 It's been 40 years since Paul Robeson last concertized in the Bay Area 40 years ago during Negro History Week That was the concert at the Oakland Auditorium, and that is a concert. I will never forget Because that were these poor offices out there taking down license plates and all of that rain I just pray to the good Lord that not I've got pneumonia. I have been Asked to say something by way of background for this program Noting the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights When you look back and think about it There was no American More identified with the Universal Human Rights than Paul Robeson and it is Fitting therefore That in the 50th anniversary of the issuance of the Universal Declaration Held in the centennial of Paul Robeson's bird That a program Commemorate his role in the struggle for universal human rights Paul Robeson was born April the 9th 1898 Three years after the death of Frederick Douglass and in the same year that Booker T. Washington 1895 Made his Atlanta exposition speech Two years after Du Bois was awarded the PhD from Harvard two years after the United States Supreme Court Decided Plessy versus Ferguson and in the same year That the Spanish-American war Urged in a new racism and a new American imperialism these events Influenced and shaped the lives of all black Americans including Paul Robeson Paul Robeson first manifested an interest in universal human rights in 1937 When he became one of the co-founders of the council on after the committee on African affairs the council on African affairs and For some 18 or more years. He served as its executive director Or its chairman and he also was a major contributor to the work of the council it was in 1937 that he went to Spain and saying in opposition To racism and fascism there As the years evolved You could see his interest in universal human rights that interest Was reflected in his music In 1943 when Morehouse College bestowed upon him an honorary degree the president said Benjamin He may said you have the courage to dignify and popularize the folk songs composed by the oppressed peoples of the earth Your singing is a declaration of faith You sing as if God Almighty Had sent you into the world to advocate the cause of the common man in song All you need to do is Listen to the songs of freedom the song out of the Warsaw Ghetto Kevin Barry and You the songs of the Russians during the Great War and you will find expressed in that a great support for universal human rights for all people In 1939 Roberson returned to live and become active in the United States as an activist in the United States He linked the black liberation struggle to the struggles of all oppressed people World-wise he had the world vision of the struggle for human rights in this country and in that struggle He eventually became a great Contributor to the campaign against genocide That was a petition Circulated and presented to the United Nations in 1951 charging genocide against the government of the United States and Roberson was very active in that now the final thing that I want to say is some assessment of Paul Roberson that I picked up from the autobiography of John Johnson the owner and publisher of Jad Ebony and the Johnson publications He said or he wrote in his biography That some years ago He was invited to the home of Earl Dickerson in Chicago to meet Paul Roberson at a party and Before Paul Roberson was introduced he was thinking to himself Paul Roberson you are a world figure Phi Beta Kappa all American athlete singer actor scholar Why doesn't he simply enjoy his success and live a quiet life and I'm going to read exactly what John Johnson wrote in his book as If to answer his unspoken question Roberson told us that no black Would ever be truly free until all blacks were free Although he was a celebrated figure He never went any place as Paul Roberson that he could not go as a black man I've chosen to devote my few minutes To discussing my contacts With Paul Roberson They were memorable Of course, I knew of his genius and sought out the opportunity to hear him and see him perform Occasionally we did meet I shall not forget his kind words Concerning my work. I recall an amusing episode sometime probably in the early 1950s I Was visiting at the home of my dear friend Lloyd L. Brown We helped edit the radical monthly magazine Masses and mainstream Robeson Brown's close friend Appeared as a guest when he entered Lloyd's apartment and Brightened it with his inimitable charm Lloyd's four-year-old Bonnie greeted him strained her neck and announced My daddy is as big as you are Lloyd Was about and is about five foot six or seven Still with a child's wisdom She spoke the truth Robeson lifted her in his great arms and Embracing Lloyd announced Of course, you are right Lloyd by the way is the author Of a recently published Splendid book called the young Robeson, which I recommend to you Occasionally Paul Robeson would ask my opinion In a circumstance involving his own life Thus sometimes late in the 1940s I think The well-known is do bows hayward had a play Entitled let my people go In early production The theme of the play was the conspiracy led by Denmark VC in 1822 in South Carolina For a slave insurrection. I read this play and found it quite disappointing It did not do justice to VC's comrades in particular It omitted the very significant fact that four white working men went to prison Because they favored Denmark VC further The gigantic scope of this conspiracy was not shown in the script There were other failings Robeson did not appear Robeson was of course not only a superb artist He also was politically deeply involved Thus to cite one example In the recent celebration of Jackie Robinson's Entry into the big league baseball This was presented as simply a decision on the part of the owners of the club The fact is and I know this from personal experience as a youngster going around with petitions That there was a massive public campaign for years to break the racism scandalizing the big leagues In the final phase of that successful effort Paul Robeson and his close friend William L. Patterson Were very active Both for example met face to face with Branch Ricky the owner of the Dodger baseball team and Demanded an end to Jim Crow. I want to say a word about William L. Patterson Who I knew very well and loved And it's now gone Pat was a central figure in the struggle against racism from the 1930s to the Angelo Herndon and Southern case the Scottsboro case to the Angela Davis struggle decades later His book we charge genocide appearing in the 1950s was an important contribution To the battle for black liberation He suffered imprisonment. He suffered imprisonment, but now he suffers being forgotten There should be a major biography of that sterling character William L. Patterson. I was associated with Robeson in the Council on African Affairs an important force Opposing Washington's disgraceful practice of supporting the viciously racist South African regime Robeson's charm at our meetings and his knowledge of one had to be done Always impressed all of us We had bitter struggles to save the Council after Max Jurgen the Council's chairman With the State Department had tried to swerve it from its anti-imperialist stance The struggle at the time was successful Later the Council along with many other progressive entities was killed Due to the efforts of the McCarthy at Gohova McCarran Trio the Council's splendid secretary Was dr. Alfie's hunting Alfie's was imprisoned for refusing To be an informer as to McCarthy's list McCarthy wanted on a few Fortunately few occasions. I had the experience of speaking publicly following the appearance of Paul Rupps thus I Recall an occasion shortly after the war When the Southern Negro Youth Congress by the way we called it SNCC also Was holding its annual recruiting meeting in Columbia, South Carolina. The hall was jammed and seating was indiscriminate and illegal I Was present When the sheriff argued about this with the meeting's leaders James E. Jackson who was living And Louie Burnham who isn't but he finally yielded and permitted the mixed meeting to be held Now that momentous occasion dr. Du Bois had been presented With a scroll reflecting the esteem felt for him by youth and After Robeson had sung and spoken I was called upon To offer words of wisdom and encouragement. I Don't know what fearful enemy of mine had arranged this But it was not one of the most comfortable moments of my life Northworthy Was the courage? Paul Robeson displayed As an outstanding African-American personality condemning the bomberism of Jim Crow Once in Savannah, Georgia At a public meeting in a church When Robeson was featured a Group of 30 of three or four cars careened to the door and Some four or five armed white men In each vehicle jumped out sitting in the porch at the church, however Was a group of at least as many black men all well armed The Ku Kluxes hesitated The men on the porch called to them Come right on Come right in It's a public meeting The officers thought better of this the cluck closest might as well be officers the clucks is thought well of this and left This was the kind of struggle it was a kind of country in which Robeson performed and battled And from which he was for years exiled What a scandal let me however close And an optimistic note the government which in 1951 sought unsuccessfully thank God to send dr. Du Bois to prison as Quoting the indictment an unregistered foreign agent in 1996 Graced one of its postage stamps with a portrait of Du Bois I imagine he was smiling up in heaven as people went to the post office to buy that stamp When will such official honors come to Paul Robeson? Marvelously gifted battler for human dignity In any case the struggle continues. Thank you. Good afternoon. I Kind of feel like Herbert Apthek are following Paul Robeson. I Don't have any personal stories of Robeson to tell you I I do know Herbert Apthek are in and ginger though and I want you to know what a privilege it is To be on a panel with them Since I see a few people younger than me in the audience. I want to spend just a few minutes Discussing Robeson as a historical figure and then talk about the the petitions and the impact internationally of the movement to internationalize The racial struggle in the United States I'm aware that there are a number of you out there who know more about Robeson than I do so I'll be brief With this, but I think we'd be remiss without At least commenting again on what a remarkable historical figure he is and I think the reason it's necessary to do this is because At a school like UC Berkeley when I mentioned Paul Robeson in a class I and look out there is a definite look of non-recognition. Who are you talking about? So if that's happening with some of the best students that we have then I think it's incumbent upon us to To continually let them know what their legacy is I'll many of you know of his remarkable accomplishments as as a student and an athlete Born in Princeton, New Jersey Not having the opportunity to go to Princeton kept out by Woodrow Wilson then at the last minute taking a statewide scholarship test and scoring at the top which gave him a fellowship to go to Rutgers where he won 15 varsity letters and became an all-american in football Although of course he was removed from the college football Hall of Fame later on because of his Political activity Also going to Columbia graduating from law school. They're going to Wall Street as a lawyer but being put in the back rooms because they didn't want him facing clients Learning some 26 28 languages Etc a truly remarkable I I have to stop myself because I'll Spend all of my time talking about ropes in the historical figure But nonetheless someone we should all be aware of and be aware of their accomplishments In particular, I think we should be aware of his role in bringing cultural nationalism to the black masses Now Garvey is given credit due credit I think in bringing black nationalism in a political and economic sense To the black masses quite up a jump from 19th century black nationalism of of a David Walker of a Henry Highland Garnett of Martin Delaney Which was much more elitist But it's Paul Robeson who brings them a knowledge of Africa and a knowledge of cultural nationalism And he brings it through music, but he brings it through a lot of other things in 1925 He gave the first concert devoted to the spirituals and work songs in the United States And of course he was drawn into music in the theater because he was shut off from Practicing a profession as as a lawyer And in 1937 we have heard he was a founder of the Council on African Affairs Initially the International Council on African Affairs, which was a leader in the anti-colonialist struggle in the United States Finally he goes beyond Garvey and that he doesn't get caught up in kind of racial purity That the late Garvey gets caught up in Robeson looks to see our links with masses worldwide And of course he does that first of all through world folk music showing the similarities in the culture of Folk people in Russia and China in Europe Across the globe and he once again takes this to the masses not to the elites So a remarkable figure in American history I want to talk a little bit About the UN petitions in particular The one Robeson launches but two before them And I'm doing it because I really like to contrast it to the lack of domestic concern about And about International human rights documents and covenants today Of course we can go back to the League of Nations and the absence of Any discussion of race or anti-colonialism in the League That's not for one of trying the Japanese tried at the founding meeting of the League of Nation as as the only real Powerful nation of color at that time to insert language in the League of Nation Charter that would Speak to the racial equality of all human beings Woodrow Wilson and other allies prevented that language from being in the League Charter After World War two Actually before the war was over China as The only nation of color involved in the early meetings leading up to the UN Charter Namely Dunbarton Oaks Conference, but some other more informal meetings I was concerned about the lack of any call for racial equality and once again Tried to insert some very basic and general language Talking about respect for the quality of all nations and the respect for the quality of all races That language was once again Omitted due to the work of the United States Great Britain and the Soviet Union So race in the UN Charter race internationally has had a rather difficult struggle In fact, we would have very little I think in the way of human rights discussed in the UN Charter Had it not been for domestic pressure Probably starting mostly with the Atlantic Charter, which I think helped trigger it That is let's not just talk about the colonies of the Axis powers Let's talk about what's going to happen after the war with Britain and France's and other ally ally colonies and the organization of Large numbers of groups Across the country to put pressure on the United States to come to San Francisco with Colonialism and human rights as a part of what they wanted to see in this international document some 42 organizations are accredited Comes to San Francisco and of course Du Bois is one of the three along with Walter White and Mary McLeod Bethune who are principal Domestic lobbyists for this language and as a result. I think of their pressure We have in the UN Charter some very basic language about human rights There's also of course a push To include in the UN Charter an international Bill of Rights and much like our own Domestic debate over human rights. I mean over Rights in the United States the Bill of Rights didn't make it in the original. It's attached as a separate document so we get an international Bill of Human Rights and we get the creation of The Universal Declaration and the Human Rights Commission Those people who pressured then for the inclusion of human rights language in the UN Charter didn't go away They wanted it there for a reason they wanted there So they had an avenue of redress for domestic concerns and that starts in 1946 with a national Negro Congress petition to the United Nations It's entitled a petition to the UN on behalf of 13 million oppressed Negro citizens of the United States And let me just read in the letters conveying this petition Which was about 13 or 14 pages what Max Jurgen the president of the National Negro Congress Which was 10 years old at the time? had to say In in a letter to the Secretary General of the United Nations Trig V Lee he says it is with an expression of profound regret That we a selection of the Negro people a section of the Negro people Having failed to find relief from oppression through constitutional appeal find ourselves forced to bring this vital issue Which we have sought for almost a century since emancipation to solve within the boundary of our country The attention of this historic body and to request that you as director general place it for consideration before the economic and Social council or that body which in your understanding it may belong Then there's another letter signed by Jurgen and rebels caten the executive secretary of the and in the National Negro Council to Harry Truman This is a historic moment in the life of the nation Vast internal and social upheavals confront us Added to those the traditional pre-war policy of racial oppression carried out by powerful forces in this country is now being Inhumanly reflected more than ever before the Negro people had hoped that out of the war There would come an extension of democratic rights and liberties So heroically fought for By all oppressed people Your administration however has reversed the democratic program of the Roosevelt government both internally and in relation to foreign policy Great burdens have been forced upon the shoulders of the Negro people Negro citizens find the present conditions intolerable and are therefore presenting their appeal to the highest court of mankind The United Nations the National Negro Congress in convention assembled fields and Pell to send you the information Which motivates this historic petition the information for that petition was largely collected by one Herbert Aptheker The National Negro Congress petition there was an attempt to get five million Signatures across the country. They were successful in getting a good deal of support And a good deal of press attention to that document In particular, they had an impact I think on the NAACP And the NAACP which had welcomed back at least for a short time W. E. B. Du Bois to its fold Decided that this wasn't a bad idea using this new international body to give a worldwide expression of the grievances of Black Americans. So Du Bois put together a much more ambitious Petition drawing on five or six scholars Much more legalistic than the first petition but launched a major appeal For endorsement and I want to give you some idea of the range of groups endorsing the petition called an appeal to the world Hundreds of african-american organizations endorse the petitions including the national Negro Council the council on African affairs the national Baptist convention the national fraternal council of Negro churches the urban League the National Association of colored women the CIO and American Federation of Labor agreed to help the National Medical Association The National Negro Publishers Association the National Bar Association the Southern Negro Youth Congress Black fraternities and sororities Adam Clayton Powell Senator Arthur Kaeper Mary McLeod Bethune and International support from the trade unions Congress of Jamaica Joma Kenyatta the Caribbean labor Congress the Kenyan African Union Anatomy Ezekwe the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons Kwame and Krumah from the West African National Secretariat the Niasaland African Congress and Liberia News of the petition was widely reported in both the colonial press and the socialist press The petition despite all of this support Didn't receive a warm response at the newly formed UN Human Rights Commission Eleanor Roosevelt had some real problems with it Eleanor Roosevelt Felt that we shouldn't be taking a nation's racial problems and discussing them before an international body that other countries that did so would were reprehensible And that Serious consideration of the petition might frustrate the efforts to get consensus on a universal declaration of human rights She might have been correct in that response to the petition Nonetheless Despite the fact that the petition was buried and Du Bois talks very eloquently about bearing the petition in the subcommission on minorities It had an impact as well It had an impact. I think on Truman and the Truman administration in 46 Truman had Convened a presidential commission on human rights. I mean, I'm sorry on civil rights and in 47 They issued a Pioneering report to secure these rights Really the first Presidential report on race relations and here's what part of the report says Talking about how embarrassed the United States is internationally Due to racial discrimination in the United States it being the leader of the free world In a letter to the Fair Employment Practice Committee on May 8 1946 the honorable Dean Atchison Then acting Secretary of State Stated that the existence of discrimination against minority groups in this country has an adverse effect on our relations with other countries We are reminded over and over by some foreign newspapers and their spokesman that our treatment of various minorities Leaves much to be desired while sometimes these pronouncements are exaggerated and unjustified They all too frequently point with accuracy to some form of discrimination because of race creed color or national origin Frequently, we find it next to impossible to formulate a satisfactory answer to our critics in other countries The gap between the things we stand for in principle and the facts of a particular situation May be too wide to be bridged an Atmosphere of suspicion and resentment in a country over the way a minority is being treated in the United States is a formidable obstacle To the development of mutual understanding and trust between the two countries We will have better we will have better international relations when these reasons for suspicion and resentment have been removed I think it is quite obvious that the existence of Discriminations against minority groups in the United States is a handicap in our relations with other countries Department of State therefore has good reason to hope that the continued and increased effectiveness Public and private efforts to do away with these discriminations So while the NAACP report and the NC report are buried I think they have an impact and then we come to the petition most centrally Involving Paul robes, and I should have mentioned that there are efforts to get in but individual petitions before the United Nations in 1949 Du Bois submits a petition on behalf of some sharecroppers Who have been sentenced to execution by an all-white segregation? Ku Klux Klan jury Herbert at Thacker writes eloquently about this so I won't go on about that but in 1951 we have we charge genocide and The central figures are the civil rights Congress, which is the organization that puts together the petition an Organization that existed for about 10 years 1946 to 1956 that really wanted to run against the mainstream of Black African-American leaders, which was to hitch our wagon to anti communism that is If we're going to be a part of this Cold War, then we've got to embarrass the US in light of the Soviets Making the Soviets the bad guys the civil rights Congress Thought that the anti-colonial struggle should be paramount and that we shouldn't be creating this divide Civil rights Congress was led by William Patterson Paul Robeson was a central figure and took the petition to the United Nations they were taking advantage of The creation of the genocide convention in 1948 by the United Nations once again nations of color Put the issue of genocide on the agenda. It was Panama India and Cuba Who put genocide on the agenda in 48 by? 1951 there were enough signatories for it to go into force the United States Signed it but did not ratify it until 1988 Robeson on the genocide petition This is from New World Review Genocide stocks the USA 1952 out of the lessons of the barbarities I'm not see Germany the voice of outraged mankind causes the General Assembly of the United Nations to adopt a convention on the Prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide The opening statement of this historic petition dispels the generally held misconception That the crime of genocide can be charged only when there is a mass extermination of a people as Defined in the United Nations convention genocide includes quote any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy in whole or in part a National ethnical racial or religious group as such a in part a killing members of the group be causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group see Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life Calculated to bring about its destruction in whole or in part It is not difficult to understand why this convention has never been ratified by the Senate of the United States This book he's talking about we charge genocide in fact reveals that a determined effort has been made by white supremacy to block US Signature from the openly terrorist Ku Klux Klan to the more suave spokesman of the American Bar Association There has been a brazenly open recognition of the Accurability of the convention to the treatment of the Negro people in the United States Once again the Civil Rights Convention Civil Rights Congress petition is buried in in the UN bureaucracy But I think the cumulative impact of these three Conventions is indeed to internationalize the struggle for human rights in the United States. Indeed. It was not Malcolm X Who does this in? 6465 but 20 years earlier. We have some very brave people putting this on the line It had some profound positive consequences and some negative consequences probably the most pronounced Positive consequence that's referred to as the Brown decision The Supreme Court was very concerned about International relations in rendering its Brown decision if you read somebody's some case studies like Richard Kluger simple justice That's spelled out. I'll probably the most pronounced negative Impact is what Robeson refers to and that is the United States Senate refuses to ratify any human rights conventions I mean if black Americans are gonna use these to embarrass us. Let's not ratify them so we have bricker ism and the threat of a bricker amendment which leads Eisenhower to Make a deal not to ratify any of these conventions or covenants I want to I want to close by emphasizing all of that activity in the African-American community led by people like Robeson and Patterson effective work from pressure on Those going to the UN Charter meetings right on up through the appeals to the Commission and contrast that with today and The real lack of any interest around international covenants even though we've reached the point where we're finally ratifying We've ratified the genocide convention. We've ratified the torture convention We've ratified convention against racial discrimination and we ratified the international covenant on civil and political rights Many of these speak very strongly to affirmative action to the death penalty to not any number of issues of concern to the African-American community But there seems to be no domestic interest in using these documents at all the Galilei report a report on race and Race discrimination in the United States done by the UN two or three years ago as received practically no Press attention or attention on the part of domestic civil rights groups And finally, there's an individual petition process each year at the UN Human Rights Commission meetings in Geneva the United States is hauled before well I shouldn't say hauled before because it never reaches the floor Usually 80 or 90 petitions Individual complaint or group complaint about human rights in the United States are presented Generally fall into three categories those around the rights of indigenous people those around the rights of political prisoners especially around Puerto Rican Black Panther prisoners and those around prison conditions Those petitions get virtually no attention from domestic press or from domestic civil rights groups So I'm going to turn it over to Ann Ginger who I know will tell you about some ways in which we might generate Some pressure on these issues. Thank you Thank you since this My friend Julia and trailer mentioned that this is the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and every month Something's happening and this is the February event in July. We invite you all to an event in Berkeley We're having a film festival in San Francisco and meetings in Berkeley with a double theme The Cold War is over, right? So we're going to give honorable discharges to all the victims and veterans of the Cold War in the Vietnam War Any of you entitled to an honorable discharge from those? Times you're welcome to come and participate and we're also going to give registration papers for the 21st century. So I Heard Paul ropes in four times and I went about it in the ordinary way the first two times in 1943 I think it was I bought a ticket in the ordinary way to go to see a fellow the effect, of course was not ordinary and Then later I bought a ticket in the ordinary way to listen in late the late 40s in Cleveland by then I knew that Robeson was a great actor and singer and athlete Debater lawyer and a great orator. I had learned about his wife as Linda Robeson a great anthropologist And I went to a concert Where he said in effect Or he said exactly my ancestors in Africa reckoned sound of major Importance, they were all great talkers great orators and where writing was unknown Folktales and an oral tradition kept the ears rather than the eyes sharpened. I am the same I always hear I seldom see I hear my way through the world. I always judge by sound and Then he said something that amazed me. He said that there was a relationship between East African chance and Hasidic chance Robeson begins I'm about to do one That comes from the great tradition Which is the tradition of the black preacher? My father was a preacher and when he felt very happy. He'd start what you call moving about From this has grown much of the art that we listen to in any phase of our daily black American lives Either of our preacher might have said Oh the Spirit say I want you to go down that easy and bring my servant home Oh the Spirit say I want you I want you to go down that easy and bring my servant home Go down go down preach my glory my mighty name. I want you to go down I want you to go down and bring my servant home. Oh the Spirit say I want you and it goes into a great chant From the singing speech of the black preacher, then it becomes a great chant and in searching for this and Following this back we went back in Africa and East Africa and found some of these same forms that were in the African religious festival One African Chad comes from between the 13th and 15th centuries of the chick Why was this so? Because the Abyssinian Church and the Church of the Sudan were a part of the Eastern churches of Byzantium So they too had a music quite comparable to the music of the Near East and to the music of the next one I shall do one Hasidic chant of Rabbi Levi Isaac of Bair Dechak Good day, dear Lord God Almighty I Levi Isaac, son of Sarah from Bair Dechak Here am I before thee with a graven earnest plea for this thy people But it's not done to this thy people Why it's not so oppressed this thy people Whoever suffers here against the sons of the oppressed Where ever sorrow here against the sons of the oppressed Where every tide there is fire against the sons of the oppressed And they say how many nations, the Romans, the Persians, the Babylonians The English what both they are ruler is above all rulers The Germans what both they are kingdom is above all kingdoms But I Levi Isaac, son of Sarah from Bair Dechak Vishgara Vishgara Shema But I Levi Isaac, son of Sarah from Bair Dechak I will not move from my place From this place I will not move And an end let there be to all this sowing and suffering Vishgara Vishgara Shema Paul Robeson two other times, but I didn't go in the ordinary way Like Jim Herndon in Cleveland, Ohio in the late 40s I went to a downtown Civic Center Hall, again it was raining And there was only one door open And you could see that the police were taking your name and all the license plate numbers as we walked in And later in Cleveland Paul Robeson did not sing downtown He sang at 55th Street in the Black neighborhood or in the Negro neighborhood as we would have said then And in order to get in all the progressive minded black and white people and trade unionists Took the whole square and saw to it that no enemies came including the police And then we all walked into this church and it was so full you weren't quite sure whether or not it would stand Those were the four experiences I had in hearing Paul Robeson directly I'd like to talk about Paul Robeson having suffered as he did three years of going through law school In the United States in the early period when there was no pretense about It's being anything other than a place to learn about how capitalist law is enforced I'd like to talk about Robeson's role as a lawyer in the tradition of Nelson Mandela Joe Slovo and Fidel Castro representing his people and all of the peoples Before the United States government and the world's government the UN His path is clear and so is the path of the UN General Assembly And you will see the path of the United States Charles Henry has gone over a good deal of this but I'd like to put it in a somewhat different context June 26th in 1945 in this city the United Nations Charter was passed With the human rights sections enclosed On October 25th 1945 the very first act of the UN General Assembly Was to condemn the threat or use of nuclear weapons An issue on which Robeson of course talked and thought In December of 46 as Charles Henry said Truman issued an executive order establishing the President's Committee on Civil Rights And today incidentally Professor Mary Frances Berry is the chair of that commission And she's also head of KPFA and a person who can be approached on any issue That you think should be raised by that commission Then Truman appointed his committee and they issued to secure these rights And in February 1948 in his address to Congress Truman did ask Congress to pass a series of laws That would have improved the civil rights condition in the United States Those laws were not passed Then in December 9th 1948 the day before the day we talk about December 10th December 9th the UN General Assembly adopted the Genocide Convention And it was the next day that you and adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights And then the new era came and as you know in June 1950 War so called broke out between North Korea and South Korea On June 28th Paul Robeson spoke in Madison Square Garden Before 18,000 people in a meeting called by the Civil Rights Congress To protest the US involvement in the Korean Peninsula One of the speakers was Congressman Vito Marc Antonio of New York In July Robeson then the same year 51 next year Appealed to the United States to the UN Ambassador to the UN To negotiate a five power peace treaty in Korea And to give China its rightful place in the United Nations Neither of these events took place And it was in the December of that year that Paul Robeson in New York And William L. Patterson in Paris gave to the United Nations The petition called We Charge Genocide As the goal was to get this document to the Economic and Social Council Of the United Nations and to the Human Rights Commission Patterson's passport was lifted while he was in Paris The United States government was so afraid of this act On December 14th I'm sorry on then on June 12th 1956 Paul Robeson was called before the House on American Activities Committee Which was investigating unauthorized use of passports And Robeson in answer to a question said I would say in Russia I felt for the first time like a full human being And no color prejudice like in Mississippi And no color prejudice like in Washington And it was the first time I felt like a human being Where I did not feel the pressure of color as I feel in this committee today Why do you not stay in Russia said the committee attorney Because my father was a slave and my people died to build this country And I am going to stay here and have a part of it just like you And no fascist minded people will drive me from it Is that clear? I am for peace with the Soviet Union And I am for peace with China And I am not for peace or friendship with the fascist Franco And a little toward the end of this testimony This interchange took place The chair said do you know Ben Davis? One of my dearest friends One of the finest Americans you can imagine Born of a fine family Who went to Amherst and was a great man At this time Benjamin Davis A leader of the Communist Party Was an elected member of the city council of New York City for many years The answer is yes And a very great friend And nothing could make me prouder than to know him The chairman that answers the question The attorney did I understand you to love his patriotism? I say that he is as patriotic and American as there can be And you gentlemen belong with the alien and sedition act And you are the non-patriots And you are the un-Americans And you ought to be ashamed of yourselves The chairman, just a minute The hearing is now adjourned I should think it would be I have endured all of this that I can Can I read my statement? No you cannot read it You are adjourned I think it should be and you should adjourn it forever That's what I say That was 1956 In December 14th 1960 The UN issued a declaration That means the General Assembly On the granting of independence to colored peoples November 1963 The General Assembly issued a declaration Of all forms of racial discrimination The General Assembly as you know It's not like the Security Council But it's as much a part of the UN And in the General Assembly each nation has an equal vote And the United States and other colonial powers Have been outvoted repeatedly So there were two then The Declaration of Human Rights And the Declaration on the granting of independence Of the colored people and the declaration On the elimination of all forms of racial discrimination In 1965 Paul Robeson came back to the United States Having lost his passport in the meantime And then gained it back and he said It's good to be back in 1965 The struggle for freedom now in the south And all over this land Is a struggle uniting many sections of the American people As evidenced in the Great March From Selma to Montgomery Thousands of black and white citizens Of this country marched for the freedom Of our people in the deep south And for a new kind of America Also uniting many sections of our people Is a struggle for peace This demand to avoid any chance of nuclear war Rather than to live in peace and friendship This was evidenced by the recent march To the United Nations And the students march on Washington Most important is the recognition That achieving these demands in no way lessens The democratic rights of white American citizens On the contrary, it will enormously strengthen The base of democracy for all Americans Then in 1966, the U.N. Issued the International Convention On the elimination of all forms of racial discrimination And as Charles said, it took three years Before it to become law With enough nations having ratified it President Johnson signed this document September 1966 for the United States And sent it to the Senate Where it sat for a very long time In April 1978, the U.N. Special Committee Against apartheid paid tribute to Paul Robson For his work in that effort In 1988, the U.S. ratified The Genocide Convention And then in a unique move About which we've done nothing The Congress passed a law Called the Genocide Convention Implementation Act Everything Charles read you is now a crime Under the U.S. government Anyone who commits direct public incitement To genocide is committing a crime There is no instance In which any U.S. attorney since 1988 Has used this law I'm sure they never heard of it Maybe some of us in this room Will do something about that In 1994, the Senate then ratified The convention on the elimination Of all forms of racial discrimination Which the President Johnson had signed And none of the media including KQED, KPFA Or the local press Ever mentioned the fact That that treaty was ratified Now I'd like to make clear When you call it a convention It is still a document It doesn't in this case mean a meeting And in 1944, as Charles Henry mentioned A person was appointed by the U.N. And this is done by consensus And it took years to get them to agree But the U.N. decided That the U.N. Special Rapporteur On contemporary forms of racism And anti-Semitism should be sent To study the United States And he made such a study And it's a bitter attack And urge a statement Urging the United States To take many steps forward So I believe friends Seldom, can you see as clear A path as this In the actions of an individual Paul Robeson And in the actions of an organization The United Nations General Assembly And slowly, unwillingly You do see forward steps Even by the United States President And Congress Now this convention On the elimination of all forms Of racial discrimination I want to explain it's a treaty That's what it is And it was ratified by the Senate Like any other treaty Like NAFTA or GATT Or any other treaty And it is part of the supreme law Of the United States And has been since 1994 And it defines racial discrimination Very clearly And very broadly Quote Any distinction, exclusion, restriction Or preference based on race, color, descent Or national or ethnic origin Which has the purpose or effect Of limiting the exercise On an equal footing Of human rights and fundamental freedoms In all fields of public life Now the U.S. government Made four commitments When it ratified this treaty Not everything, but they did four That they would publicize the text I mean that means publicize Broadly, top to bottom in this country All across the federal system That has not been done A previous human rights treaty They did a huge job of publicizing Namely they sent two copies To every state One to the governor One to the attorney general And you can imagine What happened in Sacramento As a result of that They agreed to publicize the text They agreed to prepare an accurate And complete report on racial discrimination In the United States every two years They agreed to submit the report To the U.N. committee on racial discrimination Which meets in Geneva And they agreed to go to Geneva And send government officials To meet with the U.N. committee To dialogue, to discuss Steps the United States government Should take to end discrimination Now to dispel your cynicism About these matters The people on the U.N. committees Are not ambassadors They do not represent governments They are honest minded scholars The United States would never Appoint Dr. Aptheker But other countries have Appointed people like Dr. Aptheker Lawyers, scholars to be on the committee And they vote and speak for themselves Not for their governments And when the U.S. person sits there And U.S. is coming up The U.S. person says nothing This is not nothing friends This reporting process actually works 32 out of 38 countries that have gone Through the reporting process more than once Have changed their actual laws Both Canada and Australia Have changed their laws In their treatment of indigenous peoples As a result of going through this process We all need to tell Clinton now That we expect him to immediately Order the State Department to complete The first U.S. report And submit it to the U.N. committee The first report was due November 20, 1995 The second U.S. report was due November 20, 1997 Neither report has been filed to date When I asked Congressman Delms To write Clinton a letter, which he did He got no answer We need to tell the media To publicize the text And their duty to let everyone know About this treaty Now there's a value for us in the Bay Area Because the first report can be only At the national level Thereafter they have to be at the local level The city and county of San Francisco Is eventually going to have to file a report With the U.S. to go to the U.N. On every aspect of denials of racial equality Every aspect of racial discrimination In the city and county And I should tell you in Berkeley I said on the Berkeley City Commission In peace and justice We made such a report to the U.S. government From our labor commission Our women's commission And our youth commission You could do it now You could get Sue Bierman And whoever else Amiano, I'm not a San Francisco person Willie Brown He knows how to read U.N. documents We could become a U.N. city And we could be the first in the country To write a report on the situation Of racial discrimination in this city and county Based on this covenant Michael John Institute Is working hard to make issue sheets And I have some with me I'll show you later To submit first to the U.S. State Department For them to include in their report And then if they don't include them We submit them directly to the U.N. committee And we know from our experience With a previous human rights treaty That they will use them They'll take your piece of paper And ask the U.S. government about this In the spirit, if not the voice of Paul Robeson I ask you to help us collect facts And reports on any example of racial discrimination That you know of Anywhere in the United States And if you find a good example Of doing the right thing We want that as well And we have issue sheets You're welcome to use We need your help in collecting these facts Because the U.S. report will not be accurate Nor will it be complete And it will not be poignant It will not make clear how people Actually feel at this time The U.S., just to be clear about the treaty The language of the U.N. is not the limited language Of the U.S. about civil and political rights It cuts deep This treaty specifically requires A country to take measures That means affirmative action Spelled out, requires to develop And protect any racial group To guarantee them the full And equal enjoyment of human rights And fundamental freedoms And it explicitly says that affirmative action Is not a violation of human rights As long as the group that is being helped Has been discriminated against And that's a commitment that the U.S. Government made to make a report on that subject To declare any act of violence A punishable offense, that is hate crimes To declare any incitement to racial discrimination And any provision of any government assistance To racist activities, a punishable offense To guarantee security and protection By the government against any violence Or bodily harm, that's police misconduct And then there are a series of things We don't think of as human rights Because in this country we don't have them But in the international field they are assumed To guarantee no racial or ethnic discrimination In enjoyment of the right to work Thank you The right to housing, the right to public health Medical care, social security and social services These in the U.N. system are considered rights That are to be fought for now And under this treaty the U.S. must report Whether or not he's doing these things To assure, I'm quoting, to assure the right To seek just and adequate reparation Or satisfaction for any damage suffered As a result of such discrimination So those people who are seeking reparations For the conditions under slavery Just cite Article 6 To adopt immediate and effective measures To combat prejudices and to promote Understanding tolerance and friendship Among nations and racial or ethnical groups Now please note the government did not agree To do all of these things They agreed to report on what they have done And failed to do and to ensure such each right And we know that when the world community Looks at the United States As we learn to look at South Africa South Africa changed And if all of us would decide To get over our cynicism about the U.N. Which is based on what the U.S. does In the Security Council And to look at the U.N. In which the Security Council is only one part The Economics and Social Council is very different The General Assembly is very different The International Court of Justice Has been different on many occasions And the Secretary General is not in our pocket So those of us who are cynical about the U.N. Are cynical about the Security Council These other aspects We have an opportunity to be active And I know I sound like a preacher But then again, Paul Robeson's father was a preacher And maybe it's appropriate on certain occasions So what we are saying is that It is effective to put things on a piece of paper To count the number of black churches That have been burned To count the number of synagogues That have been trashed To count the number of swastikas The only way we ever decided AIDS was important Was by counting the number of people who had it If we counted the number of people Who have racism, a disease Who are affected by it in this country It will have, I think, a powerful effect So we have the issue We have this, more or less What I've said here is here We have a copy of the Genocide Convention Implementation Act here You can get copies of these later In the other room And we have copies of the issue sheets So on this El Nino February day in 1998 As the U.S. threatens war in Iraq Let us all join hands in the spirit of Paul Robeson And as Lander Robeson And commit ourselves to do all in our power To keep the U.S. government from bombing Iraq To force the government to carry out its commitments To the peoples of the United States and the world To report violations of the rights of the African American people And all people of color in the United States And the U.S. territories And its actions all over the world And to take affirmative action to right these wrongs Thank you My name is Shashi I'm with the Paul Robeson Society I'd like to ask you Can Bill Clinton who signed the pledge Of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Can he be charged under the genocide convention If he decides to kill babies in Iraq? Genocide convention does not provide Let me start over again The difficulty of bringing charges against an individual At the moment like the president of a country Is very great And we've seen the difficulties at the moment Because we don't have an international criminal court Which is now being proposed But I'm not sure that that is the end of the matter at all I believe that the people of the United States Can stop Clinton even now from taking such action Apparently the Senate and the House are adjourned So he's got no support Frankly folks, I think if we all got together With Senator Boxer and Senator Feinstein And they started raising a little sand about this We would be somewhere And you should know the last Tuesday I convinced the Berkeley City Council To pass an ordinance, a resolution Opposing U.S. actions in Iraq And we are going to have a public This is a separate subject in Robeson So I didn't mention it But we're having a public meeting A week from today in Berkeley At the North Berkeley Senior Center at 330 Called by the City Council of the City of Berkeley To demand that Clinton not go to war with Iraq Because it violates all parts of U.S. law I think that condemnation of Clinton In the General Assembly is as effective As any kind of legalistic thing that could be done An individual cannot be brought before the world court And you have to have a special vote To set up a special committee Like the Nuremberg Trials Or the Trials now about Yugoslavia So I think a much more effective thing It's much easier than that Is each of you to call Boxer and Feinstein Who are Democrats in the same party as Clinton And saying you flatly disapprove Of this illegal action of going to war Without a vote of Congress Of going to war when we have not been attacked Of violating the whole U.N. Charter I don't want to get off too much on this But there are flyers on the back That list all of the legal grounds For this disapproval of the U.S. Proposed actions in Iraq And I hope that you all will contact Your council members in supervisors In San Francisco to get them to pass a resolution Tell your friends all across the country I think a great deal can be done You're welcome to come use the microphone right here Or you can come up here if you like Or if you want to stay in your seat If you just call out your question Then I'll repeat it here at the microphone So any other questions or comments? Okay, did you hear that? Any comments on Clinton's dialogue on race? I'm all for it Before we discuss it, the chairman Very well That's John Hope Franklin And he's a man of great principle Great honor He's therefore having some trouble On the commission But he's also a man of courage The more this question is discussed The more it is confronted The better I was at the meeting Held in San Jose yesterday I think it was, the day before John Hope was there and chaired it And it was a vigorous meeting With important information Significant complaints And I know that John Hope Not only listened But he has devoted his life To the struggle against racism Now what power he actually has Of course, I don't know But he was appointed by the president As the chairperson of this commission He's traveling around the country It's on its way to Denver And such discussions are good I'm not at all cynical about this There's no other way right now Except to support this effort And I have great confidence In John Hope Franklin and his committee Nothing but good can come out of it So I call it to your attention Go ahead I am cynical about reports On race and race relations Because we have so many of them And so you want to ask why one more So I was a bit suspicious going in But I'm a former student of John Hope Franklin's And like Professor Aptheker He's a man of great principle and integrity And a very difficult man to pull into something That would be purely symbolic So I have some hope that indeed something Positive and productive might come out Of the Franklin commission But I have to tell you what I call a joke I called up the commission the minute I discovered it existed And I found the right person to talk to And I said, of course you realize That the United States has ratified The convention on the elimination Of racial discrimination And that we have a report due to the UN And I'm sure your commission will work on this And do you know no one in that office Had ever heard of the convention On the elimination of racial discrimination So I faxed them a copy And I have not heard from them since So I believe it is essential That all of us get clear We have the U.S. Constitution We have the Bill of Rights We have the Fourteenth Amendment There is no wall between the U.S. And the responsibility under the Fourteenth Amendment And the UN Charter and the conventions You walk back and forth Once a treaty is adopted It's part of the supreme law of the land And if you folks in this audience Can comprehend what I've just said You're a lot better than most of the lawyers I know who either do international law Or constitutional law They can't weld them together Which Paul Robeson absolutely stood for And did Nelson Mandela And Joe Slovo And it seems to me that it is your duty To learn this so simple fact That we ratified a convention On the elimination of all forms of racial It's a treaty just like NAFTA and GATT Congress has learned that They can learn this And that this commission has a responsibility To include within its discussion The enforcement, the reporting requirements Under this treaty That's the question right here I think I can be heard Okay, go ahead I would like to hear You folks say something kind about our president Who had the guts to create this commission At a time when he's under fire By the right wingers and the media In our country Would you like to do that? Sure, many issues Clinton signed the convention On the elimination of the rights of the child And I commend him for it Clinton signed the He signed too He signed the He said that the congress That the senate should complete ratification Of the convention on the elimination Of all forms of discrimination against women He encouraged the ratification Of the nuclear nonproliferation treaty Every time Clinton does a good thing I support it Every time he doesn't do something I think he should do I can criticize it And I also criticize others I don't know how many of you have been to Washington It is another country They don't hear from us They talk to each other They talk to the media in Washington I'm hoping one year that all of us Go to Washington All of us in September When they're passing the budget And stay there all month And get the kind of budget we need If they hear from us including Clinton If he hears from us he will move He doesn't hear from us The left The liberals The progressives Have not learned to do political action In the recent period The way the right wing does They shut us up in the cold war And we have not gotten our act together Since that time to take firm, clear, loud positions And if we pushed Clinton In the direction we believe in I am convinced he would go in that direction Okay, the person in the front here And then in the back there Excuse me, can I hear Dr. Aptaker? I agree with what my colleague has just said I would like to add my thought There is, in my opinion, a serious right wing conspiracy Against the Clinton administration I am convinced that this has been carefully prepared It is very well financed It has unlimited funds Most of the press is corrupt Or corrupted Most of the means of communication Television, for instance, also Clinton is in a very difficult position And so is Mrs. Clinton I am myself persuaded that this is an orchestrated Very serious right wing Fascist, inclined effort To overturn the results of the recent presidential elections And to prepare the next election With an extreme right wing candidate in power I think this is a very serious matter I don't think I have illusions about the president But he is fundamentally, by opinion, and so is she What we call in this country a liberal democrat And this is infinitely preferable to the speaker of the house And to those who finance the extreme right And they have unlimited funds They have dangerous backgrounds in our country Religious hatreds, racial hatreds All sorts of possibilities Of moving towards an American version of fascism This is growing This is serious And we should react to it Now I want to recommend two pages In the current issue of the Nation magazine The one that reached my home today I don't know what the date is But it's the one that's just out And it has a two page presentation Of the facts, of the history Of a campaign against the Clinton administration Financed by tens of millions of dollars Which has begun for the past several years And is now at a high point Do examine the current Nation and those two pages Be aware that we are facing a most serious danger And that we must resist it And for heaven's sakes We must be back of the creation Of some left organization Some left voice Some left medium Some left propaganda outfit Something which will call this reality This very serious reality To as many people as we can I believe that this country faces a pro-fascist coup I say this with all responsibility I believe it faces a pro-fascist coup Financed by hundreds of millions of dollars And that's how serious this situation is Do examine the current Nation magazine Those two pages and act, act, act And talk to your friends and to your family To the people you know This is a very serious moment In the history of our country A person right down here and then back there Is deluding the concept of civil rights That was established by people like Rosen And by people in the progressive and left-wing Communist parties in the past When I think that those words dilute What I grew up was the issues of the working class And the oppressed minorities Which I think African-Americans still are And I wish that... Instead of giving the speech I'd like to hear your reactions to that concept That these are words of dilution rather than affirmation Did everyone hear what she said? Well, I'm willing to speak first to my good friend I don't agree with you The Article 2.1 of the International Covenant On Civil and Political Rights is explicit And I think beautiful And please listen to the words that they say There can be no distinction as two I know that's a bad sentence And I'm going to, in this hand I'm going to say the ones that are in the U.S. Constitution And in this hand, I'm going to say the ones That are just in the International Covenant On Civil and Political Rights And this is a document that the United States has ratified We're supposed to obey it Just like the racial discrimination And in making their list This is people all over the world And this is the list they made No distinction based on race, sex, color, language Race, sex, color, language, religion Political or other opinion National or social origin, property Both or other status And they have said other status includes disability Disabilities and includes sexual preference And in their list, you notice they specifically say No distinction based on property And all through the U.N. documents When they're talking human rights They say civil and political And economic, social and cultural And you cannot have one without the other Explicitly I believe that it is helpful to say the whole list I think it takes time I think it takes energy Just like now we have to say African-American, Hispanic, Latino Pacific Islanders You know, you can't just It isn't easy anymore Well, good I mean, we learn, we talk about the diaspora And any Jewish person knows There's a difference between the Jewish from the western Europe And from the eastern Europe And so on, so on, so It's not difficult If you just decide We're all sisters and brothers When I was in Cape Town last year And I discovered that the New South African Constitution Which is a thing of beauty And a joy forever And I hope you all read it They have 12 official languages Everyone is the brother Of everyone else And everybody feels that way So that I personally believe That it does not dilute What's wrong And I think it's basic And we've all sort of played around with it McCarthyism won That's why we don't have The kind of movement That Dr. Abdecker is talking about today They shut us up They fired us Some people committed suicide And some people got scared Some people moved to the country And shut their minds And they threw away their books Well, it's over The Cold War is over We need to get up with our banners We need to tell the senator We have two senators Two U.S. senators with two votes We have a lot of congressmembers They don't hear from us on these issues When I talked to Boxer She hadn't even heard of these treaties We need to get acquainted With all of the administrative aids To all of the congressmembers and senators And let them know every day What's going on I'll tell you one quick joke My brother lives in Fort Collins And he started a campaign one day With his senator And he made six phone calls And by the sixth phone call The person on the other end of the line said There seems to be a campaign Well, if he can do it One person at Fort Collins All of us I mean, we have really not committed ourselves To daily political action And I agree with everything that was just said About Clinton It is also true If he drops bombs on Iraq That is a violation of the constitution It is a violation of the U.N. Charter It is a violation of human rights And it will cause Will not accomplish one single affirmative thing Except ensuring a bigger budget For the military And U.S. service people Will die In addition to many Iraqis And people elsewhere So we have a double problem And the military is determined They're taking this moment In my opinion When Clinton is in difficulty on other things To push him to agree To an absolutely improper action Okay, the question here And unfortunately This will have to be the last question And we're going to go into the Charles West's Oh, I'm sorry I'm sorry Go ahead Thank you Thank you I appreciate your concern With the term I think it's like any term That enters public discourse It's a matter of who has control of the media Et cetera In terms of how you define it There's a lot of concern about hate speech And discussion on college campuses And laws passed And the first people brought in Charged with hate speech Were black students Who were calling white students Names rather than vice versa So I think once again It gets sort of back to our theme Of who's going to define the terms we use There's a very superficial definition Of multiculturalism That some call sort of Cafeteria culture Where we have, you know Once a week We have Latino food And we have African food So forth And we do that And we think that's multiculturalism And our students now are sensitive And knowledgeable about other cultures And there's a much more substantive Multiculturalism That I think Anne is talking about That indeed is a very positive concept I am concerned that Some of the terms that were important In the 60s like racial justice Have been excised From sort of the public sphere And discourse and side-track Into things like color blindness And once again Those are battles that have to be fought Simply by saying We're not going to use the term color blindness Or multiculturalism Doesn't really solve the problem Only activism does And relating to the question about Clinton Which, you know, I can't feel Totally negative about Clinton Since he's appointed me to a couple of commissions And so forth People don't get rewarded For support for human rights In Congress You know, if you've got a big contribution To make, you get access Or if you can deliver votes Well, no congressperson Boxer, Feinstein Don't know about these bills Because no one is defeated, right Based on a human rights issue What we define as a human rights issue So unless we get out there And put some pressure on it Clinton is penalized For supporting human rights But not rewarded in any way When we did the I was in the State Department When we did the preface to the first report On civil and political rights In the United States Which came out in 94 And we were immediately accused By the right wing of a wonderful term I've never heard before Mitch Dexter Who didn't read the whole report In the office We asked her if she wanted To read the whole report She said no She had already written her editorial For the national interest Or something like that But she accused John Shattuck In the State Department Of spiritual greed And I always thought that Was an interesting term Spiritual greed So I think that's You know, a new definition For idealism So we were accused Of being greedy To take human rights in places I suppose it wasn't supposed to go But we were immediately hammered For that report And there was very little Positive response So there's not much incentive To keep going and ratifying The treaties and doing the reports If people out there Aren't listening I'd like to say a word If I may Go ahead I agree with something That I think is in the mind Of the woman who spoke That this multicultural Language Tends to dilute militant Struggle I think it does And I think there is a deliberate Use of that coinage The fact is That the most significant And most awful oppression Is of the African-American population Historically, this is it That's its root And that is its basic Or its most important force today And this multicultural approach Dilutes that It tends to take the eye away from that We have to get our eyes back on that The basic thing in this country still Is the scandalous oppression Of the African-American population And it is this scandalous This atrocious policy Which seeks to criminalize The African-American population So that a significant portion Of the youth are in prison Or about to go to prison Or they're dead And the whole propaganda about this Is racist It's fundamentally racist I'd like to make a point About my experience You know, I went to Hanoi When you weren't supposed to go And when it was illegal And I went with Stuart Lind and Tom Hayden Tom Hayden now is a distinguished person So he doesn't want to remember that And he has nothing to do with that Take it, that's another matter But the three of us went I did it, I organized it We went against the law That's a long story But one of the points I want to make is That when I was there The comrades in Hanoi Took me to their revolutionary museum And one of the features of that museum was The effort of the French To criminalize their youth And to end In addition to that To fill them with dope With dope With narcotics I was very impressed with the similarity Of the effort made by the French To maintain their domination Through this propaganda You see Through criminalizing the youth And to neutralize them In terms of narcotics They had a whole wall Showing this, and it was very serious That this was one of the fundamental means By which the French sought for decades To maintain their power in this colony And I believe an analogous situation Exists today in the United States But there's a difference Between being against multiculturalism As you've both said And objecting to the UN treaties Making a list It isn't multicultural, it's specific So I think there's a difference Between attacking multiculturalism As you've both been discussing And supporting the specific lists Of non-discrimination in the UN treaties And using the word human rights To include all of them Which specifically includes economic rights And specifically race I think that there is a difference And I support the second, the list And I agree with what you've been saying About the phrase multiculturalism Or the youth Turn around so they can get you on television I differ with you, Ed There's something that's not quite right Trying to make all of these things equal There's something historically different You can't ignore it And you're ignoring that The only thing I wanted to say And I know time is of the essence I saw this program the other night on television About the suicide rate among Native American youth And I was almost of the opinion They are in a worse shape than we black folk are Now there's something different about that Than all of these Asians And other people who come in and say We're all being victimized by color That's not quite true It's not only... It's not only... That's true But I want to make the point that this business Dilutes, dilutes the central target And the central target historically And currently is the special oppression Of the African American population This is the heart of our history Well, and I urge you to use the section About reparations, which is in the UN document There's something I cannot forgive them for My friend, I want to say something To what you just said There's much truth, of course, in what you said But the point is, for example FDR, Franklin Donald Roosevelt Was a conservative governor of New York In his first administration He had a conservative cabinet Several of them were Republicans What produced the change? A mass movement A mass movement When we developed that When millions got into what became the CIO And the National Legal Congress And the legal movement and so on And the youth movement That took about two or three months Or four months And you began to see a change In the president's stance In his speeches And finally, after about six or seven months In his actions He dismissed, for instance, Woodin Secretary of the Treasury He threw him out of his cabinet This is very significant Of course the president has enormous power But it's not omnipotence The president is a politician He has executive power There is a legislature and so on It is our duty to mobilize forces To educate the president To force him to move I believe this is very important That we have a president Whom we can force This is not Ronald Reagan This is not Ronald Reagan And it is our duty To force him in the direction In which we want him to move And this can be accomplished It has been accomplished in the past And this moment is a very serious moment Because the right is highly organized Has the press, has television Has unlimited wealth And is miseducating the population Of the United States And anyone who is of the left Has a duty to resist this By all means to resist it To get your friends to write your letters To organize yourselves to begin To begin to think in your head Of how serious this is We are at a moment where People like the Speaker of the House Would welcome a fascist country Now that's a very serious thing And it's something new in our country And we who meet here And have the concerns that we have Have to act And the point of such action Is the intolerable special oppression Of the African American population Which is scandalous I must defer to the esteemed professor Here in the Julianne trailer We'll close the program Dr. Apfeker called our attention To an article in a magnificent article it is Which, well I want you to hear me As much as look at me I'm not interested in the camera In that article that Dr. Apfeker Called our attention to I want to call your attention to the New Yorker magazine February's edition Attorney and journalist, Tubin Who I think you probably know a great deal about It relates to he did a lot of reporting On the OJ trial And in his article he calls attention to The fact that Howard Smith, Judge Howard Smith Back in 1964 the civil rights bill came up I want you to read it for yourself And get the full flavor of it But in that article Judge Smith thought it would be appropriate As a matter of tactic and strategy To introduce the word sex into the civil rights bill Now you might also want to read Lewis Clayton Jones book Called enough is enough Who's another great attorney from Yale University In which he simply states That the termination of the civil rights movement The so-called black movement of the 60s Ended when they ratified Howard Smith's amendment to the Civil Rights Act Which was the addition of sex It was introduced as a joke And it was introduced as a tactic To in a sense dilute And I think the way that the lady mentioned In her conversation or question or statement Which she asked for comment from the panel Multiculturalism was talked about Tactics and strategies No one's opposed to multiculturalism But there are certain tactics and strategies That can be effective And there are certain mechanisms That are employed from time to time To simply dilute or in another way Of speaking evaporize And get you off the key subject The key subject at that point The time in history in 1964 Was about the black movement You have heard almost nothing since then Since 1964 Civil Rights Act No major piece of legislation Immediately the concern became A wide range of other interests Now if we are Can be in agreement That the crisis that this country faces Is the crisis that emanates from slavery That economically, politically and socially That economically certainly deprivation Is most manifested in the black community That socially the degradation is most manifested In the African community And that politically impotence is most manifested In the African community Then you got your tactic and you got your strategy If you sincerely want to resolve the question If you lift those who are further down You'll benefit I think we should give our panelists And the other participants here A great round of applause And they have all called us to educate And in just this forum that we've had Here this afternoon I'm sure we've all learned something And in the context of celebrating The centenary of Paul Robeson's birth And the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights We've met some of our initial goals In terms of public education And for that we have here In terms of organizing here Let me mention one of the events In May we're going to be discussing Economic, social and cultural human rights We're going to be discussing hunger Health, immigration, labor issues We're going to have a hearing Over at the federal building in Oakland On May the 2nd I want you all to write that down In your calendars We'll have people from the congressional delegation here Representatives of the trade unions Other labor unions Health officials Health providers Educators and what have you Coming to testify at that particular Hearing in Oakland on May the 2nd Where we will talk about adopting A fairness agenda As a political agenda An organizing tool There will be a hearing also In Washington D.C. In September on the same issues So we're talking about educating We're talking about publicizing These events We're talking about organizing And so I thank you all And I invite you all to participate In further activities in this Year-long celebration Or a year-long assessment Of human rights here in the Bay Area There's information here You're free to contact us At the Amnesty International office Here in San Francisco Ericko 415-2919233 If you want any additional information About human rights And the human rights year And this celebration And thank you all for coming