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These self-styled leaders are preparing to repeat 1917. They are getting ready to call upon Negros to "close ranks" again for "democracy." Mr. William Pickens would have us support the British and French colonial oppressors in their fight "against Hitlerism." They are the lesser of two evils, he says. Mr. Roy Wilkins expresses disappointment at the "betrayal" of the Soviet Union. He thinks the Negro people have been gypped something awful. Reverend A. C. Powell, Jr., laments that the Communists really believe in socialism and officially announces in the columns of the [[italics} Amsterdam News [[/italics]] that now, since the news has leaked out, he will have nothing to do with the Reds. These gentlemen should be careful. At their present rate, they will soon find themselves in the camp of George Schuyler, "sage of Sugar-Hill," pen-flunkey of the white ruling class, whose contempt for his own race compares only with his blind adoration of all things "Caucasian"; who saves his sharpest weapons for attacks on his own people, as he did in the Scottsboro and Herndon cases. And this, indeed, is the company of the white ruling-class oppressors of the Negro people.
 
No! The Negro will not be separated from his allies. He will close ranks all right. But not with the bankers, the industrialists and the plantation owners who want war. Now is the time to close ranks with the white working class of America, with all progressive forces that are fighting for democracy and for peace.

It is this alliance of the Negroes and the white workers and progressives that has resulted in 500,000 Negroes becoming a part of the American trade union movement. This alliance has begun to break through the "Solid South" and has given rise to a growing movement for the right to vote. This alliance expressed itself in the powerful support given by labor and progressive whites to the fight for the Anti-Lynching Bill.

It is this alliance that has brought the fight for Negro rights forward in a manner unprecedented since before the
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Civil War and Reconstruction and has made the cause of Negro liberation an important factor in the political life of the entire country.

We need to act now to strengthen this unity. Later it may be too late. Later a man may knock at your door, point a menacing finger at you, and say: "Uncle Sam wants you." Our job is to save that gent the trouble. We've got to let him know now that we want America to stay at peace, that out fight is here--for [[italics]] real [[italics]] democracy. 

And in this fight new leaders are coming forward. They are coming from the heart of the Negro people. They are coming from many tests and struggles in the organized labor movement, from the farms and the schools. They know what the people are saying and they know how to repeat it so that it can be heard and heeded. 

They're not saying: "Lift your eyes to the hills." 

They're saying "Not me, brother. The Black Yanks are NOT coming!" 


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