module 3, class 2
Red, Black, and Revolutionary: Lessons from Black Communist Women
OUR FREEDOM CAN’T WAIT
The People’s Forum
Our Freedom Can’t Wait
Dr. CBS�
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Associate Professor of African American Studies, Wayne State University
Author of Black Scare/Red Scare: Theorizing Capitalist Racism in the United States
Co-Editor of Organize, Fight, Win: Black Communist Women’s Political Writing
PEOPLESFORUM.ORG/FREEDOM
OUR FREEDOM CAN’T WAIT
INTRODUCTION
Part I: Analyzing and Combatting Triple Oppression
Part II: Against War and Fascism
Part III: The Party- Possibilities and Pitfalls
THE PEOPLE’S FORUM
OUR FREEDOM CAN’T WAIT
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OUR FREEDOM CAN’t wait
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Part I: Analyzing Triple Oppression
MODULE 3
Class 2
Red, Black, and Revolutionary
PEOPLESFORUM.ORG/FREEDOM
The People’s Forum
Our Freedom Can’t Wait
Grace Campbell, 1928�
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“Negro women workers are the most abused, exploited and discriminated against of all Americans workers, not only by the capitalist system and the employers, but by unenlightened race prejudice which is found even in the working class, and is used by the employers to drive a wedge between the black and white workers and thus destroy their unity and fighting power.”
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The People’s Forum
Our Freedom Can’t Wait
Louise Thompson Patterson, 1936�
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“Cramped and crushed by prejudice and discrimination, fingers worn to the bone by ceaseless labor at coolie wages, the Negro women are the most exploited group in America. But they have banded together for the fight for freedom, and will win.”
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The People’s Forum
Our Freedom Can’t Wait
Claudia jones, 1949�
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“For the progressive women’s movement, the Negro woman, who combines in her status the worker, the Negro, and the woman, is the vital link to this heightened political consciousness.”
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The People’s Forum
Our Freedom Can’t Wait
US delegation report to the world council of women, 1953�
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“Through their own experiences in struggle our women will overcome their isolation and fear, learn their own strength and how that strength is invincible when joined with that surging movement of women all over the world. We pledge ourselves, sisters, to this task.”
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The People’s Forum
Our Freedom Can’t Wait
THIRD WORLD WOMEN’S ALLIANCE, 1971�
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“The third world woman must always be fighting against and exposing her triple exploitation in this society. A third world women's group can potentially be one of the most revolutionary forces confronting the U.S. ruling class. The third world woman consciously aware of the depth of her oppression and willingness to fight against it will never give up until all forms of racist, sexist, and economic exploitation is eliminated.”
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The People’s Forum
Our Freedom Can’t Wait
Black women’s united front, 1975�
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“We face TRIPLE OPPRESSION because of race, sex and class. Black women have been forced into the lowest paid jobs and more often into no jobs at all. The vast majority of Black working women are in unorganized job situations. We have deliberately been forced onto the welfare rolls, denied childcare and medical treatment. When layoffs hit, along with Black men, other minorities and women, we are first to go. We have been the target of systematic genocide. This is not to mention the denial of decent education, our history and culture…”
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THE PEOPLE’S FORUM
Our Freedom Can’t Wait
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Class 2
Relevance for today
QUESTIONS
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THE PEOPLE’S FORUM
OUR FREEDOM CAN’t wait
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Part II: War and Fascism
MODULE 3
Class 2
Red, Black, and Revolutionary
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The People’s Forum
Our Freedom Can’t Wait
Wiliana Burroughs, 1935�
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“Least of all can Negro women have any doubts about the evils of war and fascism. Who among us has forgotten that courageous, expectant mother lynched so monstrously by a fiendish Georgia mob; the attempts to force women into the kitchens of the South under slave conditions; the sad return of brothers, sons and husbands, broken and maimed; the long list of our war dead; the insults heaped on Negro soldiers; and most contemptible of all, the studied degradation of Negro Gold Star mothers…”
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The People’s Forum
Our Freedom Can’t Wait
Claudia jones, 1946�
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“The political attacks that are being directed against the Negro people by Big Business have once again placed serious questions before the American working class. These attacks, reminiscent of post–World War I, are all the more serious because today the main danger of fascism to the world comes from the most colossal imperialist forces which are concentrated within the United States. The perpetrators of these attacks are the representatives of the most reactionary section of monopoly capital and of the semi-feudal economy of the Black Belt.”
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The People’s Forum
Our Freedom Can’t Wait
CLAUDIA JONES, 1950�
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“American monopoly capital can offer the masses of American women, who compose more than one-half of our country’s population, a program only of war and fascism. Typical of the ideology governing this war perspective was the article in the recent mid- century issue of Life magazine entitled “Fifty Years of American Women.” That “contribution” did not hold out the promise to American women along the demagogic 2000 A.D. line of Truman’s State of the Union annual message, but brazenly offered the fascist triple-K (Kinder-Küche-Kirche) pattern of war and a “war psychology” for American women!”
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The People’s Forum
Our Freedom Can’t Wait
Charlotta bass, 1952�
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“We fought a war to end Fascism whose germ is race superiority and the oppression of other peoples. Yes, we fought to end Hitlerism. But less than seven years after the end of that war, I find men who lead my government paying out my money and your money to support the rebirth of Hitlerism in Germany to make it a willing partner in another war. We fought to destroy Hitlerism—but its germs took root right here. I look about me, at my own people, at all colored peoples all over the world…”
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The People’s Forum
Our Freedom Can’t Wait
Kathleen cleaver, 1968�
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“The advent of fascism in the United States is most clearly visible in the suppression of the black liberation struggle in the nationwide political imprisonment and assassination of black leaders coupled with the concentration of massive police power in the ghettos of the black community across the country. The police departments nationwide are preparing for armed struggle with the black community and are being directed and coordinated nationally with the US Army and the underground vigilante racist groups for a massive onslaught against black people…”
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THE PEOPLE’S FORUM
Our Freedom Can’t Wait
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Class 2
Relevance for today
QUESTIONS
PEOPLESFORUM.ORG/FREEDOM
THE PEOPLE’S FORUM
OUR FREEDOM CAN’t wait
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Part III: The Party- Possibilities and Pitfalls
MODULE 3
Class 2
Red, Black, and Revolutionary
PEOPLESFORUM.ORG/FREEDOM
The People’s Forum
Our Freedom Can’t Wait
Wiliana Burroughs, 1935
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“The fact can be stressed again that the Negro is such an integral part of American life that almost every struggle of the workers has its Negro side. At the present time each and every campaign carried on by party has a vital interest for the Negro masses.”
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The People’s Forum
Our Freedom Can’t Wait
Wiliana Burroughs, 1930
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Every party campaign must have its appeal to Negro women workers emphasized. We must quickly draw into the work the new elements and must train cadres. The Party must carry on constant agitation against the discrimination in industry practices towards the Negro woman. Never omit slogans for support of this most exploited section. They must be drawn into every struggle and must have Party support in all their struggles.”
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The People’s Forum
Our Freedom Can’t Wait
Maude white, 1932
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A sure test of our understanding of the Negro question in our trade union movement is the manner in which we handle the complaints and grievances of the Negro workers. These reflect not only their economic exploitation, but their social and political oppression as well—their oppression as a national minority… Not only the organizer, but the whole shop must be mobilized to settle every complaint of the Negro worker…”
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The People’s Forum
Our Freedom Can’t Wait
Louise Thompson patterson, 1937
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I think that if we examine our work we will see the necessity of finding special ways of recruiting Negro women in the Party. I know from experience—not personal, so much, but by observation—many times Negro women, because of extra special conditions that have kept them up to now out of the labor movement entirely, feel quite strange when they come into our movement. Perhaps we recruit some of them into the Party. Many of them feel strange…”
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The People’s Forum
Our Freedom Can’t Wait
Louise Thompson Patterson, 1937
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As Bolsheviks we have to transform our lives in every way. It is true that political life and personal life tie up together. We have won over young Negro girls by bringing them into our personal circles, showing them that we are just like everybody else. It does a great deal to break down their antagonism and makes them interested.”
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The People’s Forum
Our Freedom Can’t Wait
Claudia jones, 1949
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“To understand this militancy correctly, to deepen and extend the role of Negro women in the struggle for peace and for all interests of the working class and the Negro people, means primarily to overcome the gross neglect of the special problems of Negro women. This neglect has too long permeated the ranks of the labor movement generally, of Left-progressives, and also of the Communist Party. The most serious assessment of these shortcomings by progressives, especially by Marxist-Leninists, is vitally necessary if we are to help accelerate this development and integrate Negro women in the progressive and labor movement and in our own Party.”
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THE PEOPLE’S FORUM
Our Freedom Can’t Wait
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Class 2
Relevance for today
QUESTIONS
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