'For these rights I will fight..
The JProgressive Party candidate for Vice-Presi dent tells why she is in the election battle. ‘Could I retire when I saw slavery had been abolished but not destroyed . . . that fascism had been wiped out in World War II only to take root in my own country?’ she says.
By MRS. CHARLOTTA BASS Two Negroes were the first Americans Progressive Party Candidate for Vice decorated for bravery in France in President of the United States World War I—their brothers came home to be lynched in Georgia, stoned and T AM a Negro woman. shot and beaten in a dozen Northern Some of my people came here cities. before the Mayflower. We fought to make the world safe This is my country. for democracy—only to find we were And 1 am more concerned with making Africa safe for exploitation. what is happening to my people in my Twenty-five years later we fought an country than I am in pouring out money other war. to rebuild a decadent Europe, or to re- You know of Dorie Miller who came !>ress the colonial people in preparation out of his galley to fight while white or a new war. officers slept at Pearl Harbor. I want no new wars for myself, for And I think of Robert Brooks, another my people, or for any people. “first Negro,” and of my own nephew. We have lived through two wars and But their brothers came home after MRS. CHARLOTTA BASS seen their promises turn to bitter ashes. this war to end fascism only to be lynch-
ed for trying to vote in a Democratic and white, for native and foreign born, primary, dynamited from their homes in to live and work together for tne same Florida, in Cicero, in California, de ends—as equals. prived of their jobs in Detroit. Together we built a platform, stone Less than 7 years after the end of that by stone, of peace and freedom and Building The Worker war) yôù and I are paying taxes to re- progress and equality for all people. buoi Germany for another war and to Now I thought I could retire. support oppression of the colored peo But how could I retire—and where ples of the earth who reach out for inde could I retire—as long as I saw what (This is a new column on news of the Freedom of the Press organizations pendence as this nation did in 1776. Frederick Douglass saw, and felt what throughout the country. Material you want included should be sent to this column Yes. it is our government that sup- he did—“the need to stand up, lor the of 1'he‘wbrtte», E. T2tK St:., N^w iCrVo, i?ew aoWrrKKicii.“’To oj>i-n in/ ¿nouTT^ur China, helpst the Dutch repress In the dumb, to remember those in bonds GREATER BOSTON Freedom THE ASSOCIATION on Manhat donesia, props'up Churchill’s rule in the as bound with me?” Could I retire when Middle East, helps to starve out the vil I saw that slavery had been abolished of the Press Association has tan’s Lower East Side hired a hall and A ran a forum on the subject close to the lagers of Malaya who will not betray but not destroyed, that democracy had been set up on a permanent basis, hearts of the people of the communitv the# brothers. been won in World War I, but not for and is now plugging aWay at —the Soviet proposals on Germany and In South Africa, a Malan—who is my people—that fascism had been wiped spreading The Worker and Daily the State Department’s attitude toward openly called a Nazi by his own people— out in World War II, only to take root them. perpetuates segregation of 10 million in my own country where it blossomed Worker circulation. It is also reaching colored people by force and violence. out to the ten other cities in the state Alan Max, managing editor, and Paul and bloomed and sent forth its fruits to Yet the representatives of my govern which have readers of The Worker in Novick, editor of the Morning Freiheit, poison the land my people had fought to substantial numbers, in order to get them were the participants. Yuri Suhl, Jew ment at the United Nations refuse to let preserve? ish novelist whose work, “One Foot in an African tribesman tell his story to the I think of my own nephew, John Kin organized, too. world. The Greater Boston Association was America,” is about life on the East cloth, who gave up a brilliant career, established at a conference in mid-April Side, was chairman. Suhl spoke of the For 40 vears I have been a working helped organize the first mixed regiment editor and publisher of the oldest Negro of white and Negro troops, and then attended by 35 readers. Most were from Freedom of the Press Association, its newspaper in the West. went ahead of them to die in the Battle Boston, but there were also readers from purpose and program. Some 80 people attended. During those 40 years I stood on a of the Bulge. I think often of John who New Bedford, Gloucester and Provi watch tower, watching the tide of racial was to take over my beloved paper, of dence, R. I. The forum, first of its kind by the East Side group, was organized through hatred and bigotry against my people John who died that those for whom he The conference heard Abner W. Berry, and against all people who believe the fought might enjoy the freedom and lib Negro Affairs Editor of The Worker, dis a letter sent to subscribers in the area, Constitution is not a yellowing piece of erty for which he lay down his life. cus the part played by the paper in the and through distribution of a leaflet, as well as through some visiting of parchment in a glass case but a working Where could one live and breathe in campaign for Negro rights, peace and instrument for greater freedom. dignity in these states—where did mv jobs. readers by a few active workers of the group. I have fought not only for my people. people enjoy the rights for which their The conference adopted the following I have fought and will continue to sons and nephews died? program: Suhl announced to those present that the association had scheduled a social fight unceasingly for the rights and priv In the South—there was Rosa Lee • Increase The Worker bundle order ileges of all people who are oppressed Ingram and her two boys. Amy Mallard, to 30 by the end of the year. and cultural evening for readers of the paper and their friends and guests for and who are denied their just share of the Martinsville Seven, the reproach of • Shoot for ten subs a week for the the world’s goods their labor produces. Willie McGee and hundreds whose rest of the year throughout the state. May 5. Readers will have a better chance to get acquainted with each Often in the 30 years I spent in the deaths cried out—and millions who could • Revisit The Worker subscribers for Republican Party I was as bewildered not cry out. Terror did not abide in the subs to the Daily Worker. other, and plan further association ac tivities. and as hopeless for the future as the chil South alone—there was Cicero; and a • Issue leaflet reprints of suitable edi • dren of Israel when they marched few miles from where I live, they torials and articles from The Worker in through the Jordan and failed to en stoned my people at Peekskill while the selected areas, to be followed by can TWO WEEKS AGO, we reported vision the other side. governor of this great state defended the vassing. here that 16,509 subs had been obtain TELLS OF mob. Here in Brooklyn—case after case • Sell the paper at various meetings ed for The Worker from the start of of police brutality' goes unpunished. And and at shop gates. the circulation campaign until April 4, WILLKIE CAMPAIGN • in California where I published the and 2.280 for the Daily Worker-. From I remember 1940, when I came to Eagle for 40 years, the Florida dynami IT WAS not a large group that gath April 4 to 18, we received an additional Chicago to become western director for ters, those who blew the Moores into ered in a private home in the Rocka 380 Worker and 116 Daily Worker the Willkie campaign, Wendell Willkie eternity have moved in. They destroyed way area of Queens a week ago under subs. This gives a combined total of stood for one world. the Bailey home, threatened the people the auspices of the Rockaway Freedom 19,285 subs, still nearly 3,000 short of But when I reported to Republican in that community and are burning of the Press Association. But it was an our 22,000 goal. headquarters in Chicago, I found two crosses in Negro and Jewish commu interesting on" It showed how these Illinois set thé pace for the two weeks worlds—upstairs was a world for white nities in Los Angeles. local groups of readers can get to with 96 Worker and 11 Daily Worker Republicans and down below Was the gether. come to know each other, and subs. New Yorkers turned in 69 subs world for Negro Republicans. OLD PARTIES work together in promoting the paper. for The Worker and two for the daily I could not see the future clear in the COURT LYNCHERS Some 20 Negro and white readers paper. Jerseyites came through with 40 Republican Party, as the children of Where were the leaders of my nation- met socially, heard Art Shields de Worker subs and six for the Daily Israel did not see their future clear. yes, my nation, for God knows my whole scribe his experiences in covering the Worker. Michigan did not come through But if you remember, when the libera ambition is to see and make my nation recent witchhunt trials ia Pittsburgh at all, while Eastern Pennsylvania, tion came to these victims of Pharoah’s the best in the world—where were these and Baltimore. Massachusetts, Ohio turned in small hate, as they crossed over they dragged great men when these things happened? It was the second such affair held amounts. from the bed of the stream of 12 stones Why was my President silent when Har by the Rockaway Freedom of the Press Subs were received, too, from Vir and built a monument to commemorate riet Moore and her husband were dyna group, which did such a bang-up job ginia, West Virginia, Vermont, Syracuse, the rolling away of the burdens of their mited in Florida? Why when he visited in the circulation campaign, obtaining Binghamton, Minnesota (which has bondage. Key West did he not call his fellow close to 200 subs with a goal of 150. gone well abpve its goal of 175 subs In 1948, in the Progressive Party, I Democrat, the Governor of Florida, to The group is continuing to develop cir for the campaign), Missouri, Maryland, found that one political world that could demand action? What did General culation in the community. etc. provide a home big enough for Negro (Continued on Magazine Page 6) MAY 4, 1952 w Page 3 Zinsloy A'y-s.. “There is little difference between Sam and the you make your profit in the same way? Sam Smith and General Motors General Motors Corp., which, after all, merely repre Sam: General Motors makes profit out of exploiting SOMEONE upset Robert P. Vanderpoel by send sents thousands of Sams who have pooled their savings the auto workers. When the auto worker walks by my ing him a leaflet which declared that “profit is a tribute to buy plants and machinery for the manufacture of stand, and he feels hungry, he buys an apple from me. exacted by those who own and control the Money- autos.” He eats the apple. This makes him stronger so he can Price System.” This may be scientifically inaccurate, Well, I was interested in this, so I looked up Sam go back to the auto plant and make more profits for but it is spiritually correct. General Motors. Vanderpoel, who writes in the Chicago Sun-Times, Smith. I found him in his hole in the wall. Following is our interview: Me: Then you’re not a profiteer? immediately seized his pen and rushed to the defense Sam: My name is Sam Smith. I own an apple stand. of profit, claiming that it is essentially payment for the Me: Mr. Smith, is there little difference between Lemme alone. use of capital, or the reward of superior management. you and the General Motors Corporation? Me: Thank you very much, Mr. Smith. Good day. To illustrate, he gave us a for-instance: Sam: To me, there is a difference. As I started off he called after me. “You see this “Supposing Sam Smith saves a few dollars from his Me: What is different about you and General hole in the wall?” he asked. wages each week and finally accumulates enough to rent Motors? “Yes, Mr. Smith.” a tiny hole in the wall where he builds himself an apple Sam: General Motors does not operate out of a hole “I rent it,” he hollered. stand. He works hard and long and at the end of the in the wall. “Yes, Mr. Smith.” year has a small profit. From whom did he ‘exact Me: Is that all? “And do you know who owns the wall?” he asked. tribute? Whom did he ‘hold up? Surely not those Sam: General Motors hires wage labor. I buy and “No, Mr. Smith.” who bought his apples and never knew whether it sell apples. “General Motors!” he shouted. “So the workers was the apples or Sam’s cheery smile that kept the doc Me: Isn’t that the same thing? give me a nickel for the apple, and I give the nickel tor away.” Sam: Look, jerk, if I’m the same as General Motors, to General Motors for the rent. Otherwise,” he added, I’m sorry. Even if you’ve had enough, I must go an apple is the same as an auto worker. there is absolutely no difference between me and Gen on. Vanderpoel then writes: Me: Then you think there’s a difference? Don’t eral Motors.” Tor these rights 1 will fight ...5 The Paid Informer Refutes Own Lies (Continued from Magazine Page 3) Carthy and MacArthur, calling a Negro bondman in his chains remains to weep.” (Continued from Magazine Page 2) woman to lead them in 1952? Can you Douglass’ steadfast faith shaped the Eisenhower—or Mr. Taft—say about mob Hitler, the party should be prepared to lynchers and legal lynchers? Mr. Taft see the party of Truman and Russell, of party of Abraham Lincoln—and held it turn the imperialist war into civil war.” was courting Southern delegates. Gen. Acheson and Kefauver, of Byrnes and fast to abolition—just as we hold fast to Eisenhower has to consult with his Stevenson, naming a Negro woman to peace and full freedom. But in his book, “This Is My Storv,” political advisers, he tells us, before he lead the fight against enslavement? Can I make this pledge to my people and Budenz had described the alleged in can decide whether he is for equality of you see these parties nominating a Ne to all Americans, black and white. I will cident differently. In this book he said opportunity, against it, or will continue gro for the second highest office of the not retire, nor will I retreat, not one Dennis had declared the party must be to maintain his smiling silence. General land when they have never named a inch, so long as God gives me vision prepared “to turn the imperialist war MacArthur just rode through Georgia in Negro for any one of the 48 judgeships to see what is happening and strength into something else.” triumph, like another general 85 years in Brooklyn—and were forced to name to fight for the things I know are right. “That was plain enough,” Budenz had ago—but this time to the applause of a Negro assemblyman from Bedford- For I know that my kingdom, my peo written. “It meant to be prepared to do the Klan, the Moore dynamiters and the Stuyvesant only because of the pressure ple’s kingdom, and the kingdom of all anything to wreck American loans to lynchers. of the American Labor Party? the peoples of all the world, is not be aid Britain.” How can anyone give up, when to Poll tax representation is not the prop yond the skies, the moon and the stars, Budenz claimed there was no con give up means to leave the world to erty of the Southern Democrats—it is but right here at our feet—acres of dia tradiction in his stories, and that all the evil? For there is an evil that stalks the basis for power of Republicans and monds—freedom—peace—and justice—for tales he told before the SACB he had our land, that strikes not only at my Democrats in every section of the all the peoples—if we will but stoop previously given to the FBI. people but would enslave all people, country. down and get them. In that case, said John Abt, an attor that would send up the world in The campaign we now enter is a great ■' (This text is excerpted from an ad ney for the Communist Party, he moved flames for profit, rob us of our earnings, and momentous one. We can Aum dress by Mrs. Bass at an American that the government he directed to pro destroy our living standards, cornipt our * back the powers of evil. We cannot Labor Party banquet opening the duce the memorandums or reports of youth, silence us with Smith Acts and falter, for, as Frederick Douglass said, Presidential campaign in New York Budenz bearing on these subjects. That McCarran Acts, passed by concentration we must “continue the struggle while a City). was the only way to prove that Budenz camp congressmen. I believe in a world was not a perjurer, if indeed that could of good, not a world of evil. Workers’ Letters from the Shops be done, he said. Let me tell you what we can do, you Paisley objected to hearing Budenz and I and thousands more of us organ called a perjurer. But Senator Leh ized to fight evil. Just a month ago, (Continued from Magazine Page 4) clear that the two questions were directly members of the Labor Youth League plated. man, President Tniman and the State doctors right here in Brooklyn dis Department have already acted on the covered a new drug that promised to was a young woman worker at the GM When some of the women were asked Station Wagon plant in Cleveland. assumption that the government’s star cure that dread killer, tuberculosis. I why they regarded this particular wom witness is in fact a perjurer. have seen the pictures of the patients at She happened to be away at the time, an worker as a “red,” they answered the Sea View Hospital who offered but when she returned to her job some that it was because of her friendly at themselves to try out this new drug. days later, she met with a move on the titude toward Negro workers. It also You can see them in any magazine. They part of some of the women in her de turned out that when the foreman Wliy the A-Bomb show ten patients. Eight of these ten partment to refuse to eat or work with wanted to get more work out of the were Negroes. Seven of those eight her. The committeeman of the union women workers, they played on their were Negro women. Who calls tuber held the company responsible to nip prejudices by threatening to hire Negro Is Not Controlled any such moves in the bud. culosis “the great white plague”—when women. (Continued from Magazine Page 1) three times as many Negroes as whites Nevertheless, after lunch that day, some of the women did not immediately Thus the connection between the least 5,000 tons of uranium metal, ex dies from it? Do you see what I see in company-inspired red-baiting and the these pictures? ‘Tuberculosis is not a resume work but stood around. When tracted from concentrated mineral . . . the foreman told them to get to work, company’s anti-Negro discriminaton was disease of race—it is a disease of poverty. glaringly exposed before all the workers. have been delivered by the Belgians It strikes my people hardest because, one of them gave the whole game away. to the United States of America. If we She blurted out in surprise that “we All these things were brought to light North and South, Negro workers earn at the local membership meeting. The take one kilog of uranium as correspond Jess than that what white workers earn. were told nothing would happen to us if we stopped work!” result was that the membership over ing to 3,000 tons of coal, such a delivery It strikes my people who live in the whelmingly supported both the right of ghettos of Harlem and Bedford-Stuvve- These events took place just when the corresponds in energy value to 15,000 union was developing an all-out fight everyone to work in the shop regardless million tons of coal, that is to say sant today 4,000 to the square block, so of politics and the union’s fight for the crowded that all of America could be for the hiring of Negro women in the roughly the production of Great Britain shop, which the company was stub hiring of Negro women. squeezed into one-half of Brooklyn. Yes, and France put together for a whole it strikes them today—as it struck the bornly resisting. It immediately became UAW MEMBER. immigrant garment workers who worked century. in their ghetto sweatshops on the East MONOPOLY OR Side a generation ago. From the Rank and File Pilot COOPERATION This is what we fight against. For Have You Seen Your Agent? When one realizes the enormous eco we fight to live. We say—take the $65 nomic importance of uranium and billion that Republicans and Democrats Now we’ve come to the point, where on 34th St. and 5th Ave. (you know, the are voting for death, and use those dol when a member comes in the Union one where the Empire State Building is thorium deposits, one understands much lars to build a new life. Those billions Hall and says he wants to see the agent, located). He hasn’t quite figured out yet better the insistence of certain people on majority management of all this natural could lift the wages of my people and he’s got to specify whether he means the how many more trips he’ll have to make all people, ensure everyone of jobs and real estate agent or the port agent. Since on the Strawbottom to get the dough to wealth, for it would mean in practice the monopoly of the dominating power old age security, educate and train and Joe Curran came out with the bright swing the deal, but he figures he can give new hope to our young people in idea (March 6 NMU Pilot) that the way touch Hedley Stone for a loan to make of that majority. . . . decent schools, free our sharecroppers, to beat unemployment in the shipping up the difference. The World Council considers it more build new hospitals and new medical industry is to buy lots, invest in real es Hamhead’s really got a great idea realistic to have questions dealt with in centers. the first place by the five great powers, tate. etc. (now why didn’t anybody ever there, telling the seamen to invest in real Yes. the $8 billion that is being spent think of that before) the rush is on. with a view to security and to economic to rearm Europe and crush Asia could The Rank and File Pilot has been estate, only thing is why stop at real incidences. rehouse all my people living in the slums reliably informed that real estate offices estate. Why shouldn’t we put our dough That is only one side, although one of Harlem and Bedford-Stuyvesant and all over town are being swamped with in gold mines,'or Standard Oil, or Wall of the most important, to the campaign in every city in the nation. We fight orders for lots of lots, and the seamen St. Or even better yet, why don’t we all now carried on in the world by all the that all people may live out their lives are just buying up the town. One report buy us a tanker apiece for a few hun peace movement with a view to getting with dignity. We fight to end colonial has it that a syndicate of 3ABs, 2 wipers, dred bucks, like these Washington big negotiation between the five great ism for the colored peoples of the world and the assistant butcher on the SS. Con shots did, and make ourselves a $450,- powers for the conclusion of a pact of —and we fight that the ancient home of stitution are negotiating to buy up the 000 profit selling it? peace o'pen to all states. . . . Israel shall not be destroyed by blood— old Morgan estate on Long Island (they Iley Joe, you’re good friends with But how much easier such negotia and oil power politics. just need more trip’s pay to make the Truman and all the admirals and in tions would be if the five great powers I am indeed proud to take up this down-payment.) fluential people in Washington—how declared right away, together, that they fight against evil, the fight for human Another report that just came in hot about fixing things up for us the next did not wish to have recourse to the life and human dignity, which the Pro off the ticker tape is that Joe Bananas, time you’re down there? This real estate atomic weapon and their firm will to gressive Party wages. Can you see the the 4 to 8 fireman on the SS Straw business is too slow and small time, we reach agreement on the necessary con party of Taft and Eisenhower, rf Mc bottom, is considering buying the lot want to get int» the big time right away. trol involved!
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