JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post
Harold Ware, 1889-1935, son of activist and Communist Ella Reeve Bloor, early member of what would be the Communist Party of the United States and suspected spy for the USSR, gave Franklin Roosevelt a very grabby and animalistic (in the bad sense of the word) hand for attacking/taking the goods of the poor working class…amidst much else. This occurs on the cover of his 1934 pamphlet–sold for 2 cents and written “George Anstrom”–The Government Takes a Hand, which was an indictment of the enforcement of class and racial conflict in the working classes of the United State. In particular Ware takes aim at the cotton workers and their plight. I’ve included some of what he wrote (below) as there’s a lot of it that makes pretty good sense, and much of it which is correct. He does however take a dim view of the New Deal and of the agricultural relief action of 1933/4, which Ware maintained was the theft of what little belonged to cotton workers. In any event, here’s a sampling from Ware’s work::
“The Wall of Race Prejudice Set Up by the Bosses
Across narrow country roads white tenants and croppers see Negro neighbors pulling cotton like themselves. But more than that road separates them. Between them rises an invisible wall——the barrier of race prejudice-—deliberately set up by the boss class and its government agencies. That wall is built of fairy tales of white supremacy to keep the white toilers from uniting with the Negro masses against their common exploiters. From the cradle to the grave the poorest white child is taught to look down on, hate and fear his Negro neighbors.”
“Any sign of protest from Negroes is met with instant terror. Boss inspired Ku Klux Klan raids and lynching parties are the order of the day. The Negro share croppers of Camp Hill, Alabama, organized and fought back against a lynch gang in 1931. They won their demands through organized struggle. But the bosses create a general scare of “Negro rebellion” to justify their chain gangs and other forms of suppression.”