The daily worker., 1928-11-12
The Communists Are for a
Black Republic!


with dramatic swiftness. The charge is stu
pendous: "a
Moscow wants to create an independent
Negro republic in South Africa"
The Charge" is well-founded We plead
guilty. The Communists do want native
Negro republic in South Africa! The slogan
to establish native republic in South Africa
is not the invention of the Riga lie-dispens-
ers; it is not the product of the lie-factories
of the capitalist press in London or Johan-
nesburg.
The Sixth World Congress of the Commu-
mist International took up the Negro ques-
tion in all its ramifications. The delibera-
tions of the Congress analyzed the situation
of the Negroes in the United States of Amer
lea, in the South African Union in the Negro
States of Liberia, Haiti, Santo Domingo, and
in the Negro colonies of Central Africa The
Communist international considers the prob
lens of the oppressed Negro race as one of
the most significant questions confronting
the Communists.
The thesis of the Sixth World Congress
of the Communist international on the
colonial question describes in the following
way the conditions of the Negro masses in
South Africa: & gA
"In the Union of South Africa the Negro
masses-who constitute the majority of the
population but whose land is appropriated by
the white cOlonists and the government and
who are deprived of their political rights and
of the right to freedom of migration-are
subjected to the most inhuman forms of
and class oppression and suffer at and the
same time from precapitalist and capitalist
modes of exploitation and oppression"
The World Congress, of course, did not con-
fine itself to an analysis of the situation of
the Negro masses, but gave clear-cut instruc-
tions to the South African Communists how
to fight for the oppressed Negroes. The
first instruction is for an uncOmpromising
struggle for full equality for the Negroes:
"The Communist Party, which has already
achieved considerable success among the Negro
proetariat, must continue,
getically, the struggle for complete equality
for the Negroes, for the abolition of all special
and laws directed against the
Negroes, and for the confiscation of the land
of the plantation-owners"
The second instruction given by the World
Congress of the Communist international to
our South African comrades is for deter
mined fight for the establishment of an in
dependent Negro republic in South Africa:
"a "The Party should determinedly and imme-
diatey put forward the slogan of the creation
Oman Independent native republic, at the
time safeguarding the rights of the white
minority and should actually fight for it's
establishment
No, it is not the product of the Riga lie
factory but the product of the feminist
policies of the Communist international,
when the World Congress instructs the South
African Communists to put forward deter
o,oI +bo cJo of h.
establishment of an independent Negro re-
public. The overwhelming majority of the
population of the South African Union con-
sists of Negroes. There is thin layer of
white capitalists who exploit and oppress the
Negro masses. There is stratum of white
labor aristocracy which shares the profits
of exploitation wrung from the Negro toiling
masses by their white masters.
The slogan of establishment of an indie
pendent Negro republic in South Africa may
sound unbelievable to the horror-stricken
white capitalists, but certainly it is some
thing natural and sef-evident for revolution
ary Marxians who accept the fundamental
teachings of Lenin about the relations be-
tween white Imperialism and the colonial
peoples.
Mr.. Tielman Roos, Minister in the Govern
ment of the Union of South Africa, came out
with vicious attack against the Commu-
nists, declaring that in the next election the
issue will be natiOnalism VS.. Communism
He said:
"We shall fight to the utmost any attempt
to develop natives along lines which will en-
danger the white standard of the Union"
Mr.. Tielman Roos is the embodiment of
100 per cent jingosm, and he is right when
he declares that Communism endangers the
"white standard of the Union of South
Africa Communism means the liberation of
the Negro masses of South Africa, means the
establishment of "black standard" means
the end of white exploitation and oppression
But to make the panic of the white capital
ists and plantation-owner complete, we can