The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1932-11-18
Only Path to
Liberation of
Negro Masses

- aHE@zsa9azauzaSA
NEGRO LIBERATION, by James
S. Allen. international Pam
phlets No. %, 10 cents.
Reviewed by MILTON HOWARD
TIE workers Of America viii not
= be able to overthrow the rule
Of their exploiterS, the American
capitalists, If they do not win over
to their side the 100000 op-
pressed Negro workers from whom
American capitalism Sweats even
greater profits than it does from
the white workers. And, con-
versely, the Negro workers will
never be able to win their freedom
from all oppression without the aid
Of the millions of American white
workers and small farmers. 1t is
therefore obvious that a proper I'M
derstanding of the Negro question
as a basis for correct action is alb
solutely vital for all workers, Ne
gro and white. Tremendously I'M
portant as this understanding is,
it is not too much to say that be-
fore appearance Of this pamphlet
1t was impossible to obtain in COM
pact form a popular Communist
analysis Of the whole question. But
this pamphlet takes up the whole
question, its beginnings, its his
tory, its development and its pres
ent status, thus providing the key
to an understanding of why the
Communist Party demands and
fights for Equal rights for the
Negroes and self determination for
the Black Belt
KEEN HISTORICAL ANALYSIS
James S. Allen, who is also the
author Of another pamphlet in this
series, 1.-THE American Negro" cor
rectly insists that to consider the
Negro question in America from a
Marxtst-LeniniSt viewpoint means
to consider it historically. He
shows by keen historical analysis
that the Negro people are a de-
veloping nation. But what is a
nation? Allen gives a good sum-
mary Of Stains teaching on this
question. A nation is historically
developed, permanent community
Of people having a common Ian
guage, a common history, COM
mon economic and cultural life,
and living on a common territory.
BY the end of the Civil War the
Negroes already had many of the
elements of a nation. And by
1900, with the development of a
Negro petty bourgeoisie and class
antagoniSmS among the Negro peo-
pie, the Negroes, says Allen, had
already developed all the charac-
teristics of nation-of an OPP
pressed nationality" In other
words, the Negro masses in the
Black Belt constitute today @
young nation whose tremendous
cultural and social forces Ameri-
can capitalism is trying to Strangle
in order to preserve the tremen-
dous super-profits which it sweats
out of the Negro toiling masses.
THE Communists all over the
L world fight for self-determina-
ton for all nations. In the Soviet
Union they have put this theory
into practice. Aliens chapter on
this problem Is exceptionally clear.
He shows that Communists believe
in bringing all nations closely to-
gether in one International unity.
But he points out, quoting Lenin,
that fusion of nations on truly
democratic, truly international
basis is unthinkabIe without the
freedom of separation. The
working class strives to bring all
nations closely together, to fuse
them, but 1t intends to bring that
about not by the use of force, but
only by a free, brotherly union of
the workers and toiling masses of