Communist Computation and Self-Deter mi nation of Black Bell
Doerfler, Ernest
By Ernest Doerfler Communist Computation and Self-Deter mi nation of Black. Bell THAT Communists will resort to the most fantastic schemes to draw into their toils the unknowing, whether these...
...The stand of the Socialist Party on the Negro question remains that enunciated by Eugene V. Debs: "We have nothing special.to offer the Negro, and we cannot make special appeale to all races...
...In checking European immigration following the war, the government "elected that the Northern states be filled with Southern Negroes rather than with Europeans...
...How tremendous this northward trek has really been is revealed by unofficial estimates that 500,000 Negro workers went North in twelve months ending September 1922 from Georgia alone...
...If Hoover [ cold storagij may come *»l antidote ts I . velt...
...3.442.0M 1JS7,1W **J _ . 4422,554 5,302,505 Negro"majority In rii.'ck' Be«-• ** Total l-op...
...Deceptive Figures How deceptive Browder's figures are is discovered from a careful 'county by county study of the Southern Negro population...
...They're activists, i 111 say...
...3,54»,S»7 i,..si,iim Negro minority If tbeie counties are con- tfl •Idered part of Blsck Belt...
...By a verbal subterfuge he has concealed the' true state of facts...
...The Negroes have begun to migrate to the Northern industrial centers in vast numbers to supply the demand for cheap labor which had been furnished since the middle of the nineteenth century by European immigrants...
...said Joe with astonishment...
...Lenin is their great teacher and he laid it down as a fundamental principle of Bolshevism that to destroy its enemies by any means is legitimate...
...of 191 majority counties...
...It is like a fanatic who spreads poison germs in his own neighborhood to exterminate persons he dislikes only to learn too late that the germs have also afflicted his own family...
...A great change has taken place in the Negro problem since the war through the northward shifting of the Negro population...
...Joe Like* Communist Activist* But Moderates His Enthusiasm After Discussing It With BUI By Autoiycus "WELL, it's been a great campaign," said Joe, as he and " Bill returned from a Socialist demonstration, "but you have to hand it to the Communists...
...Like a cancer it is always extending its, disintegrating and deadly tendrils through the Communist Parties, eating out all sincerity and destroying that tissue of comradeship that is essential to growth and expansion...
...This is the greatest unpopularity contest in the nation's hi-tory...
...the Communists make it their chief power throughout the < world...
...E. D.) when taken together form "a continuous area in which the Negro is over 60% of the total population...
...asked Joe...
...And still they are activists, aren't they...
...Bill inquired...
...This is ostensibly a far cry from Browder's "397 counties forming a continuous area in which the Negroes are over 50% of the population...
...f "No," Joe replied...
...Lying a World Power d "Sure, they are entitled to what is due them but honesty ' of belief is not one of their dues...
...What is the principle behind this convenient mathematical reckoning whereby the Communists can con, jure up for themselves a "continuous Black Belt" The Negro majorities, they argue, are so large in the 191 counties that they more than offset the minorities In which the Negroes find themselves in the 211 counties...
...But those statements should be charged ¦ to the heat of a campaign...
...Heads have been broken and workers have gone to the hospital...
...Hoover * and Roosevelt are getting ready for the weak-end of the campaign...
...This does not mean, as the Communists declare with a modicum of logic, "that we must refuse the immediate struggle for the release of the Negro from his special oppression...
...1 i bors called po ¦ two men unco the shack fuW It's All Ovi TPHIS is the final stretch...
...They are in the grip of the poison germ they sowed to destroy others...
...Under Socialism, my countrymen, we should become a nation...
...Thi$ article i$ only a email sec-i tion of a more detailed study by the author of this the ,ie.—Editor...
...Give the devil his due, Bill...
...F. D. It- l»l important res] what's going • • Tammany's he President...
...Three wetB ply was stop) • nicality...
...The accusation implies that the Socialist Party has nominated a man for President who favors the seizure of helpless ' Negroes by enraged mobs, mutilating these unfortunates, and either shooting, or hanging them or even worse— saturating them with kerosene and applying the torch...
...Now do you think that men can hold any honest beliefs who 1 make such accusations...
...When one side turns to lying and intrigue the other side retaliates in kind and that means death to any movement...
...E. !>.*) in which the Negroes form absolute majorities, but also 202 (211— my figures...
...Then do so," said Bill, "and you will find that Bolshevism raises falsehood, intrigue and trickery to the level of an essential principle of conduct in relation to its opponents...
...then standing by and enjoying the death agonies of their victims...
...If it is legitimate to systematically lie about your opponents it is legitimate to lie about those who disagree with you in your own party...
...In the Daily Worker of August 9th, Earl Browder, Secretary of the Communist Pary, has attempted to answer the criticisms of Norman Thomas on self-determination of the "Black Belt...
...In practicing this method upon others the Bolsheviks naturally came to practice it among themselves in their many heated internal disputes...
...Trying to answer your opponent in debate by some exaggeration may be excused in the heat of debate hut con- ( scious lying about him continuously rules the accuser out of ( decent company...
...You will observe," Bill continued, "the deadly feuds between the Communist Party and its two outside rivals in New York City...
...There is civil war between them...
...We were discussing honesty of * beliefs and you admit the dishonesty of those statements...
...NO ONE MUST SIM By Miriam Allen DeFord SAN FRANCISCO,—For a year Oliver Brown, 61, and his brother Arthur, 47, "too old to work" in depression times by our speed-up standard, had been living on charity food in a deserted shack...
...The only regret of most people is that they have only one President to best...
...Is that a matter of excusable exaggeration in the heat of debate or is it plain falsehood...
...Roosevelt has been compared to Jefferson...
...E. D.) in which they constitute 36-60% of the populations...
...According to Browder, "the Black Belt runs through eleven Southern states and includes 897 counties forming a continuous area in which the Negroes are over 60% of the population, a considerably larger area than many European countries...
...of it South- ,, „, em Statn now In niaca Belt...
...J-WAM J73M08 68.5 Pop...
...A Fundamental Principle "Sure...
...Norman Thomas and Morris Hillquit, in opposing this immediate demand, pointed out its un-Socialist character...
...The Black Counties As actually conceived by the Communists the Black Belt includes not only 195 counties (191 according to my figures...
...It's a matter of principle with them," Bill answered...
...In only one state, Missisippi, is the Negro still in a majority, and there he commands the tiny margin of two-tenths of one per cent...
...A Sample Accusation "Let's take this accusation against Thomas as an example...
...Bolshevik Cancerous Growth "Simply this...
...of 11 Southern Statesi (1.136 coun- nfiujm 39.9 Percentage 'qTtot'ii'Negro'Pop...
...Joe inquired...
...Hoover became famous for his bread-less meals in the war, and it looks as if hell wind up with a vote-less election...
...1 Does any human being really believe that he favors lynching...
...1M11M 30.S I'op of 167 eountlei 25-35% Negro...
...t ,;, The most popular word in the language today is "boo...
...i Al Smith, 1 for Roosevelt, Roosevelt Al *•»«• 1 get hunk witl ing him dowi By NeveWJ be rid of & , bother us «M ployment 9U*t elect who pi* about it...
...You mean to say that they advise this course...
...They show it to be both mathematically dubious and inept and historically misleading in the face of the great Negro migrations going on the present time...
...The disease is never absent...
...By subscribing to this method Bolshevism has paid a severe penalty...
...When nothi i the brother...
...These are the veritable facts behind the Communist plank of "self-determination of the Black Belt...
...That is a vivid picture of what is meant by the accusation...
...His reply illustrates well the Shakespearean apothegm that "all experiments to fancy's course are motives of more fancy...
...It's the limit," Joe replied with some heat...
...Reactionary Trade Unions?'" "Never read 'em," said Joe...
...Intelligent Negro workers will spurn the cheap vote-catching appeal of the Communist slogan and say to Mr...
...Ever read Lenin's 'Left Wing Communism an Infantile Disorder' and his pamphlet published by the American Communists in 1922, 'Shnuld Communists Participate in...
...I didn't know that the Communists would go that far.| How do you account for it...
...Hoover is making a strong race for the ex-Presidency of the United States...
...The Black Belt' But my concern in this article is not the theoretical question as to the Marxist character of the "Selfdetermination for the Black Belt" slogan...
...Below are the figures (mire): White Black % N'gro Pop...
...Millions of Americans have learned for the first time how to hiss...
...The Communists are at least ' honest in their beliefs," said Joe with a petulant gesture...
...Luckily for us, however, the "Liberator" of September 1st gives us a clue to the real sense of the statement...
...Browder and his "theoreticians," "We understand a fury In your words, but not your words...
...Not at all," said Bill...
...In only 191 counties of the total 1,135 counties in 11 Southern states do the Negroes constitute absolute majorities, and these counties do not, as the map in an adjoining column shows, form a continuous area...
...Lassalle 1 once said that lying was one of the chief powers of Europe...
...Today we are a mob, fighting each other for life.— B. B. Suthers...
...The result has been hates and intrigues, conspiracies and falsehoods, which have led to schisms within the movement in Russia and all over the world...
...It means merely that we must be ready to wage a longer and harder fight to obtain economic and social equality for Negro workers than for white workers...
...of 211 counties 35-50% Negro...
...Bell THAT Communists will resort to the most fantastic schemes to draw into their toils the unknowing, whether these schemes be Marxist or not, beneficial or harmful to the working-class, is common knowledge- The most prominent scheme of this kind in their present campaign program is the slogan of "self-determination for the Black Belt...
...The secrets of production have been so far solved that the world may easily have plenty of desirable commodities if it will concern itself with the organization of production for production's sake.—Sir Leo Chiorta Money...
...When they say that Norman ' Thomas openly approves lynching of Negroes, that Mayor 1 Hoan of Milwaukee has unemployed workers clubbed, and 1 that Oneal has become wealthy by selling out the working class one can only conclude that Communists are not honest- i and that they make falsehood a matter of principle...
...Lying and intrigue, the practice of trickery and cunning and to overlook and conceal the truth are all justified in the code of Boshevik morality...
...What there is in the article that is not silly misrepresentation or sheer irrelevant rant is enveloped by a vaporish haziness that attaches to all Communist writings on the subject of self-determination of the "Black Belt...
...j As /or frjj i Senate dot** better...
...A donkey has fleas...
...He knows very well that there are not 897 counties with absolute Negro majorities...
...The Bronx cheer has become the battle cry of a nation...
...Here I am interested only in the peculiar arithmetic the Communists have employed to eke out a "Black Belt" for themselves to determine...
...The j inmate of an asylum who chases a phantom of his brain for j hours displays a high tempo of activity but he will never catch the phantom and his activity is wasted energy...
...Right you are," Bill replied, "but activity isn't a virtue ' in itself...
...So is the tarantula that stings itself to death," Bill answered as they parted...
...What he really means is conveniently left covert and inexplicit...
...Even if he caught his phantom he would still have nothing...
...The Socialist Party is the party of the whole working class—the working class of the whole world...
...Thomas said, "that what the Negro wants and needs is what the white workers wants and needs, neither more nor less...
...What do you mean...
...Do you accept their statements...
...In answer to Thomas' objection that in only one state in the South are the Negroes in the majority, Browder would ask him "are the existing state boundaries something ordained by God...
...The next number of the Young Socialist will print an extended indictment of the demand...
...Principle...
...These 397 counties (412— my figures...
...It all depends upon what you are active "for...
...Four facts of major importance emerge: (1...
Vol. 14 • November 1932 • No. 19
