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View wf - mriae e oe uity O12 @ National Ne Congress. If we make the proper orientation, we ki be able to build the biggest Congress of Negro people ever held. It means patient work in (non-Commun- ist) Negro organizations. (p. 21) It is obvious that the Communist Party had even selected the name of the new sputnik a year in advance of its launching. In a condensation of Gunnar Myrdal’s An American Dilemma, Arnold Rose says that “the National Negro Congress prew out of a conference in the spring of 1935 held at Howard University under the joint auspices of its Division of Social Sciences and of the Joint Com- mitice on National Recovery.” (The Negro in America, p. 262) This joint conference at Howard University was held in May. The Party Organizer of March, 1935, quoted above, is a documentary refutation of the paren- tage of the National Negro Congress as given in Arnold ois condersaiion of An American Dilemma. In a confidential memorandum of the Department of Justice, issued for the guidance of the departmental heads of the federal government, the Attorney General of the United States made the following observation con- certing the National Negro Congress: The National Negro Congress, throughout its exis- tence, has closely followed the Communist Party lines, espousing causes and adopting issues sponsored by the Party .. . In the field of American foreign policy ii calied for united action on the part of the Democra- cies (including the Soviet Union) against fascism prior to the Russo-German pact of non-aggression, but after the signing of the pact assailed the “imperial- ist conflict” as having “nothing to do with saving and extending democracy.” When the Nazis attacked Russia, however, the leaders of the (National Negro) Congress advocated all-out aid to the Soviet Union and urged immediate entrance of the United States into the war on the side of Britain and the Allies. Supporting the foregoing view of the Attorney Gen- eral, the Third National Negro Congress meeting in Washington, D. C., in April, 1940, adopted the follow- ing resolution. The National Negro Congress declares that the Negro people have everything to lose and nothing to gain by American involvement in the imperialist war and sharply condemns the Administration for the steps it has taken towards involvement and the par- tialitv it has shown, On October 16, 1940, speaking under the auspices of the Church League for Industrial Democracy in Kansas Civ, Missouri, Max Yergen (president of the National Negro Congress} toed the Communist Party line on the a en | = a ee ee a a: Sr 2; | a : SUOJECL Gi Toe War, In Le IOUOWINE WOTUS. 34 We do not believe we have any business allying ourselves with either of the belligerent sides now re- sponsible for the war .. . It becomes clear that the similarities between fascist and imperialist rule are numerous and strong. (Democracy and the Negro People Today, p. 9 and 12) Max Yergen has since made a clean break with the Communist apparatus. A. Philip Randolph, ptesident of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (AFL), was the first president of the National Negro Congress. He was, in fact, already designated as president of the NNC when the new or- anization was first convened in Chicago on February 14, 1936. The Communist Party had, of course, se- lected Randolph for the position. The Party had left nothing to chance or the delegates to the Congress. On account of illness, Randolph was not present at the 1936 sessions of the National Negro Congress. His presidential address, prepared before the Congress met, was read by Charles Wesley Burton, a Negro lawyer from Chicago. Randolph's address was the kind which might well have been prepared at Communist Party headquarters. With typical soapbox fiourishes, Randolph said: ... the Negro people face a hard, deceptive and brutal capitalist order, despite its preachments of Christian love and brotherhood. What has brought us to this insistent question? The answer in brief Ties in the (First) World War, the sharpening and deepening of capitalist exploitation of the workers of hand and brain, the acceleration of a technological revolution creating a standing army of unemployed, the ripening and maturing of monopoly capitalism thru trustification, rationalization and the rapid march of financial imperialism, and the intensi- fication of racial and religious hatreds, together with increasingly blatant and provocative nationalism. But the war itself was the effect of a deeper cause and that cause was the profit sysiem which provides and permits the enrichment of the few at the expense of the many... (The Official Proceedings of the National Negro Congress, 1936, p. 8, 9) Randolph paid his respects to the Communist Party’s International Labor Defense. He said: Those organizations that are serving on the civil rights front effectively for the Negro are the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and the International Labor Defense. (ibid p. 10) In fairness to A. Philip Randolph, and to complete the record, it must be pointed out that eventually he became disgusted with the Communist domination of the National Negro Congress and resigned from its presidency. After the meeting of the Third Congress, Randoiph wrote: 35