Settlers - San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center

"white man's wages" was for some a convincing argument
that loyalty to the U.S. Empire made sense. It allowed A.
Philip Randolph and Rev. Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. to
"prove" that their leadership paid off in cash - and that
imperialist World War was "good" for Afrikans. And, of
course, this process once again rein forced the neo-colonial
idealogy in which Third- World people are told that they
must look to the Federal Government in Washington as
their ultimate 'friend" and protector. Roosevelt just
replaced Lincoln on the altar. The process sugar-coated the
forced exodus from the Afrikan South, and even allowed
pro-imperialist propaganda to assert that the depopulation
of the Afrikan Nation was a "benefit" to
Afrikans.
This "integration" into the main industrial
economy, however dramatic its effects, only directly reached
a minority of the nationally oppressed. For the first
time, however, some significant number of colonial
workers could struggle for the "American" lifestyle, with
houses, automobiles, appliances, consumer items, college
education for the children, and so on. Again, this was a
semi-European standard of living - a miniaturized version
of that of Euro-Amerikans, but materially well above
that of other colonial peoples in Latin Amerika, Asia and
Afrika. Imperialism cared little that most of the nationally
oppressed here did not have those middle-wage jobs or the
new petit-bourgeois positions opened up by token integration.
What was important to imperialism was that these inviting
possibilities for some created ideological confusion,
pro-imperialist tendencies, and social disunity. They also
were a magnet to draw people to the Northern industrial
centers and out of the National Territory.
The Dislocation of Imperialist War
Amerika's colonies were forced to bear a heavy -
and often disproportionate - share of the human cost of
World War II. This was no accident. The Roosevelt Administration
promoted this "Americanization" of the nationally
oppressed, pushing and pulling as many Puerto
Ricans, Indians, Asians, Chicano-Mexicanos, and
Afrikans as possible to become involved in the U.S. war effort.
Not only because we were needed as cannon fodder
and war industry labor, but because mass participation inthe
war disrupted our communities and encouraged proimperialist
loyalties.
Close to a million Afrikans alone served in the
U.S. military during the 1940s. When we think about what
it would have meant to subtract a million soldiers, sailors,
and airmen from the Empire's global efforts we can see
how important colonial troops were. In many Third-World
communities the war burdens were very disproportionate.
The Chinese community in New York, being so heavily unmarried
men due to immigration laws, saw 40% of its total
population drafted into the military .(68) In colonial Puerto
Rico the imperialist draft drained the island; many did
not return. One Puerto Rican writer recalls of his small
town:
in by military vehicles and placed in living rooms where
they were mourned and viewed. The mournings never ceased
in Salsipuedes! Almost every day I was awakened by the
moans and wails of widows, parents, grandparents, and
orphans whose loved one had died 'defending their country.'
" (69)
The same was true in the Chicano-Mexicano
Southwest. Acuna notes that: "The percentage of
Chicanos who served in the armed forces was disproportionate
to the percentage of Chicanos in the general
population." He further notes: "Chicanos, however, can
readily remember how families proudly displayed banners
with blue stars (each blue star representing a family
member in the armed forces). Many families had as many
as eight stars, with fathers, sons, and uncles all serving the
U.S. war effort. Everyone recalls the absence of men between
the ages of 17 through 30 in the barrios. As the war
progressed, gold stars replaced the blue (gold representing
men killed in action,), giving the barrios the appearance of
a sea of death." (70)
Third-World people were told, in effect, that if
they helped the U.S. Empire win its greatest war, then at
long last they too would get a share of the "democracy" as
a reward. In every oppressed nation and national minority,
many elements mobilized to push this deal. We should
note that those political forces most opposed to this
ideological "Americanization" were driven under or
rendered ineffective by severe repression.
Civil Rights leaders fell all over themselves in urging
their people to go kill and die for the U.S. Empire. The
rhetorical contortions were amazing. A. Philip Randolph,
the supposed socialist, said that Afrikans should enlist in
the admittedly unjust war in order to reform it! He admitted
that: "This is not a war for freedom ... It is a war hetween
the imperialism of Fascism and Nazism and the imperialism
of monopoly capitalistic democracy." But, he
told Afrikan workers, by getting an integrated war effort
"the people can make it a peoples' revolution." (71) An
avowed pacifist and advocate of total Afrikan nonviolence
in the U.S., Randolph nevertheless said that it was right
for Afrikans to fight in Asia and Europe.
Following the same "Two Front War" thesis,
Rev. Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. enthusiastically agreed
that the Japanese attack on "our" base at Pearl Harbor
forced Afrikans to fight - so long as the Government was
going to give them integration:
"On December 7, 1941, America for the first time
in its history entered upon two wars simultaneously. One
was a world war and the other a civil war. One was to be a
bloody fight for the preservation and extension of
democracy on a world basis - the other a bloodless
revolution within these shores against a bastard
democracy.
"The sneak attack of the Japanese upon our mid-
Pacific base was no more vicious than the open attacks
that had been waged consistently for four hundred years
against the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution
and the Bill of Rights." (72)
"I saw many bodies of young Puerto Ricans in Taking part in the imperialist war was praised as
coffins covered with the American flag. They were brought 123 patriotic - not only to the U.S. but to "the race." By