The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-07-11
Harry Haywood, Negro
Communist Leader,
Tells of Meet
BY SENDER GARLIN

Association for the Advancement Of
Colored People forced officials of the
organization to give the floor to Hay
wood Patterson's mother Lester Car
ter, chief Scottsboro defense witness,
and DANES w. Ford, was described by
Harry Haywood. Negro Communist
leader, who has just returned from
Chicago. where the N. A. A. 9. P.
convention was held.
The fact that the I. L. D. had so
completely exposed the position Of the
N. A. A. c. P officialdom on the
Scottsboro case, Haywood said. forced
the latter to conceal their bitter hos
tihty TO the mass fight on behalf of
the innocent Negro boys 1t was
this which prompted them TO permit
Mother Patterson and Lester Carter
to speak, he said.
Describes Scene
1T was at the last session of the
conference, at the Savoy" Haywood
reported About 1000 people we're
present, large number Of them Wis
itors. 1t was just after Charles
Houston, dean of the Howard Uni
versity Law School, had ended d
speech. Richard B. Moore, who ac-
companied Mrs Patterson, came right
in after the applause for Houston had
subsidized He and Mrs. Patterson and
Lester Garter walked right up on
the platform. Daisy Lampkin, who
was chairman, got terribly flustered
and Walter White was on his feet at
once.
Come right up on the platform,
Mrs. Patterson White said in his
most ingratiating way"
Mrs Patterson, who told about the
fight which the international Labor
Defense was making for her son and
the other Seottsboro boys, got very
good hand when she finished" Hay
wood reported.
At a previous conference Of the
/ N. A. A. c. P. in Pittsburgh, Incl
/ dentally, Mrs. Patterson was not only
/ barred from addressing the delegates,
/ but several workers who came with
her were arrested at the instigstion
Of the N. A. A. c. P. officials.
Ford Speaks.
Ford, Communist candidate for
vice president. spoke at a different
session, Haywood said.
TT was during session Of the
conference when the subject under
discussion was The Struggle for
Jobs he declared.
Ford and I were there the night
before, and you could see that they
were very sensitive. They thought
that we would demand the floor, and
they knew We would get support from
the rank and file Of the delegates
SO Roy wilkins, field investigator Of
q e N. A. A. c. P, got up on the
I platform and said:
Il see we are honored by a dis
| tinguished visitor, Mr. James W
Ford, vice presidential candidate of
the Communist Party in the last cleo
/ ton, and we feel that Mr.. Ford s
[ position on the question would con-
tribute very much TO the discussion
here. Mr.. Ford will you please come
up on the PLATFORM
In sharp, pointed speech, Ford
ripped open the line and program OF
the N. A. A. G. P. The policy OF
the organization Ford told them
has been one Of collaboration with
the white ruling class on every ques-
tion-going further and further into
the camp Of the enemy
He showed how the N. A. A. c. P
policy Of faith in the courts was
aimed to aid the Alabama lynchsrs
by weakening the mass fight in be-
half of the Scottsboro boys"
FOLLOWING Ford's speech, which
was warmly received by many OF
the delegates, a resolution was intro
duced by a rank and file delegate
which declared that 'in view Of the
success of mass action in the Scots
boro case, resolved that the N. A. A
c. P. follow a similar policy"
Although the Resolutions Commit
tee is appointed by the leadership in
advance of the convention, it is sig
nificsnt that this resolution was de-
feated by only two votes, Haywood
said. The vote in the committee
stood 81, with the result that the
delegates never got a chance to vote
on the resolution.
Fake and Real Opposition
A fake opposition, as well as q
genuine rank-and- file opposition, was
active at the conference, according to
Haywood. The fake opposition was
typified by the leaders of the Chi
cago delegation. They started out
with frontal attack upon the Off
cialdom Of the N. A. A. G. p" Hay
wood asserted. But their role, OBJ
jectively, was actually to hamstring
the real opposition-sort of heading
the movement in order to behead it
Fact is, despite the apparent
sharpness of their attack, they al
ways wound up by saying that the
N. A. A. O. p. was capable-if ii
changed its tactics somewhat-ot
coping with the situation"
Much Of the criticism Of the N. A
A. C. p. by the Chicago delegation
Haywood said, concerned itself with
rather effective attacks upon what
speakers characterized as the New
York oligarchy' These delegate:
charged that the local organizations
OF the N. A. A. c. p. had no say in
the formation OF policies, and that al
the authority was vested In the ma
tional office, with White, wilkins
Pickens and the others at the helm
These delegates, Haywood said
we're in turn followed by a whole
string of speakers who vigorously
criticized the N. A. A. C. p, called II
an "upper-class organization" and
brought forward the question of mass
action. Many sincere workers ano