The Daily Worker Newspaper, September 18, 1930, Page 4

Publisueo by the Comprudany Cuutichine Got except eunday, Be re. ew York City, N. Y. Telephone Stuy 169€-7-8. Cable: Page Four and mai? all checks to the Daily Worke Union Square New York. N. ¥ 40-23 Luise at “DAIWORK." wai Central Orgo ON THE NEGRO QUESTION | By J. W. FORD. (From a Speech at the Seventh Convention of the C. P. U. S. A.) To approach the Negro question we must do so from three points of view. We must ap- proach from the point of view of the Negro a part of the wo of the ec arly as we the whole American ss in s approa ion from as exp an tt. of po an oppressed ippressed nationali ppressed minor class. And f from the scope, a point of ew revolutionary movemer the national 1 moveme rticulariy struggle oppression. of the Negro questi who are the in th f condi slave remnants makes the peasant question t 1 question for the struggle of the Negro workers in this the same time involv the ggle of the peasants in the South for land which has been denied them. Connected with this is the question of determination. This is part of the nai ques The logical conclusion of the strug- gle against semi-slave conditions, against the conditions of the peasantry must be the right of self-determination. The struggle for self- nation must be put forward no as the struggle for the rights of the Negro work- t of the struggle of the peas- antry ainst the semi-slave conditions. The struggle for self-determination is logically mnected up with the struggle of the Negro for equal rights, against the dominant ruling class that denies and takes away from the Negro workers and peasants all rights, civil, political, denying them any so-called demo- cratic rights. Therefore our struggle for self- determination must be part of the national struggle. The slogan for self-determination, as pointed out by the Comintern letter is a propaganda slogan at the present moment. However, because this is not an action slogan but a propaganda slogan we must not deny the Negro workers the right of self-determina- tion, to struggle for the realization of this slogan at the present time. We must not confuse the idea of self-determination and the struggle of the Negro workers, with the petty bourgeois idea of Garveyism but all the more struggle against them. Comrades, any vacillation in putting forward the question of self-determination of the Negro workers in this country and the Negro peasants denies the political line as laid down by the CI with regard to the Negro question. If we have any vacillation on this question it has in it the basis of white chauvinism, As I said before, the struggle for self- determination, is one for the liquidation of slave remnants.and serfdom conditions im- posed on the Negroes. Any other idea leads us astray. For example the idea of Lovestone that the industrial revolution will take care of the Negro question. If we vacillate we will go over to the idea of the industrial revo- lution in the South being the means to lib- erate the Negro workers and peasants. In other words we will make the question of self- determination a question purely of proletarian struggles, that is, that we cannot struggle for the Negro peasants until after the realization of the revolution, that we can develop a move- ment among them only through the proletar- ianization of the peasant masses in the South, that this must occur before they can become a factor in the struggles of Negro workers in this country, Such a vacillation denies the struggle for the liquidation of the serf and semi-slave conditions and at the same time puts forward the reactionary theory of Love- stone that the Negro peasants in the South are a reserve of capitalist reaction. We find to the contrary that the movement in the South is a part of the revolutionary struggle in this country. At the same time we may also fall into a wrong theory, advanced by Pepper, for the struggle immediately for a Soviet Republic in this country. This policy is absurd; because the whole of the Negro question cannot be,solved until the realization of the proletarian revolution and the victor- ious socialist struggle in this country, then nothing can be done before. This is a “leftist” conception leading to no action at all. Now, comrades, with regard to self-deter- mination and question of the Negro and white workers: the white -workers as well as the Negro industrial workers of the North must be shown that the struggle for self-determina- tion in the first place is a part of the struggle of the white workers’ against capitalism, against imperialism in the U. S. First, why does the bourgeoisie uphold the idea of 100 per cent nationalism in this coun- try? It upholds the idea of 100 per cent na- tionalism in order to separate the Negro workers from the white workers, in order to exploit without hindrance both the Negro workers and the white workers of the whole working class. That is white nationalism, the separation of the Negro workers on the basis of racial inferiority and white superiority. This gives the A, F. L. more hold upon the white workers, more opportunity to carry out their fascist role against the workers. It helps the socialist party play its social-fascist role. Secondly, we must point out racial differ- ence as factors in lowering the standards of the working class. When the white bosses can keep the races divided, they are able, as we know, to keep the standards of both w and Negro workers down. As long as the rul- ing class is able to keep up racial differences, the standards of the white workers are pushed down, and the standards of the general work- ing class is lower. We have seen this in a number of cases. This is the second reason ers and as a pa why we must draw the white workers into | the Negro workers in this country will be Now, Comrades, on the question of the | sro reformist or ons in this countr. We will take up first the National Associa- the struggle of the Negro workers for self- | determination. | Thirdiy, self-de ation is the highest | expression of social and political | equality for ro workers, This is the | crux of our s We must point out that precisely at the present moment, in Gastonia and our le in the South, the rpest develoy oppre itation of Negro workers, to unify the i white w t the capital- mediatel uch viciou jouth. I made DOSses The stru for equality is in e against capi- } 1 the Negroes at the bottom of the exploited group in’ 'this country and thus form a base for the exploita- of the whole work or the struggl of Negro f£ the asses of a work task of rive chauvinism its | it will our movement from a class point | of viev Some of our comrades think that | e Negro is a factor when they are nyn- | ically weak hen we say the Negro work- | ers are not a factor in an industry, we are | de egro workers are a factor | in onary struggle. Precisely in | the Negro workers in the | co! bout 1 per cent to industry, pre- | struggle on he workers in the e had the sharpe Ve see that the expression, | that the g ers are not a factor in | an industry, shows a tendency of opportunism, | a tenden ng every one of our revolutio the struggle of me in this coun- » Negro depart- organized for the definite purpose of seeing that the union had a proper orientation to Negro work, and because the Negro Department fought bitterly against the opportunist tendency in the union, these Ne- er were called black chauvin This is another way to cover up. incorrect policies,’ I do not mean to say th there is such thing as black chauyini Black chauvinism has been discussed by the Comintern. The | Comintern is opposed to the idea that there is any such thing as black chauvinism. Why? Because when we take the Negro question as a question of oppress we have had the } bourgeoisie for 100 years and more utilizing the white working class against th egro worker and therefore the Negro workers are suspicious of the white worker. Comrade Lenin at the Second Congress said that we had to lean back to reach them. In regard to the ANLC we do not yet see that we must w the majo of Negro masses and backward elements, antry, by a liberation movement which must be built among the Negro workers. The ALC has not gone forward proper We must build the ANLC into a broad mass organiza- tion. Also we have not sufficiently brought the Negro workers into the TUUL. Our Negro department should not be iso- lated in general from the movement of the Party but every section of the Party must take steps to organize the Negro workers. Some say that the Negro department of the TUUL is too much connected up with the TUUL, that it is too much a part of the TUU That is precisely what we are trying to do is to make the Negro Department a part of the TUUL, so that every department is ization. But the same time we are not ng to bring Negro workers into the organ- trying to lose the identity~of the Negro De- partment. tion for the Advancement of Colored People— an organization that has been organized-some twenty years, and at that time put forth the question of social and political equality of Negro and white workers from a petty bour- geois point of ew. At the present time this organization is a petty bourgeois organ- ization of intellectuals, which has not become numerically vet large The NAACP. is the mouthpie of this new rising bourgeois class of the gro and at the same time shows its relationship with the white bour- geois class by having on its board of directors such fellows as Rosenwald, Rockefeller and other millionaires. This “organization is now openly struggling against the whole working class. It is the same way with the Urban League. This is an urban organization having as its idea, organizing the workers for jobs. But it does not put forth wage demands of the workers, and says that the workers should not strike for better conditions or higher wages, but should consider the boss their friend. The ‘Garvey movement is a nationalist movement, a black Negro capitalist movement. Garvey is putting forth the idea of black capitalist enterprise and denying the right or the need of the Negro workers to organize in trade unions. Closely connected with these reformist Ne- gro organizations is the reformist trade union organization led by Randolph, and which | he has betrayed—the Brotherhood of Negro | Sleeping Car Porters. He betrayed this union | into the A. F, of L. and at the same time has carried on open fascist atta against the organizers of the American Negro Labor Congress, and at the present time is respon- | sible for the imprisonment of Comrade Saul and Comrade Harper. We must make a de- termined struggle against these organiza- | tions, | Now, comrades, | want to take up the in- ternational aspect of our Negro question, The Negro work in South Africa, in the West Indies are exploited in the same man- ! ner as the American Negroes. In South Africa the basis of reaction among the peasant and native elements of South Afri- ca is the native chiefs, who are the agents of American and: British imperialism, The struggle there must be made by the work- ers and peasants, against the whole im- perialist oppression of the workers of these countries. We must put forward the setting up of native republics under peasants and workers control as is being done in India and China. It is in this connection that the London Conference of Negro workers which is to take place in Germany instead of Lon- don, where it was barred, has great impor- tance. The Negro movement of this country, by developing a mass liberation movement of } umental CAMOUFLAGE EWN Ker eed on Party Wen mail everywhere: Une year $6; six months Harhattan aud Bronz, New York City, and foreign. which are! BU BSI LUN, NAL Bi 3; two months $1; excepting Boroughs eaten yr. $8; six mons, ii 4 on NATIONL IZ © THLE LAND 7 BY BURCK. Mr. Broun Adyertises His Qualities By WM. Z. FOSTER. (Prisoner 52350. (Communist Candidate for Governor of New York State.) New York Herald-Tribune 9, Mr. Heywood Broun, “socjalist” candidate for Congress, had a big advertisement, cost- ing a couple of hundred dolars, assuring whom- ever it may concern that he is not a Com- munist. He reprints with indigfation the cartoon Burek in the Daily Worker flay- ing him as a monkey begging for pennies for the unemployed. Broun says, “I am not a Communist. I am a socialist.” But Mr. Broun’s excitement is needless. He need not be in such a hurry to assure his In the of Sept. of masters that he is-harmless. They know it already. That's why he is fed at the trough of the brass check. That's why his rabid ut- terances are spread through the capital pre A Political Fool. It is true that while using him as a tool, along with the social-fascists generally, to confuse the workers, even the capitalist press can’t refrain from laughing at him, He is a natural born political fool, his stupidity reaching new heights in his attempts to convert the republican party to “socialism” through Mrs. Pratt. Burck was right, a monkey cutting up monkey shines, begging pennies for capitalism for the workers—that’s Broun. * Mr. Broun is right when he says he is no Communist. Communists are revolutionists. All over the world they are staking their lives and liberty in the struggle to over- throw capitalism. What has Mr. Broun in common with all that? Just nothing! No more than his peer, Norman Thomas. To overthrow capitalism is the very last thing either of them are thinking of. Broun Is Just Beginning. un is also right when he says he is socialist"—that is a “socialist? of the st? party brand that simply parades the name, but that has forgotten Marx (Broun never knew him) and wars against the Soviet Union where in the face of mon- difficulties the workers are build- ing socialism. He is a “socialist” of the MacDonald, Noske, Second International type, that serves as the last bulwark of capitalism. The political clown, Brown, finds his new “socialist” clothes ill-fitting as yet. He has not yet learned to patter off the radical phrases in pseudo-Marxian language. All he knows yet is the open opportunist ma- neuvering for votes. But, under the skill- ful leadership of Hilquit and Thomas, he will earn the whole “socialist” bag of tricks for deceiving the workers, In this campaign, though he is a ridiculous figure to the Workers, Broun serves to rally the petty “s0¢ able to influence and direct the liberation movement of the Negro workers in other parts of the world, and it is therefore, com- vades, significant and important that we should give full support to our Negro work. ‘The “New Masses” and Proletarian Literature By MAX BEDACHT. In the Masses” of Sept. 1930, we find an editorial paragraph headed “Dogma vs, Law.” In this paragraph we are treated to the following categoric statement: “We have only one magazine in America: The New Mases, dedicated to proletarian literature, And there-is no publishing house of standing and intelligent direction to help clarify the issues. Nearest is the Interna- tional Publishe: perhaps, but this house devotes itself solely to a rather academic approach to economics and makes little at- tempt to influence either the popular mind or our intellectuals. It is as stodgy and unenter; unist wi as the similar organiza- tions it is rather surprising to find such a para- graph in a magazine which claims to be dedidated to proletarian literature. First of all, we would expect from “the only magazine dedicated to proletarian lit- erature in America” of proletarian more correct conception literature. According to the New Masses, Ryazanev’s “K Marx and Freidrich Engel's,” Stoklov’s of the First International,” Lenin's “Materialism and Empirio-Criticism,” and similar writings is- sued by the International Publishers, are not proletarian literature. Of course, we do not know on what grounds the New Masses re- fuses to qualify such books as proletarian literature. Are they ruling these books out because they are not literature, or are they refusing to acknowledge them proletarian? It seems to me that a magazine that claims to be “dedicated to proletarian literature” should attach a little more importance to the theory of Marx and Lenin than to rule the books of these revolutionists out of the classi- fication of proletarian literature, or to de- clare that a publishing house that specializes in the bringing out of such literature lacks intelligent direction, The writers and ad- ministrators of “the only American magazine Support the “Working Woman” By I. The VU. Census AMTER. Bureau has announced that 10,000,000 women in the United States are gainfully employed. We do not yet know what part of these women are young workers, unmarried and married women. If we take the experiences ani facts of pre- ceding periods and apply them to the present one, with its multiplied use of automatic ma- chinery and the subdivision of work—in other words the use of unskilled ‘and semi-skilled labor, then we will understand why so many bourgeois clements,° upon whom the “social- ist” party is counting so much, The workers must repudiate tive mounti- bank Broun, his still more dangerous social- fascist collezgue, Thomas, and the whole “socialist” ticket. The Party of the workers is the Communist Party, It alone fights for the immediate interests of the workers and for their final emancipation. The coming slections must be a mass mobilization of ‘e workers under its revolutionary banner. Workers, Vote Communist! Support the Work- ers’ Unemployment ‘Insurance Bill! Strike against wage cuts! Build the T.U.U.L.! Join , the Communist Party! (Written at Hart's Island Penitentiary.) | ‘the revolutionary movement in America, those dedicated to proletarian literature’ ought to haye heard sometime and read some place that there can be no revolutionary movement without a revolutionary theory, We expected them to know enough not to underestimate the value of the kind of proletarian literature produced by such institutions as the Inter- national Publishers. But our expectations were evidently unjustified. There may be an underproduction of so- caled “light” proletarian literature in Amer- ica: but this is due primarily to the barren- ness and sterility of the self-styled “American proletarian writers.” Most of what they pro- duce does not breathe the spirit of the pro- letariat. Most of these writers do not under- stand the worker, and do not know the workers’ thoughts. They cannot reproduce and: interpret in literature the American worker, his world and his aspirations, and the process of revolutionary transformation of them, If the publishers and editors of the “only magazine dedicated to proletarian literature in America” would study a little more intensely and follow a little more closely the contents of the literature published by the “stodgy and unenterprising” Inter- national Publishers if might fecundate the proletarian quality of their literary produc- tions, as well as their literary style. Until such time, however, those active -in who dedicate their lives and activities to the building up of a revolutionary Party to the organizing of the working class of America into a revolutionary army, will have to depend solely upon the theoretical directions given them in the works of Lenin and Marx, upon the inspiration given them in biographies and memoirs of Marx, Lenin, Vera Figner and Bill Haywood, and upon the experience trans- mitted to them in the histories of the working class, of the Internationals, in the theoretical works, and in the historical sketches and ar- ticles written by Marx, Engels, Lenin and others, such as are being published by the International Publishers. women are employed in industry—they repre- sent cheap labor-power. Secondly, when one considers the fearful unemployment crisis, which compels all mem- bers of the family to look for work, then one has another angle of the situation that has driven 10,000,000 women into work. You call this, “breaking up the home”? Of course it has broken it up—capitalists are not interested in the working class home ex- cept to get high rent out of it. The capitalist wants cheap labor and does not stop at women, married women and mothers--he even takes. the children and forces them on to the beet-fields, into oyster canneries, southern tex- tile mills, into the sweatshop industries, The time has come for the whole working class to realize that women are @ permanent part of industry—that the working girl who { marries in the hope of getting out of indus- ; try and trade, soon finds herself back again in the shop, office or store. The time-has come for the workers to realize that women must be drawn into the working class organizations. Have working women not demonstrated their fighting ability’ Have they not been militant fighters and leaders in strikes of the needle, textile, food and shoe workers? Have they not faced police and sheriffs with great heroism? Are not many By JORGE <n An Explanation You didn’t see us for a few days, did you? “Red Sparks” was absent and millions mourn- ed. Well, if not millions, at least two or three people. You see, we got discouraged when Texas Guinan became a columnist and a at the same time. And so we put on my hat and went to look for Judge Crater. It seems that the honorable judge was paying unemployment insurance to several chorus .girls, and shortly after in- terviewing one of his beneficiaries, we con- tracted what the capitalist press calls “rheu- congestion.” And so to bed. ee | Disarm the Baptists! Picked up an Omaha paper and got some news from Chicago. And here is what it said: “ GO, I1l—Upon the declaration of followers of the Rev. C. J. Austin that he had been tricked out of his right to run in the elections of the National Baptist Con- vention, fists began to flv, chairs were brought into play, knives were brandished and the entire convention broke up in pandemonium. Six policemen answering @ riot call, rushed to the scene and it was nearly an hour before order could be re- stored.” We suggest that after disarming the fol- lowers of the Prince of Peace, that when a church election becomes necessary, that they shake dice to see who wins Justice Unadorned New York City has a lady jurist. Nobody knows yet she has it. what she paid for the job, but Her name is Jean Norris, Judge Jean Norris, and she is TERRIBLY sym- pathetic. Her Honor has just become aware that there are several unemployed workers, and her judicial poise up and said: “Clothes—that's what they need—clothes and jobs. And an editorial in the Evening Journal has pointed owt what we can do to give them both. It’s the first practical suggestion I've encountered.” And here Her Honor began shedding her clothes, evidently, because the Journal says: “She help up a dress.” *Possibly, of course, she only held it up to the fortieth degree of latitude. Then she proceeded on the solu- tion for unemployment: “I'm packing this dress to send to the Eve- ning Journal. (The Journal is supposed to give the dress to the eight million jobless. And I'm going right out to buy another.” From this, we suppose that we can consider that the unemployment problem {s settled. Only we would ask—why didn’t she give the new dress to the unemployed and keep her shirt on? was so shaken that she © 0 os Not Exactly a Book Review A “little volume” is announced as soon to be published, in which the “Great Engineer”? who don’t ‘Know an engine from a hand-saw is to deal with the subject of fish. Hoover is a Mighty Fisherman as many dumbbells have been before him, and the booklet, we under- stand, is to be made up of two speeches, one delivered by him to the Izaak Walton League of America when he was elected the second time to the presidency (of the League, we hasten to Say, because he will never be president of the U.S.A. any more), and the other is a speech “To the People of Virginia.” ‘We cite what he said in the last speech as bearing out the idea that the same great mind which was going to solve the question of poverty and have prosperity back in 60 days, also knows a thing or two about removing the cause of crime. He said: “I assure you that the increase in crime is due to a lack of those qualities of mind and character which impregnate the soul of every fisherman.” When we go to jail next, and the warden asks us if we want to learn a trade to redeem our soul, we'll ask to be sent up to Rapidan. of our class war prisoners women workers? Do not two young women workers—organizers —face the electrics chair in Atlanta? In this economic crisis, with mass unem- ployment—Dr. Stewart says seven to rine million are out of work—with wages being cut sometimes as much as fifty per cent, is not the whole working class family the victims? And must they therefore not all be lined up in the fight for unemployment insurance and in strikes against wage cuts? They not only will—as witness the miners’, shoe and food workers’ strikes of the last few years, but they also participate militantly in all unem- ployed demonstrations. The woman worker must be reached and or- ganized into the Trade Union Unity League and the best fighters be brought into the Com- munist Party and Young Communist League. ‘Woman has been backward in her political education—she has been kept in that position by the capitalists, who, in the words of the Kaiser, considered that kitchen, church and children were her sphere, It is our duty to reach these millions of working women and draw them into every working class activity, Lenin regarded the press as one of the most powerful organizers of the movement, reach- ing tens and hundreds of thousands of work- ers who otherwise cannot be reached, The “Working Woman,” organ of the Com- munist Party, must reach tens of thousands more of working women. It must become the organ of the millions of working women of the ntry The Party has established a very modest goal to be reached in the next few montr:—1,000 new subseri'wrs by No- vember Ist, a fund of $2,000 to keep the paper going so that it can be printed without inter- ruption purticularly at this time of increas- ingly bitter struggle. ; But it has also fixed another goal. 25 worker correspondents circles, comprised of working women who will train themselves on making reports from shops—conditions, wage cuts, speed-up, mistreatment, etc. Worker correspondents are the heart and soul of a working class paper and the correspondents therefore must be trained to do their work efficiently. This program can be put through if the whole Party and all militant workers grasp the significance of 5,900,000 workers in in- dustry and their place in production, Support the campaign of the “Working Woman”! a a | SN ee Se ee ee - =n