struggle for Negro rights. The aim was to help not Negroes but Moscow.
“When we fought for the right of Negro workers to enter industries we
often fought for such jobs mainly in the interest of the war effort.”
Earl Browder in 1945 admitted that as early as 1942 the Party had adopted
the theory that “... the struggle for Negro rights must be postponed
until after the war....” The Negro, in communist eyes, was a mere pawn,
to be manipulated for the attainment of Party aims.
It became obvious that the Party, despite great efforts, had failed to
win over even a significant minority of Negroes. Negroes resented the
Party’s severe criticism of Negro clergymen who had been vigorously
denouncing communism. Earlier the Party had been unable adequately to
justify Russia’s aid to Italy in its invasion of Ethiopia. American
Negroes had realized that the Party was a fraud and a deception and that
it was willing to betray the Negro to better serve Soviet Russia.
In early 1956 the Party decided to modify its advocacy of
“self-determination,” realizing that Negro opposition to communism was
growing. In making this change, communists said they would still consider
the Negroes as constituting a national as well as a racial minority.
Eugene Dennis, resuming his old post as General Secretary of the
Communist Party (in 1956) after serving a prison term for violation of
the Smith Act, said:
In re-appraising our position on self-determination in the
Black Belt, our Party should emphasize, as never before, that
the struggle for Negro rights and freedom, north and south
of the Mason-Dixon line, has emerged as a general, national
democratic task, upon the solution of which depends the
democratic and social advance of the whole nation, particularly
of the workers and farmers.
The Party’s claim that it is working for Negro rights is a deception and
a fraud. The Party’s sole interest, as most American Negroes know, is
to hoodwink the Negro, to exploit him and use him as a tool to build a
communist America.
The Party has made vigorous efforts to infiltrate the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). This
organization in 1950 authorized its board of directors to revoke the
charter of any chapter found to be communist-controlled. Nevertheless the
Party has tried various infiltration tactics:
—In Philadelphia, the Party secured NAACP applications and
instructed Party members to join.
—In Louisiana, the Party’s District Organizer instructed all
Negro Party members to join the NAACP and urge the creation
of a youth organization, and to form committees to encourage
Negroes to register to vote.
—In Gary, Indiana, a Party member, also an NAACP member,
promoted the signing of petitions to pass a city ordinance.
—In Cincinnati, a Party Organizer instructed that Party members
call the NAACP and urge the holding of a city-wide mass
meeting. When calling, they should claim to be members of the
NAACP.
The NAACP’s national leadership has vigorously denounced communist
attempts at infiltration. In 1956, when the NAACP and other organizations
sponsored a National Conference on Civil Rights in Washington, the Party
attempted to “move in,” and started promoting the conference. The NAACP
countered by screening the delegates.
Similarly, in 1957, in the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom in Washington,
the Party again attempted to move in and tried to exploit the pilgrimage
as a rallying point for unity. NAACP leaders publicly told the
communists that they were not welcome, and steps were taken to keep them
off the platform. One outstanding Negro leader even tried to cancel
the pilgrimage to prevent communists from propagandizing the event.
Concerning Paul Robeson, who has long fronted for the communists, he
stated: “... the boat is waiting to take him to Russia....” He added that
he would raise the necessary funds to defray expenses. In Philadelphia,
a Negro clergyman told the Baptist Ministers Conference that the Negro
people did not want the communists interfering with their problems.
One of the most effective anticommunist measures I have heard of is
the following: The NAACP had a meeting in Norfolk, Virginia, presided
over by a clergyman. The minister opened the meeting with the simple
statement that if any members of the Communist Party were present they
would be excused. Silence ensued, with no person leaving. Then the
chairman, starting with the front row, asked each individual if he were
a communist. All entered denials until he got to the back of the room,
where the state organizer for the Communist Party was sitting with a
white woman. When asked the question, he tried to evade, but the minister
pinned him down. The state organizer then stated that he did not think
it was proper to ask such a question. The minister calmly replied, “You
are excused,” and the couple left.
The Communist Party has stated: “The Negro race must understand that
capitalism means racial oppression and Communism means social and racial
equality.” Many Negroes, however, have learned by bitter experience how
fraudulent and deceitful communists are. For example, Richard Wright, the
Negro novelist, tells in the book, _The God That Failed_, why he rebelled
against communist thought control. In describing how at the time he
left the Party he was assaulted on a Chicago street, he wrote, “I could
not quite believe what had happened, even though my hands were smarting
and bleeding. I had suffered a public, physical assault by two white
Communists with black Communists looking on.”
In Buffalo, New York, at a Party meeting, a Negro comrade stated that
many Negroes felt they were joining a union when they were recruited
into the Party. The comrade, however, was stopped at this point and not
permitted to speak further. In many cases Negroes have been recruited
by deceptive methods with the hope that once in the Party they would
be converted to communism. In one New York State club the functionary
learned that thirty members thought they were joining a union rather than
the Communist Party. The matter was investigated, and it turned out that
a Negro woman had become overly enthusiastic in a membership drive. She
had not fully explained the nature of the organization being joined.
In San Francisco, Party functionaries were concerned about a club where
Negro members predominated, although the club was actually controlled
by white members. It was ordered that the role of the white members be
decreased. The functionaries also instructed that the club be carefully
watched to prevent scandals, and warned that, while scandals must be
prevented, care should be exercised not to convey the impression that
white girls should not mix socially with Negroes or vice versa. Some of
the Negro wives were becoming suspicious, as it seemed they were being
pushed into the background after their husbands joined the Party.
The Communist Party, while preaching “equality,” still differentiates
between races. For example, in the 1957 convention of the Party, an
accurate record of the delegates was kept. The breakdown was as follows:
209 males, 78 females; 54 Negroes, 2 Mexicans, and 1 Puerto Rican.
The hypocrisy of the Party was clearly shown when it required each
delegate to register his race, although for years the Party publicly has
campaigned to have the blank for “race” removed from all questionnaires.
Communist leaders have been complaining bitterly about the turnover of
Negro members and of the Party’s inability to indoctrinate any large
number of Negroes. Information we have received follows a regular
pattern: Negroes are rejecting communism.
A Negro in the Midwest became interested in the Party because
it claimed that Negroes were treated as equals. Later he was
unjustly accused of consorting with a white non-Party member.
He quit.
* * * * *
A Negro in Illinois started going to Party social functions
and became impressed with communist talk of “equality.” But
when he attended more advanced meetings and heard the United
States constantly denounced, he came to the conclusion that the
communists were under the domination of Russia. He left the
Party.
* * * * *
A Negro woman, recruited in Chicago, was rapidly promoted by
the Party. Then she noticed an incident involving a Negro man
who got into difficulties on his job, but the Party refused to
support him. She concluded that the Party was interested in
neither trade unionism nor the welfare of Negroes. She quit.
* * * * *
A Negro in New York joined the Party because he felt it was
championing his race. After a period of Marxist instruction,
he was told to secure a job with a work gang at a pier and
to recruit other Negroes into the Party. He came to the
conclusion that the Party was not interested in him as a Negro
but only as a tool to recruit other Negroes. He quit.
* * * * *
A New England Negro also became interested in the Party when he
learned of its alleged interest in helping his race. But upon
becoming a member he discovered that the Party’s interest was
strictly vocal, and nothing concrete was done to help Negroes.
Moreover, he disliked the Party’s denunciation of God and
religion. He quit.
As early as 1922 the Comintern approved a subsidy of 300,000 dollars for
propaganda among American Negroes. In 1925 the Soviets requested that a
group of Negroes be selected to come to Russia for training in propaganda
work. A dozen were recruited. One of these, returning to the United
States three years later, brought with him a draft for 75,000 dollars to
help pay for propaganda work among his race.
One Negro later was designated to attend the Lenin School, and his
experience there further unmasked communist hypocrisy and the Party’s
true feelings toward the Negro. He went to Russia with a delegation of
students to enter the Lenin School. This young Negro, as he has since
related, then “believed that through Communism a better and fairer world
could be developed for all mankind.”
He was troubled, however, by the communist position in urging Negro
“self-determination” and the implications of a “buffer” state in
this country being carved out of the so-called “Black Belt.” Almost
immediately after his arrival in Russia he “was told long stories of
political persecution” by the Negroes attending the Lenin School. He
was slow to give credence to these stories until he saw for himself: “I
found that Negroes were special objects of political exploitation. The
sacrifices and dirty work planned for the American Negro Communists as
spearheads for communizing the United States made it obvious that we were
considered only as pawns in a game where others would get the prize.”
Becoming more outspoken and cynical about the communist program for
Negroes, he became the target of a slander campaign inside the Lenin
School. Finally this young American Negro was charged and tried before
a court-martial. He was guilty of disaffection. A few students,
sympathizing with his position, made a bold decision to report their
grievances to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Then things began
to happen. Classes in the American Section of the school were suspended.
Some of the instructors were disciplined.
The young Negro explained that the Comintern ordered Earl Browder,
then Secretary of the Communist Party in the United States, to Moscow
immediately. Browder arrived and sought to smooth things over. Eventually
the young Negro returned to the United States, working for a while
as a Party functionary in Detroit. One of his last jobs was to make
preparations for the founding of the National Negro Congress. Then he
quit because he could no longer give aid to the communists “concentrating
on their most helpless, and whom they think to be, their most gullible
victims: the Negro.”
The communists have created numerous fronts over the years in attempts to
attract Negroes. Once a front is discredited, it is allowed to die and a
new one created.
The American Negro Labor Congress came into being in 1925, and in 1930
its name was changed to the League of Struggle for Negro Rights. Within
six years it had ceased to exist.
In 1935 the National Negro Congress was launched in Washington, D.C.,
its chief purpose being to protect Negro rights. It started out as
noncommunist, and James W. Ford complained in 1936 that although “The
National Negro Congress did not adopt a Communist program ... we
Communists stand one hundred per cent behind it in its efforts to unite
the Negro people....”
By 1940 communists had infiltrated the National Negro Congress to such an
extent that when its president, A. Philip Randolph, “warned the Congress
to stick to its principle and remain nonpartisan ...” the communists
staged a demonstration and walked out, leaving only a third of the
audience to finish hearing Randolph. This 1940 convention of the National
Negro Congress passed a resolution condemning the war as “imperialist,”
and drew from a communist writer the observation that the congress had
“only acted in accord with the fundamental interests of the Negro people.”
In 1947 the National Negro Congress merged with the Civil Rights
Congress, an out-and-out communist front which has recently dissolved.
The old International Labor Defense (ILD) also tried to influence the
American Negro, and came into conflict with the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People as a result of the ILD’s communist
tactics in converting the Scottsboro (Alabama) Case into a vehicle for
communist propaganda. In this case nine Negro boys were indicted in 1931
on charges of having raped two white girls.
After the Scottsboro boys were first convicted, the NAACP charged that
the defense “fell considerably short of perfection,” and then retained
the late famed Chicago criminal lawyer, Clarence Darrow, to represent
the boys. In 1931 the late Walter White, then head of the NAACP, said
the _Daily Worker_ accused another defense attorney, Stephen R. Roddy,
“... of being a member of the Ku Klux Klan, of having conspired with the
prosecution to electrocute the nine boys, of having been the inmate of
an insane asylum.” According to White, the communists also charged the
NAACP “as being ‘in league with the lyncher-bosses of the South,’ as
plotters to ‘murder the Scottsboro martyrs,’ as sycophantic ‘tools of the
capitalists.’” The NAACP withdrew from the case, recognizing that the
Communist Party was interested only in promoting “Red Fascism” in America.
George S. Schuyler, an editor of the _Pittsburgh Courier_, reflected
the consensus of American Negroes when he concluded, “... The record
shows that where and when the Communists seemed to be fighting for Negro
rights, their object was simply to strengthen the hand of Russia.”
In similar fashion the Communist Party has long considered
foreign-language groups in the United States fertile fields for
infiltration. Since many of the early comrades were foreign-born,
agitation among national groups became a natural outlet for Party
activity. In recent years the Nationality Groups Commission has
coordinated agitation in this field.
The Party has attempted to use national groups, among other things,
to exert pressure for changes in American foreign policy. Pressure
campaigns are organized, petitions circulated, testimonials secured,
hoping to make the government believe that a national group, such as the
Italians, Hungarians, or Slovaks, supports the line desired by the Party.
Party-controlled newspapers grind out accompanying propaganda.
Party fronts have been particularly active among national groups. The
communists always make strenuous efforts to infiltrate and capture
fraternal insurance societies serving national groups. As we have seen,
such tactics give the Party a ready base, along with somebody else’s
money, for further agitation. The Party, moreover, always likes to
pose as the “protector” of national cultures. Hence, it often sponsors
nationality bazaars, picnics, and dances, where costumes from native
lands are worn and native music is played. After the Soviet conquest of
Eastern Europe, however, the Party had increasing difficulty trying to
peddle the “glories” of communism. Too much information was received from
the old homelands describing true conditions behind the Iron Curtain.
Minority groups, like other patriotic organizations, have realized that
no communist-created Utopia can compete with the American way of life.
The ability of the communists to propagate their false doctrines is a
challenge to our educational process. We need to counter communism by
making the hopes and aspirations of the American ideal a reality for all
to enjoy.
19.
_The Communist Attack on Judaism_
The communist propaganda machine with its tactics of infiltration and
division has long fostered the false claim of widespread influence in the
Jewish communities of America. One of the most malicious myths that has
developed in the United States is that persons of the Jewish faith and
communists have something in common. The people who gave the world the
concept of our monotheistic God and the Ten Commandments cannot remain
Jews and follow the atheism of Karl Marx and the deceit of the communist
movement.
It is a matter of record that numerous Communist Party leaders call
themselves Jews and claim a Jewish origin. This does not, however, make
them Jews, any more than William Z. Foster’s Catholic background and Earl
Browder’s Protestant background give them any standing in present-day
Catholic and Protestant communities in the United States.
One highly placed Party leader recently pointed out that it was necessary
for communists working in Jewish groups to represent themselves as Jews.
This, of course, is a tactical maneuver. Such a technique, the leader
urged, “can be duplicated.”
Typical of communist claims which have led to the false myth indicating
that Jews have an affinity for communism are the remarks of Paul Novick,
the editor of the _Morning Freiheit_, a communist paper published in
Yiddish in New York City. Novick said: “The development of Yiddish
literature in the United States went hand-in-hand with the growth of the
Socialist movement at the beginning of this century and of the Communist
Party after the October Revolution.” On the same occasion Novick then
went on to brand the followers of Judaism for “... degeneration sown
among the Jews by reaction....” and then condemned their opposition to
“... the progressive movement, against the Soviet Union and against
Communism....” Novick revealed his true loyalties in December, 1956,
in an article in the _Morning Freiheit_ after the display of Soviet
brutality in Hungary with the apology that there was an anti-Semitic
and fascist element in the Hungarian uprising, and insisted that, “...
we must not only approve the Soviet actions in Hungary, but really
appreciate it!”
The widely read Jewish newspaper, _Jewish Daily Forward_, on February
16, 1957, effectively identified Novick in a story captioned “Editor
of Communist ‘Freiheit’ Is Bitter Enemy of the Jewish People.” Here it
was asserted that after the Hitler-Stalin pact the _Freiheit_ justified
and praised it, which caused writers to leave and Novick made sure that
those who remained wrote without error following the pro-Hitler line. The
newspaper further revealed that Novick had gone out of his way to prove
that the communist dictators in Czechoslovakia were correct in arresting
Rudolph Slansky (and thirteen former communist leaders, eleven of whom
were Jews) and that the arrested Moscow Jewish doctors were involved in
a conspiracy to poison Stalin. The _Jewish Daily Forward_ article flatly
said that “anti-Semitic poison just poured out” of Novick.
One Party member, after having been in the Party for twenty-five years
and having held high Party offices, explained to our agents that when he
joined the Party he had renounced the existence of God, that he had tried
to impose on others his atheistic views, and that he was “not a religious
Jew.” He flatly said that most Party members he knew who claimed to be
Jews did not follow their religion; they did not attend the synagogue,
although they did not work on religious holidays; and the comrades who
claimed to be Jews took no part in organized Jewish religious activities.
Some of the most effective opposition to communism in the United States
has come from Jewish organizations such as B’nai B’rith, the American
Jewish Committee, the American Jewish League Against Communism, the
Anti-Defamation League, and a host of other Jewish groups.
The reasons for the extensive activities of the Communist Party in
seeking to infiltrate and make extravagant claims for its work in some
Jewish organizations and those of other minority groups are readily
apparent. In the Soviet Union, the proving ground for Marxism-Leninism,
communists are confronted with a minority problem of staggering
proportions. Only 58 per cent of the population in the Soviet Union is
Russian whereas 42 per cent is non-Russian and consists of 168 national
minorities.
The Bolsheviks prior to 1917 sought to win support from minorities
by defending their rights and developing such propaganda come-ons as
“self-determination of nations,” “national cultural autonomy,” and so on.
Once in power, the communists soon forgot their promises but continued to
pay lip service to minority rights. The Soviet Union still retains the
“legal fiction” that it is a voluntary federation of union republics,
each of which is free to secede if it wishes. In fact, Article 17 of the
Soviet Constitution of 1936 states, “The right freely to secede from the
USSR is reserved to each constituent republic.” No “republic,” however,
has ever tried to secede, and the possibility is remote indeed, as long
as the Red army responds to the will of the dictators in the Kremlin as
it did in Hungary.
A more important reason for communist interest in minorities in the
United States is, of course, the opportunities they provide for
exploitation and propaganda. The large number of communist fronts using
the word “Jewish,” as well as publications that the communists dominate,
is for the obvious purpose of conveying a false impression of strength
among those who embrace the Jewish faith. This also accounts in part for
the literary interest communists devote to the problems of Jews. Prior
to issuing the _Communist Manifesto_, Karl Marx, the atheist, wrote a
treatise called, “On the Jewish Question” which sets forth his views
regarding Judaism and Jewish culture.
From that time to this in dealing with those of the Jewish faith, the
communists invariably do so in terms of discussing “the Jewish question.”
In fact, by this propaganda technique the communists deliberately
try to make the Jews a “problem,” which is denied by the record of
good citizenship and civic responsibility of adherents of Judaism in
the United States. As an example: The American Jewish League Against
Communism stated as early as 1948 that “Soviet Russia’s million and
a half Jews are the forgotten people of the world.” The League lists
among its proudest achievements that “... it was the first American
organization to expose and document the communist anti-Jewish policies.”
A true follower of the Jewish faith, like those of other religions,
cannot embrace communism. Marxism-Leninism is irrevocably opposed to all
religious beliefs and all forms of worship, whether they be Catholic,
Protestant, Jewish, or Moslem. One of Lenin’s basic teachings is, “We
must combat religion—this is the A.B.C. of _all_ materialism, and
consequently of Marxism.... The Marxist must be a materialist, i.e., an
enemy of religion....”
In theory and practice the communists make no distinction among any of
the world’s greater religions, as the leading Soviet crusader against
religion, E. Yaroslavsky, makes clear:
... the priests of every cult have their own way of deluding
the masses: the Jewish rabbi, the Roman Catholic priest,
the Russian Orthodox priest, the Mohammedan mullah, the
Evangelist, Baptist and other ministers of religion, each
has his own way of fooling the people.... As to differences
between one religion and another, they are of little, if any,
consequence....