.S. The world-famous Fisk Jubilee Singers started as a group of students who performed to earn enough money to save the school at a critical time of financial shortages. They toured to raise funds to...
in Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
where he studied medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
. He later registered at New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
but soon transferred to Howard University
Howard University
Howard University is a federally chartered, non-profit, private, coeducational, nonsectarian, historically black university located in Washington, D.C., United States...
.
Communist
During his college years Nurse became involved with the Workers (Communist) PartyCommunist Party USA
The Communist Party USA is a Marxist political party in the United States, established in 1919. It has a long, complex history that is closely related to the histories of similar communist parties worldwide and the U.S. labor movement....
and changed his name to George Padmore. Padmore officially joined the Communist Party in 1927 and was active in its mass organization targeted to black Americans, the American Negro Labor Congress
American Negro Labor Congress
The American Negro Labor Congress was established in 1925 by the Communist Party as a vehicle for advancing the rights of African-Americans, propagandizing for communism within the black community and recruiting African-American members for the party...
. In March 1929 Padmore was a fraternal (non-voting) delegate to the 6th National Convention of the CPUSA, held in New York City.
Padmore, an energetic worker and prolific writer, was tapped by Communist Party trade union leader William Z. Foster
William Z. Foster
William Foster was a radical American labor organizer and Marxist politician, whose career included a lengthy stint as General Secretary of the Communist Party USA...
as a rising star and was taken to Moscow to deliver a report on the formation of the Trade Union Unity League
Trade Union Unity League
The Trade Union Unity League was an industrial union umbrella organization of the Communist Party of the United States between 1929 and 1935...
to the Communist International later in 1929. Following the delivery of his report, Padmore was asked to stay on in Moscow to head the Negro Bureau of the Red International of Labor Unions (Profintern). He was even elected to the Moscow City Soviet
Mossovet
Mossovet , an abbreviation of Moscow Soviet of People's Deputies, was the informal name of *parallel, shadow city administration of Moscow, Russia run by left-wing parties in 1917*city administration of Moscow in Soviet period...
, an institution roughly equivalent to city councils in the west.
As head of the Profintern's Negro Bureau Padmore helped to produce pamphlet literature
Pamphlet
A pamphlet is an unbound booklet . It may consist of a single sheet of paper that is printed on both sides and folded in half, in thirds, or in fourths , or it may consist of a few pages that are folded in half and saddle stapled at the crease to make a simple book...
and contributed articles to Moscow's English-language newspaper, the Moscow Daily News. He was also used periodically as a courier of funds from Moscow to various foreign Communist Parties.
In July 1930, Padmore was instrumental in organizing an international conference in Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
which launched a Comintern-backed international organization of black labor organizations called the International Trade Union Committee of Negro Workers (ITUCNW). Padmore lived in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
during this time, where he edited the monthly publication of the new group, The Negro Worker.
In 1931, Padmore moved to Hamburg and accelerated his writing output, continuing to produce the ITUCNW magazine and writing more than 20 pamphlets in a single year. This German interlude came to an abrupt close by the middle of 1933, however, as the offices of the Negro Worker were ransacked by ultra-nationalist gangs following the Nazi seizure of power. Padmore was deported to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
by the German government, while the Comintern placed the ITUCNW and its Negro Worker on hiatus in August 1933.
Disillusioned by what he perceived as the Comintern's flagging support for the cause of the liberation of colonial peoples
Colonialism
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...
in favor of the Soviet Union's pursuit of diplomatic alliances with the colonial powers themselves, Padmore abruptly severed his connection with the ITUCNW late in the summer of 1933. He was called upon by the Comintern's disciplinary body, the International Control Commission (ICC), to explain his unauthorized action. When he refused to do so, the ICC expelled him from the Communist movement on February 23, 1934. A phase of Padmore's political journey was at an end.
Pan-Africanist
Over time, Padmore's ardent belief in communism dissipated and he began to shift his focus to Africa.One consequence of Padmore's travel to the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
was an end of his time as a resident of the United States. As a non-citizen and a communist, Padmore was effectively barred from reentry to America once he had departed.
In 1934 Padmore resigned his positions and moved to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, where he collaborated with C.L.R. James and other Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
and African intellectuals. In response to the Italian invasion of Ethiopia James and Padmore organised the International African Service Bureau
International African Service Bureau
The International African Service Bureau was a pan-African organisation founded in London in 1937 by West Indians George Padmore, C. L. R. James, T. Ras Makonnen and Sierra Leonian labor activist and agitator I. T. A. Wallace-Johnson.Chris Braithwaite, aka Jones, was Secretary of this...
,
of which he was chairman and James editor.
In his capacity as leader of the IASB Padmore helped organise the 1945 Manchester Conference which was attended by Kwame Nkrumah
Kwame Nkrumah
Kwame Nkrumah was the leader of Ghana and its predecessor state, the Gold Coast, from 1952 to 1966. Overseeing the nation's independence from British colonial rule in 1957, Nkrumah was the first President of Ghana and the first Prime Minister of Ghana...
, Jomo Kenyatta
Jomo Kenyatta
Jomo Kenyattapron.] served as the first Prime Minister and President of Kenya. He is considered the founding father of the Kenyan nation....
, W. E. B. Du Bois, Jaja Wachuku
Jaja Wachuku
Jaja Anucha Wachuku , a Royal Prince of Ngwaland, "descendant of 20 generations of African chiefs in the Ibo country of Eastern Nigeria" - was a Pan-Africanist; and a globally distinguished Nigerian statesman, lawyer, politician, diplomat and humanitarian...
. This conference helped set the agenda for decolonisation in the post-war period.
When Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
became independent in 1957 Padmore moved there and served as an advisor to Nkrumah.
Death and legacy
Padmore died in London, where he had gone for medical treatment, on September 23, 1959.Works
- The Life and Struggles of Negro Toilers (1931)
- How Britain Rules Africa (1936)
- Africa and World Peace (1937)
- The White Man's Duty: An analysis of the colonial question in the light of the Atlantic Charter (with Nancy CunardNancy CunardNancy Clara Cunard was a writer, heiress and political activist. She was born into the British upper class but strongly rejected her family's values, devoting much of her life to fighting racism and fascism...
) (1942) - The Voice of Coloured Labour (Speeches and reports of Colonial delegates to the World Trade Union Conference, 1945) (editor) (1945)
- How Russia Transformed her Colonial Empire: a challenge to the imperialist powers (with Dorothy Pizer) (1946)
- "History of the Pan-African Congress (Colonial and coloured unity: a programme of action)" (editor) (1947) reprinted in The 1945 Manchester Pan-African Congress revisited by Hakim Adi and Marika Sherwood (1995)
- Africa: Britain's Third Empire(1949)
- The Gold Coast Revolution: the struggle of an African people from slavery to freedom (1953)
- Pan-Africanism or Communism? The Coming Struggle for Africa (1956)
Further reading
- Fitzroy Baptiste and Rupert Lewis, George Padmore: Pan-African Revolutionary. Kingston: Ian Randle Publishers, 2009. —Essays by Padmore.
- Christian Høgsbjerg, "A forgotten fighter," International SocialismInternational Socialism (journal)International Socialism is a British-based quarterly magazine of socialist theory published by the Socialist Workers Party. It is currently edited by Alex Callinicos, who took over after the death of Chris Harman in November 2009....
, whole no. 124 (2009). - James Ralph Hooker, Black Revolutionary: George Padmore's Path from Communism to Pan-Africanism. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1967.
- Holger Weiss, "The Road to Hamburg and Beyond: African American Agency and the Making of a Radical African Atlantic, 1922-1930." Part One. | Part Two. | Part Three. Comintern Working Papers, Åbo Akademi University, 2007.
- Holger Weiss, "The Hamburg Committee, Moscow and the Making of a Radical African Atlantic, 1930-1933." Part One: The RILU and the ITUCNW. | Part Two: The ISH, the IRH and the ITUCNW. | Part Three: The LAI and the ITUCNW. Comintern Working Papers, Åbo Akademi University, 2010.
External links
- George Padmore Internet Archive, Marxists Internet ArchiveMarxists Internet ArchiveMarxists Internet Archive is a volunteer based non-profit organization that maintains a multi-lingual Internet archive of Marxist writers and other similar authors...
, www.marxists.org./ —Selected writings by Padmore. - The George Padmore Institute, London. www.georgepadmoreinstitute.org/