At that time the capitalist class was a progressive forceexpanding production and thus making possible the further growth of the co~ntr~, acceptin~ ?r t?lera~ing the extens~on of certain democratic nghts, part1c1patmg m the revolut10nary movement against the slaveholders. But those days are gone forever. Now the ruling capitalist class has monopolized the means of production, and prefers to unloose on the people disastrous depressions and inflation rather than permit any interference with the profit system. Now the capitalists attack and undermine democratic rights, not only of Negroes but of the great majority of the people. Now the capitalists are the most brutal opponents of all radical ideas and movements, and are preparing to set up a military-police dictatorship in order to maintain their rule and profits. But the capitalists are only a tiny minority of the population, and their rule is being challenged by another powerful force, the working class. The workers represent the overwhelming majority, they are well organized and have repeatedly shown that they possess great militancy and initiative. The Class Struggle Today These two classes are locked in a struggle whose outcome will decide if we are to live in a state of permanent peace or a state of permanent war; if the national income is to be used for the benefit of the people who produce it or of parasites who produce nothing; if mankind is to live in harmony and equality or is to remain divided in the relationship of master and slave. In short, either the working people will take power and establish a Workers and Farmers Government or the capitalists will drag us all down to barbarism and ruin. The Negro people, most of whom are workers themselves, have everything to gain from the victory of the working class in this struggle. For the same reason that a capitalist government accepts and encourages race prejudice, a Workers and Farmers Government will have to combat and destroy it. A Workers and Farmers Government will replace the capitalist system with a socialist form of society in which industry will be owned by the people and run for them. By eliminating the profit motive and depriving the capitalists of the power to poison and corrupt the minds of the population, it will do away forever with all forms of Jim Crow theory and practice. This will not happen merely because somebody promises it 6 Biblioteca Gino Bianco
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