"The finance-capitalists who dominate American life are not Jews (Morgan, Rockefeller, DuPonts, Ford, etc.), and the number of Jewish proletarians has vastly increased. Yet, despite these facts, anti-Semitism has taken root in this country, and is now being organized on a greater scale than ever before. This organized anti-Semitism, furthermore, is more and more openly being used as a siphon to divert what are essentially anti-capitalist feelings among the people into channels that will serve only to fasten the hold of capitalism upon them, and capitalism, at that, in its most rabid, its fascist, form. The way to wipe out anti-Semitism coincides in large part, therefore, with the way to eliminate economic exploitation. And the way to wipe out the organized anti-Semitism that the American fascist forces are now fostering coincides with the way to check and crush fascism. Only socialism, through the dictatorship of the proletariat, can eliminate the roots of anti-Semitism. And only the people's front, based on the trade unions and uniting the oppressed middle classes of city and country, can crush the fascists' attempt to organize anti-Semitism along lines of violence and vigilanteism. It is, therefore, very encouraging to note that practically all of the contributors to this symposium agree on these propositions: that anti-Semitism has economic roots, and can be uprooted only by some form of socialism; and that anti-Semitism now is a phase of fascism and must be fought as such, through unity with all progressive forces. It is noteworthy that all agree that the time has come to fight anti-Semitism, and considerable scorn is directed against those who preach passivity as a way of mollifying the anti-Semites."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Communists from the United StatesJews from UkraineJewish socialistsMarxists from the United StatesMembers of the Communist Party USA
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
"Anti-Semitism and Democracy" (September 7, 1937) book review published in New Masses
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Morris_Schappes
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Morris Schappes
Morris U. Schappes (pronounced SHAP-pess, born Moishe Shapshilevich in Kamianets-Podilskyi; May 3, 1907 – June 3, 2004) was a Jewish educator, writer, radical political activist, historian, and magazine editor who lived most of his life in the USA.
24 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Morris Schappes →
Related Quotes
"Anti-Semitism has become a major issue for the American people, and for all democratic mankind. In the pattern of imp…"
"As Marxists, we stress the need of bringing the mask for privilege and the mask for frustration into their proper rel…"
"It helps one keep one's balance to remember that there are other important problems clamoring for action...just the o…"
"An active conscience is a formidable thing."
"Words must be backed by deeds."
"the entire commercial press of our nation is not the "free" press it loudly claims to be that it is, rather, the prin…"
"From the founding of our nation there has been a continual, many-angled struggle between these who would sacrifice th…"
"It is because the forces of national unity in this country, under the great social discipline of a just war, have gro…"
"To lead for the common good is to undermine the effectiveness of anti-Semitic propaganda."
"The main principle of a democracy is that the rights of any one group, be it minority or majority, are connected with…"