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From Socialist Appeal, Vol. 5 No. 4, 25 January 1941, p. 1.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
BOSTON, Mass., Jan. 20. – Perhaps the most stimulating aspect of this tour for me has been the opportunity to meet and talk with the militant Negro workers of the steel mills, auto factories and other mass production industries of the Ohio, Michigan and upper New York areas. These Negro workers have found equality with the white workers in the great CIO unions of these industries, and now they are more than ever determined to establish equality for Negroes in other fields and to drive Jim Crow out of the country.
I want to pay a special tribute to our Buffalo (N.Y.) branch; though a newly-formed branch, our comrades there have not only distributed literature and discussed, political problems with Negro workers, but have also done unusual work in fighting at union meetings for the Negroes’ right to jobs. It was natural, then, that in my Buffalo audience there were 25 Negro workers,
Good work in this field is being carried on in Toledo also. Our friends there were able to arrange to have me address a meeting sponsored by the Toledo Discussion Group at the colored Y.M.C.A. and 30 of the 40 persons present were Negroes. The question and discussion period showed that they are anxious to abolish Jim Crowism in the army, and are impressed by our program of trade union control of military training. What stands in the way of whole-hearted acceptance of this program by the Negroes is the reactionary, lily-white AFL unions. We must make clear, in explaining our military program, that it goes together with a fight against the lily-white policy in the unions.
From the reports of Akron rubber workers, Cleveland auto and Youngstown steel workers. I am confident that Roosevelt’s “all-out” program will meet with difficulties. These workers know of the huge profits of the bosses in the war industries, and they are militantly opposed to the plan of one-sided sacrifices for the workers.
The mass distribution of the Appeal in these areas and the excellent propaganda work of our comrades has played its part in building this militant attitude of the mass-production workers. And we’re just beginning!
Last night my first Boston meeting was held, with approximately 70 present, and Comrade Antoinette Konikow presiding. What a wonderful old fighter she is!
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