Black Women in the Radical Tradition Conference

I was fortunate to attend the Black Women in the Radical Tradition conference here in New York yesterday. And it's not just because my heart flutters every time I see Angela Davis. I have to say she's as brilliant as she ever was and wanted to convene it because she wants to pull anonymous Black women who have been committed to progressive causes out of anonymity, both in the U.S. and all over the world. Kudos to her!

I heard a wonderful presentation about Catholic Nuns organizing other Black sisters to provide education and a radical perspective on race to Black Catholics in their communities. This was a challenge because the South didn't support this work and the Vatican was less than warm to the idea themselves.

I learned about women such as Flo Kennedy who had a commitment not only to Black liberation, but also to the Women's Liberation movement. The scholar who presented on her pointed out that radical feminism began as a nexus of women's rights, Black liberation, and ooooooh, I forget what, but I was certainly thrilled to learn about this.

I also heard a presentation concerning home care workers here in New York City and the organizing they did before SEIU stepped in. It's amazing how the city government and the private agencies bounced them about in order not to bargain a contract! Yet, they continued on and they have been organized here for about 20 years.

Speakers were upfront about both being ecstatic about the change in the U.S. that electing Barack Obama represented; yet, questioning how we can move things further to a radical tradition and completely change what is going on in the U.S. It was refreshing to hear people say, outright, that capitalism is failing. I think that we see that with the banking crisis etc. We all need to think about what that means. Can we really continue societies based on a motive on unending greed and much for few?

Ultimately, I feel that it confirms my hopes for my own work - history from below and moving beyond, in all places and times, the regular titular heads. Many, particularly women, women of color, work hard to bring about important changes in their societies and hopefully many forums like this will be held to laud their work. Bravo Angela and Thank you!!