The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1932-05-14
KARL MARX ON THE
NEGRO QUESTION

tllS dDOutIO1 anu InOOllnlIlS PUBIC
sentiment against this vicious sys-
tenn OF human bondage and was an
: important factor in mobilizing the
! workers, both in Europe and Amer
/ lea, against slavery. He pointed out
back in 1859, that Labor in the
white skin cannot en1ancipate it,
self as long as 1t is degraded in the
black"
+ When the British textile barons
who we're accommodating great for
tunes by securing cheap cotton thru
the existence Of the slave planta-
tons in America. tried, during the
carly years OF the Civil War, to
mobilize sentiment in England IA
voring recognition OF the Confed-
crate States, Marx carried on Wig.
orous fight on the lecture platform,
and through the columns of the
| Vienna Free Press" against them.
He succeeded in mobilizing the
workers in England and other Eu-
ropean countries against the slave
system. Marx, who was living in
London at this time, whote to Las
sale on April %, 1862 that: The
English middle class land aristoc-
racyl has never more shamelesSly
oiSgraced itself than in the great
struggle that is taking place on the
oGher side of the Atlantic. The
English working class, on the other
hand, which is suffering most under
the bellum eivile (C4vil War;, has
never proved itself more heroic and
poole. All the more is this to be
admired when one knows as 1 do.
all the means which were set in
motion here tLondon) and in Nam
chester in order to get it to DEM
onstrate. The only organ that they
still had, the newspaper of the
scoundrel Reynolds, has been bought
up by the Southerners; likewise
6heir most important lecturers: But
all in vain"
1t can easily be seen that through
the agitation carried on by Marx.
which resulted in the failure of the
Southern confederacy to obtain NOR
al and financial support of the
principal European countries, was q
great factor in bringing about its
early defeat. Thus the struggles Of
the revolutionary white and Negro
workers under the leadership of the
Communist Party against the vici-
Gus campaign of lynch terror and
suppression against the most ex-
plotted section of the working class
becomes one of the most important
tasks facing the workers at this
time. The vigorous campaign car
ried on by the Communist Party
for the elf-determination of the
Negro toilers in the Black Belt" of
the South and for their equal rights
everywhere is not, as the social fas-
cists and their friends of the N. A.
A. c. P. claim, a new scheme of
the Communists for self-advertise-
ment, but the logical carrying thru
of the teachings of Karl Marx.
The great majority of the Negroes
in the United States are still on the
land, and are living in actual sla-
very, in spite of their supposed
emancipation, in the section of the
South known as the BLACK Belt"
The vicious character of their ex-
ploitation, their reinstatement
on the plantation after the Recon-
struction period when they we're
Systematically deprived of the most
elementary rights enjoyed by other
workers, the super-profits extracted
from their toll, definitely deter
mines their class position as OPP
pressed Nationals. Marx understood
this very clearly when he wrote to
Engels on July Is, 1877, comment
ing on the Hayes Tilden compro-
mise, which marked the end of the
Reconstruction Period and the be-
trayal of the Negroes by the repub-
hcan party. He stated that: 1.-THE
policy of the new President (Hayes)
will make the NEGROES. and the