League Against Imperialism - 1927 Brussels Conference

1927 Brussels Conference

The League's headquarters were based first in Berlin, then London. Its creation was related to the revolutionary surge in China since 1926 and the Comintern's openings towards the nationalist Kuomintang which spearheaded the fight, along with Mao's Communist Party, against the Japanese in China. The initiative itself of the creation of this anti-imperialist league came from various personalities and movements, including J.T. Gumede of the African National Congress (ANC) of South Africa, Messali Hadj's North-African Star, pacifists Henri Barbusse and Gabrielle Duchêne, as well as Albert Einstein, Jawaharlal Nehru, accompanied by Virendranath Chattopadhyaya, socialists such as Fenner Brockway, Arthur MacManus, members of the Ligue des droits de l'homme (LDH, Human Rights League) such as Victor Basch, etc. Willy Münzenberg, who benefitted from the Komintern's trust, was in charge of its organization. Reginald Bridgeman was head of the British delegation sent by the House of Commons to the Conference, and became the League's general secretary in 1933.

Three main points were made in Brussels: the anti-imperialist struggle in China, interventions of the United States in Latin America and the "Negro revendications." The latter were presented at the tribune by the South African Gumede, the Antillean Max Clainville-Bloncourt of the Intercolonial Union, and Lamine Senghor. The president of the "Defense Committee of the Negro Race" denounced the crimes committed by the colonial administration in Congo, concluding that:

"Imperialist exploitation has as result the gradual extinction of African races. Their culture is going to be lost... For us, the anti-imperialist struggle is identical as anti-capitalist struggle."

Messali Hadj, leader of the Algerian North-African Star, requested the independence of all of North Africa. A manifesto was addressed "to all colonial peoples, workers and peasants of the world" calling them to organize themselves to struggle "against imperialist ideology."