The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-05-29
By TOM JOHNSON.

IN the small space at my disposal it is I'M
possible to give this question the detailed
treatment its Importance merits. will there
fore limit myself to discussion of three major
problems which arise in the course OF our prac-
teal application of the slogan of self-deter-
mination for the Negro nation in the South
The first problem is that of creating rev.
dictionary national movement of the Negro
masses. There is no such movement today.
There never has been in America such move
ment of any mass character at ALL How are We
to- create such movement? Certainly not by
merely tackink this slogan onto the end of
leaflets addressed to the Negro workers, and
hy an occasional mention of the slogan in the
speeches Of our agitators, as has been the case
Up to now.
To create such q movement requires first
OF all the linking up Of the demand for the
Light Of self-determination with economic and
political demands which the Negro masses I'M
derstand, recognize the immediate necessity
for, and are ready to fight for now The de-
nanI for the right of self-determinaton must,
IN all our agitatonal material, flow directly
from the demand for full equality. We must
pct forward the demand for equality not only
in the sense of full economic, political and
social equality for every Negro in relation to
the whites, but also the demand for full equal
ity for the Negro race as a nation. In all of
our struggles against lynch law, against all
forms of social oppression and against the
Acknowledgement of the Negroes we must show
clearly that this constitutes the oppression of
the entire Negro nation and must be fought
as such.
Secondly, if this is to become a broad mass
movement It'll cannot find organizational
preston within the frame work of the Party
alone. The organization to give expression to
this movement must be the American Negro
Labor Congress. The A.NL.C. must devote
much more attention to the development of the
national struggle than it has done in the past.
The demand for the right of self-determinaa-
ton must find a prominent place in the pro-
gram of the A.N.L.C. to be adopted by the
st. Louis Convention. The Liberator must, in
its columns, carry on a constant campaign of
agitation for this demand linking it up at all
times with the daily struggles of the Negro
masses against all forms of oppression. Up
to the present it must be said that the A.N.L.C.
and it's organ, the Liberator, have failed COM
pletely to give any life, any vitality, to this
slogan.
The Negro Farmers.
The second problem is that of extending our
influence over the Negro farmers and agricul-
tural laborers of the southern Blacks Belt, of
organizing and leading these masses into strug-
gle. This is precisely the one section where
this slogan can, at some future date, be trans
formed into a slogan of action. And under the
leadership of the Negro industrial proetariat,
it is precisely these Negro masses of the coun-
try side who will form the backbone of the
revolutionary national movement. 1t is here
that all forms of oppression and exploitation
of semi-slave character are sharpest AS
the Comintern Resolution on the Negro Cues
ton in the United States states, "The agrarian
problem lies at the root of the Negro national