International Activism
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"And today the Negro people watch Africa and Asia and closely follow the liberation struggles of the rising peoples in these lands. We watch the United Nations and see the U.S.A. join with the western imperialist nations to stifle the liberation struggles. We cannot help but see that it is Vishinsky and the spokesman of the Eastern European Peoples Democracies who defend and vote for the interests of the African and Asian peoples." -Paul Robeson, accepting the Stalin Peace Prize, 1952
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Drawn Beyond the USA
Paul Robeson had an international scope in his singing, acting, and political career. He traveled extensively, first visiting Europe on a singing tour in 1927, the Soviet Union in 1934, and would go on to study, act, sing, and speak in many other countries in his lifetime (including visiting the anti-fascist International Brigade in Spain in 1938). Robeson is noted for his sympathies towards the USSR and Communism, and faced intense scrutiny and harassment from the FBI and the US House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)[[1]]. His passport was stripped from him from 1952-1958, and he was under surveillance by the FBI from 1941-1974. He found ways to resist these travel restrictions, sometimes taping concerts and speeches, or giving them over the phone, until he finally regained his passport. Through all these actions, Robeson explicitly connected the struggle of African-Americans to a worldwide struggle against fascism, imperialism, and racism, among other forms of oppression.
Rather than try to be comprehensive, we will isolate elements of Robeson's international activism in order to help paint a picture of his vision of liberation.
The Soviet Union
Robeson first visited the USSR at the invitation of Soviet filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein in 1934. Robeson was greatly impressed by what he saw as a lack of racism and support for workers in the USSR. A 1935 Daily Worker article wrote
"But what he (Robeson) admitted he had not been expecting was the simple, wholehearted, affectionate welcome that lay in store for him. Robeson declares himself that he knows he has made a sufficient place for himself by his singing and acting, that even in the capitalist world some of the bitterest aspects of Jim-Crowism and white chauvinism are not applied to him. But it is just this feeling that a condescending exception has been made of him that is missing here. Here there is just the enthusiastic joy of Russian workers and artists, they or their fathers also once slaves of capitalist and landlord, who now welcome in addition a man they feel is a brother artist from abroad, coming with a real desire to honestly know and understand the new life they have made for themselves." - Vern Smith
Robeson insisted, however, that it was the injustice in the United States that most directly affected his political consciousness, and not the Soviet Union. Robeson would frequently tour the USSR afterwards, and was sympathetic to Soviet Communism regarding its liberatory potential. In 1949, Robeson toured the USSR and then made a statement at the World Peace Congress in Paris regarding was between the USSR and the USA which would draw the ire of HUAC.
In 1952, Paul Robeson was awarded the Stalin Peace Prize [[2]], making several statements that are indicative of his vision of liberation.
"I am especially confident that the Negro people can be won for the fight for peace. Having voted mainly for Stevenson, they have little to expect from Eisenhower, especially an Eisenhower partly dependent upon the Dixiecrat South-sworn enemies of the Negro people. We know that war would mean an end to our struggle for civil rights, FEPC, the right to vote, an anti-lynching law, abolition of segregation... "I know that if the peace movement takes its message boldly to the Negro people a powerful force can be secured in pursuit of the greatest goal of all mankind. And the same is true of labor and the great democratic sections of our population... "Yes, peace can and must be won, to save the world from the terrible destruction of World War III. The prize which I have just received will spur me on to greater efforts than ever before to serve the cause of peace and to aid in building a triumphant peace movement in the United States."
Robeson saw African-Americans as a potentially revolutionary population, and that they would be natural allies of people in other nations struggling for freedom, justice, and peace.
In 1953, after the death of Joseph Stalin, Robeson delivered a tribute titled To You Beloved Comrade.
When pressed on his opinions about possible Soviet atrocities, Robeson would not criticize the USSR, and his son later revealed that Robeson made a promise to never criticize the USSR. When questioned by HUAC about "Soviet slave labor camps" and Stalin, Robeson replied"Whatever has happened to Stalin, gentlemen, is a question for the Soviet Union, and I would not argue with a representative of the people who, in building America, wasted sixty to a hundred million lives of my people, black people drawn from Africa on the plantations. You are responsible, and your forebears, for sixty million to one hundred million black people dying in the slave ships and on the plantations, and don’t ask me about anybody, please."While it may seem that Robeson's possible blindness towards Soviet atrocities was a weakness, it is perhaps understandable that Robeson would not want to alienate a country that he had come to see as a great supporter for peace and justice in the world.
1949 Paris World Peace Congress and HUAC
Robeson attended the World Peace Congress in Paris, and made a statement regarding African-Americans and possible war between the US and the USSR, saying,
"It is unthinkable that American Negroes will go to war in behalf of those who have oppressed us for generations... against a country [the Soviet Union] which in one generation has raised our people to the full dignity of mankind."The US government and press seized upon these comments to distort and discredit Paul Robeson. HUAC pressured prominent African American leaders into denouncing Robeson, and would intensely question Robeson himself during a hearing on his passport and alleged Communist ties. Robeson responded to the harrassment of the committee, saying,
Could I say that the reason that I am here today, you know, from the mouth of the State Department itself, is: I should not be allowed to travel because I have struggled for years for the independence of the colonial peoples of Africa. For many years I have so labored and I can say modestly that my name is very much honored all over Africa, in my struggles for their independence. That is the kind of independence like Sukarno got in Indonesia. Unless we are double-talking, then these efforts in the interest of Africa would be in the same context. The other reason that I am here today, again from the State Department and from the court record of the court of appeals, is that when I am abroad I speak out against the injustices against the Negro people of this land. I sent a message to the Bandung Conference and so forth. That is why I am here. This is the basis, and I am not being tried for whether I am a Communist, I am being tried for fighting for the rights of my people, who are still second-class citizens in this United States of America. My mother was born in your state, Mr. Walter, and my mother was a Quaker, and my ancestors in the time of Washington baked bread for George Washington’s troops when they crossed the Delaware, and my own father was a slave. I stand here struggling for the rights of my people to be full citizens in this country. And they are not. They are not in Mississippi. And they are not in Montgomery, Alabama. And they are not in Washington. They are nowhere, and that is why I am here today. You want to shut up every Negro who has the courage to stand up and fight for the rights of his people, for the rights of workers, and I have been on many a picket line for the steelworkers too. And that is why I am here today. . . .
Robeson articulated exactly why he thought African-Americans would not fight for the USA, and present a scathing criticism of the hypocrisy of the USA.
Challenges to International Travel Ban
When Robeson's passport was taken from him by the United States government, he still tried as much as he could to participate in international affairs. He spoke and sang over telephone and recorded messages at World Peace Council annual meetings; the Soviet Writers Conference (1954); the Bandung Conference (1955); the Welsh Miners' annual celebration (1957); and a conference of over one thousand people organized in 1957 by the Let Paul Robeson Sing Committee in London.
In his comments for the Bandung Conference[[3]] Robeson speaks to international solidarity among oppressed peoples, saying,"The time has come when the colored peoples of the world will no longer allow the great natural wealth of their countries to be exploited and expropriated by the Western world while they are beset by hunger, disease and poverty. It is clearly evident that these evils can be eradicated and that the economic, social and cultural advancement of whole populations of hundreds of millions of people can be rapidly achieved, once modern science and industrialization are applied and directed toward raising the general level of well being of peoples rather than toward the enrichment of individuals and corporations... "One of the most important causes of world tension has been and continues to be imperialist enslavement of nations. Peace in Asia is directly linked with the problems of freedom and full sovereign rights for the nations of Asia. As for Africa, most of that vast continent, as we know, still groans in chains. In North Africa, in Kenya, East Africa, and in other areas imperialist terror has been unleashed in an attempt to keep freedom-aspiring peoples in subjection. South Africa feels the lash of the redoubled racist fury of her white ruling class. For this is the time for liberation, and Africa too shall shout in freedom. Soon. Yes, now is our day!... "The demand of Africa and Asia for independence from alien domination and exploitation finds warm support among democratic-minded peoples everywhere. Although the calling of the Bandung Conference evoked bitter words of displeasure from high circles in Washington, the common people of America have not forgotten that our own country was founded in a revolution of colonies against a foreign tyranny -- a revolution proclaiming that all nations have a right to independence under a government of their own choice."
Robeson reiterates his belief in the interconnecteness of the oppressed people's struggles throughout the world and shows a critique of imperialism that shows Marxist influence.
Even while limited to being in the USA, Robeson made sure that his voice was heard throughout the world.
Council on African Affairs
In 1937, Robeson, along with W. E. B. DuBois, helped to found the Council on African Affairs and became its chairman.
In a paper delivered in 1971[[4]] Alex La Guma wrote of the CAA,
"It was in 1937 that he also helped to found the Council for African Affairs of which he became chairman. This American organisation had two main aims: to support the cause of African freedom, collecting funds for various African causes, and also to tell Americans the truth about affairs and events in Africa, Under the first of the Council’s objectives, the people of South Africa remember the assistance provided during a severe famine in the eastern part of our country shortly after the Second World War. However, the other aims of the Council provided the opportunity for many Americans to learn the truth about our country. Until then I believe that most Americans thought in terms of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ stories of Tarzan of the Apes, whenever they heard the continent of Africa mentioned.
The South African people also remember with appreciation and affection Paul Robeson’s first task when he was released from the USA after the McCarthy persecutions. In 1958, just arrived in Europe from the United States, he sang in a special service in St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, in aid of the fund for the defence of South African political prisoners.
As a South African I believe I can say with truth that Paul Robeson had a special spot within himself for my country. We recall that in 1950 when workers were shot down by the fascist police at a May Day demonstration, Paul Robeson addressed a meeting of the National Labour Conference for Negro Rights, telling his audience: "Twelve South African workers now lie dead, shot in a peaceful demonstration by Malan's fascist police; as silent testimony to the fact that.. . it is later than they (the oppressors) think in the procession of history, and that rich land must one day return to Africans on whose backs the proud skyscrapers of the Johannesburg rich were built…"
Today the South African people stand on the threshold of the final struggle for the liberation of the black majority and the other oppressed communities. In 1961 the armed struggle for the overthrow of fascism in South Africa was begun; for the overthrow of white supremacy, of injustice, of racial hatred and the exploitation of our hard-pressed people. In 1967 the first battalions of our partisan fighters met the racist troops of South Africa and Rhodesia. Our people have died there in the beautiful Zambesi valley, since they have said that they no longer wish to lay down their lives defencelessly. I do not think that the South African movement today claims wholesale success or that victory will come soon. But we have reached the turning point in our history, and we have no doubt that victory will be ours.
The CAA represents one of the tangible ways in which Robeson put his belief in international solidarity into action.
Paul Robeson's Works | Robeson's Legacy | Sources