07) THE CENTENNIAL OF A REVOLUTIONARY NEWSPAPER
By Kimball Cariou, Editor of People's Voice
The middle four pages of this issue of People's Voice pay tribute to the 100th anniversary of a remarkable political movement, and to the newspaper at the heart of its activities.
During the early decades of the 20th century, the west coast of North America was fertile ground for radical political movements. This was a period of mass union organizing campaigns, general strikes, utopian communes, widespread anti-war sentiments, and frequent clashes between the authorities and labour activists.
It was also an era when the ruling class used every possible weapon to divide working people. Employers sought to undermine working class efforts to raise wages and improve conditions, by expanding the pool of surplus labour in both the U.S. and Canada. At the same time, the bosses and their political parties carefully fanned the flames of racism, chauvinism and religious sectarianism, pitting workers of European origin against their sisters and brothers from Asia, and those from the "British Isles" against newer sections of the working class arriving from eastern Europe.
On the west coast, this led to violent attacks and riots by misguided whites against the Chinese, Japanese and South Asian communities. More far-sighted socialists and communists called for working class unity against the bosses, and unions like the IWA pioneered the struggle for unity by recruiting thousands of non-European immigrant workers into their ranks.
But racist sentiments remained widespread for many years, creating the basis for policies such as the Chinese Head Tax and the denial of voting and political rights for Asian migrants.
In this context, the publication of revolutionary newspapers in languagues other than English was a powerful contribution to the emergence of a truly united working class movement.
One of the first such publications was Ghadar, the organ of the "Hindi Association of the Pacific Coast of America" formed in April 1913. Known by the name of the newspaper, this organization signalled the emergence of a revolutionary struggle to liberate India, the "crown jewel" of British imperialism.
As detailed elsewhere in these pages, the Ghadar party and its newspaper worked fearlessly and relentlessly for the goal of national liberation. Their strategy was based on unity against British imperialism in India and against racist oppression in North America. Rather than succumbing to divisions along the lines of language, religion or caste, the Ghadars "kept their eyes on the prize," placing the goals of their movement in the forefront.
The Ghadar newspaper, like other such publications of the time, depended entirely on the solidarity and discipline of its readers to stay in print. Despite the threat of state attacks, the newspaper appeared weekly, starting on November 1, 1913, until the Ghadar leaders and members returned to India to spark an uprising against the British.
The Ghadar movement remains a powerful inspiration to revolutionaries in Canada and the U.S. today. A century later, we carry on our struggles in a society where the mass media - TV, radio, movies, print - are overwhelmingly dominated by huge capitalist monopolies. But the message of working class media such as People's Voice remains as relevant as ever. By paying tribute to the Ghadar newspaper on this important anniversary, we recognize its outstanding role in the struggle against ruling class ideologies - and for the liberation of all humanity from the evils of exploitation, oppression, war, hunger, and disease.
(The above article is from the November 1-15, 2013, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)