Communists
and the Negro movement

LOOK at the Communist Party
and the Negro Liberation strug-
gle in the United States was

_ f€cently provided for Canadians by

the visit to Toronto of Claude Light-
S0t, a spokesman: for the U.S.
Communist Party. Lightfoot spent
hree days in Canada. He spoke at

_ * public meeting in Toronto and to

Students at the University of To-

_ Tonto. He was interviewed for Trib-

_ Une readers by Stan Lynn. As a
_ National party spokesman Lightfoot

_ OW spends. about half his time in

N

ee ae men

€w York. But, spiritually and phy-
Cally, he says, he has never really
eft Chicago where he joined the
Ommunist Party in 1931.

si

Why do Communists think the
€gro liberation movement needs
& Communist Party?

moe ultimate objective of the
gro liberation movement, full
paaality, is unobtainable without
€ Communist Party, or left-wing
°rces. In the final analysis the
‘Struggle for equality can be realized
74 Y ina socialist society. The Com-
Unist Party is the advocate of .a

SOcialist society. This is the primary
Teason,

-Even before socialism is obtained,
ae the Negro movement to achieve

Substantial breakthrough in the
Wee against Jim Crow even
i In the framework of the capital-
é System is going to require the

Ort of the more radical element

Within society, including the Com-

Teversal o

«Civil rig

1) wh

Munist Party,

Re is clear that we cannot end
Hi a Stage of “tokenism” in the civil
‘8nts struggle unless there is a
z f the foreign policy of the
‘ntry, so that the country pursues
aoe aceful policy rather than an
S8ressive war policy. In this regard
ie Communist Party can and does

"Y a vital roie in the. struggle
v peace.

How widely do people in the

hts movement. Negro and
ite, recognize these factors?

ck IS a growing recognition
dane. necessity to make some fun-
in wvutal and very radical changes
at is called the “power struc-

ture’ or “establishmeni’. But to
many that idea is not yet identified
with the purposes of the Communist
Party. We see changes taking place;
but the Communist Party per se, as
a factor in altering the power struc-
ture, has not yet been seen too
clearly by many, although there is
an increasing number of persons
who are seeing this, especially young
people.

What do you mean when you
say the Negro can win equality
only in a socialist society? Can't
he win equality within the frame-
work of capitalism?

Impossible! Especially from the
standpoint of the economic situa-
tion. For 300 years or more Negro
Americans were robbed of the fruits
of their labor. As a result there has
been an accumulation of wealth in
the country which is reflected in
the ownership of the basic indus-
tries, the means of production, which
are owned and controlled on a lily-
white basis.

Just to say “I’ll give the Negro a
job in this establishment” does not
put him in an equal position. He
cannot buy his way into industry.
He can’t start at the ground floor
and work up as did those who built
up the industries in America in the
period of free competition under
capitalism.

So the only way the Negro can
receive a parity of ownership in
American industry will be in a so-
cialist society, when the working
class has taken control and when it
is not a matter of how much money
you have invested that determines
your voice and power. That is why
I say that full economic equality is
not possible under capitalism, and
as long as there is no full economic
equality there cannot be any mean-
ingful political equality.

What about the problem of pre-
judice? Suppose you could see
socialism established in the very
near future. Would that eliminate
the problems of prejudice, accept-
ability, and so on?

No, it would not. But it would
place the struggle against prejudice

tL LRT LA

on a, more favorable ground. For
what would be removed would be
some of the competitive influences
which were a legacy of the capital-
ist system, which pitted black work-
ers against white workers, black
people against white people. All of
the economic and sociological and
political reasons which have engen-
dered this prejudice and so forth
would .be removed.

But then to say it would auto-
matically be solved would not be
the case because it would require,
even under a socialist society, a long
period of people overcoming many
of the old prejudices and habits that
were» accumulated and formed
through centuries of ideological
brainwashing.

What are some of the most im-
portant things happening now in
the Negro struggle?

The most significant factor that
has entered the movement in recent
months has been a growing recog-
nition on the part of what I would
call the more left and centre forces
of the Negro liberation movement,

expressed by the forces around

SNCC and Martin Luther King, that
the struggles for peace and civil
rights are indivisible. This is new.

This is very meaningful because
the next stage of the struggle can
be realized only to the extent that
our country is withdrawn from war
purposes and concentrates on the
solution of domestic internal prob-
lems. So these sectors of the civil
rights movement are embracing the
struggle for peace wholeheartedly.
This was best symbolized by Julian
Bond, who was expelled from the
Georgia Legislature because he took
a firm, unequivocal position on the
struggle for peace.

The second significant aspect of
‘the struggle is the growing recogni-
tion that after 10 long years of
some of the most monumental and
militant and broadly-based strug-
gles that America has ever witness-
ed, the results have been tokenism
in respect to politics, some massive
breakthrough in the social aspects
of discriimnation; but economically

speaking the Neégro’s conditions are
worse than they were 10 years ago
when these struggles began. And
this is compounded in all the ghet-
toes all over the country.

The recognition that this problem
now must-be tackled would consti-
tute in my judgment the new factor
which is going to revolutionize ap-
proaches to everything in the civil
rights movement as well as the
country in general.

What are some of the social
breakthroughs you mentioned?

Well, in the struggle to desegre-
gate hotels, restaurants, public ser-
vice places and so forth, I would
say the gains have been more than
minimal, On all other areas it has
still remained token progress.

We have heard quite a bit about
the “dialogue.” Is the dialogue
between Marxists and non-Marx-
ists actually taking place in the
United States? What does it con-
sist of?

Well, the basic form of this dia-
logue in the last few years has
been the willingness of the student
body to hear the Communist posi-
tion. I would say we have spoken
to two or three hundred thousand
students in the last few years. We
have been invited to campuses all
over the country.

Are there any other examples of
the dialogue?

Well, I myself am going into-a
debate with one of the leading civil
rights forces in Philadelphia on Fri-
day (Jan. 28), on the subject: re-
solved that Negro equality is not
fully possible under capitalism. This
is the first time in many years that
a participant of that movement has
been willing to share a platform to
discuss the matter with us. This will
open up a dialogue. in a new direc-
tion.

an interview with CLAUDE LIGHTFOOT

February 11, 1966—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 5