-----Original Message----- From: Rakesh Bhandari <bhandari at phoenix.Princeton.EDU> To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com>
>I don't think there is a black agenda-- radical, liberal or conservative.
>Often the expulsion of all non-black others from such racially exclusive
>conferences has the effect of isolating and thus dispiriting those blacks
>in favor of revolutionary proletarian politics. Just as
>segregation allows whites to maintain vicious stereotypes about blacks,
>the exclusion of whites and others renders them easily homogenized as a
>racist unified horde in the minds of blacks.
As I posted, the BRC explicitly sees potential allies in the white and other communities. In fact, much of the impetus of the BRC is to counter the homogeneous Nation of Islam-type black nationalism that does reduce whites to a homogenous whole and lets race solidarity completely trump class and revolutionary politics.
But to be clear, to have such an effect, the black left has to be in position to create a compelling alternative to the nationalist patriarchal black movement of Farrakahn and others. The fact is that the Black Left could not have pulled off the Million Man March because they don't have the organizational apparatus or unity to do so. And that is a sobering fact if one hopes to see a multi-racial oriented black movement.
THe BRC won't create that infrastructure but knowing many of the people who helped organize it, they definately hope it is a step in creating such a pole of unity in the black community that can advance a radical socialist vision as an alternative to the pro-capitalist patriarchal black nationalism that has made such inroads in many parts of the black community.
And while Michael E. is right not to put the burden of overall left unity on the black left, since the burden is shared by all of us. But a stronger black left will make the overall unity that much easier.
--Nathan Newman