AnTI-SEmiTismWHAT IT MEANS ANDHOW TO COMBAT IT

by William Gallacher, M. P.and Earl Browder

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N O TE

Thc fir'll pan of t h is paJllphlel , hy Willi am Gallach er, .\ ICIII 'her of Parli am en t and lead er of the Commu nist Par ty of(; re<lt Br itai n , was first published in England und er the tit leA nti-Semitism: What It M ea/Is to You. The second part, h yEa rl Bro wder, General Secretarv of th e Communist Partv ofth e U.S.A., appeared in the J uly G, 1943, issue of th e weeklyN ew M asses as an article en titled "An ti-Semitism : H ow toCo mbat Ie "

Published b} PR()(;R'~" I' UIIU '"I.". Co. . K i ll g St. E.. "J"UIUU IU. Ca na daAugust ,

I'ru u ed by Prompt Press, " 3 Fourth Ne w York 3, N. Y., U.S.A .~ao9

The Meaning of Anti-SemitismBy William Gallacher, M.P.

I N ALL parts of the country the mos t insi dious Nazi propa­ganda is finding expression in the [a rm of ant i-Scm it ism-c­

Blame it on the J ews! Blame what on the Jews? Anythi ng.Everything.

Abs urdit ies the like of whic h never were sur passed . areserved u p and passed aro u nd , and oft en accept ed as tho ughthere were no th ing mor e to be said . " It's a J ews' war. " \\ 'e findthi s coming ou t of th e Nazi broadcasts, stra igh t on to th e wall sof Lond on , cha lked up by dupes or tools of th e fascists. Yetanyo ne wh o tak es the least acco unt of hi story mu st ask, wasit th e J ews who were responsible for Japan invading Man ­ch ur ia and China, or for Ital y invading Abyssinia , or for th ein terfe rence in Spain by Mu ssolini and Hitler , or [or th e Naziin vasion of Au stria, of Czech oslovakia and Poland , all murder ­ous raya ges of othe r peopl e's territory, that were but a preludeto the world war now ragin g on sea , land and air?

Not onl y will th e int elli gent work er tak e thi s in to accoun t.but he will realiz e that on e thing stands out crysta l clearth ro ughou t th e cent u ries. Wh er e th ere has been peace, pro s­pe r ity, pro gr ess, th e J ews ha ve been abl e to live unmolested .O nly wh en th ere has been a br eakdown in societ y through waror economic colla pse, only th en have we start ed to hear ofthe "J ewish d anger." The reactionaries, seekin g a way of turn­ing discontent awa y [rom th em selves, have incit ed th e worstpass ions of th e wor st sections of th e commu nity aga inst a help ­less and defen seless minori ty-the J ews.

Of course we hav e seen th e sam e technique app lied to oth er s.' Ve hav e seen th e mo st inexcusabl e attacks on th e Catholi cminority of Ul ster in th e days wh en Sir Edward Carson and

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" Ga lloper" Smit h were stirri ng up revo lt in Northern Irelanda nd whe n they wer e su pp lying th eir vo lu n tee rs with Germanar ms. But whi le m an y sim ilar sto r ies mi ght be told a bout th efat e of o the r m in orities (it was one of th e biggest pr obl em s a tth e Ver sa ill es Peace Con fer en ce) no m in ori ty has ever suffe re dso mu ch and for so long as th e J ewi sh minority. For theC atholi c and o the r minoriti es hav e al wa ys had a cha nce soone ro r lat er to fight ba ck, out th e J ews h ave had to tak e it withoutever bein g in a position to def end th em selv es. Their on ly hopeof a quiet , or dered lif e h as been ge ne ra l peace and progress. Ifth er e is one p eopl e in all thi s world who h ave ever h ad ca useto hat e and fear war , economic slumps and reaction, it is th eJewish p eopl e. The besti al cruelty imposed upon th em sincet he Nazis took pow er ha s int ens ified a hundredfold sin ce thesta rt of th e war. How, in th e face of such un sp eak abl e suffer ing,can a nyone for a moment be tak en in by th e appalling lie­" T h is is a J ewi sh \ Var" ?

No Real Difference

But-"the J ews are diff er ent from other people." Sup er ­ficiall y th ey a re, but onl y sup erfi ciall y. "T hey don 't work downthe p it , th ey don 't work in th e engineer ing shops and stee lworks. " Of course th ey don 't. They wer e kept for centuriesin close-guarded gh ettos and not all owed int o th e ge ne ra l lif eor in d ustry in the ir respective countries. They wer e left th ere ­fore to develop as best th ey could su ch domesti c industri es asclothing, furniture and p ett y trading. \Vh en ad ver sit y droveth em to see k refuge in thi s or an y ot he r cou ntry, they na turall ytend ed to consort with on e ano the r becau se of lan gu age diffi­cu lty and becau se of th e work to whi ch th ey wer e acc us to med- une m p loyme nt and craft barriers h elp ed to slow down thecn trv of th ei r ch ild re n int o oth er industries-and all thistend~d to keep in bein g su per ficial diff er en ces.

Bu t in th e Sovi et U n io n. whe re a ll barriers were bro ke ndo wn with th e elimina tion of T sari sm, J ews wo rk in the pits,in the m et al trades and steel work s, o n th e land and in everyo the r form of occupation. In a lesser degree (lesse r becau sethe re is no h cavv industrv th er e) th e same applies to Pal estine.

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Wh ilc in every oth er cap ital ist cou n try th e J ewish minority isa son of aux iliary of th e main industrial army, in Pal estin e itis th e va ng ua rd of industrial and soc ial pro gr ess. These twoadva nces in th emselves ar e proof, if any were need ed , th at th ediff er en ce is supe r ficial, and th at with a change for th e bett erin our socia l relations, it would rapidl y disappear.

"B u t th e J ews are all Communists!" H ear Goebbe1s, Go erin ga nd Stre iche r, as the y fill th e air with in san e raving about th e" fiend ish Communist J ews," and see how it seeps out in a "a ­r iet y of publications in thi s cou n try. These "Commu nist"J ews. I on ly wish it wer e so. Alas, onl y a small minority hav eso far mad e th eir way into th e ranks of th e Communist Party.'V e would lik e more of th em , all we can get, as of Scots , 'V elsh,E nglish and all the rest.

No soo ne r has this wild yelling' di ed down, than it starts upaga in, thi s time on an entirely differ ent tune-or mayb e dis­cord would be better. "All J ews arc Capitalists." So the y get itboth ,,·ays. "Ah ," says one lad , "that's right. I know a Jew­and he's a Communist." "I know a j cw," says another, "andhe's a Capitalist." Such childish nonsense wouldn't be list en edto in rel ation to any other people. " H ey, I know a Scotsmanwho is a Communist." "H ey, I know a Scotsman who is aCa pita list." Of course you do ; it 's a natural outcome of classre lat ionsh ips and it affects J ew and Gentile alik e.

Upside Down"Bu t look a t th e mon ey th ey spe nd, th eir blatant extrava­

ga nce!" and th en look again, "Sec how mean and mis erl y th eyare!" Alw ays th e an ti-Semites hav e it both ways and up sid edow n. O f course it is po ssibl e always to find among an y peopl eany whe re extremes of on e kind or an oth er. It would be hardto go furt he r abo u t an y peopl e th an T . 'V . H . Cro sland wen tabo ut the Scots, wh en in hi s bo ok , Th e Unspeakab le Scot , hesaid "i n all m y life I onl y met two d ecent Scotsmen -one washalf- Iris h and th e othe r was half-drunk." Yet no one wouldever drea m of judging th e peopl e of Scotland by th e ran cor ­ous opi nio n of Crosland, or even by th e sou r and some whatma lic io us st r ictu res of th e cele bra ted Dr. Johnson.

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No , th e grea t mass of th e J ewish peopl e ar e hardworking,honest, hospitabl e peopl e. I know th at from a lif etime ofassociat io ns and expe rience. The ge nera l lies and sla nde rs th atar e peddl ed arou nd ar e for a sini ster and evil purpose and arewithout an y real foundations in fact.

You know and I know th at som e J ews ar e grea t math em a­ti cian s. 'Vould anyone be fooli sh enough to tell you thatthe re fore all J ews ar e gre a t ma the maticia ns? O r would you befoo lish enough to listen if he did ?

You kn ow and I know tha t som e J ews are grea t scien t istsand th a t th ey h ave con tr ibu ted much to th e knowledge ofme d icine and surgery. 'Jews have been a bl essin g to mankindin this field , but we don't say that th erefore all J ews are grea tscient ists.

Great Names

So with literature, art and music. Gr eat nam es stand out, ofwhom th e J ewish peopl e ma y well be proud, but no one goesaround whispering th at all Jews ar e great writers, musicians orartists. It may be worth noting also that the first Christianswere all Jews. St. Peter wou ldn 't associate with any but Jewsuntil Paul came with his gospels for Jew and Gentile. Paulhimself made no secret of his parentage when he exclaimed:"Are th ey J ews, I also am a J ew." But I don 't think an yonewoul d suggest therefor e that all Christians ar e Jews or allJ ews Christians.

Then there's the story of the Jewish financiers! Ah , yes."The Jews control the finance and through the control offinance do this , that and the other." Well, it simply isn't true.Take the Bank of England and the Big Five Banks, the mos tpow erful and influential financial institutions in this country.They are controlled not by Jews, but by Gentiles." If every

* Th e Bank of En gl and has no J ew ish dir ecto rs. Lloyd s, Westm inster,Barclays, Mid land an d Nation al Provincial hav e a total of 4 Jewishdirectors out of 150. Th e nu mber of J ews in bank ing in the UnitedStates is less than one percent. Th e largest Am erican bank ing fi rms ar ecompletely in the hand s of non-J ews.

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J ew disappeared from this country tom orrow, it wouldn'tma ke the sligh tes t differ en ce to th e socia l struc tu re of socie ty,or to its rela tio ns bet ween- finan cier s, ind us tr ia lists an d th egreat masses of work ers. The J ews ar e not th e big finan cier s:th e Gentiles ar e the big financiers , just as the Gentiles ar e thebig armament maker s.

T he n we ge t anot he r-"T he J ews con trol th e pr ess!" H owdo we answe r th a t? The answer is simple-simple and easy .Tell it to Lord Ca mrose, tell it to Lord Kem sley and tell it toLord Beaverbrook. After that, if you 're not sati sfied, you cantell it to the marines.

All right , you say, you' ve been sail ing along bri ght andbreezy so far, but- "\Vhat about th e Bla ck Market ? You can' tde ny th e J ews ar e in th e Black Market ." Of course th ere havebeen some J ews in the Bla ck Market , ju st as th ere are someJews in finance and in th e pr ess. But th ey don ' t run th eBlack Market any mor e th an th ey ru n big finan ce or ru n th epress .

The Black Market

If th er e is a case of Bla ck Ma rk etin g repo rte d in th e pressand th e cu lp rit happen s to be a Gentile, no one bother s ab out .it.

Take a look at thi s, from th e Glasgow Evenin g Cit izen ,Apri l 3, 1943, "Everybody' s doin g it."

" ILLEGAL SUGAR , F LO UR DEALS AR E ALL EG ED

" F OU R MEN CHARGED AT PAISLEY

"A farm er witness at a trial at Paisley Sheriff Court toda ysaid one of four men accus ed of br each es of the R ation ing(General Provision s) Order offer ed him a bag of sugar , say­ing : 'W hy are you afr aid ? Ever ybody 's doing it!'

"T he four accused ar e concerned in a charge of having,acting in concert with persons unknown, stol en or resettedover 15 cwt. of sug ar from premises in Gr eenock or frommotor lorri es tr avelin g betw een Gre enock and Glasgow."

An d now this one. From the same paper, same date:

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""'ORK CA R ll '.\ lARKET· IX ARGYLE STREET-SAYS FISCAL

. "'Cons ide rable traffic,' in emp loyme n t cards is going onin Glasgow.

" \ Vhe n three Ir ish men were charged at th e Sh eriff Courttoday with pr esenting fal se cards. Deputy-Fiscal \\'. F.Irvine said a man who found himself out of a job, or gotIed up with it and wanted a change, had only to go along_-\ rgyle Str eet and buy a card , properly stam ped . for any th ingfrom 3os. to £2.

"T he fiscal asked Sheriff Kerrnack to take a serio us view ofthese cases, if for no other tha n sccurity reasons."

M y, oh my, not a Jew among them! Nobody thinks of sayi ngas they read these: "The Black Marketeers ar e all Scots orIri sh. " Of co urse, it wouldn't be tru e if they did. But if thename happens to be J ewish: "Ah , see that, \I'l{at did I tell you?T hose J ews again ."

Agai n 1 say, if there wasn't a J ew in the cou n try the rewould sti ll be a Black Market. Pr oof. I' ll gi\ 'e you proof.L iste n to the German wireless or rea d the proclamations issue dfrom tim e to t ime in Germ an y with th ei r threats of the mostdreadfu l pu ni sh ment for Black Mark et offences . in a cou nt ry

' where J ews are not allo wed to tra de un der any conditions,where all the Black Marketeers are "pure-blooded Arya ns,"and th at shou ld be pr oof eno ug h. T hey've got rid of the J ewsin Germany, but they have n't got rid of th e financ iers andth ey haven 't got ri d of th e Bl ack Mark et. And in I tal y it iseven wor se tha n in German y. The Black Market ope ra tes allth e tim e whil e gra ft and corr up tio n sti nk to hig h heaven .

It can be said, ind eed , tha t in all countries wh ere the J ewshav e been suppressed, th e Black Mark et is in a much moreflou ri shin g cond itio n tha n it is in thi s count ry . wh ere theJ ews hav e been left unmolested . Ask any of the so-called" Arya ns" if th ey dar e di spute that. The few J ews who havebeen in th e Bla ck Market in thi s cou n try ar e enemies of theirown peopl e and by th eir own peopl e have been condemned assuch . But after all , th e Black Market is onl y an ill egal sub­sid iary of th e gen eral , legal, war market. And who has been

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piling up th e profits out of that? \\ 'h o have been the rc­cip ien ts of cost plus 10 per cent? Timc and tim e again shopstewa rds have bcen to see me at the House of Commons aboutthe hold-up of production. Time and tim e again, th ey ha veprotested in bitt er ange r about th e system of cost " p lus." Itwas th eir Gcntile employers th ey were accusing and con­dem ning. Xcver once out of all th e deputations th at hav evisited th e House of Commons, hav e I ha d one protestin gab ou t the J ews holding up production, and how ever long th ewar cou ld last I' m certa in I won't get one.

\\ 'hat cheap , nasty, vicious liars th ese people who spreadanti-Scm it ism are. Nothing too mean, nothing too absurd,oft en delibcratcly crim inal. Takc th is: "the Jc,,'s mak e all th eprofits but th ey do n't do the fighting." Both assertions ar clies. Som e J ews ma ke pro fits; the gr cat mass in ind ustry , how­ever, work hard in furniture and clo th ing Factori es (now,with th e wa r, in th e metal tra des a nd other ind ustries) inord er to ma ke a dece n t work ing-class livin g. These la tt er havemad e a sple ndi d contribut ion to th c adva nce of th e tradeunion an d prog ressive move me n t in thi s cou ntry. They areour comrades in th e str ugg lc agai nst cxp loita rion, in ourstr ivings for a hi gh er and bett er lif e. It is our ene mies whoatt ack them to d ivide us. T h is will be made ab unda ntly clearas we go on.

"They do n't do the fight ing." I hcard a n M. P. not lon gago peddle a lo t of th is vile non sen se. H e even revert ed tothe timc whe n H or e-Beli sha was Secre ta rv of State for \\ 'a l"and said it was com mo n to hear peopl e ;ay "The J ews Icedthc Army (L yons), th e J ews clo the the .-\ n11Y (Bur tons)and the J ews lea d th e Arm y (Bel isha) , but they don ' t joinit ." Whcn I accuse d him of being ant i-Sem itic, d oin g Go eb­bcls ' pro paga nda, he said , " no, he wasn 't a n ti-Sem it ic, but"- always there's a " but." Now you see fr om th is th a t evena usef u l serv ice can be used for th e undoin g of th e J ews,for an attac k against th em . Ther e was no compla int sug­gcsted abou t th e arm y clothing of th e food, and , as 'V al'Secretaries go, there was no special com plain t about Hore­Belisha . But in stead of th em being commended for their

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service to the nation, it was turned against them in this cheapjib e. W ell , the Co-op erative Wholesale Societ y supplies cloth­ing and provi sions, there are man y co-operators who ar e notin th e for ces, and now that the leading Co-op erator, A. V.Alexander, is th e Fir st Lord of th e Admiralt y, is th ere an y­on e goin g around snee ring "T he Co-op erators feed th e Navy,cloth e the Nav y and lead th e ! [avy, but th ey don't join theNav y" ? If an yon e came and recit ed th at to you, you wouldtr eat him with sheer cont empt. But, unfortunat ely, th ere ar erece p tive ears for it when it is about the J ews. T hey ar e a com­par ativ ely weak minority and it is easier to att ack th e weak.

Yet the Jewish people have a record as good as any othersection of the people in relation to the arm ed forc es. H ere isa short excerpt from th e London Daily W orh er giving a fewfacts, fact s that are indi cativ e of th e servi ce being given bythe J ewish community:

"What reason Lord Kemsle y has for printing crude Fascistincit ement in on e of his most important newspapers is a mat­ter for inquiry which I hope will be made in oth er quarters.

"Meanwhile, here are a few facts about th e J ewish popula­tion:

po~~~~~~n~re D~o~~ f~~,oJ~n{e:~,~~o~f t~:i~i~:d4~~~~'~~~rolled in the Servic es, 7 ,000 in the R.A.F. alon e.

"The serving men are thus in the proportion of 111h percent of all J ews-a very high proportion. "

"Among these serving Jews ar e three Gen erals and manyother high-ranking officers.

"Up to Ma y I last, over 50 Jews had been decorated forbravery, and about as many mentioned in dispatches.e "

"Over 30 Jews have been decorated for bravery in the blitz.I do not know how many were killed, but one of our ownJewish comrades, Sidney Fink, died on duty as a warden inLondon." (Workers' Not ebook , Daily Worh er, Feb. II , 1943 .)

* This is a high er proportion than the rest of the population.** With th e end of 1941 eight J ews had been awa rded with the D.F.e.,

nine with the D.F.M ., four with the M .e ., ten with the M.M., as well asnum erou s other awards.

Here is another excerpt from the "Worker's Notebook." Itrepresents one of the most foul and disgusting att acks on theJews. But the writ er of the "Notebook" mak es a crushingrejoinder:

"S t iil they come, the examples of anti-S emitism in th e Press.1 ha ve ju st receive d a recent issue of th e En field Gaze tte, whichcontains a specimen to be classified in th e stupid department.

"Th is journal's columnist writ es:" 'An Enfield busin ess man sends me a clipping from Cos­

grave's Magazine (Michigan, U.S.A.) which sets out some ofthe war tim e feats of our Am erican cousins as follows:

'" "The first Amer ican to kill a Jap was-Michael Murphy."'" "The first Am eri can bombardier to sink a Jap was-Colin

Kell ey.""'And so on, listing various oth er Am eri can war h ero es,

unt il the last :" • "The first Am eri can IG get four new tir es-Abie Coh en." ""The Enfield Gazett e's columnist comme n ts: 'A joll y fine

record tha t, is it not ? All th e nam es hav e a familiar ring aboutthem . Bu t how does Abie Coh en find an honored pl ace inthe catalogue of deed s of valor?'

"Ab ie Cohe n finds his plac e there, dear coll eagu e, becausesome agen t of Hitler th ou ght thi s a good way to instill someant i-Semitic poi son into the American Pr ess, and you ar e fool ­ish eno ugh to help him her e.

"Why not look at a few facts? See that entry, 'The firstAmeri can bombardier to sink a Jap was Colin Kelley'?

"W ell , Ca p tain Colin Kell y (not 'Kelley') commanded th eFlying Fortr ess which blast ed the Japanese battleship Harunaoff New Guinea on December 10 , 1941. Hi s bombardier wasth e J ew Meyer Levin. See speech by Mr. Harold Ickes , U. S.Secre tary of th e Interior, reported in thi s newspaper on March16 last, and note by me in this column of that date.

" Master-Sergeant Me yer Levin, of the United Stat es AirFor ce, di ed in action over the Pacific last January 7, and waspr aised by hi s comrades for his self-sacrificing action in aid -

* Th is anti -Sem it ic story has been distr ibut ed widely in th e United States.It s simulta neous appea rance in the U.S. and Britain is the best indication ofits Nazi origin.

ing th eir escape . Capt ain Kell y was amo ng those who praisedh im.

" ]\11'.I ckes said: 'Ev er y ma n who carries a rifle, man s a tank ,sails a sh ip or flies a plan e for us and th e other U nite d N a­tion s- wh eth er h is nam e is Colin Kell y or Mever Levi n-isa l iving sym bol of a un ity.. . .'

"So, dear colleag ue of the Enfi eld Gaze tte, yOIl are singu­larl y un fortunat e in you r cho ice of anti-Sem iti c propaganda."(Lond oil Daily TVorher, April 9, 1943.)

The you ng J e" 'i sh hero is d ead . The purveyor of anti­Sem itic filth is st ill aliv e. Is it , tran ge that mankind oft enwond ers a t the perv er sit y of fat e?

A Jewish GeneralSomc of ) O U ma y have hea rd the fascist lie th a t J ews were

not lighting with the E ight h Army.A pa rt fro m the many ran k and file J ews who have foug ht

througho ut that campaign, there was a J ew, Br igadi er Kisch , •who occupied , next to Mont gom ery, one of th e most imp or­ta nt position s in the Eight h Arm y.

U n til this brav e man was kill ed , few peopl e had heard ofhim . \ Vhen he met hi s death , and th e obit uar y notices ap­pear ed in th e pap ers, and th e news was an no unc ed on th eB.B.C., many peopl e mus t have rea lized for the first t ime howmu ch th e Eighth Arm y owed to a J ew.

This is th e N ews Ch ronicle report of hi s d eath :

"T he Chi ef En gin eer of the Eighth Ar my, Br igad ier F. H .Kisch, was kill ed by a min e during th e adva nce towards Sousse.

"He was in th e mo st advance d area, am on g the sap pers deal ­ing wit h an ene my min efield , wh en two min es exp loded.

"Two officers with him al so wer e kill ed." Brigadier Kisch was th e third J ew to reach the rank of

ge ne ra l in the Briti sh Army in this war. "- (April 15, 1943.)

This is what Th e T im es of London said ab ou t him :

" H e serve d in the Euro pea n war of 1914-18, was mentionedin despat ches three times, and was thr ice wou nd ed . In the' Ind ian Corps in Fran ce' Colon el Merewet her and th e la te

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Lord Birk enh ead sta te th ai a t th e battl e of Giv cn chy he was

~l~ ~,~~~sh~~ll l~~ f~~~l'~s"~~,~~~, ~t~ t~f/I~~ I :¥le"~~~a l~h~~\~SI~a':,:\I~a ~:~:" In thi s war , ' taking part in all th e win gs of fort u ne of th e

Middle East campaign,' he was select ed to be th e ch ief En­gincc r of th c 8th Arm y, H e had to sh,ould cr th e respon sibilityund er Ge ncra l Mon tgom ery of carrYlllg ou t the m,m) noveld ut ies fa lli ng to th c sap pers in mod ern d esert warfare. includ­ing dca ling wi th min efield s, in th c cours e of wh ich hc methis d eath." (April i fi, 1943.)

;\0 wond er Hitler tri es to mak e peopl e hat e thc j ews!But however foolish th e anti-Jewish snee rs and slander s ma y

ap pcar, th c peopl e who support, financially and othe rwise. th ea m i-je w parties arc not foo ls. 'They arc u nd er no illusion sabout th e Jews and th e service they hav e rendered to hu­manity, The facts and ligur es in this pamphlet ar e just as cas­ily ava ilabl e to them as to anybody else. Wh y, th er efor e, doth ey sta rt , and su pport . a fascist poli tical party on th c basis ofanti-j ewish lies and slande rs? There mu st be anot her motiveand it must be a motive that they are anx ious to conc eal fromth e peopl e. 1£ the y were not anxious to conceal their realmotives th ey wou ld not need to hide them behind a smok e­scree n of .lew-bait ing.

, What, then, is this rea l motive th a t is kcpt so caref ullyhiddcn? Since the leaders of thc ant i-jew parties won't tellus we must look at their actions. T he fascist anti-Jew partieshold pow cr in Germany, It al y, and other countries on thecontinent , and so we can observe i heir acti on s in those cou n­tries. And it is no use for th e hom e-gr own fasc ist to say th a the is different fro m the con tine nta l one. Ther e is a verv closecon nection betwe en all the fascist part ies, T he Brit ish U nionof Fascists borrowed the un iform , th e salute , the ideas, th eorga n izatio ns and th e use of stro ng-a rm sq uads from Germ an y.'The fascist lead ers wen t to th e Nazi and fascist confcrc nccsin Berl in and Rom e and were ph oto gr aphed wi th Hi tler andM ussol in i, T hey came back and told us what fine cou n triesGcr ma ny and It al y had becom e under fascist rul e; th ey toldus that we ough t to cop y th eir methods of govcmment: the y

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sold lit eratu re clearl y mark ed: "Pr inte d in Hamburg." Neverwas an ything more clearl y lab ell ed "Made in Germ an y."Therefor e we can look a t Germany and Ital y in orde r to findth e real motiv es of th e fascist, an ti-Je w party here in Brit ain ;those motiv es whi ch ar e kept so caref ully hidden behind th esmo ke-screen of J ew-baiting.

The Real Motives Behind Jew HatredThe peopl e of Britain are ind eed fortun at e that th ey do

not have to expe r ience th emselves th e horror s of Nazi Ger­man y in ord er to discov er th e real motiv es behind th e anti ­J ew campaign.

The fascist lead ers are quite cynical abou t th e use theymak e of J ew-baiting. In a conversat ion wi th HermannRau schni ng, once th e Naz i boss of Danzi g, and now a re fu­gee from Germ an y, Hitler said : "My J ews are a valuable ho s­tage given to me by th e demo cracies. Anti-S emiti c propa·ganda in all countries is an indi spensabl e medium for th e ex­tension of my political campaign. You will see how littl etim e we shall need in ord er to ups et th e id eas and cr iteriaof thewhole world- simpl y and purely by att ackin g Ju daism.It is w ithout dou bt th e m ost powerfu l uieapon in my po li tica larsen al."

The Nazi leaders were much too well in form ed to beli eveth e anti-Jew lies them selves, but they were read y and willingto play on existing prejudice and to whip up further pr eju­dice in order to secure the backing of a larg e number of peo ­ple . The Nazis in Germany spent millions of mon ey in a ter­rific ant i-Je w campaign. 'Where that mon ey came from willbe und erstood after reading thi s ' pamphlet.

The Germ an people had been through terrifi c tim es: theyhad suffered first the privations of a blo ckad e, next an infla­tion which wip ed out their little savin gs, and then years ofmass un employment. They were inclined to clutch at an ystraw . Man y of them swallowed the anti-Jew bait. In 1933Hitler came to power in alliance with the German conserva­tive party. It is interesting to notice his first actions. H e didnot at first attack the J ews, except in print. Action against

14 .

the declar ed enemy, the Jew s, was reserved for a later date .The first att ack by th e Nazis was against th e working-classmovemen t. Within a few weeks of coming to power theyar rested the lead ers of th e Communist Party, th e Labour Party(Social-Dem ocra tic Part y), th e Trade Unions and th e Co-op ­

era tive Societ ies. Then th ey seized th e buildings and th efund s of the Trade Unions, Co-op s, and political parties andla unched a re ign of terr or again st every activ e T rad e U nion­ist, Co-operator and Socialis t. They introduced int o the fac­tor ies th e fu ehr er, or lead er , principle. The lead er in eachfacto ry was non e oth er th an the boss, and th e function of th ewor ker was to obey the fu ehr er of the fact or y. All th e righ tstha t h ad been established in the factories by man y years ofstrugg le were swep t awa y-the boss's word was law, and dis ­obed ience to th e boss became tr eason. No work er needs tobe told of th e nature of th e struggle, th e years of toil andsacrifice th at have gone into th e building up of trad e unionsand oth er working-class bodi es. No work er needs to be toldof what th ese institutions mean to the working-class move­ment. Yet the fruits of all those years of unremitting struggleand effort were swept away in a few short weeks. 'Ve cannow see the real motive of the fascists which is concealedbehind th e smoke-screen of Jew-baiting: it is th e destructionof th e working-class mov ement and th e slavery of th e work ­ers. And the workers delivered themselves into this bondageby falling for the anti-Jew campaign. Truly did Harry Pol ­litt say recently, "There are millions of German workers atthi s moment who will regret to their dying day that theywere ever taken in by th e anti-Jewish campaign of Hitler."

'V e asked before , who benefits from Jew-baiting? The an­swer now is clear. The people that benefit from Jew-baitingare tho se same people who benefit by th e destruction of thetr ade unions and th e working-class movem ent, th ey are thebig industrialists, the big bankers, the monopolists, the reac­tion ari es of all kinds , who fear th e strength of th e working­class movement, and who fear th e onward mar ch of the peo­ple towards Socialism.

It is these monopolists, the gr eat German industrialists of15

coa l and steel, who ba cked th e Nazi party with millions ofmon ey for th eir vil e campaign of J ew-baiting. If we seek tofind th e ba ckers of the anti-Jew parties in Britain, we mustlook for th em among the same type of reactionary. Signifi­cantly enough, the list of members of the Anglo-German Fel­lowship contained the names of man y of the leading indus­tria lists and financiers of Britain.

The Lesson of Ge rmanyAfter a short time Germany could boast the largest number

of prisons and concentration camps in the world. Many peo­pl e believed that the concentration camps held only Jews. Butthe Jews were, in fact , only a minority in the concentrationcamps. The majority was made up of members of the work­ing-class organizations and progressive people who were notprepared to surrender easily their liberties and democraticrights. Before long, the Nazis had evolved the practice ofarresting tens of thousands of rank and file workers, tradeunion branch officers and the li ke, in order to put themthrough a course of "correction" in concentration camps.'Vorkers who have escaped from Germany have told of thehorrible tortures and degradations suffered in some of thes ehe ll-camps.

Because people believed that the conc entration camps heldonl y J ews; because people believed that Hitler's governmentwas mainly concerned with attacking the Jews ; because peo­ple did not see Germany feverishly rearming; because peoplesaw only the attacks on the Jews , th ey fell into Hitler's trap.In front of the curtain in the glare of th e footlights was en ­acted the J ew-baiting scene ; behind the curtain took plac e thecomplete destruction of the German working-class move ­merit -and of all those rights and lib erti es which we call democ­rac y. The Great Illusion was performed . 'Vhile the worldgazed at th e spectacle of the per secution of th e J ews anothergreat tragedy was taki ng plac e. The German peopl e werepa ying bitt erly for having dan ced to Hitler 's J ew-baitingtune.

The existence of anti-Jewish pr ejudices (or anti-Semitism,16

as it is called) is, the n, a pow erful weap on in th e hands ofbig bu sin ess. \Vh at work er would willingl y surrend er hi sh ard -won r igh ts of or ganization? \Vhat Briton would will­ingl y accep t slavery and dictatorship from th e monopolists?Indeed, th ere are few who would not fight against such anattack on th ose lib erti es for whi ch we hav e fou ght for so lon g.Yet , man y who would gladly fight again st th e attacks of bigb us iness do fa ll for thi s ant i-Semitism and th ereb y ope n th ega tes to th eir ene m ies. Anti-Semitism is a trick by whi chpeopl e ar e persuaded to ti e th e rop e round th eir own necks ;it is th e trap wh ereb y people voluntaril y surrender th emselv esint o slave ry.

\Vh at mak es th ese pr ejudices acceptable to the unthink­ing? The mere ex istence of th e supe r ficia l diff er ences wehave already describ ed and exp la ined would not alone ac­cou n t for the m so easily bein g mad e th e ca p ita l and th e stock ­in-t rade of th e Jew -baiters.

How Prejudice Is NourishedIn days of prosperity and progress, no one bothered th e

Je ws, a nd mos t sure ly they didn't bother th eir neighbors.T he re is, however , a special soil in whi ch ar e nourished th epre j ud ices set out abov e. Man y peopl e cannot understandthe myster iou s workings of our econom ic system . Those peo ­pl e wh o are not Socialists find their exp la na tion not in th eevils of cap ita lism, but in th e imaginary evil of th e J ews. Ourworld is ind eed a difficult world to understand.

On th e one hand mankind has ver y lar gel y solv ed th e prob­lem of pro du cin g food and comm odities in sufficient abun­dance for every body ; and yet, on th e oth er hand, our world isone in which both th e working class and th e middle classexperience more in security, mo re want , mor e un employmenta nd more fear of r ecurring war s than mankind has expe r i­enced for cent uries . There seems to be someth ing myst eri ­ously wrong.

\\'h eat and cott on and coffee were bein g burnt in som ecou ntries, whi le in Britain skille d tex tile work ers , boot op ­eratives an d sh ip builder s stoo d id le. \V hy cou ld not tho se

17

British workers produce textiles and boot s and build shipsto carry these goods to other countries in exchange for thewheat, cotton and coffee which were being burnt? There wassom e mysterious force a t work which stood in th e wa y. Peopleasked th em selv es why unemployed building work er s could notbui ld d ecent houses instead of the jerry-built hou ses and slumsthat were au offens e to the di gnity of lif e. \Vh y shou ld chil ­dr en leave school at the age of fourteen to en te r a labor mar­ket whi ch did not want th em, whil e at the sam e tim e school ­tea chers were looking for jobs ? Wh y, the y ask ed, could not.those builder s and teachers hav e made new schools in whichth e children could study for another two or three years?\Vhy could not those children have become educated to theirown advantage as well as the national advantage, inst ead ofhanging about at street corners?

Of course, Socia lists who had made a study of Marx under­stood very well the causes of this insane state of affairs.

But there are many peopl e who have never taken thetrouble to study this problem. To such people this world isindeed a mysterious one . Without thinking very much theystill feel the need to understand this crazy system. They seekfor an exp lanation, one whic h is simp le and for preferenceo ne that can be see n with a na ked eye.

Why Unemployment?\Vh y wasn 't the miner diggi ng coa l? \ Vh y should he be un­

employed? \ Vhy was the engineering work er walking thestreets idle? \Vhy had we the derelict areas and a town likeJarrow, described by Ellen \J\rilkinson as "the town that wasmurdered"? Why have we got poverty and hunger , cr ime andimmorality? To all of these questions th e fascists hav e thesimple answer-the Jews . It isn 't th e private own ership ofland. Don't think it for a moment. I t isn't th e big monopolycontrol of industry which closed down pit s and cotton fac­tori es, which closed down steel works and smashed the ship­yards. No , sir, turn your attention away from these and blameit all on the Jews . Incidentally, I have heard much the samelanguage about th e Irish Catholic minority in Scotland. In

18

Glasgow and Edinburgh, we had years of exactly the samevituperation and slander as the fascists have directed aga instth e Jews in London and Leeds , but in this case against theIrish Catholics. It was lies aga inst the Irish Catholics to splitthe working class. It is lies aga inst the J ews for th e samedeadl y purpose.

The class-anger of the peop le shou ld be pointed against thereactionaries, but this is the last th ing that the rea ctionarieswant. Therefore the fascist movements are brought into ex­istence and suppried with amp le funds for carrying on theirfilth y campaign. The mission of these anti-Jew parties is todiv ert the minds of the people away from their real enemy,th e capitalists, toward an imaginary enemy-the J ews. TheJ e,,-s become the scapegoats of the cap ita list system.

Hitler's Followers

Study history, and you will find th at ant i-Semitism has everbeen the weapo n of R eaction. I n prese nt days, therefore, itis the weapo n of th e reaction aries of big bu sin ess, of th e mo n­opolists of industry and finan ce. Becau se th e most react ion­ary force in all the world tod ay is th e Nazi gove rnment ofGermany, all fascists, all J ew-bait ers, and all reaction ari eslook with symp athy toward s th e Naz i tyrann y. Equ all y theNazis have always enco uraged and su pporte d th e var ious fas­cist parties th rou ghout th e world . It is significant to observethat, as soon as th e Na zis came to power in German y, thevar ious fascis t parties all over the world sudde nly blossomedout in to activity with lar ge funds for ant i-Je wish pro pagand a.It is signi fican t that befor e the Nazis came to power in Ger­many, Mosley> had declar ed that he was not aga inst the J ews.As a matt er of fact he first chose for his ch ief bod ygu ard awell -known J ewish boxer wh o, kn owin g li ttl e of polit ics, waseasily dece ived by Mosley's glib, un scrupulou s tongue. It wasonl y aft er Hi tler came to power, in Octob er, 1934, at tile Al­bert H all , that Mosley declar ed h is party to be anti -Semitic.Just as Mosley bega n to da nce to Hitler 's tun e, so, in var ious

* Leadin g f ascist a nd ant i-Semite in E ng land.

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coun tries in Europe, anti-Jewish parti es sudde nly spra ng in tolife; wh ere such parties did not already exist, th ey wer ecrea ted. Look at the list of th ese par ties: in Belgium th eRexi sts under Degrelle : in Holland th e Fascists led by Mu s­sert: in Roumania the Iron Guard organiz ation; in France th eCro ix de Feu and Cagoulards; finall y in Norwa y-Quislin g!

On e thing is common to all th ese part ies. They ar e tr ait ­ors to the ir own countries, th ey are Fifth Columnists. Theyall ope ned th e gat es of th eir countries to th e Nazi armies.Eac h one of these parties was worth man y divisions to th eNazi arm y. It was these parties that helped to create th emyth of th e invincibifity of th e Nazi army. The big Germanmonopolists had a plan for th e conquest of Europe and there­by for the creation of a market for th eir goods and a sph er ewh ere th ey could invest th eir mon ey und er th e safety pro­vid ed by th e gun s of th e Germ an arm y. The ex istence ofth ese fascist parties, and, wh ere necessary , th e creation ofthese fascist parties, was necessar y to this plan of th e Germancap italist class.

The most reactionary sections of th e British capi talist classlook with sympathy on Fascism and anti-Semitism, but at th esame time th ey ar e opposed to th e loss of th eir dominant po­sitio n to Germanv.

At the beginning of th e war , th er efor e, th e Br iti sh FascistPart y was closed down and its lead ers wer e int ern ed . Butthe Fascists took this suppression very calmly. 'Vas not Hit­ler goin g to win the war? 'Vhy worry ? Soon th e Nazis wouldbe in London, and Mosl ey would be inst all ed as the Qui slin gof Britain.

And for some tim e it appeared th at th ey were right. TheGerm an army swept through Europ e- app arentl y inv inc ible.I n the sum me r of 1940 it met its first chec k in th e Battle ofBritain , but it still remained terribly men acin g. Then , inJune, 1941, the Nazis threw th emselves upon th e Soviet Union,confide n t that, onc e again, th e German army was to ha ve awalko ver. But in th e Soviet Union th ere were no fascists orQuislings. The glorious resistan ce of th e R ed Arm y- inwhich Sovie t J ews hav e covered th emselves with hon or-is

20

now written imperisha bly in the pages of hi stor y. I t is suffi­cient to say that the R ed Army has pu t a spo ke in the wheelof Hi tler 's cha r io t of world conq uest ; in fact, in the winterof 1942-3 the pos itio n of H itler 's ar my in R ussia was ind eeddesperate. That does not mean th at Hitler is yet de£ea ted­m uch stern fight ing remains to be don e befor e th at obj ect iveis ach ieved-but certa inly victory over th e enemy is now mu chnearer achie veme n t.

British Fascists Becoming DesperateH ow do the Br itish fascists reac t to th e situa tion? Thev

become des pe ra te with fea r beca use they reali ze that th e d~­struc tion of th e Na zi government mean s that every Fasci st andreac tionary go vern men t in Europe will di sapp ear with th eNaz is. And how do th e reactionaries in Britain react to th epr esent situation? They are no lon ger so fearful th at th eGerm an capitalist class will menace th eir privileged position.It is true that the y want to win the war , but at th e same tim ethey are afraid to see th e destruction of th e fascist go vern­men ts. The reactionaries of Britain realiz e that with th e de­feat of Fa scism in Europe will com e a great surge forw ard ofthe Briti sh working-class mov em ent; th ey realiz e th at th e work ­ers of Brit ain will then pr ess forward towards a Britain freedfrom pove r ty and hunger .

It is. these react ionar ies wh o now again suppo rt th e fascistJ ew-baiters and who ar e a t th e sam e tim e opposed to th eope ning of th e Second Front in Europe. It is th ey who wishto . pull our punches.

H ow can Hitler be saved? Som ehow th e peopl e of Britainmus t be persuad ed in to a negotiated pea ce with Germany.H ow is it possi ble to persuad e th e British peo ple to do a dealwith the Naz is? It will cer ta in ly be difficult to persuade theBr itis h peopl e to reprieve th e Nazi cr imina ls. Besid es, werecognize insti nct ively th at the cr imina l Naz i reg ime mu st beswept away, if we are to have any hope of social prog ress inthe fu ture.

Yet, th e fascists and reaction ari es mu st tr y to pull off thi sdeal wit h H itler- th ey kn ow th at if th ey fai l to do this, the ir

own political death warrants will have to be signed. Theyare still tr ying to usc th e weapon of an anti-Soviet campaign,but the eyes of th e people hav e been op ened by th e eventsof the last two years. \Vh at oth er weap on have th e fascistsgot left? Jew-baiting!

At this mom ent a new fascist party was brought int o being- the British National Party. That party had two aims: theywere J ew-baiting and a demand for a negotiated peace withHitler.

Under Another Name

Thanks to the vigilance of the Daily Worker and th e work­ers, this party was shown to hav e had connections with trait­ors-such as Craven, the Mosley fascist, sentenced to penalservitude for life for offering to help the Nazis -and formerinternees under Regulation ISB. In consequence, its backershave found it necessary to change the name. The BritishNational Party has become the English National Party, butthe flag of fascism and anti-Semitism can still be seen nailedto its masthead .

At the very moment when the mighty Soviet advance, to­gether with the splendid advance of the Eighth Army, isthreatening the Nazi power, the anti-Jewish campaign swellsto big dimensions. The fascists and their friends arc usingtheir last card. This is the moment they choose to say: "Thisis a Jews' war. Is your son in Libya? Stop the Jews' war!Don't make money for the Jewish boss. The Jews are gettingrich from the war. The Jews are dodging the army-stop thisJews' war."

The friends of Hitler who are working to delay the Sec­ond Front hope to get two things from this anti-Jewish cam­paign. First, they hope to slow down the war effort. Theycalculate that if the working class can be persuaded that thisis indeed a Jews' war, then the intensity of work in the fac­tories will decrease. If, in a particular factory, one tank orone plane less is produced, that is equal to one plane or tankdestroyed by the enemy. The reactionaries calculate that ifthey can repeat this performance in factories up and down the

22

country, the n th ey ~\'~ll have .won. a big. battle for Hit.ler.Thus th eir ant i-Semitic campaign IS nothing less than FifthCo lumn activi ty, sabo tage of th e war effor t, and treasonagain st th e nation.

T he second ob jec tive of the fascists is ever mo re sinister.They rec kon th at if a sufficient number of British people canbe persuaded th at th eir main enemy is th e J ews and not Hit­ler, then a bond of mutual understanding will have beencreated be twee n such people and the Na zi governme n t. Thosepeop le who will hav e swallowed the anti-Jewish propagandawill see no point in a war against the Nazi regime in Ger­man y.

If this plot wer e to succeed, th e forces of big business wouldbe able to negotiate with Hitler to save th e Nazi regime inGermany and th en be able to turn upon the British workingclass and pu sh it down into th e same conditions of abjectslavery as th e German working class.

Fifth-Column Danger

But some people will say: "How ridiculous! Just becau seI express some ant i-Je wish sentiments, you say I am a FifthColum nist." No, th e person who innocentl y makes an anti­J ewish remark is not a Fifth Columnist, but he is certainlyhelping th e Fifth Column-he is unwittingly pla ying into th ehands of th e Fifth Column. He is unwittingly strengtheningthe ene mies of the people, the enemies of the working-classmovem ent. The power of the people, once it is united, is in ­vin cible . Unity is achieved when there is a common objec­tive and when all recognize the same enemy. The effect ofan ti-Semitism is to creat e among some peopl e a false objective,to split th e working-class movement between those who recog­nize fascism as the enemy and those who are diverted into anatt ack against an imaginary enemy, the Jews. Therefore, ana n ti-Je wish expression by a worker cannot be allowed to passas a means of letting off steam or as an idle luxury. Suchant i-Je wish expressions are a serious menace to the whol eworking-class movem ent.

Stamp It Out!

Every work er mu st mak e it his serious individual responsi­bility to see to it that no ant i-Je wish stat em en t is a llowed topass without challe nge; th at wh en such a sta teme nt is mad ein inn ocen ce a car eful ex p la na tion is g i,-en of the dan ger itcarr ies. And that where such a state me nt is made bv a fascistdelib er atel y for th e purpose of crea ting a n ti-Jewis!l redi ng,the n ste rn a nd imm ediate ste ps are taken to expose a nd to

stamp upon such act iviti cs. It is you r organizati on s, your ownlib erty that ar e at stake.

By 'seeing that this foul dis ease of anti-Semitism is stampedout , we can clear th c wa y for th e wid e advance of all pro gres ­sive forc es, for close military and political co-o pe ra t ion wit hth e Sovi et Union , for a spee d y and victorious fin ish to th ewar , and for a new chapter in th e forward mar ch of j e,, ·s andGentiles to a hi gh er and better lif e.

How to Combat Anti -SemitismBy Earl Browder

ANnTt~~~~~:;~~Ie~ti~/~I~~_~~~ 1 i~eissti~:~p:s~~~e ': s;eaag;

of anti -Semitism today without speaking of its twin, which isanti-Communism. Under the ba nner of struggle against th ealleged J ewish conspi racy to domin ate the wor ld and its com­panion "Commun ist conspiracy" to overthrow all existinggovernments and insti tu te universal Bolshevism, sometimescalled Jewish Bolshevism and sometimes J ewish plutocraticBols hevism, H itler, with h is sate ll i tes and agents, has thrownthe world into the greatest catast rophe of all hi story, Thisstruggle is by no means over: nor is it won. H itl er 's bid torule the world has not yet been beaten. In fact, I think welIIUStsay that the heavi est struggle is st ill ah ead .

And whi le there have been esta blished wi th in the last sixmo nths the pre-condition s for wiping ou t Hitleri sm, thesepre-conditio ns are st ill to be real ized . I t will requ ire the u t­most mob ilization of all the military stre ng th and moral re­sources of the United Na tions to do thi s job . And abo ve all ,it will require a greater und ertaking, a grea ter mobilizationof our int ell ectual resou rces than we hav e ever mad e befor e.

T o wage the stru ggle aga inst Hitlerism and mast er th e prob­lem of unit ing the demo cratic world for th e suprem e militaryeffort, it is essent ial that we understand th e main weapon, th esecret weapon of Hitlerism embodied in his twin slogans ofa nti-Semitism and anti-Communism. Hitler didn't inventthese sloga ns; he found th em read y-made. But he took themand inflat ed them into intellectual and moral monstrosities

25

such as the world has never seen before. And by the manipu­lation of these slogans, Hitler succeeded in immobilizing andparalyzing the world which he set out to conquer; he hypno­tized his intended victims, separating them and making themincapable of struggle; and then finally, after long preparation,apparent to the whole world, he pounced upon his victimsone by 'one, while the rest of the world, knowing that theywere also on the Iist, stood by as if in a hypnotic trance andwatched and even assisted in the process leading directly totheir own destruction.

It is quite easy to trace the operations of the anti-Commu­nist slogan and to see how it served to paralyze the nationsof the 'Vest, particularly France, Britain, and the UnitedStates, and even involve them actively in Hitler's plans forworld conquest. The anti-Communist slogan found fertilesoil in the fear of revolution which gripped the possessingclasses; they had been deeply frightened by the rise of theSoviet Union and were fearful that its example would serveto stimulate similar ambitions on the part of the workingclass of their own countries, and they were so obsessed by thisfear that they could not see the real danger arising to them­selves, as well as to the whole world; they could not see thatthe danger was not in the rise of a new society which wouldrepresent a higher stage of human development, but in areversion to medievalism, reinforced by all the technique ofmodern science, consequent upon a Hitler victory , whichwould wipe out every nation, and along with it even thosepossessing classes who were so fearful of Communism.

This fear of a revolutionary upheaval by the masses dis­satisfied with the working of the modern capitalist system ledthe ruling classes of France, Britain, and the United States tobe complacent at the rise of Hitler in Germany because hepresented himself as a bulwark against Bolshevism, against thethreat of revolution and the inauguration of socialism. Iteven led them to give active help in the imposition of theHitler regime upon the German people. Powerful capitalistcircles in France, Britain, and the United States share in the

26

guilt for the rise of Hitl~ris~ in ?ermany b.ecause they wer eunder th e influ en ce of HItler s anti-Communist slogan, III faceof th e fact that th e Communists, alwa ys keenl y conscious ofthe wor ld th reat of th e ri sing fascist movem ent , had lon g agodeclar ed th eir readiness for a united front against this menaceand th e desire to subordinate their special program to th enecessiti es of thi s united front in ord er to prevent a grea thi storical leap ba ckward which would wip e out all the fruitsof human progress for man y gene rations.

\Vhat has not been so apparent to most peopl e is th eequa lly important role pla yed by Hitler 's use of anti-S emit ­ism; and becaus e th e Jewish people wer e even fewer in num­bers than th e Communists on a world scale, th e de ep impor­tance and significance of this manipulation of anti-Semitismhas not received the att ention it d eserves . Wh en I say it has notreceived th e att ent ion it de serves, I do not mean in th e super­ficial sense, because in many resp ects, th e world, and especiallythe Un ited Stat es, has given more attention to Hitler 's anti­Semit ism than to almost any other feature of Hitlerism up tothe outbreak of th e war. I mean in th e sen se of studying thi sques tion and understanding how it aros e and how it op erates,an d how th e use of this campaign to oppress and ex terminatea pe ople of di stin ctl y limited numbers op er at ed to paralyzethe will and the instinct for self -pres ervation of grea t nationsand hundreds of millions of people.

The principle of Hitler's use of anti-Communism operatesquite ind ep endently of the number of Jews or Communiststh ere ma y be or which people actually are J ews or Cornmu­ni sts. It op erates through the creation of a general atmos­ph er e of suspense, of danger, of imp ending catastrophe; itseeks to fasten the attention of the people upon such an imagi­nar y and inflated danger, which sets everyone looking allaround him for that danger, searching out hidden exp res­sions of this danger among his own associates, dividing peo­pl e sharply on imaginary lines , lines which have no socialreality, setting group against group, individual against in ­dividual, and creating a fear of that very social solidarity

27

and unity wh ich wou ld be an insuperable barrier to theris e of fascism .

T he manipulation of anti-S emitism and anti-Communismwas Hitler 's first step toward th e creation of this a tmosph ere'withou t which th e fascist regim e could not aris e or impose itspow er. Ther e wer e not man y j ews in Germany in relationto th e total population, and yet th e Nazi regim e succeededin imposing upon the German peopl e th e id ea of the neces­sitv for a careful exam ination of th eir family tr ees as far backas 'their gr eat-grandfather s and great-grandm'others to find outwhether there was a taint of J ewish blood.

What does that kind of thing do to th e social structure .of a nation? I t results in th e complete disintegration of th epeople, the ir comple te moral an d in tellectual br eakdown,and out of that the ir complete subordination to the Nazileadersh ip imposed from above. T he an ti-Communist slogandoes the same thing in principle; operating in a differentway, it is con nec ted up wit h an ti-Semi tism through the cha rgethat the J ews ar e guilty of th e cr ime of having brought Bol­shevism to the world, sp rea di ng the idea to the entire popu­lation, a nd po isoni ng eve n Arya ns with its microbes.

T here was a stro ng Co mm u nist movement in Germany ,although there was a very sma ll J ewish population . " Thy,then, did H itler p lace such emphas is u pon a nti -Sem it ism?Eve n if there ha d been a pro blem of the relationship of theJ ewish population to th e Germ an sta te, it cou ld not hav ebee n a maj or pr oblem in view of th ei r sma ll numbers. Bu tHi tler owes hi s success and hi s hi stor ical ro le prec isely tohi s under standing of th e poiso no us socia l effects of this con­cep t whi ch rep resen ts a ra cial or na tion al gro up as a h idd enene my within; and he under stood th at the effec tiveness ofanti-Semitism in Germ an y was pr ecisely dep enden t upo n th esmall number of J ews in th at country.

It would hav e been impossible for th e Hitlerit e type ofanti-S emitism to ari se independ ently in Am eri ca as i t did inGermany, under the cultivation and stim ula tio n of the Naziorg anization, for the ver y reason that in Am eri ca th ere is

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such a large number of J e,\·s. Wh ere th ere are so man yflcsh and blood J ews it is difficu lt to substitute th e spec ter ofthe an ti-Semitic legend , In G ermany anti-Sc mitism was allthe mor e effective beca use so few Germ ans knew what a J c, \'was and never saw a J cw cxce pt in the cartoons of thc Xazipap crs . Anti-Sem itism in German y h ad th e same advantagesin the cxistcnce of very Iew J cws in th e countrv that an ti­COllllllUllislll h as in thd U nited Sta tes, wh ere thdre arc rc la­rivc ly very few Com mu nists and wh er e th e R ed scare there­forc was ab le to r ise to a heigh t unknown in any ot her cou n­try, not eve n in Ge rmany.

\ \' e have now in th e U nited Stat es, how ever, a very lar gegrow th of an ti-Semitism, whi ch alwa ys existed in a smallway but never assumed the proportions of a major menac e.I t has come ju st in th e last few years and it is ba sed uponthe dominan ce of N azism in Germ an y and its conq ues ts inEuro pe, whi ch ha s stimulated every rea ction ar y force inAme r ican li fe and transpl anted into Am eri ca th e full viru sof an ti-Scmitism right out of Berl in.

\Ve hav e the evide nce for this from the Nazis th emselv es.During th e pa st few months th e official Nazi pr ess ha s exul t­an tly record ed th e rising anti-Semitism in the United Stat es,as well as in England. Das Schwar ze K orp s, for exa mp le,speaks of "our mor e clear-sighted cont emporaries in Englandand Am erica, " whil e H err Go ebbels in hi s organ Das R eicli rc­cen tly boasted that " Hostility to J ews is everyw her e becom­ing mor e apparent ." The real character of this upsurge ofanti-S emitism was indicated most clearly by th e official Ger­man N ews Agen cy in l\Iay of this year wh ich declar ed :

" O nly his tory knows to w ha t ex tent anti-Se mi tism amo ngour enem ies can change matters in our favor . . . . It may in ­[lu en ce th e future of the war."

The cata log ue of rece n t an ti -Sem itic ac tivities in the U ni tedStates cou ld fill a volume. H er e ar e ju st a few.

Co mmissioner of Inv estig ation H erlands, of N ew York29

Cit y, ha s ascert ained over fifty acts of anti-Jewish vandal­ism and terrorism in this city alone.

A few weeks ago a syna gogu e in Cleveland, 0 ., was setafire.

The nation has literally been flooded with vicious anti­Semitic po em s and ditties whi ch have cro pped up in pr acti­cally every sta te of th e Uni on , hav e been posted on bull etinboard s of war plants, and hav e been mail ed to men in th earmed forc es.

Re centl y a booklet of biblical quotations ent itled " MyDail y Reading from the Four Gosp els in the New T estam ent "was distributed to the Catholic soldi ers in th e United Stat esArmy. This bookl et, which will be discontinued accordingto an announcement by General Arnold, Chi ef of Chaplain sof the United Stat es, cont ain s viciou s anti-S emitic as well asanti-labor su bhea ds and footnotes.

The H ou se of R ep resen tativ es ha s once again becom e aforum for anti-S emitic speeches, with very littl e resistan ce.The ch ief offend er ha s been R epr esent ativ e Rankin. But he isnot alon e. Martin Di es had def ended the "right" of Am ericansto be anti-S emitic and Congressman H am Fish, echoing Sen a­tor N ye and Senator 'Wheeler, has defend ed th e " righ ts" ofant i-Semites in Am eri ca.

\Vith a few not abl e excep tio ns, lik e Soc ial j ustice, th e fas­cist and anti-Semiti c pr ess continue to circulate in th e UnitedStat es quite fr eely. Gerald L. K. Smith's Th e Cross and Th eDefend er magazine and scores of anti-Semitic publicationscontinue to circulate through the mails . It would be safe to saythat the number of publications which activ ely peddle anti­Semitism is toda y somewhere in the vicinity of 100.

The Ku Klux Klan is activ e in numerou s stat es, South, \Vestand East.

Gerald L. K. Smith's America Fir st Part y, pro-fas cist andanti-S emitic, has alr ead y expanded from Detr oit into ten stat eswhile th e Coughlinites and various other overt anti-S emiticgroupings operate actively.

During th e rec ent hearings in Washington on the Chinese

30

Exclusion Act th e repr esentatiYes of th e Mothers of Am eri caap pea red and engag~d in anti-S emitic, anti-Communist a~ld

anti-al ien speec h-ma kll1g.I had the op port u n ity a few weeks ago to read th e report of

a po ll that was cond uc ted on th e pr eval enc e of an ti-Semi tismin th e U.S. Som e of the main results of th at poll wer e pub­lished in a little sto ry in PM . You probabl y saw it. The full re­po rt is mu ch mor e illuminating than th e brief results givenin PM. This was a poll conducted on th e principle of the Gal­lu p Publ ic Opinion Surv ey, that is, a sampling of variouscomIJlu n ities and soc ia l stra ta, a method which, whil e by nomea ns in fallible, h as prov en by and large to be a ver y goodind ica tio n of th e actual sta te of the public mind at an y givenmo me n t on any particular problem. This poll was pr eparedno t for p u blica tion but for the private information of impor­ta n t peopl e, especia lly in Gr eat Britain, and we ma y assumetha t th er e is no conscious distortion in it. It was a real , seriousa tt em p t to measure the ext ent to which anti-Semitism haspen etrated the United States, \Vell, the results ar e astonishingand alarming. That investigation showed that two-thirds of th epopulation of the United States have been seriously affectedby anti-S emitic propaganda-two-thirds of the population ofthe United Stat es! On e-third of the population of the UnitedSta tes alr eady shows itself as a bear er of anti-S emiticideas, and ](; per cen t of th e population is activ clv anti­Semitic.

These figures reveal that all of us hav e seriously underesti­mat ed th e degree of th e invasion of Hitlerism into thi s country.Wh en we keep in mind that there is such wide prevalence ofanti-Semitism in the United States despite the fact that, as a re­su lt of the war, anti-Semitism is today a political stigma identi­fying ene m ies of our nation's war effort, we have good cause tobe al arm ed. This has become one of the major problems ofwinning th e war. It is not a question which can be left forelimina t ion to a protracted process of public education over aperiod of ge ne ra t ions. Togeth er with th e issu e of anti-Com­munism, it has become a problem which must be met by cur-

31

rem public and governme nta l poli cy which con sciou sly tak escontro l of th e situation.

1ust as it ha s becom e necessar y for winning th e war and forth e unity of th e nation to eliminate th e anti-Commu nistid eolo gy, which throws th e seeds of disintegration into ourwhol e national effort , so it ha s become ne cessary to plac e anti­Semitism outside th e pal e, to outlaw it and to have organizedpublic and governmental action to control and eliminate thisHitlerit e ideology which is working for Hitler and which isdisrupting our war effort. Anti-Communism is not just thenon-acc eptance of the Communist philosophy or program, it isth e theory that it is nec essary to exclude Communists frompublic life and to d en y th em the ordinary rights of citizens.And just as th e elimination of anti-Communism in the UnitedStates as a political ideology, a political force, requires th eacceptance and inclusion of Communists in the gen eral demo­cra tic life of the country, so do es the eliminat ion of anti­Semitism require the positive, active and unrestricted accept­ance of Jewish-Americans in the national life of our country.

This has become a question which must be plac ed on theurder of th e day not as th e problem of a particulargroup, not just as the problem of th e Jewish population.It is a national problem. It is not even ju st a problem of th eprogressives who must com bat reaction. I t is a problem of th enation, which must be solved as the pric e of continued na­tional existence. Our nation cannot continue to live if it tol­erates the sp read and penetration of th ese H itl er ideas into th enooks and corners of th e 1 30,000,000 population of th eU n ited Stat es.

The adoption of a statute making an ti-Semitism a cr ime inth e United Stat es, as it has been for twent y-five years in th eSoviet U nion, is one of th e necessar y measures toda y. Not th eonl y on e, by an y means . By itself, it will not an swer the qu es­tion ; but as a part of, and as on e of th e first parts of, th e greatsocial mov em ent to cleans e th e coun tr y of thi s poi son , it isab solutely necessar y not onl y for th e sake of human pro gressin gen er al , but be caus e we canno t win thi s war without war -

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~:::~~ ;:i~~~:Stt a~tii~~~;~::1is:1\~re at home.. And that mea ns war-

It is no accident that amo ng th e ch ief lead ers of th e forceswho are associated with the prese n t up ri sin g aga ins t our wareffort, we find people '1'110 are ta int ed with anti-Semitism, wh ohave expressed it or shO\\"I1 in one way or anot he r sym pa thywith it. It is not an acc ide n t th at a ll of th em are also pr o­nounced anti-Comm u nis ts in th e most Hi tl eri an sense . On e ofthe most shamefu l aspects of th e wh ole thing is that J ewi shcircles are invo lved in it also . \V e sho uld not be su rpr ised atthis, of course, beca use origin ally Hitler wa s eve n abl e to findJews to help him in the use of a nt i-Sem itism. Ever y nation h asproduced its Judases.

Bu t her e in Am eri ca today we hav e th e spec ta cle of d egen ­erated, declassed, d esper at e, and hop el ess eleme nt s being re­cruited from th e underworld for thi s kind of work. \V e alsohave powerfu l, su p posed ly public-spirited and respectabl ecitize ns jo ini ng in th e ga me . I want to mention one priz e ex­ample-Davi d Dubinsky, pr esid ent of th e Intern ational LadiesGa rme nt W ork er s Union, on e of th e Democratic Party electorsfor R oosevelt in th e Stat e of N ew York in 1936, a man whomeve n Vice-Presi de n t \\Tallace a t a dinner a few weeks ago spoketo aflect io na te lv as "Dave," a m an wh o is look ed up on bvmany as one of the p illa rs of the lab or mo vem ent. After hi~lea ders h ip in the provocative exp loita tion of th e Ehrlich ­Alter case, whi ch led to th e first br eak in th e unity of th eU nited N ation s, be twee n th e Sovi et Uni on and th e Poli sh gov­ernment-in-exi le, Mr. Dubinsky eme rge d as a part of th e JohnL. Lewis cabal, organ izing a str ike movement in Am er ica tobrea k the R oosevelt lead ership of th e wa r effort, to preventthe opening of a seco nd fro n t whi ch will d efeat Hitler in 1943.a nd to prepare for an ad m in istra tion in th e 1944 elec t ionswhich will make a negotia ted peace with Hitler.

\\ Then this understa ndi ng and exp la na tio n of Dubinsky'srole today is outlined, man y peopl e d raw bac k and say, no.you are exaggerating ; you are resort ing to ty p ica l Communistname-ca lling and exaggera t ions whi ch have no relation to

33

realit y; you ma y not agree with wh at NIr. Dubinsky is doing,bu t no one can ju stl y accuse hi m of bein g for H itl er ; no on eca n accuse him of bein g against th e Pr esid en t; no one canaccuse hi m of wa nt ing to defeat th e United States in th is war ;and sure ly no one ca n accuse him of anti-Sem it ism.

And yet as we di g in to th e record as it exists in docum en ts,we begi n to find out th at Dubinsky over years has ha d con­nection s wi th eleme n ts th a t wer e wor king with H itler, sp rea d­ing ant i-Semit ism in the world and in th e U nite d Stat es; andtha t Dubinsky has been a protector and a pat ron of th esep eopl e. I ran acr oss it by accid ent whi le chec king up onDubinsky's ro le as a conspira tor aga ins t the Sovi et U nion inh is work with th e J ewi sh Lab or Co mm ittee whi ch or ganizedfinan ces from this country to crea te Hitler 's fifth colum n in ­side th e Sovi et Union. In th e pr ocess of tha t work Dubinskyhad associated him self with a fascist by th e n am e of Gr egorieff,a man who in Cuba was branded as a ' azi age n t and who, oncoming to th e United Stat es, joined fascist or ganiz ations inthis country in publishing appeal s to th e sold iers of th e R edArm y to desert and refuse to fight Hitler. And wh en Th eH our , a responsible research bulletin, tri ed to expose Gr e­gorieff, Dubinsky and Minkoff and oth er associates in th eJewish Labor Committee provided Gr egori eff with a law yerto bring suit for lib el against Th e Hour to pr event it fromexposing his role in fighting for Hitler against the SovietUnion. They published a defense of Gr egori eff in th e N ewL eader. I have not yet found it in the Forward becau se I don'tread Yiddish; but I am sure if somebody searches th e file orth e Forward, he ma y al so find th e defense of Gre gori eff th ere .

And Gr egori eff is a man with a long record of anti-Semiticpropaganda in th e Ukrain e, in Austria, in Germany, inCzechoslovakia, in Paris, and in th e United States, and a longtime associate of th e worst anti-Semites of the UkrainianWhite Gu ard in Europe and Am erica. That is wh er e anti­Communism lead s J ews-right into the midst of th e anti-S em­iti c camp, ju st as an t i-Sem itism in evit abl y leads right into thecente r of th e conspiracies against th e Soviet Union and the

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United 1 atio ns and fina lly and in evitabl y aga inst the UnitedSta tes and specifica lly aga inst th e Pr esident.

I t is no accident that Dave Dubinsky is toda y one of the chiefmovers to bring Lewis back in to the A. F. of L. , a mo ve whichevery body knows is a move designed to thro w the A. F. of L.into th e opposition to the Ro osevelt Administration and th eoppos it ion against the war, in to th e cam p of Hoov er, Vanden­berg, Landon and company, who have the ir long establishedprogram for collahoration between th e United Stat es andXazi Germany.

This is a broad outl ine of the pro blem as some of us see it;0111' task is to ide nti fy the sources of the anti-Semitic con ­spiracy, expose it and, hy ex pos ing it , destro y its ability todo harm .

POPULAR CLASSICS

By Karl MarxWage-Labor and Capital $ .15Value, Price and Profit .25The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte .... 1.30Critique of the Gotha Programme 1.50Class Struggles in France 1.50

By Frederick EngelsSocialism, Utopian and Scientific .25On Historical Materialism .. .15The British Labor Movement . .25Germany, Revo lution and Counter-Revolution.... .90Anti-Diihring 2.75The Housing Question .15

By V. I. LeninWomen and Society . .15The Revolution of 1905 .30A Letter to American Workers .10"Left-Wing" Communism, an Infantile Disorder .40What Is to Be Done? .75On the Eve of October .25The Paris Commune .30

By Joseph StalinProblems of Leninism .40Lenin, Three Speeches .. .15The War of National Liberation . .25Marxism and the National Question 1.25

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