Conference pushes ahead with fightback strategy

Despite single-digit freezing weather and concurrent political events connected to the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend, 200 activists attended the first of a number of mini-conferences to discuss and strategize around a united fightback program of action to challenge the deepening economic crisis, especially inside the U.S. The six-hour conference took place on Jan. 17 at a Manhattan public school and was called by the Bail Out the People Movement. A similar conference will take place in Los Angeles on Jan. 24.

The social composition of the conference was multinational with a third of the participants being Black. Most participants were from the East Coast. Many youth and students attended, with a large delegation traveling from the North Carolina cities of Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill. Several young people were Palestinian.

Fruit of Labor singers, Jan. 17 in NYC. Left to right, Calvin Glover, Nathanette Mayo, Erin Byrd, Rick Scott and Angaza Laughinghouse. WW photo: John Catalinotto

Joyce Chediac, a Lebanese-American activist, dedicated the conference to the heroic resistance of the people of Gaza during a three-week, genocidal, military assault against them by the U.S.-backed Israeli military.

The Republic Windows and Doors workers, who held a successful occupation of their Chicago factory in early December, sent a message of solidarity to the conference.

Plenary speakers included Naeema Muhammad, a leader of Black Workers for Justice and the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network; Bernadette Ellorin, secretary-general of BAYAN-USA; Jerry Goldberg, a Detroit activist with the Moratorium Now! Coalition Against Foreclosures and Evictions; Charles Jenkins, a labor activist from Take Back Our Union and the May 1st Coalition for Immigrant and Worker Rights; Jabbar Magruder, Iraq Veterans Against the War; Victor Toro, a Chilean activist facing deportation; and Larry Holmes, BOPM organizer. The Fruit of Labor Cultural Singers—also Black Workers For Justice members from North Carolina—performed several songs.

Plenary co-moderators were Leilani Clark and Larry Hales, Fight Imperialism-Stand Together youth organizers; Sharon Black, a BOPM activist from Baltimore; and Teresa Gutierrez, a May 1st Coalition organizer.

Youth discuss action plan, movement building at Jan. 17 conference in NYC. WW photo: Gary Wilson

Four breakout discussion groups took place focused on reaching out to youth and students; uniting community and political issues; organizing labor in the South, immigrant workers, the unorganized, the unemployed and prisoners; and connecting the struggles against wars abroad with the struggles at home. Activists talked about local issues they are involved with and expressed suggestions for the working document draft put forth by the BOPM.

Breakout reportbacks were given by Nadir Hilmi, a Palestinian youth organizer; health care activist Ajamu Sankofa; Joyce Chediac; and labor organizers Phebe Eckfeldt and Joe Piette.

The document, which is a work in progress, was adopted by the conference. Go to www.workers.org to see videos of the plenary talks at the Workers.TV section.

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