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of imperialism on their already meagre markets in the Jim-Crow districts of the cities. It reflects an attempt on the part of these elements, under the leadership of petty-bourgeois visionaries, to find escape from their plight. This they seek to do by desperate appeals for race loyalty and solidarity, etc., and through advocating mass migration either to a Jim-Crow utopia within the country, or back to Africa. Here, presumably, they will have the opportunity of exploiting "their own masses", free from imperialistic competition, and develop into a full-fledged bourgeoisie. In support of these reactionary and illusory dreams, the petty bourgeois nationalist leaders are making feverish attempts to establish a mass base among the Negro poor farmers and the most politically backward sections of the working class, particularly among the unemployed.

At the same time, the growth of these movements reveals the breaking away of sections of petty bourgeois intellectuals, formerly adhering to the leadership of official Negro bourgeois reformism as represented in the N.A.A.C.P., National Urban League, etc. It reflects an attempt on the part of these elements to formulate an independent program. But we know that the petty bourgeoisie as an intermediary class isn't capable of formulating an independent policy. It must either follow the revolutionary leadership of the proletariat or inevitably be drawn under the influence of imperialist reaction. 

Thus, while apparently voicing opposition to the official bourgeois reformist leadership, these petty bourgeois nationalist leaders objectively represent the interests of the bourgeoisie. Therefore, objectively these movements reflect an attempt on the part of the petty-bourgeois leaders to seize the leadership of the rising movement of the Negro masses against oppression in order to throttle it by diverting it into reactionary utopian channels, away from revolutionary
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struggle, and hence back into the fold of the bourgeois reformists.

This emphasizes the need for the further strengthening of the hegemony of the Negro proletariat and the leadership of the Communist Party in the Negro liberation movement along the lines laid down in the Convention Resolution. The leadership of the working class alone can guarantee victory to the Negro masses in their struggle for national liberation; the leadership of any other class will inevitably lead to betrayal and defeat.

The Crisis in the N.A.A.C.P. Leadership

This situation, the growth of our influence and prestige among wide strata of Negro masses, on the one hand, the defection of sections of the petty-bourgeois intellectuals and their attempt to formulate an independent policy, on the other--all this has resulted in a profound crisis in the top leadership of the N.A.A.C.P. This is the significance of the present squabbles among the N.A.A.C.P. leaders. This is the significance of the so-called "Left" opposition of Dr. DuBois to the N.A.A.C.P. leading group. Dr. DuBois and his friends pretend to criticize the Walter White-Spingarn leadership from the Left. This criticism has been along the following lines:

Accusations that the Walter White-Spingarn leadership is a self-perpetuating clique; that policies for the "welfare" of Negroes are being worked out in small committees responsible to no one; DuBois calls for more democracy, more autonomy to the local branches, that the organization cease its orientation on "the cultured few and turn towards the masses"; he advocates drawing of young blood into the leadership, etc., etc. According to him, the present conditions necessitate a radical change in the whole set-up of the organization "if it is to fulfill its historical role" (that is, of course, if it is to continue to be an effective agent of the 
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