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FREEDOMWAYS                 SECOND QUARTER 1973

pared to cope with this situation. It is the opinion of the conference that the welfare of white and black labor are one and inseparable and that the existing agencies working among and for Negroes have conspicuously failed in facing a necessary improvement in the status and security of Negro labor.

"The Negro worker must be made conscious of his relation to white labor and the white worker must be made conscious that the purpose of labor, immediate or ultimate cannot be achieved, without full participation by the Negro worker.

"The traditional labor movement as based upon craft autonomy and separation which is non-political in outlook and centering its attention upon the control of jobs and wages for the minority of skilled white workers is an ineffective agency for aligning white and black labor for the larger objectives.

"These objectives can only be attained through a new labor movement. This movement must direct its immediate attention to the organizing of the great mass of workers both skilled and unskilled, white and black. Its activities must be political as well as economic for the purpose of effecting such social legislation as old age pensions, unemployment insurance, child and female labor, etc. These social reforms may go to the extent of change in the form of Government itself.

"While the accomplishment of these aims cannot be achieved except through the co-operation of white and black, the primary responsibility for the initiation, development and execution of this program rests upon the Negro himself. This is predicated upon the increased economic independence of the Negro. No matter what artificial class difference may seem to exist within the Negro group it must be recognized that all elements of the Race must weld themselves together for the common welfare. This point of view must be indoctrinated through the churches, educational institutions and other agencies working in behalf of the Negro. The first steps toward the rapprochement between the educated Negro and the Negro mass must be taken by the educated Negro himself. The Finding Committee recommends that the practical implications of this program be referred to a committee on continuation to be appointed at this conference."4

Young Blacks such as Abram. L. Harris5 recognized the inadequacies of Blacks adopting a conciliatory attitude toward those who controlled industrial and economic opportunity, through subservience to the wealthy and through the establishment of a sort of self-suf-

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