Page 143 - Afrika Must Unite

128 AFRICA MUST UNITE
over, because of their alliances with European powers, they are
obliged at times to act against the interests of their workers and
their trade unions in support of the alien interests in their
countries. The African trade union movement must promote
the independence and welfare of the African worker; it cannot
run the risk of subordinating the safety of African independence
and the needs of African development to other, non-African
influences.
I see in the All-African Trade Union Federation, because of
its independent African orientation, a dynamic and positive
instrument for drawing together the peoples of the African
countries. It can act as a rallying pivot for all the African trade
union movements on the continent; it can become an immediate
practical union, bringing together the labour movements
existing in the independent African states and leaving room for
others to join as they become free. We in Africa must learn to
band together to promote African interests or fall victims to
imperialist manoeuvres to re-colonize us.
The development of a united African trade union movement
will give our working classes a new African consciousness and the
right to express themselves in the councils of world labour un­
fettered by any foreign view and uncoerced by external force.
The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions and the
W orld Federation of Trade Unions are organizations committed
to the ideological policies of West and East. The All-African
Trade Union Federation will give the world a new force in­
dependent of both of them, and loyal not only to the needs of the
new Africa and the new African, but also to the international
working class.
The growth of this new African trade unionism is linked up
with the future of Africa. Such a dynamic force, allied to
political action, is the surest means of routing out of our continent
the last remnants of colonialism and exploitation, since it will
stimulate the effectiveness of the nationalist movements.
Just as political independence could not have been attained
without the leadership of a strong, disciplined party, so G hana’s
economic independence and the objective of socialism cannot
be achieved without decisive party leadership. I am convinced
that the Convention People’s Party, based as it is on the support