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Vol. 78/No. 30      August 25, 2014

 
To toilers of East: Ally with workers
of world, not Uncle Sam
(Books of the Month column)
 
To See the Dawn, one of Pathfinder’s Books of the Month, contains the proceedings of the First Congress of the Peoples of the East convened by the Communist International Sept. 1-7, 1920, in Baku, Azerbaijan. Inspired by the October 1917 revolution in Russia, which opened a new stage in the emancipation struggle of colonial peoples, 2,000 delegates, representing toilers of Asia, participated in the congress. The excerpt is from a speech by U.S. delegate John Reed. The speech, not delivered due to a shortage of time, was appended to the proceedings. Reed — best known for his book Ten Days That Shook the World, a firsthand account of the Russian Revolution — was won to the genuinely Marxist course of the Bolshevik Party under the leadership of V.I. Lenin and became a founding leader of the communist movement in the U.S. Copyright © 1993 by Pathfinder Press. Reprinted by permission.

BY JOHN REED  
I represent here the revolutionary workers of one of the great imperialist powers, the United States of America, which exploits and oppresses the peoples of the colonies.

You, the peoples of the East, the peoples of Asia, have not yet experienced for yourselves the rule of America. You know and hate the British, French, and Italian imperialists, and probably you think that “free America” will govern better, will liberate the peoples of the colonies, will feed and defend them.

No. The workers and peasants of the Philippines, the peoples of Central America and the islands of the Caribbean — they know what it means to live under the rule of “free America.” …

Today the American capitalists are addressing friendly words to the peoples of the East, with a promise of aid and food. This applies especially to Armenia. Millions of dollars have been collected by the American millionaires in order to send bread to the starving Armenians. And many Armenians are now looking for help to Uncle Sam.

These same American capitalists incite the American workers and farmers against each other. They starve and exploit the peoples of Cuba and the Philippines. Savagely they kill American Negroes and burn them alive. And in America itself, American workers are obliged to work under frightful conditions, receiving low wages for a long workday. When they are exhausted and used up they are thrown out onto the street, where they die of hunger.

The very gentleman now in charge of bringing aid to the starving Armenians, Mr. Cleveland Dodge, who writes emotional articles about how the Turks have driven the Armenians into the desert, is the owner of big copper mines where thousands of American workers are exploited. When these workers dared to go on strike, the guards protecting Mr. Dodge’s mines drove them at bayonet point out into the desert — just as was done to the Armenians.

Many Armenians are grateful to America for its attitude to the Armenians who suffered from the brutality of the Turks during the war. But what has America done for the Armenians apart from issuing hollow declarations? Nothing. I was in Constantinople at that time, in 1915, and I know that the missionaries refused to make any serious protest against the atrocities, saying they had a lot of property in Turkey and so did not want to put pressure on the Turks. …

Together with the other capitalist nations, united in the League of Nations, the American capitalists are afraid that the workers and peasants of Armenia will follow the example of Soviet Russia and Soviet Azerbaijan — take power, take their country’s resources into their own hands, and work for themselves, making a united front with workers and peasants around the world against world imperialism. The American capitalists are afraid of a revolution in the East. …

The American capitalists promise bread to Armenia. This is an old trick. They promise bread but never give it. Did Hungary get bread after the fall of the Soviet government? No. The Hungarian people are still starving today. Did the Baltic countries get bread? No. When the starving Estonians had nothing but potatoes, the American capitalists sent them ships laden with rotten potatoes that could not be sold at a profit in America. No, comrades, Uncle Sam never gives anybody something for nothing. He comes along with a sack stuffed with hay in one hand and a whip in the other. Anyone who accepts Uncle Sam’s promises at their face value will find that they must be paid for in sweat and blood.

American workers are demanding an ever larger share of the product of their labor. With a view to preventing revolution at home, the American capitalists are forced to seek out colonial peoples to exploit, peoples who will furnish sufficient profits to keep the American workers in obedience and so make them participants in the exploitation of the Armenians. I represent thousands of revolutionary American workers who know this. They understand that, acting together with the Armenian workers and peasants, with the toiling masses around the world, they will overthrow capitalism. World capitalism will be destroyed, and all the peoples will be free.

We appreciate the need for solidarity among all oppressed and toiling peoples, for unity of the revolutionary workers of all the countries of Europe and America under the leadership of the Russian Bolsheviks, in the Communist International. And we say to you, peoples of the East: Do not believe the promises of the American capitalists!

There is only one road to freedom. Unite with the Russian workers and peasants who have overthrown their capitalists and whose Red Army has beaten the foreign imperialists! Follow the red star of the Communist International!  
 
 
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