The Daily Worker Newspaper, September 19, 1930, Page 4

Publisteo Byuare by Page Four ‘ON THE NEG By C. A. HATHAWAY. (From a Speech Delivered at the Seventh Conyention of the C. P. UL. S. A Negro nh the prevent Party lism. base of the you examine the agra tht you find that there ants still prevalent South e the t up with the system, Negre from throughout the So ainst cause the landlords, the nship in the South which permits the s remnants to + continue. At the same time you have a unit 1g of the race as a result of perse , the system of segregation, the practic: 1ing and the whole extra: legal manner in which the Ne- are treated. This tends to unite them struggle against the whites. You also to remember that these conditions have not existed for only a few years, but for een- turies, thus tending draw these workers together over a long period. All this forms a basis for nationa m among the Negroes in the United State: The conditions of these Negro tenants in the South lay at the root of the Negro na- tional movement, but in considering ihe devel- opment of this movement further you have to take into consideration both the gro bour- geoisie and the Negro petty-bourgeoisie. The Negro bourgeoisie in the United States plays a contradictory role. On the one hand it strives more and more to unite socia with the white bourgeoisie, but, considering their color, this is almost impossible. At the same time their development as a class makes it necessary for them to unite the race, to give them a basis within the race for the develop- ment of their own industries, ete. So that you see the Negro bourzeoisie, and the Negro intellectuals, in their writings, in all of their various efforts, trying to unify the race on this basis, tending to give expression to this Negro nationalist movement, tending to rally the Negro agrarian masses for struggle against the white bourgeoisie. That is, they tend to unite them as a race. However, in the course of the development of the struggle of the Negro masses, the Negro bourgeoisie will inevitably go to the white bourgeoisie. This has to be clearly understood. Nationalism does not have its roots among the Negro proletariat. That is why some ot the comrades here who have lived in the North and among the Negroes in the North- ern industrial sections, put forth the theory that you have to approach the Negroes only as a class. Here the strong nationalist ten- dencies have not developed to the same ex- tent and do not reflect the general conditions of the Negroes—the persecutions that the Ne- groes in the South have had to undergo. The Negro proletariat in the course of the development of this movement must, however, take the leadership of it as a revolutionary force against the bourgeois In regard to Garveyism, which is proof of the acceptance of nationalism among the Negroes and refutes the theories of those comrades that say there is no base for nationalism, the whole line of Garveyism was to unite the Negroes as a race, instilling the idea among them that they could set up a Negro State in Africa, where they would have the full right of national self- determination. They carried their propaganda to great extremes. They created a Negro god in place of a white god, they gave Negro dolls to their children to play with.’ They carried on strong propaganda with their chil- dren, telling them not to play with white dolls, but only with Negro dolls. The whole line of this was to glorify/everything Negro, to bring the Negroes together. The reactionary character of this petty- bourgeois movement showed itself by the fact that instead of fighting against American capitalism and against white persecutions in the United States, they wanted to set up a Negro State in Africa. This shows on the one hand the nationalistic tendencies among the Negroes and the basis for nationalism among the Negroes, and on the other hand shows the inability of the Negro bourgeoisie to give leadership to such a movement. It is also interesting to know that the Garvey movement was opposed by the big Negro bourgeoisie. The big Negro bourgeoisie, while they advocated the unity of the race, knew that it would not work and that it would have to result in advocating a policy of co- operation with the whites. The task that we are confronted with in this national movement is to strengthen and develop it. (The basis for it. exists in the agrarian conditions in the South, in the rela- tions that exist between the Negroes and the whites.) This has to be done by taking up very concretely the struggle against all forms of discrimination, demanding the equality of the Negro, demanding the liquidation of Jim Crowism, fighting for full social, political and @eonomic equality as the central slcgans, and @veloping the struggle of the Negro masses. There has been a tendency in the Party, how- ever, to be satisfied with putting forth these slogans, a tendency among the Negro com- tades to say this in itself is sufficient. But, comrades, if you only put forth these slogans themselves it is impossible for the Party to develop a struggle, to set it into motion. It is in the-course of concrete struggle for social equality that you develop a movement. And you must remember, in addition, that the highest expression of this movement will be a struggle for self-determination itself. The slogan of self-determination is a basis upon which the Negro masses can be rallied. These slogans cannot be separated. to There © e Put a Co Ine daily except Sunday n © the Daily V 2e-88 Ur © New York N ae Central Orga: RU. QUES FIONN 0 ee are some comrades who have developed an othe a, t you can struggle only for self determination, that the other slogans can be or at least play only a secondary But if you pose ‘the question this way, dropped, ro we do not develop the movement. Merely putting forth the slogan of self-determina- | tion is not a sufficient basis upon which to develop the struggle for a mass movement..| 3ut by developing the struggle all along the for the emancipation of the Negroes. you are leading it to the point where it becomes a movement against American capitalism itself; these things are not realizable without a struggle against the very citadel ism here in the United States. The slogan of self-determination ceived of as the the must be lighest expression of the Negro macses in the United logan of self-determination that we say to the Negro masses, “Un- Pp sm, under the dcmination of Amer- ican imperialism, you are enslaved and op- pressed, your right is the right of self-deter- co} struggle of States. mea der mination, the of separating yourselves complet the point of setting up a govern sur own in those places where you are a majority.” This is what the slogan m and we must advocate it to the Negro masses, must prove to them that we as fellow-workers are fighting for their self-determination even to the point of sepa- ration. The slogan of self-determination can méan nothing else than this for our Party, comrades. right to Some of the comrades have put forth contention that if we to the Negro masses, you have the right of setting up a government of your own, that this means segregation, that this means that we, also, like the bourgeoisie, propose that the Negro masses separate by themselves, that they set up their own govern- ment, and that we will have nothing at all to do with them. We mean nothing of the kind, comrades. We know that the Negro masses have been oppressed for centuries, we know that the Negro mas the feel this oppression to the point where they haye lost confidence, not only in the white ruling class, but in the whites as a whole, and to prove to the Negro masses our sincerity as workers, as revolu- tionists, it is up to us to show them that our policy will not be one of oppressing the Ne- groes, but of fighting for their self-determina- tion to the point of separation. So in no sense can our policy be considered as one of segrega- tion. Ours is a fight against segregation by giving the Negroes the right to complete sep- aration if they desire it, but in doing this we do not force separation on the Negroes, we do not force the setting up of a separate re- public,.we fight for thei right to set up such a republic if they see fit. In the course of the struggle that is devel! oping we put this forth in such a way that we constantly advocate the unity of the white workers and the Negro workers, the unity of the revolutionary movemen‘ of the Negroes and whites. It is necessary to bear in mind what Lenin said at the Third Congress, that the workers of an oppressed country must be most militant, most energetic in-fighting for tne right of the oppressed peoples to self- determination. At the same time the workers of the oppressing nation, while putting forth the slogan of self-determination, must carry on the most energetic struggle to convince | them of their unity with the workers of the oppressing country. Then I come to the question of the relation- ship of the struggle of the workers for na- tional self-determination to that of the prole- tarian revolution. It has been stated that there is a conception on the part of some com- rades that the proletarian revolution is en- tirely separated from the national revolution, that the national revolution can be carried through separately, cept. The Party recognizes that in the course | of the struggle in the United States the na- tional revolutionary moveme-t of the Negroes will become merged with the proletarian rev- olution, and the two of these will go on to- | gether. Also the conception of stating to the Negro masses now that ‘you can only realize self- determination through the rroletarian reyolu- tion,” if accepted, such a viewpoint as this would lead you into the same kind c‘ an error as that which states, you only have to ap- proach the Negroes on a ‘class basis. It means you give up the possibility of mob- ilizing the Negro masses on a basis of strug- gle against. inequality, for self-determination. It means that you would go to the Negroes in the South that you could not convince the Negro peasantry that it should fight against the conditions there, but that it should fight only in the hour of the proletarian revolution. Such an interpretation is incorrect, comrades. By putting forth the slogan of social and political equality, with the slogan of self- determination, you draw into the struggle the Negroes of the South, the Negro peasantry, certain seetions of the Negro bourgeoisie—all of the elements that are persecuted and op- pressed under capitalism in the South can be drawn into the struggle. You extend the forces that are available as allies in this struggle against American imperialism. That is why the Party insists on putting forth the sloyan of self-determination. Pepper’s slogan of a Soviet Republic in the South, that is, giv- ing the Negroes the right to set up a Soviet Republic of their own, is also a leftist slogan, a revolutionary slogan, but it has exastly the same effect of doing away with the immediate struggle. It is an opportunistic slogan. In the present situation we have to recog- nize the two-fold character of the Negro ques- tion. You have to approach the Negroes as | @ race and you have to approach them as workers. You have to remember that they are not only workers, they are also Negroes who have been persecuted by the whites for | centuries, and with this question you have to link up that of the demands for social and economic equality, keeping in the forefront the slogan of self-determination as the highest expression of all of these slogans in the strug- gle of the Negro mases. But you have tc remember that if our Party | is going to win the Negro masses we have to draw the white workers first and foremost | into the struggle in behalf of and for the Ne- | groes. The fact that they have been oppressed for centuries by the whites and that they therefore no longer trust the white workers Nobody has any such con- | | | | | | Is of capital- | worker mec dRmuniet Party U.S.A. SUBSCRIPTIOE Sy mai] everywhere: One year $6; six months §3; two monthe 3); excepting Boroughs City Mar horter Prong New York and foreirn RATES: ' which are’ One vr $8: six mons, $4.60 Walker Sacrifices an Old Suit By H. RAYMOND Prisoner No. 52349 (Imprisoned Member of the Unemployed Delegation.) We hear our Tammany mayor is kept pretty busy nowadays working overtime on alibi com- mittees for whitewashing Tammany grafters. | Nevertheless, he still finds time to be photo- graphed, to spent insane wisecracks for the , press and to unwittingly spill the beans and ex- pose the whole line of the rotten system he represents, In his latest role Whate Price Jimmie ap- peared as a hampion” of the unemployed. Amid booming-lights and surrounded by gasp- ing reporters from New York’s leading gutter sheets, “Jimmie” actually gave one of his cast-off suits to an unemployed worker. He said he thought his action would help solve the unemployment problem and advised all rich bankers and grafters to follow his example. “Jimmy” Solves Overproduction. “Jimmie” says that by giving away his cast- off duds he not only clothes the ragged unem- ployed, but helps solve the problem of over- production. He says, when he gives a suit any more than the white rulers, are reasons why it is necessary for the white section of our Party and for the revolutionary trade unions to take up the Negro question as its own, not to relegate it to the Negroes, but to take the lead in developing the struggle, together with the Negroes against all these forms of inequality. This brings me to the question of white chauvinism. White chauvinism is the ideology of the American bourgeoisie and reflects itself very strongly among the American workers and even in our Party. It is necessary to de- velop a very sharp struggle within the revo- | lutionary unions, in the unions of the A. F. of L. and among the white workers generally, against white chauvinism, by taking up this struggle on behalf of the Negro workers in | our everyday work. A word on a term that has gained currency in our Party, black chauvinism. This must be discarded in the Party as something non- existent. There are certain tendencies among the Negroes to fight against the whites and American imperialism and this reflects itself in a distrust, a justified distrust, of white workers also, who have for centuries par- ticipated in white persecutions against the | Negroes. This is not chauvinism, this is a healthy reaction on the part of the Negro “masses, and out task is to take this resent- | | ment of the Negroes that rightfully exists | against the whites and tur. this into a con- H scious revolutionary struggle against Ameri- | can capitalism as such. This must be the gen- | eral line which the Party follows in the devel- | opment of its struggle, and if it does this we | can recruit large masses of Negro workers | into the A. N. L. C. In this way we can develop a national organization among the | Negroes, that can destroy the influence of the Negro bourgeois reformists influence and place the leadership of the’ Negro masses in the | hands of the A. N. L. ©. We can draw them into the proletarian revolutionary movement and in our struggle against American capital- ism, we can defeat it and emancipate both the white and Negro workers in the United States J. S$. Recognizes 3 Puppet Governments of South America. BY BURA By LIL ANDREWS. The yardstick by which we may measure the carryig out of the Shock Plan is the extent to which we have profoundly changed our methods of work. The League has hereto- fore worked as an organization isolated from the masses of young workers. We have not maintained contact with the everyday life of the young workers. concrete activity in the shops, mills and mines. And until now we have failed to find the METHODS of work which would remedy this condition. To make the TURN to mass work is the burning task for the American League today. And the Shock Plan of Work is the immediate method with which the YCL is STARTING to make this Turn. Control Over Actiwity. It would be incorrect to state that the situ- ation of the League previously was due to complete inactivity on the part of our League. Much energy is spent on work. Much time is given. Many comrades work very hard. However, there is little control over thi: activity. We jump from one campaign to an- other. We rush from one factory to the other. Many comrades work on the bi of emotional ” We must learn how to con- centrate our energies, where to concentrate. away he has to buy another one. Thus Mayor Walker would have workers believe that he and a few of his rich friends will keep them clothed and absorb the enormous piles of overproduced commodities that the capitalists can find no market for. Thus he would kid the workers into believing industry will soon open up and there will be jobs for all. Thus he hopes to make workers decide and starve quietly. But workers will not be fooled by any of these cheap side-show antics of Mayor Walker. The mayor and his wealthy friends are not going to solve the crisis. The army of unem- ployed is growing and, with wage cuts and speed up in the factor the situation of the workingclass is becoming more desperate. The workers, under the leadership of the Commu- nist Party and the Trade Union Unity League, will fight for unemployment insurance and against the whole rotten capitalis tem which has nothing to offer workers but misery and quack charity in the form of second-hand clothes and breadlines. We Do Not Want Jimmie’s Suit. And right here we wish to inform Mayor Walker that we don’t want any of his cast-off We clothes. We don’t want his breadlines. won't forget such gross insults. We want lief in the form of unemployment insurance We want $25 a week for every unemployed worker and $5 for each dependant, as incor- porated in the Workers Unemployment Insur- ance Bill of the Communist Party, We want this to be paid by the industrialsts and out of funds previously used’ for war preparations. And we don’t nt it next year or five years from now. We want unemployment insurance now. Workers! Answer “Jimmie” Walker's insult to the working class by supporting the Work- ers Unemployment Insurance Bill! Vote Communist! (Written at Hart’s Island Penitentiary.) Hail the Chinese revolution! A population of over 60 million people in China is already uncer the rule of the hammer and sickle. The Red Army is marching on. But the imperial- ists are planning intervention. American, Brit- ish and Japanese gunboats are “active” in China. The Communist Party is rallying the workers to the defense of the Chinese revolu- tion. Vote Communist! AGITATE Pi } FOR THE COMMUNIST Tic KET How We We have carried on little | - Reaction to Economic, Social, Political Problems Work | We find that everything is attempted at once, and when we catch our breath once in awhile to ask ourselves exactly what concrete results had been achieved—we cannot find these re- sults. One example can be given of the Phila- delphia League. Answering the questions to | what had been done on the antilynch campaign, One example can be given of the Philadel- | phia League. Answering the questions as to | what had been done on the anti-lynch cam- paign the comrades replied: Nothing. Because we had other work to do.” What about new !members? ‘We have some. But it is only a | short time since we started and we can’t be expected to have many.” What has been done on industrial youth conferences? “We had other work until now.” These comrades worked hard.! They spent much time and energy. But they did not control their activities. Many other districts] work exactly the same way. We do not point to Philadelphia as an example because the comrades} are bad and won’t do work. These are earnest,! hard working comrades. But the same situa-} tion prevails in almost every District of the! League. Very little checkup on work that has been started. We must learn how to work stead- ily, consistently. We must learn to finish what we have started. We must learn to increase the , long w LT By JORGE ——e Ain’t We Just Grand! Some anonymous skunk, who wears his ears ith nothing special in between, sent us a clipping from the Wobbly paper, the “Indus- trial Worker” of Seattle, with the pencilled command: “See this you Russian****!” Sorry we can’t use the word he did, but we've not got too free a press in this land of liberty. But we obeyed the command, and this is what we saw: A photo of a whopper of a building, three floors, modern, spread over two or three acres, with great broad windows. A magnificent drive- way entrance, in front of which are parked nine cars of all sizes, no less. And over the top of the picture it says: “Netw Home of the Industrial Worker.” Below, a long caption telling how the paper had moved to its “new home” which is “much more commo- dious,” ete. at 3131 Western Avenue,Seattle. Now, we may be Russian, though St happens we're not. But there’s one sure thing, that we are not suckers enough to believe that the Wobblies have inherited all the building shown in the photo. Yet that is what the “Industrial Worker” infers, and that is what caused the poor simp who sent us the clipping to swell up like a poisoned pup and vomit his best: billings- gate in our direction in a way to say: See how prosperous we are!’ Maybe that $ 0,000 which Mattie Woll said Bill Foster got from Moscow got mislaid, and since the Wobblies are specializing now in stick-ups, door-mat thievery and bootlegging, they have nailed it and set up Clifford B. Ellis, the “Four-Minute Man” who won the war in Coos Bay, with a “new home” for incubation of counter-revolutionary “science.” Or maybe Ellis is merely copying Hearst and simply faked the picture. Perhaps some Seattle worker will wander down that way and satisfy our mild curiosity to know whether the Wobbly bootleggers have turned philantropists, or whether Ellis has merely scabbed on Hearst again. * « * Capitalist Witch Doctors Frequently the boss papers run yarns about Voodoo-ism in Haiti, or other likely spots } which Wall Street and the Marines think pro- ) fitable to occupy. The idea being that propa- | ganda in the United States to the effect that all Filipinos have tails and the Haitians are so “backward” as to believe in Voodoo and the ’ helps justify the “enlightened” Yan- kee marines to sit on the lid while the United Fruit Company rakes in millions from the la- bor of these “backward” peoples. But no Haitian Voodoo doctor could get off any more superstitious blarney than one of the ace “economists” of American business, Mr. Roger Babso who has a big organization to dope out what way the business cat is going to jump. Babson made a speech in New York, Sept. 12, and here is what this great “economist” said: “Business depressions are caused by dis- sipation, dishonesty, disobedience to God’s will—a general more collapse. Statistics show this plainly. With equal precision they show how business depressions are cured. They are cured by moral awakening, spiritual revival and the rehabilitation or righteousness.” After this kind of hooey, we most strene- ously urge all Communists not to be so darned modest. A large percentage of unwillingness of Communist workers to approach other workers is a wholly unjustified timidity in expressing the Marxian knowledge they already possess, for fear of running against some wise guy who thinks he can floor them by demanding to know how they dare talk about economics when they cannot tell when King Phillip the Second of Spain was born. Let every Communist worker be filled with the pride of knowing the ABC of Communisny and let him go forth to battle even the pro- fessors of economics in the biggest colleges, secure in the knowledge that he has an edge tempo of the work that has started, instead of| allowing it to dribble down to almost nothing. | Instead of working on extremely important tasks! |such as the anti-lynech conference and campaign, comrades will spend their time sending out all; | kinds of directives, and letters. We must state, however, that the Philadelphia District has since | corrected this partially, and has held an excellent anti-lynch conference. 1 ee Decisions, very good decisions, are often made. But were we to go back upon the Buro minutes of most of our Districts we would find that | either these decisions have been forgotten, or’ | they have simply not been carried out. We must | investigate and check very closely the carrying | out of all our decisions. And we must consider very carefully and seriously before we make our decisions. Then we will not have a situation where such important work as anti-lynch cam- paigns—or industrial youth conferences—has not | been carried out because the Districts had “other” | work to do. Then we will not find that shop nuclei were not organized because “other” work was more important, But the comrades in the | Districts must discuss this question carefully be- | fore the Plenum. What is the “Other” work | which does not enable the most important activi- | ties of the League to be carried out? We must answer to the October Plenum. The test of our work li the quickne: with which we react to 1 and campaigns. And this not o: on a nationa seale, but also on a local and District scale. The League cannot enter the mass st the young workers unless we take up problems and events which basieally concern the young workers in their economic, social and political | life. A wage cut in the mill. A new form of speedup. A layoff. Bad sanitary conditions. All these questions concern our League very basically. And when we speak about entering the struggles of ‘the young workers we mean entering into and leading struggles against just such conditions. When we speak about buildmg up the Red Trade Uions-—we must speak in terms | of struggle against just these things. And the ‘League’s work on these elementary economic si | political campaigns. * i The outstanding failure of the League in this respect is our almost complete failure to engage in the election campaign, while the Cleveland! District has to its credit good work in connection with a drive for Free Books for workers’ children, ggles of: . ef experiences, gles must be tied up concretely with our ; 7 on any boss witch doctor. nevertheless we can say that it was one of the worst districts in its complete ignoring of the Election campaign. We failed to see that thre this campaign we had the possibility of reaching wide sections of the toiling youth. We did noi see the necessity of connecting up the daily eco: * nomic problems of the young workers with the vital political problem of the, election campaign And we did not realize the extent to which the youth is today controlled by the Capitalist Par- ties. Had we seen all these things we woulc have deemed it a vital necessity to participate actively in the Election campaign. Then the question tay be asked, if the League is not par: ipating in this most important activity, thes what the League life like? To this we are forced to answer: Our activity in the units ir too abstract, too disconnected from struggles. Ar example. A League unit in Warren, Ohio meets. Comrades are studying “Wage, Labor and Capi- tal.” The comrades politely listen while others take turns reading from the book. Finished. Now we open the meeting. What is taken up? Dues. Communications. The organization of some af: fair or other. Adjournment. No attempt was made to connect up this study with some com crete problem or task. The comrades forgot that there was a campaign called the Election Cam- paign . True, this is not correct of all League However, this must serve as a glaring example of how not to carry out our work, The campaigns of the Party and the League must become the constant tcopie of discussion in every League unit. And not abstract discussion, but a discussion based on concrete activity. . Draw proper lessons from this activity, Learn from this activity how to approach and win young workers. And above all we must learn to react to events which take place in the neighborhood of the District, in the neighborhood of the Sec-: tion, in the neighborhood of the unit. These are { questions to whick no formal directive can be sent out. We cannot make a blueprint of what political issues to react to, and how, and what each single unit must do. But the Units and the Districts should consider this seriously, discuss develop initiative, and bring all these experiences to the October Plenum. (To be Continued) Write as correspondent, you fight! Become a worker VOTE COMMUNIST! \