LEFT FORUM June 2nd-4th, 899-10th Avenue New York City
MUST BE REGISTERED TO ATTEND,
DISCOUNTS AND VOLUNTEER SLOTS AVAILABLE! https://www.leftforum.org
In 2011, Melville House published Hillbilly Nationalists, Urban Race Rebels and Black Power: Community Organizing in Radical Times by Amy Sonnie and James Tracy. Hillbillies explored histories of white working-class radicals who organized hand-in-hand with revolutionaries of color in the 1960s and 1970s. These histories provide clues and sign posts for organizing in today’s world where the racist right has consolidated power and progressives are fracturing around issues of class, race and gender. This year, the Left Forum will bring thousands of activists to strategize about where to go from here.. What better way to begin this conversation than exploring the lives of those street level organizers who built the Original Rainbow Coalitions.
SUNDAY JUNE 4TH, 10AM, ROOM 1-127: LEARNING FROM WHITE LIGHTNING, OCTOBER 4TH ORGANIZATION. ORGANIZING THE WHITE WORKING CLASS IN THE 1970’S AND TODAY
Philadelphia’s October 4th Organization (O4O) worked in the Kensington and Fishtown neighborhoods and played an important role in the coalition which ultimately denied the racist Mayor Frank Rizzo a third term in office.
In New York City, White Lightning provided a left-wing analysis to drug addiction and drug treatment, supported the Young Lords, the Black Panther Party and other militant community groups in the takeover of Lincoln Hospital, and inspired by the politics of Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, the BPP and the YLP, focused on organizing the white working class in the Bronx.
Panelists: Sharon McConnell-Sidorick, October 4th Organization, Gil Fagiani, White Lightning Dan Sidorick, October 4th Organization Moderator: James Tracy, Co-author Hillbilly Nationalists, Urban Race Rebels and Black Power: Community Organizing in Radical Times
SUNDAY JUNE 4TH, 3:50PM, ROOM 1-127 REMEMBERING BOB LEE, PEGGY TERRY AND THE ORIGINAL RAINBOW COALITIONS
Bob Lee who passed away in March, was a member of the Illinois Black Panther Party and was dispatched to build the “Original Rainbow Coalition” with the poor white Young Patriots, Young Lords the Panthers and Rising Up Angry.
Peggy Terry was a white southern migrant worker who broke from a Klan family history to work with the Congress of Racial Equity and Jobs Or Income Now, while mentoring new generations of activists in Chicago. This panel of people who knew and worked with Lee and Terry will explore their political legacies and the lessons they hold for those energized by the Black Lives Matter, immigrant defense, and anti-Trump movements.
Panelists: Jakobi Williams, author From the Bullet to the Ballot: The Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party and Racial Coalition Politics in Chicago, Melody James, Jobs or Income Now Community Union Hy Thurman, Young Patriots Organization Asantewaa Nkrumah-Ture, Global Women’s Strike Moderator: Collen Wessell-Mc Coy, Kairos Center NYC
This recording was made at the 50th Anniversary Celebration of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense. The panel “Poor Whites & the Black Panther Party,” packed the the conference room at the Oakland Museum of California. There are a ton of critical issues discussed here around the intersections of class, race and gender in contemporary organizing.
If you missed the online seminar for the Lessons From the Original Rainbow Coalitions (9/9/16), you can listen to the audio here:
No matter who wins the White House in November, the forces of white reaction and right-wing nationalism will emerge stronger than they have been for decades. Using the Original Rainbow Coalition and the Poor People’s Campaign as starting points, we’ll pull lessons from past movements that can be applied to the present day. The event will be interactive, with speakers including: Hy Thurman of the Young Patriots Organization, Lynn Lewis (Picture the Homeless) , Sasha Hammad (formerly Retail Action Project & Young Workers United) James Tracy (co-author Hillbilly Nationalists, Urban Race Rebels and Black Power) Willie Baptist (Kairos Center, author of Pedagogy of the Poor) and John Wessel Mc Coy (Kairos Center). Together, we will arrive at concrete ideas for fighting for social justice in the contemporary era.