‘Commentary’ Archives
Black Lives Matter
By Peter Molenaar Note: “Motherless Child” is title of a traditional Negro spiritual, dating back to the era of slavery when it was common practice to sell children away from their parents. The following, written in 1952, is taken from the work of William Z. Foster: “During the three-and-a-half centuries since the first English colonies were planted along the Atlantic Coast, the landowner and industrialist rulers of this country, to further their own greed, have committed many monstrous crimes against the growing American people. They barbarously stripped Indians of their lands, broke up their social institutions, and slaughtered them. The rulers relentlessly exploited the immigrant wage workers and their children, forcing them down into poverty and ignorance, mangling them in unprotected industries, and hurrying them off to premature graves. Time and again, these predatory vultures have cynically sent off the sons of the nations to reactionary wars, to be killed [...]
