SWP fought for US to admit Jewish refugees of Nazi terror
https://themilitant.com/2020/08/01/swp-fought-for-us-to-admit-jewish-refugees-of-nazi-terror/
August 10, 2020
Members of Socialist Workers Party joined other groups picketing German
Consulate in New York in November 1938. They demanded Washington open
its doors to Jewish and other refugees, victims of Nazi brutalities as
that regime began to prepare the Holocaust.
Members of Socialist Workers Party joined other groups picketing German
Consulate in New York in November 1938. They demanded Washington open
its doors to Jewish and other refugees, victims of Nazi brutalities as
that regime began to prepare the Holocaust.
One of Pathfinder???s Books of the Month for August is The Founding of the
Socialist Workers Party: Minutes and Resolutions, 1938-39. The program
adopted was based on the communist course of V.I. Lenin and the
Bolsheviks, who led workers and farmers to power in the 1917 Russian
Revolution. At its founding convention the SWP deepened its orientation
to the industrial working class and their unions. Its resolutions took
up the fight against the bosses??? assaults at home, the rise of fascism
in Europe and the drive to war by Washington and the other imperialist
powers. The excerpt is from ???Theses on the Jewish Question.??? This was
followed by a November 1938 statement by the SWP National Committee,
???Open the Doors to Victims of Hitler???s Nazi Terror!??? Copyright ?? 1982 by
Pathfinder Press. Reprinted by permission.
Our approach to the Jewish question can be none other than that of the
international class struggle. In its death agony the capitalist class
maintains itself in power by resorting to unmitigated brutality and
violence aimed at the working class, particularly at its vanguard. It
utilizes every element of hatred and prejudice which it can fan into
flame to bring about division among the masses and to establish a social
basis for its fascist, gangster rule. The Jews, by virtue of the fact
that everywhere they form only a small minority of the population, and
because anti-Semitism has always been fostered, sometimes openly,
sometimes in masked form, constitute an easy scapegoat upon whom the big
bourgeoisie can divert the pent-up, dangerous wrath of the backward
elements among the masses, and particularly of the desperate middle
classes. The fascist hirelings of the big bourgeoisie use the most
vicious, lying propaganda to inflame to pogrom temperature the dormant
antagonism to the Jews. Precisely because the fomenting of anti-Semitism
has become an inseparable part of the technique of fascist reaction, the
revolutionary party has a double duty to perform in combating it. It has
the duty of exposing the real aims of the capitalists, hidden behind the
smokescreen of anti-Semitism and thereby inoculating the masses against
the poison; it has also the special task of mobilizing the real defense
of the persecuted Jews, a defense of necessity based on the might of the
organized working class. ???
The present decay of capitalism on a world scale and in each and every
country, has ??? not merely arrested the movement towards assimilation but
has brought its speedy reversal. To defend its hold on property and its
exploitation of the toiling masses, national capitalism makes use of the
ideology of national chauvinism. This is made the foundation of the
totalitarian state. In the name of national chauvinism democratic rights
are completely stripped from the working class. In exchange for these
rights the masses are permitted the unrestricted play of anti-Semitism.
The reactionary measures taken against the Jews in Germany and Austria,
driving so many to suicide, are a yardstick by which to measure the
strides taken by rotting capitalism back to the Middle Ages. At one
stroke the Jews are deprived not only of their democratic rights as
citizens, but of the elementary possibility of earning a livelihood. In
this hideous fashion does capitalist democracy reach its end, not having
lasted long enough to permit assimilation.
Many Jews ??? and not only Jews ??? delude themselves with the soothing
thought that America is different, that these same phenomena cannot
happen here. They continue to picture the United States as a great
melting pot with a democracy far more securely founded than was European
democracy. But the Jews and the entire working class must be forewarned
??? the same causes leading to decay are visibly at work here, and the
same results are not merely possible but absolutely inevitable unless
the working class learns, and learns quickly, to defend its hard-earned
rights and to take the road to power. The second crisis piled on top of
the first one leaves the capitalist ruling class in a serious
predicament and in a quandary concerning the way out. That it is fearful
of its continued domination and considers the advisability of strong
measures ??? fascist measures ??? cannot be doubted. The symptoms of
increased discrimination against the Jews, of anti-Semitism, are already
present. We must immediately sound the alarm to put the working class on
guard against all the reactionary conspiracies of the big bourgeoisie;
more particularly we must awaken the Jewish masses to a sense of
realization of the danger and above all we must propose the proper
measures to be taken against the growing danger. ???
In view of the awful plight of the Jews, it must be made a special point
in the program of the various sections of the Fourth International to
fight against restrictions on immigration, particularly Jewish
immigration. In the U.S. we must fight against the imposing of barriers
such as the necessity to prove by showing money or through affidavits
that the immigrant will not become a public charge. Part of our
combating of anti-Semitism must take the form of a fight for
unrestricted immigration for refugees, especially Jews. ???
The Jews form a small minority of the American population ??? some 4.5
million out of 130 million. If the defense of the Jews depended on
themselves alone, then their case would indeed be hopeless. ??? [T]he
attack against the Jews is merely the spearhead of the attack against
the American working class for the purpose of lowering their standards
of living and rendering them powerless to resist this economic blow by
depriving them of their democratic rights. The workers and the Jewish
masses are natural allies in the antifascist struggle. Our propaganda
among both is to convince them to defeat fascism the workers must
establish socialism. Not only the general working class is the natural
ally of the Jews, but all the other national minorities ??? Mexicans,
Chinese, Japanese, Greeks, Poles, Russians ??? who are assigned a lower
status by the American ruling class, can be enlisted in the struggle for
the rights of national minorities including the Jews. Above all the
Negroes must be linked up with the struggle against reaction, for the
Negroes are the worst victims of capitalist exploitation. Their struggle
for equal rights is of the utmost importance for the workers??? cause.
Front Page Articles
Workers need our own party, a labor party!
Join campaign to put SWP???s presidential ticket on ballot!
March builds support for Bath shipyard workers strike
Capitalist rulers seek to paper over growing frictions in EU
As virus rebounds, recovery falters, workers fight growing boss attacks
Join the fight against Pennsylvania prison ban on issue of the ???Militant???
Feature Articles
Workers oppose federal cops, antifa violence in Portland
Also In This Issue
Fighters for Breonna Taylor, Elijah McClain rally together
Teachers need workers control for schools to open safely
Events mark 1953 opening of the Cuban Revolution
Montreal port workers fight for new contract, safe work schedules
Unions in Mauritius fight for equal pay for immigrants
Books of the Month
SWP fought for US to admit Jewish refugees of Nazi terror
25, 50 and 75 years ago
Letters
?? Copyright 2020 The Militant?? -?? 306 W. 37th Street, 13th floor -?? New
York, NY 10018?? -?? themilitant@xxxxxxx
Cookies
This site uses cookies to improve your experience. Learn more.
Okay, thanks
--
___
Carl Sagan
???Every aspect of Nature reveals a deep mystery and touches our sense of
wonder and awe. Those afraid of the universe as it really is, those who pretend
to nonexistent knowledge and envision a Cosmos centered on human beings will
prefer the fleeting comforts of superstition. They avoid rather than confront
the world. But those with the courage to explore the weave and structure of the
Cosmos, even where it differs profoundly from their wishes and prejudices, will
penetrate its deepest mysteries.???
??? Carl Sagan, Cosmos