ABC

The annual Afrikan Black Coalition Conference held this past weekend at the University of California, Santa Cruz ignited dialogue of new age activism. On Sunday, the panel discussion entitled “New School/Old School Activism” had “old school” activists Dr. Angela Davis and Bobby Seale, and “new school” activists Philip Agnew, Marcel Jones, Ainye Long, and Tiffany Dean Loftin.

The discussion opened with the question, “What does liberation mean to you?” Dr. Angela Davis, an ex-political prisoner, former Black Panther Party member, and former leader of the communist party responded, “Liberation means collective freedom. One cannot only free themselves, but they must work to free their people and community as a whole.” Dr. Angela Davis worked at UCLA during the 60’s. However, due to her membership and work with the communist party she was fired. Several courtroom incidents and affiliation with the communist party sent Dr. Angela Davis to prison. Regardless of the struggles and obstacles she faced, she preached collective freedom and continued to be an activist for oppressed peoples.

Bobby Seale, co-founder of the Black Panther and ex-political prisoner, further elaborated on the idea of collective freedom and talked about his work with the Black Panther Party. He mentioned the Free Breakfast for Children Program started in January 1969 to serve free breakfast to poor and hungry children of the community. “J. Edgar Hoover, did not want to see this program implemented, as he said it was a threat to national security,” Seale said. The FBI attacked The Breakfast Program along with other Black Panther Party survival programs because they were said to be propaganda with a Communist agenda.

Marcel Jones, Afrikan Student Union Chair Person from UC Berkley shared the perspective of new activist and talked about what activism looks like today on university campuses. He shared that the Black students at Berkley recently came together and got their Afro House reinstated fall 2013. The Afro house is one of Berkley’s theme housing options under the Berkeley Student Cooperative.

A student from the audience asked about apathy in the Black community, Philip Agnew a former student activist at Florida A&M University and creator of the Dream Defender’s campaign—the campaign that brought national attention to the Trayvon Martin case—responded, “I personally do not believe that apathy exists. What we have to do is break obedience and dependence.”

He encouraged students to bend the rules a little in order to accomplish the goals they have set for themselves; stop being dependent on other leaders and people to take action. Individuals should take it upon themselves to be the leaders.

The panel reinforced the idea that students do have power. Bobby Seale and Dr. Angela Davis both mentioned that the youth are the ones behind major political movements. Students are the one with the power and students must put this power into action.

The Afrikan Black Coalition (ABC) is a coalition designed to unify Black students across the UC system in order to discuss and resolve issues concerning academic policy, campus climate, and matriculation from the University. By bringing together the Afrikan/Black Student Unions from UC and CSU colleges, ABC presents the opportunity for unity in spite of geographical boundaries. This year’s conference was held at UC Santa Cruz last Friday evening to Monday afternoon.

The campus was abundant of conscious Black students who were there to implement or learn how to implement changes in society. The theme of the conference focused on the idea of “Reimagining Black Activism” and generating a new age of activism led by the youth.

Keynote speakers Marc Lamont Hill (political activist), Bobby Seale (Co-founder of the Black Panther Party), Ambassador Shabazz (Malcolm X’s eldest daughter), and Angela Davis (former Black Panther Party member) provided insight on their experience in the Movement and shared words of wisdom to the listening Black audience.

Marc Lamont Hill speaks to students/ photo credit: JR

In his call to action, Marc Lamont Hill, a CNN analyst and political activist, touched vastly on the importance and understandings of the prison industrial complex and the private prison industry.

“We create an entire industry on the prison”, Hill said. For example, he continued, “A town with a population of 20,000, Six, seven, or eight thousand [locals] work in the prison, and you add the 8,000 prisoners who weren’t from that town [who were] sent to the middle of nowhere… those 10,000 people now make the town’s residency rate 30,000. They [prisoners] count as residents of the town even though they can’t vote. So now you got 30,000 people in the town, the town gets more money, [and] more political representation… the whole town exists because of the prison.”

He expressed the expansion of criminality as an economic incentive for the private prison industry. Through systematic inequalities and injustices, capitalism is reinforced through public incarceration and private funding. With statistics showing the majority of these prison populations as African-American males, there comes a time where we must question the system at hand.

In his address, he affirmed that we as a community cannot talk about educational justice without prison justice, and therefore we must challenge ourselves to step up and do the work. He left the audience with words of instruction and encouraged the Black community to “Ask different questions [and to] engage in the practice of deep listening to understand the perspectives of one another.”

New School/ Old School Activism

Marc Lamont Hill: “We Create an Entire Industry on the Prison”