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foreign country. " (29)<br />
The patriotic Amerikan war spirit congealed itself<br />
into the usual racist forms. Chinese were encouraged to<br />
wear self-protective placards or buttons reading "I'm No<br />
Jap" to avoid being lynched. The Kuomintang-dominated<br />
Chinese communities were lauded by the settlers as now<br />
"good" Asians. Life ran an article on "How To Tell Your<br />
Friends From The Japs": "...the Chinese expression is<br />
likely to be more placid, kindly, open; the Japanese more<br />
positive, dogmatic, arrogant.. . Japanese walk stiffly<br />
erect .. .Chinese more relaxed, sometimes shuffle.. . " (30)<br />
Of course, these imaginary differences only expressed<br />
the settler code wherein hostile or just victimized<br />
Asians were "bad," where as those they thought more submissive<br />
(who "shuffle") were temporarily "good." Every<br />
effort was made to whip up settler chauvinism and hatred<br />
(an easy task). The famous war indoctrination film "My<br />
Japan," produced by the Defense Department, opens to<br />
an actor portraying a Japanese soldier bayoneting a baby<br />
- with the commentary that all Japanese "like" to kill<br />
babies. German fascist propaganda about the "racial<br />
crimes" of the Jews was no more bizzarre than Amerikan<br />
propaganda for its own war effort.<br />
The Euro-Amerikan working class, now reinforced<br />
by unions and the New Deal, brought the war "home"<br />
themselves in their massive wave of "hate strikes." These<br />
were strikes whose only demand was the blocking of<br />
Afrikan employment or promotion. They were a major<br />
feature of militant industrial life in the the war period; a<br />
reaction to increased wartime employment of Afrikans by<br />
U.S. imperialism.<br />
In the auto industry (which were the heart of war<br />
production) the "hate strikes" started in October, 1941.<br />
There were twelve major such strikes in auto plants just in<br />
the first six months of 1943. Dodge, Hudson, Packard,<br />
Curtis-Wright, Timken Axle and many other plants<br />
witnessed these settler working class offensives. The<br />
UAW-CIO and the Detroit NAACP held a<br />
"brotherhood" rally in Detroit's Cadillac Square to<br />
counteract the openly segregationist movement. That rally<br />
drew 10,000 people. But shortly thereafter 25,000 Packard<br />
workers went out on "hate strike" for five days. An even<br />
bigger strike staged by UAW Local 190 brought out 39,000<br />
settler auto workers to stop the threatened promotion of<br />
four Afrikans. (3 1).<br />
These "hate strikes" took place coast-to-coast, in<br />
a wave that hit all industries. In Baltimore, Bethlehem<br />
Steel's Sparrows Point plant went out in July, 1943. In that<br />
same area a major Western Electric plant was so solidly<br />
closed down by its December, 1943 "hate strike" that the<br />
U.S. Army finally had to take it over. The same thing happened<br />
when Philadelphia municipal transit workers closed<br />
down the city for six days in August, 1944, to block the hiring<br />
of eight Afrikan motormen. 5,000 U.S. Army troops<br />
were needed to get transit going again. The U.S. Government<br />
calculated that just in the three Spring months of<br />
1943 alone, some 2.5 million man hours of industrial production<br />
were lost in "hate strikes." (32)<br />
Mob violence against the oppressed was another<br />
war phenomenon, particularly by Euro-Amerikan ser-<br />
vicemen. They now constituted an important temporary<br />
stratum in settler life, drawn together by the millions and<br />
organized into large units and bases. Attacks by settler<br />
97 sailors, marines and soldiers on Chicano-Mexicanos,