THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Friday, March 1, 1974
THE MICHIGAN DAILY Friday, March 1, 191~
Minority
conference:
By PAUL TERWILLIGER
The message was unity.
Perhaps that will be the most
enduring lesson 'of Ann Ar-
bor's first minority affairs
conclave - The Third World
People's Solidarity Confer-
ence.
For awhile, it seemed that
just about everyone w a s
there. Certainly, m i n o r i t y
leaders were there, not only
from across campus, but from
across the nation as well. Peo-
ple of all races, and of all
colors, including black :activ-
ist Angela Davis, American
Indian Movement (AIM)
founder C 1 y d e Bellacourt,
Chicano leader Ramsey Mu-
niz, Asian leader Pat - Sumi,
and locally, Native American
Advocate Moose Pamp and
Black Advocate Dick Garland.
"Nothing has been handed
amon
to us on a golden platter,"
Angela Davis drawled to a
crowd of 3,000 at Hill Audi-
torium on Friday night. "Your
very presence on this campus
is the result of struggle and
blood," she cried.
The conference, sponsored
by the minority affairs com-
mittte of Student Govern-
ment Council, was an attempt
to consolidate the numerous
minority groups across cam-
pus. They voiced their com-
plaints against the racism of
many institutions - the Nix-
on Administration, the Uni-
versity administration, and,
occasionally, the s t u d e n t s
themselves.
At times, it even seemed as
if Davis knew more about the
campus than the students did.
She named professors, state
legislators that she felt con-
all
tradicted "The Cause." She
even blamed students for be-
ing part of the problem.
"That's what I mean by
relaxing the pressure," she
said, "So that the enemy no
longer feels threatened by
you."
Although the form of ex-
pression varied-from Davis'
sharp, sardonic rhetoric to
the beating of the huge, om-
nipresent Indian drums -
the message was the same.
"The secret is unity, unity,
unity!" Davis' voice rose, as
she pounded her fist to em-
phasize each syllable.'
But the message was called
other things as well. Pat Sumi
termed it "the glorious tradi-
tion" of slave rebellions, work-
ers' strikes and the battle for
civil rights.
Eddie Benton, who partici-
pated in the occupation at
People'
Wounded Knee, described it
as a "spiritual closeness."
Bellacourt described it sim-
ply as the "willingness to die
for what we believe in," as he
recalled the Indian occupa-
tion of the Bureau of Indian
Affairs in Washington, D.C.
"We must keep in mind the
fact that we all face the same
problems and the same racist
institutions . .. In short we
all catch hell from the same
man," he said.
"The vast 'majority of us
are poor, working people. The
struggle has to relate to the
needs of the poor, the work-
ing class," said Davis.
"We should be unified," Da-
vis emphasized, "When one of
us is attacked, we must all
fight back, whether it is the
blacks, Mexicans, Indians,
Chinese, or any other oppres-
sed people."
4
Photos
by
Karen
Kasmauski
0
{
Moose Pamp
Clyde Bellacourt
MOP"Fl