The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-09-23
What
a
World
BY Michael Gold


from the Editor. This answer VIII
appear in an early issue of The
Daily Worker.
On Monday. September 18th,
wrote a column dealing mostly WIN
Ireland and the Irish workers. Ihere
was an Irish poem, an Irish anec-
dote. and some mention Of Cuba, and
quite a bit of reminiscing over old
Jim Larkin. In the course OF TINS
literary humorous column, a certain
paragraph appeared Which am re-
printing in full, because it is the
basis of a long, windy charge Of devil
alton made by some anonymous the
oretician in the Daily Worker OF
September 18th:
xxx
"The Irish, like the Jews and Ne
groes. have suffered centuries OF
slavery, and this oppression always
gives a peculiar twist to races
character Oppressed races become
sensitive in way that others can
never understand. They develop
very sharp nostrils, as do all hunted
animals. and can quickly smell out
an enemy.
Sometimes it is a deli Ct ipb to
deal with them. they are ouchy
and over-alert. The best ii ~ is to
be casual and matter-o If you
have any race feeling in you, study
it. eliminate it, fight it. Then when
YOU are cured, be casual and human.
It really isn't easy. I know / get sore
whenever 1 hear anybody say, Some
of nv best friends are Jews Why
I get sore I really don't know. But
it smells of patronage. No race OF
healthy individuals wants that. Bet
ter to have persecution, frank and
bitter, something that can be fought
in the open"
10 DeviatiOns.
There are exactly 10 sentences in
the above paragraph. Count them,
and see Some of them are short,
alld. contain only four or five words.
Ept my anonymous censor makes
remarkable statement: Each SEN
tence. if carefully analysed, contains
dsyiations from the Communist
Fartys understanding of the Negro
question"
Think of that-13 sentences, and
therefore. IS deviations They don't
appear on the surface, of course.
You have to be a Sherlock Holmes,
and use the scalpel and microscope
to discover the hidden deviation in
such a sentence as, for instance, 81
get sore whenever hear anybody
say. some of my best friends are
Jews" But it's there. It has to be
there. Comrade Anon wants it to be
there.
NegatiOn of the Role.
You also have to be a Sherlock
Holmes, or somebody even more ex-
traordinary, to deduce from the
above little 13-sentence paragraph
the following enormous conclusion:
This leads to the negation of the
role of the Communist Party as the
leader of all oppressed peoples"
Conrade Anon bases this serious
charge upon one sentence, "op-
pressed races become sensitive in a
way that others can never under
stand"
Now, if you will re-read the para
graph you will notice that I am
speaking of the Irish, with the Jews
and Negroes thrown in, as illustra-
tons. am speaking of myself. I
am a Jew and 1 think 1 understand
some of the Jewish ce-sensitivity.
I have often noticed how many traits
in common all oppressed races dis
play. I tried to indicate this, and 1
did it as a Jew talking of the Irish
and Negroes.
But with some amazing sleight-of-
hand Comrade Anon has made me
out as the apostle of major devia-
ton on the Negro problem, the mega
tor Of the role Of the Party.
OF course, I should have been a
little mere careful and said, "op-
pressed races become sensitive in a
wav that other races find it difficult
TO understand" I failed slightly in
the exectness Of my verbiage; and
the red sleuth leaps upon my unim-
portant mistake and with his micro
scope Inagnifies a rhetorical slip into
a major denial of the role of the
Comnunist Party Really, this kind
If firing is intolerable in any sort of
debate
Casual and Human.
What seemed to infuriate Conlrade
Anon was my advice that one study
erd kill the race-prejudice in ones
mind. then try to be casual and hui
r'o1 in relations with that race
Tete, that I was talking of the
Ir.s',. with my own Jewish race-feel-
IT, used as a psychological yard
ssl,. It is there in the paragraph,
r'-in for anyone to see. But Anon
6.-c~ts this statement, also.
am deviating, he says, in advo-
G ing like Socialists and Commun-
fst renegadeS that it is not necessary
70 fight against the oppression of
fTegroes.'
Let me patiently explain again: I
wss talking of all races. In this
mi,.ed up country the race problem
is q major one in the labor move
nlent. All the races are at each
others Threats, and the bosses fan
the flames. The Irish in America
are Disseminated against; the Jews,
the Swedes, the Japanese. Everyone
in America is tainted by wee-preju-
dices at one time or another. And
in the Communist movement there
are traces of it. too
It has created a certain amount of
self-consciousness in the relations
between the racial units of the Party.
have heard anti-semitic sentiments
from well-known Communist. for
instance. They we're unconscious