The Daily Worker Newspaper, October 8, 1927, Page 9

British Imperialism and India The following article by Comrade Saklatyala, member of the Communist Party of Great Britain and member of the British parliament was written by him for the Communist press after his return from a visit to his native land. Sakluivala is the only Communist in the British parliament and his constituency is the working class district of Battersea, where he is extremely popular among the workers despite the opposi- tion of the reactionary labor leaders.—Editor. * cd a HAVE been to India and I have come back. Whilst I was there events were daily happening which would make me pity Great Britain more than India, and after I returned I see events happening here which, without the imperialist hold over India, would not have been possible and which are dragging the British working class on their downward path. The British race has a reputation for being con- servative on the whole and (though several of its members wear different political labels and trade marks), has betrayed its conservatism at every turn of events. At the same time the history of the world and the modern geography of the world, give you instances that the British race is enter- prising, is daring, and possesses marly men and wo- men of revclutionary spirit. I often ask myself, are the British and in their innermost nature really conservative temperamentally or do they appear conservative as an economic effect of tremendous advantage gained by them through their spirit of enterprise and revolutionary temperament? I feel more inclined towards this latter belief. Somehow or other, large numbers and members of the working class have been permitted to believe in the possibility of a stationary life, even in inevit- able and gradual progress coming whilst you wait. With the qualities of daring and enterprise and un- scrupulousness of method of some of her sons, the economic resources of this island country became so vast in a comparatively poor world that men and women began to feel that their share in the dis- tribution of it, however unjust or unfair it is, would be ample enough for all purposes of life, and this spirit of complascency sustained the whole of the nation for over a century, till it has created a state of mind much akin to the fatalism.of their Oriental brethren. The world’s conditions have changed. Capitalism has grown, capitalistic competition has become keen- er; class interest has become sharper, imperialism has stepped in as a powerful instrument with which to undermine the standard of life in Britain, and yet through all these changes, in spite of the thun- der and quaking shocks of the revolution of Russia and mighty changes in Europe the habit of the mind of the Briton stil] drags on in the same groove. He | does not realize that what appeared to him to be a stationary condition was nothing but continuous replenishment from inexhaustible sources of loot from abroad. There is neither an assured continuity of economic or political rights, much less an inevit- able and gradual progress. : The neglect of the British working class to study British imperialism in its proper light is leading to the accomplishment of two processes, namely, a rapid Britainizing of a capitalist master-class in India and a rapid Indianizing of the large working elass in Britain. In Britain within the class struggle one sees gigantic efforts on the part of the workers S y SHAPURJI SAKLATVALA | to level up their conditions of life and their political rights to those of the upper ciasses, Then one travels in India and sees a picture of sharp contrast, a trans- planted life of modern European luxury and comfort and a little away from it a stagnant life of the hu- man being, even as it used to be a thousand years ago. Take your worst slums, your most congested lodg- ing-houses and yet you cannot conceive of that troken-down mud-hut to enter which even a stature of 5 feet of humanity has got to nearly double up. There is no other ventilation or opening for light and there is even nothing to see inside these huts, which are invariably completely unfurnised. I am not talking now of villages; I am talking of large industrial centers like Nagpur and Cawnpore where exist cotton mills more flourishing than most cotton mills in Lancashire, and where several thousand workers are still consigned to these death-traps. You struggle here by forming organizations, con- ducting agitations and fighting for various rights to improve the health of the working class popula- tion and to reduce their death-rate. Then one goes in India, and there is to be seen openly modern Western industrialism, under European or Indian capitalist control, bare-facedly worsening the health conditions of the workers, increasing the toll of death till infantile mortality which normally in India would be as high as nearly 206 per 1,000 reached the appalling figure of 600 to 800 per 1,000 amongst children born to parents working in factories. Pov- erty, misery, human degradation seem to be a right- ful heritage of the workers in the new industries in the East. The people out there seem to accept it with philosophical calm. The Westernized Indian himself looks upon it as something that matters neither seriously nor immediately and which he seriously believes would be remedied as soon as political power is seized by him from the foreign intruder. He does not realize that any nation, in order to wrench power from a foreign conqueror or oppressor, would require national strength and consciousness of tremendous dimensions and _ this could not be obtained and consolidated without the workers and the peasants in his land being well organized.. , THE PATIENT PLODDER His driven stride grows sullen with the weight That he has carried through long centuries; His famished soul is wreckage of the seas Of life; his hope becomes disconsolate As he plods on. O, who dared relegate Upon his beaten back these calumnies? And whom can this maligned apostle please But brutes with brutish moods to satiate? When will eyes peer into his abode And send a beam of light to chase away The shadows that have lingered there so long? It almost seems this human antipode Has staggered on, unable to relay Aloud his sorry, unmelodie song. —TRAAL THAISIS. On the other hand, in order to alleviate the men- tal agony of his suffering poor, or simply through the accustomed unfeelingness of the capitalist pro- fiteer, the educated Indian tries to instil a philoso- phical contentment in the workers and the peasants and to prevent as far as possible any self-conscious- ness dawning upon them. Thus is accomplished with success a vast experiment of the British im- perialist of producing modern goods and services of public utility through human agency at a cost in- comparably lower than at home. He also succeeds in personal domination by keeping large. masses of humanity as bond-slaves, rigorously tied to their jobs through the necessity of staving off starvation and through the severity of legislative enactments. In the midst of this process some of us cried out against it in Britain, but in vain, to tell the Briton that his immediate task lay in levelling up the con- ditions of his fellow-workers in India. But the ap- peal failed to touch the British worker. His leaders and his organizations worked like machines that were invented and perfected before the advent of economic imperialism and peril, and proved incap- able of devoting themselves to better their condi- tions. ; An almost concerted view was taken that the low level of the Indian was well deserved and that the higher level of the British workers was something that was permanently secure by his own merit. The shrewd capitalist class on the other hand awaited stabilization of ‘conditions to the difference between two standards of human life under its control which were well marked and were capable of being brought to play their part under one and the same common imperial commercialism. Then, by exerting the or- dinary pressure of a competitive system of life he compels the British worker to level down to the economic position of the Indian worker, which pro- cess will naturally continue till a common level is reached either one as low as that of the Indian, or one as high as that to which the British organiza- tions assist the Indian workers to reach. For the last four years the cry of the Indian workers went out unheeded by British ears to secure for them trade union rights similar to their own and to save them from proposals which were not conferring special rights for the Indian workers but which were tightening the bonds of serfdom upon them. ; Here once again the British worker dreamt that his own position was secure forever, up to a cer- tain stage and it would be the lookout of the Indian worker. tc safely reach that stage of advancement. However, under economic imperialism, such dreams are soon shattered, today the challenge goes forth to the British workers to level down to the serfdom of the Indian workers. I see therefore iwo rapid developments, the Britainizing of a master-class in India and the Indianizing of the working class of Britain. To me it is as clear as daylight that the primary duty of the British workers is to form an international solidarity with the Indian and Oriental workers and to level them up for the sake of secur- ing a world standard and not to look upon such an act of solidarity as: a mere spasmodic expression of internationalism or as an act of secondary charity from the stronger te the weaker group. More words are useless and unnecessary; events will prove the correctness or otherwise of this fcre- cast. in ng Amsterdam and the Italian Proletariat 5 Fa fact that the majority of the former leaders of the Italian General Confederation of Labor had gone over to the fascists, and that the secre- tary of the G. C. L., Buozzi, had decided on his own account to transfer: the organization abroad, had the opposite result from what had been expected by the traitors and deserters. The G. C. L. is not dead, it continues to exist in Italy, to the bitter fury of the fascists and the galling aggravation of the Am- sterdamites. The trade union conference convened at Milan on February 20 (illegally, of course), upon the initiative of three revolutionary federations of the G. C. L., and at which were represented nearly all the G. C. L. elements which escaped destruction at the hands of the fascists and who remained loyal to their organization, decided unanimously to refuse to recognize the legality of the resolution of the traitors to dissolve the G. C. L., and expressed itself categorically against the transfer of the G. C. L. abroad. The G. C. L. must stay in Italy and its bottom organizations must be transferred to the factories and- workshops where it is easier to carry on an illegal existence, and where it is possible to get into closer touch with the masses of the workers—such was the decision of the conference. A provisional G. C. L. executive was elected whose business it will be to work for the reorganization and extension of the trade union organizations, and for the calling cf a convention for the purpose of finally shaping the structure and the activity of the G. C. L., and solving a number of problems connected with the trade union movement in Italy. In spite of the severe conditions of underground work, in spite of the ceaseless arrests of members of the Provisional Executive, and of mass arrests among the organizations, the work of the G. C. L. went on and is going on with great success. Not later than one month after the calling of the con- ference the publication was renewed of the G. C. L. organ “Battaglie Sindical,” which has since been regularly appearing each month in the shape of a series of local publications issued in the larger cen- tres (Milan, Turin, Genoa, Venice, Rome, etc.), whilst the total circulation has reached 25,000, being considerably in excess of its former legal circulation. On the week of May 1 a recruiting campaign was announced for membership in the G. C. L., netting more than 4,000 new members, which was no mean success under the conditions of underground work and under the fascist regime. In the course of the recruiting week there were hundreds of illegal meet- ings held throughout Italy. In a relatively short space of time there was revived a number of national federations and inter-trade union organizations (at Milan, Turin, Como, Rome, etc.). As distinguished from the legal G. C. L. which during the last period of its existence had completely given up the active. struggle and the defense of the working class, the provisional executive has unfolded vast activities in preparing the masses of the workers for the fight against the capitalist offensive. In the columns of — Ko. “Battaglie Sindacali,” at illegal meetings, and in tens of thousands of manifestoes and ieaflets, the G. C. L. threw light upon the position of the work- ing class and exhorted the workers to active pro- testing and fighting for their rights and interests. A pamphlet was published and distributed in 15,000 copies, in which were set out the demands advanced by the G. C. L. in the interests of the working class. A campaign was conducted on the problem of un- employment, and another campaign for the defense of the proletarian youth. Particular activity was developed by the G. C. L. in connection with the wage-cutting campaign start- ed in May by.the fascist government and the em- ployers. In answer to the campaign against the workers’ wages, the G. C. L. threw out the slogan of strikes and demonstrations, giving out instruc- tions in this sense to its affiliated bodies. The strike at the Breda Car Construction Works had found the restored Metal Workers’ Union (FI OM) fully prepared, and it issued a series of mani- festoes which were widely circulated among the Breda workers and generally among the metal work- ers of Milan who had been stirred to action, The Milan Chamber of Labor issued a manifesto formulating the demands made on behalf of the unemployed and the discharged workers. The Turin Chamber of Labor issued a manifesto appealing to the workers to offer resistance to the employers’ campaign against the wages. (Continued on page 6)