I. T. A. Wallace-Johnson - Union Organizer and Communist Affiliations

Union Organizer and Communist Affiliations

In 1930, he helped form the Nigerian Workers' Union, the first trade union in Nigeria. The founder of the union, Frank Macauley, had Communist affiliations, and it is believed that Wallace-Johnson engaged in Communist-related activities during this time. He represented the Sierra Leone Railway Workers' Union at the International Trade Union Conference of Negro Workers in Hamburg, Germany in July 1930 under the alias E. Richards. Speakers at the conference addressed concerns "relating to the economic situations and working conditions of the Negro workers". He established a number of contacts at the conference and was elected to its presidium. Under the alias Wal. Daniels, he began publishing articles in the Negro Worker, the Conference's journal devoted to creating solidarity amongst black workers around the world. The journal advocated workers to take a proactive approach in addressing their work-related problems, instead of waiting for their employers or governments to address the issues.

The publication's platform greatly influenced Wallace-Johnson's later union-related activities in Sierra Leone and the Gold Coast. Colonial governments perceived the Negro Worker to be a threat to peace and stability in the regions and quickly banned the distribution of the publication. In 1933, he became a member of the editorial board of the Negro Worker. Afterward, he met many prominent black Communists and attended the International Labor and Defence Conference in Moscow, where he remained for almost 18 months. He claimed that he pursued studies at the People's University of the East in Marxist-Leninist theory, political activism, and trade union organization and roomed with Jomo Kenyatta, the future colonial leader for whom Kenya was named after. It was here that became influenced by the Pan-Africanism George Padmore, who was the Comintern-appointed coordinator of Communist activities among blacks. He returned to Lagos, Nigeria in 1933, but was deported by authorities months later for his trade union activities.