Adopted at the National
Student/Youth Conference to Defend Affirmative Action and Integration
and Struggle for Equality, on June 3, 2001
91 voted For, 0 Against, 5
Abstaining
The first National Student/Youth Conference To Defend
Affirmative Action and Integration and Struggle for Equality, sponsored
by the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action & Integration, and Fight
for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) Reverend Jesse Jackson's
Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, and United for Equality and Affirmative Action (UEAA)
convened in Ann Arbor, Michigan from June 1-3, 2001, is committed to
building the new national, youth-led, mass, militant, integrated civil
rights movement.
Our aim is to build broad and popular struggle to defeat the attacks on
affirmative action and to fight all forms of racism, inequality,
oppression and injustice in this society. We understand that building
the new independent civil rights movement is necessary to transform
American society, and to win equality and justice for all.
The May 16, 2001 reversal of the University of California (UC) Regents'
ban on affirmative action proved that the new independent, youth-led
civil rights movement can defeat the attack on affirmative action and
can reshape the political landscape of this nation. We have to power to
define the direction in which this nation moves, but only if we organize
on an independent basis. The struggles to defend affirmative action and
integration provide the basis for changing every aspect of the
educational system and every other social institution in this society.
As the new movement grows in numbers, strength and clarity, it will
become possible to redress inequalities in educational funding and the
growing resegregation of education, to explode the myth of meritocracy,
to end the use of high-stakes standardized testing to determine
educational opportunity, and to change the fundamental nature,
substance, and goals of the whole educational system. Education must be
based on the truth. The student intervenor-defendants' case in the
University of Michigan Law School trial brought the truth about the
central role of racism and the struggle to oppose it to an extensive
public audience.
The student intervenors' defense of affirmative action in the University
of Michigan Law School trial held between January 16 and February 16,
2001 explained the centrality of race and racism to the development of
the social, economic, political and ideological foundation of this
nation. The students proved that integration and the struggle for black
equality is essential to social progress. In March 2001, thousands of
white students and youth who were convinced by the students' case joined
black, Latino, Asian-American, and other minority students to protest
the Federal District Judge Bernard Friedman's reactionary, racist and
sexist decision outlawing the University of Michigan Law School's
affirmative action policies-a decision now appealed to the Sixth Federal
Circuit Court in Cincinnati.
The struggle to defend affirmative action and integration has helped to
spark an increase in anti-racist mass struggle during the last two
years. In South Carolina, more than 50,000 people turned out to remove
the Confederate Flag from the State Capitol Building. In Florida, Jeb
Bush's anti-affirmative action One Florida initiative provoked the
largest civil rights rally in Florida's history, which in turn sparked
mass opposition to the denial of voting rights to Florida's black
electorate during the last presidential election in November 2000. The
urban youth uprising in Cincinnati, Ohio this spring made clear that
that police brutality, racism and poverty, will lead to growing social
struggle and unrest. Local high school and university campus struggles
this spring signal the growth of a new student movement.
The aim of this conference is to bring forward a new generation of young
leaders, to unite and lead this new national civil rights movement. We
stand on the principle that through joint action and struggle, political
education and discussion, and democratic debate and decision-making, we
can build a new independent youth-based civil rights movement.
We pledge to:
-
Organize a national mobilization for Cincinnati, Ohio in
October 2001 in support of affirmative action and integration (See
attached resolution).
-
Organize locally and nationally to break the press
blackout on the three racist murders and ongoing campaign of death
threats that have occurred at Penn State University. We must publicize
the strength of the integrated student struggle at Penn State and the
broad national support for the Penn State students. We will do
everything possible to realize Reverend Jesse Jackson and the
Rainbow/PUSH pledge to organize a national demonstration at Penn State
University for the Fall of 2001.
-
We will publicize and support progressive high school,
university, and local struggles.
-
Convene a second National Student/Youth Conference To
Defend Affirmative Action And Integration And Struggle For Equality in
November 2001.
-
Form and maintain an interactive website and email
network with three purposes:
a) Uniting our struggles through updates and an on-line
newsletter
b) Colleting and disseminating relevant research, information, and
tactics
c) Presenting a public face for our movement
-
Actively recruit new universities, students and
struggles to this movement.
-
Support and coordinate sending delegations from our
member schools to hold forums and do presentations across the country
for the purposes of spreading the word and building the movement.
-
Continue the vibrant debate and discussion in order to
define, refine and direct our dynamic movement.
