Marcus Garvey

Marcus Moziah Garvey (1887 - 1940 ) migrated to the USA from his native Jamaica at the age of 29.  By 1916 he had become the idol of the black masses in America, the Caribbean and Latin America, where under his leadership branches of the "Universal Negro Improvement Association" (UNIA) were formed. A dynamic orator and fluent writer, Garvey was a master of pageantry. But his charisma alone cannot explain the remarkable response he obtained from black America.  The attraction can be found in his policies, for Marcus Garvey was one of the first black racial nationalists. Unlike the communist black power movements, which have been used to bring down the white man, Garvey's idea was merely to improve the conditions and ability of his fellow blacks.

Like many black leaders Marcus Garvey was first attracted to left-wing movements. He worked in close alliance with the Communists and Socialists in the "Afro-American Liberty League".  Garvey did not confine his interests to social and economic problems, he also understood and gave expression to the spiritual needs of American blacks in their striving for racial recognition.  After being away from their homeland for many years, they had to a great extent lost their culture and identity.  Garvey tried to engender a feeling of pride in their origins and to give the black community self respect.

At a magnificent UNIA conference in New York in 1920, the delegates unanimously appointed themselves representatives of Africa, even though there was not one genuine African name among the 122 signatories to the declaration.  When the League of Nations was discussing the future of Germany's African colonies after the First World War, Garvey proposed that instead of the colonies being granted self-government, the mandate to govern them should be granted to UNIA.

Garvey's racialist separationist ideas were firmly developed when he wrote in 1923, "Hitherto the other negro movements ( with the exception of the movement led by Booker. T. Washington) sought to teach the negro to aspire to social equality with the white, meaning thereby the right to inter-marry and fraternise in every social way. Still some negro organisations continue to preach this race-destroying doctrine, added to a programme of political agitation and aggression."... "The time is opportune to regulate the relationship between both races. Let the negro have a country of his own.  Help him return to his original home, Africa, and there give him the opportunity to climb from the lowest to the highest positions in a state of his own."... "We of UNIA cede to the white man the right to do as he pleases in his own country, and that is why we believe in not making any trouble when he says that "America is a white man's country.

In 1922 Garvey paid a visit to the Imperial Wizard of the Klu Klux Klan in Georgia.  The white racialists were natural allies for Garvey.  Their open white racialism helped develop the race consciousness of American blacks and to stimulate interest in the UNIA-sponsered movement for repatriation to Africa.

In a  meeting that took place on October 28th 1925, at Liberty Hall. Garvey introduced a representative from the Anglo-Saxon Clubs of America ( the northern KKK counterpart ),whom he had invited to speak. "Mr Powell and his organisation sympathise with us even as we sympathise with them.  I feel and believe that we should work together for the purpose of bringing about the ideal sought for the purification of the races, their autonomous separation and the unbridled freedom of self-development and self-expression.

Garvey not only rejected the idea of a political alliance with white leftists, but preferred an understanding with white employers.  However, the U.S. big business establishment were not keen on allowing Garvey to propogate this racialist ideal.  In 1925 he was arrested on a trumped-up charge and sentenced to five years imprisonment.  Garvey's reaction was to move even further to the right.  He proclaimed that "Capitalism is necessary to the progress of the world ... but there should be a limit to the individual or corporate use or control of it. All control, use and investment of money should be the perogative of the State with the concurrent authority of the people."  After his prison term Garvey was deported to Jamaica, where he endeavoured to ressurect the UNIA.

Deprived of his usual source of funds, Garvey did not manage to make much impact, although he was able to produce a newpaper, The Blackman, and he also entered local municipal politics. The Blackman became a daily paper and was superseded by The New Jamaican in 1932. By 1934 his career was faltering. His presses were seized by creditors and Garvey himself had to emigrate to England. In London he resurrected The Blackman, now on a monthly basis. He also undertook several speaking tours in Canada and South America.  It was for Garvey a heroic last stand. His fortunes continued to decline, his magazine folded yet again, and his health was ailing.  His family returned to Jamaica and Garvey died alone in London on June 10th 1940. Only a small number of admirers attended Bethnal Green cemetry to mourn his passing.

 Editors comment.... Garvey held the key to black success and an end to racial strife. Logic and commonsense would indicate that Garvey's sensible ideas of peaceful co-existence would win the battle for minds. He had at one time enormous support, but the changes never came to fruition because his followers overestimated their leaders power, and did not think to add their own impetus. This is a problem suffered by all nationalist organisations when the majority of their supporters quite wrongly believe they need do nothing and that the party heirachy will succeed without help. 

Division, degeneracy and dysfunctional societies have resulted from political-correctness, multi-culturalism and the irreligious system of financial usury. This oppressive and unnatural system, that has been foisted on us, has caused widespread misery and depression among the masses, it has taken away our power to act, while holding the public in blind obedience to their accursed masters.  To overcome what has become a global problem we need to support true nationalists in every country, that is if we are to defeat our common foe, the Internationalists .... or to be more precise the anti-nationalists.

 For the past hundred years or more, a small number of incredibly wealthy schemers have controlled the thinking of the masses and for the most part this has been done in an extreme left-wing way.  Morality, logic, fair-play, justice and self-worth have been lost due to the muddled thinking of the majority.