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participate in a labor forum in May, 1964. When he learned that the Socialist Workers Party candidate for President of the United States, also was scheduled to speak at the forum, the minister asked NOI headquarters if he might still take part. Denial was immediately forthcoming, and the minister cancelled his appearance.
The Communist Party, USA (CPUSA), while sympathetic to the NOI, has a current policy of advocating and supporting integration rather than segregation of Negroes and whites in this country. Ironically, the CPUSA for many years pursued an official policy of "self-determination," or a separate nation for American Negroes. In 1959, when the Party concluded that such a segregationist policy was inimical to communist interest in the civil rights movement, the Party changed its constitution. CPUSA spokesmen since that time have condemned the NOI and the former NOI figure, the late Malcolm X, as "ultrareactionary forces" among the Negro people, and once singled out Malcolm X as an "opponent of the Negro people."
However, the Party has recently moderated its attitude toward the NOI, and communist spokesmen now usually refer to the NOI program as being somewhat "Utopian" and "divisive," thus, not in keeping with communist doctrine. In this regard, the Party has stated that the NOI does not represent the large majority of Negroes in this country, who seek equality within the context of an integrated society.
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