Settlers - San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center

Above is the editorial ofice of Crisis, the magazine of the NAACP
Messenger, the U.N.I.A. provided them with offices in the
Harlem building that it owned. (45) The U.N.I.A. attempted
to be broadly encouraging to Afrikan ventures, even
those of a socialist nature, so long as they were Afrikanrun
and oriented.
Randolph's integrationism and ambition led him
to break with the U.N.I.A. It was not, we should ernphasize,
only a political struggle within A frikan ranks
alone. The U.S. oppressor nation was also involved in the
dispute. While Randolph and his fellow integrationists,
totally impressed with the might of the U.S. Empire, never
believed that national liberation could succeed, they feared
that the growing mass agitation would antagonize settlers.
To these neo-colonialists, settler "good-will" and
patronage was more important than almost anything. Further,
Randolph's immediate career as a would-be labor
leader was threatened by Garveyism's hold on the Afrikan
masses.
Randolph and his associates were fanatically
determined to destroy Garvey and the U.N.I.A. at any
cost. They pursued this end using any and every means. In
their magazine, the Messenger, Garvey was sneeringly
referred to as "monumental monkey" and "supreme
Negro Jamaican jackass." Randolph's near-racist rhetoric
reflected his assertion that Garvey was an "alien" West Indian
and not a true "American Nearo." National s~eaking
tours with the NAACP for a ''~arie~
Must Go" campaigi
failed. (46)
In a telling move, Randolph - the supposed
"socialist"- and his integrationist allies turned to the
U.S. Empire for help. They openly encouraged the repression
of the U.N.I.A. In early January 1923 this grouping
against Garvey in his coming mail fraud trial was killed.
This traitor, Rev. J.W. Easton of New Orleans, had
formerly been a leader in the U.N.I.A., but had been
ousted for embezzlement. The dying Easton had allegedly
identified his assailants as two workers, a longshoreman
and a painter, who were U.N.I.A. security cadre.
The anti-Garvey grouping was seized with fear
that they themselves would be corrected for their
treasonous collaboration with the State. On January 15,
1923, constituting themselves as a "Committee of Eight,"
they wrote to U.S. Attorney General Daugherty begging
him to strike down the Afrikan nationalists without any
delay. This historic letter is informative:
"Dear Sir;
(1) As the chief law enforcement officer of the
nation, we wish to call your attention to a heretofore unconsidered
menace to a harmonious race relations. There
are in our midst certain Negro criminals and potential
murderers, both foreign and American born, who are
moved and actuated by intense hatred of the white race.
These undesirables continually proclaim that all white people
are enemies to the Negro. They have become so
fanatical that they have threatened and attempted the
death of their opponents.. .
"(2) The movement known as the Universal
Negro Improvement Association has done much to
stimulate the violent temper of this dangerous movement.
Its President and moving spirit is one Marcus Garvey, an
unscrupulous demagogue, who has ceaselessly and
assiduously sought to spread among Negroes distrust and
hatred of all white people.
became alarmed when the chief Government witness 11s ***********+**