New York mayoral race: Dinkins campaign derails anti-racist movement

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David Dinkins (center) flanked by Harlem Congressman Charles Rangel NEW YORK—The Martin Luther King Day rally each January has been a good place to pause and assess the state of the anti-racist movement here.

Last year's demonstration was unusual; it was animated by red-hot struggles for justice for victims of specific acts of racist violence. In particular, the struggle for justice for the victims of the lynching at Howard Beach, Queens, gave the anti-racist movement a sense of its own power.

This year, likewise, there has been no scarcity of cases waiting to be championed by the anti-racist movement. Unfortunately, this year's event had a pronounced electoral emphasis. Prominent on the speakers' list were those urging that the number-one task of activists in the year ahead is to "Dump Mayor Koch."

The marchers were given a campaign rally for David Dinkins, Manhattan borough president and highest ranking Black official in New York City, who has announced his candidacy for mayor. Activists were urged to register 250,000 new voters for Dinkins "in the spirit of the civil rights movement in the 1960s."

The civil rights movement One of the central insights of the reawakened anti-racist movement in New York since 1986 has been the recognition of the need to bring the civil rights movement of the South to the northern cities.

To listen to Dinkins and his supporters at the rally, the victory of the civil rights movement was due to its support by Democratic Party politicians. But the civil rights movement won everything it fought for by militant struggle-legendary sit-ins, freedom rides, and protest marches—not by lobbying Democrats.

"We cannot depend on any political party, for both the Democrats and Republicans have betrayed the basic principles of the Declaration of Independence," wrote John Lewis, head of the student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, in a speech for the August 1963 March on Washington that was suppressed by the march organizers.

Given the existence of a mass movement against Jim Crow that threatened to go beyond the bounds of Democratic Party politics, President Kennedy acceded to the March on Washington-and then only to be better able to control it.

The "Chicago example"

Another theme harped on at the Martin Luther King rally was the need to emulate the "Chicago example." In 1983, Democrat Harold Washington became Chicago's first Black mayor.

"The example of Chicago" is indeed worth examining. If the Chicago campaign of 1983 is any indication, Dinkins will face a racisi campaign waged against him by his chief campaign rival—a racism fostered and perpetuated by the Democratic machinc Dinkins has been loyal to all his life.

Mayor Edward Koch, who since 1977 has built a base among white ethnic groups on the basis of fighting affirmative action and "poverty pimps," has recently been exposed as a patronage pimp for white-owned businesses and Democratic Party hacks. Koch's policies have been instrumental in creating a climate where racially motivated incidents like the 1986 Howard Beach lynching are on the rise.

But if "the Chicago example" is any indication, mobilizing on behalf of Dinkins will be a trap for working people. Dinkins' running on the Democratic Party ticket is a pledge in advance that he will serve the interests of the banks and corporations-not workers, the poor, and the homeless.

This is the reason why big-business newspapers like the Chicago Tribune, the Sun Times, and Crain's Chicago Business endorsed the Washington campaign. For the same reason, The New York Times and Newsday have already written favorably about Dinkins in the first few weeks of his candidacy.

The first big test One task of New York City's next mayor will be to administer the biggest round of cutbacks since the city's budget crisis of the mid-1970s. At stake are the jobs of thousands of city workers and the maintenance of many vital city servicesincluding fire protection, childcare, drug-treatment programs, and education.

Mayor Koch has already announced a $480 million shortfall for the coming year, due to reduced state aid by Governor Cuomo as well as the loss of anticipated tax revenue due to the October 1987 stockmarket crash.

One of the first big tests for Dinkins and his supporters came at a "Campaign for a People's Budget Conference" held at Hunter College on Feb. 4. The event, attended by 800 people, was sponsored by the New York State Rainbow Coalition. and Mrs. Dinkins In a manner strikingly similar to that of Martin Luther King Day, the conference was orchestrated like a Dinkins campaign rally by Democratic Party supporters behind the scenes. But Dinkins' speech to the gathering didn't even criticize Governor Cuomo, let alone the banks and corporations whose profit drive is the source of the budget crisis.

"I didn't work this hard and register all those people and walk all those miles doing Rainbow work to have somebody whose views I don't agree with walk in and think he's got it made," said one activist in an article on the conference in The City Sun, a Black weekly.

Yet this is the terrible logic of the Rainbow's "inside/outside" strategy with regard to the Democratic Party.

Anti-racist activists now face the grim prospect of any demonstrations over the next year being subordinated to the agenda of electing Dinkins. A similar situation is faced by trade unionists, housing, and AIDS Amsterdam News activists.

Given this prospect, some activists may withdraw from electoral politics, instead of devoting themselves to work around single issues. Of course, mass mobilizations are needed on a whole range of single issues.

But the situation points to another lesson as well. Anti-racist activists need an independent Black political party they can truly call their own, a party that educates, agitates, and mobilizes in their interest 365 days of the year-every year.

The entire course of events since the Howard Beach protests—from the struggle for justice for Tawana Brawley to the recent maneuvers with regard to the New York mayoral elections-points to the fact that this party must be independent of the big-business interests of the Republicans and Democrats.

Some 25 years after the March on Washington, the suppressed portion of that speech by John Lewis retains its burning relevance.

city of Hawthorne.

Mark Dickey, a white cop, pushed Jackson's head through a plate-glass window after he had been stopped for an alleged traffic infraction. The victim was then charged with resisting arrest.

However, an NBC television crew had filmed the incident. The TV crew and Jackson were attempting to get on film an instance of police abuse, which has been prevalent in Long Beach.

Police and city officials attempted to deny what took place, but the proof on film was too damning. Officer Dickey was forced under oath to disown his report. Yet this has not stopped the city from continuing to prosecute Jackson for resisting arrest.

The rally backers are calling for a community review committee that would monitor police behavior and have the power to make decisions against officers charged with abuse. They also demand that Dickey, his partner, and the Long Beach police chief be fired.

In a related event the next day in Hollywood, 500 supporters of Don Jackson raised $15,000 for legal costs. Entertainment