Uniting the struggles: Bronx People’s Assembly

By Deirdre Griswold
Bronx, N.Y.

Many community activists filled the meeting hall Sept. 25 at the first session of the Bronx People’s Assembly for Jobs and Economic Survival. They came to exchange information about independent organizing and to broaden their links to national social and economic justice movements.

Building grassroots solidarity, Sept. 25. WW photo: Brenda Ryan

The assembly was held at historic Hostos Community College, scene of a 40-day sit-in in 1974 that kept officials from shutting it down. Awareness of that militant past resonates today in the mostly Latino/a and Black student body and faculty.

Speaker after speaker told of fighting for relief from the crushing burden of poverty, unemployment and racist repression in the Bronx. This borough of New York City is not geographically far from Wall Street, where trillions of dollars in stocks and bonds are traded every day.

But the South Bronx is home to the poorest congressional district in the United States, where 27 percent of the people live below the poverty level, explained Rev. Lydia Lebrón Rivera as she opened the gathering.

Large banners on the walls proclaiming “South Bronx Community Congress,” “A real jobs program now — Bail Out the People Movement,” “Vote for Freedom Party” and “Equal rights for all workers — May 1 Coalition” showed that the People’s Assembly had brought together not only individuals but organizations and existing community coalitions. These groups have carried out powerful struggles for housing, jobs, mass transit, better public education and an end to police and government repression of people of color and immigrants.

Applause greeted co-chair Larry Holmes of BOPM when he explained that the People’s Assembly movement was growing nationally because “the people are disenfranchised” and bodies supposed to represent them, from city councils to Congress, “are in the pocket of the bankers.”

Holmes took note of the upcoming Oct. 2 march on Washington supported by much of the labor movement and the NAACP and urged that people go to it to put forward “a real jobs program.” He also suggested making the January birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. an “Uprising for Jobs Day.”

Co-chair Brenda Stokely of the Million Worker March Movement emphasized that the People’s Assembly should focus on developing tactics by learning what has worked in the past and what is working in the present.

Many struggles represented

A speak-out followed that gave everyone an opportunity to be heard.

Ramón Jimenez led it off. Now a candidate for New York attorney general on the statewide Freedom Party, Jimenez is a veteran of the 1974 student takeover of Hostos and a founder of the South Bronx Community Congress.

The Freedom Party, a new political formation led by Black and Latino/a militants, is going up against a “three-headed monster” in the gubernatorial election, said Jimenez. Democrat Andrew Cuomo, Republican Carl Paladino and the Tea Party forces are all for lowering wages and cutting the pensions of state workers.

The Freedom Party nominee for governor, Charles Barron, is a former Black Panther who, as a member of the New York City Council, has often been outvoted 48 to 1. “He’s the one,” said Jimenez, humorously underscoring that Barron is a principled fighter.

Larry Hales spoke for the Coalition to Defend Public Education, which organized national protests last March and will be marching in Harlem on Oct. 7 demanding funds for jobs and education for youth. Mark Torres, also of the CDPE, added that the event will start on noon at City College and march to the Harlem State Office Building. It will stop at a charter school along the way to demand that profit-sucking corporations be kept out of the school system.

Daniel Vila of the Independent Workers Movement spoke of the struggle of day laborers and street vendors, who are mostly undocumented and often don’t even get paid. His group held three marches that helped reduce police harassment of vendors.

The need for solidarity with anti-war activists in Minneapolis, Chicago and other cities whose homes had just been raided by the FBI was raised by Holmes and echoed by many other speakers. A demonstration in New York City against the raids and subpoenas was announced for Sept. 28.

Where are the jobs?

Ligia Guallpa, an Ecuadoran woman who directs the Latin American Workers Project, told of the severe suffering of those who can’t find work in their own countries because U.S. corporations monopolize the main industries — in the case of Ecuador, bananas and petroleum — and migrate to the U.S. in desperation.

Guallpa denounced the “Memorandum of Agreement” by New York Gov. David Paterson to turn over names and information to Immigration and Customs Enforcement when these workers are stopped for even minor traffic violations.

Christine Williams of Transport Workers Union Local 100 and Gavrielle Gemma of Take Back Our Transit System talked about the struggle of New York’s transit workers and riders against the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Williams described the open hostility of the people at recent hearings of the MTA board. Gemma said that of the 28 board members, who are supposed to represent the people’s interests, all but one are white. The transit system, she said, “is a cash cow for the banks.”

A stirring speech was given by Genghis Muhammad of Picture the Homeless, who described the struggle for “homes, not shelters.” Chevy Rivers of Help the People brought tears to everyone’s eyes as she told of the suicide of her 16-year-old daughter who had been rejected by a jobs program after budget cuts.

“Where has all the ‘stimulus’ money gone?” asked Owen Rogers of Operation Fightback, which has been struggling for years to get jobs for people of color in the construction industry. He showed how billions of dollars earmarked for New York projects “had no effect on our communities.” He called for a massive program to rebuild the infrastructure and provide jobs for communities with the highest unemployment.

No illusions about capitalism

Tony Gronowicz, the Green Party’s mayoral candidate in 2005, pointed out that Michael Bloomberg is the richest mayor in all history. He called for storming the turnstiles when a fare increase is announced.

A worker from Woodlawn Cemetery talked about the formation of the Band of Brothers to fight racist harassment on the job. No politicians represent these workers, he said. “That’s why we have to come together and represent ourselves.”

Charles Jenkins of TWU Local 100 said those present had “an opportunity to put our message in the national spotlight” at the Oct. 2 march in Washington, and told people how they could register to go on union buses.

After a break-out session for discussion on these various issues, reporters came back with recommendations for follow-up. This included going to the Oct. 2 march to demand jobs and immigrant rights and to continue building people’s assemblies as alternate sources of power.

No illusions about capitalism were expressed in this thoroughly working-class event. There was open discussion about how the popular movements need to prepare for a revolutionary overhaul of society.

Workers World Party had a literature table and speakers who were deeply involved in organizing many of the struggles described.

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