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NY 100-1867 aie! a wes "Pight for realizing the wartine ‘FEPC} on the first. election of Ben jain’ cin Fe J. Davis, dre, to the City Council of New York by the combined votes of See Negroes and whites; as well as on the drive for abolition of the poll tax= ==. the touch-tone of political disfranchisement of ten million Negroes and” poor whites in the Souths - ee ene moh, eo s. ' Of course, the Negro people sought to achieve equality and to a ‘yenounce their second-class citizenship status] Does this fact, however, have to lead to a fundamental reversal of the basic position of the Communists on the right to self=determination? Are the ‘two concepts mutually exclusive? " Definitely not! What is the right to self-determination? It is - not basically determined by an tattitude! of an oppressed people. It is a scientific principle that derives from an objective condition and upon . this basis expresses the fundamental demands Gand, omality, and (freedom) of the oppressed Negro peoples s- The weight of emphasis in Browder's thesis on ‘the attitude of | the Negro people! as the determining factor, and our acceptance of it, was | a subjective and unscientific approach tothe question. The end result of Browder's erroneous analysis, in my ccnsidered opinion (unless corrected _. now), would amount to this: If the Negro people made their historic decision for self=-determination, through integration, and would inevitably receive freedom ‘under the existing American system’, what need to mobilize and . heighten the fight against white chauvinist ideology? What need to mobilize ~ independent and militant struggle against the Hitler~like discriminatory practices (including social exclusion) which still beset the Negro people, ~ despite important gains registered especially during the last twelve years? " Browder's harmful analysis led of necessity to the strengthening | be ourgeois nationalism among the Negro people and to an undue reliance 7 Negro reformist leadership. of id a " Instead of fully utilizing the potential of an ‘anti-fascist war of national liberation, which, as Browder correctly states, fired the me ical maturity of the Negro people, to root out gdeterminedly the white © chauyinist prejudices among the American people (and among new sections of our own membership), we did not take that initiatives se Sy tet gh a oa . 4 en . . ot . "Ah e ae 7 4 i a ae ae oe Pa — er SOT rer ere