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

TOR two years the Negro and white
L working masses have been wag-
ing a life and death struggle to
save the nine innocent Negro boys
framed at Scottsboro. Through the
militant leadership Of the Com
munist Party and the International
Labor Defense, supported by the
worldwide revolutionary movement,
the issue in the struggle, during
this period, has been raised beyond
the question of saving the lives
Of nine framed-up defendants to
the fundamental issue of defending
the most elementary rights Of the
Negro people in the United States.
The justice melted out by the
Alabama courts has sharply reveal
ed to the whole world that behind
the Scottsboro case RACES an ele-
mental war between the reaction
airy forces Of the white ruling class
and the awakening Negro people,
in solidarity with the white work
ers, for their right to complete
equality. 1t is this fundamental
principle which is the moving force
in the stubborn struggle Of count
less black and white toilers in be-
half Of the Scottsboro boys.
MILLIONS OPPRESSED
Thirteen million Negroes, a tenth
Of the population OF the United
States, are living today under yari-
Gus kinds of disabilities, economic,
political and social.
In the Black Belt Of the South,
100000 Negroes, although consti-
tuting a majority of the population,
are reduced to the status Of an OPP
pressed nation. The so-called
emancipation proclamation" of
1868 has in no way lifted the actual
yoke of slavery from the Negro
masses. This proclamation did not
touch upon the fundamental ques-
ton Of land, and by depriving the
Negroes of the land their slavery
has, on the contrary, been perpetu-
ated. The material conditions Of
Negroes under the present system
Of share-cropping, peonage, denial
OF the right to sell crops, planta-
ton stores, usury, and convict labor,
are in no way improved by their
legal freedom. All the forces Of
government are enlisted to main
tain their slavery.
pY law, and by practices uncheck-
u ed by law, the Negro people OF
the United States are everywhere
subjected to economic super-ex-
ploitation, to social indignities, and
to political inequality bordering on
virtual outlawry. The Bill Of Rights
in the American Constitution is for
the Negro masses a mere fiction.
The 18th, 14th and 18th. Amend
ments to the Constitution, adopted
ostensibly to admit the Negro
people to political equality, have
proved a hollow mockery. State
upon State maintains legal restric-
lions on the rights of the Negro
people. Chain-gang slavery, peon-
age, Acknowledgement, segregation,
inter marriage bans, all or in part,
are legalized in more than half the
States in the Union, while "unwrit-
ten laws" legalize such practices as
the closing Of many occupations,
particularly the skilled industries)
and the professions to Negroes, the
discrimination in the American
Federation Of Labor unions, the
imposition OF inferior working and
living conditions upon Negroes, pre-
judicial treatment OF Negroes in
dwellings, in public places, in places
OF employment, in educational in
stitutions, in law courts, on public
carriers, etc.
THE ALABAMA
LYNCH VERDICT
The recent lynch verdict of the
Decatur courts, in the case Of Hay
wood Patterson, first of the Scots
boro boys to come up for a new
trial, has most especially brought
to light the fragrant systematic ex-
clusion of all Negroes from jury
service: has evidenced the repeated
and wilful attempts by the courts
of Alabama legally to murder nine
KT W HV nNDTT