The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-08-05
THE NEGRO AND THE
LABOR MOVEMENT

The WORKERS PARTY notes with
interest that your program adopted in
1920 contains the articles:
"VII. We are Disseminated
against and denied an equal chance
to earn wages for the support of
our families, and in many instances
are refused admission into labor
unions, and nearly everywhere are
paid smaller wages than white
men,"-and
1923. We declare 1t lnhuman and
unfair to boycott Negroes from in
dustries and labor in any part Of
the world"
The Workers Party regrets that the
direct question of Negro LABOR, as
treated above, does not appear on
your agenda this year for further de-
velopment and for the consideration
of concrete plans to win the rights Of
the Negro in the industrial labor
movement. The fact that certain mid
dle-class Negro and mixed organiza-
tions have taken up this issue, some
assuming the most treacherous and
reactionary position and others taking
more advanced positions, makes it
doubly necessary that your organiza-
ton should consider this vital ques-
ton which is more pressing today
than ever before. More than one
third of the Negro people in the
United States, since the northward
migration, live in cities and towns, a
larger proportion of them engaging in
industrial labor. Your organization is
composed overwhelmingly of the best
class in modern society-the indus
trial working class. This is the class
which is historically destined to lead
in the coming liberation of the world.
Therefore it would be inappropriate
for your organization to leave the
question of the Negroes rights in the
labor movement, in the hands of mid
dle-class intellectual leaders who by
the very nature of their economic
class interests are bound ultimately
to lead the Negro working masses
astray.
The WORKERS PARTY fraternally
suggests the urgent need of your TAX
ing up at your convention the ques-
ton of the Negroes rights and duties
in the Labor Movement, and discuss
ing it on the basis of the primary de-
mand for full social, political, and in
dustrial equality of all races, and the
solidarity of the working -elass. On
this basis we will promise you our
most energetic support We should
especially like to coordinate our ef-
forts with yours in a drive to open
the doors Of all labor unions Cor such
of them as pow discriminate) to the
workers, with the demand for equal
wages and no discrimination in OBJ
tanning work; and, further, in a plan
for the complete organization of Ne
gro labor with the white workers in
the same unions. This involves the
need Of educating the white workers
to eradicate the influence of capitalist
propaganda which purposely plays
each race against the other. We
stand uncompromisingly for the right
of Negroes to engage in industrial or
any other work on an equal basis with
white workers.
crystslixing Of Class Lines.
We take the liberty of reminding
you that the drawing Of class lines
within the Negro race is an inevitable
historical fact, bound to be more and
more evident as the struggle sharp
ems. This is already shown by the
numerous cases in which prominent
Negroes have for their own sordid
interests gone into the service of the
ruling class and caste as purveyors Of
Negro support We find colored poll.
ticians slavishly serving the govern
mental and political machine which
represses their people. We find Ne
gro teachers who deliberately attempt
to defend the segregated school sys-
tenn on the servile theory that only
In "jim crow" schools can Negroes
teach, instead OF taking the manly
stand that Negro teachers have the
right TO teach in any school and that
color-discrimination in schools but
lays the. foundation for all OF the fu-
ture "jim-crow" existence OF the Ne.
gre. We find Negro real.estato specu-