For the first time, Black students expect to be transferred from their overcrowded schools into underutilized schools in the all-white Bogan district on the city’s southwest side. Previous transfer plans exempted this area after massive racist protests.

So far, fewer than 1,000 out of some 6,000 eligible students have signed up to transfer. Many Black and Latino parents fear for the safety of their children and have hesitated to approve their transfer. That these fears are well-grounded is shown by a review of some of the recent racist attacks and mobilizations here:

• Earlier this summer Black kindergarten-to-third-grade students picnicking in Calumet Park on the southeast side were assaulted by a racist mob and driven out of the park.

• Racist meetings and demonstrations have attracted hundreds of white racists, who have paraded near the mayor’s home, sat in at city hall, and packed meetings of the school board. They are demanding an end to the transfer plan, saying they won’t permit even one Black student to enter the Bogan-area schools.

The racists carry signs saying "Resist," "Never," and "I’m white, and I’ll fight."

September 8, 1952
NEWARK, N.J.--George Breitman, Socialist Workers Party candidate for U.S. Senator in New Jersey, last week gave the following answers to the 1952 questionnaire for congressional candidates sent to him by the League of Women Voters:

Q: What particular training and experience have you had that would qualify you for this office?

A: I have personally experienced the effects of the great depression; military service in World War II; inflation fostered by profiteering, and failure to control it; the run-around both major parties have given us on civil rights; the attempts they have made to impose thought control an the American people; and other consequences of foreign and domestic policies leading to a new war. Studying these evils taught me they are the products of a capitalist system in crisis and of the two-party system.

Q: What steps should Congress take to halt inflation?

A: Impose rigid price and rent controls to be policed by committees of trade unionists, housewives, shopkeepers and farmers. Enact a law automatically raising wages, pensions and unemployment compensation whenever the cost of living goes up. Nationalize the basic industries, all war plants, all banks, all natural resources, and operate in the interests of producers and consumers by democratically-elected committees of workers and technicians. Put a 100% tax on all arms industry profits.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home