when in return for Roosevelt's lend-lease to Russia they broke strikes and tried to convince the Negroes they should postone or abandon their fight for equal rights. Sometimes the Stalinists talk radical, sometimes they talk conservative. But at all times their interest in Negro and labor struggles is limited to exploiting them for the benefit of the Russian bureaucrats. While the Socialist Workers Party has grown considerably in membership and influence since it was started, we are still a relatively small organization today. As the Negro people know, "Your Plight and Your Struggle" Tonight I want to end with a message to ,;;-,----~. one particular section of our people - the most oppressed, the most exploited, the most humiliated in the United States. I am speaking directly to the Negro men and women in this country who live in the Deep South. The Socialist Workers Party has members of all races and nationalities in its ranks. We want you to know, brothers and sisters, that for us there can be no talk of freedom in the United States until you are free. We of the Socialist Workers Party know how you suffer. We know the heroic struggles GRACE CARLSON you have to wage every day, every hour, for Vice-President every minute of your lives. Even though so many of you are deprived of the right to vote for us in this election, we would like to hear from you. Write to us. Tell us about your problems - your struggles, and your suffering. I pledge myself to bring your plight before the American people as a symbol of capitalist oppression, your struggle as the symbol of the road to freedom. -From a speech delivered over the national hook-up of the American Broadcasting Company, July 2, 1948, by Grace Carlson, VicePresidential candidate of the Socialist Workers Party it is not pleasant to be in a minority; we don't like it either and we are working day and night to win the support of the majority. However, we don't become discouraged about being in a minority, because we know that our ideas represent the truth and will 9 Biblioteca Gino Bianco
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