Minutes of the Second Congress of the Communist International [old school racebaiting]

marxists,.org ^ | July 25, 1920 | John Reed

[matt1234]

[...]At that time the newspaper Messenger was founded, published by a young Negro, the socialist Randolf, and pursuing revolutionary propagandist aims. This paper united socialist propaganda with an appeal to the racial consciousness of the Negroes and with the call to organise self-defence against the brutal attacks of the whites.

--snip--

Racial consciousness grew among the Negroes themselves. At present there is among the Negroes a section which preaches the armed uprising of the Negroes against the whites. The Negroes who returned home from the war have set up associations everywhere for self-defence and to fight against the white supporters of lynch law. The circulation of the Messenger is growing constantly. At present it sells 180,000 copies monthly. At the same time, socialist ideas have taken root and are spreading rapidly among the Negroes employed in industry.

If we consider the Negroes as an enslaved and oppressed people, then they pose us with two tasks: on the one hand a strong racial movement and on the other a strong proletarian workers’ movement, whose class consciousness is quickly growing.

[matt1234]

This is an excerpt of an address by Reed, an American communist, who is buried at the kremlin.

[dontreadthis]

nice find
I figured it was out there

[Sherman Logan]

If we consider the Negroes as an enslaved and oppressed people

In 1920 they were.

Read books from the first few decades of the 20th, and it is astonishing how casually they assume readers will agree with their highly racist comments.

And of course they're entirely correct to have believed that.

Zane Grey and Jack London are two examples, coming from very different backgrounds.

That today's rhetoric of oppression may be unjustified does not mean that of the past was not.