Black Radical Congress: Summary of Workshop Sessions June 19-21, 1998 University of Illinois at Chicago Chicago Circle Center Source: the Black Scholar, Vol
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Black Radical Congress: Summary of Workshop Sessions June 19-21, 1998 University of Illinois at Chicago Chicago Circle Center Source: The Black Scholar, Vol. 28, No. 3/4, THE BLACK RADICAL CONGRESS: 1998 (FALL/WINTER 1998), pp. 43-48 Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41068806 Accessed: 13-07-2017 14:33 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms Taylor & Francis, Ltd. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Black Scholar This content downloaded from 130.126.145.41 on Thu, 13 Jul 2017 14:33:39 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Black Radical Congress: Summary of Workshop Sessions June 19-21, 1998 University of Illinois at Chicago Chicago Circle Center "Beat 'em Down and Lock 'em Up": State Terror- their children and the entire Black working class. ism, Police Brutality and the Prison Industrial This workshop will discuss grassroots mobilization Complex efforts led by Black women in the fight for living From Rodney King in Los Angeles to Abner wages, health care and other basic human needs. Louima in New York to Jeremiah Mearday in The welfare rights struggle will be linked to other Chicago, police brutality continues to be on the efforts for Black empowerment. rise in poor Black communities throughout the Panelists: country. The criminalization of Black poor and Delia Mitchell working class people has not only led to increased Mildred Williamson (coordinator) political violence, but to an alarming growth in Maureen Taylor what some have termed the prison industrial com- Μαήαη Kramer plex. About one third of the Black male popula- Deborah Housey tion between the ages of 18 and 35 is under the control of the criminal justice system. The rate of Coalition Work Black women's imprisonment is rising sharply as A sometimes complicated but necessary part of well. As jobs decrease and the "get tough on building a movement for social change is linking crime" slogan gains popularity, prisons are various sectors of that movement, building becoming a profitable growth industry. The priva- alliances that transcend region, race, culture, gen- tization of prisons is an even scarier aspect of this der, and generations. This panel will discuss the growth. This panel will explore these develop- importance and the dynamics of building princi- ments as well as campaigns, local and national, to pled coalitions, especially multi-racial coalitions, oppose them. labor coalitions and international coalitions and Panelists: Michelle Bonner will outline some of the history of coalition work Akua Njera as well as efforts underway to forge and sustain broad based coalitions. Pat Hill Panelists: Keanga Taylor Lennox Hinds (chair) Fannie Rushing (coordinator) Charlene Mitchell Joan Gibbs Josephine Wyatt (coordinator) Phil Hutchings James Early Prexy Nesbitt Welfare Reform: The Assault on Black Women and Children The Rich Prosper While the Poor Perish: Eco- The Welfare Reform Act of 1996 threw one mil- nomic Justice, Employment and Unemployment lion Black and Latina women into even deeper Despite rumors of a healthy economy, tens of poverty by forcing them off public assistance with- thousands of poor and working class people are out the guarantee of employment at a living wage. permanently un- or under- employed. Many are Developing a fightback strategy is essential to homeless or a heartbeat away from it. Megabil- defending the rights of African American women, lionaires like Bill Gates and media moguls like THE BLACK SCHOLAR VOLUME 28, NO. 3/4 Page 43 This content downloaded from 130.126.145.41 on Thu, 13 Jul 2017 14:33:39 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Oprah are held up as symbols of this era. Much Panelists: more common is the experience of families Jahahara Armstrong (coordinator) forced to live in shelters, workers losing their jobs Ahmed Obafemi as companies race the globe in search of cheaper Adjoa Aiyetero labor, and senior citizens working in the fast food industry to pay for food and health care that the Feminism and the Black Liberation Agenda government is ever reluctant to provide. This ses- How do issues of patriarchy, sexism, and gender sion will explore the growing economic disparities inequality relate to the Black struggle for free- in our society, the reality of economic polariza- dom? Stereotypes about "lazy" and "promiscuous" tion, and campaigns such as The Living Wage Black women have become the battle cry in the Campaign, organizing among former welfare attack against welfare rights. Those who seek to recipients, and the 28th Amendment Campaign, dismantle welfare and other services to the poor, that seek to combat the growing economic do so in part by tapping racism and sexist stereo- inequality. This panel will pay special attention to types about poor Black women's sexuality. Some the problems confronting low- income and work- of these stereotypes date back to the time of slav- ing class women. ery. Some of these negative attitudes exist in our Panelists: own community as well. Sexist abuse and oppres- Lou Turner sion occurs on the job, in the home, in prisons Rose Brewer (coordinator) and other institutions, and on the street. This ses- Rukiyah Dillahunt sion will address issues of gender and sexuality as Sabrina Coleman they effect women and girls, as well as how narrow definitions of manhood and masculinist violence August Nimtz endanger the lives and prosperity of all Black peo- Environmental Racism, Housing and Neighbor- ple, including men and boys. hoods Panelists: Linda Burnham From toxic dump sites in low-income and dispro- portionately Black and Latino neighborhoods, to Diane Harnford Ε. Frances White issues of unsafe housing, to global issues of envi- ronmental abuse. This panel will discuss local and Leith Mullings global issues of environmental justice and envi- Lynette Jackson (coordinator) ronmental racism. Asinamata Umoja Panelists: Connie Tucker Our Children Are Not Expendable: The Struggle for Quality Accessible Education Angela Brown Damu Smith (unconfirmed) There is a crisis of public education in this coun- try. Increasingly more funds are being spent on Rick Tingling-Clemmons (coordinator) jails than schools, and we are told that many of Cheryl Johnson our children are "un teachable." At the same time, Klancy Miller colleges and universities are abandoning African Americans and closing their doors to students of We Demand Reparations: The Growing Movements for Self -Determination, Redress and Freedom color. On yet another level, parents are blamed and in some cases jailed in response to juvenile The demand for Reparations goes back to the ini- truancy problems. This session will analyze the sit- tial European wars on the African continent to uation, explore how parents, students and teach- enslave and colonize Black people. U.S. and Euro- ers can fight back against this reality. pean capitalist imperialism was built upon the Panelists: backs of unpaid and super-exploited Black labor. Debbie Bell (coordinator) Since our initial incarceration in the U.S., African Brenda Randolph people have always demanded, fought for and Mana Ramos died in the struggle for Reparations - in the form Doug Gilh of freedom from mass imprisonment, land, cash Rose Saunders and other material resources, and the right to Monique Washington self-determination (ability to repatriate, separate or integrate) . Panelists will discuss past and pre- Racist Ballot Measures in California: Lessons for sent organizing efforts to popularize and win our the National Black Liberation Struggle long overdue reparations, and how BRC partici- The main purpose of the workshop is to under- pants can get involved in this movement. score the general assault on key components of a Page 44 THE BLACK SCHOLAR VOLUME 28, NO. 3/4 This content downloaded from 130.126.145.41 on Thu, 13 Jul 2017 14:33:39 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms progressive/radical/left strategy for democratic Socialism and Black Liberation social transformation, i.e., the political role of the From Amilcar Cabral, to C.L.R. James to Walter working class and its institutions, the national and Rodney to Paul Robeson to Claudia Jones, Black racial questions, and the importance to African activists have embraced socialism as part of a Americans of building strategic alliances among vision for the liberation of Black people around peoples of color. A brief overview of the Califor- the world. If any group has suffered from the bru- nia Initiative process will be given, the history and tality and injustices of capitalism, it has been the significance of the Initiative, and how it endan- people of African descent in the U.S. and Blacks gers the struggle to build a radical presence in worldwide. The break-up of the Soviet Union, the the Black community will be discussed. attempts to strangle Cuba and the difficulties of Panelists: socialist experiments in the world create a situa- Fran Beat (coordinator) tion today in which we have many questions to Phil Hutchings explore in terms of how to create viable alterna- Cheryl L Harns tives to capitalism in the socialist tradition. This Amaha Kassa panel will discuss how socialist and communist Karenga Hart organizations see these issues today. Panelists: Global Issues Are Black Issues: Framing Our Joe Sims (coordinator) Ahmed Shawki Struggle as International and Anti-Imperialist Cameron Barron U.S.