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143 Chapter Eight Love and Work A Communist must understand what is happening about him in the world. He must understand the mechanism of the existing regime, must know the history of the growth of human society, the history of economic development, of the growth of property, the division of classes, the growth of state forms. He must clearly picture whither society is developing. Communism must appear to him not only a desirable regime but exactly that regime to which humanity is going, where the happiness of some will not be based on the slavery of others and where there will be no compulsion except strongly developed social instincts. And the communists must clear the road, as you clear a path in the wilderness to hasten its coming. —Krupskaya (Lenin’s wife) (copied by Hutchins into her personal notebook) Building the party press, “clearing a path in the wilderness,” meant more than simply setting up mechanisms for printing and distribution, although these mechanisms were vital— and expensive. Activists around the world debated larger rhetorical questions of language and format. Rochester and Hutchins had struggled with these questions during their years with the FOR and The World Tomorrow; now they confronted them again, offering their advice and taking the advice and direction of others. Although their methods differed, Hutchins and Rochester both understood persuasion. How to reach workers was another matter. Nor did the problems stop there. The new vision meant redefining the limits not only of class but of race and gender. Most importantly, intervening at the point of struggle now meant more than education; it meant moving readers to action.1 During the late summer of 1928, the Sixth Congress of the Communist International (Comintern) met in Moscow, analyzing the world situation and making decisions that would profoundly affect the movement—and Rochester and Hutchins’s involvement in it.2 For the first time, a complete program for the international Communist movement was outlined, partly in response to analyses made by the CPUSA’s executive committee. The party’s program included an analysis of the postwar era that divided it into three periods, the first of which was characterized by revolutions, the second by temporary stabilization, and the third, beginning in 1928, by increasing struggles between labor and capital. In response to this assessment, the congress recommended intensifying the opposition to arguments and actions that sought to blunt labor struggles.3 The world congress also discussed questions of colonialism and, with strong participation by American delegates, arrived at an analysis of what was called the “Negro question,” arguing that “the Negro people [were] an oppressed nation entitled to the right of self-determination.”4 144 PASSIONATE COMMITMENTS Hutchins seems to have ignored the specific question of nationhood, instead taking the new focus on African American workers and beginning her own campaign to inform readers about differential working conditions, attempting to erase racial distinctions between women workers through solidarity. As Rochester was making her last attempt to convince her former colleagues in the FOR of the logic of the CPUSA’s program, Hutchins started working closer to the front lines, in the ILD.5 Here she became better acquainted with Juliet Stuart Poyntz.6 Perhaps it was Poyntz who asked Hutchins to write an article for the Daily Worker outlining the work of the ILD in supporting women strikers and organizers. In any event, Hutchins had now established herself at the center of the movement, where she tried to clear two paths simultaneously: educating workers and pushing the party to recognize the struggles and accomplishments of women. Among those Hutchins highlighted in the Daily Worker article were Anna Burlak and Mary Dalton, arrested in Atlanta, Georgia, for the crime of organizing black and white workers together in the National Textile Workers Union. (Five organizers, including Burlak and Dalton, had been arrested for “inciting Negroes to riot” and “inciting to insurrection.” They were also charged with holding a mixed meeting.) “The prosecutor is demanding the death penalty and under a Georgia law passed in 1861 to kill leaders of Negro slave rebellions, they can be electrocuted if convicted,” Hutchins explained.7 In a companion article written for The Working Woman, the party’s newsmagazine for women, Hutchins described the abysmal working conditions many African American women had to endure. “Of all workers under capitalism,” Hutchins wrote, “Negro women are the most exploited.” They worked the longest hours for the lowest pay, she said, describing conditions in the industries employing the greatest...

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