Nal Negroes and in making a serious

_ *eross.the color line there in the South.

Then there was the major break-
Tough organizationally with what
Was then the young generation, “2
Beneration, of the late Thirties
farly Forties, in the Southern Nu»
Outh Congress.

this was a kind of premature SNCC,
Bech in a certain sense now builds on

€ traditions of SNYC. It had its head-
(uarters in Birmingham. At one time it
*mbraced the most active of the young
Feheration of Negroes in the South. It
Wad also attracted the largest number
4 Organized youth, white youth, ever
i Benized for any progressive objec-
# “© In the South.

H . In 1946, at-a conference in Columbia,

; een Carolina, there were over 300

| White delegates to a conference which

“4 about 1,200 delegates altogether.

Rio. represented a sizeable organiza-
‘e of white young people even

4. °Ugh it was the Southern Negro
| *outh Conference.

d > The role of Communists in. this or-
fs pzation was appreciated and
tknowledged. My wife was the exe-

: eezation at the time of the 1946 con-
ec’: I was educational director of
© party and director of special pro-

| ets at that time.

4 Over 1,000 delegates gave us quite
pc oft when we left the organiza-
a Nn to go into active work in the Com-

Unist Party. I left to become the
Party leader in Louisiana and this was
*ather publicly done.

a theouis Birman became the leader of
#) 1 SNYC. He was probably one of the
4 <Stloved and most brilliant members
fj Our national committee, who died a
“*W years ago.

7 Birere were other things. The party

wee a major role in the organization
f < the unorganized in the South. Com-
“qunists were the cadre of the South-
| .™ organizing drive in the Thirties and
7; the effort at a revival of trade union
} Sanization in the South immediately
tr the war.

Communists played a big role in the

fhemizations of maritime workers in

| “© Gulf of New Orleans; the CPUSA

| Played a big role in the organization of

Sa and smelter workers in the red

ig area of Birmingham; the same in
feel and coal.

In the Fifties — about 1953-54 —

Try workers in Louisiana. A federal
Mion was organized by the party. This
} , dted seeds that are just beginning
- pen to bear fruit in some organiza-
4 On of the rural poor in Mississippi
- ing on now with more resources.

: oh an ideological scene the Southern
°nference on Human Welfare was an

Ort to assemble a broad spectrum of
} Political views in opposition to the se-
| egated premises on which the South
. based. It strived to invoke the
} ,Ptit of Roosevelt and to build some
| ad coalition of forward-looking, in-
} “Cracial thought and program for
| Jotmation of the South. This confer-
: we has a continuer to this day in the
4 prithern Conference Educational
(Und in New Orleans, which is doing
} “Y important work.

a Hibune: What about the New Left?
} ,\fre’s a feeling in some sections of
| Jat is called the “New Left’, the up-
j'tge of the 1960's, that the party has

Sen bypassed, that today the Com-

Nists are not a major, or very live

"ce in the new movements springing
- ©n this continent. What would you
YY to that?

jckson: It is a fact that there is an un-
' meunate juxtaposition of two pheno-
ed One — the upsurge of a new
a dicalism with its roots in the reponse

the civil rights struggles of the

| ginning, at least symbolically, at ™
} “ging a bond of Negro-White unity

lve secretary when we left the or- .

al :
1 here were efforts to organize straw- _

Negro people and fortified by the new
militancy around the issue of the inter -
vention of our government in Vietnam.
So civil rights and peace are the kind
of two legs on which this new radical-
ism is standing.

But this wave of radicalism has
emerged at a time when the Com-
munists have enjoyed the least legal
opportunity in their history. The party,
to be practical, is largely illegal. Its
leadership has certain limited privil-
eges in the market-place _ of ideas,
especially on college campuses. It can
issue, from the. national centre, cer-
tain propaganda and educational ma-
terial and policy elaborations in res-
ponse to various events.

But in the country as a whole, in
the localities and provinces the party is
illegal. Party membership carries such
a penalty that no one can have employ-
ment. and be a recognized,. acknow-
ledged member of the party.

No.one can seek a scholarship who
is a member of the party. No one can
seek employment in the civil setvice,
or as a teacher, or can aspire to mem-
bership in any professional organiza-
tion; it is impossible to be a Com-
munist and become a lawyer.

The McCarran Act prohibits any
worker who has any direct or indirect
employment in a defense-connected in-
dustry employment. He couldn’t work

. in a restaurant that serves defense

workers. When you consider that about
90 percent of all American industries
are connected with military orders in
one way or another you see the enorm-
ity of the problem.

These are the sanctions imposed in
terms of the right to earn a living, to
exist on the freedom of conscience and
political commitment in the United
States.

This suppression has taken place
simultaneously with the upsurge of the
new radicalism. By contrast, in the de-
cades of the Thirties and Forties, the
Communists were initiators and were
in the vanguard of the radical upsurge
to the extent that it took place in both
decades.

In this upsurge the influence of the
Communists has been indirect, in the
way of ideas, in the way of suggesting
solutions to practical problems — but

primarily through anonymous interme- .

diaries. The Communist personality as
such, publicly identified as participat-
ing the the various struggles unfolding,
hasn’t been seen.

On the other hand the Communists
still represent a point of reference and
a position to which the whole Left
tends to relate its own doctrines and
goals and attitudes.

Now the struggle for free speech,
which is a big movement in the United
States now, and Berkeley (University

of California) is the classic develop-

ment of it, was initiated by the Com-

‘The wave of radicalism of the
Sixties has come at a time when the
Communists have enjoyed the least
legal opportunity in their history.’

‘Throughout the Thirties the Com-
munist Party was the only force of
any serious commitment involving it-
self with the struggle to organize the
Negro masses in resistance against
segregation.’

munists around the challenges made by
the late Ben Davis and Gus Hall for the
right to appear on the American

_campus.

This movement has activated thous-
ands of students. The wave of struggle
to hear the Communists was a key un-
locking the door for a silent generation
to become an involved and articulate
generation. This movement was quickly
reinforced by the summons of the
civil rights movement in the South
which added an additional dimension
to the new radicalism.

In a certain sense this new radical-
ism, at least from the standpoint of the
college campus, could be dated from
the crusading tours the Communists
made on American campuses in the
past four or five years, asserting their
right to a place in the market-place of
ideas and in the movements around
these ideas. We estimate that we’ve

’ spoken to over two million persons in

the past four or five years.

Tribune: We are told that a lot of young
people feel they can’t identify with the
party or can’t carry on a dialogue be-
cause. some old-style party leaders
carry on a diatribe instead of dialogue;
they preach, they’re doctrinaire, they're
dogmatic. What can be done, and
what can you do in the United States
to try to change the party? All over the
world parties are going through this
struggle of change. Are you struggling
to make changes to try and attract the

younger generation?

Jackson: The question of learning the
language in the current democratic re-
volution, of the new radicalism, and to
divorce ourselves from the concept
that we have the golden fleece some-

‘We played a major role in the

‘ organization of the unorganized in

the South.’

where in our pockets, a give-and-take

in testing concepts and well-worn no-
tions with the young people, this is
rather advanced, I would say, in our
party. But it is a continuing struggle.

I would say that a majority of the
leadership is committed to a refreshing
of approaches and recognizes that for
the life of the movement and the ef-
fectiveness of the party in advancing
social progress in the country it is ne-
cessary to make an organic influx with
this: emergent movement of young
radicals out of the current generation,
who base themselves on experiences
that are quite new and quite of this
decade. :

Ee ee Se eee ee ce
‘We must win this cadre’

We have to face the fact that we are
finding it difficult to win to our banner
these young militants who have com-
pressed in two or three years the kind
of experience that most militant trade
unionists would take 10 or 20 years to
acquire in terms of the number of

- arrests.

You take John Lewis, who is about
26 years old, the head of SNCC, who’s
been arrested about 50 times. Out of
pragmatic physical encounter with the
ruling class he knows full-well the role
of the police and state in protecting
private property and the status quo
relationships and that they’re not in
business to secure the rights of anyone
or to enlarge human freedom.

He knows where the enemy is in
terms of the class structure. He is un-
clear as to the potential of the working

December 3, 1965—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Pgs

class. He knows the limitations of the
middle class and the middle-class liber-
als, that they’re an unreliable element.
He knows the numerical quality of the
working class and something of its his-
tory. But he is very dubious that it is
the deliverer of mankind.

The point is that there are many like
Lewis and many others, They. number
thousands, We can write down on paper
the names of a hundred people, Negro
and white, who are the best of the
young generation. If we can’t win them
to the party, then we are failing.

We have to win this cadre or we are
denying to the party its vanguard role.
A party of the working class and of the
oppressed has to represent the leaders
who are in motion, those-mdst sacrific-
ing. We have to solve this problem.