Carolina Socialist Forum
Template:TOCnestleft Carolina Socialist Forum was bsed at Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Haiti and Cuba Forum
The Carolina Socialist Forum hosted a forum entitled: Haiti and Cuba: Imperialism and Independence in the Caribbean, 21 Feb 96, at 7 pm, in Murray Hall Auditorium. Speakers included Tatia Ash, human rights activist, recently returned from Cuba, and Stan Goff, dissident Special Forces veteran of the military occupation of Haiti in 1994.[1]
"Local Labor Rights in the Global Economy"
The Carolina Socialist Forum, a UNC group in Chapel Hill, hosted a labor panel on April 2nd 1998 to discuss "Local Labor Rights in the Global Economy." The panel was composed of Saladin Muhammad, state organizer for UE 150, the newly emerging North Carolina Public Service Workers Union, Rosa Saavedra of the North Carolina Farm Workers Project, and Trim Bissel of the Campaign for Labor Rights.[2]
600 Local Activists Reclaim Dr. King's Radical Legacy
According to Will Jones, a graduate student at UNC and an activist with the Carolina Socialist Forum, Internationalist Books, and the North Carolina chapter of the Committees of Correspondence.
Chapel Hill - Six hundred people came out Monday, January 20, 1998 for a march and rally in celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King's dedication to radical social change. The Chapel Hill/Carrboro NAACP, in coalition with more than thirty other organizations, organized this year's march to mark recent gains by the UNC Housekeepers Association and the Chapel Hill/Carrboro Black Public Works Association. According to long-time Chapel Hill activist Joe Straley, this was the largest such event the town had ever seen.
The size of the march reflected two months of dedicated coalition work. The NAACP, the BPWA, and the HKA worked with the Carolina Socialist Forum, the Coalition for Economic Justice, the Lesbian Avengers, the Feminist Alliance and other groups to build a coalition to plan the celebration. Organizers sent over 800 letters and flyers asking community and work place organizations, churches, and campus groups to spread the word and to join the march. They spoke before congregations, on the radio, and local cable access television, and passed out thousands of flyers advertising the event.
The day before the march, Carolina Socialist Forum began the celebration with a panel discussion entitled Civil Rights for the 1990s: A Call for Economic Justice. Dr. Gerald Horne, director of the Black Cultural Center, began the forum with an historical view of the relationship between racism and economic exploitation in the United States. Lesbian feminist activist Mab Segrest followed by pointing out the need for a global perspective on social inequality in the present period. Lizbeth Melendez, who is helping Guatemalan poultry workers organize a union in Morganton NC, concluded with a local view of the relationship between racial justice and the union movement. All three speakers stressed the centrality of economic justice in civil rights struggles for people of color, women, lesbians, gays, bi-sexuals, and other targets of discrimination.
Martin Luther King Day began with a rally on the steps of the Chapel Hill post office. Dave Lippman warmed up the crowd with songs, and the Internationalist Bookstore displayed a selection of books on Dr. King and the civil rights movement. As the crowd grew from 50 to 75 to 150 people, Hank Anderson of the NAACP called them closer for a series of speeches.
Speakers included Joe Straley, John Herrera, Gerald Horne, and other Chapel Hill activists. Alley Murphey brought greetings from the Housekeepers Association at Eastern Carolina University, and Chris Smith of the UNC Housekeepers read a poem. By the time Ange-Marie Hancock of the Feminist Alliance and the Coalition for Economic Justice introduced the chants for the march, the crowd had grown to 400.
The march began with a short walk to Silent Sam, a confederate war memorial on the UNC campus. There NAACP president Fred Battle and Yonnie Chapman of the Internationalist Bookstore spoke of the need to acknowledge the history of racism at UNC. Silent Sam, they explained, represents the hypocrisy of a university fabled for its liberalism where many of the campus buildings are named for slave owners. One hall, Saunders, is even named for the founder of North Carolina's Ku Klux Klan. Chapman suggested that one way to rectify UNC's racist past would be to replace Silent Sam with a monument to the black workers who had built and maintained the University for 200 years. UNC student Courtney Scott then led the crowd in the Black National Anthem, "Lift Every Voice and Sing."
The crowd, which had grown to 600 strong, marched down Franklin Street chanting "Hey Hey, Ho Ho, Racist Silence Has Got to Go" and "Tear Down Sam, Tear Down Greed, Workers Rights Are What We Need." Banners demonstrated the participation of Chapel Hill High School students, the NC State Employees' Association, graduate students in the UNC Math Department, the Feminist Alliance, the Lesbian Avengers, and of course, the UNC Housekeepers. To the words of "We Shall Not Be Moved," and other songs and chants, marchers made their way to a closing service at the First Baptist Church.
At First Baptist, reverends Gene Hatley, Marie Mann, and Larry Jones, and Gloria Brooks of the NAACP welcomed the marchers and members of the congregation. Chapel Hill Mayor Rosemary Waldorf greeted the crowd, R.D. Smith of South Orange Black Caucus spoke of the need for educational reform, and BPWA president Steve England provided observations on his organizations achievement of higher wages for the towns workers. Perhaps the most inspiring presentations came from young people. Joel McCauley and Teal McCauley read beautiful poems, and a horn quartet played several songs. Throughout the service, the Hickory Grove Inspirational Singers provided musical background and interludes.
The service culminated with a key note address by Ajamu Dillahunt of the Postal Workers' Union and Black Workers for Justice . A fitting end to a day celebrating the struggle for racial and economic justice, Dillahunt's speech stressed the importance of acknowledging Dr. King's increasing radicalism in the last years of his life.
Chapel Hill's growing movement for economic justice demonstrated how progressive coalitions could reclaim King's radical legacy. Dillahunt called the Housekeepers "Shining Stars" who had inspired public workers across North Carolina. The BPWA had demonstrated the awesome power that organized workers could wield in local political struggles. By supporting these movements, progressive activists in the Coalition for Economic Justice, the Black Student Movement, the Internationalist Bookstore, and other groups were forcing Chapel Hill to live up to its reputation as a progressive community.
Turning to national politics, Dillahunt defended the controversial decision to introduce Ebonics, or Black English, into the public school curriculum in Berkley, California. He chastised Jesse Jackson and other black leaders for denouncing the decision without knowing all the facts. For example, Jackson overlooked the fact that Berkeley's school board had only supported instructing teachers and parents to recognize and appreciate black speech patterns. Instead of checking the facts, he had denounced the motion for advocating the teaching of black English in place of standard English.
Dillahunt concluded by asking his audience to "keep the struggle in front of" them. Activist coalitions for economic justice can grow in all communities, and they should mimic Chapel Hill's movement by allowing workers to set the agendas. He criticized the Democratic and Republican Parties, and urged local activists to support the Labor Party, the Green Party, the New Party, or any other party dedicated to an agenda based on the needs of working people. Only by reclaiming King's commitment to radical social change, can a truly progressive movement continue to grow in Chapel Hill, and across North Carolina.[3]
Greenspan protest
According to Elin O'Hara Slavick, Assistant Professor of Art at UNC at Chapel Hill, is a mixed-media artistand David B. Richardson who was affiliated with the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Public Health, the right to free speech, particularly for social activists, was tested again at the University of North Carolina, January 1998. David B. Richardson was among approximately six total Faculty and students, associated with the Carolina Socialist Forum, who planned to hand out copies of an excerpt of Congressional testimony between Representative Bernie Sanders and Alan Greenspan, Chair of Federal Reserve. This went peacefully as planned, without incident.
- We made it clear throughout our planning that we would not obstruct traffic or doorways but would attempt to educate people about the effects of Greenspan's monetary policies through a simple and generous act of handing out reading material.
The day before the protest, Captain Williams, Chief Investigator of the University's Public Safety Department, came to see me with copies of e-mail correspondence between myself and the Carolina Socialist Forum and a list of all the 'David Richardsons' on campus from which he wanted me to identify the one who belonged to the CSF. He asked whether anyone in our group had "far-out ideas," told me that "everybody loves Greenspan," and alerted me to the fact that he would research the members of the Carolina Socialist Forum.
Ninety faculty members signed my letter to the University Chancellor demanding that the role of security be clarified. Chancellor Hooker responded with a letter, in which he wrote, "I am committed to assuring that this campus remains the full and free marketplace of ideas...It is clear from Chief Gold's report that Public Safety was following standard operating procedures."
Daniel H. Pollitt, Kenan Professor of law, emeritus, at the University, demanded, "How long has this police surveillance operating procedure been standard?...I have been involved in a number of protests against visiting dignitaries:...Rockefeller...Vice President Bush...US Attorney General Thornberg...Throughout these years a policeman came to my office only once. He was sent by Coach Dooley to find out if I was watching football practice out of my window."[4]