Home Blog Page 1287

Brother Kazembe Speaks on Working for Unity

Editor, Our Time Press
-
0

OTP:  What is the Universal Nubian Association.

Brother Kazembe: The Universal Nubian Association is a loose network of Pan-Africanists and African Nationalists.  Young adults based mostly in New York City.
OTP:  What groups are involved and what is it that you do?

BK: Our primary focus is promoting nationalism and Garveyism in particular.  We work in the trenches.   We try to be involved with everything that’s going on in the movement and in providing troops and assisting other groups. We’re also on the campuses of BMCC and Lehman College.  We work to organize students around fighting against tuition increases and understanding the role that access to tutorial services has traditionally played at CUNY. We’ve been around for ten years in different forms.

We have a small membership, but we use our resources and our time to assist all of the larger existing organizations that are out there such as the United African Movement, the National Action Network, the Unity Party and so forth.

We use our influence in our circles to work with groups that are doing work.  We have a chapter in the Bronx and in Brooklyn.  Sometimes our activity is just to encourage people to come out to the House of Justice or the Harriet Tubman School, to get information and to contribute funds if they can or just become involved in the overall movement. We used to have a base at the Muse on Bedford Avenue.  We’ve worked with people like Una Mozak, Sonny Carson, Alton Maddox and some younger people like Kevin Muhammad, Brother Eric Muhammad, Sista Soljah, Erica Ford, people like that.

OTP:  When I hear Garveyism or Nubian or Nationalism, I don’t usually associate that with the kind of work the Unity Party is doing.  How do you make that connection?

BK:  Within the Universal Nubian Association, we believe that we have to use the totality of struggle to achieve our ends.   That means whatever has the potential to work and advance the condition of our people, we will use.  It could be the ballot or protesting in the street.   Historically, over the years, our organization has kept good relations with different forces in the movement that didn’t relate to each other.  For example, for a while there was a big thing between Sharpton and Sonny Carson.   During those years we related to and did programs with both of those brothers.    We were able to do this because within our organization we felt that both of those forces were doing good and we were able to relate to both of them.  Now as far as the Unity Party is concerned, we definitely believe that there is a need for a Black led progressive political party in the state of New York and in this country.    When Sharpton ran for mayor and Barron ran for city council, I counseled both of them to consider running not as Democrats but as independents.   I thought that would have given them a better chance of impacting on the people in a permanent way and also potentially winning.   Especially since they would have been insured of having a rematch in the general election.   That didn’t happen in those two elections, but they are both in the vanguard of supporting and building the Unity Party which would serve this purpose in future elections.   The reason we are supporting the Unity Party is because we see the potential for it to be a Black organization.  That’s important to us, not because we think black people are superior just because they’re black, because we don’t.   We do see ourselves as black people, and we believe that because of the history of this country, and the way this country has developed, race is a key element, a key organizing element for us as a people because that’s how we’ve been oppressed.  We haven’t been oppressed because of our religion, our class or ethnicity or the language we speak.   Elements such as class may be present, but overall, race is the main factor and those other things come into it.   Therefore we believe there should be a black-led party as this country diversifies.   As black people, seeing the world through our own eyes, we demand, insist, and will fight for the need for acknowledgment of the contributions of black people in building this country and creating a progressive agenda.  The civil rights movement of the sixties led to benefits for women and other ethnic groups.   That was led by the black community.  Now as the country continues to diversify, we want the recent immigrants to this country to acknowledge and respect the contribution that black people have made.   Since the Democratic, Republican and Liberal parties are controlled by white people and corporations, we believe that the Unity party must be multiracial and black led.

OTP:  What kind of work do you do to increase participation in the electoral process?

BK:  The main thing is to be out in the streets spreading the word.   Last year the Universal Nubian Association sponsored a cable show on BCAT called “Nubian Voices”.   We did a couple of shows around the political process and young adults and their opinions about the mayoral race when Sharpton was running.   Basically it’s voter education.  Getting the word out about the issues and the importance about how an individual can impact the system.  Not just by voting on election day, but also keeping a constant relationship with the local elected officials and other elected officials that represent them.  So we go out in the streets and encourage young people to get involved in the political process.   Right around now it’s been difficult because of the situation with the President.  People are pessimistic about the whole political process.  This is what I’ve seen over the past few weeks while carrying around the literature about Mary France and the Unity Party.  But I think that will pass.   Long term, I see young adults getting involved in the political process because Hip Hop culture has an impact on young adults worldwide.  Many of the leaders, be they artists or just people involved with the industry are starting to focus more on organizing that culture to get them to be more political and active as far as social issues.   I see that in the near future, possibly in time for this election to get Mary France those 50,000 votes, but definitely going into the new millennium, a new upsurge in activism coming from young adults because the Hip Hop Culture is beginning to focus in on that.   Steps are being taken to organize that energy and get the young adults to see that historically culture has played a key role in empowerment.  People like Harry Belafonte and Sidney Poitier they assisted the civil rights movement.   Prior to that you had the great Paul Robeson.  In the 80’s you had Public Enemy and KRS One and X-Clan as part of the Hip Hop generation.  That sort of got knocked out of the box by so-called Gangsta Rap.   Gangsta Rap took over.  But nowadays I see an upsurge in nation-conscious rap and that bodes well for young adults being involved in the political process.  The Nubian Nation, which is what we call the UNA as a street name, all along has been encouraging rappers.   Now we are working with Conrad Muhammad and other people putting the focus on organizing the Hip Hop community.   This is something that is going to takeoff and work.  Young adults are looking for established activists and or politicians who talk their language and understand where they’re coming from.   That’s why we’ve been advocating within the Universal Nubian Association that the Unity Party should add a plank to their platform that specifically deals with Hip Hop Culture.   The fact that it started in New York and is a cultural and economic force on a global level that needs to be supported by government so that they can create more jobs and continue to grow.   Such a plank by the Unity Party would be like an “invite”.  It would be opening the doors to encourage all these young adults who are in that culture to come aboard and get down with the Unity Party.

OTP:  When you say Hip Hop Culture what do you mean?  Could you explain to me what you mean by Hip Hop Culture?

BK:  Hip Hop Culture started in the mid-seventies in the South Bronx.  Dealing with Graffiti as an artistic expression.  Also break dancing, deejaying and rhyming and rapping.  Rhyming and rapping sort of took off more than the other three aspects of Hip Hop culture.   To some it seems that the Hip Hop Culture itself is just Rap music.   But the other things the graffiti, the deejaying and the break dancing were all a part of it in the beginning.    It’s also mannerisms, the way you carry yourself.  It’s a language, it’s lingo that is used within the generation.  It also has expanded into film, comedy and clothing.  A lot of Hip Hop culture is very creative.  That’s how we talk about it in the UNA.  The creativity of Hip Hop Culture.   The ability to say, “Well we’re not being taught in schools how to play instruments because all of that has been cut out of the Board of Ed.  Fine.  We’re just going to hook up our turntables to street corner poles and take little bits of previously recorded music and make a whole new sound.”   The creativity of that, the ability to market out of the back seat of your car or to have the ability like the Wu Tang Clan, to go into various major labels and strike deals.  Deals that have the artist keeping creative control and getting a fair share of the profits.  This is different than how some of our artists were treated in the ’60’s, when they didn’t reap the financial benefits that they were entitled to.   Of course there are still artists that are getting ripped off and not getting their just do.  But there seems to be more creative control and business control with people like Master P or Sean “Puff Daddy” Coomb, in this generation than there was in the past.  Hip Hop Culture is global.  It’s beyond the Black and Latino neighborhoods of New York.  It’s in Germany, it’s in Japan, it’s in Cuba, it’s in Brazil.  It’s a global culture that’s youth oriented and deals with expressing your self.  And that expression usually comes through fashion, through music or through art.

OTP:  Last week I looked at a website that had on it some lyrics for Little Kim.  I was stunned.    Reading those lyrics and hearing you talk about Nation Consciousness, how are these two sides of the culture being reconciled?   What about lyrics that portray one kind of image, and the kind of image that you’re talking about now?
BK:  Nation Conscious Rap was a book that came out about 1990.  That was when Nation Conscious Rap was at it’s peak, with people like Public Enemy, X-Clan, KRS One and others.  That sort of got knocked out of the box by Gangsta Rap.  When NWA came out with, “”Fuck the Police”, and some of these other West Coast Rappers rose up.   Now with Little Kim, what she raps about is sexuality using vulgar and explicit lyrics. Now for every Little Kim there’s a Lauren Hill.  The number one selling album in the country– not only amongst rapper, is Lauren Hill.

OTP:  Oh yes, I’ve heard of her.

BK:  The other two members of that group are of Haitian descent.  They’ve done a lot of good work.  Fund-raisers for the people in Haiti and so on.   For every Little Kim, there’s an Erica Badou.  Erica puts out positive conscious lyrics and she talks about empowerment and self development and spirituality.  We say that in Hip Hop there’s good and bad, just like in all things.   Look, you can go and buy violent movies or sexually explicit movies and magazines or you can choose not to.  I think artists have to be able to express themselves even though it is sexually explicit or is drug related or crime related.  I would not promote it and I don’t think young adults should listen to that twenty-four seven.   But I don’t think artists should be prevented from expressing themselves either.   People have the right to choose to purchase what they like.  Then it’s up to the community to step to these artists if they go too far over the line and to put them in check.

OTP:  Give me a listening list of some positive, nation-oriented rap artists.

BK:  I would say Erika Badu, Lauren Hill, Wycleff Jean, The Fugees, Digital Underground, Brand Nubian and Dead Presidents.   Of course, there’s Sista Soljah and Ras Baraka has some poetry out. There’s also A Tribe Called Quest, those would be good place to start.
What we like about Hip Hop artists is that they put their friends and their family members on the payroll as they grow businesses.  Like Fat Joe up in the Bronx opened up a clothing store and he has a clothing line.  The Wu Tang Clan has a clothing line.  What we admire about the Hip Hop Culture is how people are able to get into it and keep spinning and revolving into different things.   First there’s the artist, then the label the clothing line and so on.  We think that bodes well as far as creativity and entrepreneurship are concerned.  And that is something this generation is into more than the prior generation.   We think that this generation can learn from our parents, the Civil Rights generation, about the need to struggle and to be out there and force the government to respect us as human beings.  But we also think that our parents can learn from this generation about ownership.  Not just looking for a job, but creating a job out of nothing and having ownership.

OTP:  What’s your background?  Did you grow up in New York?

BK:  I grew up in Bedford Stuyvesant on Jefferson and Tompkins.  I live in the Albany Houses now.

OTP:  What school did you go to?

BK:  I graduated from Boys and Girls and I went to Borough of Manhattan Community College.

OTP:  Is there anything else you’d like to speak on?

BK:  The gang situation.   We believe as a consensus that our leaders have to spend as much time dealing with young adults that are NOT in the gangs, as they do with people who are in the gangs.

OTP:  If you were in charge, what kinds of programs would you see for young folks?

BK:  I see a program that is similar to what Richard Green does, even though I don’t like his politics.   There has to be a building.  A Plant where sisters and brothers can come in and get skills training and that has support services like access to computers.    Take the Jackie Robinson Center operation for example.  They’re getting a new building and it’s going to have studios, a library and more.    I think what the young people need is similar to school but more of an after-school program that they can tap into to build themselves up.  Most of the young adults, if you give them a chance, they want to do better.  They do negative things because they don’t see any other way out.   What we need is a building that provides support services for whatever it is that’s productive that the young people want to do.   It would be sort of and after-school, camp, skills/development center and it would be open twenty four seven.  That’s what I’d like to see.

Breaking New Ground

Editor, Our Time Press
-
0

We appear to be in a golden age of African-American small business development.  The number of black businesses is rising sharply-more than 46% in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s-and the sophistication of the efforts is accelerating as well.  In the past, it was common to see firms launched with little more than a good idea, a tiny amount of capital, and a double helping of prayer.

Today, we are much more likely to see African-American companies started by experienced managers who have already learned many of the toughest lessons of business, like managing staff, creating a realistic business plan, and staying on top of expenses.

Two newly formed home-based African-American businesses show the kinds of thoughtfulness, creativity and courage going into some of the new businesses.
Allen-Barcelona Development Corporation (212-234-2429) is a construction and property development company based in East Harlem that renovates residential and commercial properties.  In its first year, the company has racked up more than $100,000 in billings, including a contract with Harlem’s Hale House agency to start converting an abandoned building into usable space for the care of orphaned children.

Allen-Barcelona is owned and run by Lizzette Hill Barcelona, who formerly directed the East Harlem Neighborhood-Based Alliance, a nonprofit social services agency that she founded.  Why start a construction company?  “I decided to go into something that was not traditionally open to women, and then do it from a different perspective,” says Barcelona.  “All my clients say it’s different dealing with a woman contractor.”

That’s putting it mildly.  Anyone who’s ever hired a company to renovate their home knows that contractors have a maddening habit of showing up late for meetings and underestimating the time it takes to finish projects.  Not Barcelona.  “I take deadlines seriously,” says the 36-year-old single mother.  “When you have a two-year-old waiting for you at the baby sitter, every minute counts.”
Although she has a master’s degree in planning from Pratt Institute, Barcelona attributes her early success to what she learned by running a nonprofit agency with 14 employees and a $1 million budget. “In a nonprofit, you’re constantly tracking the cost of everything to make sure you don’t overspend your grants,” she says. “That’s the same theory behind a home business-you have to control the expenses or they will control you.”

With a staff of two and about 15 construction workers on call, Barcelona’s next step is to acquire properties and construct new facilities. “Right now I’m a home improvement contractor,” she says.  “I want to acquire property and build on it.  That’s why we’re called a development company.”

Bold Footwear (718-623-0333) is a Georgia-based athletic footwear and apparel company with a northeast distribution arm based in Brooklyn.  In September, the firm’s shoes will be sold through nine New York area Footlocker/Sports Authority stores-part of a national rollout that includes Chicago, Baltimore, Atlanta and the Carolinas.
The notion behind Bold is simple, says Bilal Muhammad, the northeast distribution manager.  “I pay easily between $80 and $110 a shot for my children’s footwear,” says the father of five.  “It’s $100 plus for the Michael Jordans.  Do the math.”

According to Muhammad, the math adds up to a $12 billion global market for athletic footwear, and huge profits for the large sneaker companies.  Keds sells $180 million worth of shoes without any marketing, says Muhammad, while a marketing machine like Nike earns billions every year.  “Our footwear is designed, created and marketed by African-Americans; that’s totally unique in the market,” says Muhammad.  “We understand and know the needs and wants of the inner-city consumer, which really drives the market.  We know them because we are them.”
Bold’s founder and CEO, Tariq Khan, learned the ropes the hard way-a 1986 attempt to launch Bold resulted in more orders than the young company could handle, and the effort collapsed.  Undeterred, Khan staged a 10-year comeback, handling marketing for a Korean sneaker company and honing his skills by marketing well-known brands like Puma and Converse.

By the time he was ready to re-launch Bold this year, Khan had a stronger business plan, a national distribution network of savvy local entrepreneurs like Muhammad, and a celebrity endorsement from a well-known hip hop artist, Da Brat.

“We want our folks to come out and support Bold,” says Muhammad.  “We have a quality product that they will be proud to wear, with unique designs and color combinations.  If it wasn’t a quality product, it wouldn’t be in Footlocker right now.”

Where the Jobs Are
A small nonprofit community group in Bedford-Stuyvesant has quietly stepped up to the challenge of helping people get jobs. The Central Brooklyn Neighborhood Employment Center (718-573-9197) is a one-stop source of training and job placement for community residents.  In just over three years, CBNEC has placed more than 200 people in jobs, including public assistance recipients.

CBNEC’s approach is different from most job agencies, according to the agency’s Executive Director, Jeffrey E, Dunston.  For one thing, all job seekers are tested and helped in creating a resume.  Next, CBNEC staff look through want ads, and send resumes out for job seekers.

The agency also attempt helps people solve any problems that might stand in the way of employment.  Job seekers with misdemeanor jail records, for example, may be referred to lawyers who can help them seal their records.  Clients with drug or alcohol problems are referred to detox programs.

All of this is free for clients, and walk-ins are accepted.  The storefront office is at 796A Putnam Avenue, between Malcolm X Blvd. and Stuyvesant Ave.
By Errol T. Louis

Barron

Editor, Our Time Press
-
0

OTP:  The recent primary election only had about 15% of the electorate coming out.  What’s going on and how can we change it?

Charles Barron:  Number one, I think that a lot of voters feel they don’t have a reason to vote. They’ve been lied to so much by elected officials that there is a fair amount of despair and hopelessness vis a vis the electoral process, and we can’t blame it all on voter apathy.   The other part is the candidate.  There is a lack of sincere, down-to-earth, grassroots, for the people, candidates.  So when you have candidates that are not committed to the people, and you have incumbents who have sold out the people, it’s very, very difficult to convince people to come out and vote because Rosa Parks, and Fannie Lou Hamer, and Martin Luther King, Jr. struggled for you to have that right.   We ran that one down for a little while and it’s worked to an extent.  Now people want to see some concrete changes in their daily living.  They want to see things delivered and promises kept.

OTP:  How do we convince people that there is a reason?   I see folks out here who simply have no inclination whatsoever to go and vote.

CB:  I think you have to do several things.  Number one, as we’re doing with the Unity Party and the Mary France campaign, is to give people a reason to vote,   to develop a new electoral movement.  To revolutionize the electoral movement with people who are connected with grassroots people.  I think once they see candidates from the community who have worked in the community, candidates they believe in, then I think we’ll have a better chance. Even though this last turnout was dismally low, I look at things like Barry Ford running against Ed Towns in the 10th Congressional District.  Ed Towns got 17,000 votes and Barry Ford got 12,000 votes.  That’s a lot for a person who was not known before this race.  And when you add in the other guy, Ken Diamondstone, he got 4,000 votes.   So there were 16,000 votes against Ed Towns.   48% of the district went against Ed Towns, a longtime incumbent.   Well that’s a signal that people are dissatisfied with the kind of leadership Towns is offering and want a change.

OTP:  What are the nuts and bolts of grabbing people and getting them down to the ballot boxes.  How is that done?

CB:  First it has to take place long before the election.  I think that’s a mistake that a lot of grassroot candidates, insurgent candidates make.  They take too long to run.  They wait until the last minute to make that decision.  To run, you need an expert team to get the signatures to get on the ballot.  You need to raise enough money, and you have to be connected to the people.  People are tired of folks coming around just on election day.

We have an election coming up in 2001 and we’re out here now, three and four years before the election, getting connected with our people.   We have to see our folks where they are.  We have to go into the barbershops when there are no elections and find out what is on folk’s minds.   We have to go to tenant association meetings, block association meetings, churches, when there are no elections.  Just to get involved in the everyday life of our folks and work on issues they care about.  Rent control issues, issues in the housing developments, income caps.  People are looking at subsistence education of their children and we have to address those basic issues.  When people know that you are going to address the issues that impact their daily lives, and do it on a consistent basis, even before the election, then I think we have a better chance of getting them out to vote.
Just last night I was talking to five or six brothers on the corner, and one of them said, “I’m glad you stopped to talk.  We saw your picture on the poster, but I’ve never met you.    Now that we’ve met, you can rest assured you’ve got my vote.”  I invited them to an organizing committee, Operation POWER.  It’s an organization that came out of our campaign.  So that’ll be four or five more people.  I’ve got to do more of that.  So do other people who are serious about transforming our communities and our people.

OTP:  It’s not just the picture on the poster that gets the job done?

CB:   No, you can’t just put the picture on the poster up a few months before election day, get the New York Times and the Amsterdam News to endorse you, some big name people to endorse you.  You have to work hard everyday.   You have to walk through the housing developments.  See the folks sitting on the benches, introduce yourself and see what is on their minds.  What do the people want?  Of course they’re going to tell you “I need a job.”  Of course they’re going to tell you they want the drugs out of the community.   Then you have to see what level of commitment they’re willing to make, to cause that kind of stuff to happen.   It takes leadership. There are two kinds of leadership, A transformative leader who is a change individual, trying to change the system so that a greater amount of goods and services are delivered to the greatest number.  Then there are the other types of leaders who are into transactions.   They cut deals.  They make transactions.  They get a small group of loyalists some jobs to keep them in office.  I believe we need to move toward a transformative leadership for change, and away from transactional so that we can create a political movement.

OTP:  There is always talk about how the incumbents have a built-in advantage.  What are the mechanisms they use to enhance their reelections?

CB:  There are three main things they do to get reelected.  The first is mass mailing.   Take my 42nd Council District.   We have 54,000 registered voters.  The incumbent, with the money in her city council budget, can mail to those 54,000 voters two or three times right before the election.   So she’s already started off with three mailings to 54,000 people.

OTP:  These are mailing paid for by the city?

CB:  Out of the city council budget.  It’s illegal to use the city council budget for a campaign and there is a law that you’re not supposed to do a mailing within ninety days of an election, but not many people adhere to that law.   So what they’ll do is say they are just sending out a council report to the district thirty days before the election.   So they get to do that three times.  Then when it comes to the campaign, the incumbents are connected to powerful people, like the mayor in the case of Priscella Wooten in my district or the mayor and Ed Towns, so they get support from these power associations and developers, and corporations, so they have a lot of funds.   So they take those funds and do two or three more mailings and add to the three they’ve already done.   So now you have five different mailings to 54,000 people.   Secondly, they do phone banking.  The day of the election or a week before the election, they get the unions to give them access to very sophisticated phone banks.  They are able have people work the phones.    So now the voters are getting phone calls.   Thirdly, most voters make up their minds the day of the election and the incumbents have the money to pay people to go out there with palm cards.  They have the financing to put teams of people at each polling site.  Priscella Wooten had five hundred people out to my one hundred.   So it’s mailing, phone banking and election day operations with palm cards.  That’s how the incumbent stays in office.  And they already have the name recognition.

OTP:  Now what does an insurgent have to do to overcome that?

CB:  That’s why we have to start very, very early.   For example, I ran once, we got four thousand votes.  So even though Wooten is the incumbent and did all that I just said, and then some, she only got six thousand votes.   So four thousand to six thousand.  Now I have to work these next three years, to build an army for election day.  To raise more money so that I can do more mailing and to get a phone bank going.   I’ve got to spend the time expanding my base.  You have to build a base.  After the election, I didn’t go away.  We’re going to work out there to expand our base.  We’re going to go into the churches.  We had several ministers working with us this time, and we’re going to increase that number.   We are getting more into our youth.  There are a lot of young people who are politically conscious, the Hip Hop Nation.  Hip Hop culture is looking more toward politics.  I’ve spoken with young people in the district who are looking to get involved as well.  And then we are going to look more to expand toward some community-based organizations that were more fearful to get involved last time because there were purse strings attached.  But with no incumbent in the next election, even though they will still have a machine coming at me, these organizations will have more courage to get involved.  And then looking at the Tenant Associations and Block Associations Presidents.  These are real local leaders.  In our district we have about eleven housing developments.   We had three or four tenant association leaders from those housing developments involved.   We’re going to shoot for more and expand that.   Then we are working with the Black Political Free Agents organization, the Unity Party, and Operation POWER which is a group we put together.  And then we’ve been assisting other campaigns.   In this past election we worked with three or four different campaigns and that gave us relationships with other political forces.   That’s what we mean by expanding our base.

OTP:  In this upcoming election for governor, what’s the lay of the land and what’s the role of the Unity Party and Mary France?

CB:  We’ve really got to build an independent political movement, a progressive political movement.   That is a major objective.  We want to get 50,000 votes under the Unity Party banner, so we can build an independent political movement.   Right now the two major parties either take us for granted like the Democrats, ignore us like the Republicans or use us like progressive white efforts.   So we’re either ignored, taken for granted or used.  The Unity Party brings us power, leverage and respect.   Instead of an individual voting for Twiddle Dee Dee or Twiddle Dee Dum, that is Peter Vallone or George Pataki, they’ll have a real choice.  Because those two are both so conservative their politics are very similar, it’s not going to make a huge difference who wins.  The difference will be so marginal, you’ll be better off voting for Mary Alice France, with the Unity Party, so that you’ll have 50,000 people representing you.   Because you need 50,000 votes to get an independent party line, when people seek elections with these major parties, they will look at you differently now because they are looking at 50,000 people instead of one person.   Or instead of black people who are controlled by certain black leaders who the power structure is comfortable with, we’ll have an independent party that will give us more leverage.   Having a Unity Party means that we can run our own candidates locally.  So if I run in 2001 as a registered Democrat, I’m also going to be on the Unity Party line. So it really increases our opportunities on a local level, as well as gives us more leverage and power and negotiating power on the broader level.
OTP:  Running on two party lines, how does that work?
CB:  you can be endorsed by many parties.   Peter Vallone is on the Working Families Party line in November, and the Democratic.   In New York City, the Liberal Party, the so-called Liberal Party that’s actually very conservative under the leadership of Ray Harding, they wield a lot of power now because they support Giuliani.  If that white vote is split, then the Liberal Party endorsement really means something.    We can play that same kind of power politics if we had a Unity Party and continued to build it.   There may come a time where we’ll run our own candidates for statewide office and keep building.  But in the meantime, as we win local elections and become powerful, we can still make a difference in the gubernatorial election if the two main candidates are neck and neck, if we can come in with a hundred thousand, hundred and fifty thousand votes, it can make a difference.  If you look at this last race for the Democratic Primary, Peter Vallone got 296,000 votes.   Chuck Schumer won the nomination for Senate with 252,000 votes.   That may seem like a lot, but you’re talking about millions of voters in the state.   Remember that Al Sharpton got 187,000 votes when he ran statewide with little or no money.   These other guys have millions of dollars.  Sharpton got more votes than everybody else in those races but the two winners.   Now that’s something to think about.  He got more votes than Mark Green, more votes than Geraldine Ferraro, more votes than Betsy McCaughey Ross.  When you look at the governor’s race, Peter Vallone got 296,000 votes.  Betsy McCaughey Ross 112,000, James LaRocca, 41,000, and Charles Hynes, 84,000.  Sharpton, with 187,00 votes in his senate race in 1994 got more votes than Hynes and LaRocca put together.

OTP: How much did Sharpton spend on that race?

CB:  About $70,000.
OTP:  How much money do these other guys spend?
CB:  Millions.  I know Betsy McCaughey Ross spent about $2.5 million and she only got 112,000 votes.
OTP:  Unbelievable.
CB;  So Sharpton spent $60-70,000 in that Senate race and he got 187,000 votes.   Look at it this way.  In his citywide run for mayor, he got 132,000 votes.   That was more than Betsy McCaughey Ross got statewide.
OTP:  Gotcha.
CB:  Her 112,000 with her millions.  Look at the Senate race.  Charles Schumer got 252,000 votes with over ten million dollars.  That’s not cost-effective with Sharpton getting 187,000 votes for $70,000.  [ed. Note: These figures work out to approx. .37 cents a vote for Sharpton, $22.32 a vote for Ross, and $39.68 a vote for Schumer].   Mark Green had 93,000 votes.  Sharpton had 187,000.  Geraldine Ferraro, the woman icon, vice-presidential candidate, she had a few million, 132,000 votes.  The Geraldine Ferraro vote statewide was only as much as Sharpton got citywide, 132,000.  So we have the potential to really build a party, an alternative to the two party system, and really have a major impact.  And then look at some of the local stuff.   The local races.  When I ran against Priscella Wooten, I got 3,990 plus votes.  Four thousand.   Clarence Norman, Jr., the most powerful black Democrat in the State.  He received 3,313 votes.   Do you hear me?  We got four thousand.
OTP:  And the populations are the same?
CB:  We have a larger district.  There are several assembly district in the council district.  But look at it this way, I got three thousand votes from just the 40th Assembly District.  That covers East New York, the other thousand came outside of East New York.
OTP:  Alright.
CB:  He got three thousand three hundred.  I got three thousand in the 40th , one Assembly District.   I probably could have beaten Assemblyman Griffith if I would have wanted that seat, because he’s vulnerable and we’re building a machine out here.  Take the case of James E. Davis, Officer Davis.
OTP:  Oh yes.
CB:  He doesn’t have any real solid base.  Two thousand seven hundred and thirty-three votes against Clarence.  He got 45% of the vote against Clarence.   Look at Ed Towns with millions of dollars and out here for sixteen years, he got a total of 17,990 votes.   Barry Ford, a virtual unknown, 12,610 votes, 36% of the vote.  Kenneth Diamondstone, 4,000 votes.  If you total Kenneth’s and Barry’s votes, which is an anti-Towns vote, it’s 16,610 to Towns’ 17,990.  48% to Towns’ 52%.  What message is the electorate giving to us?   They want these guys out.   They will go with anybody to get them out.   But we have to build our bases more, and build our relationships more.
OTP:  What can the individual person do who says, “Hey, I want to make something happen.”  What can they do?

CB:  I don’t think there should be an individual black person in this city that is not a part of some organization.   The first thing all of us have to do with our families is join an organization.   We cannot do this thing alone.   Then once you get involved with an organization, you have to push that organization to be progressive.   To link with other organizations that have similar goals, so that we can build progressive and independent coalitions to launch an electoral movement.  Movements change things.   Campaigns put individuals in office.  Movements change things systemically.  Movements build platforms.   Campaigns build a person.  We have to get beyond the idea of running campaigns as individuals and look at building movements and coalitions for independent progressive policy that will be more issue-based and platform-based, organizational-based, and system fighters.  We can’t just look at somebody with a name, and put them in office.  They have to be committed to an agenda, an organization, and be system fighters.  Not afraid to fight against white supremacy.   That’s one of our major problems.  White male supremacy.  Most of the parties in this state, if not all, are lead by white males.   Whether they’re progressive parties or liberal parties, or conservative parties, they’re lead by white males.
OTP:  Conrad Muhammad has an interesting group called A Movement for CHHANGE that he is developing.
CB:   Yes.  I think that’s an excellent group that has a world of potential.  Conrad Muhammad has a real challenge before him.  He’s going to have to sustain a movement, and develop the resources.  But we need training.  Groups like that need training.  Not only young people, but all of us need training.  I’ve put out a call to Conrad already.  We at Dynamics of Leadership, are certainly willing to provide that kind of training.  People will gather with you early, but to sustain a movement like that, you’re going to have to obtain some power real soon, and obtain resources in order to do fundamental things.  You have to find a building, a base, that you can organize in and have people come to.  In addition to the money, you have to have the training to go along with that so that you’ll know what the political landscape is in New York.
OTP:  When we were speaking at the meeting, I was lamenting on the poor turnout and you said words to the effect, “Do not despair.”   Do you remember that?
CB:   Yes.  You know, I’m an eternal optimist and a realist.  I’m not one who is an idealistic optimistic in an unreal way.  But I’m certain that during slavery days somebody told Harriet Tubman that she was out of her mind.  That slavery was here forever, so why would she try and do something about it.  But Harriet did it, despite of all that was around her.  And slavery doesn’t exist anymore in that form.  I’m sure somebody told Marcus Garvey that he couldn’t build the things he wanted to build.  A steamship company in 1920.  Black people would never give him enough money to build the Phyliss Wheatley Hotel, and the Universal Grocery Store, and the Universal Restaurant.   But Marcus Garvey said, “Up you mighty race, you can accomplish what you will.”  And he did it.  I’m sure people thought that Jim Crow would be around forever.  George Wallace said, “Segregation now, segregation forever.”   He just died himself, as did segregation.   I’m sure someone told Nelson Mandela, “well you might as well just give it up.  You’re going to be in jail forever.   He sat in there for twenty-seven years.  Never giving up hope, always having a vision for a new South Africa.  Apartheid is dead and Mandela went from the prison to the presidency.   If that could happen in South Africa, if that could happen on the plantations, then we who have so much more, should do equally as well, if not better.  And any leader who comes before us and tells us that any form of our oppression is permanent, that’s a leader not fit to lead.

African New Leadership Leads the Way

Editor, Our Time Press
-
21

One of the most important processes in African history is happening right now, and by nation standards it is happening at breakneck speed.  It is of such a magnitude and scope, that it has the potential, if assisted by changes in the New York City school curriculum, to change the thinking and the lives of African-Americans within a generation.   This process came to Harlem this past September, when the Schomburg Center for the Study of Black Culture, hosted  AA New York Conference on the Contribution of Black Intellectuals to the African Union and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development. It is a process African leaders have named the African Renaissance and it is being spurred on by the African Union.

The African Union is a coming together of countries on the continent to chart a new and unified course for Africa.  NEPAD is a project of the AU for social and economic development.   And with globalization making Africa only a phone call or Web page away, then descendants of the historical Diaspora, with their economic and intellectual resources and with their many skills,  have a lot to offer to a system looking for synergy.

In his introduction to this conference of scholars, Curator Howard Dodson noted that the African Union had decided early on to have the African Diaspora play a role in its agenda.  And that these discussions were to Abegin the process of thinking about how we go forth organizing ourselves in the Diaspora to become participants in the advancement of the AU and NEPAD agendas.  And in exploring ways in which the AU and NEPAD agendas can intervene in the ongoing struggles for freedom, justice and  human dignity throughout the Diaspora.
The first part of the program was devoted to understanding the nature of the AU and that was done through a presentation by Dr. Cheikh Tidiane Gadio, Senegal’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Senegal president, Abdoulaye Wade.

The second part of the program was devoted to working groups, discussing how the participation of the Diaspora might operate and what it might look like.   Several person made brief welcoming remarks as the cpmferece opened.  AWe are in the time of the beginning of the return,@ said Councilman Bill Perkins.  AWhat left Africa was not just bodies, but human resources, intellectual and spiritual.@ Said the councilman, AWe are talking about the reuniting of a people, the coming together of dried bones.

In brief remarks, the Honorable Rex Nettleford, -Chancellor of the University of the West Indies, said that groups such as this Ahave to look seriously at our curricula, to get the next generation to understand they have a real job to perform.  Not only in terms of  economic imperatives. But the continuing concern with what’s happening in the spiritual and intellectual life of our communities.  The creative imagination and the creative intellect are the two tools that people like us have had to fight all the oppression for the past 500 years, said the chancellor.  He noted also that ANepad has pedigree, because it comes from the African people themselves and not the United Nations.  Nettleford ended saying ANone but ourselves can release us.

The Sixth Region
In his presentation, Dr. Gadio said that central to Senegal=s Africa and international policy is the role and place of the Diaspora in the movement of African Renaissance.  There is no future for Africa without the involvement of all its children, as Marcus Garvey used to say, >at home or abroad’.
Dr. Gadio said that Senegal felt the Constitution of the African Union was originally flawed Abecause the Diaspora was left out and that corrective measures were underway.   He said that President Wade was able in the revision process, to get a line concerning the Diaspora added.  But he said, Athe goal of Senegal is to have the Diaspora in the Constitution of the AU as the Sixth Region of Africa, joining East, North, South, West and central Africa.  Dr. Gadio assured the group that Senegal will bring the issue to the table until it succeeds.
Why Now the Diaspora?

Globalization, New Leaders and Global Drive for the African Renaissance.
Dr. Gadio explained that there were a few reasons for the coming back of the Diaspora into the African political agenda.  AGlobalization is one factor and new leaders in Africa is another.  He said that President Wade and President Obasandro of Nigeria are examples of two African leaders who are trying to symbolize a leadership that believes in African Renaissance and Pan-Africanism.

Saying there was a global drive for African Renaissance Senegal’s foreign minister asserted that  African people in Africa had realized that they were at an impasse.  Echoing the words of professor Amos Wilson he said Athe richest continent in the world, with a people who had the richest history and background and culture were convinced that they were poor, going around saying they were poor.  That had to stop and this movement of African Renaissance is underway and we are proud to be a part of it.

The New Partnership for African Development (Nepad)
As Dr. Gadio spoke about Nepad, he asked that we use the French pronunciation Naypod instead of the English, Kneepad, which Dr. Gadio explained was what Africa was too much associated with.  Recalling that the original name of what is now Nepad was ANew African Initiative, he was disappointed that it  was not kept.  Citing the great Senegalese scholar Cheikh Anta Diop, he said it was important for people to reconnect with an historical initiative.  AWhat happened to the African people is that we lost the initiative.  Other people came and took over our people, our lands and we lost that historical initiative.  It was a good name, but I like Nepad, also.

The foreign minister said that Nepad was a merger of two important projects that were happening on the continent.  AOne was the Millennium African Renaissance Program, headed by Thabo Mbeki of South Africa with the support of Abdelaziz Bouteflika president of Algeria and Olusegun Obasanjo, president of Nigeria.

When President Wade came to power in a peaceful transition in March 2000 in Senegal, the continent now added Aa man who had spent the previous forty years as a Pan Africanist, economist and lawyer and had been reflecting on Africa in a holistic way.   Dr. Gadio said that soon after assuming the presidency, President Wade was joining with the others in this new thinking.  They were actively looking at the situations confronting their countries from a regional and continent-wide perspective.

This new African leadership is, according to Dr. Gadio, focused on infrastructure, education, agriculture and health.  He said there was a paradigm shift away from loans and the accompanying chains of interest payments, to setting up self-help priorities.  He also noted that this process of rebirth traces back to Marcus Garvey, to Sylvester Williams in Trinidad, and to others and that it was part of a one hundred and fifty year struggle.  Pan-Africanism started with the Diaspora.

African Woman Initiative
Dr. Gadio spoke about how the African woman is central to the development of Africa, and the black community, therefore Senegal proposed that there be an African woman initiative in Nepad and they also proposed and were able to obtain, Afor the first time in the history of the continent and perhaps of the world, that the executive branch of the AU, the Commission, be composed of five men and five women.

African Peer Review Mechanism
Dr. Gadio said that while the OAU had a hands off approach in dealing with internal problems of countries, the AU has taken a very different approach.   The African Peer Review Mechanism is an extraordinary process and a guide to the management of a continent.  It provides for a committee composed of Heads of State of Member Governments of the AU to act for, as its base document says, Amutual learning and capacity building, and for exercising the constructive peer dialogue and persuasion required to make the APRM effective, credible and acceptable.
Fifteen of the 53 African Union members have so far volunteered to have this extensive and independent national auditing done. They are Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda.  The first countries audited will be South Africa and Ghana.
The African Peer Review Mechanism is only one of the elements of the AU process.  Dr. Gadio likens it to a train picking up ideas and structures at various stops.  He can see the president of the AU as the spokesperson for the continent and the Council of Ministers as the beginning of a federal government.
Diaspora, Historic and Modern

Since all human life stems from Africa, there was some discussion regarding what constitutes the Diaspora. Dr. Gadio said there were the historical, those descendants of Africans who had been captured and taken to the Americas, and the modern, those who have migrated throughout the world.  The foreign minister sees these two groups as having tremendous potential and says the question is Awhat can Africa do for the Diaspora and what can the Diaspora do for Africa?@
He suggested that as commerce grows between the Diaspora and Africa, and as the African Renaissance grows, there will be a Diasporan Airline Company that would travel a new  Atlantic Triangle of Trinidad, New York and Senegal.  Trading with, visiting and supporting each other. AOnly when we reunite will our ancestors be satisfied.
The Dakar Conference

The Dakar conference originally scheduled for December was specifically meant to get the contribution of intellectuals in the Diaspora, and African intellectuals in general, to the building of the African Union.  Because of the time constraints, the Dakar meeting will be a preparatory one in anticipation of the conference itself, which they plan to have the scope of the First World Festival of Negro Arts, that President Leopold Senghor held in Dakar in 1966.
This December preparatory meeting would decide the format of the Conference, determine needed workshops and themes and decide on the desired outcome.  The goal is to produce a memorandum at the end which will be given to the African Union, outlining what can be done for the continent.  AIt will be an unprecedented platform for the launching of the African Renaissance.@  In this anticipated gathering of five hundred intellectuals, the focus will be on determining what role the African Diaspora will play in the African Union.
In order to select from this distinguished assemblage, five men and five women who will represent the group in Senegal, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture had them break into working groups based on randomly distributed folders with a colored star that determined the discussion group members.
The group then worked on the questions below, and based on those discussions, selected a male and a female member to represent them in Dakar.   These are the kinds of questions that would result from a curriculum designed to produce active participants in the African Renaissance.

I. The African Union and the African Diaspora
This conference assumes that African peoples in the Diaspora can become critical contributors to the development of the African Union and Nepad.  It also assumes that the African Union and Nepad have the potential of becoming critical actors in the advancement of the agendas of peoples of African descent in the Diaspora.
1. What are the areas of common interest between the peoples of the Diaspora and the African Union?
2. What are the primary items on the AU and Nepad agendas that would benefit from support and involvement of African Diasporan peoples and governments?

3. What are the major issues facing African peoples in the Diaspora that would  benefit from African Union and Nepad support and involvement?

II. Organizational Structure
The African Union is currently an organization of continental governments represented by presidents and the ministers of state. The African Union has proposed establishing a Sixth Region to represent the interests and participation of African peoples of the Diaspora-both old and new.
1. How should Caribbean governments with African majorities be represented in the African Union?
2. How should large black populations in major Diasporan societies (i.e., the United States, Brazil) be represented in the African Union and Nepad? For example: (Select one.)
a. The head of the Congressional Black Caucus?
b. The head of the Black Leadership Forum?
c. The ranking African-American in the U.S. government?
d. The head of the National Conference of Black Mayors?
e. The head of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators?
f. Through state caucuses and a national election?
g. A combination of the above?
h. Other?

As members of one of the groups spoke about these questions they said there was a common psychology among Africans on the continent and in the Diaspora, and that springs from the effects of white supremacy, Awhich remains alive in the world.

Another common concern was access to technology, a shared sense of not being in charge of our destination and an alienation from the global economy.  AThere has to be a re-education of what it means to be African.

Shining Thread of Hope

Editor, Our Time Press
-
0

During February and March, students seek subjects for essay assignments centering on black leaders and female role models.   They are encouraged to focus on the familiar, extraordinary heroes and heroines.   Yet, the happenings in the circle of our own daily lives, outside the realm of history books, inform us of many more pacesetters who should be added to the pantheon of  Ahonored citizens.  Thanks to an alert from Brooklyn’s-own  Children’s Times Associates, we have learned about a new,  must-read book  that attempts to correct this in terms of the Apanoramic story of black women.    for teachers, parents, students and everyone else:  Darlene Clark Hine and Kathleen Thompson’s A SHINING THREAD OF HOPE: The History of Black Women in America is for everyone:students, teachers, parents, young and older.    Informative and inspiring, THREAD OF HOPE chronicles, in the words from the book’s cover,  Athe lives of black  women from indentured servitude in the early American colonies to the cruelty of antebellum plantations, from the reign of the lynch law in the Jim Crow South to the triumphs of the Civil Rights era.  Tracing the accomplishments as well as the suffering of black women through the Great Migration, the Harlem Renaissance, the Depression, the Civil Rights movment and the present day,  Hine and Thompson challenge preconceived notions and move black women from the fringes of American history  to a central position in our understanding of the forces and events that have shaped this country.  More than a story of struggle, black women’s history is very much a story of hope…  This book tells the stories of  unheralded women whose lives and work still impact on all of us, but whose names are virtually unknown.   Of immediate consideration, for this month,  is  Mabel  K. Staupers.   Due to her efforts during World War II, Nurse’s Day, in  May,  is a salute to nurses of color, as well.  Hine and Thompson  remind us that  Stauper’s aggressive fight against quotas established by the U.S. Army Nurse Corps led  to the end of discriminatory practices against Black nurses in the army and navy (January 10, 1945).   Stauper helped Ato dispel entrenched beliefs about the alleged inferiority of black health-care professionals and paved the way for the integration of the American Nurses’ Association. In a related note,  The Children’s Times Associates is spearheading a movement to have a school  in New York named after Mabel K. Staupers.  Clara Barton is so honored.  Why not Mabel K. Staupers?

1...1,2861,2871,2881,289Page 1,287 of 1,289