Black Bird Press News & Review

Federation of Southern Cooperatives

Land Assistance Fund

For Immediate Release: August 19, 2015

Contact: Cornelius Blanding

cornelius@federation.coop

404 765 0991

www.federation.coop

Julian Bond: The Roots Run Deep

Working together for change

ATLANTA....On August 15, 2015, we in America witnessed the passing of Julian Bond who was a beacon of light, a messenger and worker for justice. The Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund (Federation) acknowledges in appreciation the breadth and profound work, as well as advocacy, of Julian Bond throughout the South in both urban and rural communities. In fact, throughout the country it is acknowledged that Julian Bond articulated the vision and need for change in America and then worked diligently to accomplish precisely that - change.

But Bond stressed that he was

Julian Bond

part of a "peoples" movement that worked together to alter forever the American landscape. In 2005, in his address to the 96th Annual Meeting of the NAACP, Bond quoted Martin Luther King:
"When the history books are written in the future, somebody will have to say, 'there lived a race of people, a black people' who had the moral courage to stand up for their rights. And thereby they injected a new meaning into the veins of history and civilization" (NAACP).

Bond said further that, "King was the most famous and well known of the modern movement's personalities, but it was a people's movement. It produced leaders of its own; but it relied not on the noted but the nameless, not on the famous but the faceless. It didn't wait for commands from afar to begin a campaign against injustice. It saw wrong and acted against it; it saw evil and brought it down" (NAACP).

Much of the focus of Bond's renowned contributions is largely, and importantly, centered on his role in the founding of and leadership with the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC); and his leadership in the NAACP, as well as the Southern Poverty Law Center.

We at the Federation will add another important aspect to his long list of achievements, however, and that was his advocacy and support of the creation of economic independence of and by the Black community. Bond's statement perfectly emulates that of the Black community in the rural South, "It saw wrong and acted against it" and Bond was there to support these efforts.

By 1965, "SNCC had built two independent political parties and organized labor unions and agricultural cooperatives....Unlike mainstream civil rights groups, which merely sought integration of blacks into the existing order, SNCC sought structural changes in American society itself" (Monthly Review).

Not long after the creation of SNCC in the early 1960's, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives was created in 1967 and, in fact, grew out of the civil rights movement. As civil rights attorney J.L. Chestnut said, "There were many organizations that were spawned by the blood that was spilled on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in 1965, and the Federation was one of those."

The Federation's mission is as follows:

We strive toward the development of self-supporting communities with programs that increase income and enhance other opportunities; and we strive to assist in land retention and development, especially for African Americans, but essentially for all family farmers.

We do this with an active and democratic involvement in poor areas across the South, through education and outreach strategies, which support low-income people in molding their communities to become more humane and livable.

We assist in the development of cooperatives and credit unions as a collective strategy to create economic self-sufficiency (Federation).

In 1971 Julian Bond spoke at Federation's 4th annual meeting at Mary Holmes College in West Point, Mississippi. Charles Prejean, the first Executive Director of the Federation, worked closely with Julian Bond, during the initial years of the development of the Federation, from a base in a small office in Atlanta to a regional organization spread across the South. Prejean invited Bond, then a Georgia state legislator, with a national following, to speak at this important meeting.

The photo below is instructive regarding the Bond's mission and SNCC over all, which included organizing work, of course, in rural Mississippi.

1963, Mississippi Voter Registration Activists (l-r) Bob Moses, Julian Bond, Curtis Hays, unknown activist, Hollis Watkins, Amzie Moore, and E.W. Steptoe (Highlander photo)

The photo above of civil rights and rural development activists was taken in 1963; Julian Bond is the second one on the left. This was 4 years before the founding of the Federation and 8 years before Bond spoke at the 1971 Federation meeting in Mississippi. To the far left in the photo is Mississippi farmer and cooperative leader E.W. Steptoe who was the creator of the "Miss-Lou Cooperative" in the late 1960's and who was involved with the Federation after its founding. Mr. Steptoe's family members are to this day supportive of and engaged with the organization.

In the Federation's 25th Anniversary Annual Report, in 1992, is the following quote from Mr. Steptoe: "Our cooperative is like the railroad station in our community. It will be here, even if the trains don't come anymore and somebody far away decides to pull up the track, we will still have our cooperative in our community because we built it ourselves, no matter whatever else happens"

Mr. Steptoe's message was echoed in much of Bond's organizing narrative. In 1971, for example, Bond spoke at both the Federation's annual meeting and at Tuskegee University emphasizing the "pressing issue of (Black's) controlling their ownlives".

1970's in Epes, Alabama:
Charles Prejean, Howard Moore,
Wendell Paris, George Howell

Julian Bond's leadership and advocacy was felt throughout the South. His support of the work of the Federation was on-going all these many years. He alsohelped lay the ground work for it all in his messages and rallying for support for cooperative economic development and economic independence.

Another important connection to Julian Bond and his family was that the Federation's first attorney was Howard Moore who is married to Julian's sister, Jane Bond Moore. As we say, "the roots run deep."

Working together in all these various aspects and areas helped strengthen the movement for change and empowerment.

We are all eternally grateful for having had Julian Bond in our midst.

###

Note: The Federation/LAF, now in its 49th year, assists Black family farmers across the South with farm management, debt restructuring, alternative crop suggestions, marketing expertise and a whole range of services to ensure family farm survivability.

2769 Church Street · East Point, GA · 30344

404 765 0991 · www.federation.coop

1,000 Black Activists, Artists, and Scholars Demand Justice for Palestine

Full-text of statement from Angela Davis, Cornel West, Talib Kweli, the Dream Defenders, Hands Up United and other prominent organizations and leaders

By Kristian Davis Bailey and Khury Petersen-Smith

Photo courtesy of

Christopher Hazou

Over 1,000 Black activists, artists, scholars, students, and organizations have launched a statement expressing their solidarity and commitment to ensuring justice for Palestinians. Signatories to the statement span a wide cross-section of Black activists and scholars, including Angela Davis, Boots Riley, Cornel West, dream hampton, Emory Douglas, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Pam Africa, Patrisse Cullors, Phil Hutchings, Ramona Africa, Robin DG Kelley, Rosa Clemente, Marvin X, Talib Kweli, and Tef Poe. 38 organizations signed on, including The Dream Defenders, Hands Up United, Institute of the Black World 21st Century, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, and Organization for Black Struggle.

The statement is printed in full below:
"The past year has been one of high-profile growth for Black-Palestinian solidarity. Out of the terror directed against us—from numerous attacks on Black life to Israel’s brutal war on Gaza and chokehold on the West Bank—strengthened resilience and joint-struggle have emerged between our movements. Palestinians on Twitter were among the first to provide international support for protesters in Ferguson, where St. Louis-based Palestinians gave support on the ground. Last November, a delegation of Palestinian students visited Black organizers in St. Louis, Atlanta, Detroit and more, just months before the Dream Defenders took representatives of Black Lives Matter, Ferguson, and other racial justice groups to Palestine. Throughout the year, Palestinians sent multiple letters of solidarity to us throughout protests in Ferguson, New York, and Baltimore. We offer this statement to continue the conversation between our movements:
On the anniversary of last summer’s Gaza massacre, in the 48th year of Israeli occupation, the 67th year of Palestinians’ ongoing Nakba (the Arabic word for Israel's ethnic cleansing)—and in the fourth century of Black oppression in the present-day United States—we, the undersigned Black activists, artists, scholars, writers, and political prisoners offer this letter of reaffirmed solidarity with the Palestinian struggle and commitment to the liberation of Palestine’s land and people.

We can neither forgive nor forget last summer’s violence. We remain outraged at the brutality Israel unleashed on Gaza through its siege by land, sea and air, and three military offensives in six years. We remain sickened by Israel’s targeting of homes, schools, UN shelters, mosques, ambulances, and hospitals. We remain heartbroken and repulsed by the number of children Israel killed in an operation it called “defensive.” We reject Israel’s framing of itself as a victim. Anyone who takes an honest look at the destruction to life and property in Gaza can see Israel committed a one-sided slaughter. With 100,000 people still homeless in Gaza, the massacre's effects continue to devastate Gaza today and will for years to come.

Israel’s injustice and cruelty toward Palestinians is not limited to Gaza and its problem is not with any particular Palestinian party. The oppression of Palestinians extends throughout the occupied territories, within Israel’s 1948 borders, and into neighboring countries. The Israeli Occupation Forces continue to kill protesters—including children—conduct night raids on civilians, hold hundreds of people under indefinite detention, and demolish homes while expanding illegal Jewish-only settlements. Israeli politicians, including Benjamin Netanyahu, incite against Palestinian citizens within Israel’s recognized borders, where over 50 laws discriminate against non-Jewish people.

Our support extends to those living under occupation and siege, Palestinian citizens of Israel, and the 7 million Palestinian refugees exiled in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Palestine. The refugees’ right to return to their homeland in present-day Israel is the most important aspect of justice for Palestinians.
Palestinian liberation represents an inherent threat to Israeli settler colonialism and apartheid, an apparatus built and sustained on ethnic cleansing, land theft, and the denial of Palestinian humanity and sovereignty. While we acknowledge that the apartheid configuration in Israel/Palestine is unique from the United States (and South Africa), we continue to see connections between the situation of Palestinians and Black people.

Israel’s widespread use of detention and imprisonment against Palestinians evokes the mass incarceration of Black people in the US, including the political imprisonment of our own revolutionaries. Soldiers, police, and courts justify lethal force against us and our children who pose no imminent threat. And while the US and Israel would continue to oppress us without collaborating with each other, we have witnessed police and soldiers from the two countries train side-by-side.
US and Israeli officials and media criminalize our existence, portray violence against us as “isolated incidents,” and call our resistance “illegitimate” or “terrorism.” These narratives ignore decades and centuries of anti-Palestinian and anti-Black violence that have always been at the core of Israel and the US.

We recognize the racism that characterizes Israel’s treatment of Palestinians is also directed against others in the region, including intolerance, police brutality, and violence against Israel’s African population. Israeli officials call asylum seekers from Sudan and Eritrea "infiltrators" and detain them in the desert, while the state has sterilized Ethiopian Israelis without their knowledge or consent. These issues call for unified action against anti-Blackness, white supremacy, and Zionism.
We know Israel’s violence toward Palestinians would be impossible without the US defending Israel on the world stage and funding its violence with over $3 billion annually. We call on the US government to end economic and diplomatic aid to Israel. We wholeheartedly endorse Palestinian civil society’s 2005 call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel and call on Black and US institutions and organizations to do the same. We urge people of conscience to recognize the struggle for Palestinian liberation as a key matter of our time.

As the BDS movement grows, we offer G4S, the world’s largest private security company, as a target for further joint struggle. G4S harms thousands of Palestinian political prisoners illegally held in Israel and hundreds of Black and brown youth held in its privatized juvenile prisons in the US. The corporation profits from incarceration and deportation from the US and Palestine, to the UK, South Africa, and Australia. We reject notions of “security” that make any of our groups unsafe and insist no one is free until all of us are.

We offer this statement first and foremost to Palestinians, whose suffering does not go unnoticed and whose resistance and resilience under racism and colonialism inspires us. It is to Palestinians, as well as the Israeli and US governments, that we declare our commitment to working through cultural, economic, and political means to ensure Palestinian liberation at the same time as we work towards our own. We encourage activists to use this statement to advance solidarity with Palestine and we also pressure our own Black political figures to finally take action on this issue. As we continue these transnational conversations and interactions, we aim to sharpen our practice of joint struggle against capitalism, colonialism, imperialism, and the various racisms embedded in and around our societies."

Visit www.blackforpalestine.com for the full list of signatories and more information. You can also follow the statement on Facebook and Twitter. Kristian Bailey is a co-author of the statement along with Khury Petersen-Smith.