Talk is cheap and promises are not worth more than a dime a dozen, especially in election years when everybody is competing for votes. We know that now, and we know also that talk must be compared with action and promises must be taken with a pound of salt. Politics and Promises The Democratic and Republican politicians have proved over and over again that they are long on promises and short on performance. Year after year they pledged that they would pass anti-lynching, anti-poll tax and FEPC bills, but every time they came into office they sold us down the river. In fact, there is only one promise concerning the Negro people that they have fully carried out during the last 72 years. That was the promise they made each other in 1876 to cooperate in shackling the newly-emancipated Negroes with the chains of second-class citizenship. That is why so many Negroes, like so many whites, are looking for a new party this year. The question is: What kind of party? What kind of party will satisfy our needs and our aspirations for equality? To find the answer, we should first study some aspects of our past history and of the present society in which we live. We Negroes have contributed more than our share of sweat and blood to the building of this country. Being oppressed ourselves and having no desire to oppress anyone else, we have always been fighters for the freedom of others as well as ourselves. Our forefathers gave their lives to win American independence from Britain; they played a decisive part in smashing the system of slavery; and in our own time nobody has been more active or dependable than .we have been in the big strikes and organizing campaigns led by the CIO. No one can seriously deny the impact our struggles have had on the development of this country, and no one can honestly deny that these struggles helped to make this country a better place to live in for the great majority of the people. And now we have built powerful organizations of our own, and are determined to keep fighting until we have battered down the walls of inequality or have fallen in the attempt. But despite the great contributions to the welfare of all the working people which we have made by our independent strug4 Biblioteca Gino Bianco
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