American Civilization on Trial

Black Masses as Vanguard
By Raya Dunayevskaya.
New fifth edition for the 40th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington
News & Letters, 2003. 117 pp.
$8 + $2 postage
Contents
New 2003 Introduction by the publisher
Author’s Introductions and Prefaces for 1963, 1970, and 1983 editions, including “A 1980s View of the Two-Way Road Between the U.S. and Africa”
Introduction, 1963

1. Of Patriots, Scoundrels and Slave Masters
2. Compelling Issues at Stake

Part I • From the First Through the Second American Revolution

1. Abolitionism, First Phase: From “Moral Suasion” to Harpers Ferry
2. Abolitionism, Second Phase: The Unfinished Revolution

Part II • The Still Unfinished Revolution

1. Northern Labor Struggles to Break Capital’s Stranglehold, 1877-97
2. One and a Half Million Forgotten Negro Populists
3. Populism and Intellectual Ferment

Part III • Imperialism And Racism

1. Rise of Monopoly Capital
2. Racism and Plunge into Imperialism
3. A New Awakening of Labor: The IWW

Part IV • Nationalism and Internationalism

1. The Negro Moves North
2. Garveyism
3. Marxism

Part V • From the Depression Through World War II

1. The CIO Changes the Face of the Nation and Makes a Break in Negro “Nationalism”
2. The March on Washington
3. The Communists Oppose Independent Negro Movements

Part VI • The Negro as Touchstone of History

1. Urbanization of Negroes
2. The Two-Way Road to African Revolutions

Part VII • Facing the Challenge, 1941-1963

1. The Self-Determination of People and of Ideas
2. The New Voices We Heard
3. What We Stand For—Who We Are

Appendix by Charles Denby

1. “Black Caucuses in the Unions”
2. “Black Masses Always Fought Militarism”
3. “25 Years as Editor of News & Letters”
4. Letter to Raya Dunayevskaya, “American Civilization on Trial”

Appendix by Karl Marx
“To the People of the United States of America”

“American Civilization on Trial… gives an able and excellent review of what the Negro has been through in the past century, and is well documented, too. Is the United States losing the global struggle in the minds of men because of its treatment of the Negro? It gives an answer.”—J.A. Rogers, Pittsburgh Courier, from review of original 1963 edition