◆ SpookStack

‘ ry sing | Byles a SE ies aye segregation, which has herded millions.tof Negroes toge the ghettoes of the biggest cities in the North and South, As whites continue to flee from the big cities to the suburbs, the relative weight ° of the Negroes becomes ever ; greater. Right now, if the Negroes . were united in a party of thelr own, they are so situated that they could sweep the elections in dozens of congressional districts, . A Negro party could elect a bloc | of candidates that could even hold | the legislative balance of power in Washington and several big industrial states, and therefore be able to force some serious con- cessions from the capitalist par-~ ties. Because Negroes are only ten or ‘ eleven per cent of the population, a Negro party could not expect to win national power by itself. But . the creation of a Negro party would have a profound impact on the whole political structure of the nation, not just on the Negro community. The withdrawal of Negroes into a party of their own would signal the doom of the Democratic Party as major national party. De-~ prived of the Negro vote (it row Heth around three-quarters , of that), the Democrats would | be undble to win elections in the lley Northern states, and the reac- ti Southern Democrats would quickly take aver undi- sputed control of what would be left of the party. That's not all. A break of the Negroes from the capitalist par- tles, which today means mainly a break from the Democratic Par- ty, would provoke an acute crisis in the labor movement, whose leaders now serve as junior part- ners of the Democrats. With Negroes abandoning the Demo- cratic Party, with the relative weight of the Dixiecrats increas- ing inside the Democratic Party, and with Democrats unable to win national elections, the union movement’s coalition with the Democrats would he plainly seen by everybody for what it actually _ is — bankrupt as well as stupid. Dissatisfaction with being a tail to the Democratic donkey, which ‘ already exists in labor’s ranks, would accelerate tremendously. Sentiment for an independent la- bor party, already being generat- ed by other material and political factors, would come to a boil. The decline of the Democratic Party would hasten the formation of a labor party. Right from the start a labor par- ty would be compelled, in every- thing it said and did, to take the existence of a Negro party into account. It would most likely seek to arrange an alliance between the two parties, which could only be done by adopting the just de- mands of the Negro people. On their side, the Negroes, when as- sured that an alliance would not subordinate their interests or side- track their struggle for equality, would probably welcome co-op- eration with a labor party. The result would eventually be either a merger of the two parties or thelr close collaboration in a political power. What began as the independent action ef a minority could en the reconstruction of society by a majority. : ; It is too early to predict these things will happen, or will hap- pen just this way. My point, for the present, is merely that when Negroes begin talking about elect- ing candidates of their own, they are talking about one of the po- tentially mast explosive and rev- olutionary questions in the world, which eould lead to changing the whole political climate and future of this country. Socialists must understand this if they are to help promote this process of radical change. Powell