A valuable report from James W. Ford on the founding of the National Negro Congress. The Congress was, in many ways, the successor of League of Struggle for Negro Rights, but far more important and influential. Over 800 delegates representing 551 organizations and 5000 others attended the founding meeting. A. Philip Randolph was elected President and John P. Davis was elected National Secretary. The N.N.C. was one of the most important mass political organizations in U.S. labor history and introduced thousands of Black workers to the Communist Party. More importantly, it helped to integrate the C.I.O. and was an organized, radical voice of Black America during the later Depression and World War Two.

‘The National Negro Congress’ by James W. Ford from The Communist. Vol. 15 Nos. 4 & 5. April & May, 1936.

THROUGH the vigilance, energy and steadfastness of the Communist Party on the Negro question a powerful movement among the Negro people is taking solid root. The ruling class of this country has used every repressive measure to stifle the resistance of the Negro people. With the tactics used in Germany by the fascists against the Jewish people and in Russia by the old tsarist regime against the many nationalities, the ruling class in this country tries to prevent all the forces with common interests from joining against war and reaction.

However, despite all their efforts, a mass movement arises among the Negro people. Fundamentally, a mass movement of the Negro people in the United States can be a movement of a whole nation of people against American capitalism; divergent class and group interests can come together in it.

This fact was never before so clearly shown as by the National Negro Congress which closed at Chicago on February 16. It would be worthwhile for white workers, and all who are sincerely interested in the problems of the Negro people, to give this movement their careful attention and help to build it into a powerful instrument to fight for Negro rights and national liberation.

The National Negro Congress represents a broadly developing movement. It hardly matters how divergent the groups within it may be at the beginning. In all probability, economic and social divisions will emerge within it; no doubt, tendencies to the Left and Right will grow. This movement has been brought together around a minimum program of common interests. The Left forces, because of their experience and understanding, can render great help to it.

The movement is not yet made up of a large, clearly conscious progressive group; and there are, consequently, great dangers to be guarded against from reactionary political forces, such as the Republican and Democratic Parties, because of their traditional influence among the Negro people. Various social segments and groups within the Congress are not yet (in the full political sense) aware of unity pacts and the full meaning of united front alliances. Yet there are, within the life of the Negro people, elements that want and factors that tend toward common, unified action for Negro rights.

One of the most hopeful forces in the National Negro Congress were the young people, who do not have to overcome worn-out ideas and who are energetic and open-minded.

In some respects, the National Negro Congress corresponds to a movement such as the Indian National Congress of India, which contains different class and group interests but which brings together a broad anti-imperialist movement.

At the present moment of capitalist decay the National Negro Congress movement has powerful dimensions and possibilities for aiding in forestalling the growth of fascism and the outbreak of war.

There are several points to be noted in connection with the rise of this movement that will serve as a guide for its future development:

1. The burdens of the economic crisis and the recent changes in the country and in the world at large which are leading to fascism and war have had profound and lasting effects on the Negro people.

2. During the period since 1929 great struggles have taken place involving all sections of the population. The Negro masses have learned valuable lessons in mass actions and have become more militant and determined in the struggle for Negro rights.

3. Many divergent sections of the Negro people and their organizations have been set in motion as never before.

4. A significant development towards the Left and for unity of action has taken place within the various Negro organizations; many leaders in these organizations, influenced by this change and spurred by events, have taken a Leftward course.

5. The Communists have played a big part in this development as well as in the larger struggle for the unity of the Negro people and the white masses. Our Party as a whole has helped to organize the Negro people and has gained wide support for their struggles.

6. There has been a growth of Communist influence among the Negroes and a better understanding on the part of Negro Communists of how to work among the Negro masses, bringing to them Communist ideas and methods of struggle, and creating faith among them in the sincerity of the Party and in its ability to break down the barriers of prejudice created by the white ruling class within the ranks of white workers. And, finally, the Negro masses have gained more and more confidence in the leadership of the Communist Party and are increasingly accepting and applying its proposals in the solution of their problems.

A number of these points can be illustrated by briefly showing how the National Negro Congress was organized, and how the movement developed.

It may be remembered that the National Negro Congress was proposed last May at a National Conference held in Washington. Earlier, in January, 1934, at a symposium held in New York between Frank R. Crosswaith, Oscar De Priest, and myself, I made a suggestion for the calling of a National Negro Congress.

The May conference held in Washington was “devoted to the purpose of surveying the position of, and of suggesting a way out for the Negro people in the present economic crisis”. The conference was sponsored by the Joint Committee on National Recovery. (The Joint Committee on National Recovery is composed of representatives from twenty or more Negro organizations with headquarters in Washington, dedicated to the task of investigating the effects of the New Deal on Negroes. Dr. George E. Haynes is chairman of the committee and Mr. John P. Davis is Executive Secretary.) This conference showed that, side by side with the increased activity of the Negro masses there was an increase in the attacks on the Negroes and a growing menace from the most violent enemies of the Negro people. The economic and social causes for these growing attacks were very clearly brought out. The various participants in the conference dealt with this matter with dramatic forcefulness. Moreover, the speeches and reports of many of these participants indicate on their part a decidedly growing clarity on the class problems and the Negro, a broader outlook, and a desire for united actions in the solution of the problems of the Negro people.

For example, Mr. Albion Hartwell, of the Interprofessional Association for Social Insurance, showed the position of the Negro in employment and unemployment:

“The fifteenth census, taken in 1930, showed 11,891,143 Negroes in the United States, constituting 9.7 per cent of the total population. Of these, 5,503,535 were listed as employed. Thirty-six per cent of all Negro workers were engaged in agriculture, nearly 29 per cent in domestic and personal service, and nearly 19 per cent in manufacturing and mechanical pursuits. More than 3,500,000 Negro workers–a great majority of all those employed-are found within the categories of domestic and personal service and agriculture, representing approximately 65 per cent of all Negroes gainfully employed.

“The figure for unemployment among Negroes in 1932 was placed at 1,500,000; in 1934, between two and three million. These figures mean that in 19 34, 5 0 per cent of the working population were without jobs, whereas it is estimated that between 20 and 25 per cent of white workers were unemployed.”

Mr. Edward Lewis, secretary of the Baltimore Urban League, indicated the increase of the above-mentioned terrific burden placed on the Negroes by discrimination in relief:

“In the South there has been a sustained movement to keep relief standards for Negroes low and to discriminate on the basis of color. The budget for a family of five is $7.85. The price of milk is deducted from the budget when it is made out for the client. This means that $1.54 is subtracted from $ 7.8S and the balance of $6.31 sent for the purchase of food for five people.

“An investigation of 7S white families on relief and 75 colored families showed that nine out of every ten colored families were below the standard set by the B.E.R.C. The North is not entirely free from discrimination of this sort, as was indicated in the recent Harlem investigation…”

John P. Davis, Secretary of the Joint Committee on National Recovery, stated:

“In the Southern sections of the nation the percentage of Negroes on relief is uniformly shown to be from two and one-half to three times larger proportionately than is the Negro population in this section. Although we represent less than 10 per cent of the total population of the United States, the number of Negroes on relief is today more than 20 per cent of the total number of families for the United States.”

The plight of the Negro domestic worker has become a great social problem in the life of the whole Negro people. Mary Anderson, head of the Women’s Bureau of the Department of Labor, quoting a Y.W.C.A. secretary in Brooklyn, gave the following alarming facts about Negro domestic workers:

“The average monthly wage paid colored domestic help amounts to $25 when they live on the premises. In some cases this amounts to as little as $20. The conditions under which these people work are terrible. Whereas before the depression the laundry work was taken care of outside, now this has been added to the work given to the domestic help. Where the work is done on a daily basis, twenty to twenty-five cents an hour is common as the maximum compensation.”

The representatives of the sharecroppers made the most militant speeches and brought to the conference heroic experiences of struggle. It had been brought out by the writer that the condition of the Negro farmers was undergoing steady deterioration:

“By 1910 only one-fourth of the Negro farmers owned land, the poorest and most heavily mortgaged. For the last 25 years capitalism has been taking even this land away from Negro farmers and farm owners. In 1930 there were 40,000 fewer Negro farm owners than in 1910. In the last ten years, between 1920 and 1930, Negroes lost almost 2,000,000 acres of land-land is being taken away now from Negro owners by banks, insurance companies, large landowners, and other creditors much more rapidly than before.”

The Negro sharecroppers have protested against this situation and pressed forward for greater organization. The sharecroppers have aroused the Negro people to organized struggle more than any other section of the Negro population. Also the heroic example of Angelo Herndon and the results of the united front for his freedom brought a significant change in the approach to the solution of problems of the Negro people.

Other speakers at the May conference very clearly showed and stressed the need for organization. Mr. T. Arnold Hill, of the National Urban League, stated that “if workers are to have organization to protect their special interests, they must organize as workers…This seems to me to be the only likely means of effecting the mass pressure necessary to achieve the concessions which are critically needed to protect the future of Negro labor.”

A. Philip Randolph, President of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, declared:

“The cause of the organization of Negro workers into the trade union movement has suffered greatly and been incalculably hindered by Negro leadership. The Old Guard conservative groups are simply opposed to organized labor for the same reason that Mellon or Morgan is opposed to it. As a matter of fact they would oppose a group of Negro workers organizing to fight for more wages and better working conditions just as they oppose white workers fighting for more wages and better working conditions. The Negro intellectuals, too, have rendered doubtful service to the cause of the organization of Negro workers, since they have been content merely to proclaim their opposition to the A. F. of L. because of the existence of prejudice in various unions affiliated with it which, of course, nobody denies or condones…But along with a policy of destruction with respect to discrimination, segregation, and jim-crowism in the trade unions, there should also be developed a program of construction. Obviously, the only sound constructive program in dealing with the problem. of Negro workers is organization.”

Emmett E. Dorsey, of Howard University, said:

“The depression has made heavy depredations on Negro business. In its crippled condition its grandiose claims have become ridiculous. The middle class Negro finds it necessary to find other means of employment. In many great cities he has organized movements designed to get Negroes employed in those concerns that cater largely to Negro patronage. The slogan of these campaigns is: ‘Don’t buy where you can’t work’.”

Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois, however, is a great puzzle. Some things he states clearly, others confusedly. On the one hand, he warns of the danger of war and fascism, and on the other, attacks the Communists who arc outstanding fighters against fascism and war. For example, he declared:

“We see today as the chief aggressor and threatener of violence not indeed Communism but greed and reaction, masquerading u patriotism, and fascism armed to the teeth, intolerant and ready to kill and repress not only those who oppose them, but those who dare to express opposing thoughts…

“There is no automatic power in socialism to override and suppress race prejudice. This has been proven in America, it was true in Germany before Hitler and the analogy of the Jews in Russia is for our case entirely false and misleading. One of the worst things that Negroes could do today would be to join the American Communist Party or any of its branches. The Communists of America have become dogmatic exponents of the inspired word of Karl Marx as they read it. They believe, apparently, in immediate, violent and bloody revolution and they are willing to try any and all means of raising hell anywhere and under any circumstances. This is a silly program even for white men. For American colored men, it is suicide. In the first place, its logical basis is by no means sound. The great and fundamental change in the organization of industry which Karl Marx and his splendid mind and untiring sacrifice visualized must, to be sure, be brought about by revolution, but whether in all times and places and under all circumstances that revolution is going to involve war and bloodshed is a question which every sincere follower of Marx has a right to doubt.”

Compare this with our position stated at the conference. James W. Ford declared:

“We believe that we express the minimum desires of the Negro people when we say that they want at least a decent livelihood, the rights of human beings, and an equal, honorable, and respected status in public and social life.

“Present-day capitalism has not been able to satisfy these needs and is less and less able to do so. There are those who say that by reforming capitalism it can be made to fill the needs of the masses. We will show that this is impossible…

“The struggle for Negro freedom and Negro rights depends upon the organization of the masses to struggle for their daily immediate needs–better wages, unemployment and social insurance, civil rights, and equal rights. These daily struggles are a most important part of the struggles of the masses. These struggles are conducted by trade union organizations, by the Unemployment Councils, and through the various mass organizations of the Negro people…

“It has been one of the most inspiring facts of recent history in the United States that white workers and intellectuals have begun to overcome white prejudice and lead in the struggle for Negro rights. This is because of the economic crisis. As they have lost their jobs, as their conditions have grown steadily worse, they have seen the necessity of uniting with their fellow black workers against the employers. This is due also to the fight of the Communists against prejudice and for working class solidarity and Negro rights…

“As a result of the activities of the Communist Party, the feeling for solidarity has grown in unions of the A. F. of L. even in the South, for instance, in the United Mine Workers in the Birmingham region. In the North, largely as a result of the Communist policy and agitation, larger numbers of Negro workers are participating in the labor movement. This movement of solidarity and of unity has also been joined by Negro intellectuals, teachers, doctors,, and other professionals who arc more and more understanding the need for a new policy in the struggles of the Negro people.”

Norman Thomas, Socialist Party leader, stated:

“The Negro in overwhelming mass is a worker and his salvation is bound up with the triumph of the working class.”

There were other speakers who made valuable contributions on the plight of the Negro at the May Conference at Washington. Space will not permit us to quote from all of them. Among these were: Dr. Ralph J. Bunche, of Howard University; Lester Granger, of the Workers Council of the National Urban League; A.W. McPherson, of the Steel and Metal Workers Union; John McKinney, of the Southern Tenant Farmers’ Union; Olive M. Stone, of the North Carolina Institute of Social Science.

Issues growing out of the conditions discussed by these participants and the effects of the changed situation in the country served as a basis for calling the National Negro Congress. Following the conference, more than 250 representative people, both Negro and white, signed a call for a National Negro Congress to be held at Chicago in February on the anniversary of Frederick Douglass.

We Communists were never doubtful about the significance or the outcome of the National Negro Congress. We were not deterred by the charges of “Communist domination” or fearful of “Republican control”. We were guided by what we knew of the desire of the Negro masses for united action, and our understanding of these basic factors enabled us to state long before the Congress was convened:

“Congresses of the Negro people are not new in America. But the character and composition of the 19 36 Congress will present something new in the form of working out united efforts on a broad scale.”

We pointed out that there was evidence of a “new and potent force making for a change within the ranks of the Negro people, viz., first, the growing maturity of the Negro working class, its willingness and readiness to fight determinedly against oppression; and, second, the realization on its part, of its power, force and leadership in the Negro liberation movement”. We pointed out also that other forces that would shape the policies of the Congress would be: “(1) The changing attitude of the Negro middle class and its organizations; (2) the growth of a broad progressive bloc in the official trade union movement pledged to industrial unionism; and (3) the general united front mass movement of the toilers against war and fascism.” The Congress confirmed our predictions.

The National Negro Congress brought together 913 delegates representing 585 organizations, from 28 states and the District of Columbia. These delegates represented 1,200,000 people. There were several hundred official observers and visitors. The three open general sessions were attended by from 5,000 to 6,000 at each session.

The following was the composition of organizations: civic groups and societies, 246; trade unions, 80; church and religious organizations, 76 ; fraternal organizations and societies, 70; political parties and groups, 44; youth organizations, 24; women’s organizations, 19; educational organizations, 13; newspapers, 5 ; professional groups, 5.

In several communities city and state officials found it necessary to designate delegates to represent them at the Congress–the Governors of the states of Minnesota and Pennsylvania and the Mayor of St. Louis.

Fifty thousand copies of the pamphlet Let Us Build A National Negro Congress were distributed in all sections of the country, from Seattle down to Los Angeles: in the deep South, in the Mid-West, in the East, and in New England.

The keynote of the Congress proceedings was the address of A. Philip Randolph, President of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and chairman of the National Negro Congress. His statement of the general situation facing the country and the Negro people, his proposal for independent political action in the form of a Farmer-Labor Party, and his analysis of united front tactics and strategy were the highlights of his address.

He stated:

“At the top of the list of remedies I wish to suggest is the struggle of the workers against exploitation of the employers. Next, the struggle of the workers against fascism and for the preservation of democratic institutions, the arena in which alone their economic power may be built.

“Third, the struggle to build powerful Negro civil rights organizations. Fourth, the struggle against war which wrecks the organizations of the workers, and stifles and suppresses freedom of speech, the press and assembly. Fifth, the struggle to strengthen the forces of the exploited sharecropper and tenant farmers. Sixth, the struggle to build mass consumers’ movements to protect the housewives against price manipulation.

“But the struggle to apply the aforementioned remedies can only be achieved through definite social, economic and political instrumentalities. Thus the fight against the economic exploitation of the workers can only be effectively carried on through industrial and craft unions, with the emphasis on the former.

“The industrial union is important in this stage of economic development because modern business has changed in structure and assumed the form of giant trust and holding companies, with which the craft union can no longer effectively grapple.

“Moreover, the craft union invariably has a color bar against the Negro worker, but the industrial union in structure renders race discrimination less possible, since it embraces all the workers included in the industry, regardless of race, creed, color or craft, skilled or unskilled.

“Thus, this congress should seek to broaden and intensify the movement to draw Negro workers into labor organizations and break down the color bar in the trade unions that now have it.

“The next instrumentality which the workers must build and employ for their protection against economic exploitation, war and fascism, is an independent working class political party. It should take the form of a Farmer-Labor political organization. This is indispensable in view of the bankruptcy in principles, courage and vision of the old line parties, Republican and Democratic.”

These words show with vigor and clearness the difference between this and former congresses of the Negro people.

Indeed, the working class composition and character was of outstanding significance. The trade union commission, by its discussions and the resolutions brought before the general sessions, showed the able work of the trade unionists and assured the Congress in its future development of a solid working class base.

The trade union sessions were easily the most important of all the commissions; they were participated in by the largest number of people, ranging from 250 to 300 at each session. They discussed: “Discrimination in the American Federation of Labor”, “Industrial Unionism”, “Organized and Unorganized Negro Labor”, “Independent Political Action for Labor”, “The Organization of Domestic Workers”, “The Randolph Resolution to End Discrimination in the A. F. of L.”, and endorsed the proposal to support and build labor committees in Negro communities, such as the Harlem Labor Committee in New York.

The eighty trade unions represented 150,000 organized trade unionists, of whom between 35,000 and 40,000 were Negro trade unionists. This is almost one-half of the estimated 100,000 organized Negro trade unionists in the country. Despite the obvious strong points of the trade union composition of the Congress we cannot and must not close our eyes to weaknesses nor must we neglect to study how to overcome difficulties. There was a lack of representation from the basic industries, such as the steel, auto, and mining industries. Here the question is one of reaching the unorganized, as most of the Negro workers in these industries are unorganized. The broad scope of the composition of the Congress, such as church, fraternal, and other organizations, gives us possibilities, through educational campaigns, of reaching these workers. A weakness from another angle was the absence of delegates from unions with a large Negro membership, such as the International Ladies Garment Workers’ Union. There was not a single delegate from Local 22 in New York, one of the largest locals of the International Ladies Garment Workers’ Union.

The Harlem Labor Committee, with 110 affiliated unions, did not have a single representative. This is indeed a serious short­coming, when we consider that New York is one of the most labor­conscious cities in the country. The leaders of these organizations were approached and asked to send delegates and also to take a personal part in assuring a trade union base for the Congress. Representatives of these organizations promised to send observers; but none was present in Chicago.

For a time the reactionary bureaucracy of the American Federation of Labor may be able to get away, as it has up to the present, with refusing to organize the unorganized Negro workers into trade unions of the A. F. of L. But this condition will not last long, because the whole force of the National Negro Congress will be used to expose and burn out these labor Tories.

In like manner, it is going to be difficult for so-called progressives in the labor unions and particularly the I.L.G.W.U., and most of all Negro labor leaders ( without showing their complete tie-up with the reactionary bureaucracy and its policies on Negro labor) to explain away the following:

1. To their Negro members–why there were no delegates from the I.L.G.W.U. at the National Negro Congress and what attitude the leaders take to the problems of the Negro people as a whole?

2. To the membership as a whole-why did they sabotage such a movement that committed itself to the principles of trade unionism, that endorsed the fight against fascism and war, that showed tremendous sympathy for the Farmer-Labor Party?

3. What is your future attitude to the National Negro Congress?

Despite these weaknesses, there were representatives from the strong Meat Cutters’ Union of Chicago; six delegates from the Postal Workers’ Union of Chicago which has a membership of 4,000, one thousand of whom are Negroes; Local 802 of the Musicians’ Union of New York, with a membership of 16,000, 1,200 of whom are Negroes, had three delegates; there were delegates from Local 370 of the Dining Car Employees; there were delegates from laundry workers’ unions in Chicago, Washington, and New York. Briefly, some of the other unions represented were: domestic workers, restaurant and cafeteria workers, steel and metal workers, teachers, red caps, painters, Amalgamated Clothing Workers of Chicago, fur and dye workers, and others.

Another important factor at the Congress was the favorable reception given the Farmer-Labor Party. The trade union session, during its deliberations, tested the sympathy for it. There was a majority support for it there. But the trade unionists did not force a vote, in order to prevent division that might have hindered the future work of getting wide action and support for a Farmer-Labor Party. Those who withdrew the motion acted wisely. In no sense was this a defeat or retreat.

There was tremendous sympathy in the general sessions for the Farmer-Labor Party, shown by the greetings given the speech on the “Farmer-Labor Party and the Negro People” at the second open general session. At the closing general session, when resolutions were adopted, it would have been entirely possible to have passed a resolution for the Farmer-Labor Party. But from the viewpoint of the strategy and tactics in the united front governing the work of the Congress, it would have been wrong to have formally passed a resolution for endorsement of a Farmer-Labor Party.

The composition of the Congress showed Republicans, Demo­ crats, Communists, and Socialists. And while representatives of the anti-capitalist parties, Communist and Socialist, support a Farmer­ Labor Party, there were other people, who, although dissatisfied with both the old parties, had not been instructed to commit their organi­ zations on this question.

The program and meaning of a Farmer-Labor Party, the tactics in building a people’s labor party in Negro communities, the mean­ ing of a Farmer-Labor Party in the South, and the possibilities of a million-fold alliance of all the toilers and oppressed, were clearly indicated at the National Negro Congress.

Political Highlights of the National Negro Congress

AT THE National Negro Congress held at Chicago on February 14-16, 1936, the trade union delegates were successful in strongly impressing working class opinion on the Congress. By emphasizing the basis of working class interests, the need for organization into trade unions as well as of independent political action in the form of a Farmer-Labor Party, they were able to show the Congress that the trade unions would play the decisive role in the advancement of the whole life of the Negro people.

We concluded in our last article that if the movement of the Negro people in the struggle for their freedom were properly under­ stood and conducted by the advanced sections, both Negro and white, it could aid in the struggles of the entire toiling population.

THE STRUGGLE AGAINST FASCISM AND WAR

We come now to another high light of the National Negro Congress, viz., the involving of sections of the entire Negro population in the fight for peace, and against fascism and war; and the influencing of world opinion in favor of Ethiopia and in the problems of Negroes everywhere.

As an oppressed group, the Negro people have carried on an age-old fight against lynching and for civil rights and decent human relations. Now their attention is riveted on the menace of fascism to their individual and collective life, which is so clearly seen in the attack of Italian fascism on the last independent. Negro state, Ethiopia, as well as in the fascist methods used against Negroes in this country. The Negroes are developing a higher understanding of these issues, higher than ever before, and are taking an advanced position among the progressive, liberty-and peace-loving forces in the fight against fascism.

The Congress emphatically showed this trend. Special sessions were held on the topics of “Fascism and War” and “Civil Liberties, Lynching, and Terror”. In the general sessions of the Congress exceptionally clear discussions were heard and in the final session important resolutions were adopted on fascism and war. Practically the entire Congress was vigorous in its condemnation of fascism and war and in its willingness to fight against the twin menace.

A fairly accurate description of the danger of war and of the fascist forces was given by A. Philip Randolph:

“War looms on the horizon…already fascist Italy is on the march to subjugate the ancient kingdom of Ethiopia. France and Germany are in a state of truce, awaiting the hour to strike for another conflict…Italy and England are in competition for place and prestige in the Mediterranean and Africa, while Japan threatens to close the open door to American investments and advance her claim to the adoption of a Monroe Doctrine over the Pacific which may bring ‘Uncle Sam’ and ‘Nippon’ to grips. Meanwhile Tokio proceeds on its long conquering trek of China Japan is restive in the face of the constant growth and power of Soviet Russia and is steadily resorting to provocative acts of war…Hitler seeks to serve as a spearhead of modern monopoly capitalism against the workers’ republic.”

THE LIE IS GIVEN TO MUSSOLINI’S DEMAGOGY

The declaration of Mussolini that the Ethiopian war was necessary so that Italy might take the great civilization of Rome to the desolate land of Ethiopia was never more dramatically given the lie before an American audience than on the opening night of the Congress, when Lij Tasfaye Zaphiro, special envoy of the London Legation of Ethiopia, spoke to more than 6,000 people. A highly cultured young man, speaking in perfect English, calm and deliberate, he said:

“We have been called barbarians, not able to govern our own land. But Ethiopia is not the only country today in which barbarism exists.

“This war is not unlike the American War of Independence. Ethiopia is fighting for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in her own land. We are fighting to preserve our independence and integrity. Ethiopia’s defeat may mean the downfall of the collective security system and perhaps the end of the League of Nations. If Ethiopia wins, as she will if she is supported, it will strengthen the League of Nations and show that world sentiment must be respected.”

Compare this analysis and attitude towards the collective security peace policy of the Soviet Union with the barbaric actions of Mussolini, who rains bombs and poison gas down upon defenseless men, women, and children–“a barbaric people”; or with Hitler, who takes advantage of the situation to prepare a barbaric war on a world scale; or with the Japanese militarist clique, in their drive to bring the entire Chinese people under the heel of Japanese imperialism and to penetrate into Soviet territory; or with the most reactionary forces in England, France, and the United States, that actively urge on this slaughter.

THE SHAM NEUTRALITY ACT EXPOSED

The Negro people of the United States, as a decisive section of the citizenry of this country, have a right to demand that the vacillations of the Administration cease. The sham Neutrality Act directly aids Italian fascism against Ethiopia by facilitating the shipment of munitions of war to Italy; and the unwillingness of the’ United States government to join in collective actions to isolate Italy plays into the hands of the most reactionary war forces in the country.

The Congress unanimously adopted resolutions against fascism and war, calling for the condemnation of Italian fascist attacks on Ethiopia. Such barbarism “reveals the nature of fascism in that it suppresses all individual and democratic freedom and ruthlessly violates the rights of other peoples and nations”. The Congress endorsed the struggle for peace and indicated that a successful fight to defeat Italian fascism would not only render great support to the interests of peace and the maintenance of the independence of a small nation, but would liberate the Italian people from the yoke of the fascist dictatorship in Italy.

The Congress exposed the weakness of the Neutrality Act of the United States which operates to aid Italy, as against Ethiopia. It demanded that the Congress of the United States extend the Neutrality Act to include a ban on oil, metals, cotton, and other war materials, raw and finished; it called upon workers in the transport industry to refuse to handle shipments of war supplies to Italy.

The Congress sponsored the setting up of a national organization called the United American Association for Aid to Ethiopia and issued an appeal for financial, moral, and other support to this association to aid the fight “against atrocities being committed upon Ethiopia by the invading armies of Mussolini and the fascist party”.

HEARST CONDEMNED BY THE CONGRESS

One of the most dramatic incidents of the Congress occurred when a motion was made to endorse a resolution against the Hearst press. The whole Congress went into an uproar. Copies of Hearst papers were torn into shreds and flung into the air. This outburst came spontaneously from a people bitterly harassed by a hostile and vicious fascist press. After this, a resolution was adopted which urged Negroes and other opponents of war and fascism to insist that business firms refuse to advertise in the Hearst press.

“Whereas, there is a section of the American press distinctly hostile to the interests of Ethiopia,” read the resolution, “therefore, be it resolved, that this Congress urge all Negroes and other Americans opposed to fascism and war, to refuse to purchase papers and publications of Hearst and other sections of the hostile press…

The anti-fascist movement developing in this country no doubt influenced the deliberations of the delegates at the Congress. Large numbers of Negroes had already taken part in this movement, which originated, in New York and spread throughout the country. It reached great heights on August 3 in Harlem, when the Negro people, together with friends of Ethiopian independence, marched in a mighty anti-war, anti-fascist demonstration.

This demonstration threw consternation into the hearts of the warmongers and fascists. It placed Mussolini in the uncomfortable position of making indignant declarations against the Negro people of America. This movement had a decisive influence on world affairs at that time. When interviewed at Geneva by a delegation of American Negroes, including a representative of the Communist Party of the United States, the ambassador of Ethiopia, Teele Hawariate, praised the Defense of Ethiopia movement in the United States. Many of the points raised by Mr. Hawariate in that interview, on how to aid Ethiopia and defend peace, were acted upon by the National Negro Congress.

WORLD-WIDE INTEREST IN THE CONGRESS

The presence of Mr. Max Yeargan, from Capetown, South Africa, Secretary of the South African work of the International Committee of the Y.M.C.A. brought additional international interest and significance to the National Negro Congress. Mr. Yeargan, an American Negro, who has spent the past fifteen years in Africa, traveling and observing the ravages of imperialism, painted a vivid picture of the conditions of Negroes in Africa. He said:

“The capitalist trusts divide up the spoils and partition the territories of the world among themselves. This phase of imperialism has manifested itself in every part of the African continent. Britain, France, and other European countries have taken much of the land…Various new forms of labor are forced on the people, and labor is drained out of the country…

“Imperialism, then, means annexation of land and confiscation of labor…It destroys the culture–the basic social fabric of the people’s life. In South Africa, through the color laws, Africans are kept out of many phases of skilled labor and on the lowest level, industrially. Laws limiting freedom of assembly make it difficult for them to organize to defend themselves. Other legislation prevents their moving about freely…

“This Congress has the opportunity and responsibility to make it possible for all organizations here represented to subscribe to a minimum program–to fight for those things on which the organizations are in agreement.”

The Congress was duly influenced by the active participation of these representatives from abroad. The Congress condemned any form of discrimination against foreign-born Negroes in the United States and opposed any attempt to deport or drop them from relief or employment; it advised better relations between foreign-born and native-born Negroes and went on record to support people of African descent in their struggle for economic and political freedom in their respective countries.

The Congress attracted the interest of Negro people in other countries, particularly Cuba, where one-third of the population is Negro. The double exploitation of American imperialist domination and that of the Cuban bourgeoisie oppress the whole toiling population. Lack of funds prevented a delegation of Cuban Negroes from coming to the United States as fraternal delegates to the National Negro Congress.

But already plans are under way to hold a National Negro Congress in Cuba. At this writing we have just received information requesting American workers to demand the freedom of 63 by Cuban authorities because they elected delegates and requested representation at the National Negro Congress to be held in Cuba in the near future.

FOR AN INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF NEGROES

Hence, the National Negro Congress in the United States occupies an important place in the life and struggles of Negroes everywhere. That is why the Congress adopted a resolution on an International Congress of Negroes, as follows:

“Whereas, the exploitation and subjugation of the Negro masses is general, and world-wide in scope, and Negro toilers in one nation are not free so long as their brother toilers elsewhere are subjected to the degrading horrors of exploitation, and

“Whereas, a deeper sympathy and class-consciousness of all Negroes throughout the world can best be developed by an International Congress of Negroes, be it

“Resolved, that immediately upon the establishment of this Congress upon a permanent basis, it work for the fulfillment of such an International Congress of Negroes.”

The Congress mapped out a plan .to unite the fight for civil liberties for Negroes, against lynching, jim-crowism, residential segregation and disfranchisement, with the struggle against gag-laws, such as the Tydings-McCormack Act, the Kramer Sedition Bill, the Washington Anti-Communist Rider, Criminal Syndicalism laws, and Teachers’ Oath laws.

The Negro people and their various organizations have waged long years of struggle against these evils. But the struggles are now being developed into a political program of struggle together with other toilers. If Joseph Shoemaker, a white Socialist worker, is lynched in Tampa, and black and white sharecroppers are shot by landlord gangs in the deep South; if the electoral system denies white workers political and civil rights, then this means that the National Negro Congress was reacting to the most burning issues of the day when it adopted resolutions on these questions, when it demanded the enforcement of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution guaranteeing civil liberties and the passage of the Costigan-Wagner Anti-Lynching Bill.

The Liberty League intends to bring darker reaction into the country and against the Negro people. The most reactionary section of the bourgeoisie is working to establish its terroristic rule over the toiling masses and to treat the Negroes even more as outcasts. Herein lies the all-inclusive significance of the National Negro Congress and the importance to be attached to the movement developed against fascism and war, to prepare the masses of Negroes to struggle in defense of the smallest civil liberty and for free citizenship on an equal footing with their white brothers.

THE UNITED FRONT

United action of the Negro people through their basic organizations was therefore stressed by the leading sponsors of the Congress. The Negro people, as a people, are the most commonly oppressed in every sphere of life. But this is not admitted by some of the so-called “friends of the Negro people” and even by some individuals in the ranks of the Negro people themselves. They cannot understand, if, indeed, they desire to, why it is that the National Negro Congress was “solicitous about the needs of small Negro business people”. The small business man hates big capital, even more so the small Negro business man hates big capital because of the discriminatory practices which crush his aspirations for livelihood and cultural advancement. The aim of the united front should be to get the widest section of the masses into struggle under the guidance of the working class and trade union organizations, even on the basis of the smallest grievance. That is why the National Negro Congress expressed the grievance of small Negro business people, but advocated the organization of consumers’ and producers’ cooperatives and the unionization of employees as the progressive road to the solution of the problems of these people.

In like manner, the Congress endorsed measures for advancing the position of Negro culture and cultural workers. The fight against the caricaturing of Negro culture and tbs exploitation of Negro theater people is no doubt what inspired Rose McClendon, outstanding Negro actress, to declare in the New York Times of June 30, 1935, that “what makes a Negro theater is…the selection of plays that deal with Negroes, with Negro problems, with phases of Negro life, faithfully presented and accurately delineated…and that a theater can be developed and operated by Negroes as a cultural experiment based on a program of social realism”, which “could in the course of time alone create a tradition that would equal the tradition of any national group”.

For these and other reasons the National Negro Congress made a definite appeal to various sections and organizations of the Negro people.

There are thousands of Negro organizations, fraternal societies, lodges, social clubs, student bodies, Greek Letter Societies, and churches. The membership of these organizations is largely of working class composition, and all members are affected by a jim­crow status.

Hundreds of thousands of men and women, eligible for trade union membership, but denied admittance by the jim-crow policies of many international unions, are members of these organizations.

It is estimated that the membership of the Negro church is seven or eight million. Some people, however, say: “Never mind the people in the church. Let the hundred thousand Negro trade unionists keep together and away from these people. We are pure!” But the Negro Congress did not take this position. Neither do advanced Negro trade unionists. They say those people should belong to trade unions. Let us get them into the unions!

The Negro church has solid contacts with the Negro masses. In the long history of the peculiar social life of the Negro people it has always been a center of social activity, at one time being the exclusive center for amusement, drama, club life, etc.

Within the church there are study circles, auxiliary committees, Young People’s Circles, Epworth Leagues, Young People’s Baptist Leagues, where all sorts of topics, religious and secular, are discussed. There are numerous small churches with a large aggregate membership. The leaders are usually very close to the masses and react to the needs of these poorer parishioners. A single talk by the leaders of these churches on the need of joining a trade union could result, for example, in building almost overnight a Domestic Workers’ Union of 500 members, in Harlem alone. This is not a far-fetched possibility.

That is why much importance can be attached to the resolution adopted by the church session of the National Negro Congress, participated in by influential churchmen. It calls for the church “to work out an adequate technique comprehending social and economic problems affecting our group and working with non-Christian groups whose economic and social ideas are of value to the solution of our economic and social problems”. Significant, too, is that part of the resolution which recommends “that every fifth Sunday shall be set aside in every church in support of the work and program of the National Negro Congress”.

The National Negro Congress did not adopt a Communist program. But we Communists stand one hundred per cent behind it in its effort to unite the Negro people upon a common program and with a common tactic, to fight for the advancement of the Negro people, against all forms of discrimination, against fascism and war, for equal rights, and on issues which are in the interests of all the toiling masses of the country in advancing the general fight against capital.

Today the tactic of the united front is bringing together large masses of Negroes; yet the consolidation of the organized united front among the Negro people is still weak. The responsibility for this must be lodged with those who stand in the way of unity. And as for those people who are so simon-pure in their proletarian outlook that they cannot or do not care to concern themselves with the problems of the miserable life of the Negro people, let them remember the picture of an entire Negro people, so poignantly depicted by the Negro poet, Paul Lawrence Dunbar:

“A crust of bread and a corner to sleep in,
A minute to smile and an hour to weep in,
A pint of joy to a peck of trouble,
And never a laugh but the moans come double
And that is life.”

There are a number of journals with this name in the history of the movement. This ‘Communist’ was the main theoretical journal of the Communist Party from 1927 until 1944. Its origins lie with the folding of The Liberator, Soviet Russia Pictorial, and Labor Herald together into Workers Monthly as the new unified Communist Party’s official cultural and discussion magazine in November, 1924. Workers Monthly became The Communist in March, 1927 and was also published monthly. The Communist contains the most thorough archive of the Communist Party’s positions and thinking during its run. The New Masses became the main cultural vehicle for the CP and the Communist, though it began with with more vibrancy and discussion, became increasingly an organ of Comintern and CP program. Over its run the tagline went from “A Theoretical Magazine for the Discussion of Revolutionary Problems” to “A Magazine of the Theory and Practice of Marxism-Leninism” to “A Marxist Magazine Devoted to Advancement of Democratic Thought and Action.” The aesthetic of the journal also changed dramatically over its years. Editors included Earl Browder, Alex Bittelman, Max Bedacht, and Bertram D. Wolfe.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/communist/v15n04-apr-1936-communist.pdf

PDF of issue 2: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/communist/v15n05-may-1936-communist.pdf