Notionql Commitlee. CPUSA t I l Focing the 85th Congress Nemmy Sporks tl9l Anno Louise Strong's "The Stslin Ero" Nolionol Committee. CPUSA t43l A Messoge to Porty Orgonizotlons Merle Brodsky 146) On the Role of the Porty Louis Fleischer i 55.1 Peoceful Co-Existence: Mox Weiss & Discussion Joseph Storobin t60l A Communication WHAT ,(IND OF irEflT:".L"nn;, t27], o'' ' X''8F i?f H il #":r_..X j;, I5l For Negro History Weekl JANUARY, I957 v. XXXV N. , politieal affairs TOWARD NEGRO FREEDOM Facing the 85th Congress* Bg HERBERT APTHEKER By National Commitfee, CPUSA This volume. by an outstanding authority in its field, consists ^ 85ru coNGREss of nineteen es^says dealing r,vith central aspects of American Tur will convene 1957.For labor and its Negro history from colonial times to the present. None of these January 3, allies, the Negro people, essays has hitherto appeared in book forir and several of them the small farmers and small business and pro- were prer)ared speciallyJor this volume. Those published before fessional people, appeared in such periodicals as The lournal oi Negro Historu, it marks a new stage in the fight peace, The lournal ot' Neqro Educotion, and have been reiised for econom- ic security and equal rights. is, s are estimates of Frederick It in a very deep sense, a continuation ton, Carter G. Woodson and of the struggles of the election cam- wn and Abraham Lincoln, and crimination and Dixiecrat violence- paign concluded last November. While- s toward slavery, of class the civil rights struggle re- Labor and its political allies, of the nature of the Civil by mains the No. r issue of domestic rallying their growing independent War. About half the volume deals with the post-Reconstruction affairs, world peace remains the un- strength in a non-partisan drive for period,-especially fr_om 1890 to the presentl including studies derlying chief concern of the Ameri- their legislative demands, can play of the Negro in both World Wars. There are extendei studies can people. This profound concern a major part in writing the record has also of the abilities of white and Nesro. been heightened by the Middle of the coming session. East crisis of the cont entists, of the nature of ArXer- and the efforts of the On its opening day the Senate ica's racist ations are made Knowlands, McCarthys and East- of the writings will face a popular demand leading authorities as U. B. Phillips, to curb lands to exploit the tragic events in 1f ych V. O. Key, Jr., arid the Dixiecrat C. Vann Woodward. filibusterers by amend- Hungary in order to rekindle the ing Rule zz. A simple maiority rrrn $2.00; cr-orrr $2.75 can cold war. amend this infamous rule if the new . At home our people are plagued Senate and Vice President Nixon, its by NEW CENTURY PUBLISHERS o 832 Broadwoy, lrlew York 3, lrl. I. an ever-mounting cost o[ Iivins presiding officer, wish to do so. But and a crushing rax burden. The Nal this majority can be produced only if tional Association of Manufacturers the labor movement, Negro people's threatens a new drive on labor,s po- thc Post Officc at New Yorft, Y., organizations N. and other democratic litical and economic rights. A con- is published monthly by N€u Ccntny civic groups throw their full mem- to whom subsniptions, payme?rts dttd tinued failure to meet the precarious a year; $z.oo lor sir months; lotcigtt bership into a whirlwind campaign Tlrg_ strcEent was relased on Decerntcr to eflect this end. 19,- ^' 7956.-Ed, prrNTD rN u.s.A @2Oe POLITICAL AFFAIRS FACING THE 85TH CONGRESS pro- position of the small farmer and pro- Republican Party, the party of the political action. The political prgg- political forces to advance their issues of the hour. longed drought in some arfas leave Cadillac Cabinet, a majority in Con- iess of labor and its coalition allies grams on the main ques- the farmers in a mood of deep dissat- gress. Negro people, the farmers, the Along with civil rights, -the policy be very isfaction. Small business is demand- The Negro voters again demon- small businessmen-will depend on tions of foreign will The ing relief from the intolerable pres- strated their deep political aware- the answers to these questions. much to the fore in C,ongress. makes impera- sure of the monopolies. ness. The substantial shift of Negro Great headway could be made in Middle East crisis it The post-election hearings of the voters from the Democratic Party Congress and in '58 and'6o, were la- tive that our government be urged peaceful ne- Eastland and Walter committees are was their form of rebuke of Eastland- to renew the process of a shocking reminder that McCarthy- ism; their support of labor-backed gotiation at the summit, as the Swiss ites in Congress are still hacking Democratic Congressional candida- Government has proposed. The time away at the Bill of Rights. cies was their form of maintaining has come for serious consideration the historic alliance with labor to of the proposal, advanced by the Once again, as in past years, the advance the welfare of the people. the peace-time draft and a shift of Soviet Government and powerful anti-labor coalition of reactionary Re- Organized labor, in alliance with the swollen sections of public opinion in the publicans and conservative Demo- the Negro people and the small time'produc U.S.A. and elsewhere, for the with- troops from all crats will be in the saddle in the new farmers, strongly infuenced the elec- on housing, drawal of all foreign and Congress. Labor and its allies must tion returns, particularly in the con- new TVA's countries, the neutralization Germany and an all- reckon soberly with the fact that gressional races. Such was the case ized atomic energy plants. unification of two-thirds of the Congressional com- in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Ore- Labor also needs, in alliance with European security agreement. It is strengthen the mittees are headed by Southern gon and in the farm belt. The ac- the Negro people, to lead an uncom- also high-time to UN Democrats, some of them of the tivities of labor's Committee for Po- promising fight for a full civil rights by the admission of the People's Re- Dixiecrat stripe, and that the ef{ec- litical Education in the first political program and for a decisive break public of China. tive Congressional leadership is in campaign since AFL-CIO unity gave with the Dixiecrats by all political Especially is it necessary for la- bor and its allies to fight the efiorts the hands of Senator Lyndon ]ohn- organized labor new political power forces supported by labor. and son and Rep. Samuel Rayburn, both and foreshadows the type of aggres- It needs to put forth a more of the Knowlands, McCarthys conservative Democrats with strong sive legislative activity that labor rounded-out anti-monopoly program Eastlands to exploit the Hungarian war ties to Texas oil monopolies. and its allies must carry on in the that will win the support of the events in order to whip up a But the set-up of the 85th Con- B5th Congress. farmers, small business, white collar spirit and destroy completely the As an over- gress does not mean that Congress At the same time, the defeat of and professional people. spirit of Geneva. part of progra-m, loans and will be able to forget that it was Stevenson and the failure to make It needs to place ever-increasing all foreign aid should extended without chosen in an election in which more any substantial inroads on the GOP- emphasis on year-round independent grants be than 6r million Americans, despite Dixiecrat bloc in Congress, have labor political organization in the strings attached to newly-liberated semi-colonial countries as as to the obstacles of the two-party sys- given rise to considerable self-ex- communities and the shops, on closer well tem, manifested their deep concern amination on the part of organized ties with its allies and on a grass- Socialist countries, like Poland, now seeking such business-like arrange- for peace and progress. The desire labor. As the unions seek the rea- roots, non-partisan approach to leg- of the electorate for peace was ex- sons for these failures, we believe islative activity. ments. pressed in their landslide vote for they will find them in labor's inade- With the opening of Congress and Labor will undoubtedly press in Congress, as the Eisenhower, particularly after his quate approach to four main ques- President Eisenhower's State of the the next it did in pledge of "non-involvement" in the tions: peace, the Dixiecrat question, Union message, the opportunity will election campaign, for its corxpre- Middle East. Their desire for prog- the anti-monopoly struggle and be presented for labor, the Negro hensive program of social and eco- program, ress was expressed in denying the strengthening labor's independent people and all other independent nomic legislation. This re- POLITICAL AFFAIRS Ilected in part in Stevenson's "New Together, these issues in and America" projections, was one of the around the coming session of Con- most important features of the '56 gress constitute basic elements of an campaign and deserves the fullest anti-monopoly program as against 0n Social Democracy in the U. S. support. the reactionary policies of Nixon, This program includes tax relief the Cadillac Cabinet and the Dixie- for those in the lower brackets, rais- crats.