The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-01-02
Negro Question Closely Bound
To Struggles OF All Workers

do not want to elevate the Negro
race" is to cover up white chauVinisn,
to ignore the natural distruSt of Ne
groes for all members of the oppres-
sing nation and to deny the need of
a special approach to overcome this
distrust. Such an attitude denies the
necessity of the sharpest struggle by
white workers for the special demands
OF the Negroes, for abolition Of dis
elimination on the job dover wages
for equal work where employed, bar
ring of Negroes from certain trades
discrimination against Negroes by re-
lief bureaus, etc. 1t plays into the
hands of the exploiters of white and
Negro workers.
Pebbles Boss SANDER OF Negroes
Speculation as to Patterson's &C
tivities after he is released is a thin
mask for white chauvinism, which is
clearly exposed by the statement ac-
companying the speculation that he
probably doesn't know what it's all
about" This is the usual imperialist
SANDER of the Negro masses as
dumb" and Ignorant" Every Ne
gro knows what it's all about-knows
this his people are the victims Of a
special and brutal oppression.
Who Are Responsible for Young
"HoboeS"?
The Scottsboro boys are not no
boes who happened to be arrested -
but young workers who happened to
be hoboing on g freight train in
search Of work when arrested in a
chastity frame-up. To brand these
boys as hoboes is to repeat the SLAM
ders Of the bourbon lyncherS that
Negroes are lazy and no-account."
Hundreds Of thousands of young
white and Negro workers, made
homeless by the crisis, are today ho-
boing throughout the country. To
speak Of them as buns and hoboes
would be to cover up the responsibility
of the capitalist system for their
plight.
Negro Question Concerns ALI Workers
The question why are We SO con-
cerned with the Negro Question"
arises out of the crassest confusion
on the relation of the Negro Cues
ton to the everyday struggles of
the working class and to the pro-
letarian revolution. 1t is not an ac-
cident that it is precisely in the South
where the bourgeois theology of white
chauvinism is strongest and where,
as a result, the white workers have
not greatly concerned themselves with
the struggles of the Negro masses,
that the conditions of the entire toll
ing population are worse than in any
other section of the country.
Race hatred and prejudice are in
Strtlments in the hands of the ruNng
class to split the working class and
thereby defeat its struggles for better
conditions and for the revolutionary
way out of the crisis. divide and
rule" is the policy of the imperialists.
Unity in struggle must be the answer
of the telling masses. The Negro
Question is, therefore, main con-
sideration for any working class Or
ganization that Is sincerely fighting
for the interests of the working class
and is not merely mutual adn1ara-
ton society.
Branch Was Willing to Take
Chance With Dresser
Branches Of working class organ
izations should be named not only
after weu-known revolutionary lead
ers, but after any worker framed up
and victimized by the capitalist sys-
tenn and its courts, thereby expressing
support for the framed worker and
contempt and hatred of the capital
list class responsible for such despic-
able crimes. In the case of the
Scottsboro boys, such action can
serve moreover to express the Soli-
darity of the white workers with the
oppressed Negro masses. 1t is signi-
ficant that the branch was willing to
take a chance with Theodore Dresser,
because Dresser is great author, but
is unwilling to take far smaller
chance with Haywood Patterson, a
framed Negro worker
Is Branch Wor Of EngdahFs
.nne?
While it is correct that adoption OF
the name Of Haywood Patterson with
out at the same time involving the
branch in the struggle for Negro
rights would be only an empty ges-
ture, it is also true that adoption of
the name could have been utilized to
clarity its greatly confused members
on the Negro Question, thereby rally
ing them to militant support of the
Scottsboro fight and the struggles OF
the Negro masses.
1t is to be hoped that with the
adoption of the name of the late j
Louis Engdahl, who was a tireless
fighter for the freedom of the Scots
boro boys and the national liberation
Of the Negro People, the members OF
the branch will see the necessity OF
making a sharp turn. Certainly, the
branch faces the necessity of wagine
d ruthless struggle to root out al
shauvinist tendencies and to clarity
its members on the Negro Question