As we know from cumulative evidence, the Party’s position toward Negroes is determined not by concern for their welfare but obedience to Soviet foreign policy. As World War II approached, for example, the Party switched its tactics regarding “self-determination” in the Black Belt. Instead of calling for the immediate and revolutionary overthrow of white landlords, as the Comintern had originally instructed, the Party now switched these demands to a purely theoretical and propaganda level: “... It is clear that the Negro masses are not yet ready to carry through the revolution which would make possible the right to self-determination.” Why the shift? To satisfy the Party’s united-front program, which demanded that the Party work harmoniously with other groups to strengthen the Soviet Union. The World War II period found the Party cynically abandoning any alleged struggle for Negro rights. The aim was to help not Negroes but Moscow. “When we fought for the right of Negro workers to enter industries we often fought for such jobs mainly in the interest of the war effort.” Earl Browder in 1945 admitted that as early as 1942 the Party had adopted the theory that “... the struggle for Negro rights must be postponed until after the war....” The Negro, in communist eyes, was a mere pawn, to be manipulated for the attainment of Party aims. It became obvious that the Party, despite great efforts, had failed to win over even a significant minority of Negroes. Negroes resented the Party’s severe criticism of Negro clergymen who had been vigorously denouncing communism. Earlier the Party had been unable adequately to justify Russia’s aid to Italy in its invasion of Ethiopia. American Negroes had realized that the Party was a fraud and a deception and that it was willing to betray the Negro to better serve Soviet Russia. In early 1956 the Party decided to modify its advocacy of “self-determination,” realizing that Negro opposition to communism was growing. In making this change, communists said they would still consider the Negroes as constituting a national as well as a racial minority. Eugene Dennis, resuming his old post as General Secretary of the Communist Party (in 1956) after serving a prison term for violation of the Smith Act, said: In re-appraising our position on self-determination in the Black Belt, our Party should emphasize, as never before, that the struggle for Negro rights and freedom, north and south of the Mason-Dixon line, has emerged as a general, national democratic task, upon the solution of which depends the democratic and social advance of the whole nation, particularly of the workers and farmers. The Party’s claim that it is working for Negro rights is a deception and a fraud. The Party’s sole interest, as most American Negroes know, is to hoodwink the Negro, to exploit him and use him as a tool to build a communist America.