The Daily Worker Newspaper, December 19, 1931, Page 6

Published by the Comprodaily Publis New York Cit Address and mail all che Page Six 13th St., N. ¥. Telex to the Daily Work in 4-7958 Cable Gast 13th Street, New York, N. Y. “DAIWORK.” orker’ Porty U.S.A SUBSCRIPTION RATES: By mail everywhere: One year, $6; six months, $3; two months, $1; excepting borougns of Manhattan and Bronx, New York City. Foreign: one year, $8; siz months, $4.50. By HARRY HAYWOOD. h the deepening crisis ggles, there is taking IMULTANEOUSLY wit ng the masses of Negro toilers. Negro workers in the unemployed, the great mine of the Negro share croppers at ass response of the country to the cam- and other rev- boro boys, can only be con- strued as an immediate fore-runner of a great upsurge of Negro struggles for national libera- tion NFRONTED with this rising militancy, the te liberal and Negro national reformist wh agents of the white ruling class have already | sounded the alarm. Oscar de Priest, mil- lionaire Negro congressman, as a result of “close observation” during “extensive travels all over the country” has “sensed serious and deep- seated dissatisfaction among all classes of Ne- groes in every section of the country.” Howard H. Kester, southern secretary of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, after a recent tour of the South, warns his imperialist masters that “jt is questionable whether they (the Negro masses) will continue to rely upon evolutionary methods in attempting to secure the rights and privileges guaranteed them by the Constitu- tion; and that, unless they (the Negro masses) are convinced in no uncertain way that the evo- lutionary method is the best way, they will turn to violent methods.” (Our emphasis, H.H.). Intensify Lynch Terror Against Negro Masses. ‘HE imperailist bourgeoisie is alarmed at these developments. In a desperate effort to quench this rising militancy of the Negro masses, it is rapidly discarding all vestiges of democratic pre- tense and is swiftly passing into direct, wide- spread violence and terror. Following directly upon the vicious Scottsboro frame-up, came the Camp Hill massacre. This was the brutal reply of the slave-driving landowners to the first or- ganized expression of unrest among the pauper- ized Negro share-croppers, and marked the be- ginning of a new wave of lynch terror rivaling in ferocity the suppression after the Civil War Reconstruction Period (the period following the Hayes Tilden Agreement, 1877). Notorious examples ara the frame-ups of the disabled Negro war veteran, Willie Peterson in Birmingham, Ala.; the aged farm worker, Or- phan Jones, in Maryland, and the young worker, Barney Lee Ross, in Texas. The frame-up of Peterson was used as a pretext for a campaign of savage repression against the Negro masses and their leader, the Communist Party, in Bir- mi 1am and vicinity. According to the report of Kester, this fr onslaught has already re- sulted, since the iddle of August, in the cold- blooded murder of 75 Negro workers. The latest ou worker, Matthew Williams, in Maryland a few days ago. Increase Efforts to Deceive Masses. UT American imperialism does not depend solely upon violence and terror to suppress the rising tide of Negro militancy; its chief bul- wark in this emergency is Negro reformism. Thus, | | ge was the savage lynching of the Negro | hand-in-hand with, and complementing this new | wave of white chauvinist persecution, Negro re- formist demagogy is becoming more and more | cunning and desperate. The Negro national re- formists are playing their historical role as the last reserve of imperialist Jim Crow reaction. Everywhere they are seeking to demoralize the growing movement and to dissipate its revolution- ary energy. ‘Uhey are trynig to distort and limit its aims ghettos and preventing it from merging with the revolutionary labor movement. Their demagogy is glaringly apparent in the Scottsboro case. Here they are playing the role of assistant hangmen by pretending to defend the boys on the one hand while they viciously attack the real leaders | of the Negro masses, the Communist Party, on the other. Faced with the burning indignation of the masses against the mounting wave of lynching, the Negro reformists together with their “enlightened white millionaire friends” in the NAACP, Inter-Racial Commission and Fel- lowship of Reconciliation, etc., have developed Im the recent period a series of demagogic ma- | Heuvers intended to steer the rising mas energy into ineffectual, legalistic channels. 'S is clearly exemplified in the following: The two million signature drive of the NAACP | tn support of the Dyer Anti-Lynch Bill; the re- port on the Southern Commission on Lynching which by ignoring the numerous lynchines that have taken place this year assert that lynching has decreased; and finally, the delegation headed ‘by William Monroe Trotter raising the question ‘of lynching _ before President, Hoover. “Supporting this demagogy on _ lynching, is the letter of the Rev. Mr. Harten, who in the ~ Mame of the National Afro-Protective League warns the president “that if lynchings increase and the federal government fails to aid. the -lynched race may in desperation feel compelled to protect themselves.” (Our emphasis). The sum total of all these activities is to fool the Necro masses into believing something is finally be- ing done, and thus disarm them in the face of “the growing lynch terror. (But the Hoover Wall “street government stands fully exposed as a government of lynchers and Jim-Crowers ot the Negro masses by the fact that Hoover in his | “message to Congress did not so much as men- * tion: the Negro question.) : War Danger Sharpens Attacks 5 FURTHER explanation for the present ruthless attack on the Negro masses is in connection . With the feverish war preparations of American Imperialism, In fact, the whole campaign of white “‘ghanyinist. violence must be regarded as part | “ahd parcel of the war preparations of the Hoo- _ Yer government directed towards “pacifying” the Necro masses. The “home front” in the coming wer for the repartition of China and military intervention against the Soviet Union must be , prepared, and the Negro masses are an extreme- *ly important factor. Therefore, particularly at _ the present time, the Negro question must be “formulated in the light of the accentuated war r, i. ¢., in closest connection with the whole ‘International situation. It must be remembered *. that war denotes a new and higher stage in the “general crisis of imperialism, which brings an “all-round sharpening of all capitalist contradic- ‘tions and results in increased imperialist vio- x “Ience in the colonies and subjugated nations. «ha the last,war, certain important changes 4 significance movement, which are of far-reaching Ba £ They are trying to confine it to Nearo | | being in it.” | nist Party, take advantage of this situation in for the revolutionary movement in the United States. The post-war crisis which brought in its wake the most cruel sufferings for the Ne- gro masses—widespread impoverishment of Ne- gro farmers &s a result of the agrian crisis; in the industrial centers, mass unemployment and on top of this lynchings, “race” , etc.—witnessed the birth of the first great | Negro movement. But due primarily to the weak- hess of the revolutionary labor movement and the immaturity of the Negro working class at that time, the leadership of this potentially revo- lutionary movement was seized by petty bour- seois intellectuals, represented by Marcus Garvey, who, to a considerable extent succeeded in steer- ing it into reactionary, Uptopian channels of “peaceful return to Africa.” Rise of Negro Proletariat T= period after the post-war crisis was marked | by the further migration of Negroes into the industrial centers of the north and south as a result of the deepening agrarian crisis in the south and consequently a further development of class differentiation among the Negro peoples, The period since the post-war crisis has witnessed the emergence upon the political arena of a Negro proletariat as an independent class force in the Negro liberation movement. This working class, in the crucible of the sharp- ening class struggle, is rapidly liberating itself from the influence of the Negro national reform- ists. This process has been accelerated by the present economic crisis, the growth of the revo- lutionary labor movement and the Communist | Party with a real Bolshevik program on the Negro question. Thus the chief characteristic of the present stage of the Negro liberation move- ment is the rapid maturing of this most import- ant driving force of Negro liberation, an indus- trial Negro working class. In close organic unity with the white workers and under the leader- ship of the Communist Party this industrial Ne- gro working class is the only force capable of rallying the scattered and disorganized peasant and semi-proletarian Negro masses and leading them in revolutionary struggle against imperial- ism. The struggle for Negro liberation is now taking place under conditions of. growing pro- letarian hegemony and Communist Party lead- ership. This process is a reflection of those changes that have taken place on a world scale in the revolutionary movement in the colonial and semi-colonial world in consequence of the post-war crisis in world imperialism, Achilles’ «Heel of U. S. Imperialism All of the above circumstances have brought the Negro question sharply to the fore and great- ly increased the actual significance of the Negro movement as @ powerful factor in the intensifi- cation of the crisis of American imperialism. The Negro question at the present time con- stitutes the most dangerous sector in the Amer- ican imperialist home front, a spot where revolu- tionary explosions are the most imminent. Such 's the situation of the Negro movement on the eve of a new imperialist war, 1 American ruling ctasses are extremely sen- sitive to this “Achilles’ Heel” of Negro rebel- lion. This is reflected by the increasing alarmist utterances of its agents, such as Kester, who warns that “this year will be a year of testing. We are faced with a conflict situation, the pro- portions of which one cannot imagine without In this statement Kester expresses the appre- hension of his Wall Street masters lest the Ne- sro masses, under the leadership of the Commu- order to strike a real blow for liberation. Pre- cisely in this light must we regard the present Savage reign of terror against the Negro masses. This situation throws light upon the motives of the U. S. War Department in liquidating four Negro regular army regiments—24th and 25th In- By B. K. GEBERT. | i recent months the Chicago District made | some gains among the Negro masses. Thou- sands of Negro workers are in the. Unemployed “have taken place within the Neero liberetion | movement. As a matter of fact, in the city of Chicago, where about 10,000 unemployed workers are organized, about 40 per cent are Negro work- | ers. In the ranks of the Party there are about | 500 Negro workers, constituting 25 per cent of the total Party membership in the District. But | this, by no means, indicates that we take ad- vantage of the situation which exists to reach not a few hundred or few thousand, but tens of thousands of Negro workers and organize them in the revolutionary movement. Revolutionary Prerequisite For Successful Struggle. Our experiences in work definitely show that the prerequisite for successful work among the Negro masses is determined struggle against any manifestation of white chauvinism. We can | Safely say that if we would not have carried the | struggle against white chauvinism, we would have made no progress in winning Negro masses. | This is natural. The Negro masses are being oppressed, sup- pressed, persecuted and lynched by the white Tuling class and they do distrust the whites. | This distrust and hate can be turned against | the white ruling class and the Negro masses | won and united with the revolutionary forces of the working class. But this cai be accomplished | only then when the Negro workers will feel not, | only that they have equal rights in the revolu- tionary mass organizations, but that revolution- ary organizations are fighting for the Negro rights. However, we have manifestations to the contrary, and here are a few recent examples, Concrete Examples of Chauvinism. | On December 7, a mass meeting was held in | Gary in support of the demands of the National Hunger March in Washington. A large number of Negro workers came to the mass meeting, but there was no fraternizing of the Negro and white workers at mectings in the hall before the opening of the meeting, and the Negro workers began to take seats in the hall by themselves and the white workers by themselves, creating a line between the Negro and white workers. It Wes only, thanks to the proper approach by a member of the District Committee that this was stopped, and after a short explanation this arti- ficial line was broken up and Negro and white workers sat together. This “little accident” showed very much that there, as yet, is no real unity established between Negro and white work- ers, and without this there can be no successful struggles of the workers in Gary or any other place where such manifestations are noticeable. But this is not the only incident of this charac- fantry and the 9th and 10th Cavalry—disarming them and distributing them in the form of small- er units among the white troops. It is clear that the imperialists no longer consider Negro troops as reliable. This of course does not mean that the Wall Street government does not intend to use Negro troops as cannon fodder in the coming war. In this regard the imperialists un- doubtedly have in mind a policy similar to that employed by the British in the utilization of colonial troops, ie, to guard against possible mutiny by the sandwiching these troops in be- tween more loyal white troops. Favorable Conditions for Organization LL these circumstances, the sharpening crisis, the ruthless offensive of the white ruling class against the Negroes and the consequent growth of revolutionary ferment among the Ne- gro masses, create the most favorable conditions at the present time for the organization of a powerful revolutionary mass movement among Negroes against the imperialist war and for the defense of the Soviet Union. Under the circumstances it is necessary to carry out energetically the following tasks: Tasks of Revolutionary Movement As a component part of our general cam- * paign, it is necessary to carry out the widest agitation and propaganda among the Negro mass- es against the way and for the defense of the Soviet Union. We must drive home concretely the implications of war for the Negro masses by explaining the imperialist war, which is for the purpose of maintaining and strengthening imperialist oppression, can only mean a further tightening of the yoke of slavery upon the Ne- gro masses. To accomplish this it is necessary in all '* agitation to draw sharply before the Negro masses the lessons of the last war—the persecu- tion of Negro troops, segregation and Jim Crow- ism in the army, insults and gross mistreatment suffered by Negro troops at the hands of white ruling class officers, slavery in labor battalions, the needless slaughter of Negro troops by throw- ing them on the front without sufficient equip- ment or training (Argonne Forest), the massacré of Negroes as shock troops, the railroading of Negroes into the army regardless of their physical fitness or even if they had large families, the hanging of the members of the 24th Infantry during the imperialist war in connection with their mutiny against Jim Crow persecution, rape frame-ups of Negro‘ soldiers in Camp Grant in 1918, the Jim Crowing of Negro troops in train- ing camps and in hospitals, the mutinies and near mutinies of Negro troops in these camps as a result of inhuman treatment, etc., etc. It ‘; also necessary to bring out the vicious Jim Crowism practiced by the U, S. government against Negro war veterans after the war— “race” riots, wholesale lynchings of Negroes, in- cluding veterans in uniform, segregation in hos- Pitals, discrimination in compensation, the hu- miliation of the Gold Star Mothers by the Jim Crow government at Washington, etc., etc.—all of this must receive the widest exposure. . The whole. agitation against the war dan- * ger should be linked up with the exposure of the role of the Negro reformists in the last war as recruiting agents among Negroes for the imperialist war machine. In this connection it is necessary to expose such traitors as Dr. Rob- ert Moton of Tuskegee, who was sent by the U. S. government to France for the purpose of curbing the growing dissatisfaction among Ne- gro troops; DuBois, who wrote the treacherous editorial in The Crisis (organ of the N.A.A.C.P.) —“Close Ranks’—in which the Negro masses were called upon to forget lynching and Jim’ Crowism and help save Jim Crow imperialism. In this connection DuBois wrote: “We, there- A SPLENDID BOOK By H. G. We are not in the book reviewing industry, but we've simply got to call your attention to the book called “February, 1917,” by Aleksei ‘Tarasov-Rodionov, published recently by Covici- Friede, publishers of New York. It is splendidly written. But that would not | matter if it did not say something important. We are not admiring “fine writing,” though ‘Tarasov-Rodionov wields a pen that makes the reader see, feel and live with him—and with the million-masses of Russia, in those days when the workers of Petrograd won over the soldiers, and filled the Nevsky Prospect with battle against the police. ‘The author was an officer in the Czar’s army, but with a bit of experience behind him as a member, when a lad, of the Bolshevik wing of the Social Democratic Workers’ Party, the Party of Lenin. And neved will you see the “February days” so graphically detailed by this author. Here are marshalled the whole dramatic per- sonnel of revolution and counter-revolution. Tarasov-Rodionov, himself, not in fiction, be- cause this is history and faithful to fact, here gives an example of how to calculate the moment when—and when not—to expose one's self as a revolutionary in the uniform of a soldier. Indeed he shows how the workers themselves tested out the troops when the Cossacks, “formed into line, taut as a bow-string, rode down on the mob.” The scene he describes brings you into wild heart- throbs of joy, the joy expressed in the great ter. There are more and more serious ones, Here are some, . Youth Not Immune. A member of the Young Communist League who is active in the youth branches of the TWO developed ideas, that we should have special Negro branches of the International Workers Order, jim-crow branches. It is true that after an explanation the comrade somehow changed his attitude toward the question, but the fact that such ideas can creep out in the minds of the comrades are indications that the basic problems on this question :.re not known to the membership, On the South Side of Chicago the Polish Workers Club, which is located in the vicinity of the stockyards, permitted the following situa- tion. The matiagement of the club systematical- ly refused to rent the hall to the YCL because the YCL invited Negro workers to the hall. And when once the hall was rented it was with the warning not to carry agitation among the Negro workers to attend the dance given by the YCL. , In the Unemployed Councils. Similar warnings were made to the branch of the, Unemployed Council, and at the dance of the TWO, when a large number of Negro work- ers came, they were not welcome, they felt that they were not a part of the gathering, as no- body would dance with them, which resulted that a majority of the Negro workers present left the hall. All of these acts of white chauvinism have been ‘explained by the manager of the club in a very interesting manner, that‘all this was done for the interest of the Polish Workers Club. And ‘what are these interests? Very simple. The A management of the club has an agreement with the owner of the hall that no Negro workers will be permitted to attend the mass meetings or affairs in the club. “ In other words, the Polish Workers Club, in- stead of developing struggles for equal social rights of the Negro workers, supports the netty- bourgeois and bourgeois ideas of the landlord. We have a similar situation in Burnside, where the Ukrainian Olub refused to rent the hall for the school because Negro workers would be in- vited and that neighborhood is located in a “white neighborhood.” More Serious Incidents. One more manifestation of it, which is very serious, took place on December 7 in Chicago. After the demonstration in Union Park, an an- nouncement was made that the workers shall leave for their headquarters in groups. It so happened that practically 50 per cent or more of the workers began to march in one direction And a few blocks away from the dznonstration police attacked she workers, singling out Negro shouts of the massed workers, as the expected clash turned into enthusiastic fraternization! We cannot attempt to describe it without re- peating it. And there are scores of such grip- ping things. This, remember, was mostly before Lenin had reached Russia from exile and Stalin returned from prison at Archangel. But these leaders of the Bolsheviki come naturally into the picture, and we see and hear the fight they wage for leadership over the masses against the mis- erable traitors such as the Mensheviks and the epileptic ego-maniac, Kerensky. These are familiar figures in the book, for ‘Tarasov played a part in the developing revolu- tion. Here, too, for the reader who can under- stand what he is reading, is the proof in life that in the fight against the monarchy and the rest of the feudal autocracy for what was then the order of the day in old Russia, that tran- sitory state of affairs known as the “bourgeois- democratic revolution’—only the proletariat and its party can lead the masses to victory. . Here are all the weaknesses and doubts ex- pressed, and the clever trickery of the Men sheviks and Social Revolutionaries to confuse the masses and defeat their demands. But here also is the living guide of the Party of Lenin, the steel rod that held the great mass firm in the struggle. As the author himself re- marks in the preface: “The great proletarian | commander, the Leninist Communist Party of Russia, leads well and surely.” This is a wonderful book—an epical piece of history, and written with surpassing artistry. workers, and beating them up. The white workers, because no preparatory work was made to defend, did not defend the Negro workers and the result was that a num- ber of Negro workers made the remarks “no more will we attend central demonstrations, the white workers do not defend us. Likewise, some workers began to state that the International Workers’ Order is a jim-cyow organization, and this has a detrimental effect on the Negro workers in the stockyards, where a Jarge number of Polish and Negro workers are emptoyed. What Musi Be Done. Organizational measures are necessary against people who are responsible for these acts. They must be exposed not only in the ranks of the Party, but by mass trials, and removed from their posts and expelled from their organizations, But this alone is not sufficient. The most systematic work must be carried out in the Party amid the broad ma:ses of white workers, explaining the need of unit and white workers, developing stru; Negro rights; a campaign against inism cannot be carried out successfully unless it is linked up with the immediate struggle for the Negro rights in which white workers are brought in, involved in it, and under the joint leadership of Negro and white workers. We must not repeat the mistakes mede in St. Louis and Gary in previous months, where the struggle against white chauvinism wes confiicd in the narrow circ]es, without developing around these issues campaigns for Negro rights and ex- posure of the acts of white chauvinism. ‘ous Tendencies, There are still in the Party elements who maintain thot facts of this nature shall not be exposed publicly, that this will hurt the Party and the working clos’. Thes2 pos'tions are of a dangerous character and are the wovst oppor- tunist positions one can imazine. The Commu- nist Party in Chicago District is determined to burn out white chauvinism in the ranks of the Party. It has demonstrated on a number of cccasions its ability to unite Negro and white workers in commen struggles, as in the case of the unemployed movement, the 110,000 workers who demonstrated on August 8 on the South Side of Chicago, etc. But there was a little ten- dency to believe just because cf the succes:ful demonstration of August 8 that we already solved ‘the problem of unification of Negro and white workers, This is not the case. Ceaseless Drive of Capitalist Agencies. The bourgeoisie is systematically carrying its poisonous campaign in the factories, organiza- tions and press, attempting to antagonize white workers against Negro workers and the Negro fore, earnestly urge our colored fellow citizens to join heartily in the fight for eventual world liberation; we urge this despite our deep sym- pathy with the reasonable and deep-seated feel- ing of revolt among the Negroes at the present insult and discrimination to which they are sub- ject and will be subject even when they do their patriotic duty” (emphasis ours, H.H.). Emmett Scott, who functioned as assistant secretary of war in 1918, must likewise be exposed. It is also necessary to expose the united front of Ne- gro reformists and the Jim Crow government in the organization and maintenance of Jim Crow hospitals for Negro ex-servicemen. 4 ‘This whole agitation should be developed in '* the form of sensational exposures centered around concrete cases. For example, such out- standing cases of imperialist persecution as the brutal hanging of the 13 members of the 24th Infantry by U. S. court martial at Houston, Texas, in connection with the mutiny against the outrageous attacks upon them by the civilian administration of that city: this whole case should be. reviewed through establishing contact with THE FAMILIES of the victims and de- veloping a mass campaign demanding reinvesi- gation of the whole affair, with the participa- tion of representatives of working-class organiza- tions on the investigation committee, the crim- inal prosecution of those responsible, and repara- tions. to the families of the victims. Similarly the case of Willie Peterson, disabled veteran, framed-up at Birmingham, must be taken up and dramatized as a concrete example of the reward to be expected by Negroes for their ser- vices to the lynch government. This case must be utilized for the drawing of ex-servicemen into the struggle against lynching. ‘The case of the Negro Gold Star Mothers who, as a re- ward for the slaughtering of their sons in the imperialist blood-fest, were subjected to the most humiliating Jim Crowism by the govern- ment, must be revived. In this case these others must be gotten in touch with and statements secured from them exposing their treatment. Campaigns should also be conducted around specific cases of discrimination against Negro veterans in connection with bonus, hes- pitalization and compensation. Simultaneously it is necessary to immedi- * ately develop the partial demands of the Negro servicemen, regular army, National Guard, navy, on the basis of opposition to impefialist Jim Crow policy. It is our opinion that the Workers’ Ex-Servicemen’s League, as the work- ing-class organization of war veterans, should also further work out the demands of the Ne- gro war veterans in regard to discrimination in compensation, hospitalization, bonus, etc., etc., and assist in carrying on agitation among the Negro members of the American Legion and World War Veterans, 6 With the developing war situation and the * growth of fascist reaction against the Negro masses, particularly in the South, the demand of the RIGHT OF SELF-DETERMINATION for the Negroes in the Black Belt acquires increas- ing vitality. Therefore, side by side with our fundamental slogans in regard to the war—con- vert the imperialist war into civil war; defeat the U. S. government, defend the U.S.S.R. and the Chinese Revolution—it is necessary to ad- vocate among the Negro masses the necessity of turning the imperialist war into a revolutionary war for national liberation, equal rights and the right of self-determination in the Black Belt; | for the confiscation of the land of the big land- owners and capitalists in the Black Belt in favor of the Negro toilers, ete, 7 Hand in hand with these fundamental slo- *gans and subordinated to them it is neces- sary to advance in a more energetic fashion than | heretofore the struggles for the partial demands of the Negro liberation movement: abolition of lynching and the organization of self-defense White Chauvinism Is the Main Barrier in Winning Negro Masses } Workers against the white. These campaigns jtake many forms. One, for instance, when the Unemployed Council in a white neighborhood de- manded relief, the heads of the relief agency stated the following: “We would be glad to give you relief, but all the money we have now is being spent on the South S'de, Therefere, there is no moncy for you.” Such a campaign very clearly ind:cates the position of the bourgeoisie. They are utilizing the moet vicious methods and will utilize them further. In. the city of Chicazo, with 240,000 Negro population, the overwhelming majority, of whom are proletarians, there con be no_ successful struggle of any Kind wiihout unity of the Negro and white workers; without winning the Necro workers for the struzgle there can be ro suecess- nzsie, and the winning of the Negro work- rends primarily on demonctrating, not in words, k t in deeds that the Party and the revo- lutionAry organizations are daily carrying out the struggle for the Negro rights, The Question of Leaderstip. In this connection I want to raise one more very important problem, that is of drawing Ne- gro workers into the leadership of revolutionary organizations. Up till now insufficient Negro worke-s have been drawn into the leadershiv of such organizations as the TUUL, ILD, FSU. the International Workers Order among the Negro masses and in th> Party proper, there is no systematic effort of promoting Negro work- ers into the leadership. % More Negro Workers in Leading Positions. - It is true that there are a number of Negro workers who are engaged i. the generel activi- ties of the Party and in a leading position. But this number is too small and many more Nezro workers must be immediately drawn into the Section committees and District committees, into the leading positions of our Party, es our Party is the Party of the American proletariat, black and white, native and foreign born. Tt is particularly today that we must demon- strate in action to the Negro masses, because they are oppressed, segregated, jim-crowed, per- secuted and lynched, that w> no only put them on an equal basis but that we are fighting for their rights and developing conscious proletarian leadership from the brood Negro macses. The struggle agains! white chauvinism must be made part of the campaign of the Party in its daily work and not occasionally, from time to time. Any other approach to this question is detrimental to the revolutionary movement, to our Party, to the Negro masses and the whole working class, There is a complete absence of any activities by | == he Tasks of Revolutionary Workers in the Mobilization of the Negro Masses Against the War Danger of Negro and white toilers for protection against mob violence and Jynching, right of the Negro toilers to bear arms in self-defense, freedom of Speech and press, abolition of Jim Crow laws and Practices, equal pay for equal work, right to ene ter all occupations, unemployment relief withe out discrimination, etc., etc. For the South, in addition to these demands, the abolition of share cropping, debt slavery (peonage) and all transactions entailing bondage, abolition of chain gangs, vagrancy laws, convict labor, reduction and abolition of rent, reduction of taxes end refusal to pay taxes, relief for ‘poor farmers at the expense of the government and big land- owners, mass resistance to’ evictions from the land, etc., etc. 8 ‘The mounting of lynch terror all over the * country moves forward’ the struggle against lynching as a most vital partial demand of the Negro masses. Struggle Against Lynch ‘Terror, ‘Therefore the organization of a nationwide mass movement against lynching and for its pre- vention on the basis of initiating and linking up struggles around concrete cases of lynching and lynch-frame-ups, is a link which must be eners getically grasped by the Party and revolution- ary workers for raising the whole “Negro lib- eration movement to a higher political plane. In this respect it is necessary to remember that “even some relatively insignificant acts of the Ku Klux Klan bandits in the Black Belt can become the occasion for -important Political movements, provided the Communists are able to organize the resistance and indignation of the Negro masses. (October Resolution of the cL on the Negro Question.) 9 All agitation and propaganda must proceed * hand-in-hand with the more: energetic championin of the every-day economic needs of the Negro toilers in the shops and factories, on the unemployment field and in the agrarian dis- tricts. This presupposes an all-around strength- ening of the work of the Party, Y.C.L, and revo- lutionary organizations among the Negro masses. While strengthening and developing the work among the Negroes in the North, the South must now become the center of gravity in the work among the Negroes. It is“nécessary to carry through immediately the political orientation of all revolutionary organizations—trade unions, unemployed councils, Univer? Farmers League, International Labor Defense; League of Struggle for Negro Rights, Workers International Relief, etc—to the South, the development ofa program of action for the Negro peasantry on the basis of revolutionary struggle against the landlords and their government, including the setting up of committees of poor farmers and unions of #pri- cultural workers in the agrarian districts of the South. Must Mobilize White Workers to Support Negro geben Masses, 3 10 The utmost energy must be directed to * rallying the broad masses of. white toilers in support of the struggles of the Negro masses, including the conducting of propaganda among the white troops in the Army and Navy in de- fense of the Negroes, 3 Z ll The propoganda for the\ defense of the * Soviet Union should be conducted along the following lines: Popularization of the role of the Soviet Union as the champion of the strug- gles of the colortel and subjugated nations against imperialism, in thjs connection to popu- Jarize the solution of the national question in the U.S.S.R. and the achievements of socialist construction and the Five Year Plan, in the in- dustrial and cultural development of national minorities. It is necessary to bring before the Negro masses concrete illustrations of the atti- tude of the workers and peasants of the Soviet Union in regard to the Negro question: support given to the campaign for the release of the Scottsboro boys, the Stalingrad trial of white American engineers convicted by a Soviet work- ers’ court for a chauvinist attack upon the Negro worker Brown, : 19 = It is the duty of the revolutionary workers 44+ in the United States, especially the white workers, to assist in developiny the campaien prainst wer in the Negro colonies, perticularly the West Indies; in the first place by-the giving of moral rnd material support to the develop- ment of the revolutionary: movement in these colonies: bv carryine out thé widest campaien amon the mesres in the United States, includ- inv ronavanda in the ormy afid navy in defense of the emancination movements in thése colonies ceoinct the imneristist war, which is atthe same time a war for the suvnression of the colonial revelntion, In this connection solidarity: strikes, streat d-me-r'estions ond other forms of mass action should be orzanized. ; It is ner-ssary to combat the reactionary in- flnence of Garvevism by opposing to this antl- worting closs ideolocy the prozram of the ©. T. on the Neer enlonies—conmilete national inde- nendence, orvanivation of indeendent ‘republics, immo“iste wit-drawal of armed forces of im- perialism from these colonies, etc., etc. [T is likewise necessary to expose the reaction- ery content of the ideas advocated by the Corvevites in revard to the present war, in which ‘onan ts presented 9s the champion of the dark- er raess ovpirst the white imperialists. Towards. this end, it js necessary to expose the'role of the Janenese imperialists in the rape of Manchuria, the brutal perseevtion of ths Javanese toilers by Janenese imneriaNsts'and the alliance of Japan- ese, Furovesn and American imoeristists for the erushin« of the Chinese and colonial revolution, rod the military intervention” against the USSR, - mg “Whether the rebellion of the Negroes is to he the outcome of 2 general revolutionary situation in the United States, whether it is to originate in a whirlpool of decisive fights for power by the working class for proletarian dictetorship, or whether on the contrary, the Negro, rebellion will) | he the prelude to gigantic struecles for porwr by the American proletari¢t, connot be foretold now. But in either contingency it is essential for the Communist Party to make an energetic be- ginning now—at the present moment—with the organization of joint mass ‘struggles of white and black workers against Necro oppression.”— (C. I, Res. on Negro Question, Oct, 1950 * % 4 | | i i | |