Black Radical Congress 2003 national meeting: War, Racism and repression; Confronting the US empire

BRC call, 22 April 2003

Contact us at caasbrc@shu.edu
Phone 973-761-9412
Website: http://artsci.shu.edu/afam/center.htm

June 20-22, 2003
Seton Hall University,
South Orange, New Jersey

THE CALL

It is time for a Black Radical Congress National Meeting!

We need a meeting to better mobilize and organize our ranks.

We need a national meeting so that we can help build broad unity and coalitions of all progressive forces.

We need a national meeting to inject a new positive spirit of struggle into our ranks.

We need a national meeting to attract new members, younger members and to reconnect with many of our inactive members.

We need a national meeting to express the BRC?s continued active viable leadership in the Black Liberation Movement.

No to Bush?s War

We Want Peace, Reparations, and Justice

In March 2003 the US government launched an illegal military invasion and occupation of Iraq. This military occupation was one more phase of the US National Security Strategy doctrine that promises militarism, war and destruction across the planet. The wars abroad strengthens the militarists at home with unprecedented powers for an administration that is intensifying its exploitation of the oppressed.

The peoples of the world now face the threat of US military aggression on every continent. The capitalist depression is now blatantly clear in every state that is faced with deficits and cuts. Millions have loss their jobs, pensions and life savings. Homelessness and hunger are growing. Millions of youth are condemned into the criminal injustice system. We are also in the midst of the most brutal government attacks on the right to dissent since the McCarthy era and COINTELPRO.

In the name of fighting terrorism, there is a sharp rise in racist repression. African Americans, and other people of color are facing a new level of racial profiling and violence. There are new pressures to drop our demands for justice. Arabs, Muslims, immigrants, and people resembling those of Middle Eastern decent are special targets of racist violence and government repression. Working people?s right to strike and collectively bargain for better wages and working conditions are under severe attack. The Patriot Act considers all dissent a form of terrorism and the right to exist for all radical and progressive movements is in jeopardy.

Money for education, health care and to rebuild our cities is being diverted to pay for a vast increase in military spending and another round of proposed trillion dollar tax cuts for the wealthy.

We are in the midst of war and the loss of thousands of lives. This is an urgent, emergency situation.

The Black Radical Congress is fully aware of the grave dangers facing all oppressed people, the nation and the world in which we live. If the present reactionary direction of the Bush administration is not stopped we are headed for a new-world conflagration.

We will not be silenced!

We call for more social spending and reparations to meet the critical crisis our people now face. We call for peace, reparations, and end to racist repression and education not incarceration for our youth.

We call for major actions to meet the health care crisis here, in Africa, and around the world and to curb the power of international capital.

CAAS Will Host the National Meeting of BRC, June 20-22, 2002

The Center for African American Studies was founded in 1970 as the Center for Black Studies. As such it was the first such academic center in higher education in New Jersey and one of the earliest Black Studies programs in the entire United States. African American Studies ?has been nurtured by a radical social movement in opposition to institutional racism in Higher education.? It emerged as an integral part of the Black Liberation Movement of the 1960s. As such it has the unique responsibility to bring the resources of the campus to community-based activists struggling for social justice. It is in this spirit that CAAS proudly hosts the National Meeting of the BRC.