CAHRO convened a conference in November in Los Angeles to examine ways we can build coalitions to work on issues affecting our communities and the future of California. Over two
hundred people attended to discuss a range of issues including demographic shifts in California, disparities in the distribution of wealth and resources, and ideologies, strategies and techniques for forming and participating in
coalitions. Senator Tom Hayden, who a few days after the conference announced that he was disillusioned with state government and will not run for office, began his comments at the conference by expressing skepticism
about human relations work that focuses on getting people to get along without addressing the economic issues that drive them apart. He argued that human relations commissions should perform human relations impact assessments
on government expenditures and community development to evaluate how they will affect local employment and affect the way people live. He contrasted the rebuilding of the earthquake devastated Grove-Shafter Freeway in Oakland
which was relocated because of concerns on how it was impacting the people who lived nearby and the Alameda Corridor project being built in Los Angeles which has had no similar impact evaluation and will result in multinational
corporations employing large numbers of people from outside the impacted communities and displace local residents.
Reflecting the diversity of conference panelists, arguments were made for pragmatism in coalition building
while others argued for rigid adherence to principles and tight organization. Maria Blanco from MALDEF and the Coalition for Civil Rights in San Francisco and Henry Hodge from the Interagency Coalition for Human and Civil
Rights in San Diego described their coalitions as loosely structured and characterized their activities as voluntary with opportunities for members to dissent and not participate in activities counter to their organizational
stands. Eric Mann from The Labor /Community Strategy Center in Los Angeles described his organization as being very disciplined and strategic in joining coalitions. He argued that an organization needed to be driven by
its principles and only participate in coalitions to advance its own interest.
Deborah Kaplan from the World Institute for Disability struck another note when she indicated that disability rights coalitions have no common
ground on issues other than a need for universal access. She reflected that there is a segment of the disability community who, for the same reasons as other human relations and civil rights activists, would come together to
concern themselves about issues of racism, sexism, greed and violence; but there is also a segment that would not be concerned about those issues. She left no illusion that those concerned with disability rights could be
counted on to join in coalition with those advocating for the rights of people living in poverty or people of color.
Rev. Jim Lawson who recently retired from Holman United Methodist Church in Los Angeles disparaged the idea of
forming coalitions which he views as temporary and only for limited purposes. He favors the idea of organizations forming long term alliances to combat greed, racism, sexism, and violence. He also spoke of grounding
one's analysis of issues in terms of the innate rights of a human being. Thus, when asked about the role of religion and the Knight Initiative that will be on the March, 2000 ballot that defines marriage as being limited to a
man and a woman, Rev. Lawson responded that mature human beings should be able to form whatever type of family they want so long as the family sustains its members. He deemed marriages of adults choosing to build families to
sustain one another, regardless of their sexuality, as preferable to heterosexual marriages that do not meet those criteria.
It was the panel on Youth and the New Face of Diversity that created the greatest
enthusiasm. Harmony Goldberg from the School of Unity and Liberation berated many adults for complaining about apathy and the lack of youth leadership. She spoke of a growing youth movement in California and beyond and
argued that adults who bemoan the absence of youth organizing need to reach out to find it. She says youth are organizing everywhere but their activities are not publicized in the press and in many sources adults use for
information. She argued that young people are willing to join in coalitions with adults to address human rights issues, but they are often overlooked.
But, it was a group of students from Castlemont High School in the
low-income area of East Oakland that stole the show. The school, infamous for an incident when students laughed during the showing of Schindler's List and for interracial conflicts, was turned around by organizers from Youth
Together who mentored the students and helped them develop a Unity Council to prevent conflict. The students put on a short skit and spent the rest of the time detailing how students acted to change the dynamics within the
school in the absence of administrative leadership.
A panel exploring the impact of demographic shifts on intergroup relations raised some new coalition building issues. According to the demographers, coalitions that
focus on racial or ethnic identity will need to rethink their strategies if they are to remain viable in the next century. Dr. Carlos Cortez from U.C. Riverside led off noting the absence of information on people who are
products of the melting pot. He claimed that one of four marriages is of mixed racial or ethnic identities. He illustrated the level of intermarriage by stating that only one of five Japanese-Americans is currently
marrying another Japanese-American. Cortez mused that the agreement on the 2000 census to allow people to check off more than one racial or ethnic group will create havoc among demographers because they will no longer be able
to generalize about whites, Hispanics, Asians and African-Americans.
It did not take long for participants to grasp the point Cortez made. Dr. James Allen, a demographer from California State University at Northridge
presented slides comparing income and housing patterns of Hispanics, Asians, African-Americans, and Whites. Allen illustrated how income levels affect migration patterns of different ethnic and racial communities causing
displacement and suburban flight which in turn have economic effects.
Dr. Karen Umemoto from the University of Hawaii, used similar demographic data to illustrate patterns of conflict as a result of "tipping" (the
shifting of the predominance of one racial or ethnic group to another) in low income communities. South Central Los Angeles, where low housing costs attracted Latino immigrants into an area that was predominately African
American was cited as an example of tipping that resulted in intergroup conflict. Her data demonstrated the challenge of maintaining peaceful intergroup relations in a period of rapid demographic shifts.
Participants broke
into regional workshops to discuss the impact of demographic issues in their area. The State was divided into the Central Valley, the San Francisco Bay Area, Silicon Valley, the Central Coast, Los Angeles County, Orange
County, and San Diego and the Inland Empire for the workshops. These workshops will help inform CAHRO's work in promoting regional coalitions.
Dr. Joel Kotkin from Pepperdine, Dr. Manuel Pastor from UC Santa Cruz and
Ethel Long Scott from the Women's Economic Agenda Project in Oakland addressed the widening economic gap. They presented similar world views of the economy and the problems that need to be addressed. They were all
dismayed by the virtual elimination of a growing group of people from the economy. They described this group of people as joining the ranks of the homeless and the institutionalized. Somewhat surprisingly, many of the
homeless are now recognized as being among the working poor. They expressed a critical need to find ways to prevent further isolation of those living in poverty because they are a vital human resource in providing labor
and markets for the economy to thrive over time. They all are dismayed by the failure of the educational system to make any progress in helping students overcome the disadvantage of being born in poverty.
There were some
differences in the emphasis of what should be done to address the growing disparity of wealth and take advantage of the wasting of human resources. Dr. Pastor emphasized the need to build an infrastructure of nonprofit
organizations subsidized by government and philanthropic support, modeled on the Comprehensive Employment Training Program in San Jose, that could form partnerships with industry to reach out to the poor and provide them with the
education and skills necessary to place them in jobs that would sustain themselves and their families. Dr. Kotkin looked to collaboration between government and business to rebuild the educational system so that
students from poor families can gain the skills and information needed to join the high tech economy and earn sustainable incomes. Ms. Scott put her emphasis on the need for the poor to come together to pressure institutions
to make changes necessary to provide them with the education and skills they need to succeed. All three wanted the same end product, but had different ways to achieve it. A coalition could clearly benefit from the input
of each of the panelists and synthesize an approach that included all of their recommendations.
The first round of workshops focused on challenges in building coalitions and highlighted unusual partnerships between labor and
environmentalists; the faith and gay/lesbian/bisexual and transgendered communities; and labor and immigrants. Keeping in mind the interest of young people attending the conference a workshop was presented detailing how
students of diverse backgrounds came together and reached out to faculty and the community to defend ethnic studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Another workshop exposed participants to the coalition work of
Clergy & Laity United for Economic Justice with the Labor/Community Strategy Center and the Busrider's Union in Los Angeles to make public transit accountable to low-income people who make up the vast majority of its
patrons.
The final set of workshops included techniques in fundraising, sustaining coalitions, community organizing, student organizing and online activism. A workshop on youth organizing was facilitated by C-Beyond,
Underground railroad and People's CORE and addressed youth organizing through the use of hip hop culture, political education, empowerment and building organizing skills to address a variety of issues from the youth crime
bill (Proposition 21) slated for March 2000 to school resource centers.
Perhaps, the most somber moments of the conference took place at its conclusion when Conference Chair Joe Hicks, Connie Rice of the Advancement Project and
Dr. Rodolfo Acuna of California State University at Northridge characterized California coalitions as being ineffective and desperately needing to be reformulated. Hicks used the defeats of human rights advocates on the
immigration, affirmative action and bilingual California propositions as proof of a need to reach out to embrace a larger section of society and adopt language that is more in touch with the reality of the voters. Rice and
Acuna both characterized the inept handling of the termination of the Latino school superintendent from the Los Angeles Unified School District as driving a wedge between the African-American and Latino communities and they were
less than optimistic about the ability to bring communities together. Dr. Acuna accentuated the sacrifices and alienation brought about by participation in identity politics by characterizing his own exprience. He described
his isolation from communities outside the Chicano/Latino community as an unfortunate trap that to a degree is built by those who show little respect and concern for communities of people other than their own.
CAHRO's
Director, Fred Persily, acknowledged the need to broaden coalitions to overcome the identity politics decried by the speakers and stressed the need for people from all walks of life to come together quickly to reverse the current
slide towards a society made up of a small group of people who control vast resources while one of every four children is born into poverty. He concluded declaring that as a result of the Conference, CAHRO will move ahead
judiciously to facilitate a statewide coalition or alliance.
These remarks capped a conference where civil rights leaders, union representatives, public officials, students, religious leaders, and academics met for three
days to consider how to address the task of working together to promote a society that, in Reverend Jim Lawson's words, is free from greed, racism, sexism and violence.
Although, the conference was well received an
evaluation of its impact will have to be judged sometime during the next year. CAHRO now has a better idea of the pitfalls that lie in the path of forming a statewide coalition, and has a greater appreciation for its
importance and urgency. The Board and staff of the Association must now draw a roadmap detailing where we want to go and how to get there and build on the relationships made at the conference and elsewhere to achieve our
objectives. We will report on our progress in future issues of The Connection.
