> Subject: [SNCC] Fw] Transcript from IAC Interview on CNN (12-21-00)
>
>
> :
> : ----- Original Message -----
> : From: "Gery " <wwpaz at yahoo.com>
> :
> : Sent: Monday, January 01, 2001 11:51 AM
> : Subject: [J20action] Transcript from IAC Interview on CNN (12-21-00)
> : >
> : > This Bernard Shaw interview of Rev. Walter Fauntroy and the IAC's
> : > Brian Becker appeared on CNN on Dec. 21, 2000
> : >
> : >
> : > *****---*****---*****
> : >
> : > SHAW: The Republicans are planning a big party to celebrate George W.
> : > Bush's inauguration. The guest list is long and distinguished.
> : > However, thousands of uninvited guests are also expected to be on
> : > hand.
> : >
> : > We're now joined by Brian Becker of the International Action Center,
> : > and the Reverend Walter Fauntroy, who's part of a so-called shadow
> : > inauguration.
> : >
> : > Mr. Becker, first to you: Why you are coming to town?
> : >
> : > BRIAN BECKER, INTERNATIONAL ACTION CENTER: Well, we will have
> : > thousands of people coming to Washington on January 20th to
> : > demonstrate against the death penalty, which George Bush is a fervent
> : > supporter of and George Bush, as you know, has on his watch executed
> : > more people than any of the governors of the states combined.
> : >
> : > We'll also be demanding a new trial for the famed broadcast
> : > journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal and thirdly our demonstration will focus
> : > on what we believe was the racist disenfranchisement of mainly
> : > African- American and Haitian voters in the state of Florida, which
> : > we considered to be a conspiracy by the Republican Party to
> : > disenfranchise black people -- a tradition in the South that has been
> : > revealed not to have been from the ages past but lives on today.
> : >
> : > SHAW: How are you are organizing this effort?
> : >
> : > BECKER: We have car caravans, bus loads of people from unions, from
> : > civil rights groups, from student organizations coming from Maine to
> : > Florida, as far away as Chicago. On the Internet, passing out flyers,
> : > phone banking. We have in the last 10 days, a massive mobilization.
> : > We believe this will be the largest counter-inaugural demonstration
> : > since Richard Nixon was confronted by 100,000 demonstrators in 1973,
> : > when they demanded that he sign the treaty to end the war in Vietnam.
> : >
> : > SHAW: Reverend Fauntroy, you live here in this capital. You've seen
> : > every inauguration, I think, since FDR, '45. What statement are you
> : > planning to make here, in effect, your home town?
> : >
> : > REV. WALTER FAUNTROY, "SHADOW" INAUGURATION ORGANIZER: Well, I'm
> : > going to lend my body to millions of Americans who are really
> : > outraged at what happened on November 7th in terms of the suppression
> : > of the votes first of African-Americans, and then the deprivation of
> : > the will of the people as expressed in the majority of the votes.
> : >
> : > We're going to assemble at the scene of the crime, the Supreme Court,
> : > for a Shadow inauguration in which we're going to give an oath of
> : > office to people who will be deputized to protect voting rights over
> : > the course of the next four years. The fact is that we were there on
> : > the date the Supreme Court first considered an ill-considered
> : > decision to bring the Supreme Court decision out of the state of
> : > Maryland up to Washington.
> : >
> : > We said then that this is more about Selma than it is about Florida
> : > or about Bush or Gore, and it is. We are embarrassed in the state of
> : > the world that before the very eyes of the world, it has listened to
> : > us espouse the virtues of democracy around the world. We've seen
> : > voter suppression tactics that take us back now as far as 1876.
> : >
> : > SHAW: These people you call protectors of voters rights, who are
> : > they? What will they do?
> : >
> : > FAUNTROY: They will be people who will do four things over the course
> : > of the next four years. First, we're going to turn on to politics and
> : > we're going to say to the young people who perhaps voted for the
> : > first time, register now as never before because you now know why
> : > they killed Medigabras (ph), why they beat Jamie Schwarnan Goodman
> : > (ph) to death, and therefore, we're going to choose the 15th of
> : > January, Dr. King's birthday, as the time when we're asking every
> : > person of conscience to give them a present, a birthday present by
> : > registering.
> : >
> : > Then, we're going to go through litigation over the course of this
> : > time to bring to justice those who in governmental lawlessness denied
> : > hundreds of thousands of people their right to vote.
> : >
> : > SHAW: I suppose that my summary question to both of you, starting
> : > with you, Mr. Becker, after you've come and gone, then what?
> : >
> : > BECKER: Well, this demonstration is more than a single event. A
> : > movement started last year in Seattle; it was a movement for social
> : > justice. It was mainly young people and it went to Washington, D.C.
> : > for protests against the IMF and then to the conventions of the
> : > Republican and the Democratic Party.
> : >
> : > Now, that movement is taking its next step. It's not only protesting
> : > globalization, it's protesting the war against poor and working
> : > people here and around the world. It's got a special focus on racism,
> : > which is alive and well in the United States. So we believe this will
> : > be, on January 20th, not the beginning of the Bush period of racist
> : > reaction, but the period of a new civil rights movement which this
> : > demonstration on January 20th will signify.
> : >
> : > SHAW: And you, Reverend Fauntroy?
> : >
> : > FAUNTROY: Of course, it is a commencement. We're going to get people
> : > registered all year long beginning on the 15th of January. Secondly,
> : > we're going to see to it that court cases get the support of those
> : > who will be testifying at Civil Rights Commission hearings over the
> : > next few months.
> : >
> : > Third, we're going to develop education programs designed to tell us
> : > where we need to register and where we need to vote in 2001 in states
> : > legislative races, and then finally, we're going to put together a
> : > voting rights reform package that will correct these things that
> : > happened on November 7th.
> : >
> : > SHAW: And both of you intend your protests to be peaceful?
> : >
> : > BECKER: Well, our demonstration will be peaceful. We demand that the
> : > police give us permits, that they not demonize and criminalize the
> : > demonstrators as they're attempting to do and we have you -- asked
> : > the media. Have the media ask the police, will there be violence
> : > because it's the police who have the guns and the clubs and the tear
> : > gas and who have acted lawlessly in the past demonstrations in the
> : > past year. For our part, our demonstration will be legal and orderly
> : > and disciplined and loud, but we insist that our First Amendments
> : > rights be upheld.
> : >
> : > FAUNTROY: The Reverend Al Sharpton is in a tradition of the Southern
> : > Christian Leadership Conference, and it's movement for nonviolence
> : > and social change and for demonstrations that raise consciousness and
> : > prick the conscience of enough people in this country that I think
> : > they're going to join us in following the leadership of those who are
> : > inaugurated in the shadow inauguration before the Supreme Court on
> : > Inauguration Day.
> : >
> : > SHAW: Reverend Walter Fauntroy, Brian Becker. Gentlemen. Thank you.
> : >
> : > BECKER: Thank you.
> : >
> : >
> : >
> : > To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
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> : >
> : >
> : >
> :
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