Harlem residents fight to save site where Malcolm X spoke,

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compromise! Columbia University, Dec. 5, and collecting the names of hands off the Audubon!" This chant numbers of people who are willing to reverberated throughout the streets of face the bulldozers when Columbia militant Black youth, and Columbia said privately that the university will University students converged on the destroy the Audubon Complex over Audubon Ballroom/San Juan Theatre Christmas break, when students are Complex to protest the university's home tor the holidays. Most students, plans to raze most of the complex and however, are outraged at the university Residents tear that such a tacility will ronmental racism.

In addition, they are outraged that the tion has been formed at Columbia It building where Malcolm X spoke, includes the Earth Coalition, the Black formed the Organization of Afro-Amen- Students Organization, and other can Unity, and was assassinated is groups, They are planning a rally on going to be destroyed by the hated local campus at 12 noon on Dec. 3.

The participants in the rally-orga- Malcolm X Save the Audubon Coalinized by the Save the Audubon tion, Box 1047, Harlem, NY 10037. Coalition and the December 12 Move- Phone (212) 781-0899 The Bernardment are determined to save 100 Columbia coalition may be reached at percent of the Audubon Complex, as (212) 923-9475.

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sions, which represented some of the most important indicators in Malcolm X's political development, the movie still works as an anti-capitalist vehicle because it has an explicitly pro-Black nationalist message.

In that vein it would be a mistake to view this movie with any preconceived notion of what the conclusions should be.

What Spike Lee does do exceptionally well is depict Malcolm X for what he basically was: A militant, uncompromising fighter for Black liberation by any means necessary—who taught Black people that to win freedom they had to fight for it.

But Lee also gives us the private side of the man; how much he loved his family; his tortured anguish during the split with the Nation; the pressure he felt while living under the constant threat of assassination; the harassment from the U.S. government.

Lee documents and Denzel Washington portrays convincingly the frenzied pace of Malcolm X's last year—buying as much time as he could to build an independent Black political organization.

Some critics on the "left" have criticized the movie because they say it gives the impression that Malcolm was moving politically closer to "moderate" positions; that he was evolving towards the reformism and non-violence of Rev. Martin Luther King and others because he proposed to work in a united front with any Black organization that was involved in a struggle. Nothing could be further from the truth, and if the movie is ambiguous on this it's because of Lee's reliance on Haley's epilogue.

Malcolm X told Haley how he interpreted his offer to other civil rights organizations:

"I'll explain it this way, sir. If some men are in a car, with a destination in mind, and you know they are going the wrong way, but they are convinced they are going the right way, then you get into the car with them, and ride with them, talking-and finally when they see they NEW YORK-"No Sellout! No Harlem on Nov. 28 About 175 community residents, build a biotech center.

have dangerous effects on their bealth.

slumlord-Columbia University, are on the wrong road, not getting where they were intending, then you tell them-and they will listen to you then-what road to take."

An ongoing discussion Spike Lee's "Malcolm X" will probably be seen by nearly every Black person in the United States. You can add to those numbers millions of other oppressed nationalities-like Latinos-and millions of white people, especially youth.

For that reason alone, Spike Lee has made an invaluable contribution to the discussion on the life and ideas of Malcolm X. The movie will whet the appetites of young people to learn about Malcolm said, "by any means necessary, They are planning a demonstration on sends them.

Columbia university officials have administration's historic acts of enviA diverse "Save the Audubon" coaliFor more information, contact the Malcolm X in his own words. What did he really say in his many speeches and interviews, especially during his last year alive? What did others, those who loved him and those who hated him, say about him?

It is for this reason that the faint praise that Malcolm X, the movie, has received in the capitalist press is still offset on the same page by slanderous attacks against Malcolm X, the man.

When the movie opened, associate editor A.S. Ross of the San Francisco Examiner wrote a scathing article questioning the veracity of both the book and the movie.

"Are we being given a reasonably accurate measure of the man—or a mythical portrait, an idealized mannequin, whose importance in death far outweighs the "Malcolm: The Life of a Man Who Changed Black America." This is a book that activists in the Black community consider to be a blatant character assassination of Malcolm X. (See "New Malcolm X Biography Slanders the Man and His Ideas," by Roland Sheppard in the February 1992 issue of Socialist Action.)

But the real reason for Ross's concern is stated in the middle of the article:

"According to a Newsweek poll, Malcolm X is a hero to 84 percent of African Americans aged between 15 and 24. ... If we do not look more closely behind the myth and learn from Malcolm's shortcomings as well as his strengths, the film will do more harm than good."

Ross would do much better if he examined the myth of American democracy and prosperity to understand why Malcolm X won't die.

To paraphrase the words of Victor Hugo concerning the assassination of the French revolutionary Jean-Paul Marat:

"They say Malcolm is dead. No. Malcolm is not dead. Put him in the Pantheon or throw him in the sewer; it doesn't matter-he's back the next day. He's reborn in the man who has no job, in the woman who has no bread, in the girl who has to sell her body, in the child who hasn't learned to read; he's reborn in the projects in Harlem; he's reborn on the streets of Watts; he's reborn in the unheated tenement; in the wretched mattress without blankets, in the unemployed, in the working class, in the brothel, in the prison, in your laws that show no pity, in your schools that give no future ... Oh, beware, human society: You cannot kill Malcolm until you have killed the misery of poverty, the scourge of racism."

Gulf War resister, TAHAN JONES, remains in prison at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Frlends and supporters can send their hollday greetings to this courageous Black fighter for a world of peace to: Corporal Tahan Jones, USMC :Soclal Security # 564 43 9553 Confinement Facility, Marine Corps Base, Camp LeJeune, NC 28542