NEW RADICALISM
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stantial place in the alliance for social change than in the past-but not
that they can lead it.
An
even more obvious, and more substantial, nominee for the
role of a new proletariat is the American Negro. The idea of a unique
revolutionary vocation for the Negro had been suggested in some of the
radical sects long ago, but the events which led from Montgomery to
Harlem demonstrated the fact in action.
It
was as if the CIO had
been born again, only this time with a black skin.
Yet the Negro cannot make a revolution by himself.
As
the most
dynamic and catalytic element of the sixties, the black American has
a crucial role. He has already aroused the best instincts of the campus,
the unions, the churches and synagogues (Civil Rights probably did
as
much for ecumenism in the United States as good Pope John, which
is
saying a great deal). And there is a very real sense in which we owe
the War on Poverty to the Negro movement, for it was the first, and
most massive, force which tore away the blinders of the fifties.
Still,
the American Negro is not, like the African revolutionist, in
a ninety percent majority. He is actually in a ten percent minority.
Changes in the allocation of American resources must be made before
the needs of the Negro for full and fair employment, decent housing,
and integrated education can be realized. And such a redefinition
and
enlargement of the Negro movement takes one beyond direct
action (which still has a desperately important function, as in Selma).
There are two important sources of the belief that Negroes are a
new proletariat. On the one hand, there are the Mississippi activists
who work under conditions of terror. For them, he who is not with us is
against us, which is the rule of a resistance movement. And since the
unions, the liberal organizations, and the churches hardly measure up to
the
standards of the underground, there is a tendency to dismiss
all
of
them
as
untrustworthy. This point of view is tactically disastrous, since
it
reduces the resources of the freedom movement to
some
Negroes and
a handful of whites. And yet, for all the criticisms that one would
make, this attitude originates with the most genuine and courageous
involvement in the fight against racism. The theorists are as admirable
as
their theories are arguable.
On the other hand, there is a "revolutionary purism," often found
in the cities of the north, which is really a stylized, radical-sounding
argument for copping out. Business, labor, the liberals and the radicals
