Our stand was consistently firm, so one of the worst sectors of the middle class split off because he couldn't get what he wanted. He called a press conference to try to destroy the coalition and certainly to isolate me. That didn't work.
We moved the coalition to call a black community convention which would unite the whole black community on a single agenda for the first time ever. Thus we moved forward and left this guy behind.
On Wednesdays the National People's Democratic Uhuru Movement meeting is held and everybody from the movement comes. On Sundays, the African People's Socialist Party mass meeting occurs. At these meetings we're clearly laying out our strategy. This is what we're trying to do.
It's been our relationship with this coalition that's created a strategic thrust for everybody to move all in the same direction, so that people haven't been easily able to sell each other out. The SCLC guy attacked us because he wanted to go for the sell-out, and we kept things moving in a certain direction, making it hard to do. So soon the middle class sector started seeing that we were winning a place for them. We moved to create a strategic trajectory for the whole community based on the question of economic development. That is the issue for everything. They're about crime, we say economic development. It's the only solution.
So we're working. We have criticized Weed and Seed. We went to 10,000 houses with a flier summing up Weed and Seed. We go to the Weed and Seed meetings. Every time they put a microphone in front of my face, I criticize the city for trying to use police containment as a substitute for economic development. It is unacceptable and it will not work.
We defend the memory of TyRon Lewis even as they slander him and his family. We call on his mother to stand up at public meetings, and we force the city to recognize them.
I pushed for an emergency summit on economic development on August 14th, called the whole community out, and wrote the paper on what we mean by economic development.
On August 23rd the Uhuru Movement had a march with hundreds of people marching down the street with posters and banners calling for economic development and social justice. We created a strategic trajectory for the whole community. Now other folks have started chiming in, calling for "economic development." First the Federal Advisory Commission said our thrust is going to be economic development. Then the mayor started talking about economic development. Everybody wants to talk about economic development now.
On November 4th, there was a town hall meeting on economic development at a community center a block from the Uhuru House. Bankers were there, the Chamber of Commerce was there, the mayor and the people who head up the city economic development program were there. Right now we have a commitment for something like a total of $6 million for African community economic development.
The thing that makes it significant is what we've been able to do. Usually they make a deal with somebody and call that economic development. Usually Reverend Chickenbone or somebody can get his deal to train 150 people for jobs that don't exist, and that's what they call economic development. They were always able to circumvent any kind of struggle because most of the black businesses are so hungry and poor they have not been able to fight for economic development. They can only fight for themselves. So the government would give this little guy some money, and boom, the movement is destroyed because he got what he wanted.
But we've been clear from the very beginning: we don't want some money. We're not looking for a job. The only thing we want is economic development for the African community! We have been able to make them produce something real-or act like they're going to produce something real-as opposed to the kind of deals they're used to making.
The mayor told me they want to start a "business incubator" to help people with technical information to run and operate businesses, or to get the loans they need. It was information to make the banks more likely to give them loans and that kind of thing. The mayor said this would be on Central Avenue in downtown St. Petersburg so it can be for everyone. I said that this has to be in the African community. So he said, "O.K., we can do that."
The November 4th town hall meeting on economic development was so very crucial, and we isolated some of the more self-serving sectors of the petty bourgeoisie. First of all, we demanded that the session be public. We insisted that these guys come out and make commitments not to some individual Negroes, but to the community.
Secondly, we demanded a public process. We are demanding a process that will result in the people being able to go where the resources are without having to go through some individual Negroes. We want to remove the middle person, who is likely to get all the resources and make the people vassals.
