MIM Notes #227       February 1, 2001

Revolutionary China honored W.E.B. Du Bois


ITAL The following 1968 article from the Peking Review describes 
how Cultural-Revolution-era China celebrated W.E.B. Du Bois -- by 
remembering Du Bois' commitment to anti-imperialism and greeting 
the advancing national liberation struggles in Africa and Amerika. 
MIM reprints it here as part of its own campaign to preserve Du 
Bois' revolutionary, anti-imperialist legacy.

Just as the revisionists of thirty years ago "distorted the 
militant political stand of Dr. Du Bois against imperialism and 
colonialism," many contemporary so-called communists twist, 
ignore, or slander Du Bois' important teachings on the corrupting 
influence of imperialist super-profits. MIM's "Call to the 
International Communist Movement Regarding the Birthday of W.E.B. 
Du Bois" (page 5) aims to counter-act these lies and unmask those 
who use the rhetoric of communism to cover their own great-nation 
chauvinism. END


Peking Meeting Commemorates Centennial of Birth of Dr. W.E.B. Du 
Bois


The centennial of the birth of Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois, noted Afro-
American leader, was commemorated at a meeting sponsored by the 
Afro-Asian Writers' Bureau in Peking on February 23 [1968]. 

Vice-Premier Chen Yi attended the meeting. The speakers were Kuo 
Mo-jo, Vice-Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National 
People's Congress of China; Mrs. Shirley Graham Du Bois; and Rathe 
Deshapriya Senanayake, Secretary-General of the Afro-Asian 
Writers' Bureau, who were in Peking. 

Kuo Mo-jo quoted this passage form the cable of condolence by the 
great leader Chairman Mao in 1963 to Mrs. Du Bois: BOLD "Dr. Du 
Bois was a great man of our time. His deeds of heroic struggle for 
the liberation of the Negroes and the whole of mankind, his 
outstanding achievements in academic fields and his sincere 
friendship towards the Chinese people will for ever remain in the 
memory of the Chinese people." END BOLD

"Our great leader Chairman Mao," Kuo Mo-jo said, "made the most 
correct and comprehensive appraisal of Dr. Du Bois. Today, the 
struggle of the oppressed Afro-Americans in the United States is 
advancing triumphantly under the light of Mao Tse-tung's thought. 
We must continue to develop the undaunted spirit of Dr. Du Bois in 
the revolutionary struggle against imperialism and unite with 
Afro-Americans and all oppressed nations and peoples to eliminate 
U.S.-led imperialism and new and old colonialism. 

"Our great leader Chairman Mao has pointed out that BOLD 'the evil 
system of colonialism and imperialism arose and throve with the 
enslavement of Negroes and the trade in Negroes, and it will 
surely come to its end with the complete emancipation of the Black 
people.' We firmly believe that Chairman Mao's great prediction 
will become splendid reality." 

Kuo Mo-jo pointed out that Dr. Du Bois' whole life was one of 
struggle and of searching for the truth. Dr. Du Bois' heroic 
struggle for Afro-American freedom and liberation had made him 
clear-sighted, and in his later years he had repeatedly declared 
that only close co-operation with the proletariat and under the 
leadership of the Communist Party could the Afro-American fight 
for freedom be guaranteed to win final victory. 

When Dr. Du Bois came to China in 1959, Kuo Mo-jo said, "he saw 
for himself the splendid achievements of the Chinese people's 
revolution under the leadership of the great leader Chairman Mao; 
he saw the thriving New China illuminated by Mao Tse-tung's 
thought; he saw that the national question with which he was most 
concerned could only be correctly solved under the guidance of Mao 
Tse-tung's thought. And so he raised a great call to the African 
people to learn from China; he wanted the African people to learn 
from China's revolutionary experience -- the invincible thought of 
Mao Tse-tung." 

Dr. Du Bois' China visit "gave him a new lease on life. In 1961, 
at the advanced age of 93, Dr. Du Bois was determined to devote 
his life to the complete liberation of all mankind and to strive 
for communism," Kuo Mo-jo continued. 

"On August 8, 1963, half a month before the death of Dr. Du Bois, 
our great leader Chairman Mao issued the ITAL "Statement 
Supporting the Afro-Americans in Their Just Struggle against 
Racial Discrimination by U.S. Imperialism," END he said. "Like a 
radiant lamp, Chairman Mao's statement pointed out the road of 
liberation for the Afro-Americans and all the oppressed peoples 
and provided the most powerful theoretical weapon for the 
revolutionary struggle of the Afro-Americans. After this great 
document was published, in the United States the Black people 
became more awakened and their struggle became more powerful. They 
are using revolutionary violence to deal with counter-
revolutionary violence." The masses of Afro-Americans had broken 
the fetters of "non-violence," Kuo Mo-jo said. At present in the 
United States, armed struggle against violence had become the main 
form of struggle of Afro-Americans. 

Kuo Mo-jo condemned the modern revisionists with the Soviet 
leading clique -- the No. 1 accomplice of U.S. imperialism -- as 
the centre, for their attempts to make use of Dr. Du Bois to 
peddle their revisionist trash. "They deliberately do not mention 
Dr. Du Bois' spirit of resolutely opposing imperialism and new and 
old colonialism; and with evil intent, distort the great Du Bois 
as merely 'a teacher' 'whose interests were very wide,' 'professor 
of classical languages' and 'of economics." They even go further 
to distort Du Bois as 'a Negro pacifist' and a 'fighter for peace 
and freedom' to serve their surrender to U.S. imperialism and 
their betrayal of the revolutionary cause of the people of the 
world. This is diametrically opposed to Dr. Du Bois' resolute 
revolutionary spirit against imperialism," he said. 

In her speech, Mrs. Du Bois said, "I take delight in proclaiming 
to the world that the essence, the core, the light and glory of 
the nearly one hundred years accorded William Edward Burghardt Du 
Bois is that: He was a revolutionist!" 

The revisionists, she said, might only hail him as one of the 
founders of the World Peace Council. "I rejoice that I may 
celebrate this day here in the People's Republic of China, mighty 
bastion of world revolution . . . a nation of fighters against 
imperialism and revisionism, fighters against aggression and 
exploitation, fighters of justice and freedom, the nation which is 
the pilot light and inspiration of oppressed and struggling 
peoples, where they be. For the People's Republic of China is the 
only nation of indomitable, uncompromising, uncorrupted 
revolutionists in the world." 

She gave a detailed account of the valiant struggle fought by Dr. 
Du Bois for the Afro-American cause of freedom, equality and 
liberation. 

As Dr. Du Bois approached his 90th birthday, he was discouraged. 
He began to wonder what the long years of struggle had 
accomplished. However, he was reborn when he visited he People's 
Republic of China in 1959. "Seldom can it be said that a man who 
has long since passed three score and ten years, is born again in 
spirit, in mind, in body. But, in that spring of 1959, I saw it 
happen," Mrs. Du Bois said. 

"Long ago, the young Du Bois had written: 'I shall seek truth -- 
and I shall follow where it leads,'" she said. "Du Bois found 
truth in the People's Republic of China. The light came out of the 
red sun rising in the east, and he saw that the world and all its 
abundance not only belongs to the people, but that the people 
shall claim and hold it for their own. Here in China was the 
proof! 

"After four months travelling over China, he wrote: 'As we leave 
may we thank them (the people) humbly for all they have done for 
us, and for teaching us what communism means.'" 

Mrs. Du Bois recalled how the great teacher Chairman Mao had 
received them. "And, as we left, Chairman Mao placed in my 
husband's hands a slender book of his poems. All the following 
days of his life this little book lay on Du Bois' night table 
beside his bed -- for . . . .I salute the Afro-Americans, who with 
the slogan 'Black Power' are moving the proletarian masses of the 
United States towards revolution!" she continued. Dr. Du Bois 
"told us that the United States aggression would be stopped by the 
aroused masses of the world. Today, throughout Souteast Asia, in 
the Middle East, in South America and the islands of the sea, U.S. 
aggression is being pushed back, is being challenged, is being 
mocked as never before. He told that imperialism is doomed! Today, 
the victorious people of Vietnam are sounding its death knell. He 
told us that a people armed with correct thoughts, correct ideas 
and ideals -- are invincible. Today, the great proletarian 
cultural revolution, armed with Mao Tse-tung's thought, lifts 
revolution to heights never before envisaged by man." 

In closing, she recited one of Du Bois' favourite poems by 
Chairman Mao Tse-tung:



BOLD

Soon the dawn will break in the east,

But do not say we are marching early;

Though we've travelled all over these green hills we are not old 
yet,

And the landscape here is beyond compare.

Straight from the walls of Huichang lofty peaks,

Range after range extend to the eastern ocean.

Our soldiers, pointing, gaze south towards Kwangtung,

So green, so luxuriant in the distance.

END



The audience then heard a recording of the speech made by Dr. Du 
Bois at Peking University during his China tour. Dr. Du Bois said: 
"Africa, arise, face the rising sun!" "China is flesh of your 
flesh and blood of your blood. . . ."

Addressing the meeting, R.D. Senanayake drew attention to the 
significance of the celebration of Dr. Du Bois' centenary in 
Peking, capital of the bastion of world revolution, and amid 
sweeping victories scored in the unprecedented great proletarian 
cultural revolution personally led by the greatest revolutionary 
leader of our time, Chairman Mao Tse-tung. He added that the 
world's revolutionary people had the highest admiration for 
China's cultural revolution. 

Senanayake acclaimed the firm and uncompromising stand taken by 
Dr. Du Bois against imperialism and colonialism. 

The Soviet modern revisionist leading clique and its hangers-on, 
he said, had distorted the militant political stand of Dr. Du Bois 
against imperialism and colonialism headed by the United States 
and all reaction. They were trying to paint Dr. Du Bois "as a 
passive peace worker, in order to divert the revolutionary 
struggles that are being waged today by his fellow Afro-Americans 
in the United States of America and elsewhere against imperialist 
domination, racial discrimination, political oppression and social 
injustice." 

Senanayake continued: "Dr. Du Bois desired world peace not by 
capitulation to U.S. imperialism or compromising with it or 'peace 
at any cost' as the revisionists desire and preach now, but by 
struggling against imperialism and colonialism to win and 
safeguard national independence, people's democracy and socialism. 
It is with these aims he associated himself with the world peace 
movement since its early days. 

"Dr. Du Bois advocated the national-liberation struggles against 
imperialism and colonialism headed by the United States in order 
to achieve ever-lasting peace. The so-called world peace movement 
under the Soviet revisionists has, today, become a movement of 
capitulation to U.S. imperialism." 

The Afro-Asian Writers' Bureau called upon the revolutionary and 
progressive Afro-Americans and other peoples to resolutely carry 
forward the struggle against imperialism and colonialism headed by 
the United States, modern revisionism with the Soviet revisionist 
leading clique at its centre and all reaction in order win and 
safeguard national independence, people's democracy and socialism, 
the ideals for which Dr. Du Bois had stood and fought 
uncompromisingly till his last breath. 

Present on the occasion were leading members of the various 
organizations concerned including Chang Hsi-jo, Chu Tu-nan, Ting 
Hsi-lin and Hsu Kuang-ping. Among the foreign friends present were 
representatives of the Afro-Asian Writers' Bureau -- Ahmed 
Mohammed Kheir from the Sudan, Kinkazu Saionji from Japan and Afif 
from Indonesia -- Djawoto, Secretary-General of the Afro-Asian 
Journalists' Association, Afro-American leader Robert Williams and 
representatives of international organizations and organizations 
for national liberation of a number of countries in Peking. A 
reception was given by R.D. Senanayake after the meeting. 



Peking Review 1 March 1968 pp. 26-7.

retyped by MC5