Communists failed to reach Black workers on their own terms

Evidence

What I demand of Marxism and Communism is that they serve the black peoples, not that the black peoples serve Marxism and Communism. Philosophies and movements must serve the people, not the people the doctrine and the movement… . A doctrine is of value only if it is conceived by us and for us, and revised through us… . We consider it our duty to make common cause with all who cherish truth and justice, in order to form organizations able to support effectively the black peoples in their present and future struggle—their struggle for justice, for culture, for dignity, for liberty… . Because of this, please accept my resignation from the Party. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 868 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Yet Wright was also critical of Marxism, the second and more modern radical Western tradition. It, too, was profoundly limited theoretically, and subject to the abuses of narrow political interests. Marxism had ultimately failed to come to terms with nationalism, with consciousness, with racism, with Western civilization, with industrialization, and with the history of Blacks. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1405 (#expands, via linked claim)

It was a great loss to American Negroes that the great mind of Marx and his extraordinary insight into industrial conditions could not have been brought to bear at first hand upon the history of the American Negro between 1876 and the World War. Whatever he said and did concerning the uplift of the working class must, therefore, be modified so far as Negroes are concerned by the fact that he had not studied at first hand their peculiar race problem here in America. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1118 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

Related

• Marxism failed among Black Americans because Communists ignored racial reality (similarity 0.90)
• Black radicals rejected doctrinaire Marxism that subordinated Black struggle (similarity 0.89)
• Black radicals resigned from Communist parties when doctrine dominated Black people’s needs. (similarity 0.87)
• Marxism failed to comprehend nationalism, consciousness, racism, and Black history (similarity 0.86)
• Marx’s analysis could not apply to American Blacks without correction for the race problem (similarity 0.85)
• Early Black Marxists blamed Marxist parties’ failure on refusing to engage Black realities (similarity 0.84)
• Marxism failed Black radicals because it misconprehended peasant and colonial liberation struggles (similarity 0.83)
• Marxist readings of black labor as reserve army remain unresolved (similarity 0.83)
• Marxism proved a gateway that three thinkers passed through to Black radicalism (similarity 0.83)
• Black Marxism grew as a new vision centered on cultural corruption of race (similarity 0.82)
• Marxism is an internal critique that cannot ground Black liberation by itself (similarity 0.82)
• American Communists suppressed Du Bois’s theoretical revision of Marxism (similarity 0.82)
• Marxism employed by American Communism served political power rather than analysis or praxis. (similarity 0.82)
• Marxism’s apparent universalism proved inadequate for Black radicals tied to peasant and colonial bases. (similarity 0.82)
• Black petit-bourgeois intellectuals embraced Marxism when racism betrayed their bourgeois universals (similarity 0.82)

Broader Connections

• Black radicals rejected doctrinaire Marxism that subordinated Black struggle #corroborates (0.70) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 868
• Marxism failed to comprehend nationalism, consciousness, racism, and Black history #expands (0.65) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1405
• Marx’s analysis could not apply to American Blacks without correction for the race problem #expands (0.60) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1118
• Black intellectuals’ commitment to orthodox Marxism proved unsustainable #corroborates (0.55) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1326
• Black refusal of proletarian discipline blocked formation of a petit bourgeoisie #expands (0.50)
• Capitalist expansion pursued racial directions, not the rationalization Marx expected #corroborates (0.50) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 115
• The Black radical tradition derives from its own cultural synthesis, not imported theory. #corroborates (0.40)