Jim Crow in Los Angeles

.BgO ApYV AYJ

MA( N

HAROLD

Foreword

FUEVDmi SBG1XS AT HOME

December. 1946 WORKERS PARTY,

Angeles Sec*; on .

L.A.

3314 SO. Gi?: 1 ^^
IQS AiVGcLES /-■■■•-

WORTrtc"^ iXl .
3 "* w «* Pico mvd f • ^ACR Ty

• • Room j. ■ .

Te ' : Richmond 7-3230 An^l " e, 15

J'M CROW IN LOS ANGELES

Not the kind v
wi «- ™ eas chamb ™™*« ' «bout over in EllI . 0 , 3e N
cceentrntion can,^" Thflt only th „J f^ 0 ^

™* -/to f„, k , ,,M| "' <" "™ »„„ „,,,-,. „„,„ «

i.o. uV« '" iho »■•„■ „ •

Ha m « i • 'hi.,.., abp " wl " <"

«»■> »» f amil ;., »° ™ "■■> »™« ,„ . fhid ,,„

3

centra! Nugro district for 1<)44 <n Po ,

'--one,, in n concentration 1" 6 are there Ji)(e

but l>cca,sc they ai , chained the * b a dST ^ ^

Meres Me whole picture- ' "^Wtioii '

»»"♦«» number of Z'J ^ WOrk * r *- hod to so

'*<" were . h^ £ ™« «P« ><> . OB . wWt . ^ ^ /llto } „ e

la-cn , ' • , h;ul ''""Mod ..

roven;,,,,,... JuU " ! * ^ J in , CV ()U svs J!,C ' lt - k " ir «' -•.'.to

c ' ni °' "restrict ivp

lore the Zl^ 1 ^ " «

must
■ui<]

The ".secrpf" r.-,

"iridic line ot the

J, Thf£m?v?, V *e ^ e Hous '«g Projects

Nes, ° ""»"'- """ act,,, " ,j ' 59 £

' - * « , ;i,::r and ^ """"" to ih *

built houses t0 be f0Und J n t£S° 'T ,M wh '<* <nr

year afte, ereor u » uv °M«Wy *n^S™ i > ' 1 ' '""'"-ierrv-

ThiTh \ WP '" hevN »f the n 1 >P "'!'"* 3 °0 „cr

Behind the Restrictive Covenants

The heart of this vicious .system is the instrument known -
the restrictive coven ant. As

This is a "private" agreement by householders in a particu
lar area. It hinds them and their successors to refuse to rent
sell to non-whites. The courts enforce these Jim Prow contrarf 0 '
A present owner cannot rent or sell to a Negro even if he want's
to, because of a covenant made 25 years ago bv .somebody el -e
Kven if a Negri, .,\vns the property, he cannot use or occunv'V

The United Stales, "home of the free." according to the Vona
is the ONLY nation in the world where a citizen can be deprived
solely for his race and color, of the right to live in his own home'
That is the fact— the rest is only a song.

The present drive to renew and extend restrictive ,„^. n .....
is not exactly a spontaneous movement bv indignant hon,7
holders. What cu, the forces luki.u, the,,,; techinc,", it t,
iriiilc I, o 01 <•-(,„■ ,,c rs in „ .//„, do,,- front? ' '

In the first place, the banks and other tending institution
anx.oas to preserve their investments on real estate loan The
Hank ol America and the Securitv-First National p., It

irr mo r but r th « °» i >- — ni ;t a Lt ! f

t» h ance loans unless the area is restricted, thus forcing acUon
Allhowh the myth that Nesn, 0 ccui„,„cv ,mt,„ M t ,1 v ™-

Besides guaranteeing loans on race-restricted property, the VUA
has actually ''recommended insertion of race rest ricl ire cure-
wants as a pre-condition for its guanuitce of loans." reported
Loren Miller of the NAACP to a national conference last May.
Since that time the FHA has deleted this from its manual but
it is still to be seen whether its local oflices will change the actual
practice.

Fourth, particular moneyed powers trith rested interests.
Last May the magazine Now lifted the lid on the drive for a re-
strictive covenant in the square mile area bounded by Washing-
ton Boulevard, Grand, Exposition and Vermont, in the heart of
the city. This area contains a large amount of property tied up
with investments of the University of Southern California and
the Automobile Club of S. C. In addition, Chancellor KleinSmid
of USC and the Doheny oil family have mansions here. Tliese
three powers were squarely behind t he anti-Negro campaign. The
Auto Club's legal department was handing out blank agreements
and recruiting canvassers and admitted working in close collab-
oration with USC authorities. At USC. every fraternity and
sorority had signed up, except a Jewish sorority.

From the USC to the KKK

The role of the USC deserves an extra word. While it has
Negro students, its school of medicine rigidly excludes them; it
has drawn the color line on the athletic field for 3 5 years; it uses
a textbook on eugenics which preaches racism and Negro infe-
riority; its dormitories are Jim Crow. With all this, it is more
distinguished for football teams than for education, in which its
standing is notoriously low. And up to a recent revolt of its fac-
ulty (which was hushed up), its professors and instructors were
being paid salaries which were among the lowest in the country.
There's the combination ; Jim Crote, poor education t economic
exploitation and lots of rah rah — all in a university, mind you;
not an ordinary sweatshop.

Getting back to covenants, we list fifthly — plain ivctch ey-
ing. A fly-by-nighter sets up as a realtor, circulates covenant
agreements, and charges two to five dollars for the "privilege"
of signing, to cover the legal processing. A number of race-bait-
ing numbskulls can even be induced to do the actual work of

7

canvassing- for the "cause" while the operator collects the soft
fees.

Sixth on the parade is— the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan revival
in this state began last March with fiery crosses in Bio- Bear
Valley and an American Legion meeting- there where an avowed
Klan spokesman, Rev. Swift, declared: "We intend to form re-
strictive covenants here and elsewhere in order to hold the line
uf pure Americanism." More on that later.

Front finance capita! i<> the Hilda-world— that is where our
list has brought us. And in such a set-up you can be sure that the
capitalist politicians are not missing although thev are the bash*
ful boys who don't like their faces to show in such\r oillf , von ' An
exception is .a gentleman named Mclntyre Paries, whowas the
Southern California head of the campaign for Gavm^J u;..„
ren's election. This "friend of the peep-ul" is one of the top lead"
ers of the restrictive-covenant group in South Pasadena To
complete the circle, his law firm is also the counsel for the CiP-
Housmg Authority in Los Angeles! Du i f on get the picture* *

on the JST Branch™,-. The so-called Jefferson tract

™d"lei^ i T C0Vemint "institutional

drive mav be tn y?n r n ^ ° CC " rs ' the Jlm Crow

TOtion^ the W instrument of

tenant, to a flare-up of racist violence and

intimidation — encouraged by the money powers but carried out
by such agencies as the Klan ami local vigilante terrorists.

Such is the connection between "respectable" Jim Crow (as
practiced by the banks and real estate gangers) and race vio-
lence. The latter is brought to play when the other is knocked on
the head. The fight trill shirt ftum (in courts tn the field of de-
fence against terrorist gangs.

©Id Jim Crow on the Job

There is a "restrictive covenant" in the industrial plants too.

Last hired, first firtd: as soon as the "war for democracy"
and its labor shortage was over, the Jim Crow pattern began to
snap back.

Partly, it was automatic, because Jim Crow creates a vi-
cious circle. Being among the last hired. Negro workers were
among the earliest laid off. Heing given little opportunity for all-
around training under conditions of war production and race
prejudice, they w ;*ro the more easily weeded out when industry
could afford to pick and choose. Then the FKPC was killed in
Congress by the IX^noc ratio- Republican coalition and all vestige
of restraini was removed.

Or if it wasn't automatic, a >hove was given. For example,
at (he local Todd shipyard in the month following* Y-H Day,
Negr<> welders, especially women, wviv ii red even against union
seniority rules. This \\ (t s done ihmiigh the pretext of a welding
ri'-fost : the gowrnn. i'hf-- Navy iu>i>oci- cooperated by inspect-
ing 1. 1.- col-- 1 of ft;. *\.'|; ,r r:;ih< 'ban 'he test-plate.

iK-ri ii.vw f.. ir ,-..,] why fully t > tu*-i i u;i )*l <m* of all job

applicants \\".. 4, n ■)! , ' -m ilv 1". S. Ivhnploymenl Service
in Los Angeles : : < ui ias L . i r. . is grossly out ol orupoi-
tion to their six per cent of tin population. By now. the propor-
tion^ Negru unemployment is probably own higher.

The local US.KS ackn i- V th, i ; licit* l.-'iiary surv"
"r< reals a high a- percentage nf ape nig acknowledged discri ini-
tiation than had ever been preriattshf recorded," Nearly a third
of the job orders in the manufacturing field excluded Negroes.
Nearly a quarter of all job orders were discriminatory. This,
mind you, counts only employers who put down their prejudice
on paper and sign their names to it. The USKS policy is to co-

operate in yuch race discrimination as the agent for the em-
ployer. . .

The Negro worker is being pushed Dock into the economic
blind alleys marked out for him by the economic rulers of our
society!

All the jabberwocky that was handed out during the war
about the "new freedom" or all four freedoms that would fol-
low the defeat of fascist Germany is being- exposed as the regu-
lar patriotic poppycock that is handed to oppressed people when
their loyal services become necessary to tide the capitalist rulers
over a crisis.

The Lineup on FEPC

The attack on Jim Crow in jobs produced the drive for a
state-wide Fair Employment Practices law. The reactionary
state legislature turned it down several times. Was it just the
uiul, bud itcpublic;^ who bUv-kotl a state FFTW No. The Ne-
gro assemblyman from the 62nd district. dus Hawkins, openly
laid the responsibility upon hoth the \ Vjoocrai s : Ronubiica;!:;
(7,/j.s- AmjeLs Srnlhirl, Feb. 21, J Si- 1 * > ) .

hi the November, 1946, election, Proposition No. "11 for .
.si.,-it" !'[-;IV J-'HMu.-d by ;h-- t'faciionai'y entud fni.,i.

narked by plenty of money. Leading Llv fight against it were:
the vj" \ h Mills .4 .-a! Aianul'ai'i iiri'r.s -\sM>rbuu>n, tin- Assijciab'd
F.-'rmi'Ts. ihe Chambers f V»mme:ve. lie 1 Lo:< Anaelcs Times
and Hearst. Fven the fake-liberal lUtilt! .\Y f /\s eana- oi;\ against
it. Prominent in its support; wen the trade unions, both AFL
nnd CTO, as well as I he Negro organizat ions. Here over the issue
of race discrimination was the basic conflict of Capital and
Labor.

The Workers Party backed Proposition 11 all the way, But
we know that even an FKPC with a couple of teeth in it cannot
begin to clean out an economic system which iivt'ite race discrim-
ination in order to keep workers divided. The national wartime
FEPC showed that.

Roosevelt established the FF PC only at the threat of the
March-on-\Vashington movement headed by A. Philip Randolph,
president of the Sleeping Car Porters Union. And then, having
headed off this militant revolt for Negro rights, the new FEPC
"never received oitu hut tokejt *upj), i>print i<>i?s and never obtained

10

full presidential support" Inj Ilooseetlt. This is quoted from the
summary made of the FKPC by its owe director of field oper-
ations, Will Maslow. What is important to ivrnernber is that even
this concession by the govennnont was made only when the
Negro people threatened to take the fighi into their hands!

That's the kind of militant; action that opens the road \o
FEPC and to the death of Jim Crow.

The Klan Rides Again

The fight over FEPC brought into town that traveling sales-
man of race hatred, Gerald L. K. Smith, to do his bit for the Big
Business campaign against Proposition 11. Smith is only a vis-
itor to town, but his tie-up with the local Ku Klux TClan revival
has been proved.

The underworld character named Ray Schneider who was
Smith's bodyguard in Los Angeles has also been exposed as the
"Grand Dragon"" of the Klan. The Rev. Swift, who spoke for the
KKK at the Big Bear lodge of the American Legion, openly
stated that "Gerald L. K. Smith is our leader." The Ku Klux
Klan, whose post-war revival has made a national scandal, is
busy at work in Los Angeles! Testimony has been given that it
has 100 groups operating in Southern California, under various
names.

- The first fierij-cross huvniuu in Los AtKjelex proper took
place in May, 1946, on the front lawn of H. G. Hickevson of
56th Street, whose family for more than two years has been
waging a court battle for the right to live there. They are the
only Negro residents on the block and neighbors had brought
suits.

Typically, the police helitth-d tin- '-incident" as a ^diiUiisJi
prank/' and this has- boon their siantlaril reaction to Klan out-
rages. This is nothing but \illainous hypocrisy. In the J I ieker-
son case, for example, not a single neighbor appeared through-
out the whole commotion made late at night by radio cars, mill-
ing men and photo lla>h bulb.- — an amazing lack of curiositv:
The police did not eaiv i-» explain hn\v playful cliiklren put to-
gether the large, expcriU -carpentered wooden cross. Tins ^ ar i
of the story goes for mo4 nf the 27 cases of Klan activity which
have occurred in the city in the past months.

A fete days later, tit ry emssts h/>nied again — one in Kagle
Rock, where Grand Dragon Schneider had his KKK post-office
address, and another right on the campus of our old acquaint-
ance, the University of Southern -California. Here the police
trotted out the pat explanation "a student prank"— a student
prank which erected a hve-and-a-half-foot cross before the Jet-r-
isk fraternity Zeta Beta Tain and branded the letters KKK on
the lawn in flaming kerosene and in two-foot letters on the wall
of the house. The materials for the cross were definitely traced
to another fraternity, but to this day neither the police nor the
USC has lifted a finger. The university authorities moved only
to prohibit a protest rally on the campus.

In June and July again the "prankish children" of the KKK
struck. In case after case their eotutretion irith the rcstrictirc-
coveuaut dr iv e was clear to e cerium e l)ut the (fiutrdiaus of hue
and order. Two Negroes. Richard Bates and Fred Mills, are
knifed, beaten and their homes set afire after threats by a couple
of avowed Klan representatives who warn them "We're going to
run the Negroes and Mexicans out of this area." A retired Ne-
gro police captain, Homer L. Carroll., has the sinister letters
splashed on the sidewalk in front of his house— a house in which
he lives only because he fought and won a restrictive-covenant
case as the only Negro on the block. YVLth 27 years on the force
behind him, Garrott also had to listen to the stupid police ex-
planation, "childish prank."

The government from the Mayor dotnt has made it plenti-
fully clear that they are not the least hit int( rested in (jetting in
the Klan'H way. After the first cases, .Mayor Bowron blustered,
"I shall not tolerate these outrages." Hut not a thing was done
—not one arrest, not one suspect, not one clue in the "baffling"
mystery.

12

By September Mayor Bowron was bold enough to assort that
his ''investigations'* had shown no sign of KKK activity in Los
Angeles. Not a sign! This fine gentleman could not do more for
the Klan if he donned a white robe and hood for a City Hall re-
ception.

The KKK weapon is vigilante terror. In the nearby town of
Fontana last December the entire family of O'Pay H. Short, in-
cluding two young children, was burned to death at home as the

result of an explosion and fire which an expert investigator de-
scribed as arson. This followed shortly after warnings from two
deputy sheriffs and a real estate broker that the Shorts were
"out of bounds" ami a vigilante committee was meeting. The
government authorities never even pushed an investigation.

What if on see is a united front — police officialdom , yo re ru-
men t, propertied in teres fx, Klon and eiyilante hoodlums — oper-
ating in clos< harmony. They are making crystal-clear that the
Negro people and labor must depend on their own forces and
action to defend themselves.

The Police Scandal

That's enough on what the police do NOT do. But the dirtiest-
story in Los Angeles is the disgraceful record of police brutality
against the Klan's chief victims, the Negro population.

Just suppose

You are driving your car down the street, say, near Main and
101st. Two plainclothes men stop you — because, they explain

13

later, they think you "look like a suspicious character " p
you are "slow" in {felting on I ol the oar as ordered, they set
you with fists and yrn n-bu Its. No charge is laid ; you are not e' W "
booked; once you've been beaten up. you're released on identifi-
cation.

This is not an atrocity taie out of Naii Germany or Missis
sippi. This is the story of Dr. Joseph A. Hayes, welt known Neqro
physician who served three years in the Army Medicai Corps

Scarcely a week passes but that the local Negro press prints
one or more shameful reports of this nature. And those that do
get printed are usually only the worst in the week's news The
Hayes case is fairly "mild."

In the very same week another veteran, James S. Carter is
arrested for speeding. He apparently was speeding. He is there*
fore beaten up in a squad car, charged with car-stealing for good
measure, and the cop in the squad car tells him : "Wlmt ,<•<> nlundd
do j.s- treat the v....rs litre like the,, do hi (hon,iu. Then we
wouldn't have any trouble with you n....ra."

Here's one that's different. Lynford Johnson, who is a white
man, is arrested on June 22 because he. is walking along Main
near 97th with a Negro friend. The police grill him on thYnro
pnety oi his association. He is NOT beaten up. just hauled to
jail and booked tor investigation. After all, he is not a Neero
—just walking with one. g

Three plainclothesmen break into a house near Central and
42nd looking or a crap game. A crowd gathers to watch the ex-
110 ™» ^ e cops charge into the crowd

nstead. Mouthing racial insults, one of the officers begins hit-
t.ng the nearest person with a cane. The victim. Jl„ v UoZ cl s
beaten unmercifully in the sight of a... then r.hoved'into a i

14

car and driven around Tor an hour and a half while being beaten
and cursed. An officer tells him on the ' ride": ".4// / want to do
is to take mij pistol and whip a tt....r to death tritii it. The onhj
reason I don't because I niitjltt tjel in u little trouble about it}'
But relax— justice finally triumphs. The victim. Howard, is freed
of charges, even though he lands in a hospital. Tlu officer*?
Xothinif happen* to them!

One more case, of an instructive kind. A 13-year-old boy of
Mexican extraction, Kugene Montenegro, is ordered to stop by a
deputy sheriff, on suspicion of burglary. He runs. The oflicer
thereupon draws his gun and shoots the boy through the back!
This is what is meant by the outcry against the cops who get
-trigger-happy" when they enter minority-group districts. And
we haven't even mentioned uu cases of general "shoving
111*01111(1," discourtesy, rough h-. filing, and so on.

C/fy Hall Slips a Wink to the Cops

Last January the Mayor's "Committee on Home Front Unity"
held h confab with police representatives on the charges of po-
li-;v bruiaMiy. All the police could muster was a denial that it is
ihe /./<.■/."<;'// ol' the department to use brutality against minority
group*. This stupid defense is only a cover for the fact that the
department tolci-tttts, trh item/shes and condones such action!

Walter Wanger, the motion picture producer and a member
of the Committee, contributed tite brilliant suggestion that the
police should improve its public relations with the Negro press,
and a motion was passed. That's all, folks.

All the cases of police brutality we have mentioned took placv
ff//<r this conference.

Negro police ollicers on the force have always been relegated
to routine -tasks in uniform and neither promoted nor given in-
centive and opportunity. There has been a steady decline under
How ron's administration in the number of Negroes assigned to
the Newton Street detective bureau. When the present crew
came into City Hall in 1938. a Negro was acting captain at the
station. Now there is not one colored detective-lieutenant there
and only two detectives. In the entire force the number of Ne-
gro detectives has gone down almost half, and the number of
detective-lieutenants to zero. Doex atnionc think these facts have
no cti/niectioii tritii the mo/nitiiifj menace of KKKism in the po-
lice force?

In

What does "respect Tor law and order" begin to nu*an under
such conditions? How can one expect Negroes, who see the hand
of the government and its police raised against them every day
of their lives, to feel anything but resentment against an author-
ity which oppresses them so cruelly? Ec<ntn»uv e.rpluital it>,} and
racial oppression — these art the ttria evils of capitalism trhh-h
produce crime as a blind, antisocial }>r<>lcst tif/aiiist an intoler-
able way of life forced an subject fjronps, trhcthcr irhitv ny AY-
c/ro.

Poison — Beware!

Anyone who thinks this is just the Negroes' light is making
the mistake that keeps Jim Trow going and growing.

That goes for white workers who think race prejudice is not
their concern. That also goes for Xegro workers who come to
the conclusion: 'The whole white race is my enemy." If ludh
sides keep the con Hid on a race basis. Ihen Jim Trow wins auto-
matically.

Let's be practical about it. For Meqro workers, race hatred
is a club. For white labor, race hatred is a slow poison. The only
ones who benefit are those who exploit both. The on!y hope of
victory is through working-c!oss solidarity.

Ne^oes belong to a minority group, so called, by virtue of
color. Rut Negro workers (and !)0 per cent of Negroes are
workers) belong to the great .MAJOIMTV MROIT of this coun-
try. That great MAJORITY CliO[.T is thr working class, till of
whom are exploited by the capitalist profit-makers in an eco-
nomiL* system that breeds ran* ha 1 red a Ion:?' with the profit.

When that MAJORITY ClMH/P rinses its nmks and under-
stands its interests as an awakened CLASS, the .Jim Crow s>
tern will disappear like its ancestor, the slave system.

That, is wiiy the first principle of capitalism is— DIYIDK
AND RULK. Set native-born against foreign-born, Jew against
(Jentile, Negro against white, and laugh yourhead off while you
pick the pockets of ail of- them.

So the poison of "white supremacy" is carefully pumped into
the heads of white workers by the whole machinery of educa-
tion, movies, radio, newspapers, and so on.

One of the factories of these racial myths is right in our city
—the big dream factory known as Hollywood. Here, where the

Hi

pap for people's thinking is doctored up and slanted, the Negro
people are systematically portrayed only in the role of humble
menial, entertainer or Uncle Tom— so that when Kuropeans met
American Negro soldiers in the life they were honestly surprised
to find just MEN like themselves.

This is the kind of poison, spread not by the Gerald Smiths
and the KKK but by respectable powers in our society like Ilollv-
woocl and the press, which lies at the bottom of race riots. Los
Angeles too has seen these.

There was the pogrom of June, 1!M: V >, which the newspapers
camouflaged under the name of the "zoot-suit. riots." Carey Ale-
Williams described it in his book. Southern California t \ ittl it nj :
"Roaming the downtown streets, a mob of M.OOO hoodlums
dragged Mexicans, Filipinos and Negroes from motion-picture
theaters and street cars, beat thorn on the streets and sidewalks
and in many eases stripped them of their clothing. During the
rioting, policemen watched tlx 1 violence, made no attempt to
intervene, and arrested the victims of the mob after the mob
had finally abandoned them."

This, like the notorious Sleepy Lagoon case of August, KJ.J2.
involved the Mexican minority mainly, but perhaps even more
dangerous have been recent outbreaks of race violence in the
public schools directed against Negroes. In January the (Jum-
pers Junior High and in July the Manual Arts High School saw
vicious attacks by white boys upon colored pupils, and in liMG
there had also been several similar events in schools.

The racist poison seeps from the top down to those who are
the stupidest, most uneducated and fascist-minded, and gives
them the idea of venting all their hatreds and fears of insecurity
upon minority peoples as scapegoats. If they can even succeed

17

in setting one minority against another, then indeed tKe race-
baiters enjoy a good belly-laugh.

Last July many Negroes in Los Angeles received postcards
from something called the "Gentile League' 1 warning them to
"Beware of the Jews" and "slimy Jewish finance/' All this has
the same origin as similar propaganda against Negroes. Divide
and rule!

The same Jewish fraternity at I *SC which was the victim
of the KKK outrage had itself not long before been one of the
signers of the anti-Negro-restrictive covenant there. In the same
way, Negroes who fall for anti-Semitic or nationalistic anti-
while propaganda are digging their own pitfalls. Victory lies
only in real unity on class lin.es — black and white labor fighting
together to give the. nation's wealth back to the nation's workers.

Labor Is the Enemy of Jim Crow

This means in the first place a determined struggle inside the
trade unions to destroy every sign of Jim Crow in the lobar mova-
mntl. Every Negro worker knows how widespread this disgrace
is, especially in the AF'L. The fight against it is gaining, nation-
ally ami in Los Angeles. The groat "Operation Dixie" of the
CIO and AFL, the drive to organize Southern labor, is forcing
even race- mint led A PL craft unions to reconsider their restric-
tions, because the fight itself makes clear that labor can advance
only with racial solidarity.

In Los Angeles the A PL Central Council has taken a step
against the great evil through a new Committee to Combat In-
tolerance ami through aid to the East Side Labor Committee.
This is still only a token. But this is the direction for the strug-
gle — not to reject the unions with scorn but to fight to make
them clean instruments of class solidarity.

Even with the running sore of Jim Crowism in many trade
unions, it is the labor movement and only labor which has been
the greatest enemy of race discrimination. In Los Angeles, the
pressure of the CIO Auto Workers is forcing the auto plants to
open the doors to Negro production workers. After a fight by
Local 216 and the threat of action by C30-UAW President Wal-
ter "Reuther, the General Motors plant in Southgate last July
yielded and began hiring Negroes in production departments.

Labor stands to gain by abolishing Jim Crow — Capital needs

18

th e Jim Crow system-this is why the working class movement
is basically the ally of the Negro struggle.

Negroes can no more distrust any white just because lie
white than they can trust any Negro just because of his race
It is not a question of color. In the early months of 1946 'the
Culinary Workers Union started an organization drive in the
Central Avenue district. The average wage of .-mlinary workers
in this area was 20 to 50 per cent lower than in other sections
of the city. Negro emploj era came J orth with the very same anru
ments for segregation and wage discrimination as their white
capitalist brethren.

The Central Avenue "community" turned out to be not one
but TWO: the community of employers versus the community
of labor. Race segregation and Jim Crowism, it was made clear
is indeed in the interests of certain Negro business and profes-
sional elements, who use the segregated Negro districts as their
own preserves for exploiting the members of their own race.
Black or white, the strewn of profit in thicker than the blood
stream.

The Communist Party Sell-Out

Can we look to the Communist Party to lead the light?

To many people the Stalinist CP is a puzzle. On the one
hand, they remember when the CP used to lead militant strug-
gles like the defense of the Scottsboro boys. On the otter hand,
more and more Negroes in latter years have been disillusioned
as>they realize that Uncle Joe Stalin's boys use the. Negro ques-
tion only as a football, as it suits their changes in line.

During the war, for example, the CP line was "National

19

unity" for the war and soft-pedal the Negro fight. No "fuss"
that might "divide the home front/' So in the CIO here they
voted down resolutions of protest against Jim Crow in the armed
forces; they gave up their organization in the South; they liqui-
dated their "National Negro Congress" in Los Angeles and else-
where; they denounced the Mareh-on-Washington movement
because it was too militant. // iras ft policy of lying do ten and
keep in (j mum just when the juneers-t hut-he were moat afraid of
SUyro d iseon tent.

This sell-out line of the Stalinists wasn't confined to the Ne-
gro fight. The CP was telling ALL labor to play dead, not to
strike, let itself be kicked around, for the sake of the war.

The key to this "nuzzle" is really very simple. The CP line-
changers are interested in only one thing: What helps Stalinist
Russia's world policy at the moment?

During the Stalin-Tl itler alliance, Russia was hostile to Amer-
ican imperialism because it was allied with the Axis. So— the
Stalinists here icott all out for militancy, to weaken the Amer-
ica/} tear machine in the interests of the Axis, Then Russia be-
came an ally of American capitalism, and the Stalinists here
followed suit. So — the line iras "no trouble" "national unit}/,"
no strikes. Today Russian imperialism and Wall Street imperial-
ism are again quarrelling over the division of the spoils. No—
the Stalinists once again beyiu to favor "militancy'' against the
American capitalist*, because they are the ugotts of the Russian
rulers. They set about reviving their National Negro Congress
in Los Angeles, and their local mouthpiece, the California Eagle,
toes the new line.

This outfit, which still calls itself the Communist Partv, is
no more "communist" or "socialist" or "red" than the Demo-
cratic Party of Bilbo and Rankin is truly democratic. Socialism
ar the real communism of Lenin and Trotsky — menus political
and economic freedom. It is not the totalitarian horror undo
Stahu in Russia. We want neither Uncle Toms nor Uncle* Joes
who wish to use the Negro people as catspaws.

Whom Can We Trust?

By their deeds shall ye know them. They told us "Trust Roose-
velt." They tell us "Trust Wallace." They tell us "trust some-
body" — but don't you dare take your own right into your own

20

hands. We of the Workers Party tell you:

Trust NO ONE, black or white, who promises to "do you
good" while YOU sit back and watch. No one ever got his rights
handed to him by somebody else!

YOU have to act. YOU have to join the fight, YOU have to
organize, from the bottom up. THEN you will see those who are
fighting consistently at your side.

Here in the Los Angeles city government we have a glaring
example of the practical result of supporting capitalist politi-
cians who are elected as "progressives," friends of the people,
and so on. The same Mayor Bowron whom we have had to men-
tion so many times was elected to oiiice with the complete sup-
port of the CIO leaders, the PAC and the (-ommmiist Party!

This is really an eye-o f )cning fact. You might say: Well, they
got stung. Riyht, but tabor has been getting stung just this way
for a couple of hundred years, by supporting "good" capitalist
politicians against "worse" capitalist politicians. The capitalists
always give you a choice, a better and a worse, and whichever
gets in. they are still on top.

It's about time that labor C|uif wasting votes on any capitalist
party and went into politics for itself. That means it must or*
ganize its uv;n independent political action not to support a Row-
ron or a Wallace or another "good" capitalist, as the PA(' docs
today, but in order to put labor s men in the government. Work-
ers cannot depend on anything but a workers' yarerament , which
will really oust monopoly-eapitat and run our economic and po-
litical life for the masses of people.

To this end, savs the Workers Parlv, labor must break with

all the Democrats and Republicans ami form ITS OWN INDE-
PENDENT LABOR PARTY, based on the trade unions. Only
an independent Labor Party which has a sweeping program of
basic social change can represent the interests of Negro and
white workers in their joint struggle for a world fit to live in.

The Final Answer to Jim Crow

The first answer is a fighting program for immediate action
against Jim Crow. Such a program for Los Angeles is on the
next page. It is the platform of the Workers Party. It should be
part of the fight of any organization worth its salt.

But the Workers Party goes beyond this first answer. We
have already tried to show why. We have tried to bring out that
the Jim Crow evil is only a part of the greater evil which besets
the world we live in. That greater evil is the exploitation of all
labor by the small minority of capitalists who control our lives
because they are the private owners of the means of life — of the
factories, mines, machinery we work on.

They divide and rule. They wage wars for their profit. They
make a farce of democracy. They throw us out on the streets
when their system breaks down. The Negro people are victims
caught in the gears of the capitalist profit system.

That is why the Workers Party lights Jim Crow, as part of
the fight For a better world for all. 'That is why the Workers
Party was the organization which initiated the struggle against
Gerald I,. K. Smith in Los Angeles last year. That is why it brings
yon this pamphlet. That is why its national newspaper, Labor
Actmii, hammers away at the race hatred which the capitalists
use to hoglie all labor.

We stand for the proposition that the workingmen must take
the means of production into their own control, under their own
ownership— and organize industry through a democratic Work-
ers' Government which will abolish exploitation and profit-
squeezing.

This is economic democracy, and it is called Socialism,
We believe that those who see straight and fight clear to the
end cannot stop at merely patching up evils here and there. They
must band together in a fighting vanguard for the radical aboli-
tion of capitalism and for a SOCIALIST DEMOCRACY.

Don't just grumble, curse or weep. Understand, organize and
fight! ALL THE WAY — WITH THE WORKERS PARTY!

Plan of Attack on Jim Crow in Los >lnge/

DEMAND OF THE GOVERNMENT:

(1) Outlaw restrictive covenants— ban any contract based
on' racial discrimination. Withdraw city building rights and
licenses from landlords and real estate companies that practice
or organize race discrimination.

(2) Abolish all race quotas in housing projects, public and
private.

(3) Initiate an adequate low-rent housing program which
will permanently alleviate the congestion in the Negro districts.

(4) Make all race-discriminatory practices by landlords ami
employers a criminal offense.

(5) Set up a city Fair Practices Commission on Employment
and Housing, with power to put teeth into its decisions, the com-
mission to include representatives of labor and minority groups.

(6) Demand that the city police and county sheriff authori-
ties cease shielding and giving protection to Ku Klux Klan and
vigilante terrorist groups.

(7) City Council to set-up a commission to try police officers
accused of racist brutality, with power to fire and institute ac-
tion against the criminals in uniform, the commission to include
labor and minority representatives.

(8) Immediate appropriations to improve transportation,
lighting, recreation and library facilities in the Negro districts,
FIGHT IN YOUR TRADE UNIONS AND

NEGRO ORGANIZATIONS FOR:

(9) Labor and minority groups to organize their own de-
fense formations against vigilante and KKK threats and out-
rages and fascist campaigns like those of Gerald L. K. Smith.

(10) Equal rights for members of minority groups in all
trade union locals. AFL and CIO Councils to demand the revoca-
tion of the charter of any local guilty of race discrimination.

(11) An independent Labor Party, based on the trade unions
— aiming at a Workers' Government and basic social change.

.(12) Get the Negro organizations, and other organizations
fo which you belong, to adopt these planks as part of their plat-
form and to organize militant action to carry them out.
AND FOR YOURSELF —

(13) Join the socialist vanguard in the Workers Party, to
push this program everywhere and to lead the fight for a revo-
lutionary Socialist Democracy!

READ

LABOR ACTION

A weekly socialist newspaper with hard-hitting
articles on the war and its profiteers, the trade
unions, the Negro people, the imperialist intrigues
of the Big Powers, and the fight for Socialism.

PLENTY FOR ALL by Ernest Lund

A basic booklet on socialism. Read it to find out
why capitalism cannot give the workers Plenty
for Ail but only wars, depressions, and fascism.
Find out how a socialist society would create
Plenty for All.

JOIN US IN THE FiGHT

I want to find out more about the Los Angeles Section
of the Workers Par. v.

Send me more literature.

Send me notices about your meetings.

Tell me how 1 can join the Workers Party.

Mail to:

Workers Party Your Name

Los Angeles Section

316V2 West Pico Blvd. Address

Room 1

Tel.: Richmond 7-3230 City ond Zone