BY AL DUNCAN
NEW YORK - The city administration here is carrying out an
attack on democratic rights. Mayor Rudolph Giuliani has denied
a permit to organizers of the Million Youth March to assemble
September 5 at their planned site - Malcolm X Boulevard in
Harlem, from 118th to 147th streets.
March organizers have announced they will proceed with their plans and will seek a federal court ruling overturning Giuliani's order. An August 17 press conference held inside Rev. Alfred Sharpton's National Action Network Harlem headquarters. Sharpton, who ran for mayor in the Democratic primary last year, was flanked by State Sen. David Paterson, a Harlem Democrat; Police Sgt. Eric Adams, who heads the 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement; and attorneys for the organizing group.
"We're going to court because the city has forced us to go to court," said Roger Wareham, a lawyer for the coordinators , at the news conference. "The real issue is very simply a constitutional issue: Does the First Amendment apply to Harlem and to African-American and Latino youth?"
Malik Shabazz, another lawyer for the youth march, said, "It has never been the intent of the organizers to have anything other than a peaceful march, that it would stand on the same foundation as the Million Man March and the Million Woman March." Those events - which attracted hundreds of thousands, reflecting anger among working people who are Black over falling living standards, racist discrimination, and attacks on affirmative action -took place in Washington, D.C., in 1995 and in Philadelphia last year respectively. Shabazz declined to say how many people are expected for the New York action.
While Sharpton demanded Giuliani grant a permit for the Harlem site, Paterson called for talks between city officials and march organizers "to sound the alarm in advance... that there is a risk of confrontation." Paterson said he doesn't think the march should take place without a permit. Many other politicians who are Black have taken their distance from the organizers' resolve to hold the march in Harlem, while a number have called on its leaders to call it off or to agree to Giuliani's proposals to hold it at Randalls Island or at Van Cortland Park in the Bronx and to consider another date, September 19.
"I am writing him a letter to ask him to call it off," said Charles Rangel, a Democratic congressman from Harlem, on August 12, referring to national convener of the march Khalid Abdul Muhammad. "I think it's a very bad idea that someone like him would be taking advantage of the frustrations of our teenagers to have a march without any agenda and without any goals. It's clear to me that Khalid Muhammad wants to have a confrontation." Dennis Walcott of the New York Urban League and other groups representing the interests of middle-class Blacks have a similar stance.
Muhammad is the founder of the New Black Muslim Movement and the New Black Panther Party. He is a former aide to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, the main sponsor of the Million Man March. Muhammad was dismissed as a spokesman for the organization in 1994 after a speech the previous year during which he called Jews "bloodsuckers."
In addition to Sharpton, the march has the endorsement of Malikah Shabazz, the youngest daughter of Malcolm X; and the December 12 Movement, one of the leaders of which, Erica Ford, chairs the host organizing committee. Louis Farrakhan has supported the action, but has reportedly not endorsed it, according to the August 20-26 Amsterdam News. Various rap musicians and other artists have offered their support.
Demands put forth by the organizers include supporting "our God and the Ancestors," releasing all political prisoners, drawing students and youth to dedicate themselves to community service and nation building, more Black business and economic development, full and complete reparations for the descendants of slaves, jobs for Black youth, Black studies and African- centered learning, an end to gang conflict and violence, security units to patrol and control Black communities, and opposition to racist policies and police brutality.
A similar event taking place in Atlanta over Labor Day weekend has much broader support among Black politicians and civil rights organizations. Endorsers of the Million Youth Movement activities there include the NAACP, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Nation of Islam, National Council of Negro Women, and Democratic Party politician Jesse Jackson. The National Black Police Association is also an endorser. Under the theme "Preparing Youth for the New Millennium," the activities include a town hall meeting on September 4, forums and a Hip Hop Poetry Party next day, a gospel concert, and a mass rally on Auburn Ave. September 7.
Debate has raged in the media in New York over the Million Man March. In order to justify his permit denial, Giuliani has called the action a "hate march" because of "race-baiting and anti-Semitic" comments by its organizers. Other bourgeois politicians have taken their distance from banning the march in Harlem. Former New York mayor Edward Koch has condemned Khalid Muhammad as a "racist, anti-Semite, Catholic basher, and gay basher." At the same time, Koch has stated the city has no right to block the march.
The action by Giuliani, which he justifies on the grounds that police cannot guarantee public safety for a large march at the proposed site, follows other attacks by his administration on civil liberties and democratic rights this year. These included the use of massive numbers of police to prevent a protest by taxi drivers and launching a cop attack on a 40,000- strong rally of construction workers. The August 18 New York Newsday predicted that federal courts are likely to rule against Giuliani's permit denial. "In May, a federal judge said the city violated the First Amendment rights of taxi drivers by refusing to permit more than 20 of them to assemble for a demonstration," the paper reported.
"We call on the labor movement and all defenders of democratic rights to join us in demanding that the New York city administration immediately grant the Million Youth March organizers a permit to peacefully assemble, rally, and march in Harlem September 5," said Socialist Workers candidate for U.S. Senate Rose Ana Berbeo in a statement August 18. "Anti-Semitic statements by Khalid Muhammad, which divide working people, are not the issue. At a time when defensive actions by the working class are on the rise and racist discrimination and police repression are reproduced daily by the dog-eat-dog capitalist system, the need to defend democratic rights is paramount."
At a meeting of 200 at Harlem's National Black Theater August 18, march organizers called for a vigil beginning August 28 and culminating September 5 at the State Office Building in Harlem to press their demand for a permit from the city.
Al Duncan is a member of the United Transportation Union and the Socialist Workers candidate for Governor of New York.