The International African Service Bureau (IASB) was a

pan-African Pan-Africanism is a worldwide movement that aims to encourage and strengthen bonds of solidarity between all Indigenous and diaspora peoples of African ancestry. Based on a common goal dating back to the Atlantic slave trade, the movement ext ...

organisation founded in London in 1937 by

West Indian A West Indian is a native or inhabitant of the West Indies (the Antilles and the Lucayan Archipelago). For more than 100 years the words ''West Indian'' specifically described natives of the West Indies, but by 1661 Europeans had begun to use it ...

George Padmore George Padmore (28 June 1903 – 23 September 1959), born Malcolm Ivan Meredith Nurse, was a leading Pan-Africanist, journalist, and author. He left his native Trinidad in 1924 to study medicine in the United States, where he also joined the Com ...

C. L. R. James Cyril Lionel Robert James (4 January 1901 – 31 May 1989),Fraser, C. Gerald, '' The New York Times'', 2 June 1989. who sometimes wrote under the pen-name J. R. Johnson, was a Trinidadian historian, journalist and Marxist. His works are i ...

, Amy Ashwood Garvey, T. Ras Makonnen and

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi ...

n nationalist Jomo Kenyatta and

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierr ...

an labour activist and agitator I. T. A. Wallace-Johnson. Chris Braithwaite (also known as Jones), was Secretary of this organisation.. The bureau emerged from the International African Friends of Abyssinia (

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

) and intended to address issues relating to Africa and the African diaspora to the British general public. Similar in design and organization to the

West African Youth League The West African Youth League (WAYL) was a political organisation founded by I. T. A. Wallace-Johnson in June 1935.. The group was a major political force against the colonial government in West Africa, especially in the Gold Coast and Sierra Leone ...

, the IASB also sought to inform the public about the grievances faced by those in colonial Africa and created a list of desired reforms and freedoms that would help the colonies. The bureau also hoped to encourage new African trade unions to affiliate themselves with the British labour movement. To further its interest, it held weekly meetings at Hyde Park, where members discussed labor strikes in the Caribbean and

. It also supplied speakers to branches of the Labour Party, trade unions and the

League of Nations Union The League of Nations Union (LNU) was an organization formed in October 1918 in Great Britain to promote international justice, collective security and a permanent peace between nations based upon the ideals of the League of Nations. The League of N ...

and provided questions to be asked in front of Parliament regarding legislation, working conditions and trade union regulations.. The IASB journal, ''International African Opinion'', was edited by C. L. R. James. In 1939 the IASB worked alongside the

League of Coloured Peoples The League of Coloured Peoples (LCP) was a British civil-rights organization that was founded in 1931 in London by Jamaican-born physician and campaigner Harold Moody with the goal of racial equality around the world, a primary focus being on bl ...

and the

West African Students Union The West African Students' Union (WASU), founded in London, England, in 1925 and active into the 1960s,"History o ...

to campaign against the colour bar introduced by

Adjutant-General An adjutant general is a military chief administrative officer. France In Revolutionary France, the was a senior staff officer, effectively an assistant to a general officer. It was a special position for lieutenant-colonels and colonels in staf ...

Robert Gordon-Finlayson General Sir Robert Gordon-Finlayson (15 April 1881 – 23 May 1956) was a senior British military officer who was appointed Adjutant-General to the Forces in 1939. Military career Finlayson entered the British Army from the Suffolk Militia and ...

in the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

. The organisation lasted until about 1945.

Marika Sherwood Marika Sherwood (born 1937) is a Hungarian-born historian, researcher, educator and author based in England. She is a co-founder of the Black and Asian Studies Association. Biography Sherwood was born in 1937 into a Jewish family living in Budap ...

"Ending British Rule in Africa: Writers in a Common Cause"
(review), ''Reviews in History'', December 2009.

References

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Notes

External links

The African diaspora: global solidarity in inter-war Britain
Pan-Africanist organizations in Europe Organizations established in 1937 Pan-Africanism in the United Kingdom Culture of the African diaspora {{Africa-org-stub