The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-04-17
Negro Masses and Communism
By Fred Ellis

ness men. This petty bourgeois ele-
ment lost no opportunity of exploit
ing the growing racial consciousness
which swept over all oppressed min
critics after the war. By appealing
to the similarity of color between
the rich Negroes and the poor ones,
the business men were able to turn
race consciousness into dollars and
cents. Merchants, insurance brok-
ers, bankers and real estate sharks
grew up, as it were, overnight. They
robbed the black workers as effec-
lively as the white exploiters. What
the latter failed to extract out of
their labor power, the former seized
out in high rents and exorbitant
prices for commodities. The Negro
masses cannot hope to solve their
problems by turning to the petty
bourgeoisie of their race for lead
ership.
The same applies to the intellec-
tuals. From this group spring the
chief political lackeys and "Uncle
Toms" of the white American rul-
ers. To them are assigned all the
filthy tasks to keep the masses in
helpless condition. One of the
best illustrations of this was during
the last presidential campaign. The
two old parties-republican and
democrats-bought up all the So
called Negro leaders - editors,
preachers, teachers. These traitors
sold the helpless Negro workers out
to the highest bidder. Theirs was
an open and brazen expression of
depravity. The workers must wake
up and take the leadership into their
own hands, for only the working
class can emancipate itself.
New Leadership Needed.
The creation of working class
Negro leadership is the most needed
factor in the Liberation movement to-
day. After this is done, it will be
necessary to look for allies to help
them in their struggle against the
capitalists-white and black. Where
are these allies to be found? In
America, among the class-conscious
white workers together with the
millions of over worked and mis-
treated Mexicans, Latin-American
and Asiatic and other foreign born
workers who like the Negroes toll
to produce the wealth for the Wall
Street bandits. When this day
comes, which is not far off, the
Rockefellers, Fords, Melons, Du-
Fonts, Hoovers and their kind will
be driven from the thrones of the
mighty in just the same way as the
Russian capitalists were routed by
the Russian workers and peasants
in 1917.
Revolutionary Inspiration.
The Revolution of 1917 was the
first signal of the international
working class. The Negroes and
white workers must learn their les
sons in revolutionary tactics from
this victory, and look upon the So
Wet Union ruled by the working
class as the greatest hope and in
spiration for them in struggle to
attain. The Soviet Union is the
fatherland Of the International work
ing class and the oppressed peoples
Of the world. They must rally to it's
defense against the plots and
schemes of the International i'm
perialists. This can best be done by
joining the Communist Party of
America, the leader in the defense Of
the first workers state.
Negro workers in America and the
colonies awake! Organize, agitate,
fight under the leadership of the
Communist International, the van
guard of the workers of the world
and oppressed and enslaved colonial
millions. In this way we shall all
march forward to the conquest of
power and the establishment of an
international Soviet system Of work
ers, farmers and soldiers. .