Black Money Business Jobs : African-Americans and Communism

Communism

Communism (from Latin communis - common, universal) is a revolutionary socialist movement to create a classless, moneyless, and stateless social order structured upon common ownership of the means of production, as well as a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of this social order. This movement, in its Marxist-Leninist interpretations, significantly influenced the history of the 20th century, which saw intense rivalry between the "socialist world" (socialist states ruled by Communist parties) and the "western world" (countries with market economies).

In Marxist theory, pure communism is a specific stage of historical development that inevitably emerges from the development of the productive forces that leads to a superabundance of material wealth, allowing for distribution based on need and social relations based on freely associated individuals.[1][2] The exact definition of communism varies, and it is often mistakenly, in general political discourse, used interchangeably with socialism; however, Marxist theory contends that socialism is just a transitional stage on the road to communism. Leninism adds to Marxism the notion of a vanguard party to lead the proletarian revolution and to secure all political power after the revolution for the working class, for the development of universal class consciousness and worker participation, in a transitional stage between capitalism and socialism.

Socialism

Socialism
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/ˈsʃəlɪzəm/ is an economic system characterised by social ownership and/or control of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy,[1] and a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises, common ownership, direct public ownership or autonomous state enterprises.[2] There are many variations of socialism and as such there is no single definition encapsulating all of socialism.[3] They differ in the type of social ownership they advocate, the degree to which they rely on markets versus planning, how management is to be organised within economic enterprises, and the role of the state in constructing socialism.[4]

A socialist economic system would consist of an organisation of production to directly satisfy economic demands and human needs, so that goods and services would be produced directly for use instead of for private profit driven by the accumulation of capital, and accounting would be based on physical quantities, a common physical magnitude, or a direct measure of labour-time.[5][6] Distribution of output would be based on the principle of individual contribution.

As a political movement, socialism includes a diverse array of political philosophies, ranging from reformism to revolutionary socialism. Proponents of state socialism advocate for the nationalisation of the means of production, distribution and exchange as a strategy for implementing socialism. Libertarian socialism proposes to direct worker's control of the means of production and opposes the use of state power to achieve such an arrangement, opposing both parliamentary politics and state ownership over the means of production.[citation needed] Conversely, democratic socialism seeks to propagate the ideals of socialism within the context of a democratic system.

Modern socialism originated from an 18th-century intellectual and working class political movement that criticised the effects of industrialisation and private property on society.[citation needed] In the early 19th-century, "socialism" referred to any concern for the social problems of capitalism regardless of the solution. However, by the late 19th-century, "socialism" had come to signify opposition to capitalism and advocacy for an alternative system based on some form of social ownership.[7] Utopian socialists such as Robert Owen (1771–1858) tried to found self-sustaining communes by secession from a capitalist society. Socialists inspired by the Soviet model of economic development, such as Marxist-Leninists, have advocated the creation of centrally planned economies directed by a single-party state that owns the means of production. Yugoslavian, Hungarian, East German and Chinese communist governments have instituted various forms of market socialism, combining co-operative and state ownership models with the free market exchange and free price system (but not free prices for the means of production).[8]
 
Briggs, Cyril (1888-1966)

Cyril Briggs was a pioneering civil rights activist, journalist, black nationalist, and member of the American Communist Party. Born in 1888 on the Eastern Caribbean island of Nevis, Briggs immigrated to New York City in 1905 and joined a burgeoning community of radical West Indian intellectuals in Harlem.

In 1912 be was hired at the New York Amsterdam News where he voiced support for World War I and Woodrow Wilson's anti colonial doctrine of self-determination, which he saw as validating his own radical vision of African American self-rule. Further radicalized in the wake of World War I and the Russian Revolution, Briggs started publishing his own periodical, the Crusader, in September 1918 and one month later founded the African Blood Brotherhood (ABB). Incorporating Marxist class-consciousness under the banner of "Africa for Africans," the Crusader and the ABB became vehicles for Briggs' distinctive merger of interracial revolutionary socialism with black nationalism and anti colonialism.

In 1921 Briggs formally joined the nascent American Communist Party (CP). As the ABB increasingly merged ideologically and organizationally with the CP, Briggs, along with fellow Harlem radicals Otto Huiswood and Claude McKay, became a critical bridge between black communities and the Communist movement, an association that would grow in both numbers and significance over the next two decades. Briggs' conversion to revolutionary socialism drew him into a public feud with Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association in the early 1920s. Briggs castigated Garvey's brand of black nationalism for its capitalist overtones and ultimately cooperated with federal authorities investigating Garvey for mail fraud. Briggs' influence in Party circles declined rapidly in mid decade as the CP shifted its focus away from the community based revolutionary nationalism of the ABB and toward the labor movement and the newly formed American Negro Labor Congress.


Despite a brief resurgence in 1929, when he assumed a major role in directing the Party's campaign against vestiges of racial chauvinism within Party ranks, Briggs was increasingly marginalized and accused of sectarianism. Briggs' removal from the editorship of the League of Struggle for Negro Rights' Harlem Liberator in 1933 and the Party's ideological turn toward the Popular Front in the mid 1930s effectively signaled the end of his influence in radical politics.

http://www.blackpast.org/?q=aah/briggs-cyril-1888-1966


briggs_cyrill.jpg

Cyrill Briggs and Charlene Mitchell, 1960
Image Ownership: Public Domain
 
National Negro Congress (1935 - 1940's)

http://www.blackpast.org/?q=aah/national-negro-congress

Embodying the Communist Party's turn from Third Period sectarianism to Popular Front coalition building, the National Negro Congress (NNC) was the culmination of the Party's Depression-era effort to unite black and white workers and intellectuals in the fight for racial justice, and marked the apex of Party prestige in African American communities.

The NNC grew out of discussions initiated by Communist delegates to the Joint Committee on National Recovery's (JCNR) conference in May 1935 on the economic status of African Americans under the New Deal. John P. Davis and Communist Party leader James Ford stressed the need to consolidate the strength of disparate organizations dedicated to fighting racial discrimination. The JCNR conference concluded by forming a committee of sixty prominent activists charged with organizing a National Negro Congress the following year.

The result was an unprecedented confluence of civic, civil rights, labor, and religious groups from across the nation. In February 1936 over 800 delegates representing 551 organizations and over 3 million constituents congregated in Chicago for the first NNC convention. A. Philip Randolph was elected President and Davis was elected as National Secretary. In keeping with their Popular Front orientation, Communists did not attempt to hide their affiliation but consciously deferred to non-Communist delegates. Despite lingering suspicion of Communist involvement, NNC delegates were able to agree on a broad program emphasizing the rights of African Americans to fair employment and housing, union membership and educational opportunities, an end to police brutality and lynching, and international and interracial solidarity against fascism. Over the next few years, local NNC chapters in Harlem, Chicago, and elsewhere became locus points for broad-based community activism against racial discrimination.

The Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939 signaled the beginning of the end for the NNC. The Communist Party's shift away from the Popular Front in the wake of the Pact alienated non-Communist NNC affiliates and their constituents around the country. A. Philip Randolph resigned in protest after the 1940 convention and was succeeded as president by John P. Davis. The Cold War further undermined support for the Communist Party in black communities and crippled the NNC as a movement vehicle.

The National Negro Congress (NNC) formed in 1935 at Howard University as a broadly based organization with the goal of fighting for Black liberation and was the successor to the League of Struggle for Negro Rights. NNC was the culmination of the Communist Party's Depression-era effort to unite black and white workers and intellectuals in the fight for racial justice, and marked the apex of Party prestige in African American communities. NNC was opposed to war, fascism, and discrimination, especially racial discrimination.

The National Negro Congress consisted mainly of Blacks, but not exclusively....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Negro_Congress
 
F.B.I. Records: The Vault
Langston Hughes (1902-1967) was an American poet, playwright, novelist, and columnist. Mr. Hughes was investigated on account of his ties to communist related groups. The files in release are between 1941 and 1953.

CONTINUED: http://vault.fbi.gov/langston-hughes

March 24, 1953 – Langston Hughes Testifies Before Senator Joseph McCarthy

....African-Americans who vocalized objections to the treatment of blacks in America were considered suspect by McCarthy (and by the FBI). Two of the witnesses called to appear before McCarthy were black: the political activist Eslanda Robeson, wife of Paul Robeson, and the poet Langston Hughes. (At the time of the hearings, there were few blacks in influential positions.)


On March 24, 1953, Langston Hughes testified before the Subcommittee. He was permitted to read a statement to defend himself from charges of Soviet sympathies. He began by stating “I was born a Negro.” He went on to delineate just what that meant in American society at that time. He could not attend the nearby school, the movie theater wouldn’t admit him, white boys stoned him, and his father left the country because this country would not admit him to the bar. At his high school, primarily attended by very poor immigrants, follow students began to tell him about Eugene Debs, a well-known socialist in the early 1900’s. Hughes stated:

“I became interested in whatever I could read that Debs had written or spoken about. I never read the theoretical books of socialism or communism or the Democratic or Republican party for that matter, and so my interest in whatever may be considered political has been non-theoretical, non-sectarian, and largely really emotional and born out of my own need to find some kind of way of thinking about this whole problem of myself, segregated, poor, colored, and how I can adjust to this whole problem of helping to build America when sometimes I can not even get into a school or a lecture or a concert or in the South go the library and get a book out.”
He went on in this vein for a little longer, but by then, the Senators realized they were better off without tackling Hughes. The Subcommittee dismissed him.

continued: http://rhapsodyinbooks.wordpress.co...hes-testifies-before-senator-joseph-mccarthy/
 

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