First Published: The Call, Vol. 8, No. 9, March 5, 1979.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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Chicago–The first annual delegates conference of the National Fight Back Organization drew more than 100 activists to the Windy City on Feb. 24-25. The delegates, representing over 20 cities, met to chart the course of the NFBO for 1979.
As a continuation of the Fight Back’s three-year campaign for Jobs or Income Now, the conference enthusiastically united that building opposition to Carter’s anti-inflation program would be the main focus of the work this year.
“The Carter plan hits at the livelihood of the masses of people, the employed worker, the unemployed, the welfare recipient, the elderly on social security, homeowners, farmers, nearly every sector,” noted NFBO leader Larry Miller in his opening address. Delegates endorsed a proposal from the CPML to support May Day actions which will target Carter’s plan as well as other aspects of the present crisis.
The conference particularly targetted the cutbacks in welfare and CETA jobs as the main issues in their nationally co-ordinated campaign. In workshops the delegates emphasized the need to apply this campaign concretely in every city, doing good investigation on the issues, building broad unity with other organizations, and being flexible in developing tactics that will bring the masses of people into struggle against the Carter plan.
This discussion touched on some of the weaknesses in the Fight Back’s work which were outlined in Miller’s address. For example, Miller pointed out that the NFBO’s strong record in fighting discrimination and building multinational unity still had big gaps, especially in reaching out broadly to white workers and in building ties with Puerto Ricans, Chicanos and other Spanish-speaking people. Miller also emphasized the need to develop a wide range of tactics and not limit the work to demonstrations.
While pinpointing the issues of welfare and CETA cutbacks, delegates also spoke about the need to continue local work around other issues such as taxation, housing and police repression.
In order to carry out its tasks in the next year, delegates discussed the need to strengthen the NFBO organizationally. One of the main criticisms delegates raised was the lack of a strong organizational structure. Several steps were taken to improve this.
Discussion was held on a draft program and constitution for the NFBO that will be adopted within the next two months. National officers were elected by the delegates to carry out the mandates of the conference for the coming year’s campaign. Delegates also emphasized the need to improve fundraising and communication between local chapters and the national office, which have been weak.
In addition to discussing struggles in the U.S., delegates learned a lot about the situation in the third world, especially in Azania (South Africa), Kampuchea and China. In a keynote address, Nozipo Glenn, Azanian freedom fighter and member of the Dayton, Ohio, African Liberation Support Committee, told the conference about the imperialist oppression of her people. She described the work of the Pan Africanist Congress and the people’s determination to defeat the oppressors.
“The U.S. people have a special task,” she pointed out. “In fighting back here at home, they are fighting for us in Azania.”
The NFBO’s commitment to building multinational unity was a main theme of the conference. This was reflected in the make-up of the delegates themselves–Afro-Americans, Puerto Ricans, Chicanos, Native Americans and whites–and in the fact that the whole conference was translated into Spanish.
Stressing the importance of unity for achieving real human rights, a speaker from the Norwalk, Calif., chapter of La Raza Unida Party put it this way:
“What this government is afraid of,” she declared, “is that we will build a society that will meet the needs of all workers and national minorities, and not be maneuvered by this system to divide us.”
Resolutions were adopted calling for intensifying efforts to support the Native American people, especially to free frame-up victim Leonard Peltier and to stop the theft of Indian land; a petition drive against the U.S. bombing on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques and to free the four Puerto Rican nationalists; support for the United League of Mississippi; for the fight of Chicano people in Chama, Col., to keep their land; and for the struggles of undocumented workers.
A highlight of the conference was the announcement by Padres Unidos, a Puerto Rican organization fighting for decent housing in Philadelphia, that they were affiliating with NFBO.
In summing up the conference, newly-elected NFBO President Leslie Dennis told The Call: “The main things that came out were a main campaign, the need for stronger organization and strong leadership. I felt all these were discussed at the conference in a good way.”