Workers viewpoint 1980-11-09

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These photocopies of six pages from the November 3-9, 1980 Workers Viewpoint newspaper, a publication of the Communist Workers Party (CWP), pertain to the November 3, 1979, Greensboro Massacre, where five CWP members were killed. The issue commemorates the first anniversary of the shootings and includes an editorial call for increased involvement by CWP in local affairs, another promoting a membership drive, and a commemorative poem. An additional article reports on the closing arguments in the murder trial of the six Ku Klux Klan members and Nazis accused of the shootings. Greensboro District Attorney Mike Schlosser is accused of "desperately want(ing) to set the killers free" while being forced to help the government retain a "shred of credibility."

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Title: Workers viewpoint 1980-11-09
Who's responsible?: Communist Workers Party U.S.A. (Creator)
Additional historical information: The Communist Workers Party (CWP) was a Maoist group in the United States. It was founded in 1969 as the Workers' Viewpoint Organization. The party is mainly remembered for the "Greensboro Massacre", a November 3, 1979 Death to the Klan march that left five of the CWP protesters dead. The CWP emphasized unionization and self-determination for African-Americans and enjoyed some success in textile cities of North Carolina. The party established branches in New York, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco Bay Area, Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit, Greensboro, West Virginia, Colorado and other locations. Prior to its reorganization as a political party, the group had been known as the Workers Viewpoint Organization. Under this umbrella, it directed groups as the Revolutionary Youth League, the African Liberation Support Committee, and the Trade Union Education League. Confrontations with the Klan were particularly acute in Greensboro, where the Klan attempted to disrupt the work of the CWP and vice versa. In July, 1979, the Klan held a rally and viewing of The Birth of a Nation in China Grove, N.C., which was disrupted by CWP members who burned a Confederate flag and taunted members of the KKK. There were also challenges in the press. These provocations were a precursor to the November 3, 1979. "Death to the Klan!" rally organized by the CWP. Members of the Klan were armed, as were some members of the CWP. Two members of the CWP and three rally participants were killed in the assault by the KKK. This was the incident that became known as the "Greensboro Massacre". In response to the acquittal of the accused killers, the CWP attempted to storm the 1980 Democratic National Convention and succeeded in setting off firecrackers in Madison Square Garden. Subsequent to the Greensboro massacre, the group moved towards a social democratic formation that would work for peaceful transition to socialism; it dissolved the Communist Workers Party and formed the New Democratic Movement in 1985. The New Democratic Movement lasted but a few years. The Greensboro Justice Fund is a still extant remnant of this movement.
Original creation or publication date: 1980-11-09
Place: Greensboro (N.C.)
Decade: 1980-1989
Type of item: text
Original format: periodicals
Subject headings: Greensboro Massacre, Greensboro, N.C., 1979
Topics: North Carolina
African-American History
Events
Additional tags: Greensboro Massacre, 1979
Original publisher: Greensboro, N.C. : Communist Workers Party U.S.A.
Copyright information: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
IN COPYRIGHT. This item is subject to copyright. Contact the contributing institution for permission to reuse.
Contributing Institution: Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library, Duke University
Collection: Blanche M. Boyd Papers
Civil Rights Greensboro
Funding source: LSTA grant administered by the North Carolina State Library -- http://statelibrary.ncdcr.gov/ld/grants/lsta.html
Contributor's identifier: Duke_RL.00134.1168
Gateway identifier: duke:308
OCLC number: 884367533

Workers viewpoint 1980-11-09

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