The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-05-06

tradition of framed Negro TO Viz
ginia on the ground that any sem
tence passed there would be Illegal
on account of exclusion of Negroes
from juries; and in the case Of the
Hawaiian lynchers, where Congress
lined up with Clarence barrow 70
prevent their punishment.
Clearly the liberation Of the
oppressed Negro people, as indeed
of the entire toiling masses, is the
task of the Negro and white toilers
of the land Not by way of hold
ing forth legalistic illusions, not in
the spirit of the refornists, as in
formal presentation Of anti-lynch
laws without the rousing Of mass
struggle and support for their en-
forcement, but by way of bringing
forward militantly the claim to
equal rights for the Negro people,
the League Of Struggle for Negro
Rights has brought forward the
Bill of Civil Rights, which has been
endorsed by the National Scots
boro Action Committee.
ONLY STRUGGLE is EFFECTIVE
Only by constant struggle, by a
consistent fight on the part Of mil
lions Of toilers, black and white, by
the combating Of every expression
Of Negrophobia, can enforcement Of
such bill, effective legal protec-
ton for Negroes In all fields, and
actual enforcement Of their equal
ity, be obtained.
The community of interest be-
tween the struggles of the Negro
people against national oppression,
and those of the white workers
against their exploitation and
degradation by the same ruling
class forces, Is clear. That the
white workers increasingly recognize
this common interest Is shown by
the fact that even In the South
they are being drawn more and
more into the struggle for Negro
rights.
1t is in no way an accident that
it is in the South, where the rul-
ing class doctrine Of white sue
premacy reigns most openly,
that the conditions of the white
workers are the most degraded,
their exploitation most extreme.
The slave status Of the Negro
masses is used by the ruling class
as weapon to whip down the liy-
ing standards of the whites. The
laws Of the Southern states which
disfranchise the Negroes operate
also to the same effect against
large masses of white toilers.
Armed forces of Flaw and order
and the extra-legal forces, such as
the Ku Klux Khan, which supple
ment them, though used primarily
to enforce slavery on the Negroes,
are used also against the whites
whenever they attempt to fight for
better conditions.
Mob violence, which the ruling
class and its government authori-
|, ties use as weapon against the
Negro toilers, Is instigated by the
drawing in of white workers into
its operations, for the purpose Of
diverting them from their commu-
nifty OF interest with the Negro
masses.
COME OF the basic democratic
Drights denied the Negro people
almost completely include those of
jury service, voting, educational
facilities without discrimination,
and the right to move from place
to place freely without being
sHlanefully herded into Jim Grow
vehicles. These conditions are dealt
with explicitly in sections Of the
Bill Of Civil Rights designed to
abolish them. Heavy penalties, as
well as provision for civil damages,
are provided for their violation.
Lynchings and police murders,
and murders of Negroes by individ-
uals at the instigation Of the white
ruling class and it's officers, are
the most violent open expressions
Of the drive against the Negro
masses. Five thousand Negroes have
been lynched in the past fifty years.
Last year, with suppression Of all
information regarding lynchings
the order Of the day for the work
ing class and its press, tlirty-seven
lynchings came to light. In the
first two months of 1888, nine
lynchings were recorded. Besides
these, and besides the unrecorded
lynchings, there have been a grow
ing number Of police murders and
murders by individuals, Of Negroes.
mounting into hundreds per year
as this form Of terror has become
more popular with the white rulers
of South and North.
Against these, also, sections are
provided in the Bill OF Civil Rights,
authorizing specific use Of every
agency at the command of the gov
ernment-not, as is now the prac-
tice, to promote them, but TO pre-
vent them.
The conditions which require ths
inclusion Of sections 3, 4 and S.
against Acknowledgement, disquali-
fication for jury service, and school
segregation and discrimination, are
particularly concrete, as embodied
in the laws Of many states, and in
the practice Of all.
IN the basis Of the mass move
nlent reused around the indigaa-
ton and protests of millions of Me-
groe and white workers over the
infamous lynch-verdict Of Decatur
in the Scottsboro case. concessions
can be won by militant struggle,
from the ruling class. Such conces-
sions, partial though they may be.
are definite forward steps in the
national struggle Of the Negro peo-
pie for the right to self-deterrnins-
ton. Only the winning OF this
right, with the confiscation of the
land now held by force by the
white ruling class, can achieve the
actual liberation of the Negro peo-