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Robert Williams on revolution .. .
Six
No
reasons
to*
make
U Towers
1
on
your lst
"Hi, my name is Susie. My daddy makes metal in Chicago, and he wanted
me to live in a safe place. When he learned that every apartment door in
University Towers has its own lock; he was sold!"
Continued from Page 22
cause they're not allowed-the only thing the
soldiers can do is say "Don't do that." And the
people say, "Well, you're part of us. You can't
stop us from doing this. Either you'll have to
join in with us or get out of the way." The same
thing about the police. You would see very few
policemen and most of the time the police were
assigned some security post in the government
and they wouldn't even have any weapons. Noth-
ing but a uniform, or a whistle.
Sometimes the students would come through
the streets beating drums, in long lines, and
assemblies. Sometimes there'd be so many the
street would be jammed. There would be drums,
cymbals; the whole house would vibrate. Some-
times this would go on for two or three days.
Students packed for as far as you could
see. Long lines; it would never stop, night and
day. A lot of times they blocked the streets, the
traffic. Sometimes they stopped the trains and
wanted to know if there were any reactionary
officials on the train. And the students decided
when the train could go . back; sometimes it
would be two or three days. When I was traveling
across the country on train, the train would be
crowded with students because they didn't have
to pay the fare and they would just get on the
train and ride to one side of the country and then
back across the other side. They had the red
uniform, so any train they, wanted to get on,
they'd just get one and say they were going to
the province to investigate, to see what's happen-
ing over there.
but it wasn't a permanent type of thing. They
changed a lot of regulations, and often later
found out that the system they had adopted
wouldn't work. In fact, sometimes they even had
to go back and get some of those people they
had knocked down, bring them back and rein-
state them.
The Chinese people are enthusiastic about
their country. This wasn't in any publication or
propaganda, but I knew workers who lived in a
compound, who, sometimes if they discovered
they had a surplus of money, would turn it back
into the factory. So the factory could use it for
expansion. And they worked on projects. If they
started a project to install a water line, why,
.they could get allkinds of volunteers. They didn't
even need to bring equipment, people did that.
They don't have locks on their houses, and this
type of thing-they respect each other, their
rights. You can leave your wallet on a bed in
a hotel with the door open and come back in
two weeks and it will still be there. And a woman
can go out from a factory if it's hot in the night-
time and lie down on a bench and sleep all night
and nobody would dare bother her.
* * *
The Chinese support American white radi-
cals; however, their concept of revolutionary
morality is different than most radicals or hip-
pies would have. They're opposed to marijuana,
and free sex, and what they call degenerate mu-
sic--Western music, jazz-and extremity of dress.
B they support radicals in the struggle-and -
think eventually they will find themselves and
understand that you must combine morality with
struggle and revolution.
The Chinese also
are good. They just thi
bad, that it's an impe
think this is why all
the world, and why th
nam. The Chinese th
will institute a social
with other people in I
*
The main lessor
States can learn fror
cept of the transform;
would be very valuable
to realize that you've
to what they call the
got to do away with
ego and you must be'v
sacrifice. That is who
is all about. Mao hin
ones who said that the
not succeed, that it
But he said the Chine
because to change so
an abundant society-
the people, with the ir
Mao says it will be
completely eliminate
he's thinking of hinis
mediate welfare. Befo
ing at all about what
self, before a man wi
lective point of view-
ing is beneficial to tI
two or three generatio
Susie Leopold
"University Towers provides me with an environment conducive to the de-
velopment of my social awareness. For example, I first met my fiance in a
stairwell after a U. Towers cider and donut mixer."
Mary Ann Seydel
The students had power, and theyl
down a lot of the officials. The result of
they paralyzed some of the offices for
knocked
this was
a while,
Barbara Steiner
"When I came from Pakista
Towers. I really like the plac
agement has been very help
cient. It is a place to enjoy l
well as the States. I wouldn'
"My roommate and I used to live in a Rheingold p i a, n o box on the south
bank of the Huron River. We find University Towers a big improvement."
n, I f o u n d an apartment in the University}
e, for I never had any trouble here. The man-
ful, moreover their service is quick and effi-h
iving with people from different countries asz
t like to change it for any other place."
Rehana Khan
"I'm staying at U. Towers next year mainly because of the convenience it
offers. First it's located close to campus. Secondly, washers and dryers are
readily available in the building. There are a I s o advantages s u c h as a
swimming pool in the summer, pool tables, and a reasonable 8 - m o n t h
lease."
Continued from Page 6
merely said, "If you touch that gun I'll blow
your goddamn brains out."
During the 1961 race war, consequently, au-
thorities were more careful. "They knew we were
well armed, and that if they came into our
community they would be slaughtered," says
Williams. "They cordoned off the community."
Before the neighborhoods had been cor-
doned off, however, a white couple d r i v i n g
through the area was surrounded by a mob of-
angry blacks. "They wanted to kill them," says
Williams. "They brought the couple to my house,
and the woman pleaded withme to let them go,
and promised they would never come back." The
couple followed Willliams into his house.
Soon afterward Williams and his family left
town, headed for New York, where they planned
to stay a few weeks until things cooled off. On
the radio, Williams heard the Monroe police had
charged him with "kidnapping" the white couple
-which was surprising, considering the couple
had walked peacefully from William's house two
hours after they entered it-and so Williams
fled to Canada. When Williams read six weeks
later in the newspapers that the Justice De-
partment had asked Canadian police to arrest
and extradite him, he fled to Cuba. Castro ac-
cepted him as a political refugee, gave him an
apartment, food, and a radio setup to broadcast
a Radio Free Dixie program to his brothers in
the American south.
Williams stayed four years in Cuba (he had
been there before, and even flew a Cuban flag
over his Monroe home until police tore it down),
sending 40,000 copies of The Crusader all over
the world, and writing a book, Negroes W i t h
Guns, one of the first manifestos on American
1 lack revolution. B u t friction on racial issues
poiled his relationship with Cuban officials who,
a ccording to Williams, discounted the role of
racial discrimination in America, and discrimi-
nated against Cuba's own blacks.
Williams and his family moved in 1966 to
Communist China, where the Chinese acclaimed-
him as a hero of the black revolution. "I had an
apartment and two cooks, and two women to
clean up, and I had a chauffeur and a car and an
interpreter," Williams says. "The people thought
it should be done. The Chinese people said, 'Be-
cause you're a black man from the United States
and we know you've suffered, we would like for
you to have these things.' A lot of things I tried
to turn down, but they refused.,
As representative of the world's black revo-
lutionaries, Williams apparently exerted s o m e
influence on Mao's public stance toward the
black struggle in America. Largely as a result of
Williams' pressure, the Chinese leader declared
"resolute support" for the black power move-
ment. Chinese officials featured Williams in pa-
rades, at rallies. "I had the status that was pret-
ty much on the level of some diplomats," he says.
"I would always be on the platform with the
Chinese leaders and leaders from other coun-
tries."
Williams passed the two years he spent in
China publishing The Crusader In Exile, and
roaming the countryside, talking with peasants
and workers- j ust as China was lurching through
the hardest days of the Cultural Revolution.
Williams left China in 1969 (Chou-en Lai told
him, "You'll always have a home here") flew to
Tanzania, and proclaimed to the world his pres-
idency of the Republic of New Africa. As Wil-
liams explains it now, the RNA was a loose coali-
tion of American black nationalist groups who
decided to meet in Detroit in 1968 and elected
him president. Williams says he didn't even know
about it until it was all over. The idea for a, New
Africa focused on five states in the American
south, which Williams and nationalist groups
Chou en Lai told Williams.
"You'll always have a
home in China."
hoped to seize or coax from the government as
an independent black nation. Williams claims he
still has hopes for a separate nation, but he has
cut any formal ties with the New Republic.
By the end of his stay in Tanzania, Williams
had decided to emerge from exile and return to
the United States. But the government, which
had wanted so anxiously to prosecute h im in
1961, had lost its enthusiam and tried deperately
to keep him out of the country.
Williams broke into international news
again last September, when he arranged for a
one way ticket from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania to
the United States, via Cairo, Rome and London.
When he landed in London, TWA flatly refused
to honor his ticket for the remainder of the
flight - courtesy of the FBI, which had warned
the airlines Williams was "dangerous." London
police promptly arrested Williams as an Iundesir-
Return from exile
able alien and planne
to unload him on N:
wanted to go to Detr
fast in jail, declaring
dead body." That set
British and Americ
began preparing civil
and black nationalis
front of TWA's New
publicity had become
ficials found themsec
suit, London authorit
chartered a Boeing 7
and flew Williams, h'
guards to Detroit Me
Sept. 13, FBI agents:
tive warrant from Nc
released on $10,000 bi
circuit court to block
That is his stat
American court to g
Williams apparently
Just two weeks ago,
great secrecy to Was
fore the Senate inte
which would like Wil
els (the Customs Buy
collection, which it
troit Free Press hint
sored by the CIA; bu
more likely is giving
change for a Congr
whole "kidnapping"
In the meantime
to piece together a r
radical groups, andd
all like him (EldridE
"wrote that he would
liams with less rabb
was someone who wc
try. I think Cleaver
adds).
And it will take
stand the political co
the nation during h
in which the non-vi
has erupted into fig
American public onc
liams advocating sel
prised to see black n
bullets.
The American 1
1970 seems to have re
ert Williams left it ir
1961.
John Little
"The eight month lease-I don't have to go through the hassle of summer
sublet.":
Youil find out why U Towers
has BETTER RENTAL PLANS
has BETTER SERVICES
and is truly A BETTER PLACE TO LIVE
Brian Regoff
536 S. Forest'
9-4:30 daily
761-2680
Pab Tw'H AL AAIESnaAri 2 90snaArl1,17
Pabe Two
THE DAILY MAGAZINE
Sunday, April 12, 1970
9
Sunday, April 12, 1970
THE DAILY MAGAZINE