The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-03-21
BY HARRIS GILBERT.

IN order to understand what the full significance
/ of the proposed Alabama criminal syndicalist
law it is necessary to have clear picture OF
the situation Of the Negro farming masses in
particular.
The mass Of Negro trainers and share-croppers
are in the southern part of the State. 1t is a
well-known fact that most of them live in poem
age-unable to move or leave the farm without
the landlords permission as they are tied to him
l1v the debts he has fastened upon them with the
aid Ct all sorts Of crooked work, threats and
rnanipulations. If the Negro leaves, there is
State law which provides Jail for debts though
of course this violates "our" constitution and
and the chain gang and brutal treatment awaits
those who are caught
The Negro masses live mostly in small one
room shacks-into which family Of 10 or u
crowd sleeping on the floor at night. The
chimney is not even brick-but "Stick of mud
and fuel is the wood which they can manage
to pick up. There are no windows-only holes
in the wall which have to be boarded up when
it rains or is cold, leaving the house dark, as
lamps and candles are things unknown and too
expensive. The poor people are going around
many without shoes and all in old rags patched
together in every conceivable way. Food gen.
orally consists of corn bread, lard gravy, fat
back, little syrup and perhaps a little coffee
and turaip greens.
Doomed to Slow Starvation.
Whenever it rains or is very cold, sickness of
all sorts find plenty of victims-and small Won
der, on the diet they have. Now on top OF that
with the present crisis in cotton as well as
the drought last year-hundreds and thousands
of these poor farmers and troopers are today
actually doomed to a slow death by starvation.
The landlords and merchants have refused credit
for next years crops to these poor properties
toilers-Wlo are likewise unable to hope for any
thing in the cities where tens Of thousands are
unemployed. Now the Red Cross has announced
they will cut off relief after March Is. That is
the prospect the Negro and white farming masses
are faced with.
Nothing saved up-no credit to be expected
and no crop can be raised to provide something
for the next year. Fertilizer sales in the state
of Alabama have decreased over so per cent
what they were last year.
OF course, it is we'll known fact that the
Negro toilers, many of whom are little better
than slaves, have no semblance of political or
social rights. Justice is bitter farce for them
scores of hundreds being sent to the chain
gangs for nothing. Political rights there is not
a shadow of, and socially they are regarded as
slaves and referred to-not by name-but in
many cases by the caption "Gaston's niger"
or Jones Niger" etc. Is it then strange that
our comrades report that the Negro agrarian
masses are today more ready to struggle than
ever before. Is it strange that our literature
and leaflets have been spread and discussed far
and wide among the Negro farming masses
Daily we receive letters asking how to organize
the fight against hunger. Truly the Negro farm
ing masses will form militant part of the
struggle against capitalism-another smashing
refutation Of Loyestones theory about the po-
tential counter-revolutionar content of the
southern masses.
Slave Drivers Tremble at Signs Of Revolt
1t is indeed in this situation that the Party is
building its work among the Negro farming
masses. Full well may the slave driving, blood
sucking lilly white" landlords and their flunkey
politicians tremble as they recognize the danger
of their murderous super-e exploitation Of an en-
tire people for their own profits. How quickly
they react to the thought that their "niggers"
whom they regard as still their slaves and pri-
vate property will organize and struggle against
their starvation and hopeless future Quite clear
Iy these upright, respectable patriotic" citizens
must crush this Red peril" in the bud or else