[BRCannounce] From Carol Taylor...

[Carol Taylor]

YO! BLACK RADICAL CONGRESS!
What you proffer is serious stuff, hey?  However, if your exclusionary
and  mistaken-use of the term "Americans of African Descent" is any
indication of the validity of the sources for your other comments, I'm
afraid 'you done dead a'ready!"  (As the Caribbeans say)  Ref. Dr. Ivan
Van Sertima and "Journey of Man," video -  PBS, Dr. Spencer Wells

In other words, Sisters & Brothers - (and this is "Black Solidarity Day
no less!) - you have to understand  and acknowledge that:

     ALL HUMANS ARE "...OF AFRICAN DESCENT!" So, y'all and, in fact, all
humans, if we are SERIOUS about accuracy, historical and current, are
going to have to acknowledge the oneness of us all - irrespective of
color and in spite of traditionally-miseducated people of color's
desperate quest for 'identity,' - which has occurred as a result of Post
Traumatic Slavery Syndrome, as our indefatigable Dr. Joy Degruy Leary
postulates. 

Therefore, I think there should be an IMMEDIATE call for a "CHANGE IN THE
RACIST ANACHRONISTIC U.S. LEXICON"  Summit- Forum with a National
Resolution issued with Directions for use by educators, politicians and
the general public.

Still Your Sister-in-THE-Struggle,

Carol Taylor
Author: The Little Black Book: Black Male Survival in America: Staying
Alive & Well in an Institutionally Racist Society
President/Founder: The Institute For "Interracial" Harmony, Inc.
P.S. I attach a copy of our SEMANTICS CHART and Black Demands of Mass
Instruction, FYI


On Mon, 1 Nov 2004 02:07:10 -0500 "BRC Web Administrator"
<webadmin at blackradicalcongress.org> writes:
> Americans of African Descent and NOVEMBER 2nd
> The November 2 presidential election is shaping up as a watershed in 
> US history.  Voters are 
> confronted with the prospect of four more years of George W. Bush, 
> with his pre-emptive war 
> and imperialist empire-building abroad, and racist, anti-woman, 
> anti-gay, anti-environment 
> policies at home.  Or we will get the kinder, gentler imperialist 
> alternative in John Kerry.  Those 
> of us for whom the choices presented by the nation's seriously 
> degraded electoral system are 
> deeply unsatisfying will participate in the process nonetheless, but 
> we will do so recognizing 
> that the real work ahead of us, beyond November 2, is to struggle 
> mightily over the long term to 
> bring about a domestic and global agenda for peace, justice, 
> employment, healthcare, education 
> and reparations.
> 
> Defending the Black Vote -- Before and After November 2?
> For the Black Radical Congress, the main focus in this election 
> season is defending the voting 
> rights of Black people in their communities across the country -- 
> before, during and after the 
> elections. Given African American history, Black people know more 
> than anyone the pain and 
> outrage of vote manipulation and vote suppression.  As the sector of 
> the population that, 
> historically, could always be expected to vote its interests, Black 
> people remain the principal 
> targets of numerous tactics wielded by anti-democratic forces to 
> prevent our votes from being 
> cast or counted.  Today, in coalition with others, we are in the 
> field doing whatever it takes to try 
> and avert another fiasco such as occurred in 2000.  At the same 
> time, realistically, we are 
> prepared for history to repeat, in which case we will join with 
> thousands in the streets to 
> demand, "No Stolen Election."  Here is the "No Stolen Election 
> Pledge:
> "I remember the stolen presidential election of 2000 and I am 
> willing to take action in 2004 if 
> the election is stolen again.  I support efforts to protect the 
> right to vote leading up to and on 
> Election Day, November 2nd.  If that right is systematically 
> violated, I pledge to join nationwide 
> protests starting on November 3rd, either in my community, in the 
> states where the fraud 
> occurred, or in Washington, D.C."
> 
> 
> The Lesser of Two Evils or ABB (Anybody But Bush)
> The vast majority of Black people understand clearly the necessity 
> for regime change at home.  
> We know that the Bush Administration represents an array of the most 
> right-wing elements in 
> this country -- forces driven by greed and a reactionary ideology of 
> white supremacy and 
> domination.  Bush and company are allied with the fossil fuels 
> energy industry, which sees 
> military aggression as a legitimate means of insuring U.S. control 
> over the world's oil resources.  
> They are allied with weapons manufacturers, for whom endless war 
> means billions in the bank, 
> and who are racking up more profits from the recent lifting of the 
> assault weapons ban.  They 
> are allied with all the economic interests whose activities pose the 
> greatest threats to the 
> environment -- industrial polluters, exploiters of space, 
> agribusiness, strip-miners, etc.  The 
> Bushites are also allied with the Christian fundamentalist 
> community, which espouses virulent 
> sexist, homophobic, racist and religiously intolerant policies.  
> These Christian “soldiers” have led 
> the fight to: outlaw a woman's right to choose; re-imprison women in 
> oppressive gender roles 
> within the family; dismantle affirmative action (which has benefited 
> white women, in addition to 
> women and men of color), and roll back the gains of the gay 
> liberation movement.  The voice of 
> this entire constellation of backward-looking forces has a powerful 
> amplifier in the Fox Network, 
> which unabashedly trumpets their every cause in the guise of 
> dispensing news.  Looking at this 
> picture, most Blacks see their worst nightmare in George W. Bush, 
> who, if allowed four more 
> years would institutionalize the anti-democratic measures he has 
> already enacted, with even 
> more far-reaching ones to come.
> 
> 
> Democrats - What Have They Done for Us Lately??
> While most Black people are undoubtedly poised to vote for the 
> Kerry/Edwards ticket next 
> Tuesday, they are unlikely to do so with anywhere near enthusiasm. 
> The Black Radical Congress 
> shares with many the perception that a mere six degrees of 
> separation, if that, distinguishes 
> Kerry from Bush.  We are especially disgusted that Senator Kerry's 
> campaign has failed to take 
> the high road of unequivocal opposition to the U.S. invasion of 
> Iraq; that he has said nothing 
> inspired about the catastrophic Israel/Palestine situation; that his 
> health care proposal falls far 
> short of the single-payer plan the country obviously needs.
> 
> ?
> Indeed, from where we sit, Senator Kerry like Bill Clinton before 
> him, is a creature of the 
> Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), the group that arose in 1988 to 
> contain any leftward shift 
> within the Democratic Party after Jesse Jackson's electrifying 1984 
> presidential campaign.  The 
> DLC presented a challenge to the Democratic Party, "one hostile to 
> the grassroots (it favored the 
> term 'special interests') and determined to make the party safe, or 
> safer, for white men." (The 
> Nation 8/2/04).  The DLC rightward push brought us Clinton, and his 
> neo-liberal package of 
> mandatory minimum sentences and three-strike laws, rationalized by 
> an intensification of the 
> "war on drugs"; so-called welfare reform, which shredded the social 
> safety net for women and 
> children; NAFTA and other globalization offspring of free-market 
> fundamentalism, as well as a 
> health care re-do that allowed for the inception of the horrendous, 
> profit-hungry system called 
> "managed care."
> 
> Across several decades, Black people have consistently supported the 
> Democratic Party and 
> voted for its candidates.  Despite the party's shift away from the 
> needs and concerns of their 
> Black constituents, in 2000 9 out of 10 Black voters favored Al Gore 
> over Bush.  If Kerry wins on 
> Tuesday, the Black vote will have done it.  In which case, Black 
> people must intensify pressure on 
> Kerry’s administration to heed our demands for an immediate end to 
> the war in Iraq, and a 
> substantive and meaningful response to the needs of our 
> communities.
> 
> ?
> Third Parties?
> The Black Radical Congress believes that the two-party electoral 
> system has come to constitute 
> a de facto one party state.  This is evidenced, among many other 
> signs, by the Democratic 
> Party's easy acquiescence to the fraudulent results of the 2000 
> election -- which revealed that 
> its true colors are the same as the Republicans': white and dollar 
> green.  We, therefore, strongly 
> support the proliferation of alternatives to the Democratic and 
> Republican parties.  We feel that 
> local politics, especially, can be enriched by the presence of the 
> Green Party and the Labor Party, 
> whose progressive agendas intersect with our own.  Challenges at the 
> local level to the electoral 
> status quo are a critical ingredient in the struggle for real 
> democracy in the U.S., and such 
> challenges lay the necessary groundwork for a third party like the 
> Greens to field viable 
> candidates at the national level.
> 
> ?
> Electoral Change: We Need a Direct Democracy?
> In addition to all of the above, the Black Radical Congress calls 
> for fundamental changes in our 
> un-democratic, winner-take-all electoral system. A true democracy 
> requires:
> ?
> * a system established in federal law that entitles and encourages 
> all citizens and legal residents 
> of the U.S. to vote. [In Brazil, law requires that citizens vote.] 
> Election day should be a national, 
> paid holiday that frees people from having to report for work.
> 
> * All states should be required by law to meet a single federal 
> standard for state-of-the-art, 
> tamper-proof voting machines [again, such as those used in Brazil], 
> which print out receipts 
> verifying voters' choices.
> 
> * Full voting rights for both the incarcerated and ex-felons.?
> 
> * Abolition of the Electoral College and replacement of the 
> winner-take-all system with a one 
> person, one vote system, run-off elections and proportional 
> representation.
> 
> * Independent watchdog groups and international observers to monitor >
elections.
> 
> * Year-round, community-based "voter education" and organizing 
> around important issues, not 
> just in the couple of months leading up to November elections.
> 
> 
> In The Long-Term ?
> Regardless of who wins in November, Black people seeking fundamental 
> change have work to 
> do.  We must continue building an intergenerational movement and 
> developing long-term 
> strategies to fight racism, end wars of aggression, defend 
> reproductive rights, expand and 
> protect the rights of working people, dismantle the prison/military 
> industrial complex, support 
> our brothers and sisters of the diaspora, and support the rights of 
> gay/lesbian/bisexual/
> transgender people.
> 
> 
> BLACK RADICAL CONGRESS PLATFORM FOR THE PEACE WITH JUSTICE CENTURY
> We demand: Peace With Justice Endless war is not an option. The USA 
> must scrap its own WMDs 
> and help resolve the inequities that, left to fester, foment war.
> End occupation of Iraq – Free Palestine 
> Abolish nuclear weapons– No military tribunals 
> No draft – No police state 
> 
> We Demand: Economic Democracy Every person able to work should be 
> assured a job at a 
> family-supporting wage.
> Jobs at living wages 
> Guaranteed annual income for the ill and disabled 
> 
> We demand: No Death Penalty The death penalty, a legacy of slavery, 
> discriminates by color and 
> class. It has been used, judicially and extra-judicially in the case 
> of lynching, to terrorize Black 
> people.
> Abolish the death penalty 
> End imprisonment for all but violent criminals 
> Make police misconduct and brutality federal crimes
> 
> We Demand: Schools NOT Jails The U.S. over-funds prisons, 
> under-funds the public schools, 
> criminalizes youth of color and then tracks them into the world’s 
> largest prison population – 
> more than 2 million. This process must be reversed.
> Education NOT incarceration
> 
> We Demand: Universal Health Care The USA is the only developed 
> nation without a universal 
> health care system.
> Fund healthcare NOT "Star Wars" and other new WMDs
> 
> We Demand: Reparations 
> The USA must acknowledge its role in the centuries-long human rights 
> abuses perpetrated 
> against people of African descent in the Americas, Europe and 
> Africa. throughout slavery and the 
> slave trade.
> Compensate Black people for their unpaid labor, pain, suffering and 
> economic under-
> development 
> 
> We Demand: Electoral Change Democracy is not served by our 
> winner-take-all electoral system. 
> The Electoral College must be abolished and a multiparty system 
> adopted that gives voters real 
> choices and real representation.
> Establish a one-person-one-vote system with proportional 
> representation
> 
> VOTE ... but the struggle will continue 
> [To report voter intimidation, election fraud or to ask questions – 
> up to and on Election Day – 
> call 1-866-OUR-VOTE]
> • for peace NOT war • jobs NOT homelessness • education NOT 
> incarceration • safety NOT 
> police brutality • equal opportunity NOT global exploitation • for 
> Peace with Justice in the 21st 
> Century 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> www.blackradicalcongress.org
> 
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