The movement needs the Black Radical Congress

By Jarvis Tyner

This article was reprinted from the June 20, 1998 issue of the People's Weekly World. For subscription information see below. All rights reserved - may be used with PWW credits.

The fact that the Black Radical Congress (BRC) is holding its founding convention in Chicago June 20-21 is in itself a great achievement. The participants have come this far despite ideological differences. It shows that important sections of the African American left understand the primacy of struggle for the liberation of our people, which is critical to the forward motion of the class struggle as a whole.

The founding of the BRC is another sign of the new radicalization taking place today. There is a level of unity and maturity of the African American left that could lead to a more powerful realignment of progressive forces in general.

The BRC is a response to the state of the economy, which Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Alan Greenspan calls the "best" U.S. economy he has ever seen. In fact, the current economic situation has left millions of people trapped in poverty, hunger, unemployment and homelessness.

In this "good" economy working people's wages continue to decline while corporate profits reach astronomical heights. UAW workers are on strike today because General Motors is not satisfied with the $1.888 billion in profits last quarter.

They are planning to increase profits even more by shifting parts production abroad to low wage-non union companies. This will eliminate thousands more jobs, with African American workers taking the brunt.

U.S. capitalism has moved into a new, more brutal gangster stage where anything goes as long as it makes profit for those at the top. It is an economy where expanding profits and poverty go hand in hand.

Our youth are being pushed out of an education, robbed of a future, denied the ability to participate in the new technology. Hundreds of thousands have been entrapped by the ruling class drug policies, terrorized by racist police, warehoused in prisons and criminalized for the rest of their lives.

A majority of African American children live in poverty. One can only image what our plight will be when the inevitable downturn comes. We cannot wait for that downturn. We must organize and fight now if we are to survive.

To eliminate welfare at the same time poverty, unemployment and under-employment is growing is the height of brutality. To eliminate affirmative action when discrimination in housing, employment, health care and education has become more institutionalized and pervasive is to sanction genocide.

The African American community and every other community always need the voice of the left. Consider the following: One of the main forces in the attack on affirmative action is Ward Connerly, an African American front man for the Big Business drive for maximum profits.

A million people came to Washington D.C. for the "Million Man March" and Philadelphia for the "Million Woman March." They made virtually no demands on the government.

Louis Farrakhan has ordained himself as the most important leader of African Americans yet he aligns himself with the most right-wing ruling class Republicans. Some of the main advocates of blame-the-victim racism are African Americans. Clarence Thomas, Thomas Sowell, Allan Keys and J.C. Watts advocate accommodation to racism. When we face this kind of right-wing offensive, it is time for Black radicals to step forward, speak out and organize.

The BRC is needed because of the growing fascist danger. Neither major party is strong on civil rights and the Republican Party is a party of open racism.

The racist attacks on African Americans and immigrants, the attack on union rights, on gay people and the use of prisons, police and Klan violence to terrorize people have an objective direction. That is toward fascism.

We should not let the atrocities in Oklahoma City and Jasper, Texas intimidate us. We must see that these are actions by fascist elements and there are those of like mind in the U.S. Congress, in statehouses and on the biggest corporations' boards of directors. We have to unite and build BRC to help stop the fascist danger.

To take up the title of left radical means something. The tradition of Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois, Paul Robeson, William Patterson, Ida B. Wells, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., means something./

To be a left radical means that it is not enough to organize the academics and activists, although this is important. It means we must reach out to the mass of radicalized Black working class folks.

These are the people who have always been the backbone of the civil rights movement, that Martin L. King Jr. mobilized against the war in Vietnam, who were the backbone of the anti-apartheid movement here and in South Africa, the most consistent progressive voting bloc, the most consistent force for peace and anti imperialism.

This is the force that helped to bring about the defeat of the old Meany, Kirkland regimes in the AFL-CIO and usher in a new era of more militant policies in the labor movement today.

Left radicals must not be afraid to build coalitions on basic issues with other progressive forces including other civil rights organizations, peace, women's organizations and with organized labor. The current, more militant class struggle policies of the U.S. labor movement can only add to the potential of the BRC.

Black working people have a proud history of supporting left radical ideas and struggles and must be a primary constituency for BRC. These are the "radicals of the stomach" whose analysis comes from a life of racial and class oppression and whose survival depends on struggle. We must not allow the conservative minority to use various Black capitalist schemes to push aside the working class agenda of a majority of our people.

The BRC must go on after Juneteenth. In the spirit of the massive general strike of the slaves in Texas, we must continue the struggle. We need a loose structure and an inclusive form of membership but above all we need action.

When voices of reaction rise in our community, no matter how popular they may seem, we must have the courage to expose the hype and place a real radical agenda forward. When a call to action is necessary we must respond positively when others make the call or have the courage to make the call ourselves.

The BRC has not even begun to reach its potential. It is ideologically diverse coalition that we cannot solidify on the basis of ideological unity at this stage. We must build the BRC on the basis of issues of struggle because that is where there is the most agreement.

The Communist Party members in BRC are working for unity. We have no intention of trying to dominate the coalition and will resist that tendency on the part of others.

After this Congress, let the headlines not read that the usual suspects gathered in Chicago, did their usual in- fighting and went their separate ways. Everybody knows who would benefit from that. If you want to build BRC, fighting for unity is a principled question.

The Black Radical Congress has generated a lot of interest - it is an idea whose time has come. A lot of people are watching and most are counting on the Congress to succeed.

Let the story begin read, "The Black radicals gathered, outlined a program of struggle, returned home united, ready to initiate action and prepared to met again with even bigger numbers in the year 2000."

Jarvis Tyner is a vice chair of the Communist Party USA.

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