The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-03-09

gate Mike Vritaric, anthracite
he chair. After discussion on
the previous reports by num-
ber of speakers and the read
ing of kilograms of greetings,
Otto Huiswood, head of the Negro
Department of the Party, reported
on the Negro work of the Party.
Among those participating in the
discussion were Moral of Seattle,
Bloor, Hacker of Cleveland, Toohey,
secretary of the National Miners
Union; Weisbord, secretary of the
National Textile Workers Union:
Browder, and Gerlach. At the eve
ming session of the convention, Jack
Stachel, assistant organization Sec
retary Of the Party, reported for the
Organization Department.
The first half of the report of
Huiswood on the Negro work of the
Party follows. The remainder will
be published in Mondays issue.
This report covers largely the
period of five months, October,
1928-February, 1929, since the
work of the Negro Department
has been under my direction. When
l took charge of the work, there
was no functioning Negro Depart
ment, tho there was one comrade
in charge. Very little connection
had been established with the dis
tricts and no methods or plans de-
vised to initiate activities thruout
the Party to increase our Negro
membership and mobilize the en-
tire Party behind the Negro work.
Most of the districts paid very
little attention to this important
phase of Party activity and since
there was no coordination from
the center and nospecific instruc-
tions and advice to these various
sections, no earnest attempt to
work was made.
Besides, most white comrades
conceived of Negro work as the
work of the Negro comrades.
While in some districts, especially
in Chicago, very good work had
been done in the past and impor-
tant organizational gains made,
practically everything fell thru
and only the remnants of our
former movement remained.
Neglect of Work.
The insufficient attention paid
to this work by the Party as a
whole resulted in very little ac-
tual organizational achievement.
Because of insufficient forces and
the lack of a definite and concrete
program covering all the fields of
activities, our policy was often
confusing. AS an instance, at a
certain period we concentrated
largely on the building of the
American Negro Labor Congress
(ANLC). In doing so, we forgot
almost altogether to draw Negro
workers into the Party, thereby
failing to build the necessary
cadres, which is the only active
driving force capable of building
any movement.
Apart from this, our orienta-
ton was too much in the direc-
tion of the Negro intellectuals and
petty bourgeois elements. In a
number of districts, particularly
Chicago, we took into the move
ment some very unstable elements
who Joined with the idea that
there was an opportunity for per-
sonal advancement, but when con-
fronted with the real tasks of the
Party, they became frightened at
the risks and the work involved,
and so they left the movement.
Whatever progress we have
made so far has been largely the
result of a change in our policy
in orientating ourselves to the
proletarian elements. Not only
that, but an attitude had devel-
oped to the effect that the Party's
work among Negroes was to be
confined mainly to the ANLC.
This led as a consequence TO a
very abnormal situation. 1t al
most completely divorced Negro
members, particularly those in
leadership, from the general Par
ty life, and tended to develop a
very unhealthy attitude towards
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