00:00:12 Kurt B. Young begins the 18th Annual Walter Rodney Symposium titled: Democracy Under Duress, and introduces the first panel titled "Walter Rodney: Human Rights and Decolonization".
00:02:50 Zophia Edwards begins to moderate the panel, and introduces the panelist Ajamu Baraka.
00:06:45 Ajamu Baraka talks about the Walter Rodney project, epistemological decolonization, Africans and the exploited thinking for themselves, and throwing off the shackles of colonized knowledge. He approaches the question of human rights through decoloniality, realizing human rights through social revolution, people centered human rights, and human rights framework including demands for clean water, safe and accessible food, free and equal education, healthcare, housing, public transportation, wages and productive jobs, ending of mass incarceration, universal free childcare, opposition to war and control, and elimination of the police, self-determination, and respect for democracy. He mentions that such human rights can only be realized through a bottom-up mass movement for building popular power to seize and transform The State and build a socialist alternative.
00:28:29 Zophia Edwards introduces panelist: Nick Estes.
00:30:37 Nick Estes talks about decolonization and human rights, the Red Power protests by American Indians, indigenous people, colonialism, American Indian Movement, and pathways for formal legal decolonialization for American Indians within the U.S. He highlights the permanent statelessness for indigenous people within the colonizer state (the U.S.) and the future for indigenous studies. He notes that the U.S. has no future.
00:47:53 Zophia Edwards introduces panelist: Charisse Burden-Stelly.
00:50:05 Charisse Burden-Stelly talks about Walter Rodney and his advocacy for people centered around human rights, decolonization and anti-colonialism as a matter of Human Rights. She talks about people centered healthcare, healthcare workers being rooted in the communities, and the public health work of Dr. Patricia Rodney. She suggests people think of Dr. Patricia Rodney when they think of Dr. Walter Rodney.
01:06:08 Zophia Edwards begins the Q&A segment. She poses the first question to the panelist from the audience: Can you all talk about books on settler colonialism that were influential in your own work?
01:07:09 Charisse Burden-Stelly responds to the question and talks about reading Nick Estes work on settler colonialism.
01:07:29 Nick Estes responds to the question and highlights his reading
01:08: 23 Ajamu Baraka responds to the question with his additional content from emerging scholarship out of Latin America and decolonial scholars.
01:09:14 Zophia Edward poses the next question to the panelist from the audience: In regard to radical intellectuals: Malcolm X said,
01:10:13 Ajamu Baraka responds to the question and talks about what we must do as a reemerging radical movement, reembracing the internationalist perspective, and reviving a dynamic Black internationalist revolutionary project.
01:12:55 Zophia Edward poses the next question to the panelist from the audience: Who gets defined as indigenous and does it include people in Africa?
01:13:09 Nick Estes responds to the question and notes that indigenous is self-defining as a collective not as an individual. He adds that indigenous is not an exclusive toward American Indians and according to the United Nations definition, it is a permanent statelessness. He mentions that the indigenous includes the people of Africa.
01:15:01 Zophia Edward poses the next question to the panelist from the audience: Does this mean African-American terminology is moribund? If we are in fact American, why are we still fighting for civil and human rights? Are we seeking a capitalist hierarchical power or are we seeking a modern approach revisiting the cultural systems in various indigenous pre-European societies conquering the world to seek and apply for arrangements for organizing our futures between one another?
01:15:47 Charisse Burden-Stelly responds to the question and talks about the African-American term being related to our location in America and that the hyphenated name is meant to succor people who have been subjected to American violence to the nation State in ways that undermine our Pan-Africanism, nationalism, global outlook, and mollify their challenge to dismantle the State. She suggests that it would benefit Black people to delink themselves from the African-American nomenclature because America has no future.
01:17:33 Ajamu Baraka responds to the question and speaks about colonialism and the working class. He suggests that the relationship between the pan-European colonial capitalist white supremist project and the rest of us, has to be seen as the centerpiece of our oppositional politics. He notes that what we call ourselves is insignificant, we are in the process of self-definitions, and we are African people a part of the anti-colonial African struggle.
01:20:05 Nick Estes responds to the questions and talks about indigenous people, class politics, internal and external colonial relations, and anti-colonialism.
01:21:19 Zophia Edward ends the panel discussion and announces the break.
01:22:05 Kurt B. Young talks about Panel 2 on the topic of Imperialism, State Violence and the Assassination of Walter Rodney. He introduces panel moderator: Randolph Persaud.
01:22:46 Randolph Persaud introduces the panel topics on Dr. Walter Rodney, Guyana and The Caribbean, the emergence of the global capitalist economy, the world system, imperialism, and white supremacy. He introduces the panelist Jaribu Hill.
01:26:00 Jaribu Hill talks about the state sponsored U.S. imperialism project killing of Dr. Walter Rodney. She talks about being a revolutionary Black nationalist, studying Dr. Walter Rodney, being inspired by revolutionary zeal, theory, and practice. She mentions the need to question elected officials about relief, the most recent election, scholars of today, standing up against liberalism, and differences in being a cultural artist vs. being a revolutionary.
01:45:31 Randolph Persaud introduces the next panelist: Kerry McLean.
01:46:50 Kerry McLean talks about the international commission of inquiry on systemic racist police violence against people of African descent in the U.S. and talks about the assassination of Dr. Walter Rodney. She mentions how to gain access to the recorded live hearings and final report on the research on www.inquirycommission.org.
01:50:53 Randolph Persaud introduces the next panelist: Gail Teixeira.
01:52:11 Gail Teixeira talks about talks about Dr. Walter Rodney and the results from the commission of inquiry from 2016. She talks about the aftermath of the assassination of Dr. Walter Rodney in Guyana including the cover-up of his killing and the process to get acknowledgement of the report revealing the government's role in the assassination of Dr. Walter Rodney.
02:13:27 Randolph Persaud and Kurt B. Young introduce an audio clip from Donald Rodney.
02:14:18 Donald Rodney speaks about state violence in the assassination of Dr. Walter Rodney including transcripts and evidence from the case to illustrate state violence.
02:28:40 Randolph Persaud begins a short Q & A session and poses the question to the panelist from the audience: Will the government of Guyana adopt recommendations of the commission of inquiry?
02:29:31 Gail Teixeira responds to the question and states that they are looking for the other volumes of the commission of inquiry and once found they will send it back to the House and see what necessary measures will be implemented.
02:31:44 Randolph Persaud ends the panel discussion.
02:31:52 The Keynote Address and Panel Discussion with Dr. Angela Y. Davis begins.
02:31:56 Dr. Angela Y. Davis talks about revisiting and learning from Dr. Walter Rodney. She talks about the collective understanding that racism is structural and under histories of colonialism and slavery and their part in producing capitalism as central to our capacity to move forward. She notes that Dr. Walter Rodney's insights are needed to make the connection between structural racism and histories of capitalism. She talks about the importance of intellectual work to radically change the world, anti-capitalist struggles, class struggles, struggles against racism, and how Dr. Walter Rodney teaches us to engage in the process of putting our knowledge to use in the radical transformation of the world.
02:35:36 Kurt B. Young introduces the panel discussion moderator: Mawuli Davis.
02:35:58 Mawuli Davis introduces the 14-year-old drumming performer Moses Dabydeen.
02:36:56 Moses Dabydeen gives a drumming performance.
02:38:06 Mawuli Davis introduces David Austin.
02:39:35 Davis Austin talks about Dr. Angela Y. Davis' and Dr. Walter Rodney's work and highlights the similarities. He provides literature recommendations from scholars such as, Malcolm X, C.R.L. James. Claudia Jones, and Frantz Fanon. He notes that to be radical as Dr. Walter Rodney was, and demand radical change is far from radical and is the least we should do and it should be the norm.
02:46:49 Mawuli Davis introduces Erica Caines.
02:48:03 Erica Caines introduces Dr. Angela Y. Davis.
02:52:59 Dr. Angela Y. Davis talks about evoking the legacy of Dr. Walter Rodney and his teachings, fascism, the January 6, 2022 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, rethinking the meaning of democracy, democracy under duress, the attack on global justice, anti-racism, anti-capitalism and anti-patriarchal. She talks about the failure to recognize race and religion as constructs capable of directing violence and suffering towards communities of color and people perceived as Muslims as being the source of poverty, systemic discrimination, and persistent of the taints of slavery in French society. She adds that the majority of white people and some people of color in the U.S. still have backwards views of race and gender. She mentions that white supremacy has been so resilient and struggles for Black liberation have been just as or even more resilient. She notes that people worldwide look to the collective Black struggles in this hemisphere that have been linked to struggles including indigenous, Latinx, Asian, and Muslim struggles. She discusses the abolitionist movement and the way discourses of prison and police abolitionist have begun to move into mainstream discourse in the aftermath of the police murders of George Floyd and Breanna Taylor. She highlights the Black Lives Movement and the positionality of Black people in U.S. society as a good measure of the meaning of democracy. She also discusses how we place our campaigns and struggles on the world historical stage by interacting with others who are also striving to create socialist and abolitionist futures.
03:25:07 Mawuli Davis starts the Q&A and roundtable discussion with Dr. Angela Y. Davis. He introduces moderator Robbie Shilliam.
03:26:28 Robbie Shilliam moderates the Q&A segment. He poses the question to Dr. Davis from the audience: Is it really possible to abolish prisons without abolishing capitalism?
03:27:08 Dr. Angela Davis responds to the question and talks about anti-capitalism at the heart of abolitionists' theories and practices. She notes that she does not believe that it is possible to create a society which no longer needs these violent institutions such as prisons and police. She emphasizes that a movement to abolish police is a movement to abolish capitalism. She talks about prison reforms needing to have the capacity to promote change and differences between reformist reforms and non-reformist reforms.
03:31:12 Robbie Shilliam invites the other roundtable speakers to join the conversation. He poses questions: In what way has Walter Rodney impacted their understanding of the relationship between scholarship and revolutionary politics.
03:32:18 Charisse Burden-Stelly responds to the questions and talks about being a
03:34:12 Robbie Shiliam introduces Erica Caines.
03:34:16 Erica Caines responds to the question and talks about the book
03:35:13 Robbie Shiliam introduces Jaribu Hill.
03:35:18 Jaribu Hill responds to the question and talks about being a student of Dr. Walter Rodney, Thomas Sankara, Fannie Lou Hamer, Ida B. Wells because these revolutionaries look at U.S. imperialism and capitalism.
03:39:00 Robbie Shilliam asks Dr. Davis to expand on her intellectual relationship with Dr. Walter Rodney.
03:39:09 Dr. Angela Davis talks about engaging Dr. Walter Rodney and how he emphasized the importance of intellectual work being most effective when put at the service of radically changing the world. She mentions how Dr. Rodney understood and made connections between anti-capitalist struggles, class struggles, and struggles against racism. She talks about Dr. Rodney's consistency and his ability to develop feminist analysis before the vocabulary lent itself to understanding the patriarchy. She talks about the symbolism of representative people in leadership.
03:43:45 Robbie Shilliam poses questions to Dr. Angela Davis from the audience: Would you agree that patriarchy gave birth to capitalism and that defeating patriarchy is key to defeating capitalism? How do we combat the draining effects of misogyny as we work toward liberation towards our people?
03:44:47 Dr. Angela Davis responds to the question and talks about conditions that gave rise to capitalism, leaning how to think more complexly, the importance of pointing to patriarchal character of capitalism and recognizing ways in which racism from colonialism and slavery are at the core of the development of the violent economic institution. She suggests we should ask ourselves how to engage in the sort of analysis that acknowledges the importance of dismantling misogyny. She mentions carceral feminism, sexual and gender violence, the criminal legal system, the crime act, the violence against women act, State violence vs. intimate violence, and institutional violence vs. domestic violence.
03:48:57 Robbie Shilliam invites Charisse Burden-Stelly to respond to the question.
03:49:00 Charisse Burden-Stelly responds to the question and references Dr. Davis' article titled
03:50:50 Robbie Shilliam invites Erica Caines to respond to the question.
03:50:54 Erica Caines responds to the question and talks about "How Europe Underdeveloped Africa", capitalism being rooted in imperialism and colonialism, bell hooks teachings on imperialism being the highest form of capitalism, patriarchy's role in spreading imperialism and capitalism, and struggling through contradictions.
03:52:00 Robbie Shilliam invites Jaribu Hill to respond to the question.
03:52:04 Jaribu Hill responds to the question and talks about the struggle for real Black freedom, overthrowing systems of oppression, misogyny, patriarchy, and the privilege of being the person or group that decides what issues we take up first. She speaks about intersectionality including Dr. Davis', Bell Hooks', and Florynce Kennedy's early work on triple oppression before Kimberly Crenshaw. She suggests that we get tougher on the issues of male chauvinism, patriarchy, sexism, homophobia, and patriarchy.
03:56:26 Charisse Burden-Stelly adds authors to the conversation about intersectionality such as Louise Thompson Patterson and Eugene Gordon.
03:57:10 Robbie Shilliam continues to facilitate the Q&A session and poses questions: How can we decolonize the minds of our loved ones who have assimilated to the U.S. capitalist system and uphold its values? How do we get back to a truly global Black liberation movement that isn't bound by established imperialism and capitalism? How do we get back to thinking globally and with equality?
03:58:55 Dr. Angela Davis responds to the question on the importance of global movements and talks political solidarity in international movements, the impact of American exceptionalism, the issue with thinking of racism as only a U.S. problem, the global impact of colonialism and slavery on racism, learning from struggles in other places, the Black women's struggle in Brazil, structural racism and the role of the State of Israel, the connection between Islamophobia and anti-Black racism - anti-Latinx - anti-Asian racism, and global solidarity saving her by demanding her freedom when she was in prison.
04:04:32 Robbie Shilliam invites Charisse Burden-Stelly to respond to the question.
04:04:35 Charisse Burden-Stelly responds to the question and talks about internationalism, Pan-Africanism, the government militarizing the police connections to the U.S. militarizing armies internationally, and the need to stop delinking foreign and domestic policies. She suggests that we need to revivify internationalism and reanimate global international struggles.
04:06:46 Robbie Shilliam invites Erica Caines to respond to the question.
04:06:50 Erica Caines responds to the question and talks about The Caribbean perspective regarding the mental decolonization of assimilated immigrants into the U.S., the newly embedded patriotism that immigrants have towards the U.S. that allows them to disconnect from their country of origin, the years of The Obama Administration doing a disservice to internationalism and Black diaspora limits when challenging President Obama's actions because of his role as the first Black president. She talks about the current Vice-President Kamala Harris' role and Caribbean heritage, and how that representation impacts the Black diaspora when holding her accountable.
04:10:51 Robbie Shilliam invites Jaribu Hill to respond to the question.
04:10:55 Jaribu Hill responds to the question and talks about holding President Obama accountable for actions in Libya, the need for solidarity with Haiti and Palestine, solidarity with Amazon workers in Alabama to get recognized in a union, solidarity with the history of the Sharpeville Massacre of Black people killed in Sharpeville, South Africa by police in 1960, and notes that Black lives do not matter in a police State. She highlights the need for Black women to unite with other Black women with like minds and revolutionary zeal. She urges listeners to stay in the fight to resist and overthrow the enemy and those who have oppressed us because it is a righteous and sane fight, and anything else is insane.
04:14:32 Robbie Shilliam concludes the panel discussion.
04:14:47 Mawuli Davis closes out the programming for the symposium.
04:15:50 An interlude starts titled: In Memoriam Tribute to Our Friends and Comrades.
04:15:56 Kurt B. Young introduces the memorial: In Memoriam Tribute to Our Friends and Comrades.
04:16:36 Amiri Baraka, Vincent Gordon Harding, Andiye, Colin Hilaire Cholmondeley, and Dr. Keith
04:19:48 Kurt B. Young introduces a clip from the Walter Rodney's Papers at the AUC Woodruff Library.
04:20:24 Dr. Walter Rodney talks about the connection between increased State violence in Guyana and increased deterioration in the living standards of Guyanese people.
04:21:35 Mawuli Davis encourages the audience to stay connected and support the work of the Walter Rodney Foundation and introduces the final performance and highlights Dr. Patricia Rodney's closing remarks.
04:24:03 Rafael Satin (Leafar) performs a Jazz number.
04:28:12 Mawuli Davis introduces Dr. Patricia Rodney's closing remarks.
04:28:50 Dr. Patricia Rodney gives closing remarks to conclude the 2021 Walter Rodney Symposium. She gives acknowledgements to co-host at the AUC Woodruff Library and sponsors. She sends birthday greetings to Dr. Walter Rodney on what would have been his 79th birthday and birthday wishes to some of their children. She urges people to visit their website: www.walterrodneyfoundation.org.
04:38:07 The 18th Annual Walter Rodney Symposium ends and audio ends.
