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| 24, AMERICAN COMMUNISM Communists have three other tactics. One is to infiltrate existing foreign- language societies and try to win important positions. If this fails, it is possible to organize a splinter group with the same purposes as the recalJU- trant society and thus try to destroy what they cannot absorb. If neither of these is successful, it is possible to form a super conference, a sort of holding company, to unite existing different organizations. An example would be the All—Slav Congress* In this position, one faction can be played against another, and the balance of power preserved. The net result is a substantial gain in Communist influence* The success of Communism among the foreign*-language groups is not much greater than its success elsewhere,, with the possible exception of the Jewish community. As elsewhere its propaganda efforts are much more produc- tive than its recruiting programs. On specific foreign issues, the 4egree of success is normally less with foreign-slanguage groups involved than it is with the general public on the same issues (such as Poland), largely because the former are better informed. But the attrition effects of constant pro- paganda, ' the confusion and indecision engendered in the minds of the less well informed, and the consequent lack of united pressure upon the State Depart- ment, all these indicate that real fruits are- being reaped as a result of Communist activities in the foreign language field. Negro Fronts and Programs. Communist work among the Negro has varied considerably in intensity and effectiveness. Like all other activities, it ' has been attuned to the existing Party Line. Fhen the Line was revolutionary, then the basic and real injustices and exploitation suffered by American Negroes could be utilized to the fullest. At such times, real advances were made by Communism among the Negroes* At other times, as during tte War, when Negrt. grievances were being ignored, the Communist Party was able to make little headway. Then they concentrated on civil liberties issues which could be dramatized, such as the rape of Mrs. Recy Taylor by six white youths. Another tactic during this period was an intensive drive by the International Workers fcrder to recruit Negroes. But these efforts were only mildly success- ful. At one period during the War, the turnover of Communist Negroes approach- ed 100$, They were losing as many as they gained. At the present moment, however, the winning of the Negro is a major objective of Party policy. Be- cause of this fact, a brief analysis of their program for the Negro would be useful. The theoretical basis for the Communist approach to the Negro question is that oppression of Negroes is but a species of the broader evil of colonial imperialism. Before a Communist Party is.admitted into the Communist Inter- national, it must subscribe to twenty-one points, the eighth of which follows in part: "Every party desirous of belonging to the Third International should be bound to denounce without'any reserve all the methods of 'its own* imperialists in the colonies, supporting not only in words but practically a movement of liberation in the colonies. It should demand the expulsion of its own imperialists from such colonies and oppressed nationalities, and carry fS\ a systematic agitation in its own army against every kind of oppression of the colonial population*w |