The United States Social Forum (USSF) held on 22–26 June 2010 was, by all accounts, a great success with thousands attending. In particular this year’s event attracted many grassroots organisations. In addition, a special initiative to prepare people for the forthcoming World Social Forum in Dakar, Senegal, in February 2011 – the Detroit to Dakar initiative – proved to be a great success. Among the many topics this group addresses is that of the discrimination and poverty that affects African-American communities across the US.

Discussions about the current battle for civil rights in America can be seen in seven parts on YouTube. The camera work isn’t fantastic, but the discussions raise some good points about the need for African-Americans to come together to instigate change in their communities and states.

Not every discussion is created equally however. There are exceptional discussions about women’s rights and the work of African-American youths in New Orleans, though part of a discussion led by Black Workers for Justice Chairperson Saladin Muhammad about African-Americans and the economy sounds more like a call to revolutionary uprising than an honest investigation of how African-Americans have been hurt by the economic downturn.

Muhammad raises important points about diversity in the workplace and the need for a labour union that represents the interests of African-American employees, whose experience and history in the workplace deserve the attention of employers. His calls for reparations for African-American victims of Hurricane Katrina are at least worth considering: While it is obvious that Hurricane Katrina hurt every resident of New Orleans regardless of race, the storm exposed the quieted reality that the city had the highest rate of poverty among African-Americans anywhere in the States, rendering them the most vulnerable in the throes of the storm and during the long days after while they waited for aid. In an effort to clean up the wreckage following Katrina, the United States government bulldozed the homes that were beyond repair – many of them in an area of the city home to many low-income African Americans – and moved the inhabitants to FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) trailers, some of which were tainted with formaldehyde. That these families deserve reparations from the government is a fair and valid point.

Muhammad’s discussion about the impact of the recession on African-American communities is worth further consideration. The capitalist system works because it exploits the working class, Muhammad reasons, made up in large part by African-Americans. Muhammad suggests that these workers must unite together and cease production of all goods in order to impact the economic system. Such an action could have a serious impact on the economic system and very likely in a harmful way, but the focus should be on improving access to higher education and social programmes to assist low-income African-Americans. It isn’t acceptable that in one of the world’s richest countries 91 per cent of African-Americans will be touched by poverty, but at the same time striving for higher wages is only covering up the larger problem that African-Americans aren’t being given enough opportunities to pursue higher education. A mass national strike is idealistic, but with unemployment rates in the United States touching close to 10 per cent, there is no incentive for employers to improve pay and conditions when they can have their pick of unemployed labourers willing to accept a job.

Efia Nwangaza’s talk about women’s rights, political prisoners and the incarceration of African-American women is certainly worth a listen and her words will likely stay with you long after you’ve closed the browser and walked away from your computer.

Nwangaza begins her discussion by talking about violence against women, socially, economically and politically, both inside the United States and around the world. Violence against women keeps women in a cycle of poverty and has serious implications for her children and her children’s children for decades. While there are conditions that keep women in these positions, Nwangaza argues that African-American communities in the States have dropped the ball in creating programmes and support systems where young African-American women can thrive. Nwangaza doesn’t blame the government or the political system for failing to provide African-American women with opportunities to make a difference, but instead calls upon the community to create opportunities for this community of women.

Nwangaza further goes on to discuss the increased incarceration of African-American women in the American prison system. This group of individuals is currently part of the fastest growing population of prisoners in the system, yet has the least amount of support from their families. When men are imprisoned, argues Nwangaza, their families and friends come out of the woodwork to offer support for their well-being and that of his families throughout his incarceration. Women lack these social supports – their children disappear into the arms of relatives or the foster system and they are left to look after their own health in systems built to look after the well-being of male prisoners. This has to change, says Nwangaza, as women play a vital role in instigating social and political change, and yet stand a chance of facing time in prison for doing so.

The segment about African-American youth is worth watching, not necessarily for thought-provoking discussion but to see the comparison of issues that African-American youth are fighting to change compared to what the current leaders of the movement are fighting for. The segment is more of an update on the actions of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (MXGM) by one of the group’s members than a discussion about the issues that African-American youth face in Obama’s America. Chief among those issues is that of the return of African-American residents to New Orleans, an issue tied into Saladin Muhammad’s calls for reparations for the way the government has handled post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans.

There is also a call for land reclamation, an issue that could perhaps get entangled in an argument for better access to higher education and the economy. ‘Land reclamation’ here refers to physically taking back public housing structures that have been repossessed by banks and are being resold to private buyers. These structures once belonged to African-Americans, argues the speaker – whose name is never mentioned and who doesn’t appear to be on USSF’s event programme for the annual meeting – and are now being sold to private buyers instead of being given back to the people from whom they were taken. This programme is called Take Back the Land and has had successful campaigns waged against Miami and currently has a campaign running in Washington DC, though how long that will continue for is debatable: the local police force doesn’t appear to be pleased by MXGM’s presence on the disputed plot of land.

If anything, these USSF discussions demonstrate the need to carry on the fight for equality. Segregation may be a long-forgotten practice and the country may have an African-American president, but there will always be a need for change.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Lucy Bamforth is a recent journalism and history graduate from Carleton University.
* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at Pambazuka News.