The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-08-11
The significance of the Camp
Hill Affair for the PARTY

movement sufficient concrete guidance-oylng
partly t to.the distance from the center and the
difficulty Of communication. The party failed to
grasp the seriousness of the situation quickly
enough, land of the readiness IF the masses to
struggle for their demands Immediately Like
wise the party made the mistake of not building
strong party core there and of developing suf-
ficiently local leadership
AS result of this, events developed faster
than we counted on. Though instructions were
to hold only small meetings and to work closely
and carefully-to go in small groups of two or
three to the particular landlord to demand con-
tinuance of the allowance-and not to hold any
MASS meetings. This in order to avoid the full
force OF the terror which would be unleashed
against large meetings and secondly to test out
now lar the choppers would go with us
Our apparatus for the execution of these in
structions was SO weak that they were not car
ried through The result was that the large
meetings were held, after we had won the al
lowance continuance, and we had not suffi-
GENTLY laid the ground work for defending our
selves from the armed attack Of the landlords
and their tools, that we had not sufficiently de-
Veloped leadership which could be counted on
10 carry on the work in spite of attack that our
organizational contacts and connection was not
solidified enough
The choppers their demand for continu-
ance of the allowance. This in itself was splen-
did victory. 1t spurred on and encouraged the
troopers to further organization and the putting
forward of more demands. 1t showed them that
organization can get results. Further it proved
to them the role of the Communist Party as the
leader OF their struggles. The Southern Worker
played big part in all the agitational and Or
ganizational work there.
tcularly have been on guard as the landlords
would try their utmost to get bacs at us and
smash the organization which had forced them
to continue the allowance The attack took place
as is well known
In spite of our weaknesses the troopers put up
an heroic defense. They succeeded in saving the
organizer from the landlords lynch mob And
in spite Of the terror, the murder of Ralph Gray
in cold blood, the lynching of four others, whom
the murderous chief OF police said were chop
ping wood and one of whose bodies has been
found, in spite of the brutal beating I'D of wo-
men and children. in spite of the third degree of
the IS arrested choppers, they still hold firm
not one word of discrimination has passed their
lips.
This case has had its echoes throughout Ala
bama and throughout the Black Belt as we'll
Thousands Of Negro and white sharecroppers are
attempt TO smash up the Choppers Union MANY
white and Negro choppers have already written
into the Southern Worker expressing their soil
darity. The reaction on the whole to the heroic
stand OF these starving choppers is good one
The mass protest Of the toilers throughout the
U.SA and throughout the world has already
had great effect on the SNUG tools of the land
lords-to the extent that already they had to
ADMIT their frame-up case is SO weak against the
90 arrested choppers that they need another
month to, frame up fake evidence"
Our task now is to bind together the<contacts
and members OF the Choppers Union there. this
time taking view OF our mistakes in the past 1t
means quiet careful work to rebuild that which
has temporarily been disrupted by the rnurderous
attack OF the white ruling class. To build small
groups, to develop local leadership and above
all to build the Party and League as the back
bone OF cur movement on the farms
We must not be content with work only in
that section We must train forces there to go
out to the neishboring sections to build UP the
work there. Educational work must be carried on
to show them how to carry on the struggle for
better conditions against the landlords
Furthermore we must link up the economic
struggle with the entire struggle for Negro
rights, for State Unity of the Black Belt and
the Right to Self Determination 1t is our task