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By Dani
_ Amilcar Cabral, the brilliant
theoretician and leader of the
truggle for independence in
Guinea-Bissau in West Africa,
argued that students, inteUec
tuals, and the middle class were
key to sparking the struggle for
change among. oppressed
people. .
Cabral observed that" the
petite bourgeosie had three
principal tendencies: some tend
to "wanabe" like the rulers and desist in having the university
oppressors and therefore inter- function as a virtual nco-colony
nalize the values and interests of of the government and more
the oppressor and take the side particularly the Reagan-Bush
of the oppressor against the dministrations. The university,
masses; another sector, per- they protested must be more
haps, the majority simply vacil- sensitive to the needs of stu
late, are indecisive and tend to dents and to the African
play it safe; but another sector American community.
chooses to commit "class In kin th d
suicide," by deciding to "return the H�d !ud:� ::::;. em 0 era c v
to the source" to merge their in- down the gauntlet to the . Ti
terests with that of the masses of. African-American Nation ..
the oppressed workers, Black people should provide a 8y Dr. LenOl"a.F ani
peasants, and the poor to fight greater share of the resources, Every white c.orporat.e
for fundemental change. of the money to aid in the owned ne�paper m Ame ca
Though the masses are development of predominantly has eadlined the news of the
decisive in ultimately making Black colleges and universities re�nt e!ecti�ns in the Soviet
change, this return to the source thereby enabling these institu- U n 10.�. • Sovie t Vo ters Deal
or return to the people, ones' tions to more freely and effec- �u�tmgBlowto PartyOffi- THIS WAY
own people, is a crucial e ment lively serve the interests of the cials, the ew York Times an- . TO
aystallizing the struggle for principal constituency they. nounced, The story went on to
reform or revolution. were created to serve _. , explain .that powerful political
The Howard University sta- African':Americans. fJgUres, m office for �anyyears,
dent revolt is illustrative of this This cl1allenge is well put, for �d been. defeated m the elec- baDot!
tendency of ome among the he who pays the piper picks the tion by �depend�nts whose Since last November's elec
student - intellectual - mid- tune! presence m the SOVIet Congress tion, when I became the first
die class sector to sacrifice self- In the sixties African- is expected to bring new ideas woman and the first African
interest in order to struggle for American stud�nts' who �to the political dialogue and American ever to be on every
a change in the condition of dis- engaged in the "movement" had life of the country. . ballot, Democratic and
advantaged and oppre sed a campus and a community Even though they're new at It Republican politicans in Kansas
people. agenda. On campus there was we Americans could learn a lot and Georgia have been concoct-
Cabral pointed' out that it is co tant pressure for open ad- from the S.oviets. . ing legislation that would make
only natural for those who are mission and substantial student Here m the United States, it even harder for indepandents·
relatively well off to aspire for aid programs to enable disad- �ore th.an 98 % of Congres- to gain ceess to the baUo in
more, particularly within a vantaged Black students to gain s ional Incu�b�nts get re- those states. The Georgia ballot
greed-oriented and materialis- access to higher education. elected Restrictive ballot ac- is already one of the least acces-
tic society. To risk comfort, Students also fought to cess laws - cnacte.d by sible in the country.
seauityandthe future in the in- create African-American I?e�oaats an�.Republi� to It is too bad that the estab
terest of those who are less well Studies Programs as vehicles to I�mlt compet .. tl<!n fro� out- lishment media are only willing
off than you is unusual; it's like provide bQth an ideology and S!ders--make It.VU'tuaDy lDlPOS- to talk about the lack of
committing suicide - clas the skills to equip students to Sible for voters m the counb'>: to democracy When it comes to
suicide! But it is percisely this provide service to their com- deal any blows to the ma�or other countries and so reluctant
risk, this act of committing class unities. Anti-Vietnam protests, � officaJs who m�nop?1ZC to expose the absence of
suicide which is requited to the anti-apartheid movement, public o�ce and public policy. demoaacy here.
move an oppressed people to and the ongoing st�e against That IS :-wy so many of our But the fact is that the media
bberate themselves. racism also emerged as key people n t bothe� t� go. to �e moguls are in cahoots with the
As Frederick Douglass put it focal points of Black student ac- p�lls - te� particrpation in bi-partisan political monopoly;
"power concedes nothing �m. this country IS among the lowest like the major party politicains,
without a demand, it never has In the community, Afric!an- in the entire world--not because they too are commi tted to
and it never will . American students joined pick- we are "apathetic," but because preserving the white
The students at Howard, like et lines, boycotts and protes although in the 1980's we have supremacist, corporate-con
their predecessors in the sixties, demonstrations around issues fmaDy won the right to vote, trolled status quo. So while they
risk suspension, expulsion, ar- of concern to the local Com- many of us feel thatt we do not bombard us with the news that
rest and the sacrifice of their munity or national Black com- have any reason to. . the elections in the Soviet Union
own education in the interests of munity. They created altema- As an independent can- "swept in a substantial minority
the collective good of African- tive educational institution didate for President of the of independent candidate,
Americans students and the na- liberation academies and youth United States last year, I �� to planting the seeds of the first
tional African-American com- programs. They organized co- ga�r �ne an� � hal! million national opposition" since 1917,
munity. They refused to accept ops and community economic no�tJon pennon s�tures they don't bother to inform us
the insult ot Black people that development projects, and t� gam ballot access � all 50 that two important pieces of
Lee Atwater' appointment to spread Afro-centric ideology states - more � 30 tunes the legislation are now pending in
the Howard University Board of and culture in the community number r e quire d of the the U.S. Congress this year
����������������������_. Demoaatica�Re�Wi� �i�����uW�
Presidential nominees. In two the American political process
states - Florida and North more inclusive and more fair.
Carolina - I was forced to pay a Both of these proposed laws
"filing fee" (not required of come out of Michigan
Michael Dukakis and George Representative John Conyers'
Bush) to · yt�'9A�, �.One, . �
Trustees symbolized. But The movement moved in the six
beyood the Atwater affair, the ties because students in massive
students were challenging the numbers returned to the source.
administration to cease and Hopefully the Howard stu-
the community to serve the
people,' to aid, . t and lead
the oppressed National
African-American in the quest
to achieve liberation.
i:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:-:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·.':':':':':':':':':':':.:':':':':':':':':':':':':.:':':.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:':.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:':'.
��� Howard students also threw
!:.�.i down the gauntlet to the
African-American atlon
Ron Daniels served as 1M .,
Director of the National Rain
bowCoalition and as the Deputy
Campaign Manager fOT the
Reverend Jesse Jackson's
Presidential Campaign '88. He
has served as President of the Na
tional Black Assembly and as
Chairperson of the National
Black Independent Political
dent revolt marks a turning
point whim will inspire large
numbers of the young genera
tion to commit itself to return to
I
MICHIGAN CfI1ZEN
Party. Currently; he serves as
President of the Institute for
Community Organization and
Development in Youngstown,
Ohio. He may be contacted at
(216) 746-5747.
We need al/ the
we
Lenora
Fur."f
The chlg n Citizen elcom
Send to: The igan C iz
03560 - H land Park,
letters.
- P.O. Box
148203
can
get··
Registration Act, ould allow
for registration by I mail and at
agencies that directly serve the
public (such as the post office _
and motor vehicle depart
ments), as well as permitting
election day registration in
federal elections.
The other - H.R. 1582, the
Fair Ejections Bill- would es
tablish uniform standards for in
dependent and third party can
didates in federal elections to
get on the ballot.
Mr. Conyers has been intro
ducin the Universal Voter
Rezi arion Act for most of this
de e; he has already intro
duced H.R 1582 twice before.
Both bills are controversial;
Conyers' major party colleagues
are not thrilled about opening
up the polls to millions of new
voters, and these opening up the
ballot to independent chal
lengers who might give them a
run for their moneyand they've
got plenty of it - at election
time.
But while the politicans don't
have much interest in
democracy, the American
people need as much of it as we
can get. If you would like to help
put pressure on our elected of
ficials to give the Universal
Voter Registration Act and the
Fair Elections Bill a fair hear
ing, contact Nancy Ross, the ex
ecutive director of the Rainbow
Lobby, at '(202) 543-8324 or
write to her at Suite 409, 236
Massachusetts Avenue NE,
Washington, DC 21m2.
Dr. Lenora Fulani is the na
tional chairperson of the New Al
liance Party and a practicing So
c ial Therapist in H 'ariem: She
can be contacted a: the New AI
liance Party, 2032 Fifth Avenue,
New York, NY 10.027 and at
(212) 996-4700.