The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-05-15
Paul Peters, Revolutionary
Playwright An htervie1O
Drama of Negro White
Unity Is Based on
Actual Incidents

Gent because. as Peters explains,
ut dealt with the Negro problem
from the race angle rather than
from a Mar-Eist approach"
In working together on Steve
dore," Peters and Sklar hammered
out every line of dialogue and every
line of stage action together.
"Such things as are described
i'm the last act Of 'StevedOre,'
where Negro and white working
men band together to fight Oft a
lynch mob have happened, not
once, but many times in the
South" Peters told me.
Since 1913 there have been three
important strikes on the wharves of
New Orleans. where the action Of
'Stevedore' is laid All three
strikes involved brickbat and pistol
clashes between company guards
and longshoremen; and all three
strikes we're broken by strike
breakers. known as rabbits in the
front of town along the river ,le-
wee. The significant thing about
these strikes. however. is that Ne
gro and white 'dockwallopers" stood
shoulder to shoulder in the battle
against injunctions and physical
attacks"
Long before this time. however,
back in the eighties, Peters points
out, New orleans was the scene Of
impressive parades of black and
white, who Joined together and for
time paralyzed the city because
certain leading employers refused to
deal with organized Negroes.
Unity in Bogalusa
More spectacular" Peters con-
tinued, was the big lumber strikes
in Bogalusa, Louisiana, in 1919.
"Since a large percentage of log
gers and lumberjacks were Ne
groes, white union men realized
that they had to organize their
black fellows to win the strike. This
ATTEMPT was resisted by a horde of
armed guards. A white organizer
named Luln williams was killed
for defending Sol Dacus, leader of
the Negroes"
Peters tells of a similar incident
which occurred at the saw mills Of
Brabow, La, where in 1913 native
whites, Italians. Mexicsns and Ne
groes struck together and pre-
sented a unified front. when as
saults were made with weapons
upon the Negroes in the customary
attempt to split this united front
over the race issue, white workers
Joined the battle and helped drive
the company guards off"
CONCERTED action by both Ne
v gro and white union men has
frequently been q phenomenon of
Southern coal strikes, the revolu-
tionary playwright declares. Ken
lucky miners, during the great
strikes in Bell and Harlan counties
in 1930-31, quickly abandoned theii
prejudices and fought together: and
there is one instance recorded in
Harlan county Of a local Of mixed
Negro and white miners, the presi-
dent Of which was a Negro. A fire.
quent statement made by white
miners during the strike was,
Wen brother the black miner as
we'll as the white"
1t is much harder to get Negroes
to scab than 1t was in the past,
Peters says. During the famous
steel strike Of 1919, over 10000 Ne
groes we're picked up in Southern
towns by steel scouts, and shipped
in locked freight cars into the
Pittsburgh area. Here they we're
housed in barracks within the con-
crete walls Of the steel mills and
employed on the furnaces.
TOMORROW: Peters describes
more actual incidents of Negro
and white unity. comments on the
Soviet theatre. and tells of prob
lens of a workers theatre.