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present moment. By indiscriminately branding all unions as natural enemies of the Negro workers, by blurring over the role of the Communists and revolutionary trade unions, the only force fighting for the rights of the Negro toilers on the economic field and against the reactionary trade union A. F. of L. bureaucracy--this means not only to deceive the Negro workers, but to sabotage their struggle against Jim-Crowism on the job, in the shops, factories, etc., to give direct support to the capitalists and the fascist A. F. of L. bureaucracy.
At the same time, in this editorial, the gate is left open for an active collaboration of the A. F. of L. bureaucracy and Negro reformists.
[[quote, indented and in small prints]]
"We are in principle behind the A. F. of L. in its efforts to organize the automobile workers and establish closed shop... Unfortunately, while the A. F. of L. stands for [[italics]] democracy and equal rights for all labor in principle [[/italics]], it has not done so in practice.... We shall believe more firmly in the A. F. of L. when it changes its policy of segregation and discrimination existing in most of its affiliated organizations." [Emphasis mine--H. H.]

[[/quote]]

According to this, Jim-Crowism is not a fundamental policy of the A. F. of L. bureaucracy. Oh, no! This bureaucracy stands for "democracy and equal rights for all labor". Where then rests the responsibility for Jim-Crowism? This, we are given to understand, rests with the prejudice of the rank-and-file members of the various unions. The innocent A.F. of L. bureaucrats have merely succumbed to the pressure of this prejudice of the rank and file! This is what the A. F. of L. bureaucrats would have the Negro workers believe.

Sharper Struggle for Everyday Demands!

Comrades, all of this means that the Negro reformists are out definitely to challenge our influence and leadership over the Negro workers in the trade unions field. It is quite

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clear that this can be combatted only on the basis of more serious and energetic work by our trade unions among Negroes, more energetic struggle in defense of the demands of the Negro workers by our unions and oppositions in the A. F. of L. We must seriously begin an active campaign of recruiting thousands of Negro workers into our revolutionary trade unions, to make the revolutionary trade unions the "main levers for the organization of the Negro masses," as called for in the Resolution of the Fourteenth Plenum of our Central Committee. We must now seriously undertake the task of building up a revolutionary trade union opposition in the Jim-Crow locals of the A. F. of L. Our white comrades in the revolutionary opposition in the A. F. of L. must come to the fore as a leading force in the fight against the Jim-Crow policies of the A. F. of L. bureaucrats. Similarly, our white comrades in the independent unions must energetically advance the struggle for the specific demands of the Negro workers. One fo the most important duties of our revolutionary trade union opposition is to bring forward fearlessly and unhesitatingly the specific demands of the Negro toilers against Jim-Crowism and for the unity of the Negro and white toilers in the struggle against the capitalists. It is to the greatest interest of the white workers to defeat the Jim-Crow policy of the A. F. of L. fakers, since it is just this policy which is one of the main instruments of the bosses to paralyze and demoralize the struggles of the entire working class.
We must establish our groups and fractions within all so-called Negro independent unions. Any white chauvinistic slurring over the special demands of the Negro workers is more dangerous than ever. It plays directly into the hands of the capitalist oppressors. It is equivalent to desertion of the masses to the bourgeois nationalists, to give direct support to the fascist strikebreaking efforts of the bourgeoisie and the A. F. of L. fakers.

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