Birthday of George Padmore

Born on this day in 1903 in Trinidad, George Padmore was a journalist, radical activist, and theoretician. After moving to the US to study in 1925, Padmore moved to Moscow, USSR in 1929 to head the Comintern’s International Trade Union Committee of Negro Workers and to edit the Negro Worker. In 1933 the Comintern suspended publication of the Negro Worker and disbanded the Trade Union Committee of Negro Workers, prompting Padmore to split acrimoniously with the Party. In 1935, the official foreign policy of the USSR shifted, Britain and France, colonial powers with colonies in Africa, were now referred "democratic-imperialisms", a lower priority than the category of "fascist-imperialist" powers, Germany and Japan. This shift fell into direct contradiction with Padmore's prioritization of African independence. In 1936 Padmore moved to London where he wrote extensively and organized for the anti-colonial struggle worldwide. Toward the end of his life he moved to Accra, Ghana, where he helped shape the politics of Kwame Nkrumah and the Convention People's Party.