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29. History will one day record that there has never been in the U. S. a group or organization which has been lied about, vilified, persecuted as has been the Communist Party. Some day when the truth gets a hearing, the historian will pick up his pen and record that no finer contribution has been made to the cause of freedom in general and Negro freedom in particular than that made by the American Communist Party. 30. Today the Soviet Union has emerged as the main force, generating enough power to give to peoples of colour the world over the confidence that they could shake off the shackles of world imperialism. Were it not for Soviet power offering an alternative to capitalism and imperialism it is doubtful that over one and a half billion people would have been able to free themselves from colonialism and imperialism. 31. The Negro revolt has many causes, but its basic power is that of the force of economic wretchedness. It is this wretchedness that technological change is threatening to exacerbate beyond endurance by automating out of existence many of the unskilled and skilled jobs Negroes hold. That the Negro community is in the throes of profound economic crisis is evident from the unemployment figures. 32. It used to be said of the American Negro that he was "poor before he was black", that he would vote the Democratic ticket, in spite of the Southern Democrat's support of racial segregation, because the Democratic party was the party of the New Deal. 33. Next to the life-and-death issues of nuclear war, racial prejudice is perhaps the greatest single problem in the modern world; and although it is true that the solutions are not simple, the moral issue underlying it is simplicity itself. Such an appeal would seek to confront racial prejudice head-on: possibly by pointing to the rich and varied contributions which past waves of immigrants have made to national life, even more by laying bare the fundamental inhumanity on which racial prejudice is based. Conceivably, this might lose votes. Even so, it would itself help to change the moral climate. 34. Every struggle for human rights takes on a different aspect, even though the fundamental facts remain the same, whether it be struggle for free speech in the streets or on the campuses, or fight for social justice everywhere. "The silent generation" now speaking again, as youth should, freely and independently, are facing all the slanders repeated by the baffled reactionaries unable to abide the fact that the young people have principles which they are willing to fight for. 190
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