Michael Liu
Michael Liu is the husband of May Louie. Liu was born in Chinatown, along with his three siblings, to working class parents. He is also a child of the 60’s. After graduating from Swarthmore and then getting a Masters Degree at Northeastern, he decided to serve meals and learn how to cook at the Golden Age Center in Chinatown. He joined the revolutionary political organization I Wor Kuen in New York. There he married his partner, May Louie, against her better judgment and conveniently on her lunch hour.
When they returned to Boston in 1974, he and May joined life-long friends like Suzanne Lee, Terri Oshiro and Ramsay Liem in creating social justice groups such as the Asian American Resource Workshop, the Chinese Progressive Association, the Asian American Political Agenda Coalition, the Coalition to Protect Parcel C, and the Boston Rainbow Coalition. In the 1990’s, he was executive director of the Asian American Resource Workshop.
During the purported “end of history” in 1990’s, he got his Ph.D. in Public Policy at the University of Massachusetts of Boston to see his place in the era. His last and longest tenured job was as Senior Research Associate at the Institute for Asian American Studies. He co-authored an interpretive history of Asian American organizing, The Snake Dance of Asian American Activism. Now, as he looks at the mirror and knows that he’s on the downside of the mountain, he and May hope to support young activism.[1]
LeftRoots
From LeftRoots'Out to Win! Issue 1 page 115:
"Role of Asian American and Pacific Islander Movements"
- We are LeftRoots members whose identities fall largely under Asian, Asian American, and Pacific Islander (AAPI) categories. We joined LeftRoots because we are excited to build a Left organization together with other cadre from the ground up and to develop strategy together.
- AAPI cadre showed a lot of interest in responding to We Believe That We Can Win (WBTWCW) as soon as it came out. The writers of this document wanted to uplift AAPI communities’ role in revolutionary strategy. In February 2018, a group of LeftRoots cadre and compas (Pam Tau Lee, Michael Liu, May Louie, Lydia Lowe, Don Misumi, and David Monkawa) wrote a paper that was used as a starting point for this one.
National Network of Asian/Pacific Americans for Jesse Jackson
On March 9 1984, concretizing the motto, "In unity there is strength," our individual groupings formed the National Network of Asian/Pacific Americans for Jesse Jackson. Sharon Hom and Leslee Inaba-Wong (New York), Evelyn Yoshimura and Linda Mabalot (Los Angeles), Michael Liu (Boston), Ying Lee Kelley and Butch Wing (Bay Area), and Cindy Ng (Network coordinator) signed the joint statement.[2]
Unity
Michael Liu, Boston, was a contributor to Unity, August 31, 1987, the newspaper of the League of Revolutionary Struggle.
Asian American Resource Workshop
Michael Liu, founder of the Asian American Resource Workshop, contributed to Unity, the newspaper of the League of Revolutionary Struggle, November 30 1989 issue.
"A call to build an organization for the 1990s and beyond"
Unity, January 28 1991, issued a statement "A call to build an organization for the 1990s and beyond" on pages 4 to 6.
This group was a split in the League of Revolutionary Struggle which soon became the Unity Organizing Committee.
Those listed as supporters of the call included Michael Liu, director Asian American Resource Workshop Boston. .
East Wind
In 1985 Contributing Editors to the League of Revolutionary Struggle Asian journal East Wind included:
BOSTON: Peter Kiang, lecturer, Asian American Studies, UMass Boston; Michael Liu, teacher, Chinatown People's Progressive Association.
AA Movement group
Eric Mar, May 1, 1998.
AsianAmericanMovement.net
I think this is a Ryan Suda - black lava design, but I could be wrong. [Mooko says the artist is Phloe Pontaoe who did this for Black Lava http://www.blacklava.net/#]
More on the history of the AA Movement group - http://apimovement.com/history/radical-resistance-conservative-times-new-asian-american-organizations-1 — with Emily P. Lawsin, Kathy Masaoka, Mark Masaoka, Glenn Omatsu, George McKinney, D Rikio Mooko, Ryan Suda, Kim Geron, SunHyung Lee, Kye Liang, Scott Kurashige and Michael Liu at UCLA Asian American Studies Center.
"The Snake Dance"
In 2008 Michael Liu, Kim Geron, and Tracy Lai published "The Snake Dance of Asian American Activism".
Supporting Suzanne Lee
Chinese Progressive Political Action, November 2, 2013:
Community members and South Cove East Residents standing with Suzanne Lee for District 2 City Councilor! — with Celine Chin, Michael Liu, Anna Lei, Colin Chan, Karen Chen, Mark Liu, Lydia Lowe, Jenny Lau, Kimberly Situ and Chuanling Chen.
Personnel
As of 2016;[3]
Chinese Progressive Association (Boston) Steering Committee,
- Dora Hui, Co-Chair -Chinese Youth Initiative alumna and admissions officer at Concord Academy
- Jian Hua Tang, Co-Chair -Former Power-One employee and resident activist
- Howard Wong, Treasurer -Massachusetts state employee and IT professional
- Michael Liu, English Secretary -Researcher at Institute of Asian American Studies
- Ann Har-Yee Wong, Chinese Secretary-Longtime community activist and workforce development counselor for City of Boston
- Wai Chan-Hotel Worker
- Nancy Huang-Chinese Youth Initiative member and student
- De Sheng Liang -Retired restaurant worker
- Michelle Yee-Child Welfare Attorney with Suffolk Superior Court