Leninism vs. Debs's Socialist Party
The Communist Fight Against Black Oppression
http://www.icl-fi.org/english/wv/1076/debs.html
Date Written: 2015-10-16
Publisher: Workers Vanguard
Year Published: 2015
Resource Type: Article
Cx Number: CX18102
Articles by Eugene Debs, written as polemics against racists within the Socialist Party, are eloquent in defending black people against racism, in calling for working-class unity across racial lines and in emphasizing that the Socialist Party should open its ranks to black people. In "The Negro in the Class Struggle," Debs stressed, "The history of the Negro in the United States is a history of crime without a parallel." Debs stands out favorably against most of his contemporaries in the labor movement -- including within the SP. Debs's writing remains a powerful denunciation of white workers' racism. Debs recognized that black oppression, rather than making white workers privileged, degrades them, thus providing a refutation of the later concept of "white skin privilege."
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