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From Labor Action, Vol. 14 No. 18, 1 May 1950, p. 10.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
The Independent Socialist League is unalterably opposed to all racial, national and religious discrimination. It stands the full social, political and economic equality of Negroes and all other minority national, racial and religious groups.
Jim Crow is still the shame of America; and while anti-Semitism does not play as obvious a role as anti-Negro discrimination, there are numerous signs that it is on the increase. The men of Rankin’s stripe are as anti-Jewish as they are anti-Negro and have to be fought wherever their foul ideas arise. Whether it be Negroes who are discriminated against, or the Jewish people, or Mexican-American workers in our Southwest, or Catholics, anything which is used to set worker against worker weakens labor and helps to keep ALL workers in subjection.
In the midst of the general decay of American society which accompanies the preparation World War III, one of the few bright spots is the TENDENCY to lessen the legal discrimination against and loosen up on the segregation of the Negro people. In order to widen the domestic market, and to make more believable the claim that America is engaged in a world-wide struggle democracy, the courts, government departments, and even a few capitalists have been talking about and putting into partial effect a greater degree of equal rights Negroes.
There has been as yet much more talk than action in this field. In fact, the repeated cynical sellouts on the civil-rights program by both major parties in Congress indicate that they are much more interested in keeping civil rights as a campaign issue than in giving any rights to the Negroes.
Yet progress has been made. More Negroes are registering and voting in the South than ever bee. More of them are daring to move into white distriets in the North, and are entering the major sports and professions.
All these gains, to be sure, have been made within the framework of a general Jim Crow policy and practice both in the North and the South. The gains only point up how far the Negro people have to go bee they really achieve equality of status in America. But every gain eases the road the next one. Every gain gives the Negroes courage and self-confidence, and lessens the powers of resistance of the Jim-Crow-minded whites.
The Negroes, or at least a section of them, have always struggled equality in America. But some years now they have had a powerful ally. Since the rise of the CIO in the mass production industries with its official anti-discrimination policy, tens of thousands of Negroes have found their way into industry and into the organized life of the unions. They have struggled on the picket lines side by side with the white workers. They have thus become more integrated into the major industries, and have gained a new status both in the Negro community itself and in the nation as a whole.
Much remains fo be desired in the practice of even the most advanced CIO unions with regard to the Negroes, and many AFL and independent unions still disgrace the American labor movement by blatant Jim Crow policies. Independent Socialists have as one of their chief tasks inside the labor movement to educate and struggle complete living equality Negroes.
The integration of the Negroes into industry has-been a product of the last war and of continuing high employment. Although the ISL is against a policy of “super-seniority” Negroes, as a harmful policy whieh tends to divide the labor movement, it seeks to do all in its power to prevent discriminatory layoffs and downgrading of Negroes when industry slackens its pace.
The ISL stands the right of all Negroes and other minorities to live and work without discrimination, whether they be workers, professionals, or even capitalists. But as socialists we are particularly concerned with the great mass of Negroes who are workers.
In the political and social conflicts which lie ahead, the struggle against discrimination and the struggle the political and economic emancipation of the working class will m part of the same fight against a decaying capitalism. In this situation the upper-class Negroes will pursue, as usual, a policy of keeping the Negro masses tied to capitalist politics.
The ISL advocates the independence of all workers from capitalist parties and capitalist politics. We also urge upon the Negro trade-unionists that they start to contest the political leadership now wielded in the Negro community by the rich. Only thus can they lead the Negroes away from their futile alliance with and dependence on the capitalist parties, and toward alliance with the working class as a whole.
Independent Socialists rejoice in every gain made by every member of the minority groups in America. They seek everywhere to educate and struggle complete equality and against all ms of discrimination. In the legislative field, the fight the civil-rights program is today the front line of battle equality. Every kind of mass pressure must be applied to ce the betrayers of the Negro people in both capitalist parties to fulfill their cynically given campaign promises.
As revolutionary socialists we believe that the complete emancipation of the minority groups in America will come only when all workers, regardless of color or creed, have united and achieved real political arid economic power as the first step towards socialism. But such unity and such power can only be achieved if we struggle today equality, democracy, full employment and a rising standard of living all. The struggle full social, political and economic equality now is the ISL an indispensable part of the struggle socialism.
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