The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-09-18
Race and National
Aspects of Negro
Struggle

The following letter, addressed
"to the Editors of the Daily
Worker and to Comrade Mike
Gold" by a reader of the DAILY"
correctly points out several mis-
conceptions and dangerous errors
in one of Michael Colds recent
columns.
In the September II issue of the
Daily Worker, we find a paragraph in
Comrade Colds column which, in
my opinion, is not a contribution to
our Daily" on the question Of op-
pressed nations, but on the contrary,
this paragraph deviates from the
Party's line and only helps further
to confuse our readers. If my COM
ment on this is not printed, I sim
cerely hope that the Daily Worker
editorial staff will make the neces-
sary correction. I'm referring to the
paragraph called: xxx" While the
purpose of the article xxx" was
no doubt to assist our readers to
understand the peculiar sensitive
ness which oppressed people possess,
and to express Comrade Colds per-
sonal resentment "a thing which is
overdone in Comrade Colds column,
namely, his column reflects entirely
too much his personal and subjec-
tive reactions to various phases of
political and other events which he
deals WITH to certain chauvinistic
expressions; yet, each sentence, if
carefully analysed, contains devia-
tons from the Communist PartyS
understanding of the Negro ques-
ton.
His first sentence reads: "The
Irish, like the Jews and Negroes,
have suffered centuries of slavery
and this oppression always gives a
peculiar twist to races character"
1t is incorrect to put the Jews, Irish
and Negroes in the same pot and lead
the readers to the conclusion that
the Negro question is to be treated
as racial question, suffering from
the same peculiarities as the Jews
and Irish.
Confuses the Problem
His second sentence further en-
courages the idea that the Negroes
are an oppressed race and not an
oppressed nation, when he says: SOP
pressed races become sensitive in a
way that others can never under
stand" This sentence is further in
correct for the following reason
While it is true that those who are
not members of the oppressed peo-
pies, those who do not have to with
stand the various forms of oppres-
sion and persecution cannot react
with the same sensitiveness and
alertnesS as those oppressed proper;
it is not true, however, that they
cannot understand it. This assertion
leads to the negation of the role Of
the Communist Party, as the leader
OF all oppressed peoples.
How can the Communist Party
work out correct program for the
Negroes, let us say, unless this pro-
gram is actually based upon a full
understanding of the needs and de-
sires of the Negroes? To take it a
step further, how can the Communist
Party become the leader of the mil
lions Of Negroes unless it under
stands and thus is in a position to
explain the sensitiveness OF the Ne
groes; a sensitiveness which grows
out Of centuries Of oppression and
persecution of the Negroes as nation
by the white bourgeoisie2 It is pre-
cisely because the Communist Party
understands these national peculiari-
ties of the Negroes that enables it
to stand at the head of the struggles
for Negro liberation.
Comrade Gold then says: "They