700 Attend Black Radical Congress

By Maurice Williams, The Militant, Vol.62 no.27, 13 July 1998

CHICAGO - More than 700 people gathered at the University of Illinois at Chicago for the Black Radical Congress June 19-21. Conference organizers included Jarvis Tyner, vice- chair of the Communist Party USA, Professors Manning Marable and Abdul Alkalimat, and leaders of Committees of Correspondence, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, New Afrikan People's Organization, and Black Workers for Justice.

Workshop discussions took up many topics including "Civil Rights, Affirmative Action and the California Initiative," "Black Radicalism, Black Workers and Today's Labor Movement," and "Socialism and Black Liberation." A couple hundred young people and others attended the gathering looking to discuss the fight for Black freedom as well as other developments in world politics. A few activists were also building the "Million Youth March" in New York set for September 5.

A petition campaign was projected to take place for a year starting in October 1998 "to bring 1,000,000 signatures to the United Nations charging the United States with violating the Human Rights of African American people."

At the final session, Marable announced that the group is planning future meetings in preparation for a larger assembly of the Black Radical Congress in the year 2000.