All across America a massive mobilization is in full force demanding justice in the horrific and unjustified death of Trayvon Martin at the hands of George Zimmerman. It was a vigilante style killing aided and abetted by Florida’s wild, wild west “Stand Your Ground” law.  The Trayvon Martin case has struck a nerve in Black America, not only because of the tragic and unnecessary death of a promising young African American man, but because this case is symbolic of a broader pattern of assault on young Black males throughout the country. At the recent National Symposium on the historic Gary National Black Political Convention, convened by the Institute of the Black World 21^st Century in Washington, D.C., Cynthia Martin, Chief-of-Staff for Congressman John Conyers, welcomed the group and immediately left to join a rally for Trayvon Martin on Capitol Hill. She was going to the Rally to protest the death of Trayvon but also out of concern about her own son as a Black “man child” in America.

The death of Trayvon Martin has struck a nerve in Black America because millions of Black mothers and fathers fear for the safety and lives of their sons as a result of images in the media that portray Black men as dangerous and criminal justice and policing policies that are specifically targeted at Black communities.   When George Zimmerman insisted on pursuing Trayvon he had a profile of a “suspicious” Black man imbedded in his consciousness, i.e., hoodie = criminal. It is the same profile that police in New York City and numerous locales across the country carry in their heads when they routinely patrol America’s “dark ghettos” conducting “stop and frisk” raids on  Black youth under the guise of ridding the community of drugs and guns. These raids have become so commonplace that Black youth have come to expect them as part of their daily lives. At a recent Conference on Black Males, hosted at York College of the City University of New York, City Councilman Charles Barron asked the audience of some 200 students how many of them had been stopped and frisked by the police — 80% raised their hands. During the question and answer period a young student came to the microphone and in an emotionally strained voice asked, “When will they stop harassing us? “

This “harassment” is part of the broader crisis, the State of Emergency afflicting America’s dark ghettos. And, much of White America is clueless or unsympathetic to this reality. When President Obama stated that if he had a son he would look like Trayvon Martin, presidential candidate Newt Gingrich immediately pounced on the President, accusing him of suggesting that race played a role in this tragic event. Some analysts were also quick to dismiss race as a factor in this miscarriage of justice. They are clueless, blind or indifferent to the targeting of inner-city Black communities and profiling of young Black males as an ill conceived strategy for reducing crime.

The real crime, the crime America doesn’t want to talk about is the decades of blatant neglect that has devastated inner-city Black communities in this nation. It is the legacy of the “White backlash” against Black progress in the era of the 60’s and the unfulfilled civil rights/human rights agenda. Despite the passage of civil rights laws in the 60’s, Black poor and working people, particularly those who live in America’s dark ghettos, have never achieved economic equity or justice. While America conveniently hails Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I have a Dream Speech,” few choose to recall that at the end of his life, Dr. King was organizing a “Poor People’s Campaign” to promote the enactment of an Economic Bill of Rights to ensure a basic quality of life/standard of living for all Americans in terms of jobs, education, housing and healthcare.  With urban rebellions erupting across the land, King realized that Civil Rights without basic Human Rights would not complete the journey of Africans in America to the “promised land.”

Unfortunately, King was killed before he could fully champion this most significant evolution of his dream for an America that could genuinely be “free at last” of racial and economic injustice.  And, the White backlash which he predicted and feared, a backlash born of resentment and fear of Black gains due to the Civil Rights movement, was exploited by rightwing politicians like George Wallace, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan to advance their political fortunes. The War on Poverty, Model Cities Program, Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA), Job Corps., Joint Partnership and Training Act (JPTA), public housing, Community Development Block Grants and Welfare – “safety net” programs which at least served to relieve/ameliorate the plight of poor and working people and offer a glimmer of hope of escaping poverty were either decimated or drastically reduced.  Conservatives like Ronald Reagan, who railed against the burden of government on the backs of the people, portrayed safety net programs as the preserve of “welfare queens” and “Food Stamp cheats.” The examples he used were most often of Black “offenders.” The equation was not lost on Whites, resentful of what was interpreted as an encroachment on their rights by the Civil Rights laws and social programs.

Thus a growing White backlash helped to dramatically change the political landscape as it relates to civil rights and social programs. Disinvestment became the order of the day as both political parties moved to “shrink the size of government” – translation, get rid of social safety net programs perceived to largely benefit Black people.  In addition to disinvestment, changes in America’s economy in the form of massive deindustrialization also dealt a devastating blow to urban inner-city areas. Plant closings and capital flight have reduced many urban inner-city centers to economic wastelands where “work has disappeared.” The consequence of this blatant neglect/disinvestment and deindustrialization has been nothing short of disastrous. In the absence of economic opportunity, it was inevitable that various forms of illicit activity, including trafficking in drugs, would be adapted as a way of making a living. America’s dark ghettos have deteriorated into crime and drug infested zones where violence and fratricide are pervasive.  During his1988 presidential campaign, in his inimitable way, Rev. Jesse L. Jackson repeatedly conveyed the essence of this crisis in one simple phrase: “Jobs going out, drugs coming in.”

The urban rebellions had already fueled a demand for “law and order” among conservative politicians. Crime and violence in urban America was also the source of the creation of the image of “the dangerous Black man.” Willie Horton, a convicted felon who committed a series of crimes while on furlough under a special prison program in Massachusetts, became a focal point of the 1988 presidential campaign and the poster figure of the “dangerous Black man.” The sum total of America’s response to dangerous communities with legions of dangerous Black men was to declare a “War on Drugs,” devise aggressive paramilitary policing strategies and adopt draconian criminal justice policies like “three strikes and out” and mandatory minimum sentences. The net effect has been the demonization, criminalization and mass incarceration of young Black men and increasingly women, many of them for non-violence drug offenses.  Indeed, in many respects the” War on Drugs” is the main culprit in the criminalization and incarceration of the flower of Black America’s youth/young people.  Data provided by the Drug Policy Alliance, Open Society Foundations and numerous policy analysts clearly show that drug use is just as prevalent in White communities as Black communities, but it is Black communities that have clearly been targeted as the major battleground for the “war.” The cops are not “rolling up” on White males in White neighborhoods but accosting Black males in Black neighborhoods. It is Black youth/young people who are being fed into the prison-jail industrial complex.

As is the case in every era of our sojourn in this hostile land art/culture has come to reflect reality, the “realness” of the existence of millions of Blacks imprisoned in America’s dark ghettos.  The crime, violence and fratricide in Black communities is reflected in the raps, rhymes and lyrics of the youth/young people most adversely affected by the blatant neglect and “war on us.” The illicit economy and mass incarceration are such dominant features of life that they have spawned a way of talking, dressing and walking. The hoodie and sagging pants are perverse reflections of the “realness” of life in America’s dark ghettos. To be “cool” is to look like a prisoner, gangsta or thug. It’s art imitating life.

When Trayvon Martin made his fateful walk towards home in the twilight hour with his hoodie over his head and skittles and a soda in hand, he carried the full weight of America’s perception of the “suspicious” looking “dangerous” Black man on his shoulders. George Zimmerman acted on this perception in the same irrational manner that multitudes of cops and “frightened” civilians act toward young Black men each and every day in this country. And, were it not for the protest of his parents, an outraged national Black community and concern of people of good will, Trayvon would be just another dead Black man. The mobilization is on, but the question is beyond demanding justice for Trayvon; where do we go next?

Forty-four years ago this week Dr. Martin Luther King was gunned down on a balcony in Memphis. As we reflect on the mission he was pursuing at the end of his life, I firmly believe we must build a multifaceted movement to end the State of Emergency in Black America, particularly as it is manifest in the crises afflicting America’s dark ghettos. Internally, we have an obligation to combat self-destructive behavior and the fratricide that is wasting so many of our young people. The internal struggle we must wage is absolutely essential; however, we must never lose sight of the root causes of the State of Emergency in much of Black America.  We must commit to an all out campaign to end the War on Drugs as a racially bias strategy and principal source of the paramilitary policing tactics employed in our neighborhoods, the harassment and mass incarceration of our youth/young people and devastation of our communities. The War on Drugs is a racist strategy; it is indeed a “War on Us.”  The casualties and collateral damage are horrendous and utterly unacceptable.  We must be bold enough to demand that drug use and addiction be viewed as a health crisis and treated as such. We must be bold enough to demand a halt to the criminalization and imprisonment of youth/young people for possession of small quantities of marijuana and long sentences for non-violent drug offenses.  And, we must be bold enough to at least have a national dialogue on regulation rather than prohibition of drugs as a way of stopping the turf wars, violence and internecine killing associated with drug trafficking in our communities.

But, ending the War on Drugs alone will not create the safe and wholesome communities we deserve.  The longstanding blatant neglect of Black communities is also calculated and racist, a clear example of institutional/structural racism, and we must have the audacity to say so. The combustible and deadly cauldron of devastation and dysfunction in America’s dark ghettos is a direct consequence of America’s retreat from finishing the unfinished civil rights/human rights agenda.  As I have stated time and time again in the wake of the conservative tide sweeping the country, politicians and policymakers from both political parties abandoned the inner-cities.  Policing and prisons became the substitute for continued investment in social, economic and racial justice. America’s dark ghettos got the “bounced check” instead of the fulfillment of the dream Dr. King so eloquently spoke about at the March on Washington.

It’s time to once again call upon this nation to make good on the “promissory note, to “cash the check.” In this election season, as we prepare to March on Ballot Boxes to re-elect America’s first African American  President, our voices must be heard loud and clear: we demand an end to policies and practices that wreak havoc on America’s dark ghettos; we demand to be treated as human beings who are entitled to live in safe, healthy, wholesome and sustainable communities; we demand an urban policy with massive resources targeted to eradicating joblessness and for the creation of sustainable infrastructure in terms of economic/business development, education, housing and healthcare.  And, we must march on ballot boxes, march in the streets, utilize economic sanctions, civil disobedience, any and all legitimate means to compel this nation to finish the unfinished civil rights/human rights agenda of achieving social, economic and racial justice for the sons and daughters of Africa in America. Then and only then will the demonization that led to the tragic death of Trayvon Martin, and the criminalization that has led to the relentless harassment and mass incarceration of Black youth/young people across this country cease to exist!

Dr. Ron Daniels is President of the Institute of the Black World 21^st Century and Distinguished Lecturer at York College City University of New York. His articles and essays also appear on the IBW website www.ibw21.org and www.northstarnews.com . To send a message, arrange media interviews or speaking engagements, Dr. Daniels can be reached via email at info@ibw21.org.

[For publication the week of March 26, 2012]

March 10-12, 1972, an estimated 10,000 Black people converged on a small steel town in Indiana for one of the greatest gatherings in the history of Africans in America – the Gary National Black Political Convention.  As I reflect on more than a half century on the frontlines of the Black Freedom Struggle,  anyone who is intimately familiar with my work is aware that the Gary Black Political Convention  was one of the defining moments for an emerging social/political activist from Youngstown, Ohio.  March 23^rd the Institute of the Black World 21^st Century convened a National Symposium entitled It’s Nation Time in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. to mark the occasion. The goal of the Gary Convention was to adopt a National Black Political Agenda reflecting the interests of African Americans as a tool to run and/or endorse candidates for elective office. Devising a Black Agenda was seen as integral to holding candidates, who would seek Black votes, accountable to the interests and aspirations of Black people.  Moreover, as the  Preamble to the National Black Political Agenda adopted at Gary suggests,  there was also an effort to encourage Africans in America to view ourselves as an independent, progressive force in the forefront of the struggle to create a more just and humane society.

The Gary Convention emerged after a decade of tumultuous and significant events in the Black Freedom Struggle. In August of 1963 major civil rights leaders, with the support of key allies in organized labor, organized the historic March on Washington – which provided the impetus for the Congress of the United States to pass the milestone Civil Rights Act of 1964.  The Voter Rights Act of 1965 was signed into law by Lyndon B. Johnson after “Bloody Sunday” in Selma and the subsequent Selma to Montgomery March. 1968 witnessed the election of Carl B. Stokes in Cleveland, Ohio and Richard G. Hatcher in Gary, Indiana as the first Black mayors of  major northern cities.

This period was also marked by the eruption of massive rebellions in urban centers like Los Angeles, Newark and Detroit and the reverberation of “Black Power” as a battle cry encapsulating the demands of Black poor and working people and dispossessed young people for economic justice and an end to police brutality and misconduct in America’s “dark ghettos.” Black Power spawned a new found “black consciousness” which included positive identification with Africa and Black Nationalism which rejected “Integrationism” in favor of the building of independent Black institutions, community control of places and spaces where Blacks were in the majority – Black control of the Black community. This Nationalist fervor and its growing support among increasing numbers of Black people put the leaders of  mainstream civil rights organizations like the NAACP, Urban League and Congress of Racial Equality on the defensive as insurgent leaders excoriated them and their supporters as Uncle Toms, Handkerchief  Heads and Oreos (Black on the outside and White on the inside). The internecine ideological warfare was brutal, reminiscent of the debilitating feuds between W.E.B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington and Marcus Garvey and Dubois.

By 1970 Black America stood at a critical crossroads in terms of the debate/divisions/tensions between Integrationism and Nationalism and the role of electoral politics in addressing the needs of Black people, particularly Black poor and working people.  It was in 1970 that a major meeting was convened which would begin to bridge the ideological divides between various ideological tendencies and organizations in the Black community and set the stage for one of the most momentous events of the 20^th century. Under the leadership of poet-playwright, political activist Imamu Amiri Baraka, the Committee for a Unified Newark (CFUN) and other leading Nationalist/Pan Africanist activists, a Congress of African People was convened in Atlanta, Georgia.  Seeking to attract a broad spectrum of political tendencies to attend the Congress, Baraka and his allies promoted the idea of operational unity or “unity without uniformity” as a principle that would enable ideologically diverse organizations and leaders to attend/participate. As a result, CAP 70, as it came to be known, attracted everyone from the Nation of Islam’s emerging charismatic leader Minister Louis Farrakhan, to Nationalist/Pan-Africanists  Owusu Sadaukai of Malcolm X Liberation University and Nelson Johnson of the Student Organization for Black Unity to Whitney Young, President/CEO, of the moderate, mainstream National Urban League.  It was an amazing meeting. The display of unity after years of ideological warfare was a welcome relief. I recall Lerone Bennett, Jr., Senior Editor of Ebony Magazine, expressing utter exhilaration that Black people seemed to be finally getting their act together.

Participants came from all across the world including a delegation of Aborigines from Australia.  But, perhaps the most important outcome of CAP ’70 was that it set the stage for the National Black Political Convention in Gary.  Fresh off the success of pulling together diverse political tendencies and leaders together in Atlanta, Baraka proposed the convening of a National Black Political Convention to devise a Black Political Agenda and galvanize Africans in America to advance Black interests and fight for fundamental change in the American body-politic.  Mayor Richard Hatcher of Gary and Congressman Charles C. Diggs of Detroit, a leading Black voice on Africa issues in Congress, agreed to serve as Co-Conveners of this extraordinary enterprise. Baraka insisted that the model of tripartite Conveners be replicated throughout the organizing process with the provision that there be at least one elected official and one Nationalist or activist as part of the leadership team at the Congressional District and State levels. In one of the most incredible organizing processes I have experienced, Black folks met Congressional District by Congressional District and state by state all across this country to elect delegates and observers to the Convention and to discuss/debate resolutions for incorporation into a National Black Political Agenda.  The level of interest and enthusiasm was off the charts. Black people were going to have their own Convention and release a Black Political Agenda to the United States and the World. It was all done in less than six months. There has never been anything like it before or since!

The who’s who of Black America from Civil Rights/Human Rights leaders, elected officials, Nationalists/Pan Africanists, business leaders, artists and entertainers gathered in Gary — Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Congressman Walter Fauntroy, Queen Mother Audley Moore, Owusu Sadaukai, Betty Shabazz, Coretta Scott King, Congressman John Conyers, Dick Gregory, Richard Roundtree, Isaac Hayes, Nikki Giovanni … but most importantly thousands of ordinary people from all walks of life from Black America.  It was a magnificent sight to behold all these beautiful Black people together in one place charting a path for the future of Africans in America and the world.

The Convention was not without its tensions and controversies. Resolutions within the Agenda calling for “community control of education” and less emphasis on bussing to achieve “integration” and another that essentially demanded that Israel revert to a secular state called Palestine with the right of return of displaced Palestinians sent shock waves through the ranks of the more moderate organizations and leaders, many of whom quickly rushed to the mainstream media to disavow these positions in the document.  There was also disagreement over whether to call for a “Black Political Party” as Rev. Jesse Jackson and Mayor Hatcher had hinted during speeches to the Convention. Nationalists/Pan Africanists were fully supportive of the idea of a Black Party, but most elected officials were fiercely resistant. The compromise was the creation of a National Black Political Assembly as the continuations mechanism for the Convention with Baraka, Hatcher and Diggs continuing in their roles as the tripartite leadership.

Controversies notwithstanding, thousands of Black people left Gary energized and committed to making electoral politics a more relevant/meaningful exercise to promote Black interests. And, by the end of the decade the number of Black elected officials had quadrupled. Some activists translated the experience of Gary into the creation of Black oriented organizations like the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, National Caucus of Black State Legislators and National Conference of Black Local Elected Officials.  But for me, the most important contributions were two cardinal concepts: First, the audacity of Black people to envision a process for formulating Black Agendas to promote and defend Black interests and to hold candidates accountable to same.  Second, the audacity of Black people to offer an analysis of the flaws/failings of America’s Capitalist political-economy and assume responsibility for being in the “vanguard” of the struggle for a “new society.”

IBW convened the Symposium to commemorate the 40^th Anniversary of the Gary National Black Political Convention not out of a sense of historical nostalgia but a conviction that the concept of political processes to develop Black Agendas to run or endorse candidates for office is as essential today as it was in 1972. It is for this reason that IBW developed the Shirley Chisholm Presidential Accountability Commission. Its mission is to measure the impact of the policies of presidential administrations in relationship to broadly defined areas of need and interest in Black America and the Pan African world.  The “State of Emergency in Black America” clearly suggests the critical need of Black people to press for policies which will resolve the crises we face no matter the political party or complexion of the person who occupies the White House.  We must not only commemorate Gary but seek to recapture and re-propagate the concept of coming together community by community, Congressional District by Congressional District to discuss issues of vital concern to Black people and utilize Black Agendas to advance and defend Black interests.

Finally, we must commemorate and study Gary because the analyses of the systems of society put forth  forty years ago still resonate and are relevant today: “Our cities are crime-haunted dying grounds. Huge sectors of our youth – and countless others – face permanent unemployment … neither the courts nor the prisons contribute anything resembling justice or reformation. The schools are unable – or unwilling – to educate our children for the real world of our struggles. Meanwhile, the officially approved epidemic of drugs threatens to wipe out the minds and strengths of our best young warriors.” Therefore … “Black politics …must accept the major responsibility for creating both the atmosphere and the program for far-ranging change in America.  Such a responsibility is ours because it is our people who are most deeply ravished by the present systems of society…. It is the challenge to consolidate and organize our own Black role as the vanguard in the struggle for a new society.”  As IBW gears up for State of the Black World Conference III,  November 14-18, in Washington, D.C. following the presidential election,  we hope that the spirit of Gary will pervade the proceedings and inspire the participants to commit to a relentless struggle to heal Black families and communities. It’s Nation Time… again!

Dr. Ron Daniels is President of the Institute of the Black World 21^st Century and Distinguished Lecturer at York College City University of New York. His articles and essays also appear on the IBW website www.ibw21.org and www.northstarnews.com . To send a message, arrange media interviews or speaking engagements, Dr. Daniels can be reached via email at info@ibw21.org

Note: Use this link http://www.youtube.com/user/IBW21st?feature=mhee to view the Symposium Commemorating the 40^th Anniversary of the historic Gary National Black Political Convention.

Dr. Ron Daniels at 70
A Half Century on the Frontlines of the Black Freedom Struggle
An Autobiographical Reflection and Call to Action

On April 27^th at the Schomburg Center in New York family, longtime allies/friends and the community will gather to share in the celebration of my 70^th Birthday. Personally, I’m not much on birthday celebrations, so the event will be a benefit to support the work of the Institute of the Black World 21^st Century (IBW), the organization which I have devoted my energies building for the past decade.  I view IBW as a signature/legacy initiative – the culmination of nearly a half century of advocacy and organizing on the frontlines of the Black Freedom Struggle.

I was born in the town of Beckley in the coalfields of West Virginia, the son of a coalminer, William “Bill” Daniel and a coalminer’s daughter, Wealtha Marie Williams.  My father, who was born in Georgia and migrated to West Virginia, never received more than a fourth grade education in a one room school house. Nonetheless, he became a Shop Steward for the United Mine Workers.  My Mother’s education was cut short as well as she left high school in the eleventh grade to travel to Washington, D.C. to work at the Federal Mint.  Both were amazing Griots. My mother frequently spoke of the wretched conditions  growing up poor during the Great Depression and the iron fisted rule over the household by Grandpa Ed Williams, who was a strict disciplinarian.  It seems her stories were intended to instill a sense of tenacity, toughness of character and the will to achieve despite adversity. She was always encouraging.  My father told tales of growing up in the deep South under the brutal reign of Jim Crow, including actually taking us to a tree where one of our relatives was lynched.  There were also stories of fearless Black men and women who stood up against the “White folks” and lived to tell about it.  The mutual aid societies that Black people built, the bloody battles to organize the United Mine Workers, Sunday outings to enjoy the great stars of the Negro Baseball League and passionate admiration for Franklin  Delano Roosevelt and the New Deal were all part of his repertoire of stories.  He was also a staunch devotee of the NAACP, having witnessed the organization’s fight against lynching and efforts to regain the vote.

When I was four years old, my mother and father migrated from the coalfields of West Virginia to the fourth leading steel producing city in the U.S., Youngstown, Ohio.  My father went from coalminer to steelworker, and of course became active in the United Steel Workers of America. He was a “union man.”  Bill Daniel was also an aspiring businessman. So, with savings accumulated from working as a “bottom maker” in the steel mill and with the support/assistance of my mother, he opened Daniel’s Grocery and Confectionary, popularly known in a de facto segregated neighborhood “up south” as “the Colored Store.” Unfortunately the pressures of raising two young children, spending long hours tending to the store and an age gap of 20 years proved too much.  When I was nine, my mother and father separated, and my brother David and I moved to the largest steel producing center in the U.S., Pittsburgh, PA, to August Wilson’s Hill District.

In the mid-1950s, the lower section of the Hill District was a rough neighborhood, a prototypical “dark ghetto” with block after block of rat and roach infested, dilapidated houses, garbage filled alley ways and legions of poor and working people –those who were mill hands making fairly decent wages and others who were unemployed or underemployed along with those who just “hustled” for a living.  Gang rivalries and fights; bruising, sometimes fatal arguments at sidewalk crap games; numbers running and basement juke joints with illicit sale of “bathtub gin” were commonplace.

But, there were also incredible strengths in the Hill District. Neighbors looked after neighbors and were particularly protective of children. No matter one’s station in life, the neighbors looked after the children.  Neighborhood social/recreation centers and churches were places where youth could find safe haven from the turmoil and troubles of their environment, and there were schools where teachers encouraged us to work hard and achieve despite the obstacles of poverty and racism.  Indeed, there were a fair number of teachers, lawyers and professionals sprinkled throughout the neighborhood.  It was in the Hill District that I was baptized at Ebenezer Baptist Church at age twelve and encountered a young man named Archie at  the Hill City Community Center who had just returned home from the Marine Corps. In Ebenezer Baptist Church I became a leader in the Baptist Young People’s Union and at age twelve was also elected the youngest delegate to the State Baptist Convention. The Church was a major refuge and point of caring mentorship in what was often trying times. Hill City was an amazing place run by program directors who showed a genuine interest in the welfare of young people. Apparently, Hill City had a positive influence on Archie’s life, and he was determined to give something back. He challenged young Black boys to become men by joining a newly formed drill team called the Cadet Corps.  Archie was a hard task master. He stressed character, excellence, discipline, teamwork, civic responsibility, good grades in school and leadership.

Living in the midst of poverty, with a mother struggling desperately to make ends meet, teachers, the Church, Hill City, Archie and the Cadet Corps were lifelines that enabled me to maintain my sanity. They left an indelible impact on my soul. It was in the Hill District that my “social consciousness” was forged.  I remember gazing out at the heavens one night from the window of our rat and roach infested home and proclaiming  that human beings should not have to work as hard as my mother to survive; human beings should not have to subsist in conditions as terrible as we were compelled to by circumstance. That was the beginning of my commitment to social justice and social change.

The struggle to raise four children as a single mother was too much to bear. My mother suffered a nervous breakdown. She decided that the only way to preserve her sanity and for all four children to survive and thrive was to separate us. Accordingly, she departed for Indianapolis with the two youngest children, our brother and sister by our stepfather. My brother and I returned to Youngstown to live with my father. It was yet another painful separation. However, the strengths of the experiences in the Hill District were invaluable, even lifesaving for a troubled young kid of fourteen. I found solace and support in Tabernacle Baptist Church, where I was active in Sunday School and encouraged to stand before scores of people to review the Lesson of the Day – thereby instilling confidence to speak to audiences large and small.

I poured my psychological/mental and physical energies into replicating and expanding on the Cadet Corps concept as taught by Archie.  I incorporated some of the programs from Hill City Community Center to create a paramilitary youth organization committed to preventing juvenile delinquency.  The Cadet Corps was absolutely an incredible organization which not only had a superb military and boogey drill team but classes in First Aid, Camping and Civic Engagement.  With the support of “Cadet Mothers,” we prepared and sold chicken dinners to raise our own money to purchase uniforms and camping equipment. At the age of 15, here was this young kid serving as “Commander” of the Cadet Corps, highly respected by a group of his peers, winning trophies at Parades because of their disciplined drill techniques, appearing on television and conducting themselves as stellar young citizens of the community.  The Cadet Corps was the laboratory, the incubator and training ground for the leadership skills which would later become indispensable as a civil rights/human rights advocate and organizer.

I had a cousin who observed the Cadet Corps and took notice of what he perceived to be my leadership qualities.  He invited some of the Cadets to listen to speeches by Martin Luther King, Jr. and discussed the struggle against segregation and discrimination.  He encouraged me to utilize my penchant for civic engagement to advance the cause of civil rights by joining the NAACP Youth Chapter.  I took him up on the offer, and under his mentorship and that of other local NAACP leaders,  in rapid succession, I was elected President of the Youngstown Youth Chapter, President of the Ohio State Youth Chapter and President of Region III which encompassed several Midwestern states.  My very first recollection of the struggle against Southern apartheid was the collections raised in our church that were sent to support the Montgomery Bus Boycott. My first experience on a picket line was a demonstration outside the local Woolworth Store in support of the Sit-in movement at Woolworth Lunch counters in Greensboro, NC and other Southern states. And, the most memorable experience of all was having the privilege of participating in the historic March on Washington in 1963. The NAACP was my introduction to the civil rights movement.

I cite this early history because it is foundational to whom I have become. The stories of my mother and father, the Griots, are seldom far from my consciousness. My involvement with the Church in Pittsburgh and Youngstown, the work of building the Cadet Corps and engaging the civil rights movement through the NAACP, these were the experiences that honed my skills for a life devoted to the Black Freedom Struggle and the liberation of all oppressed people.  With the formation and emergence of Freedom, Inc. (which I founded) as one of the most formidable nationalist/Pan-Africanist, activist organizations in the country, Youngstown became the base, the springboard for my leadership in some of the most significant movements and organizations of the last half century. I was one of the Conveners of the Ohio Delegation to the historic 1972 National Black Political Convention and was eventually elected President of the National Black Political Assembly (NBPA) – the official continuations mechanism of the Convention.  I was one of the founders of African Liberation Day in 1972, which mobilized the largest demonstrations in support of African independence since the days of the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey.  I served as Co-Chairperson of the National Black Independent Political Party (NBIPP) which was a direct outgrowth of the NBPA. I was deeply honored that the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson asked me to be Executive Director of the National Rainbow Coalition and subsequently Deputy Campaign Manager of his 1988 campaign for President.  Rev. Jackson’s 1984 and 1988 campaigns for President were among the most remarkable political events in the history of this nation.  I was privileged to have had the experience of playing a significant role in the 1988 Campaign – an opportunity for which I will forever be grateful.  However, my huge disappointment with Rev. Jackson’s failure to maintain the National Rainbow Coalition as a mass-based membership organization would eventually lead me to run as an independent candidate for President in 1992 with the hope of preserving the promise of the Rainbow Coalition.

In the aftermath of the Jackson for President Campaign, a number of activists from around the country came together to form the African American  Progressive Action Network (AAPAN). This group agreed to advance three major Initiatives. The first project was to declare 1990 the Year of Malcolm X as part of a concerted campaign to dramatically increase awareness of the life and legacy of “Our Black Shining Prince,” particularly among young people — 25 years after his assassination. The campaign was a spectacular success. The second initiative was to revive the convening of State of Black America type conferences which had been prevalent during the 60s, to assess the “state of the race” and provide prescriptions for moving the Black liberation movement forward.  Under the auspices of AAPAN, the first State of the Race Conference (SORC) was convened in 1994 at Sojourner Douglas College in Baltimore – followed by SORC II in 1997. The third initiative was the African American Institute for Research and Empowerment, which was an effort to fill what AAPAN activists saw as a void in the movement, the absence of a progressive, African-centered think tank.  Those initiatives were the seeds for the eventual call for and formation of the Institute of the Black World 21^st Century at State of the Black World Conference I in Atlanta in 2001.

In 1994, I served on the Executive Committee of the National African American Leadership Summit (NAALS), a very promising effort to build a united front among African American leadership, spearheaded by Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis during his tenure as Executive Director of the NAACP.  NAALS eventually failed to meet its potential when Chavis was ousted from his post at the NAACP. I also served on the Executive Committee of the historic Million Man March and Day of Absence as conceived and miraculously organized by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakan.  In 1993, I was appointed Executive Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), the first African American to hold that position. During a twelve year tenure, I broadened CCR’s visibility in the African American community by leading major racial justice initiatives around the epidemic of Black church burnings and police brutality and misconduct. I was also privileged to be at the helm during CCR’s rapid and stanch defense of civil liberties and human rights after George W. Bush declared the “War Against Terrorism “in the wake of 9/11.

By the end of my tenure at CCR, however, the chronic State of Emergency in Black America was increasingly a preoccupation and priority. Hence, in 2005, I felt compelled to “return to the source,” the national Black community to intensify the effort to build IBW as a mechanism that could make a meaningful contribution to addressing the myriad crises afflicting Africans in America.  I stepped out on faith not sure how I would be able to make a living as I embarked on this new and risky phase of my life’s work as a scholar/activist in the autumn of my advocacy.  But, thanks to the intervention of Councilman Charles Barron, Chairman of the Higher Education Committee of New York City Council and the active interest of Jay Hershenson, Senior Vice-Chancellor of the City University of New York (CUNY), I was privileged to meet President Marcia Keizs, who with the blessing of the faculty of the Department of Behavioral Sciences, offered me an appointment as the first Distinguished Lecturer at York College of CUNY! This was a perfect appointment, a Godsend, which affords me the opportunity to bring my rich and varied experiences to the campus and classroom, while simultaneously pursuing my passion of building IBW. The synergy has been extremely rewarding as I have been able to continually connect the academy and the community.

The task of building IBW has not been easy, largely due to a lack of resources and staff infrastructure/capacity to move the process forward on a continual basis, with consistency and coherence. But, with a dedicated Board comprised of scholar/activists and organizers, a loyal core of volunteers in the greater New York area (the Ujima Support Committee), developed with the steady assistance of my wife/partner Mary France-Daniels, and the growing support of sisters and brothers around the country, IBW has become a recognizable presence in Black America and the Pan African world — particularly Haiti.  After a decade of relentless work, IBW has developed programmatic initiatives which we believe can contribute to the rescue and reconstruction of people of African descent communities in this country and the Black World: The Black Family Summit; Shirley Chisholm Presidential Accountability Commission; Damu Smith Leadership Development and Organizer Training Institute; Research Consortium; Pan African Unity Dialogue; Campaign to End the War on Drugs; and Haiti Support Project — comprise a menu of initiatives calculated to serve as vehicles to advance the struggle for strong communities and nations [visit the website www.ibw21.org for a description of these Initiatives]. Each of these initiatives is a work in progress which could benefit from the conscious and consistent commitment of time, talent and resources of sisters and brothers who support the vision/mission of IBW.

I have challenged the Board and our friends/allies to make 2012 Operation Breakthrough, the year IBW achieves the scope, scale viability and visibility to have meaningful and measurable impact in terms of the quest to reconstruct Black communities and nations.  This is a critical moment in the evolution and development of a vital institution. Throughout my life’s work, I have often proceeded on “guts and faith” [during my independent campaign for President in 1992, the New York City Sun Newspaper dubbed me the “Guts and Faith Candidate”], opting not to wait for grants or support of government programs before launching an initiative/project. At critical moments, we have called on our friends/allies and the community to support the cause. When AAPAN launched 1990 the Year of Malcolm X, we didn’t have money.  The organizers financed this highly successful initiative by pooling our honoraria from speaking engagements and through contributions, small and large from supporters across the country. The seed money for the first State of the Race Conference in 1994 was secured through an appeal to friends/allies to contribute $100. Scores responded. We financed the conference and realized a modest savings to implement other AAPAN projects.

In 2002, on the occasion of my 60th birthday, friends /allies gathered in Atlanta for the formal launch of IBW and contributed more than $50,000 to get the ball rolling.  And, when the costs of State of the Black World Conference II in New Orleans nearly sank IBW after the drastic economic downturn of 2008, once again we appealed to friends/allies from around the country to avert an institution-threatening crisis. IBW survived and we are now poised to convene State of the Black World Conference III, November 14-18, at Howard University in Washington, D. C. – centered on the Theme: State of Emergency in Black America, Time to Heal Black Families and Communities. The Conference will be dedicated to the memory of our beloved Dr. Ronald Walters.

Now in this decisive year in the evolution and development of IBW, once again we turn to friends/allies and supporters in New York and nationwide to achieve the goals of Operation Breakthrough.  Therefore, the purpose of the April 27^th celebration is more political than personal. It is a collective/communal occasion to advance the process of building a vital institution. Our goal is raise a modest $70,000 on my 70^th birthday. And, in the spirit of the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Mary McLeod-Bethune, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Black Church, we seek to establish an independent Black base of financial support for IBW. At the first State of the Black World Conference in Atlanta in 2001, a young activist from Baltimore named Gregory Griffin pledged to send $10.00 a month to support the launch of IBW. Since that moment, each month without fail, we have received a money order for $10.00 from Gregory Griffin.  To honor his exemplary institution-building commitment, we have created a Gregory Griffin Support category of donor/contributor as the principal means of establishing an independent financial base for IBW. I would like to see 1,000 friends of IBW become Gregory Griffin Contributors by the end of 2012,  beginning with at least 100 making commitments as part of the April 27^th Benefit Birthday Celebration.

Age is but a state of mind, and as I approach my 70^th birthday, I may feel a few more aches and pains, but as the gospel song proclaims, “I don’t feel no ways tired!”  I’m a long distance runner, and the blood and sacrifice of our ancestors cries out for me/us to continue the course. The stories of my Griots, my mother and father, about the trials, tribulations and triumphs of a resilient people in a hostile land, the memories of a commitment made in a “dark ghetto” called the Hill District and more than a half-century of service to African people and humanity fuel my absolute determination to press on until the torch is passed to a new generation to continue until the race is won. In this worthy endeavor, 2012 is the year IBW must emerge as an engine for Black empowerment in the U.S. and the Pan African World. With the support of friends/allies and the community, it will be done. “Up you mighty race, you can accomplish what you will!”

Organizations and individuals interested in supporting the April 27^th Benefit Fundraising Event – Ron Daniels at 70: A Long Distance Runner, should visit the website www.ibw21.org or call 888.774.2921.

[For publication the week of January 2, 2012]

When I first became active in the Civil Rights Movement as a teenager in Youngstown, Ohio, January 1^st was always a very important day in the Black community — not because it was the first day of a new year, but it was Emancipation Day. Every year the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance and the local Chapter of the NAACP would host a major program commemorating the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863.  This was celebrated as a momentous occasion because with a stroke of a pen, President Lincoln freed enslaved Africans from bondage.  Certainly a just cause for celebration! What was never noted in the Emancipation Day Programs was that the Proclamation did not “free” all of the 4 million enslaved Africans.

For Lincoln, the man the imminent historian Lerone Bennett, Jr. has called the “reluctant emancipator,” the Emancipation Proclamation was much more an economic and military strategy than a statement of moral and political principle. The hard fact is that enslaved Africans were emancipating themselves in droves and flocking to the camps of Union Generals like Benjamin “Beast” Butler in New Orleans.  Generals like Butler and radical Republicans like Congressman Thaddeus Stephens urged Lincoln to formally/officially free the enslaved Africans to strike a devastating blow to the economy of the           South and, equally important, recruit them as soldiers to bolster the fortunes of an increasingly unpopular war in the North (by some estimates, more than 200,000 Blacks joined the Union Army).  Accordingly, Lincoln carefully crafted a Proclamation which would have maximum economic and military impact. It freed enslaved Africans in those states that were in “rebellion” against the Union. If you were a slave in a state which had not seceded or declared war against the union — Missouri, Kentucky, Delaware or Maryland —  you were still a slave after the pronouncement of the Proclamation. The Emancipation Proclamation left nearly a million Africans in bondage. This is why the 13^th Amendment to the Constitution was necessary!

As Lerone Bennett, Jr. argues persuasively in his provocative book Forced Into Glory: Abraham Lincoln’s White Dream, Lincoln did not primarily prosecute the war to end slavery but to save the Union by whatever means necessary.  And, while he no doubt found slavery morally repugnant, he was also convinced that Africans were inferior to Europeans and could not co-exist with them in the U.S. as equals.  He essentially viewed enslaved Africans as unfortunate captives who should be “emancipated” from bondage and protected from being oppressed by superior beings.  This view was shared by most  “abolitionists” of the day. It’s similar to the way animal rights activists view cats and dogs.  This disposition was also consistent with the infamous 3/5 Compromise which the drafters of the Constitution adopted to persuade the southern slaveholding states to join the new Federal Government.  The Compromise provided that enslaved Africans, the chattel/property of southerners, could be counted as 3/5 of a person/human being for the purpose of determining taxation and representation in the House of Representatives.  It was also consistent with the Dred Scott Decision which decreed that enslaved Africans were “private property” and therefore could not be granted citizenship.

Though the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation and subsequent adoption of the 13^th, 14^th, 15^th Amendments were welcome news, at best they moved the status of Africans in America from 3/5 of a human being to “second class citizenship.”  Deeply ingrained perceptions of Africans as chattel and inferior human beings persisted, thereby severely limiting the definition of “emancipation” for formerly enslaved Africans in the south and their “quasi-free” Black kin in the North.

At the end of the Civil War, there were 4.5 million Africans in America, 4 million formerly enslaved Africans in the South and 500,000 “free Blacks” mostly in the North.  For the most part, the 4 million Blacks in the South were woefully unprepared for their new found “freedom.”  And, while the Freedman’s Bureau and other programs were put in place to provide training for the formerly enslaved Africans to enter society, they were insufficient in scale and largely ineffective.  But, the greatest handicap of all was the failure of the federal government to provide the “forty acres and a mule” which would have given them a stake in the American Capitalist political economy. Not only were reparations repealed, as Claud Anderson documents in his brilliant treatise Black Labor White Wealth, Blacks were deprived of an opportunity to participate in the Homestead Act and other “affirmative action” programs which benefited Euro-ethnic farmers and major business interests like the railroads.  As a consequence, the vast majority of formerly enslaved Africans were forced into a new form of peonage/quasi-slavery as sharecroppers, tenant farmers and agricultural laborers where it was virtually impossible to achieve self-sufficiency or accumulate wealth.

Moreover, under southern Jim Crow Laws, certain jobs in the non-agriculture sector were “set aside” for Whites and in all instances Whites were paid more than Blacks for doing the same jobs.  To add insult to injury, as Harold Barron documents in his excellent essay Demand for Black Labor, in the period after the Civil War until the turn of the century, the U.S. granted access to some 13 million European immigrants who quickly gained employment/jobs in the factories, foundries and mines in the North as the industrial revolution took hold.  These workers were ruthlessly exploited, often laboring long hours in unsafe conditions for very low wages.  However, millions of Blacks were confined to the South, laboring for no wages as sharecroppers and tenant farmers. As bad as conditions were for the Euro-ethnics exploited in northern work places, their condition was infinitely better than Africans subsisting under quasi-slave conditions in the South.  The fruits of their anemic wages could be passed on inter-generationally, creating a passage to a better life for their progeny.  The condition of Blacks in the South constituted an intergenerational deficit for sons and daughters whose future was not much brighter than their parents.   Euro-ethnic immigrations would have a leg up on eventually achieving the “American dream.”  For formerly enslaved Africans in the South, the future was bleak, a perpetual nightmare.

When “Johnny” went marching off to World War I, things changed. Desperate to fill the void created by White men fighting the War, industrial bosses held their noses and vigorously recruited “darkies” from the South to man the jobs left open by Johnny’s departure for the frontlines in Europe. Finally, hundreds of thousands of Blacks would enter northern labor markets as “wage earners” for the first time. Leaving the South for the North was like entering the “promised land.” But, when Johnny came marching home, many of these Blacks lost their jobs, a pattern that soon came to be known as “last hired, first fired.”   Indeed life in the “promised land” was less frightening but far from the full freedom the immigrants from the South had expected.  Blacks “up South” were supposedly “free,” but they were actually victimized by discrimination under a system of “de facto” segregation.  Despite the absence of Black Codes and Jim Crow Laws, in fact Blacks were confined to certain neighborhoods, limited to working “Negro jobs” (menial, dirty and dangerous tasks) or constrained by a “white ceiling” on jobs which only permitted them to be promoted to a certain level. The high echelon jobs were “set aside” for Euro-ethnics.  The differential in wages and opportunities between Blacks and Whites in the labor market in the North is another case where Euro-ethnics had the advantage in terms of passing on accumulated benefits and opportunities to the next generation.  Once again, Africans in America bore the burden of intergenerational deficits, compared to their European counterparts.

While many in White America and some Blacks would like to dismiss these factors as irrelevant to the current crises facing Africans in America, it is impossible to understand the wealth gap between Blacks and Whites and the relative underdevelopment of Black America without acknowledging this history.  From the 3/5 Compromise to the Emancipation Proclamation, Reconstruction Amendments and Civil Rights Acts of the 60’s, Africans in America have suffered from the perception of inferiority and deprived of access and opportunities which severely limited our progress as “second class citizens.”  It is an inescapable conclusion that the State of Emergency in Black America is in large measure due to ongoing intergenerational deficits resulting from our treatment as less than full citizens in these United States of America.  As we seek to heal our families and communities, we must be sober about the fact that even with a Black man in the White House, there is a significant minority of Whites who still view Blacks as less than equal. More importantly, institutional/structural racism de facto remains a barrier to achieving full civil and human rights in this country.  Faced with this reality, Africans in America must mobilize our internal capacity/power to shatter the psycho-cultural, economic and political walls of white supremacy once and for all. “We who believe in freedom cannot rest until we’ve won!”

Dr. Ron Daniels is President of the Institute of the Black World 21^st Century and Distinguished Lecturer at York College City University of New York. His articles and essays also appear on the IBW website www.ibw21.org and www.northstarnews.com . To send a message, arrange media interviews or speaking engagements, Dr. Daniels can be reached via email at info@ibw21.org

The Nguzo Saba contains the core concepts and values of Kawaida and the foundation for Kwanzaa.  In a recent article, First Call for State of the Black World Conference III, I suggested that a spiritual and cultural revival is essential to combat and overcome the devastating State of Emergency afflicting the “dark ghettos” in Black America.  As we begin the celebration of Kwanzaa, it might be useful to restate the Nguzo Saba and discuss its relevance to healing our families and communities in a time of crisis.  So, I offer these reflections.

The first Principle in the Nguzo Saba is Umoja/Unity. That Africans in America should be unified or act in concert to confront the State of Emergency should be self evident.  However, achieving Black unity can be challenging and illusive. In the name of pursuing the interests of Black people, what we have in the Black community is a myriad of leaders and organizations that all too often compete rather than cooperate with each other.  Moreover, various leaders and organizations have different ideologies and strategies for achieving full freedom/liberation. There is also a “class divide” between the more affluent sisters and brothers who have benefited from the “movement” and moved up in the world and the dispossessed left behind in abandoned and devastated “dark ghettos,” the “hood.”  Overcoming disunity  requires a conscious effort to create “united front” structures which bring people together despite their differences in philosophy and approach.  Dr. Karenga has advocated “operational unity” as a concept to enable leaders and organizations with differing philosophies and approaches to work together.  Operational unity means focusing on issues and areas where there is agreement among organizations and leaders rather than disagreement.  Dr. Karenga calls this “unity without uniformity.” With so many problems/issues affecting the Black community, the goal of operational unity is to have leaders and organizations collaborate/act collectively around specific issues, projects and initiatives they agree on.

Unity in the Black community also requires bridging the class divide.  Brothers and sisters who have seized on a pathway to the middle and upper class paved by the blood and sacrifice of heroes and sheroes of the Black freedom struggle have an obligation to spiritually and/or physically return to “Tobacco Road,” the urban inner-city neighborhoods of this country, to give back, to reinvest their time, talent and resources to reconstruct/revive the “dark ghettos” from which they escaped.

The second Principle is Kujichagulia/Self-Determination.  There has been much talk about a “post-racial society” in the aftermath of the election of Barack Obama as America’s first African American president. And, there have always been some within the race who wanted to escape the “burden” of their Blackness.  The State of Emergency in Black America clearly suggests that “race still matters” as a determinant of one’s life chances in this country. Dr. Karenga has said that to chart a course toward full freedom, a theory/ideology of liberation must provide an “identity, purpose and direction.” I believe that if we are to permanently rise above the crises plaguing our families and communities, we must name and claim our identity, proudly embrace ourselves and be resolutely committed to being “of the race and for the race.”  As descendants from the African motherland, “we are an African people.” And, part of our mission in life should be to unapologetically work for the advancement of people of African descent in the U.S. and the Pan African world.  This does not mean disrespecting, disregarding or disdaining other racial/ethnic groups; it simply means “charity begins at home and spreads abroad,” and “love thy neighbor as thyself.”  We cannot, must not abandon the race, especially our sisters and brothers in the “hood,” in an ill conceived effort to become absorbed in a “colorblind” or “post racial society.”  We have a right to define who we are and determine our own destiny as people!

The third Principle is Ujima/Collective Work and Responsibility.  As noted earlier, the Doctrine of Kawaida as conceived by Dr. Karenga is grounded in the traditional worldview and way of life of African people. As such it emphasizes “we, us and our” in terms of the values that are important to building and sustaining wholesome families and communities.  This is diametrically opposed to the “me, myself and I” values of “individualism” and “competition” stressed as central to the “cherished” American/western way of life.  The concept of the “collective” is frowned upon in America as “socialist” or communist.” And yet, the idea of extended families working together for a common purpose within communities with a sense of mutual obligation and responsibility is deeply ingrained in African societies – and our own experience as Africans in America, particularly in the South.  We certainly will not permit class or status to divide us if we see ourselves as one people committed to promoting the common good of the race. This is a clear example of the need to retain the values/principles of our forebears as opposed to adopting a value orientation which has proven to be destructive to Black families and communities.

The fourth Principle is Ujamaa/Cooperative Economics.  This principle is closely linked to Ujima in that it encourages people of African descent to share resources and engage in joint efforts to build and sustain an economic foundation for our families and communities. Cooperatives, credit unions, investment clubs and community development corporations are examples of economic structures based on pooling and sharing resources for the common good.  Ujamaa does not preclude for-profit corporations or individual entrepreneurship. But, the value/principle of Ujamaa dictates that entrepreneurs and businesses explore ways of collaborating/cooperating, exchanging ideas and pooling resources where appropriate to enhance the collective economic empowerment of the Black community. This is what Dr. Claud Anderson has promoted through the concept of Powernomics and George Fraser through Power Networking.  In the spirit of Booker T. Washington, Marcus Garvey, W.E.B. Du Bois and the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, it is imperative that people of African descent persistently work to build an economic infrastructure to undergird our social and political institutions.

The fifth Principle is Nia/Purpose. When we survey the incredible fratricide/carnage occurring in Black communities, largely committed by young Black males, one has the feeling that it may be because many of our young people lack a sense of purpose and meaning in their lives.  And, this may be related to a lack of collective purpose in the Black community as a whole. Gone are the days of the civil rights/human rights and Black Power movements when there was a pervasive spirit of purpose in the air. There was a dynamic movement and a feeling that Black people were on the move! In the face of a daunting State of Emergency, we urgently need to restore a sense of purpose in Black America. And, that purpose should be a commitment to reclaim and rebuild our communities, a fervent determination that America’s desolate dark ghettos will become new communities that are bright beacons of hope and possibility. The collective conviction/purpose and the struggle required to rebuild our communities will be contagious; it will capture the hearts and minds of our youth/young people by restoring a sense of mission to their lives as part of a people fighting to liberate themselves from an oppressive value system and society.

The Sixth Principle is Kuumba/Creativity.  People of African descent gave the world its first multi-genius in the person of Imhotep, the Egyptian physician, architect and engineer who mastered the science of building in stone that led to the erection of the pyramids as one of the greatest wonders of the world! One might say that creativity is in our DNA.  Africans from the Caribbean took old barrels and transformed them into “steel drums” that produce amazing music.  Those of us who came up on the “rough side of the mountain” in America (most of us) bear witness to the fact that our mothers and fathers were masters of “making something out of nothing.”  They had to in order to survive.  Overcoming the State of Emergency to rebuild our families and communities is a formidable undertaking.  It will not be easy, but we should act with the absolute confidence that we possess the creativity, the knowledge, skill and will to meet the challenge.

The Seventh and final Principle is Imani/Faith.  Given the obstacles our forebears faced, they had to have an abiding faith that survival was possible, that beyond the brutality, hardships, suffering and sacrifice of the moment, “joy would come in the morning,” that someday, a generation that sprang from their loins – sons, daughters, grandchildren, great grandchildren, great, great grandchildren … would be able to proclaim “free at last.” For millions it was the belief that “we’ve come this far by faith, leaning on the Lord.” For others it was a spiritual force deep down inside that could be tapped to carry forth for another day and another day … the faith that a better day was coming for the sons and daughters of Africa in America. In this current crisis, we too must have faith, a belief that enables us to scale heights, not normally possible, because we believe and act on our beliefs. Similar to the Principle of Kuumba/Creativity, we must have faith that there are no odds too great for a people to overcome if we act with Umoja/Unity, Kujichagulia/Self-Determination, Ujima/Collective Work and Responsibility, Ujamaa/Cooperative Economics, Nia/Purpose, Kuumba/Creativity, and Imani/Faith.  “Deep in my heart, I do believe, we shall overcome some day!”

Dr. Ron Daniels is President of the Institute of the Black World 21^st Century and Distinguished Lecturer at York College City University of New York. His articles and essays also appear on the IBW website www.ibw21.org and www.northstarnews.com . To send a message, arrange media interviews or speaking engagements, Dr. Daniels can be reached via email at info@ibw21.org.

“Our cities are crime haunted dying grounds. Huge sectors of our youth – and countless others – face permanent unemployment. Those of us who work find our paychecks able to purchase less and less. Neither the courts nor the prisons contribute to anything resembling justice or reformation. The schools are unable – or unwilling – to educate our children for the real world of our struggles. Meanwhile, the officially approved epidemic of drugs threatens to wipe out the minds and strength of our best young warriors. Economic, cultural, and spiritual depression stalk Black America, and the price for our survival often appears more than we are able to pay.” This chilling assessment was penned as part of the Preamble to the National Black Political Agenda, adopted forty years ago at the historic National Black Political Convention in Gary, Indiana – on the eve of a presidential election. As we stand on the threshold of yet another crucial presidential election, the parallels between the plight of Black America then and now are startling. It seems that “the more things change, the more they stay the same.”

But, things have changed. As the Institute of the Black World 21^st Century notes in its Martin Luther King/Malcolm X Community Revitalization Initiative, “there would now appear to be two Black Americas, one where the middle and upper classes have escaped to the outer edges of the inner-cities and the surrounding suburbs to live better than anyone might have imagined fifty years ago, and the other Black America where poor and working class Blacks are, as Malcolm might put it, catching more hell than ever before.” What is constant is an ever present and debilitating State of Emergency afflicting the masses of Black poor and working people, the struggling middle class and youth/young people locked in America’s “dark ghettos” – the urban inner-city areas across this nation. The depth of the crisis is mindboggling: chronic depression levels of unemployment, particularly among Black youth/young people, persistent and unyielding poverty, deteriorating neighborhoods, inadequate access to health care, environmental degradation, inferior schools, rampant crime, drugs, gang violence/fratricide/senseless killing, discriminatory policing, police brutality and misconduct, racially-biased sentencing, and mass incarceration in the prison-jail industrial complex. And, not a day goes by without families and communities somewhere in this nation weeping over the senseless, mindless killing of a child/youth/young person on the dangerous streets of America’s dark ghettos.

“We have come over a way that with tears has been watered. We have come, treading our path thro’ the blood of the slaughtered.” The voices of our ancestors are crying out, calling on us to heal our families and communities. The disorientation, degradation, deterioration and disintegration of our communities must end. And so, in the spirit of our forebears who gathered in Colored People’s Conventions in the 19^th century to assess the conditions of the emerging new African community on these hostile American shores, the Institute of the Black World 21^st Century (IBW) calls upon people of African descent from all walks of life in the U.S. and the Pan African World to gather in Washington, D.C. November 14-18, 2012 (location TBA) for State of the Black World Conference III. Heeding the voices of our ancestors, it’s time to gather to address the State of Emergency in Black America and resolve to heal our families and communities.

We must gather to pose and answer the question of how to bridge the class divide in our communities and restore a sense of collective purpose. What will it take to stop the violence and fratricide inflicting so much harm and pain on our families and communities? How do we end the criminalization and mass incarceration of our young men and women? How do we enable formerly incarcerated persons to reenter the community without their prior status being tantamount to a life sentence, denying access to opportunities to fulfill their aspirations? How do we reverse the menticide resulting from the mis-education dispensed in inferior/low performing schools? How do we develop healthy, wholesome and sustainable communities where our families can survive and thrive? How will immigrants of African descent — Continental Africans, Africans from the Caribbean and Latin America contribute to the creation of a culturally diverse, dynamic, unified and empowered African community in the U.S.? How will a new generation of organizers, activists, scholars and leaders be engaged in building viable and vital   families and communities? Where will we find the material resources to overcome the lingering and lethal legacy of centuries of enslavement, segregation and structural/institutional racism? What impact will the presidential election of 2012 have on ending the State of Emergency in Black America? These are among the crucial questions which must be discussed as we gather to assess the state of the race and devise a basic Declaration of Intent to Heal Black Families and Communities.

In responding to these questions and devising such a Declaration, we must be committed to adopting holistic strategies which incorporate a spiritual and cultural foundation. We can address issues, problems and concerns related to education, health, the environment, economic and political empowerment, but the healing of our families and communities will be slow in coming unless our people collectively rediscover the will to resist, work and struggle for a better future. Our healing must be grounded in a spiritual and cultural foundation that motivates people of African descent to be “of the race and for the race,” a spiritual and cultural foundation so deeply imbedded in the fabric of our being that the senseless destruction of another Black person is inconceivable. We must believe in our capacity to control our own destiny and have the confidence that working together there are no obstacles we cannot overcome and no mountains we cannot climb. A healthy love of self and kind is a precondition for engaging with others to heal our communities.

Undergirded with a spiritual and cultural foundation, as we formulate the Declaration of Intent, we must focus on a three-pronged approach to ending the State of Emergency in Black America: What are we prepared to “do for self.” How will we utilize what is already in our own hands that can be mobilized to address critical issues/concerns, launch projects/programs/initiatives and build internal capacity/infrastructure to defend and develop our families and communities. Second, what must we demand of private institutions like banks, businesses/corporations that thrive on resources extracted from our communities as well as philanthropic agencies that claim to be interested in ameliorating the damages of racism in American society. Finally, what must we demand of government at all levels in terms of policies and programs to remedy and repair the damages of enslavement, centuries of segregation and decades of blatant and benign neglect. To achieve the intended results, we must be clear about what we are demanding of ourselves, private institutions, philanthropic agencies and government.

With the blessing and support of the participants of SOBWC III, IBW as a progressive, African-centered, action-oriented think tank, pledges to be a resource center and anchor relentlessly promoting “internal integration,” cooperation, collaboration and operational unity to facilitate the implementation of the Declaration of Intent to Heal Black Families and Communities.

It’s time to heal our families and communities. With that charge people from African descent from across the nation joined by our sisters and brothers from Africa, the Caribbean, Central and South America and the Diaspora in Canada, Europe and the entire globe should be in motion, mobilizing/organizing to journey to Washington, D.C. November 14-18, 2012, for State of the Black World Conference III — infused with an irresistible determination that we will heal our families and communities! In the name of our ancestors and for the sake of this and future generations, let the mobilizing/organizing begin!

Dr. Ron Daniels is President of the Institute of the Black World 21^st Century and Distinguished Lecturer at York College City University of New York. His articles and essays also appear on the IBW website www.ibw21.org and www.northstarnews.com . To send a message, arrange media interviews or speaking engagements, Dr. Daniels can be reached via email at info@ibw21.org

Against the backdrop of these important occasions, invoking the spirit of Marcus Garvey, I particularly want to focus on the “unfinished Haitian Revolution”. As those who follow my work and writings are aware, I have a passionate devotion to Haiti. My love for Haiti is not sentimental. As noted above, the Haitian Revolution was an inspiration, a bright beacon of hope and possibilities at the nadir of our history as a race of people. Haiti shattered the myth of white supremacy which came to be the rationale for the enslavement, economic exploitation and political domination of African people. Therefore, as I have proclaimed so many times, people of African descent everywhere owe a special debt to the Pan African revolutionaries (Boukman was from Jamaica, Christophe from Grenada, many from Cuba and other Caribbean islands) who transformed plantations of servitude into command posts for a war of independence.

Unfortunately, the first Black Republic paid a heavy price for achieving what “inferior beings” were not supposed to accomplish. Slave traders and plantation owners in the Southern U.S. and the European colonial imposters of the Caribbean, Central and South America could not afford to allow the idea to spread that Africans/Blacks could be self-governing and self-sufficient. Though they often engaged in fierce rivalries/competitions for the bounty of the “new World” among themselves, the profiteers of America and Europe concurred and conspired to isolate, denigrate and deter the development of the first Black Republic. Haiti is not the “poorest nation in the western hemisphere” by accident. For generations external forces, including the United States, have colluded with a parasitical elite in Haiti to “impoverish” this proud nation and its people.

Given Haiti’s contribution to people of African descent, it is my contention that it is the collective responsibility of Black people from around the world to play a leading role in the defense and development of the first Black Republic. As a Pan Africanist, this has been my mission and message for the past 16 years. That mission has become more urgent in the wake of one of the most disastrous earthquakes ever to decimate a Caribbean nation. This is not to discount or discourage contributions and assistance from people of other races/ethnicities. However, I believe there is a special burden of responsibility/duty on the shoulders of the sons and daughters of Africa to rescue, reconstruct, resurrect and restore Haiti to her rightful place as the first Black Republic in the world. And, African Americans and other people of African descent in the U.S. should be in the forefront of mobilizing humanitarian and developmental assistance to rebuild this earthquake ravished nation, particularly now that the cameras are gone and the world’s attention span has waned.

While humanitarian assistance is essential, however, it is important to stress the age old adage that it’s wonderful to feed the hungry fish, but it is far better to teach them how to fish. Ultimately Haiti must move from being almost totally dependent on foreign aid and humanitarian assistance to building a vibrant economy based on its own assets and resources. In my judgment, Haiti’s greatest assets are a highly resilient, energetic and resourceful people and an extraordinarily rich history and culture. Though there are ample areas for investment in other sectors, cultural-historical tourism should be a powerful attraction for people of African descent. Haiti’s history and culture should be the foundation of a great awakening, revival, a “renaissance” which captures the imagination of people of African descent and inspires multitudes to visit the first Black Republic! Cultural-historical tourism should be one of the most dynamic engines of Haiti’s economic/business development. Therefore, HSP has vigorously promoted the idea that African Americans and other people of African descent should partner with Haitian Americans and Haitians to implant a “Black Footprint” in the area of cultural-historical tourism, inclusive of all the related, interconnected enterprises.

In this regard, we believe that the Citadel, the magnificent mountaintop fortress built by King Henri Christophe to deter further aggression by the French and other foreigners, is one of the great symbols of freedom and self-determination in the world. Conceived by Black minds and built by Black hands, the Citadel has been declared one of the great wonders of the world by UNESCO! HSP has launched the Model City Initiative to transform the lovely town of Milot (located at the base of the mountain where the Citadel stands) into a Mecca for cultural-historical tourism. Because of the significance of Haiti’s history and culture to Black people, we believe every person of African descent should visit the Citadel at least once in a lifetime. There is no more meaningful way to interact with the Haitian people and feel the pulse and spirit of the Revolution than to visit the Citadel. Moreover, as Haiti rises from the ashes of the earthquake, the Citadel is destined to be the number one tourist attraction in the nation. Royal Caribbean Cruise Line, which brings hundreds of thousands of passengers to its nearby private destination at Labadee, is prepared to begin tours to the Citadel that would send thousands of its patrons through Milot once the proper infrastructure and chain of accommodations are in place. Similarly, tourists from Europe vacationing in the neighboring Dominican Republic are eager to cross the border to visit the fabled Citadel.

What is needed for the Citadel to become the premier destination for cultural-historical tourism in Haiti is investment to make Milot, the gateway to this incredible monument, a model city complete with a sound infrastructure of streets/roads, good schools/educational institutions, refurbished housing stock, quality sanitation and health care facilities (Milot already has one of the best hospitals in Haiti), efficient transportation and an attractive array of shops/stores, restaurants and hotels. As HSP prepares to lead its annual Pilgrimage Delegation to Haiti to visit the Citadel (in support of the Model City Initiative), we will take a number of potential African American investors whom we hope will grasp the vision of the Citadel as a “must see” monument for people of African descent and Milot as a model city to receive tourists attracted by Haiti’s history and culture.

HSP has planted its flag in Milot and the Citadel as areas with vast potential for business/economic development. However, there are areas with opportunity for investment throughout Haiti in a variety of sectors. And, as is the case with Milot and the Citadel, sooner or later investors will see the light and seize the opportunity to create productive enterprises. As noted earlier, Haiti needs investors from wherever it can get them. The question is will people of African descent step up to the plate, or will we be stranded on the sidelines, watching and waiting while others have the vision, conviction, confidence and courage to invest in and profit from the rescue, reconstruction and resurrection of a Black nation.While not condemning others for joining in the essential effort to rebuild Haiti, the spirit of Marcus Garvey dictates that people of African descent be in the forefront of developing their own communities and nations. Therefore, let us resolve that, as people of African descent, we will repay our debt to Haiti by ensuring that there is a Black footprint driving an economic renaissance in the world’s first Black Republic!

Dr. Ron Daniels is President of the Institute of the Black World 21st Century and Distinguished Lecturer at York College City University of New York. His articles and essays also appear on the IBW website www.ibw21.org and www.northstarnews.com . To send a message, arrange media interviews or speaking engagements, Dr. Daniels can be reached via email at info@ibw21.org .

On the left, President Obama has been the primary target of outrage for his failure to articulate and fight for more progressive policies, including bailing out the victims of the sub-prime mortgage scam and more aggressively reining in, even investigating and prosecuting those who caused the crisis. In a recent series of articles on strategy for the progressive movement in 2012 and beyond, I suggested that rather than focus exclusively on Obama, progressives need to act boldly to galvanize a movement around the vision, values and principles of a socially responsible economy where the needs, interests and aspirations of the people take precedent over profit and property as dictated by corporations and financial institutions – Wall Street. In a political environment where a timid President is hampered by the noise and obstructionist tactics of the reactionaries, we who believe in a different definition of “freedom and democracy” than the conservatives must take to the streets and mobilize to march on ballot boxes to articulate and advance our vision and agenda. We must work to “unite the many to defeat the few!”

What has now become the Occupy Wall Street movement that is spreading across the nation like wildfire is potentially a game changer, a turning point, a social movement with the potential to impact the political discourse by refocusing on the urgent need to preserve and expand the budding culture of rights fought for by generations of progressives. It is Wall Street that embodies the evils of “unbridled Capitalism” with its insatiable appetite for profits at any costs and any means, including scamming millions of Americans through the subprime mortgage fiasco and slicing/dicing/packaging paper to make obscene fortunes from exotic schemes outside the view of the American public; it is Wall Street that pays its executives exorbitant salaries, in many instances hundreds of times more than the average worker and provides multi-million dollar severance packages when vaulted corporations fail; it is Wall Street which expends millions of dollars on lobbyists to purchase policies in Washington favorable to its interests and vigorously and viciously fights against “regulations,” no matter how mild (like the Dodd-Frank bill) to rein in the practices/behavior harmful to people and the nation. It has been government policies favorable to Wall Street coupled with the incremental shredding of the social safety net and relentless assault on labor/unions that have led to the greatest level of inequality or gap between rich and poor since the Great Depression. According to a recent New York Times Editorial, the top 1% now accounts for nearly 24% of the nation´s income, “the highest since 1928.” And still Wall Street craves more. It was this craving, the inexhaustible quest for more and more profit by corporations and financial institutions grown “too big to fail” with the tacit if not explicit approval of the government, that led to an economic collapse, the Great Recession which brought the U.S. and the world to the brink of catastrophe.

Occupy Wall Street has exploded onto the scene in this moment of grave crisis in the economic and political life of the nation, providing a much needed outlet and target for the pervasive rage rampant among millions ravished by joblessness, mortgage foreclosures and financial institutions shamelessly eager to rape them with fees calculated to evade the constraints imposed by the newly created Consumer Protection Agency. But, thus far Occupy Wall Street is a self-proclaimed “leaderless,” politically non-aligned movement with a multiplicity of messages, grievances and righteous slogans but no coherent set of goals/demands. And, there are scant numbers of Blacks and other people of color in the ranks of the protesters. The movement is overwhelmingly White.

There are some who argue that crafting a specific set of goals or demands on corporations or the government would sap the movement of its creativity, vitality and energy by creating divisions among the protesters – who may have differing views on specific goals or policy recommendations. It may be that the myriad issues encapsulated in “Occupy Wall Street” will be sufficient to produce an unspecified positive outcome. The mass protests in Arab Spring, which apparently inspired the “leaderless” revolt against Wall Street, had a broad objective — ridding their nations of tyrants/despots and working to create more democratic societies. The prolonged hunger strike by Gandhi protégé Anna Hazare in India that provoked mass movement in the streets was directed at corruption in the government. It resulted in the passage of an anti-corruption bill by the Indian Parliament. The March on Washington produced the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Selma to Montgomery March led to the adoption of the historic Voting Rights Act of 1965. Hoovervilles and protests in the streets by armies of the unemployed helped to create the political space for Franklin D. Roosevelt to launch ambitious public works programs that put millions of people to work as part of the New Deal.

I´m not certain that anger and outrage without a message and agenda will ultimately transform Wall Street or break the gridlock in Washington that is tantamount to fiddling while countless millions suffer. Perhaps labor or other organized progressive forces, including the Progressive Caucus in the Congress, will leverage the mass movement in the streets to outline a short term agenda for jobs and justice that will put millions of people back to work, provide massive relief for the victims of mortgage foreclosures and beat back the attempt of reactionaries to stifle the regulation of Wall Street.

The unemployed/jobless, the legions whose homes are underwater or have been foreclosed because of the sub-prime mortgage scam and students whose career paths are in jeopardy because of mounting debt from college loans or escalating tuition costs, the affected and disaffected of all races and ethnicities should be flocking to the Occupy Wall Street sites in droves. But, there is also a special need for Black people to seize upon the momentum created by Occupy Wall Street to identify with and mobilize our forces to add fuel to the fire. The Great Recession precipitated by the unconscionable behavior of Wall Street did not just ruin the lives of White people; it was an equal opportunity destroyer that disproportionately wreaked havoc on Black people and Black communities. Already plagued by a wealth gap that has persisted for generations, the sub-prime mortgage scam that targeted Black consumers wiped out billions of dollars in wealth, liquidating decades of gains by the Black middle class. George Fraser, President/CEO of FraserNet, estimates that it may take a century to recoup the wealth lost by Black America as a consequence of a scam that preyed on victims yearning to realize the “American dream.”

As Vernon Jordon, former President of the National Urban League once put it, “when White America gets a cold, Black America gets pneumonia.” Nothing is more illustrative of this dictum than the Great Recession. Most political economists concede that the employment rate in Black America is at least twice the official rate of 9.1% and perhaps triple when one takes into account the unemployed who have simply given up the search for work. By some estimates 40-50% of Black youth/young people between the ages of 16-30 are jobless! Moreover, the dramatic rise in poverty attributed to the Great Recession has disproportionately impacted Black people. White America is experiencing a Great Recession – Black America is in the throes of a debilitating social and economic Depression borne of decades of benign and blatant neglect, exacerbated by racist and criminal behavior of the barracudas on Wall Street.

Black Voices for Economic Justice have every reason and right to be heard. The fact that White protesters initiated and have led Occupy Wall Street should not be a deterrent to Black engagement. We should view the current conflagration as an opening to raise our specific issues and demands, as we add our voices to the growing amorphous movement to confront and change America´s capitalist political economy as symbolized by Wall Street. As a people whose leaders and organizations have often been the conscience of the nation and the vanguard of major social movements, Africans in America should seize every opportunity to expose the hypocrisy and contradictions of an unjust system as we struggle to create a just and humane society. The challenge is to find our own voice to express issues of particular interest to Black people within the context of the broader struggle for reform and transformation.

By organizing Black Voices for Peace and Justice, our late beloved Brother Damu Smith developed a principled and creative avenue to meet this challenge. Damu recognized that issues of concern to Black people may be ignored or avoided as “divisive” even among White liberals and progressive. He also recognized that Blacks might not be equitably included in the planning and leadership of protests and demonstrations initiated by Whites. As opposition to the War in Iraq grew, Damu organized Black Voices for Peace and Justice to ensure that the push to end the war would relate to the urgent need for resources to address the ongoing crises in Black America. Rather than dismiss the anti-war movement as a “white” initiative, Damu created a vehicle for Black people to add their voices to a just struggle while simultaneously insisting that Black issues be addressed. In one memorable instance Black Voices for Peace organized a parallel march through Black neighborhoods in Washington, D.C. that called attention to Black issues. After completing the route through the Black neighborhoods, the March merged with a massive anti-war demonstration across from the White House where Damu was one of the speakers.

We should adopt a similar approach as it relates to Occupy Wall Street. First, as an expression of solidarity and acknowledgment of the harm inflicted on Black people by Wall Street, we should encourage Black people to attend “Occupy” protests in New York and cities across the country. A number of Black leaders, activists and organizers have already made a conscious commitment to visit Occupy sites to express support for rallies and demonstrations. Equally important, however, in New York and around the country, Black leaders, activists and organizers should mobilize broad based coalitions of Black people to conduct parallel marches and/or have organized Black contingents within Occupy protests. This is important because Blacks must utilize the media glare of the moment to shine a light on specific issues and concerns of importance to Black people.

Since Bank foreclosures have disproportionately devastated Black families and communities as a result of the sub-prime mortgage scam and the onslaught of the Great Recession, Black Voices for Economic Justice should demand a Moratorium on Home Foreclosures and a massive federal and bank industry sponsored program to “Bail Out Homeowners.” We should demand that the Attorney General investigate and prosecute the criminals whose reckless behavior created the crises - Jail the Criminals on Wall Street. We should demand that the banks most responsible for perpetrating the sub-prime mortgage scam on Black people create Investment Funds to provide grants and low interest loans for business/economic development in Black neighborhoods – Rebuild Black Neighborhoods. We should demand a “Bailout for Students” burdened by loans to pay for the escalating cost of a college education. Black voices should be heard loud and clear demanding a Massive Jobs program to immediately put at least 2 million people to work hired directly by the federal government to perform public sector jobs (something similar to Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky´s Emergency Jobs to Restore the American Dream Act) – with an emphasis on targeting neighborhoods/communities with the highest levels of joblessness. And, Black voices should also be sounding the clarion call for a Millionaire´s Tax to finance the jobs bill and compel Wall Street to shoulder major responsibility for helping Americans to heal from wounds inflicted by the injurious behavior of the “Robber Barons.”

This is not a time for people of African descent to sit on the sidelines. Black folks who have lost their homes to foreclosure or are underwater because of the sub-prime mortgage scam, Black students who are drowning in debt from student loans and the Black joblessness should mount parallel but supportive “Occupy” marches and rallies all across the nation. Africans in America should heed the admonition of the Gary Black Political Agenda; our voices must be heard “because it is our people who are most deeply hurt and ravaged by the present systems of society.” Black Voices for Economic Justice should gear up to Occupy Wall Street and march on ballot boxes with a vengeance in 2012 to vigorously advance an agenda for reform and fundamental change!

Dr. Ron Daniels is President of the Institute of the Black World 21^st Century and Distinguished Lecturer at York College City University of New York. His articles and essays also appear on the IBW website www.ibw21.org and www.northstarnews.com . To send a message, arrange media interviews or speaking engagements, Dr. Daniels can be reached via email at info@ibw21.org .

“Pass the Bill Now”
Obama Finally Takes a Stand … Again

For months supporters of President Obama have been grumbling that the Tea Party and Grand Obstructionist Party (GOP) have been slapping him around like a rag doll. After buckling to the obstructionists on everything from Health Care Reform, extending the Bush era tax breaks for the wealthy, raising the debt ceiling and awkwardly capitulating to Boehner on the date/day of his speech to a joint session of Congress, the question on everyone´s lips was when will Obama stand and fight.   To be fair, the President took a stand during his previous speech to a joint session of Congress last spring when he vowed to protect Medicare and Social Security in any negotiations on the 2012 budget or the deficit and debt.  Of course he promptly volunteered to put Medicare and Social Security on the table during his highly touted but failed negotiations for a “grand bargain” with House Speaker Boehner over raising the debt ceiling.  So, as the hour for yet another “defining speech” drew near, there was understandable skepticism whether Obama would be equal to the task of offering a bold jobs plan and challenging the obstructionists to oppose it.

To the surprise of many of his critics, President Obama passionately and forcefully articulated a jobs plan that New York Times Columnist Paul Krugman described as “significantly bolder and better than I expected.”  Krugman went on to say that “it´s not nearly as bold as the plan I´d want in an ideal world. But if it actually became law, it would probably make a significant dent in unemployment.” Tactically seeking to expose the Tea Party and the Republicans/conservatives as hypocrites and obstructionists, Obama presented a $450 billion package with about $250 billion in tax cuts targeted at small businesses and middle class families and $200 billion in spending on infrastructure repair, rehabbing schools,  summer jobs for youth,  hiring or retaining teachers and firefighters and  extending unemployment benefits.   The President pointedly and repeatedly reminded the obstructionists that this modest and moderate package contained proposals which Republicans have supported in the past. In so doing, he seized the high ground by putting them in a position of rejecting proposals they had previously championed.

Clearly relishing the opportunity to put the obstructionists on the defensive, Obama repeatedly called on Congress to “Pass the Bill Now.”  Equally refreshing, he defended collective bargaining rights for workers and offered a vigorous rationale for the role of government as the facilitator and protector of the interests of ordinary people. And, he reminded the obstructionists that historically government has played a vital role in making investments to expand the economy.   Rejecting the obsessive ” small government, limited spending” orthodoxy incessantly spouted by the Republican/conservatives, Obama argued that spending on jobs was not only necessary, it would help reduce the deficit by increasing demand for the products and services of businesses and ultimately generate taxes for the federal coffers.

I agree with Paul Krugman that a bolder and more expansive jobs plan was preferable.  I would have elected to propose a public sector jobs component that would directly and immediately put at least a million people back to work. However, I view the President´s proposal and more importantly his more defiant and assertive posture as potentially the opening salvo in a counter-offensive to overcome the obstructionist´s strategy to make Obama a “one term President.”  Their goal is to retake the White House and seize control of both houses of Congress so they can have an unfettered path to implement a pro-corporate, reactionary agenda that it will take decades to undo.

Picking up on his speech before Congress, “Pass the Bill Now” should become the battle cry of progressives as part of the push-back against the obstructionists. Rather than waste time critiquing what could have or should have been Obama´s jobs plan, progressives should adopt a three-prong approach to defeating the obstructionists.  First, we should join President Obama in challenging the Tea Party and the Republican/conservatives to “Pass the Bill Now” as a way of relentlessly exposing their hypocrisy and political agenda for 2012.  Second, progressives should press the case for public sector, direct hiring of the unemployed as reflected in Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky´s  bill; The Emergency Jobs to Restore the American Dream Act which would create 2.2 million jobs over a two year period at a cost of $227 billion. In fact, if progressives had mounted a serious mobilization around this bill prior to Obama´s speech, it might have created space for him to explicitly include a public sector job component in his plan. Finally, though the idea has yet to gain traction, I am still advocating for the convening of a Progressive National Convention in 2012 to mobilize liberal-left-progressive constituencies to turn back the obstructionist tide and hopefully galvanize a new independent political force on the left.

Now that President Obama has finally taken a stand, let´s hope he doesn´t waffle again. It´s time for progressives to get busy mobilizing and organizing to combat the obstructionists and create a permanent independent force for change that will turn the nation, Obama and the Democrats in the right direction … to the left!

Dr. Ron Daniels is President of the Institute of the Black World 21st Century and Distinguished Lecturer at York College City University of New York. His articles and essays also appear on the IBW website www.ibw21.org and www.northstarnews.com . To send a message, arrange media interviews or speaking engagements, Dr. Daniels can be reached via email at info@ibw21.org .