Black activists honor Raleigh FIST

For the past 26 years, Black Workers For Justice has held its annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Support for Labor Banquet to help reaffirm the commitment to the ongoing struggle for Black liberation and for full workers’ rights especially in the U.S. South. The banquet program provides political updates on various campaigns along with inspirational cultural songs by BWFJ’s Fruit of Labor Singing Ensemble.

Left to right: Jaribu Hill, Elena Everett, Scott Williams, Tyneisha Bowens, Ben Carroll, Lewis Cameron and Dante Strobino, April 4. .

The theme of this year’s April 4 banquet, held in Raleigh, N.C., was “State of Emergency: Jobs for Everyone; Moratorium on Foreclosures; No Evictions; Bail Out the People, Not Banks; End the Occupation of Palestine and End Unjust War in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Every year, BWFJ presents certain activists with the Self-Determination Award to “recognize and honor people whose dedication and sacrifice to the struggle for workers rights and to the self-determination of the African-American people has been significant.” Recipients of the 2009 awards included Rev. William Barber from the NAACP; Lewis Cameron, president of International Association of Machinists Local 369 that just settled an eight-month strike against Moncure Plywood and members of Raleigh Fight Imperialism, Stand Together youth group who received a special Self-Determination Youth Award.

Jaribu Hill, an activist, cultural artist and executive director of the Mississippi Workers Center, gave this year’s keynote address. BWFJ members Salia Warren and Saladin Muhammad chaired the program.