BY MAURICE WILLIAMS
ATLANTA - Faced with the broadening assault on
affirmative action programs throughout the United States,
leaders of the NAACP made this social gain a major theme at
their 89th national convention. Nearly 5,000 delegates
assembled here July 11-16 to discuss this and other
political issues, including the struggle of Black farmers to
stay on the land, getting a piece of the pie in the
entertainment industry, and the Clinton administration's
Africa trade policy.
Pressured to respond to Initiative 200, a ballot measure in Washington state similar to the anti-affirmative action Proposition 209 that passed in California, Julian Bond, chairman of the NAACP National Board of Directors, declared at the July 12 public meeting, "We are donating $50,000 to the fight against rolling back the clock" on affirmative action. Proposition 209 was a 1996 ballot initiative that ended affirmative action in public education and other government programs.
Other capitalist political figures at the meeting who voiced their approval for affirmative action included former chairman of the U.S. joint chiefs of staff Gen. Colin Powell. Preparing for the presidential race in 2000, U.S. vice president Albert Gore cited a list of appointments of Blacks in the Clinton administration. Atlanta mayor William Campbell was the only prominent figure at the convention who said he supported quotas in affirmative action programs.
International Association of Machinists president R. Thomas Buffenbarger stated his support for affirmative action at a labor luncheon attended by more than 1,000 people.
The convention included a youth workshop on affirmative action and another one organized by union officials One of the panelists at the youth workshop, LaRoddric Theodule, had been rejected from attending the University of California Berkeley to study architecture as a result of Proposition 209.
"Black admissions are down 80 percent at Stanford Law School," said Hilary Shelton of the NAACP Washington Bureau.
Other workshops held at the six-day conference included education, economic empowerment, legal redress, life membership, marketing strategies for women, community development, and youth voter education.
On July 15 some 200 people including nearly 100 farmers rallied at the federal building before marching to the convention site. A busload of some 60 farmers came in from Virginia and North Carolina.
The morning session focused on the struggle of Black farmers. Speakers included Gary Grant, president of the Black Farmers and Agriculturists Association, Ralph Paige, executive director of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives, and John Boyd, president of the National Black Farmers Association. U.S. secretary of agriculture Dan Glickman also addressed the delegates.
Alvin Freeman, an oil refinery worker locked out by Crown Petroleum in Houston, Texas, who marched with the farmers said, "All of us workers have problems, but it helps when we join the fight."
Darryl Baker, a GM auto worker from Flint, Michigan, said he would have marched if he had known about the farmers' demonstration. "I came here to ask for support for our strike," he said. "I am getting signatures for a petition pledging support. We will use this with a statement to the local media."
The convention passed a resolution urging the United States Department of Agriculture "to put in place affirmative action loan programs" for Black farmers. Other resolutions adopted included support of the Crown workers and in defense of mushroom workers at Quincy Farms in Florida. While about a quarter of the delegates at the labor luncheon were from the UAW, there was no formal discussion on the strikes at General Motors.
Other features of the convention included a "Town Hall" meeting of more than 2,000 people. The lineup of bourgeois politicians there included Jesse Jackson; former Atlanta mayor Andrew Young; former New York mayor David Dinkins; and Susan Rice, assistant secretary for African Affairs, who pressed support for the so-called Africa Growth and Opportunity Act.
Many young people participated in convention who came looking for a way to fight against assaults on affirmative action in education. Two young activists at the voter education workshop were involved in building the Million Youth Movement scheduled for September 4-7 in Atlanta.