On its tenth anniversary, Ford summarizes the Comintern’s impact on the politics of Black liberation, particularly in the United States.

‘The Influence of the Comintern upon Negroes’ by James W. Ford from International Press Correspondence. Vol. 9 No. 16. March 29, 1929.

On the Tenth Anniversary of the Comintern

Already at the Second Congress of the Comintern, Lenin devoted special attention to the Negro Question; the Colonial Theses of this Congress, which was drawn up by Lenin, gave directives on this question. The Colonial Theses of the Second Congress are still the guiding line on the Negro Question, and this line is embodied in the Colonial Theses of the Sixth Congress.

At the Fourth Congress and at the Fifth Congress of the Comintern there was one Negro delegate. The Fifth Congress laid the basis for the organisation of the American Negro Labour Congress in the U.S.A. The organisation of the American Negro Labour Congress took place in October 1925 at Chicago. This organisation has had very little organisational success insofar as its mass membership is concerned, but it has exerted an ideological influence over large numbers of Negroes in America and to some extent abroad.

At the Tenth Anniversary of the October Revolution at Moscow, there were Negro representatives from South Africa and from West Africa. The Communist Party of South Africa is the only Communist Party in the world that has a decided Negro membership; it can be considered a “Negro” Communist Party. The Communist Party of South Africa in its beginning was influenced by Social-Democratic reformism, which had its basis in its European membership; it also had chauvinistic tendencies coming from the same source. Apart from this, Communist influence began to penetrate the native workers, who are now coming into the Party in larger and larger numbers. Negro comrades were in the American Communist movement at its very beginning, having come from the Socialist Party with other comrades to form the Workers’ (Communist) Party of America. From this time to the present these comrades have been making a determined fight, in the first place to focus the attention of the Party upon the Negro question and its relationship to the American working class, and secondly, to direct attention to the question of penetrating the Negro masses with the idea of the revolutionary class struggle. In the early days this was done largely through the African Blood Brotherhood and later, as has already been mentioned, through the American Negro Labour Congress. The Party has sent Negro Fractions and delegates into reformist racial organisations of the American Negroes. Up to the present time, how- ever, the influence of the Party among Negroes in America, organisationally, has not been very great. When we remember the influence that “race” and reformism and the church have over the Negro masses, we can comprehend the necessity for special work among Negroes to overcome these tendencies and for spreading Communism,

The Sixth Congress of the Communist International gave considerable attention to the question of the Negro. There were four delegates from America, three representatives of the South African Party. In addition, Negroes residing in Moscow at the time participated in the deliberations on the Negro Question, as well as representatives from South America, where there are compact masses of Negro workers. The Sixth Congress laid down very definite lines of action and instructions on the Negro Question. Since the Sixth Congress a Negro Bureau has been formed at the Comintern. Already in America much agitation and organisational work is being started. The South African Party has begun not only to enlarge its membership among the natives but has begun to organise revolutionary trade unions. The French Party has many Negro members in France and is beginning more and more to activise its work among Negroes, which work is extending into the French Colonies.

Another source of revolutionary influence among Negroes is the Red International of Labour Unions. The R.I.L.U. has organised an International Trade Union Committee of Negro Workers, which already has contact with Negro workers in America, trade unions in the West Indies, and recently the Federation of Non-European Trade Unions of South Africa has affiliated to the R.I.L.U. Plans are on the way for the convening of an International Conference of Negro Workers by the R.I.L.U. in 1929.

Thus, from an early beginning the influence of the Communist International has been felt among Negroes. The Negro Question as such, however, differs from most of the questions of oppressed peoples with which the Comintern is concerned in that it has a decided racial approach. As a consequence there are ideologies from two points of view, which must be combated in order to have a large mass influence among Negro workers. On the one hand, Negroes themselves have been tremendously influenced by racial adventures, such as the Garvey Movement, the Pan-African Congress, the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, and other racial and reformist organisations; consequently, considerable attention must be given to combating the tendencies in these organisations. At the same time, within the ranks of the white workers (and this is important in sections where white workers and Negro workers come in contact with each other in large numbers, such as South Africa and America) there are remnants of white chauvinism, which has a decided effect in preventing he unity of the black and white workers and the spreading of revolutionary class propaganda among Negroes.

Finally, it can be said at the Tenth Anniversary of the Communist International, that Communism is more and more penetrating the ranks of the Negro workers and peasants throughout the world.

International Press Correspondence, widely known as”Inprecor” was published by the Executive Committee of the Communist International (ECCI) regularly in German and English, occasionally in many other languages, beginning in 1921 and lasting in English until 1938. Inprecor’s role was to supply translated articles to the English-speaking press of the International from the Comintern’s different sections, as well as news and statements from the ECCI. Many ‘Daily Worker’ and ‘Communist’ articles originated in Inprecor, and it also published articles by American comrades for use in other countries. It was published at least weekly, and often thrice weekly.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/inprecor/1929/v09n16-mar-29-1929-inprecor.pdf