As Dr. Nkrumah wrote the unity of African people will give us an irresistible power and leverage.
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1.
Farrakhan-Jackson hold historic radio conversation
By Askia Muhammad
White House Correspondent
Updated Nov 18, 2004, 12:42 pm
FCN Media Audio Webcast
Reverend Jesse Jackson, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and WVON radio host Cliff Kelley, discussed the "State of Black America" during a live broadcast in Chicago, IL., Nov 5.
Two leaders, one station, two brilliant mindsâitâs Nation time!
CHICAGO (FinalCall.com) - The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and Reverend Jesse Jackson, the two pre-eminent leaders among Black people in America, met publicly for a rare political summit Nov. 5, just three days after Election Day 2004, at WVON-AM radio, the âcapitalâ of Black intellectual dissemination.
The conversation, according to convener and talk show host Cliff Kelley, amounted to the African American âState of the Union.â
âOn this day, we are more than just a radio station. We are the voice of a nation of peopleâThe Talking Drum,â Melody Spann-Cooper, president and CEO of Black-owned WVON radio, told listeners. âWe are telling our story today, for tomorrow, with the most influential leaders of our modern times.â
The broadcast was carried live on more than 50 radio stations and it was re-broadcast that evening on âThe Bev Smith Showâ on the American Urban Radio Network (AURN). âToday is a moment in African American history. Two leaders. One station. Two brilliant minds. Itâs Nation time,â said Ms. Cooper, as she introduced WVONâs âMorning Miracle,â Cliff Kelley.
The principals were certainly up to the task, continuing for the first time in public the series of private conversations they have been having with one another over the years.
âIn spite of what happened this past Tuesday (Election Day), we believe that everything is in divine order. That Bush re-election is not really bad for us, but if we look deeper it is good for us,â Minister Farrakhan explained in his opening.
The Muslim leader referred to the Biblical text about âthe dry bones in the valley.â The bones just wouldnât come together after they heard the word, he explained. âBut when the winds began to blow on the bones, the bones stood up in that valley, an exceedingly great army.
âThe winds of poverty, and want, and joblessness, and hunger, and nakedness, and war and revolution, those are winds, and President Bush is an instrument blowing a lot of these winds,â said Min. Farrakhan. âAnd so I feel that his election, though hurting some of us, will be a wind that says to all of us that we cannot depend on a benevolent Caucasian in the White House to solve our problems. But the Rev. Jackson and I, and Black leadership, and all of us need to come together, because our unity will solve 95 percent of our problems and give us power to leverage that unity to solve the problems of our people all around the world.â
Rev. Jackson picked up on the election outcome. âWhile 90 percent of African Americans voted for Kerry over Bush, and Bush won this time, we need not be in perpetual despair, in the sense that there were some victories this past Tuesday.â
There were three million more Black voters this year than in the 2000 election, he noted. That was 11.5 percent of the entire national vote, near parity with the total Black population of 12 percent.
âThere are now three more members of the Congressional Black Caucus: Gwen Moore from Milwaukee; Al Green from Houston, Texas; Rev. Emmanuel Cleaver from Kansas City,â he pointed out. âSo we now have a total of 43 members of the Congressional Black Caucus. In 1965, we marched for the right to vote in Selma, Ala., we had three Blacks in Congress: Mr. Nix from Philadelphia, Mr. Dawson from Chicago, and Adam Powell from New York. Now, we have 43,â and a Black member in the U.S. SenateâBarack Obama, who won the election in Illinois by a 50 percentage point margin.
âWe need not hold our heads down as if we are powerless, and as if we made a mistake. We did the right thing. We did it in grand style and our presence will not be denied,â Rev. Jackson continued.
The historic program came about after a member of the WVON management was approached by a senior citizen at a live broadcast from a Black-owned McDonaldâs restaurant earlier this year. Both the Honorable Elijah Muhammad (as well as Min. Malcolm X) and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.âthe mentors of the two guestsâhad both appeared on WVON in the past, Mr. Kelley a former Chicago alderman, explained. The meeting, he said, was not an interview, but âa conversation.â
An immoral war, an ugly picture
âYou would think that he was talking as though he won 70 percent of the vote,â Mr. Kelley complained about Pres. George Bushâs post-election promises about his second administration. âBut the most important thing that he is prosecuting now is what many of usâmyself includedâfeel is an illegal and immoral war in Iraq.
âSome feel that this is an electionânot re-election. I never said that because he was never elected the first time. He was selectedâbut now that he has been elected, he is going to âstay the course,â as he said, relative to the war. I think that the war in Iraq, and terrorism are two separate issues. How does the war impact on the country in general, and again (on)African Americans, particularly? And do you tie this in, as he continuously tries to do, with the war on terrorism?â
âThere is a lot in this picture that is ugly,â said Min. Farrakhan. âIt is the wrong war, and it is the wrong time and the wrong place, and this war, it seems to me, will not go away.
âAmerica is involved and even if John Kerry had won the White House, he could not cut and run. So this is becoming another Vietnam, raping the American treasury of billions of dollars and killing our youth for nothing. So it has impacted greatly on America, but on our youth in particular, because weâre supposed to be all we can never be in American society. So we join the armed forces, but not to die in Iraq over foolishness, but to protect the United States of America in reality.â
âWell Cliff, to be sure, the war is immoral and did not make us more secure,â Rev. Jackson began.
âThatâs right. We are less secure,â Mr. Kelley interjected.
âAs a matter of fact, we have galvanized global opinion against our country, putting us in further isolation. And as opposed to containing a threat of terror, we are spreading it.
âThe tragedy for me, Cliff, is that weâre losing so many lives,â Rev. Jackson continued. But the deaths are occurring only among the poor, he said. They are âtrapped in a back-door draft, looking at a front-door draft, because there are not enough troops. We are paying a billion dollars per week. Weâve got first class jails, second class schools. We are engaged in the wrong war,â he said.
âWe know now that this man (Pres. Bush) lied to us,â Mr. Kelley continued. âI was blaming the intelligence community. We found out now that intelligence knew there were no weapons of mass destruction. But Cheney, Wolfowitz, Perle, et al, just changed what the intelligence community gave them.
âAnd we canât leave out (Sec. of State Colin) Powell. He sat there and lied about the aluminum tubes. He lied about the yellow-cake from Niger. They just lied. We canât afford just to back up and say weâre going to go along with him.
âBased on the things heâs done and the people who are dying as a result of these lies, going after Saddam Hussein, as somebody mentioned, would have been like (Pres. Franklin D.) Roosevelt after Pearl Harbor attacking Sweden. There is no connection there. People need to know that. Somebody even suggested the way to do it is to file articles of impeachment against this man whoâs in the White House,â Mr. Kelley insisted.
Hegemony on oil, attacks on Islam
âPresident Nixon, after he was out of office, said that the Third World War has begun and weâre losing it. Our enemy is not Communism, but the real enemy of democracy is fundamentalist Islam,â Min. Farrakhan explained in response to Mr. Kelleyâs question concerning the appearance that Mr. Bushâs âwar on terrorismâ is, in fact, an attack on Islam.
âWhat is fundamentalist Islam? It is, in reality, man seeking obedience to God as the way to rule and guide his life. Out of obedience comes a political system based on that. Muslims are challenging their leaders whom they feel have deviated from the principles of Islam. What this is producing is a threat to Western hegemony over the world.
âSo, when America says, âWe donât want fundamentalist Islam, we want a moderated Islam that we can control.â But real Islam and real Muslims will never bow to the control of Western democracy, cause that is alien to the teachings of God that are found in the Bible, and really in the Qurâan, itself. So we see it as an attack against Islam.â
âSo, it is an attack against Islam, and only moderate Islam, only an Islam they feel they can control is acceptable to this government.â
âCliff, can I just say that the attack on Iraq has a lot to do, I think, more with oil than religion and hegemony of the region,â Rev. Jackson said for his part. âThose people who live at home, who pray and go about their way, they were not headed this way. They had something we wanted. It was not the religion, it was hegemony on the oil.
âMy bottom line is that I remain convinced it was more about oil than hegemony, and (former Iraqi President) Saddam (Hussein) was not the threat to us that we were told he was. Meantime, weâve got Saddam in jail, more Americans have died since heâs been in jail. Bin Laden is still on the loose in the hills, where now there is a flourishing poppy seed production, making more heroin production,â he continued.
The solution is unity
There is one possible upside, Min. Farrakhan pointed out. âFor the first time, as I can recall, the American people are looking at foreign policy. So when Pres. Bush said, âThey hate us because we have freedom.â The lie isâof course, Malcolm said it bestâthe chickens are now coming home to roost.
âThe destruction of those towers was a reaction, not an action. It was a reaction to treachery and wicked foreign policy of the government of the United States. And once the American people understand what the government has done, and is doing in their name, they will rise up and there will be revolution.â
The solution, the two religious-political giants agreed, is unity and a re-definition of morality in this country. âJesus said, âBeware of wolves in sheepâs clothing who are deceptive,â Rev. Jackson explained.
âIt was unfortunate that they chose to define morality so narrowly, as opposed to defining morality as how we treat the least of these. âI was hungry and you fed me, or not. I was naked and you clothed me, or not.â We must now again seize the argument, defining whatâs moral. In the 1950s and 1960s, we defined morality as being anti-segregation. Dr. King had the Bible in one hand, the flag in the other.
âWe defined moral as being anti-segregation. They defined moral as segregation. We said slavery is immoral, the folks who did it were sinners. We had the moral and patriotic weapons in our hands. For some, when they dropped that Bible and dropped that flag, they made a huge mistake. Those were the two strongest weapons in this culture,â when Blacks put those tools down, the Rev. Jackson said, the right wing picked them up.
âIgnorance is our enemy,â Min. Farrakhan explained. And while White Supremacy has retained the upper hand, Blacks must work to âestablish the value system of Christ and Muhammad and the prophets,â said the Muslim leader. The potential promise of Black unity, he said, amounts to âweapons of mass construction, weapons of mass deliverance.â
 Copyright 2004 FCN Publishing, FinalCall.com
2.
Jackson, Farrakhan pitch unity
November 6, 2004
BY STEPHANIE ZIMMERMANN Staff Reporter
The Rev. Jesse Jackson and Minister Louis Farrakhan -- two African-American leaders with vastly different approaches -- Friday took to the airwaves together to call for a new unity in the black community.With Republican wins in the presidential and congressional elections, there is no time to squabble over philosophical approaches, both men said. Afterward, Jackson called it "a delightful conversation" and said he looked forward to continuing the dialogue.Their appearance on Cliff Kelley's morning show on WVON-AM was simulcast nationally on several radio stations. For two hours, Jackson, who considers the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to be his mentor, and Farrakhan, the Nation of Islam leader who comes from the separatist tradition of Elijah Muhammad, discussed the fallout from President Bush's election, the economy, health care and a host of other issues.
Bright spots pointed out
"They're on the same goal. They just sort of have a different means of getting there," said Kelley, who served in the City Council during Mayor Harold Washington's tenure. "They both are recognizing they can accept each other's philosophy for the sake of unity."At a press conference after the show, Jackson pointed to what he sees as bright spots in the election: the higher numbers of African Americans who voted, Barack Obama's election to the U.S. Senate and a handful of black wins in House elections around the country.But he said Democrats must not allow the GOP to grab the "values" mantle with issues like gay marriage that siphon votes from minority and poor white voters. Issues of equal treatment, helping the poor and providing jobs and health care also can be considered "moral" imperatives, Jackson said."What's not going away is there's a war in Iraq that's not morally founded, that's just costing lives and money and our national honor," Jackson said.But even when black Americans succeed in electing their own to public office, they need to give them the support they need to make an impact, Farrakhan said. "They must be backed by a strong, united community. That's why this [radio show] is important. Our unity is our passport," he said.
Kerry campaign faulted
As for the close vote in Ohio, Jackson and Farrakhan both said they wished Sen. John Kerry had not conceded so quickly. Jackson said the Electoral College system is outmoded and infringes on people's right to one person, one vote. But Jackson also faults the Kerry campaign for focusing on 17 states where they thought they could get electoral votes and ignoring vast swaths of poor and working-class people in the rest of the country.
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