Latest / Gil I Am / Black Leaders Discussion feat. Angela Davis, Kwame Ture & Fannie Lou Hamer (1973)

Transcript

Black Leaders Discussion feat. Angela Davis, Kwame Ture & Fannie Lou Hamer (1973) · Gil I Am

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Speaker 1: I'm Tony Brown, executive producer of Black Journal. Welcome to
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Speaker 1: Black Leaders seventy three. This program has been pre recorded,
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Speaker 1: and you will not be able at this time.
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Speaker 2: To phone in any questions.
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Speaker 1: The questions that you hear were directed in some instances
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Speaker 1: to specific panelists, and in other instances they were not.
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Speaker 3: Some of the.
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Speaker 1: Panelists had not been advertised and we do not have
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Speaker 1: a number of questions for them. However, they have been
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Speaker 1: encouraged to answer any questions, no matter to whom they
0:53
Speaker 1: are directed. For the next ninety minutes, we will present
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Speaker 1: an unedited two way communication system between you and our
1:01
Speaker 1: Congress of Black spokesman. We will be using television as
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Speaker 1: an instrument of positive social reform, allowing Black America to
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Speaker 1: question members of her leadership and make herself heard collectively.
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Speaker 1: Our guests are Judge William Booth, President American Committee on Africa,
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Speaker 1: Hayward Burns, National Director, National Conference of Black Lawyers, Berkeley Burrell,
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Speaker 1: President National Business League, Stokely Carmichael, All African People's Revolutionary Party,
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Speaker 1: Angela Davis National United Committee to Free All Political Prisoners,
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Speaker 1: Fannie lou Hamer, Director Mississippi Freedom Farm Cooperation, Nelson Johnson,
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Speaker 1: National Chairman, Youth Organization for Black Unity, William Lucy, International
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Speaker 1: Secretary Treasurer American Federation of Federal, State, County and Municipal
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Speaker 1: Employees and the chairman of the Steering Committee of the
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Speaker 1: Coalition of Black Trade Unionists. The Honorable Percy Sutton, President
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Speaker 1: of the Borough of Manhattan, the Honorable Lewis Stokes, Democrat
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Speaker 1: of Ohio and Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus.
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Speaker 2: Sinny J.
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Speaker 1: Williams, Junior President, National Association of Black Social Workers, and
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Speaker 1: James D.
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Speaker 2: Williams National Urban League. One of our.
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Speaker 1: Panelists was enabled to be with us and wired us
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Speaker 1: his regrets. The following telegram is from mister Stanley Scott,
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Speaker 1: Special Assistant to the President of the United States. I
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Speaker 1: will now read his telegram deeply regret that I must
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Speaker 1: cancel my appearance on your show because of an assignment
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Speaker 1: recently given me on behalf of the President. I would
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Speaker 1: welcome the pleasure of being your guest at a later date,
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Speaker 1: with every best wishes for a very successful show.
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Speaker 2: Stanley Scott, Special Assistant to the President.
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Speaker 1: Indeed, there are many other black spokesmen, but our physical
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Speaker 1: and technical capabilities have limited us. We do want the
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Speaker 1: public to understand that our black leadership does include persons
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Speaker 1: not on this panel. To continue to expose more of
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Speaker 1: our leaders, we have invited a different group from our
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Speaker 1: nineteen seventy two version. In selecting tonight's panel, were attempted
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Speaker 1: to bring together a diversity of positions and philosophies held
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Speaker 1: together by the common thread of concern for all black people.
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Speaker 2: May we now have our first question?
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Speaker 4: Likely to send me through?
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Speaker 5: And I have to tell you that we are recording
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Speaker 5: your question, and we need your permission to record it
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Speaker 5: and to edit it and to put it on the air.
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Speaker 6: You have money, find time permission to do that.
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Speaker 7: My name is the carl S met of Laton, Oklahoma.
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Speaker 7: A prolistic society and with all ethnic and racial minority
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Speaker 7: try to contribute to the name stream and still retain
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Speaker 7: their cultural is often advocated as a desirable goal for
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Speaker 7: our country. My question is a real little bit goal.
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Speaker 7: Is it possible?
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Speaker 8: And if not?
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Speaker 7: Why?
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Speaker 1: If you didn't understand that question, I can mute to
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Speaker 1: you again, he said. A pluralistic society in which all
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Speaker 1: ethnic and racial minorities try to contribute to the mainstream
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Speaker 1: and still retain their cultural identity is often advocated as
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Speaker 1: a desirable goal for our country. My question is is
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Speaker 1: it a realistic goal?
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Speaker 2: Is it possible? And if so, and if not why?
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Speaker 9: That's one of the diversities I guess that we have
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Speaker 9: among black people. I hate to say black leaders, because
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Speaker 9: I don't think of ourselves as black leaders. I don't
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Speaker 9: think any people need leaders. We are working in the
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Speaker 9: field and we're doing our job. But there is diverse opinion.
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Speaker 9: Some folks believe that you can work within the system
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Speaker 9: and you can make the system work for you. Others
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Speaker 9: believe you can't work within the system. You've got to
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Speaker 9: have something else. I happen to be one of those
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Speaker 9: who believes that although we have not progressed as we
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Speaker 9: should have, and that the great masses of the people
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Speaker 9: have not at all been able to use their inert talents,
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Speaker 9: the talents they've gotten have that have been hidden by
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Speaker 9: the reason of cultural bias and examinations and all the
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Speaker 9: rest that's happened to us through the years, that although
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Speaker 9: the masses of the people have not tasted the success
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Speaker 9: that is available here in this country, still I believe
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Speaker 9: that it is possible. If I didn't believe it was
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Speaker 9: possible to work within the system and to retain my
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Speaker 9: own cultural identity in spite of what's happening.
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Speaker 2: I would have to give up my job.
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Speaker 9: I'd have to give up my various positions and organizations
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Speaker 9: that I belong to. I'd have to say, well down
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Speaker 9: with all organizations connected with this government, that I look
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Speaker 9: upon this government as being one of men who can
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Speaker 9: be changed if there's enough pressure put upon them. And
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Speaker 9: the numbers that we've got together that black people have
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Speaker 9: and related people have in this country, we put on
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Speaker 9: numbers together, we can overcome the forces against us. Otherwise
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Speaker 9: I couldn't exist in this country that way.
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Speaker 10: I would think that what our brother Judge Booth said
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Speaker 10: is correct. The only question would be what kind of
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Speaker 10: change do we want. I think everybody would be for
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Speaker 10: that society. The question is whether or not it could
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Speaker 10: come about under the present system of this government, or
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Speaker 10: whether that system must be changed. I, for one, believe
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Speaker 10: that it cannot come about under the present system, a
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Speaker 10: capitalist system.
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Speaker 3: That system must be changed.
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Speaker 10: I believe that, and I think that if we have
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Speaker 10: the same objectives, then it doesn't make a difference where
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Speaker 10: we work.
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Speaker 3: As a matter of fact, a man working to change
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Speaker 3: the system.
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Speaker 10: With that objective in mind, can do very much inside
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Speaker 10: the system once he doesn't lose sight of his objective.
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Speaker 10: But an example that comes to mind is that a
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Speaker 10: few years ago it was found out that one of
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Speaker 10: the advisors for President Thu was working for the Viet Cong.
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Speaker 11: I do think that we make a mistake if we
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Speaker 11: talk about this in terms.
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Speaker 4: Of absolute doctorates.
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Speaker 11: We talk about in terms of black people and integration
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Speaker 11: or black people in separation. Seems to me that that's
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Speaker 11: a false dichotomy that has been set up in terms
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Speaker 11: of the way in which the debates discussed. The real
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Speaker 11: issue I feel for black people is one of empowerment
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Speaker 11: and one of redefinition of the way in which black
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Speaker 11: and white people are interacting in society.
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Speaker 8: I feel that's what we must be about.
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Speaker 4: Well. I think that.
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Speaker 12: If you consider the fact that this system, this capitalist
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Speaker 12: system under which we are living today, is designed in
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Speaker 12: such a way that nobody except a privileged few, can
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Speaker 12: attempt to express themselves a contribute to anything, there's no
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Speaker 12: doubt about the fact that we have to talk about
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Speaker 12: revolutionizing the system before anybody can can live in any
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Speaker 12: kind of human fashion together.
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Speaker 4: Now, I would just like to point.
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Speaker 12: Out the fact that I have seen with my eye
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Speaker 12: societies where people of different colors have learned how to
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Speaker 12: live together, each maintaining their own cultural identity.
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Speaker 4: But each uh fighting to build.
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Speaker 12: And to continue to construct a socialist revolution UH together.
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Speaker 12: I was in Cuba not very long ago, and I
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Speaker 12: saw with my eye, own eyes, how black people, brown people,
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Speaker 12: and white people have reached the point where they can
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Speaker 12: work in harmony towards the building of a socialist society.
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Speaker 13: Any other responses, let me just maybe add to what
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Speaker 13: rather I don't said over there just a moment ago.
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Speaker 13: I think the the key question is that, certainly it's
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Speaker 13: a good idea to work toward a a a total
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Speaker 13: input by all all I suppose ethnic groups in our society,
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Speaker 13: blacks and what have you. But the key thing is
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Speaker 13: whether or not you have a sufficient amount of power
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Speaker 13: within yourself to affect the system when the system is
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Speaker 13: working against your vested interests.
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Speaker 4: In schools some years ago, we were taught.
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Speaker 13: To think of America as a melting pot, and I
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Speaker 13: think the current administration has proven that there are ethnics
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Speaker 13: who are unmeltable, because even though they are invisible, they
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Speaker 13: are still there to identify with their own vested interests
9:20
Speaker 13: as a people, I think as black people, we have
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Speaker 13: to become concerned first of all with what our vested
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Speaker 13: interest is in either preserving the system or changing the system.
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Speaker 13: And once we make that determination, then the direction that
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Speaker 13: we have to take it is clear for us. For instance,
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Speaker 13: if you look at the various arms or branches of government,
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Speaker 13: they represent different interests, Yet there is none that represents
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Speaker 13: our interests. For instance, the business interest is represented by
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Speaker 13: a branch. You will never find that branch, you know,
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Speaker 13: going contrary to what the interest of business happens to be.
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Speaker 13: Yet there's the labor interests. And only here lately have
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Speaker 13: we found some difference is there? But every segment of
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Speaker 13: our society that represents a power, you know, lever is
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Speaker 13: represented there except uh people and particularly black people.
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Speaker 4: And I think it's it should be.
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Speaker 13: We should be about the business of a coming together,
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Speaker 13: not in specifics as to what our our interests and
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Speaker 13: goals are, but certainly in generality in terms of what
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Speaker 13: we need to exist in the society.
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Speaker 14: MM let me ask the question about your comment.
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Speaker 15: Would would it be correct to infer from your comments
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Speaker 15: that that you would suggest some attachment of a power
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Speaker 15: mechanism for black people to the governmental apparatus as as
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Speaker 15: a solution to the empowermental black people.
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Speaker 16: Uh.
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Speaker 13: I think when I I'm I'm getting that is the
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Speaker 13: the the is the acquiring of power within the black
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Speaker 13: people themselves to affect the system in any way it
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Speaker 13: needs to be affected in order to produce on behalf
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Speaker 13: of the interests of black people. And I'm not saying
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Speaker 13: we should have any black agency. That's that's That's not
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Speaker 13: what I was in front at all. I understand that
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Speaker 13: every other ethnic group in ours it has, by some
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Speaker 13: means or other, acquired the power to move out of
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Speaker 13: their depressed or pressed situation, with the exception of black
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Speaker 13: and brown. I think what I'm saying is that whatever
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Speaker 13: that power has to be to move the government to
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Speaker 13: move local structures, that's what we need to be about.
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Speaker 13: And I think that's a vested interests to be the
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Speaker 13: basis of our movement.
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Speaker 5: You know, America really is an ethnic society.
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Speaker 8: And I live here in New York.
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Speaker 5: Now though I come from Texas, which and New York
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Speaker 5: has always been talked about as a melting pot, it
11:37
Speaker 5: really isn't the melting pot. We have Jews, we have Italians,
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Speaker 5: we have Blacks, we have Porto Ricans, a variety of
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Speaker 5: other cultures that live side by side with each other,
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Speaker 5: not always happy with each other. But if we're talking
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Speaker 5: about change, whether it's the change of the style of
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Speaker 5: the government or an absolute change in the nature of
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Speaker 5: the government, to a social society or whatever other society,
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Speaker 5: I think I think there's fundamental to it. If we
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Speaker 5: as black people are going to talk about change, one
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Speaker 5: of the first things we need to do is develop
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Speaker 5: some unity within ourselves. Now that doesn't mean that all
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Speaker 5: black people have to speak the same language.
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Speaker 8: I have the same philosophy, but we have.
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Speaker 5: To learn to communicate, and I think we are in
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Speaker 5: a large measure learning to communicate with each other. And
12:16
Speaker 5: we've got to develop coalitions with others.
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Speaker 8: Because we are a.
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Speaker 5: Small minority, we have great power. However, if we can
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Speaker 5: unite our minority with other minorities, because there are other
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Speaker 5: groups of people who would wish to move in the same.
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Speaker 8: Direction as we wish.
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Speaker 5: So it doesn't make me any difference whether we're If
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Speaker 5: I thought tomorrow we could stage the revolution and the
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Speaker 5: revolution would succeed, I give leadership to it.
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Speaker 8: That is a revolution by whatever method.
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Speaker 5: But at this structure in our development, I believe the
12:44
Speaker 5: kind of revolution that is going to take place, there's
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Speaker 5: a social revolution without bloodshed. And if this is to
12:49
Speaker 5: be so, one of the first things that must be
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Speaker 5: accomplished is that black people, poor people must unite themselves
12:55
Speaker 5: and then join forces with others.
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Speaker 1: Now, Harlem has been a barometer for a number of
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Speaker 1: years of perhaps black feeling across the country in terms
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Speaker 1: of mood. What do you see what direction you see
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Speaker 1: the mood in Harlem going in?
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Speaker 5: I'm not too sure that Harlem has been the mood
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Speaker 5: of the country. Harlem is one of the most volative
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Speaker 5: places in the country when I travel to other places. Uh,
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Speaker 5: I'm amazed at the amount of unity we have unity
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Speaker 5: in Harlem. Unity in one thing that we're different. Many
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Speaker 5: of us are different.
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Speaker 8: Uh.
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Speaker 5: We have more nationalist organizations, We have all of the
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Speaker 5: organizations you want to perceive of.
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Speaker 8: Uh.
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Speaker 5: Are many of them have their facets in Harlem.
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Speaker 17: Uh.
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Speaker 5: No, I don't think Harlem is the mood. Harlem is
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Speaker 5: a very sophisticated place. Sophisticated in the sense that we
13:40
Speaker 5: all understand the need for others of us to exist.
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Speaker 5: So I could not use it as the barometer of
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Speaker 5: America big, but if it should be the baroma to America,
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Speaker 5: I think it would be good.
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Speaker 8: But I'm afraid that it is not.
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Speaker 1: Missus Haymer, do you see changes in since you're from
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Speaker 1: the right, in the middle of the rural South, do
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Speaker 1: you see uh, any trend there in terms of black
14:05
Speaker 1: people moving toward unity and moving away from unity.
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Speaker 2: Just generally what's going on in your area the country?
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Speaker 18: Well, I I do see. I do see more unity because, uh,
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Speaker 18: the power structures in the South are forcing us to
14:23
Speaker 18: have more unity. You know, there have been a class
14:28
Speaker 18: split with the black community that's being moved because we
14:33
Speaker 18: are finding out whether you middle class or no class,
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Speaker 18: there's no different as long as we black, we in.
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Speaker 19: The same boat.
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Speaker 18: And that's forcing us to be together at because you know,
14:45
Speaker 18: we've seen what's happening in our schools. You know, like
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Speaker 18: if a principal was a principal and was moved and
14:53
Speaker 18: become assistant principal, his job, if he's black, automatically, if
14:58
Speaker 18: he become assistant principal, well, his job automatically is to
15:02
Speaker 18: carry a taller tissue from one school to the other
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Speaker 18: one and load up the bus. So he's fine and
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Speaker 18: that it's no different than us, and they's.
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Speaker 14: Forcing us to get together.
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Speaker 18: And I think that the change will come because we
15:17
Speaker 18: have to. Is nothing handed to us on a silver plotter,
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Speaker 18: and we have to work together for a change in
15:22
Speaker 18: the South.
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Speaker 1: Congressman Stokes, Uh, does did your election as the new
15:28
Speaker 1: chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus indicate a new direction?
15:32
Speaker 1: And if it did not, is there a new direction
15:34
Speaker 1: for the Congressional Black Caucus.
15:37
Speaker 20: But what we had to do immediately after I assumed
15:40
Speaker 20: the chairmanship was to try and evaluate our role.
15:44
Speaker 12: UH.
15:44
Speaker 20: We found ourselves at that time being thirteen black legislators
15:48
Speaker 20: out of a body of four unann thirty five congressmen
15:52
Speaker 20: and UH having formed UH a Black Caucus for the
15:55
Speaker 20: purpose of trying to alleviate the conditions under which poor
15:59
Speaker 20: and black and disadvantaged people live in this country. We
16:02
Speaker 20: had to try and evaluate that role in terms of
16:06
Speaker 20: nineteen seventy three in the United States Congress, particularly in.
16:10
Speaker 8: Light of the president administration in Washington.
16:13
Speaker 20: As we evaluated our role, we realized that we sort
16:16
Speaker 20: of grew up overnight, and we immediately tried to be
16:20
Speaker 20: all things to all people, And for a period of
16:23
Speaker 20: eighteen months, we conducted a series of conferences, a series
16:26
Speaker 20: of hearings around points of interest and concern to black
16:32
Speaker 20: and disadvantaged people in this country. And after we had
16:36
Speaker 20: developed all of the hearings and the conferences, we realized
16:39
Speaker 20: we had a great deal of data collected, a great
16:43
Speaker 20: deal of proposed legislative solutions.
16:46
Speaker 8: And so we realized that we ought to get out
16:48
Speaker 8: of the business.
16:49
Speaker 20: Of conducting conferences and hearings because we had the data,
16:53
Speaker 20: we had the specifics with which to work and propose
16:56
Speaker 20: legislation which would get it some of the solutions to
16:59
Speaker 20: some of these problems.
17:01
Speaker 8: So consequently, we decided that we would try.
17:05
Speaker 20: And make the emphasis of the Caucus that of a
17:08
Speaker 20: legislative thrust, that is, to add a black perspective to
17:12
Speaker 20: that legislation coming through the United States Congress, particularly in.
17:16
Speaker 8: Light of our work on committees.
17:18
Speaker 20: But we can fashion amendments to legislation before it even
17:22
Speaker 20: comes to the floor that would add a black perspective
17:25
Speaker 20: to that kind of legislation. And so it's with this
17:28
Speaker 20: kind of emphasis or thrust that the Black Caucus attempted
17:33
Speaker 20: to change its direction.
17:36
Speaker 1: I'd like to ask either mister Williams and or mister Williams.
17:41
Speaker 1: Since the National Association of Black Social Workers is definitely
17:45
Speaker 1: interested in services for Black people poor people, and the
17:48
Speaker 1: Urban League is definitely in.
17:50
Speaker 2: The business of institutionalizing services.
17:53
Speaker 1: How do you see the recent budget proposals or the
17:56
Speaker 1: appropriations for these service programs affect Black America specifically during
18:02
Speaker 1: the summer months and and on into the to the years.
18:07
Speaker 21: See the way I view is the current UH Nixon
18:12
Speaker 21: UH administration policy is creating and will create a critical
18:17
Speaker 21: condition in the black community.
18:20
Speaker 19: UH.
18:20
Speaker 21: They're cutting back on key services in the area of UH,
18:25
Speaker 21: UH daycare, welfare, UH scholarships for students to attend school.
18:31
Speaker 21: Many students would not be able to attend the UH
18:34
Speaker 21: open school Enrollment program, and et cetera. But even more
18:38
Speaker 21: importantly in the currently in the black community. Despite the
18:42
Speaker 21: statistics UH that been pro projected by the Knickson administration.
18:46
Speaker 14: You see, we made a survey.
18:48
Speaker 21: In both Harlem and Wants and we came up with
18:51
Speaker 21: these statistics that's something like four than to fifty percent
18:54
Speaker 21: of Blacks that are unemployed at this particular time. Right now,
18:58
Speaker 21: now with the current cutbacks, this is gonna create even
19:01
Speaker 21: more unemployment. In fact, some statistics had already been thrown
19:05
Speaker 21: out by some of the black group. That's something like
19:07
Speaker 21: two hundred or three hundred thousand black people, Black people
19:10
Speaker 21: working in the poverty program will be affected that are
19:13
Speaker 21: currently employed, that will be affected by the job cuts.
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Speaker 21: But this is only compounding the current unemployment situation that
19:21
Speaker 21: currently exists now in the black community. So I think
19:23
Speaker 21: that we are now passed the repression state, but in
19:26
Speaker 21: a critical point because not only does this exist in Hollerming,
19:29
Speaker 21: wants exist.
19:30
Speaker 14: Throughout the major urban areas in the city.
19:32
Speaker 21: And I think that as Black people, we're gonna have
19:35
Speaker 21: to begin to speak out against this current trend because
19:38
Speaker 21: of having a drastic effect on the black community.
19:41
Speaker 17: Well, Toney to respond to that same question that we
19:45
Speaker 17: do regard the budget cuts as disastrous. Uh, not only
19:49
Speaker 17: in terms of the actual dollars, but the type of
19:51
Speaker 17: philosophy that these cuts have unveiled that we're talking.
19:56
Speaker 19: Well, let's just steal it.
19:57
Speaker 17: For a moment with the housing programs, and we have
19:59
Speaker 17: to make some of those programs did not work. But
20:02
Speaker 17: some of those programs did not work because there was
20:04
Speaker 17: fraud involving government agencies, involving the.
20:07
Speaker 19: Private sector of the country.
20:09
Speaker 17: So what happens the programs are cut out and the
20:10
Speaker 17: poor people are penalized. In other words, that we are
20:14
Speaker 17: being victimized because someone else has victimized us. And the
20:19
Speaker 17: whole question of the cuts deals with the type of
20:22
Speaker 17: philosophy that says the country has done enough for poor people,
20:27
Speaker 17: so now we'll move on to something else, that we
20:29
Speaker 17: can abolish poverty with the stroke of a pen, and
20:32
Speaker 17: so therefore that these programs are no longer needed, and
20:35
Speaker 17: anyone that needs these programs are really.
20:38
Speaker 19: Freeloaders whom we can do without.
20:40
Speaker 17: So we deal not only with the question of a
20:43
Speaker 17: dollar amounts, but the question of the type of philosophy
20:45
Speaker 17: that's trying to well that is being exemplified in this
20:50
Speaker 17: type of approach to the budget.
20:51
Speaker 19: So I think that that's the main thing today.
20:55
Speaker 13: That's one point about the whole budget cut back thing.
20:59
Speaker 13: Is we used to and I think again we see
21:02
Speaker 13: a rather magnificent pr game being done by the Nixon
21:05
Speaker 13: administration because the nation as a whole assumes that the
21:09
Speaker 13: cuts that are taking place are one to eliminate black
21:12
Speaker 13: people from the roles from the welfare roles, to make
21:15
Speaker 13: life easier for the taxpayers out in the hinderland. But
21:18
Speaker 13: if you really track the statistics and see exactly who
21:21
Speaker 13: is benefiting from the programs that goes down, you will
21:24
Speaker 13: find that generally two thirds of the people who receive
21:29
Speaker 13: benefits of white and the other one third being black.
21:32
Speaker 13: In terms of those who are receiving direct public aid
21:35
Speaker 13: of public assistance, you will find that the numbering pieces
21:37
Speaker 13: are something like one out of four. And I'm not
21:40
Speaker 13: a social worker, but the disappear and simple numbers indicate
21:43
Speaker 13: that what has happened is that out in the Midwest,
21:47
Speaker 13: where it's becoming acceptable now to assume that discrimination is
21:50
Speaker 13: away of life.
21:52
Speaker 4: The administration has convinced people that what we are doing.
21:56
Speaker 13: Is keeping your taxes down, keeping those program we're taking
22:01
Speaker 13: those programs out rather that have contributed to the.
22:04
Speaker 4: Inflation and all this other foodsness.
22:06
Speaker 13: I think what we have to do, and I think
22:08
Speaker 13: there's a tragedy that some of the so called liberals
22:10
Speaker 13: who have participated in these discussions before are not speaking
22:13
Speaker 13: out on the issue now, but it's being left to
22:15
Speaker 13: black leadership to deal with the whole question of budget cutbacks.
22:19
Speaker 4: And I think that that there's a real need to raise.
22:22
Speaker 13: A level of awareness across the country because we even
22:24
Speaker 13: got some black folks are talking about, Yeah, well, we
22:26
Speaker 13: should be.
22:27
Speaker 4: Phasing down these things. Phasing down got nothing to do
22:29
Speaker 4: with it.
22:30
Speaker 13: If you cut back on the social program at the
22:32
Speaker 13: same time increase the defense budget when we're supposed to
22:35
Speaker 13: be winding down our involvement in South He's able.
22:38
Speaker 4: There's something out of balance there.
22:39
Speaker 5: And then Tony, I don't think let me just piggy
22:41
Speaker 5: back what Bill Lucy said.
22:43
Speaker 8: You know, there cannot We should not have a discussion.
22:46
Speaker 5: There should never be a discussion of welfare without some
22:50
Speaker 5: explanation to the public of what welfare really is. Lockheed
22:54
Speaker 5: is getting welfare, and people who live in the suburbs
22:57
Speaker 5: penn Central it is getting welfare.
23:00
Speaker 8: These pardon me.
23:01
Speaker 5: We paid exactly, We paid taxes. They're not only getting
23:04
Speaker 5: welfare but not paying any taxes. But when they get it,
23:07
Speaker 5: it's called a subsidy. And of course we could go
23:10
Speaker 5: along and give a really description to all of the
23:15
Speaker 5: things that are being done by our federal government, both
23:18
Speaker 5: here in America and abroad, that.
23:21
Speaker 8: Are in fact welfare.
23:22
Speaker 5: But mister Nixon and his crew are not talking about
23:25
Speaker 5: eliminating any of that they're talking about expanding that.
23:28
Speaker 1: Well, let me ask this in his explanation as far
23:32
Speaker 1: as he's gone to date, President Nixon, when he appeared
23:35
Speaker 1: on television and explaining the Watergate situation as he saw it,
23:39
Speaker 1: did you sense that he was implying a re ordering,
23:44
Speaker 1: a restructuring of priorities when he discovered didn he say
23:47
Speaker 1: something to the effect that he was going to be
23:49
Speaker 1: a little more sensitive.
23:50
Speaker 8: No, you want to know what I sense.
23:52
Speaker 5: I sensed that there was a desperate man trying to
23:54
Speaker 5: copy a plea, and then he even set a prayer
23:57
Speaker 5: for us at the end of it. No, I did,
24:00
Speaker 5: since he was talking about re ordering priorities, right, since
24:02
Speaker 5: that he was trying to get through a very bad night.
24:07
Speaker 3: And I think also that the.
24:10
Speaker 19: Was that he never really got to the substance of
24:12
Speaker 19: what the dealing.
24:13
Speaker 17: That what we got was a lot of rhetoric, a
24:15
Speaker 17: lot of waving of the flag, and then you're supposed
24:17
Speaker 17: to go away feeling that what gates, a whatagate is
24:19
Speaker 17: just gonna disappear. And I think that, uh, it was
24:22
Speaker 17: a unfair trick to play on the American public.
24:25
Speaker 4: Well, you know, we are It's one thing.
24:28
Speaker 6: I'm sorrow.
24:28
Speaker 18: It's one thing that is the only president in the
24:32
Speaker 18: history of of my time and I'm fifty six that
24:35
Speaker 18: can talk an hour and never send h.
24:39
Speaker 12: But we also have to ask ourselves what the real
24:42
Speaker 12: meaning of the ortegator fair is. I think it's important,
24:48
Speaker 12: especially for those of us who are I hear this afternoon,
24:52
Speaker 12: to recognize that if if the Republican Party will go
24:57
Speaker 12: that far to sabotage the Democratic Party, to advertage that
25:01
Speaker 12: kind of opposition, of what have we already been experiencing
25:07
Speaker 12: as far as repression is concerned, and what will we
25:10
Speaker 12: as black people have to face in the future, because
25:14
Speaker 12: there are many of us who feel that not only
25:17
Speaker 12: the Republican Party, but the Democratic Party as well as
25:20
Speaker 12: committed to upholding a system of exploitation and racism. If
25:24
Speaker 12: you look at the McGovern campaign, McGovern didn't even raise
25:27
Speaker 12: the question of racism, and he was supposed to be
25:30
Speaker 12: the left wing of the Democratic Party. So I think
25:33
Speaker 12: it's important to see this Watergate scandal as being an
25:40
Speaker 12: indication of the real threat of fascism.
25:43
Speaker 11: I think that's what it is, is an indication of
25:47
Speaker 11: the lawlessness of law officials and the abuses.
25:49
Speaker 4: Of state power at the highest level.
25:51
Speaker 11: You have to take it beyond a particular example of
25:53
Speaker 11: what David said of warrigate to understand what's going on
25:57
Speaker 11: at all levels in our society as far as the
25:58
Speaker 11: abuses of power the government is concerned, particularly in political areas.
26:02
Speaker 11: If they're doing this against the established opposition, what are
26:05
Speaker 11: they doing against black people, What are they doing against
26:07
Speaker 11: political activists? What is happening with the statutes are being
26:10
Speaker 11: passed and the people who are being appointed to the
26:13
Speaker 11: courts decisions the courts are rendering, what's happening at the
26:15
Speaker 11: street level in terms of the administration of justice, Then
26:18
Speaker 11: you get the full impact of just how lowless these
26:21
Speaker 11: people are who are supposedly in charge of administering the law.
26:24
Speaker 11: When you look at the statutes of the Congress that
26:26
Speaker 11: been passing preventive attention, see the no knock, you see
26:29
Speaker 11: the stopping frisk, you see the interstate riot at you
26:32
Speaker 11: look at the Supreme Court of the United States consistently
26:35
Speaker 11: cutting back upon what we regard as traditional rights in
26:37
Speaker 11: this country, doing away with a non unanimous jury. When
26:40
Speaker 11: you look at the street level, the level of violence,
26:42
Speaker 11: officially sanctioned violence that's going on in this country the
26:45
Speaker 11: political implications of that. Look at what happened at at
26:48
Speaker 11: Kent State and Orangeburg, Jackson State Southern University at Attica.
26:52
Speaker 4: Where forty three people were killed, and you look at.
26:54
Speaker 11: The way in which the grand jury is being used,
26:56
Speaker 11: and you look at the way in which agent provocateurs
26:58
Speaker 11: are being used, and if you just trace it all
26:59
Speaker 11: the way route of what we see right now of
27:04
Speaker 11: the iceberg.
27:04
Speaker 12: Look at what's happening and wounded we need right this moment.
27:08
Speaker 11: I think we could talk for an hour and a
27:09
Speaker 11: half if we weren't to really expand on this point.
27:11
Speaker 22: But I would like to really uh the American people,
27:15
Speaker 22: you know, UH should show them the responsibility for what
27:18
Speaker 22: is going on now, you see, because uh, the Democrats
27:22
Speaker 22: are just alarm.
27:23
Speaker 21: Of the bugging because of affecting them. You see, the
27:26
Speaker 21: Democrats when they were in power, they were bugging the
27:29
Speaker 21: black movements and no one meant any kind of outcry
27:32
Speaker 21: about that.
27:33
Speaker 14: The only thing now but the chicken had come home
27:35
Speaker 14: to roots.
27:35
Speaker 4: And though now that.
27:36
Speaker 21: They are being effected, they are now beginning to do
27:39
Speaker 21: the out crime. We have been crying about that for years,
27:42
Speaker 21: about the uh invading of our privacy, privacy, the bugging
27:47
Speaker 21: or doing the civil rights movement that above Martin Luther
27:49
Speaker 21: King is well known and no one spoke out against it.
27:52
Speaker 21: So what is happening now? See, it had been a
27:54
Speaker 21: revelation of what have been going on for years, and
27:57
Speaker 21: I think that the American people now are becoming more
28:01
Speaker 21: aware of what is going on now the fact is
28:03
Speaker 21: what they're going to do to begin to deal with it.
28:05
Speaker 21: But I think that I want to go back to
28:07
Speaker 21: another point also, Uh, it's very important who the president
28:14
Speaker 21: has around him.
28:15
Speaker 19: You see what I mean.
28:16
Speaker 14: If he have let's.
28:18
Speaker 21: Say, crooks around him, then who only have their vested
28:22
Speaker 21: interest at hart and not going to commit the time
28:25
Speaker 21: and the energy that is necessary to design program to
28:28
Speaker 21: deal with Blacks, that we are never going to get
28:31
Speaker 21: the kind of response from the federal government that we need.
28:35
Speaker 21: And I think that this is very important because these
28:37
Speaker 21: fellows out there are more concerned about stating suitcase full
28:40
Speaker 21: of money. In fact, there's two million and four million
28:43
Speaker 21: dollars that they're stating away. Now that money can be
28:46
Speaker 21: going into the black community to helping to deal with
28:47
Speaker 21: some of the problems. And I think that until we
28:50
Speaker 21: begin to focus on these kinds of situations that we
28:52
Speaker 21: were going to be missing many of the basic.
28:54
Speaker 2: Points to the other statement.
28:58
Speaker 3: Business sector of.
29:02
Speaker 23: One of the things that I keep hearing here, and
29:04
Speaker 23: I think you'd have to agree with me that the
29:08
Speaker 23: that the capitalistics capitalistic system in America, it's the system
29:13
Speaker 23: that we that we have to deal with, and the
29:15
Speaker 23: problem with it is that we don't have any blacks
29:19
Speaker 23: operating in it. I wonder if we would have the
29:22
Speaker 23: same kind of feeling about capitalistic the capitalistic system we
29:27
Speaker 23: were the capitalist and somebody else was sitting outside, I
29:30
Speaker 23: think we would begin then. I think that well Stoke
29:34
Speaker 23: that says he'd be against it, and whether he's.
29:44
Speaker 12: As long as he's doing the exploiting, there's something basically wrong.
29:51
Speaker 23: It's difficult really to say that that that people haven't
29:57
Speaker 23: been damaged by the.
29:58
Speaker 3: By the free enterprise system this country.
30:00
Speaker 23: The failure of our city is probably a direct result
30:03
Speaker 23: of the failure of the free enterprise system to do
30:05
Speaker 23: something the better. And when a big business begins to
30:08
Speaker 23: move out of and leave poor people to solve the
30:10
Speaker 23: problems of poor people, and you've got to fail, you can't.
30:13
Speaker 12: I'm sorry, all right, but talk about free enterprise, because
30:17
Speaker 12: there's no such thing as free enterprise capitalism in this
30:21
Speaker 12: day and age. It's monopoly capitalism. It is controlled by
30:25
Speaker 12: multi billion dollar firms, multi national firms. You know, you
30:28
Speaker 12: used to control by the people like Rockefeller and Hughes
30:31
Speaker 12: and du Pont. Now there's a real difference between those
30:36
Speaker 12: folks and and and the and the black man or
30:38
Speaker 12: woman who decides to open up a grocery store on
30:40
Speaker 12: the corner. That is not capitalism. But Richard Nixon has
30:43
Speaker 12: been trying to convince us. But all we have to
30:45
Speaker 12: do is to get a little grocery store on the corner,
30:47
Speaker 12: and then all of a sudden, we're a black capitalistm Well.
30:49
Speaker 23: That's what Richard Nixon says, and I disagree with him.
30:51
Speaker 23: I'm not interested in in in small business as in
30:55
Speaker 23: that kind, in those constructs because us and it's it's
30:58
Speaker 23: amazing when somebody is business and the person who's black
31:02
Speaker 23: is talking about it. Immediately it conjures up a little
31:06
Speaker 23: corner drug store, a grocery store or something. I wonder
31:08
Speaker 23: why it doesn't conjure up general.
31:09
Speaker 4: Motives for me.
31:12
Speaker 3: Well, I don't know whether it is or not.
31:14
Speaker 23: I'm you know, I'm if I guess I quit working
31:16
Speaker 23: if you're convinced that that's true. But I look at
31:19
Speaker 23: all the people around here, and we've got some some
31:23
Speaker 23: organizational petitions that kind of keep us from from operating
31:26
Speaker 23: together to change the system that we're also convinced or
31:29
Speaker 23: to be changed. When I ride in an airplane and
31:32
Speaker 23: look down and I see everybody protecting the turf, the
31:35
Speaker 23: national this is protecting this turf.
31:36
Speaker 3: These are all black groups.
31:37
Speaker 23: Anything national is black, you know, National Association of Real
31:40
Speaker 23: Estate Brokers, and National Association Funeral Directors, the National Insurance Association.
31:44
Speaker 23: They're all black, white ones, all American white ones, all American.
31:47
Speaker 4: I don't know how to happen.
31:48
Speaker 24: That's because.
31:51
Speaker 23: The point I make is the point I make is
31:53
Speaker 23: when I when I look down from an airplane and
31:55
Speaker 23: I see each one of us as organizational heads protecting
31:58
Speaker 23: our turf.
31:59
Speaker 3: Us is what the hell?
32:00
Speaker 23: We aren't protecting our turf. It's their turf. We don't
32:03
Speaker 23: have any turf. So if we don't finally come together
32:06
Speaker 23: to get a piece of v turf, then we are
32:07
Speaker 23: gonna have any turf to protect. And I think it
32:09
Speaker 23: is possible, and if we begin to talk about.
32:12
Speaker 3: What it is a change in that.
32:14
Speaker 10: Stokely and then Nelson Well, I think that the real
32:16
Speaker 10: question is that people are not clear on capitalism.
32:19
Speaker 3: Because capitalism is a very vicious system.
32:22
Speaker 10: But what it does is that it embroideries its viciousness
32:25
Speaker 10: with all sorts of elusive terms. For example, many of
32:29
Speaker 10: us would support capitalism because we actually believe that in
32:32
Speaker 10: a capitalist system there's a chance for us to get
32:34
Speaker 10: the same amount of money as Rockefeller gets, because we're
32:37
Speaker 10: told that under capitalism there is equality of opportunity, so
32:41
Speaker 10: that we feel that if this.
32:43
Speaker 25: Year we didn't make as much as a Rockefeller made,
32:45
Speaker 25: then we got to work a little bit harder, and
32:47
Speaker 25: next year we're gonna make it. But if we carefully
32:50
Speaker 25: examine a capitalist system, we will see that it's based
32:53
Speaker 25: on exploitation. Because the viciousness of capitalism.
32:56
Speaker 10: And the reason why once black people examined, we can
32:58
Speaker 10: never be for it is that under a capitalist system,
33:01
Speaker 10: the fruits of those who labor are enjoyed by somebody else.
33:06
Speaker 10: That is, those who do the laboring, the fruits of
33:08
Speaker 10: their labor, they don't enjoy it. As a matter of fact,
33:10
Speaker 10: we could say on the capitalism that the fruits of
33:12
Speaker 10: the labor of the toiling masses are enjoyed by those
33:15
Speaker 10: who do not labor.
33:16
Speaker 3: And again, as black people, we have clear examples of it.
33:18
Speaker 10: If we were to get the fruits of our labor
33:20
Speaker 10: from slavery, just from slavery, all we got to do
33:22
Speaker 10: is go to Nixon and say, hey, look, you give
33:24
Speaker 10: us the fruits of our labour from slavery, and we
33:26
Speaker 10: forget the score. We would be the richest people in
33:28
Speaker 10: the country. Again, because on the capitalism, the individual exploits
33:32
Speaker 10: the labor of the people. Now people get confused because
33:35
Speaker 10: this is a capitalist system and it's a developed system,
33:37
Speaker 10: it's a technological system, so they combine capitalism with technology
33:42
Speaker 10: and development, and they think that there is no other
33:43
Speaker 10: possible way to develop this rapid terms of development without
33:47
Speaker 10: going through the capitalist route. But certainly we have examples
33:50
Speaker 10: that should be the opposite of that. China is a
33:53
Speaker 10: clear example of that. Cuba is North Korea, North Vietnam,
33:56
Speaker 10: these countries. Certainly in Africa where countries of the chosen
34:00
Speaker 10: the social spans, such as Tanzania, Guinea, Congo, Brazzaville, Algeria,
34:04
Speaker 10: we see that there is another way to develop and
34:06
Speaker 10: get the same type of things that we have under
34:09
Speaker 10: the capitalist system, but in a system that does not.
34:12
Speaker 3: Exploit, does not exploit each other, where.
34:14
Speaker 10: All of us work and the fruits of our labor
34:16
Speaker 10: are divided evenly.
34:17
Speaker 3: Let me show you how backward capitalism is. It's a
34:19
Speaker 3: backward system.
34:20
Speaker 10: We could make two statements about capitalism to show how
34:23
Speaker 10: backward it is.
34:24
Speaker 3: About America. America is a capitalist country, it's thoroughly capitalist.
34:27
Speaker 3: Is a periodist country.
34:28
Speaker 10: But we could say the number one, America is the
34:31
Speaker 10: most technologically advanced country in the world. That's an underniable fact.
34:34
Speaker 10: It's a truism. It's a truism. America is the most
34:37
Speaker 10: scientifically developed country in the world. And right under that,
34:40
Speaker 10: we could say a second fact, which we show you
34:42
Speaker 10: how backward America is.
34:43
Speaker 3: We could say that America.
34:45
Speaker 10: In nineteen forty five made for her people better cause
34:48
Speaker 10: than she does in nineteen seventy three. And if you
34:51
Speaker 10: analyze this, you see how vicious the system is. Because
34:53
Speaker 10: here's America with its great technological skills, it's great scientific's ability,
34:57
Speaker 10: and rather than making a safe car for people that
34:59
Speaker 10: will lack twenty years, which they can do, which they
35:02
Speaker 10: can do with the scientific knowledge, that's at their fingertip.
35:04
Speaker 3: They'd rather take this knowledge and.
35:06
Speaker 10: Build a car which will break down every two years,
35:09
Speaker 10: so you're forced to buy another car. Thus, you see
35:11
Speaker 10: on the capitalism what they do is they take they
35:13
Speaker 10: take their scientific skills, and rather than using it for
35:15
Speaker 10: the benefit of the people, they use it to further
35:17
Speaker 10: exploit the people.
35:18
Speaker 3: And certainly this type of system is too backward, you.
35:22
Speaker 15: Think, you know, I concur with the position that brother
35:25
Speaker 15: Carmike is type taken with regards to the system of capitalism.
35:29
Speaker 15: But really I think there are two fundamental questions that
35:32
Speaker 15: we need to get into. The first one was suggested
35:35
Speaker 15: when we started, like what is possible within the context
35:39
Speaker 15: of this system and the coming together people and that
35:42
Speaker 15: type of thing, which I think as we begin to
35:44
Speaker 15: hear the things that people are saying about capitalism, it
35:47
Speaker 15: tends to start to answer that question. I mean, as
35:50
Speaker 15: we see the very construction of this thing. But see,
35:53
Speaker 15: to me, the most important question, well, let me put
35:57
Speaker 15: it this way. I think that we have to talk
36:00
Speaker 15: one about the merits of capitalism, which is what a
36:02
Speaker 15: lot of the conversation has been expended on so far.
36:06
Speaker 15: But secondly, and very importantly is once we you know,
36:10
Speaker 15: begin to see that picture. We have to raise the
36:12
Speaker 15: question of how it is that we work within the
36:15
Speaker 15: framework of our existence in a capitalist system that we,
36:19
Speaker 15: I think can agree that we oppose, at least some
36:21
Speaker 15: of us can.
36:22
Speaker 14: And then we get.
36:23
Speaker 15: Down to the nitty gritty of the question that missus
36:26
Speaker 15: Hamo spoke to about whether we're moving toward unity, the
36:28
Speaker 15: question of coalitions, I mean, the question of the dynamics
36:32
Speaker 15: of day to day work on real.
36:34
Speaker 14: Problems that affect us as a people.
36:37
Speaker 15: See because we could hearn in her all day about
36:40
Speaker 15: capitalism and talk about how bad it is.
36:42
Speaker 14: Obviously it's bad, and if.
36:44
Speaker 15: You could tell me the ten worst things in the world,
36:46
Speaker 15: I could tell you that they have been increasing in
36:48
Speaker 15: this country in the.
36:49
Speaker 14: Last five or six years.
36:50
Speaker 15: I mean to give you some idea of the direction
36:53
Speaker 15: that this system that people are talking about is taken.
36:56
Speaker 15: I mean, the priorities are insane. There's no there's no
36:59
Speaker 15: saying way of saying that people, you know, should take
37:03
Speaker 15: care of people, that people should take care of six people.
37:06
Speaker 15: I mean, things just happen based again on the way
37:08
Speaker 15: the system is set up. And so I think that
37:11
Speaker 15: that's you know, like you know, pretty clear a second
37:14
Speaker 15: thing is the idea of how we work in unity.
37:19
Speaker 15: See it's my notion that we have to take a
37:21
Speaker 15: second look at this question of unity, because I'm not
37:23
Speaker 15: convinced that that is all that much unity taking place
37:27
Speaker 15: in the black community today. In fact, what you see,
37:29
Speaker 15: on the one hand, is the uniting of certain people
37:33
Speaker 15: who are beginning to gree on a direction to take.
37:37
Speaker 15: And at the same time you're seeing the uniting of
37:39
Speaker 15: Black people who are taking another direction, I mean, within
37:42
Speaker 15: the context of this system and within the context of
37:45
Speaker 15: our own communities. And in fact you see you talk
37:49
Speaker 15: about the people being confused. Well, a lot of times
37:52
Speaker 15: that people wouldn't be quite so confused unless they heard
37:56
Speaker 15: a lot of the things that we're saying to them,
37:58
Speaker 15: those of us who are supposed to be leaders, or
38:00
Speaker 15: at least those who put themselves in the position to
38:03
Speaker 15: say things to a lot of people. And you get
38:06
Speaker 15: more and more in the movement kind of a decay
38:09
Speaker 15: of a of a real quality.
38:10
Speaker 14: Of honest and honestness.
38:12
Speaker 15: I mean, you get jenialism, you get you know, you
38:16
Speaker 15: get all kinds of performances I mean, and these kind
38:20
Speaker 15: of things are put out against the background of the
38:23
Speaker 15: deteriorating situation that we're in and that doesn't really offer
38:27
Speaker 15: any explanation to people. I mean, But then on the
38:30
Speaker 15: other hand, you have a A s A a group
38:32
Speaker 15: of people beginning to address the question differently and to
38:36
Speaker 15: begin to see things like uh, I mean, you could
38:39
Speaker 15: just list the problems, the problem of jobs, uh, the
38:43
Speaker 15: problem of education, and begin to draw some concrete analysis
38:46
Speaker 15: or that and outline some specific kinds of ways that
38:49
Speaker 15: people begin to function. So I just wanted to point
38:51
Speaker 15: out that you're really talking about two one capitalism, but
38:54
Speaker 15: two and importantly, we haven't done anything to denounce capitalism
38:58
Speaker 15: unless we are able to divide some sensible way for
39:01
Speaker 15: us to organize ourselves to do.
39:03
Speaker 10: It's not true we have we have the largest ethnic
39:06
Speaker 10: group to condemn Nixon with black people.
39:08
Speaker 3: We've always been in the bandgud we have done. We
39:10
Speaker 3: do that all the time.
39:11
Speaker 15: But there's a second dimension to what I was raising.
39:14
Speaker 15: That's the one you did in the dreads.
39:16
Speaker 10: No, but I think we must see it positive because
39:18
Speaker 10: I think it's under noavel that the desire, that the
39:20
Speaker 10: desire for unity is more intense in the Black community
39:23
Speaker 10: today than it was yesterday, will be more intense tomorrow.
39:25
Speaker 10: We must always see our movement as a progression. We
39:27
Speaker 10: understand there are negative factors in it, but we must
39:30
Speaker 10: look at the positive.
39:31
Speaker 3: We are more united.
39:32
Speaker 14: Addressed than negatives in order to rectify it.
39:34
Speaker 15: Understood, But the posit that we can sit here and
39:37
Speaker 15: say that you know, unity, you know is growing without
39:40
Speaker 15: our salves addressing some of the factors that explain the disunity.
39:44
Speaker 1: But may I use the prerogative of the microphone just
39:51
Speaker 1: one second place. We have a number of questions, and
39:54
Speaker 1: we certainly want to have free exchange. But if we
39:56
Speaker 1: can limit our responses to responses and not speeches, then
39:58
Speaker 1: we can all have more time. I mean, if we
40:00
Speaker 1: could do that. But I don't want to stifle anyone,
40:02
Speaker 1: but I do want to if we can move now.
40:04
Speaker 1: I think the mayor was next, and then the congressman,
40:07
Speaker 1: and then maybe proceed that.
40:10
Speaker 8: The mayor problem go ahead.
40:19
Speaker 20: Let me just say this, I really do not see
40:21
Speaker 20: it as being a question of capitalism versus communism or
40:27
Speaker 20: socialism or any.
40:28
Speaker 8: Other form of government.
40:29
Speaker 15: Uh.
40:30
Speaker 8: I think we have to be pragmatic about what we're
40:32
Speaker 8: talking about.
40:33
Speaker 20: You're talking about living under a system that is committed
40:38
Speaker 20: to capitalism. It's not going to change to communism or
40:42
Speaker 20: socialism or any other.
40:43
Speaker 8: Form of government.
40:44
Speaker 20: So what do you say, What do you do when
40:47
Speaker 20: you're you're the oppressed, the repressed under the capitalistic form
40:51
Speaker 20: of government? You examine the system and you see how
40:54
Speaker 20: can you make changes in that system? Now, the one
40:58
Speaker 20: thing that everyone seems to have forgotten you tonight is
41:00
Speaker 20: that what you're talking about in the capitalistic form of
41:02
Speaker 20: government is power. This is the only thing that this
41:06
Speaker 20: country responds to is power, economic power and political power.
41:11
Speaker 8: And the only time that.
41:13
Speaker 20: The system reacts is when you've got some of that power.
41:17
Speaker 20: And as black people, we're not going to be able
41:20
Speaker 20: to overcome and a capitalistic formal system unless you do
41:22
Speaker 20: acquire both economic and political power, as every other ethnic
41:27
Speaker 20: group in this country has done.
41:29
Speaker 8: Obviously, I think the thrust in the seventies is in
41:32
Speaker 8: that direction. I think that the black communities.
41:35
Speaker 20: Are demonstrating greatest sophistication towards the fact that they're going
41:40
Speaker 20: to change the system.
41:42
Speaker 8: They have to do it and work within the system.
41:44
Speaker 20: They have to do it by acquiring power in both
41:48
Speaker 20: of those realms.
41:49
Speaker 15: There's no question about about the necessity of power to
41:54
Speaker 15: do anything. I mean, it's axiomatic. I mean, if we're
41:58
Speaker 15: talking about doing anything, I think the question is that
42:02
Speaker 15: the interests in which the the power is addressed has
42:05
Speaker 15: to be a little bit more precisely defined, you know,
42:09
Speaker 15: even within the the context of our our own community
42:13
Speaker 15: and the use of that power by various.
42:15
Speaker 14: Groups within the community.
42:17
Speaker 15: I mean, I think, and I think there again we
42:19
Speaker 15: we raised the essential question cause there is a degree
42:22
Speaker 15: of power that we have, and there's a good deal
42:25
Speaker 15: of of disagreement over the way that power is being Will.
42:28
Speaker 13: I let let me go back if I can't turn
42:30
Speaker 13: it to the point that the Lou Lou makes it,
42:32
Speaker 13: And I agree with hundred for scent, And see, what
42:34
Speaker 13: we generally do is is we get caught up in
42:36
Speaker 13: an awful lot of theoretical discussion about how you change
42:40
Speaker 13: things when we're really based with a very fundamental problem.
42:43
Speaker 4: Uh, whatever change.
42:45
Speaker 13: Is gonna come about, it's gonna take some time. And
42:47
Speaker 13: rather than getting involved in dealing with the hereafter, I
42:49
Speaker 13: think we gotta deal with it here and now.
42:50
Speaker 4: And that is the fact that most situations, if.
42:53
Speaker 13: Not all, that we're dealing with, are economic situation in
42:56
Speaker 13: terms of black and poor people, uh, going back to
42:59
Speaker 13: the sixties, which may participated and bring about social change
43:02
Speaker 13: which sort of made us legitimate people in the eyes
43:05
Speaker 13: of the law. Well, we've gone through that now and
43:07
Speaker 13: we've got probably on the books as many rights as
43:09
Speaker 13: anybody else, except that we can't enjoy them by versus
43:12
Speaker 13: the fact that there's no economics in our pockets to
43:14
Speaker 13: allow us to do that. We can now go to
43:16
Speaker 13: the world ORF, but we may not combin none, which
43:18
Speaker 13: is sort of a ninety plus kind of thing.
43:20
Speaker 4: What has to happen, I think, is that people got.
43:22
Speaker 13: To pull themselves into a group to function back to
43:26
Speaker 13: what lu says as an economic block first secondary as
43:29
Speaker 13: a political block, and that calls for making all kinds
43:32
Speaker 13: of coalitions that I think as the chairman of the
43:34
Speaker 13: CAUF the stadium one time, which is a coalition of convenience,
43:37
Speaker 13: because there are other groups in this society who may
43:40
Speaker 13: not be as oppressed as blacks, but are certainly as
43:42
Speaker 13: without as blacks. And I think around economic interests, around
43:46
Speaker 13: the development of political power, you can develop a philosophy
43:50
Speaker 13: that is neither communistic, socialations or capitalist, but the question
43:53
Speaker 13: of pragmatic politics to acquire change.
43:56
Speaker 5: What you want to make, say twenty I've watched the
43:58
Speaker 5: number of times even such as this, a number of
44:02
Speaker 5: blacks getting together to who either are leaders are purported
44:07
Speaker 5: to be leaders, and their discussions and we get off
44:10
Speaker 5: to the philosophical discussions of where we are going. And
44:15
Speaker 5: we began to day by saying that we are not
44:17
Speaker 5: necessarily the black leaders, not just not necessarily, we are
44:21
Speaker 5: not the black leaders of America. We are persons who
44:23
Speaker 5: are sitting here. But I've talked about unity. A nomber
44:26
Speaker 5: of us have talked about unity. It is a hope
44:28
Speaker 5: for a thing. But let me just tell you that
44:30
Speaker 5: one of the things I really hope for. I come
44:33
Speaker 5: from a background of family who moving towards socialism, who
44:37
Speaker 5: would like to see a socialist economy, but do live
44:40
Speaker 5: in a capitalistic society. It would like to see changes
44:43
Speaker 5: take place. But one of the things I want most
44:46
Speaker 5: of all, which I should like to see in moving
44:48
Speaker 5: towards black unity. Sometimes I think it is happening, and
44:52
Speaker 5: that is that black people who have different philosophies can
44:57
Speaker 5: discuss those philosophies. Each of us do that which we
45:02
Speaker 5: think is necessary to meet the common need. Those of
45:05
Speaker 5: us who wish to move towards socialism, talk about socialism,
45:08
Speaker 5: and not find the necessity and the course of propagating
45:12
Speaker 5: our philosophy, whether it be capitalism, socialism, nationalism, whatever it is,
45:17
Speaker 5: not find the necessity to destroy other persons who are
45:21
Speaker 5: giving leadership in their reader.
45:23
Speaker 8: This is a much needed thing.
45:24
Speaker 5: I've not seen any attacks here today, but it is
45:27
Speaker 5: something that I think troubles a number of persons.
45:29
Speaker 8: Who are looking for leadership.
45:31
Speaker 1: I will take one response from mister Williams, and then
45:34
Speaker 1: we'll have to move into the next question.
45:36
Speaker 17: On the point that Percy was dealing with the question
45:41
Speaker 17: of unity, that I am firmly convinced that, well, even
45:46
Speaker 17: the danger of falling into a trick bag when we
45:50
Speaker 17: concentrate on when we devote so much attention to what
45:54
Speaker 17: the white man has to find his unity, that it
45:57
Speaker 17: seems to me that we've got to define unity among us.
46:00
Speaker 17: That you know that, well Berkeley can deal with one thing,
46:03
Speaker 17: that we'll deal with another thing. But I don't think
46:06
Speaker 17: that we have to get into the bag that we
46:09
Speaker 17: have one spokesman speaking for black people, two spokesman. You
46:12
Speaker 17: know that each of us has to do our own thing,
46:14
Speaker 17: and the white community has has yet not been able
46:17
Speaker 17: to deal with this that they keep on asking what
46:19
Speaker 17: a black folks want? Well, I really don't know what
46:21
Speaker 17: all black folks want. I know what I want. But
46:23
Speaker 17: I think that we that we've got to realize that
46:27
Speaker 17: unity can exist at times, but it isn't necessary for
46:30
Speaker 17: all of us to be talking the same uh, the
46:33
Speaker 17: same words, the same tone of voice all the time.
46:35
Speaker 19: But that just won't work.
46:36
Speaker 17: You know that when we deal without ourselves, you know
46:38
Speaker 17: that we can get it together. But if we fall
46:41
Speaker 17: in in the bag that I've got to follow somebody
46:43
Speaker 17: because they're the leader, you know that that's not gonna work.
46:46
Speaker 8: Jimmy, you're not a suggestion that I'm implying. No, we
46:49
Speaker 8: all are to follow one leader.
46:50
Speaker 5: No, I'm not cursed because I'm really annoyed by the
46:52
Speaker 5: suggestion that we ought to have one leader.
46:54
Speaker 26: Right.
46:54
Speaker 3: I wouldn't be opposed to it now. I wouldn't be
46:56
Speaker 3: opposed to it.
46:57
Speaker 25: I wouldn't have be opposed to it all America Nixon
46:59
Speaker 25: and all China is now, I wouldn't oppost to it
47:01
Speaker 25: at all.
47:02
Speaker 4: In all Africa and all the people were one.
47:04
Speaker 5: Totally, as long as I could vote for who my
47:05
Speaker 5: leader would be Oh no.
47:06
Speaker 3: There's no problem, law as he's representing the interests.
47:08
Speaker 14: Of the people.
47:09
Speaker 8: I may, but I can vote for him.
47:11
Speaker 10: Also, yeah, you can vote for But what we've seen,
47:14
Speaker 10: we've seen, for example, in the electoral.
47:16
Speaker 3: Politics, how jive.
47:17
Speaker 10: It is, because we've just seen that Nixon has been
47:19
Speaker 10: elected because of maneuvering and tricks and a lot of nonsense.
47:23
Speaker 3: We've just seen that.
47:23
Speaker 8: So what I'm really talking about.
47:25
Speaker 5: In the vote is a philosophical aspect.
47:27
Speaker 3: I understand.
47:27
Speaker 5: I'm really saying that I'll have some actual choice. I'm
47:30
Speaker 5: not contrasting this with any other system.
47:32
Speaker 10: I know you will because the reasons America always makes
47:34
Speaker 10: it look that if you have another system, you won't
47:36
Speaker 10: have these freedoms that America has.
47:37
Speaker 3: Freedom to vote, you know, freedom to do this, freedom.
47:40
Speaker 8: To do that, freedom to storm and show exactly.
47:42
Speaker 10: I was coming to the rest of those twas, thank you.
47:45
Speaker 2: May we have the next question place.
47:48
Speaker 26: The Enemy of Piano EI al Alcohol Agent Tempo team,
47:56
Speaker 26: and I'm going from the arms and UH my question
48:02
Speaker 26: is to talk to the come I come to Andladvis
48:06
Speaker 26: and UH to present Nick Comes special advisory he whom
48:10
Speaker 26: I cannot recall the name Okay, I want to know
48:15
Speaker 26: how they feel about uh psychiatric France's Westing.
48:20
Speaker 20: Fury of you me when you.
48:22
Speaker 16: Get calls at a dollar five for the last five minutes?
48:25
Speaker 8: Okay, well over the club?
48:28
Speaker 26: Yeah, could you let me finish my question? Well, when
48:33
Speaker 26: you have to a collect?
48:34
Speaker 27: Uh you know for five minutes you're not being kind
48:37
Speaker 27: for I collect?
48:38
Speaker 8: Okay?
48:39
Speaker 26: It was that a dollar five?
48:43
Speaker 3: And if you but telephones are break.
48:47
Speaker 2: Know you happened?
48:49
Speaker 10: What it?
48:51
Speaker 14: Sorry about that?
48:51
Speaker 2: In truth?
48:52
Speaker 19: Yes, that's okay?
48:53
Speaker 26: And the other of man was from Delphin's cause it
48:55
Speaker 26: in Hanover Norwilshire and uh Francis West then who is like?
49:00
Speaker 26: Patrick had an interview with the Black Journal about three
49:03
Speaker 26: weeks ago, and she has developed an unattractive theory of
49:08
Speaker 26: uh black spurity of white people.
49:11
Speaker 28: Well, would you just give me your question? Pleased with?
49:13
Speaker 26: Okay? And my question is how did Folk Carmichael Andela
49:17
Speaker 26: David and h advisor feel about the theory? And uh
49:23
Speaker 26: do they agree or di that greet with it?
49:25
Speaker 2: And why let me attempt to parapheres that first of all?
49:30
Speaker 1: Or the caller, as I stated, President Nixon's advisor was
49:32
Speaker 1: unable to be here. However, mister Carmichael and miss Davis
49:36
Speaker 1: might want to respond. He's referring to doctor Francis Welsing,
49:39
Speaker 1: who is a black psychiatrist, who says that white racism
49:44
Speaker 1: is due to the fact that whites do not hate
49:47
Speaker 1: blacks because blacks are black, Whites hate blacks because whites
49:51
Speaker 1: are not black, and that racism is a reaction formation
49:56
Speaker 1: to something that you can't be and can't have, and
49:59
Speaker 1: that the state of white men is in essence a
50:01
Speaker 1: state of genetic deficiency and a state of Albanism.
50:06
Speaker 12: Well, first of all, I would say that in trying
50:10
Speaker 12: to understand what racism is all about, we have to
50:13
Speaker 12: look at history, because, as in the other institution, racism
50:18
Speaker 12: is a historical phenomenon, and it developed in conjunction with
50:23
Speaker 12: the development of capitalism. If you look at this country
50:26
Speaker 12: in particular, you see that the ideological, whole ideological network
50:32
Speaker 12: of racism arose in order to justify the use of
50:37
Speaker 12: black slaves, the kidnapping of black people from Africa, and
50:41
Speaker 12: the use of black slaves in order to lay the
50:43
Speaker 12: basis for an agricultural capitalism in the South, and then
50:48
Speaker 12: eventually in order to provide for the capitalist system in
50:52
Speaker 12: this country a group of people who could be super exploited,
50:59
Speaker 12: who could be used as a reserve of labor force.
51:04
Speaker 12: And I think it's important to recognize the fact that
51:08
Speaker 12: the reason why those who presume to be the leaders
51:14
Speaker 12: of this country have resorted so consistently to racism is
51:21
Speaker 12: because of the fact that it assists the ruling class
51:26
Speaker 12: to reap more profits.
51:28
Speaker 4: Let me just give you an example.
51:31
Speaker 12: If you look at the wage differential of black workers
51:35
Speaker 12: and white workers, you have something like twenty one billion dollars.
51:39
Speaker 12: If you add Chicanos and Indians and Puerto Ricans and
51:42
Speaker 12: other people of color, you get about twenty eight billion dollars. Now,
51:45
Speaker 12: that twenty eight billion dollars means a lot to the
51:47
Speaker 12: capitalists of this country, But racism also serves another purpose,
51:52
Speaker 12: and I think it's important to understand this. Racism is
51:55
Speaker 12: used by the rulers of this country to convince white people,
52:02
Speaker 12: who are also the masses of white people who are
52:04
Speaker 12: also exploited, they aren't exploited as we are, and they
52:07
Speaker 12: are not. There is a qualitative difference in the sense
52:11
Speaker 12: that we are racially and nationally oppressed words white people
52:14
Speaker 12: and not the white people, the masses of white people
52:17
Speaker 12: are working people and the fruits of their labor are
52:21
Speaker 12: are robbed by the capitalists. But you see when the
52:26
Speaker 12: worker is focusing all of his attention, the white worker
52:33
Speaker 12: on black people, and when he thinks that the reason
52:37
Speaker 12: why he is now unemployed is because of the fact that,
52:42
Speaker 12: you know, there's a system which gives black people in
52:46
Speaker 12: certain industries job priorities. And when Nixon is able to
52:52
Speaker 12: Nixon and all of the others are able to sick
52:55
Speaker 12: white workers on black workers, then they have created a
52:59
Speaker 12: situation where the white is not even going to think
53:04
Speaker 12: about the fact that he's being exploited by the capitalists.
53:08
Speaker 12: I mean, I think that the whole question of dividing
53:12
Speaker 12: and ruling has been one of the ways in which
53:17
Speaker 12: the oppresses historically have most efficiently dominated. Racism serves the
53:24
Speaker 12: ruling class and precisely that way, and I think that
53:26
Speaker 12: right now in this country today, racism is perhaps the
53:32
Speaker 12: fundamental question we're facing, and white people have to understand
53:35
Speaker 12: it's because white people have to understand that they have
53:38
Speaker 12: to wage on their own initiative, a struggle against the racism,
53:42
Speaker 12: which is also used in order to make it to
53:46
Speaker 12: much in order to facilitate their own exploitation by those
53:51
Speaker 12: who dominate this country.
53:54
Speaker 10: Well, I would say that I imagined that my sister
53:57
Speaker 10: Francis had a lot of examples and certainly documentary facts
54:02
Speaker 10: to back up her theory, and I wouldn't get into
54:04
Speaker 10: disagreeing or agree with her. What I would ask is
54:06
Speaker 10: how do we destroy it? While that may be the
54:10
Speaker 10: major problem, I would granted that, let's say that is
54:13
Speaker 10: the major problem. White people are able to enforce racism
54:16
Speaker 10: through capitalism. That's how they amass their power. And racism
54:20
Speaker 10: is really a question of power. That's all it is,
54:22
Speaker 10: is whether or not one race has more power to
54:24
Speaker 10: inflict punishment or another. For example, if a white boy
54:27
Speaker 10: wants to lynch me, that's his problem. If he lynches me,
54:31
Speaker 10: it's my problem. Thus it behooves me to build as
54:34
Speaker 10: much power as I can to protect myself against racism
54:36
Speaker 10: and also to destroy the base. It gives the racists
54:39
Speaker 10: the reality power, the power reality to lynch me or
54:42
Speaker 10: to inflict power upon me. He amasses that through capitalism.
54:45
Speaker 10: Thus is my job to thoroughly dismantle that system, which
54:49
Speaker 10: will render him powerless. And once he's rendered powerless, then
54:52
Speaker 10: perhaps we can begin to deal with the question of racism.
54:55
Speaker 10: So I would not I wouldn't this again the question.
54:58
Speaker 10: If there's no doubt that the problem that the black
55:01
Speaker 10: man faces all over the world is a problem of
55:03
Speaker 10: economic exploitation, there's no best core question.
55:06
Speaker 3: The answer is how do you get to it? I
55:08
Speaker 3: know that the only way you can get to it
55:09
Speaker 3: is through politics.
55:10
Speaker 10: You must first politically organized before you can amass the
55:12
Speaker 10: economic May we take.
55:14
Speaker 9: Two quick responses from Judge Booth and going to say
55:17
Speaker 9: that much of the attack here today this evening has
55:22
Speaker 9: been on Nixon, and I think everybody should know that
55:25
Speaker 9: we're not just on Nixon. We're on the entire society,
55:27
Speaker 9: the entire system as it operates. And I have had
55:30
Speaker 9: a chance to go to South Africa and to Namibia
55:33
Speaker 9: on a couple of occasions, and I've seen how our government,
55:37
Speaker 9: not just the President, but the Congress, the courts and
55:41
Speaker 9: everything else. Our government is sponsoring the racist regime in
55:45
Speaker 9: South Africa and in Namibia.
55:47
Speaker 4: I don't know.
55:48
Speaker 9: I think the media is responsible to a great degree
55:51
Speaker 9: because of the media of this country, the press, television, radio, magazines,
55:56
Speaker 9: all of it have kept from the American public. Though
56:00
Speaker 9: link between South Africa and the United States. I have
56:03
Speaker 9: found in my dealings with the American Video in Africa
56:08
Speaker 9: and otherwise that for example, our Defense Department permits the
56:14
Speaker 9: South African Post Office to use our tracking station in Pretoria,
56:19
Speaker 9: South Africa for communication purposes, and for communication purposes in
56:24
Speaker 9: order to deal with the black people of South Africa
56:26
Speaker 9: who are now rising up.
56:28
Speaker 19: There is a war on all.
56:29
Speaker 9: Of Southern Africa, and the United States is helping the
56:33
Speaker 9: racist regimes there to win the war against black folks
56:38
Speaker 9: by permitting free free of charge, the South African Post
56:41
Speaker 9: officer attacked to tack in to our tracing tracking station
56:46
Speaker 9: in Pretoria. We are using the American government and all
56:50
Speaker 9: the American people and the only American tax.
56:52
Speaker 3: Dollars to help racism there.
56:54
Speaker 9: We likewise are selling ships, sending ships airplanes to Portugal
57:00
Speaker 9: so they can use them against black people. And Angola
57:02
Speaker 9: and Mozambique. We're doing a great deal of these kinds
57:05
Speaker 9: of things. We're selling herbicides, and we're covering it up
57:07
Speaker 9: by selling these things to private companies which in turn
57:11
Speaker 9: turn it over to the government and use them against.
57:13
Speaker 8: Black people in South Africa.
57:14
Speaker 9: And I think that maybe we ought to try to
57:18
Speaker 9: get these facts across to the American people, and to
57:21
Speaker 9: particularly to the Black American people, so that they can
57:25
Speaker 9: use them to dismantle If we want to look stugally,
57:29
Speaker 9: you go your way, and I think we can go
57:32
Speaker 9: different ways we want to, but we've got to recognize
57:34
Speaker 9: we've got the same goal, and however way we each
57:37
Speaker 9: of us want to go, we ought to recognize it
57:39
Speaker 9: we do have similar goals.
57:40
Speaker 3: We can work to the same end.
57:43
Speaker 10: So I've always been for unity in the Black community,
57:45
Speaker 10: will always be for it. Our party, the All African
57:47
Speaker 10: People's Revolutionary Party, has been calling for a Black United Front,
57:51
Speaker 10: the meetings of all Black people.
57:53
Speaker 3: Irrespective of ideology.
57:55
Speaker 10: Once we want our people free. Thus it's not for example,
57:58
Speaker 10: I think this is very beautiful, it's on FO. We
58:00
Speaker 10: can't get this unless someone causes to.
58:02
Speaker 3: Be on TV. But I've always been for that. I
58:05
Speaker 3: learned that from doctor King and from Malcolm X.
58:07
Speaker 9: The Newest Black Power Conference, of course sixty seven and
58:09
Speaker 9: all the rest since then have indicated the same kind
58:11
Speaker 9: of thing.
58:12
Speaker 2: Maybe have A response from this question was whether or not.
58:17
Speaker 5: One agreed with the philosophy that the racism white racism
58:22
Speaker 5: is an anger on the part of whites because they're
58:24
Speaker 5: not black. I don't think that at all. I quite
58:26
Speaker 5: agree with my sister Angela Davis that racism is really
58:31
Speaker 5: a matter of exploitation.
58:33
Speaker 8: It's an economic thing, and.
58:35
Speaker 5: Whether it's in South Africa or South United States or
58:38
Speaker 5: Northern United States, it is a method of exploitation, and
58:42
Speaker 5: the exploitation does not really benefit the whites, that is,
58:46
Speaker 5: not the white working class.
58:48
Speaker 1: Maybe I did disservice and I'm sure I did now
58:51
Speaker 1: in recalling the theory, because what doctor Wellsing said was
58:55
Speaker 1: that race was the dynamic around which the politic and
59:00
Speaker 1: the social system was organized to oppressed blacks.
59:04
Speaker 8: Yes, it does make a difference, right, Kay.
59:06
Speaker 2: Can we have a short remark and then it takes
59:08
Speaker 2: the next question? Knowlson?
59:09
Speaker 14: Yeah, my comment was on the on the same question.
59:12
Speaker 7: Uh.
59:13
Speaker 15: And I think it's it's important in terms of the
59:16
Speaker 15: solution or the approach to solving the problem, you know,
59:20
Speaker 15: created by racism, that we come to some clarification again
59:24
Speaker 15: on what it is and where it comes from.
59:26
Speaker 14: Uh.
59:27
Speaker 15: And I'm referring to again to too stokeless comments about
59:33
Speaker 15: you know that perhaps was was not central and I'm
59:36
Speaker 15: saying that you can't really devise UH a strategy UH
59:41
Speaker 15: to begin to deal with the problem of racism in
59:43
Speaker 15: the society without a comprehension of its source, because UH
59:48
Speaker 15: and why it's there, where it comes from, the the
59:50
Speaker 15: motive forces that created it. And again I think that
59:53
Speaker 15: leads us back to what Angela said UH as a
59:56
Speaker 15: point of departure, you know, in our efforts to ca
59:59
Speaker 15: to dismount racism.
1:00:01
Speaker 1: Alright, n next question, please, Robert Alexander, San Antonio, Texas.
1:00:08
Speaker 6: Is it possible to persuade existing black organizations to assign
1:00:16
Speaker 6: appropriate style from each of these organizations to convene and
1:00:21
Speaker 6: develop for presentation a cohient.
1:00:24
Speaker 17: List of priorities.
1:00:26
Speaker 28: Would it be possible what this list of priorities has
1:00:31
Speaker 28: been developed? To utilize the network of organization or units
1:00:38
Speaker 28: such as an app Urban League, SCoV, uh cores, so forth,
1:00:45
Speaker 28: and the Black colleges in this country to verify this
1:00:50
Speaker 28: list of priority as being relevant.
1:00:53
Speaker 6: To our car and then to rally the Blacks in
1:00:58
Speaker 6: this country to begin promoting the activities at the local,
1:01:06
Speaker 6: state and national levels to culminate as the national agenda
1:01:10
Speaker 6: by nineteen seven depat the two hundred at a veritary
1:01:14
Speaker 6: of the births of our country?
1:01:16
Speaker 1: Uh our re uh difficulty hearing our will restate is question,
1:01:20
Speaker 1: is it possible to persuade existing black organizations to assign
1:01:23
Speaker 1: appropriate staffs from each of these organizations to convene and
1:01:27
Speaker 1: develop for presentation a cojent list of priorities. Would it
1:01:32
Speaker 1: be possible once this list of priorities has been developed,
1:01:35
Speaker 1: to utilize the network of organizational units such as in AAACP,
1:01:40
Speaker 1: Urban League, SELC, CORE so forth and the Black colleges
1:01:44
Speaker 1: in this country to verify this list of priorities and
1:01:47
Speaker 1: being relevant to our cause, and then to rally the
1:01:50
Speaker 1: Blacks in this country to begin promoting the activities at
1:01:53
Speaker 1: the local, state, and national levels to culminate as a
1:01:57
Speaker 1: national agenda by nineteen seventy six, the two hundred anniversary
1:02:01
Speaker 1: of the birth of our country. Congressman Stokes Mgini Stabitha.
1:02:06
Speaker 20: I think the gentleman's suggestion has merit.
1:02:09
Speaker 8: What he is in effect.
1:02:10
Speaker 20: Talking about is coalitions within the black community itself. When
1:02:15
Speaker 20: we talk politically of being able to acquire a real
1:02:19
Speaker 20: political power, we talk in terms of coalitions where you
1:02:22
Speaker 20: put white people, black people, Puerto Ricans, Chicanos, white liberals,
1:02:29
Speaker 20: four whites all together, and you through this process you
1:02:33
Speaker 20: acquire political power. And it seems to me that when
1:02:37
Speaker 20: you're talk in terms of being able to form coalitions
1:02:40
Speaker 20: between the races, obviously you ought to be able to
1:02:42
Speaker 20: form a coalition within the race in terms of unity
1:02:46
Speaker 20: for the race. So I think the gentleman has has
1:02:50
Speaker 20: merit and that it could well be explored.
1:02:52
Speaker 3: Is that what we've been doing.
1:02:53
Speaker 2: Through the Leadership Conference.
1:02:55
Speaker 9: And civil rights, although it's kind of failed, it seems
1:02:57
Speaker 9: to recently also in the Black Assembly, and there are
1:03:01
Speaker 9: other attempts that have been made. I think what he's
1:03:03
Speaker 9: saying is that we've got to make it work, and
1:03:06
Speaker 9: that's our function.
1:03:07
Speaker 1: As I said, he's he's asking for something I think
1:03:11
Speaker 1: a little more sophisticated than what has presently been attempted,
1:03:14
Speaker 1: and that is to come up with the priorities and
1:03:16
Speaker 1: then put it in the hands of people who are
1:03:18
Speaker 1: professional thinkers, and then establish the priorities and then come
1:03:22
Speaker 1: back to the leadership, organizational leadership and have a goals
1:03:26
Speaker 1: and objects for nineteen seventy six.
1:03:29
Speaker 13: To some the schedulers, we've been having national goals and
1:03:34
Speaker 13: national priorities prepared since Niagara Conference to Geary, I think
1:03:39
Speaker 13: the basic kinds of issues that the black and poor
1:03:42
Speaker 13: community has faced with everybody accepts as priorities. So if
1:03:45
Speaker 13: we're talking about make that a national goal for nineteen
1:03:48
Speaker 13: seventy six, they have been the national goal at least
1:03:50
Speaker 13: since ivand.
1:03:51
Speaker 1: Was well, are you satisfied with the implementation of these goals?
1:03:55
Speaker 13: No, absolutely, not satisfied with the implementation, not even satisfied
1:03:58
Speaker 13: with the approach to him what I think we should
1:04:00
Speaker 13: avoid doing. However, there it's getting ourselves in another steady
1:04:03
Speaker 13: bag where we go back and come back with data
1:04:05
Speaker 13: and what happened, and we sit down and all agree
1:04:07
Speaker 13: that those are the But he gives.
1:04:08
Speaker 8: A cut off date.
1:04:09
Speaker 2: He says, nineteen seventy six.
1:04:11
Speaker 4: I'd like to give to know.
1:04:13
Speaker 13: There are very few holes in his question cut off
1:04:16
Speaker 13: las yesterday tomorrow.
1:04:17
Speaker 1: Well in terms of realism, In terms of realism, we
1:04:20
Speaker 1: have not solved our problems of this date. And he's
1:04:22
Speaker 1: asking for black leaders and black organizations to give him
1:04:25
Speaker 1: some plan and give him some date for completion of this.
1:04:28
Speaker 13: One very important point though, the Gary Convention came out
1:04:35
Speaker 13: of a set of listed priorities.
1:04:38
Speaker 4: Whether we agree or disagree.
1:04:39
Speaker 3: Those conditions existed in certain places.
1:04:41
Speaker 13: The Congression of Black caucuss who, after a number of
1:04:44
Speaker 13: exhausted hearings involving all parts of community thinking, came down
1:04:49
Speaker 13: also with the list of Priorities, which was addressed to
1:04:51
Speaker 13: the National Congress in the State of the Nation message
1:04:56
Speaker 13: I believe in the earlier part of the Congress. Now,
1:04:58
Speaker 13: anybody who takes a lot look at what was said
1:05:01
Speaker 13: that recognizes these to be problems. I don't see the
1:05:04
Speaker 13: need to have some sort of convenient again of black leadership.
1:05:08
Speaker 13: Part of our problem, tony, is that we traditionally convened
1:05:11
Speaker 13: leadership and forget to convene people.
1:05:13
Speaker 2: Let me, let me be the devil's advocate.
1:05:15
Speaker 1: Here we are sitting and perhaps some of you feel
1:05:17
Speaker 1: a little nervous about being called leaders, but you are
1:05:20
Speaker 1: because the term has been stigmatized, and I can understand it.
1:05:23
Speaker 1: But let's be practical. Here is missus Hamer, who is
1:05:26
Speaker 1: in the middle of Mississippi. They have a farm cooperation,
1:05:31
Speaker 1: their farmland, their cotton is underwater.
1:05:34
Speaker 2: They're starving.
1:05:35
Speaker 1: Now, what actually do organizations do? Specifically one, two, three
1:05:40
Speaker 1: four d you send four loafs of bread and two hamhocks.
1:05:45
Speaker 2: Do you go down.
1:05:45
Speaker 1: And I mean in terms of saying, well, yes, it's
1:05:48
Speaker 1: our brothers and sisters in the rural south is starving.
1:05:50
Speaker 1: That's an abstract Now what do we do? How do
1:05:52
Speaker 1: we move from nothing to one? This is I think
1:05:55
Speaker 1: the substance of what this brother is asking. I just
1:05:58
Speaker 1: don't see it not being a legitimate concern.
1:06:01
Speaker 13: And I've said, let's talk about a disaster situation, and
1:06:04
Speaker 13: we talk about the federal government as the institution to
1:06:07
Speaker 13: relieve that disaster.
1:06:08
Speaker 4: Our local government.
1:06:09
Speaker 13: What I'm saying is that there is a clear procedure
1:06:12
Speaker 13: to follow it in that situation. Comss, our illustrious leader
1:06:15
Speaker 13: has declared certain parts of their disaster area, so find
1:06:18
Speaker 13: the machinery of the Red Cross of whoever cranks up
1:06:21
Speaker 13: and does.
1:06:22
Speaker 1: But if they had been Jews, the National Jewish Community
1:06:25
Speaker 1: would affend them Israel what it aided them. This is
1:06:28
Speaker 1: we say on one hand that we can't we can't
1:06:30
Speaker 1: depend on the federal government.
1:06:31
Speaker 2: Then when it when a black person's in trouble, we
1:06:33
Speaker 2: say the federal government.
1:06:34
Speaker 6: Should do so.
1:06:34
Speaker 8: I think another.
1:06:36
Speaker 11: Experience with the disaster areas, and I think that perhaps
1:06:39
Speaker 11: we can advance the discussion were further using This example
1:06:42
Speaker 11: is that in the past, when we have had disaster
1:06:44
Speaker 11: areas in the South, Mississippi in particular, the federal government
1:06:47
Speaker 11: has acted in excriminatory fashion and administering disaster eight. And
1:06:51
Speaker 11: one of the things that was needed then was close
1:06:53
Speaker 11: monitoring by a concerned black community, by skilled black people
1:06:56
Speaker 11: to go in and at first address the immediate problems
1:06:59
Speaker 11: that the people had, but as well to make the
1:07:01
Speaker 11: federal government live up to the standards that it is
1:07:03
Speaker 11: enunciated for itself.
1:07:05
Speaker 10: Not only that, I think that many times we don't
1:07:08
Speaker 10: understand that unity is a struggle because when the black
1:07:12
Speaker 10: man tries to unify, it is obvious and expected and
1:07:16
Speaker 10: understood that the white power structure of this country does
1:07:20
Speaker 10: not want that to happen. Thus they move in many
1:07:23
Speaker 10: different ways, not averts, but rather cover to keep the
1:07:27
Speaker 10: black people divided.
1:07:28
Speaker 3: Do we have a responsibility?
1:07:30
Speaker 10: No, If we tried last year and we didn't do it,
1:07:32
Speaker 10: we tried the year before we tried, we will keep
1:07:35
Speaker 10: trying because we got to do it.
1:07:37
Speaker 3: We got to do it.
1:07:37
Speaker 4: What is the alternative?
1:07:38
Speaker 3: And the other question is that on a question of
1:07:40
Speaker 3: leaders versus people, it is.
1:07:43
Speaker 10: Just a simple systematic way of organizing you represent the state, county,
1:07:47
Speaker 10: federal municipal employees. That's a large number of black people
1:07:50
Speaker 10: in this country and other people, okay, but large number
1:07:53
Speaker 10: of black people undeniablist, So you represent that sector. Brother
1:07:57
Speaker 10: Nelson represents Yobu, which is an auganizing group that's all
1:08:01
Speaker 10: over the country. That's that's the secret that he represents. Uh,
1:08:04
Speaker 10: the Honorable Percy Sudden, our brother here represents Harlem. That's
1:08:08
Speaker 10: a fact. Brother Stokes represents a constituency in Ohio. That's
1:08:12
Speaker 10: a fact. If these people sit down and come together,
1:08:15
Speaker 10: they will create an atmosphere in which your constituency, his constituency,
1:08:19
Speaker 10: his constituency will now be inspired to come together.
1:08:23
Speaker 3: Thus we have to understand what it's about.
1:08:24
Speaker 10: Just bringing the leaders together is to set an atmosphere
1:08:27
Speaker 10: of unity. Because when your constituency, when Brother Sutton's constituency,
1:08:31
Speaker 10: but Brother stokes constituency look up to those who they
1:08:34
Speaker 10: see as national leaders, they see them divided.
1:08:37
Speaker 3: Thus it demobilizes them.
1:08:39
Speaker 10: But if they saw us in constant contact, they would
1:08:41
Speaker 10: be inspired and as we would speed up the process
1:08:43
Speaker 10: of organizing the very people question.
1:08:46
Speaker 13: But it's important I was not short that saying that
1:08:51
Speaker 13: leaders should not come together. My concern is to not
1:08:54
Speaker 13: become balled down in four or five years of trying
1:08:56
Speaker 13: to determine priorities. For instance, when the administration came in
1:08:59
Speaker 13: with their ease price guidelines more waye control, that was
1:09:03
Speaker 13: an instant kind of thing that poor people were confronted with,
1:09:06
Speaker 13: not rich people, not doctors, not bankers. Where interest rates profits,
1:09:10
Speaker 13: but wages. I'm saying, we've got to be prepared to
1:09:13
Speaker 13: deal with that. For instance, the power hunks in the
1:09:16
Speaker 13: country immediately moved steel workers, auto workers, whoever was necessary
1:09:22
Speaker 13: to relieve the pressure from their people they could move
1:09:24
Speaker 13: to get themselves exempted or excluded.
1:09:26
Speaker 3: We must be unified.
1:09:28
Speaker 4: It's not necessary to be unified. We must be powerful, all.
1:09:30
Speaker 5: Right, powerful unity this Tony, you pointed out just then
1:09:35
Speaker 5: with regard to the Jewish community, that had there happened
1:09:40
Speaker 5: within the realm of the interest of the Jewish community,
1:09:43
Speaker 5: that which happens and you're mentioning in Mississippi to Fany
1:09:47
Speaker 5: lou Hamer, there would have been.
1:09:49
Speaker 8: A different response.
1:09:50
Speaker 5: We're talking about monitoring the federal government in what it gives,
1:09:55
Speaker 5: and the Jewish community would have been talking about monitoring
1:09:58
Speaker 5: the federal government in what he gives, but also in
1:10:01
Speaker 5: themselves doing something. We have not reached that point in
1:10:05
Speaker 5: our development. And it goes back to what Angela Davis
1:10:08
Speaker 5: has said. It is all economic because until we're able
1:10:12
Speaker 5: to organize ourselves in whatever movement we have, whatever philosophers,
1:10:16
Speaker 5: we have to move economically to structure the brother or sister,
1:10:21
Speaker 5: the brother or sister is not going to listen to
1:10:23
Speaker 5: you or to any of us unless we can change
1:10:26
Speaker 5: the condition of his life, either create a socialist system
1:10:29
Speaker 5: for him or make his life better in the capitalists.
1:10:32
Speaker 1: Would you accept the Nation of Islam as an example
1:10:37
Speaker 1: of that as an example of what as an example
1:10:40
Speaker 1: of the blacks developing the second statement in your announce I.
1:10:44
Speaker 8: Think let me just say this.
1:10:45
Speaker 5: I think the Nation of Islam moves towards what I
1:10:50
Speaker 5: should like to see. It moves towards doing something for
1:10:54
Speaker 5: the economic side of black people. Unfortunately, it has not
1:10:58
Speaker 5: had the impact many of us would wish it would have.
1:11:02
Speaker 5: And I guess the reason they has not had that
1:11:03
Speaker 5: impact is because they're not yet a sufficient number of believers.
1:11:08
Speaker 5: I think Charles and Mary Beard said many years ago
1:11:10
Speaker 5: the problem with regard to the white work in America
1:11:14
Speaker 5: is that it was not sufficiently class conscious. I think
1:11:16
Speaker 5: the problem with black people in America is that we're
1:11:19
Speaker 5: not sufficiently class conscious. We still keep believing that we're
1:11:22
Speaker 5: gonna make it in the system.
1:11:25
Speaker 2: Brother, wais.
1:11:27
Speaker 21: The problem of I wanna get back to that question.
1:11:30
Speaker 21: The problem of setting priorities or developing a national Black agenda.
1:11:36
Speaker 21: I don't think it's a difficult one for black people
1:11:38
Speaker 21: in black groups. I think that the difficult difficulty lines
1:11:43
Speaker 21: whenever we began attempt to implement these agendas and priorities,
1:11:49
Speaker 21: and here then our ideological differences began to interfere with
1:11:54
Speaker 21: our ability to function as a collective group. Now the
1:11:58
Speaker 21: question also of you unity, I think that we must
1:12:02
Speaker 21: understand that, well, uh, we are a large group of people,
1:12:05
Speaker 21: something like foury to fifty million in this country, and
1:12:07
Speaker 21: they're gonna always be differences of opinion.
1:12:10
Speaker 14: I think our primary concern should be.
1:12:12
Speaker 21: Developing some kind of mechanism for operational unity. Other words,
1:12:16
Speaker 21: when we come up with that national Black agenda, UH,
1:12:19
Speaker 21: with those priorities, then we, despite our different ideologies, should
1:12:24
Speaker 21: have that kind of mechanism that will embrace all these
1:12:27
Speaker 21: ideologists so that we can implement the national black agenda.
1:12:31
Speaker 19: And I think that.
1:12:32
Speaker 21: Here where we break down as a collective group, and
1:12:35
Speaker 21: that that can be clearly seen right now in terms
1:12:38
Speaker 21: of our different political ideology. Now for instance, uh uh
1:12:42
Speaker 21: we are constantly uh lawyer to the Democratic Party. We
1:12:49
Speaker 21: are constantly dampering with the Republican Party.
1:12:52
Speaker 17: Uh.
1:12:52
Speaker 21: We are constantly uh we are maintaining a permanent coalition
1:12:56
Speaker 21: with the white racist Union that is one of our
1:12:58
Speaker 21: greatest enemies in this particular country in terms of keeping
1:13:01
Speaker 21: black people out of the union and subsequently keeping them unemployed.
1:13:03
Speaker 21: And I think as black people, you see if we
1:13:05
Speaker 21: were to come together, it would be a big argument
1:13:07
Speaker 21: as to where our lawyers is to like will not
1:13:10
Speaker 21: be uh uh with uh our our black goals and
1:13:13
Speaker 21: objective be because of these various uh uh attachment that
1:13:17
Speaker 21: we have. And I think that until we develop to
1:13:20
Speaker 21: the point well our lawd will be with black people
1:13:22
Speaker 21: and be uh in terms of our affiliation in any
1:13:25
Speaker 21: other group. We see that as a tactic and a
1:13:27
Speaker 21: strategy and do not let just deter us. I I
1:13:29
Speaker 21: think we be more effective and implementing uh of the content.
1:13:33
Speaker 1: We must move on where we are running short of time,
1:13:35
Speaker 1: and I will plead for one more time for us
1:13:38
Speaker 1: to please make our remarks very cogent and.
1:13:43
Speaker 2: Not get into this cause I know all of you
1:13:44
Speaker 2: have a very.
1:13:45
Speaker 1: Gifted disrespect of Congressman Stokes.
1:13:47
Speaker 2: Would you care to come in now?
1:13:48
Speaker 20: I just wanted to add one additional uh point to
1:13:51
Speaker 20: what uh my brother here has said. Someone in a
1:13:55
Speaker 20: few moments ago mentioned, uh, the Jewish people. Now, they
1:14:00
Speaker 20: may differ ideologically or philosophically about many things, the one
1:14:06
Speaker 20: thing they all agree upon is Israel.
1:14:09
Speaker 19: It seems to me there's a lesson in that for
1:14:12
Speaker 19: black people.
1:14:13
Speaker 8: Okay, but all right, that's okay.
1:14:18
Speaker 1: May we have a comments to him and then I.
1:14:22
Speaker 3: Think the disagree that's right.
1:14:24
Speaker 1: I think we do owe it to those who have
1:14:26
Speaker 1: phoned in questions to try to handle those questions out
1:14:29
Speaker 1: of courtesy.
1:14:29
Speaker 2: So could we expediently move towards that. And mister Williams,
1:14:33
Speaker 2: you've been trying to make.
1:14:34
Speaker 17: A point, just one point that I hope your viewers
1:14:36
Speaker 17: don't get the impression from what's been said so far
1:14:39
Speaker 17: that there is no cooperation in the black community, you know,
1:14:43
Speaker 17: because I think you know that they might feel that
1:14:45
Speaker 17: way that all of us are doing our own thing
1:14:47
Speaker 17: and we you know, we never relate to one another.
1:14:49
Speaker 19: And I've got the.
1:14:50
Speaker 17: Instance you know that we do cooperate, that we do
1:14:53
Speaker 17: form coalitions, so you know, so you know, it isn't
1:14:56
Speaker 17: as splendid as it might appear.
1:14:57
Speaker 2: If we don't form coalations. One has been formed for us. Well, yeah,
1:15:02
Speaker 2: that's what I mean.
1:15:03
Speaker 9: Many times we think we've got something going, and the
1:15:06
Speaker 9: buck that has caused us to get into those hotels
1:15:09
Speaker 9: and have those meetings and carcasses and seminars and all
1:15:12
Speaker 9: the rest has come from the white community UH, without
1:15:15
Speaker 9: our knowledge, sometimes without the knowledge some of us. And
1:15:18
Speaker 9: so therefore the conference takes the UH takes attack that
1:15:21
Speaker 9: is totally different. And and also it splits us up
1:15:24
Speaker 9: too because of our ideologies. It makes us think about
1:15:26
Speaker 9: ourselves as being different. We're not.
1:15:28
Speaker 3: We've got a great deal to work with.
1:15:30
Speaker 1: We gonna have one short remark from Miss Burrow and
1:15:31
Speaker 1: then will go to the next question.
1:15:33
Speaker 23: I think I think one of the things that needs
1:15:34
Speaker 23: to be said to me is the fact that political
1:15:36
Speaker 23: power and the ownership of capital seems somehow to be handmaidens.
1:15:40
Speaker 4: I think we agreed.
1:15:41
Speaker 23: I think I've heard that of it.
1:15:42
Speaker 3: Four times there.
1:15:43
Speaker 23: Well, if that's true, then you decide which one of
1:15:47
Speaker 23: those comes first. I'm sure that you'd better have some
1:15:49
Speaker 23: money before before the political power comes.
1:15:52
Speaker 3: I think that's what.
1:15:52
Speaker 23: The Congressman talked about a little bit earlier. Little ladies
1:15:56
Speaker 23: and tennis shoes that get twenty thousand votes for a
1:15:58
Speaker 23: candidate don't don't have that access to him. But some
1:16:01
Speaker 23: guy that gave twenty thousand dollars does. And that's the difference.
1:16:04
Speaker 23: And it comes as a result of the ownership of business.
1:16:07
Speaker 23: And if if, if we're talking about the ownership of capital,
1:16:11
Speaker 23: then then that gets to be important. And all capitalists
1:16:14
Speaker 23: don't have to own a little Bruce store. I mean,
1:16:16
Speaker 23: there's a broad middle class in this country.
1:16:24
Speaker 1: Answered something said they could get it, they could get
1:16:26
Speaker 1: to see you.
1:16:30
Speaker 2: Okay, maybe we have the next question.
1:16:32
Speaker 3: Please.
1:16:34
Speaker 16: My name is Martha georget and any San Francisco.
1:16:39
Speaker 27: And my question was which the war ending in Vietnam
1:16:45
Speaker 27: and unemployment, the rate of unemployment climbing as it has
1:16:50
Speaker 27: anyone on the panels, the possibility of rage riots occurring
1:16:55
Speaker 27: across the country.
1:16:58
Speaker 17: Uh.
1:16:58
Speaker 1: The question was with war in Vietnam ending and unemployment,
1:17:02
Speaker 1: I assume rising. You have the rate of unemployment climbing
1:17:06
Speaker 1: as it has, does anyone see the possibility of race
1:17:09
Speaker 1: riots occurring across the country.
1:17:10
Speaker 8: Certainly, certainly the potential is here.
1:17:14
Speaker 5: We've put all this money for so many years into Vietnam,
1:17:17
Speaker 5: fighting a war and a place that we shouldn't be fighting,
1:17:21
Speaker 5: intervening in a civil I'm sorry, a civil disagreement is
1:17:28
Speaker 5: really what it is. There yet doing nothing to structure
1:17:31
Speaker 5: people as they come back here grand unemployment, with the
1:17:34
Speaker 5: Nixon administration leading in an attitude to continue to do nothing,
1:17:39
Speaker 5: cut backs all along the line.
1:17:41
Speaker 8: Right here in the city of New York.
1:17:43
Speaker 5: Just recently, I think we might have had a riot
1:17:46
Speaker 5: where a policeman shot a ten year old boy in
1:17:49
Speaker 5: the back. There was great disorder in the vicinity of
1:17:52
Speaker 5: the house in which the youngster lived. Now, if the
1:17:55
Speaker 5: Nixon administration continues its cut back, and had this been
1:17:59
Speaker 5: summertime when that youngster was shot in the back, I
1:18:02
Speaker 5: think you might have found a riot.
1:18:04
Speaker 1: Let me clarify the fine language of this question, and
1:18:07
Speaker 1: the question says race riots, It doesn't. This question doesn't
1:18:12
Speaker 1: say the rebellions of the sixties in which blacks were
1:18:15
Speaker 1: burning up their own houses and you know, robbing liquor stores, let.
1:18:20
Speaker 8: Me carry it to let me respond to that.
1:18:23
Speaker 5: I don't think if we have riots again, I think
1:18:26
Speaker 5: Blacks are much more sophisticated than we were in the
1:18:29
Speaker 5: early sixties, and much more bold than we were in
1:18:32
Speaker 5: the early sixties. And I don't think the disorders are
1:18:35
Speaker 5: going to be confined to Black communities. A lot of
1:18:39
Speaker 5: brothers and sisters who are much more bold than before,
1:18:41
Speaker 5: who will carry the disorders if we want to turn
1:18:43
Speaker 5: them that into the white community, to the downtown banks,
1:18:46
Speaker 5: to the where the power structure is. Yes, I think
1:18:49
Speaker 5: there's a grand possibility of disorder and race riots.
1:18:53
Speaker 8: I would hope not.
1:18:55
Speaker 10: I think that we have a responsibility because no doubt
1:18:58
Speaker 10: the atmospheres that we have responsibility to construct that that
1:19:02
Speaker 10: that that that that consciousness that will not rise and
1:19:05
Speaker 10: to guide in whatever channels we see.
1:19:07
Speaker 3: Irrespective of whether we say.
1:19:09
Speaker 10: With bottle or non violet, I think we do have
1:19:11
Speaker 10: a responsibility to to try and channel.
1:19:13
Speaker 15: That because while we can agree on an increase in racism,
1:19:17
Speaker 15: I think I think would be inappropriate to draw the
1:19:21
Speaker 15: conclusion that that will manifest itself in race riots, and
1:19:24
Speaker 15: in fact, our responsibility to work to make sure it
1:19:28
Speaker 15: does not.
1:19:28
Speaker 5: Let's see if I understood the question whether that was
1:19:30
Speaker 5: a possibility, yes, and my answer yes, was a possibility.
1:19:37
Speaker 10: Obligation, the responsibility, the responsibility to channel it.
1:19:40
Speaker 3: Now it can take different forms.
1:19:43
Speaker 18: It's things that I really don't understand about that war
1:19:46
Speaker 18: because I've never seen the wall end and people's.
1:19:49
Speaker 3: Do you shoot them?
1:19:51
Speaker 12: I don't understand law.
1:19:53
Speaker 18: You know, when they make that clad, I mean, then
1:19:56
Speaker 18: I really want somebody to clarify that, because in number two,
1:20:00
Speaker 18: I couldn't understand why so many black men were sent
1:20:05
Speaker 18: over there at the fight and everybody I've seen talking
1:20:08
Speaker 18: that got off of them plans as white men. It's
1:20:10
Speaker 18: just a lot of things that I don't understand about that,
1:20:13
Speaker 18: you know, and well, you know this is enough to
1:20:16
Speaker 18: make people upset, because that upset me, That upset other
1:20:21
Speaker 18: people because I do know that it was more than
1:20:25
Speaker 18: white people went to Vietnam, and I know that you know,
1:20:29
Speaker 18: somebody else should have been. You know, it was two.
1:20:31
Speaker 18: It was two things that we're upset a lot of
1:20:34
Speaker 18: people in the South. And I can't understand if the
1:20:38
Speaker 18: wall is over and the prisoner's home while they see issues.
1:20:43
Speaker 11: I think the point's clear that the war in Southeast
1:20:45
Speaker 11: Asia is still going on, but as well, there is
1:20:47
Speaker 11: now an increased war here at home in terms of
1:20:50
Speaker 11: the conditions that people are having to live under, the
1:20:52
Speaker 11: conditions that returning veterans are having to face. As part
1:20:55
Speaker 11: of the National Conference of Black Lawyers, I traveled in
1:20:58
Speaker 11: Asia very recently and talked to many of the black
1:21:00
Speaker 11: servicemen and women in the brigs and the stockades and
1:21:02
Speaker 11: in the courts, and talk to them in their barracks.
1:21:05
Speaker 11: And I checked out as well the situation here in
1:21:07
Speaker 11: the United States people who are about to be released
1:21:10
Speaker 11: under administrative discharges and the whole range of less than
1:21:14
Speaker 11: ormorable discharges that the system has put upon these people.
1:21:17
Speaker 11: And I think that not only do we have to
1:21:19
Speaker 11: take sister Hammer's point about the war going on in
1:21:22
Speaker 11: Southeast Asia, there's a war going on right here in
1:21:24
Speaker 11: the United States in terms of.
1:21:25
Speaker 8: The conditions that these people are going to have to.
1:21:26
Speaker 11: Face when they come out, and it's kind of lives
1:21:29
Speaker 11: that they're going to be forced to live, and I
1:21:30
Speaker 11: think that has implications not only for the Black community.
1:21:32
Speaker 8: But for the entire American community.
1:21:34
Speaker 23: I'd just like to stay that that that war was
1:21:37
Speaker 23: going on when we got there. They were shooting when
1:21:39
Speaker 23: we got there, and now that we've left there still shooting,
1:21:41
Speaker 23: and I wish we'd left. That part of that comes
1:21:43
Speaker 23: in between, I wish we'd never joined the shooting and
1:21:46
Speaker 23: let's let them keep on shooting like they're doing.
1:21:48
Speaker 3: Now it's capitals.
1:21:51
Speaker 2: Next question, please, I didn't do it, missus.
1:21:54
Speaker 14: Hamler's point is that they have not really.
1:21:56
Speaker 2: Now maybe we had. The next question please there.
1:22:00
Speaker 24: From Brooklyn, New York. Question is I wanna know would
1:22:07
Speaker 24: it be feasible and would it be much more beneficial
1:22:14
Speaker 24: of black people if we had?
1:22:18
Speaker 13: If we say, we have a.
1:22:19
Speaker 24: Home to call our home right Africa, like we could
1:22:23
Speaker 24: be leaked to our brothers in Africa, as do the Jews.
1:22:27
Speaker 26: Do to Israel.
1:22:29
Speaker 24: Would this give us more of a nation time feeling
1:22:34
Speaker 24: than the direction we are now federally taking in this country.
1:22:38
Speaker 2: I think, mister Carmichael, we're all waiting on you to
1:22:40
Speaker 2: answer yes, up, yes, sir, I thank you.
1:22:44
Speaker 10: Africa is our home, gr Africa is our mother. Undeniably,
1:22:48
Speaker 10: it is our home. I think that we get confused,
1:22:51
Speaker 10: uh and that's why, uh uh our struggle becomes so confused.
1:22:55
Speaker 10: Because a nationalist free awakening is a necessity for anti
1:22:59
Speaker 10: imperiodist struggle. All countries go through their nationalists stage before
1:23:03
Speaker 10: they go into that series, the Vietnamese and Chinese to Cubans.
1:23:06
Speaker 10: And our problem is that we don't really understand nationalism.
1:23:10
Speaker 10: When you say nation, you talk about land. Our land
1:23:13
Speaker 10: is Africa, that's undeniable. This land is not our land.
1:23:16
Speaker 10: This land is not our land. This land is not
1:23:18
Speaker 10: the white man's land. He's just a European settler on
1:23:20
Speaker 10: this land. This land is the red Man's land, and
1:23:23
Speaker 10: the Red Man will raise contradictions to get his land back,
1:23:25
Speaker 10: and when it does, Black people have to be Crystal Claire,
1:23:28
Speaker 10: what our position is the Red man fighting in Moondi
1:23:32
Speaker 10: Ni right now, our position can only be but one.
1:23:34
Speaker 10: We support him to Greek claim his land while we
1:23:36
Speaker 10: also wage our struggle to take back our land. Now,
1:23:39
Speaker 10: the way people now ask the questions, well, a brother
1:23:42
Speaker 10: stokely or what am I supposed to do? Am I
1:23:45
Speaker 10: supposed to leave America and go to Africa? I think
1:23:48
Speaker 10: that's an incorrect way of phrasing the question. Once we
1:23:51
Speaker 10: understand that Africa is our home, then the way we
1:23:53
Speaker 10: raise the question is brother Sookly I'm in America. What
1:23:57
Speaker 10: can I do to help home? Once the question is
1:24:00
Speaker 10: raised that way, then we see more clearly. But it's
1:24:03
Speaker 10: undeniable that when you fight revolution, you fight for land.
1:24:05
Speaker 14: Thank you for.
1:24:07
Speaker 2: Let me try to get to another question. Our next question. Please.
1:24:11
Speaker 16: My name is did Twug Carter and out of Cleveland, Ohio,
1:24:16
Speaker 16: and my question is on census taking and the fact
1:24:19
Speaker 16: that from nineteen hundred to nineteen seventy, according to the
1:24:23
Speaker 16: World Almanac is the Negro Almanac and the census, why
1:24:27
Speaker 16: we have still remained ten percent to eleven percent of
1:24:31
Speaker 16: the total population? And exactly who is the minority on
1:24:36
Speaker 16: a national and an international scale?
1:24:39
Speaker 4: Thank you very much?
1:24:42
Speaker 1: Uh just she was asking uh s in in essence,
1:24:46
Speaker 1: uh are we the minority or the majority on an
1:24:48
Speaker 1: international scale?
1:24:50
Speaker 8: Retording you know what's right here where we are. We're
1:24:52
Speaker 8: in the minority, but we may be a as a
1:24:55
Speaker 8: part of black people and brown people in the majority worldwide.
1:24:58
Speaker 3: I think people were with majority.
1:25:00
Speaker 2: We think for one more question, we have a very
1:25:03
Speaker 2: My name.
1:25:04
Speaker 29: Is Lewis you got that yes? And one of the
1:25:12
Speaker 29: questions is directed to Stokeymichael, Yeah, which is, oh, can
1:25:22
Speaker 29: you be in Africa America at the same time.
1:25:28
Speaker 1: Could you answer that very sxcinctly, But I'm sure there's
1:25:30
Speaker 1: a very, very very simply when I was in Africa
1:25:34
Speaker 1: for the last four years, my mother was in America
1:25:36
Speaker 1: and she was in Trinidad.
1:25:37
Speaker 3: But she's my mother.
1:25:38
Speaker 10: I have a responsibility to take care of her. I
1:25:40
Speaker 10: took care of my mother wherever she was. For my brother,
1:25:43
Speaker 10: I would tell him that he should read the works
1:25:45
Speaker 10: of the honorable Marcus Garvey and he will see that
1:25:47
Speaker 10: the honorable Marcus Govey never saw Africa, never saw it.
1:25:50
Speaker 10: Yet it is undeniable that the Honorable Marcus Garvey worked
1:25:53
Speaker 10: harder for Africa than any man in his lifetime during
1:25:57
Speaker 10: that period, and he never saw.
1:25:59
Speaker 1: We have a few angel let me ask you, what
1:26:02
Speaker 1: is your involvement now in the political prisoner movement? Specifically,
1:26:07
Speaker 1: we have about a half a minute.
1:26:09
Speaker 12: Well, we are trying to build a movement embracing all
1:26:13
Speaker 12: of those thousands and tens of thousands who supported me,
1:26:17
Speaker 12: as well as anybody else who can see the need
1:26:19
Speaker 12: to free more political prisoners and victims of political repression.
1:26:24
Speaker 12: We're talking about fighting around the case of Rochelle McGee,
1:26:27
Speaker 12: the San Quentin six got a little Peliciano wrap down
1:26:33
Speaker 12: right here in New York.
1:26:34
Speaker 4: I was visiting just a few days ago.
1:26:37
Speaker 12: Rochelle McGee in San Quentin.
1:26:39
Speaker 2: I hate tenant Ruk.
1:26:40
Speaker 1: I feel like the back gown is program, but it's
1:26:42
Speaker 1: been very interesting and I'm sure the audience.
1:26:44
Speaker 2: Has gotten some tremendous insights.
1:26:46
Speaker 1: Like JOHNA would like to thank you for coming and
1:26:48
Speaker 1: giving us your ability and your wisdom.
1:26:51
Speaker 3: Well, we thank you for helping to bring us together.
1:26:53
Speaker 3: If even on this level, it will now inspire us
1:26:55
Speaker 3: to work harder to unite amongst ourselves.
1:26:57
Speaker 2: Amen. Brother,