‘Playing the Russian Game’: Black Radicalism, the Press, and Colonial Office Attempts to Control Anti-Colonialism in the Early Cold War, 1946–50

Abstract

This article scrutinises attempts by the British Foreign and Colonial Office to control information in its colonies between 1946 and 1950. Several factors combined to alter the ground on which colonial officials operated in this period: an emerging ‘Cold War’ between Britain and its wartime Soviet ally, international debates about creating an enforceable catalogue of ‘human rights' and a heightened emphasis on public relations within British colonies as a strategy for imperial governance. These factors converged in the response of colonial officials to the writing of one of the most notorious anti-colonial activists in Britain at the time, George Padmore. By analysing British Colonial Office reports of Soviet propaganda in their colonies, the article suggests new analysis about some of the ways in which the rhetoric of the Cold War impacted on Britain's approach to empire after the Second World War.

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank Susan Dabney Pennybacker for her extensive comments on drafts of this article, as well as Sue Onslow, Vladimir Unkovski-Korica and the two anonymous reviewers. Some sections of this article appear in a similar form in George Padmore and Decolonization from Below: A Transnational Anti-Colonial Strategy, 1939–1959 (Palgrave, 2014).

Notes

[1] For Padmore, see also Hooker, Black Revolutionary; Pennybacker, From Scottsboro to Munich, esp. 66–102; Makalani, In the Cause of Freedom; Mukherji, ‘The Anti-colonial Imagination’; ‘Schwarz, ‘George Padmore’; Polsgrove, Ending British Rule in Africa; and Baptiste and Lewis, George Padmore.

[2] These reports are contained in CO 537/5120, CO 537/2545 and CO 537/6550, The National Archives (hereafter TNA).

[3] Hyam, ‘Introduction’, xxiii.

[4] Some of the most important of these include Westad, The Global Cold War; Kent, British Imperial Strategy; Bradley, ‘Decolonization, the Global South’; Kwon, The Other Cold War; Connelly, A Diplomatic Revolution; Prashad, The Darker Nations; and Schmidt, Cold War and Decolonization.

[5] For a useful picture of the politics of the left and imperialism in the interwar period, see Howe, Anti-Colonialism in British Politics; and Pennybacker, From Scottsboro to Munich.

[6] See, for example, Owen, The British Left and India. This difference has also been well established on, for example, the question of controlling labour and work. See White, The Comforts of Home; and Cooper, On the African Waterfront.

[7] Simpson, Human Rights, 304. For African-American human rights struggles in the United Nations, see Anderson, Eyes off the Prize. Two of the most groundbreaking recent studies that integrate the development of the United Nations, human rights and the end of empire are Mazower, No Enchanted Palace; Moyn, The Last Utopia. See also Eckel, ‘Human Rights and Decolonization’, 126.

[8] Research into African newspapers is beginning to open up. See, for example, Barber, Africa's Hidden Histories, 236–47, 278–313. For excellent new work on the Caribbean, see Putnam, Radical Moves, 123–52.

[9] Hyam, ‘Introduction’, xxxi. Domestically, the development of public relations as a professional enterprise took off in Britain in the 1930s. Importantly, this occurred partly through the promotion of the Empire Marketing Board. However, public relations in the Colonial Office did not expand until the war. Anthony, Public Relations, 10, 29–62.

[10] Hyam, Labour Government, vol. 1, doc. 61, 264–65.

[11] A similar public relations battle occurred concurrently in colonial Kenya. See Frederiksen, ‘“Present Battle”’, 280, 294–95.

[12] Secretary of State for the Colonies to All Colonies, Protectorates, and Mandated Territories, 17 May 1946, CO 537/5120, TNA.

[13] Padmore was born as Malcolm Nurse, and moved to the United States in 1924 to attend university. He began using the name George Padmore as a cover for his activities while a student, and then in the Communist Party. For the milieu of this time in the United States and the left in black politics, see Makalani, In the Cause of Freedom, 45–67; Solomon, The Cry was Unity. For the importance of African-American universities, see Parker, ‘”Made-in-America Revolutions”?’; and Gaines, American Africans in Ghana, 33.

[14] For analysis of the black radical tradition which Padmore rests within, see Bogues, Black Heretics, Black Prophets; and Robinson, Black Marxism.

[15] See Slate, Colored Cosmopolitanism.

[16] Owen, The British Left and India, 225–31.

[17] The C.S.P., The ‘Reds', and Roy (pamphlet).

[18] For the liberal logic of empire to which Padmore was responding, see Louis, Ends of British Imperialism, 974–89.

[19] This argument is especially strong in Padmore, How Britain Rules Africa. See also Padmore, ‘This “Have” and “Have Not” Business—Some Facts Bared’, Gold Coast Spectator, 9 Oct. 1937; ‘Fascism Invades West Africa’, Crisis, Oct. 1939; ‘The Negro Faces the War’, Workers Age, 23 Dec. 1939.

[20] Adi, ‘Pan-Africanism in Britain’.

[21] George Padmore, ‘Post for Hastie Alarms British’, Chicago Defender, 23 March 1946. For Padmore's work in the African-American press, see Von Eschen, Race against Empire; and Polsgrove, Ending British Rule in Africa.

[22] Jason Parker's analysis of the American attitude towards British colonialism in the Caribbean is especially useful. Indeed, Padmore's statement in this article went on to discuss the differences between American and British imperialism as he saw it occurring in the Caribbean. Parker, Brother's Keeper.

[23] For a good analysis of this newspaper's position in 1930s Trinidad, see Neptune, Caliban and the Yankees. See also Singh, Race and Class Struggles.

[24] For a history of the West African Pilot and a summary of the importance of Azikiwe's newspapers for African nationalism, see Idemili, ‘What the West African Pilot Did’.

[25] Colonial governor reports also indicate that Padmore's articles appeared in the Sierra Leone newspapers The African Standard and Renascent African (I. T. A. Wallace-Johnson's newspaper), but I have found no available copies of these newspapers for research.

[26] Hill, ‘Introduction’, in Marcus Garvey, vol. 9, xlviii–ix. For the ramifications of Garvey-inspired censorship of anti-colonial nationalists, see Hill, Marcus Garvey, vol. 10, lxxxi–v.

[27] See, for example, ‘The Pan-Black Congress’, in Hill, Marcus Garvey, vol. 9, 180–82. This label was not entirely unwarranted since, despite Garvey's capitalistic enterprises, some of his message was picked up, interpreted and applied in various ways by black radicals. See Stevens, ‘Early Political History’, 122.

[28] Flint, ‘Managing Nationalism’, 146.

[29] Governor of Nigeria to Secretary of State for the Colonies, 30 July 1947, CO 537/2545, TNA; The governor believed that Soviet propaganda was infiltrating local political parties and youth movements from an array of sources including the Communist Party of Great Britain, the Palestine Communist Party and possibly Czechoslovakia.

[30] Horne, Cold War in a Hot Zone, 86–91.

[31] For the influence of the United States on the development of radical diaspora politics, see Hill, ‘General Introduction’, in Hill, Marcus Garvey, vol. 11, lxii.

[32] Governor of Jamaica to Secretary of State for the Colonies, 16 Dec. 1946, CO 537/2545, TNA.

[33] Governor of Nyasaland to Secretary of State for the Colonies, 11 March 1947, CO 537/2545, TNA.

[34] Internal memorandum, 17 May 1947, CO 537/2545, TNA.

[35] Hirsch, Empire of Nations, 8.

[36] Ibid., 232–61.

[37] Martin, ‘Origins of Soviet Ethnic Cleansing’, 816. Also Martin, The Affirmative Action Empire.

[38] Padmore, ‘Hands off the Soviet Union’. A record of ‘the Stalinist Blood Purge’ was printed in the Worker's Age, the organ of the Independent Communist Labor League.

[39] For the Communist International in this period and its work with Africa and the ‘Negro Question’ , see Adi, ‘The Negro Question’; Callahan, ‘Communists and the Colonies’; Wilson, Russia and Black Africa; McLellan, ‘Africans and Black Americans’; Mukherji, ‘The Anticolonial Imagination’; and Weiss, ‘Kweku Bankole Awoonor Renner’.

[40] Padmore, ‘British Imperialism and the Labor Movement’.

[41] The works that informed Padmore's study are held at the George Padmore Library in Accra, and included: S. P. Turin, The USSR: An Economic and Social Survey (London: Methuen, 1944); Joseph Macleod, The New Soviet Theatre (London: Allen & Unwin, 1943); G. D. R. Phillips, Dawn in Siberia: The Mongols of Lake Baikal (London: Frederick Muller, 1942); William Mandel, The Soviet Far East and Central Asia (New York: International Secretarial Institute of Pacific Relations, 1944); Fannina W. Halle, Women in the Soviet East, translated from the German. (London: Secker & Warburg, 1938).

[42] Padmore, ‘Hands off the Soviet Union’. He argued the same thing in Africa and World Peace, 257–58. Padmore's arguments in this period swayed towards articulating a Trotskyist line on the USSR of revolutionary defencism. See Trotsky, The Revolution Betrayed. I am grateful to Susan Dabney Pennybacker for this point.

[43] Governor of Nigeria to Secretary of State for the Colonies, 30 July 1947, CO 537/2545, TNA.

[44] Telegram Governor of Gold Coast to Secretary of State for the Colonies, 10 Feb. 1948, CO 537/5120, TNA. The book was brought into the colony by Ako Adjei, who was part of the ‘Big Six’ in Gold Coast politics and was arrested, along with Nkrumah, in 1948 as a leader of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC). Adjei was also instrumental in recruiting Kwame Nkrumah back to the Gold Coast in 1947. Hadjor, Nkrumah and Ghana, 40.

[45] For Bevin's interwar anti-communism, see Bullock, Life and Times of Ernest Bevin. For Bevin and the Cold War, see Deighton, ‘Entente Neo-Coloniale?’.

[46] ‘Directive for Countering Soviet Attacks on “Colonialism” and Colonial Administration’, 20 Aug. 1948, FO 1110/20, TNA.

[47] Ibid.

[48] Colonial Office Public Relations Department, Internal Memorandum, 1 May 1946, CO 537/1476, TNA.

[49] Numerous scholars have attempted to gain access to Padmore's file over the years. The Security Service informed this author that the file was destroyed in 1997.

[50] Apter, Ghana in Transition, xi.

[51] Governor of Trinidad & Tobago to Secretary of State for the Colonies, 29 March 1947, CO 537/2545, TNA.

[52] Governor of Bermuda to Secretary of State for the Colonies, 10 Jan. 1947, CO 537/2545, TNA.

[53] Governor of Bermuda to Secretary of State for the Colonies, 10 Jan. 1947, CO 537/2545, TNA. For Padmore's criticism of the Moscow Trials, see Padmore, Africa and World Peace, 258.

[54] This article also displayed the threat of Padmore's geographical reach. That is, it was originally written for the Free India Press but was published in a Bermuda newspaper.

[55] Governor of Sierra Leone to Secretary of State for the Colonies, 13 Jan. 1948, CO 537/5120, TNA.

[56] Governor of Trinidad & Tobago to Secretary of State for the Colonies, 9 Feb. 1950, CO 537/6550, TNA.

[57] Governor of Gold Coast to Secretary of State for the Colonies, 10 Feb. 1948, CO 537/5120, TNA.

[58] ‘Public Relations in the Colonies: African Governors' Conference Paper’, 8 Nov. 1947. In Hyam, Labour Government, vol. 1, doc. 61, 262.

[59] ‘Soviet Propaganda Attacks on Colonial Administration’, May 1948, FO 1110/20, TNA.

[60] Harold Cooper, Lagos Public Relations Dept. to K. W. Blackburne, Director of Information, Colonial Office, 4 Nov. 1947, CO 537/2545, TNA. This quote was repeated in a cabinet memo by Ernest Bevin called ‘Review of Soviet Policy’. Hyam, Labour Government, vol. 2, doc. 143, 319–26.

[61] Parker, ‘Remapping the Cold Wars’, 319.

[62] Murphy, ‘Britain as a Global Power’, 50–55.

[63] Goldsworthy, Colonial Issues, 15–43; and Pearce, Turning Point in Africa, 110–15.

[64] Morgan, ‘Imperialists at Bay’, 237–38.

[65] T. I. K. Lloyd to Sir John MacPherson, Governor of Nigeria, 8 March 1949, CO 875/54/4, TNA.

[66] Omu, ‘Dilemma of Press Freedom’, 279–98.

[67] Von Eschen, Race against Empire, 7–20, 40–44.

[68] Stammers, Civil Liberties in Britain. For an example of wartime suppression of freedom of speech in the Caribbean press, see Watson, ‘“Now We Know”’, 183–211.

[69] The Colonial Office appointed a press officer in 1931, and in 1940 set up a public relations branch. After the war the public relations branch of the CO was restructured and enlarged into the Information Department, which developed as a department distinctly aware of the Cold War context. See Smyth, ‘Genesis of Public Relations’, 149–61. For the Colonial Office interpretation of public relations, see Hyam, Labour Government, vol. 1, doc. 61, 262.

[70] Chick, ‘Cecil King’, 375–93.

[71] For a useful recent discussion of the role trusteeship territories played in early use of human rights rhetoric, see Terretta, ‘From Below and to the Left?’.

[72] Chick, ‘Cecil King’, 375–93.

[73] The diverging positions Britain had towards UN negotiations on human rights have been attributed in part to the differing opinions in the Colonial and Foreign Office. See Simpson, Human Rights, 296–305.

[74] Morsink, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 10–32.

[75] Draft Despatch on Powers to Control Subversive and Communist Activities in the Colonies, Arthur Creech Jones to Ernest Bevin, 18 Aug. 1949, FO 371/77571, TNA. Creech Jones's argument is confirmed in Mazower, No Enchanted Palace, 130–33.

[76] Draft Despatch on Powers to Control Subversive and Communist Activities in the Colonies, Arthur Creech Jones to Clement Attlee, 3 Oct. 1949, FO 371/77571, TNA.

[77] Draft Minute signed by Ernest Bevin to Clement Attlee. Re: Colonial Secretary's Minute No. P.M. (49) 45, 18 Oct. 1949, FO 371/77571, TNA.

[78] Howe, Anti-Colonialism in British Politics, 146; Horne, Cold War in a Hot Zone, 118.

[79] Telegram from 10 Downing Street (signed S. P. Osmond) to N. D. Watson, Colonial Office, 5 Oct. 1949, FO 371/77571, TNA.

[80] Attorney General to Solicitor General, 24 Oct. 1949, FO 371/77571, TNA.

[81] ‘Schedule of publications, books, newspapers and periodicals prohibited by colonial governments to be imported or circulated’, 25 May 1950, CO 537/5246, TNA.

[82] Mr. Barton to the Assistant Clerk, Race Relations Committee of the Society of Friends, 24 July 1950, CO 537/6523, TNA.

[83] Butler, Britain and Empire, 19.

[84] Internal memorandum, ‘Security Arrangements—West Africa: Undesirable publications—‘Africa’ by George Padmore’, 31 March 1950, CO 537/6523, TNA, emphasis added.

[85] George Padmore to Reginald Bridgeman, 2 June 1932, 534/3/755, item 110, Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (RGASPI).

[86] M. Joseph Mitchell, to the Right Honourable James Griffiths, 23 March 1950, CO 537/6523, TNA.

[87] African League to Secretary of State for the Colonies, 24 April 1950, CO 537/6523, TNA.

[88] Elizabeth M. Allen to James Griffiths, 19 April 1950, CO 537/6523, TNA. For a history of the NCCL, the complicated affiliation of several members of parliament and allegations of Soviet influence at this time, see Moores, From Civil Liberties, 94–102.

[89] 473 Parl. Deb., H.C. (5th ser.) (1950) 1185–86.

[90] Padmore's books were frequently banned in colonial territories from the 1930s. See Pennybacker, From Scottboro to Munich, 75. For MPs as representatives for colonial people, see Goldsworthy, ‘Parliamentary Questions’, 147.

[91] Secretary of State for the Colonies to Governor of Nigeria, CC to Gold Coast, Gambia, Sierra Leone, 1 April 1950, CO 537/6523, TNA.

[92] Howe, Anti-Colonialism in British Politics, 22.

[93] Morgan, Labour in Power, 410–17. For a history of the Labour Party's increasing use of the mass media to construct its image and win elections, see Beers, Your Britain, 165–80.

[94] Meeting Notes, 25 April 1950, CO 537/6523, TNA.

[95] Anderson, Eyes off the Prize, 5–6.

[96] Mazower, No Enchanted Palace, 8, 130–48. For more on the UDHR see Amos, ‘Embracing and Contesting’; Burke, Decolonization and the Evolution of International Human Rights; and Eckert, ‘African Nationalists and Human Rights’.

[97] Anderson, Histories of the Hanged; Elkins, Britain's Gulag.

[98] In 1949 Britain reopened its wartime regional intelligence office in the West Indies. Parker, ‘Remapping the Cold War’, 334.

[99] For anti-communism and British security in Africa, see Murphy, ‘Intelligence and Decolonization’.

[100] Bradley, ‘Decolonization, the Global South’, 465.