BY GREG ROSENBERG AND SAM MANUEL
WASHINGTON, D.C. - A march called by the Nation of Islam
will convene here October 16. The call for the event
proclaims it will be a "Million Man March - led by Minister
Louis Farrakhan."
In recent days, a host of capitalist politicians - liberal and conservative - along with leaders of national civil rights organizations, businessmen's groups and other middle-class associations have endorsed the October 16 march. Jesse Jackson, the Congressional Black Caucus, and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference have joined with mayors Edward Rendell of Philadelphia, Kurt Schmoke of Baltimore, and Marion Barry of Washington, D.C., in announcing their support for the action.
Tens of thousands are expected to participate in the event. Many students and working people planning to attend are drawn by the idea of a public action in opposition to racist discrimination.
Despite some vaguely anti-government rhetoric, however, not a single demand is placed on Washington in defense of affirmative action, against cop brutality, for a jobs program, or any other measures to protect the working class in general, or Black workers in particular, from the ravages of economic depression and the employers' offensive against the labor move ment.
Publicity for the march emphasizes the themes of reinforcing faith, family, and country in an effort to "uplift" Black men. Farrakhan's political and religious demagogy in promoting the action echoes many of the same reactionary themes often used by capitalist politicians to justify attacks on the working class - particularly immigrants, oppressed nationalities, and women.
`Crisis of the Black family'
In speeches across the country Farrakhan has pointed to
"fatherless" families as a central cause of deteriorating
conditions in Black communities. "If you want to test the
mettle of a nation you must test its men," he told a rally
in Houston, Texas. The call for the march, penned by
Farrakhan, states that "We are ready to take our place as
the head of our families and our communities and that we, as
Black men, are ready to shoulder the responsibility of being
the maintainers of our women and children."
In the August 30 issue of the Final Call, newspaper of the Nation of Islam, columnist Abdul Allah Muhammad exclaimed, "As the time for the Million Man March rapidly approaches, Black communities across America have come to fit the description of the Old West - `Where the men are men and the women are glad of it.' "
While many liberal supporters of the march embrace Farrakhan's emphasis on the father-headed family and "uplifting" the Black man, they have tried to sidestep the broad anti-woman overtones of the action.
In recent weeks organizers of the event have said that women are not encouraged but will not be prevented from participating in the event.
"As a Black woman, I'm proud to see the Black man stand up for us," said Linda Greene, the October 16 national fund- raising coordinator. "They are coming to the forefront for us. They are recommitting their lives to us as the provider of their families."
The march is called as part of a "Day of Atonement," after a Jewish holiday with the same name, in which Black men are called on to rededicate themselves to their communities. March organizers are asking supporters unable to travel to Washington to stay at home, pray, fast, and teach their children. The march has received the endorsement of many church organizations that have decried the "moral decline" of the Black community.
"It is our intention in the Nation of Islam and among concerned Black clergy, politicians, and other leaders to reduce crime and violence in our community by increasing the level of productivity, particularly in the Black male," states the call for the action.
March organizers call for expanded economic entrepreneurship and self-sufficiency among Blacks. "We will begin to see as never before the value of pooling our resources to buy farmland, to set up factories, to enter into international trade and commerce, to petition the government that they should not cede manufacturing to Third World countries but the Black community," states the call.
The document castigates the government for allowing goods imported from "China, Japan, Korea, and Italy," stressing that "we will take the responsibility for food, clothing, and shelter for our people, with a partnership with the government, a partnership for mutual progress. This army will be the true army of salvation of the Black nation and the army of salvation of America and the salvation army of the world."
Contract with America
Some march supporters present the "Million Man March" as
a viable response to the Republican-sponsored legislation of
social cuts known as the Contract with America.
Indeed, while the march initiators' central purpose was - and is - to build the Nation of Islam financially and politically, a raft of political groups and individuals who are moving to the right have found cause to associate themselves with the action.
At a September 7 meeting of the Hispanic/Latino Coalition in this city's Adams Morgan district, several political activists responded favorably to an appeal by Bob Brown to support the "populist movement" represented by the march. Brown is a leader of the All-African Peoples' Revolutionary Party and national logistics coordinator for the march.
Other march endorsers include Philadelphia managing director Joe Certaine; Rosa Parks; Washington D.C. delegate to the House of Representatives Eleanor Holmes Norton; C. DeLores Tucker of the National Political Caucus of Black Women; the Phi Beta Sigma fraternity; Dorothy Leavell, president of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, the trade association of Black-owned newspapers; the National Black Police Officers Association; and Blacks in Government.
Farrakhan and former NAACP executive director Benjamin Chavis, the central spokespeople for the march, are barnstorming the country to drum up support.
Among the most enthusiastic partisans of the action are supporters of the organization headed by fascist Lyndon LaRouche and its newspaper, the New Federalist.
Chavis granted a lengthy interview to the New Federalist that appeared in its August 31 edition in which he plugs the October 16 demonstration. Chavis credits former civil rights activist James Bevel, now associated with the LaRouche outfit, with coming up with the original idea for the "Day of Atonement." Chavis also praises the "strength" of LaRouche, and the New Federalist's "importance... to the struggle of Black Americans."
Repeated references by the interviewer, Dennis Speed, to a Jewish conspiracy to oust Chavis as head of the NAACP were unanswered in the printed version of the interview.
Independent politics?
Some liberals and radicals supporting the march present
it as the opening salvo in a new movement for independent
Black politics.
"I support the march," said Rep. Kweisi Mfume. "I feel strongly that it is one of many things we need to do to mobilize people of color in this country. I think it is going to galvanize people in a way that is unprecedented."
"We will present a Black agenda for the candidate of either party to address forthrightly," states the call for the march, "since both parties, Democrat and Republican, have never addressed the real needs of the Black people of America. I will therefore ask all Black men to register or re-register as independents, holding our vote to be given to whomsoever will address the Black agenda."
As a bargaining chip in this process, organizers are calling for a voter registration drive to accompany the march.