New York City (Note: this summary is a little more detailed because this is the first public report of the meeting in NYC).

The June 15^th meeting of the northeast included individuals from throughout New York State, Connecticut, New Jersey, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. There were about 2 dozen organizers in attendance. The Fightback committee’s interim Strategic Plan was presented and discussed. Plans for the August Reparations March were discussed as well. One of the points of dispute was whether of not the fightback Strategic Plan needs to be a BRC document as opposed to a document that is adopted by a broader coalition of the Black Left. Several important questions were addressed to the BRC’s fightback efforts including the following:

• How do we address the fear factor in organizing against the war?

• How will we take the issues of Peace, Reparations, Justice to the streets in our own communities (taking our resources into account).

• What is the organizational form in which we’ll accomplish our fightback work?

Several suggestions were made, including:

• Go on record to call for a national alliance for reparations and against war.

• Call for regional groupings to build toward the reparations rally

• Call a meeting of all progressive forces.

• Create a leaflet that connects the liberation of Palestine and black people’s reparations.

Participants decided to set the following short-term tasks to be completed:

1.      Draft a statement

2.      Create a structure (such as the continuations committee)

3.      Mobilize to do outreach work

Black Radical Congress
National Office
Columbia University Station
P.O. Box 250791
New York, NY 10025-1509
blackradicalcongress@email.com