ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the Comintern’s tactics and theories on race and racial equality. Initially, the Comintern took a classical Marxist approach, seeing racial oppression as the same as class oppression. Over time, some communists, including black communists, highlighted the need to treat racial oppression as its own issue and spearheaded efforts to find a communist resolution to the “Negro Question.” In doing so, the Comintern came to support self-determination on racial lines, calling for native republics, seeing African Americans and black Africans as colonized peoples. This tactic was also applied in Latin America for some Indigenous peoples, but broadly speaking, racial difference was subsumed into self-determination for colonized peoples. Outside of some general platforms for foreign workers, the Comintern tended to only have a specific platform regarding racial oppression for black Africans, and influenced many labour groups to help organize them. Furthermore, the same problems endemic to the Comintern’s efforts against colonialism were prevalent in its efforts regarding racial issues.
