American delegates to the Comintern dismissed Black nationalism as irrelevant
Evidence
Reed defined the American Negro problem as “that of a strong racial and social movement, and of a proletarian labor movement advancing very fast in class-consciousness.” He alluded to the Garvey movement in terms that ruled out all Negro nationalism and separatism: “The Negroes have no demands for national independence. All movements aiming at a separate national existence for Negroes fail, as did the ‘Back to Africa Movement’ of a few years ago. They consider themselves first of all Americans at home in the United States. This makes it very much simpler for the Communists.” — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1039
Categorization
Category: Factual Claims
- XREF: Key to the reader’s goal: shows how the American Communist delegation — rejecting Lenin’s ‘Negro Question’ — writes off Black nationalism (UNIA/Garvey) in favor of class analysis, a decisive move in the tradition’s arc.
- SEED: A possible article angle: how John Reed’s dismissal of Garveyism set the pattern for white-left disregard of Black nationalism for the next century.
Related
- Comintern officials dismissed Black nationalism and separatism as failed movements (similarity 0.90)
- The Comintern’s Negro Theses marked a theoretical advance over Garvey’s UNIA internationalism (similarity 0.82)
- Early American Communists initially neglected Black issues entirely (similarity 0.80)
- The Comintern adopted self-determination to pre-empt a resurgence of Black nationalism. (similarity 0.79)
- Early American Communists dismissed Black racial consciousness as ideological backwardness (similarity 0.79)