Discussing the “Most Important Question of the 20th Century”: W. E. B. Du Bois and the ILO’s Efforts for a Regulation of “Native Labor” Politics, 1919–1926

Kutsche, Fabiana; Lindner, Ulrike

doi:10.13169/zanjglobsoutstud.8.1.0006

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Zanj: The Journal of Critical Global South Studies

Volume 8, Issue 1-2

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Discussing the “Most Important Question of the 20th Century”: W. E. B. Du Bois and the ILO’s Efforts for a Regulation of “Native Labor” Politics, 1919–1926

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Author(s): Fabiana Kutsche ¹ , Ulrike Lindner ²

Publication date (Electronic, pub): 25 January 2025

Journal: Zanj: The Journal of Critical Global South Studies

Publisher: Pluto Journals

Keywords: International Labor Organization, W. E. B. Du Bois, race, internationalism, Pan-Africanism

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Abstract

Upon its foundation in 1919, the International Labour Organization (ILO) sought to improve the working conditions of workers all over the world. Still, its work and methods were shaped by strong imperial interests that hindered the immediate emancipation of colonial workers. In this article, we study the ILO’s engagement with colonial “native labor questions” from 1919 to 1926. Following the historian Sandrine Kott, we understand international organizations as “spaces in which one can reveal the existence of networks of relationships and systems of circulation.” In this paper, we therefore analyze how activists used international organizations as a forum for advocacy of their interests. By looking at the personal entanglements between the civil rights activist W. E. B. Du Bois, the British Anti-Slavery and Aborigines Protection Society, and League of Nations and ILO staff, we seek to understand the different motives and strategies behind the negotiations for an improvement of colonial labor politics and the reasons for their ultimate failure. During the first years, some of the activist groups, particularly the British Anti-Slavery Society, could already count on their personal connections into the international sphere of the organization and exerted their influence through these networks. More marginalized actors, such as the Pan-African movement around Du Bois, argued for the need of direct representation on the expert committee based on factors of race and gender. When the ILO’s efforts culminated in the 1926 foundation of a Committee of Experts for Native Labor, however, most of the expert seats were filled by former colonial politicians, representing the interests of the imperial powers and not those of activists. Looking at these networking efforts during the early study of “Native Labor” in the ILO therefore allows us to understand the contested discourse on native labor in colonial contexts within the organization and the workings of the power structures in which the imperial networks took precedence.

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Author and article information

Journal

Title: Zanj: The Journal of Critical Global South Studies

Publisher: Pluto Journals

ISSN: 2515-2149

Publication date (Electronic, pub): 25 January 2025

Volume: 8

Issue: 1-2

Pages: 79-104

Affiliations

[1 ] University of Cologne, Germany;

[2 ] Modern History, University of Cologne, Germany;

Author information

Fabiana Kutsche https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8348-9889

Ulrike Lindner https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4933-5453

Article

DOI: 10.13169/zanjglobsoutstud.8.1.0006

SO-VID: dce44aec-1d9f-4bf4-90ba-ba8eaa78dd06

License:

Published under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International ( CC BY 4.0). Users are allowed to share (copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format) and adapt (remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially), as long as the authors and the publisher are explicitly identified and properly acknowledged as the original source.

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Funding

Funded by: funder-id https://doi.org/10.13039/501100001663, Volkswagen Foundation;

Award ID: 96 966

References

Alexander Shawn Leigh. An Army of Lions. 2012. University of Pennsylvania Press. [Cross Ref]
Anderson Carol. Bourgeois Radicals. 2014. Cambridge University Press. [Cross Ref]
Carlton-La Ney Iris. Notes on a Forgotten Black Social Worker and Sociologist: George Edmund Haynes. The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare. Vol. 10(3)1983. WMU Department of Occupational Therapy. [Cross Ref]
Dunstan Sarah C.. Race, Rights and Reform. 2021. Cambridge University Press. [Cross Ref]
Fall Babacar, Roberts Richard L.. Forced LabourGeneral Labour History of Africa. p. 77–116. 2019. Boydell and Brewer Limited. [Cross Ref]
Griffith Mark. Gilbert Murray on Greek Literature: The Great/Greek Man's BurdenGilbert Murray Reassessed. p. 51–80. 2007. Oxford University PressOxford. [Cross Ref]
Hodder Jake. The Elusive History of the Pan-African Congress, 1919–27. History Workshop Journal. Vol. 91(1):113–131. 2021. Oxford University Press (OUP). [Cross Ref]
Kott Sandrine. Towards a Social History of International Organisations: The ILO and the Internationalisation of Western Social Expertise (1919–1949)Palgrave Macmillan Transnational History Series. p. 33–57. 2018. Springer International Publishing. [Cross Ref]
Mayer David, van der Linden Marcel. Labour Internationalism in Context Small and LargePalgrave Studies in the History of Social Movements. p. 411–420. 2020. Springer International Publishing. [Cross Ref]
Maul Daniel Roger. The International Labour Organization and the Struggle against Forced Labour from 1919 to the Present. Labor History. Vol. 48(4):477–500. 2007. Informa UK Limited. [Cross Ref]
McCarthy Helen. The British People and the League of Nations. 2011. Manchester University Press. [Cross Ref]
Morwood James. Gilbert Murray's Translations of Greek TragedyGilbert Murray Reassessed. p. 133–144. 2007. Oxford University PressOxford. [Cross Ref]
Mullen Bill V.. W.E.B. Du Bois. 2016. Pluto Press. [Cross Ref]
Pedersen Susan. The Guardians. 2015. Oxford University Press. [Cross Ref]
Ribi Amalia. ‘The Breath of a New Life’?Internationalism Reconfigured. 2011. I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd. [Cross Ref]
Ribi Forclaz Amalia. Humanitarian Imperialism. 2015. Oxford University Press. [Cross Ref]
Sibeud Emmanuelle. Entre geste impériale et cause internationale : défendre les indigènes à Genève dans les années 1920. Monde(s). Vol. N° 6(2):23–43. 2014. CAIRN. [Cross Ref]
de Araújo Caio Simões. Between Race, Nation, and Empire:Beyond Versailles. p. 165–188. 2019. Indiana University Press. [Cross Ref]
Stapleton Julia. The Classicist as Liberal Intellectual: Gilbert Murray and Alfred Eckhard ZimmernGilbert Murray Reassessed. p. 261–292. 2007. Oxford University PressOxford. [Cross Ref]
Wilson Peter. Retrieving Cosmos: Gilbert Murray's Thought on International RelationsGilbert Murray Reassessed. p. 239–260. 2007. Oxford University PressOxford. [Cross Ref]

Comments

Comment on this article

[1] Alexander Shawn Leigh. An Army of Lions. 2012. University of Pennsylvania Press. [Cross Ref]

[2] Anderson Carol. Bourgeois Radicals. 2014. Cambridge University Press. [Cross Ref]

[3] Carlton-La Ney Iris. Notes on a Forgotten Black Social Worker and Sociologist: George Edmund Haynes. The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare. Vol. 10(3)1983. WMU Department of Occupational Therapy. [Cross Ref]

[4] Dunstan Sarah C.. Race, Rights and Reform. 2021. Cambridge University Press. [Cross Ref]

[5] Fall Babacar, Roberts Richard L.. Forced LabourGeneral Labour History of Africa. p. 77–116. 2019. Boydell and Brewer Limited. [Cross Ref]

[6] Griffith Mark. Gilbert Murray on Greek Literature: The Great/Greek Man's BurdenGilbert Murray Reassessed. p. 51–80. 2007. Oxford University PressOxford. [Cross Ref]

[7] Hodder Jake. The Elusive History of the Pan-African Congress, 1919–27. History Workshop Journal. Vol. 91(1):113–131. 2021. Oxford University Press (OUP). [Cross Ref]

[8] Kott Sandrine. Towards a Social History of International Organisations: The ILO and the Internationalisation of Western Social Expertise (1919–1949)Palgrave Macmillan Transnational History Series. p. 33–57. 2018. Springer International Publishing. [Cross Ref]

[9] Mayer David, van der Linden Marcel. Labour Internationalism in Context Small and LargePalgrave Studies in the History of Social Movements. p. 411–420. 2020. Springer International Publishing. [Cross Ref]

[10] Maul Daniel Roger. The International Labour Organization and the Struggle against Forced Labour from 1919 to the Present. Labor History. Vol. 48(4):477–500. 2007. Informa UK Limited. [Cross Ref]

[11] McCarthy Helen. The British People and the League of Nations. 2011. Manchester University Press. [Cross Ref]

[12] Morwood James. Gilbert Murray's Translations of Greek TragedyGilbert Murray Reassessed. p. 133–144. 2007. Oxford University PressOxford. [Cross Ref]

[13] Mullen Bill V.. W.E.B. Du Bois. 2016. Pluto Press. [Cross Ref]

[14] Pedersen Susan. The Guardians. 2015. Oxford University Press. [Cross Ref]

[15] Ribi Amalia. ‘The Breath of a New Life’?Internationalism Reconfigured. 2011. I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd. [Cross Ref]

[16] Ribi Forclaz Amalia. Humanitarian Imperialism. 2015. Oxford University Press. [Cross Ref]

[17] Sibeud Emmanuelle. Entre geste impériale et cause internationale : défendre les indigènes à Genève dans les années 1920. Monde(s). Vol. N° 6(2):23–43. 2014. CAIRN. [Cross Ref]

[18] de Araújo Caio Simões. Between Race, Nation, and Empire:Beyond Versailles. p. 165–188. 2019. Indiana University Press. [Cross Ref]

[19] Stapleton Julia. The Classicist as Liberal Intellectual: Gilbert Murray and Alfred Eckhard ZimmernGilbert Murray Reassessed. p. 261–292. 2007. Oxford University PressOxford. [Cross Ref]

[20] Wilson Peter. Retrieving Cosmos: Gilbert Murray's Thought on International RelationsGilbert Murray Reassessed. p. 239–260. 2007. Oxford University PressOxford. [Cross Ref]

Zanj: The Journal of Critical Global South Studies

Discussing the “Most Important Question of the 20th Century”: W. E. B. Du Bois and the ILO’s Efforts for a Regulation of “Native Labor” Politics, 1919–1926

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