The Detroit tribune. (Detroit, Mich.) 1935-1966, 1943-07-03
BY FRANK MARSHALL DAVIS
(For AMP

riots that do not stem from
the traditional policy OF reaction
airy industrialists TO keep white
and black labor split. In every in
stance. the main victims are the
common people. the masses. who
can least AFFORD TO have their ranks
weakened. AS result OF trade
unionism and the workers take a
beating.
Race prejudice is malignant
growth nurtured by economic COM
petition which is itself fostered by
the dichards in power who know
that pcrpetuation Of their historic
control over labor, numerically
superior class, is TO divide and rule.
There are not yet enough progress
sive capitalists to help combat
this ancient i'll.
Dates From Slavery
Go back TO American slavery.
Poor whites down South were jeal-
Gus OF those who owned human
| chattels. often Jealous OF the slaves
whose forced labor they consider
ed depriving themselves OF Il
chance TO get ahead economically
Plantation owners. meanwhile. soft
soaped the poor whites with Wild
yarns OF the blacks natural infer4
ioriiy, Of the poor whites heredi-
tary Anglo-Saxon superiority. thus
turning them into enemies.
Emancipation resulted in freed
Negroes being thrown in COMPETE
ton for jobs with starving poor
whites. These whites. guliible and
ignorant. became fall guys for the
propaganda OF Weather and smart
er whites who had lost their slaves
and possessions and hoped to climb
back to monetary power on the
struggling bodies OF the econom-
ically precarious. Freed Negroes.
bewildered and penniless. found
themselves In a hostile world. In
stead OF combining forces and
working for common Advancement.
both exploited groups were pricd
farther apart by those on top who
knew it was to their advantage TO
do so.
That condition still exists in Dix
ie and every awakening to the
fundamental fact that neither poor
white nor Negro will better his
condition without uniting meet.
bitter opposition from those who
can retain their control only by
keeping the races split Landlords
and big plantation owners used
every possible form Of terrorism
10 block formation Of the Southern
Tenant Farmers union and other
interracial Organizations among
sugar cane and other workers in
Louisiana and various parts OF the
South. Because the Farm Security
administration has taught coopcra-
ton to impoverished farms OF both
races and helped them improve
their economic condition, the pow
erful lobby OF the moncyed land
owners has tried feryently to get
congress to kill this thing so dan
gerous to the previous status quo.
Race Folks Divided
| Up North with the advent of lily
white trade unionism, the big in
dustrialists u 9 d unorgaAized
blacks as strikebrcakers Union
lists and Negroes became bitter foes.
Dupes OF the capitalists. neither
could see the need for joint ac-
ton or that the salvation OF one
lay in union OF both. They had
been divided: now they were ruled.
II was some time before enough ra-
tional voices could be raised TO
sound the fundamental fact that all
labor will grow strong only il
united.
Birth Of the C1O and its ayowed
policies is the most significant de-
velopment in the history OF Ameri-
can Negroes since emancipation
lis goal to abolish prejudice End
obtain common front in the
ranks OF all work rs. white and
black, is admittedly hard to obtain
for 1t would bring together those
who have been encouraged to be
enemies. But its progress ha.
caused certain ALL brotherhoods
to take stock and liberalize their
traditional anti-Negro policies.
clio Suffers
Naturally the clio has been
smeared by reactionary big business
and its Charley McCarthys. Down
South attempts TO organize the ClO
in industrial plants has met with
all kinds OF opposition on the part
OF management Racial antagonism
has been showed to the fore. Or
gani1srs have been beaten and
chased out OF town. Pamphlets
have been printed and distributed
among white employees insisting
that the mixed unions OF the clio
would result in social equality
Comparatively little opposition IS
met by ALL, for IT'S general policy
has been 10 separate Negro workers
into Jim crow locals-and that Is
all right since Il is the lesser OF
two evils.
ru1.ss-f.r utfth C.l..