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ART/CULTURE | |
Radical Resistance in Conservative Times: New Asian American Organizations in the 1990s
By Diane C. Fujino and Kye Leung
Part 3 of 16
Its radical ideology is reflected in its Principles of Unity,
which include community control of institutions; opposition to global
capitalism, racism, sexism, and heterosexism; and basic human rights for
a people. Through their two Art Attacks, the group used cultural-political
work to outreach to youth and publicize community issues. In conjunction
with the 1960s and 70s Asian American Movement group, Yellow Brotherhood,
ACTION started a tutorial project at Culver City High School, which has
served to provide concrete services as well as to fink the youth to the
previous generation of activists. While initially located in Little Tokyo,
ACTION soon became pan-Asian in membership; about half its members are
women.
The Asian Left Forum (ALF) represented the first nationwide meeting of veteran and newer Asian American Leftists in the past couple of decades. Held on May 17, 1998, in Los Angeles, following the "Serve the People" conference on Asian American community activism, this all-day, non-sectarian meeting brought together about 100 activists, double the anticipated attendance, to "strategize radical politics in Asian communities in the United States," with a focus on the struggles of working-class immigrant communities. The ALF called for Asian American Leftists, radicals, and revolutionaries to unite, and its principles of unity identified global capitalism, imperialism, racism, patriarchal domination, and heterosexism as the root causes of oppression. Still, the forum itself focused on a progressive-to-radical agenda. Local chapters in the Bay Area, Los Angeles, and New York have, to varying degrees, continued the work, organizing forums on anti-imperialist struggles in Asia, including Okinawa, Korea, the Philippines, East Timor, and Burma; the Kosovo war; the prison industrial complex; and the role of electoral politics in revolutionary organizing. While the ALF is comprised of diverse membership in terms of age, activist experience, political ideology, gender, ethnic background, and geographic location, the active core is predominantly twenty-something. Jung Hee Choi, Alyssa Kang, Sun Lee, Eric Tang, and Ryan Yokota sit on the National Planning Committee. A second national meeting is planned for early 2000.
Asian Revolutionary Circle (ARC) emerged in Boston in Summer 1998, after its founders, Kye Leung, Meizhu Lui, and Kim Mach, met at the Asian Left Forum in Los Angeles. ARC, initially called Asian Roots and Community, began as a group of liberals, progressives, and radicals who came together to explore issues of identity and "to reclaim our stolen history." But within six months, through struggles over ideology, ARC became increasingly radical and the more liberal members left the group. Its name changed to reflect its new revolutionary politics. Its Ten Point Platform reflects this radical ideology, focusing on self-determination, reclamation of Asian American history, and an end to racism, sexism, heterosexism, class exploitation, and imperialism. ARC holds weekly political study groups for its members, organizes talks on Asian American history and racism in local high schools, raises funds to provide an after-school program and free books on Asian American history to students, invites veteran activists to speak at their meetings, and supports the Chinese Progressive Association in organizing residents to oppose gentrification in Boston's Chinatown. Its focus on Chinatown reflects its commitment to the community as well as its predominantly Chinese membership, although ARC strives to be pan-Asian. Its membership, half of whom are women, is predominantly high school and college students.