AlWN --- --- we I isckworid Publ dbi-wky y tdent at SUNY Stony Brook 9 vol xx no. 4 A SUNY STUDENT PUBUCAT BLACK SOLIDARITY DAY IS COMING7 "r- -- - i Today, as we approach the 20th year of citywide cry for Black Yes...we have allowed the once-vital movement In 1969, when the first its celebration, not much has changed in the to Solidarity Day raised, Amerika was in the become decayed and almost non-existent. U.S. True, Assata Shakur was freed on Black As we approach the 20th anniversary of throes of internal and external turmoil. Solidarity Day in 1979, but Eleanor The flames of overt racism scorched the Bumpers our original cry for Black Solidarity Day, we is dead. Michael Griffith and Michael Stewart must rekindle the flames that moved the land. Across the southland, Black people and are dead. Tawana Brawley and Derek Tyrus, for white people had made the supreme sacrifice, locomotive of idealism morality that propelled -is, the victims of racism, have yet to receive us in the sixties. Black people must once more surrendering their lives for a vision of justice. The income gap between whites and justice and equality. Blacks advocate Black Power and organize for has increased. The New York public political and economic empowerment to In the north, Jimmy Lee Powell was dead; schools continue to be centers of non- Luis Baez was dead, and countless others lay change the political direction of this country. education and mis-education, so much so that It is for those reasons that we must now retake maimed and beaten in urban and southern a recent task force report suggested hospitals. Watts, Harlem, Detroit and the the leadership for social change and chart the existence of a two-tier system of education. course anew. As such we must diligently work Birmingham were already the cradles of The plight of the homeless, mostly Black insurrection and rebellion. Indeed, some saw and towards the following objectives: Hispanic, is a cancer that continues to CALL ON BLACK PEOPLE TO CELEBRATE the seeds of revolution being spawned in these corrode our collective souls. Cocaine, heroin crucibles of dissatisfaction if not overt and crack NOVEnBER 6, 1989 - BLACK SOLIDARITY DAY BY run rampant in our communities, Not shopping hate. Mark Clark and Fred Hampton were dead; wreaking havoc on our youth . Staying home . Not traveling . and our elders . Going to classes . Wearing a Black Arm Band massacred by the Chicago police led by a Black who fall victim to the madness of those who informer and agent provocateur. Malcolm X, NakingM this day a Black Family Day . Raising prey on them to satisfy their needs. White the Red, Black and Green flag in our homes and Dr. Martin Luther King, Medgar Evers, and America insults Jesse, claiming is Ralph Featherstone had succumbed to the he communities. Using Black Solidarity Day 1989 "unelectable," code words signaling to white to build the momentum for a citywide overt and onslaught of Amerikan violence. Bobby Seale, working class people that they should not Huey P. Newton and the Chicago Six were vote open call for a general Strike by Black people for him. Even a writer for the N.Y.Times . Use Black Solidarity Day to build, develop, confronting a racist judge in a racist court. suggests that racism is a not-too-hidden All across the country chaos and and implement the political apparatus to elect secret in the Presidential elections. Edward a Black mayor in 1989. confusion reigned. Black people and young I. Koch continues his people challenged the traditional bastions assault on Black . Use Black Solidarity Day to continue to raise communities. Bush talks about his "brown" our voices for the unconditional release of of white male leadership and confronted the grandchildren. Mandela citadels of state power, believing in the languishes in -a South Nelson Mandela. African prison, as the U.S. continues its Use Black solidarity Day to call for the goodness of the Amerikan system and that by policy of "constructive engagement." In short, and POMS. opposing it this system would bring peace, freedom of all political prisoners very little has been gained, and what little . Use Black Solidarity Day to continue to morality and prosperity to the nation. It was progress was made was eroded by Reagan and an illusion; the massacre at Kent State and organize, and educated our community against the "sleaze" that held power in Washington. the death and destruction brought upon our Texas Southern dispelled that myth. Once again A Bush Supreme Court would further decimate the iron fist of the state had crushed the people by cocaine, heroin and CRACK. our remaining gains. Nicaragua, Salvador and . Use Black Solidarity Day to rebuild our Black young resisters. Panama could become new Vietnams. U.S. foreign Those of us, perhaps too old to accept Family and reunite the bonds between Black men policy is not fundamentally different from and Black women broken by the cultural values and believe the tactics of the young, but that of the sixties. accepting the justness of their of the Europeans. believing and More gravely for us, however, is the To these ends, those of us who share the cause, decided to attempt to implement a apparent loss of our peoplehood. We seem prone if effective, vision of a better tomorrow, a future without different strategy, one that, to release our anger against the system upon all would challenge the state at its most racism, classism or sexism; a vision where each other. It is not "nationtime". It has people share in the fruits of the earth; a vulnerable spot--its economic underbelly. We become "my time" rather than "our time" time. envisioned a general strike by Black people vision when oppression of a people is finally We have succumbed to materialism, drugs and vanquished; to this vision we affix our of all social and economic classes; one that the Amerikan dream. More importantly, we here wasl would paralyze the city, and perhaps signatures; so that history will say have abdicated the moral leadership of this a group of Black people, conscious of tieir ultimately the nation. In so doing, Black country which we once held. The movement for of people would force the economic centers of destiny and committed to the fulfilment asocial change and social justice has become peace and justice to their people. power to respond to their demands. paralyzed by greed, egocentricity, chicanery C;.RSON of DR. CARLOS RUSSELL SONNY (ABUBAKIDA) We would call for the observation and fear. We have sacrificed our children and BRATH BILL BANKS Black Solidarity Day on the day before the FR. LAWRENCE LUCAS ELOMBE our souls, falling prey to the persuasive ROGER GREEN JITU WEUSI MASIR MCHAWI national election to demonstrate the hypocrisy sirens of the Amerikan economic value system. ot the so-callea democratic process--BlacK people, poor people striking because they understand all too well the charade that was being played on them. We understood, however, that if we called for a strike under that banner, few would listen, since the consciousness of a people must be nurtured and fed for them to arrive at such a revolutionary position. Instead, inspired by Douglas Turner Ward's "Day of Ab- sence"- a play in which Black people in a Southern town mysteriously disappeared, creating for that city mammoth confusion and chaos, and .by Mahatma Gandhi's Hartal, a strategy that called for a day of reflection, a spiritual removal from the agony of British colonialism--the concept of Black Solidarity Day, a day of absence, a Black family day, a spiritual day, was born. Don't work. Don't travel. Don't buy became our organizational slogans. Practically, this was tantamount to a general strike. Blacks worked in the hotels, the schools, the factories, the buses, the trains, the service sector. Thus, if we stayed at home, then the trains would not run, so too the buses. The telephone system would be jeopardized. The banking system would also be affected, since we man the computers. Obviously, then, Black Solidarity Day was and is a revolutionary challenge to the systematic oppression of Black people in this country. THE STATE OF BLACK FRATS AT SUSB: Part I Recently the image of Black fraternites IL- _ · _ ii _ I · i _ we _ I and sororities has been tarnished due to widely publicized incidents. From hazing accusations to shootouts at "Greek" events the public's perception of these groups has been slanted towards a negative view. Hereat S.U.N.Y. at Stony Brook especially, the Black frats have had their members or their whole organization attacked or investigated by the administration TONES of of this institution. Last year alone, the brothers of Malik Sigma Psi had to deal with the false accusationiof one of their members being involved in a rape, the brothers of Phi SEdiTiON Beta Sigma were scolded by administration for throwing a party that ended in outsiders shooting automatic weapons and the brothers of Kappa Alpha Psi had to defend themselves while being accused of hazing. The Sigmas and the Kappas both received undue punishment by DWAYNE the administration. Did these events occur because they were Black fraternities? Are the powers that be trying to eliminate one of the ANdREWS few venues that positive African- American sales have to get together and share ideas? I'll address the problems of Kappa Alpha Psi first becuase their situation is very ~I I"I ~ I ii ·- serious. I recently ~~~ ~ spoke to Paul Lewis, who fraternities) haveI keg I·parties all the time they were suspended for five years.