-Caveat Lector-
This is a Press Release/Statement from the Black Radical Congress
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Black Radical Congress (BRC)
For Immediate Release
January 9, 2001
Contact: BRC National Co-Chair, Manning Marable;
[EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED];
212-854-1489 or 212-854-7010
RACISM AND THE FIGHT FOR DEMOCRACY
The biggest loser in the presidential election of
November, 2000 was the principle of democracy. The electoral
contest between the two major candidates of the capitalist
parties, George W. Bush and Al Gore, was essentially decided
not by the people, but by the Republican-controlled Florida
State Legislature and by five conservative justices on the
U.S. Supreme Court. In effect, Gore was elected by the
voters, while Bush was selected by the courts.
Evidence of massive voter fraud and the deliberate
disenfranchisement of Black voters continues to mount.
Hundreds of African-American voters were turned away at
various polling places, when sheriff's deputies checking
voter IDs falsely asserted that the race indicated on the
card did not match the race of the person trying to vote. In
predominantly Black Florida precincts, roadblocks were set
up only a few hundred yards from voting places, where police
demanded that African Americans get out of their automobiles
and show identification. Over 8,000 voters in Florida were
denied the right to cast ballots because they were erroneously
listed as ex-felons, who are not permitted to vote in that
state. In at least four minority schools in Miami that had
been used as polling places, ballot boxes full of votes were
left behind, and only discovered by school employees a day
after the election. Similar instances of Republican inspired
voter irregularities and "dirty tricks" once made infamous
by the Nixon administration have also been documented. In
Michigan, Virginia, and Florida, for example, thousands of
black households received telephone calls the weekend before
the election from people claiming to represent the NAACP,
urging them to vote for George W. Bush. Since the NAACP
is officially nonpartisan, such calls obviously were
orchestrated by the Bush campaign.
Despite such illegal tactics and widespread racial
disenfranchisement, African Americans turned out to vote
against the Republican agenda in record numbers. Black
voters supported Gore over Bush by 90 to 8 percent. Bush's
dismal performance with African-American voters was the
worst in recent history, with the sole exception of Barry
Goldwater's puny 6 percent of the Black vote back in 1964.
And African-American voters in Texas, the Black folk who
knew Bush better than anybody else, gave their governor
only 5 percent of their votes.
In many states, African Americans were the
core constituency that led successful struggles to defeat
conservative Republicans. Whites nationwide favored Bush
over Gore by 53 to 42 percent, and generally voted for
Republicans in senatorial and gubernatorial races.
But in race after race, Blacks represented
the critical margin of victory. In Maryland, for example,
white voters favored Bush over Gore by 51 to 45 percent. But
Black voters endorsed Gore by 90 percent, and their overall
turnout surged to 22 percent of Maryland's total vote. With
this crucial Black support, Gore won easily by 17 percent.
The identical pattern occurred in Michigan, where whites
supported Bush 51 to 46 percent, but African Americans
endorsed Gore by 90 percent, thus giving the state to the
Democrats. In Florida alone, African-American turnout
increased from 527,000 in 1996 to 952,000 in 2000.
From the vantage point of Black radicalism, this
remarkable political response by the African-American
community in the 2000 elections did not represent an
endorsement of the political agenda of "New Democrats" like
Al Gore and Joe Lieberman. It was not a sign of approval for
the devastating policies of the Clinton administration, such
as the 1996 Welfare Act. It was the unambiguous and clearly
recognized act of self-interest and self-preservation. It
was the defeat of the politics we oppose the most, rather
than the triumph of the politics which we truly want. Black
people understood that the parade of black and brown faces
at the Republican convention last summer was a farce, the
"illusion of inclusion." Most knew that Bush opposes
affirmative action, and presides over a state that has a
minimum wage of only $3.15 an hour. They knew that he had
picked a running mate who had voted against releasing Nelson
Mandela from prison, and who had opposed sanctions against
apartheid. The Republican ticket was the symbolic party of
white supremacy, and that's why millions of our people
waited patiently on long lines, from St. Louis to Harlem,
from Jacksonville to Oakland, to vote our own interests.
In an honest election, the Right would have been
easily defeated. But because we do not live in a genuine
democracy, the minority reflecting the interests and
"lifestyles of the rich and shameless" used the courts
to steal the election. Nationwide, 4.2 million American
citizens, including 1.8 million African Americans, have been
disenfranchised for life due to prior felony convictions.
Institutional barriers and electoral restrictions make it
difficult for millions of other citizens to vote. Several
million ballots are routinely discarded, not counted or even
destroyed in presidential contests, and the media and major
capitalist parties do virtually nothing about it. Our winner-
take-all election system makes it virtually impossible for
third parties that reflect the real interests of African
Americans, Latinos, working class and poor people to have
any meaningful impact on national and Congressional races.
For these reasons, the Black Radical Congress
believes that the Black Freedom Movement and our progressive
allies must ground our political struggle against the
illegitimate Bush regime around the fight for democracy.
This is the fundamental political division that confronts
the American people. The Far Right and the corporations
hate and fear real democracy. This is why there remain
so many institutional barriers to ballot access, and the
undemocratic disenfranchisement of millions of poor and
minority voters.
The Black Radical Congress endorses and supports
efforts by organizations such as the Independent Progressive
Politics Network to promote a "Voters' Bill of Rights," and
a national campaign for democracy. Our first demand in such
a campaign must be the strong enforcement of the Voting
Rights Act. Section Two of that Act makes it illegal for any
state or local government to use election procedures that in
effect disenfranchise racial or ethnic minority voters. The
provisions of the Voting Rights Act that require federal
observers and complaints examiners to investigate widespread
cases of racist voter fraud should be immediately instituted
in Florida and other states. Local elections officials who
have been found to intimidate and exclude Black voters must
be vigorously prosecuted.
The Black Radical Congress calls for a ban on all
"soft money" contributions in elections, the billions of
dollars that routinely control the outcomes in most races.
We support the extension of full voting rights to every
citizen-to every prisoner currently incarcerated, and to
all ex-felons. We believe that voting should be made much
easier. Moving elections to weekends or making them national
holidays would encourage greater voter participation. State
laws should be liberalized to permit smaller Third Parties
to gain ballot access. We also need to move away from the
anti-democratic winner-take-all system toward the goal of
proportional representation voting. The only way that
minority groups will gain their fair share of seats in a
city council, state legislature or in Congress is through
some form of proportional voting.
The Black Radical Congress believes that the most
blatant and indefensible violation of democracy in the U.S.
today is represented by Washington, D.C. The District of
Columbia has more voters than several states, but has no
voting representation in Congress. We say D.C. must have
complete home rule and statehood!
The Black Radical Congress joins with
other progressive organizations, including all racial,
ethnic, gender and class groups, who are committed to the
struggle for democracy. The time for action is now. We must
demonstrate in Washington, D.C. on January 20th, to tell the
world that Black America will not tolerate the dismantling
of our hard-fought democratic rights. The BRC declares that
the Bush regime is illegal, fraudulent, and based on the
rampant racist exclusion of millions of Black voters. We are
committed to building a broad-based pro-democracy movement
that has the capacity to achieve real democracy in the U.S.
Black Radical Congress
National Office
Columbia University Station
P.O. Box 250791
New York, NY 10025-1509
Phone: (212) 969-0348
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Web: http://www.blackradicalcongress.org
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