◆ SpookStack

to the Plenum of the Communist Party. In this w- stance, the “one issue” was a forthcoming conference on unemployment in Washington, D. C., a conference engineered and controlled by the Communist Party. With respect to this example of successful penetration of non-Communist Negro organizations, the Plenum report said: Spein Sale These experiences have shown us that it was pos- sible to get this united front by simply taking up one section, one issue, one grievance of the Negro people and developing a struggle around it. In this case we can see that if we properly approach these organizations there is a possibility of getting into the Negro organizations for a united front. We have hea i Harica ip the preparations for the unemploy- ed conference at Washington, a conference of 29 organizations, different organizations than we have had heretofore, into a conference at Abyssinia Bap- tist Church, the N.A.A.C.P., church organizations, etc. Comrade [Herbert] Benjamin spoke there, and we elected delegates to the congress at Washington. We had also the followers of Father Divine, the Twegia “God.” (p. 20) {Again and again, the Communist Party bas success- folly penetrated the Abyssinian Baptist Church, of which Representative Adam Clayton Powell was and is the pastor.) Delt) am eebhne ae eele af the wee nf the tantin af Stil anOer Cadiipie OL Wie USE GF te tatu ww “one issue” was ihe united front which the Communist Party organized around the Italian war against Ethi- opia. In an article entitled “The United Front on Ethiopia,” published in the Party Organizer of July, 1935; James W. Ford wrote as follows: This time we organized a broad united front on the issue of the struggle for the defense of the Ethiopian people, which ultimately involved at least 60 Negro organizations. (p. 16) in this campaign of penetration, the Communist Party again had the use of Congressman Powell's Abyssinian Baptist Church. Wrote James W. Ford in the Party Organizer: ‘The first action was on May 7 (1935) in Harlem ai the Abyssinian Church. There were 3,000 Negroes job, ide Gi Hom were not Communists. There the Communists spoke from the same platform as these other people. (p. 17) in the work of penetrating non-~Communist organi- zations, the Communists went prepared for any even- tuality, According to Ford, the Communist Party on one occasion sent a number of the followers of Marcus Garvey, whose organization the Party had penetrated, to a meeting of the Party’s Italian Workers’ Center “where our comrades discussed the Abyssinian ques- tion.” Ford added that these Negro Garveyites “were so afraid of their reception (at the Italian Communist center} that they wemt there armed with knives.” (p 17) The precautionary arming was, of course, wholly unnecessary; they were received most bospitably. From this particular affair, Ford drew the following con- clusion: It is along these lines that we must work among the Negroes, patiently overcoming their suspicions and hesitations, This experience in Harlem opens up a perspective of wider actions not only in Harlem, but throughout the country. Committees on Ethiopia should be set up on a nation-wide scale. (p. 17) If ever two movements possessed antithetical ideol- ovtes. they were the Communist Darty and Tathac Ty fs ah aed ete eet tit 1 | faity mua E’GLELEE Lele vine’s group. Notwithstanding this sharp clash of basic views, the Communist Party successfully penetrated the ranks of Father Divine’s movement. On this sub- ject, James W. Ford made the following comment: Another question that is bothering a number of comrades in New York is the Father Divine move- ment in connection with the united front . . . the comrades in Harlem have taken very seriously the question which was raised at the last plenum—of go- ing into the church areanizeations making friende B RS RRMA NAS rk aeRO, ARE LEC UOS with these people. Through our united front with Father Divine we have been able to effect the pene- tration of a mass organization of the Negro people. A very important fact to remember in connection with the Father Divine movement is the fact that the followers of Father Divine are workers, toiling people; that is why we are attempting to penetrate into this movement. The united front with the Father Divine has been made on the basis of certain c sues. (p. 17, 18) For more than 20 years, the Communist Party has pursued this tactic of penetration of non-Communist Organizations and groups. With the current dwindling of its membership, the Party is pursuing the tactic more assiduously than ever, Recently, it has applied the tactic on a broad scale among scientists on the issue of radioactive fall-out. It hopes to reap vast gains on the issue of integration in the public schools of the South. ro nmunists weesure their gains in terms of social urbulence. erever they are permitted, i penetrate non-Communist proups Which favor federal intervention by force in the field of integration, hoping thereby to increase turmoil and incite to violence, The indispensable pre-conditions of Communist revolution- ary sentiment are chaos and violence. movement oncrete is- 1]