The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-03-20
BY JAMES w. FORD,
Section Organizer, Harlem.


In line with the Open Letter, the
Extraordinary Party Conference de-
cided that Harlem should become
a national concentration point. Fol-
lowing this, the Harlem Section
Committee undertook as its central
task, the building of the League of
Struggle for Negro Rights, taking
into consideration that Harlem is
the national center of Negro re-
formism and that a strong revolu-
tionary liberation movement in Har-
lem would counterfeit Negro re-
formism and thereby help the de-
velopment Of the L.S.NR. nationally.
We understood also that the rul-
ing class tries to block any head
way that revolutionary influence
makes in Harlem. 1t is no acct
dent, for example, that along with
the support that is given the Negro
reformist leaders by the ruling class,
we see that the renegade Communist
groups find it important to carry
on their counter-revolutionary &C
tivity in Harlem with gusto.
Every leading and responsible
comrade of Harlem and the mem
berS of the Section Committee
understood from the outset that
our task was not simply a ques-
ton of mathematics, of building
so many branches of the L.S.N.R.
But that our work involved ques-
tiOns of great political importance
in line with the open letter and
the building of the L.S.N.R., was
in connection with one of our
other concentration tasks, that Is,
shop concentration and the re-
cruiting of Negro workers into the
Party from the larger and basic
industries. In Harlem this meant
the IaundrieS, etc. This was to
insure a strong prOletarian base
for our liberation movement. We
knew very well the social char
acter of Harlem and that Negro
refOrmist influence was wide
spread among honest Negro work.
ing people. This was, let us say,
the first stage Of our work.
Another stage. Each unit of the
Party in Harlem had within it an
LS.NR. group. The comrades of
these groups had as their major
task the building of branch of
the L.S.N.R. in their neighborhood.
The national committee of the LIS.
Mr.. had already met and revised
the program of the LSN.R., which
was distributed in pamphlet form.
This program was a great help
towards building up branches of
the L.S.N.R.
One difficulty, however, which we
frankly face was the following. The
National Committee Of the L.S.NR.
was an elaborate top heavy list of
officers. Many of them residing in
New York; they were like generals
without armies. 1t was difficult to
get some of the generals to see that
they should get down off their
horses and help to lay a base for
the L.S.NR. in Harlem by building
members. For a time confusion
arose between the national officers
and local officers. Finally, however,
this difficulty was greatly overcome.
National officers were persuaded to
give some assistance to building up
local branches, through day to day
activity.
Another stage. During the sec
ond ScottsborO trial we had twp
excellent protest demonstrations
in Harlem, involving thousands of
workers. and several mass meet
ings. The indignation of the
masses against the second death
verdict was very high. These ac-
tons brought in several hundred
applications for the L.S.N.R. To-
gether with the applications
brought in by the day to day work
of the units and the loyal coopera-
ton of the Harlem branches of
the I. L. d. we had a basis for
starting to set up branches of the
L.S.NR.
The applications were assorted
according to territory or neighbor-
hood The applicants were visited.
There were. of course, Implications
(of I. L. D. members; some of the
applications were no good. The set
ting up of branches in given neigh