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For a Revolutionary Position on the Negro Question
The introduction "For a Revolutionary Position on the Negro Question was written in 1957 in the midst of revisionism's final, successful assault on the once proud vanguard of the working class--the Communist Party, USA."
One of Haywood's last published theoretical articles on the Black National Question in the U.S., For a Revolutionary Position on the Negro Question was written as a final inter-Party polemic against the pro-integration and reformist forces in the CPUSA during the Civil Rights Movement. Haywood stood against the "liquidationist line" of integration and insisted on a national revolutionary movement based on the principle of self-determination for the Black Belt South as still relevant and imperative for liberation of African Americans. This piece is relevant today as an important document in the history of the CPUSA, the New Communist Movement, the struggle against revisionism in Marxism-Leninism, and the struggle for a correct political line regarding the African American National Question.
One of Haywood's last published theoretical articles on the Black National Question in the U.S., For a Revolutionary Position on the Negro Question was written as a final inter-Party polemic against the pro-integration and reformist forces in the CPUSA during the Civil Rights Movement. Haywood stood against the "liquidationist line" of integration and insisted on a national revolutionary movement based on the principle of self-determination for the Black Belt South as still relevant and imperative for liberation of African Americans. This piece is relevant today as an important document in the history of the CPUSA, the New Communist Movement, the struggle against revisionism in Marxism-Leninism, and the struggle for a correct political line regarding the African American National Question.
38 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1975
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About the author
Harry Haywood
13 books40 followersFrom Wikipedia:
Harry Haywood (February 6, 1898 - January 1985) was born in South Omaha, Nebraska to former slaves, Harriet and Haywood Hall. He was the youngest of three children. Named after his father at birth, Haywood Hall, "Harry Haywood" is a pseudonym adopted in 1925. Radicalized by the Chicago Race Riot of 1919, he was a leading African American member of both the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA) and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). He is best known for his significant theoretical contributions to the Marxist national question and as a founder of the Maoist New Communist Movement.
Harry Haywood began his revolutionary career by joining the African Blood Brotherhood in 1922 followed by the Young Communist League in 1923. Shortly thereafter, in 1925 he joined the Communist Party, USA. After joining the CPUSA Haywood went to Moscow to study, first to the Communist University of the Toilers of the East in 1925, then to the International Lenin School in 1927. He stayed until 1930 as a delegate to the Communist International (Comintern). There he worked on commissions dealing with the question of African Americans in the United States as well as the development of the "Native Republic Thesis" for the South African Communist Party. Haywood worked to draft the "Comintern Resolutions on the Negro Question" of 1928 and 1930, which put forward the line that African Americans in the Black Belt of the United States made up an oppressed nation, with the right to self-determination up to and including secession. He would continue to fight for this line throughout his life.
In the CPUSA, Haywood served on the Central Committee from 1927 to 1938 and on the Politburo from 1931 until 1938. He also participated in the major factional struggles internal to the CPUSA against Jay Lovestone and Earl Browder, regularly siding with William Z. Foster.
Following the death of Stalin in 1953 and Nikita Krushchev's rise to power, the CPUSA accompanied Moscow in Krushchev's policy of destalinization and "peaceful coexistence". Long an admirer of Mao Zedong, Harry Haywood was one of the pioneers of the anti-revisionist movement born out of the growing Sino-Soviet split. He was driven out of the CPUSA in the late 1950s along with many others who took firm anti-revisionist or pro-Stalin positions.
After being isolated and driven from the ranks of the CPUSA, Harry Haywood became one of the initiators of the New Communist Movement, the goal of which was to found a new vanguard Communist Party on an anti-revisionist basis, believing the CPUSA to have deviated irrevocably from Marxism-Leninism. He was one of the founders of the Provisional Organizing Committee for a Communist Party (POC), formed in New York in August, 1958 by eighty-three mostly Black and Puerto Rican delegates from the CPUSA. According to Haywood, the POC rapidly degenerated into an isolated, dogmatic, ultraleft sect, completely removed from any political practice.
He went from there to work in one of the newly formed Maoist groups of the New Communist Movement, the Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist). In the CP(M-L) Haywood served on the Central Committee and published, along with his other major works, his 700 page, critical autobiography, Black Bolshevik. This book became, because of its breadth and scope, an important document and through it and his other writings Haywood was able to provide ideological leadership to the New Communist Movement
Harry Haywood (February 6, 1898 - January 1985) was born in South Omaha, Nebraska to former slaves, Harriet and Haywood Hall. He was the youngest of three children. Named after his father at birth, Haywood Hall, "Harry Haywood" is a pseudonym adopted in 1925. Radicalized by the Chicago Race Riot of 1919, he was a leading African American member of both the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA) and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). He is best known for his significant theoretical contributions to the Marxist national question and as a founder of the Maoist New Communist Movement.
Harry Haywood began his revolutionary career by joining the African Blood Brotherhood in 1922 followed by the Young Communist League in 1923. Shortly thereafter, in 1925 he joined the Communist Party, USA. After joining the CPUSA Haywood went to Moscow to study, first to the Communist University of the Toilers of the East in 1925, then to the International Lenin School in 1927. He stayed until 1930 as a delegate to the Communist International (Comintern). There he worked on commissions dealing with the question of African Americans in the United States as well as the development of the "Native Republic Thesis" for the South African Communist Party. Haywood worked to draft the "Comintern Resolutions on the Negro Question" of 1928 and 1930, which put forward the line that African Americans in the Black Belt of the United States made up an oppressed nation, with the right to self-determination up to and including secession. He would continue to fight for this line throughout his life.
In the CPUSA, Haywood served on the Central Committee from 1927 to 1938 and on the Politburo from 1931 until 1938. He also participated in the major factional struggles internal to the CPUSA against Jay Lovestone and Earl Browder, regularly siding with William Z. Foster.
Following the death of Stalin in 1953 and Nikita Krushchev's rise to power, the CPUSA accompanied Moscow in Krushchev's policy of destalinization and "peaceful coexistence". Long an admirer of Mao Zedong, Harry Haywood was one of the pioneers of the anti-revisionist movement born out of the growing Sino-Soviet split. He was driven out of the CPUSA in the late 1950s along with many others who took firm anti-revisionist or pro-Stalin positions.
After being isolated and driven from the ranks of the CPUSA, Harry Haywood became one of the initiators of the New Communist Movement, the goal of which was to found a new vanguard Communist Party on an anti-revisionist basis, believing the CPUSA to have deviated irrevocably from Marxism-Leninism. He was one of the founders of the Provisional Organizing Committee for a Communist Party (POC), formed in New York in August, 1958 by eighty-three mostly Black and Puerto Rican delegates from the CPUSA. According to Haywood, the POC rapidly degenerated into an isolated, dogmatic, ultraleft sect, completely removed from any political practice.
He went from there to work in one of the newly formed Maoist groups of the New Communist Movement, the Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist). In the CP(M-L) Haywood served on the Central Committee and published, along with his other major works, his 700 page, critical autobiography, Black Bolshevik. This book became, because of its breadth and scope, an important document and through it and his other writings Haywood was able to provide ideological leadership to the New Communist Movement
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 1, 2022
I'd like to print this out and use it to physically beat the PatSocs over the head. This should be required reading for anyone in the US or anyone seeking to understand the US.
July 21, 2020
What can I say that Harry Haywood hasn't already said? An extraordinary piece.
Haywood delivers a ruthless but disciplined criticism of the CPUSA, which started to sink in the 1950s with the rejection of the Black Question which Haywood so meticulously documents here and has never recovered, but has instead has doubled down on their reactionary views. Haywood, who first brought the Black Question to the Party in 1928, was expelled and his words and legacy erased from the Party, for his dedication to building The Black Belt and basing the struggle for Black Liberation in the Deep South. If you've ever read Robin D.G. Kelley's "Hammer & Hoe", you know that the CPUSA was initially skeptical of building Communism in the Deep South, as they viewed it as many liberals do today: hopelessly backward.
However, with the rise of the Sharecroppers Union and Black Communists like Harry Haywood and Hosea Hudson building it up, the Black Belt rose to heights that perhaps no socialist organization has yet to achieve in the united states. The CPUSA, entrenched with white chauvinism by this time, sabotaged the Deep South movement, liquidating their centers and passing down a false line of "true solidarity" meaning integration and allowing the NAACP to lead. Communists who fought this line, like Haywood, were swiftly expelled.
Harry Haywood was an incredible man whose legacy must be maintained and studied thoroughly.
Haywood delivers a ruthless but disciplined criticism of the CPUSA, which started to sink in the 1950s with the rejection of the Black Question which Haywood so meticulously documents here and has never recovered, but has instead has doubled down on their reactionary views. Haywood, who first brought the Black Question to the Party in 1928, was expelled and his words and legacy erased from the Party, for his dedication to building The Black Belt and basing the struggle for Black Liberation in the Deep South. If you've ever read Robin D.G. Kelley's "Hammer & Hoe", you know that the CPUSA was initially skeptical of building Communism in the Deep South, as they viewed it as many liberals do today: hopelessly backward.
However, with the rise of the Sharecroppers Union and Black Communists like Harry Haywood and Hosea Hudson building it up, the Black Belt rose to heights that perhaps no socialist organization has yet to achieve in the united states. The CPUSA, entrenched with white chauvinism by this time, sabotaged the Deep South movement, liquidating their centers and passing down a false line of "true solidarity" meaning integration and allowing the NAACP to lead. Communists who fought this line, like Haywood, were swiftly expelled.
Harry Haywood was an incredible man whose legacy must be maintained and studied thoroughly.
March 30, 2021
A support of his previous work, Negro Liberation, after the revisionist attacks of the mid-50s, Haywood talks about the lasting validity of the Black Belt thesis and the right of Black Americans to self-determination, even as conditions change.
Great companion/follow-up to Negro Liberation, but not essential.
Great companion/follow-up to Negro Liberation, but not essential.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews