· I eyou g·ge 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: 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.