-Much of what I say might sound like it's stirring up trouble, but it's not the truth. Much of what I say might sound like hate, but it's the
truth. The best thing to put the white man to fright is the truth. He can't take the truth. If you are afraid to tell the truth, why you don't deserve freedom. Macolm X
This plan will serve as the foundation for the Organization of Pan African Unity, we must move forward. There is no time to look back at what might of been. The Organization of Pan African Unity will seek alliances with all governments, nations, and people who believe in our principals and we believe in their principals as well. Only by our coming together through our shared beliefs, that we will be able to help the overall masses of our people. The reality is that our people are suffering, and by our being fragmented, and pitted between each other, that outsides fiorces have been able to keep us apart, let me had, also through our own ignorance as well. We must ook at the divide and conquer tactics that have been used against us, and analyze them, and not alllow those tactics to continue to trick us. So the task at hand is, to take Malcolms OAAU plan and make this work for us today. What we are doing today isn't working, so let's try something different. Only a fool will continue to do things that don't work.
The Organization Of Afro-America Unity: A Statement of Basic Aim's and Objectives.
The
Organization of Afro-American Unity, organized and structured by a cross
section of the Afro-American people living in the United
States of America has been patterned after
and spirit of the Organization Of African Unity established in Addis
Ababa, Ethiopia,
May 1963. We the members of the Organization of Afro- American Unity gathered
together in Harlem, New York;
CONVINCED that it is the inalienable right of all people to control their own
destiny;
CONSCIOUS of the fact that freedom, equality, justice, and dignity are essential objectives for the achievement of the legitimate aspirations of the people of African descent here in the Western Hemisphere, we will endeavor to build for Afro-American Unity.
CONSCIOUS of our responsibility to harness the natural and human resources of our people for their total advancement in all spheres of human endeavor;
INSPIRED by a common determination to promoted understanding among our people and cooperation in all matters pertaining to their survival and advancement, we will support the aspirations of our people for brotherhood and solidarity in a larger unity transcending all organizational differences;
CONVINCED that in order to translate this determination into a dynamic force in the cause of human progress, conditions of peace and security must be established and maintained.
DETERMINED to unify the Americans of African descent in their fight for human rights and dignity, and being fully aware that this is not possible in the present atmosphere and condition of oppression, we dedicate ourselves to the building of a political, economic , and social system of justice and peace;
DEDICATED to the unification of all people of African descent in this hemisphere and to the utilization of that unity to bring into being the organizational structure that will project the black people's contributions to the world;
PERSUADED that the charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Constitution of the United States of America and the Bill of Rights are the principles in which we believe and these documents if put into practice represent the essence of mankind's hopes and good intentions;
DESIROUS that all Afro-American people and organizations should henceforth unite so that the welfare and well-being of our people will be assured;
RESOLVED to reinforce the common bond of
purpose between our people by submerging all of our differences and
establishing a non-religious and non-sectarian constructive program for Human
Rights;
DO hereby present this Charter;
1. ESTABLISHMENT
The Organization of Afro-American Unity shall include all
people of African descent in the Western Hemisphere as
well as our brothers and sisters of the African Continent.
2. SELF DEFENSE
Since self preservation is the first law of nature; we
assert the Afro-American's right of self-defense. The Constitution of the United
States of America clearly affirms the right
of every American citizen to bear arms. And as Americans, we will not give up a
single right guaranteed under the Constitution. The history of unpunished
violence against our people clearly indicates that we must be prepared to
defend ourselves or we will continue to be defenseless people at the mercy of a
ruthless and violent racist mob.
We assert that in those areas where the government is either unable or unwilling to protect the lives and property of our people, that our people are within their rights to protect themselves by whatever means necessary. A man with a rifle or club can only be stopped by a person who defends himself with a rifle or club can only be stopped by a person defends himself with a rifle or club.
Tactics based solely on
morality can only succeed when you are dealing with basically moral people or a
moral system. Any man or system which oppresses a man because of his color is
not moral. It is the duty of every of every Afro-American and every
Afro-American community throughout this country to protect its people against
mass murderers, bombers, lynchers, floggers, brutalizes, and exploiters.
3. EDUCATION
Education is an important element in the struggle for
Human Rights. It is the means to help our children and people to rediscover
their identity and thereby increase self-respect. Education is our passport to
the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.
Our children are being criminally short-changed in the public schools of America. The Afro-American schools are the poorest-run schools in New York City. Principals and teachers fail to understand the nature of the problems with which they work and as a result they cant do the job of teaching our children.
The textbooks tell our children nothing about the great contributions of Afro-Americans to the growth and development of this country. The Board of Education's integration plan is expensive and unworkable; and the organization of principals and supervisors in the New York City school system has refused to support the board's plan to integrate the school's thus dooming it to failure.
The Board of Education has said that even with its plan these are 10 per-cent of the schools in the Harlem- Bedford-Stuyvesant community they cant improve. This means that the Organization of Afro-American Unity must make the Afro-American community a more potent force for educational self-improvement.
A first step in the program is it ends the existing system of racist education and to demand that the 10 per-cent of the schools the Board of Education will not include in its plan be turned over to run by the Afro-American community. We want Afro-American principals to head these schools.
We want textbooks written by
Afro-American that are acceptable to us to be used in these schools.
The Organization Of Afro-American Unity will select and recommend people
to serve on local school boards where school policy is made and passed on to
the Board of Education.
Through these steps we will make the 10 per-cent of schools we take over educational showplaces that will attract the attention of people all over the nation.
If these proposals aren't met, we will ask Afro-American parents to keep their children out of the present inferior schools they attend. When these schools in our neighborhood are controlled by Afro-Americans we will return to them.
The Organization of Afro-American Unity recognizes the tremendous importance of the complete involvement of Afro-American parents in every phase of school life. Afro-American parents must be willing and able to go into the schools and see that the job of educating our children is done properly.
We call on all Afro-Americans around the nation to be aware that the conditions that exist in the New York City public school system are as deplorable in their cities as they are here. We must unite our efforts and spread our program of self-improvement through education to every Afro-American community in America.
We must establish all over the
country schools of our own to train our children to become scientists and
mathematicians. We must realize the need for adult education and for job
retraining programs that will emphasize a changing society in which automation
plays the key role. We intend to use the tools of education to help raise our
respect through their own efforts.
4. POLITICS--ECONOMICS
Basically, there are two kinds of power that count in America:
economic and political , with social power deriving from the two. In order for
the Afro-Americans to control their destiny they must be able to control and
affect the decisions which control their destiny: economic, political and
social. This can only be done through organization.
The Organization of Afro-American Unity will organize the Afro-American community block by block to make the community ware of its power and potential; we will start immediately a voter-registration drive to make every unregistered voter in the Afro-American community an Independent voter; we propose to support and/or organize political clubs, to run Independent candidates for office, and to support any Afro-American already in office who answers to and is responsible to the Afro-American community.
Economic exploitation in the Afro-American community is the most vicious form practiced on any people in America: twice as much rent for rat infested, roach crawling, rotting tenements; the Afro-American pays more for foods, clothing, insurance rates and so forth. The Organization of Afro-American Unity will wage an unrelenting struggle against these evils in our community
There will be organizers to work
with the people to solve these problems and start a housing self improvement
program. We propose to support rent strikes and other activities designed to
better the community.
5. SOCIAL
This organization is responsible only to the Afro-American
people and community and will function only with their support, both
financially and numerically. We believe that our communities must be the
sources of their own strength politically, economically, intellectually and culturally in for Human
Rights and Dignity.
The community must reinforce its moral responsibility to rid itself of
the effects of years of exploitation, neglect, and apathy, and wage an
unrelenting struggle against police brutality.
The Afro-American community must accept the responsibility for regaining our people who have lost their place in society. We must declare an all-out war on organized crime in our community; a vice that is controlled by policemen who accept bribes and graft, and who must be exposed. We must establish a clinic, whereby one can get aid and cure for drug addiction and create meaningful, creative, useful activities for those who were led astray down the avenues of vice.
The people of the Afro-American community must be prepared to help each other in all ways possible; we must establish a place where unwed mothers can get help and advice; a home for the aged in Harlem and an orphanage in Harlem.
We must set up a guardian system that will help our youth who get into trouble and also provide constructive activities for our children and must teach them to always be ready to accept the responsibilities that are necessary for building good communities and nations. We must teach them that their greatest are to themselves, to their families, and to their communities.
The Organization of Afro-American Unity believes that the Afro-American community must endeavor to do the major part of all charity work from within. the community. Charity however does not mean that to which we are legally entitled in the form of government benefits.
The Afro-American veteran must be
made aware of all the benefits due him and the procedure for obtaining
them. These veterans must be encouraged to go into business together
using GI loans, etc.
Afro-Americans must unite and work. We must take pride in the
Afro-American community, for it is home and it is power. What we do here in
regaining our Self-Respect, Manhood, Dignity, and freedom helps all people
everywhere who are fighting against oppression.
6. CULTURE
"A race of people is like an individual man; until it
uses its own talent, takes pride in its own history, expresses its own culture,
affirms its own selfhood it can never fulfill itself"
Our history and culture were completely destroyed when we were forcibly
brought to America in chains.
And now it is important for us to know that our history didn't begin with
slavery's scars.
We come from AFRICA, a great continent and a proud and varied people, a land which is the new world and the cradle of civilization. Our culture and our history are as old as man himself and yet we know almost nothing of it. We must recapture our heritage and our identity if we are ever to liberate ourselves from the bonds of white supremacy. We must launch a cultural revolution to un-brainwash an entire people.
Our cultural revolution must be the means of bringing us closer to our brothers and sisters. It must begin in the community and be based on community participation. Afro-Americans will be free to create only when they depend on the Afro-American community. Afro-American artists must realize that they depend on the Afro American for inspiration. We must work toward the establishment of a cultural center in Harlem which will include people of all ages, and will conduct workshops in theater, music, Afro-American history, etc.
This Cultural Revolution will be the journey to our rediscovery of our selves. History is a people's memory and without a memory man is demoted to the lower animals.
Armed with the knowledge of our
past, we can with confidence charter a course for our future. Culture is an
indispensable weapon in the freedom struggle. We must take hold of it and forge
the future with the past.
When the battle is won, let history be able to say of each one of us.
He was a dedicated patriot DIGNITY was his country, MANHOOD was his government, and FREEDOM was his land" John Oliver Killens
The slave ships didn't bring any West Indians, East Indians, or Black Americans, didn't bring any AKA's or Delta's, didn't bring any high
yellows or low yellows. Dr. John Henrik Clarke
