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The book the invisible man demonstrates that black people in the communist party were used as pawns in order to gather black followers. This takes place in Chapters 20-24 as Ralph Ellison begins to realize that "The Organization" is using him rather then valuing him as an employee. This is exemplified when Emma says "Shouldn't he be blacker" (Ellison Page 303).

#whitemovesfirst

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The white-moves-first rule became standard in the late 1800s. Nupat Arjkla / EyeEm / Getty Images

Editor's note: The recent protests over racism have rekindled a longstanding discussion about whether chess promotes white privilege with its rule that the first move always goes to the player with the white pieces. In this Q&A, Daaim Shabazz, an international business professor and chess journalist, offers insight into whether there's any merit to the idea that the rule is meant to uphold white privilege.
Who decided that white should always go first?

Johann Löwenthal, a British master, put forth one of the first proposals of record to give white the obligatory first move. At the First American Chess Congress, held in New York in 1857, Löwenthal sent two letters to the secretary of the New York Chess Club, Frederick Perrin.

On page 84 of the congress's proceedings, it refers to one of the letters by citing "the advisableness of always giving the first move, in published games, to the player of the white pieces..." This rule was not immediately adopted, and tournament organizers maintained flexibility on the first move. In the Fifth American Chess Congress in 1880, it was written on page 164 of the Code of Chess Laws, "The right of first move must be determined by lot. The player must always play with the white men."

www.wikicommons.com, FAL

Wilheim Steinitz, the first world champion, repeated this idea in his 1889 book, "The Modern Chess Instructor," where he wrote on page XII: "The players draw by lot for move and choice of color. In all international and public Chess matches and tournaments, however, it is the rule for the first player to have the white men."

Thus, there was a growing consensus that white should move first.

Was that decision rooted in racism?

I am not aware of any direct evidence. However, chess players were not only part of the intelligentsia, but also men of their times. On page X in the proceedings of the Sixth American Chess Congress in 1889, Steinitz poetically extolled the virtues of chess as being among the "intellectual pastimes of civilized nations." This is a time when Europeans generally did not regard Africa as a place of civilization. For instance, five years earlier at the Berlin Conference of 1884, Europeans had begun to execute their colonial plan and " aim at instructing the natives and bringing home to them the blessings of civilization."

Further, in the 19th century, there was an awful period of satirizing and dehumanizing Blacks through darkened minstrel caricatures. There existed the perception that white was associated with that which was positive, and black was associated with that which was negative. Recent social science research shows that this perception still holds.

Does the rule give white an advantage?

It is my view that chess players, including grandmasters, overstate white's first-move advantage.

Russian grandmaster Evgeny Sveshnikov stated back in 1994 that a player should win with white and be content to draw with black.

As early as 1939, American master Weaver Adams claimed white is winning after the very first move, at least when that first move was the pawn to the e4 square - that is, the square three spaces in front of white's king. But he ended up losing a match to I.A. Horowitz, who wanted to prove a point by taking black in every game.

Since A.D. 1475, white's overall winning percentage has been approximately 55% in nearly 1 million games. This includes percentage of total wins plus half the percentage of drawn games. Is this result because of the first move itself? Steinitz seemed to suggest otherwise when he stated on page XXXII in his classic book, "Modern Chess Instructor," "by best play on both sides, a draw ought to be the legitimate result."

How would things change if black moved first?

#MoveForEquality

In 2019, Magnus Carlsen and Anish Giri - who as of July were the number 1 and number 10 players in the world, respectively - promoted a #MoveforEquality campaign as a way of acknowledging social inequalities. In their game, black moved first and the line was, "We broke a rule in chess today, to change minds tomorrow." It was billed as an anti-racist statement, but some took it as a suggestion to change the rules of chess to black having the first move.

If black moved first, it would take some getting used to for players who are accustomed to white going first. This would be especially true for the opening moves, since the white and black chess armies are positioned slightly differently. For instance, as white, the queen is on the left-hand side. As black, the queen is on the right-hand side.

As it exists now, the lighter color always moves first. Some see this as analogous to racial privileges in society. The late Frances Cress-Welsing, a psychiatrist, made a chess analogy in her " Cress Theory of Color Confrontation," noting that the psychology of white having the first move was as the natural aggressor against black forces.

Socially speaking, an ideal solution would be to give both colors a 50% chance to move first. That is the way it was in shatranj, a precursor to modern-day chess. Instead of picking which player gets the favorable color, something like a coin toss would determine which color gets to move first. Of course, this would be "equal opportunity" but result in a totally different approach to playing chess.

What are the psychological effects of white going first?

MoMo Productions/Getty Images

There are several psychological factors at play. A beginner of chess learns the power of "white first" very quickly. They will see that an opponent will prefer the white pieces if given a choice. They feel a sense of empowerment even when they are playing a stronger opponent. For this reason, players who play white may be more motivated to win. Conversely, we have been conditioned to believe that black should be content with a draw.

This relegation of black to an inferior status has been reinforced in many ways. The early chess books focused on how to exploit the white advantage over black. It was an attempt to show the power of the first-move privilege.

When one looks at chess books, the diagrams are generally positioned to be from the white army's perspective. This is even true for books focusing on strategic systems for black. However, the seminal "Black is OK" series by Hungarian grandmaster András Adorján feature diagrams from the black perspective and provides a theoretical framework for why black has adequate resources.

In many of the chess puzzles, it was common to see each problem presented as white who has the winning sequence. In fact, Theophilus Thompson (1855-1881), the first Black player of note, had authored such a book of chess puzzles.

To a great extent, books are still published in this fashion. I believe that strategic literature for a black response will continue to increase, and the game will move closer to a 50-50 result in the "white first" format. There are a great many systems where black seeks to be the aggressor.

Chess is more of a conversation where both sides engage in a battle of ideas. Someone has to initiate the conversation, but throughout the flow of the game, a unique story unfolds. In my view, it is not about who starts first, but what the essence of the story ends up being.

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Why does white always go first in chess?

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Editor's note: The recent protests over racism have rekindled a longstanding discussion about whether chess promotes white privilege with its rule that the first move always goes to the player with the white pieces. In this Q&A, Daaim Shabazz, an international business professor and chess journalist, offers insight into whether there's any merit to the idea that the rule is meant to uphold white privilege.

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This is shown when NPR is discussing the effects of the Communist part of the political field of Alabama it is stated that to this day "Alabama has yet to elect an African-American to a state white office" (npr.org).  This demonstrates while the communist party promised political stability and equality in many states the political climate was not changed.

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Alabama State Flag and Outline Map by Bigalbaloo Stock

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Alabama State Flag and Outline Map is a piece of digital artwork by Bigalbaloo Stock which was uploaded on August 17th, 2018. The digital art may be purchased as wall art, home decor, apparel, phone cases, greeting cards, and more. All products are produced on-demand and shipped worldwide within 2 - 3 business days.

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When it came to families income, an African American family during 1936 had close to one third of the income compared to what a white family. Many African Americans struggle to find jobs, and if they did find jobs they were quickly fired and replaced with other workers. The chart below shows the gaps and the large differences in incomes between an African American Family and white families (Greenberg 26).

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Within the novel Invisible Man the protagonist in the book struggles many times with trying to find a job. When the protagonist believes that he has a job due to his college Dean giving him letters of recommendations to get a job in New York, he quickly learns that they were fake and in fact not letters of recommendations.

“The bearer of this letter is a former student of ours (the protagonist), (I say former because he shall never, under any circumstances, be enrolled as a student here again) who has been expelled for a most serious defection from our strictest rules of deportment” (Ellison 190).

The protagonist was expelled from the school and embarrassed. At the time this was similar to many other African Americans where there was a constant struggle to find a job, especially one where you were supported by a white man.

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From the Magazine: ‘It Is Time for Reparations’ (Published 2020)

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Nikole Hannah-Jones explains the history of economic injustice and argues that if black lives are to truly matter in America, the nation must finally pay its debts.

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When the protagonist  begins to work at a paint factory he is given a tour of multiple jobs from the boss. While working with the boss, he tends to be rudely strict even though the boss was giving un clear instructions.

“‘You took the wrong tank,’ he (the boss) shouted. ‘What the hell, you trying to sabotage the company? That stuff wouldn’t work in a million years. It’s removed, concentrated remover! Don’t you know the difference?”’ (Ellison 204).

Even though the boss had given poor instructions, the protagonist was still yelled at for his mistake. The boss was treating the protagonist poorly and this could be because he was African American.

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KEEP AMERICA PURE WITH LIBERTY PAINTS. Another original poster design created with the Keep Calm-o-matic. Buy this design or create your own original Keep Calm design now.

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The Great Depression had impacted all parts of the world negatively. The United States economy crumbled and led to many families out of work. Those who were able to find work the wages had fallen to 60 percent less then what is was prior to the Great Depression (Greenberg 21). “The Federal government in 1930 estimated that 17 percent of the white population and 38 percent of the black population could not support themselves without assistance (Greenberg 21). While while families struggle, African Americans faced a harder struggle to find jobs and decent wages.

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Great slump: By 1933, unemployment in the USA was at 25 per cent.

Will there be another Great Depression? Experts warn that the coronavirus pandemic will provoke the most significant economic collapse in decades. But others argue that the crisis is unique.

"There is no playbook for this" recession, expert Campbell Harvey told Politico magazine. "Finance can cure finance. Finance cannot cure the biological problem."

Social distancing measures mean that many millions of people around the world cannot go to work. Many industries like travel, sport, and hospitality have no more customers.

The impact of these unprecedented measures is beginning to be felt. The stimulus packages being unveiled by major governments - impressive as they are - will not be enough to save every business.

Following an announcement from the Office for Budget Responsibility that the UK economy could shrink by up to 35% this year, Chancellor Rishi Sunak said, "These are tough times, and there will be more to come."

Indeed, the International Monetary Fund has forecast that the global economy will shrink by 3% during 2020 - far worse than its 0.1% dip during the recession of 2008. They expect this year to be the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

The Great Depression was a period of four years, between 1929 and 1933, during which the US economy kept shrinking and the global economy struggled.

This was largely due to many normal people being over-confident in the stock market and investing too much money in companies that were not actually doing well. Infectious optimism quickly transformed into panic when people realised that their investments were at risk.

The crisis was most severe in the US, where the unemployment rate remained in double figures for a decade, peaking at over 20% in 1933. The US economy shrank by an abysmal 50% during this period.

Though the scale of the financial impact caused by the coronavirus might be similar to that of a major recession (at least in the short term), many economists warn that our current predicament is quite different to that of the 1930s.

They have argued that the economic crisis engendered by the fight against Covid-19 is much more similar to that caused by a natural disaster. There is no financial cause for the recession - the world economy did not break - it was simply put on hold by leading governments while they dealt with the virus. This could allow any recovery to be quicker and smoother.

So, will there be another Great Depression?

Recess or Recession

No. This is an entirely different type of crisis to a financial depression. Every major nation is going to be affected. Even successful companies will suffer. Many major countries are investing huge amounts of public money in keeping businesses alive during this difficult time. When the lockdown is lifted, this should pay off. The economy is a beast of our own making. We can get it up and running again.

Yes. The longer it takes to reopen society as we knew it, the more difficult it will be for the economy to recover. It took the US over a decade to recover from the last crisis of this scale. With a vaccine up to 18 months away, and lingering fears around public gatherings and social contact set to remain, it is not overly pessimistic to expect the bad financial news to keep coming.

You Decide

1. Ask someone in your home how long they think the economy will be affected by the coronavirus.

2. When this has blown over, will you go back to spending money the way you did before the coronavirus outbreak?

Activities

1. Imagine the world 10 years from now. Write a list of all the jobs you think might change as a result of the pandemic.

2. Conduct some research online about the New Deal. Write a page about what we can learn from that period of post-depression economics.

Some People Say...

"It's a recession when your neighbour loses his job; it's a depression when you lose your own."

Harry S Truman (1884-1972), 33rd US president

What do you think?

Q & A

What do we know?

Three months ago, the IMF had forecast economic growth for the average person in 160 countries for 2020. Now, it expects negative income growth in 170 countries. Former US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke believes that the Great Depression is "not a very good comparison" to the current situation. He said: "This is like a natural disaster, and the response is more like an emergency relief."

What do we not know?

We do not know how long most countries will have to keep their economies locked down. We do not know how many jobs that are currently being lost will be impossible to regain. When the virus is overcome, we do not know whether people will be psychologically ready to spend money like they used to, or even go back to work.

Word Watch

Stimulus

The use of money and high degrees of spending, often by those in power, to kick-start the economy and avoid hardship.

Office for Budget Responsibility

A public body funded by the UK Treasury that provides independent economic forecasts and analysis of the public finances.

International Monetary Fund

An international organisation founded after World War Two, committed to promoting international cooperation, international trade, and sustainable economic growth.

Recession

A recession is when for two consecutive quarters (six months) a country does not make more money than it had done beforehand. This relative reduction in productivity and output is seen as temporary.

Great Depression

Negative economic growth and rising unemployment over a sustained period of time. Such events are rare. The 1930s in the US is the best known example.

Abysmal

Something that is extremely bad. It can also mean something that is very deep, like an abyss.

Predicament

A similar word to destiny, the predicted outcome of a situation. Largely, a negative word that refers to something bad but unavoidable.

Engendered

Cause or create a particular sensation or situation.

Recovery

The phase of a business cycle following a recession, during which employment and economic growth returns to pre-crisis levels.

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World faces worst crisis since Great Depression

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Will there be another Great Depression? Experts warn that the coronavirus pandemic will provoke the most significant economic collapse in decades. But others argue that the crisis is unique. "There is no playbook for this" recession, expert Campbell Harvey told Politico magazine. "Finance can cure finance. Finance cannot cure the biological problem."

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Within Ralph Ellison’s novel Invisible Man display the protagonist who faces multiple counts of racial inequalities due to the color of his skin. When the protagonist begins to work at paint factory there’s a slogan that goes around which the protagonist takes his own meaning on it.

“‘If It's Optic White, It's the Right White,’ I repeated and suddenly had to repress a laugh as a childhood jingle rang through my mind: ‘If you're white, you're right,’ I said” (Ellison 217).

The protagonist changed the slogan to remind him of how those who aren’t white will be seen as wrong or uneducated, as they appear to not be a superior race. This quote shows how due to racism at the time, many African Americans knew that only the white man saw themselves as being always in the right, while other races where in the wrong.

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Push for African American and White Americans Working Together

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Push for African American and White Americans Working Together

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The United States during the beginning of World War II was desperate for labor, which led to them making an effort in promoting racial unity by producing and releasing photographs of many African Americans and White Americans working together. This was at the time a huge step for equality for African Americans (Greenberg 113).

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Within the pictures show a before and after of the impacts and affects of the Federal Housing Authority which had help rebuild St. Thomas Street in New Orleans (Greenberg 91).

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The Communist Party biggest appeal to African Americans with their ideas of presenting a chance to have equality between African Americans and everyone else. African Americans struggled so much that they believed that the Communist Party would look out for their best interests (Vander Zee).

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The Communist Party main appeal to African Americans was those who were in the Unemployment Councils, which was organized by the Communist Party to help those who were struggling to find jobs (Greenberg 73). The Unemployment Councils would hold rallies that would push for better municipal services and more relief allocations. This of course attracted many African Americans at the time, as they were pushing for similar rights.

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After mass protests by African Americans due to violence from police men throughout multiple cities, led to lethal violence with many protesters being killed. This led to the Communist Party making a motion to focus on these untitled killings, “The Communist Party held nightly demonstrations until the funerals that attracted thousands” (Greenberg 75). These demonstrations attracted multiple African Americans as it gave off the impression that the Communist Party supported the cause and push for equality.

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This is the second of a number of excerpted stories from a memoir "Where Were You on May Day? Transitions in Red, 1930s-1960s" The first story can be found .
My father Meyer rarely talked about his childhood, but some of his experiences gradually became known to us. He had served an apprenticeship, starting at the age of nine, to a harness maker/coachbuilder in Zagare, Lithuania. As an apprentice, he was required to become part of the employer's household almost as a servant and to perform all sorts of chores, including taking care of the employer's baby. That experience was double-edged. It provided him with a skill, with food, such as it was, and a roof over his head. At the same time, it required him to submit to mistreatment, even abuse, from the employer's family. He and a fellow apprentice, forced to wait until the employer's family had eaten their fill, usually ate scraps and leftovers.
Meyer becomes an American and a radical
When Meyer arrived in the United States, automobiles and trucks were replacing horse-drawn vehicles. His skills were immediately transferable to automobile and truck work. His immigration papers in 1911 show his occupation as "harness maker." His application for U.S. citizenship in 1920 shows his occupation as "auto trimmer." An auto and truck trimmer deals with all aspects of vehicle upholstery: making and repairing seats, canvas curtains, head linings, isinglass windows, leather straps, seat covers, and cloth and convertible tops. Prior to 1935, when the auto industry introduced all-steel bodies, much of the upper body and roof of a car were made of leather, canvas, and a variety of waterproof fabrics. A trimmer had a better chance than most auto/truck workers did to obtain work. Trimmers were scarce and talented ones ordinarily could survive, even in hard times.

Meyer took the path to Americanization followed by most immigrants: learning to speak English, adapting to American customs, finding employment, and identifying with a sustaining community. Most Eastern European immigrant Jews were poor and worked at various manual trades. Many were plasterers, carpenters, glaziers, plumbers, painters, shoemakers, cap makers, furriers, millinery and garment workers. In the course of their work, they encountered union organization and radical ideas, especially the idea of socialism. In the old country, unions and the idea of class struggle influenced many of these workers. They soon found similar strong radical influences in their new communities.

Between 1911 and 1920, Meyer adopted the ideas, values, and characteristics of most radicalized Jewish immigrant workers. He became a socialist, an atheist, and a left-wing political activist. He followed a plan of self-education. His formal education in Lithuania had been minimal, although he had a good command of written and spoken Yiddish and had facility with an elementary level of prayer Hebrew. Many of the Yiddish language books in his collection dealt with such topics as psychology, economics, politics, literature, poetry, and Marxist theories of class struggle. These books and the popular Yiddish language press were the main sources of his self-directed education. Scattered through these volumes, now in my possession, are "bookmarks" he made with his thumbnail. These marks, faint but visible, provide an immediate glimpse into what he was thinking about when he last read those books almost a century ago. He was intellectually capable and developed a facility that enabled him to read novels and other complex works in English.

He worked at a number of manual jobs, only some of which allowed him to use his leather-working skills. The Belber Luggage Co. employed him, and for a time during World War I, he made a relatively good living by providing Army cavalry officers with specially designed saddles. Also during WWI, he worked as an unskilled laborer at the Baldwin Locomotive Works, which had been an employer of last resort for thousands of Philadelphia workers during its long history.

Meyer was unemployed for varying periods. In those winters when he could not find work, he and other unemployed men huddled for mutual support around fires they built in empty oil drums at street corners in South Philadelphia. In 1920, he went to work for the Darien Body Co., a builder of truck bodies at 26th and Moore Sts. in South Philadelphia and was employed there until the mid-1930s.

Between the onset of the Russian Revolution in 1917 and the end of the civil war in 1920-21, socialists in the U.S., as in other countries, split on the issue of support for the Bolsheviks and their seizure of power in Russia. The shifting debates and choosing of sides finally resulted in the formation of two groups, those who supported the new Communist (Bolshevik) Third International and those who adhered to the old Socialist movement that identified with the Second International. My father, who had been a Socialist activist, became one of the early supporters of the Communist movement and a founder of the Communist Party of the United States. It is not clear whether my mother Esther actually joined the Party, although there is no doubt as to where her sympathies lay. In her later years, she made a point of not being a Communist Party member, since she was not a citizen and could be subject to deportation.

2019 marks a century since the founding of the Communist Party USA. To commemorate the anniversary of the longest-surviving socialist organization in the United States, People's World has launched the article series: 100 Years of the Communist Party USA. Read the other articles published in the series and check out the guidelines about how to submit your own contribution.

Meyer considered his work as a Communist an extension of his Socialist activities in a new political period.

He admired such Socialist Party leaders as Meyer London, Victor Berger, and Eugene Debs. In 1937, when his second son with Esther was born, Meyer made sure to name him Eugene Victor, after Eugene Victor Debs, the foremost Socialist leader in the United States prior to the founding of the Communist Party. I say "made sure" because he claimed my mother had named me in 1928 without his input. Apparently, while recovering in the Women's Hospital after I was born, she had read in the radical Yiddish press of the exploits of a Jewish boy in the Soviet Union. She was impressed with him and his story and decided to name me after him. His name was Nyuma, a diminutive derived from Benjamin (Binyumen in Yiddish). It was a name familiar to Jews who had lived in Europe but hardly recognized by Americanized Jews. She did not know how to render it in English, and her nurses, who were Irish, tried to help her. They knew as little about Yiddish pronunciation as she did of English pronunciation, and they jointly came up with "Noyma," the name as it appears on my birth certificate, though close family and friends call me Nyuma. Most everyone else I know calls me Noyma according to phonetic rules of English.

During the 1920s and '30s, Meyer, Esther, and friends of similar social background and political belief worked to build the Communist movement despite the jailing and deportation of foreign-born radicals. The membership of the Communist Party in the United States at that time was comprised of a significant number of foreign-born persons, most of them manual workers. They risked a great deal in being active Communists. Deportation and separation from their families were ongoing concerns. Nevertheless, they attempted to organize workers on the Philadelphia waterfront, coal miners in the Anthracite region of Pennsylvania, and needle trades workers in Philadelphia.

They had great energy and zeal, but their efforts brought mixed results. In some cases, they attempted to organize workers into Communist-led industrial unions to fill the organizational vacuum created by the inactivity of the conventional craft-oriented trade unions. In some cases, they tried to influence workers in existing unions. The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) had had a long history of activity and accomplishment on the Philadelphia waterfront. The IWW's Local 8 dominated the Philadelphia docks from 1913 to the early 1920s. During its hey-day, it had created an interracial organization that did away with the worst abuses of the dock workers.

Dockworkers were very militant, but their current union, the International Longshoremen's Association, was controlled by gangsters and careerists, who collaborated with management in retaining the "shape-up" system of hiring, a key means of controlling the docks because it determined which men received job assignments each day. Communist organizers tried to encourage dockworkers to organize for greater control of their union and achieve worker-friendly job practices, especially an end to the "shape-up," but they failed to win over a significant number of dockworkers. Philadelphia dock workers today are organized into highly effective International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) locals.

Meyer recounted amusing stories of their efforts to organize workers on the waterfront. One of the organizers was a young woman, Clara Bachman, a red-haired firebrand who spoke English with an especially heavy Yiddish accent. Apparently, the dockworkers, most of them African Americans or of Irish, Italian, and Polish extraction, could not understand what this passionate little woman wanted.
Workers International Relief
Efforts on the waterfront yielded few results, although leftist influence among dock workers continues to the present day. Efforts in the Anthracite region were a little more successful. A long tradition of struggle in the coalfields, starting with the Molly Maguires, made the miners receptive to radical ideas. A significant number of miners joined the Communist-led National Miners Union, which unsuccessfully challenged the power of the conservatively led United Mine Workers. The Jewish Communist organizers were most successful in the needle trades. They had immediate cultural rapport with the Yiddish-speaking workers and built a sizable Communist-led fraction within the men's and women's garment industry.

Meyer participated in a variety of projects sponsored by the Communist organization in the Philadelphia area in the 1920s. One project involved creation of a summer camp for workers and their families called WIR. (Workers International Relief). Located on a steep, wooded hillside above Lumberville, Bucks County, a tiny village on the Delaware River, the camp provided workers with an inexpensive place to rest and restore their energies. In the late 1920s and early '30s, it was a popular site among Party members and sympathizers for summer vacations and weekends.

I had great fun at the camp. Even though I was under the age of five, I participated in large-scale group games and helped members of the Young Communist League collect wood in the surrounding forest for nighttime campfires. I particularly enjoyed splashing in the Delaware River literally in the shadow of the old covered wooden bridge that connected Lumberville to New Jersey at the time. Meyer managed the camp on a part-time basis from the time he and a group of comrades established it until it closed for financial reasons in 1933. Skilled in working canvas, Meyer made the tents we lived in at WIR. A photograph taken at the time shows Esther and Meyer sitting and holding hands under the tent's canopy on the wooden floor to which it was staked.

My parents and their friends were at the camp in August 1927, the night Sacco and Vanzetti, two immigrant Italian anarchists who were convicted of murder in a Massachusetts robbery, awaited execution. Part of a worldwide movement that opposed the conviction and the death sentence on the ground that the two were being persecuted because of their radical opinions, they joined thousands of Americans in maintaining a vigil in hope that the governor of Massachusetts would cancel the execution. They walked down to River Road, which borders the Delaware River, on the evening of Aug. 23 to use a public phone to find out whether a last-minute appeal had succeeded. Both men were executed.
I pick up the cry
From a WIR document of 1934, the organization provided a three-point program: "Solidarity and aid to the struggles of striking and unemployed workers. To fight against misery and starvation of working-class children. To unite neighborhoods for neighborhood welfare." It mobilized for food for strikers and their families, sanitation, clinical services, and housing, free milk for babies, free lunches for school children, free medical attention for the sick, and all forms of social insurance, including unemployment insurance. The influence of such radical demands can readily be seen in many of FDR's New Deal programs.

During my early years, my parents involved me in many Communist-led activities. I marched with them in parades in which participants shouted current left-wing political slogans. In one such parade, whenever the shouting stopped or lagged in energy, I picked up the cry in my child's voice-"Free the Scottsboro Boys," "Free Tom Mooney"-and the adult marchers chimed in. In later childhood years, I participated in demonstrations in support of the Spanish Republic, against lynching, against appeasement of Hitler and the Nazis, and in support of unions and striking workers.

Slogans at many of the political meetings I attended included "Hands Off China," "Hands Off the Soviet Union," "Black and White, Unite and Fight." In addition to militant political demonstrations, I attended cultural and fundraising activities like lectures, picnics, bazaars, rummage sales, concerts, and banquets. I did not always understand the nuances of the political arguments advanced at some of these gatherings, but I always felt comfortable in the warmth of a movement that had as its professed goals brotherhood of peoples and human liberation. Human liberation referred first and most importantly to an end to capitalist exploitation. It also referred to an end to racism, anti-Semitism, male domination of women, and class domination of cultural and social life. These ideas constituted the core of my understanding of the Communist movement's principles and remained with me all my life despite the ebb and flow of the movement's fortunes in the U.S. and internationally.

My parents proclaimed few ethical or moral absolutes. Three issues, however, had the status of commandments in our household: 1.) Always support the Negro people in their struggle against oppression; 2.) Never cross a picket line conducted by striking workers; 3.) Always support and defend the Soviet Union.

A tangle of confused and sometimes contradictory subtexts characterized the ideology of the movement in which I grew up. For example, while it was clear that one always should support striking workers, it was a debated question whether one should leave a tip for a waitperson in a restaurant. Waitpersons should not demean themselves and depend on tips to make a living. Instead of functioning as individuals in relation to their customers, they should organize, form a union, and collectively demand higher wages from the boss to eliminate the need for tips. According to this hard-line leftist position, it was not appropriate to encourage the practice of tipping. Yet, the waitperson needed to earn a living. Despite our misgivings, we always left a tip.

Similarly, what attitude should we have toward beggars? Beggars, as the thinking went, were "lumpen" proletarians, demoralized and declassed workers who subsisted outside the struggles of the organized working class. Should we encourage them by giving them money, of which we did not have much? Should we refuse to give them money because according to another hard-line leftist position the "correct" thing for them to do was to join (rejoin?) the struggle of the organized working class and not depend on handouts? Sometimes we gave them money, sometimes not. However, how should we regard those itinerant workers, sometimes referred to as hoboes in the literature of the IWW, who panhandled and did not hesitate to accept a free meal or bed, yet who still retained a working-class consciousness? Were they "lumpen elements," or dislocated workers?

A streak of rebellion against established ways appears in my parents' attitudes. Marxism, as interpreted by the Communist movement, formed the basis of their beliefs, but one can trace strands in their beliefs to anarchist thought and practice, and to the Jacobins and sans-culottes of the French Revolution. Their personal ideology echoed the French Revolutionary call for liberté, egalité, fraternité.

They were atheists who firmly rejected all forms of organized religion. Their opposition to religious belief and practice was a mainstay of their outlook during their entire lives. They were disciplined radicals, but they welcomed spontaneity and authenticity in militant action. They were comfortable with the centralized leadership style of the Communist Party, but they were also comfortable in groups that arrived at decisions informally by consensus.

They were at home in cooperative activities and in movements that called on selflessness and curbing of individual egos. I think we would have functioned successfully as a family according to the cooperative principles of an Israeli-style kibbutz. During the years that she lived and worked in New York in the early 1920s, Esther participated in the activities of a left-wing camp its Yiddish speaking members had named "Nitgedaiget"-"No Worries," or "Forget Your Cares." Located outside New York City, it functioned on cooperative/communitarian principles as it served as a rural retreat for activists.

Because of their influence, the cooperative/communitarian idea became a characteristic of my psychological makeup. I still respond positively to social reform movements that foster ideal communities promising to harmonize human relationships through cooperative effort. In my later years, I enthusiastically read B.F. Skinner's Walden Two. Skinner's proposed community seemed to have the qualities of an ideal cooperative world toward which I intuitively leaned. He injected something new in the literature of ideal communities, the psychological principle of positive reinforcement, that draws out of people a generous, non-competitive attitude toward others. His theories totally discarded the practice of punishment. His language of "operant conditioning" and "schedules of reinforcement" repel some people who regard themselves as humanists. His ideas also raise important questions about the role of free will and conscious decision making by human beings as opposed to conditioning. Nevertheless, I found a progressive note in his ideas and a coherent technique by which one could draw out the best in people.

Esther and Meyer did not believe in sexual promiscuity, but they were supportive of unmarried pregnant women. They thought society's mistreatment of such women was a typical inhuman byproduct of capitalism. In their personal behavior they did not support "free love," but in their own lives, they were willing to defy conventions regarding traditional marriage. When I was 16, I talked with my father about unmarried parents and "illegitimate" children. At that point, I did not know that my parents had not married. Meyer said that the phrase "illegitimate" as applied to children is a misnomer; all human beings are "legitimate," period.

They were proud of their Jewish heritage and identity but were friends with people of other races and ethnicities. Openness toward people of various backgrounds manifested itself in relationships with Black people, and Armenian, German, Italian, and other foreign-born workers. Karl Marx's statement "Workers of all countries, unite!" was more than a slogan to them. It was a principle that guided action. These friendships lent an international flavor to our lives. In the late 1930s, Meyer was part of a group that sought volunteers in the Pennsylvania coal fields for the Abraham Lincoln Battalion, an activity that provided me a personal connection to the worldwide struggle against fascism.

An important feature of my upbringing was our family's connection with people in interracial marriages or relationships. There were more than a few in the Communist movement and my parents were friends with several such couples at a time when many people in white neighborhoods viewed those who had Black household visitors with antagonism and suspicion. The example my parents set served me well in a variety of situations in which I found myself later in life.
The Hunger March, demonstrations, unions, and strikes
An emphasis on honesty in their various activities and in personal relations was characteristic of Esther and Meyer. It was important to them that Eugene and I be honest in our dealings with the world. They were not only honest about money matters and material things. They also were honest in that they were direct in their personal relationships. Directness is part of what it means to be honest (although there are times when indirectness is called for). Their direct personal manner helps account for their effectiveness as union and political organizers. Their peers knew them as people who could be trusted and relied on. Obviously influenced by them, I have had difficulty in being indirect; I tend to meet situations head-on and deal with them in a straightforward way. Today, I realize that there have been times when I did not pick up messages because I was not sufficiently sensitive to indirection.

Meyer participated in a Communist-led Hunger March in Washington, D.C., in December 1932 that involved several thousand people who converged on the capital from various parts of the country to demand government action in combatting the devastating effects of the Depression. A skilled leatherworker, he made a belt-like contrivance that enabled him to carry a blanket roll and other light equipment across his back in the fashion of Russian soldiers in wartime. I recall a front-page newspaper photograph of the Hunger March which showed him in a line of marchers, the blanket roll slung across his back.

Not every activity was directly political, although Meyer did run for the office of Magistrate on the Communist ticket in one local election in the mid-1930s. My parents supported other participants in the movement by helping comrades in various ways. In one case, Esther ministered to a Black woman comrade who became sick at a Communist Party conference in Pittsburgh. This comrade stayed for several weeks in the apartment from which later the constables evicted us until she regained her health.

Meyer occasionally talked about an exploit in which he played a key role in a Communist demonstration in 1930. The Party, which had its headquarters at 8th St. & Spring Garden Ave. at the time, was experiencing difficulty in holding demonstrations in center city. The authorities refused permits for outdoor meetings and police broke up picket lines. They roughed up and arrested many picketers. The Party leadership carefully devised a plan to hold a surprise demonstration without a permit on City Hall Plaza at a midweek noon hour, when foot traffic would be heavy. According to the plan, a platform would suddenly be set up, a speaker would begin addressing the surrounding crowd, and sign-carrying demonstrators distributing leaflets would appear from all directions in support of the speaker.

The Party's District Organizer chose Meyer, who had a reputation for militancy and physical courage, to carry the platform from a vehicle parked at the curb. This was a daring, even dangerous assignment. There was every expectation that the police usually on duty at City Hall Plaza would club anyone attempting to set up the platform. A comrade, Archie Coleman, brought the platform to the curb in his small truck. Meyer picked it up and quickly put the speaker's platform in its place on the north plaza of City Hall. Demonstrators surrounded the speaker who addressed the gathering crowd. Completed before the police could organize themselves, the exploit was a topic of conversation for a long time in Party circles. A photograph depicting this event appears in a book entitled, Philadelphia: 1920-1960.

Reports of police attacks on Communist-led demonstrations appeared in the local press periodically. The Philadelphia Inquirer, an extremely reactionary paper then, published the names and addresses of those arrested and always singled out African Americans by identifying them as "colored." In reviewing these reports, which are stored in Temple University's Urban Archives, I found that a surprising number of the demonstrators lived in my old neighborhood in West Philadelphia, and a fair number of the demonstrators were African Americans.

As a Communist, Meyer participated in the efforts of the Trade Union Unity League (TUUL), one of the organizing vehicles sponsored by the Communist Party in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The TUUL undertook to organize industries, particularly heavy industry, which the conventional trade unions failed to organize. In Philadelphia, one organizing target was the commercial truck body industry. A specific target was Meyer's employer, the Darien Body Co., one of several truck body manufacturers in the Philadelphia area. The separation of workers in small, scattered plants made the commercial truck body industry difficult to organize. The decentralized nature of the industry determined the strategy of organizing one shop at a time. Other TUUL targets were small machine shops scattered in and around Philadelphia, which ultimately the CIO United Electrical Workers organized.

The organized Philadelphia truck body workers were members of the Commercial Truck Local of the Automobile Workers Union, an organization built by Socialists, Communists, and other militants in the previously non-union auto/truck industry. The AWU's main base was in Detroit. Forerunner of the CIO United Automobile Workers, it disbanded when the CIO undertook to organize autoworkers at the major mass production plants. His stamped AWU 1933 dues book is one of the few tangible remembrances I have of Meyer.

During its brief existence in the early 1930s, the Philadelphia Commercial Truck Body AWU local was one of the few and possibly the only organized autoworkers local functioning on the East Coast. Its members, led by Meyer, testified as the only representatives of organized labor in the auto industry at hearings in Washington, D.C., before a committee of prominent representatives of labor and management concerning the creation of industry codes under the National Recovery Act (NRA). The NRA provided for codes that included employment standards in various industries. The industrial codes drew on ideas submitted by both workers and employers. They covered such matters as the right to unionize, wages, hours, and working conditions. As spokespersons for organized labor, the Philadelphia AWU addressed a number of issues later incorporated into UAW contracts. One such issue concerned wage minimums. The unionists recommended as high a minimum wage as possible since minimums tend to become maximums in actual practice. The U.S. Supreme Court eventually ruled the NRA unconstitutional. Many of its pro-labor provisions were included in the Wagner Act and in contracts won by the CIO a few years later.

In the early to mid-1930s, encouraged by the NRA's provision for union organization, increasing numbers of workers in the U.S., including Philadelphia, went on strike despite the ravages of the Depression. During the winters of 1933 and 1934, the newly organized workers at the Darien Body Co. struck for union recognition and wage increases. They held out for nine weeks in January, February, and March 1933, but returned to work without achieving either goal. The workers struck again for several months in the winter of 1934. This time they won union recognition and wage and hour benefits. As part of the settlement, all the workers except Meyer returned to their jobs. The company owner, a man named Cohn, stood at the door of the shop as the returning workers filed in. He blocked the door as Meyer attempted to enter and said, "Everybody can come back except Appelbaum."

His fellow union members could not help Meyer get his job back. The men had held firm in the winters of two of the most difficult years of the Depression. They supported Meyer's leadership of the strike, but their situation required them to go back to work. They could not hold out longer for the sake of one man, even the strike leader. One casualty in the struggle was not too high a price to pay for victory. Meyer went back into the shop only to collect his tools.

Following the settlement, the union at the Darien Body Co. entered the AFL as a "Federal local," in the absence of a specific union in that industry, affiliated directly with the national organization. The AFL was the only union with which the Darien workers could affiliate at that moment since the UAW-CIO had not yet formed and the AWU was not in a position to service the Darien local. Ironically, my half-brother Max (son of my father and his wife Ida), who had obtained a job at Darien with my father's assistance, became a shop steward at the plant.

A further irony here is that because of his uncommon skills Meyer had not personally faced total layoff prior to the strikes. He was relatively secure in his part-time job in contrast to the insecurity of his unskilled and semiskilled fellow workers. He also earned more than most of the other workers because of his skills. Despite his comparatively favored situation, he chose to become active in the formation and leadership of the union. It was not necessary for him to jeopardize his protected job status, but he was not one to allow his personal interests to outweigh the struggle for a larger social goal. As a Jew and a Red, he easily identified and bonded with his coworkers, even though few of his fellow workers were Jews and fewer had sympathies for Jews or Communists. He became their leader because he was honest, principled, and competent.

Employers in the Philadelphia truck body industry knew Meyer as a Red and as a union activist and they would not hire him when he applied for a job. He left Philadelphia to find work and soon learned that employers outside of Philadelphia had blacklisted him as well. He tried to get jobs in factories as far away as Hagerstown, Md., and Gloversville, N.Y., but he could not find anything in the truck body industry. His public testimony as a labor representative at the NRA hearings made him a known figure in the industry. His shocks of gray-white hair framing his blue eyes and relatively unlined face helped employers on the lookout for troublemakers identify him.

Meyer never worked in the truck body industry again. Ultimately, he had no choice but to open a small auto and truck upholstery business, an especially difficult undertaking considering his lack of resources, the state of the economy, and his lack of business experience. In the late 1930s and early '40s, despite his struggle to make a living, he was barely able to provide for us. We did not achieve a measure of economic stability until the U.S. entered World War II.

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Growing up as a communist kid in the 1930s

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This is the second of a number of excerpted stories from a memoir "Where Were You on May Day? Transitions in Red, 1930s-1960s" The first story can be found here. My father Meyer rarely talked about his childhood, but some of his experiences gradually became known to us.

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When an African American would be evicted from their homes for unfair reasons, the Communist Party and group would threaten and revolt. Communists “‘as a group, would go to the landlord and say, look you have a choice, you need to put that guy or that family back into their house or the next day your house may turn into firewood”’ (Vander Zee). Many African Americans would side with the Communist Party because they would be the few people at the time to actually stand up for them.

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In order to gain popular support from Black Americans the communist party promised equal rights. Even with that promise human error on execution caused racial problems. This is shown in "The Black Bolshevik" when talking about the black section of the communist party and how "they resented the paternalistic attitude displayed toward them by some of the white comrades who...treated blacks like children" (page 121).

#blackdiscouragement

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black bolshevik: autobiography of an afro-american communist

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biography & autobiography / philosophers

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political science / political ideologies / communism

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biography & autobiography / philosophers

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political science / political ideologies / communism

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Black Bolshevik: Autobiography of an Afro-American Communist

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Black Bolshevik: Autobiography of an Afro-American Communist [Harry Haywood] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Black Bolshevik: Autobiography of an Afro-American Communist

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When it came to World War II the Communist Party made a motion to say that African Americans and Whites should not be mixed when it comes to fighting. Many African Americans and supporters of the Communist Party came to a realization that the party didn’t want full equality amongst races. Individuals such as Ralph Ellison stated how this was when he realized that the Communist Party wasn’t always looking to help African Americans (Vander Zee).

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The autobiography "The Black Bolshevik" takes place in the late 1800's. According to the source (history.house.gov) since 1870 one hundred and seventy two African American delegates have served in the national congress. The most being in the 116th congress at 57 people of color. This demonstrates the important link between people of color using communism as a force of change and political drive.

#diversity

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More than one-in-five voting members (22%) of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate are racial or ethnic minorities, making the 116th Congress the most racially and ethnically diverse in history. There has been a long-running trend toward more racial and ethnic diversity on Capitol Hill: Each of the previous four Congresses broke the record set by the Congress before it.

Overall, 116 lawmakers today are nonwhite (including blacks, Hispanics, Asians/Pacific Islanders and Native Americans), according to a Pew Research Center analysis of data from the Congressional Research Service. This represents an 84% increase over the 107th Congress of 2001-03, which had 63 minority members.

Although recent Congresses have continued to set new highs for racial and ethnic diversity, they have still been disproportionately white when compared with the overall U.S. population. Nonwhites make up 39% of the nation's population, according to U.S. Census Bureau population estimates. (For this analysis, Hispanics are included in the Census Bureau estimates for the share of each racial minority group in the overall population.)

In the House of Representatives, however, some racial and ethnic groups are now on par with their share of the total population. For example, 12% of House members are black, about equal to the share of Americans who are black. And Native Americans now make up 1% of the House, equal to their 1% of the population.

Other nonwhite groups in the House are somewhat less represented relative to their share of the population. The share of Hispanics in the U.S. population (18%) is twice as high as it is in the House (9%). Asians account for 6% of the national population but 3% of House members.

The increase in minority representation in the House has largely come among newly elected Democrats. Of the 22 freshman representatives who are nonwhite, just one is a Republican (Rep. Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio, who is Hispanic).

Nine senators are a racial or ethnic minority, unchanged from the 115th Congress. Four senators are Hispanic, three are Asian and three are black. (Kamala Harris, D-Calif., is black and Asian). There are no nonwhite freshman senators.

In the full 116th Congress, the overwhelming majority of racial and ethnic nonwhite members are Democrats (90%), while just 10% are Republicans.

Non-Hispanic whites make up 78% of voting members in the new Congress, considerably larger than their 61% share of the U.S. population overall. And despite the growing racial and ethnic diversity of Congress, this gap has widened over time: In 1981, 94% of Congress was white, compared with 80% of the U.S. population.

This analysis includes a few members who are counted under more than one racial or ethnic identity. In addition to Harris, Rep. Robert Scott, D-Va., is counted as both black and Asian. Reps. Antonio Delgado and Adriano Espaillat, both New York Democrats, are listed as black and Hispanic. Espaillat, the first Dominican American elected to Congress, self-identifies as a Latino of African descent. Portuguese American members are not included in the Hispanic count. In addition, one disputed seat in the House - North Carolina's 9th District - is not included in the total number of voting seats.
Note: For analyses of previous Congresses, see our earlier posts: 115th Congress sets new high for racial, ethnic diversity 114th Congress is the most diverse ever

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For the fifth time in a row, the new Congress is the most racially and ethnically diverse ever

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More than one-in-five voting members (22%) of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate are racial or ethnic minorities, making the 116th Congress the most racially and ethnically diverse in history. There has been a long-running trend toward more racial and ethnic diversity on Capitol Hill: Each of the previous four Congresses broke the record set by the Congress before it.

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Communists Support from Famous African Americans

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Communists Support from Famous African Americans

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Due to Communist demonstrations and recognition from many African Americans, this also gained attraction from prominent scholars and writers such as Richard Wright, Langston Hughes, and Ralph Ellison (Greenberg 75). The addition of these famous supporters and writers helped gained more attraction from African Americans as many read these writers texts and began to realize how Communism can help bring equality.

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Many people saw black activists as "leftists and communist History.com states, "FBI director J. Edgar Hoover was quick to equate any kind of protest with communist activity, including the civil rights demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr. Hoover labeled King a communist and covertly worked to intimidate and discredit the civil rights leader". This shows communism caused a severe distrust of African Americans, making it harder for them to work their way into politics.

#nopoliticalequality

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As communism began to infiltrate into the United States the government began to become more conservative as Americans around the country voted republican out of fear for the leftist movement. This is shown when history.com said,
"As the Red Scare intensified, its political climate turned increasingly conservative". Demographically most African Americans of the time were liberals, demonstrating their decreased involvement in politics at the time.

#McCarthyism

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Red Scare: Definition, Cold War & Facts | HISTORY

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The Red Scare was Cold War-era hysteria over communism.

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Due to the harsh characteristics of the communist party the United States took pro-active action and created Federal law 842.  This law states “the Communist Part of the United States, or any successors of such party regardless of the assumed name...are not entitled to any rights, privileges, and immunities which have attendant upon legal bodies created under the jurisdiction of the laws of the United States” (law.Cornell.edu/uscode/text/50/842).  The above federal law prohibits the communist part from obtaining office and take away their name right as a political party in the United States.  Up to 61 years since this law has been past this law remains in affect keeping the American  communists out of federal office.

#paranoid

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A lifetime ago, when the U.S. was locked in a Cold War with the Soviet Union and fear of communist infiltrators ran rampant, California passed a law making anyone who belonged to the Communist Party ineligible to work for state government. Not just in sensitive positions, but even as groundskeepers at state parks, on road crews for the Department of Transportation or as clerks in the Department of Insurance. It was a preposterous policy that trampled Americans' 1 st Amendment rights to free speech and assembly.

Remarkably, that relic of the Red Scare remains on the books, though it is no longer enforced. California law still says that a worldwide movement dedicated to the precepts of Marx, Lenin and Stalin is working to establish a global totalitarian dictatorship through tactics of force, violence, treachery, deceit and disloyalty - and that there is a "clear and present danger" that is both "great and imminent" that communists in California will infiltrate state government to impede and nullify its activities.

That's obviously ridiculous in this day and age, and California Assemblyman Rob Bonta (D-Oakland) was eager to remove the unenforceable language through his proposed legislation, AB 22. Then, on Wednesday, he backed down after conversations with war veterans and members of the Vietnamese-American community, who related "compelling stories of how AB 22 caused real distress and hurt for proud and honorable people."

That was exactly the wrong response.

Not because there's much to be said in communism's defense. As a political philosophy, it is bankrupt. Over the past century it has given rise to totalitarian regimes from the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe to Cambodia and has led to the deaths of tens of millions of people through brutal purges, starvation policies and war. Many members of California's Vietnamese community have an understandable hatred for a system that made refugees of them, and maintained repressive control of their native country for four decades. The hostility of veterans is understandable as well. The U.S. military engaged directly in wars against communist forces in Korea and Vietnam and waged a long Cold War against Russia. Many service members have died, been wounded or suffered physical and mental injuries in those causes.

But the Cold War is over, the language is now toothless - and the underlying threats used to justify the law do not exist. The law was a violation of Americans' 1st Amendment rights to free speech and assembly, as courts eventually concluded. As Bonta pointed out, the employment ban has been declared unconstitutional, so why not strip the language from the books?

The employment ban was created by a 1950 state law (which mirrored a federal requirement) compelling government employees to sign loyalty oaths pledging to defend the state and federal constitutions, and to attest that they were not members of the Communist Party or any other organization advocating the overthrow of the government. It was unquestionably ineffective at deterring subversion - a violent revolutionary surely wouldn't let a simple oath derail a plot to upend the social order. But many of those who refused to sign the oath on principle often found their lives upended and their careers destroyed through blacklisting.

While courts initially upheld the employment restrictions, the U.S. Supreme Court began ruling in the 1960s that employment bans based on Communist Party membership, or on membership in an organization that advocates overthrowing the government, were unconstitutional. Talk, belief and advocacy are protected; action and incitement are not.

AB 22 would have rescinded the employment ban and stripped out other related language. But even then, Bonta's bill didn't go far enough because it retained language putting a broad restriction on hiring someone who "advocates or is knowingly a member of an organization that...advocated the overthrow of the Government of the United States or of any state by force or violence." That still violates the 1st Amendment.

Bonta should revive the bill - and expand it to remove any other bans on employment based on what are constitutionally protected rights. And while the legislature fixes that Cold War overreach, it ought to also take steps to do away with the silly and antiquated loyalty oath. It may make sense to require elected officials, judges and police to pledge to uphold the state and federal constitutions that are the foundations of their work, but it's ludicrous to exact such a pledge from every government employee - especially since non-citizens are exempted.
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Editorial: It's 2017. Being a communist shouldn't be a barrier to public employment

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A lifetime ago, when the U.S. was locked in a Cold War with the Soviet Union and fear of communist infiltrators ran rampant, California passed a law making anyone who belonged to the Communist Party ineligible to work for state government.

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According to financialexpress.com one of communism’s many downfalls is its lack of innovation. In a communist society many workers do not see it worthwhile to develop advanced technology or new business models because the ideas will simply be taken away by the government.  This lack of incentive causes a stagnant society and demonstrates the economic failure of communism.

#nogrowtheconomy

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(Image: Sipa Press / Rex Features)

1905

E &equals; mc ², Albert Einstein establishes equivalence of mass and energy

1911

Ernest Rutherford probes the structure of the atom

Advertisement

1932

James Chadwick discovers neutrons

1934

Enrico Fermi nearly discovers nuclear fission while bombarding uranium with neutrons. The sample was wrapped in aluminium foil, preventing him from detecting the splitting of the atom

1941

Manhattan Project begins at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, US

1942

Manhattan Project achieves first controlled nuclear fission reaction in a basement in Chicago, US

1945

16 July - first atomic bomb is tested in Los Alamos

6 August - US drops atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan

9 August - US drops another atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan

1949

Soviet Union (USSR) tests its first atomic bomb

1952

The world's first hydrogen bomb is tested by the US on a remote Pacific Ocean atoll. The nuclear fusion device is 500 times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima or Nagasaki

The United Kingdom detonates its first atomic bomb

1954

US launches first nuclear-powered submarine

1956

The first nuclear reactor to provide electricity to a national grid opens in Calder Hall, England

1957

United Nations establishes the International Atomic Energy Agency, its nuclear watchdog

1959

US operationally deploys first intercontinental ballistic missile

1960

France tests its first nuclear bomb

1964

China tests its first nuclear bomb

1968

Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is signed

1974

India detonates a "non-weapon" nuclear explosion underground

1979

Israel and South Africa suspected of jointly testing a nuclear bomb

A cooling problem causes the meltdown of the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor in Pennsylvania, US

1980

Last known atmospheric nuclear test is conducted by China

1986

The reactor meltdown and explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the USSR (now Ukraine) becomes the worst nuclear accident in history

1991

The Cold War, which started after World War Two, ends with the collapse of the USSR. Disarmament accords follow during the 1990s, ending the US-Soviet nuclear arms race

1998

India conducts five nuclear weapons tests and Pakistan conducts six

1999

US Senate rejects Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty

70 people are exposed to radiation in the Tokaimura nuclear facility in Japan

2002

North Korea claims it has a nuclear weapons programme

2003

North Korea withdraws from Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty

Libya ends its nuclear weapons programme

2004

Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan is exposed as supplying a global black-market in nuclear technology

2005

Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty review meeting in May ends with no agreement
Adapted from New Scientist print edition, 16 July 2005

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E = mc 2, Albert Einstein establishes equivalence of mass and energy Ernest Rutherford probes the structure of the atom Advertisement James Chadwick discovers neutrons Enrico Fermi nearly discovers nuclear fission while bombarding uranium with neutrons.

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During the era of McCarthyism a lawmaker from Wisconsin caused mass chaos in congress trying to root out communists, this is shown on (ushistory.org/us/53a.asp) when the document states, “Harry Truman had ordered background checks of every civilian in service to the government”.  This stripped rights from many US citizens and created a national hate for socialism as well as politics.  This also disadvantaged African Americans as they were called communist as a way to justify discrimination.

#hardballpolitics

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In the novel “The Invisible Man” the promise of equality within the party is shown when the narrator is asked to join “the organization” saying, “When the cry of protest is sounded, there are those who will hear it and act” (Ellison 292). This quote shows while many people don’t listen to the black cry for help the party wants its members to feel equal.

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https://docs.google.com/document/d/12haK7McYV-lVm8iG2N7LMlqNwn-_aasz0_fbpgyoQe4/edit