The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-12-23
BY LOUIS KOVEEs

DECENT cases of white chauvinsm diminish
~ affair, New York City Lithuanian, Chicago
international Workers Order. etc. have again
demonstrated how deep-seated is this cancer in
the working class, planted there by the oppres-
sing cla1s. And how little is the effort on the
part of most of our comrades to determinedly
operate on this cancer
For example, the case of white chauvnsm in
the Lithuanian Cooperative restaurant in Chi
cago, where the members Of that cooperative
gave way to the anti-Negro campaign con-
Sciously prepared by the white bourgeoisie OF
that territory, proves that there was no serious
campaign before against white chauvnism
What happened after? The campaign against
White chauvinisin started. But id did not go
further than the territory where this concrete
case happened, except that few articles were
published in our press.
After the Finnish affair, where a gang of white
chauvnsts were prepared to attack and throw
out Negro comrades from the hail. the Finnish
Buro passed strong resolution against white
ch&uvinism and is prepared to carry on real
campaign not only in New York, but all over
the country among the Finnish workers
Is white chauvinis1n present only there where
it takes open expression like in Chicago and
among the Finnish workers in New York? If,
let us say to the meeting place of the Scandi-
navian workers never went a Negro up to
now and for this reason there was no chance
to express openly the antagonism towards the
Negroes by throwing them out attacking
them, does this mean that the Scandinavian
workers are not infected by the poison of the
slaveholding theology? Does it mean, that the
Scandinavian comrades may remain passive in
faSe of such occurrences like the Finnish white
chauvinist case, that at is only matter of the
Finnish comrades?
Those who think this way are certainly not in
a position to lead the struggle against white
chauvinism The elementary prerequisite to
lead the struggle against this most deadly
weapon of the enemy class is to understand
that occurrences as in the cases of Lithuanian,
Finnish and Southern Jewish organizations ex-
presses the presence of this danger not only in
a particular group but in the whole working
class. Consequently case as the Finnish affair
where white chauvinism expressed in the
most brutal form must be the signal to carry
on the struggle uncompromisngly. tearing out
branch and root not only among these particu-
lar groups but in the whole working-class, this
ointment.
Why White Chauvinisme
The theory OF superiority of the white over
the Negroes - tie product o. savehold.ny
society. The Shareholders to Justify" their keep
ing Ille negro Slaves dS HOIhlIlS dillHdlS Heeueu
theory to- show that the Negro race as COM
pared to the! whites is, a low category in human
development With the formal abolition" OF
slavery, this superiority theory did not disappear
IS slavery did not disappear, but just changed
is Form into share-cropping, tenancy, peonagc,
tic. On the basis of such form OF production,
Citations between the white ruling class and the
gegro masses in the South it is natural that
he white e1.ploiters still look upon the Negroes
S at the time of chattel slavery, as upon work
niInals. And, both in the South and in the
Jorth especially. the theory of white superiority,
CRYING as a pretext for all forms OF dscrimina
ion against the Negroes, is used by the white
losses to split the working class into antagonistc
roups, Negroes and whites, foreign born and
.ative, skilled and ul1skilled, young and adult,
tc. trying to make the workers believe, that all
nese elements of the working class have separate
interests, conflicting with the interests of the
est of the working claSs. This theory of superb
rity of the whites over the Negroes is a weapon
n the national oppression of the Negroes as