[Peace-discuss] [Peace] AWARE has been asked to consider supporting the 13 demands of the BSFR at UIUC

Sun Sep 18 18:03:18 UTC 2016

David—

You suggest that "AWARE has gained a reputation of being aloof from the community.” That’s true if and only if the community is taken to be represented by Democratic liberals from Tammy Duckworth thru Mark Wicklund to Carol Ammons. AWARE rejects their objective support for Bush-Obama-Clinton war-making (see e.g. <http://newsfromneptune.com/2015/07/14/memo-to-prairiegreens-local-democrat-legislators/ <http://newsfromneptune.com/2015/07/14/memo-to-prairiegreens-local-democrat-legislators/>>).

AWARE has claimed from its inception to represent the real interests of our neighbors in opposing the Bush-Obama government's ongoing wars and the racism they inspire. 

AWARE has criticized the disingenuous assertion of identity politics that the issue is a free-floating problem of race relations, unconnected to the economy and war - a view that serves to defend neoliberal economics and neocon war, which have characterized both administrations - and also probably the next.

The major historical parallel is adduced by the historian Barbara Fields:

"Probably a majority of American historians think of slavery in the
United States as primarily a system of race relations—as though the
chief business of slavery were the production of white supremacy
rather than the production of cotton, sugar, rice and tobacco. One
historian has gone so far as to call slavery ‘the ultimate segregator’.
He does not ask why Europeans seeking the ‘ultimate’ method of segregating
Africans would go to the trouble and expense of transporting
them across the ocean for that purpose, when they could have achieved
the same end so much more simply by leaving the Africans in Africa.
No one dreams of analysing the struggle of the English against the
Irish as a problem in race relations, even though the rationale that the
English developed for suppressing the ‘barbarous’ Irish later served
nearly word for word as a rationale for suppressing Africans and
indigenous American Indians. Nor does anyone dream of analysing
serfdom in Russia as primarily a problem of race relations, even
though the Russian nobility invented fictions of their innate, natural
superiority over the serfs as preposterous as any devised by American
racists."

The question is whether endorsement of these demands advances AWARE’s anti-war anti-racism program. It may, but I’m not convinced it does; it may serve as a distraction. —CGE

> On Sep 18, 2016, at 10:42 AM, David Johnson <davidjohnson1451 at comcast.net> wrote:
> 
> Gus Wood is one of the founding members.
> 
> They organized last Fall 2015 
> 
> They have repeatedly in their public speeches  ( the founding rally last Fall and the more recent May Day rally ) have specifically spoke out against capitalism, austerity, police militarization, and racism / white supremacy ( and made a specific clear distinction between white supremacy and being " anti-white " ).
> 
> Of the individuals I know in the group who are the main founders and organizers, they are all anti-war.
> 
> Do we want to split hairs here as to if they represent / advocate for ALL of AWARE's demands or do we find common ground with the fact that they share almost all of our values and goals. Anti-authoritarian, anti racist and anti capitalist.
> 
> After all, part of AWARE's name is " anti-racism ".
> 
> The concern about supporting liberal identity politics group is a legitimate concern, as those of you know me, know that I hate liberal identity politics, and I wouldn't be asking this of AWARE if I didn't think they were deserving of support.
> Also, for whatever reason, AWARE has gained a reputation of being aloof from the community. An endorsement of the black Students for Revolution ( primarily for the reasons I stated above ) would help greatly in countering that misconception.
> 
> Do what you want, but in my humble opinion, this would be a good move.
> 
> David Johnson
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Carl G. Estabrook [mailto:galliher at illinois.edu] 
> Sent: Saturday, September 17, 2016 8:56 AM
> To: David Johnson
> Cc: davegreen84 at yahoo.com; karenaram at hotmail.com; kmedina67 at gmail.com; Ron Szoke; stuartnlevy at gmail.com; salevy at illinois.edu
> Subject: Re: [Peace] AWARE has been asked to consider supporting the 13 demands of the BSFR at UIUC
> 
> Who are they and what's their history?
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone
> 
>> On Sep 17, 2016, at 8:35 AM, David Johnson <davidjohnson1451 at comcast.net> wrote:
>> 
>> Black Students for Revolution is NOT an Identity Politics organization !
>> 
>> I have been conversing and interacting with many of the students in this organization for some time now.
>> 
>> They are unabashed ANTI-CAPITALISTS !
>> 
>> They have stated this publicly on many occasions, in particular at the recent May Day rally on campus.
>> 
>> The following demands in the list also indicates that they are class 
>> based ;
>> 
>>>> 1. WE DEMAND that UIUC immediately and permanently halt tuition hikes.
>>>> 2. >> WE DEMAND that the racial and ECONOMIC demographics of UIUC students, faculty and staff reflect the racial and ECONOMIC demographics of Illinois by 2032.
>> 8. WE DEMAND a living wage for all University employees and subcontracted workers and that this rate be indexed for inflation.
>>>> 9. WE DEMAND all employees of UIUC have access to at least six months of paid parental leave following the birth or adoption of a child.
>>>> 10. WE DEMAND that UIUC cease and desist job outsourcing and hire directly from underrepresented populations in Urbana-Champaign and the surrounding communities.
>>>> 11. WE DEMAND that UIUC work towards bridging the gap between this campus and the surrounding Black community of Urbana-Champaign.
>>>> 12. WE DEMAND that UIUC implement fair-chance admissions and employment policies for those with past conviction records (Ban the Box).
>>>> 13. WE DEMAND that UIUC release an annual, easily-accessible, and comprehensive report of all its investments and move to divest from socially and politically negligent corporations.
>> 
>> They of course advocate for African American rights, which is understandable, but they do NOT just focus on that, like an identity politics organization would. As you see they have at it's core a class based economic agenda / demands.
>> 
>> They also as an organization have worked and supported the rights of the Palestinian people and the local U of I organization " Students for Justice in Palestine.
>> 
>> This is called " CLASS based intersectionality "  as opposed to JUST intersectionality with NO class base, which is merely a smogasboard of identity politics groups.
>> BIG difference !
>> 
>> For the reasons stated above, I think we SHOULD endorse the Black Students for Revolution.
>> 
>> I hate identity politics , in particular how it is used by neo-liberals to divide us, and I would not advocate for any organization that was not class based and anti-capitalist and anti war.
>> Remember, police militarization and brutality is the counterpart of the policy of endless war.
>> 
>> David Johnson
>> 
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Peace [mailto:peace-bounces at lists.chambana.net] On Behalf Of 
>> Carl G. Estabrook via Peace
>> Sent: Friday, September 16, 2016 10:35 PM
>> To: Peace-discuss List
>> Cc: Brussel, Morton K; Karen Medina; peace
>> Subject: Re: [Peace] AWARE has been asked to consider supporting the 
>> 13 demands of the BSFR at UIUC
>> 
>> I think we should try to have a serious discussion of this proposal, online and perhaps in several meetings.
>> 
>> The central question would seem to be, How does it comport with AWARE's antiwar remit?
>> 
>> But there are obviously other important questions, e.g., What do we know of ‘Black Students for Revolution’? 
>> A severe critic might suggest that a similar list could be circulated by ‘Some Students for Self-Promotion.’
>> I’m old enough to remember where the loudest voices for ‘militant action’ came from during the Vietnam war: they were provocateurs.
>> 
>> The list certainly raises (once again) questions of the nature and provenance of identity politics (the mainstay of the Clinton campaign).
>> See Adolph Reed's mordant description (expressed I admit in somewhat clotted prose):
>> 
>>   "[Identity] politics is not an alternative to class politics; it is a class politics, the politics of the left-wing of neoliberalism. It is the expression and active agency of a political order and moral economy in which capitalist market forces are treated as unassailable nature.
>>   "An integral element of that moral economy is displacement of the critique of the invidious outcomes produced by capitalist class power onto equally naturalized categories of ascriptive identity that sort us into groups supposedly defined by what we essentially are rather than what we do. As I have argued, following Walter Michaels and others, within that moral economy a society in which 1% of the population controlled 90% of the resources could be just, provided that roughly 12% of the 1% were black, 12% were Latino, 50% were women, and whatever the appropriate proportions were LGBT people.
>>   "It would be tough to imagine a normative ideal that expresses more unambiguously the social position of people who consider themselves candidates for inclusion in, or at least significant staff positions in service to, the ruling class” <http://bennorton.com/adolph-reed-identity-politics-is-neoliberalism/>.
>> 
>> It’s difficult to see how a serious critique of US war-making can arise from identity politics. (Not enough blacks and women among Special Forces killers?) It would seem that US war-making arises from domestic and foreign class conflicts; given that we’ve killed more than 20 million in 37 nations since WWII, we should be clear about causes.
>> <https://www.popularresistance.org/us-has-killed-more-than-20-million-in-37-nations-since-wwii/>.
>> 
>> AWARE has seen as its task for 15 years to encourage awareness of how and why the US government is the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.
>> And to do that we must tell the truth and shame the devil, as Hotspur says. 
>> 
>> I’m not convinced that endorsing these demands contributes to that 
>> effort. —CGE
>> 
>> 
>>>> On Sep 15, 2016, at 9:53 PM, Karen Medina via Peace <peace at lists.chambana.net> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> Dear Peace-Discuss,
>>>> 
>>>> At the next AWARE meeting*, I will present the 13 demands of the "Black Students for Revolution" at UIUC for consideration. BSFRUIUC has asked if AWARE will sign on to be a community supporter/endorser of the demands.
>>>> http://www.bsfruiuc.com/our-demands
>>>> *(I might miss this upcoming meeting, but the next week's meeting
>>>> then)
>>>> -- karen medina
>>>> -------------------------------
>>>> 1. WE DEMAND that UIUC immediately and permanently halt tuition hikes.
>>>> 2. 
>>>> WE DEMAND that the racial and economic demographics of UIUC students, faculty and staff reflect the racial and economic demographics of Illinois by 2032.
>>>> 3. 
>>>> WE DEMAND that all on-campus sexual predators, especially those affiliated with the Greek Life system, face severe penalties for all forms of sexual violence.
>>>> 4. WE DEMAND that UIUC makes a permanent commitment not to consolidate or combine the LGBT Resource Center and Women’s Resource Center in addition to the continued autonomy of all cultural centers and ethnic studies programs.
>>>> 5. WE DEMAND that UIUC collect and track gender and sexuality based demographics as an official population.
>>>> 6. WE DEMAND that queer and trans students be given priority for all university sponsored all-gendered housing options and that genderqueer and trans students be offered these spaces at a discounted rate corresponding with the less expensive standard housing option.
>>>> 7. WE DEMAND that UIUC hire a truly independent consultant to review 
>>>> the salaries of all University employees in order to detect and correct gender and race-based pay inequality 8. WE DEMAND a living wage for all University employees and subcontracted workers and that this rate be indexed for inflation.
>>>> 9. WE DEMAND all employees of UIUC have access to at least six months of paid parental leave following the birth or adoption of a child.
>>>> 10. WE DEMAND that UIUC cease and desist job outsourcing and hire directly from underrepresented populations in Urbana-Champaign and the surrounding communities.
>>>> 11. WE DEMAND that UIUC work towards bridging the gap between this campus and the surrounding Black community of Urbana-Champaign.
>>>> 12. WE DEMAND that UIUC implement fair-chance admissions and employment policies for those with past conviction records (Ban the Box).
>>>> 13. WE DEMAND that UIUC release an annual, easily-accessible, and comprehensive report of all its investments and move to divest from socially and politically negligent corporations.
>>>> 
>>>> List of Endorsing Local Organizations 
>>>>   • Black Students for Revolution
>>>> 
>>>>   • SJP - Students for Justice in Palestine
>>>> 
>>>>   • Planner’s Network
>>>> 
>>>>   • MEChA - Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan
>>>> 
>>>>   • AASSCC - African American Studies Scholars Cultural Committee
>>>> 
>>>>   • CUTES - Campus Union for Trans Equality and Support
>>>> 
>>>>   • UMMA - United Muslim & Minority Advocates
>>>> 
>>>>   • GEO - Graduate Employees Organization
>>>> 
>>>>   • MSU - Mixed Student Union
>>>> 
>>>>   • Women of Pride
>>>> 
>>>>   • BLM-CU (community) - Black Lives Matter - Champaign Urbana
>>>> 
>>>>   • SACC - Students for an Arab Cultural Center at Illinois
>>>> 
>>>>   • The Gharbzadegi Art Collective
>>>> 
>>>>   • Allies and Accomplices for Racial Justice
>>>> 
>>>>   • Men of Impact*
>>>> 
>>>>   • Students Against Sexual Assault
>>>> 
>>>>   • My Sister’s Keeper*
>>>> 
>>>>   • STEM Boycotts the War Machine
>>>> 
>>>>   • NAISO - Native American and Indigenous Student Organization
>>>> 
>>>>   • SECS - Students for Environmental ConcernS
>>>> 
>>>>   • WORD - Writers Organizing Realistic Dialect
>>>> 
>>>>   • ASA - Arab Student Association
>>>> 
>>>>   • UIUC Beyond Coal
>>>> 
>>>>   • Black Rose/Rosa Negra Central Illinois Chapter
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Peace mailing list
>>>> Peace at lists.chambana.net
>>>> https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace
>> 
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