Final Program for Black Radical Congress

DennisNFD at aol.com DennisNFD at aol.com
Thu Jun 18 09:47:27 PDT 1998


BLACK RADICAL CONGRESS PROGRAM

June 19 - 21, 1998 in Chicago University of Illinois at Chicago Chicago Circle Center (CCC) 750 S. Halsted Pre-Congress Institute Day Thursday, June 18th, 1998 12 noon - 5 p.m. Black Feminist Meeting and Institute Room 334-5 in Chicago Circle Center (CCC) 9 - 5 p.m. Black University of Study and Struggle Cornucopia Room, CCC 10 - 5 p.m. Media, Culture and Activism, Room 501-2, CCC 10 - 5 p.m. Communist Contributions to Black Radicalism Room 505-6, CCC 7 p.m. - 9 p.m. Chicago CommUniversity is hosting a lecture by Michael Eric Dyson on The Black Church and the Black Radical Tradition at The Carter G. Woodson Library on 95th Street and South Halsted on the south side of Chicago. Open to the public. Preliminary Program (Final program will be handed out with program packets at registration) Friday, June 19th 12:00 - 2:00 p.m. March in solidarity with Chicago Coalition for Public Housing 10 a.m. groups will meet at Roosevelt and State Streets and march to Grant Park. Rally at Grant Park at Jackson St. in SW area of the park. Group will then march to another site after rally 2:00 - 5:00 p.m. Housing Workshop with Cheryl Derricotte and Rick and Michelle Tingling-Clemmons and other housing activists and experts from around the country 2:00 - 5:00 p.m. Meeting of BRC National Continuations Committee 6:00 - 9:30 p.m. Opening Plenary Introduction and welcome remarks Inter-generational Dialogue on Culture, History and Politics Activists will interview one another across generations Opening the Evening Poems by Sterling Plumpp & Music by Terry Callier * Kathleen Cleaver & Van Jones * General Baker & Kim Diehl * Barbara Smith & Kim Springer * Ahmed Rahman & Fanon Che Wilkins Cultural Interlude: Keith Kelley: Funky Wordsmyths * Angela Davis & Kashim Funny * Nelson Peery & Youth Activist TBA * Amiri Baraka & Quraysh Ali Lansana 9:30 - 11:00 p.m. Post Plenary Set: Chicago Coalition Black Lawyers' Co-Sponsor A Jazz Reception for BRC Participants with Douglass Ewart Trio 9:30 p.m. - 2:00 a.m. Post Plenary: Hot House Bash - Jazz and African/Caribbean Danceband: AACM women's group SAMAMA and African highlife band GHANATA Saturday June 20th, 1998 9:00 - 10:30 a.m. Plenary: The current situation Askia Toure, Tribute to Assata Shakur Brenda Matthews, poetry Manning Marable Cathy Cohen Marian Kramer Makungu Akinyela Zinzele Isoke Jarvis Tyner Humberto Brown Sarah White Tyree Scott 10:40 - 12:45 Workshop Sessions "Beat 'em Down and Lock 'em Up": State Terrorism, Police Brutality and the Prison Industrial Complex. From Rodney King in Los Angeles to Abner Louima in New York to Jeremiah Mearday in Chicago, police brutality continues to be on the rise in poor Black communities throughout the country. The criminalization of Black poor and working class people has not only led to increased political violence, but to an alarming growth in what some have termed the prison industrial complex. About one third of the Black male population between the ages of 18 and 35 is under the control of the criminal justice system. The rate of Black women's imprisonment is rising sharply as well. As jobs decrease and the 'get tough on crime' slogan gains popularity, prisons are becoming a profitable growth industry. The privatization of prisons are an even scarier aspect of this growth. This panel will explore these developments as well as campaigns, local and national, to oppose them. Panelists: Michelle Bonner, Akua Njera, Pat Hill, Keanga Taylor, Lennox Hinds (chair) Welfare Reform: The Assault on Black Women and Children. The Welfare Reform Act of 1996 threw on million Black and Latino women into even deeper poverty by forcing them off public assistance without the guarantee of employment at a living wage. Developing a fightback strategy is essential to defending the rights of African American women, their children and the entire Black working class. This workshop will discuss grassroots mobilization efforts led by Black women in the fight for living wages, health care and other basic human needs. The welfare rights struggle will be linked to other efforts for Black empowerment. Panelists: Della Mitchell, Mildred Williamson, Maureen Taylor (unconfirmed), Marian Kramer Coalition Work. A sometimes complicated but necessary part of building a movement for social change is linking various sectors of that movement, building alliances that transcend region, race, culture, gender, and generations. This panel will discuss the importance and the dynamics of building principled coalitions, especially multi-racial coalitions, labor coalitions and international coalitions and will outline some of the history of coalition work as well as efforts underway to forge and sustain broad based coalitions. Panelists: Fannie Rushing, Charlene Mitchell, Phil Hutchings, James Early (unconfirmed), Prexy Nesbitt The Rich Prosper While the Poor Perish: Economic Justice, Employment and Unemployment. Despite rumors of a healthy economy, tens of thousands of poor and working class people are permanently un- or under- employed. Many are homeless or a heartbeat away from it. Megabillionaires like Bill Gates and media moguls like Oprah are held up as symbols of this era. Much more common is the experiences of families forced to live in shelters, workers losing their jobs as companies race the globe in search of cheaper labor, and senior citizens working in the fast food industry to pay for food and health care that the government is ever-reluctant to provide. This session will explore the growing economic disparity in our society, the reality of economic polarization, and campaigns such as The Living Wage Campaign, organizing among former welfare recipients, and the 28th Amendment Campaign, that seek to combat growing economic inequality. It will pay special attention to the problems confronting low income and working class women. Panelists: Lou Turner, Rose Brewer (coordinator), Rukiya Dillahunt, Sabrina Coleman, August Nimtz Environmental Racism, Housing And Neighborhoods. From toxic dump sites in low-income and disproportionately Black and Latino neighborhood to issues of unsafe housing to global issues of environmental abuse, Black people are disproportionately effected by these issues. This panel will discuss local and global issues of environmental justice and environmental racism. Panelists: Connie Tucker, Angela Brown, Amina Baraka, Don Smith (unconfirmed), Cheryl Johnson, Clancy Miller We Demand Reparations: The Growing Movements for Self-Determination, Redress and Freedom. The demand for Reparations goes back to the initial European wars on the African continent to enslave and colonize Black people. U.S. and European , capitalism-imperialism were built upon the backs of unpaid and super-exploited Black labor. Since our initial incarceration in the U.S., African people have always demanded, fought for and died in the struggle for reparations - in the form of freedom from mass imprisonment, land, cash and other material resources, and the right to self-determination (ability to repatriate, separate or integrate). Panelists will discuss past and present organizing efforts to popularize and win our long overdue reparations; and how BRC participants can get involved in this movement. Panelists: Jahahara Armstrong (coordinator), Ahmed Obafemi, Adjoa Aiyetero Feminism and the Black Liberation Agenda. How do issues of patriarchy, sexism and gender inequality relate to the Black community? Stereotypes about "lazy, promiscuous" Black women were the battle cries for the attack against welfare. Those who sought to dismantle welfare and other services to the poor, did so in part by tapping racist and sexist stereotypes about poor Black women's sexuality. Some of these stereotypes date back to slavery. Unfortunately some of these negative attitudes about Black women exist inside our community as well. These violations occur on the job, in the home, in prisons and institutions and on the street. These session will address gender issues as they not only effect women but ways in which narrow definitions of manhood and macho violence -- endanger the lives of black men as well. Panelists: Linda Burnham, Dianne Harriford, E. Frances White, Leith Mullings, Kagendo, Lynette Jackson (coordinator), Kali Gross, New Afrikan Women's Committee (unconfirmed) Our Children are Not Expendable: The Struggle for Quality, Accessible Education. There is a crisis of public education in this country. Increasingly more funds are being spent on jails than schools and we are told that many of our children are "unteachable". At the same time colleges and universities are abandoning African Americans and closing their doors to students of color. On yet another level parents are blamed and in some cases jailed in response to juvenile truancy problems. This session will analyze the situation, explore how parents, students and teachers can fight back against this reality. Panelists: Debbie Bell (coordinator), Brenda Randolph, Maria Ramos, Doug Gills, Rose Saunders, Monique Washington Civil Rights, Affirmative Action and the California Initiative. The main purpose of the workshop is to underscore the general assault on key components of a progressive/radical/left strategy for democratic social transformation, i.e., the political role of the working class and its institutions, the national and racial questions, and the importance to African Americans of building strategic alliances among peoples of color. A brief give a brief overview of the initiative process will be given, its history and significance and how these propositions endanger the struggle to build a radical presence in the Black community will be discussed. Panelists: Fran Beal (coordinator), Phil Hutchings, Karenga Hart, Cheryl I. Harris, Amaha Kassa Global Issues are Black Issues: Framing our Struggle as International and Anti-Imperialist. US foreign policy towards Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean has always been fueled by greed and racism. An extension of the oppression of people of color in the US has been the pursuit of policies of domination and control elsewhere. This panel will not only critique US policy but will also explore some of the strategies of resistance and liberation that have emerged within Black and other oppressed communities around the world, often in conjunction with larger struggles for freedom and justice. The session will focus on the Black Diaspora but will draw the relationships with diverse struggles against imperialism around the globe. Panelists: Horace Campbell, Gerald Horne, Angela Gilliam, Cheryl Johnson Odim (unconfirmed), Ilombe Brath -- (unconfirmed) Organizing the South. The southern US has been a locus of Black culture and struggle since the days of slavery. Historically, it is the region where the largest Black population has been concentrated. Today struggles in textile, tobacco, food production industries are key battle-fronts. This panel will discuss the historic role of the Black South in the larger history of black exploitation and the struggle for black freedom. Panelists: Ashaki Binta, Chokwe Lumumba, Ajamu Dillahunt (coordinator), Royce Adams, Latosha Brown Socialism and Black Liberation. From Amilcar Cabral, to CLR James to Walter Rodney to Paul Robeson to Claudia Jones, Black activists have embraced Socialism as a part of a vision for the liberation of Black people around the world. If any group has suffered from the brutality and injustices of capitalism, it has been people of African descent in the US and Blacks worldwide. The break up of the Soviet Union, the attempts to strangle Cuba and the difficulties of Socialist experiments in the world create a situation today in which we have many questions to explore in terms of how to create viable alternatives to capitalism in the Socialist tradition. This panel will discuss how socialist and communist organizations see these issues today. Panelists: Joe Sims (coordinator), Ahmed Shawki, Cameron Barron, Denice Miles, John Woodford (moderator) Sustaining Community Groups And Institutions. --A powerful movement for social justice needs healthy and effective organizations. This workshop will focus on the elements which can make the difference between success or failure, including alliance-building, leadership, organizing and management skills, and resources. In small-group conversations, participants will share practical tips and strategies, and brainstorm about ways to strengthen African American grassroots organizations. Panelists: Jerome Scott, Project South, Atlanta (moderator), Sharon Powell, Van Jones, Jennifer Henderson, Judy Hatcher (coordinator) 12:45 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. LUNCH 12:00 noon - 2:00 p.m. Open Mike for Performance Artists -- MC: Poet MARIO 1:00 - 2:00 Activist Author's Reception hosted by African American Cultural Center and Local Bookstore SATURDAY 2:00 - 4:00 Faith as a Weapon: Spirituality and the Role of the Church In The Radical Movement. What are the lessons we can learn from Nat Turner, Absalom Jones, Sojourner Truth, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr. and other Black ministers as leaders in the struggle? What is the history of spiritual motivation in the radical/liberation movement? How can faiThe Radical Movement. What are the lessons we can learn from Nat Turner, Absalom Jones, Sojourner Truth, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr. and other Black mi Panelists: Michael Eric Dyson, Cornel West, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Linda Thomas Black Radicalism, Black Workers and Today's Labor Movement. This session will explore new possibilities for building united efforts for jobs, equality and workers rights. Black Radicals, especially Black working class radicals can play a decisive role in supporting an advanced agenda of struggle for labor and a pro working class agenda for the African American movement. Panelists: Saladim Muhammad, Lou Moy, Frank Lumpkin, Jim Wilkerson, Theresa Polk-Henderson, Jarvis Tyner (coordinator) Youth and Student Organizing: Supporting those ". . .Who Have the Courage to Run Against the Storm." On college campuses, in high schools and in the streets, young people have historically joined with others on the forefront of the movement to change the world. This has been true from South Africa to the U.S. South. There has been a systematic attempt, stepped up in recent years, to criminalize and imprison Black youth; to vilify young people as gang bangers and so-called promiscuous teens and to close the doors to schools, colleges and jobs. Young people are fighting back against cuts in scholarships, attempts to eliminate public universities, and attempts to put more and more working class youth under the control of the criminal justice system. This session will talk about those struggles and ways for youth to link up with one another across the country. Panelists: Jonathan Peck (coordinator), Kofi Taha, Clarence Lang, Tamara Jones (unconfirmed), Malika Saunders Fighting Homophobia - Lesbian and Gay Rights. Homophobia in the society at large and within the Black community itself reinforces a larger conservative agenda that celebrates a narrow definition of heterosexual male-headed families, and helps to justify attacks on all oppressed people. The same people who burn churches, lynch Black men and women, and want to imprison socialists and communists, also want to persecute lesbians and gays as a group. Some so-called Black leaders have defined lesbians, gay men , bi-sexuals and trans-gendered people as external to or excluded from the 'authentic' Black community. The politics of the BRC, and the emphasis of this session, will be to turn that assumption on its head. Panelist will articulate the ways in which homophobia, gay bashing, and 'privileges' enjoyed by heterosexuals, and denied to lesbians and gays, actually compromises the struggle for Black liberation. So, it is homophobia and not lesbian and gay people which is an enemy to a larger Black freedom movement. Activists will talk about the history of Black lesbian and gay organizing and some of the struggles and challenges going on today. Panelists: Mandy Carter, N'Tanya Lee (unconfirmed), Deborah Benford
>From Mandela to Mumia: Political Prisoners Past and Present. Nelson
Mandela was at one time the most famous political prisoner in the world. Less well known is the fact that over the years, this nation has jailed hundreds of men and women largely because of their political beliefs and opposition to the status quo. Today the case of Philadelphia activist and death row inmate Mumia Abu Jamal has gained international attention and support. Political prisoners released over the past decade include: Ahmed Rahman, Dhoruba bin Wahad, and Geronimo Pratt, all imprisoned for decades because of their involvement in the Black Panther Party. This session will explore the cases of current and past political prisoners, COINTELPRO, the Jericho 98 Movement, the larger reality of Black political prisoners and movements to bring them justice. Panelists: Ahmed Obafemi (coordinator), Hondo Tchiwa, Safiya Bukhari, Kahri Akinsheye. Health Care and AIDS. Health is an important site of struggle in the Black Community. AIDS, mental illness and stress disorders, nutritional deficiencies and rising rates of asthma, diabetes, cervical, breast and prostate cancer, are all symptoms of what ails Black and poor communities. While the demise of community based institutions and support mechanisms have increased our community's susceptibility to ill health and disease, the state and corporate capitalism have contributed to the production of this ill health and continue to place obstacles in the way of those attempting to eradicate or simply alleviate the situation. The privatization of health care, government neglect, the general defunding of the public sector, deregulation of corporations, the character of US drug policy are all obstacles in the way of restoring health in Black communities. Participants will discuss: Universal health care; more community control of health care institutions; greater investment and commitment to women's health, maternal and child health, mental health, environmental justice, reproductive rights. The health panel will discuss the state of health in Black America and current struggles, and will discuss priorities and targets for health care in the 21st century. Panelists: Amadee Braxton, Bob Moore, Nadia Marsh, Lynette Jackson (coordinator), Assata Zerai, Blanca Velez, Kim Smith African American Empowerment & Alternative Electoral strategies. This session will explore the potential and the limits of electoral politics as an arena for struggle. Participants will offer insights about patterns of Black political participation, experiences in campaigns, and third party developments. Panelists: Mike Dawson, Arturo Griffiths, Shafeah N'Belia, Larry Adams, Bobby Rush (unconfirmed), Kenneth Jones, Jamala Rogers, (coordinator) Media Fighting Back. Journalists and media workers will discuss the negative impact of mainstream media, the ways in which racism , sexism and elitism are promoted, and the power and potential power of alternative media in forging political consensus and motivating people to act. What people see on television or read in the paper often defines the lens through which they see the world. Panelists will talk about the impact of media on society and the black community in particular, and ways to address this. Panelists: Salim Muwakkil, Herb Boyd, Stan West, Laura Washington (unconfirmed) International Human Rights and Radical Lawyering. The issue of international human rights and the push to have world bodies from the UN to the world court take up these issues seriously has been a major campaign among progressive lawyers. Many radical Black lawyers have provided legal defense for movement activists, and have raised fundamental challenges to the way in which the issue of crime is treated, the racism in sentencing, especially the death penalty and the underlying assumptions about fairness and justice in our society. An important component of this work has been to link domestic struggles with international ones. Legal activists and scholars will talk about some key struggles they have been engaged in and put these struggles in a larger political and global context. Panelists: Sybil McPherson (unconfirmed), Lisa Crooms (coordinator), Gay McDougall, Nkechi Taifa Culture and History. This session will explore how radical historians approach analyses of culture and how cultural artists, namely filmmakers, approach representing history. Cultural performance and other cultural interventions have been woven throughout the BRC program. This session will highlight the work of radical historians and a filmmaker in terms of how they frame their work within a radical political perspective. The panel will explore the ways in which these approaches can contribute to building a radical movement Panelists: Robin Kelley, Lisa Brock, Louis Massai Chicago's Black Radical Tradition: Living Legends and Future Leaders. This panel will highlight the history of Black radicalism in Chicago going back to the 1930's and 40's through the Civil Rights and Black Power Movement eras and into the present. Organizers who played historic roles in some of the major battles in this city's history will be present. They will speak and interact with current activists: medical students engaged in struggles around the attack on Affirmative Action, and university workers organizing around labor issues on the city's campuses. This session is an extension of the photo exhibition that will be on display (in the African American Cultural Center) throughout the Congress highlighting the long and rich history of Black radical activism in Chicago, and the city's historic role in hosting gatherings and serving as a model and center for national movements. Panelists: Tim Black, Bob Lucas (unconfirmed), Ishmael Floury, Julie Davis, Linda Ollins, Randy Evans Black Studies in The 21st Century: A Computer Lab Internet Workshop. This workshop will review the efforts being made to utilize the internet in organizing to fight poverty and oppression of all kinds. The general issue of cyber organizing will be taken up and plans developed to promote the use of email and internet based web sites to organize the Black liberation movement. The website of the BRC will be reviewed and improvements proposed. Panelists: Bill Sales, Rodney Coates, Debbie Hamilton, Ruben Patterson, Abdul Alkalimat 4:15 - 6:30 p.m. Plenary -- Voices from the Battlefronts Jamala Rogers, Bill Fletcher Jr., Abdul Alkalimat, Seth Oberman, Sam Anderson, Safiya Bukhari, Barbara Ransby 6:20 p.m. Cultural Intervention: Poet Michael War 8:00 p.m. Saturday MAIN BRC CULTURAL EVENT $10.00 admission M.C. Common Sense Poet Sonia Sanchez Poet Amiri Baraka Freedom Songstress Imani Uzuri with Greg Tate Neo-Soul Singer Skaki Oscar Browne Jr. and Maggie Brown Open to Public 11:00pm Post Cultural Event: HOT HOUSE DANCING with Brazilian Band Sunday, June 21, 1998 (This portion of the program may be modified slightly) Saturday's program was geared toward information-sharing, analysis, consensus-building and dialogue about the issues that confront us and the struggles we are involved in. Sunday's portion of the program is forward-looking. We want to discuss specific ways we can build some concrete projects, campaigns and struggles out this gathering. We also need to explore what kind of goals are realistic and how they will be implemented democratically. 8:00 a.m. Spiritual/Cultural Remembrance Local Drummers Duriel Harris: Poet 9:00 - 9:30 or 10:00 a.m. International Solidarity Speakers 10:00 a.m - 12:30 p.m. Report Backs and Outcomes from Saturday Sessions Overview Proposal on Future Structure of BRC Panel Roundtable on Which Way Forward & Proposal for BRC National Campaign(s) 12:30 p.m. - 1:15 p.m. Working Lunch (regional break out discussion sessions) 1:15 p.m. - 3:15 p.m. Regional Break Out Discussions Continue 3:15 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. Report Backs from Break Out Sessions 4:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. Wrap Up and Closing Remarks 4:00 p.m: Plenary Closing Emily Hooper Lansana & Glenda Afua Baker: "Sistas in the Spirit" For those who are staying for awhile, join us for Chicago Blues: 5:30 - 7:00 p.m. Post Conference Wind Down: Blues with L.V. Banks ------------------------------- Black Radicalism and the Media - All Day Saturday, June 20th (running concurrently with BRC sessions) Speakers and screenings during Thursday Media & Activism Institute Workshop Screenings & Discussion 10:30 a.m.-12:15 p.m. CommFilmWorkshop *Flame* (Ingrid Sinclair, 85 minutes) ********** 12:30 - 1:45 p.m. Lunchtime Screenings & Discussion *Oh Happy Day* (Charles Laughton, 7 minutes) *Memory Tracks* (Jamika Ajalon, 7 minutes) *Politics from a Black Woman*s Insides* (Yuko Edwards, 27 minutes) *Badass Supermama* (Etang Inyang, 14 minutes) ********** 2:00 - 4:00 p.m. Workshop Screenings & Discussion *Cycles* (Zeinabu irene Davis, 7 minutes) *Edges* (Ayanna Udongo, 5 minutes) *No!* (Aisha Simmons, 20 minutes) *Comrade Sisters* (Phyllis J. Jackson & Christine Minor, 60 minutes) 2:00 - 4:00 p.m. Session: Black Radical Media Panelists: Barbara Allen, Executive Director, Middle Passage Productions;editor/engineer, WTTW Portia Cobb, Professor of Film, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee Marcia Davis, Senior Editor, Emerge Laura Harris, Professor of English, Pitzer College Elspeth Kydd, Video Artist, Professor of Film & Video, University of Toledo Cornelius Moore, Executive Director, California Newsreel (Will Decide) Louis Messiah, Scribe, producer of video on W.E.B. DuBois

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------ For more information or to register, contact Black Radical Congress, P. O. Box 5766, Chicago, Illinois 60680-5766 http://www.blackradicalcongress.com | abdul.alkalimat at utoledo.edu tel. (312) 706-7074



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