In the midst of the murderous conditions created by the Depression, especially for the Black people in the rural South, both people organized to create trade unions and cooperatives between producers and consumers. An important and heroic role was played in this effort by radicals, Black and white, and very often communists. Slaughter and mayhem were the frequent reply of the plantation owners and their political servants. Marxism was attractive to Black people because it argued that democratic nations were highly exploitative of labor, especially non-white labor.