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    © All Rights Reserved
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    11 views27 pages

    Interracial Movement Poor

    Uploaded by

    Mohamad Nasser

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
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    of 27
    an [NTERRACIAL MOVEMENT of the POOR? By Yom Hayden is a national officer, ast aresident — and southern P magica eae | OM HAYDEN University of Michigan, AND Carl Wittman is a recent graduate of Swarthmore Collere, and president of ~ Swarthmore Poli. ~ Eleal Action Connit- CARL Vi TTMAN Distributed by! Students for a Dem Avenue, New York City, and ite: Economie Research and Astion Project, 1100 E. Washing- ton, Ann Arbor, Michigan, ooratic Society, Room 3@2, 119 Fifth AW INTERRACEAL MOVENENT OF THE POGR? Some working notes by Carl Wittman and Tem Hayden Increasingly today we hear the call for @ movenant of the finerican poor, The eall is exciting to anyone who cates about demecratic inprovenents in cur vay of Life, and who ronenbers with nostalgia and some bittemess the echieve- ments and failures of the populist and labor moverents of ‘earlier times. But under the excitement is a sense of vast difficulty, end an historical knowledge of the tragic conflicts between groups of the same class situation which have prevented more constructive conflicts between truly-opposed classes. Our comments here are meant to be inconplete and unfelished, a set of working notes fer those In S05 and elsewhere who wonder about these problems as they work on them, The Nepro Freedom Novenont Any discussion of the prospects for an interracial class movement should be- With-an assessment of what people in the Negro movement are doing and care to do. In the South, especially the Black Belt South, the moverent's most typical Gonand is for the elimination of explicit racial barriers to the opportunities which all ether Anericans have: the right to vate, travel, buy focd, live whore money permits, and work where one's skills are appropriate. The movenent is cone ceived and led mostly by middle-class Megroes, specifically students, ministers, lawyers, housewive: t the increasing involvement of the urban unemployed and the sharecroppers is ¢ sipn that the movenent, as constituted, is just as importa: to the Negra lover classes, ‘The systen which keeps 2 middle-class Wepro fron getting e good education or a job commensurate with his skills, simultaneously scrapes the lower-class Kero between a reign of terror and starvation wages. Th seems to be substantial Negro class unity about progran within the Southem movement, When there are differences they occur along status lines, ith the more moderate and tradition-bound Nepro leaders being olacsified as Unele Toms, ‘mong the many effects of this movenent, there are four which are quite important for our exploration. The first La that it provides inpetus for Neproes elsewhere, and pre- cipitates action even where the terror conditions are net present. We in the North becone especially conscious of the instrumental value of the Southern moverent when we try to initiate a sinilar movenent anonn a mincrity without thig heritage, ¢.x. Puerto Ricans. Although "freedom" in the South and the North has quite different meanings, the subjective identity which legraes: fe01 is perhaps the most veluable asset ‘the Northern llepro movenent has today. ‘the second is that the Southern movement, in a number and varicty of ways, ment and preater activity from liberal institutions such inspires greater comni: as the churches and unions; it forces the government to lepitimize, and -Be ‘Diesa, cand therefore speed up civil rights activity; 1% evabens-concientious tn @ividuals to the possibility of doing souething rignt end effective. In general it shakes things up everywhere--and provides ¢ model of commitment and action whieh challenges those who are taking it casy or lecKing for a way te focus their amcety. The thind 1s that the movement drapatically raises political and economic of a fundamental impoctence for the whole society. The default of ccngress, an the shortcomings of the private econcuy are just two of fie dssues which natural beeame more pressing as the Negro struggle forces Americans to return to an euaiination“of thelr way of Life efter many Cold Var years of foreign pre-steupe ‘tions. ‘The fourth is that aa the present Souther movement moves towards legal equlity, which is beginning to happen in the urban areas and the uppar rim of states, the way will be more open for the movemsnt to consider new issues and make comections with the poor white population. ‘This ig not a mechanieal one- ‘Wo Process, of course. Orgenizetions Like SNCC are already talking and pro- graming on economic isgues whieh are of deep concern to poor white as well as _-Bost Souther Wegroes. And it is certainly possible to begin experiments in or- -ganizing whites inte political alliance, if not deep personal asacciations, vith the Negro comunity today, ¢.g. many miners in Hazard, Kentucky, are chang! their stereotyped conceptions of the Negro as they becane interested in expandil their movement across ail of Appalachie, vhere many of the unemployed miners ar Negro. Hovever, 1t docs seem generally true that the establishment of desegre- gation is the firet priority, and developing an interracial movement is much less feasible. (in this context the present civil rights bill might be very tmx ant in speeding the desegregation process.) As desegregatiaproceeds, what ere the possibilities for alienation betwee: the Wegroes and their real or possible vhite allies? The areas of possible alic tdon are twofold: between Negroes aud all viites, and between Negroes end poor whites. a In the first instance, there 1s a kind of Dleck nationaliom thet works un- easily within the integration movement itself. In meny organizations there arc disputes and splits over the color of leadersiip; whether vhites understand Negroes or Negroes, whites; whether whites, particularly white women, can be effective as organizers in Negro comunity. ‘hese issues are among the most sen: tive and aiffieult we face, and undoubtedly they will continue for an indefinite vericd of time. We suspect, however, that the tension in the movement will not be resolved on the side of an official black nationalist ideology, partly becau. it has not happened yet between Negroes end vhites in general even in the worst conditions of racist tyranny, Even were it to develop in some organized form, + would guess that of some future time the possibility of Megro-white alliances would reappear because a propran based primarily cn race will not improve the terrible social conditions which provide the impetue for the movement. A permane alienstion should not develop unless two groups continuslly interfere with the aeepest economic interests of each for a sustained period of time. Bven today 1 Poor vhites feel the threat of Negro sex potency, of Negro independence from the ‘or of any other ideological or psychological estrangement, this might ve of no consequence in the long run. As long as the Southern Negro does not directly ‘ireaten the white's livelihood by actully taking his job or destroying the quality of the white ehild's cducotion ( ond honce Livelihood in this society) auch eatrangenents are not permanent, end cen end whenever whites clecrly sec it is In thodr ceonomic intorost ce unite with the Negeo. One clase exemple of this happened in Cembtidge, Morylend. Six months of intensive roce warfare over the issue of public accotmodations*reforendum, with poor bites providing Fhe core of segtegationiat action and opinion. Only a month later, hovever, the United Packinghovse Workers organized three locals in Cambridge, on 9 racially- integrated basis, with militant Nogro leadorship carefully voiding anything whileh would upset the 40 percent white momborship. After one of the locals was recognized, the victory party included dancing, drinking and eating dn racially mixed company, previously taboo in the toun, and occurrad without ineident. Without the movement, the Cambridge power structure could have defeated the union drive as it did in the past. The built-up alienation on the part of the poor whites wae subordinated to a comioa interest which happened te be central to the Mves of block ond white factory workers. Of course, We are aware that estrangement between the races can continue indefinitely, as §t has in the South for a century. We are haunted not only by Southern history but by the problems dividing Huslims ond Windus in India, and Uegroes and East Indians in British Guina. Dut ve remain convinced so for that~ permanent alienation can be avoided and overcome by a serious movement which fights for the interests of both groups. We know of almost no offort to or- gentze in white-coommities in the South--and it would be foolish to be cithor optimistic or pessemistie uatil actual experiments ate further undervay. We tied to know much more about the organizing problems faced by the Negro-white- Moxiean coalition in Texas, and whether those problems are applicable to ether areas of the South; we need to know much mere about rank-and-file feclings within the white working class; we need to make contact with whatever vadictl individuals there are within the southorn union bureaucracy. These needs are bricfly mentioned hers to suggest some gaps in our progent lmouledgt the implications for our proposed or actual organizing campaigns renain to be Giscussed in a later cactéen of these commanta. We realize that mich of the prececding ean Be applied directly to the northern civil rights situation, and that this is a symptom of the nationali- zation of the problem and the movenent. Sinea the Herth ie the place ve generally work, however, there is need for a more detailed picture of trends. Observed from the engle of current social alignments, the movement in the Herth seems directly pointed towards a difficult and violent period. As a movement it has developed very rapidly, with the mass base of support emanat- ing from the metropolitan ghettos that run all seross the northern rim of the country. There scem to be distinctive northern conditions which tend to make the protest movement immediately volatile in relation to the white community. Those are first, the official but betrayed policies of non-discrimination; second, the change of the Worth into a "treadmill" instead of a "Ladder", due fo the automation of traditional low-slill werk; tho greater isolation of the ghetto-duelling Wegro from the world of white people. ‘These seom to be conditions conducive to militant tactics, distrust of promiscs, and a concern for radical econonic improvement. Various integration{st ond separatist movenents are now developing, moat of them threatening the real ox apparent interests of many vhites, vho now are so actively opposing the pace of integration that they can loosely be called “eounter-rovelutionary", Egtucen these tvo contending forces, there is a crisis and a paralysis among the Hberal orgenizations, and behind it all is *eulminated in the Negros’ defiant refuel to participate in a public accommodatit Tha Federal -governmegt encouraging mild concessions and preparing to maintain erder. When looked at this voy, it seems that a stalemete is liable to con- Hinus temporarily and then turn into a polarized and violent disorder ending ina government intervention--without 2 change in the grim conditions of poverty and exploitation which are tho irritant. We could speculate endlessly in this direction, but at a point it beeorus fruitless because thers is no way ta predict reliably what will happen in tho next few montha. There is another way to approach the problem which is more manageable because it avoids the problems of such sveeping predictign. This is through

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