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Part
I: The Circumstance
The
Supreme Court is, once again, poised to rule against the concept
of affirmative action and in turn against the actual implementation
of political, economic and cultural democracy within the United
States. The Supreme Court, like popular opinion, has been wrong
before. And we have been able to overcome its incorrectness and
ignorance before. There is no governmental business more important
than the struggle for democracy itself. But the struggle for a "people's
democracy", which is an advance beyond monopoly corporate democracy,
is other than the acceptance of a system and the regular trudging
to polling places to choose between the options offered up by that
same system. A people's democracy would place the interests of the
people ahead of the interests of "machines, computers, profit motives
and property rights." It would also allow for the direct participation
of working people in the setting of priorities and the allocation
of resources through town hall meetings, referenda, worker candidates,
grassroots organizations, etc. We must take personal responsibility
and we must build our own institutions. We must build our families,
our businesses, our political organizations, our media, and most
importantly our own value structures, for as people thinketh, so
are they. And there is no contradiction between people of color,
women and workers in general doing for ourselves, while we at the
same time, without hesitation, fight for our fair share of the better
parts of a society we have helped to build.
Exploitation
of working people exists. Racism, sexism, classism and ageism, etc.
are still alive and well in the United States. Recognizing this,
the current attempts to reduce access to relevant education, economic
development, mass media, elected office, etc., constitute a direct
attack upon basic human rights. The majority of Americans have benefitted
from affirmative action-like policies. Historically, "qualified"
people of color, women of all nationalities, and poor people were
passed over and discriminated against. Affirmative action has helped
to reduce the impact of this fact. As affirmative action has decreased,
discrimination has increased. As for education, many culturally-centered
alternative educational models, whether they've been centered around
a racial group, an ethnic group, social class or gender, have served
not only to better build, what are often called, basic academic
skills, but also significant degrees of social awareness and analytical
skills which are no less important. Education is more than just
the passage of the 3Rs. Real education includes the 4th
and most important R. The 4th R being Reasoning based
upon values, understanding and principle. Education is more than
training. Training by itself tends to domesticate, but education
liberates. Liberation education speaks to more than the development
of basic academic skills. It speaks to the very life blood of a
society. It speaks to the heart of democracy; the empowerment of
people, particularly people who have been systematically locked
out and colonized. The passage of basic academic skills is absolutely
necessary, but in the new century we must develop learning models
that are as in sync with the coming era, as most schools are now
in sync with the society of 75 years ago. America's economic system
was once an assembly line-based industrial one. This is no longer
the case. But most schooling still reflects perceptions and needs
of the industrial model. This is a post-industrial era. We need
a post-industrial educational model. Large factory-oriented, one-size-fits-all
schools no longer suit our needs. Schools must now focus less on
what to think and more on how to think, how to analyze. In a world
that changes in an increasingly rapid fashion, the whats can change
on a daily basis, but a lifelong learner blessed with the ability
to think honestly, clearly and deeply will be in a position to keep
up with "what's goin on" and to see beyond the present. Other than
the passage of so-called basic skills including critical thinking,
futuristic education should also be highlighted by such features
as: hands-on experiential learning, entrepreneurial development,
social/spiritual consciousness and the creation of "a new teacher,
for a new society."
Culturally-specific
structures should not only be defended, but extended into all appropriate
venues. In social justice terms, measures like affirmative action,
which are designed to achieve greater degrees of fairness and opportunity,
are to this era what the Voting and Civil Rights Acts were to the
1960s. And just as with the struggle for the Voting Rights Act,
which most citizens in the South who then had the right to vote
opposed, we must not be thrown off course by incorrect and confused
segments of the public which must now give up undue privilege and
share power and which will, later, largely admit they were wrong.
In the 1960s they called it "states' rights". But then and now it's
states' wrongs. Whether it's the likes of George Wallace and Alabama
then or other Governors now, what gets you the most votes doesn't
necessarily have anything to do with what is right, fair or even
common sense. But 20 years later, even Wallace entered a Black church
and testified that "once he was lost" and of course later found.
The goal must be to be on the right side of history when it matters
most, when "justice is on the scaffold and wrong on the throne".
To
argue in this era that you are in the favor of social justice, but
against processes such as affirmative action, culturally-centered
education, and multi-culturalism, puts you in harmony with those
who in the 60s argued that they were in favor of justice, but against
the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts. It puts you in harmony
with hypocrites. Sweet reason will convince some, but it won't be
enough to turn the tide. As in other historic eras, it will be the
active struggle of those who have the most to gain and the least
to lose which will win the day, not public opinion polls or right-wing
talk show conclusions.
This
fight is part of the overall struggle for justice, against what
Eisenhower correctly referred to as the "military industrial complex."
Legally and theoretically the people of this country have democracy.
What we most lack is a more relevant degree of actual democracy
for working people. A tiny handful of super-rich transnational business
and military types control the vast majority of this nation's wealth.
This class has created a version of democracy which is designed
to perpetuate its domination of this society while it extends its
global reach. This largely unelected elite remains the primary external
impediment to real democracy. But it should be noted that while
many state governments are attempting to outlaw affirmative action,
virtually all major corporations, because they have to function
in a global market which is predominately of color, are proceeding
with affirmative action and affirmative action-like plans as though
they live in the real world. For a multi-national corporation not
to cultivate a skilled and diverse workforce is political and economic
suicide. Ironically, as the ruling elite in the United States attempts
to maintain its sole superpower status, as with the implementation
of the Voting Rights Act, international affairs and world opinion
might have more influence over this country's direction related
to inclusion than popular domestic misperception and/or mean spiritedness.
During the Vietnam period, it became increasingly difficult to explain
to the world community why the United States government had to go
halfway around the world to impose its version of democracy on others
when they didn't even let all of its own people vote. Today, similar
contradictions in America's propaganda line, this time revolving
around issues of cultural, judicial, and economic democracy, are
becoming increasingly evident to people around the world.
Measures
designed to ensure cultural, educational and economic opportunity
have enabled millions of able women, people of color, and young
people of both sexes, to enter the marketplace of ideas and dollars.
These are people who have worked, paid taxes and in many cases fought
in this nation's wars; people who have been sent to other countries,
to receive their fair share of agent orange and other poisons. We
need not now apologize for demanding our families' fair share of
our own tax dollars for education, job training, health care and
business construction. We need not apologize. We will not apologize.
Modern-day American white supremacists, whether they be knowingly
racist or not, need to recognize that the United States doesn't
belong to any one group. And even if it did it would necessarily
be a Native American group. We must exercise our right to determine
our own destiny; the right of self-determination. Every individual
and group in America has the right to access to the system and the
responsibility to do for themselves. It is the blending of these
two dynamics which opens the door to full and complete democracy.
With God and the ancestors' help, we will build ways to ensure a
greater degree of real democracy for all Americans.
Part
II: A Plan of Action
Since
this nation was established, working people's struggle for a better
life has been constant. But every thirty or forty years there's
been acceleration of the fight; a popular upsurge to redefine and
expand the boundaries of American democracy. Whether it was the
1960s and voting, civil, student and women's rights and the anti-war
movements or the 1930s and the labor movement or the turn of the
century and the self-help and women's suffrage movements or the
1860s and the Civil War or the 1820s and 30s and the great slave
rebellions and the abolition movement, these periods have provided
jump starts for the redefinition. Corrupt and timid, go-along-to-get-along,
big business-oriented politicians cannot orchestrate a challenge
or build an alternative to a system that is their lifeblood. They
are generally not leaders, but managers, administrators, gate-keepers,
mouthpieces and flunkies in the house against which working people
struggle. Politics is too important to be left to politicians alone.
The task falls upon the shoulders of grassroots and other alternative
leadership. We must develop a strategy that enables us to defend
ourselves, while we counterattack. What follows are five specific
features of that counterattack; a plan of action.
1.
BOYCOTT THOSE WHO OPPOSE FAIRNESS.
In
the spirit of Rosa Parks, stop doing business with vulnerable
sectors of institutions that don't have active strategies to achieve
equal opportunity.
EXAMPLE:
Through a systematic strategy of grassroots and popular mobilization,
publicly announce which hotels, advertisers, sponsors, vendors,
cities, states and corporations we will not patronize, because
of their lack of an effective affirmative action plan. Conversely,
announce which institutions, etc. we will share our dollars with
and why. Many of these institutions might not care about fairness,
but they all care about money.
2. PRODUCE
OUR OWN MEDIA, WHICH IS BOTH THOUGHT-PROVOKING AND ENTERTAINING.
We
must go beyond mainstream corporate media, into the production
of quality alternative and progressive electronic media. These
media endeavors, rooted in popular culture, should include: television,
radio, the Internet, dance, music, theater, film, etc. and should
generally be income generating, therefore self-sustaining.
EXAMPLE:
We must support programming on locally owned, independent, alternative
and progressive newspapers, radio stations and tv stations. Where
these entities don't already exist, they should be established.
Alternative radio and tv formats should be created. Sponsors should
be found for a diverse array of alternative programming. These
programs should then be placed on existing low power, public access,
community and/or commercial stations. Where these types of programs
already exist, they should be supported. "Don't just watch tv,
make tv." "Don't just listen to radio, make radio."
3.
MOBILIZE TO VOTE INDEPENDENTLY AND IN PRINCIPLED COALITION.
We
can no longer afford to be loyal to boards, political clubs, parties
and politicians who are not loyal to us. One test of these groups'
loyalty to us, is the measure of our direct involvement in their
decision-making processes. If we cannot participate in these processes,
we should not give them our money, our votes, nor the time of
day. For years most progressive voters have felt obligated to
vote for the so-called "lesser of two evils" and as a result have
voted slavishly for the Democrats. But, in many cases, Democrats
no longer represent the lesser of two evils, but the "eviler of
two lessers". The Democrats have, for years, pimped the votes
of working people and therefore owe us more than the open implementation
of an essentially conservative and Republican agenda, including:
NAFTA, GATT, opposition to affirmative action, attacks on the
poor through so-called welfare reform, the creation of a captive
labor force through the construction and maintenance of prisons
as a form of economic development, and the refusal to accept other
nations' right of self-determination.
EXAMPLE:
As most of the nation's leadership of both major parties continue
to compete over who can best take advantage of people with middle
and low incomes, the Democrats need to understand that, "if all
we get is a basement apartment", then it really doesn't matter,
to us, in whose house we live. We can't fall out of the basement.
We have virtually nothing to lose. At this point, the masses of
people have more to gain by punishing fair weather friends, for
turning their backs on real democracy, than we have to lose, if
more obvious enemies, temporarily, gain greater influence. Politicians
must recognize, that if they don't respect the interests of their
most loyal supporters, come election time, they will lose, period.
Being thrown out of office will provide them with an opportunity
to re-evaluate and re-negotiate their strategies. This period
of reconsideration could become the basis for the formation of
a principled coalition of this nation's real majority, people
who have jobs and small businesses.
4.
RUN CANDIDATES WHO INSPIRE PEOPLE TO REGISTER, VOTE AND TAKE RESPONSIBILITY,
AS WELL AS LEADERSHIP.
Many
people feel, "they can do bad" whether they vote or not. Sadly,
they're often right. We must reevaluate who should run for office
and in whose interest elected officials actually work. Elected
officials should work for all our people, not just for a clique.
The interests of those who claim to represent us must become more
closely aligned with the interests of children, students, workers,
small business owners, and other taxpayers and consumers.
EXAMPLE:
If you want disenchanted young people, old people, women and grassroots
people to register and vote, run candidates from, already attached
to and/or popular among these groups. Once mobilized, these new
voters can, with their ballots, hold accountable and/or remove
from office racist, sexist, undemocratic and sellout politicians
and bureaucrats. Most elections are close. These new "swing voters"
can become working people's margin of victory.
5.
INCREASE OUR SUPPORT OF AND INVOLVEMENT IN INDEPENDENT EDUCATIONAL,
CULTURAL, ECONOMIC, POLITICAL AND SPIRITUAL EVENTS, INSTITUTIONS
AND MOVEMENTS.
This
process must be linked to the production of goods and services,
valued by grassroots people. Most people function "on the basis
of goods and services first, ideologies and theologies second".
For ourselves and for one another, let us have more love, respect,
tolerance, patience and prayer, while we fight for cooperation
among people who are different, national liberation and true democracy.
EXAMPLES:
Institutions,
movements, and processes related to such items as the following:
- youth,
women's and grassroots leadership development
- alternative,
community-based, and independent schools
- community
development and entrepreneurial assistance, including international
economic and educational involvement
- mentoring
and rites of passage projects
- cultural
history and futurism
- production
of independent and alternative mass media, including newspapers,
Internet and low power radio and tv programming
- liberation
education and liberation theology
- conscious
hip-hop and peace & justice summits
- culturally-based
economic development models, including music production
and tourism
- holistic
and preventative health
- revolutionary
nationalist, independence, and people's democratic struggle
- conflict
resolution and violence reduction, including anti-death
penalty work
- economic
conversion from a war economy to a peace economy
- disclosure
of crimes and human rights violations committed by United
States'
-
public and secret police agencies, including the CIA
- worker-owned
corporations, credit unions, buying clubs, and coops
-
adult continuing education programs
- unionization
of unorganized workers and cross-union solidarity
- Million
Man/Woman/Youth and Family March programs and Day of Atonement
observances
- democratic
community patrols, watches and self-defense
- freeing
of America's political prisoners and the return of political
exiles
- implementation,
within the United States, of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights
- Kwanzaa
and the application of the 7 Principles
- environmental
justice, protection and sustainablilty
- voter
education, registration and 3rd force mass mobilization
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Thirty
years ago, most people in the South and parts of the Southwest,
who were forced by mass movements and the Voting Rights Act to share
political authority with all the rest of their fellow citizens,
at first, felt put upon. But generally, they, including some members
of the Supreme Court, learned to get used to it and over time most
learned to accept it. The same will be true of the sharing of cultural
and economic authority regardless of race or gender in the 21st
Century. Whether conservatives and other defenders of the status
quo like it or not, we will challenge ourselves and unjust authority,
while we build our own reality. The primary question is, "What will
be our strategies for the challenge?". These approaches should allow
us to protect our vital interests, while we continue a process of
responsibility and conscious development. This is our tradition.
In
the spirit of Crispus Attucks . . .
In
the spirit of Daniel Shays . . .
In
the spirit of David Walker . . .
In
the spirit of Sojourner Truth . . .
In
the spirit of Cinque . . .
In
the spirit of Harriet Tubman . . .
In
the spirit of Frederick Douglass . . .
In
the spirit of Crazy Horse . . .
In
the spirit of Zapata . . .
In
the spirit of Joe Hill . . .
In
the spirit of Mother Jones . . .
In
the spirit of Sing Kee . . .
In
the spirit of Marcus Garvey . . .
In
the spirit of Ella Baker . . .
In
the spirit of Fannie Lou Hamer . . .
In
the spirit of Rosa Parks . . .
In
the spirit of Michael Shwerner . . .
In
the spirit of E.D. Nixon . . .
In
the spirit of Malcolm X ...
In the spirit of Dr. King ...
In the spirit of Maurice Bishop ...
In the spirit of Kwame Toure ...
We will challenge unjust social authority and power and in the end
we will win, for there will always be a higher power which is spiritual
and on the side of that what is just and true. And as a result,
"no lie can live forever"
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