EXPELS BIGHT DISSIDENTS
Eight dissident members of the British Communist party, defenders of Mao Tse~tung's position as against Khrushchev's, were expelled November 20. The grounds. were “breaches of rule," The eight had distributed a document for the information of party members and at a press conference had made their. differences with the party public property, including harsh attacks on the leadership, _ In addition to favoring Mao, the eight praise Stalin and have attacked "Trotskyism," a .
Besides the leader Michael McCreery, seven others are involved: Alf Cross, Tony Hall, Malcolm Jervis, .Ron. Jones, Peggy Pinckheard, Hassan Sheriff and Silvia Sheriff,
A Background Article
"THE AMERICAN NEGRO
Population Shifts and Economic Status
| By Evelyn Sell .
In 1619 a Dutch vessel brought twenty Negroes to Virginia to work as bound servants. By the time of the American Revolution of 1776 there were -about 500,000 slaves comprising almost one-fifth of the nation. By the time of the Civil War in 1860 there were 4,500,000, constituting one-~, seventh of the nation, Today there are 18,000,000 and they make up 9% of the population.
. Until the most recent period, the overwhelming number of Negroes have lived’ in the South, During and after World War II, however, Negroes left the South by the millions, most of them migrating to the Northeast and North Central states, In 1940, 77% of all Negroes lived in the South but by 1963 this figure had dropped to 51%, Some 3,000,000 left the South. during that period so that today there are about 9,000,000 Négroes still’ in the eleven Southern states,
The Negro has been tied to the land for a long time -- first as a plantation slave and then as a wage slave. Today's Negroes.are concentra= ting themselves in the big cities of the North and South, Just a few years ago most Southern Negroes still lived on-the land or very close to. it. Today about 72% live in urban areas and one-half of those live in the. central cities, 7 7
To give you some idea: The Negro population of Miami, Florida increased 188%; in Dallas, Texas, the increase was 138%; in Birmingham, ' Alabama, the increase was 54% and in Little Rock, Arkansas, 81%. During 1950-60 the 12 largest U.S. citiess* lost more than 2,000,000 white residents and gained almost 2,000,000 Negroes. Northern cities exhibit a definite pattern: whites flee to the suburbs and Negroes flock into the | - central city, The Negro population of Philadelphia has doubled to 529,000 and makes up 26% of that city's residents; in New York City it has increased two and a half times to 1,100,000 or 14% of the population; in Chicago it tripled to 813,000 or 23% of the. population; in Detroit it more than tripled to almost 500,000 Negroes or 29%. Los Angeles County underwent a six-fold increase to 464,000.
The sky-rocketing percentage increases in Negro populations in the major industrial cities of the North and South can only be understood | against the background of the demand of the cities for labor and the drive of the Negroes to secure a better standard of living through industrial employment.
Northern cities needed the labor of the Negroes particularly .during the two world wars when European. immigration was cut off and the nation's war needs called for more manpower,. The growing industrialization and urbanization of the South since World War II has, also, contributed to this population shift. Between 1940-60 Southern farm employment dropped 45%
while manufacturing employment rose 23%. Increased diversification of .. industry has meant wider employment opportunities, The textile industry once accounted for 25% of all Southern manufacturing employment. Today it accounts for only 18%. Growing sources of factory employment involve chemicals, transportation equipment, electrical machinery and fabricated metals,
The movement from South to North and from farm to urban areas has definitely placed the Negro in a more favorable economic position in . relation to his own past. Viewing the country as a whole: Three times as many Negroes-were employed in 1960 as were in 1940 in nonagricultural o fields, Between 1945-61.the number of Negro families with incomes betweén E005 and $6,000 tripled. The number of families with incomes over. me 6,000 jumped from 4% to 20% during this same time, The aggregate personal income of Negroes showed a growth of about 700% between 1939=61, Today it is estimated that Negroes have a purchasing power of well over $22,000,000, -000 a year, Ketailers and advertisers have a new respect for the Negro market these days. Economic boycotts used in the civilerights struggle today show that Negroes are well aware of this new weapon in their fight for Freedom Now. : 7 .
The movement of the Negro to the city has been, in the above respects, a blessing both to the Negro and the city. But, it has also been a curse to both the Negro-and the city. For a long time American cities have been absorbing a many-millioned stream-of immigrants from other lands. The | cities have acted as incubators for these newcomers -- disciplining them, | adapting them and finally blending them into the white class structure of American life. These newest immigrants present new and different problems to the cities of postwar America, The European immigrant could lose his | accent, put on American clothes and become "one of the family." The Negro can never lose himself in the crowd; he is colored. The European immigrant came to the cities as. manual laborers when unskilled labor was needed, The Negro comes at a time when skilled labor is needed, The European immigrant was part of a human river that poured over a virgin continent, chopping dow its forests, ploughing up its prairies, gutting its minerals, contributing to the rise of the Robber Barons, The Negro comes to the city at a time of economic and political crisis for the American colossus... , oe
The city encourages Negro migrations during peak economic periods and then must cope with the problem of the last-hired-first-fired untrained workers when periods of recession occur. The city segregates the Negro, discriminates in a thousand and one ways and then has to cope with the ghetto with its crime rate, prostitution, drop outs from school and general deterioration from public and private neglect, The city political machines wring their hands in anguish at the whites-to-the-suburbs trend because they see in the near future that the Negro vote is-fast becoming the balance of power in big city politics, The city curses the Negro,
The Negro is surrounded by the city and its outward signs of abundance and luxury, High expectations are aroused only to turn into frustration, © bitterness and alienation, The city promises but doesn't give -= an explosive situation, Although he has progressed in relation to his past, the Negro soon sees that his progress is not as rapid or as great as that of the whites -- so he still remains at the bottom of the heap. Further,
in the last decade he has not. progressed over-all but is running hard just to stay in the same place. ‘The Negro curses the city.
The cold hard facts are: 28% of white families have incomes under $4,000 but 60% of Negro families have incomes less than $4,000. The median income for white families is $5,981 yet 75% of Negro families fall below that figure, In regions outside the South the income of Negroes is about three~fourths that of whites; in the South the Negro income is only twofifths as much as. non=Southern Negroes but Southern whites earn about four-fifths as much as non-Southern whites. Although the income of Negro individuals and families has increased over five times since 1940, it is still only a little more than one=half that of whites,
Earnings of whites have gone up but Negro earnings went up until 1954 and then went down from that point. |
The economic trends in this country have had and will continue to have -an adverse effect on Negro employment and income. The source of economic — improvement for Negroes has been their movement out of agriculture and into manufacturing, mining and construction fields where they worked as unskilled or semiskilled laborers and operatives, These industries have declined or stagnated between 1947-61, Increased use of automation and labor-saving devices make further cuts in unskilled and semiskilled areas of work.
As a result of the above, unemployment among Negroes is 10% -- twice that of whites, In places like Chicago -and Detroit the percentage differences are even more startling. In Detroit, for example, as of April, 1963, 5.8% of the white male population was unemployed but 15.9% of the Negro male population was unemployed. Of-white females 2.6% were unemployed but 6.4% of female Negroes were unemployed. Negro unemployment lasts longer than that of whites. In September 1958 Negroes were unemployed for an average period of 17,8 weeks and whites for an average of 13.3 weeks, Three years later, Negro unemployment averages went up to 18 weeks and white averages went down to 13 weeks.
A good deal of the above material was drawn from "The Economic Status of Negroes: In the Nation and In the South" written by Vivian W. Henderson and. published by the Southern Regional Council. The article explodes the myth that “things are getting better and better for the U.S. Negro." One of the major conclusions in the article stated: ", , . there is, in | reality, little cause for optimism regarding rapid change in the status of Negroes in the near future,"
*Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia.
*xxNew York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, San Francisco- Oakland, Boston, Pittsburgh, St, Louis, Washington, Cleveland, Baltimore, Now hold 31% of all Negroes in U.S. ‘
a
IF THE BOMB