May 7, 2023 – RBG Communiversity: Message 2 Da Grassroots

Updated May, 20-2024

Quoting from Patterson’s autobiography (posted below), The Man Who Cried Genocide:

“We in the CRC decided that the presentation of a petition charging the crime of genocide and thoroughly documenting what we regarded as the genocidal attitude of the U.S. Government toward its Negro citizens was timely. It would be helpful, we thought, to all peoples fighting for freedom, and would be particularly helpful here at home among both Black and white citizens where the potentialities of the UN were not too well understood or appreciated. It would point out to Black men and women the broadening avenues through which their struggle might move forward…. The petition, I thought, should expose the reactionary role that the racists of the United States were preparing to play in world affairs, especially its dangers to world peace. No government bound up with racism could want or seek world peace.” Source: peoplesworld.org

Video description: In 1951 Paul Robeson and William Patterson presented the petition “We Charge Genocide” to the UN, launching the Communist Party aligned Civil Rights Congress’ campaign to hold the US government accountable for the atrocities committed against Black people, and making the connection between the violence of racial capitalism and US imperialism. In the context of the pandemic and as we approach the petition’s 70th anniversary, the PSC-International Committee organized a discussion on lessons we can learn from the original document and from the Black radical tradition more broadly for our various local and global forms of organizing against racism, colonialism, imperialism, and all forms of oppression within and beyond the university. The event included an amazing line-up of speakers and panelists: Charisse Burden-Stelly, Ujju Aggarwal, Nellie Bailey, Sarah Raymundo, Angel Martinez, Trevor Ngwane, Rhea B Rahman, and Amber Rivero, introductions by Dr. Marie Louise Patterson and Dr. Alia Tyner-Mullings, and was co-moderated by Blanca Vazquez and Corinna Mullin.

Pop the documents out from the upper right to read / expand / download.