Charges Communist Tactics Will Sacrifice Many NegroesJ. D. Sayera
Joe Ascends Into Stratosphere After Inalienable Rights and Bill Brings Him Down to Earth By Autolycus "| BELIEVE in the inalienable rights of man and the * sooner we get back to this philosophy of...
...Do you believe in ghosts...
...That is a good sign...
...It's lunacy...
...Inalienable Rights and Jobs rt/^UT out the sarcasm, Bill, and get down to terra firma ^ yourself," said Joe with some heat...
...So does the Declaration...
...He learned that Branstetter had been ' painter, that for many years he had earned a modest living as an ordinary workingman before becoming an official of the Socialist Party...
...3. People expect a paradise in Russia...
...Oh, I suppose you have some dynamite under that, too," said Joe...
...t was a heart-breaking assignment...
...9. Critics misunderstand the meaning of the shifts in policies of the Russian Government 10...
...How he did it all is a miracle...
...They believe that they govern, but they are governed...
...Food was exported for sale to provide money for the construction of factories, dams, and turbines, and aa a result' the' population wm not weu fed...
...That sort of open, above-board spreading of Socialist education will win both Southern white and Negro workers and farmers, obviating strife and bloodshed, which are the logical fruits of ignorance and misunderstanding...
...There was no swank, no "side" to Otto...
...They have already sacrificed many, including those poor misled colored share-croppers in Tallapoosa County, Alabama, recently qffered up in the Insane, tactless bid for front-page publicity...
...The Communists relished this very much and again applauded...
...And if opportunities are offered, or can be worked up, for speaking to and distributing literature to groups of Negroes, invite a number of the local white men to attend the meeting With the Negroes, thus dispelling all chance of suspicion and misunderstanding...
...They I lectlves agsli there was lea with The Comma applauded I Stalin to thsj Medicates g wrong...
...He quoted Lenin's statement that "Anyone who thinks we can build a Socialist state in Russia with the rest of Europe capitalist, ia either an imbecile or un idiot" Lee showed that Lenin engineered the Bolstevist couptd'4tat only because he believed that it was but a short time before the rest of Europe would be in revolt against capitalism...
...There was nothing particul rly exalted in any particular job, nor anything too trivial or mean...
...2. They neglect its culture, history and geography...
...And after the Communists have succeeded in getting tens of thousands, both white and black, killed, will they be any nearer Socialism ? A general race war in the South, toward which present Communist tactics are leading, is the most likely result Killing people won't win either the dead or the living to support of a saner world...
...Not in this generation, nor the next, can they win more than a negligible minority of the Negroes} conditions being what they are...
...They do and they do not...
...We have just learned in the class room of the mighty influence of soil, climate, topography and rainfall in which human society rests, of the forms of production in that society that divide people into classes with differing interests, snd of the ideas and struggles emerging from those interests...
...We agree that the governing class did not ask or even permit the consent of the governed...
...You cannot destroy what does not exist...
...During Refutation Period Levine asked where the Lamonta were in 1917 when nothing was to be gained by supporting Russia...
...He had worked so hard and unremittingly that he was badly run down, and scepti-caemia set in...
...All th that Russian The workers i cause little fol peasants reff because almoi them...
...Considerable Interest was shown in the questions and discussion which followed Comrade Plckenbach's talk...
...About 20 ) Chicago, whe to the end of the National in the glorioi if the great ktn...
...And how can you say," looking around to see how his triumph registered, "that a poor man hasn't a chance to rise in this country...
...Algernon Lee Speaks Lee's speech was a calm exposition of the causes of the Russian Revolution and the reasons for fundamental economic changes...
...What I write is offered to Socialists and to those Communists who have not abdicated their powers of reasoning and their sense of justice...
...It is, however, far worse, because it is already reaching such a high level that Communist agitators are now in danger of lynching anywhere in the South...
...As National Executive Secretary of the party he was summoned by the solemn asses of the New York Legislature to explain various matters of weight and moment...
...In 1919 came the disastrous left-wing split Adolph Germer had been national secretary for s number of years, but he was under a 20-year jail sentence, and he wanted to quit the office anyway, Branstetter took over the jo...
...What I say here la offered on1 my own responsibility as an old-time Socialist and as a Southerner, and in no way commits the Socialist Party or The New Leader...
...1 I went into a county-seat town in Florida to work-up a meeting...
...Lee, in his summation, said It was impossible that the express train was on the wrong track, and that he hoped it would "slow up, back up a bit," and get on the right track and go straight ahead in the future...
...Inalienable means something that cannot be taken away...
...excitement at the Brooklyn Academy of the Brooklyn Forum symposium, with Isaac I American correspondent in Russia and author I Lamont, former instructor of philosophy at Col convert to Communism, and Algernon Lee, Sd President of the Rand School...
...Cecelia Gross was elected organizer, Mrs...
...Lee wished Russia success, and said it had, and will have, to alter its policies...
...Lamont, In his rebuttal, , explained the food shortage as Lee did, and then compared Russia to an express train on its way to a better future...
...Do governments derive their powers from the consent of the governed...
...Witness the treatment with clubs and coats of tar and feathers two of their number received in Tampa last summer...
...Before the revolution 90% of the Russians were "illiterate, ignorant, and stupid...
...I've never left the earth," said Bill...
...4. People judge Russia by American standards...
...He suspected a break in Stalin's ranks because of the frequent executions of Communists, and because Ismont and Tolmachoff, Communist leaders, had been expelled from the Communist Partly and imprisoned...
...He felt deeply, but he did not let his feelings get the better of him...
...Can you live without a job...
...Notes were due, checks to be presented to banks in' which there were not sufficient funds, bills were clamoring to be paid...
...It is not difficult to see why the Communist "strategists" wish to stir up poor illiterate Southern Negro workers to violence...
...After the formal examination one of the statesmen took him in hand and pursued a line of questioning all his own...
...If every race man would do the same it wouldn't take long to wear them down to nearer our own number...
...Bertha Hale White, his successor as National Secretary, once said: "I do believe that Otto would be willing to be slowly flayed alive, if he could thereby advance the in-terests of our party...
...Eleven years after the Fathers adopted the Declaration they framed the Constitution...
...Now what about governments deriving their powers from the consent of the governed...
...He went from one office to another entreating, arranging, manipulating...
...a. Present conditions are not the way to Judte Russia...
...One Meeting I reasoned with them and convinced them that the Socialists wanted only the opportunity for peaceful education...
...Workers constantly changed jobs in search for more food...
...It Is in line with their contention that a majority of the workers cannot be won to Socialism by peaceful educational methods...
...They may win a very few Southern white workers to such a program...
...If he does, as a scientist his feet will be planted on the earth while he is up in the air," said Bill, as they parted...
...After a period of rest the great leader went on a speaking tour that would have broken down a man,half his age but that he faced with serene courage...
...Once he spent an entire day in high financiering...
...And they were very good apeeches, indeed...
...The chairman...
...So thst inalienable right is a phantom of your brain...
...He had the loyal cooperation of his splendid wife, Winnie E., and his two lovely daughters, Theresa and Gertrude—all three of whom a.: now active in the party in Long Island...
...They give consent, but under what conditions...
...He proved that the changing policies were a logical result of the Revolution, and that these changes were predicted at the time of the Revolution by Socialists throughout the world...
...Socialil No.5~0i Profile* Branstetter QTTd BRANSTETTER used V to get a lot of fun out of an incident that occurred during the farce-comedy of the Albany Ouster...
...Is Piccard going to make another ascent...
...Joe Ascends Into Stratosphere After Inalienable Rights and Bill Brings Him Down to Earth By Autolycus "| BELIEVE in the inalienable rights of man and the * sooner we get back to this philosophy of the Declaration of Independence the better," said Joe as he and Bill left the Rand School class in history...
...And those who knew him well quite agreed with her...
...Let's put this second abstraction on the table," Bill continued...
...No, they're ghosts, phantoms of the human brain," said Bill...
...Lamont, whose father is a Morgan partner and who was greeted with tremendous applause by the Communists, began by calling the audience "Friends of the Soviet Union" and, turning to J the speakers, said "Enemies of the Soviet Union...
...When, as the years went by, and the rest of Europe did not rise in rvolt, policies were changed of necessity...
...A Populsrized Specter The specter of capitalist aggression was popularized, the Five-Year Plan was launched, and a great effort was made to strengthen Russia's spirit and build up her industry...
...I've brought you down from one ascent and I want to bring you down from another one...
...To work and live is something real, but to assert that this is also an inalienable right is to indulge in an abstract idea not based upon reality...
...He rarely became ruffled...
...It seems that you have alienated the inalienable," said Joe...
...If the employing class can deprive you and milliona of other workers of the opportunity to work and live, what become* of that 'inalienable right' of which you boast...
...What we now have is something a little more complex than your Inalienable rights...
...We all know there is a food shortage at present...
...EAST BRONX WOMEN When the recently organized East Bronx unit of the Women's Section of' the Party met at the Bellamy Club, 907 Prospect Ave., Mrs...
...These same people think that "Soviet Russia will collapse...
...No, I will starve unless some one feeds me," replied the puzzled Joe...
...Bill Dissects Another Idea "1I7ELL, Socialist philosophy is an explosive that destroys " many illusions," Bill replied, "and there are many abstractiona in workers' heads that must be destroyed to fit them for the task of destroying the system that cultivates these illusions...
...He asked Branstetter where he had been born, and why...
...and at the close of the day he said sadly: "There are some things I would not do even to save my life—except for the Party...
...Now you're up in the stratosphere," said Joe with glee...
...So tho abstraction of the Declaration remained an abstraction in the Constitution...
...Hi man with a and so mode) intimates m very great sj Brans tetts, nent in Okf part, taciturn gii of humor, glf Mi closest iw»r« af his ^rjinc promiTBTTKR state secrets] growth of the been a painti and his wife hi living from 1 neither good c cotton land, a Socialist 1 party from South, workii speaking in I he happened He was one men who Id enough to mi appeal to either awakei or at the san his principles tffrough Miss South Carol speaking eve ing the seed < When he w the Socialist were> magnil Oscar Amerir but it was n balance-wheel tlon...
...It is natural for any Socialist to abhor lynching, no matter who are the victims...
...Is it because Professor Piccsrd has just arrived...
...Nothing," he said, is further from the truth...
...asked Bill...
...I was given permissoin for a meeting...
...I put up about thirty handbills announcing the meeting and talked to many of the people...
...They think that they vote for themselves, but they really consent to the rule of their enemies...
...He lingered on in horrible agony for six months, and then passed away...
...What he had done for a living, and how long...
...he |t miserable ¦ that was m nor good I had become Hat by the dty in the I trade and ts wherever fctively few pouth well ITd Socialist m without r prejudices, unpromising he traveled lid Alabama, Tennessee, and spread-in, lahoma City >med...
...He had to raise funds, run a great national campaign (with his presidential candidate in jail), and in his spare time run around and make speeches...
...A Wall of Prejudice Every time the Communists precipate such a hopeless show of violence as the Tallapoosa venture they raise the wall of prejudice against them in the South to new heights...
...It is not a reality in capitalist society," said Bill...
...There iUtors like Dsn Hogan...
...Up in the stratosphere again," said Bill, "when these times require us to plant our feet on material reality...
...8. The Five-Year Plan is said by critics to have failed...
...To serve Socialism—that was bis 1'fe...
...On that tour Otto Branstetter traveled with him, and his last party work was therefore the task he probably loved more than anything else he did in his life...
...The greatest satisfaction they can expect will be similar to what one of their dupes said, writing in the Chicago Defender, an important Negro organ, about two years ago: "When my time comes I'll get me at least ten [white people] before they get me...
...The more "persecution" they can create, the more exploited workers shot down or hsnged or burned by Insensate mobs, the more glory for the Communist Party among unlettered, excitable Southern Negro workers who don't know Karl Marx from the man in the moon...
...All right Let's put those inalienable rights on the opersting table," said Bill...
...By J. D. Say era Charges Communist Tactics Will Sacrifice Many Negroes Southern Socialist Believes Communist Methods Permanently Alienate South From AH Radicalism— And Would Cause Bloodshed...
...He repeated Lee's query as to whether 'Illiterate, ignorant, and stupid" people cou'.d have made the Russian Revolution, and suggested that eventually it might be Lamont, and not Levine, would be called a counter-revolutionary...
...You have no job and yet you eay you have the right to live...
...Needless to say, salaries did not count...
...Up Again, Down Again '"THAT'S true," aaid Joe...
...both the nasty distortion in their official organ of the meaning of my article on Socialist propaganda in the South in The New Leader of December 3rd, and the reckless, irresponsible line they are taking in their own Negr,o propaganda...
...asked Joe...
...1. That the Soviet Union is warlike...
...But don't you believe in these inalienable rights...
...WERE I naive enough to take such things seriously I would bitterly resent certain performances of the leaders of the American Communists...
...to have the id orgtniza-supplied by late John be came to le his home He wss on I Committee mmpaign of 1912, and it waa in that battle that he became nationally known...
...and th Branstetter Hagel...
...Worse still...
...Now you ascend above all these factors into the stratosphere to get an explanation of what is happening below...
...I called on the mayor and sheriff...
...He asked Lamont if "illiterate, ignorant, and stupid" people could elect Social-Democratic deputies to the early Dumas, and if such people could make a revolution...
...After the business meeting a good-sized audience listened to a talk by Helen Pickenbach, co-organiser of Chelsea Branch, Manhattan, on the responsibility, of Socialist women toward those who are set yet in the party but whose support !¦ needed...
...7. These critics neglect "the spiritual aims of Russia...
...I wish again to urge upon all those Who have opportuntiies for propagating Socialism in the South to carry the message to the white workers, who have the votes, and to win them...
...Increasing Friction Their main achievements will be increasing racial friction, with more and more deaths to their credit...
...He was skeptical of a policy that allowed workers to leave Russia only on paying $256, and of an agrarian policy that necessitated negotiation with Canada for 100,000 head of cattle...
...On the contrary, the Constitution left the mass of workers and farmers without a vote...
...One day early in 1924 he fell and injured his leg...
...It was quite characteristic of Otto Branstetter's inherent modesty that to hir.i the remark was a huge joke...
...Debs was finally released from Jail...
...You're up in the air and down here at the same time...
...The officials told me that they would not let me speak there because they didn't want more trouble...
...The result is that millions of workers think and vote in terms of capitalistic interests...
...The government set up did not derive its powers from the consent of these masses who were governed...
...His party honors him for his noble work...
...He had to hold a crumbling party organization together...
...He had \ farmer...
...I was told that a Communist had been in the county recently, agitating among both Negro and white fanners, but that he had suddenly disappeared...
...There was an atmosphere of either fear or suspicion about everyone to whom I spoke...
...and *M food froin I mto colwill, and W i" HW2 lawn...
...When time came for the meeting I had as an audience two deputy sheriffs—no more...
...his close friends revere his memory as of a man of rare soul and character...
...by his skillful handling of the meeting, preved into a Communist heckling festival more tra Communis ively fcioti plenty of Sunday at «, former i"p Corliss P ''recent "cater and H. Goebel, ,m- turning Levine began by saying that the< last six months had witnessed a jumble of decrees and actions that were "not planned, not foreseen, and not expected...
...You're up in the stratosphere...
...They will most certainly bitterly alienate the vast majority of Southern white people from all radical thought, and set the population apart into ever more and more embittered camps...
...They did not write into the seco-d document the view that governments derive their power* from the consent of the governed...
...Go ahead and touch it off...
...And so," said the Solon triumphantly, "in spite of the fact that you began life aa a mere workingman you rose to the impoitant position of Natio al Executive Secretary of the Socialist Party...
...Soon the peasants began passive resistance against speedy collectivization...
...Ida Kauffman secretary...
...That isn't even an abstraction...
...But you said the govern d do 1 and do not give consent How come...
...This they will not concede because they cannot understand the psychology of the rural and small-town Southern Negro...
...Most of the agencies of information, knowledge and education are in the hands of the ruling classes...
...He commanded the complete loyalty of all his associates, for no one came into contact with him who did not realize at once that here was a rare soul...
...This the Communists booed...
...Since that period the working class have won the suffrage and they participate in elections...
...6. "People make comparisons absolutely and not relatively...
...he had > conduct the fight for the defense of comrades under indictment, snd for amnesty for Debs, Kate O'Hare and other comrades in jail...
...He asked him, furthermore, if he had ever heard any Socialists hope for the collapse of Russia...
...Otto Branstetter put in a rich, full life in the service of Socialism...
...and his family can look back with pride upon the husband and father who served the working class, and through that class all humanity...
...No, the inalienable did not exist in the first place...
...Nothing else mattered...
...In my opinion I am wholly correct when I unqualifiedly charge the responsible Communist directors of propaganda in the South with deliberate intent to sacrifice Southern Negro workers needlessly for their own selfish ends...
...One day he was put on the stand, and being duly swOfn deposed and said this and that...
...Service in the movement was a matter of course...
...Certainly not," Joe replied...
...It is infinitely worse for Socialists when blind, bull-headed Communist tactics bring down upon Socialist speakers similar treatment from ignorant and unreasoning mobs, for in most localities, unreasonable as it may be, Socialists are classed with Communists...
...Undoubtedly the Communists expect to build a Southern revolutionary sub-rosa organization by such direct-action tactics...
...It would be bad enough if this prejudice merely kept the people, both white and black, sway from meetings where they might learn economic truths...
...Lee showed that although capital punishment had been abolished by law in Russia, hundreds are executed yearly in the name of "the highest measure of social security...
...We have forgotten that governments are 'instituted smong men, deriving their Just powers from the consent of the governed.' Let's get back to first principles...
...So the results are the same at in th* period when they were denied the power to content...
...W. M. F. By Israel Saltzman Symp6sium on Russ at Brooklyn Forana IVSCUSSIONS on*Russia are still lively...
...The people [the Russians] are forgetting their personal troubles and Freudian complexes...
...Her bonds are very stable and much, sought after by foreign investors...
...He pointed out "ten fallacies that seem present" in the arguments "against Russia...
...Not so," Bill replied...
...He went from Coast to Coast, he was constantly in 'Gene's company, he introduced him at the meetings, took the collections, kept 'Gene in condition, and he was serenely happy...
...drteeT »a.dlence •Quoted Mm to 1932 wages had increased 67%, but when he pointed out that in the same period the cost of butter, eggs, milk, meat, cheese, and bread had Increased 300-500% their applause changed to booa...
Vol. 15 • January 1933 • No. 3
