It's an incident that could very well have come from our own
country. Protest, murder, political intrigue and acquittals, the events of
November 3rd 1979 should be as discussed and dissected as much as Bloody Sunday
and Kingsmill.
Sadly, this book remains one of a very few about the
Greensboro Massacre.
Allegations of collusion surfaced, due to the lack of a
police presence until after the shootings. It quickly emerged that one of the
Klansmen who had been present at the shooting was a police informer, while a
member of the ANP (who had been an FBI informer) encouraged the Nazis to arm
themselves prior to the demonstration.
Tried before an all white southern jury, they were acquitted
when the jury accepted their argument that they had been provoked. Another
trial in 1984 also saw the gunmen being acquitted when they argued their
motivations were political, as opposed to racial.
So this book, the first about the massacre, retains an
important place in history.
With both authors being members of the Communist Workers
Party, there is no pretence at impartiality. On one hand, it's refreshing to see
and read such open proclamations of Communism in such works (especially in a
pre Gorbachov era Cold War). On the other hand, it does get rather po-faced and
tiresome to read about "full time revolutionaries" and their debates
about revealing their Communist beliefs to a sympathetic public.
The vast majority of the book is dedicated to telling the
stories of the people who died at Greensboro, and they are all portrayed as
good, hard working members of the party who were willing to debate, think and
take action (such as moving to North Carolina to work in a textile mill so they
can spread the message to the working class).
Interestingly (to me anyway), the chapters dedicated to each
person are almost interchangeable. All of them give up certain types of careers
to become revolutionaries, all of them are involved with trade union disputes,
all of them knew to have fun etc etc. And while I cannot fault their activism
and bravery in uniting black and white textile workers against the bosses and
the police, there's very little in the way of what made them tick. What made
them human. It's just party political propaganda at best (although
understandable giving the context).
The authors conspiracy theory about it being a deliberate
attempt to stifle the growth of the Communist Workers Party by removing some of
the genuinely committed members (and future leaders) is an interesting one,
considering what we now know about the conflict in this country. However, with
the CWP never numbering more than (probably) 1000 members (in a country of
225.1 million in 1979), I'm not convinced that the state saw them as much of a
potential threat.
Ultimately, it's hard to come away with any other thought
that the marchers were maybe a tad naive to think that, by announcing that a
march would be held under the banner "Death to the Klan", there would
not be anything of this ilk. With the Klan being heavily infiltrated and even members
taking up important positions in the political establishment, it was only going
to end up bloody.
In recent years, with a Truth and Reconciliation style
committee (not endorsed by the mayor or the majority of the council of
Greensboro) report citing that both sides engaged in antagonising one another
in the run up to the march, but that the Klan went there with the intention of
murder, more information has become available. And it's fascinating to see the
ambivalence some of America seem to have towards the event, because the
murdered were Communists.
Very much a time capsule, this book documents a time when
radical left wing politics was untouched by neoliberalism and the onslaught of
Reaganomics. When people genuinely believed that the revolution wasn't far off
and, as described in the book, a time when Robert Mugabe was seen as an
inspiring hero.
Paul C. Bermanzohn,
Sally A. Bermanzohn The True Story of the Greensboro Massacre Cesar
Cauce Publishers and Distributors ISBN-13: 978-0866860000
Christopher Owens reviews for Metal Ireland and finds time to study the history and inherent contradictions of Ireland.
Follow Christopher Owens on Twitter @MrOwens212
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