oe

in the struggle — for racial equality

INTERVIEW WITH A U.S. COMMUNIST

The “old Left” is one of the cliches of the Sixties. Different people mean different things when they talk about “old” Left and “new” Left. We do not pro- pose to try to define these con- cepts here, except to suggest that the real question is the validity in the Sixties of what has been called the “old” Left. To put it more precisely: the role the Communist Party can play in bringing about social change which meets the needs of the people.

Last summer the Tribune pub- lished an interview with Ameri- can protest singer Phil Ochs,

whose songs, among other things, oppose the U.S. war in Vietnam and support the Negro struggle for equality.

In the interview Ochs suggest- ed that the radical movements in America today are not party- oriented, added that he himself

had no use for political parties

and said the Communist Party of the USA had been a “total fall- ure” even in the Thirties.

This, of course, provoked a lively discussion in the Tribune. While the Tribune did not share Ochs’ views on the Communist Party it did feel it had to publish

them to present a fair picture of the singer as he actually Is.

Last August, while James Jackson, editor of the U.S. Work- er, was In Toronto to speak at the Canadian Tribune‘s 25th an- niversary picnic the Trib staff spent an evening with him. Our talk, taken down on tdpe, was completely informal.

Part of it dealt with the role of

the Communist Party in the early struggles in the South against

segregation. Jackson also out- lined some of his views on the “new” Left today. We think our readers will find the discussion interesting.

THE ‘OLD’ LEFT —

Tribune: Did the Communist Party have any great influence in the

‘ Did it play a part in early civil

struggles there? -

Jackson: In the late Twentié throughout the Thirties the Co

Party was the only force of an stance, of any serious commitm volving itself with the struggle 4 segregation in the South and W! struggle to organize Negro mas resistance against segregation.

At that time, the National 4 tion for the Advancement of

People was the major organiza?) {\0

the Negro people, almost the ex one concerned with the broad qué of political rights and social pf

It was quite a reformist organia@

then, quite conservative, quite ti

‘jts approaches, especially in ref

to the South. It was more milita?

active in some key cities in no!

communities; but it had very

strength or influence in the South

The Communist Party was ac -several fronts, one in the area of croppers and farmers. In the croppers union there was a vé matic incident during efforts to ize—the so-called “battle of Tal

River”, where there was an ®

pitched battle between the union bers who were having a secret m

PSP HP 3,

eA BEG opt

in the forest-and sheriff’s deputi@®,| ;

posse-men representing the lan' Jo

This union was subsequently 5”) ed by terror. But it wrote 4 i!

heroic chapter in the resistance

James Jackson:

Tribune: Perhaps you could give us a few back- ground facts on your life?

Jackson: I recently turned 50. I was born in Vir- ginia, also the home of my parents. I went to pub- lic school there, then to Virginia Union University, then to Howard University. I was trained as a chemist, a pharmacist, and I joined the Communist Party when I was 16.

Tribune: What brought you into the party at 16?

Jackson: It’s dffiicult to say any one particular thing. My father was a pharmacist. We had a drug store in. the heart of a dismal slum area and I was sensitized to human suffering very early. Like most of the kids in our neighborhgod I felt the enemy was the police in particular and white people in general. -

They only came into the community as’ invad- ers, bill collectors, the police on some punitive ex- pedition for a Negro.

I wrote about these conditions when I was in high school — mainly descriptive articles on con- ditions of the slums and so forth.

: Then I went to college, rather young at the time. I was 16 and I was the editor of the school paper.

I went to a conference at King’s Mountain, North Carolina. This was quite.a nodal point in my life. There were real live socialists at this conference, and white people who were friends and interested in the social problems of Negroes.

It was a great stimulation and revelation to me. T heard about Communism and socialism for the first time — like finding one’s love. It seemed that I knew immediately that was what I, independen- tly anid crudely, had been aspiring to. From that

editor, The Worker

experience I considered myself a socialist. This W in 1931,

Tribune: What did you do after you were a trad

_union organizer?

Jackson: I became an organizer for and one of founders of the Southern Negro Youth Conferet! in 1937. I moved.from Richmond, Virginia, to Bil’ mingham, Alabama the next year and worked 0¥ of Birmingham until I went into the army in 19

During the war years I spent part of the time in Burma and China and passed through a stati? j briefly in India.

I returned to Birmingham after the war and W® the party educational director for the South. I 1946 I was the district organizer of the party © Louisiana and had a rather fierce encounter W¥ a kind of premature McCarthyite law. They voked some ‘Napoleonic codes” to crush the pa I had to leave after two arrests in New Orleat There was mob action there against the party.

I went to Detroit and became the party orga! izer for the Ford plant and the educational diré tor for the district. I was there during the 18-4 anti‘speedup strike, which was quite a big thi at the time. :

From there I went to New York and became t regional director of the South for the national c0 mittee. Then I was indicted under the Smith 4 and became a fugitive for five years because SO of us didn’t surrender to the authorities.

In 1956 we surrendered and went to trial. O” appeal we won the case. So I didn’t serve a pris”

- term under the Smith Act other than for about ©

week or 10 days while bail was being raised. i various other times I was arrested — seven tim” in the South during various activities.

December 3, 1965—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—P

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