The beginning stages of a full scale fascist attack on certain sections of the USNA population has already begun. The Civil Rights legislation which ”insures” equality for all is daily nullified as the gap between Incomes of national minorities and Anglo-Americans widens; as Negroes still fight for the right to decent quality education and an end to segregation; as the Mexican and Puerto Rican National Minorities struggle for bilingual education. As many ”undocumented” workers, in particular the Mexican National Minority, fight against deportations.
What can and must our Party do? Can we afford to sit meeting while Negro students are run out of a California college by the KKK; while a nine year old Negro child’s arm is viciously broken by the KKK; or while in Chicago, Clyde Callaham, a Negro worker along with his children, taking an outing at Calumet Park, was unmercifully beaten by Klan thugs? He was then arrested and convicted for running over a white youth in his haste to flee the attacks! Can we sit by while the KKK and the Nazi forces consolidate – marching through the streets of hundreds of cities of the USNA! Can we afford to let these dogs “March On” until they “get what they want” – the extinction of the Negro people?! Can we allow the rat packs of Nazis and KKK continue to terrorize Negro families, breaking windows of their homes and cars and threatening their lives? And how does the State respond? They respond by beating, arresting, and convicting national minority workers who defend their families against these Hitlerites!
Yet these fascist thugs are encourage to reign terror and are lauded for their “fine work”. Dare we, comrades, not organize and fight on a nation wide scale the beastly and savage beating and lynching of a Negro minister, earmarked with a Swastika around his neck for supporting Busing? The answer is clearly NO! These examples and thousands more are living proof of the Imperialists’ preparation for Fascism. And the responsibility falls on our Party. We must move, quickly, but steadfastly.
The forward motion of our Party rests on our ability to “seize this time” in the fight against Fascism. And our ability to build the struggle against Fascism rests on the strength and development of our Party. We must move outward in a real way, organize all those who are willing to fight especially in defense of the national minorities. No longer can we allow the sectarian view held by some comrades that only our Party and our close contacts are capable of fighting. Our success lies in our ability to translate our line into a material force amongst the masses of democratic-minded people in the USNA. Our ability to gain greater influence and lead as Bolsheviks is based on our active and militant involvement in the various struggles against pending Fascism. It is clear, comrades, that our building of a United Front is worthless, much less impossible without the consistent development and consolidation of factory nuclei.
Our Party will be the lifeline for the development of the United Front. We are concretely fighting revisionism by battling tooth-and-nail these fascist attacks. For many a member of the CPUSA would rather site in a National Convention in Chicago than counter the Nazi’s and KKK who demonstrated to protest their convention! What conciliation and abhorrent example of leadership to set for the working class!
We are obligated to fight with the working class, to recruit and lead through militant work and not through meeting ourselves to death, or meeting until the action’s over. We cannot lead if we are not visible. We are not visible unless we are with the class – in the streets and in the courts consciously lending the struggle political direction. And it is clear, comrades, if we do not put our Program into life, we will not recruit. If we do not recruit, increase the forces around the Party, and become a living part of the mass working class movement in the USNA, we will betray our class. It is on us, comrades, to dig our hooks into each struggle that will fight against Fascism. What does this mean concretely? This means each and every struggle that fights for the defense of the national minorities and the bitter struggle to insure the unity of the national minorities.
The battleground of the USNA imperialists in their fascist offensive is first and foremost that of the National Minority population. They and their henchmen are reaching the USNA population by the thousands – hitting every strata of society. They have been most successful in dividing the working class along national lines. This is manifested in two ways; the division between the Anglo-American workers and the National Minority workers, and the division between the national minorities. As we struggle with and for the national minorities, we are at the same time leading many of those hardest hit by Capitalism – the national minority workers (the heart of the vanguard of the proletariat). Without uniting national minorities and Anglo-American workers we will be unable to build a real United Front of the working class from below, The place of this unity, its foundation is the plant. These divisions of the whole working class, but in particular those between the national minorities, rip apart the Vanguard of the Proletariat. Could there be any other explanation when Negroes, Puerto Ricans, and Mexicans fight over busing or bilingual education; when Negro workers - the last hired and first fired, support deportations for fear that ”undocumented” Mexican workers will take their foundry job? Can this spell less than defeat for our class?
The defense of the national minorities and the unity of the whole working class will be absolutely impossible unless we rally each and every Anglo-American wherever possible to engage in this struggle. Through privilege the Imperialists have been able to bribe the Anglo-American section into accepting what is happening daily to their class brothers and sisters. Privilege must be shown to be a double-edged sword. By accepting the privileged position of the slave who “himself has a slave”, the Anglo-American workers cannot free themselves from the slave master. The Equal Rights Congress must develop as an organization for the defense of those workers being attacked by the Fascist onslaught – the national minority workers, in particular the Negro National minority workers. But this congress must have the ability to appeal to the whole class. Comrades, we must reach those Anglo-American workers who will defend our class through the defense of the national minorities. Our battleground is the same as that of the Imperialists – where they have fought and succeeded in dividing, we must unite the working class. Their stronghold must become our stronghold, so that our defensive action now, will become the basis for the offensive struggle that we have yet to wage!!
How must we go about establishing a base in each area to develop a national Equal Rights Congress?
1. We must seek out those “grassroots” organizations of the class. There we will find our base to help build a strong Equal Rights Congress. We should, also continue our work in the NAACP, PUSH, ETC, Our ability to make any headway with the various block clubs, community organizations, ad hoc and “grassroots” organizations that are not in the “movement”, but are made up of honest folk, is dependent on our militant fighting involvement in these struggles. We have boundless opportunities to develop a base for the Equal Rights Congress. The arena is wide open, comrades, if we seize the opportunity. Our creativity and willingness to fight on this question will show us the many democratic minded people who want to fight yet do not know how.
2. We must make use of those contacts, organizations, etc. that are already a basis for our work. This does not exclude, but demands that we seek out others who are fighting around this question. The Unemployed Workers Councils are one of our most viable organizations to launch this campaign. For it is the unity of action around political issues and not the acceptance of the CLP line that will provide a basis and foment the welding of the various organizations and Individuals around the struggle for the national minorities and the overall struggle against the Fascist offensive.
3. Again, we must reach all those who are willing to fight for the defense and unity of national minorities – the basis for all other United Front work – that is across class lines. The struggle for the national minorities as a whole will cut across class lines. For this reason the establishment of the Equal Rights Congress will concretely represent a part of the Popular Front, an integral part of the United Front Against Fascism from below and the building of the CLP.
4. Comrades must have a plan of action for each contact, organization, etc. that within a specified period of time bring people we’re working with to political consciousness and understanding of the need of the Equal Rights Congress. This is a basic principal for all of our work – a plan of action from the most minute detail to an overall plan.
Proposed Points of Unity:
1. Legally ban the KKK, Nazi Party, Posse Comitatus and other fascist groups from existence in the USNA
2. End all deportations of undocumented workers.
3. Jobs for all workers at the expense of the military budget
4. End segregation – jobs, housing, schools
5. Quality education – bilingual education and busing
All areas should begin work on this immediately. In the next area report the City Committee should include a report on:
1. The area’s plans for the establishment of a base for the ERC.
2. Names of all organizations etc. that comrades in the area are working in and their potential for membership in the EPC.
3. Plan of Action – political questions, events, etc. that have been and can be a basis to raise the question of the ERC to organizations, individuals, etc.
Comrades, it is the responsibility of each and every comrade in each and every area to insure that the Party as a whole has a full political understanding of this question, i.e., the need for the ERC, and the insurance of a “full steam ahead approach” on mobilizing for the Equal Rights Congress formation!
Comradely,
Organizational Bureau