<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <html xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"> <head> <meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"> <meta name=ProgId content=Word.Document> <meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 9"> <meta name=Originator content="Microsoft Word 9"> <link rel=File-List href="cid:filelist.xml@01C5D258.12C48070">  <style>  </style> </head> <body lang=EN-US style='tab-interval:.5in'> <div class=Section1> Rhetorically this is true, but it isn’t mirrored (yet) in organization.  Evidently some kind of flap bounced the (black) gay speaker from the program yesterday.  One of our local dipwads, the not-right Rev Willie Wilson, who recently accused gay black women of destroying the black family because they made too much money, had some kind of blow-up at a planning meeting.<o:p></o:p> <![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]><o:p></o:p> At the kick-off event with the speech I cited, everybody said all the right things, but there was no diversity in the speakers at the press event further than including women.  No Hispanics, for instance.  How can anyone talk about discrimination and poverty in the U.S. without talking about Latinos.  No gays either.  No whites.<o:p></o:p> <![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]><o:p></o:p> At the press event (I didn’t go the rally; I watched some of it on C-span), Farrakhan was the de facto maximum leader.  Obviously he’s got baggage.  He did pretty well shedding it.  He’s an incredible speaker, head and shoulders above the others.  Said the right things and all.  But he called J Jackson a great man.  Then called Al Sharpton a great man, albeit with flaws.  (ouch)  <o:p></o:p> <![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]><o:p></o:p> To me Jackson is a spent bullet.  He refuses to organize anything except his own media appearances.  Sharpton enlisted a gaggle of Republican Party operatives – or vice versa -- to run his primary campaign.  Willie Wilson, see above.  <o:p></o:p> <![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]><o:p></o:p> Some good people are involved too.  Cornel West, Julianne Malveaux.  Fits and starts aside, there are grounds for optimism in general, since the overall theme is on organization, not manifestation as an end in itself.  The vector is pointed in the direction of class as well as race.  Practice has a ways to catch up.<o:p></o:p> <![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]><o:p></o:p> mbs<o:p></o:p> <![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]><o:p></o:p> <![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]><o:p></o:p> -----Original Message----- From: lbo-talk-bounces@lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces@lbo-talk.org]On Behalf Of Charles Brown Sent: Sunday, October 16, 2005 10:50 AM To: lbo-talk@lbo-talk.org Subject: [lbo-talk] Farrakhan invites gay speaker to MMM <![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]><o:p></o:p> Seems like Nation of Islam is taking a left turn.  Farrakhan discussed Fidel Castro's offers of 1586 doctors for New Orleans and 500 medical school scholarships for racially oppressed U.S. students; there's a rumor that there was a mesage from Cuban leader Ricardo Alarcon at the MMM event. F also discussed Mao Tse-Tung's use of cultural workers as a model for the MMM program. He didn't use the terms "class struggle" that I heard, but James P. Hoffa did in endorsing the MMM.<o:p></o:p>  <o:p></o:p> MaX says Farrakhan may be channelling Malcolm X.<o:p></o:p>  <o:p></o:p>  <o:p></o:p> Charles<o:p></o:p> </div> </body> </html>