In the International Self Determination Where is the British Party?
The Problem of Mobilizing the Negroes in the Class Struggle Rakovsky in Danger!
the What are you Nine years ago the Communist Party ary party shows something must be wrong. The Communist International has is issue because all indications are that such of Great Britain was formed. The delegates The above is not a pleasant picture to sued the slogan of Self Determination for a stepping stone or concession is not necat that unity convention in 1921, represent. paint, and it certainly would not be correct the American Negro. The 7th Convention essary. Cuba, India, Manchuria or Ireland ing over 5, 000 members, had visions that at to state that all hope has been abandoned.
Thesis of the American Party says, The constitute economic units with language last a united revolutionary party had be. Recently there have been signs of an awak.
and cultural differences, etc. and such Party must organize the most intense strugcome a reality ening. The mesmeric influence is weaken.
slogans at certain stages can be used by gle around the demand of social and politIt would be quite true to state that ing.
the proletariat against the imperialists but ical equality for Negroes, which is still Just what will happen when certain every delegate present honestly believed this slogan for the American Negro who of the sleepers awake is hard to state, but the main demand of our party in its work that with the elimination of sectional ditdoes not constitute such a unit only blurs ferences, which would from then onwards it sure will be interesting. Future devel among Negroes. At the same time the the class issue of the struggle in America.
be settled within the party, a rapid advance opments within the British party are worth Party openly and unreservedly fights for The Garvey Movement would be made.
watching.
the right of the Negroes for national self BLACK DIAMOND determination in the South, where the NeThe Garvey movement rallied a conA Niue Years Balance London, August 6, 1930 groes comprise a majority of the popusiderable mass for the slogan of self deterNine years have passed and what are lation.
mination as a petty bourgeois movement Self determination for the Negro the results? Have we built up that strong masses is the logical continuation and highdirecting their energies away from the class struggle. The Party says we are turning revolutionarg party rooted in the masses?
est expression of the struggle for equal this right side up. In the case of GarveyHas our membership gone up in leaps and (Continued from page 1)
rights (social equality. ism the slogan was right reformism and bounds? Has our influence spread into Athird rald and search has just leen made in our case it is only shifted to left reformevery section of working class life? The Is Slogan Correct!
at Rakovsky The ring draws more ism. The change from Garveyism to the answer to these questions is unfortunately, tightly around him. Rakovsky is in dan There can be no argument among ComParty is a change in form but not in conNo. In fact, we haven even held our own.
The reverse is the case.
ger.
muniats regarding social and political tent. The change from Africa (Garveyism)
every The Left Opposition calls to equality for the Negro masses. The ques to the South (Stalinism) may be far in Our membership has decreased by fifty Party comrade, to every member of the tion is, does the slogan of self determina miles but it is quite close in content. The percent Our influence is of a negligible Left wing and its unions, of the tion mean the logical continuation and Negro business man who is a watchdog quality and as for being rooted in the and the Friends of the Soviet Usion: Comhighest expression of the struggle for for imperialism must not be confused with masses, we are scarcely in touch.
equal rights for the Negro of the United rades, it is the best Bolsheviks that are the petty bourgeois element and ideology Many reasons can be given and many being exterminated.
States?
The bourgeoisie 18 of the Negro, just like the leaders The writer puts forward excuses made.
as imperialist watchdogs must not be conhis reasons as to why.
following this work of extermination with Either class. capitalist or proletariat, fused with the liberals and petty bourA revolutionary party in an industrial a silent joy. It is pursuing the overthrow can use the slogan of self determination to geoisie even though all these unite on many country like Britain must ha leailers of the dictatorship of the proletariat by their advantage in concrete situations.
issues. The petty bourgeois section will that continue to be in close touch with every means, including the external and The proletarian vanguard uses it against Join our bandwagon, not as a back seat industry. Our leaders, with few exceptions, internal corruption of the Stalinist bur the imperialist in the colonial struggle for wen.
driver but as the real driver because the have never been industrial workers or else eaucracy.
freedom. The capitalists use the slogan slogan takes the class content out of the they left industry with the formation of the Remember this: Stalin replaces the too, and a good example is its use against struggle for the United States.
party. If a mass meeting is to be held with Rakovskys with Bessedovskys.
the defeated nations and the Soviet Union He unites as a two edged sword in the Balkans and Self determination within a national three or four of our leading executive with Purcell and Chiang Kai Shek but has Central Europe at unit must imply more than double exploitclose of the last members as speakers, we can advertise and only the most brutal methods against Trotworld war.
ation, racial difference or a majority in a boost it as we like but the net result would Self determination under a sky. He assassinates Blumkin and puts Soviet power is a concession and transitory backward section, to be used as a slogan.
be at the outside perhaps two or three Agabekov in his place. These changes measure in our development toward ComThe Negro race has the same language, are hundred people and two thirds would be are an inexorable law of Stalinism.
our own members.
munism.
This refers to a LonSuch a conoton part of the same economic unit and do not the south To defend the the dictatThe have marked cultural differences.
may be necessary but the conditions of the don meeting orship of the proletariat means primarily Negros, interwoven in the whole economie Mexican in the southwest faces the same The experiences of our Russian comto save the Left wing of the Bolshevik structure with decisive sections in the conditions the Negro does and in addition rades have been accepted nd applied too It party, the Oppositionists. You must act has language and cultural differences.
industrial centers indicates that such will literally. To transpiant into Britain tacwith energy in the revolutionary ogantzanot be needed.
the slogan means anything it must include tics, methods and so on, just because they him where he is the majority, happened elsewhere, is the height of folly, tions. In the Party, in the in Sell determination for a colonial peothe raise these questions to the The Party says self determination in and to insist that this is the only correct e ple or subjected national unit with cultural irresponsible bureaucrats: the south where the Negro comprises the line in spite of adverse experiences. and language differences is a blow against doing with the deportees?
majority of the population but the Party suicidal.
What is the the enemy forces and a step toward our situation in the solitary continement pri.
uses the slogan mainly in the north and in hegemony. But self determination for the Robotizing the Party sons Why was Blumkin killed?
the industrial centers.
American Negro can only be accomplished The distinction drawn between the Whilst recognizing that discipline To Etrowder. Bedacht, Hathaway and by the establishment of a Soviet power and north and the south as to where the conwithin a revolutionary party is a necesCo. the triumphant leaders of every desuch a measure then would not be a stepsity. to instill fear into every member that dition of self determination is to be carried ping stone.
feat and setback to our Party, we ask: a thought, word or deed which wobbles a out leaves the impression on many Negro What are you doing to our deported com.
hair breath of the straight and narrow Self determination at that sterge inworkers that we want them to leave the rades? What are you colng now with stead of a Soviet class emphasis means north and the industrial centers and go path, means expulsion makes it not a Rakovsky. party of intelligent working class fighters subordinating the class issue to the race ack gouth. On the other hand it implies that the southern agrarian Negro is the that is being built, but a party or robots.
decisive section of our ally. We know Our party might well shrink by hall.
that the industrial Negro (including such Can a party really have a healthy growth when the financial responsibilities centres as Birmingham) are the decisive Every trade man a union man Fitters and Gasfitters and from the bosses.
are matters considered outside the jursection of the Negro race. The industrial The organization embraced largely young.
slogan never omitted from the fut hals of and urban Negro and the Negro in the north isdiction of the membership? The exper the of but there is aa abyss be native American workers ranging from 18 does not want self determination if he ience of the British party is emphatically, tv een their words and their de:ds One to 25 years of age. Throughout the camXo. subsidized party sows the seeds or must move south. What the Negroes want the strongholds of the Lis the paign of organization, and during the plum: its own destruction, is social and political equality where they building trades, but the indicairy is far bers strike of that year, the helpers conThousands of members have left the are. The white worker must put the main from being organised Patronize the union ducted a spirited battle for organizing the emphasis on this side of the question.
British party in disgust.
Where we had late: do not york with scal, and trade under the influence and leadership of locals of Afty to a hundred strongs. we have other slogans like it are the favorises of the Young Communist League.
Racial and Economic Oppression small groups and in many places only conva ILG AF. rf unu nism as proc aimed Picketing of jobs, agitation among the tacts.
Racial oppression is economic oppresby There industrial cities by the L, organizations, but after these many years sion and the class struggle in this case plumbers and building trades workers, were score without a single party member.
the takes on racial forme.
on the building conBut as Marxists potential scab carried on. Quite This weakness reflects itself in other bit of sympathy for the our aim is not to enlarge the racial form directions. The is practically destruction job remains ignored cause of the helpers was reflected in the or any other datorted form but on the rank and file of these organizations only to funct.
The plumber helper is a building To state that they have a hundred contrary, to direct our slogans, tactics and and fifty members would be putting it high.
trades worker who is not cnly exploited be choked by the soothing words and lies strategy to transform this racial form toA hundred would be nearer the inark.
by the boss but also the goat of the in of the officials. Yet the boycotting of the ward the real content of the class strugThe Minority Movement is in a similar dustry In all the days of prosperity journeymen plumber officials did not hin gle. The class issue must dominate and position. Following any stdikes where when wages ranged from 12. 00 to 15. 00 der the organization so much as the policy especially the proletarian Negra where we their members have taken a leading part, a day and 00 to 11. 00 for apprentices. then pursued by the plumbers helpers are using this slogan the most.
the Worker (organ of the devotes the plumper helper received a meager officials.
The slogan also shows confusion of the pages for weeks afterwards to our mistakes. 00 a day.
The cost of living rose with Too much confidence was placed in the the wage increases, but the helpers wage problem of imperialism and the colonial Always mistakes and defeats, never victorA. of local leadership in applying for oppressed. The Negro of the United States les or good generalship. remained the same.
recognition Jobs that it was possible to cannot be classified as an oppressed nationThe Minority Movement Many attempts have been made by the strike and hold until recognition from the al group as was the case of peoples under workers in the trade to organize into a boss plumber, were left alone.
The failure Czarism with national cultural and langA recent issue of the Worker devotes union to better their working conditions and to strike the job for job control was one uage differences. The decisive section of more than half a page to a meeting of the in general, to gain the benefits of organized the prime causes for the dwindling of the American Negro is interwoven through execeutive committee and if the brief and inlabor. Many were the lessons taught these the whole economic unit, just like the the organization And an additional factor complete statements of the members young workers that the officialdom of the hindering the work in the organization was oppresaed Jewish people are interwoven are anything to go by, it appears fairly of would not organize them. They the reflection of the factional strite among through the whole capitalist system. The obvious that a general state of dissatisfacnot only discourage organization, but contion exists.
the executive board membara imxo1ted Negro of the United States demands social to hinder its slightest progress.
into it by the ruling Party cliqule which and political equality where he is.
In view of the fact that the army of The The year 1927 was rich with uch unemployed has reached the two million was more interested in factional advantage decisive section of the Negro race is scatmark, and the workers have thrown off the experiences.
The Amercan Association of tered through the whole economic unit and than in advancing the cause of the workers.
apathy that followed the general strike of Plumbers Helpers, with more than 3, 500 the Soviet power with proletarian democracy. SPRAGUE 1926, and are now fighting every inch members, was welded together in greater Another article on the problems of the can easily remedy the situation in the south. Against white chauvinism and for against all schemes of capitalist rational New York, fighting for recognition from plumbers helpers will appear in our next ization, a continual decline of a revolution the United Association of Plumbers, Steamsocial and political equality for the Negro issue. masses.
The Fight of the New York Plumbers Helpers tinue to