o OBE
Blacks need 'common· ground on
tactics of liberation .
At the recent Summit of
Black Organiz tions con­
vened by Benjamin Hooks
of the N.A.A.C.P., the Rev.
Jesse Jack on is reported to
have laid out me rationale for
the Ni e boycott and urged
African American organiza­
tions to wholeheartedly sup­
port the boycott. '
Tony Brown is said to have
countered by uggesting that
wh t Black people really
need to do i manuf cture
their own gym hoes.
I al 0 received a call from
a Floridian, who regularly
read my columns who
reacted to my article on the
i e boycott by questioning
why I had not cmpha ized the
ne e d for Blac people to
build their own factorie . I
assured the reader that I sup-
port that trategy as well.
What caused me some pain
in terms of the apparent dis­
agreement between Jesse
Jackson and Tony Brown and
the concern expressed by the
reader who called me in
response to my column, is the
tendency to see trategies and
tactics for Black liberation
rigidly 8 "either, or"
propositions; that is to say
the notion that only one
strategy or limited r nge of
strategie are valid and use­
ful.
It is precisely this kind of
ideological straitjacket and
innexibility on strategy nd
t ctic which has often
h mpered and harmed the
ability of Africans in
America to be more uccess­
ful in our struggle for libera-
tion.
OVER THE YEARS I
have seen fierce and conten­
tiou debates and "ideologi­
cal" battles erupt over
whether African Americans
hould u e government
money to fund projects, ac­
cept "white money" or rely
exclusively on "Black
money".
Another split ha often
surfaced with a vengence
over electora politics vs
prote 1 politics. Some ac­
tivist cc no relevance to p r­
ticipating in the electoral
arena. Other' downplay the
utility of street action. Some
B�ack leader arc only con­
cerned with "civil right" ef­
fort ,other ec civil rights
as irrelevant and opt to focus
o ers of injured children
plead for child care law
By M Wright Ede an
Five mothers and one
grandmother told their
heartbreaking tortes, one
after the other:
Sixteen-month-old There­
s was kicked or punched in
the uomach by her babysit­
ter, fracturing two vertebrae
and evering her aorta.
Five-month-old Andrew
died after two months in a
coma as a re ull of being
violently shaken by hi day
c re provider.
Five-year-old Je ica i
blind, cannot peak, and has
cerebral pal y,and uncon­
trolled eizures-a.ll as' a
result of brain injuries that
occurred when her baby itter
left her unaue nde d on the
floor ncar' other childrcn
when she wa four months
old.
"
. TINY DU TI died from
a brain injury caused by
repeatedly being hit against a
wall or floor by hi day care
provider.
One-ycar-old 'Mallory suf­
fered a skull fra ture and
brain hemorrhage while in
. the care of an unlicen ed day
tare provider who said the
chHd fell off a couch while
un ucndcd
Five- car-old Brian is par­
tially hllnd and partially
p a ral y z d because h wa
haken and everely injured
by hi. family day care
provider when he wa 10
mortth old.
Hoping other f milie ill
be pared uch tragedie ,
the e omen came to
Wa hingto , D.C . ., from 11
over the country in mid Sep­
t m r to hold pres con-
ference and plead with
Congre s to fi ni h work on
pending child care legi.la-
tion. •
"I am outraged over the
delay in the child care bill,"
said Anna Gladmon of Silver
Spring, Maryland. "Two
years after this bill was fir t
introduced in Congress. Mal­
lory was injured. Yet Con­
gress corninucs to neglect the
needs of c hi ldr e n and
families, while devoting their
time and resource to tho e
with strong voices and strong
financial backing."
{;RANI)MOTIIER Shir­
ley Kovich of Dallas, who
lost her grandson Du tin,
spoke of rates ' lax regula­
tion of family day care home
like the one in which Dustin
wa fatally injured. She said
her daughtcr had helieved
that Du tin's baby 'iller a
reliable because the woman
wa registered to operate a
day care home. "Little did she
know," said Kovich, "that all
it took was S35 to register."
Since Du tin' death,
Texas ha begun to require
day care provider to have
some training and ubmit to
pot checking of their home,
Kovich said, hut there i.
much more to do.
Most of the mother told of
th ir 0 n dif'Iicultic in find­
ing and evaluating child car
providers dcspuc their con­
scrcntiou I fort .. At a mini­
mum,they aid. parent mu t
be a b let 0 a, � u met hat
licen e d p r o v rdc r receive
trai ni ng, care ful background
check ,and I te in p cuon
from the tate. And parent
also need free referral our-
ces they can trust. Several
mother said they' were
forced to look in the cia -
sified ection of the
newspaper for child care
providers, since they bad no
other sources of information.
In Maryland. said Glaumon.
parents must pay to use a
referral service for liccn ed
provider.
The mothers al 0 sires ed
the importance of training for
home child care providers.
Cheri Robertson of
Temecula, California, aid
ju t a " mall amount of
education" about the danger
of shaking infant· and about
positive way to handle srre
could have prevented Brian
from living with terrible
handicaps for the rest of hi .
life.
These women's message
must not be ignored. The
pending child care legislation
,i de perately needed to help
en ure the well-being of our
children while their p rent
wor . There a' mother,
Sieglinde Waller of St. Paul,
Minne ora, summ d it up:
"While I re lize the bill
would not solve our entire
child care ri i , it would
show parents that
Wa�hingt()o care, about
familie ."
YOU C HELP make
ure that Congres and the
pre ident get thi me age.
Call them today and tell them
to give America' working
familie child care bill.
ow.
Marian Wright Edelman is
president of the Children'
Defense Fund, a national
voice lor children.
on the idea of "human right "
'exct usivel y.
In my judgement most of '-----....:.--.....::
the energy expended on the
"either, 'or" que tion is
f uti I e, d i vis i ve and
counterproductive.
For while I am prepared to
engage in discu ion on the
question of priorities of the
appropriate blend of certain
strategic and tactics in a
given period; I reject the no­
tion that African Americans
should rigidly confine them­
selves to usi ng a i ogle
strategy or a limited range of
strategic .
A"'RICA
AMERICA S, for example,
should not divide over
whether to use boycotts as .a
strategy or Black self help
economic development. We
need to aggressively employ
bo�h of these trategie a we
seek to strengthen and
deve lop the Black com­
munity.
Corporation. which thrive
on Black dollars should rein­
ve t in the Black community.
Th i's a correct principle.
African Americans should
. rne s their resources to
vclop Black businesses and
build social, cultural. educa­
tional and political institu­
tion. Tha rs a correct
principle. These two prin­
ciple arc not at odds with
c ch other. There are substan­
ti I benefit to he gained
from the usc of both of the e
trategie .
To reiterate. I believe
that di .cu ions on priori tie .
re appropriate and
nccess ary. For example I
happen to believe th t much
greater focu needs to be
directed toward rc lf-he lp
economic development a, a
priority. However, that does
not mean th t I do not recog­
nize the v lidity of other
ICHIGA CITIZE PAGE s
strategie and tactic
IT IS SENSELE . in my
opinion for the proponents of
different strategies to fight
over which stragtegy i the
mo t useful or whlchj((n{
ought to be "the prio�. We
may never achieve con. en u
or unity on that question.
A more productive ap­
proach might be to n gree
on the validity and utility of
e rtai n trategie nd then
develop a division. of I bor
which enable organiz tion '
or leader to prioritize the
u rare g y or tactic or their
choice.
A a case in poi nt, Opera­
ion PUSH, the NAACP and
o llective of org nizarion
might choo e to prioritize
making corpor te Americ
accountable to Black
America.
Tony Brown, Mini ter Far­
rakhan and the Nation of
I�I m and other organlz tion
might choose to prtortuze
Black elf-help economic
development. Such an arran­
gement or framework of
OPERATIONAL UNITY
would allow • African
Americ n to be mobilized in
upport of broad range of
tr tegie which are bcnefi­
ial to the Black Nation
without the confu ion of
ideologic I contention and
competition around the
proverbial "either, or".
A we look tow rd the 21 t
century a major priority ror
Africans In America is the
.carch for "common ground"
with each other on the que, -
tion of trategie and tactic:
for Black fiber tion.
workers
e4
We, in thc er-
vice, h vc r c nrly m . e
c mmitment t uromati n to
k e p up wit the in rea
v lume whil maint 'ining
a d improvin crvicc. uto-
marion ha dramatic lIy im­
pacted on cost incre e in a
po iliveway.Th Ii ,in1988
the U.S.P.S. op rated ltwice
the rate of inflation. Thu far
in 1990, the U.S.P.S. is
operating at 1 % clow the in-
larion rate. .
We move Amcricas mail
24 hours a d a y In doc � all
cro . this great country and
o nyc we, M a i I Han d I r ,:a r
pr ud to h member of th
U.S.P.S. amily of worker ..
. I
lity
II