Transcripts For CSPAN National Gentrification Summit 20240714

I will never forget, i was struck by his slogan. He said when i become a mayor, we become mayor. That said this was a collective enterprise, collective work and responsibility, so there are policies being elaborated here last year we were talking about a Marshall Plan, because he called for a Marshall Plan. And we are going to work toward the creation of a Marshall Plan to get massive investment in the cities, because no matter what our mayors do for all the good efforts that are made, unless we get massive resources in our community, we are not going to be able to solve all problems. We must fight for reparations and fight for a Marshall Plan. [applause] the struggle against gentrification is not without controversy. It is complex, it is difficult, so there are voices that may agree and disagree, and that is fine. This agreement as long as it is constructive should be welcomed. It is not always comfortable, but nobody ever said it would be comfortable. There has to be creative tension and out of that comes better partnerships read it sharpens our analysis, sharpens our thinking. This is not a blanket endorsement of anyone. Is it it is about an understanding that someone has the right vision, right direction, because without the right vision we know for sure the people were parish. So vision is important, and the values behind that. We wanted to lay that out there. This summit is about the fact that black people and black institutions are being placed. Being displaced. So, we came here, to newark, because at least there are efforts being made to mitigate this. It doesnt mean that is always successful, because gentrification is a monster. It isnt the first time black people have been removed. We talked about the need grover removal of the 21st century, because as long as White Supremacy is in place and a capitalist political economy, we will always be challenged until we transform that system. [applause] so now, i want to introduce a number of people. We had a summit and everybody couldnt come to the summit, because it was a summit. But we have convened some of the most brilliant minds, activists, organizers, elected officials, faith leaders, all across this country, to deliberate and share ideas about how we are going to deal with this crisis, and we are going to deal with it. David harris from the institute for race and justice from harvard said, you know, ron, we came here on an emergency, but we are now emerging. We are emerging. We will be victorious. We cant introduce them all but that would be to because that would be too difficult, but if all the resource people who came from all across the country could stand up so people can see you. [applause] thank you, very much. I would like to introduce the panel. It is a conversational format to tap into the wisdom, ideas, experiences of these folks on the stage who have come from across the country, different disciplines, different experiences, different expertise to share with you and among themselves, part of what we have been trying to do in deals in terms of dealing with gentrification. Let me start in no particular order, starting with dr. Jeffrey love, associate director and the department of urban planning at Texas Southern university. Give him a wave. [applause] and the return of the native son, i was so happy because i knew him from the Jackson Campaign and beyond. He was here for many years. He is now president of the council of bishops, president of all the ame bishops. Welcome Bishop Reginald jackson. [applause] lee is the director of development from the great city of new orleans. [applause] next step needs no introduction, revolutionary in office, assemblyman Charles Barrett from East New York. [applause] all the way from omaha, nebraska, the African American Empowerment Network and omaha is one of the most formidable, powerful models of operational unity i know. Please welcome willie barney. [applause] and one of our Favorite Places happens to be in mississippi. We have a lot of love, for jackson, mississippi. The mayor couldnt beer but set his apology, but he didnt have to apologize because he sent his chief of staff, dr. Sophia amari. [applause] and she needs no introduction, she is my bad sister, you know her well, she gets stuff done. She just gets stuff done. She was on my radio show the other day and almost took over. That is frederica bay. [applause] and thats a woman in support of the million man march. Also, joining us shortly chairman larry hamm, the chairman is in the house. [applause] and finally, a brilliant mind, a great faith leader all the way from oakland, california, with the Live Free Initiative of the faith in action, reverend Michael Mcbride all the way from berkeley, california. And last but not least, my dear friend who has been the one who has moderated so many things, you see him on msnbc, he has his own radio program, i was going down my list, you all know her, right . Black americas leading political economist, dr. Julianne malvo is in the house. [applause] and before i forget, i have to say that on your program you have danny glover, i have to apologize. Listen carefully. Danny was here yesterday, he was in new york planning an event for harry belafonte, but danny is a film star and television and so forth, so he had to go back for shooting but he sends his regrets. Danny is with us and loves us, and sends his love and respect. Lets give it up for danny glover anyhow. [applause] i guess i forgot another one. Now right all right. From the Rainbow Push Coalition, Vice President and chief strategist for engagement of programs in the Rainbow Push Coalition, reverend gary from chicago. Thank you, reverend, for saving me from myself. The way we are going to do this is going to be a conversation, moderated by my dear friend coming up. Time permitting we will hopefully be able to entertain a few questions. You will raise your hand, we will get an index card to you, and at the conclusion, the most important thing is that we hear from our host. Will you please welcome to the rostrum to moderate the session, you hear him on siriusxm progress 127, any time you turn on msnbc, all over the place, ill must have to get autographs from this brother, my beloved friend reverend mark thompson. Reverend thompson thank you, all right. [applause] god bless you. [speaking arabic] what it is. It is good to be here in new work, new jersey. I was just at reverend sharptons convention, had the privilege of interviewing senator cory booker just a few minutes ago. And i wanted to let dr. Daniels and others know i did my best to get him to change his schedule to be with us tonight, and we almost get it we almost did it, but he sends his greetings as well and understands the importance of this conversation. Amen. In terms of our other esteemed elected official, mayor roz baraka, he was a student at Howard University and i was a student at the university of the district of columbia. In 1990, reverend wilson remembers we organized the student boycott of virginia beach, virginia, because in 1989, black lives matter is a new term, but our struggle with Law Enforcement has been going on all these years. You all remember 1989 with the students at virginia beach, a place we always went to on labor day weekend, so i want to acknowledge the longevity of the mayors relationship. We had no idea either one of us would be where we are now. You never know. It could have gone the other way. But god has put us in a position to continue to serve our people and he very much so is continuing in the footsteps of the great Ken Gibson Shea and his father. So please give the mayor a round of applause. [applause] and even though i say we were together in 1990, i will let you in on a secret. I usually tell people i may millennial, so dont tell anybody. [laughter] to dr. Ron daniels, i have a lot of affection for ron. Because i know the sacrifices he makes for our people. He is not in the socalled celebrity et celebrity echelon, so to speak. And he works hard and i tell him, let me know anything i can help you, but he works hard and just takes it all on himself. At this stage in life a lot of folks are ready to retire and give up. He hasnt done that. He himself, even though they are really somewhat peers, when dr. Ron walters passed away, we needed to figure out who was going to pick up the mantle in terms of conscious and woke academia. Some folks get phds and they are in these ivory towers and they are not in touch, on the ground with our people. Ron has continued to do that and is been a constant organizer in terms of organizing meetings and conferences that think tanks and things like that, the institute of the black world, going all the way back to the First Political black convention in gary, indiana, so we are just so thankful for what he does and what he continues to do. And i dont mind saying we are on siriusxm and cspan and ron i think holds the record of any individual of having cspan broadcasts events. [laughter] i dont know anyone else. When people say, how can i get on cspan, i say put on ron daniels and cspan will be right there. So im thankful for that as well. Please give dr. Ron daniels around of applause for all that he is at all that he does. [applause] picking up the mental from dr. Ron walters, we were on the radio one day on wol at fourth and h streets northeast, the First Property kathy hughes owned, and i made a decision i would have dr. Ron walters sit in the studio with me and my cohost, dick gregory, and for our community we would come up with a working definition for self determination. And him being the academician he was, we crafted that definition. It was this. Selfdetermination is a peoples command and control of their own cultural destiny, their own social destiny, their own economic destiny and their own political destiny, without any external interference from any external forces. When we talk about the issue of gentrification, that is not selfdetermination. People decide where we live, where we move, what we do. They want to live in the suburbs, you all need grows move into the city you all negroes have to move to the city. And when they want to live in the city, you negroes have to move out of the city. And now after 50 years they say, we want the suburbs back, you all have to move into the city. That is not in control of our movement as a free people and that is why this conversation is important. So we will begin the conversation on the narrative, each of the panelists who choose to, we shall respond to this, what does gentrification look like in your community . Nationally, or from the perspective of your organization or institution . This will give us a greater picture of how this is happening. And again, this isnt just for the national and International Audience that is happening, because we know that it is happening, but our panelist will give us more specifics and detail on what is happening, right where they can see it. So we will go down the line. Good evening, everyone. Thank you dr. Daniels for convening us and thank you all for coming. Friday night you could be anywhere, but you are here because you want to soak up some knowledge. We appreciate it. Dr. Daniels asked me to provide Historical Context to this gentrification. Basically gentrification is an assault on our selfdetermination. But even more than an assault on selfdetermination, this is something called been there, done that. The Great Recession caused africanamericans to lose nearly half of our homeownership, lose a significant amount of our wealth, set the tone in some places for the possibility of land takeover. But understand that in the wake of enslavement, i have this computer not because i needed because but because of a couple of numbers i want you to have. In 1880, 15 years after enslavement, black folks had one dollar for every 36 white folks at. In 1890 we had one dollar for every 26 white folks at. 1900, one dollar for every 23 white folks had to. 1910, one dollar for every 16 wax every 16 white folks had. Look at the progress. Today we have seven dollars for every 100 white folks have. From a wealth accumulation perspective we are worse off in 2018 then we were in 1910. We were just out of enslavement. Mark, you talked about degrees, all these degrees folks have running around, well, we didnt have degrees then. Only one in 100 of us had gone to college. Many of our hbcus were no better than schools, really. But we were able to accumulate in ways we have never before. Now, what happened . First of all, theres nothing trifling about the black community collectively. When people talk about the wealth gap, they will tell you we have some deficiency. We do not. What we do is live in an era through hostility, and something i call economic envy. When we get it, white folks want it. That is how it goes. So in 1910 we had over 100 blackowned banks. Now we have 23. Now some of it was changes in banking regulation that happened deliberately. There was a brother in richmond, virginia, john mitchell, and he had a f. U. R. Before everybody did. He had a cadillac. They took his bank. They said the negro league arrogant they said the negro was arrogant. They put it on paper. A savings bank ended up consolidating in 1929, 1930, and became consolidated savings bank. That bank thrived in hundreds of not thousands of people in richmond in the 1920s got their homes because consolidated was lending money to black people when other people would not. Its important to understand, we have made economic progress but then people jump up in our faces and take our stuff. Economic envy israel real. Tulsa, oklahoma was about economic envy. The story some people will tell you, the melon deficient will tell you tulsa was about a young shoeshine guy, 19, raped or assaulted sarah page, 17yearold elevator operator. Dr. Olivia hooker died not too long ago and dr. Hooker was six when it happened. She remembers it. She remembers hiding under the table at her home, the tablecloth hiding she and her siblings. Watched the white people come in, vivid memory of folks who were so envious, broke her mothers caruso records, took a next to the piano, burnt her dolls close, just people because black people had too much. When the oklahoma governor later asked for a commission to investigate this, remember nobody went to jail, they have pictures of people, a black physician came out of his home, hands up, they shot them, they killed him. We dont know how many were killed. Some people say 300, some say 600, we know 35 square blocks were eviscerated, we know me of dollars were lost we know millions of dollars were lost, and we know nobody paid anything. In fact, the red cross did not even want to go to tulsa. They wended they ended up going through external forces, but they didnt want to come. They had us in concentration camps. And the black women of the rich area of tulsa, they were not allowed to leave the reservation unless they were going to do a days work for white people. There were not allowed. I apologize, we want to give in this first round everybody just three or four minutes. Then we want to come back. Dr. Daniels had asked me to do the Historical Context. History takes a long time. [laughter] [applause] [laughter] anyway, the tulsa case, you must deal with. White folks had been stockpiling guns and waiting for an excuse. When the Governors Commission came in, why did they have this . They said, too many negroes. They didnt say negroes. Too many you know what with too much money. , anytime wee clear accumulate, there has been Public Policy against us. Public policy conspired against us. The g. I. Bill, so many things, when you look at Public Policy, we have systematically been discriminated against, systematically taking our stuff, and as i listen to the mayor this morning and so many others, when there is vacant land it needs to be redistributed to people who have been systematically sidelined. When there are opportunities, they need to be distributed to people who have been systematically sidelined. It is utterly inexcusable for this wealth gap to exist, as hard as black people work. And dont let anybody ever tell you we dont work hard. Final part before he snatches the mic. A final point, when we look at all of this in the context of economic envy and this other stuff, we must look at the ways we have to resist. We must look at the resistance we must put out there. We have black mayors who do not have the sensibility, they never met a developer they dont want to slowdance with, and to our detriment. We have black City Council People taking money under the table so that they can exploit our people. We cannot have that. Financial literacy is not Public Policy. We must be responsible stewards of that which we have been blessed with. We must save and invest. But if we saved and invested everything we got, we couldnt close the wealth gap. We will be literate, but we also want our share, reparations now. [applause] reverend thompson amen. I apologize, i should have told you three or four minutes from the outset. Let me also apologize, please keep dr. Malveauxs mother and prayer mother in prayer. Dr. Jeffries coming may we have your permission to continue dr. Jeffries, may we have your permission to continue . All right. Charles, three to four minutes. Charles i want to take the responsibility dr. Daniels spoke of to provide creative tension. I would like to play that role. We can talk about gentrification, but there is a larger problem. That is the problem of a racist, predatory, parasitic, bloodsucking capitalist system. [applause] and the solution is revolution. We can talk about gentrification, but there is a larger problem. That is the problem of a racist, predatory, parasitic, bloodsucking capitalist system. The solution is socialism. The solution is us electing that are notls descriptively black that look like us, but are authentically black and committed to us. Our biggest problem in our neighborhoods is black neocolonial puppets of the Democratic Party. [applause] that is the problem in our neighborhood in new york. You know how we stopped gentrification . Existsection it does not in East New York, and it doesnt exist because i have a beautiful African Queen wife named who is on the city council. So when the developers came and showed us these pretty pictures, we asked them what is the area Median Income requirement . Because if it is not the area Median Income of East New York, you are not building in East New York. East new york, the community had the largest increase in the , East New York, 13. 2 percent. Harlem lost 14 of its bracts. Bedford stuyvesant, 600 increase of its whites, lost 16 of its blacks. I have the distinct honor to say i actually lost white population in my community. I lost them. They left. They left. I didnt ask them why, they left. So if you see one or two or three or four or five whites in my neighborhood, they are passing through. [laughter] but that is on a serious note. We have 13,000 black elected officials in this country. We had mayors, governors, city council members. We need to get radical revolutionaries elected, people that are really committed to us. Just having a black face and a high place doesnt mean anything, even if you are the president. Even if you are the president. They said, dont mess with the black president. When you dont mess with black leaders in high places, we are in a difficult situation. We have got to deal with it because if we dont, im going to say this and run out of here, one of the good things about having trump is that you all are angry. If you would have had somebody else, you would have thought you had made progress and you would have been cool. This fool is disrupting the whole world. Everybody is angry with him, so it provides impetus to the movement. If hillary would have been elected, you would all have been saying, we got a woman elected, you wouldve thought you had progress and you would have went to sleep. Capitalism is predatory. Callf you go for what they compassionate capitalism, that is an oxymoron, but compassionate capitalism is, you get a 15 dollar minimum wage and some food stamps. Compassionate capitalism is to get a few jobs into a few programs for your community, but it still revised the impetus for the rich, it still exploits, but like malcolm said, you suffer peacefully because you have the wrong people in power. I will have more to stay later. Stay ready for the revolution, because that is the only solution. [applause] [crowd cheering] reverend thompson i just want to make sure we are still on the air. [laughter] wbai, are we good . Wpfw, are we good . Are we still on . Serious siriusxm, are we still good . Cspan, are we still good . I see the red light on cspan. We are good. Amen. I was once asked in and interview, mark, what do you think about the most powerful political couple in American History . And they thought it was going to talk about half of the couple he just mentioned. And i said, do you mean charles and inez barron . [applause] what does gentrification look like in your community . Good evening. I bring you greetings from jackson, mississippi. Amen. Nd thompson mumba. Ehalf of mayor i would like to say that he is groone of these ne politicians that we referenced. Arlier jackson, mississippi is in the process of rebuilding, rebuilding a city that has been exploited and divested in for decades, even with black leadership. Even though we dont face gentrification the way many of it,urban areas are facing we understand that as soon as we , we will have to address it. Our mayor often makes the statement that we will not move our people from one state of , and that isther essentially what gentrification is. People isment to our to involve them in the government. Our commitment is to design our economy, which we call a dignity economy, meaning that every single citizen in jackson, mississippi deserves to be treated with dignity and respect regardless of their economic status, their social status, their level of education. We are committed to building a just society for all human beings. Justn building that society, we understand the relationship that we as proprietors, as elected officials, the role that we have to serve. We have to serve the role of Servant Leadership. We are servants. We are servants of the people. So often, we that dont listen, especially when we get elected are we have the doctorate, the letters behind our names. We often think that we have the solution. We understand that we cannot Craft Solutions unless we craft them in concert with the people who put us in office. Build, we constantly touch bases with our citizens. We have what we call peoples assemblies, when we are getting ready to do something within the city, we go out and say, what do you think about this . And if you agree with this, how should it be structured . What is the best way this will affect you . We are implementing participatory budgeting to help citizens understand because they see millions of dollars in the budget and they dont understand how that money is allocated or how it is used. We want them to understand the budget so they can make meaningful input into how their tax dollars are being used within the city of jackson. Over my threeo go or four minutes, i just want to say for those of you who are not aware, our current mayor is the lumumba, the leader of the african independence movement. Free the land. Free the land. Free the land. His father was elected mayor in jackson in 2013. On, after 10assed in office. During his campaign he made the we all in our administration hold very dearly, if you dont love the people, you will eventually betray the people. [applause] we have to put people in office who love the people. And we have to hold them power isle, because seductive, power is very seductive area we have to make power is very seductive. Thee have to make sure that people we elevate to positions of Servant Leadership are held held close to us so that love can continue and we can Craft Freedom and selfdetermination together. Thank you. Free the land. [applause] reverend thompson chokwe l me, we his son said to can take mississippi back. Black folk can govern. Just like the sister in georgia, we can take mississippi back. Please, gentrification from your perspective. My name is ellen lee. Im here on behalf of mayor Latoya Cantrell of new orleans, the first female mayor of the great city of new orleans. She is amazing. She is a community organizer. Hat is her roots the work she did in her neighborhood after katrina, organizing that community, fighting for resources to bring that neighborhood back. It was one of the neighborhoods those planners said would not be able to rebuild, you are too low, too much water. If said, i will be doggone that is going to happen. Not today. And she organized so that that neighborhood would come back, that the people of new orleans would be able to come back and live where they choose to live, and not where someone else tells them to live. [applause] i am also a lifelong new orleanian. I have seen the changes that happen. , a lot of growing up vacancy, a lot of blight, house prices nothing like they are today. My 92yearold mother still lives in the house we grew up in. And when she tells me that prices in that neighborhood, i know some of you on the east coast, this is nothing, 200 50,000, three hundred thousand dollars for a house in the neighborhood i grew up in, i cant believe it. All, do notfirst of open the door when people come knocking. [applause] and the second thing is, we all the homestead. That is the homestead and we are holding onto that land. But for us, gentrification looks like families who, at the wages they are currently making, after work over 100 hours a week, would have to work over 100 hours a week to be able to afford living in new orleans. It means that if you are not making that minimum wage, what you would need to be making his 22 to 25 an hour to be able to afford to live in new orleans. Who havehose of you experienced our wonderful purse our wonderful hospitality and food and music like no place else, no disrespect to folks else, it like no place doesnt pay 22 an hour or 25 an hour. So imagine the hardship on people. Downtown in new orleans, ive lived there my whole life, ive never seen downtown being developed in the way it has. Affordable, very little affordability in downtown, where people could actually be close to the jobs that they have. But we didnt have policies in place to make that happen when we were trying to rebuild after katrina. Katrina accelerated the gentrification in new orleans, and because of government officials, we have to take responsibility for our part in doing that. We have to hold ourselves accountable for the role that we played in that. What that also means for us is that people are being pushed out from the innercity and other parts of our city, into the outer areas of the city. Cool, but it might be all right if we had great Public Transportation to get people there. It might be all right if we had other services in those areas. So that is what that is looking like for us. That means our Service Economy is being compromised. If i cant get to work and im an hourly worker, now im in trouble when my boss is late and i may lose my job because my boss is late. Its things like that. It means for us, literally, our culture. So when our musicians and artisans cannot afford to live in the city that they create, weve got a problem. Thats what gentrification looks like in new orleans. Reverend thompson thank you. [applause] she mentioned a black woman mayor in new orleans. Amen. We just had another in chicago, didnt we . The sisters are coming on strong. Ok, brother. In new jersey in 2012i set i was going to georgia, was going to be quiet, i was not going to get involved, fights and all i was going to enjoy my life. And sure enough, nothing changed. And i have discovered that the problem of gentrification and other evils which black space are intentional. Face areblacks intentional, they are deliberate, they are planned. So when you ask what it looks , they just built mercedesbenz stadium, hosted the super bowl on the west side of the city, gleaming, beautiful structure. The west side of atlanta, heavily low income, unemployment time, people struggling. It is also where the au center is located. There is a herculean fight now because Developers Want to take over the west side of atlanta, and their intent is to move out the population that lives there now. Fightare in one heck of a , i almost said something else, to keep that from happening. And it wouldnt have been so bad if it was just there, but we major fighta because the state of georgia had the audacity to think they were going to take control of atlantas airport. Atlantas airport is the biggest airport in the world. For blacksa mecca because of the Atlanta Airport. , the development of Atlanta Airport, he is the hubwho made atlanta the that it is. So atlanta is a major hub and mecca for black life. It has 34 billion of revenue. Enerated black businesses thrive in the city of atlanta. Their intent to take over Atlanta Airport has nothing to do with corruption. It is about getting their filthy on 34n 34 million billion. It is about dismantling the black middle class. Wishssemblyman barron, i i could say what was happening in new york is happening in atlanta. But the white population in new york is increasing. The black the white population in atlanta is increasing. The black population in atlanta is decreasing. I will say again, nothing changes without pressure. Black folk have got to fight some, and i think protecting our race is worth fighting for. Believer that we have got to apply heat, but let me also say im a Firm Believer you have to also provide light. There are folk who do not want our people to see what is happening to us, and that is why it is important for black leadership that we have black leadership that has some character and some backbone, because we have got to help our people see what is happening to us. So if you ask me what our biggest challenge is, our challenge is to help our people to see. [applause] im going to talk about gentrification broadly. Is important to remember gentrification is a process that has been atthat least more than 30 years in the making. Gentrification is a process that includes disinvestment, reinvestment and displacement. Now historically, we know about displacement. I am jeffrey lowe. I was introduced earlier. Im a professor at Texas Southern university in urban planning and environmental policy. [applause] for the record. That disinvestment is based on and lack ofregation resources, redlining, blockbusting, and we know who benefited and they didnt look like us. Its based on White Supremacy and racism. What is different with the reinvestment from the past is that it is global, it is global capitalism. We have brazilians, asians, people from all over the world. They do not hold our values. They are not concerned about our improvement of quality of life. It is all grounded in capitalism, and all they are concerned about is making a dollar. Im talking globally, you cannot talk about gentrification, for example, in harlem or morningside heights, and not talk about white people who can no longer live on the upper west side. They are being pushed out, and they are pushing us out, and it is all about making the welltodo wealthier, and it is global. It is global. So the displacement we see happening, living in communities where housing value across the country in most black communities is four and five times higher than it has ever been. And it is because of that global investment. And our Public Officials are letting it happen. Our black middle class are letting it happen. And we have to hold ourselves accountable. We are complicit in it because we didnt put pressure on them to do anything different, and until we put the pressure on them and make the policy thates, and it is global, is the emergency we are talking about and that is the emergency that we need to address and take immediate action. [applause] willie barney, all the way from omaha, nebraska, center of the country. I want to share a couple of things. The first, the name of our organization is the africanamerican power network. The africanamerican Empowerment Network. Empowerment is not giving someone power. Empowerment is helping someone realize they had power the whole time. So if you have that power, the second word we focus on is collaboration. Kingell that out, dr. Talked about living on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. If you go city i city city by city, that is what we have been living in. In the city of omaha, and 2006 we had a 49 Graduation Rate for African Americans. We had a crime rate going out of control at the highest level ever. We collaborated, we brought africanamerican leaders from every sector together and developed our own plan. That plan brought together hundreds and then thousands of people to develop a revitalization plan from the community from the grassroots level. We developed our own plan and we put it into action. We took the communitybased plant to the city council, and were able to get a unanimous vote to approve the plan. It is now the master plan, but it was developed by the community and for the community. That is the first step. The other thing is, working in collaboration we have been able to address longterm issues that have been decades in the making. We were able to reduce gun violence by 88 in this area we have been focusing on. Graduation rate that was 49 and is now at 81 . [applause] we are moving the dial. The Unemployment Rate was 25 . We have been able to bring it down to 7 . It is not where it needs to be, but we are reversing those trends. Now we come to the third word, ownership. We must be in a position to own. We are building strategies and redeveloping our cultural [applause] , entertainment and Business Districts with the focus of owning the land with our partners. And when i say we, its a collaboration of over 500 organization including organizations including pastors, neighborhood groups, meeting every month to strategize on how we are empowered to change our own community. That is what we are focusing on in the city of omaha. [applause] i am sister frederick bay in support of the million man march in the jew Jersey Coalition for due process of law. The newon man march and Jersey Coalition for due process of law. I am feeling james brown good in the midst of all these powerful minds that have come together for one purpose, and that is to get back our stuff. Malcolm said it best. The fox is still, doing what . Guarding over the hen house. The fox is still guarding the hen house. Say, when theyn came and touched the mansion, the mayor, we came back from the million man march on fire. Us down there,d over 60,000 men from new jersey, the wall street journal said from newark, new jersey, and we came back on fire. We came back and we built a few things. And we had property and we taught children math and science. Dr. Roslyn wrote the curriculum. You understand. The folks due from the board of education in newark . What did Chris Christie do . And who owns that property today is audible. It is owned by amazon. They own that prime property dr. Jeffries talked about right now, so we know who the foxes are, and new jersey is new jersey. The judges on the foxes, and complicit. You go to the court, you dont even get to the court. , bank of wells fargo america, you name it. 2008 was the stock market crash. And some bailed out, folks said they had to be bailed out. I dont know, im not a politician, i know we were bailed on. [laughter] i know who benefited from that, it wasnt me and you. So in new jersey, foreclosure, that is what gentrification looks like. Thats what dr. Daniels talked Removal Program of the 21st century. The problem is predatory mortgages. The problem is fraud. Slavery was a fraud. What we are asking for, and what folks gave black governor murphy, Philip Dunstan murphy, 95 of our votes. 10should not have to ask months after for a moratorium on foreclosures. That is what we have been doing. A moratorium, thats right, thank you very much, on foreclosures. We thank god for assemblywoman tucker. 3119, that she issued. Before, Lieutenant Governor Sheila Oliver put the first bill in further moratorium on foreclosures. And she said, we know Chris Christie will not sign it. But the elected officials didnt dunstan wouldnt sign it either. The reality is he came from wall street. But i believed our elected officials. We are going to give him a chance. Now he needs to believe us and write that and issue that moratorium on or closures, mayor baraka, that should have been issued on the first request. Because new jersey is number one in foreclosures in the nation for how many years in a row . Three years in a row, the state of new jersey. So we know what the problem is. The problem is the banks andauding, toxic mortgages, taking our stuff after they have been paid. Insurance has already paid these banks. We dont oh them nothing. If we had a hud loan, hud already paid these mortgages. So they get the benefit of paidages that are already for. By the insurance, by hud. For trillionsem of dollars and then take our homes. We go to the courts and we evidencebased documents that says this is the law. Upholdwant you to do is it. Law. E process of so what weve asked what is very simple. Were asking for an executive order for a momentary on foreclosures in the state of new bleeding. Stop the assemblywoman cleopatra tuckers thembly bill 3119 for momentary on foreclosures and we need you to support us on this, yall. And lastly, were taxpayer, voting citizens that played by and we were defrauded as a result of the 2008 market when banks were bailed out, homeowners were preyed on toxic mortgages that continued to disproportionately devastate our community. Mor e solution is the momentary moratorium. Have bought and paid for. We dont beg for nothing, absolutely. So we need our elected officials, our clergy and call out the foxes the continue to guard over henhouse, black and white and all in between. Foreclosures are at the very the negro Removal Program of the 21st century theour hope is that solutions to foreclosures are included and ibews Marshall Plan and the model cities totiative as vehicles revitalize marginalized communities. To thank mayor at northcause we meet city hall every first and third thursday. Our next meeting is the 18th april, 2019. Thanks to Council President crop and mayor peraza. I want to again thanks our hamm for putting us on fire when we came back and all the brothers who went to the millionaire march. Stand and raise your hands because you all inspired us so much. My daughter, love you much, all right . But we can do this, yall. Do this. Weve done it before. Harriet showed us how. And again for radio, give her applause. Again, for radio, each panelist, reintroduce yourself. God bless everybody. Mcbride. S michael i am from oakland, california. Panther partyack for selfdefense. Yall, power, you say to the people. When i say all power, you say to the people. Power. To the people. All power. To the people. All right, all right. I also got to add, were the home of the soon to be three stateba champions golden warriors, god bless yall. All power [laughter] no three ways that gentrification [laughs] a long time coming, so i say amen, all right. Three ways gentrification has impacted us in the bay area, the the tech, the rise of industry. The influx of Tech Companies created aay area has massive displacement of working brownblack people, people, even middle class, poor white folks. If you are not a millionaire, literally, you cannot afford to home in the city where i was born and raised, san francisco. The rent is too damn high amen. Dy say you know when a preacher cuts, in trouble. Somebody say amen, right . 3,500 a month for a one bedroom . Apartment. A studio now, its oakland, 2,500 for a bedroom apartment. Tech industry has inequalityh wealth that literally no one can afford live there. If you did not have an apartment before 2012, you in to oakland, san francisco, or the bay area without at least 120,000 income. Two working, or single income. An apartment. Certainly cant buy no home. Industry. E tech we could say it shows us, the by racist governance white progressives. Everything i learned about White Supremacy i learned from white progressive people. [audience reacts] me now. T you to hear you need to break that down, brother. Spend a minute there. The things in the bay area are the way they are is not because of the tea party. Hmm progressives have governed bay area for decades. Black elected officials who lack courage, who do at feel like they can center black political agenda and win a Progressive Political coalition reason why gentrification is running rampant. Im just talking about the bay area. Cant talk about yall. Somebody say amen. Weak black religious institutions and cultural weanizations who forgot that the original people of the earth. [applause] and would rather serve a jesushaired blueeyed palestinianskinned jew who was born in a hood called nazareth, unjustly the criminal Justice System of his day and executed by the empire. Thatjesus, somebody say jesus that jesus. They dont know who that is. S and the third way gentrification mass us is the peoplelization of black by Law Enforcement agencies of Public Safety theirntinue to grow Police Budget even when crime is dropping. And i tell folks all the time, the progressives are not the politics or black politica black people. Now, they better than donald trump, somebody say amen. We not dumb up in here, thank me, doctor dans, he walked off the ledge one time because i was ready to blow this thing up. The we should not be illusions that white our friends. Are not under the control of republicans. Ordered the state who the National Guard and cracked all of our heads on the ground republican governor. The department of justice who i worked with for Michael Brown was killed and after, but in a of way, still could not convict cops who kill black people. President ur beloved language likeut thug to describe the Young Baltimore so we have vision an agenda and a that is clear about who our enemies are. Thats right, thats right. And how we will further. And ill talk about our the next goaround. Right. Already, the mike preach now. So i need you to be a little more brief and you said three to four minutes and im going to try to context. In a quick senior Vice President of the Rainbow Push Coalition. Certainly, i bring you greetings the reverend jesse lewis jackson, sr. You all at least appreciate his efforts because at almost 78 and publicly acknowledging that he has been parkinsons, he still does far more than most of us in this room. Right. s is so at least thank god that hes still doing something for of yall and all of us up in here. All right. So lets talk about gentrification because we keep its ag it around like name. System. Gentrification, i defined it as ofprietary spatial control black people, established by by force. Ined established bys law is because the law is not about rules. Its systemwe bring our value to the table and we plead with plantation owner, do the rightthing, but do the thing is a spike lee joint. Political philosophy. So we have been to tag another joint, but brother malcolms reminder, weve been bamboozled. And so in order to be ourselves, we think as black people, weve blackface to acceptable and then when white people put on blackface, stupid to be outraged, as if somehow or other, they can make it acceptable at any time in history that the mockery and ridiculing and caricaturing of black people is somehow acceptable. What i will say gentrification looks like where im pastor in baltimore city. The wire. He home of its the birthplace of thurgood marshall. Its the home of peron mitchell, finestloway, one of the arts districts to be found outside of harlem, new york. Down pennsylvania avenue. Our problem with gentrification like a badlooks attempt to play monopoly by checkers rules. Monopoly players in the room . All right. See how much yall know about monopoly. The last twows pieces of property that you can go. Before you pass parkhey are boardwalk and place. Im going to see what else you know. How many of you know your first places after you pass go and collect your 200 paycheck . Mediterranean avenue. Now, while we are picking pieces, trying to figure out whos going to be the thimble, cannon he cat, the the most important player in the bank because the money and ifls the youve ever played monopoly where it went too long, once you money the banker can then print more money, yall back to me to keep going. E so now, the process kind of flows like this. Some of us want to just live long enough to escape trespassing on park place and get ourk so we can check. We ignore baltic and get up inean until we a jam, hope we land on chance or mayunity chest because we need a get out of jail free card or help with the light bill. And the hustle goes Something Like this. Baltimorerday in city, our City Solicitor filed a lawsuit against the banks on behalf of the citizens inbaltimore because even their negotiating a bond rates, that theyy found out had scaled the cost of the bonds jurisdictions. Ck gentrification is not a thing just happens. It is a proprietary right and the one case in that started property law in the first place, and then ill leave it alone. Property law in the united a casewas established by called johnson v. Mackintosh or on how you mayng have studied it. There was a transaction where people hadous transferred a piece of property to someone absent a piece of deed. Called a there was another transaction ofut the same piece property, but because there was paper attached to there was a fight over who rightly owned it. The court made a determination of who had the legal interest in the parcel, they argued that the deed because it was established by not morals, had determined that the second buyer legitimatey the owner. And the second owner could then here it is inse the ruling, the right of by thisst inherited country tied to its birthright allows that the tarbtrary establishment of rules to spatially control land and the itre, the people on because if youre not on the property with permission and you dont own it, youre trespassing has now led to a system where now gentrification is keeping of townoes in the side where you supposed to stay because if you get caught on withoutce or boardwalk permission, your ass going to jail. There on the down end . Is that somebody yall know . Somebody yall know . [laughter] [applause] looked familiar. Power to the people. The people. Is it on . Can you hear me . Its on, doctor. Begin a discussion about gentrification, i think we examineant that theexamine the etymology of word. What is the root word of gentrification . Gentry. Who was the gentry . Gentry was the english word bouch becauseyg in england. Used interchangeably for land owners, but it was also used for the nations capitalists that was developing the word in gentrification its class nature. Another way of describing warfare. Ation is class it is the warfare of the rich against the poor. Another way of describing gentrification is ethnic cleansing. It is the removal of primarily and brown people from their communities and they are by other people and in people. Iod mostly white what does gentrification look like . Yourification is like when go away to college for four years, and you come back home yourou cant recognize community. Is multimillion dollar sports stadiums are built the downtown area subsidized dollars. s tax gentrification is when sparkling centers arerts constructed on the cemeteries of ancestors, as they are jersey,north new cemeteries so old that nobody remembers that they were even there. Gentrification is when the name is taken off a facility and a corporate name is the facility. When he went to philadelphia, station hadway wells fargos name on there. Gentrification is when you live in the hood and all of a sudden, blocks and blocks of the are replaced by condominiums, townhouses, that who live in the neighborhood cant afford to live in. Is when those townhouses and communities have put around them so that the people who used to live there cant even walk the community. Gentrification is when the schools you went to were public schools. Now, theyre closed and replaced charter schools. Gentrification on, come on. [applause] gentrification is when you shop, right . And now, they closed the shop, foods. And you got whole thats gentrification. Gentrification. Gentrification is when youre paying more than one half, maybe your takehirds of home pay to rent. Than 25 ld not be more of our income. Is so fitting that we have a jerseyere in north new on gentrification because newark the historical home of the largest in 1971, a brother named toby henry organized the people of a civil rights project to withhold their money until the elevators worked again, the lights were put back the urine was cleaned up in the stairwells, that apartments painted and the lead paint was removed from those apartments. That rent strike lasted over one the and if you want to know most powerful weapon to fight gentrification is tenants organizing and people organizing fight gentrification. [applause] how do we fight gentrification . Start from theto right perspective. Rightat is the perspective . Commodityng is not a simply to be bought and sold in the marketplace. Human right. For all people. All people have a right to decent housing and Affordable Housing. How do we fight . Barrettwith charles that we need a revolutionary transformation. The anniversary of the assassination of dr. Martin king. And if you read dr. Kings fifth book where do we go from here, chaos or community . In the chapter called the world what . Dr. King says he says we need a radical of power andn wealth in the United States and on to say we need a ourcal transformation of socioeconomic system. Thats a fancy way for saying, we need a revolution so we need a revolution, but its going to take us a while to the revolution. In the interim, we must fight reform. Tterm now, i know a lot of you middle dont caree in here about section 8, but a whole lot of our people get section 8 subsidies, and right now, donald puppet, bengh his carson, is trying to slash the section 8 program. Any budgetht against cuts in Public Housing and against the section 8 program. Furthermore, furthermore, we deal adequately with this problem, unless we get the rightwing dictatorship that currently house and thehite congress of the United States. Those are interim things that we have to fight for. Housing,o fight for for tenant rights. State, every town should have rent control. State, theyngton for statewidelaw rent control. ,e need to fight for that statewide rent control in every state where our people are. Now, i know some people dont hear this, because this means we have to intervene in the economic system. We have to intervene in the capitalist system, but im down with brother malcolm x. . Capitalist and ill find you a blood sucker. What did malcolm x. Say . That capitalism cannot exist andout racism, and racism capitalism are the two main drivinghat are gentrification. And let me finish up. Said, brother gentrification didnt just start. Gentrification, contemporary gentrification started after the 1960s. Gs of the thats when it started. Gentrification was one, when the interstate highway through the black community and blackd half the community. Ranrification was when they 78 through the south ward. Ranrification was when they 280 through the south ward. Gentrification was when they half of the black wards to build a university hospital. Back but howt goes do we fight gentrification . All right. Said, wether barrett need to elect revolutionary elected officials, but i tell you this, we need to build revolutionary organizations to hold those elected officials accountable. We just laid we just laid ken ken gibsonest, but came out of a process. Two weeks after the uprising of 1967 there was a black power conference in newark, new jersey. A year after that there was a black Power Convention at west kenny junior high school. A year after that, there was the black and puerto rican of 1970. N and out of that came the ken gibsonhoice, and was the mayor and got elected mayor. That was black power need to go back to this convention process like we did gary in 1972. Political agenda that includes a fight against and an economic bill of rights for a living housing as a human right, for healthcare for all, end to student debt and free tuition. Power to the people. All right. Larry. All right, so. Everybody okay . Gentrification, progress and cspan. All right. Solutions. Im going to request several individuals to talk about implementing, are working. That are first of all, dr. Jeffrey. Talk to us if you would about some solutions. Solutions. Me bring this to a spirit of process and Public Policy and i talk to you about this in a spirit of process and policy. In new jersey, three minutes . Oh, three minutes. All right, ill be quick. Be quick. Given the level of corporate and thats driving gentrification, and theyre really reconfiguring and redeveloping urban space, all thats where they can maximize, not only absorb maximize it. Its greed. Greed. Thei believe that many of have to be outside the realm. We need to begin to think of the realm ofside capitalism. We need to begin to think of ownership and wealth from less perspective tol a collective perspective. Country wet of the have cooperatives. In maybe black communities, we do not. They dont know what coops are, theyre not familiar with land trusts. These are institutions that not only move us closer to the availability of affordable and hopefully, in this right. Housing as a democracy,so build right . Because in the process is owned andly controlled. What thatone way and requires when we think about our to bringand im going the church in this for a moment, begin think about what stewardship really means, right . Notave a responsibility, just to ourselves, but to the generations that are coming make it better. An finally, because this is emergency, i believe that we back and demand and from ourely demand local governments because this localng to happen at the level, that we demand that any time a development is happening cities,ommunities and there must be a racial racial Impact Assessment that happens. An environmental Impact Assessment thats required for anything that has federal money and in most in most local places before they do development and environmental Impact Assessment happens. We need to do the same thing and inure the same thing happens our communities, to ensure that any development that happens makes it better for those of us ho are already in our community community. Thank you, dr. Jeffrey lowe, Texas Southern. Of newom the city orleans, ellen lee. Thanks. A couple of things that our for. Is fighting we talk about fair share, sodshake, fair share and theres a couple of examples. When our new orleans economy is still largely dependent on tourism, we need our hash tag fair share of the revenue thats generated from that industry so that we can support and in our neighborhoods and our people. Are renewing a tax, an existing tax that is disproportionately benefiting one institution, we need our fairshare to distribute that same tax in a new way that provides resources to take care of our parks and our Recreation Centers in all parts of the state so that even for people dont want to live downtown, they still have the quality of facilities that give them that same quality of life. When developers, if they dont want to have affordable communities,eir need ourt cool, but we hashtag fairshare of other resourceses that youre paying into our Affordable Housing can build thate Affordable Housing in other our city. We have been our fair share of hires, you have to procure goods and service from our businesses. Quickly, please. Quickly. Somebody say we are empowered. And the reason i wanted to opening is the mayor is contracts andand, other work. Other cities dont have that so you have a mayor and upinistration thats opening the door, but now, we have to walk through it collectively together, right . So we talked about collective investment and ownership. Have land in the community right now based on what im understanding that can be purchased if you work on it collectively and you can have a coop. You can have collective ownership and thats what were omaha is wenow in have specific, strategic lots buildings where we have that 70 ofke sure that is in good hands to make sure theres collective ownership. Other thing is all the different perspectives. In this roomeople are to come up like we did common agenda that was developed by the community for the community, theres no stopping can get done with the mayor that you have in place now. So first of all, you are empowered. You have the power to make the change, but you have to be andaborative, collective comprehensive. But develop your plan and go happen. Thank you, my brother. Omari a [reading names ] solutions. Solutions. As i said earlier, i want to on us not electing people like us, but people who think like us and us, right . Love also, we want to focus on and word is being said so much collective work and responsibility, right . Ujima. Collective work and responsibility. As servant leaders, we should design and defend, but we should design in concert with brothers and sisters, right . And i also want to talk about principle that were trying to implement and make jackson,ens in mississippi. As a part of the new african believingtalk about in community as family, right . Believing in the family and in the community, and then believing in the community as family and we used to live like that right . We used to lend a hand to our neighbors when they were in need. We used to collectively work to know. That barn, you we used to come to our neighbors its when there were that. And things like and now, we get behind our locked doors and we act as if we dont know each other. Has to change. We have to build collectively. Thank you. Thank you. Doctor . Solutions. Solutions, i want to suggest that we do this like we did in East New York. We started an Organization Called operation power. Organizing and working for empowerment and respect. That make history and revolution. Challenged did is we the entire Democratic Party club partye those democratic clubs controlled every black york, newin East New York city. So what we did, not only did we win the city council seat. We also won the assemble seat, leadership,emale the male leadership. Board. Rol the community we also control the judicial delegates. The local judge from that area, all came out of operation power. Because we did that, our first solution was the infrastructure. You not, youve got to come to East New York. Foreclosures . Yes. Do we have crime . Yes. Got three new 100 million schools built in East New York. Three new ones. A 15 million stateoftheart, twostory youth center and we got our a. T. Manup, inc. , brother mitchell, running the youth center, put pressure on the to give us 400,000 a year to run it. Have a new 36 million coming into East New York and theyre building it in somerea where there was africans buried on it. Them we want a Cultural Museum to honor our African People and were going to get it. We also was able to get a them what do you call mall, where shopping right . And one of the malls they tried in what is that place . Walmart. Theyre trying to bring in walmart. Youre notharles, going to stop walmart. Stopped walmart. We said get out of here and we from East New York who has space in there and he fusionestaurant called east and he was able to get that because we had a movement that that. Ed we also made sure that in all of got librariese fixed up, we got computer labs, Recording Studios in our schools. Studios, 500,000 and in East New York, where could and get a new apartment, one bedroom apartment making 16 25,000 a year for 550 a month rent . In East New York . In East New York. Thats a solution. [applause] solutions, moving quickly. Very quickly, a couple of think we need to look at. I dont see the mayor. He is. As opportunity zones are expanded, make sure theres the application of utility section 3 under the hud act ecause it allows for either recipients of public assistance ovechkiners vouchers or those live in an area where there is Public Housing and the being you can actually help with cher to establishing equity. That again. Say remember section 3, not just 8. Ction we want hud section 8 to be applied. Once the loans are paid back, track them and make sure those are not redeployed to exclusive projects that you uptown as well as downtown so we can make sure baltic avenue and mediterranean avenue have just they need just like park place. Pastor mike, quickly please. To organize the religious leaders, organize a safety agenda beyond policing and prison. Need to become frontline frontline public specialists, who can intervene on the streets using intervention so we do not have to depend on the in our o create peace communities. Our churches are strategically on every block of every black neighborhood in the country. As an outpost of eace making, Mental Health healing processing, black open up our have to prevention blic violence prevention. Great people, erica ford, shes one of our specialists in this regard. People that will help come train you all across the country. Can do. Ne solution we it will decrease Police Budget can reinvest the savings from Police Budget into housing, schools, and into parks. [applause] julian, solutions. One of the things from a must perspective, we focus on the tax system. We behave as if the tax system we have to accept the tax law that passed in 2017 transfer of being in from the poor to the wealthy. We saw that this year when get the tax refunds we thought they were going to get. Were talking about organizing. We have to organize around tax code and stock transfers. Us do not have any stocks. Aside for some kind of community development, that will be something. About Government Programs and we have a hearing and people say, how are you for it . Pay to the he tax code wealthy pay their share. We are seeing workingclass nonworkingclass a welt gap at wealth gap. The top 1 were etter off at the end of the recession, the bottom 18 were the off at the end of recession. I ask that we focus on taxation. Thank you. Panelists doctor daniels asked me to me to share sked solutions. Please give all of our panelists applause. [applause] dont go anywhere. Were scheduled to have the mayor come forward at 9 30, and are just it is 9 31, so were right on time. So as our brother comes forward, and you know, some of the and brothers talked bout now serving leadership, talked about and, again, he would be a t he mayor. We were young. Were kids, but a lot of times us who are black nationalists and revolutionaries, when some of us want to go into public service, of selling out. It is a complicated thing. It takes courage to stand up and for office as a black revolutionary. Way thatyou do it in a ister sophia has described and get under your people and lift them up, it makes a difference. On your feet and welcome the mayor of the city of new jersey. [applause] i want to thank, honor to ron daniels. Who do that, please, seriously while a lot of us talk a good game, hes been many, in his work for many years, and many people didnt know weve been having is maybe our second or third time. This is our third time here in bringingof newark, and people from all over the country to debate and talk about issues, right. It dont necessarily mean we agree, but we have the courage discuss, and thats important. And i heard somebody up here enemies. T friends and so it is important, and i said in this morning, it is important understand that, you know, sometimes we may agree ith our enemies, but they will always be our enemies. And sometimes were going to with our friends, but we cant treat our friends like our enemies. And i want to use it this as a matter of talking about abouting my father talked which is unity and struggle. Say it is alive and well and people will be andted in places to destroy disrupt what it is the work that people are actually trying to right. And im aware and very clear on 100 . At the end of the day unity and struggle means we have to have right to struggle and unite to things on a higher level. Cant hang out with racists because youre mad at one of your friends. You cant say i disagree with you on a policy and because you on a policy, go stand with a racist to go me because we disagree on policy. Now youre either confused or work for another entity that has not been revealed and it needs to be clear. Begin talking about keep in mind the people are not always fighting for ideas. Things or ghting for the things in anyones heads. They are fighting to live better peace, to see their lives go forward and guarantee a future for their children. Talking about ideas, the fight is over material many we have to understand that we have allies, right. If we fight in a fight with our fight in a fight we cant win. From tell no lies. E cant lie and act like were winning. There may be successes, but collectively were losing. Collectively around the country were losing. Say youre who you with, we have been losing. What has been the collective get us out of the condition were in, protracted next next step and the step and0 do we have the courage to struggle with one another and unite around larger issues . I said this morning there are ten things we might put on a of paper, we disagree with quit two and six and we or were at odds because we and six, but two we agree on the eight other things. To be sophisticated as the United States congress who who e with one another, when it is over they the point is we have to be enough to ed understand that when people are putting things forward our job things more ose effective not get in the way of it happening. Not destroy it. Apart. L it and everybody up here will have different this is a great panel up here. Awesome, awesome, awesome panel up here. [applause] awesome. I do want to say it push back on a few things and a few things i think are solutions. Belief that conditions organize people. People organize people. That in our slogan, it is important to know and everybody organizes, they organize every single day. They organize in good times and times. They organize when the heat is on them and when things are great. Thingse to organize when are great so you will be prepared when things are bad, right. Beatingn newark, and so people up dont necessarily give them trength except get beat up. It is important to organize people and organizing takes work. It doesnt take opportunity. You cant go to somebody elses to organize the people coming out of that event get them to got to yours. Ut cant go to somebodys event disrupt their event because you cant create an event of your own. Then you ask, why cant you get eople come listen to you since youre talking the right stuff. Why arent people following you . Takes work to get to that place. It is not going to happen simply angry. E you get people im not trying to organize people to be angry. To beying to organize you smart. Nger doesnt get people organized, clarity gets them arguized. Hen youre clear, youre organized and when youre angry, ou do things in spite of yourself. It is important to be clear on what were talking about. An cant call yourself activist if you dont know anyone. Activism. T studied if you you cant be a revolutionary if you dont know revolutionary. You havent read one book about revolution, but you run around and tell people youre these things. Want to be a mathematician, you have to study math. You want to be a revolutionary, you have to study you ution, if you dont, will make the same mistakes over and over and over again, you and attack your allies an allow your enemies to go free. So and what happens is once you destroy one another, the enemies come up the middle win. Hey and thats been happening to us for centuries. Havent been smart enough to learn our learn whats going on yet. Figured it out yet. Right. So you dont have to agree with here. Ody in this you dont. With u your agreement people shouldnt be a them. Quisite to unite with anybody who tells you in order to be with me, you have to agree say, it is ing i narcissist. If they are narcissist, you to unite with them. At the end of the day, all we agree with are the overarching principles and we that and getaround to the end goal. I dont agree with everybody in love them and were together. Something, imays going to get it done. Something, it is attention that we need. That struggle is important for us. Struggle have that but it has to be based on principle. It cant be based on me trying what youve got. It cant be based on a personal difference that i have. I dont be based on like you as an individual. It cant be based on all of these different things. Struggle has to be a principled struggle. People want selfdetermination, they just dont want to do the work and they dont have to have the responsibility. It is easy to put the responsibility on two people and criticize the two people because what you t do exactly needed them to do but youre not involved in any of it at all. Back and the side and criticize what failed to be responsible for the work. Ou have to get involved and thats emma parker brown, you soldiers doing the work of eight and then the two soldiers on the side eight. Ning about the get involved and be a part of the ten so ten people can do ten of work. Worth thats what needs to happen, right. Decade talking about a decades of gentrification hat took place before most of you were even born. Well, some of you. [laughter] about stuff ing that began post world war ii, ight, when they began to to defund or deinvest in these circles aroundaw them, subsidize people to go to create rbs, begin to roads so people could get welt communitied. In the they in the communities. They did this purposefully and these things where they said they were going to invest in the community and left years so you for vacant lots. Of 1967. Have been there since they tore slots of land down and disininvested in the community and so now theres no wealth in the community. Idea that gentrification has a color, it is not true. [applause] people gentrification is part force that exists in capitalism. Lowbeing in f the housing lowincome housing in and im is 3,000 charging 700, those who cant find their oing to way to this side. 700, now not charge them i can charge 1,700. Market controls that and that is a primary function of capitalism. Our job is to mitigate that. How do you get in the way of that o make sure that doesnt crush people . That youre not throwing people out. What. When people say they came back to the community and it looked different, it should look different. Let me tell you why. I grew up i grew up in newark real, right. We didnt have theres there was not even a sitdown restaurant, lots, abandoned buildings, housing thats been 40 years. Or 30, it should look different. Things should change, right. Do they uestion is how change and where do you get the wealth from to change that . Think most of us have been focused on the downtown areas because what happens is when these cities come back because to the trending back cities, people say i want to move in the cities, it is next to the train station, people are moving back. To figure out what do we need to do in our neighborhoods. Live downtown. Most of us dont live downtown. Arguing about buildings they are building downtown, your neighborhood mess. A we need to extract wealth to evelop the neighborhoods and get minorities and Young Developers to develop things and same at property at the time, right. [applause] heres a few things. I had the pleasure of sitting in a meeting a week ago with three africanamerican men who attend our mens meetings. They joined and formed a at the meeting. At the meeting. Right. Meeting. It at the thats empowerment. I dont care what nobodys talking about. Did tt a the meeting they did it at the meeting. Developers h other and identified three or four pieces of property they are to develop themselves, but because there is a law that says to have a minority he could developer, they sat there codeveloper, they sat there as the principal of the property folks couldnter get the deal done. While youre yelling and are ming, those three boys building in their community and they are going to be able to build property in the they were born and raised. Ou want to fight gentrification, own some damn property. Glad i was able to sit in that room. The other two pieces is were ribbon next month in the city of newark that we identified an from the south in this country well, the midsouth. Brought him up here. It is called freedom paper. Freedomou brothers know paper. We paid him a consultant fee to develop a paper company. We invested in building the training d we are warehouse and we are training to run and own that coop. From get a loan midmidsized companies and pay the profit they loan off of a small interest to the city off nd own the business in perpetuity. Coops and ownership is the stop ing of how to gentrification. You have to begin to stop it. Talk about inclusion ordinary inclusion ordinary, it is a tool. It is a tool designed, especially if you have what the affordable in Housing Trust fund. Because our people are not downtown. I dont care how long you fight and march, they dont want to be down here. Are too big. S they have real families, and not yells who millennials, they dont want to live downtown. Dont want to live next to unsafe conditions. They want their neighborhoods fixed up. Extract wealth and force them to put it in tomunities where people live get the young three brothers who will build the properties and have a gap in their financing to take the money so project and ull tell them they need to charge this amount of rent. A land r pieces have base or land trust. To city of newark begins create its own land bank that were waiting to do. The land bank allows us to property that we have and begin it to to use we think it should be used for and not give it to he speculators who buy the property up and flip it and sell prices. Orbitant and then you partner the land bank with a land trust. Allows us to identify parts of the city and say this part of to be y is going affordable in perp tu itty. In perpetuity, we will get to available. Be we can do it but you have to have a mind to build. Control. Rent you hear people, rent control. Ewarks had rent control for a long time. When i was a legitimator, we is lator, we dge strengthened it. One of the strongest rent control in the city of newark. There are other ways that landlords navigate around it and not to be involved by not registering their properties, hat means we have to be aggressive. I argue with people who say the rent control has to be bad. Help me register them. An your organization to come out you want to have a that. G, lets meet about we gettogether, get 15 of us, identify the buildings aint registered and all the city and say these aint registered and this is the money they owe. Is revolutionary activism. Buildings are not registered. Knock on ur laurels, doors and say these buildings are not registered. Thats what you should do. What shoulding happening. Should be happening. Job n, our fundamental after rent control and all of those other pieces that i talked also necessary for us to make sure that people in our have wealth. [applause] they have to have wealth. Dont have wealth, then theres no selfdetermination. Your own determine destiny without no resources. Resources, have no you have no destiny. If you dont have no wealth in how are your kids going to eat . Ou have to go to the bread line. If you dont have a decent education, you have to depend on other people. Is important for us to build wealth in our community. Thats why it is important. And the brother said something very, very deep about diverting Police Agencies to other organizations. Out erica ford who 136 million in new york city funds that was organizing do street in their community. When she was organizing and rotesting, she took that and turned it into Something Real to give people real opportunity in heir community and keep them alive longer. We had a meeting in newark a few weeks ago with the organizations in this town who are doing get native police work to them to unite together in something called the brick city collectors. We even had rutgers hospital there. Right. Because there was a doctor at rutgers hospital who treated a the back. Ot in they referred him to the street get a g. E. D. After that. And so we need to follow the on thered whats going and so were having a meeting ext week with the Police Agencies in newark to say we need 1 to 5 of your funding to diverted to a fund that will und these organizations to do alternative police work, newark solutions, newark street academy, newark youth court. All of these things that exist already. Ity were doing that and that helps empower people at the same time. Gentrification thing is difficult, folks. I want you to know that. It is difficult. Was as simple we could ave our hands and it would go away, a lot of hands would be waved already. It is a difficult thing, communities that have no resources, who depend on dump to come there and resources on them. If they do that, most of the they dont do what they say they are going to do. You fight them for years to do that they had no intention of doing in the first place. Opportunities to create wealth for ourselves so we can do the things ourselves were depending on other people to do for us. Look, we dont want the streets to contract it. Ourselves. Do it people are fighting against that. E dont want to spend 10 million to outside contractors. We want to clean the buildings ourselves. To spend a whole bunch of money to pick up our up our we want to pick garbage. We dont want we can hire our people. Yes, theres a learning curve yell and have to scream at each other to do the right thing because selfhatred alive and well. To fight with each other to get it right. Relinquish our right to selfdetermination because were angry or we feel to do it not going right anyway. Some people wasnt cleaning up in the first place, you didnt Pay Attention to it youre focused n because the mayor took the contracts away. People say the streets arent clean. They werent clean ten years ago. Now that were saying we want to buy our own damn street sweepers hire our own people to clean our streets, now were focused n our streets, we have to have more discipline than that. We have to have more discipline than that. Thats just a fact. I dont care if youre angry or mad because your anger and your madness is not new. You can be angry and mad all you want. You need to be what you need to do is be organized. [applause] organize, organize, organize. If you aint in an organization, o out and yell and scream at the wall. You by yourself is not an organization. Ou going to meeting yelling by yourself is not an organization. Aint no damn organization either. [laughter] down. M going to sit listen, i was involved in some at a stuff and i was debate and somebody got up and said, the mayors got an organization, they are looking me like im a power broker. That because it took me 20 damn years to build an organization. Thats why. That i have an organization. Im happy that ive got an organization. And waser i had 10,000 frying chicken in my mothers tose in order to raise money run for office when i was 20 years old involved in the and these streets with no Organization Going against of the he money and all people. Im glad ive got an organization and im glad i i listened because to kwame. And more importantly, i know who kwame is. [applause] you cant be no organizer you aint read nothing. You cant be Walking Around you aint people if read a damn thing. Got to youve got to read all of the time. I learned how to read and study. Me i dont got to agree with you. House is democratic. I dont care if youre the mayor i dont got to agree with you. She says that to this present day. With you. T to agree youve got to convince me. Your yelling wont convince me. You cant call me names and thats going to convince me to do something. Youve got to struggle with me youve if you love omebody, you want to struggle with them. Dont say you love them, but you dont want to struggle with them. With me. I struggled with my mother and brothers and sisters because i them. And if you put your hands on hem, i will hurt you and we disagree with one another all the time, but at the end of the and i love these brothers sisters. A oved ron, who criticized few things going on in the city. I love the brother, but he has a right to do that. Amy called me to complain about things to take place, dont be outside fighting the helppeople who are here to you get to the place that you want to get to. [applause] the last thing, i promise, i was at in oakland at the event. Brothers keepers they was talking about president obama. President obama wasnt even there. Point is there was a whole bunch of black and brown the country, over even native americans, giving us beautiful , it was a things. They were talking about criminal Justice Reform. Protesting, iside said how is this helping to organize those boys in there . Them u disagree with fighting criminal Justice Reform . You have more in common with youre so focused on barack obama, youre forgetting there that ople in need to beized. F you that need to be organized if you were in there you wont have time to talk barack obama. Youre reoccupied with him because youre an opportunist you think talking about obama will give you attention. You would have a better chance discussing eeting going back and forth and struggling with the ideas and over to he brothers your side and let them understand what the larger struggle looks like. Dont forget our enemies are our enemies, and our friends are our friends. Our allies and our enemies are our enemies. Unite with our allies enemies te with our against our allies. And you cant ever, ever leave allies out there by themselves because you have a problem. And im not say not struggle with them. Cats and them like dogs, but when the fight is over, you love them. When youre finished you say this is the law. People ask e out, you what happened, i dont know what happened in there, but i happening here. Anybody thats opposed to unity is [inaudible] anybody thats Operation Unit is involved in a ounterintelligence program, ither objectively or projectively or subjectively disrupt y get paid to stuff. He organized in a situation when went out, people put their hands on their hips. Ever romanticize struggle. I saw my father beat by the my whole front of family in the streets of new york city. At stified at ten years old a trial when they arrested my ad for a charge he didnt even do. He was convicted of inciting a by reading his poem in a courtroom during a new york rebellion. White up not off of snow nd the seven dwarfs, i grew up fact. Ats just a and if you cant organize with each other then chk your ego at the damn door. Either check your ego at the or give the people back their money. Moneyhe people back their because some of you all are taking some money. Youre talking about the elected officials, some of you people out there are taking some money. Back. T give it back. Give it back. With all of us together. Thats it. Again, ron aise, daniels. You know, this is the third year that hes done this in newark. Just discovered this was happening this year. That responsibility for and some of the folks in here that was supposed to advertise, much ted to get it out as as we can. This is a beautiful room. Theres beautiful folks in here. Love you all. E want you to move forward, gentrification and all of the things we talked about cant be defeated by one person. Not one person up here smart enough to do it by ourselves. You were smart enough to do it ourselves, were lying. We cant do it by ourselves. We have to do it collectively. Collectively. Collectively. I would you rather you come to my house and ring my bell and struggle with in a Conference Room than be outside. Set up a meeting at 9737334312. We could have a real debate if youre serious about the things you want to see happening in the city. God bless you. [applause] the house will be in order. Been 40 years cspan has providing america with unfiltered coverage of the white ouse, the supreme court, and Public Policy events from washington, d. C. And around the ountry so you can make up your own mind. Created by cable in 1979. Brought to you by your local cable or satellite provider. Cspan, your unfiltered view of government. Over the weekend several 2020 president ial candidates Rainbow Push Coalition convention in chicago. The candidates talked about inequality, health care, and criminal Justice Reform. Irst well show you senator elizabeths remarks