The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-04-08
CLASS AGAINST CLASS IN
THE SOUTH
NEGRO Misleaders IN Dixie

F. of l.. to go to hell and walked out in body
and have never returned.
Negro Workers in Basic Industries Militant.
Chattanooga has genuine Negro industrial
proletariat, capable of leading, together with
the revolutionary white workers, the revolu-
tionary struggle. The Chattanooga bourgeoisie
is badly frightened at the prospect of its be-
ing organized. This fact is borne out by an
item which appears in the Chimes" for Feb.
bearing the following scarehead "Wave Red
Flag as Negro Hope Against Whites" defin-
lite attempt to whip up lynching spirit by de-
claring to the white workers that the Commu-
mist Party was calling upon the darker races
of the world to rise up and conquer the white
man.
All of these attacks, however, have done little
to hamper our work. The T.U.U.L. has moved
steadily forward in spite of them and all of our
meetings have been we'll attended by both Ne
gro and white workers. Our membership has
increased at a rapid rate of speed, excellent
progress being recorded in Chattanooga, At
lanta and other parts of the South, including
Birmingham.
The workers are ready for struggle and will
ing to struggle. Not only are they willing to
struggle against the bosses for bite of bread
but they are prepared to wage militant strug
gle against the whole capitalist system Work
ers here in the South who have never heard of
the Communist Party will tell you that what
this country needs is revolution.
The Party must pay close attention to the
South and lend political guidance to these
workers in their struggle. And in view of that
fact some of the things that l said in the
beginning of this article in regard to winning
the Negro masses will bear stressing.
Class Against Class Must Be Emphasized.
Certain shortcomings of the Party in reach
ing the Negro workers of the North must be
overcome in the South. We cannot repeat the
same mistakes. While in the North serious
campaign has been carried on by the Party to
win the Negro masses for the revolutionary
movement, trained organizers have been put
in the field with this as their primary task,
etc. the fact must be recognized that our Party
hasn't sufficient appreciation of the Negro
question in this period. For while the slogan
of class agains; class has been repeatedly raised
not enough effort has been made to win ths
Negro on the basis of that slogan. In too many
cases the stress has been placed upon his suf-
fering as member of an oppressed race and
not enough upon his suffering as a member of
an oppressed class.
We have not centered enough attention upon
the shops and factories. In too many instances
in approaching the Negro worker, we have SUBJ
ordnated the Party to general left-wing mass
organizations. We have not sufficiently ex-
posed to the mass of Negro workers the treach-
cry of the Negro miseaders 1t is not enough
to tell the Negro masses that the Negro middle
class is too lacking in courage or has no pro-
gram to effect their liberation. We must make
them understand that the Negro middle class
is definitely their enemy and the friend of their
oppressor.
In this period of sharpening class conflicts
such shortcomings become keenly apparent
Class against class must be the outstanding
slogan of our Party in its approach to the
Negroes of the South. My experience with the
Negro in industry the only one vital to the
revolutionary movement, gives me to believe
that the Negro is as class conscious as the
average white worker and can be won on the
basis of that slogan.
THE END