Socialists Begin Preparations for 1960

Socialists Begin Preparations for 1960 SWP Convention Calls For Political Challenge To Big Business Parties By M urry Weiss The Socialist Workers Party concluded its Eighteenth National Convention last week after three days of inten sive work in an atmosphere charged with self-confident realism and revolutionary socialist optimism. The participation election which the resolution of some 250 delegates and visi characterized "as the next major tors from every branch in the political action" facing the country marked a high point for American socialist movement. the party since the 1946 Chicago While some intensification of Convention on the eve of the the class struggle as a result of cold-war and witch-hunt period. the capitalist offensive against the living standards of the work NAACP Delegates Face Among the delegates was a large representation of youth ers is to be expected, Dobbs held that “we cannot bank on along with founders of the American communist movement, any immediate change in the veterans of the trade-union mass movement” in 1959 in time movement and front-line fight to make a labor party develop m ent in 1960 a practical possibility ers in the Negro struggle. Thus, . the vitality and continuity of Thus the urgent task in the the Marxist movement in the presidential elections is to in Crucial Policy Questions United States was personified in tensify propaganda for indepen the convention by socialists dent political action as an al whose records go back to the ternative to continued support IWW, the pre-1917 Socialist At the Soviet Fair of the Democratic Party. Party left wing, the early years Deny Equal Dobbs discussed the prospects ‘Self-Defense,’ Political of the Communist Party, the for a united socialist presiden founding period of American tial ticket, citing the resolution: Trotskyism, and by newer strata “If sufficient forces can be Justice in Independence and Mass of youth coming from different brought together in agreement tendencies in the more recent to make the effort feasible and history of the American radical worthwhile, we favor putting a movem ent. Rape Cases Action Are Key Issues broad socialist ticket (on ac An active role was played by ceptable lines) in the race in The International spotlight, By the Editors delegates who broke from the order to advance and popularize which focused on the South's Some 2,000 delegates are gathering in New York City July Communist Party after the double standard of justice in the idea of independent socialist 13 for the fiftieth annual convention of the National Association Khrushchev revelations and who rape cases during the recent political action.” for the Advancement of Colored People. renounced the counsel of despair Tallahassee trial, continues to However, the facts should be W ill this be just another routine yearly gathering at which and capitulation to “democratic’' play across the Southern scene. faced realistically. “A complex delegates dutifully sit and listen to lengthy speeches by their capitalism offered by such form In the Tallahassee trial, Florida of factors outside our control top officials and by a long string of invited politicians and other er CP leaders as John Gates. maintained its tradition of the makes a united socialist ticket dignitaries? Or w ill it be a convention at which the delegates These militants broke with Stal death penalty for Negroes only an uncertain prospect.” themselves do their share of the talking — and, what’s more im inism, not socialism, and they in rape cases by according Therefore, “in view of the dif portant, decide on policies, for the organization’s coming year of mercy to the four white at have learned that membership ficulties and uncertainties of work? in the SWP is the path for gen tackers of the 19-year-old Negro realizing this (united ticket) un There are a number of accomplishments in the past year on uine revolutionists who are de co-ed. A flood of demands that der present conditions, the SWP which the NAACP may congratulate itself, but these weigh little termined to carry on the fight Florida accord the same mercy will make all the necessary against the mountain of injustice crushing the Negro people in against American capitalism. to five Negroes facing execution preparations to run its own can this country. An objective survey of the past year indicates that Another contingent of dele for alleged rapes o f white wo didates so that in any event the in the battle against Jim Crow, the NAACP is, at best, just inch men has brought partial results. gates came to the SWP as a re message of socialism can be ing along; and, at worst, standing still. sult of the struggles of the left- A hasty second trial of a 16- brought to the American people Let us hope that this fiftieth convention w ill adopt policies wing youth within the reform year-old Negro farm hand, in the 1960 elections.” and plans suitable to the tasks ahead, so that the official slogan Jimmy Clark, resulted in a life ist Social Democracy in the last Dobbs discussed the interna sentence. Moreover, the State “Free by ’63” w ill regain its ring of confidence and the perspec few years. In the course of their tional situation, the growth of tive of achievement. battle with the “socialist” sup feelings of insecurity among Board of Pardons, has ordered a 30-day delay in the execution Among the many issues facing the delegates three are para porters of the State Department workers and particularly the m ount: of Samuel Odum. they fused with the SWP youth youth as a result of the recur This reprieve fo r Odum is, (1) Reversing the suspension of Robert F. Williams, president and launched a new, nationwide rent boom-bust cycles of the however, very short and tele of the Union County, N. C., branch for his statement urging Ne socialist youth movement. capitalist economy, the intensi grams and letters from organi groes to fight back against racist attacks, meeting “violence with fication of the Negro struggle for POLITICAL RESOLUTION zations and individuals to the violence” if necessary. Most Negroes (and most whites who are full equality, and the balance Board of Pardons in Tallahassee Model of Soviet automated plant, one of industrial exhibits that attracted American for full equality for all) favor Williams’ position, which is nothing The major discussion at the sheet of the regroupment process are still vital to save Odum and crowds at Exhibition of Achievements in Science, Technology and Culture at New York's more than the traditional and legal right of self-defense . convention occurred around the since 1956. the three other Negroes now Coliseum. Models of the Sputniks, of atomic power plants and of new medical devices also The NAACP national office appears to be straddling on this report on the Political Resolu The convention adopted the facing the electric chair on rape impressed visitors favorably. The fair opened .June 29 and w ill run to Aug. 10. In first six issue. In words it says that the NAACP is for armed self-defense tion given by Farrell Dobbs, line of the political report by charges. days, an estimated 250,000 people packed the show. (See story on page three.) where necessary. (These words lose most of their strength since SWP National Secretary and Dobbs and the Political Resolu An aftermath of the Tallahas the only place they appear is in the document suspending W il three times the party’s candidate tion by a large majority vote. A see case is the newspaper a t liams.) But actions speak louder than words — and the action of minority of three delegates sup for president of the United tention to cases of w h ite men the NAACP top brass was to remove Williams from his elected ported a resolution in disagree States. raping Negro women. Such com Steel Bosses Spearheading post. His report centered on prep ment with the party’s regroup- monplace occurrences are cus What conclusion can those Southern branches, which are arations for the 1960 presidential (Continued On Page 2) tomarily hushed up by officials faced with the same racist violence as Williams’ branch, draw or ignored by the white press. Drive to Beat Down Wages from the national board’s action against Williams? And this at In past weeks two white men the very moment when a survey by three unimpeachable national in Little Rock were arrested for By Lynn Marcus termination to sharpen the class work” laws. Finally, as Raskin organizations shows a mounting wave of violence against Negroes Plan ‘Moderate’ Curb the rape of a 27-year-old Negro Throughout the post - war struggle. As Business Week says, after their defeat last since the Supreme Court decision. woman. She had been brutally years the steel companies have says, “An era in labor-manage- November on the “right-to- If the NAACP is the democratic organization it claims to be, beaten and all her front teeth never been compliant in their ment relations is at an end.” w o rk ” issue, “ Em ployers have the delegates can bring the issue of W illiams’ suspension to the knocked out. In North Carolina negotiations with the steel The steel union “is feeling the turned to . the impact of convention floor, debate it and take a vote. On Equal-Time Law a white man has been arrested workers. Repeatedly since 1946, brunt of a critical struggle . wages upon prices. Industry’s (2) Should the NAACP remain an organization devoted almost for raping an 11-year-old Negro they forced the United Steel by all major industries against battle cry is that union-enforc- exclusively to lawsuits, lobbying and education; or should it ex JULY 7 — Senate and House committees concluded g irl.

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