Radical America - Vol 5 No 3 - 1971 - May June

8/8/2019 Radical America - Vol 5 No 3 - 1971 - May June

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he Editors: INRODUC • . . . . . . 1

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Be with this nnber e RA editors will provide intductorycomments on the major aricles of each issue. The puose of esenotes is not inuce" e reader to what is most important, butthrou sketching larger emes, to offer a sense of the siificancethe conents have had for us.

In his issue a major group of articles reveals black self awarenessas a source of enormous power, long hidden from Western society(icluding he white radical movements) by imperial nsulation espitethe pleas of Third World thnkers over the last halfcenury, it hastaken e post - World War struggles of e Chinese, e Algeris,he Cubans, he Vieamese, and the Black Americans to force isrealy on an often-unwillig white Left. Now we face the sk of rediscoverng those voices iored by society ad the consequenthistorical legacy of miskes, disorions, ad tragedies from whichw must proceed.

The interview with Aime Cesaire mostclearly identifies e overtcultural aspects of tis isolation : Even Commists viewed blacknessas a negatve characterisc not a a hidden resource for revolutionary

energy. That only Cesaire a handful of other poets and politicalwriters have broken rough wih the message of cultural and policalinspiraon that Africa provides is in itself a revealng fact

Mark Nason offers most directly e political implicaons forAmerican radicalism. Even e bestintended sruggles engaged in bwhite radicals for black rights tended to resolve emselves roughdocinaire formulas wich served insufficiently when white Lefsts faced oer priorites (such as defense of e viet Unions forei policy) Clearl, Naison show, there is for e Left no easy way out,

for what s n question is not good will or even obeisance to blackradical organizations, but the nature of Weste society includingJst definitely te natue of e radicals emselves.

Another major article deals wi the situation of idustrial larersin America, past and present. While e eeriences of predoinantlywhiteale workers discussed do not permt a full view of e classstruggle w m view rough eir eeriences an aspect of eeffors by workers push beyond he limits of urgeois institutions



The discus sions arranged and edited b aughton Lnd offer us aneciting hisorical insight into the geat step foward made b theworkg class during the 1930s The eeriences which are recountedare eeriences of active, sptaneous organiation in he shpsclearl related in the mmries of tese men o he mss upsurges fthe 1930s rtgage foreclosures hunger rches , and he dailrealit of unemlomt for mst and overi for othrs m mnbegan talkig uio because the need was clear mnifested n edail ife of e shop Ohers wre aided b agemnts chronic wage

reductions m knew au uions from thei parents n mst casesthe sought out the assisace of union strucures after some initialorganiation Thus the opdow relationship of professional organiersws for ese mn a late developmnt ad not alws a peasant oneThe old-tmers from the sitdow das recognie that man unions builtat the cost of great sacrice and danger have now becom Agents ofOrder on facor floors as wel as fundamnal defensive institutionsfor e mintenance of livig standads

The accounts of rk-and-file activities of the 1930s are inseparablefrom eir reteling in 190 The connections which these mn mkebetween eir batles and the strikes and demnstrations of the studentsand other oug people in e 1960s e sense of personal histor hatis evident in each account; d th smposium self which uses hisorto develop historic awarenss in the comit suggest importantdrections for the developmnt of sef-reliance and perspective in aworkigclass area

We aso publish here e first in a series of Work" articles, basedon current eeriences in offices and on shop flrs Bll Watsonssense of workers' counter-panning is shal imted b apparent

irrelevance of se to the struggles in this particular sector, but hisanalsis of shop creativit in meting facor standards is highlgestive

Finall, we remnd our readers at participation ad responsewhether through articles, ok reviews leters, or other mdiaare welcomd and appreciated

The Editors



ARXISM & BLACK

RADCALISM IN AMERIC:

NOTES ON A LONG (and

cotiuig) JOURNEY

A AIS

At no time in mode history hae reolutionaries been fac witha more-colicated problem of self-definon than in conteoraryAmerica. e New Left has grown deeloped nd diided in the midstof enormus culral and economic changes Traditional noons of whatit means to be a reolutionary hae had to withstand the shock of astrong and independent black liberation moement an increasngly

powerful women's moement, and now a gay liration moement,all posses sing critques of Amerikan society that speak directly the aneties of dayto-day ling. addition, these moements haeoccurred in the midst of ast shrinkage in e labor market eansionof litical repression, and transformation of mass cultre which hasmade drugs and music a cenal part of e eerience of mllions of

young pple whose parents were wrapped in work and famly life ()For ose of us caught in e mddle of these crrents e eeriencehas en as frightening as it has been liberang Wth no stable linksto our past, wether rough a sasfng family life or ugh a solidtradion of reolutionary politics and culture, we hae en ulnerableto freakouts ecstatic but self-destructie escaes from e terrorsof our daily lies. The Weaeeople (mostly out of elite uniersities)and the hundreds of ousands of teen-age jukies (out of poor workng-class families represent tragically-simlar responses to edisintegration of e traditional social paterns one political" d

collectie, e other physical nd diidualistic ey dramatize a fatethat reatens all of us les we can apply a sense of stability andcontnuity to the reolutonary chans happenng within and around us

One of e major priortes of e moment is a reexamnation of ourhistory As children of e 1950s few of us were aware of the forcesin our lies which made us radical, or ery nterested n where teycame from Many of us een seemed happy be bo free of the



ideoogie s of he pas abe buid our vemen ou of e concreeeriences of e presen. Bu when e Amerikkkan crisis reachedgenocida enia in e ae 60s (in h Vieam and e ghessignfican nmbers of us ebraced radiona ism wi e samenaive abdon wi which we had once espoused iraism or popuismFaciona srugges tk pace over obscure pos of Marxis eory

in organizaions which had once espoused paricipaory democracy" and Od f paries which we had once niy mocked (he CP eSWP d PL came aor forces in e movemen. Throu subsequen nighmare of spis manifestes and purges he dnamism

of he mass movemen was dissipaed and is comnal spiri wasde sroy We had ea e hard way e wisdom of an old sayingThose who do no ow eir hisory are desned o repea i

On no issue was our ignorance of hisory more desrucve an our effors o creae an aliance beween black and whie movemens.When racia conflic emerged as a major conradicion i n Aericansociey black and whie radica leaders ied desperaely o defie asraegy for revouion which k into accoun e cenra roe of eback iraion sruggle Aough much of e discussin dea wi

coneorary evens he eoreca issues especial in e whiemovemen were defined by Marxis-Leninis rhetoric ha had no enseriousy aired in America for over 15 years aders of S facionsmany of whom knew lile or noing of black hisry or cure offeredconfiden and compeig versions of he correc lne" on he backsrugge based on e prononcemens of Lenn Trosky and alin.While back sudens rell black ghes were afame blackrevouonaries were aied and assassinaed whie radicas argbiery au wheher naionalism was urgeois" wheer the Black Panhers were e vanguard wheher he whie workng class was

privileged nd wheher sef-deerminaon in e black bel" was aviabe mass ine.

e deveopmen of a fresh heorecal approach o his issue isessenial. I beieve Marxism may be helpful bu only i we recoizeha i does no dicae a firm and scienific souion o racial ensionsin he revouion and f we mainin a heay skepicism au econcusions of e eoreical gians" The history of he f's involvemen in he black communiy which his essay seeks summarize is in large par a agedy, and is dimensions mus be

honesy faced For he barriers dividing black and whie in Americabo curally and economicaly have en so grea and compex hahey overwhemed a effors define an effecive response in Marxis erm Wheher ha faiure is inheren in he Marxis meod or is a

produc of is hisrica mispicaions is someing of which I am no sure bu i cerainly should discourage effors parcuarly by whieradicals to proec firm poica ines " on e black se Thecomey of his issue mus dea wi and our effors a eorizing



nfused wi new fexblty new umlty, and increased understanding of te connecons btween e cultural and economic dimensions of terevouonary process.

Beginnngs of a Crique: Marxism and Weste Cvilzation

As Paul Rcards ints out n a recent arce (2) one of te best places begin examining e tensons tween Amercan radicaismand back aspirations is in e life and work of W. E. B. Du Bois. Duiswas peras e mostimot American inker wo was influenced

b Marsm but e remained alienated from cialist and Communst parties most of is lie. From hs vantage int in e black comnty Du Bois saw serious limits in a vision of revoution tat made e

triump of e working cass d e expropriation of e capitaistsits primary objective. a country were te white working class aswe as e rich acted to excude black people from e mainstream of economic d social ife Bos concuded at e revolution ad be directed against capitaism as a civiizaon and a cural" problems suc as racism and e emptess of life in echnoogica

societ ad o be dea wi as an integral par of e cass strugge".Duis's vsion of revouion, much ignored in is im as recently emrged as a major politica force in te non-Wese world. Since

World War II, a Third Word conscousness has seadi grow in theformr colonies of Europe tat rrows mch from Marxism bu isextreme critica of te ideoog and pracice of Weste Marxis

parties. The major eoriss of is awakening Fanon GuevaraCsaire, e ceera) cal for new theoreica forms o take ino account

bot e pecuiarties of coonia class strucure and the psychoogicaand cuura disorientaion imerialism as iosed. Te criticizeMrsm or its Wesern cultura references 3), and projec a visionof iberation at sees e restrucurin of social relationshps andsocial vaues as a par of te revoluionar process rater an as anafterma of te seizure of state power.

The Third Wrd awakenin as had reverberations in Back AmicaBack radical thinkers of a persuasions from Edridge Cleaver o

Leoi Jones have based eir poiics on a critique of Arica asa civiizaion and ave call for a new umnism n the srugge for revoluonar chane. Weer friendy or otie o Marsm, e

ave concluded a revoution mus come from e tm P andmust address itef to he wole of uman eerience. Liberation for

backs" Ear Ofari asserts wi come out of e revouionary cuure,consciousness, and eerience of Aro-Amerca." (4)

This tota vision of human liberaon is not enir new to Marxism.Marxs early mnuscrpts deal primaril wit e aenaton from lar and he oss of organic soidarity as mankind bean o progress fromomnaism Te Commnist Manfesto sow e Sstem sashing



brully rough tradional life-styles, wirling humanity around theash nexus. But from the publiation of Cail ugh World War

in bo eory and pratie, this philosophial fous in manstreamMarxsm was so surdnated to questions of eonomi analysis nd politial strategy hat people like Castro and Fanonand Guevara almstseemed to be speaking a new language when ey wrote of revoluonary ulre" and the new an e aienation of Marxism from its

humis roots took plae with sultifying oleteness in the West, and at proess is of sial importne in undersng e histori

tensions beween Amerian Marxism and e blak omnity, andAmerian radial history generally.The gnnngs of is proess, I suggest, lie in he interetations

given Marx's and Engelss wrigs by e late Nineteenth Century Soialist movemrnts. Wile Capital retined the philosophi framework of the early Marx, the Marxist apostles intereted the expetations of sientif and material progress in suh a way as to blunt Marxsrial edge. Suh opimism as pariularly paraling in e ontex

of the inreasing subjugaon of e nonwhite peoples by EupeanImperialism Thus, even by e 1870s, ialists negleed e inner

ontent of Marxist methods, seeing Marxism as a newer and more preise formla for dersding lfe than urgeois eonomis orsoiology. was e pinnale of rationalism, a philosophy at wuld bring e endomant ivilization of e West its highest stage ndmake e priniples of siene e dna of daily life, beause it was the philosophy of a lass e proletariat) whih had lost all illusionsThus Mrxism ook hold in e iverities and n e mnds of skilled

workmen (espeially in Germany) as a iviliing philosophy as theivilizg mission of the woking lass Few asked: W!se sandards

of iviliaon?"But Bois asked hat quesion. There was no man of his era mre

omtd to integrating sientii reasonig d mdern tehnology with e struggle of e dispossessed. 5) Bu he felt autely ill at ease in the oany of most Amerian ialists. Not only was he disrbed by eir ignorane of ondions in he blak omity and by eir glorifiation of whie workers who were fill wi rae hate, b he was unomforable wi eir eonomsm eir endeny o redue everyig to a dami of eonom grow and progress and eir

plaid aeptane of iddle-lass standards of soial and ultural lifeBenea heir rhtori of lass struggle, most ialist Party leaders aepted e politial and eonom hegemny of whites over non-white peoples, nd the ultural seriorit of white workers and farmrs the blak Amerian peasantry.

me Amerian soialists, be fair, did show apaity for groth on this issue As large numers of blaks began to enter e indus ial work fore during World Wr I, the disussion of e rae issue began to inrease in the soialist press, d a few far-sighted spokesmen



. C. Frn . M. Rbino . E. llng begn to eman specil orgnizng rive in te blc commnity. (6 Bt e level of eir iscssion sll i not oen ct ne e economsm of eirmorercist preecessors: ey generally avocate e orgnization of blc orers ot of necessity to te lar movement. (Oerse te blc orers ol brea stries No ite socilist follo DBoiss semnal seson t te aliention of blacs from itemeric cltre represente ositve penomenon at blc people col mae a significant contribtion revoltionry s le

by manizing e process of tecnologcl gro an elping contl te materialism at seeme erent in este cltre (nclngMars Te fe ntellectls on e fringe of e socialist movement o consciosness of blac cltre mare e ole penomenon off as exotic tereby absolvng temselves of any responsibility to ntegrate it nto te cls srggle. t eir version of mericnMarxsm s little qesoning of te traitional este conception tat art cltre ere enteraining raer an organic to social life

Te estrction of Debsin cialism rog government repression an intel splits ene even e potentiality of Debsian Soialism s

a mass movement to eal Negro problems For more an a ece aer 1919 e merican raical movement consiste sbstntially of to sll isolte organzations, e cialists an e CommnistsYet te formation of erent etnic mixtre itn Commnist rans Easte Eropen an prtclarly Jeis grops rer tn te

orignal basiclly ol-immgrant cilist base of streng probbly promot te lieli of e rical ersnng

. Enter te Commnists

Te Rssin Commnists teir mercan folloers ps e racial confrontation itn Marsm o a consierably iger levelImpresse by Mrcs Grveys ability to mobilize millions of blacs n by teir on eerience in inng sbject nationalities teRssian Revoltion Comnte leaers concle at any revolon in merica a to come to terms it te blac comnitys race prie

an sense of nationoo n seste to teir merican sprers tat ey gve te organization of blacs top priority Tis sggeson

as stngly renforce by enins analysis of Ierialism as emaor reson for e persistence of cpitalism a perspective ic elevate te colonial sle for naonal nepenence (tat is say, for selfetermintio to level of importance almost eqal to at of te class sggle of te Ean proletariat. e merican Party initite from its inception a iscssion of te race problem ic place e merican blac commnity in e center of a orl-iesge as t a ey to e erican revoltion n a potential sorce

of leersip for inepenence movements in frica

7



But ere were enormous ensions and ambiies that underlay e

Commuist ehasis on e blac liberation struggle. The itiavefor e Communist perspectve came from e Cominte and a smallgroup of blac inellecals who had come volv wi it : CrilBrs Harry Hayd o Huiswd d Claude MacKay. 7) Themajorty of whie Amercan communists went aong wi it not becausehey realy approved it or even ders it but because eir Russianheroes had nsised on it. Their relationship wi black "communists, who had come the Pry out of dis satisfaction wi Gaeysm nd

eir ow nability to creae a viable movemnt was often very tense

as h groups carried hostilies of a racially polaried society. 8At a tme when blac and whi worers were loced in bldy raceriots when e dynamc of racial exclusion nd strie breang hadc rippled e industrial lar mvement and when millions of pplewere joing he Garvey movement and he Ku Klux Klan the Comnteemerg as e arbiter of blac-white uity in he American Pays ce it was e only gro respeced by revolutionares of both races.

The tragic qualities inherent in this relationship were not visibleimmediaely to any of he participnts. Given their lac of intimate

nowledge of Americn life the Russians played their role as racialntermediaries ih considerable act. Men lie Claude MacKayindependent-minded blac iners with no sentimentality aut whites found he Sviet leaders extremely sensitive o their analysis of heblac situation and remarably patealistic. 9) But unbeownst tem (or o most Americn communists) the Russian Revolution wastransforming itself in a manner that would drasticaly reduce itsflexibility on his and oher issues With e failure of he Revoluonto spread o Europe he economic crisis nd the growing reslessness of convered classes in Russin society the Russian ledersgradually tued he Comntern from a vehicle to encourage indigenousrevolutionary movements ino a centralied nstrument to protect heoviet Union from capitalist gression and inteal revolt. And as itadjust to his role it became mre hierarchical in structure mresecretive and more willing o u any analytical insight into formula.Insecure in their positions the Sviet leaders wnt basic policydecisions to be made from the top down and waned to have all local strategic perspectives checed against Sviet national interests.

The ascendancy of alin greaty accelerat his trend towa

formalism. As he solidied his personal dictrship talin uedMrst ideology into a parody of bourgeois science Pary programswere no longer he eerimental products of discussion and practicebut scientfic formulas not to questioned by the ran and file. 0)The Sviet positon on the Negro Question followed his same pae.Beeen 926 nd 928 e dialogue on race gradually tued ino amnologue concluding w talins proclamation that blacs in A mercacomps an oppressed naion which had he rightto selfdetermination

8



MURDERED by the Chigo Polce for theRepb6c Seel oraon o MemorW Dy

Funeral ServicesF S Uon M gle Hall, 93

Huon A�'enue

hdy, 3d t 2 P M.. W Ue l Stte fro1•. to �p. .a Bouto

JOIN THE UNIONJO THE PICKET NE

Wi They Gave Ther ves or



within the uthe black lt". is position was proclaimed as thesummation of years of study, a to challenge was to question escientific validity of the ougt of Marx nin and their newestintereter Comade Stalin.

This new analysis was accepted by the American Communist Party wi surisingly-litle opposition, cause members hoped it would

provide a new source of energy. F o alough e Partys work ang blacks had been successful by cialist standards (having attact perhaps 500 black members via e Americn Negro Lar Congress)it had failed dismally to coete wth Gavey for the allegiance of the

black population. The Partys efforts to link black nationalism to workingclass solidarity seemed awkward and mechanical at a timewhen capitalism as thrivng and most la unions excluded blacks,and its black cadre failed coletely to uch the sources of blackalienation that Garey had successfully tapp. To mst black people the Pty remained a curiosity, describing their sferings and theiraspirations in a language ey failed to undestnd As int Clai Drake descid it:

Throughou the 1920s, he Black Metropolis had been hearing voics talking to he Negro people, voices at spoke strangewods: proleari, urgeois class stuggle revolution They hed the old-ine Nego politicians castigated as misleadersand reformists They saw white men nd women standing onsteet corners with Nego comrades handing out newspapesand lelets that denounced the fire taps" a rent hogs" inNohe black belts They had a slogan Black and WhiteUnite! " (11)

The Parys position on selfdetemnation in e black belt" did lile to incease its mass appeal The elaation of a scientic base for black independence left most black people cold, since it said noingaut heir daytoday lives n a acist society The had followGarvey, accoding to CLR James, not because of e logic of Gavey's political eoy, but because of a deep-seated desie to support ei own movement" and organize fee of the doination of whies. (12)aveys genius lay in his ability to damatize the historic mission of

the Africn peoples, awaken feelings of black pide, nd ceate n

enormus famewok of activities which pu messages such as theseino practice His churches d frateal odes, his cultual centesand business entepises, his periodic parades and festivals, and hismass circulation newspaper e NeO Word (none of which have enadequately teated by hisians) bout motion, enlighenment, pride nto e drudgery of a segregated world The Communists wee totally able to inspire e same amazing enegy and will o uplift"in black pple. (13) Garvey touched something in e black eeience

9



which lay yond the terms of their analyi a which e currentgeneration of hitorians or rica has t to atifacrily eainIn eir own way, however, the Commnit were make a deciive

impact on black life. e gro of back peope ey recruit prior the presion wa ma, but it inc a numr of exceptionalytalent peope Cyril Bri Harry Haw, Richard Moore GeorgePadmore, d William Pateron were briliant theorit and publiitwho in the Communit Pay in e 1920 eir work hep ethe tage for he Party's rapid grow durng he preion when itemerged as e major poical nfluence on he back inteligenia.

Thi linkage between black inelecuas e Communit Payha been biery criticized by Harod Cruse in The Crii of e NgroInteectual. Crue arge peruaively at e paricipation of blacksin the Communist movemen repreent ecape from reponibiliesof gro leadership, and at e Pary's integrationit ideoogy cublack ntellectuals off from e kind of commniy se a would havegiven em genune ocial power But Crue eretimate thecomplexity of e black telecta' dilemma Bly put, there wereproblem n the black commity to which neier Gaey nor Bker

T Wahingon and hi uccesor addressed emelve, and which heCommunst took up. Such isue were e isolation of black peoplefrom the lar movement - a ignifict ource of power in America;he continuation of a diiminatory syem of segregaion in poliicseducaon, and all areas of socia life; and e involvement of mllionsof black people in a panation economy that kep hem n a sae ofereme economic nd pyclogical dependency If the black commnityneed nity and solidariy (as Garvey ensed), aso needed o breakree of e isoaion ioed by Jim Crow nd pantion agriculture

and ener e mainsream of de indusrial life In e CoitPary' formative years, is appeal to back inellectals was a of aforce for meizaion - an appeal tha wa reinforced by e vieeerience in deveoping a backward contry gston Hghecomments on he economc and social progess he obseved n hecolored vie republic of Central Aia are quie revealing

I viited evera coton kokhoze, I sudi chars, a Ilook a staiics. The igres Ive forgoen, but shalalways recal what the naves hemselves od me : Before,ere were no schls for Uzk children now here aBefore, women were gh and od - now no more Before,e l and waer longed o the ys ay ey are our,and we hare he coon. (14

One doe not require much imagination see the relevance of thiexperience (even if i were ony pariay tre) to condiion of blackharecropper in e Amrican u.



However e modeizing quality of life in he Comunist Partyoffered blac people oppornies to ean heir horizons an aeuse of eir alents in a way at went far beyon e normal range ofpossibilities segregae America able blac recruit woul beencouraged o travel o oer countries wrie for Party publicationspa rticipate in Party sty groups an spea fore integrate Pary

gaerings There was an inegrated social life which accomniethis activity for he Pary practiced social uality probably morethan any oher organization in Amrica But just as his eeriencecoul broaen a persons horizons it coul also en o set up a barrierbetween the person who went hrough it an e mass of blac pplewho sll live uner rigi segregation Party ieology somtimesencourage such a separation There was a tenency for blac an whiteParty leaers o see e mass of blacs as a bacwar people in neeof socialisms enlighening influence Mreover, e Partys assumptionof the mantle of science an progress encourage a highly-uncriticalaitue towar Prty octrine by ose who becam involved wih itAngelo Heons escription of the Partys imact on him souns muchie a religious conversion :

•

he eucation I longed for in the worl an eecte o finin it I surprisingly began o receive in my Comnist circleso he everlasting glory of the Communist mvement my itb ai that wherever it is active it brings enlightenmnt ancutur Life ha robbe m of my innocence an illusionsbut ha foun somehing eve more satisfying a reaiscrecognition of e worl an the rational pn of scientificsociaism wi which create orer an harmny out of e

hun chaos (15) Bac recruits were not the only ones affece this way White leaerGeorge Charney looe bac on his Party eerience as a search fora new spiritual center mre enthraling an any in the past sincefaith n science eem incompatible by the traitional church werenow finally an inextricably fue in e Marxist wor - view (16) But for blac intellectuas, such eerience ha particularly-alienatingpossibilities When Heon spoe of how

My new hite friens gave me courage an inspiration toloo at the raiant future The bierness a hatre whichI form�rly felt towar all white people was now transforminto love an unerstaning Lie man who ha gone throughsome terrible sicness of e sou I mysteriously ecamwhoe again

he was proecting a vision of racial brothrhoo tat ha roots in bac

11



cute or exampe e pea of Marin Luher Kg) but was simpyunreaisc for most back peope in a racis society (17 ruse is huscorrect o sggest that he Pary drew back ineecuas ino a sociaand cutua miieu hat was remot from e naonais dynamc ofback fe Its modeizing idogy did seem to be accoanied byan assimiaionist, Westeizing psychoogy

The Onse of e Depression : Reevance and Power

The negraionis quaiy of the ommnis Parys inea ife didnot prevent it from paying a major roe in e back commnity duringhe eary years of the pression When e economic crisis drovemiions of backs to e ge of stavaion, e Pary's eoreticacumsiness seemed ess impoant than he effectivene ss of he Paryorganizers in heping peope survive For if aeys genius wasas a pubicit of race pride and back sefsfficiency, he ommisgenius ay he organization of mass proest e Pay's adreswere sma, bu they were highy discipined and had nique eerience

in organizng across racia nes amos every city n which erewas a arge back commity ana, irmingham Detroit hica,Richond, New York back and whie commist organizers wen othe back unempoyed, organized em into neoyed concis, fouht o get em on reief outing a srange ideoogy at cobnedback d whie unite and fit� wih sefdeermination e backbet, the commniss stared civic auhoriies by bringing thousandsof pee ino he srees and crossg racia undaries in both Noand uth For the omists not ony organized backs, bu asobrought whites into the same mass organizations wihout sacrificinga pubic commiment o racia equaity Yong ngeo Herndon wassnned when he aended an nerracia meeing of he nepoyeague in irmingham, abama (! ! and heard a whie organizer tethose assembed why he beieved n socia equaiy

You have been od tha Reds are diry foreiers and nierovers bu why have you come to his meetg oday? Is cause you have en tod that you mus ove somedy, oris it because of your desire improve your iving conditions ?

Thas why we Reds fit for poiica economc, and sociaequaity for Negroes : no because we must hocriticayeress our ove for anne, bu because he sses have ourbacks against the wa and a of us aike w be reatenwith he same danger of pestience, hunger nod misery (18

The Pary's wiiness o chaenge whie racism in he course of itsmass organizing ef a deep iression on y back peope Herndontod his friend He's righ He does nong bu te e ruh Hes he

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jS

j

Et o t otoo BY

firs hones whie I've ever seen. (19The Couniss renfored is iniial feeling of trst in Bla

Ameria wi eir legal defense wor paruarly their handling of the Sosro Case. While muh has been wrien about how e Communis used e osboro Boys and eir parents my owninerviews wi people ave a e ime sues at e Commniss

handling of his ase did more han any oer single event to mae emrespe by blak worng people (20 The Commnists not only

oganized rallies hroughout e bla omnity but also brough ousands of whie workers and inelleuals out in defense of eSosboro Boys and made he ase a subjet of worldwide indignation.Aording o Adam Clayon owell is had a deisive impat was

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the firs ime sine opulism a masses of white people show theirwillingness to demonstrate to proet a bla viim of njustieComing a he very beginning of e Depression it served as a eat

bulwark hold e hngry poverty - sriken mass geher. (21) I gave onree meaning to Communist appeals for blawhite unity and brough ousands of blak people no ry irles ( not aualarty meership in large Norhern ities.

Through 1934 e Commnis ary eanded this popular base.I lined is wor wi e employed leagues with massive ampais o proe evited ennts and viims of polie brutaliy. began amajor ulural program n Blak Ameria publishing a newspaper



known as e No rar, encouragng black wrrs towrte or ts mpressve array o publcaons (e New Masses, eComst, d e Dily Worker and cobng astc events n

the black commuty w ts poltcs Alou contu to ush tslne on se-determat raer crudely alg wth dscrmnateatacks on noncommunst black organzatons, daytoay orgzngreman relavely ree o secransm course of ts praccal camagns, Paty workers al emselves w almost every acve ang the black r, rom Faer Dvne to e IA, and alsoshowed themselves wllg ollow as well as lead the evolutonary

mpulses of black people When Party organzers around the ueWorker receved a leer rom a group of black shaecoppers Alabaa reaened wth evcton, they help hem o orgnze a unon even hough vrtually no whte tenants were wllng to jon (22) Ths organzaton, the Alabama arecopers non, enlsted almost 5000meers around a pogram a calle fo extensve Fedeal relfredstrbuon of lan, an l racal equaly engage n severalmar batles w local auoes wch we nsrumnal n publczg e css n cottn agcule e growng mlancy

of e black enan farmer Such actvy, generae by local conons,was sybolc of the Party's wok n th ealy years of e Depresson black whe organzers recall a clmate of eep monalsm anda relaonshp wth th people mrke by muual espct

By 1935, however, foces a work n Pary wre to unnemuch of hs orgnzng Russan lears conc aut he gowng fascs threat to er secuy stuc naonal CPs subornaehe revolutonary appeals o bulng of n allnc w socal mocras (the nted Fon an he lberal wng of he urgeos

(the Popular Fron Amcan Communsts caae agans onn 1936 o effec for Frnkln Rsevl n fo the sng o f he Molotov-Rbbenrop Pact n 1939 hey nhusascally suppow al ant-ascs o progssve measues a hom abro

In e black sectons of e Pary, ths sh was flecte n ffo tne on e naonalst elemns n Pary's oganzng euhe wok of the Pary, whch ha apeal pmaly black people, was sfcntly playe don The arecopes non was sbn because t posed the hreat of a rac wa, n s mmberswre encouraged jon e moreteacal aonal Fames non

(23) the or eNe Lberator was scontnue as a par, Pty workers were nstced to presen thmselvs h comy

pmarly though the reguar Party ublcaons A ognzes n all pats o e country were ol to mke sure ha whs w esnn all meetngs d demonstraons n the black commy and n all blck organzatons n whch he Party ha fluence (24)

ese changes d not mmeaely cut he Pay's black followng, but they helped change ts base Whereas e early years of he



Depression e Party consciousy geared its appea the pr dalienated in Back America, e Popular Front Party made its primaryappea the rofessional) black middle cass and e stabe workngclass, surdinatg reoutionary principes a ision of as simiaonand eform.

The Peoples Front in Harem Strugge with e Nationalists

From 1935 to 1939, e Parys work n e back community closeyparaleled its efforts to form a responsible eft wing of the New DeaWin e Harem commnity, which Party leaders iewed as the keyto black white unity, Party leaders heped to organize a reformeecoral coaliion which linked the black commnity to ts IrishItaian d Puerto Rican neighrs The major pduct of this actiity,e Harlem egislatie Conference, fction as a mediaor beweenthe oftenhostie neighrhs and heped eect Vio Marcantonio dAdam Clayn Powel to ofce It took strong stands on many imporntcommnity problem, issuing demands for more black schls andmore black teachers, beer recreation facilies, more public housing

and an end to police bruity. (25) The Partys actiity in e field of labor aso refected its lics

of coaion and interracia nity. Throughout e middle and late 1930sthe Party was engaged n a bier struggle wi local nationalists oerthe direcion of e obs for Negroes caai at the nationaistshad iniated. This actiity begn by Si Aul Hamd in 1934, focusedon the numerous stores Harem that refused hire backs. It hadwon much sport among employed youth d had brought a great dea of lant antiwhite and ewish feeng the surface After

spending a great deal of ergy trying to discredit the mement

abeing Si Abdu Hamid a Harem Hiter e Pay finay lancha coeting campaign which directed its energies mainly against aeenrprises raer smal merchants Aying itself wi a numrof nfluential jouaists and ministers (incudng Adam Clayton Powel) the Pay tied its job caai to the organizing drie of e C The_ campai won a dramatic icory when Powel and Transit Woers. Union head Mke Quill forc e F Aenue Bus Company o hireNegro driers 27)

The local nationalists, howeer, were not easiy discouraged meof e stores conceded their demands d ey united n a singleby caled e Haem r Union (which sl exists) to contnue apply pres sure The ideoogical war with e Party persisted, wi enaonaists aacking e C as a white nion which refused toupgrade black workers, and he Party callng he Harlem group a bunchof lar racketeers (Bo charges contain an element of t 28) Each group finally established its own domain, w he nationalistsorganizing the small sores which e CIO disdained, and he Pay

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trade nionists organizing the larger enterises NegroLar nityhad s en maintaned bt on a ratherlimited basis. The Partysar allies had no pace for the osands of neod and marginalback larers who cod not orgi wii the framework of anindstrial nio. (29 Cltraly isoated from whie society disdanby e Lef as being norganizabe they remained a ferie base fornationaist agitaon (30

e corse of ese conficts (describ in depth by Cade MacKayin Harem Neo Metrolis), e Party maintained an ecelent

reptation wi respectabe people in the Harlem commnity. eHarlem sectio had several osd members in e ate 930s andwas abe to hod its meetngs i the mostprominent chrches assemby halls (31 Whites were active in all section affairs and eirpresence nerated th ensiasm d tensio. Many of e moreedcated backs accordig MacKay welcomed e itegratioThey saw it as iving rejection of Jim Cw. B e mass of e blackpeope were more sspicios One white orgazer recalled at hecold never walk e streets of Harem as if it were my commityor stand on e otskirts of a meetng as anoer member of e rong I cold speak from a platform with passio ad feel mmenarilya par of the people; bt once the meeting was over e sense of neasereed I cold sese e gowerig lks e sspicio ecrowdng of hostile faces. (32 The Parys insistence on the presenceof whites i black commity organiations (sch as e black cacsi e Feral Writers Pject kept this tesio aive as did the argember of iterracial marriages (black wie wma amg esection leadership. (33 Clade MacKay spoke for a gd may prer Harlems whe he colaned that Negro intellecas imagie that

ey can escape the problems of eir grop by oiing e whites asindivdals. (34

The Poplar Front Pary in Harem ths had a mied record. Itscoalio for reform did achieve reslts : Blacks were orgaiz ntonew nios and fo openigs i new job categories; reform candidaeswere eleced to offce; ew schls and playgrods were costrcted;ad progress was made in tegratig blacs i city govemnt esegais prced sbstantial gais i back membership Bt whe oebalances s agaist the Parys campaig to dscorage ndepedent

black organizatio and its failre to ogaze the mostalienated andmostpotetialyrevoltionary people in the comnity one realizeshow far eve e best Pary work came from eeting e commitysneeds McKays smmary of Party fats was apt and prophetic :Commists ad cialists prefer to tate at Segregaon dRace Predice n Genera ad avoid e fdamental isse espedos task of engineerng ew jobs for Negroes is isrealization that has gve form ad drive to e coarativeyrecentmvemt of e Negro people toward greater selfdevelopmet and

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comunity autonomy (3

The strucon of the Pees FrontPary Ognizations the paching Wr

The Popuar Front poicy bo its imits and its achieementspro e high point of Party infuence in Back America As e

war n Europe approached ernaona uesons nuded on Partyorganzng in a highydesuctie way The Parys dependence on theSoiet Union proed so deeply rooted and so mechanica at it

aowed two of ts mostsiificant Popular Front projects in e blackcommuni - its campai against the Eopan inasion and its workin the National Nego Congres s o be undermned by e drectimposon of Russan diplotic imerates

The Eiopian Crss was one of e mstdecisie examples of eincompabiity of Amric Communist pracce wi back nationastasprations W!en Itay nvaded Eiopa, blacks in e AmercCommunist Party saw an excelent opporniy to mobiize anifascstsentiment in the lack coity James Fo de a speech at e

Seven Party Congress (935 suggesing at the Pary place is pprority on organzing ainst the Eiopan invason because t hadaroused mre emotion among Negroes han any event n hs mery(36 What Ford ddn't ow howeer (one hes) was that e vietUnon was selng guns nd sples to Italy at less an market prcesAs the CP plnged no demnstrations rough e United Ad oEthopa Commee, t was embarrassed by is disclosure at e sametime at t was fh w oca natonalsts aut weer whtes shoud be in the Commee parades. Wrse yet, only one year fter

it had caaigned against sendng Negro trps o ft agans Iy inEhopa on the grounds that er energes could beer used inAmerca (37 was acvely recruiting Negro soldiers for e AbrahamLincoln Brgade n ain Such acons eft many prcpled nationalstssuch as orge Padmre) w the feeng at e struggle aganstEuropean mperalsm was only a secondary Commnst prorty In1939, CLR ams fod many radcals n Harlem ndvidualy and n

the mss profondly suspcous of whes The CP Negroes are lkedon as outs for Negro convers n eactly he same way e Demcracand Republcan Partes have outs for Negro votes. (38

In er longterm sgnfcce however, e Parys unprncplacons whn e Natonal Negro Congress, he major focus of tsack orgg natonwde from 1926 though 1939 far outweighedth Ethopn Affar The Congress had een organzed by a group ofblack tellectuals at Howard Unversty who beeved that existngorganatons n the black communty the NAACP, e Urban League) faled to represent e nerests of lack workers or the back rurapopaton, and had underestmed the sfcance of e lar

17



mvement as a vecle of black advancement (39) Tey called togeter

a broad coalon of groups n te black commty ncludng eadsof rateal organzaons minsters edtors representatves of armand labor organzations and members o radcal pares crea te new organzaton W s coalion e ommnsts wo brougt wte representatves as well as black emerged as e mstpowrfulgroup ey saw s as e perect opportnity to put er Popular Front polcs o work by niying te mreenltened sectons of - te lack urgeose w radcal orces te black working classand e lar movement

Durg e first tree years of e National Negro ongress eommnsts played at least a partiallyconstrctve role. Aloug tey fal o encourage e ongress to come a crtcal autonousforce win e working class and te Le tey dd prove efecven getng large segments o e black communty o work closely wi te IO Te ongress eld conferences of black unon members incago Dtrot and Ptsburg at wc black clergymen socalworkers and poltcans joned wit O leaders o develop a workg relatonsp between lar and e Negro mvemnt 40 onerences

lke tese vrtually nprecedented n Amercn sry in wc blacklabor and black commity leadersp were tradtonally at odds wtone anoter) elped pave te way for e orgzaton of black workersin te mar ndustral ons and were a tranng ground for develg black ade-unon leadersp Yet te Partys success n orging succonnectons een two onceostle leadersp groups reflected tseffectveness as a mace for reform rater an as a genune socalmovemnt Te ongress dd not develop any educatonal or cultural

programs at reaced te mass of black pople and t largely gnored Fe possbltes for black cooperatve acton n te u and n egetos 4 Lke mst Pry ork n at perod t appealed less to

te majorty o black workers wo lay beyo te pale of ndustralunonsm sarecroppers domestics serce workers day larers te uneloyed) tan t dd o lack nllecas and e mnorty of black wrkers n te mstream of te ndustral econom

Nevereless te Naonal Negro ongress desered far ter treatment an t receved at Pary ands durng ts 1939 meeting rAs part o a camagn to justfy te Naz - vet Pact black and we

'Party memrs packed e ongress and tred o unt te group beind

a mssve denuncaton of sevelts war preparatons and o Brsand Frenc mperalsm rtczng all wo suggested at tere weresues of mre relevance to te black commny to dscussed ey ralroaded ter postons roug te conferences and ld te mnorty tat ey could conform or leave Altou ter relecions conceing mperialsm were not coletely offbase ter selectve alure tomenon Naz meral ams and er use o Pary wes to fluenceongress polcy made t clear at te Pary wuld destroy any black

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organizaon i was in as sn as e oganizaio eatened to funcon

independeny of imediae Svit tersts. Mos independens in eCongess inclding Presiden A. Piip Randop le in disgus de ongress quicky os is credibiiy and nfuence.

Decine ad a

om is poin on e Parys Negro work seadily degeneatedTrouou World Wa n a a tim wen e black comuiy wasming a mssive camaign agans all foms of discrimaon e

Pary ied o one do potes fo e sake of naioal iy. Bypolemiciig agains e Mrc on Wasngo Moveme so-pedalgproes agains Jim Crow in te Army deocng paicipans eHarem rebellio of 1943 as ff columiss ad ryng o breaksrikes ad discourage e formaio of indepede black caucuses ine la mvemn e Pay deisively cu iself off fom e mocuens of miliancy i Black Amrica In 1946 Pay eade xeyWilkerson sadly conc luded a e Pary ad bee guily of ankoppoism o te Neo quesio and ad los mc of is blackfollow

Tens of ousands of Negoes wo isiively ejeced ouillusions remined enirey witou ou influece. And myousands of ose wo eered ou aks failed to fid eanswers ey soug d eeupon pruced te fluctuaingNego membesip poblem" wic pacicaly all disicsepot (42)

Te Pays pw in e black comuiy did o imdiately vanis

In spite of is istoy e organiaio coniued o arac blackintellecuals ad notables ito is orbi. Paty spokesmn BejamiDavis was eleced e New ok Ci ouncil from Harlem 193ad te Pary s legisaive coaliion i ta comniy lased wel ntoe lae 1940s Te Paty pess maiained a acive discussion of eN egro quesion; Py scolars did som pioneerig eseac in blackisoy and Paty membes played infueial (fo always ealy)roe i black aciviy te as W e media ad the uiversiessll su to black people e Pary was able to enlis e eergies of

some exemlyaleted and exemly-independenmded peoplefrom ging and crusy W. E. B Du Bois a ung and amiiousHaold Crse Torougly middleclass i is mmersip and appeali becam a weird amagam of a poiical mce a emporary omefor black ebel and a rainng gou for te black elie.

is persisence raises some difcul quesios Wy did peope ofundenabe seriousness and abiliy suc as Benjamin Davis WiliaPaerso d Paul Robeson eain commed to suc an unliable



polica intumnt? Much of e anwer lay in e uniquelyinulag

qualie of Paty leaderhip. Thoe who roe n e rank accongto George Chey teed gadually tranfer eir allegiace fromthe pple to e Pay and loe eir ability o dinguih tweeneir moral commtment and eir eoyment of powr. The Patypoeive" ocial world enmehed their live e pont at whichevery judgment on every queon from high polic to family maeriued from i ource". 43) For black Patyleader i atchmentmay have en epecially intene becaue it involved a recoion oftheir abiie that had been o much deni em in the outide world

what oer organization polical or oewie" Abner Berry wotein 938 i a Negro entrud wi the job of hapng baic principleand policie ? what other Paty i a Negro elected auortavepokeman on general poblem ? t i well ow at even whenNegroe erve executive capacitie in nonCommnit organizaonthey are at bet conidered pecialit in e limted field of racerelation and not leadng ndividual in mldig fundamental programand tacc." 44) To it black leader and porter te potwarPaty retaed e entimenl appeal of it pioneering trleagaint racim and it teady d oftenupopular commitment ocial equaity. Their peeche referred t a e Grd OldPaty" and e Champion Fiter for Nego Right".

But e quetion of polical ateatve alo wa imortant. For allthe lmitation of e Party where ele could a radical black intellectalgo in potwar America ? The Trotkt movement wa crical andindependent but had much of he ideological rigidity of the CP wioutit orgaizational powr. The nationalit group were cloe to e blackcommunity but were fragmened parochial in er perpective anddomnad by religiou myticim. Ad the black ocialit who had

been militant during d immediately afer e War were rapidytrning in dometic lit" who out to atai internal poliicalgan by defending American foreign policy. e fate of oe blackintellecal wo le e Party and ought to remain crical wre notvery pleaant for Ralph Ellion iolation d polical otracim; forRichard Wrght a le n exle) Other wi le independence foundthemelve preed nto tefing before Houe and Senate commtteebecong iformer or merely ikng into a comfortable ueoilfe in e Afuent ciety. I i erefore not entirely uriing at

the Pay mntained ome pot even rou e early 1950 ceof e polical option for black radical it wa probably not the wort.

But all of th ha very lle to do wi the development of arevoluionary mvement an autonomou black culre or a dnamcrelationhip beeen black intellectal ad e ma of black pple.The iue the Pay avoided at the height of it ifluence - excluionof mllion of black rom poition in the economy in which organizedlabor could help them and alienation of mot black people from white

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Ameri ulure remaned pressng in e 1950s. Even e Parysappeal as e vaguard of reform vaished as liberals mobilized epower of government business, and orgized lar aganst legalsegregaon d e uiversities and media offered new opporniesto blak intelletuals. By 1959 he Partys iluene had beome sominimal hat only a few noed its abandonment of e hisori lne onself-determnation e blak belt" or its weak fliker of approvafor e ivil rights movement, for the Demora Paty, and forW alter Reuer

The blak liberation movement of e 1960s us ow very little toCommist influene. t grew out of e hisri well springs offrusation in Blak Ameria that had fed Garveyand Si Aul Hamdontradions at had en vastly neased by the disintegration ofplantaon agriultue, the mgration to the ites and e elimnaonof unskilled and semiskilled bs. The Muslims, e bak stentgroups, and e millions of us involv in ghe rebellions weemoving far beyond the polis of e NegoLar Alliane Theywere rebellng against raism polie violene and the absene of

meaingful wok. For theoreal guidane ey have looked witersin bo the Third World d eir ow ommnies who have struledto make a onneon beween the multi;le levels of eir oppession.At e moment of tis r, ey emain divded as well as angry,soe of em emaning religiously antiwhite oers joining e BlakPaners, oers beomg Panrianists oers tyng to lnk blaknationalism wit lar radialism and still others airmng eirblakness while rg to make it in the System

This elosion of blak eney with its aoanng eoretial

innovaon, has been a tefg phenomenon to wites of oodoxsensibilities. The refusa of e blak liberation movement to seiea single formula for revoluton has driven sift numrs of whiteradials bak ino te past to seek a oret line on the rae issue.In e last few years, at least two influential groups (PL and te SDSLabor Committee) have espoused e othox omnist line onblak white unity and t anoter (RYM n and its spinoffs) hasreaffirmed its otment self-determnaton in te blak belt.

But e majoity of white radials have fonately rejeted silesolus We have lked on e blak liberaon movement wi fear,but have also seen e nfoldng of a reative proess in whih a peopleare buildng a revoluionary ulture out of the mterials of their oeeriene. The proess does not follow a straigt lne but we aeomng to aept that. For f we have leaed anythng in s butalenry it is at revoluon/liberation an ome ony from a proessof riism and growh n wih e heitge of revolutionay oughtis ontnuously tested agast e reality of our daily lives. A oroughundersdng of politial eonomy and the lass foes in e sugglei s essenal, but it an no longe be separated from our vision of otal

21



huma liraio We are lg aut buildg a ew civiliao aour objectives must as sweepig as e pressio at we ho trsced. As Fao said :

is a questio of srtig a ew hisry of a hisrywhich will have reg e sometimes prigious theseswhich Europe has put forwrd but which wll also ot forget Eures crimes of which e most horrible was committedi e heart of ma d cosisted i e paological tearig

away of his uity. Ad i e framework of e collectivtyere were the differetiaos e stratifactios ad eblrsty tesios fed by classes ad fially o eimmese scale of humaity here were racial hatred slaveryad eloiatio

comrades let us ot pay tribute Euope by creatigsates istituos ad societies which draw eir ispiratiofrom her

we wt humity o advace a sp further thewe must ive ad make dscoveries

For Europe for ourselves ad for humaity comradeswe ust tu over a ew leaf we must wrk out ew coceptsd try to set aft a ew ma (45)

F1 ere have ever bee subculres i weeh Cetury America

which cered aroud drugs ad msic (hemias ja musiciset ceera) t at o me i America history did they cut across classracial ad eic les as they do today

2 e Paul Richas : W E B Du is ad Aerica cialHistory : e Evoluo of a Mrxist Radical Amerca Volume 4oveerDecemr 1970)

3. Aime Csaire eech at a black writers coferece quoted Earl Ofari Mrxism aoalism d Black Liberati" MothlyRevew Volume 22 (Mrch 1971) Page 31

4 Oari op. cit. Pes 3335. e Autobiogrh f W E B DuBois Pages 205-207 Aut the

time Boi became a socialist he was sposorg social scietific

studies of e black populao i e u rough Alata Uiversity :22



as study e fats y and a fats oneing e Negroand his pit entered is primariy e ulitarian objet ofreform d li but neveeess ant to do e ork isienfi auray."

6. Oakey C. Johnson : aism nd the Negro reedom Ste 1876-1917" Joa of Humn Reaons (Spring 1965) Pages 21-29

• Caude aKay: A W rom Hoe Pages 41-43. Reruitmentof bak soialists k pae amost elusivey in Ne ork Cty one iniave of Jeish soiaists in e garment trades. e firstimpont bak reruit as Hubet Harrison a West ndian hom esoiaists reassied" from his soap on Wal Street to Harem.Harrison ater quit e soiists to beome e edior of the Garveynespaper e Neo Word.

7 e Theore Drer : Ameria Cim nd viet RussiaPages 315353, for a dsussion of e roe at bak ommnistsplayed in e deveopment of e Comtes sion on e question.

8. eeh by Caude aKay in ourth COess of e Commistnteaonal Abried Re as quoted in arism and e Neo

Poblem, a disussion arle by . orest (Raa Dunayevskaya) forthe Workers Party 1949. aKay arned the Commnists to pay reatention to rae : e reformst urgeoisie have en arryng ona bae against disriminaon and raial prejie in Amera. Theiaists and Communists have fought very shy of it beause ere isa great eement of prejie among e iaists nd Commists ofAmeria.

9 aKay : A Lo Wa rom Home Pes 206-214; Draper opt. Pages 315353

10 e George Chaey : A Lo Jouey (Ne ork 1968), Pas3132 on e sltifiaon of Party ideology.11 Saint Cair rake d Horae Cayton Bak etropois, Volume

1 Page 86.12 J R Johnson (CLR James) Prelimnary Nots on e Negro

Question (prior to a meeg i Trotsky) ay or June 1939 dDisussion i Trotsky from the ialist Workers Party uments on e Neo Ste 1954. James's nderstanding of e Gaeymovement in my opinion far suasses at of ny other onteorary

histori. Wiin his eers speehes and privae memos (of hih have ony seen a sma aunt) ies a ealh of imensey-siifintriism of e Amerian ommunist Partys ativies in the bakommnity and of e polia d philosophial fores behind hem.(They shoud reprinted as sn as possible.)

13 Caude aKay : Harem Neo etrois (Ne ork 1940)Page 177.

14. Lgston Hues : Wnder a Wander. AubiohicaJoe (Ne ork 1956 Page 176. Hughes tk this trip in 1933-34.

23



15. Angelo Herndon : Let Me Live Pages 8788.

16 . Charney : A Lon Joue, Page 31.17. Hedon : Let M Lve Pges 88-89.18. Ibid. Pages 76-77.19. Ibid. Page 77.20. My personal interviews with black and whit radicals active in

the Dpression whether Party mmers or not all affirm e notablesignifcnce of the Scottsboro ase in the formation of a blackwhicoalion for social reform This does not mean that manipulation ofthe Case (financially or orally was justified but mans only that

people perceived it as a pivotal event at e t� and perceived itpositively.21 Adam Clayon Powell Junior : Mchi lacks, Page 64.22. Dale Rosen : The Alabam Sharecroppers Union" Harvard

Radcliffe Senior Thesis Pages 40-56. is essay coleed frominterviews as well as traditional surce s is the best source on eAlaba Sharecroppers Union.

23. J ams : Preliminary notes on the Negro Question .24 . e Mckay : Harlem Nero Metropolis Pages 182261 for a

detailed nfolding of _is process.25 . James Fod : The Nego and the Dmcratic Front Pages120-129; Charney: A Lon Journe Pages 105115.

26. MacKay : Harlem Ne Mtroolis Pages 198203.27. Chaey : A Lon Joue, Pages 99-100.28. McKay : Harlem Nego M�tropolis Pages 212216.29. Mark Naison : The uthern Tenant Farmers Union and the

O, Eadical America, Volum 2 (pemerOctober 1968 for aotherexample of how CO organiing strategy fail o meet he needs of a

s igicant segment of e black population and how he Prty tried toundermie independent nionism at existed outside such a framework.30. McKay : Harlem Neo Metropolis Pge 216. Te following

passage is indicative of e Pays unwilliness o deal with lumpenand maginal workers : Once I menioned to Mr. Manng Johnson thefact of hudreds of Negoes workig in e innumrable coffee shopssdwich shops fish d poto shops et cetera Harlem Mr. Johnsoni s a college graduate and efcient organier of the cafeteria nionand is promient in e Communist hierarchy. said hought it wuldhelp e comnity f ose wrkers were welded ino a General Unionof Negroes r some such organiation. But at e places I mntionedM Johson sneered as stk-pots.

31 Inteview wi Mr. Samuel Coleman, former organier in thearlem section.

32. Chaey: A Lo oey Pages 103-104.33 Chaey A Lo Joey Pages 102103; MacKay :

NegO Metropolis, Pages 204 233-23.3. MacKay: Harlem Nego Metropolis Page 218.

24



•

Ibid., Pes 9-986 Jas Ford : "e le for Peace and Independence n

Eiia, speech deivered at ven World Congress of eCommist Inaonal in Moscow (Ast 9 on behalf of eHarlem con of e Counist Par.

James : Preliminary Nos on e Neg Queson , Page 2J ames Fod "Build e People's Labor Pary, speech deliveed atan emergency meeng of e Harlem co of e Communist Pary(May , 196 Fos spech describes e ube e Party as hadwi its organizing around Eiopia cause loc naonalists are

violy posed to having whis in the denstrations James (reeyears later) notes e disillusioning effects of e Ethiopi fair :at Russia sold oil Ily made a disastus iression on backsYet many Negro Pary memrs rmained What seems have ena decisive facr was e acvty of e CP in rega to ain. Everyday it is only an, ain; but nong was done for Ethopia exceptone or two meer processions around Haem. Te contrast wiSpan has en glarng d e Negrs came fnaly consciusthat ey were once re e des of er wi pary.

8 James "Preliminary Nots on the Nego Question, Page 49 e Ralph Bnche : e Prgrams deologies, Tactics d

Acievements of Negro Betrment nd Intracial Organizations(unpubished manuscript - Mal study), Pages 9-

4 Horace Caytn d George Mitcell : Black Worker d eNew Unions Pages 41428 nd James Ford The Neo and eDemocac Front. Pages 1-11

41 MacKay Harlem : Nego Metropolis Pages 22224, 222 Te Pary cracked down on a movement for cooprative enteises

wiin ts own ranks in arlem, ed by a Mrs. Grace Cal.

42 ech by xey Wlkerson at te plenary meengof e NaonalCommite of e CPUSA in New York (Decer , 1946 Pes62-62

4 Chey A Lon Jouey, Pas , 116-1144 ner Berry Intrucon to James od Te Neo and e

Democratic Front Pages 9-14 Frt Fnon : Wretched of e Ea Pages 1-6

25



•

AN NTTH

AM C§d & Idd by D

I

The name o Aim Csaie, back teectua om Matinique, ismstoten associat with e idea o Negitude a conception o back

acia and cutua identity which he and his comades Lopod SaSengho and Lon Damas ist omat in Pais in the 1930s. Theconcept o Negitude, howeve, has mst-oten been uesto though the wok o Lopod Sengho and has been identiied with such mysticaassociations as e Nego essence and the Aican pesonaity.This deveopmnt has obscued the evoutionay content o Csaieswok. Fo Csaie Negitude has aways maintined its eationship ocooniaism nd to the concete conditions o the Negos eistence,athe than becong a univesa phiosophy o man as it has become

o Sengho. The pobem o back cutue, Csaie has witen, cannot posed at the pesent tim wthout simtneousy posg the pobem o cooniaism, because a back cutues ae now deveoping unde the paticua condition o the coonia, sem coonia, o

paacoonia situation (1 The imposion o coonia ue has, inCsaies view, dist the histoica continuity o Aican society.The possibiities o its deveopment have been destoyed: Its science,

phiosophy, at, and iteatue have become okoe The eementswhich stuctued its cutua ie have been shateed, the economy nd

society have been demished, the amy has disintegated, a the taditiona ties have been weakened. Indigenous cutue has becommagina and has ost e abiity to enew itse. A poitica nd sociaegime which spesses the sedetemination o a peop kis theceative powe o at peope at the same tm. Fo Csaie, thestugge o a nationa cutue nd the stgge o nationa ibeaionae one and the sam.

As a native o the Caiban isand o Mainique Aim Csaie wassubject to the aienation sense o ineioity which ae best o

27



to us thugh Fantz Fan's Bla kns. Whit Masks; n it isagainst bacgoun o th Fnh colonal poli o assilatonthat oigins o gi can b s Fnh cultu isa ssu to b unisal n n in pinipl) valu in lationto it an intllignc ath than ac o nationalit lciniviuals a tun o thi nionnts a ncouag assiilat Fnch ultu. h ascn into a bla lit who ha oppotunitis opn to th that a ni to oths o thi ac suh as an ucation in Fanc o a a in taching o in ciil

svi his status is obstacl to aial cultal intiiationh assiilation policy is bas on th assution that th inignousultus a piiti bacwa an at pogss consists inbcoing o an o li whit n whos cultu is sn as thpinnacl o huan ahivnt h pobl is cooun in thWst nis wh th oiginal nian ultu was coltl stoydan th bulk o th population is sn o slavs ton o thitaional socitis With nothing national o b awa o th natiso Mainiqu ha sought scap o thi coloniz conition b

assuing languag th anns o Fnch civilization hcoloniz is lvat a his jungl status in popotion to hisaoption o th oth otys ultual stanas" wits FanonH bcos whit as h nouncs his blacs s his jngl h gos o Matiniqu hav ought o sls as Fnchn withblac sins".

git gw out o th stggl against this alination Fo AiCsai black libation was to ailu unlss consiousnsswas coloniz gitu o this pspctiv cn b sn not as

a philosophical concpt but as a cultual an polial ovnt closly

lat to Aian nationalis an black libation stuggls. Aganstth aginality pnn an inioity which chaactiz liun colonial ul Csai has clad that is g an ight ngloious a go" H has ai not onl th Aian swhih li bna th vn o assiilation nth Wst nis but alsoth nit o th a an its histoial xpinc H has also soghto aluat Aica an its ol in th wol in od to blakso h stigma o savagy" that th Euop coloniz stap on

that continnt and its popl But alwas gitu is a cognition osocial alitis o Ai Csai H dos not sk a nobl linag olgitiatiz his ac o" h shouts in his grat po Rtu to Mativ n (Cahi un tou au as nata! w ha n naazons o th king o Daho no pincs o Ghana with 800 alsno ws n in ibuku un Askia Gat no achitcts inDjn no ahdi s no waios n o aits w o not lth itch o thos who lnc (3 uch lais on part oblacs who hav bn subjugat by Euop an onl tanso th al

aoplishnts o Aica ino a h o a Goldn Ag. Futh8



•

Aa s a eessay step establsh the detty o the Neo

the New Wold; bt t aloe s ot eoh o he s a otsde t oom hs Aa soes; hs exstee s lk the ltatedeadao o he ae savey the Ae o oloalsm admpealsm the dty o bak peope s e ot o se dste sae ds hs Netde the deessed sbpoletaato he abbea e desedats o saes s po the oexealty o e hstoy he debasemet d aeato as wel as eesse that the detty mst oed at they may beome emastes o the desty S SANDA MUST ME T AN D !

sae esAs the poet o blak eot sae a a ew hmas The

hmasm Eope as he detals hs sose o oloalsm(see Aae as 955) s a le Hasm aot be basedo te eotato o hma beis Eope wold lke o k thath soy has stopped wth ts aseday ad hat ts aompshmetsepeset a esal hmty B Eope a oy k ths waybease what t alls easo has bded t to te exstee o theoloed whose elotato t pots om bt whose hmaty t

dees t s he ame o ese oppessed ad eoted at saedees Eopes la epeset al hmty ad t s oh heebelo at he delaes hstoy has ot yet ts ose saepoams the sodaty o the oppessed

As ee ae hyeame ad leopadme wod a ewaa kama a dmoalta

a maomHlemwhodoestvote

Nete as sae oees o t s a amato o a ewhmas a has whh w ot dey hs ae bt wl aept tad allow t ee expesso a oty o me He alls o a ewhmas whh wll be esal bease al me wll otbte to tbt whh w alow o e dvesty

o t s ot te that he wok o ma s shed

at we have oth o do the wdthat we ae paastes the wdthat we hae oly to aept the way o the wold

bt te wok o m has oy be

ad t emas o m to oqe al pohbtosobed e oes o hs eo

29

'



90 (JneNovember 95 Pge 902. Frnz Fnon: Bck Skns, Whie sks (New York 97 Pge

.3 Aim Cesir: Reu o M Nve Ln rnse by EmUe

Snyers (Pris 9 Pe .4 Ibi. Pges 37 4 25. 5 Aim Csire: Lhom e cuure e ses responsbi;s" in

Prsence ricine 2425 (Februry-y 959 Pge 9 (origemphsis)

6 Am Csire: Lee a urice horez (Pris 95 Pge 27 Frnz Fnon: Wreche of e Erh (New York 93 Pge 9.

Ren Dpesre: Cesire he cric Liyn Keseoo hs wrien hhe Chier n reur u ps n ws n biogrphic k Ishis opinion we fon ?

Aim Csire Ceiny. I is n obiogrphic ok n he

sme me ok in which I rie o ke possession of myself. In cerin sense is more hn m biogrphy. mus no be forgoenh is book of yuh. I wroe e momen when I h jusfinishe my suies n ws reing o riniue These were efirs concs wih my counry fer 0 yers of bsence n I rey foun mysef ssue by se of impressions n imges n hesme e very ngushe over he prospecs of riniue

RD: A wh ge i u wrie is book ?AC I mus hve been 2.

D: Wh srikes me u he Chier un reour u pys nneverheess is is gre muriy.AC I is my firs pubishe wrk bu n reiy i is work h

ws ccumue or one progressivey I remember hving wienony few poems fore e Chier

RD: B hese poems hve been pubishe.AC: They hve no been puishe ecuse I wsn' very hppy wih

hem. The friens o whom I showe hem oun hem neresing bu hey in sisfy m.

RD: Why ?AC Becuse I hink I h no fon form h ws my own. I ws

si unergoing he infuence of e French poes In shor if heChier un reour u pys n hs ken he form of poem in psei hs been ruy y chnce I wne o brek wih he French ierry riions n iery ws no e o ibere mysef ni e mmnh I ecie o u m bck on poery In reiy if you ike I hveconvere mysef ino poe y renoncing poery. you see wh Imen ? Poery ws for m e ony mens of reking wih he regur French form h srnge me.



RD : In her introduction to the selection of your pems publish bySeghers Lilan Kestelt cites amng other French poets who haveinfluenced you Mallarm Clael, Rimbaud and Lautramont

AC : Lautreamnt and Rimaud were the great revelation for manypoets of my gneration. I must also say that I don't deny Claude!. Hispoery for eamle Tese d'Or impress m very much.

RD : There is no doubt that it is great ptryAC : Yes truly great poetry I is very beauful Naturally ere are I

many ings in Clael that have irritated me but I have always vewedhim as a great craftsman of e lnguage

RD : Bu your Cahier d u retour au pays naal re the samp of apersonal exerience - your exerience as a young Mrtinican Thisbook also deals with the itinerary of e Negro race in e Antilles;and are not French ifluences decisive in it?

AC : I don't deny the French influences Wheer I want to or notI am a poet in he French language and it is evident at Frenchliterature has influenced m(� Bt what I insist strongly is at therehas been aside from the elemnts hat French literature brought me• there has been in m at the same time an effort to create a new

language capable of exressing the African heritag. To say it anoterway for m French was an instrument at I wanted to bend into a newexression. I wanted to make an Antillen French a Black French ateven while ing French would carry te Negro mrk

RD : Has surrealism en n nstrument that has helped you in yourffort o develop a new French exression ?

AC : I was ready to receive surrealism cause I had advanc onlyby taking my departure from he sam autors as the surrealists I hadrefleced departing from the sam autors as them Surrealism has i.

given m what I searched for cofusedly. I have received it w joybecause I have foud in it as ch a cofirmtion as a revelaion.It was an instrument at dnamited the French lnguage I madeeverthing jump I shook literally everything. at ws very ioatbecause e traditional forms the burdensom form already madecrushed m

R This was he interest at the surrealist ement presentfor you .

AC : Surrealism nteresed m in the sense at it was an elemnt ofliberaon.

RD : You were ten, very sensitive to he notion of liberation whichwas contained in surrealism. Surrealism issued a call profoudfoces and to unconscious forces

AC : Eacly And I have reasoned in e following manner : I said,well, if I apply surrealism to m particular siuation I can appea tothe unconscious forces For m it was e cal o Africa I said omyself : I is ue at serficially we are French; we are marked byFrench cusoms We have been marked by cartesiism nd by French

32



rheorc But ll s s broken f you down to the deths whtyou will fnd s fundmentlly NegroRD : ws, then n oerton of dslentonAC : Yes : Tht s how I hve nterret surrelsmRD : Tht s how surelsm hs mnfest tself n your work : s

n effort to recover our uthentc ersonlty, s wy of recoverngyour frcn hertge

AC : AbsolutelyRD : functons s rest who urged you of your ntoxcton wth

EuroeAC : A de nto the deths I ws dve nto frc for meRD : nd wy of emnctng your conscousnessAC : Yes beyond socl ng rofond exstence oer whch ll

knds of lyers nd ncestrl lluum e been deosted s fondRD : Now I would lke o go bck to he erod n your lfe n whch

you collbort n Prs wth Loold r nghor nd Lon Dson e lle journl Ltnt Nr Ws the frst stge of Negtudeeressed n the Cher dun retour u s ntl ?

AC : Yes t ws Negrtude s we conceved of t then There weretwo grous mng us On the one hnd mn of the Left comunsts oftht tme such s J onnerot E Lro Ren en nd the lke whowere comsts nd hd our symhy for t Howeer wht hveto rerch them for nd erhs owe ths to Senghor s htthey were French communsts There ws nothng to dstngush themrom ther e French csts or the French surrelsts To ut nother wy they were color blnd

RD They were not undertkng he ts of dslenton

AC : my onon they re the mrk of ssmlton A tht tme

rtncn students ssm lt ether wth the French of the Rght orth the French of the Left Bu lwys t ws ssmlton

RD : At tom wht serted you from the rtncn comnststdents durng ths er ws the Negro queston

AC : Yes the Negro queston At tht tme reroched communstswo neglected our blc chrcterstcs They ct lke comunstswhch ws good but they cted ke bstrct consts I mntntht the olcl queston would not elnte our condon s NegroesWe re Ngroes wth numerous hstorcl eculrtes suose t

I hve felt Senghors nfluence n ths Then I ddn't ow Afrc n thebsolute ery soon I mt Senghor who soke much of Afrc A hsmress me enormously owe the reelton of Afrc nd Afrcnrtlrty to hm And I tr to conceve of eory ht would tkell of my relty nto ccot

RD : You he tred to rtculrze commnsm

AC : Yes, t s veryold tendency n me The commnsts used oreroch me for wht they clled rcsm becuse soke of eNegro roblem For my rt, I sd to them rx s good but t s

33



ncssa to coplt Max I tougt at t ancpaton of tNgo could not b onl a tcal ancpaonRD ou s a latonsp btwn tant No and

Ngo Rnassanc n Unt ats t vnt of a RvuIndgn n Ha and Cub Nsmo btwn t two wold was ?

AC : I was not nluncd b bcaus I dd not know . Bt a wout a doubt paalll ovnts.

RD : And ow do ou lan appaanc n t as btwn two wold was of ts paalll pnona of t cognton ofAfcan cutual patculas n Cuba Bazl, Hat, Matnqu, tUntd ats, t cta ?

AC I lv at tat ont n t sto of t wold t wasa cong to conscousnss ang Ngos tat anfst tslf novnts tat ad no latonsp to ac ot.

RD was t xtaodna pnonon of azz.AC was t pnonon of azz. was t mnt of

Macus Gav. I mb v wll tat wn I was a cld adof Macus Gav.

RD Mcus Gav was a t of Ngo popt wos spcs

ad galvanzd t Ngo masss of t Unt Stats. H ad plnndto tu all t Not Acan Ngos to Afca

AC A ass ovnt was std up tn nd fo sval ya was a sbol t s of Not Amcn Ngos Fanct was a podcal calld C s Ns.

RD tnk tat Hatns k cto Sajous Jacqu Rouman ndPcMas collaat on tat podcal. T also w usof a Rvu du Mond No n wc t cll Bots ClaudMacKa Rn Maa PcMas Saous ad ot wot.

AC I m tat wn w ad t pom of angon ugsand Claud McKay I w wo MacKay was cau dung yas199 d 193 an tology of poty y Ngo No mcsappad n Fanc. n 93 appad MacKy novl Banjo, wcdscd lf of t dock n Ms T wa tuly on oft fst wok n wc auto spok of Ngo and gav tNgo om knd of tay dt. I mst ay tn tat wtoutavg undgon t flunc of t Nt Amcan Ngos av ft, at lat tat t Not Amcan mnt succdd n catng

t ndpnsal atmsp fo a v-cla comng conscousnssamong Ngo ts pod gosso modo you lk undwntt nluncs T ft wa a Fnc tay nflunc wa ofMalla, Rmaud autamont and Claud. T scond was AfcaI ddnt ow Aca vy wll, but av lad to ow t tougnogy.

RD I blv tat Eop tnogaps av contbutd to tlaboaton of t concpt of Ngtud.

AC Suly. And as fo t d nlunc, t was t Untd ats

34



Negro Reassae movemen whh dd nfuee me ermne bu reed e mosphere woud perm me o beomeosous of he sody of e bk wod.

RD A h momen wee you o wre of for exe e effoth ws rred ou e sme spr by L Rvue Idgne nd JenPreMrs wh hs k As pr oe n H ?

AC No. I dsovered he Haa moveme nd e fmous ok ofPreMrs muh te.

RD How do you e he enouner beeen u d Sengho bewee Ae Nege An Nege ? Ws he esu

of puar o of pe omng o onsousness ?AC Sy e foowg f In Ps some 20 Negoes of

orgs me eh oher. Thee wee Afrans ke gho; GunensHas orh Amen egoes neans e ee. Ths s very o for m

RD ths e of egroes n Prs dd you beome wre of e vue of he utue of Bk Af ?

AC Ad of he sodry mong egroes. We wee egoes fom prs of e wod. We me eh othe fo e fs me dsoveed

eh oe. Ths ws vey ortan. RD Th ws exodny mporn. nd ho dd you e eboratig this onep of Negrude ?

AC I he he mpesson s b of oetie reon To sue I emoyed for he fs me Bu s possbe th we soe

of ou re. s essane o the potis of ssmon.Un my epoh un my geneon he Fenh nd e Engsh ndmsprury he Frenh hd fooed n nbrded pos ofssmon. W� dd kno wh f s. he Eopens despsed

Af oeey d n Frane oe hough of zed od nd brbrous wod. The bbrous wod ws f nd the vzwrd ws Euope. e s hng h oud be done fo n fnws o ssmie hm The de ws to be Frenhmn wh bksk.

RD We hve own ths sm enomnon n Hi he begining of he s enuy. A whoe Ha pseoture exss e by uors who owed hemseves to ssmit. The ndependene ofH our fis ndependee ws voen ugnon gns heFeh presee our ounry bu he frs Hn uhos ddn oppose Freh uur vues n the sme wy. The deoonon ofhe onsousess dd no ake pe.

AC Ths s wh s ed vrsm. Mnque we wee so fu vrsmo. I s rememer poor te Mtnn phrmaswho pssed e me rtg poems d sonnes he sen to eJuegos Fores de Toos. He beme very pro hen hs prutonws rewed. Oe dy he d me h e jury hd no eve ezedh hs woks hd bee wen by of oo. To u ohese

35



his ey was s iersnal at he was prud f it. He swelled withpide fr smein that fr me was a crusin accusatin.

RD : was a case f tal alienatin.AC I thin yu have said a very-iant wrd. Our strule was

a stule aast alienan. That is hw Neritude was BecauseAntilleans were asha Nees, ey searced fr all merf eemisms t desiate a Ner. A Ner was called a f darksin (hmbe de piel ena) a ther suc flis tis.

RD Yes, uly flishness.AC And then we tk e wrd Ner as a wrd f defnce. was

a f defiance. I was a reactin f anry ut. Since there wasshame at te wrd Ner, we the wrd Ner. ust sa that wenwe fded LEtudiant Nir I wanted t call it L'tuint Nre 1 buttere was reat resistce an te Antilleans

RD : me uht te wrd nre was ffensive.AC : Yes, ffensive, gssive; and then I tk te liy

f speakin f Neritude. ere was fr us a defiant will, a vilentaffirmn te wrds ne and Nerite.

RD e Cahier d'un retur au pays natal yu have said at Haiti

as been e cadle f Nerite. Yu ave said re precisel Haiti,were Nerite st fr e first time. Ten n yur pnin tehistry f ur cutry is , in a sense, te preistry f Neride. Hwhave yu plied this cncept t te istry f Haiti ?

AC Only when I an t discver Africa d e Ner wrld fAmerica, and nt until I ad elred e entirety f te Ner wrld,did I rasp e istry f Haiti. I adre Martnique, but Martique isan alienated land, wile Haiti represented e eric Antilles and alsthe frican Antilles fr me. I make e lik tween te tilles and Aica, Hait is the stfrican lnd f te Antilles. is at esame time a cuntry wit a maelus histry. Te frst Ner epic the New Wrld was written by Haitians by pple like Tussant Oere , Christpe ssalines, et cetera. Haiti is ardly wnn Marnique. I am ne f e few Martinicans w w and lve Haiti.

RD : hen fr u Haiti s first independene was e cnfirmatin,the illustatin f the cncept f Nerite. Our natinal istry wasNerite n actin.

AC Yes, Neritude in actin. Haiti is the ctry were te black

man has d up fr e first time in rder t affirm his will t frma new wrld, a free wrld.

RD Drn all f the Nneteent Century there ave been men wh,withu usin the wrd Nerite, derstd wat te appearanc faiti n e scene f niversal histry represented. Haitian athrssuch as Haibal Price uis-Jseph Janvier ske at at time fehablit the aesthec and cultural values f e Ner race. Anda enius like Antnr Firmn wte in Paris a ok entitled De l'galitdes aces humanes in which he tri reappraise African cultre n



•

od fa is ntis of oolss assimilaon al that washaatis of fist aos of o la. may phaps said hat it is bginning in sond half of Nintn Cywhn so ai wits had gn wi Jsn isson, FiMalin, Fd ibt, Anoin Innt, disov whad an Afian past at slav had not faln wi last ains ofSaint ming, at v was an ipotant lmnt in o dlopingnaona l. Now it wod ns say xamin mo loslyh onpt of Ngit. Ngi as liv gh all kis of

advns.I nk at is ont dos not always hav its oiginal sns itslosiv haat and at a in Pais d oth plas,pop who sv thmslvs fom it wi pposs vy distint fomthos had in th Cahi dn a as natal

AC I wold lik say at vyon has his wn Ngid Thhas bn mh hoizig ov Ngit. I hav kpt myslf fomjoinng in it o of psonal msty. Bt if I w b askd how Ionivd of Ngid I wold say hat in m opinion Ngi is

bfo al ls a oming onsiosnss that is ont notabstat. It is vy it al atmosph in whih onlivd atsph of assimilation in whh Ngo was ashamof hims atmsph of tion infioity ox. I havalways oght that blak man was in sah of an idnaon.And it has sm m that fist ing on had do if on wisho afm is dntfiaon is idntity was to tak ontonsiosnss of what on is : that is of th pimay fat at on isa Ngo that w w Ngos at w had a past that this pastontai a lmnts at had bn vy valabl and at asyo say Ngos had not faln wi fst ains at hbn Ngo iviizations that w impot aifl. pi w w in piod n whih w wot pop od wit anivsal histoy of ivilizaon wiot ddiang a singl hapt toAfia as if Afia had not bot anyhig t wod fow afmd at w w Ngos and w pod of it and at whoght hat Afia was not som sot of blank pag i hisy ofhmanity and finally ida was that at Ngo past was woy ofspt at its vals w vals at old still big iontthigs t wod.

RD That is vas at a sti ivsalizig

AC : Uivsaizig ivig, vas at hav not n di . song was not did p. w nw fits that old ithat song i on mad ffo to iigat it wi swat, ivait again Th was n this fat : T w ings t tl wod.W w not dazzld by Ean iviization and oght that Afiaod bing its ontibtin Eop. was also afimation ofsolidaity. This is t. I hav always tght at what happnd in

37



Argelia and among Nor American Negs relect back I thought I coudnt iifferent to Haii I cout indiffent Africa en, if you like, we have n arrive at is idea of a tof Negro civiliation exending throughout e entire world And I havecome the idea at there was a Negro sittion" (siuatin ne

that nifested itself in geoghicallydifferent areas, a myfaerland was also Africa ere was e African continent Haiti, eAnlles ere were Maricans, the Negroes of Brail, et ceteraThat, for me was Nerie

RD : There was a ven prior to Negie properly speaking,which anifes iself between e two world wars a preNegritemovement, if you like, at I see in the interest in African a atcould be observ among Eurean painters u see a relationshipbetween tha ierest maifested by Eupean aists and he comig consciousness of Negrs ?

AC : Surely This movent is also one of e comnents of ourcoming consciousness Negrs had been put in fashion n France byPicasso, Vlaminc, Braque, et cetera

RD : the same peri e cooisseurs of ar ad ar historiansremain iressed by the quality of the sculpture of Black AfricaIn France a man lie Paul Guillaume in Germy, a Carl EinsteinThe art of Negro Africa ceas to an exotic curiosity, nd Guillaehimself had consider i the lifegiving sperm f e TweniethCenry" (esperma vivificadora del siglo X esiiuaI)

AC : I also remember e Neo Anthlo of Blaise CearsRD : A o dedica e oral literaure of the Negro in Africa

I can also remember e number of he at review Acion, a

had gaer he opinions gments of e asic vaof etime on the mass, staes, oer at wors of Africa Neithermust one forge Guillaume pollinaire wose lyrical wor is fillwi evocaions of Africa To concle, do you ink that the concep ofNegrite has form he base of an ideological and political afityamong its defenders ? Your corades of Negie, e first militansof Negride, ave followed a traecory dieen from yours ere isfor exale, the case of ghor a brilliant mind, a et of greatpower bu very contradicory on e plane of Negritude

AC : ere have en, fore all else, senimental affiities betweenus One feels himself a Negro or one does no feel himself a NegroBut here was also a lical side was, after all a movement of eLe I have never ou, even for ins, at emancipaon coudbe er achieved by the Righ That is not ssible We have tugh,Senghor I that emncipation put us on e , but we have refusto see only a social issue in e Negro question There are pple forexale, w tought sll ink hat it would be enough i he ftwere in wer in France Then economic conditions would change sothat e Negro pblem would disappear I didnt believe that in e

3

1



boe. I ught at fecivey i wa one ion condion,bu no e ony coiion.

R : Suey, ince e eonhip of concioune wi e wodae eemey compex. I i fo a eaon a it i neceay ecoonize he concioune, e inteio ife of e pee at heme me t e ociety i ing decooni.

AC Ecy nd I emem hving aid the me Matiniccommi n th pei. e bc wa, a u have inou, douby poeianz, doy aiena : a a poei on onehand a a Nego on e oe. Becue it i a queon, e a,

of the ony ace whom humiy h been deni.

OOTNOTE

1 Ne caie e ae connoaon nie doe in Engih.

V 2 N 2

7 5 ¢

M arxis t method a s a gude to acton i n teclass strggle and as the basis for the devopmento a viabe revoutonary s oiais t mvemen in

the Uited Sta te . "

at 5 o

Femis m as a Cas s Ste

A Pogram or the Anti-War Movement

Te Eqa Rights mendment as a WeaonAgain st Women' s Libe ration� reedom Sociast ubicatons/: 3 East Thomas/eattle , Was h 8

39

:



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42



ORY�

INROIAlchemy whaever aspecs of were sll reevable seem form a very-sefl brdge ween e apparenly-dvergen worldsThs no so mch n e sense of synheszng sarae coarmensof owlge as n he sense of appg e sorce of all of hesecomparmens. cold cobne he rgos qesm of he Easeyogas w acon mcne. Unfortaly, s exnc.

The Ease dscplnes seemed dffcul, far feched"; solexaltaon rare, less consnly s by chemcals. olcalacvy was o of he qeson, and here remaned nohng b esolary occaons of wrg and drawng neher of em reAcally here was a knd of nvsble resde no career, no occlowledge no pracce, b an nescpable fac : eerence. To makelvng a pracce wold me nether o follow any formal pracce schas yoga, nor o deny oneself any naral nclnaon for e sake of

some spros spral advance. Ever come mmedaelysmpler and mre manageable.

A nervals e yeang for a consan sae of exalaon woldreassert se paralyzng all acvy I wan be poor, whoclohes home, oks or sense of tme and place I wa n short completely hones all of e me; ow o n e wheel of rebrwh all my n, kowng pan, dea pleasre, fear all n one; ngnowhere ng uaached wholdng nohng nether ressng nor

exaera e plse of energy. B hs knd of g canno beplanned and exected he nly scheme I coud nk of was keep acandle consanly l where I wold be syg, a render of econny of lfe e rgency of toal awareness. Energy does no wafor e bran nor lfe for coasson; e sday serce has an everymne affar he en medton never nerred. Then cold face anythng d even dersand somethng of e flavor of anesence whch s no d he esence of seaweed he dea ofgrowng no a person was comared s chosng a stae of

3



deah To every writen senence I could say ·Yes, but PerhsI had mnally rolled all wriers all menal workers", as eyrecall in e socialis cories into one my faer He had endraer wrechedly for all his oks, re a witen and for all hisinress and comforts a commimens and complimens aeeiences ife had no been a coninual oouring of grate,no a coninual seice, no a coninual feasin a he table ofholiness-energy This pved me a merely o commi oneself toa cause merely o ac atruiscally, merely to do ings for e

world was no e answer

Wring is inellecual self-ndulgence he delirae limiting of one' shorion for he sake of intellectual pleasure, of creag someingou of noin"; a leas is is wha i seemed like o me ere wereexcepions; a few ks worm heir way into me and spoke rouhme, ks tha read me nsead of my reading em such as KennehPachens Journal of Albion Mnli", and fore a a children sbook which conains he bis dharma wheer his is kno o

the auor or no I canno tell Die Sieben Glucklichen nsen HnerDem Wnde" Bu ese and oers (Kierkegaa Kaa, Rlke Nera,Brech Karinthy were all read wihin the confines o four walls, in esafey of brick apartmen houses; hey were basically spices added toa life which would oheise have bee inlerably dull

The firs ings tha yank me ou of is sae were several repeatedextremely-disaeeable and exremely horrifyin eeriences of menaldepraviy Over a peri of several weeks I fel alternaely giy and

fine" (when on Dex or in comforble suroundings w erlyundemanding people and paranoic and suicidal (when hih on assand aon people whom I had formed enable atachmensLierature, hisory, livng as a studen, all became coleely disn,unimainable, and wiho value Bu neither could I come aull-fledg hippi� havin noin in me ake e scene All I coulddo was drag myelf aund in e wake of various people laugh a eirjoke s, lisen heir words, ry no o offend hem ry o brea myofen-conspicuous silences wi a few words, try to alive in eir

presence, ry rub shoulders with evering aund, ry to sleep nthe hallway



,

.' I

POETRYStefan Uhse

may 11 6

te unased ass o f a tra in indo, ov ere d

i t grey di rt smudged y te dri ed trace s

o f t ravel ing ater drop s:

in at fo

di d t e day p ass.

a dry fi sing net tat p asse s trou1 te ands

o f o i ve at te so re d i

i s tro out at ni t, in to te ater,

te ater ol dig i ts re at:

my eye s are no e t te r

no r ors e tan tat mas s of s tring, darened

i t dpne ss i f no t i t us e

a lust er o f p igeons y ori ti y prayingover te ater The ti k fi s-sme

ou d me me ungry, i f I ere no t m

Ad te ondut or i s merey a dar oud passi n

Rea e News a er s

forgt ove

te indow I s bar

as f a sto ad seen t

frge t te Ise

j u n e i s t 4

45



on a w-ut stne.

there i s li fe

n the inte rsti ce

the su pkes fingers

in t each fac e

m cll ar' s tued u

in t a qe sti n m ark

the windw

ings n cleaess

the st shut s i ts eye

frget love.

ea d the new ers

In the wildeess

the cl face 0 f the m n charge

reinds m e

that thee i s n wil de ess

T at ai r l an e s crash as re gul arly as they l d

that thi s m s saed

w th the se fe rcenes s

wi th whi ch o ther i s d es trye

But lo king r the srce f cntrl

we find no thin g but mre face s

c al, f course" bt n t gil ty

d l k in g f r the i c tims we find

the unj u stly accused @il tl e s s

but ac csin g thesel e s

And we di s sle int a ll in seles

cr awl i r i dly

each in a di f ferent di rec tin

46

� ,



nd again the wil derne s s envel op s u s.

At other places

t,e calm e i ci en cy conti nues

at the co st o l i ve s whi ch as yet are no t ours

march 65

no orc e p ropel s me again t thi all

wk to mee t i a my o p ace

Te revolu ionary poe t o tod

h�s readY sod aricles or he next iue

Natinal Revie

neiher jk nor disgt

p ropel m e against hi all:

deea; tuing in one' coat

in echnge for ome thin g l i ke a i

t i l l master o myel

a ord o have op ini n a my m ree like umbrel l a in a dirty river

everyhing pI ts

o tear e scales rom your eyes

you ee river o bobbing head

tones o blod in op en thrat

wol -gr in crawl ing ih l i ce

the dead screm in your ear

no thin g you do i ll do go od

inner p e ace is crime d i sil e y

and your a i t lo ng enou to hi he

the ri t p eopl e

47



ny th mnut p a at yur y

}E BUFOES GAZ NO JS NOW EV DA

I my pu ll ntnu t t vn

undr th lart

th l t hav nvl rt

my laut l nt h

S t l I t thn my l t a utur t

a r thr p rn hat th hav

hav th n hat hh prv

a agant hat I uptd

that I a n yu

4



] P f

E 10Staughto Ly eitor

This is an did transcript of a communit forum on Labor HistorFrom Th Viwpoint Of Th Rank And Fi" hd at Saint Jsph'sCollg in ast Chicago, diana on March 24 and March 31 1970

cor Charls McColstr of th Dpartmnt of Philosoph ofSaint Josphs Colg was gna chairman of th forum akrswr introducd b Profssor Ni Btn of partmnt of Historof ndiana Univrsit at Gar and Staughton Lnd Th fim Thnhritanc" was sho on th scond vning and ach vning ganwi ar songs sng b Dann Mack, b Vinic , ZivichLnn bk a studnt at int Josph's Colg transcribd taps

Followng an opning statmnt aut th puos of th forum spakrs (in ordr of prsntation) wr Harv O'Connor, GorgPatrson, John W Andrson Jssi Rs, and John Sargnt

Ha O'Conno tk par in th at gnral strik of 1919was ucationa dirctor of th Oil Chmica and Atomic Workrsand has wrin a numr of oks, including Dictator mpire of Oil During ar 1930s O'Connor livd in Pitsbrand, togthr with Hbr Banknhorn and Harold Rtnbrg, assistth mrging rank-andfil movmnt in h stl ndustrGeorge Patrson was pickt captain at h Mmorial Da Massacr

in 1937 first prsidnt of ca 65 of Unitd Workrs ofAmrica (Unitd Stats uth Works uth Chicago linois)Bfor th formation of Stl Workrs Organiing Commi inJun 1936, Parson bui ndpndnt nion of 3,000 workrs at Sou Works mill n Sptr 1936 h was fir for ion actiit

and from thn til h rtird in 1969 h was plod as an organizrb SWOC and USWA

John W Andrso od succssivl ndustrial Workrsof th World th cialist Part, and th cialist Workrs PaA mtal finishr Andrson was a mmbr of Briggs (Dtroit

str commi in 1933, and chairman of th Fltwood (Doitsik committ during th Gnral Motors sit-do strik of Janrand Fbruar 1937 r World Wa h was prsidnt of Fltw'sGM Loca 15 H is prsntl wring a moir of his rincs

9



Jss Rs a back m n an on mmbr of th CommunstParty wnt to work at ounstown Sht a ub n East ChcaoInana n 99. Rs was a mmr of th Rsoluons Commttat frst natonal convnton of th Stl Workrs rannCommt n Dcmbr 936.

John Sarnt was frst rsnt of ocal 00, SWA (Inlan Stl,East Chcao, Inana Sarnt was r-lct n 943, 944, 946, an(st cous Rbat 964. n 958 an 96 h took a stronstan aanst a us ncras at th SW A convntons. H s stllworkn n th m. «rnt s th John Smth whos rncan ont of w ar rsnt n Stauhton yn Gurrla Hsryn Gary", braton (ctobr 969

wo major thms mr from ths accouts. Frst s th vorof rankan-fl actty urn th ro. Bfor th C was form,Gor Patrson ha bult nnt on at uth Works nJ ss Rs ha oran a l of th Amalamat Assocatonat Younstown Sht an ub. Joh Sart scrbs how n ttlStl, bcaus thr was no contract n no no-strk claus wlcatstrks n artcular artmnts contnu for thr or four yarsaftr t Mmora Day massacr n 937. An John Anrson tlshow th contract whch st th Gnral otors stown strksacrfc th sho-stwar systm.

A scon thm s th ulson of racas ar ons wroran an th narrown of oas whch rsult. W want thunon to b a watcho for workn cass, Rs conclus, but . you o ont bark no mor "

Stuhton n

I wou k to say somtn aut th k of hstory w'r onto on hr tont. n of sons from 930s s caalkn non" ns you want to form a on hr s whatouv t o You'v ot to tk to flows n th sho wth u."h son says that w a ow from rnc that orann bnswth takn. Po tak totr, n thy act thr. An ftr wact tothr w tk au what w . W com back from th cktn to th on ha, an w vauat our acton What han ?Somtms as u ow n a confus nstraton, ach rsonss only at of th acton n you hav wat unt u'r atotr aan to b ab t tos cs tothr n sur whatay han out tr. at han Was t a succss ? Evn ft was a succss, how cn w o t bttr nxt m ? hs kn of tak tothr aftr an acon aut what at acton mant s hsry.

sry not som n ks. sry s o rmtothr what ty Evrn ho has vr n n a strk or50

4"



demonstraon ows that e newspapers, even when ey mean we,never te it quite ike it was. ts e same way with history ks.The point is that the peope who ow most aut somei are epeope who personay eerienced it, e pee who can say wsthere. ere are an awfu ot of ese peope - an awfu ot of history n is rm toniht.

Now why are we doin s kind of history? One reason is is happen to be 40 years od, hafway tween the men and women intheir 60s who buit the CO nd e un peope in their 20s who

buit e civirihts a peace movements n e 1960s. nd maebecause m hafway between ese two enerations fee very deepythe anish of e oer peope who cant quit eain to e yonerpeope often their own chidren - just what it was they eerienced,and of the youner peope o may know at eir dads and momswere invoved in putn toeer the CO but sti cant quite eaino their foks the newer te of movement ey are to. nd so yonpeope row up and eave a commnity ike is one without ever reayknowin e history -the tradition of struge -of e community ey

are eavn. think we cant afford is particuar kind of neration ap. We net ask oursevs whether we cant find a defnion of what it means tobe a worker" which incudes faer and son th the woker whois in e stee m d e worker who is a acher in schoo. We needto ask whether there is a definition of popuar strue broad enouh incude th a student strike a work stoppage -th a sitdownstrike a pant the occupation of a buiding in a iversity. A dwho is row out of sch for tkin part n a peace demonstraon

and a worker who is cnned for tkin par a widcat have a reatdea n comon thnk.noer reason that we need is kind of history is at ar is

srrin aain. Once aan rnkandfie unionists are rejecng esocaed statesmnship of ar eaders Once aga ideaisc yopeope are eavin e coees ad tryin to end a hand Once ainuneoynt is risin nd rea waes are ing dow so at workinmen d women fee at their backs are e wa nd at they'struin simpy to keep wat ey aready have Once aain ePresident of the nited States is using trps as trike breakers Onceaa workin men on strike have detrmined at ere is a higher awhan a court njnction and at e human rigs t a iving wae da steady job are superior a propey rigts Oce aa e wohas one ou oranie e norgnied

Yesterday afternoon, not a mi drive fr here ada meein of workin peope, mosty oder wom at int MargaretsHospita in Hammond. eir averae wae ast yar was $318 -$1900 ess an e average in Lake Conty hospis which itse itenough t ive on. The want a union tey face ncio nd ey

5



wi probaby go o strike Oce aga facts ike ese kide bo adiato ad a spirit of soidarity, so that we begin oce more to seeworkers i oe idustry o e picket ies of aother

Ad oce agai ordinary me ad wome beg to woder why ecoa d the oi ad the ope hears shoud sources of prot forme of power whom oe of us have eected, or why schoos are otbeter i a couty of weathy stee mis, or why some me of 60 work midigh shis whie others give dictatio i aircoditioed offices.I so ay ways e probems of the '30s, e spirit of the '30s ad

eve the sogs of e 30s are wi us againAd so our form asks the questios : What was it that ed four

miio persos to oi e CIO ad haf a miio to stage sitdostrikes i 19363 ? Why did that miitacy fade away so quicky?How did rakad-fie groupigs try to keep that miitacy aive ?What ca we do to revive at miitacy day?

Harvey O'Coor

I reay did ike the way you started off this meetig with sogI remided me at whe I was a yougster workig i the oggigcamps of Wester Washingo, I'd come to Seatte occsioay ad dow e Skid Road to e Wobby Ha, ad our meetigs ere werestarted with sog. g was the great thig that cemeted the IWWtogether Wherever ou had a Wobby Ha you had peope sigig adeyg emseves, ad that sog idarity Forever was of coursea Wobby sog from way back 191-1819 aud those years thewrds of that sog was codesed the phiosophy of that orgaizao

Later, of course , idarity Forever was adopted by the CIO as eiroffcia sog, and i the Oi Workers it's the sameBu I'm here to te u aut e eary days of the rak-adfie

movemet i the Stee Workers Uio Pitsburgh I ived Pittsburgh from 930 to 193 ad it was oe of my uforgetbeeerieces to have ived i Weste Pesyvania at e depth ofthe pressio. I suppose e pressio was worse i the ste mstha i ay oer idustry, ad was certaiy at its worst i WestePesyvania. I rememr we ived o a hitop i Pittsburgh, ad e

atives us to te me u coud see Pitsburgh for the first tme ihistory Usuay, you ow, it was botted ou with smog and soke,but durg e Depressio ot a mi was rig I woud go out as aabor ewspaperman to stee ws such as Duquese ad Homesteadup ad dow the Aeghey, Moogahea, d Ohio Rivers. Ad I cever forget, at Homestead, good od Caege Stee, the fried of estee workers e mis were shut do ad ere was o ciaSecurity i those days, foks; ere were o eoymet efts;there was o othi. Ecept Caegie ee every tay had basketsfor its empoyees ( yu coud ca em empoyees y more : I mea

52



ey didnt have no bs.) e'd a lot of moldy old bread and somesour old bacon and some flour with mats in it. was a lot o jkbein handed o o of ness of e heart of Caeie elto keep ese pple alive ll time came en ey would be needaain. We couldn't afford have em die on us u !ow They had available when e pssion was over

ere was a very-curious lar situaon at at time. There wasan oraniation !own as e Amalamated Association of e nSel Tin Workers and one of its man locals was a horses

facry in Buffalo which made not only horseshs but also nails. iswas aut e exent of oranizaon in e steel industry aside fma few old mills. e entleman who ran is ion was named MikeTihe. I was always said at Mike had a deal wi Caeie Steel ande rest of em not oranie bu to nd of lay off and at eshould cerin perquisites for em They had a litle hall nPisburh for e ion oicers but they had only a few ousdmemrs. And durin is horrible peri when e mills were shutdown the union was pretywell shut down . And ink mae Mike

Tihe went in hibea durn at peri. He had noin do.He di't have much do anay but he had much less to do whenthe rseshoe mill hut down.

n alon came the New Deal en came e NRA the effect was elecic all and down ose valleys. The mills nreopenn somewhat d e stel workers read in the newspersau is NRA ction A at uarante u e riht oranize.That was ue and that's au as far as it went : ou had e rit oranie b what hapned afr at was anoer matr. All over

the steel country ion locals spran sponeously. Not by vireof e Amalamated Association; ey couldn't have cared less. Butese locals spran at Duquesne Homesad and Braddock. ouname e mill town d ere was a local there carryn a name likethe Blue Eale" or the New al" local. ( u cant rememberwhat e Blue Eale was that was e bi at k us out of eDepression.) There was even an FDR" local I ink. ese people hnever had any eerience in ionism. All ey !ew was at byolly e me had come when ey could oranize and e Goveent

uaranteed them e riht oranize Homestead e steel workers took this seriously. But CaeieSteel owned Homestead. There were no halls. t's difcult to oranizewhen ere's no place et ether to oranize. The siation becameso norious at Madame Perkns who was crery of ar derRoosevelt finally had to come to Homestead hold a meetin erefor e steel workers. Where did she hold it The only free territoryin Homestead was e steps of e local st office; at was Feralproperty. she s ere deliver a speech the steel workers

and he em et oin. e trouble wi con A was at while it



guarante u he righ organze it di't guarant you e right

an else.The ple t r in e Rk-a-Fle Movement alstsnusly u mig say. The Amalgamat Associaton charterthese locs. Mike Tie was willng have e r-capita coming in.(You folks ow what percita is : It's what keps e bureaucratsg.) so he rci gan to come in there h aconvon. e Amal Associaion call a convenon, a npour ese pple from al over Weste Pesylvania Easte OhioWest Virgia. The haly ew what : ey ew what ey

wan bu ed never h y eeienc a Mike Tighe wasn'tery lkel help hem o much. As a mater of fact Mike Tighe wasappal cause if it was ing a decratc union en tseRank-a-Fers would it. And you couldn't permt at; at couldbe e e of Mike Tie.

e of the convenon ere was a ch at e University ofPisbur Carroll Dughy w had a brgh g sent hisclass a assi him come down e convention a help eRank-Filers get s. We were worng gether listening e

Ranka-Filers pug er e resolions they wanted the waythe wt em and ng ngs going. Of course the resolionscari; it was a gra success; and e k-d-File people wenthome and noig much hp. we eeed a new peri ehisry of e union one in which Mike Tie began eellng eselocals cause ey were exercising ir aumy and doing whathe could.

Out of s realy-archic siaon that est '33 a '34 cameof couse e eel Workers Organizig Commtee mey h come n ere with ow-w t he oganizaon ing I must sayhe miners were perhs e st iornt. y did ersunionism even though ey were prly orniz at the ti. ehad been orgized the past and e were organizing all overthe cotry was at at at John L Lewis decid the hcome establish he Steel Workers Organizg Commi. A inorder build is orizaon he had al course eseRankdFile locas at were scaer all over e coutry I supse all arou is part of e cotry. Aro e Pisburegion orgaizers came n maily from e miners' nion.

Theres an nteresng ile sidelit on at. When John L. wiswand nto steel s like quesne Hostead and Bradcklieraly as I've said e were hardly y le hese locaieswho uders orgaizaon except for one parcular set of le he Communists. Now u ma sa How come e were Commistsaud ? Wel n e Wese Pennsylvania gion ere were all sof lirar a dramac sociees based on ethnic gros HriansYslavs a so on e h eir drmatic s sociees



an e like, an in ee cietie there wa a trong n of ityan oliarity. An it wa in ee organizao , mny of which wereomat by the Commnit, at oh L Lwi went for oanierto help e mner o h come n. The mier in't ow anhingau el, o he h hae ome stl pele. An it' one ofthe ie , you ow, o organizaon that ohn L. Lwi u

Communit organize e eel orker Organizing Committee a when he ha it ing prety well he rew e Commit out ! He wa

through w em. at wa some of e early hiry of e Vnio

George Pateron :

met Haey many ar a; he oen't remer me caue nthoe year we met many trange people. n't that rg ? e're noto trange, howeer

came here when wa 16 year of e wet to work in Chicago at e ork. became a roll ter' apprentice went night chool at Engewo High. worke 10 hour a ay n e

mil went our hour an eenng to night cl. Selucat.) grauat rom high chl an ee my apprencehip all at eame time, an it wan't eay for a g fellow.

The firt job got wa n a backmi hop, an we got $5 a ay;that wa 50 an hour or 10 hour. Bu ickly got oer tryig a blackmth; wan't built or it went nto the roll p abecame a roll tuer, an roppe own 29 an hour t wa$290 or a 10 hour ay Of coure eery ix nth ou t a rae.

At the tme that the teel worker began to t nterete in e CO

we n e ll rner' trae began to form our own ion, an camethe inteaona icepreiet o the Unite Roll Tuer of Amerca.Thi wa my frt eeriece wi union. wan't interet innon other than to get more ough; wa a tical teel workere ha jut come through e preion. oe preion yearwere terribe. almot to ea. The reao t interetin the ion wa that t marri in e le of that epreion,an en alog came m on in't hae enough money buy abote of mlk

ell, we got interete in e unio not caue of the teel workeremele but caue e teelmill people ca into e mill aro1933 n hane u a piece o paper. e lke at it, an it wa call An Eloyee Repreentao Plan Now e Eoyee RepreentonPlan wa e compnyunion plan. wa ba on the fact at we hathe right to bargan collecely. The company rew e whole ing ,an the worker in e ariou epartment elect repreentatie otheir own. looke at paper a a yong la an ai thi ing coulneer work, becaue it ai right at e oet at ere woul fie

member from manement to it on a commitee n fie memr55



rr

" Te Cmpny Unin s eg !U t adve o te ompay U Lwye to Employe Rep-rtatv o t t State St o p o a t o At at eBatard 2ot wc a o pae lze Ame eak! p v ; a>

-------------------The Steel Workes' Union DiveHas Klled the Company Union

Now What ?he Forar arch of nustrial Union fo

eel \Vorkers conomic ecurity is on No Power in Aeica Can Sop I

' a, 'lin a, ( G lor� i t h Flg f h jt that re te\JalJPd '(ii I :t ! T Wokrs of �ortwrj j l O" { o r :! o, in t Cout.

JO HS OJO HE FORARD MAkH4 0 7 EEL WORKR OGNZNG COMMTT

5



�

from e io he coay io si o e commiee 1 askedwho sel he ie, a of course 1 fod o ageme did ousee how useless i would hae e 1 alked to he fellows i e sho,ad 1 alked faser tha e ohers au ios ('d heard my dad alkabou uios i he Old Coury) 1 said 1 do ik is ig is ygood hey elec me be eir rereseie ! Ad e firshig did was begi to desroy is comay-io idea 1 lie ihe legiimae form of io 1 go touch wi his AmalgamaAssociaio hrough my cr uio, e roll ers, d ey would

hae hig o do wi us oard was he secreary He wroe meice eers, bu eer came see me or ie me o come do alk oer joiig wi hem

The, srage higs beg hae Oe igh 1 came home llalways remember as log as 1 lie i was cols birday au eyear 1936 - ad 1 walk o e house d ere were wo big fellowssiig here alkig wi my siser They had a woderful ooryfor a job for me Now 1 was workig i a mill as a roll uer, rey g moey for a ime Whe 1 go o alkig wi esefellows,

1foud ou ha ey waed o hire me as a sy u see

1 became eryquickly acquai wi ar esioage We were rgo form a legiimae uio, d hese eole iied some of us to comesy Of course 1 ued is dow ad old em 1 had og much tooffer em

We ried disbad e coay o, we formed wha wecalled he Associaed Eloees This was jus workers le myselfaeg to do someig by way of geg ito a legimae ioThe Amalgamaed Associao was lyig here d would do a for us, eer ee oferig alk to us we formed a ideedeuio Oe day we read i the ewsaers a ey were ryg dohe same hig dow i Pitsburgh 1 was eleced o go dow Pisburgh d alk maers oer wi e fellows who were aego do a Ad 1 go o alkig o a ma amed Johy Mull who askme 1 ew of a cerai amed Heay Ad 1 look a himad said Yes Wha do you ow abou him ? " Well, " he said workfor him" 1 said : You me youre workig for tha sy? " He saidYeah" He had bee aached by ese same sies dow i his li Pisbrgh, ad he was akig e oey He was gig em hereor hey waed, e he was tuig them oer to ClioGolde of he Naioal ar Relaios ard We foud ou a Frck,icereside of S eel, was he coay i charge of thesg Mulli d 1 we dow ad esified fore ator aFolletescommiee, ad there we reealed he begiigs of lar esioagei e seel mlls ad i oer idusrial ls a was a eresgime i my ife, 1 assure you bu lile did 1 ow ha ere was moreo come

1 became reside of e Associaed Emloyees, d e we heard

57



t n n n ws who was very nteres n ng one e norganz. I wrote h leer d sad we had nent on t wold lke n He wte k and ld e I held y sho n he'd down ee n e near ft a hedse n by e ne of lp Mrry. I t eet Phl Mrray fo he was at le f where I was , andwe t alo pretty well. H was od enogh y faer. He was a Unt Mne Worker and old te e ore aut unons n Aera rthn y ese I knew, a I gan to work ery losely w h.One day he sad e : "'d ke you to o wn Psbur anddo a le stfyng aganst lowdog ontrats. A oany hadqky s a "lowog ontrat w a oany unon at stlexs e rents of t. we appeared fore Madae Perknsand tesf aganst llowdog onats, a these ontrats wereled legl a the oany ons were dsbed ust at that ethe l Workers Oranzng Comtee gan ther drve But wasfred for dong ths. I had 12 ars n the stee mls was he onyple I had worked and now I was fred. Bu was qukly pe thank ness, by e Steel Workers Organzng Commtee, and o

the last years of y le I've en worng as organzer for eUn e Workers of Aera.

ne 196 we s the drve to organze e steel workers nths area. had a lrae pae to ; I had al ese opany onsthoho the stee ls, a I ew neary eey one woud go these pple a get the star nng e eel Workes Unon.Of orse ny of e were nng at er own oton ddn'tdo al s by ysef. was jst an organzer.

f By that e 197 had roed arod, a we had aready ten a

ontrt w US eel (CaegeIllnos at e e) When we to t a ontrat w Repub eel on May 26, 197, e workers wenton stke ause To Ger sad he would rather dg potatoes anever s a ontrat w any lar organzaton. e ste was on

I undesd you want hear just a lle bt a e Meora DayMassare I was the. I was ere on e Wednesday nght when estrke s I wathed e e arh aod n er mltaryforaon. They were ery well orented. A toward 11 p.. ey arh o all of a sen a broke our pket lnes, and the nex

thg I ew enjoyed ng plaed jal for e rst e I was njal many tes aer at, d I never fod ng wrong wthjal exept e d bugs, whh I ddnt lke. rwse I got along nen jal. always arred exa $50 bl hdden away soewhere so Iould g ysel out lea at trk ery early (Bu you ow, theWobbles, ey ddn't have a $50 bll. B we ung stee workers weregeg wse nd sang our oney a lttle bt by s te, ase eDepresson was get over w and we were worng a ltlesteader.) I ended n jal e frst nt of e strke w a

5



,

,

ee Js be el sse 9

18 or orgizer We g out immediaely the ne ing charwi diorderly cduc. Turday I g organze pic and we went down picket a they woul e u pickt Mara Mayor Kelly Ive watch at Dley Kelly no dience you w Mar Kelly aid at time Ye can pickt ll you wan B we wen do ere c woud ahe hell out of u we kt ying picket d we go pu ck injai On Fiday night we g real gry We rch we edeermned t we were ng to picke. We t e lce hi ey really k a wat a u y were ang lou of every in front ne you we n front we

prey lucky if u could t away wiut geng clud a lie hen y r a few hot in e air d a car u Te wano rot We like hell Te cop were ar u Tey alway y werio We never rot We wd picket and y w't let pic;o ey at you a en ey ay u ro hi i fa cop ke u rio Tey rot an u alway I ow i; Ive nhere y me I'm away well-hav I mb all Anw ey cha u y a u

Ti a lo of i le y over here a



ee; ey g m a Yogstown ee ube; and ey t dow a Gary. we deci to ld a big meeg e following Say,which as Memorial Dy. We invited e public come nd hear us,and we wer ing picke. We had en given he right; it was in epr. Ever sai we could picke now we were going picketAer e meeting was over we sred march, I went down wie f rght by e fl, d the we met aut 650 copsned was gei kind of famiiar. I was always ill at ease :I di' like i; don't ever ink any's a brave. But I was an

oganer in charge of e picket line , so I walk along and saw famiiar old fries Mney, commaner of e lice Kilroy.hey s au six fee six inches tall; ey're big fellows, nd I'mno very big And I k d said : Wel, here we are. Wed likeo . Would u escort s ? We' like picket. "

Well, he was sding ere Kily was e man. and he wasreaing a very-official documen asking us in e name of e ppleof linois disperse; as sn as he said a he put the perdown nd all hell bke lse. Tey gan sht us, club us, andgas us 0 people died while 68 were woued and we don' owhow y t hur in all : I really was hel on at field. I ran backwi e s of them, and I t mad. I could see e cops there shtingaway wi their ns. A first I ought ey were blanks I really did.I could sll e gwer; I'l never forget it And hen I begn see pele fal. I saw a y r by, and his ft was bleing. hen itawn on me hey were shting real bullets. Tis was for keeps.hey didn't stop shting d killing ll n ur nd a haf laer.hey were chasing pele picking people

was aut a week laer at I was pick by e police, nd isime I really t e eatment. I went in and was held incommnicadofor four days and four nighs You ow how ey do it Every 24 hoursthey ve ou (hey don't need ok u, nd all the ime u'rebeing qesoned My wife didn't know where I was at noy ew.I jus dispeared Tey picked me on 95th Stree at orrence.I was ng over to a meeng at e Buside eel Fondry, where Iwas organizing a e ime. I never got ere. How did I get ou of it?Well, ar aut e ird night ere was a y in e cell nex o mewho had en picked for dnken driving, nd his moer came down

from Jolie get him out, I ask is lovely ldy : Would you dome a favor ? " said Well, you look like a nice fellow " And I said Yes, I am. I've en in here for four days nd four nights, nd I'mrying get word to m wife. " And she said Give me yor telephonenber" And I told her. A she called my wife. When ey t theinformation from my wife, my lawers t a writ of haas cous andpoduc e y, which was me, and we were put out on $50,000 nd.

We were charged wi exacly e same ting these seven fellowswere crged wi : conspiracy commit n illegal act Tey did it

0

,

\

�rII



,IirIII

drg Mr D r

then, theyl do t ne ear eyl do t any tme. The oce wreact e same way, the yors of hcao wll react the same way.Every tme you ut on a demonstraton always take for ranted atths s whats on to haen. I havent seen t chane from eHmarket days to that emoral Day to e 968 atona Democratc

Conventon when e olce are faced wth a lan rou of ctens andre strred by the newsaers and fsh roaanda. I dont owwhat we can do o teach olcemen that were lawabdn ctens whore wan on the streets ; were denstratn for somethn rhty hear bl the nht of e Democratc onventon.

You ow ese ns haen and youll have o be reared to facethem We were ready to do these ns : We sd and we oranedthe stee workers a over e country. me eole ask Was t wor ? Of course was wor t We ot a contract at Reublc eel.

We, nhow I brefy tod you my eerences nd I havent evenouhed on haf f them. B I ow that ure on to lsten to aeryteresn enteman from e uto Workers. I ow what etdown strkes were cause we steel workers also bean some ofour uons t way. nd so nht maybe I te you the sry of eFe strke n Waukean. at was a rea stdowner, and I haeno he en n t my yoer days. That emoral Day was ustoe of e hs we went rouh, and e stdown strkes marked ee of the o Workers.

6



ohn . derson :My enry lar emen n January 1933 was one of e

accdens of my lfe. I desee no specal cred. Mos ngs n lfeare more-ores accdenl I was able o ge ucaon by workngmy way hrough hgh chl college 1931 when I graduafrom e Unersy of Wsconn only 1 of m clas were able o Ige jobs n er professons The oher 9 had make a lng any

way hey could. I had le he mealfnshng ade back n 1926a By n Mlwaukee. ecemr 1932 I found necesary ck no e sh d work a ha rade There were mllonsunelod a e me. My of ese unelod wen o eloymenofces a 4 a.m and sayed unl hey closed a ngh, hopng ge ajob. A a me I wa 27 d e eloyen men recozed aI could s he work eec of a meal fnsher n ose days

all a uneloymen, yu wouldn hey would work10 12 and 14 hours a day seen days a week. I wen o work a he Hamramck plan cember 2 1936 and I worked eery dayncludng rdays and Sday, 10 12 and 14 hour a day A seeno'clock on hrsmas Ee hey lad me off, sayng : ell call uwhen we need ou." I had en pad a 52� a hour In 1929 I eaed$1 an hour and somemes ore. Bu wage hd en cu 50% Scewe coul' eec o work more an four or fe mons a year durnghose presson year, I had o lk for anoher job

Brs Manufacurng oany hred me as a meal fnsher a 52�an hour, bu ey fal o pay me a ha rae The fr week I go 45�an hour The econd week our rae was cu o 40� an hour, he dweek was cu o 35� Thee wage cus ee enough o prooke e :men ke Afer beg call o work on Sday ey walked oua nn wou ellng he oreman. On Monday we en o wok aga,a fo srg work we old he forean : We wan o ow whaour wage are We were hred a 52� a hour and were ng pad35�" e foreman ad : You see a lne ou ere of men lkngor b ? If you fellows don' wan o work, ge ur clohe clearou ere are pleny of en who wll ake ur jobs"

Th saemen prooed e men o walkng ou a a y no as "nddual. They had no orgazaon; hey had no one o speak for

hem There were eeral hdred of em mllng around n he sreewonderng wha o do I had seen uch uaon foe, and e mengenerally ayed ou a few hours or a mo a day or wo and en wenback o work Because of my ucaon I fel oblga o e men speak or em I go on a car fender and ueed a we demandhe 52� an hour promsed on our hrng lps.

Leon y, Llod Jone, and I were choen call on M L. Br,he ce preden o he oany. We wen o e sh flr, wherehe oces were locaed. Afer au 10 mue o argumen, Brs

2



agreed at we shuld be paid e 52C I said : "Hw aut puing it in

writ ? He said he wasn't ng t put an n writing. Well,I said, anig that's nt wr puing in writing is nt wrh igut e men wi. We di't w wheer r nt he wuld live his agreement, and s e strike begn. We ew sme men werewrking as much as 20 hurs a day while tens f usands f erswere lking fr wrk. e were called wrk day fter day, ahen sent hme cause ere was n wrk. They were ld Cmeback rrw, d we'll see if we have an fr u. Men werepaying fr eir streetcar fare a lunches, and yet weren't

enugh ard either is went n fr yers during the DepressinThe newspers publicized e strike as cmunist-inspired. I was

true at Leftwing grs cmmunists, scialists, Wbblies, ther Lefsts fn were e inspiratin d fuished the leershipf mst f se strikes. When I saw e Mayr, Frank Muhy, usingthe Welfare parment f e City f trit frce the men gback wrk and the peple n welfare becme strike breakers(b city and state plice der a Demcratic myr and gver)I came the cnclusin at ese fcials were strike breakers a

nt n the side f e wrkers. The strike was lst aer aut reemns It wasn't lst cletely, u; we had gained valuableexerience frm e sike, d we made ur minds that we wdcarry uninism wherever we went.

I was blacklisted as a result f e strike b I culd always chgemy name, a I did. I was hir back by Bris t wrk at its Luchnerplnt, whe exerimenl wrk was dne aut 200 men wereemplyed. is was a g jb. Here I leaed at as a result f estrike e wages f mel finishers had been raised t 60C an hur

a big raise fr thse days We wrked eight hurs a day five daysa week.The skers didnt get credit fr all e irvements in wages

and wrking cnditins, bu it gave me a lt f satisfactin whw much e strike hd dne. There had en wrk sppes ater plnts in e city. We were tld at ere had en a meengf e elyers at which tey h decid t raise the wages f metalfinishers 60C an hur a thse f wrkers n er jb cateriesaccngly.

ter I had dne exerimental wrk fr nths, I was ld t back t e Mack Avenue plt, where I was idenfied and fired efirst day But a few days I had anther jb wi Murray By Heree IWW was rganiig e wrkers. I was bias against e IWWd fr sme time refused sign in e in I had frmed mypinin f it frm press reprs which accused it f cmmitng acts fvilence gan its bjectives But fnally Frank Cederall, e IWWrganier, tld me read Paul Brissendens hisry f the IWW, after reding is ok I chged my mind Frm en n I gave less

3



credence wa e pss sad au lar.e Murray se had en n pogres s au a monh when heo lce pced me one afn. ey en drove do epce lne where Cedeval was and pced hm up. When a lawer a judge came do o he lce saon o have us released e polcehrea o ow em in jal ! Beleve or no we were chargwh volang a law pass n 16 agans he Suhe saes n heCl War : We we re cha wh rying o overrow he Govemenof he Und aes ! We represened only a few hundred people. We

were arragned and held on $00 al. In 1933 $00 cash al was hao come . We we held n jal for more han a wee. In prson youreall ge o dersand wha hs govemen s lke. I makes a deepmpesson on yur m

Whle I was here wo oher srers were rough n. The werefrom e ool and - de sie called he Mechancs Educaonaloce and had een caugh w slingshos d all-earngs n ercar. any of us n he lar movemen who held o our convconsspen me n prson.

When came me for our ral no one peared agans us ndhe charges were dropped. The puose of arresng us and holdng usn jal had en o reak he srke and in his e were succes sfl.

Duing e nex wo ears from 3 o 36 I ske fron of facorgaes a sre meegs for e IWW On Novemer 4 196 I goa jo a Fleewo Fsher dy n Dero. Hearng and readig auhe acives of he IO I decded o egin orgnzng for em. TheIWW was no longer acve in Dero and had no organzaon er

By e mddle of Decemr 196 I had organz a nucleus of eU A W - IO Fleewd. e alread had a srke n progres s n

I

Aana Grga and oer srikes son follow. A Flin chganwe held a conference of G worers a whch mn G <lans wererepresend Son we had a naonwde srke. Before e srke we mewh e Fleewo plan manager u he had no auhor o sele nyof our grevances.

On e da of he srke January I was scared; m ees wereshakng n spe of all m erence. ha mog e pln managrso on one sde of he asle near he ex and I so on he oer sde �I was rgng he workers o go o he cafera where we were gog ohold a meeing o organze e sdown srkers. We remaned n eplan l Januar 16 when we were asked e UAW leadershp oleave. Ths s-dow was a grea experence he es educaon aa worker could ge. Ths demonsraed he power of lar.

an of us were no sasfied w he selemen. We had een soldon e dea ha we should have a shop-seward sysem hrougho heorporaon o represen e workers a hs wasn ' par of heagreemen. I spoke n spor of e shop-seward ssem argungha we should sa ou l s ssem was recozed

6



Joh L ews, Goveor Muhy and the UAW and GM offcals hadagreed to e settlement e Unon offcals felt at s was e st that could be gotten at at tme It was the knd of gnnng at enabled us n e ne few months to organze hundreds of thousas ofworkers at GM, Chrysler Brggs, Packard son d hdreds ofsmaller plants

he GM strke was the great push that esblshed e CIO, I'm proud have partcpated n that great strule 1 hope the k I'mwrtng wll brng out clearly the mltant workers' veont 1 spent the best30 years of my le as a worker n e Fleetwd Fsher y

plant 1 had many dsagreements wth the p leadershp of the UAW1 know that the hstores at have been wrten aut e UAW have been wren from the vewpont of e ar bureaucracy eDemocratc Party hese hsores are based n ther favor, d arelargely false

J esse Reese:

You are lkng now at lvng hstory: not readng from a k, bu

lstenng a man who tk part the hsory of buldg a trade onn steel1 went o work Yongstown eet d u n 199 and we h a

skeleton on there called e Amlgamt Assocaton It had only three or four people n t 1 worked down ere for a few months, I decded jon that on ad see what 1 could do e party orgzer of e Amerc Communst Party came o my house ad sat down nd talked o me for two hours e sad: I have an assgnment for you"1 sad: What s that ? And he sad: I want you o go nto e old

Amagamated Assocaton 1 want you to buld at unon Youre gong to meet many dffcultes Youre gong o meet Jm Crow ey're gong to row t n your face Youre gog to meet racsm; they're gong to row at your face But1 want you stand up nd rowyour rng around w e leadershp hats your assgment" 1 sad:Well, 1 have a few gs on my mnd " And he sad: What s at? "Freedom, Tom Mney, e otsboro Boys nne young egro kds

framed for rape n Scotsro, Alabama,"1 sad; " 1 ca take a stand on at " And he sad: Well you've got to go n there w e

leadershp, and report to me aut every week or two how thngs a gong 1 went n, and e frst ng 1 met was old Jm Crow hey ntend

to r me out they sad o me: Well, we n't take colored pelen here we haven't en tag colored people but snce you're a steelworker we need the trade on bult, we'll gve you a chance Bremember one thng: Youll have to orgaze o stay here " 1 ld emThat's my busness comng here o help organze e non One of

the secretares sad to me: I love egroes, b1 lke to see em

6



hei pae. I did' say ig ese he orgizer ha ol me oake i : D' ose yo , b say ere." S whe i ame o

y me, I ok e r I sai : I me a boer here i his io,a he gae me soig o ik a a someg do. He ome he lk ooe pple, b he ik em o say i eir pae"I said : Bohes, I agree wh him. e pae of blk eoe is he l 'ar veme a oiag i eir ae I'm goig o see a

r

eee o her a is plae. I sai : Evey workg shod ow his ae I do' ow wha pae yo log o, b my

p ae is i e la moeme Is ha he ae yo were eg meyo w me o sy ? " S a we o

A few days lae, hey sai o me : We ear he Res were omig i here, ake oe e o. ay away from e Comiss; say

away rom em" I di' say a wo. I wai il my ime ha omea I go o e floor I sai Mr. C airma, felow eegaes o isio : I did' ome here o el yo ow ommism is, I ameee o hep bil a io. I fee ha if ma's i jail, yhae a piee of pie i r ha im ow goo i is we e

eds rao i is lis, we yo a eoy i er e reses ys a we live de" Ad ey lef me aloe, e ime eys ad : Ths broher, we're gog o make im resie of is loalio He's abe o ake ae of sf, a he res of s o'. Ahey said : We 'e akg y presie How a i ? " ere wereo o hem. I said e Wel, ise, yo whie fellows say ya e ee Why do wa p s loa o my solers ? eys aid Wel, yo' re e or i; y o ; yo a o g ob.Yo'e pside o e io we're goig omie y hey

ele me I ook i. tI o o he orgaier a ol im I' oe g ob, esaid : Te me wa yo i" I l im I sai ey i m i hefe, ey i me eewhere, b I i bak. ey i m wio mmis b I em I a ome ere o ell em gomsm was, sie ey ol ejoy i ayy er e reses oiey a we ie er. " A e grabbe me a kisse me firsime I' ever bee kisse y a m i my life b i ws re ss :I was a Jim Crow segeo kis s, b i ws ki ss of a oes

broer.I we o ere e io. I wae o ow ow I ol ge e

le i e io; ha was ex se o ge eole o joi eio o ge blk eole i ee. S I kep alkg my boersad workg wi em. Blak folks ha he key osiios i e ml,he posios of e ares obs, like pikig. l he seel a ome rog e ikles a e Yogso ee ad mil.Tey fr or forema, a ie fellow ey brog over a slaveiver fom Gary wie fellow ol s e was a orgaier for e

K Kx K a si : Yo al goig o sa for ha gy o ome i66



L

here ? S I went down to e oerators o e ikles and said : "utthe ikles down And ey said : "We an't do at, man ! I said :ut the ikles do And ey shut em down I went over seeLong, the oreman, and I said : "Lng, you lost our jo ? And he said :Ye s And I said : "Well, give me ive mnutes and well make emtell you where your jos at And he said : "You got al day

I drove over to e hot stri where the white elows were rollinghot steel, and I said : "He, ellows, just st a nute rollng atsteel We're shutting down over ere We're ightng or an hour

and our oreman ak on e jo (It would lk oolish ight orour oreman and not or yoursel) And the said : "Oh, ou got itorganied ? And I said : "Yes, we shut it down; k over there : We'redown; we're not mving We want ou to sto til our grievane isheard S the white ellows said : "W ell ollow ou

Beore I ould get to the serintendents oe every suerintendentin the ill was there When I walked in, is man the name o rGriin said : "Hello; ome , r Reese I heard ou were omng And I said : "Well, r Griin, ou should have ooked a ake nd

he said : W ell, i I had own it in tim mae we ould have had a ake What's your stor ? I said : Well I' ll ell you : You ir ouroreman, ad we want him ak on the i ou want an steel rolledand any tn ikled nd he said : Well, listen, you ys all ade amistake We gave our oreman a vaation with a and a etter joNo had ever given anod a vaation wi ay eore not in emill not anlae I said : "Did ou give us an hour ? Didnt ouknow at we wanted an hour on our ay or omng and an annual35 added onto at ? "Oh, eese, said Grin, that s muh;

00-00 I ant do at You'll have to go to Youngstown eet and One o e suerintendents said : "Give em 3 And Griin sad :W ell, I' ll tell you, we deided aout a mnth ago t give you all on e hour S I said : " You ant make it ? And one o theelows ame u hnhin' m and said : " ake it; take it and let it go o I ouldnt go ahead o m arm; you ow, I went too ar ahead om army I would lose m gg I lked around, ad they said : "akethe 3 and ome on A I said to them : "I we an't get 2 mre,le ts ight or it ! And I said to r Grin : "he roers sa 2

more, r Griin, and we'll settle wi you : 2." "Well, well nkaout said Griin ys, I wt to tell you this s your home, thismill is your home G along ak to the ikles d ikle the steel ,and we'll see aout our raise

We went ak down ere, and said : You asked or Why didn'tou • • • ? And ey said : "Yeah, we want ut you know at's muh And I said : "hat's never too muh to ask rom e man; askor e mill

I went ak to the hot str and told the rothers : "Well , we got 3on e hour, and the oreman a tter jo with a vaation And there

6



as i cman hos na as Bill - Bill Andrson H was a bighavy stng fllo And h said Bring m on up o th union dr ing to initiat mvry man ing to ma a strogunion brought hm in ion and w mad a tal - hoy t it But hot strip didnt gt anyng Thy just gav to pil vring was t on th hot strip Ho wr y going ogt ir ncras Th ts trip ys r coming ino t nionThy r afraid of th ion at first vry as scar comin But y r going to jo union

had a mting in East Chicago ndiana Harr A candidat byth na of Mr Frd Higgis was running for County judg if rmmr right And that as my smoscrn could brng forthmy io - what my ion as doig for politi cian so could callfor mmrship thin had about 2000 Thn as calld in on hca t Mr Grifn calld m in and said Hy thought u rsasfi What ar you doing now hard ou got to b pr sidnt ofth Amlgamatd ssociaon and you r calling mas s mtings And said My vipoint Mr Grifn is politics Oh that' s al right

h said go aad Bt didn t ll him what id of politics 1 mant ars rold on W had a trribl dprssion 932 and '33Evictions r taing plac blac popl wr ing hrown out frombloc o bloc and from stt to strt and w r begining o woron day a - on day in th mill and rst of th days in thstrt p furniur bac in houss Lots of popl had ughtp roprty on option las Thy ought y had a contract til thirralst agnts provd that thy had only lasd ir houss Wdidnt sll it hm (Sming li what's going on in Chicago no)

A hungr march cam trough ld by a blac man namd ClaLight S got my gang rady gting som of th popl in Garyrady o mt th hugr march all thos who could go o Washingtongting aard h ain train was moving in for unploymntinsurc social scurity and $6 a day wit a fivday w Thosr dmands of Communists in that day Arnold Johson Rpublican mayor of h city at that tim said No hungr march iscoming through Gary ! Wll Claud got an avrag numbr i hismarch (which lood aut a mil lon and stoppd aut 5 minusand said Arnold w ar hr And w ar on our way o Washingonfor uloyment insuranc social scurity paid by t Govmntand iv days or si hours a day That's th way it was

ur nough thy pass social scurity (which you pay for) andunloymnt insuranc (which you pay for) thats what you'rgtig tay hat's how you got it And any hr dosn't owho hs gtig social scurity ats th ay it was got through astruggl old fllows hr o y ow Evrhing at wgaind thr cam rough struggl And it as a hard struggl camup som tim in ion on strngth of slogan F iv days

68

'



pa ca ecur• • • •

We ut rgane ur g hng."We ha a rump" cnventn e l Aaa Acatn n

Pugh ut we n' have an ne t e pele ere We t have $100 One rer ee wh a a l I want yu g t mun Paty heaquaer an w 1An I a : N I wn't. I e preent in I'm g let e elegatn g ure gng t n e cee Welleee he a t me I tught yu knew hm I ai : Yu can ge

acquan w him ! " S ure enugh they went n an w 100t g Piurgh They never pa it ck The cul't gvecial aai t rae mney ecaue thee wa much aci in eut ey wee care a lack n white cal aai u lar they gan t ee at ee wan't much ierence an e ha t whaeve they cul get mney

ey went n t Piugh That wa Mike Tie' unn the lAmalgamate They calle n Mike Tie t ce an help ul aunn they wante hi viewint Mike Tighe came n epelle all u callg u e I ai : Oh my gne i ch atlic :All em ae athlc ut me" I wa the nly in e chBu he eelle all them I went ack an ai : Hey I thught yuwee gng t keep e ut the unin yu elw tung all e wa aun in ne nght Hw i that happen " An they a :We aint ging have n eatng in i n We'e gng ein unin an Mike Tighe i ut t eak it u "

In the yea 935 a elutin t ganie teel wa intuc at theAL cnventn It wa a ckwn agut ight. Jhn L Lewian Bill Geen (Bill Huchen) gt t ightng ve the elutin I unetan at Lew cke Geen wn came ut wth a IOinutal-unin cuncil eay ganie.

Jhn L Lewi tl Philip Muray at he wante u unin uilt ineel an g int Par heaquate an hie all the mmnit.Phlip Mua tl him : I nt want t have nyhing t wi emunit " He ai : Muay u wee gng t uil a hueyu wulnt g t the mine an get a ut lwe an yu wulntget a plume; yu get a caente wulnt yu S I wnt u tg an get the whw g an get the mmunit ee gng

ul the unn i we have t ight the Devil in Hell " Well he came utt Part heaquate hiing eveyy he cul hie. S he Patyganie a : eee u can get a j $ a ay" I ai : "A can hie a man can ire Im gng t ay in e mill an uil myunin whee I w I'll have ecuity " I a Jn L Lewi with hmne wll he can have ie ut I have n ecuity ut i I havema ecurty I can have ecuiy in the mll"

Well e we ll n uiling teel helpe rganieYungwn an we ha a tike in 93 epulic Steel wa cang

6



So we went uth hcgo wih trucklods of ople workngclss

people. Ad we strted our pcket line lke on would dong,nd broer rge Person ws leding e strke. And whle wlknglong I he guns, nd I ought Oh, oh hey're shootg blnks.I sd Keep mong folks ey n't dong ng but shootng blnks.Fle ; mrch ! But hen I gn to see people drop. There ws Mexcn on my sde he fell nd ere ws blck mn on my sdend he fell. wn I went. I crwled d e grss d sw tpeople were geng t. I'd neer seen polce t women not whtewomen. Id seen em bet blck women, but s ws e first tme n

my lfe Id seen them t whte women w stcks. There ws swomn crrng flg n her hnd nd they tk the flg wy fromher nd g betng her wth e flole. I ought Im here wnothg I should he brought my gun. But I dnt get hurt I got oof there ll rght.

US Steel sgned contrct. And I hk the seel plnt where we wereworkg sed some k of tte greement. nd lter on we lso t contrct.

I hd lwys sd I wnd on t would wtchdog for the

workg clss nd gurd ts nterests. I lwys clled our on thewtcog. If I eer hd chnce I ws gong my dog lse onthe steel coorton. I lwys lked t Msssspp nd Albm.The lchg, Jm row, nd segregton lwys styed on my mnd How could we stop t? My im ws o do t.

The first conenton t Ptsburgh I begged o get on e resolutioncommee, nd I wouldnt tell nody why. I wnted to drw up resoluon for Tom Mney the Scosboro ys nd I knew I toldthem tht they wouldnt put on e resoluton commttee. Well, I met whte fellow from Mssour, nd I sd How ut nomnting me

for he resoluton commitee ? And he dd. I went n e resoluonroom You hd to brng e resolution from your comme onto econenton flr.), nd I hd one of the best fghts n t room wmy o mn blck mn. He ws sent by e Albm comtteeto keep me from brnging our resoluion n the resoluon m.He ddnt me t, but he hd to go bck to Albm he hd mketht fght gnst the resolion on the Scottsboro Boys. I sd LsenI'll tell ou where Im gong to stnd. Youre fom Albm I'm fromMsssspp but I hpen to here for ltle whle. I ow how u

feel gong bck, but I'm gong to fght for s resoluton on the flrof the conention. Well, I dd. John L. Lews cll me on e flr.Yessrree s the representte of Est hcgo 1011 I hd rghtto spek on e resolution. I cme forw d I spoke on Tom Mneynd e Scotsro Boys, who hd been frmed. I sd the on ws ewtchdog of the workng clss, nd t must spek on the msery ofhe workng clss of people. Bo resolutons were dopted.)

I wnt to sy, frends • • nd Im not gong to tke up more of your .



time I had gve it t u like it is In 193 e Commnists builtthe unio. Aer we got e ion buit, soing hpened Jo L.Lewis , d Mr Philip Murry carried ot his ams : He ired eeryCommunst organizer. He de an agreemet w e steel tstsit s ms me that he oud fire the Comusts ; and tat's hathappd ad the uo s en goig ac, ac bac ever sncet doe't ope ts mou.

Ta e have ou uons a pet dog - hat ou mght cal a petcompa og ed the caretaer s; d the caetaers ae e eades of ou uno. Ad our dog s eg fed R atg ad hs tehav een pued out Thats e stre cause. a our og dotar o more for ou. e o g ou ca get to o s a cat;ad t s got e a d cat, oga zed as a et r. Youve gotto use aet cover t eep fom eg exsed.

Your socae eaes are e eaers of the dustra pet dogYour dog ot ar at o mse; ou og ot o me hecat hear aes o dffeece ho m pee the our dogdot sa og; he at the og of 93 he at og tued se e s the Scotts Bos a freed om �e. Your dogWhats the mtt th our og ? cout sa at o paue, a eep quet The hav to o somthg aut thgs eeso justce o justce A e st o th a g trade uo wiget peope (peope ho ae educat e sa); ad ou o'thear othg a ou cat sa othg a ou cat see othing You cat ee those peope gettig e. e have ecar ar oncoor ad ot just o oe coo ut o a coor from the Kenns

to the gs to e ac ghettos o the Bac aers t e mneores a there o dcn o te rsteps of As ia ad yur

og ot ar Because ou dot hae athig ut e pet dog of et trusts.

No hope oight tat ou do somethig aut hings fore ueae here. f ou came o hear e h stor of the io the way it wasogae e is he a oure goig to have t do t ow. You hav"o eaders : Your eaders dont sa othg; ere scared. F reedomis te ja house tat's e a of freedom. t aint wort eng freef oure ot wi ng t go to a for it. Bu our eaders at gongohere f ey ca eep fom t Youre goig to have organize and

fight for peace a freedom, d against racsm That s e worsteem e workg c as s ever had racism To organize at blac out tere ta ou've got t prove ourse him cause he dontelieve nog ou say e says : acism is our g; do what uant wi i But I say its our ing; weve got do somethg wih tee got fght it and bring at y ck ust e way he tout ere b himse eres no one m can win a revolution ouca't adce ahead of e rest of e workg cass Hes eryimpatient he's nt ready wait e eels at I shed b for te

71



owr r, I sh b for myslf. I r w t But

I dont w hs sh b by hmsl. nds, I nk u for tg m hv s lttl fw mins'

. M I ovk my m, but ts wy t's gong hv don You' gong to hv do just lk John ws Mury k Commsts o b.

John t :

Im lwys gld w my frn Jss cus h mks m

fl lk yog m, t's grt l ung You s, I got in mills mny mny rs tr Jss Rs; I t n mills n 1936.And wh I hrd wht h to put w tn tm h t nn 1936 lt s f I' bn n r only rlvlyshort m Butbo Jss d I - scly cus I ws ll yongr - wrfor b cught n grt movm o opl n sountry An t dosn't hpn vry oftn n on' s lm, but tsn rnc t I s ornt nn who hs n bl torcpt n movmnt of is kn. 's in vrympot

vnt n hs or hr lf. Bcus movmnt of kn t w hn l orkrs Un d n CI ws movmnt t movmllons of pl, litrlly, chgd not only cours of wong n is country, but lso nr of rlonshpbtn wor mn nd vnt twn workingm s s, for m n s cotry. r r somprllls n movnt y, spy ng ng pln bk o, tht I won't go n cus on't think you outto hr l; but ' lk to sk u from wht ttl . ·rin 'v hd prsonly w s grt vmnt of ppl n

th rly 193s ws hrd t Inln Coy n 1936, s I tol you. An

rmr ws hrd t 47¢ hour, whch ws gong rt, t m whn r wr no such ngs s vcons, holys,ovrti, nsurn, or y of socll frng nfts vrytlks ut ty. Bt worst thng - ing t m you mostss - ws ft t f u m work nd th ss n't llk wy u lk, you wnt hom; n h d lk wy u

l, u got promot. Anyng vryng t hpn

to you ws t whm will o fllow who ws ur ss dyour ssor. Now forntly Jss g ss, so u show grul wr ppl mll w h o ss. I mightt you t 99% of th pl d not hv sss. As mrof fct, n or gt romoton - sotms vn n or work - u brg ss ttl of whsky, or you h tomow ss's lwn, or hd to o somng mk urslfsn out from othr pl h sw. s ws t o coon



, O�j cy

h x l 936 el mll h rgo.

Wh h m , h l wr rad o chd bu h wr rad o ac chge wa o a dculk o orgz h l h el mll h wr wllng mak hg. Ad oud o oud o m a oeousmovm od h l workr orgazao a ha m h dd bu odo mll wre rrbl ad caush had bom dgu wh ol u cod old l old b h Rubl Par a r-rsm h or whh ma w hs o a rew o hvg orgazo ad orgnzao d unowr Amrc d o o All h ll o baks o a ha m. h razd a hr wa gog o a chang olca d oom chg or ad r wa

ow J old ou a lo a h 193 rk. Joh L. Lw hada agrm wh U el Cooro, d h ed a oracl l whh w Yougow ad ub Rublc elIld l d or dd oma hd o cora whh l Workr Uo. A a rul n 93 r wa a r calld



And i at was a fact, we were given an increase in wages at Inld.

In ose departments where yo had a song gro of ion members

where ey were most acve, we had e hiest rate! in e country.

We were never able secure conditions of is knd after we secr

conactsWhat I ying to get at is e spontaneos action of people who are

swept p in a oveent ey ow is right and correct and want o dosoething at Or ion now has a grievance coittee of 5 peopeIn those days ere were o an 20 assistant grievers and hdredsof stewards e grievance coittee set cod hdle the affairsof e people on every shift and every with every grop Whereyo did have contracts with e coies (at US Steel, for exale)yo had a liited grievance pcedre e US Steel plant n Garythe largest stee plant of the largest steel coany had a grievancecoiee of ony Where ion officials did not ke over the nionhrogh a contract wi e coany (as eydid wi US Steel), ha broader, bier, ore-effecve, and orelit organization atset an exale for unions roghot the country Where e union and

the cony got togeer rogh nion contracts (as at US Steel), had a saller, ore-restrictive, ess-ilitt ion at provided lessrepresenon for e people n e l US Steel has never had astrike so far as I ow since e ions ornized, whereas unions likee Inand eel ion had a whoe series of strikes in order o ptecteir conditions and prevent e opany fro takng over or back he ings ey had eaed

What hpens to a union? And what happened to the United SelWorkers of Aerica ? What akes y friend esse Reese ad,

what akes e ad, and what akes osands of oher people in eil is at e coanies becae sart d dersd at inorder to accoodate theselves o a lar organization ey coldnot oppose at abor orgnization What ey had do was recoizethat lar organization And when ey recoized a lar nion eyhad to be sre they recoized e naional inteaonal leadershipof at ar nion nd tk he affairs f at lar union ot of ehands of the ordinary elected officials on a local scale

Now Litle Steel was not sart itle eel had people like e

president of Repblic Steel, who said he wold go ot and pick applesbefore he wold recognize e union And our own dear Inland eeloany said they wold do nohing; ey wold raer sht eir placedo forever n recoize he Seel Workers Union Now whathappened o hese coanies that did not recoize e nion atforced e nion to act against e copany was at e workersdeveloped e ost-ilitant and ost-inspirig e of rank-and-fieorganization at yo c have Now when e conies realiz atthis was what was hppening, they qickly saw at ey had gone off

in e wrong direcon, and ey recognized e leadership of e ion75



We s rgain lally with e Inland ee Cy and we hadr wn ntrat with e Cany We let a representave einatil nin sit n bt we barganed right in Indiana Harr andseted r dierenes rit ere B sn Inld gan realiethat is was nt way, ase they were ainst a prey-rghbnh le wh had ains t me plial eaders andar psentaves n a nanal sale ey realied that e stway hdle e sitan was wrk wi e nteatinal leadership is in And ay as Jesse has pinted t e Cany

and e nanal leadership get alng prey wellThe in has a wathdg r the any The lal nin

has me plie re r the ntrats me by the inteananin a lal nin tries reet a ntrat n e Stee WrkersUnin e ntrat is pt int eet and the lal in ats as eplie see at e men live p t the ntrat even it is reetedby e enre mmite whih negtiates e ntat

This is I ink e nrmal grw whih rs when ar ninsand st er rganians me legimate and d and par e

general sian e try At e same time I think it irtant alie at e grw e nin in this try has hng ebnd We n lnger have many e sweatshps we had in the '20sand early '30s r e terribly-lw wages we had re The inght e System taght e ndstrialists is ntry at itis pssible pay deent wages and prvide deent wrking ndinsand sl make a ne In at e stee mls make mre mney nwthan ey ever made re ey d it by pa peple a airlydeentwage and by wrking pepe nt neary s hard as ey were wrked

the past The in has ght the ie hw t make mneythrgh regnizing e nin rganizan And the Gvement ndthe elers have eaed hw t adpt pt and eng e inand make it a part e Esbishment And in making it part eEstablishment they k e gts e miliy nd the ight epeple wh wrk r a livng

This is whats ging hpen I presme many the mvementswe have ging tday I thnk sme 30 years rm nw ne y yngks wil standing p here mking a speeh at the peae andy mvements e early 1970s and what happened em n ene 30 ears



O

LAG FL

Bill Watson

I s dffcul o judge jus when worng-clss prcce e poof prucon lerned to by-pss he unon sucure n delng w sproblems nd o subsue (n bs nd peces) new orgnonalform ws cler o me w my yer sy n n uo mor pln(Dero re 1968) e pocess hd been long derwy Wh nd crucl o undersnd s h whle sge nd oher forms ofndependen worers cvy hd esed before (cernly n e leNneeenh Cenury nd w e Wobbly per) h whch ess ys unque n h follows mss nonsm nd s defne response ohe obsolescence of h socl form The buldng of new form forgnon tody by worers s e oucome of emps here nd ere o see conrol of vrous specs of poducon These form

re beyond unonsm; hey re onlysecondrly conceed wh eprocess of negoon whle unonsm mde s cenrl pon. uss e CO ws creed s form f sruggle by worers so o ofnecessy form s beng bypssed nd desy now nd neworgnonl form s beng developed n s plce. The followng hens by lcon dscus son of he selfdferenon o wrersfrom he form f her ow former mng e cves nd e newrelonshps whch record here re glses of new socl formwe re ye o see full-blown perhps Amercn worers' councls. (1)

Plnnng nd counerplnng re erms whch flow from culemples. The ms-flgrn cse n my eerence nvolved es o s cyler model The el nend s lgefs 6 ws hsly plnned by e cony whou ny neres nhe lfe or he precon of he mtor rn ugh w very - sloppycm The moor becme n ssue frs w colns emnng fomhe mres re long w doens of suggesons for mprovng emoor nd mdfyng s desgn (ll gnored). Fm hs level cves

!



eventuay ae t cuntepan the pductin f e mt

he inteet in e t had wn pant-wide he enea pininamn wke wa hat cetain tatei mdificatin ud be madein the aemby and that wke had uetin wih cud we beutiiz hi inteet wa fued and the cntactin f pannnand pducin p quaity beinnn a the tuff f jke eventuaybeame a uce f ane evea caie f the pant anizact f ae bean hey bean a act f iaembin evenmitin pat n a ae-than-nma ae at many mtwud nt pa inpetin Oanizatin invved vaiu dea between

inpectn d evea aey aea wth ix feein and mtiveamn e invved me detemined me evenefu me jutpatiipatin f the fu�ith ar .Qi !puhed n

eay dea unfd between inpetin and aemby andbetween aemby and tim each with pned atae uch thinwee dne a neetin t wed machined pt n m headeavn ut aket t ceate a f ein putin in bad wnize pak pu avin e in the mt aemby f eae aembn e pu wie in e wn fiin e that e mt appea ff baance dun inpetin ejetedm acumuated

inpetin e ytemat ackin f i-fite pin cke-amve ditibu c w a bw fm a timin wench awedte ejein f mt in ae in whih n defect had been buit eaie an the ine me ae mt wee iy eject fthei uh unnin

hee wa a enea atpee f han and auin f eveaweek a femen and wke haed ve pacua mt he

ituatin wa tene with admiin f ae by wke and aautu fea f ecaatn it amn manaement penne

Vayn n deee f ntenity thee cnfit ntinued f eveamnth e week jut peedn a chane-ve peid a tueant e V 8 whih w dicu ate mbined with thecampai aant the 6 t ceate a htae f mt At the ametime manament headache wee ncea by e abute utmaten a-pant diate e divey f a baae f mt athad be paintakiny emved fm tei die that defect at

h ipped thuh cud epaiedWke et fm a iweek hane-ve ayff divean inteetn utme f e peviu nfict he entie iyindeaey and inpectin peatin ad en mved away fm the V 8 undubtdy at eat ct t an aea at the the end f the pantwhee new wke wee buht in man it In te mtdamatiway, e neceity f e pduct ut f e hand f aewh nited n pannin put became vewemin hee wa

8

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hardly a doubt n te mnds of te mn - n a plant teemng wdscusson aut the move for days - that the act had couter eiractvtes.

A parallel stuaton arose n the weeks just precedng tat year'scangeover, wen te coany atempted to buld te last V 8s usingparts whc ha been rejected durng the year Te ope of magementwas that the fondry could close early and that there would be mnlwaste. Te fact, owever, was tat e mtors were rnnng extremelyroug; the cranksafts were partcularly sdy and e pstons hadbeen formerly rejected, mstly cause of omtted ol holes or rou

surfacs.The frst protest came from the mtortest area, where e motors

were beng rejected It was quckly checked, however by managementwc sent do personnel to ound e nspecors and to nsst on eaccepce of e mtors. It was after ts that a seres of contacts,tated by motortest men took place beween areas durng breaksand lunc perods. Plannng at these numrable metngs ultmatelyled t plantwde satage of he V8s. As wt e sxcylnderrsabotage, te V 8s were defectvely assemled or damaged en route

so tat ey would be rejected. In addton to tat, te nspectors agreedto reject sometng lke tree out of every four or fve mtorsTe result wa stacks upon stacks of mors awatng repar pl

up and don te asles of te plant. Ts contnued at an acceleratgpace up to a ngt wen the plt was forced o sut down, losng mretan 0 ours of producton tme. At tat pont ere were so manydefectve mtors pled arod the plant tat t was almst mpossbleto mve from ne area o anoter.

Te work force was sent ome n ts usuallyclmactc sutdow,

wle te nspectors were sumoned to te head supervsors offcewere a long nterrogaton began Wtout any cofesson of foul playfrom te men, the supervsor was forced a tortuous dsplay wcobvously troubled even s senses, tryng o tell te mn tey souldnot reect motors wc were clearly of pr qualty wthout actuallybeng able o say tat W tongue n ceek, te nspectrs twads attemts by assertng agan and agan tat ter nterests were asone wth te company's in getng out te stpossble pruct.

t e case of the " 6s and te case of te V8s tere was n

organz struggle for control over te plannng of te product of larts manestaton hrog satage was onlysecondarly ortatA dsnct feature of ths strggle s that ts focus s not on negotatnga hger prce at wc wage labor s be ught but rater on makngthe workng day mre palatable. Te use of satage n e nstancescted ave s a mens of reachng out for control over one's o workIn te followng we can see t extended as a means of controllng one'sworkng tme

Te sutdown s radcally dfferent from the strke ts focus s on



"

e ac working day

s no s popuary oug, a rare conflc s a reguar occurrence, , dependg on e me of year even anoury occurrence e me os from ese sudowns poses realre o cp roug ncreased coss and loss of ouu Mosof ese suowns e resu of panned sa by workers ncerin areas, nd ofen o panwde organzon

Te sown s nong re n a devce for conrong eraionzon of me by curg oveme paed by managemen s a gar devce n e o summer mons Saage s asoeered su down e pcess o ga era ime before c and

n some reas, o engen group breaks or aow frends break ae same me e especalyo mons of Je and Juy, wen eemperaure rses o 115 deees n e pan and remans ere forours suc sage s used o gain free me s w rends infron of a fan or smpy away from e mcnery

A plnwde roaing saage program was panned n e smero gain free me A one meeng workers coed of numers rom1 o 50 or more Rery sr meengs k place n oerareas Eac man k a per of about 20 mnes during e ne two

weeks, d wen s per arrved e dd soeg o saage eproducon pcess s are, opeflly suing down e enre neNo sooner would e managemen wee in a crew o repar or correce problem area an wod go o anoter key area Tus eenre pan usualy sa o anywere rom 5 20 mnues o eac oror a number o weeks de to eer a stopped lne or a lne passng byw no ns on Te ecnqes or s saage are many andvar, ng we bend my ndersandng n s areas

Te saage o e raonalzaon o me s no soe lery omen s own cone appears as noing ore n e orcng omre ree e n esence any wrker wold el o as cYe as an acvy wc coeracs capa' s prerogave o ordernglabors me, s a proond organzed eo by labr to ndermnes o esence as absrac lar power Te sezng o qaneso me or geng togeer w rends and e asen o acvesrang rom card gaes readng or wakng arond e plan seewa oer areas are dong s an oran aceveen or larersNo only does demonsrae te eelng a c o e sodbe organz by e workers eselves, bu lso densraes n

esng ansy toward e pracce o consanly posonng al oones desres d ncnaons so e raonal prcess o prdcon cango on nerruped e requency o plann sdons n rconncreases as more opposon ess toward sc raonlzaon o eworkers' e

a sands o in all s s e level o cooperave organzaono workers n and een areas e s organzaton s a recono e need or common acon n geng e work done relonsps

8



like ese also function cary out satage make collections oeven oganize games nd contests which see o tu e wokinday into an enjoyable eent Such was e case in the mto-test aea

The inspectos ogiz a rblowing contest which equi epostng of lkouts at the entances o e shop aea and the making ofdeals with assembly fo exale to neglect e toung of lts ods fo a andom numbe of mos so hat ee would loose sWhen an nspecto stepped u to a moto and felt e telltale k inthe wate-pump wheel he would sceam out o clea the sh the men

abandonng thei wok a ning behnd xes d nches Then hewould ac himself away fom e stand and am the thole u fst4000 a then 5,000 m The moto would ock clank a fnallyblu a cacking halt wi e blowng thou e side of the oilan and acoss the sop The men would ise up fom thei coeelg with chees and anote point would be chalked on he wallfo at inspecto This paticula contest went on fo seeal weeksesultng in moe an 50 blow mos No small amt of neywas exchanged in bets oe e contests

In nohe case what began as a couple of men's squiting each otheon a hot day wit the hoses on the test sands deel in a standinghose fight in the shop aea which lasted seeal days Most of themoos wee eithe neglected o simply okayed so that the men weefee fo the fight a in many cases ey would destoy o dent a itso tat it could be quickly witen up The fit usually inol aut10 o us hoses each with the wate pessue of a fie hoseWth seams of cossfie shouting laughing and ning aut eewas hadly a man n the m fo doing his b e shop aea wasegulaly denched fom ceiling o fl with eey man coleelysoaked uit gns nozzles a buckets wee sn boght in dthe game tk on te poportons of a bawl fo hous on end One manwalked aod with his wfe s showe cap on fo a few days theamusement of e est of the facy which wasnt awae of what washappening n the test aea

The ting of e woking day nto an enjoble actiity comesmoe of a necessay eent as e lonelness and hadship of consntand apid poduction becomes moe oppessie art of e ealiy ofconcete la is that it is less and less able to see itself as meely

an absact means to some end and moe nd e inclined see itswoking day as a time in which the inteacon of men should be aninteesng d enjoyable ing In this way the campaign aganst esixcylnde motos ds not diffe fom the blowing contest othe hose fight Each is the eession of men who see tei wok asa pactical concete pocess thei elations as men as simple spoaneous to stuctur as tey see fit Whee ey should woktogethe at fll steam o with intemitent peis of diesity oeen cease woking altogethe comes to be e and moe a ae



for teir own decision Te evotion of ese atitdes is, needesso say, a consant target for breacrac conterinsrgency 2)Tis consat confict wi e breacratic rationaization of me

is eress dramaticaly eac day at qtng time Most workers noton e main assebly line finis work, was, are ready to a ffor mintes aead of e qitng siren Bt wi 30 or 40 wite-sirtforemen on one side of e main aisle and 300 or 400 men on e oterside, e men begin, en asse to imitate te sod of te siren witeir s, moing ten literaly rning over e foremen,

seding for te pc cocks, pncing ot and racing ot of epant as e actal siren fnay bends ino eir oicesWi a feeing of release after ors of onoonos work, gangs of

workers ve ot from side aisles into e main aises, psingalong, soing, laging, ocking eac oter and eading for tefres air on e otside Te women sometimes pt teir arms arondte as at te gates, fing wit em and drawing teir aentionaway from te men wo scrry from e pant wit distribtors, sparkplgs, carbretors, even a ead ere ad tere nder eir coats

brsting wi agter as tey ve ot into e cl nigt Especiallyi e smers te nits come alie at qing time wit te energyof reease : te sqeaing of tires o of te parkng lot, racig eacoer and draggng p do te streets Beer coolers stored intrks is not comon leads to spontaneos paties, wrestling,brawlng and lagter tat spils over into e parks ad streets rodte factory Tere is tat sile joy of earing r oice odly andclearly for e irst time n 10 or 2 ors

Tere is planning and coterpanning in e plant becase ere isclearly a sitation of dal wr A reglar penomenon i e dailyreaity of te plat is e sbsttion of entirely-different plans forcarrng ot particlar jobs in pace of te rational pans organzed bymanageent

On e erycasal eel, tese sbstitions ivoe for exalea complete ateatie break system of workers wereby tey createarge cks of ree me for eac oer on a reglar bas Tis paninoves a oltary rotation of ateately working long stretces dtaking o ong stretces Jobs are ilegally taded off, nd men relieveeac oer for long peris to accompis is Te smggling of men

trog different areas of e pant to work wi friends is yet noerregar activity reqiring no small aont of organization

Te sbstition of alternatie systems of execg work as itscontet in areas of te plant wic ae come, stricty speakingoff limts to nonworkers tey are aens of e plant were men arenot sbject to externa reglation Usaly tey are batrooms, most ofwic are bilt next o te ceilg wi opengs onto te roof Caiseonges, a cairs, cots, and te like ae en smgged ito mostof em Sweepers, wo move arond e plant freqently keep tbs on

8



.

what is caled h t" e men e an ur here or ere whey can take a tu in e resh ar o the or sace out on a c one o the riedut ss he oimits" character o eseareas is soid as was denstrated when a orem lkig or aworker who had illey arrang to leae his job, went one othe workers' bathrms Reorty he waked the stairs nto er, a within seconds was ock out e dr, down e starsand onto is back on the r hat articuar icident ol twooreen d seera workers d end wit e hositaiaon o toarciats with broken ribs and bruises

he co existence o o disnct sets o relaons two es owork and two ower structures n the lant is eident e workerwho becos art o any o the an lat areas But at coexistenceis e object o constnt ri stre it is hardly a uilibriumhen�· consider oer tie is a strugge o losng and gang

J: THE FACORY.

8



gu. atet assert an ateatve pn of action on e prtof workers is a constant reat management.rng e mode chover menoned ave e mnagemen ad

schedu an nvenry wich was o ast six week. They hed at workmo 50 men who oerwse woud have en aid of wi 9 oftheir pay. e immediate reacon i was e sef orgniaion ofworkers who aet ke e upper h nd fni e inenoryin r or four days so ey coud have e remnng ime of. verame we ain e eementary use of e cotng scae wie ehio truck drivers se informa sch eac oter men o se

their vehice. Others work direcy wi eerienc sock casersand were son rnng down part numbers a an inenory of count sck. severa oher way e esbished pn of rnngand job cassicaion was circument n oer to sice roug eruir working ime.

The respone o tis was peciary ars. Managemen force ito a at caiming at e egitimae cnnes of auoriy rningand commicaon had bn ioate Being cerii as a ruck drierfor ee reuir at a worker ae a cerin amont of senioriy

and coete a coany r program. ere was a grea de ofeat exchan and confc but o no aai. Management wa reaydetermned o sop the worker from orgnin eir own work evenwhen it meant at e work woud fnied uicker and wi emen ucky aid off ess woud be advanced in wages.

The rea whic s eashng of energy in n aeaive pn ofacion presented e auority of e bureaucracy was eidenty uegreat. Managemen tk a sd nd wi ony a imied numr ofmen noed n a non-prucon acivity ren it power o pn

at parcur een. or six weeks en he raona" pan of workwas execued ic meant at e ar force wa watced oer ddreced in an ordery fahion by foremen and vario oer agens ofsocia cono. he work whic men want o do togeer tkes four days at st a six-day week e work wic i forced on em in esame aot is monoonouy draed out for six weeks wi a erationa breaks nd c peri wic are deem necesary for earer

We end en more or ess on e note on wic we begn : sressing

a new socia form of workingcass rue. Te few exampes erehave been a mere gise of ta form nd ardy enie us o fuycorehend t. Bu we cn see a as a form it i appied o e acworking day itsef d o e issue of panning nd conro wic inmy iew make it disncty postuninism as a practice. Te use ofatage as a meth of struing for conro wi ncrease as isform of sue deves furer but i is merey e apparatus ofmoement. A crucia int focus on is e differenation of is newform of stre from is former oraniation mas unionim.

8



Wi these new indepeent forms of workers oganiz esa fation of social reltis at the nt of puction which cpotentially come forwa seie power n a crisis sion enew direction to e sety I would u, n closg t our and work focus on e ivestgatg d reg of gremergence of is new e of puction out e old Like ief

in e night" it advances reltively untic

FOOTOTS

is plnt more e woers were eier lck ornewly-arriv Suthe whites; t percenta y as high as 75%The emainder were mixed whites of Noe origin my Ilisand Mecs and a small Hgan and Polish segment The wononstitu from 5% 1( of e work force were genelly lackor Suhe white In e acons and orgnizas of workers whichis paper descris, the mostperative relaonships were twnlacks a Suern whites spite e prevalence of acist teswhich were a regular susnce of interac and even a urce of

open lk joking, ese two gros fcod together r any other goups in e pt l n e ets descri won wereno less acive an men Finally ere was a definite relaionshpetween age and acion Younger workers were re willng fitack risk their pions an older workers he workers fom18 to 35 were e most-mlitly anti-union the st willng eyo the estalished channels n their work acons

2. he overt eressis of e men emselves au their acvityare closely ti to the actl work eeence : There is litle f y

notion at he daily stule n the plnt has an wi etate or the society as a whole Rer it is seen as strule wadagainst iile ueaucracy in e cony d against e lareslishmnt so as irove workng conditions A kind of ulistmentali is crucial here pacularly wi he Suthe whites hoshow imediat dislike for all orgniational auority nd liee(like a religion) that e only way to get done well is itthemselves While workers clearly desi ctivity to contro e lenof he worng day, for ele ese same men ae awe at relationships and organization nolved could lso fction to pl control eir own pruction Yet is not so itant t workersso often mss the socia sificce of eir activies; the i tis not their cons ciousness, ut what they acaly do. eir cvitysmashes ino e contdicons of pructie eltons movsthe evoluon of counterstces n e pla



REVEWS

Le De C : Lar Rdc Fm he Wobbl t CIO Persona

Htry , Bec Pre, 1970 548 ge, $15)

Le C Lr Rdcl ha made alble t the weath eerece d wled whch the athr ccmlated d act-e

arc the wrkgcl ad Let memet t {"nit

Stte rm he 1920 t the 1950 Bece Cax ccd a central

i y the trtat lar deelmet the 3d '0 h k rde eetal tde r addt a the

ce my be mrerml htre lr the Le the Frtherre, hweer, Mrt ad radcl De Cx ha m:de a

drect ctrb t r drtdg the relah beteen the

Old the New Let thrgh h ag ad fank reounting

h w lie whch red New Zead the erd ber rd War

De C etered a ercl hgh chl i Brta 191 as e

ay rer Brth ret i the t Emprewld hve wated er grdag, he the Arm yal FldArllery ly t becme dgted wh the hcry h wr d wr e Caght he twr dllt h et twyear t Ord, where he became ethralled wth the radcalm the lar memet d rther dhearteed t h w rt theer clae At rt he wa rcted t Fb calm b eR Relt rdly aected hm wth a mrerctcalcce r the blte me ther rm l th that

qeigly accet by h Oxrd clamte Alway a tder crble w e bbh cl crcle it whch he wb he mde the dec t qt that wrld ad j the wrkigcl S the early rig 1921, he erated t the UtStte, e ly lace where h ercla bckgrd mght be hcmletely where mll thr l had abad er tt ke ew le.

Whle ther tart the m hg t wrk ther way ,e Ca tred at e t hg t wrk h wy d Ater lg

86

t .



;

n New York City for a whe embarass by hs proper Oo

accent a surou by iteary acquantces he ehaus hinitia stake of money. He ked fo wok, but fod nothng fodrivg hmsef to cose fom unge and ehauston on a Ne Yorksiewak. Howee he coere qucky wi a ceca b at $1 aweek, d soon was making the ounds among cices of iter eCity He ecid, however at he had not fed Oord for s s hestuc ou again this ti fo sevea years of ife rdg erais a acoss the nation

The eay 1920s wee e ast dying yeas of e free-s

ndepenent ife of the migrt worke and The as stveymuch aive aong tse who roe the ais in ose yeas, in emang on ths eeience e Cau traveed a road ver smiarto tat taken by many famous radicas fore hm (incng g HaY Wam Z Foster a others. He worked the hae as tmov fom Texas to Montana and he re rais a fopd fhouses from coast to coast. He became acquant wi the mtworkes n their IWW eades, incuing e oganatonconscousfam aers n the bier dispac miners who re he ras of

the Mouin nd Weste ates.His association with a adicas and his woking eerience the coty ed him to a sojou the word of ar educaton at eBw abo Coege where he met in adition to hs fure feCaoine the whoe ange of e Americn a vement from A JMuste wo an the sch) to ar eftists ar bueaucrats ofthe A. e mi1920s he een his insight in e Mdweeinustia heatan, where he went to wok in e great ensinusies eectica mit, meat packng and stee

om there he went a journaism, fist reportg from hsect eeience on te jo and ater becoming futime wrter eito for arious a newspapes. He agan taveed a oad kenby othes woking on e Wobby pper ndustria Slidarty; on eIinois Miner whee he got his fist gmpse of John L Lews at hispugg Re-baiting est an t ow reciate the socaismof te o Scaist Party trough his acquantnce wth thenrca Amerge; and as edir of the cove Engneers Joof the Btheho of comove Enginees He was st workng forhe Locomotie Einees Joua and iing in Ceveand wen e

epession struck. B he gay accepd a b at e WashBureau of the Ferat Pres s, wth whch he had en connecton and off fo many ears The FP was e Lraion News ceof the few Left newspapes of the 1920s and 1930s, and gave D Cathe oprtunty to get cose to e acaism which was emegngfom the chaos of the Dpession an from whch his Ceve offceha en fa emov was is move Washington whch brouhm into te midst of much of e nations a agon and e

7



vi o John L Li a John Bophy hn y w king o

omn dict CIO Pubicity patmnt duing it ay dayn 93

D Caux md to po a cin dtachmnt om vnt whichaod him to main a citica obrv whi uy paticipangWh thi divd om omthing in hi chidho which had madhim outid in uppca ocity o om hi oign bih ca backgound in th contxt o dicaim a ogaizationn which h wa imm D Caux wa nv kn in whohatyand citcay by any o movmnt o vnt h incd

H yathizd wi adicaim nd catugg appoach o thWbbi b w at thy w on th ing o th woking caH admd th pacticaity d had wok o th Communit Patybut a citica o thi cianim and naow idoogi H awh ncity o tadunion oganization but nv pmittd th ogico buaucacy to obcu nd and apiation o th wokh kw nd wokd with durig th 920. i h joind th GatBiin Comnit Paty n 92 duing a bi viit th h did omo o o th di to aociat with gat coa tik and

gna tik thn goig on than out o n idoogica commitmnt toa vanguad oganization I th wa on comtmnt which ay didpo Caux uy it wa comitmnt dvot hi ponaotu nd ngi to tugg o th wokig ca o a bti : to b wpt aong with thm y th am ou and miotthat actd wag a padg no pcia pivig aong th way

h buk o La Radica oy thi ppctiv in anayzing CIO th 1930 it i in th ank o a ad om o th majoponai whom Caux got ow wi whom wokd

coy D Caux ouind hi viw a oow a h ntd on thgat inc o th 1930

Mot o o da to mvmnt by th Gat pioncontact adicaim ik a chid it it ma o mumpud 30 by n I'd aady had m Cau ognaization covd nitiviti o my youh potctig om th mo gnou omantic motiona appa.I wa cautiou pactica icind to watch my tp (Pg 77)

In hi pot in Wahingon i t ay 1930 h citicay ayzd acon o th Gnmnt and th a mvmnt owad th iingupug o wok n th auo ctica maitim txi and oinduti H aw cay at abo wa on th mov and that thE tabihmnt govmnt ad a wa not ppa o thi

Caux ocu on vnt bow (amng wok) combind wi himt owdg o a union d uion ad d him to omimpotant inight into th poc going on. th it ac h did

88



•

not mistake the rblings of John L. Lewis win e AFL for e

begngs of a prnciped splt, or even a fdamental disagreenton e als and aims of lar organizations in America. He saw atthe ar sses losest t ndustrial wrkers, wi most t gan fm exnded organization men lke on L. Lewis, Sidey Hilman of eAmalgamated Clothing Workers, and David bisky of the ILGWU had determned t orgize e mass-prucon idustries a at craft-ion sses were to afraid ad to tied t the interests of ebosses t get o with the task. In shot he saw hat the rea issue in e spt of lar in 1934 ad '35 was e atual itent and ambiton t

unionie norgaiz millios". ndustrial ionism was ot the issue,since e AFL had reoied e eessity for suh organization long before. None of these ar leaders AFL or CO were admrersof soiaism and all were determied t get eogition and a otratwith he empoers the fught.

In bseng that soiaism was ot the issue Caux side-steps ecentra questio of whether the abor upsurge of the 1930s oud haeled t reluionar awaeig istead of t bread-and-buter tradeuionism. For if reutio was ot the hief issue in the spit i e

esbished abor mvemt De Caux fet either was it the chief issueamog e r ad fie.

I America's ew-ioism weep it was simiary aturalthat commuists shoud be t e fore. Rather t Lewis,a m ike Eugene bs Wiliam Z. Foster, or Big BiHawd mght hae be eeted t lead. Debs did i fact,ead industria orgazg a big strikes i the Uited atesat te time f the ritish New Uioism (the 1880s a 1890s).Haywood was the mstlitat worig-lass eader of hs

tim. Foster' s big 1917-19 pacig ad steel dries were emstimediate precrsors of te CO aaig. But Lewiswas ostensibl o more tha a pragmati busiess ionist.Few ow haleged e busiess-uio oncept at a ion'sjb was to get what it oud fr the wrkers der apitalismas aaist the IWW dea of otiuus confit wit ssesi capitism was oerow The wrkers wted resltshere a ow. If they as wated t hage societ, e weremre lie t t polial actio an t their nio. This

busiess inism was based i effet n ass submissi.It didnt halege e apitaists' otro of industry.I struckt wi from tem agreement. I perios f aue apitalistrisis dubts might arise. Failure t chalenge capitaistcontrl mght ead t taing lower wages fr se for theske of capitaist sbilit. The mre-farreahing classstrue t wi pwer for labor might mke sese to many.Bu e CO was ached i a peri of relatie recery

89



from aute rss. ere was te al halenge to lst. Page 236)

et ju ause e fg was for mmedate gns, t was no ess aFGHT. And to take on bon-doar ooraons rured re anhe derept AFL had to offer. requred a fght n a lass sprt".

s was e quaty at e Le brought to e lar surge of e "1930s, and wout whh t woud not have made even the advanes att dd. e ft sp many o e frst dest ghters, osewho had e onfdene ourage arry doubg sols rou aber ght wth e mstpowerful oe magnabe. Le mltants l e stdos, n the genera strkes n 1934 Mnneapos Frso, and n the ber les wth poe al aross the otryn vy every ndustry. Ther ontrbuton was not n the srangebehndesenes maneers pronamentos at ame dowfrom on hgh. t ame from the mtants, from e yong workers whobrav e dgers of oy gns, Natonal Guasmen, d poewho were not owed by eerene of deeat n the 1920s; and who ewwhat hey were dog ause ey ew ther jobs and ey knew ther

felow workersBeause of ts entral e e Let had a sure plae n e plans of

John L. Lews and e C Lews was d enough to n w emand lever enough use them An odne lar ss and a veteraneeler of Rs from hs o durng e 1920s, Lews perevwhat was hpenng and w lead t the most-mmedate resutsand gans.

ws was great when he real dentty wth e mlons oworkers he ed to the CO They fed hm ot ey made hmbg They made hm ve e to the ull hs prde he sad : am em and ey are me. " Mllons or the momen gloredas dd he n e denfaton. The workaday world went bak s workaday ways. The mons awoke n e gray dawn oanher workaday . They yawned and sad oh LLews p, qute a guy! B what's t to us today? Thenws ew what he had own at he was no they and eywere not he He fet e ar ooe ot of hs bgness. He wasno longer John L Lews / CO. He was just another lar

eader yng to asse authorty over foowers who no ongerfolowed hm Pages 386387)

The hod of busess onsm on lar eaders and he movement,then, defned the undares w whh the strule soght ts ntagoas and gans. One f, through eonom reovery the NewDeals eveess, and ndusys qukness to grant onessons, emovemt subsded. For D Ca the movement was not dverted n

90

,



domi by e mas mia i i o los a e did no disss owe bliiy pan i o de e IO News and oes e e oe o e mnopolyonll pess e againpid ly bie glmpses ino e le o e anial ineessn ing e way e news o e iago Memoial Day Massaeo e iolene o e Lile l ike was epo o e way abl nion m bak and o o d agains e CIO a e w f opoly weal a sd ind e senes

In nlon en a as g a poess o einaang emisng lnk wen e ld and e New Le a e MCaya wp e sas o a pei live on in e psen wi e a w oen ind oseles fighg e same bales andin am£ sakes ove and ove aain Few om e Old ee ep owad wi yng moe an e woo lies anddo a ae so epel e ay Ye e ne oisa pespeive d dispassionae analysis gows songe.a adal is an exeen ae a s analysis, and deseeso ad by al who ae one wi pas pesen and e e mei Le

al Riads

William O Br and Richa Morais : La's Untold Sory (firs

publish in 1955, reprinted by he Unit Eecrical Workers Union 11 Eas 51s Sree New York, New York 10022 $

2.50)

For al radicals, e re-issuance of Byer and Morais's Lars

Unld ory is a very-imran even. Despie all is poliica d

hisorical flaws, is k coleed 16 years ago is e only readable

intrucon o e srules of working people over e pas cenury.

Wile we ae wiessed ding e pas ew yeas an psge o eisoy om e om" sl and a new nees in meian tadeion isoy (as disssed in Sidney ne's Sit-Dwn. 1937)mos o ese ipo woks ae wien in a dy aadem syle.La's Unld Histoy is one o e ew ks I ow o a an ead enjod b wokes

Bease i s essenialy a wok o polial paganda e kms evalaed in a spei onex ow well does i elani la isoy o woking people I is agi a s awellwien k s exemly msleading in ems o isoy dpolis me o e isoial msepeaions an only bielymenioned s as e aos' esal o ea e W as a seios

92



,

wrkers rgana e falure scuss e hscal e

the Amerc Ferat r Amecan mralsm Al, authrs fall nt a ap cmmn wrr f lar hry : hey nly w rgane wrkers, mng e acts f e rghs err lmts the sc f e k fr e ty f Acwrkers have een wut ns, an er cl lves alwayremn a mstery wn e scplne f lar hry.

he fuamental gw f U mperalm ts cuence that f a kewe st f sl (wes wrkng ct) prmarlywhtemale wrkers eslshe e cntet n whch

scuss lar hstry. Au the k gve me creence sules f lacks wmen, nwhere are e prlem f lechauvnsm an whteskn prvlege ealt w as they rlate wnthe wrng class Fr eale, we t rea what hapne ethusans f lack sklle wrkers n e Su fter Recntc

per Nr we ers what eca f lack memrhpn e Un Mne Wrkers Nr there mentn f the relatnhpetween e wmen frsts wme wrker n general Instewhat erge a vew f a grwng unt wrng class e chef

mplcan at whatever prlem f racsm r exm ave encreate mperalsm can lve y e cr f nty. Wul twere s ple

Equall mrtant, yer n Mras cfue the relatnshp f etate t e clas strle Mst Marxst ry asme at the teexst t eal wth e cntracn f captalm n that t eeeentally cplst cla. Patcularl, er an mperltystem, e le f e te cmes e ental n the mantenance fcntnual en Lars Untl or t preent s vewn n cnstent fashn. In e late Nneteen entur Br Mra cus e use f ate wer t qll a nrest (8,Hme tea, Pullmn; the ltcal repre ntat PreentWln agant the memer f the IWW e Scalt Party; the ue f njunctn e cut t eak trkes thrgh e 90In ee chapter t mae clear at e clt ue a wert keep rer an fght e actn f wrker.

Yet when we cme e New eal, a ferent pcture emege he New eal vewe a a trumh ples ecracy. Frankln. Revelt, t sre a captat captur e e ence f wrker'

emn an frmulat (wt e a f farmer, wrker lack)New prgram whch were hate y all uemen. he WerAct, e cal curt Act the very fatn f e I llemerg frm h new caln.

tll, mprtt unemen rt Reelt hprgram. Mrever nsttn lke e Nanal Lar RelaBar (whch wa rgnall rft m f e mt-mrtntcrate lawer n Wall reet) hae emcla cnne e

93



relnary acns f workers at e pont of prutio The NewDeal's stimporta fon was to stabilie ciaism n respon e rblence of e woin class throuh a series of reformsat le lical an ecmc power in e hans of e ureoisie

To str e New al as yer an Mris o s more than justisrcal versiht it ets e polica biness of the Comistarty ose followe its politial lne in the pstwr pere messae of e aors an e messae of e Cost Prtyis t celebrate he ol Rsevelt oalition a work to restre atroin ly now it is calle the Unite Frt Aainst Monopoy brn a hane is sratey is evo of revouionry poicraniin amon workers, but merey lsters e present uosystem sport prssive· elements of the ureoisie nste hisrical reat from e Rit

Aain as n e 1930s, s stratey fis to ersta the Stte nermines revolutonary work at peri e Commst Prtspote Lewiss famous al workers : Presient Rsevet watsyou in a union · Raicas i not objet t e Flint workersleavn e aut plants fter e 1937 sit-o strike wavn Arica

flas eir psition was at it was Americ orie a trsll, et e Feral ovement o i e se workers are owfac wth noCha a all its omesti effets support b esame ste e same fl e fla ey wv at Fit is e smefa eir sons an ransons are sent e for no-Chia Antese mlint unionists cnnot erstan the otraiton Fiuref e Commist Party to eal wih the role of he State has resutein emenous problems or e builin of a revoluonary workers'movement ay Unl e iterests f e te cearly ienfie

in e ins of he wrkers, een e most-mlitat strues wll bestppe by e Government eier in e orts or in the streets Theask ahea is e onsruco of a revoutionry workers prty atnerstans State pwer n how to ke it

Taken as work of lia propan Lar's Unt Sry isjust wht the ttle iies a limit story of Aerian worpeople But e tils sp o are not sufient represent l of eAmeric worki lass, an he mostimpont essons rawn fromtem are harly approprite ay Yet e reity of e situon

ctates at when workers wt o ow aut eir pst it is e bestbook aro

Jim JobsDeoit Ornin Commiee

94

f



,

•

E st Blch : A Pilosophy f e Fure, trslaed by Jhn Cum(Herder and Herder New Yrk 190 149 pages, 95

Te wrk f Ernst Blch is stll relatvey un n s ctUntl last year ere was stll nng avalabe by hm n Englsh wte exceptn f ne r tw es says n ut-f-te-wa uals. s ssursng snce Blc (alng wI Lukacs, Krsch, a the fuersf the " Franur schl) ws ne f te mst- nnvatve f eHegelan Mrxsts f he Twentet Centur

n 885 as was Lukacs, Blc grew u n e ppressveatmspere f Wlelmn Germny Ater Wrld War I e fd hsway e Far Left, but wthut cmng a mmer f e CmmstPa ry. Fm the 920s e 950s he we sm f e mst-creatveand st-rginal wrk frm a Marxst perspectve at has ever enpenned n ths century. The best example s s Das Pinzi Hffng(Te Prncple f Hpe) a hree-vlum sd f e radcal tentaltat e umn qualty f hpe has ad ruu hstr Ts wrks n a w as mrat as Lukacs's HIsr Class Cnscusnessand yet few ave read t r even heard f t e sam bscurt hasplagued Blchs ther oks as well, at least n e LS.

Ths, at least was e case tl last year w Herder and Herderhas gun e exensve pject f translatng Blch n Engls Lastyear tw clectns f hs essas apeared, the frst enttl Hs O and e secnd enttled A Piloso f e Future Ths ear,tw mre are scheduled fr publcatn The Sirt f Utoia, an earlwrk datng frm 918 d On Karl Mrx, nne essays wrtten mstlyn the 950s and 960s Fally, Blchs maum us, The Prncplef Hoe s due be translated n ts entret

A Pilosoh f e Fure s nt te best f Blchs wrks, bt t sa gd ntrductn t s ut e specally t ts breadth d tsmny- sdedness W!t seem t be mss ng, ugh, at least n thesrface, s te pltcal and radcallyutpan aspects at can fdelsewere n Bch d n abndance Partly ts s because e okws nt wtten w hs puse n mnd Orgnally t was csas ntrductn plsphy at e Uversty f Tubgen. Btpartly t s cause nng n Blch s bvus r n e suface .Everytg, icludng laguage, s suffused w a deeper meang

wI a dalectcal cntent whch s submerged and at frst glance seemsnt be ere A clse readg f A Phloso f the Fue nt nlywll reveal e quales f Bch's daleccal , but als shuldmake clear h s vew f the transparency d transtness f whats. Fr Bc nthg s permanent; rgh the medan f maneveryg even that whc s cnsdered fxed s n ts wa becmg sm�thng er an wat t s Wat nw ests has nly apartal beng nt the fnalty f Beng wc st peple cner n teedle ss t sa, hs s a healy antdte e prevalng vew at



If

f

e gven is the only reality ere is. In Bloch's opnion � realty

is conn not i e "how, but n the "not-t that is, i e

fuure d n all that can come into being, b has not yet done so

because of e restraning forces of the present. It is up to mn o

acale e coe of he f by a sfomg pacce i he

�hee-dow Thos falia wi Macse will fd may similaiies i Bloch

Bloch develops ideas wich ae eiely iqe d shold ofes o e meica f

Davd Gss

ee Geism � (Dial ess, New Yo 191, 21 pages $695)

Deail heoeical cicism of The Weched of e Ear," e

aho ies hogh hoogly eoyable somehow msses epoi s Geisma sfies he os sglag weaess is fale o deal a all seiosly wi e ideas of he m whoseame ad wold-wide iac ae iexicably lied o The WretchQf he Ea Fao's wo is of cose pasa ad wie i ehea of comba b is vale is oe e less fo ha Wha emsis a someimesegagig someimespelexig aaive of Faoslife by fa e moseesg pas o f which ae ose descibghis acviy as a psycais defiiive wo o Fao emis o be wie b il i is is will see as a sef ad a imesifomaive eame of his pesoal life

DT

6



•

•

PAMHLET SUBCRION

adica Amercas pame sub as n des s svelpuposes : frst ad ores o make aaiable to a lmi nr ofreaders a boad rge of publaions fom he smal press i the US

nd a - creative olical pamphles, lcally-oriened rybooks, ne magzies, als, wall osrs and 8 forh; sondto povide a meas of distributig RA pahlet publaons wI eaddd dutes of cas nd e lke n , fo asubsta mas of regular spr for A's ee a g

unoble y oer way.e st descrption of a pahlet sub s the mrs reev by

subscrirs n Fal 19 ose RA reaers w s us $0 or reeivd he Perlmn-Ggr aco of e Y�e Pars eves

�w

p�

e�fmn .s anlysis of C. Wrght

Davd Monmerys Wht'afagues asspahle

Issue of e lorda ama Muy Bokchin's i. Mas Ne RA

pahlet ssrrs aso recev oder pJ hlets stil sockHerbt Macus

's

.a

Fy

Perls � isss

wo new !:�he irst srreaist o ver arAns, a acstraran pubicaon wt suhas Noam Cmsky ad Lnard Lggio n dion, iss of�Aioni pubica o RaIcl irri Alice) nd s ssue of� (ig more n 350 pages of phiodsuss analys wer oeed pus e frs reguar RadaAmerca iratue ate d a reprt verson of e first RA

pamhl, one Srhs by d a evy e brlnt sudptNew hlet subscrrs wl reeive se mhlets yIn sicen sock (As r March, se incle ' Obsoesence ofPhoaaYis e Rruon of Dai Life, basH� tt America Worker?, e rhs, e RA calogu h nw isse of TLS New malgs for ig 1971 icle an ss

Radical America - Vol 5 No 3 - 1971 - May June

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Transcript of Radical America - Vol 5 No 3 - 1971 - May June