From: DefendAffAction-AT-aol.com
Date: Thu, 17 May 2001 05:12:46 EDT
Subject: VICTORY!!



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Content-Language: en

Dear defenders of affirmative action,

Today marks a historic, proud day for the new civil rights movement for
integration and equality. The University of California Regents VOTED
UNANIMOUSLY TODAY TO REPEAL SP-1 -- we have reversed the ban on affirmative
action in the UC System.

We have soundly reversed the attack on affirmative action and integration in
the birthplace of the attack. This day -- one day before the anniversary of
Brown v. Board of Education -- marks a HISTORIC TURNING POINT for California
and the nation.

The echoes of the movement, particularly of our March 8 day of action -- the
united stand of over 5,000 college and high school students and faculty and
unions and supporters -- echoed in the meeting room. ALL SIDES, including
Ward Connerly and others who had originally voted for the ban, agreed to
ending the UC Regents=E2=80=99 association with the attack on affirmative action
because of the power of our movement.

Many thanks to everyone who has fought in this long, hard fight. Your
commitment and dedication has lifted the spirit and determination of fighters
for progress everywhere.

Now this new Civil Rights Movement must move to the offensive.  We must now
fight to increase underrepresented minority enrollment in the UC System,
particularly at UC Berkeley and UCLA. We must fight the racist use of
high-stakes standardized testing (SAT-9) which ratify segregation and
inequality in education, and expand the fight for equal, quality education to
K-12 schools. We must fight to overturn Proposition 209.

The fight moves on. Today, our new civil rights movement won its first major
victory. Let it be the first of MANY victories. It is time to make this
society=E2=80=99s long-deferred promises of integration and equality REAL. **Register
NOW for the June 1-3 National Conference where the new civil rights movement
will plan its next steps.**

What follows is the flyer we handed out at the rally this morning. Note that
since this was written that the UC Regents amended their resolution to
unequivocally REPEAL SP-1 and SP-2.

In solidarity,
Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action and Integration
   & Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN)
-- www.bamn.com --


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New movement on the verge of victory=E2=80=A6
No Deals with Connerly-Get Rid of SP-1 and SP-2!
-------------------------------------------


With the UC regents set to vacate their ban on affirmative action (SP-1 and
SP-2), California is set to enter a new period of history. THIS IS A
TREMENDOUSLY IMPORTANT MOMENT. We can turn a corner in California today; WE
CAN WIN A HISTORIC VICTORY.

The ban on affirmative action, initiated by the UC regents on July 20, 1995,
signaled the beginning of an attack on all the gains of the civil rights
movement that spread throughout the country. Now, AFTER MONTHS OF NEEDLESS
DELAY due to back-room political maneuvering, the UC regents have finally put
the question of the repeal of the ban on affirmative action on the agenda.
The regents now have an opportunity to undo the terrible damage they have
done to the UC and to recognize that a segregated, two-tier UC system in
unacceptable to the overwhelming majority of Californians.

The amended resolution designed to nullify SP-1 and SP-2, action resolution
RE-28, is still a timid compromise between liberals who support affirmative
action and nationally notorious Ward Connerly, the original architect of the
UC=E2=80=99s ban on affirmative action. Student regent Justin Fong has publicly
announced his REJECTION OF THE COMPROMISE WITH CONNERLYand declared his
intention to put forward a resolution that will unequivocally repeal SP-1 and
SP-2. All defenders of affirmative action and all Californians concerned to
salvage the damaged reputation of the University of California should support
Fong=E2=80=99s attempt to get the UC regents to do better that a typical
politicians=E2=80=99 compromise.

**Despite the political maneuvering among the politicians, BAMN is convinced
that the new civil rights movement can achieve a very important victory at
the May 16 regents meeting.**


HARD-WON VICTORY-HOW WE GOT HERE

Since July 20, 1995, when the UC regents adopted the ban on affirmative
action, the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action and Integration, and Fight
for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) has been fighting to build a new
civil rights movement. The first objective of this new movement has been to
achieve the reversal of the ban on affirmative action in the University of
California. This new mass movement of students and youth is now poised to
secure this HARD-WON VICTORY.

**Winning this victory means more than reversing the resegregation of the UC
system-it means fundamentally changing the historical trajectory of our state
and our nation.**

California has often been a trendsetter for America. That has, very
unfortunately, proven true with the attack on affirmative action; it has also
proven true of the defense of affirmative action. A national civil rights and
student movement has emerged over the last couple of years in response to the
series of attacks on affirmative action and the other gains of the previous
civil rights movement.

The UC regents 1995 decision set in motion a national assault on the gains
made toward integration and equality won by the civil rights struggles of the
1950s and 1960s. For the new movement that BAMN has been building among
students and youth to force the government body that initiated the attack on
affirmative action to vacate that position-even with exceptionally cowardly
language-will be a first decisive step to turning around the momentum of
these attacks nationally. In achieving this, we will inspire antiracists and
supporters of integration and equality around the country. What happens here
will be echoed in other parts of the country, delivering a powerful blow to
the proponents of resegregation everywhere.

The movement has achieved its current strength because of BAMN=E2=80=99s tireless
work mobilizing, organizing and educating young people from the beginning of
the ban in 1995 through the present day. Since January 1999, we have
collected around 30,000 signatures calling on the regents to reverse the ban.
The most recent day of action at UC Berkeley on March 8 demonstrated the
power of the new movement, its demographic and political breadth, its pride,
and its determination. Many thousands of high school students from Oakland,
Berkeley and San Francisco, UC Berkeley students, faculty and staff and
community members rallied, marched and held a democratic mass meeting that
voted on a perspective for the movement.

Mass democratic processes such as this, in the context of rising mass
struggle, will create the conditions for the development of a new generation
of young leaders who will regard accountability to the movement as a
fundamental condition of bold leadership. They will see a vital, active,
critical, democratic relationship with a growing mass movement as an
indispensable condition of their development as strong leaders, whose talents
exist to serve the movement and not the other way around.


WHERE THE NEW MOVEMENT MUST GO FROM HERE

BAMN=E2=80=99s method of mass, militant struggle and mass democracy is the way the
movement has gotten to the critical turning point where an important tactical
defeat of the opponents of affirmative action is all but certain. This method
is also how the movement must proceed, with mass struggle and mass democracy.
The new movement must reject the defeatist perspective that has characterized
too many of the student struggles of the last period. Getting the regents to
reverse the ban on affirmative action is proof that with the right
perspective, it is possible to win important victories.

The next phase of the movement must campaign to undo the profound harm that
SP-1 and SP-2 have done. We must fight to integrate all the
schools-universities and K-12-including specifically increasing
underrepresented minority enrollment at UC Berkeley and UCLA and forcing the
UC administrations to increase hiring of under-represented minority faculty
and women faculty. In the high schools and middle schools, the movement must
fight for an end to high-stakes standardized testing that deforms education
and only serves the purpose of stratifying students by class and race. The
movement must target and attempt to eliminate the SAT and the SAT 9.
EDUCATION must be the aim of school-not the artificial separation of students
into ranks and orders. We must set our sights on overturning Proposition 209,
the anti-affirmative action 1996 ballot measure that followed the UC regents=E2=80=99
ban. The movement must take up the fight for integration and equality not
only throughout education, but in every sphere of society.


-------------------------------------------
National Student/Youth Conference
to Defend Affirmative Action and Struggle for Integration and Equality
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor!

BAMN, the Reverend Jesse Jackson and his Rainbow/PUSH Coalition are
organizing a conference of the new civil rights movement. Over the weekend of
June 1-3, a national student/youth conference will be held at the University
of Michigan, Ann Arbor. The conference will be open and democratic. Student
organizers and leaders from around the country are invited to attend the
conference and help organize the defense of affirmative action and the
struggle for integration and equality. It is time to build a national march
on Washington. It is time for our generation to place the platform of the new
civil rights movement for full integration, democracy, justice, and equality
before the American people. It is time for the young leaders of the new civil
rights movement to come together and provide a new, progressive vision and
leadership to the nation. We must come together, debate, and vote on a
perspective for building our national movement.

At the conference we will=E2=80=A6
* Decide on a plan of action to reverse and defeat the attacks on affirmative
action, integration and the other gains of the Civil Rights Movement of the
1960s
* Commit to a strategy to build a new civil rights movement to defend past
gains and move on to win real integration and equality
* Build a student/youth leadership for a new, independent, national civil
rights movement

Go to www.bamn.com to register for the conference!

-------------------------------------------
Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action and Integration
    & Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN)
www.bamn.com
defendaffaction-AT-aol.com
(510) 895-3068
2001.05.16

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