1-16-02     

Conference of the Civil Rights Movement
New Dates:
February 8-10, 2002
at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor

A confident, proud and growing mass civil rights movement has emerged over the last year. The second conference of this new civil rights movement will take place in Ann Arbor at the University of Michigan over the weekend of February 8-10. As many leaders, representatives and organizers as possible should come from every school and organization. We will be discussing and voting on the basic perspective of the new civil rights movement for the next period.

This movement holds enormous promise for the future -- it has begun to wake up a generation. With the defense of affirmative action as its point of departure, the new movement has begun to grapple with the underlying racist inequality and segregation and sexist inequality and mistreatment that condition life in our society. With its continued development, we can not only successfully defend affirmative action, we can begin the fight to make real this nation's promises of integration and equality in education and throughout the society.

From Cincinnati to the U.S. Supreme Court

The first conference of the civil rights movement was held at the beginning of June at the University of Michigan Law School. Representatives from over 40 schools and over 20 states converged at that hastily organized conference, we made the mobilization to Cincinnati for the appeal of the University of Michigan affirmative action cases our highest priority. We acted on that democratically resolved perspective with a vengeance.

The march and rally in Cincinnati on December 6 was a tremendous success. Thousands of students from all over the mid-west and throughout the country converged on Cincinnati. We marched and rallied in a cold rain that wouldn't quit. December 6 will serve as a historical marker in our struggle for justice. Whichever way the Sixth Circuit Appeals court rules on the two University of Michigan affirmative action cases, we must put our faith only in the strength of our growing mass movement. Over the next year we must organize for a mass demonstration at the US Supreme Court and build the mass petition campaign for the hearing at the high court.

The courts can once again be compelled to rule for justice as they did in Brown v. Board of Education. The way to ensure that is by organizing a broader and broader section of the masses of this country into struggle. Black, Latina/o, Native American, Asian American, Arab American, other minority and white youth, women and men, all standing together as equals, fighting for integration and equality, will awaken in each other the pride and human dignity that comes from standing together for justice. The camaraderie that this struggle creates will be a force to break down the inertia of a society grown too satisfied with inequality and injustice masked by hollow words. The last civil rights movement won equality before the law and outlawed segregation; it won promises from the powers-that-be. Our new movement must win equality and integration in real life.

The February 8-10 conference at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor will be debating and voting on the next steps the movement must take in this historic fight.

The conference will fully open and democratic. It will focus on the key questions facing our movement and what we must do next. The conference is being organized by BAMN (the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action and Integration and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary) and co-sponsored by Reverend Jesse Jackson's Rainbow/PUSH organization. Antiracist and progressive organizers and leaders will be coming from around the country. All antiracists and progressives are welcome and encouraged to come.

• DIRECTIONS, LOCATION and the tentative SCHEDULE will be available at the BAMN.com website.

• Please email bamn@umich.edu for information on HOUSING, FOOD, etc.

• Email us to let us know how many people are coming from your school.