4/2000, 2000 April

Download
- Rights
- No Re-Use
  In Copyright
  More Rights Info
- Files (1)
- MP4
- Please be patient with media downloads. They are often large files.
Share

Embed Code
<iframe src='https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r42r3rx70?embed=true' height='500px' width='100%' frameborder='0' marginwidth='0' marginheight='0' scrolling='no' loading='lazy' allowfullscreen></iframe>
Permalink

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r42r3rx70
Skip to Item Info

Loading the media player...

Files for this Item

Transcript

Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.

-	That's where I wanna stop,	0:02
	and I understand now, I'm supposed to pass around a list	0:03
	so anybody who wants to sign up for the BRC.	0:06
	Oh, the Listserv, oh, the Listserv.	0:12
	(assembly laughing)	0:14
	Now tell me, he just put down list.	0:16
	What am I supposed to know about list?	0:17
	(assembly laughing)	0:19
	There's a Listserv, a PRC listserv (laughs)	0:21
Woman	He tried.	0:25
	(laughs)
-	Okay, so I'll lighten the air with that confusion.	0:32
	(assembly applauding)	0:36
Man	There are three hands.	0:42
	I saw one, two, three, four,	0:44
	and then we can go from there, okay?	0:46
-	I actually just, I don't know how I got on it	0:49
	but I just want to recommend your announcement list.	0:52
	I think it's the most extraordinary,	0:56
	I think it's the most extraordinary,	0:58
	I don't know, it's an announcement list.	1:01
	But the most wonderful stuff comes off of it,	1:04
	I would just never had learned about	1:08
	the Dorrisman funeral without it.	1:10
	I mean it was, I just find that some stuff	1:13
	that comes across it is incredibly moving	1:16
	and incredibly, and very, very informative.	1:18
	So I wanted to recommend that if anybody is interested in it	1:21
	that they get on that list.	1:24
Woman	Listserv.	1:27
Man	Cappy, would you tell how to subscribe to the list?	1:28
Woman	Cappy was our former recycle organizer.	1:31
-	I had to step down (laughs)	1:34
	But it's in the hands of a very capable person	1:36
	by the name Art McKee.	1:40
	I think that the problem was that	1:43
	we have all levels of people in the BRC, who are,	1:45
	some people are extremely computer literate,	1:50
	and some people are struggling.	1:52
	And so, but one of the problems we really tried to move on,	1:56
	for example, getting everybody on the coordinating committee	2:00
	is connected by email.	2:03
	And the website you're talking about were really the lists,	2:06
	really lists, we have a number of lists, not website.	2:10
	There's one website but there's a number of lists.	2:13
	Okay, so that's the clarification.	2:16
Woman	I'm one of those people who's struggling.	2:18
	(assembly laughing)	2:20
Man	I'm with you.	2:23
-	But we try to make it really simple,	2:24
	being there's a range of lists,	2:29
	announce lists and some discussion lists	2:31
	so for people who really want	2:34
	to exchange opinions back and forth	2:37
	there's also the ability to just get information.	2:38
	You can get it on the web, read only,	2:42
	for many of our lists, Listserv lists,	2:45
	instead of having to have it dumped into your box often.	2:48
	So, that's the way that the national campus network list,	2:51
	the national campus net that I run, that's the way it is.	2:56
	You don't have to get, you can leave it,	3:00
	you can log on once a week and see what's come to the list	3:02
	since the last time you logged on.	3:07
-	And one of the, just a brief commercial for it,	3:09
	one of the best services is to tell us	3:12
	when somebody was there and they described what happened.	3:16
	I find that one of the best things.	3:20
	The theoretical is great,	3:22
	announcements of things that are coming up, great,	3:25
	but I was there and here's what happened,	3:28
	invaluable to us.	3:30
Woman	Is anybody gonna tell us the URL?	3:32
Woman	Yeah.	3:34
Woman	That's its real virtue.	3:35
-	Yeah.	3:36
Woman	I thought it was such a good principle.	3:37
Cappy	To those of you who are, oh, I see.	3:39
	I thought I'd see--	3:44
Woman	Here it is.	3:45
-	Just send your e-mail to, oh no it doesn't,	3:48
	I'm sorry.	3:52
	It doesn't have a subscribe, apologies, I apologize.	3:53
	(laughs)	4:00
Person	It doesn't have it either?	4:01
Man	We'll get it, why don't we--	4:03
-	You can send it to me, pinderhc@bc.edu	4:05
	and I'll forward it to the appropriate place, I promise.	4:08
Woman	What is it?	4:11
-	Pinderhc@bc.edu, just say,	4:11
	information on BRC list and it will be forwarded.	4:16
	P-I-N-D-E-R-H-C at B-C dot E-D-U.	4:20
-	But there's also the BRC National Office,	4:24
	one word, at email.com.	4:26
	Brother.	4:32
Man	What's the address for the website?	4:33
Cappy	The website is blackradicalongress.com or .org.	4:35
-	I have been to meetings like this before.	4:42
	(assembly laughs)	4:45
	I was at the founding of the Republic in Africa,	4:47
	I was at the founding of the Fund for Southern Politics	4:50
	and what bothers me is,	4:56
	first of all, I wanna say to you sir,	4:59
	I congratulate you and I salute you,	5:02
	and I hope one of the things you will consider doing	5:04
	is bringing young people into those trials,	5:06
	letting them learn the arguments and the law,	5:10
	letting them present them to a wide audience.	5:14
	It's one thing to convince us	5:17
	about the fallacy of the justice system.	5:19
	It's another thing to prove it to a community	5:22
	by that community's peers using the same language,	5:24
	the laws and the regulations as you have so mastered.	5:30
	And I say not to challenge you,	5:34
	but we've got to get more people involved in every event	5:37
	so that when we say there's a legitimate reason	5:41
	to question the legal system,	5:44
	there's no question about that.	5:45
	We've got to turn that around.	5:47
	Now I'm simply offering a way to turn that around.	5:48
	Now I'm gonna tell ya'll somethin' that may surprise you.	5:51
Woman	Okay.	5:53
-	Whenever people declare war on capitalism,	5:55
	I don't wanna be a part of that	5:59
	because I think capitalism has proven to be	6:02
	a sophisticated animal to redefine itself	6:05
	within seconds for anyone,	6:08
	anywhere in the globe, at any time.	6:10
	And if we're prepared to attack it,	6:13
	if ya'll are prepared to attack it with that understanding,	6:17
	go for it.	6:21
	But I think if we begin to realize	6:23
	that it would be incongruent for us to meet here today	6:26
	and have a plenary session	6:31
	and not issue a statement in support	6:33
	of what's goin' on in Washington.	6:35
	Then we're all lyin' to ourselves.	6:37
Woman	That's right.	6:39
-	And I don't think there's a contradiction,	6:40
	or a juxtaposition, in those two issues.	6:42
	I believe that you got to organize people where they are.	6:44
	You don't organize people where you think	6:48
	they're gonna leap in three or four years.	6:50
	So I just hope, and if it turns out	6:52
	that I am the conservative spokesman in this congress,	6:55
	(assembly laughs)	6:58
Woman	The gentleman from Washington.	6:58
-	I'm prepared to do that,	7:02
	with the same vigor and panache,	7:04
	that I valued on the other side.	7:06
	But, quite seriously, I hope	7:08
	that we would look at the value of language	7:09
	when we're talkin' about politics.	7:12
	You can do whatever you wanna do	7:15
	but in America, at this time, let us understand one thing,	7:17
	the stock market is but a mere indication	7:21
	of where we're goin', you can't keep win,	7:24
	any poker player, who has to win every hand	7:26
	is doomed to fail.	7:30
Woman	That's right.	7:31
-	So I think we gonna se a lot of WTO type things	7:32
	throughout the world,	7:35
	and I just don't want us to language ourselves	7:36
	out of the fight.	7:40
Woman	Me?	7:43
-	Yes.
-	Well there were a couple of things	7:45
	I think arise up to the occasion	7:46
	because I'm at the point of fatigue.	7:48
	But it seems to me that some of these court cases	7:50
	are actually political campaigns,	7:52
	and that they have to be risen to the point	7:55
	of the campaign thing.	7:58
	I think of Green Peace and the whales,	8:00
	and them in their little dingeys	8:03
	out in the middle of god knows where,	8:04
	and screamin' and hollerin' and all that kind of stuff,	8:06
	but the point that I am tryin' to raise	8:08
	is that it takes some of that	8:10
	to bring both media,	8:13
	and to move people from a point	8:15
	of non-alertness to alertness,	8:18
	and I, and also there's some links	8:20
	that we could make right now, brother,	8:23
	and I mean I'll talk to you on the side.	8:25
	There are some radical lawyers out of this state	8:26
	who you need to be in touch with.	8:29
	I mean we need to, at this juncture,	8:31
	in the reformation of the capitalists	8:35
	on the level that they didn't even begin to dream about,	8:39
	a hundred years from now,	8:42
	we have to place some alliances,	8:45
	both on the national and international level.	8:47
	That e-mail, we can discuss among ourselves,	8:50
	but the e-mail is a very important international linkage.	8:53
	I mean it's critical.	8:57
	And there are very few organizations	8:58
	that have mastered this.	9:00
	And while you may not be able to raise	9:01
	the argument in North Carolina	9:03
	to have 10 thousand Parisians walkin' down the street	9:06
	in the middle of Paris saying,	9:10
	hold on, you know that raises a whole 'nother kinda thing.	9:11
	And we have, I'm gonna raise the issue	9:14
	of the master strategies.	9:16
	I mean I'm almost feelin' like	9:19
	what I think he's feelin' like,	9:21
	but we have been somewhere around this before,	9:23
	and that is not to say that it does not have to be repeated.	9:25
	But some of us have learned over 50 years	9:29
	some strategies we're not able to put into effect.	9:33
	And I think that at some point,	9:37
	while there's grass roots growing,	9:39
	there has to be some other vision projection outward,	9:41
	you know, some master plans put into effect,	9:47
	because we're losing the big war.	9:51
	We may be winning some battles,	9:53
	but the big war is really goin' on,	9:54
	I tell my dope-dealin' friends up in jail,	9:57
	I said you know, ya'll still battlin'	9:59
	about the northeastern corner of the ghetto.	10:00
	These people have subdivided outer space.	10:03
	I mean, what are we talkin' about?	10:06
	We're in two different time zones here.	10:08
	And that is not to say one completely nullifies the other	10:10
	but I'm thinkin' that at some point	10:14
	we gotta hit a pentacle of intellectual combustion.	10:16
	We have got to hit people, I mean I have a plan.	10:19
	We've gotta hit people with money,	10:23
	we have got to get them to bankroll a brain thrust,	10:25
	and yes, it's gonna be infiltrated, but so what?	10:29
	Ya know, and move at another level	10:32
	because we, as I said before,	10:35
	I don't know whether we're really winning	10:38
	the big war, okay.	10:40
Man	If Stephan wants to get started in this	10:43
	while we're here and then gist it in.	10:45
-	And somewhat, I don't know if this completely a response,	10:47
	but certainly a comment, or follow-up,	10:51
	and a salute to what you've been saying to this point	10:54
	and some of what was said earlier.	10:58
	I think some of the points that were just raised	11:01
	by a number of the commentaries that were just made	11:04
	are very relevant and very timely right now,	11:06
	as it relates number one, for example, to,	11:09
	how do you get young people engaged in the struggle?	11:12
	I mean one of the things that I was always faced with,	11:15
	right now, I'm 32 years old, I'll be 32 this summer,	11:19
	and it was weird.	11:24
	I would talk to my parents and people who were really,	11:27
	really products of the struggles in the 60's and the 50's,	11:30
	and somehow another that message got lost	11:35
	in the 70's and the 80's to this generation	11:39
	and the next generation and so on and so forth.	11:42
	And the reality is, and I don't say this,	11:45
	I say this from a perspective	11:48
	of having worked with children and worked in education	11:50
	and doing education law for a number of years,	11:52
	and looking at our youth that are coming up behind us,	11:55
	there has to be a real connect with that community,	11:59
	if these issues that we're talking about	12:04
	are so profound and paramount to change in our society,	12:06
	we've got to figure out ways	12:12
	to make this struggle real to them	12:15
	because all too often,	12:18
	if I am privileged enough to go to a integrated high school,	12:21
	then I don't know what it was like	12:27
	not to go to a integrated high school.	12:29
	And that's not to say that all integrated high schools	12:31
	are the paradigm for which we are looking.	12:34
	I wanna be very clear about that.	12:37
	But what I am saying is the opportunity, nonetheless,	12:40
	should be afforded to me.	12:43
	Now, in looking at that, and recognizing	12:45
	that we need to engage young people as what's one way.	12:49
	And looking and listening to some of the other things	12:55
	that were being said as it relates to a global movement	12:56
	and a society of information overload.	13:00
	What I would also say is, number one,	13:06
	e-mail is your friend, but be careful.	13:08
Man	Amen.	13:11
-	Because don't believe that your information	13:12
	is not being read or cannot be picked up	13:15
	by someone else over the internet.	13:19
	So it's not the Panacea that a lot of people	13:24
	tend to play it up.	13:27
Woman	It's not private.	13:28
-	Exactly, exactly.
	But it is a tremendous way to get out your message	13:31
	and get out your information	13:35
	and I'm thankful for the receive of the BRC news	13:37
	in my e-mail because it puts me in touch with other people	13:42
	and gives me the perspective that I need to have	13:45
	to be able to look at these issues in a different way.	13:48
	And in looking at that, I mean you talked about,	13:51
	we talked about globalization,	13:53
	you talk about the WTO for example,	13:55
	and that kind of brings links	13:59
	and kind of ties it all together	14:02
	to what this panel has been talking about.	14:04
	For example, I can talk about it	14:06
	from a agricultural perspective	14:08
	of how it's affecting family farmers	14:10
	and driving them out of business	14:13
	and he can talk about it from a perspective	14:14
	of how globalization is affecting farm workers	14:17
	and the relationship between the two	14:21
	if we were to unite and to bring our messages together	14:23
	in one common platform.	14:28
	And it's not a legal forum.	14:30
	It has to be a political and a social forum.	14:33
	It has to be an economic forum.	14:36
	There have to be all of those components brought together.	14:38
	And, ya know, I hear that very clearly	14:41
	coming out of the message	14:43
	and I'm lookin' forward to hearing about your plan	14:45
	and how we can make this plan work but.	14:48
	(assembly laughing)	14:50
-	I'm afraid I just lost Bob,	15:01
	I was hopin' that he would be in here.	15:02
	I wanna, I agree with much of what Guyot said	15:08
	because our rhetoric can often define us	15:14
	away from issues we spin deep and deeper into them	15:19
	and that was one of the terrible mistakes	15:22
	of the late 60's and early 70's	15:24
	was using rhetoric as a weapon	15:26
	to upgrade our self-esteem	15:30
	rather than to actually communicate with people.	15:33
	And one of the things that the rhetoric did	15:36
	was that we closed off our minds	15:39
	with rhetoric we were using.	15:42
	Much of it was true, much of it was accurate,	15:44
	but it sealed off instead of opening up.	15:46
	Both the separatism, the Marxism,	15:52
	some had structuralism	15:56
	about how you fit into the system or stuff like that.	15:59
	But I wanna, I just wanna point that out,	16:01
	we have to have a vision, we have to develop a vision,	16:05
	but a vision has always got to be open.	16:08
	I mean it's a way to get to somewhere,	16:11
	it's not closing off something	16:13
	that I define you know what the future's gonna be	16:16
	and you have got submit to that definition.	16:18
	But it's good to open it up to where we can,	16:21
	it's the only way that we're going to bring	16:25
	sectoralism to a unifying possibility.	16:28
	Otherwise it's each little group	16:31
	fightin' for its own right and its own piece of the pie,	16:33
	and the pie, that's what Guyot was talking about,	16:36
	the pie can always accommodate, ya know,	16:39
	to another little group	16:41
	as long as it takes a piece away from somebody else	16:42
	and makes you fight them	16:45
	instead of what the pie is all about.	16:46
	So that has a lot to do	16:47
	with the capitalism itself as a whole.	16:49
	I organized in Teamsters in Chicago,	16:53
	I built a group called	16:57
	the Concerned Truckers for Democratic Union,	16:58
	I was the founding president of that group,	17:01
	and we used to picket in Chicago at the Union Hall	17:03
	and at companies in support of the farm workers.	17:06
	Now many of you don't know,	17:09
	but the Teamsters were organizing farm workers	17:11
	to crush the USUFWLC, Chavez' group,	17:14
	so that, because they could make sweetheart deals	17:19
	with the growers	17:22
	so that they would have more money in the union	17:25
	to pocket and build more hotels in Las Vegas,	17:28
	and not to improve the conditions of the farm workers.	17:31
	We, and I organized in freight,	17:35
	which was the aristocracy of the Teamsters	17:38
	'cause it was the original foundation,	17:41
	but I was a dock worker	17:43
	so I was like the lower end of the high end.	17:44
	But coming from that,	17:47
	if you stake your position on moral basis,	17:48
	but at the same time show the material needs	17:51
	and how that fits into a higher vision	17:54
	then it is possible to reach people from different sectors.	17:57
	And I was also on the Founding National Executive Committee	18:01
	of Teamsters for a Democratic Union,	18:05
	which after a 20 year stuggle,	18:08
	eventually took power of the union,	18:09
	and then they won the UPS strike	18:11
	and the government attacked them	18:13
	and put Jimmy Hoffa back in.	18:14
	So now we still have, we got Mayor Daley in Chicago	18:16
	and we got Jimmy Hoffa in president of the Teamsters.	18:20
Man	Happy camp.	18:22
-	Yeah, the same gang.	18:23
	But we have to pull these pieces together	18:25
	and the only way it can do	18:28
	is for each group to fight hard for their own position	18:29
	but to realize a higher vision	18:33
	that's gonna pull us together in the long run.	18:34
-	The name of this meeting was where do you stop and turn,	18:43
	and I think in this discussion, it has raised the,	18:47
	what I consider to be the most central question,	18:51
	which is the question of culturalism,	18:55
	because what's happening to the black farmers	18:58
	in North Carolina is happening to the white farmers	19:00
	in northern Vermont, and the reasons,	19:04
	aside from I'm not diminishing	19:09
	the racist element	19:14
	of what's happening here	19:18
	because we know that within this society	19:19
	that's always a defining characteristic of what's happening.	19:22
	But even if that wasn't happening,	19:27
	they would be facing	19:30
	what my neighbors are facing now in Vermont	19:33
	and they're facing in Vermont	19:37
	what the dairy farmers are facing,	19:40
	it's the same thing that the farmers	19:43
	out in Wisconsin are facing,	19:46
	that the small industrial workers are facing,	19:48
	and their problems are tied	19:54
	to the problems of access to education,	19:59
	healthcare, and all those same questions in this country.	20:04
	And I think that, I'm hoping,	20:09
	I hope that what we're beginning to see,	20:13
	as we begin to see the emergence	20:16
	of target of things	20:20
	like the WTO, et cetera,	20:23
	is that we're beginning to understand	20:26
	kind of the network, the web of how this society,	20:30
	the overall society	20:35
	ties together.	20:40
	And I really second what Muriel says,	20:41
	that in addition to our understanding,	20:44
	need of understanding and analysis	20:49
	of stuff on, in a community level,	20:53
	that we also need to be developing	20:56
	a larger entity,	21:00
	whether we call it a political party	21:03
	or just a progressive movement or whatever,	21:05
	so that all these,	21:08
	all these issues are linked together,	21:11
	so you can say to those young people, Guyot,	21:13
	it isn't just a question of go down,	21:17
	learn why what's happening to these farmers,	21:20
	look what's happening to you.	21:23
	Our students have, our kids have come to accept	21:27
	the fact that they have to pay	21:31
	thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars	21:33
	in order to get a education.	21:37
	They've come to accept that they come out of college	21:40
	only 20, 30, 40, 50 thousand dollars,	21:43
	which severely, severely limits what they can do,	21:48
	and on the other side of that,	21:54
	that's as related to what is the figure	21:57
	of black men in prison?	22:01
Woman	About one in three.	22:05
-	Yeah, right, okay.	22:06
	I mean, you know,	22:08
	if we go, if we talk about these issues	22:12
	we must be able to show people	22:17
	that all these things are related.	22:20
	If you're concerned about what the cost of tuition is	22:24
	in your junior college	22:28
	in Lyndonville, Vermont,	22:31
	then you gotta look at what the resources are	22:35
	of this country and where they are going.	22:39
	And once you begin to do that, you begin to,	22:43
	you cannot not see the prison system,	22:47
	and where the resources,	22:53
	the money is going into these prisons,	22:55
	instead of going into the community needs.	22:57
	And I think that we need	23:01
	to begin to talk in a broader context	23:03
	so that all these things are part of one	23:07
	because the other side of the issue for the farmers	23:13
	is the question of the environmental degradation.	23:18
	Many of those farmers, just like my neighbors,	23:22
	have been pouring poison onto their fields for years,	23:25
	ya know, taking out these huge loans,	23:30
	I mean there's nothing much different,	23:33
	okay I'm going to wrap it up,	23:35
	than the situation	23:36
	that the third world countries are in,	23:39
	having borrowed all this money and they're destitute,	23:42
	and that is what has happened to the farms.	23:46
	So to summarize, I just wanna say	23:50
	I think that we need to be really thinking	23:52
	in terms of a broader perspective,	23:55
	which has a platform	24:00
	that includes all these different aspects,	24:02
	so we're not just talking every,	24:05
	you talking about this one,	24:08
	he's talking about this, and so forth.	24:09
-	You've run out of energy?	24:19
	Cappy, we have one more and then we can sum up.	24:23
Man	Actually I'll pass on to someone	24:27
	'cause it was just somethin'	24:29
	more about the clarification of the congress.	24:30
-	Anybody wanna take any time,	24:35
	I know Charles just, I think he's in the hallway,	24:37
	but anything about the weekend itself,	24:40
	that people wanna pass on or whatever, I don't know.	24:42
Man	Can we talk about the Listserv	24:46
	that is going to be started?	24:47
-	From this weekend?	24:51
Woman	We just announced last night.	24:53
-	Yeah, I don't know enough about it.	24:55
	I think they took down names for the Listserv	24:56
	and they also sayin' stuff will be put on the website	25:01
	so I think between the two, if you signed up,	25:03
	you oughta be able to get them.	25:06
-	I mean, the idea was brought about by Curtis Mohammed,	25:08
	and he wants to really have something tangible	25:11
	coming out of this weekend that we can build on,	25:13
	not just a reunion or reflection of 40 years ago,	25:16
	but something we can work towards,	25:19
	you know especially younger people,	25:21
	like students and myself,	25:22
	so we started this Listserv,	25:24
	hopefully everyone's filled out	25:27
	one of those profile sheets yesterday	25:29
	that was passed around at the church,	25:31
	and that's gonna be used to start this Listserv,	25:33
	and we're gonna start this new networking	25:36
	that we really need to do to keep this moving.	25:38
-	Well I'd like to focus on the comment,	25:44
	I think it was great I took off from work,	25:45
	which I mean, at the best of work I usually bypass	25:49
	but seein' the guys in jail I really feel like	25:52
	I'm takin' something away they have so little.	25:54
	But I knew that this was going to be an important period,	25:57
	and I think that I was particularly cheery	26:02
	to see so many young people because I'll tell you,	26:06
	I go to meetings and I see quote-on-quote	26:09
	radical women and men coming	26:11
	but I've never seen them bring their children.	26:13
	And I drag my kids to every place I go,	26:15
	but I never see them bring their children	26:18
	and I have seen many of radical parents	26:20
	who has children who are reactionary	26:22
	who are goin' out the other side of the door.	26:25
	You know what I'm saying?	26:27
	And so I'm glad to see this combinating happening,	26:29
	'cause when numbers start moving	26:33
	I know that all these problems that we have in this world	26:35
	pretty much are person-made, I started to say man-made,	26:39
	but they're person-made.	26:42
	So it is possible for people to unmake them,	26:44
	and let's start with that premise.	26:47
	And I am assuming that many minds,	26:50
	because I saw it in snack,	26:52
	many minds, it was the greatest concentration	26:54
	of brain thrust I have ever seen	26:57
	and if I were on the Joint Chiefs of Staff	27:00
	I would be fighting too.	27:02
	(laughs)	27:04
	But hopefully we can reconfigure it again,	27:06
	because when people start thinkin' about how to win	27:09
	and are intelligent, are learned,	27:13
	are dedicated in commitment,	27:16
	they can move a rock, they can move a mountain.	27:18
	So I'm glad I was here.	27:21
Woman	So am I.	27:23
-	And I wanna just say I'm glad I was here too	27:26
	and I know that, there's no question in my mind	27:30
	that you're now gonna go home and forget	27:34
	what happened here these last three or four days.	27:35
	So start thinkin' about right now	27:38
	what you're gonna take back	27:40
	and what you're gonna do with it.	27:41
	(assembly applauding)	27:43
Man	Thank you, thank you so much.	27:51
	(laughs)	27:53
-	Struggles, that people are in motion	27:56
	and they're consistently,	27:59
	there are consistent arenas of fightback	28:01
	that have not taken place in a long period of time,	28:04
	and fightback in large numbers,	28:07
	the sweatshop movement in the colleges,	28:09
	the janitorial strike in Los Angeles,	28:12
	so it is across the board and a multitude of areas.	28:16
	And the question that was raised just previously	28:22
	about the whole business around coalitions,	28:25
	that is our only salvation.	28:27
	We can, it is impossible, under today's conditions,	28:29
	to go alone on a single issue and win.	28:34
	It is, what is needed is unity of the people	28:39
	on many issues and finding the common core.	28:43
	With that introduction,	28:50
	Lawrence, would you offer a proposal please.	28:53
-	I move that we,	28:56
	consistent with the purpose of this celebration	28:58
	and consistent with the discussions	29:01
	that we have individually and collectively held	29:03
	that deal with the question of economic,	29:05
	organizing around economic justice,	29:07
	that we, in plenary session,	29:10
	support a resolution that gives our unconditional support	29:12
	to the demonstrations now being conducted	29:18
	in the District of Columbia in opposition	29:20
	to the World Trade Organization and its policies.	29:22
Audience	So move.	29:26
-	I'll accept that as a friendly amendment.	29:31
Woman	And I am now to be satisfied.	29:35
	I can, in turn, sorry, all in favor.	29:37
Audience	Aye.	29:41
-	I don't know that we need a discussion,	29:44
	but if you wanna be democratic about this let's do it.	29:45
	(laughs)	29:48
-	My trade union tradin' now.	29:49
	I'm just gonna say that,	29:52
	you know I don't know how long we want it to be,	29:53
	but that in supporting the brother's motion	29:55
	that we empower one or two people	29:58
	to draft up the statement and go with it.	30:01
Woman	I was gonna do that following the first movement.	30:04
-	Okay, yeah.	30:06
Man	Done, yes.	30:07
-	Done.	30:08
	Let's, is there any more discussion?	30:14
	Alright, the vote,	30:19
	the question has been called, all in favor.	30:21
Audience	Aye.	30:23
-	Opposed, extensions, so move.	30:24
	Alright now, can we get a couple people	30:27
	to volunteer to draft this.	30:29
	I don't that I am the best person to be one of those people.	30:31
Audience	Guyot.	30:34
Woman	He's out of DC because that's where the action is.	30:36
Guyot	I really would be improper for me to do it,	30:41
	I gotta be honest with you,	30:44
	(assembly laughing)	30:46
	I don't wanna accept responsibility and	30:48
-	Can I, excuse me, let me just ask a question	30:50
	on procedure here.	30:54
	Was there not, is there not supposed to be	30:57
	some sort of press release	31:00
	concerning the whole--	31:05
Man	No, let me say	31:07
-	I'm asking.
Man	Let me say this.	31:09
-	I'm asking a question,
Man	Let us show	31:10
-	Don't get upset.
Man	That there is not.	31:11
	Let us show that there is and go out today.	31:12
	We should vote to adopt a statement that can be released	31:14
	as soon as possible, so let us, that's our responsibility.	31:17
	Now you volunteered to work on this.	31:21
	(assembly laughing)	31:24
	These two gentlemen,	31:30
	now whoever else wants to work with 'em.	31:31
Woman	I agree, I second that nomination of these two	31:34
	'cause we need to have somebody	31:39
	that knows how to work those machines.	31:40
Man	Let's, we will leave them to the work.	31:41
	(people talking over each other)	31:45
-	What he's just been volunteered for.	31:50
	(laughs)	31:54
	Hold on, hold on a minute.	32:01
-	We're still in session.	32:04
	We're still in session.	32:06
	What we have the first,	32:07
	we have the actual instrument	32:08
	that at some point before the midnight hour	32:10
	will materialize.	32:12
	This body has not determined	32:14
	where this instrument ought to go,	32:15
	and I don't mean all of its ramifications,	32:18
	but what is its prime aim,	32:20
	I think we need to leave these people	32:23
	with some kind of further direction here.	32:24
Man	It should be released to the press.	32:27
-	Is it local?	32:30
Man	All press available.	32:31
-	Is there a mechanism though?	32:33
Man	What I would suggest	32:34
	is that you have burdened my life	32:36
	the next couple of hours with this thing,	32:39
	is that we release it to the BRC lists,	32:42
	to The Black World Today, and all the lists	32:46
	that are associated with A16 activities.	32:49
Man	Okay, send it to them.	32:53
Man	Send it to them.	32:54
Woman	The fair trade networks, the fair trade networks.	32:54
	And once you get it one they'll put it on--	32:57
Man	Yeah, that is purely consistent with our vote.	32:59
-	Okay.	33:02
Man	The big demo is today and tomorrow,	33:03
	there's one tomorrow.	33:05
Woman	Now that you've gotten	33:06
	all that shift disturbed you gonna leave.	33:07
	(assembly laughing)	33:09
-	No but I think we oughta give him a hand	33:11
	for really puttin' this all together.	33:14
	(assembly applauding)	33:15
	(people talking amongst themselves)	33:17

Item Info

Title:

4/2000, 2000 April

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r42r3rx70

Date:

April 28, 2000

Description:

One of sixteen digital videocassette tapes documenting the 13 April 2000 conference, "We Who Believe in Freedom Cannot Rest: Ella J. Baker ('Miss Baker') and the Birth of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee," held at Shaw University, in Raleigh, NC. The conference celebrated the organization's 40th anniversary.

Identifier:

RL10136-MDV-0016
ref65_3eq
snccanniversarytapes
duke:541226
rl10136mdv0016
ark:/87924/r42r3rx70
582abb76-e05d-4677-a3e8-0a41e8de52c7

Digital Collection:

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee 40th anniversary conference videocassette tapes, 2000

Source Collection:

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee 40th anniversary conference videocassette tapes, 2000

Location:

Subject:

Format:

videocassettes

Rights:

No Re-Use

In Copyright

Rights Note:

This material is made available for research, scholarship, and private study. Copyright in this material has not been transferred to Duke University. For reuses of this material beyond those permitted by fair use or otherwise allowed under the Copyright Act, please see our page on copyright and citations: https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/research/citations-and-permissions.

Type:

Moving Image

Sponsor:

Sponsor this Digital Collection

4/2000, 2000 April

Transcript

Item Info

John Hope Franklin Research Center

More Info & Options