Defense of Affirmative Action OCT. 21 & 22!

Terry Bevins (hpu@rocketmail.com)
Thu, 8 Oct 1998 10:28:28 -0700 (PDT) 

**** JOIN THE OCTOBER 21 AND 22 WALKOUTS
**** IN DEFENSE OF AFFIRMATIVE ACTION!

The fate of affirmative action hangs in the balance.

In response to the devastating impact of the
elimination of
affirmative action on black, Latino and Native
American freshman
enrollment at the more elite UC schools this fall
(which dropped 65%,
58% and 61% respectively at UC Berkeley), a broad
sector of California
has been stirred to act.

Over 50 professors in the University of California
system (including
Angela Davis) have signed on to a call initiated by
Rafael
Perez-Torres, a professor at UCLA, for mass walkouts
in defense of
affirmative action on October 21 and 22. The mayor of
Oakland,
California, Elihu Harris, has signed on.  More
professors are signing
on every day.  The walkout is gaining momentum.

The question for the rest of the country is: do we
wait until we face
a similar setback, or do we learn from what has
happened in California
and prepare ourselves so we can prevent further
setbacks around the
country.

WE ARE PUTTING OUT A CALL FOR STUDENTS AND PROFESSORS
ACROSS THE
COUNTRY TO SIGN ON AND JOIN THIS TWO-DAY ACTION.
Speak-outs,
teach-ins, rallies, pickets and marches are some of
the activities
that we will need to plan for the two days.

This opens up to us a historic opportunity. With this
California-initiated walkout, the fight to defend
affirmative action
nationally can take a tremendous step forward this
semester.

We can build on the success of the student-called and
organized
National Day of Action held on April 1, 1998, where
over 70 schools in
25 states held actions ranging from speak-outs to
rallies to marches
to demand defend affirmative action.

The fight to defend affirmative action CAN WIN. What
is needed is mass
social struggle and organization--a new movement
punctuated by actions
like the October 21 and 22 walkout. 

This can be the launching point for a
better-coordinated nation-wide
movement. It will also put the enemies of affirmative
action on notice
that they will face intense mass resistance to their
attempt to drag
America backward toward officially sanctioned
segregation.

The attack on affirmative action represents the first
full-fledged
attempt at reversing a policy that is fundamental to
the gains of the
Civil Rights Movement. It is a direct attack on
progress toward
integration and equality won through the hard
struggles of black
people as well as other minorities. The historically
associated
progress in the social position of women of all races
is also under
attack.

We CAN and MUST defeat this attack. Even a very
modestly successful
two-day strike done on a national scale WOULD HAVE AN
IMMENSE IMPACT. 
October 21 and 22 must be days in which all of the
defenders of
affirmative across the country TAKE A UNITED STAND
AGAINST THE
RESEGREGATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION.

Contact: bamn@umich.edu. We can provide additional
information and
literature on the defense of affirmative action upon
request.

** FORWARD THIS TO ANY AND ALL INTERESTED PARTIES **



===
Terry Bevins
Homeless Power Union
National Women's Rights Organizing Committee
Coaliton to Defend Affirmative Action (BAMN)
hpu@rocketmail.com
http://members.tripod.com/~Bevins_II/index.html
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/hpu.htm




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