First Published: The Call, Vol. 8, No. 1, January 8, 1979.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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Recently The Call interviewed Leslie Dennis, a member of the steering committee of the National Fight Back Organization (NFBO) and a leader of the local Fight Back Committee in Baltimore, on the upcoming delegates conference to be held in Chicago, Jan. 20.
The Call: Why is the National Fight Back Organization calling for this delegates’ conference?
Leslie Dennis: In keeping with the democratic style of the Fight Back, we are calling for the entire organization to come together and sum up our role in fighting for the people and unite around what should be our main focus going into ’79.
We are inviting representatives of each of our 27 chapters and observers from many different organizations. These observers can fully participate in the discussions but cannot vote.
They will be from groups we’ve worked with in the past on different issues, such as Baltimore Welfare Rights; Padres Unidos, a Puerto Rican group out of Philadelphia; the Black United Front of N.Y.; and the United League of Tupelo, Miss. These are all grass roots organizations out there fighting for the well-being of the poor and oppressed people.
While the unemployment rate has fallen, there are still six million people officially out of work. And the percentage of minority youth without jobs remains absurdly high. Plus we’ve been hit with new attacks on affirmative action – the Bakke case and now Weber – along with phony people’s revolts like Proposition 13, which has resulted in a lot of cutbacks in jobs and services, and a boost in profits for the corporations.
We’re putting a call out to these various organizations to come together and help us discuss a program and a constitution, to consider affiliation with us, and to take on the main problems that are faced by poor and working people. This will be a good time to build a broad united front to take on what I feel to be the main question in ’79, the present administration’s so-called anti-inflation program.
Carter’s plans for lessening the crisis include cutting back on 125,000 CETA jobs starting Jan. 27 and another 20,000 federal job slots to be terminated. He also calls for huge cuts in federal spending – but are they cuts in military spending or the huge bureaucracies in Washington? No. Instead the cuts will be the social programs which feed and house millions of poor people.
Carter talks about equal sacrifice for both the big and little man, but that’s impossible. Right now the inflation rate is double digit, while he proposes leveling wage increases at 7-so how in the hell can we win the race when big business has been given an insurmountable lead?
Carter says workers asking for raises is what’s causing this huge inflation. We say it’s the big banks and corporations’ drive for maximum profits which are to blame.
What do you hope to accomplish at the conference?
At this conference we’re going to make some concrete proposals around the question of jobs, which has been a main focus of the NFBO since its founding in 1975, including a very concrete jobs referendum that could be fought for in Congress and could unite a broad range of community groups and even some local politicians.
We’re going to sum up local work in this area and also against discrimination and repression. In Crown Heights in Brooklyn we’re working with the Black United Front to fight police repression and unjust treatment of Blacks.
In Philadelphia, we’re working with Padres Unidos and other groups in the Puerto Rican community to improve the rotten housing conditions. We want to stop the discriminatory “urban renewal” programs that recently led to the arson murder of eight members of the Diaz Rivera family.
In Los Angeles, Fight Back in conjunction with L’ Asociacion de Derechos Latinos, is helping to organize a tenants union in the East L.A. housing project of Wynverwood where many Chicanos live.
In Cullman, Alabama, our Southern affiliate, the Southern Conference Educational Fund (SCEF) is playing a leading role in trying to free Ronnie Long and Tommy Lee Hines, both Black men falsely accused of raping white women like in the case of the Scottsboro Boys. We’re still fighting to free Gary Tyler in Louisiana.
And let’s not forget Terrence Johnson, the 15-year-old Black youth who’s charged with the killing of two racist cops in Prince Georges County. You can best believe the Fight Back has taken up his case wholeheartedly.
Our stand on these issues and others is a direct result of three years of hard work and taking up over 70 anti-repression cases. Last February we brought together over 2,200 people to march in Washington for Jobs or Income Now.
We’re now in a position to sum up and put together a program which speaks to the struggle for jobs, against discrimination and repression, as well as around inflation, housing, taxes, the needs of the elderly and youth.
The program can help develop specific demands, adaptable to local conditions but also reflecting a common focus of struggle nationwide.
The constitution we’re talking about will also reflect the unity between people here in the U.S. and people throughout the world. The huge banks and corporations have been exploiting us all, here and abroad, and we should try and give much more support to the liberation movements in Southern Africa and elsewhere.
The forces behind the basic economic crisis in America today are tightening up their ranks and we must begin to do the same thing. We should go into 1979 with some clearcut ideas of how we’re going to take on the problems and basic plight being suffered by poor and working people in the U.S. today.