STAND UP! Bay Area Asian American Movement 1968-1974

AAPA at 1968 Greek Theater UCB Anti-War Rally

UCB Chinese Student Club Newsletter July 1968

CSC MONSOON MERCURY

Chinese Students’ Club
510 Eshleman Hall
University of California, Berkeley

July, 1968 Volume 2 Issue

(Printed next to the CSC SCHEDULE OF EVENTS announcing plans for a Beach Party at Folsom Lake)

THE ASIAN—AMERICAN POLITICAL ALLIANCE:

Rally Postponed

"The AAPA Rally, scheduled for Sunday, June 30, in 155 Dwinelle Hall was can­celled due to the Campus and City cur­fews enacted in reaction to the demon­strations and violence of Friday and Saturday. The Dean’s office has told us that they would do all they could to re—schedule the event. All the speakers were notified in advance, and to those who came and were “repelled”, the AAPA offers its apologies and thanks, and asks those people to continue following or joining the Alliance. The next activities are protesting at the Berkeley City Council against the police actions on Friday, June 28, and rallying support for the political prisoner, Huey Newton, on July 8.

The Alliance is now selling “Yellow Peril” buttons to all, and “AAPA” buttons (with the Oriental character mean­ing ‘East’) to sympathizers and members. The AAPA plans to set up a table at noon in Sproul Hall Plaza. For more infor­mation, call... 510 Eshleman, the CSC office, has more information on the Alliance. All those interested in fighting racism, “re-asserting their race”, and working for self-identity, are encouraged to join the Alliance."

--Floyd Huen

BLOG NOTE: On June 30, 1968: Berkeley mayor Wallace Johnson declares a state of emergency and a three day curfew in the city in response to violence in the wake of student demonstrations in support of French student and worker uprisings in France the previous month.

Asian American Political Alliance 1968

It was no accident that the Asian American movement began in Berkeley, California. – also the birthplace of the Free Speech Movement (FSM) at the University of California at Berkeley (UCB). Social activists worldwide were drawn to this center of the student and antiwar movement in the ‘60s. It was a couple—Yuji Ichioka, a UCB history grad student, and Emma Gee—both of whom were civil rights activists, who initiated a Peace and Freedom Party caucus by phoning every Asian-sounding name listed on Party petitions in the Berkeley/East Bay area.

In May 1968 those half-dozen or so who responded met in the Berkeley’s Northside Ichioka/Gee apartment – from then on affectionately referred to as “AAPA home” by its members, because that is how they felt when being around others like them for the first time. Unanimously they agreed to form an historic independent organization - the Asian American Political Alliance (AAPA). They quickly enlisted others; hammered out a program*; designed a logo, button and colors; worked out alliances; and boldly introduced itself to the public in July 1968.

AAPA was the first self-named group that called themselves “Asian American,” a term that Ichioka proposed. These AAPA founders, while young in age, were all political veterans from a wide range of experiences. And while most were UC Berkeley students, they never envisioned AAPA as a student organization but a much broader, all-inclusive, community grassroots alliance. Several had from their working class youths been involved with the United Farm Workers (UFW) and other labor organizing, while another was an Army veteran and Black Panther Party member, and all were involved in the ongoing civil rights/black power, anti-war and anti-poverty movement.

These AAPA founders also consciously and carefully chose “Political” and “Alliance” in the group’s name to distinguish itself from previous ethnic groups that had a more social and/or club-like connotation. They did this not to denigrate existing groups like the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL), whom AAPA respected and worked with on progressive issues, but to forge an openly anti-imperialist political organization for all Asian nationalities, one that could stand on an equal basis with the other dominant Third World groups at the time, as part of the international Third World liberation movement for self-determination.

The term “Asian American” quickly became a unifying force among the different Asian ethnic groups. AAPA chapters and other similarly self-titled Asian organizations rapidly spread throughout the US. AAPA opened an avenue of activism for many Asian Americans who later played vital roles in the social transformations of the period, including the Third World Liberation Front Strikes at San Francisco State College and UC Berkeley, the International Hotel tenants struggle, and the formation of Asian Studies and Third World College curriculums nationwide. Just as their Third World brothers and sisters had done, AAPA, as the Asian American expression of “Power to the People!”, enabled Asian Americans to rename, reclaim, redefine, and liberate themselves from oppression.

AAPA Rally July 28, 1968

Excerpts from a speech written by Richard Aoki for the AAPA rally July 28, 1968

“We Asian-Americans believe that American society has been, and still is, fundamentally a racist society, and that historically we have accommodated ourselves to this society in order to survive...

We’re sick and tired of being sick and tired of being sick and tired of relating to white standards of acceptability...We’re tired of hearing the racist chant about “if you’re white...” This has wreaked havoc upon our cultural identity...

At this point I would like to say a few words about the servant syndrome prevalent in this white racist society...As most of you know the typical Oriental is thought of as a servant (and dig--servants are not considered equals anywhere in time and place)...The Chinese are regarded as laundrymen (fit only for woman’s work), the Japanese are regarded as gardeners. the Filipinos are regarded as chauffeurs...

We are sick of being used by the white racist power structure... Don’t rock the boat...Used as an example...

We Asian-Americans support all non-white liberation movements and believe that all minorities in order to be truly liberated must have complete control over the political, economic and social institutions within their respective communities”.

We unconditionally, support the struggles of the Afro-American people, the Chicanos, and the American Indians in to attain freedom, justice and equality...

We Asian-Americans oppose the imperialist policies being pursued by the American government...

Professor Miyoshi has presented our views on the Vietnam war...We are unconditionally against the war in Vietnam...
some of us view the war as another one of white racist America’s trickbag….They are committing double genocide over there..Dig, if a black, brown or yellow brother is sent to Vietnam he is being sent to kill his yellow brother.. if the black, brown or yellow brother kills the Vietnamese..Mr. Charley comes out ahead, and if the Vietnamese kills the black brown or yellow brother, Mr. Charley again comes out ahead...This is a classical case of heads I win, tails you lose...

In conclusion, I would like to add that the Asian-American Political Alliance is not just another Sunday social club_. We are an action-oriented group, and we will not just restrict our activities to merely ethic issues, but to all issues that are of fundamental importance pertaining to the building of a new and a better world."

UC Berkeley Asian American 1969

Photos from AAPA Newspaper 1969

AAPA Retort to Agnew "fat jap" Comment 1968

Nixon~Agnew Retort 09-26-1968

"We must admit that vice—presidential candidate Spiro Agnew has kept his promise. His name is now a household word in the Japanese-American community.

The Asian—American Political Alliance vigorously protests the racist epithet, “fat Jap”, recently uttered by Agnew.

We must reluctantly concur with the Kerner Commission’s finding that “white racism” is the fundamental cause of civil disorders, and that “white racism” seems to have infected a person running for the second highest political office of this country.

We, as members of a racial minority, do not at all feel amused by racist type humor at our expense, or at the expense of any of our racial and ethnic brothers and sisters. We also feel that the so-called apology rendered afterward was wholly inadequate.

It is indeed a very sad commentary on white American culture to use pejorative terms in their relations with minority groups. It is also a sad commentary that Agnew appears to have such a low level of sensitivity as far as race relations are concerned. If the Republican party is victorious in November, we would humbly suggest to Nixon that he would refrain from sending Agnew on goodwill missions to the rest of the world with the exception of either Rhodesia or the Union of South Africa. (ed. note: in 1968, two apartheid countries)

Asian American Political Alliance

AAPA PERSPECTIVES October 1969

Reprinted from ASIAN AMERICAN POLITICAL ALLIANCE, Vol. 1, No. 6, October, 1969. Berkeley, page 3.

AAPA PERSPECTIVES

“The Asian American Political Alliance is people. It is a people’s alliance to effect social and political changes. We be­lieve that the American society is histori­cally racist and one which has systematically employed social discrimination and economic imperialism, both domestically and interna­tionally, exploiting all non-white people in the process of building up their affluent society.

"They did so at the expense of all of us. Uncontrolled capitalism has pushed all of the non-white people into a social posi­tion so that only manual jobs with subhuman pay are open to them. Consequently, we have been psychologically so conditioned by the blue-eye—blond—hair standard that many of us have lost our perspective, We can only sur­vive if “we know our place”—-shut up and ac­cept what we are given, We resent this kind of domination and we are determined to change

"The goal of AAPA is political education and advancement of the movement among Asian people, so that they may make all decisions that affect their own lives, in a society that never asks people to do so. AAPA is not an isolated group, and should never pro­fess to be such. Its only legitimacy and value is in the effects it has on many people, not just a small group of people. In the same vein, AAPA is not meant to isolate Asians from other people; it is unhealthy as well as unwise to do such a thing. AAPA must con­stantly expand and grow, and reach out to other people and groups. At the same time, AAPA must meet the needs of its own members and deal with its own problems.

"In the past political organizations have tended to subject themselves to rigid, tradi­tional levels of structure in which a few make the decisions, present them to the body, and the body can vote either ‘yes” or “no.” This hierarchic organization, however, is only a manifestation of the elite control, primeval structure mentality in which you are not capable of making your own decisions, an idea drilled into you. from the foundations of this society.

"AAPA is only what the people make it. We have adopted a structure which better fits the needs and goals of our alliance, not a structure to which we have to adjust our­selves. Furthermore, there is no membership in AAPA in the strict sense of the word. There are workers who for common interests join together with one or more people to in­tensify the effectiveness of an action.

"Since May, 1968, AAPA has grown from a small group of students and community workers to a powerhouse for Asian thought and action. AAPA is now a member of the Third World Li­beration Front, Asian Association, and Asian Coalition. Some past activities of Berke­ley AAPA include: Free Huey Rallies at the Oakland Courthouse, Chinatown Forums, Mc­Carran Act lobbies, MASC Boycott, Third World Liberation Front Strike, development of Asian Studies, and liaison with and development of other AAPA’s throughout the state.

"AAPA is only a transition for develop­ing our own social identity, a multiplication of efforts. In fact, AAPA itself is not the important link but the ideas generated into action from it——that we Asian Americans are no longer going to kowtow to white America in order to gain an ounce of respect; that we must begin to build our own society along­side our black, brown and red brothers as well as those whites willing to effect funda­mental social, economic, political changes; that we have the right for determining our own lives and asserting our yellow identity as a positive force in a new life based on human relationships and cooperation.”

AAPA Position on VIETNAM 1969

AAPA OCTOBER 1969 VOLUME NO.1, ISSUE NO. 6

“The history of mankind is one of continuous development from the realm of necessity to the realm of freedom.” MAO TSE-TUNG

The Asian American Political Alliance supports all oppressed peoples and their struggles for libera­tion. A simple glance at the Viet Nam situation clearly defines our stand. The Vietnamese people have been oppressed for thousands of years—first by the Chinese, then the French, the Japanese, and finally by the United States. This oppression has pro­gressed from merely paying tribute to being bombed daily. The entire Vietnamese people are determined to mobilize all their physical and mental strength, to sacrifice their lives and property in order to safeguard their independence and liberty.

In 1945, the Vietminh forces, many who had given their lives working with the Allies through the Office of Special Services, made the mistake of believing U.S. rhetoric. As in 1919, when the U.S. promised China territorial integrity and preached self-determination for all peoples, so it was in Viet Nam in 1945. Viet Nam was officially split in the Geneva Agreement of 1954 to be unified before July 20, 1956. Ngo Dinh Diem, U.S. puppet and head of the South Vietnamese government, at that time refused to hold the 1956 referendum on reunification. The Vietnamese and Chinese people have now learned to watch the man’s hands and not his mouth.

The Vietnamese people not only watch but feel the “peace moves” of the U.S. Even though U.S. troops are slowly being withdrawn from Viet Nam proper, the tempo of the war is increasing. The Paris Peace talks are just a maneuver by the U.S. government to give the proper facade for its senseless war. Monthly U.S. bombings in Viet Nam have increased since Nixon took office. Nixon wants to “win” his war, even if through annihilation of the Vietnamese. Without people there can be no liberation struggle. One third of the rural population of. South Viet Nam has been driven to the cities and six percent of the land has been defoliated. The killing, bombing, ­starvation and disease exceed that caused by the Germans in World War II. The war is a struggle of survival for the Vietnamese. It is a necessity.

America is conducting a war of technological genocide in Viet Nam. Any human being, who agrees to par­ticipate in this senseless, inhuman war to defend the “free world” (domino theory), deserves to bear the suffering of the Vietnamese people. America must prove her superiority over Viet Nam; prove that a nuclear power can mobilize the kind of force re­quired to contain guerilla warfare; prove her posi­tion as the protector of “certain inalienable rights”, such as life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

The Vietnamese people, struggling for independence; democracy, peace, and neutrality, are resolved to drive out any imperialist forces from Viet Nam. Theirs is a war of human bonds and enduring spirit. They see their comrades, men, women, and children of all ages, die; they see a senseless destruction of the land. In their struggle for survival, ideoogy and organization has become almost meaningless; hu­man relationships deepen and become the source of strength for the people.

The Asian American Political Alliance supports the ten demands of the National Liberation Front and re­cognizes the Vietnamese as people.

Yellow Symposium 1969

Student conferences and symposiums played an important role in creating direction for the Asian American Movement. On January 11, 1969, AAPA, the Chinese Students Club and Nisei Student’s Club sponsored a symposium on the UC Berkeley campus with the title The Asian Experience in America/Yellow Identity. Widely attended by college students from throughout California, the symposium helped chart the direction for coming period of Asian American activism. Identity consciousness, Asian American studies, community organizing, student organizing, and support for the Third World Liberation Strike at San Francisco State College were focal points of the conference. Professors from Stanford, UC Berkeley and UC Davis were invited to speak on emerging topics in Asian American studies. A History of the Chinese and Japanese in America was presented by Stanford Lyman (Stanford University), the Asian policy of the US was presented by Paul Takagi (UC Berkeley) and Asians in the Melting Pot was presented by Isao Fujimoto (UC Davis).

At this symposium, George Woo, a member of the SF State College-based Intercollegiate Chinese For Social Action (ICSA), criticized the notion of developing an Asian American identity devoid of community meaning. ICSA was active in organizing Chinatown youth and took a more urgent militant approach to social issues. Arguing that identity without action was only a form of “mental masturbation,” Woo challenged the students to become concerned with the real conditions that people in the communities faced. He called for a reversal of the traditional brain drain of educated youth from the community. Lurleen Chew, another SF State College striker addressed the need for students to express their commitment to activism through the passage of a SF State College TWLF strike support resolution.

The Yellow Identity Symposium concluded with a resolution that fully supported the SF State College TWLF strike and the spread of the movement for Asian American Studies and Third World Colleges to other campuses. An important significance of this resolution was the identification of Asian Americans with other racialized minorities who were involved in their own civil rights and movements for self-determination. By then the press had already introduced the notion that Asian Americans were a model minority that through hard work and perseverance had overcome hardship and discrimination. The Yellow Identity Symposium repudiated the model minority thesis and asserted that Asian Americans were in support and agreement with the demands of blacks, Chicanos and Native Americans.

The next day, Sunday January 12, a statewide AAPA forum was held to map-out activities for the coming period. The intended statewide meeting evolved into an organizational meeting for the establishment of AAPA chapters on a national level. With representatives from thirteen campuses nationwide including, San Francisco, San Mateo, Los Angeles, Berkeley, San Jose, Sacramento, New York and Hawaii, a loose-knit network of AAPA chapters were established within the coming months. The discussions focused on common projects such as defining the content of Asian American Studies and facilitating community work in communities such as Japantown, Chinatown and Manilatown. Berkeley AAPA took on the responsibility of disseminating information to the various chapters. Its AAPA members supported the SF State College TWLF strike, the impending TWLF strike at UC Berkeley, and expansion of the TWLF movement to other campuses.

Yellow Symposium 1969

Yellow Symposium 1969 Flyer

asian experience /yellow identity
From: Asian Students of Chinese Stu­dents Club and Nisei Students Club
509-600 Eshleman Hall, University of California, Berkeley

Bring this, your invitation, to the 1st Asian Experience in America, Sat. Jan. 11, 1969, 9:00am-4:30pm Pauley Ballroom, ASUC Building UC Berkeley.

"If the Asian American is to live in a very complex American society and an even more complex world, and if he is to be able to assert his own humanity in these life spheres, he must know his own cultural history as an Asian American." 1968 An Asian American Student"

"theasianexperienceinamerica/identifiedyellowqueriesqueuesfriends"

"the asian flu in america, blackheads all; gardeners, cooks, laundrymen and toshiro mifune; the golden race, america the beau­tiful, glittering ghettoes, second class citizens with visiting rights; chinatown, manilatown, little tokyo relocated concen­trated, beautification, hallelujah chris­tian colonies; submissive females, passive males, mellow yellows, that strong silent type; run run shaw, made in japan, p.r. 95 %; japanophiles, sinophiles, you likee chop suey, chop chop, me no savee; white paper, brown paper, yellow paper, black paper, red paper, if I were god I’d make everybody white; third world liberation front, all men are brothers, love is a many splendored thing, black eyed blondes; we all live in a yellow submarine, anti-queue law, call me yellow, no vietnamese ever called me a nigger, let’s call a spade a spade, a jap a jap; buddhaheads transcendental meditation, Jesus is a’comin so get yourself ready for a hard day’s night; reparations for the opium wars, christianity the whole world over, the asians get what they deserve, they breed like rabbits anyways; that fat jap, that skinny chink, chinatown my chinatown, my little houseboy, sayonnara suzie wong; Free University for Chinatown Kids, Unin­corporated"

Richard Aoki , Berkeley Barb Feb. 14, 1969 pg.4

Berkeley Barb Feb.14-21 1969 pg. 4 article reprint

TWLF LEADER TELLS WHY HE’S WHERE IT’S AT

By Phineas Israeli

“ ‘As a child I was interned for four years in concentration camps in San Mateo and Utah.’

Richard Aoki takes another drag on his cigarette and continues to carefully and unemotionally describe his life under the gun of American racism.

Richard Aoki is a spokesman for the Third World Liberation Front at U.C.Berkeley.

After WW II, the Japanese-Americans were liberated from the ‘relocation centers’ and Richard began his education in black ghetto schools in the Bay Area.

‘Of my junior high graduating class, more than 5O% have been in jail or are in jail now. I see this as a reflection of their being unable to achieve a standard of living through traditional means.’

Richard attributes his schoolmates’ alienation from traditional means to the West Oakland ghetto’s ‘high rate of unemployment, sub­standard housing, inadequate educational institutions, inferior medical services, and constant police harassment.’

One high school teacher advised Richard that ‘I’d end up in San Quentin five years after I got out of school.’

‘I took it on a very personal level when they vamped on me, but in retrospect,’ he says now, ‘I see they couldn’t have acted in any other way because of the racist nature of the institution.’

When he was 17 Richard signed up for the Army hoping to attain a measure of ‘vertical mobility.’ He was offered a commission ‘but I told them I wanted to do some other things.’

After the Army Richard spent two years at a junior college in a pre-med program. But, ‘I gave that up upon being convinced of the racist nature of the medical profession. There is no institution in this country that doesn’t have it.

‘I started asking around about medical schools and found that there was quota system for Asian-American.’

Having failed to Find a racism-free :one in either the service or school Richard went on the road. He spent six years ‘wandering about the country, just seeing what it’s all about.’

Along the way he worked as a truck driver, hospital orderly, clerk and factory hand. He learned two things: that there aren’t any areas in this country really free of racism, and that his thing was to work for the Asian-American community.

‘I became convinced that this is my country, and if it’s going to become a more positive society then I have to stay here and help.’

Leaving the road, he returned to school, graduated with honors in sociology, and is now a grad student at UC. The Third World Strike is his way of creating a racism-free zone for this country’s Third Worlders.

‘I think the strike’s going on quiet well. Morale’s quite high, we still think we’re going to win.”

Richard believes the Third World College will help the minority communities by creating ‘a circular thing where the youth leaves the community, comes on campus and then goes back to the community.’

The TWLF has put a great deal of energy into building strike support in the Third World community. ‘If we convince them that we’re fighting in their best interests, then there will be another dimension to the struggle.’

The Front expects this support to materialize Thursday (BARB press time) on campus, and the future direction of their strike depends on Thursday’s turn-out.

‘The Third World College will be instituted at U.C.’ Richard says flatly, ‘it’s just a matter of time. The strike is a manifestation of the question of who’s going to control it.’

Though the TWLF has received a favorable response from some faculty and administrators, ‘the main sources of power at the university have indicated an intransigent attitude of non-cooperation with the Third World Liberation Front.’

The Front is aware that many white strikers are dissatisfied with the strike’s tactical pace, but ‘they haven’t seen anything yet, we’ve just started.’

‘Multi-faceted systems of pressure will be exerted on the University.’

‘Nothing much has really happened here -- a few beatings, a few fights on the line, petty acts of vandalism which we disavow, I personally disavow petty acts of vandalism because they’re petty.’

Richard allows that the TWLF at Cal is not in the same place as the Front at State. He says that the Cal branch of TWLF still considers itself to be ‘responsible’, and has been trying ‘to keep a lid on things.’

But he warns that the powers in the University had better move quickly to meet the demands before the lid flies off and ‘everyone does his own thing.’ “

Photos from UC Berkeley TWLF Strike 1969

UC Berkeley TWLF Solidarity Newsprint 03/1969

Solidarity AAPA Demands UC Berkeley 1969

photo: UCB TWLF Strike picketline (AAPA Newspaper 1969)

Solidarity Newsprint

Asian Studies Proposal

(Submitted by the Asian American Political Alliance)

GENERAL PURPOSE AND PRINCIPLES

The Asian experience in America is unique. The lives of the Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, Korean, and other Asian people have similarities and differences, but generally fall under the category of the Yellow Experience. The phenomena of a colorful people living in a white society deserves study, understanding, and sensitive analysis. It deserves this study because these colorful people need it, in order to understand themselves and the society in which they live.

The effects of American and Western civilization on the non-Western world have been profound. From the earliest contacts of European explorers with the Chinese and

Southeast Asians to the present-day Western military, economic, and political activities and spheres in Asia, the 'white' man has been involved with the ‘yellow’ man.

From the study of these two related experiences- Asians in America and Westerners in Asia—we can perhaps arrive at some understanding about the ‘yellow-white' relationship at its social and psychological roots and manifestations:

Specific Course Proposals

the Asian in America

A) Social Psychology: Dynamics of Racism

The natural alliance of peoples of color results from the exploitation according to and exclusively because of sheer visibility. In this sense, it is simplest put that we know when we are being lied to. Such a perspective as we are attempting to develop could not necessarily emerge from a view of American culture only. We take heart and example from the continued existence of our culture abroad, which proves to us the viability of our heritages the world over.

To explore the social psychological dynamics of being yellow in a white society.

Method: experiential, accounts, testing, group discussions, reference groups, interpersonal relations. Specifics for Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos, ghetto, middle class, wealthy.

B) The Asian and His Community

Chinatowns: Development, problems, characteristics

Filipinos: Uniqueness, characteristics, etc.

Identification with community; alienation from the same.

Living in White society: Implications on community identity

Japanese Community: Where? Characteristics, etc.

C) Relationships Among Asian Communities

A study of the inter-community tensions and harmony: distances, effects of national origins, the rural-urban and middle class ghetto relations, and the historical effects

American society . . . - e . g . relocations, politics, economics.

D) America, An Asian Perspective

Political Economy of America

Anti-Asian laws: History and Meaning

The ‘White Man’: What it means????

Our Piece of the Pie: Its value… acculturation, accommodation, and affluence.

E) Community Workshop: Relevant Education

A major problem of the ghetto is the failure of its youth who are fortunate enough to learn a skill, to return the benefits of that skill to the community. This problem is neglected by the existing educational system, which prepares the individual for the assumption of an economically productive position within society. The skilled individual who can and does return to aid the community is the exception, not the rule. The Third World individual who does return is an even greater rarity because the University which already produces too few of these individuals has few Third World people initially and lacks the relevant courses catering to the specific needs of the community.

F) Language: Contemporary Linguistic Skills

The problem of language: dual life and language as presented by immigrant life and handicaps presents the need for Cantonese as well as the desirability of other Asian languages as spoken in the United States.

G) Creative Workshops -

Using traditional and non-traditional media, drama, literature, mass communications, art, music, photography, etc.; in workshops that would develop an Asian American perspective through unique and various art-forms.

The Asian Experience:

The roots of the Asian-American lies in Asia. A knowledge of history is essential;
most pertinent is history involving Western man. Our course offerings in this part of the department would thus center around the nature of the Asian person, and his relationship with Western man. We include the study of ‘Overseas Asians' in this focus, because most Overseas Asians remain in Asia outside of their national origins. Also, Overseas Asian (except Asian-Americans) are distant from America. Community work there is difficult: histoty and current literature are the best we can do.

A) The Roots of Asian Man: Social Conditions for Emigration

Social Structure--Family, Occupations, Politics, and Religion

Economic Condition-labor opportunities, poverty, mobility, class conflict

Western Effects--War, trade, etc.

B. Westernization of Asia: Imperialism, Colonization, Modernization and Effects

Europe: 15th thru 20^th Century

America: 19th thru 20th Century

The study of cities—Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo, and Singapore—as case studies in westernization . . . a study of customs, values and social perceptions.

C. Overseas Asian Communities

Asians in various contexts: Europe, Africa, Middle East, and Asia in comparison
with Asians in America.

D. Asian Revolutionary Ideology: Communism

A core course on ideology, organization of communism in the Asian countries

Eg: China and the thought of Mao.

E. Revolutions and Social Movements

Student Movements in Asia

Conditions for Revolution in Asia

Effects of the West in Revolution and Unrest in Asia.

AAPA: DELANO WEEKEND 1970

AAPA APRIL-MAY ISSUE 1970

REFLECT IONS

For the first time since the taking of the land and the forced exodus of Japanese-Americans from the arms of Ca1ifornia, a group of Asian-American students became involved in the reality of the agricultural workers’ plight. A weekend spent at Delano, California, the center of the grape workers’ three year old strike, brought to these Asian-American students a greater consciousness of the need for worker— student unity in the struggle for survival..

Our visit to Delano brought to us a greater sense of reality. Many of up have the aura of academic success, but in this experience with basic human rela­tions, we were painfully inadequate. We found that we could only communicate in a very limited way with fellow Asians, Asians who are risking starvation be­cause their rights to demand better working conditions and better wages are denied. Luckily, the able labor organi­zers of the Chicano and Filipino Commu­nities understood our weakness and we found that we were able to learn about the problems through them.

The story is not new to us. The struggle for life and human dignity by the workers of America has been a sad epic. It is a struggle that some of our relatives waged not too long ago in the past. Today there is a new and serious problem added, Chemical sprays are be­ing used in the fields without enough protection for the workers. Many workers have become poisoned by these chemicals, but the irresponsible use of these chemicals has not stopped. Medical care is a luxury these farm workers cannot afford. Even the hospitals discriminate against non-white people. The few people in the medical profession can do very little because there are many colleagues who would ostracize them for helping.

The effects of racial discrimination is very noticeable in Delano. There are clear signs of differing le­vels of prosperity among the townspeople. The run-down older section of town is inhabited by Asians of Philippine Island ancestry, Chicanos, and Black-Americans, while the well-kept more prosperous sec­tion of town is white. Some of us went to a new shopping center near the Fili­pino Hall. The customers were of all races. We looked at the prices and no­ticed the discrepancy in buying power that the farm workers and their fami­lies are faced with.

There is much to be done at Delano. The people are beginning to develop a cooperative store, but money to build is scarce. There are plans for a farm workers’ hospital which is very badly needed. The land for building has been purchased through the will and the fore­sight of the people who very often are forced to subsist on fifty or sixty dollars a month.

Some of us have returned many times to Delano. The evidence of the need for worker-student unity is clear. The welfare of all of us is involved.

Paula

AAPA: FORGET MANILATOWN? 1970

AAPA April-May Issue 1970

"Who are the people of Manilatown in San Francisco? I have walked through Kearny St. between Washington and Broad­way, but the thought did not enter my mind that I had walked by the Filipino community. How can 1200 people be ignored? But yet they are. One newspaper article has called Manilatown as the 'home of the forgotten Filipino.'

The average age of the people in Manilatown is around 63 years. Many find the pool halls as their only recre­ation. They rely on their compadres living in this area for companionship and aid when they need it. The Manilatown Information Center and the United Fili­pino Hall are there, but only a few fre­quent themselves there.

There is another group here in Manilatown -- the youth in their 20’s and 30’s. They congregate in the late afternoon and evenings at the UFA hall, mainly to play cards and socialize. Many or these guys could not be termed “acceptable” by normal standards. Many are drop-outs, not only from school but from society as well. Some are newly arrived immigrants. All find it uncomfortable to converse in English.

Manilatown is a part of the North Beach-Chinatown target area— it is true in theory but not in fact. There is one Filipino representative on the local EOC Board. Not one position is stationed at Manilatown. Only recently the EOC has assigned one of its staff to this area, but on a part time basis. A $34,000 Manilatown proposal has been whittled down to a token. Most of this money is allocated for 2 paid staff, with little remaining for needed programs.

Interested Filipino students from…saw the need to focus attention on Manilatown. We saw a need not only to develop a long range program, but also which would be useful and concrete to the community now. We saw 4 pressing problems to this community: education, recreation, health and housing. The first objective is to determine what resources, facilities, and agencies are available in each of these problem areas. The second objective is to discover ways and means on how the Manilatown community can benefit from our efforts.

EDUCATION—-acquainting Manilatown community with such pertinent information, such as medicare, social security, welfare benefits, disability Insurance, etc.

RECREATION——handicraft sessions; bi-monthly fishing trips; movies; checkers and chess.

HEALTH——exploring possibilities for providing a free medical clinic several times a week.

HOUSING—probing into the question of better and adequate housing conditions."

Frank

AAPA I-Hotel Open Letter 1969

AN OPEN LETTER...

AAPA newspaper

April 7, 1969

"There is a crisis at the International Hotel on Kearny Street. Demolition of this housing unit looms like a black cloud. Individuals and groups have mobilized to protect the people’s rights; they are striving to fend off the invasion of big business in this area of Manilatown.

What about the hotel residents themselves? How do they view this matter? The Human Rights Commission of San Francisco obtained the following information from a survey:

“Most of the residents of the International Hotel say they wish to remain there until a way can be found that they can relocate as a community in that area. Many are Filipinos some are Chinese. Many are veterans of Bataan. A number of the men support their families in the Philippines, send their sons to college there and then bring them to the United States for better opportunities. Several fathers and sons are sharing rooms in the hotel.

The community kitchen in the hotel, the nearby restaurants, the barber shop and pool hall, the United Filipino Association meeting room, the Manilatown Information Center, and the sidewalk outside are focuses of social and cultural life and friendships. Filipinos from other parts of the Bay Area go to the International Hotel for these cultural relationships.

The residents of the hotel ask ‘Where can we find a place as good as this for $35 a month? If we have to move, will we have to move into worse places? Will we be scattered from our countrymen, the language we speak the foods we eat, the jobs we work at, the friends to help us, the com­munity kitchen where we can even cook the fish we catch?’

(The above excerpt is from a letter to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors dated March 28, from the Human Rights people.)

International Hotel is a low-rent dwelling unit. The people who live there are elderly, disabled veterans, and other persons who cannot afford the higher rents elsewhere. They do not want to become separated from their friends, security of familiar surroundings, a budget they can barely afford, that is, the residents ask not to disrupt and uproot their whole way life.

The International Hotel stands at a critical point in its existence. Eviction notices were given Monday, April 21, and demolition proceedings will begin June 1st. The tenants will be thrown out without any guarantee of adequate housing. The hotel residents are being harassed by the management to vacate immediately, the power in the community kitchen is being turned on and off, the garbage has not been taken out, the bathrooms have been allowed to get dirty, linen is provided only when demanded, But what is most devastating is the collaboration of the City and hotel owner to destroy this residence for a parking lot.

The tenants and the Filipino community are united in their stand:

1) DESIRE TO STAY—-renovation of building with money received from fire insurance.

2) CITY OF SF TO INSURE THE WELFARE OF ITS PEOPLE--because of critical shortage of low-cost housing, which people can afford ~ the city should intervene in the destruction of this low-rent dwelling.

3) MAINTAIN THE COMMUNITY--if relocation is inevitable, the tenants move only if adequate housing is provided and tenants are moved as a community.

4) HABITATION AROUND KEARNY ST.-CHINATOWN AREA--if residents must be relocated, they are placed around the Kearny St.—Chinatown area."

FRANK CELADA

Free University for Chinatown Kids founded November 1968

AAPA Newspaper Ad FEB. 1969 VOL 1 NO.3 P.4

Where did the term Third World begin?

AAPA Newspaper Vol.1 No.4 1969 Article

"The Bandung Conference (Indonesia) of April 1955 was the first instance when representatives of a large number of “underdeveloped” nations congregated. The Bandung Conference was one of the major impetuses in the development of Third World consciousness among the nations of Asia, Latin America and Africa. The following are excerpts from Chou Enlai’s (Peoples Republic of China) speech at the conference:

'The people of Asia and Africa created brilliant ancient civilizations and made tremendous contributions to mankind. But ever since modern times, most of the countries of Asia and Africa in varying degrees have been subjected to colonial plunder and oppression, and have been thus forced to remain in a stagnant state of poverty and backwardness. Our voices have been suppressed, our aspirations shattered, and our destiny placed in the hands of others. Thus, we have no choice but to rise against colonialism. Suffering from the same cause and struggling for the same aim, we the Asian and African peoples have found it easier to understand each other and have long had deep sympathy and concern for one another.

‘...However, the rule of colonialism in this region has not yet come to an end, and new colonialists are attempting to take the place of the old ones. Not a few of the Asian and African peoples are still leading a life of colonial slavery. Not a few of the Asian and African peo­ples are still subjected to racial dis­crimination and deprived of human rights ...We need to develop our countries independently with no outside interference and in accordance with the will of the people.

...the days when the Western powers controlled our destiny are already past. The destiny of Asian and African countries should be taken into the hands of the peoples themselves. We strive to realize our own...Independence. but this does not mean the rejection of…cooperation with any country outside of the Asian-African region. However, we want to do away with the exploitation of backward countries in the East by colon­ial powers in the West and to develop the independent and sovereign economy of our own countries. Complete independence is an objective for which the great majority of Asian and African countries have to struggle for a long time_.

‘...we Asian and African countries, which are more or less under similar circumstances, should be the first to cooperate with one another in a friendly manner and put peaceful coexistence into practice. The discord and estrangement created among the Asian and African countries by colonial rule in the past should no longer be there. We Asian and African countries should respect one another and eliminate any suspicion and fear which may exist between us.

This meeting of ours was not easily brought about. Though there are among us many different views, they should not influence the common desires that we all hold. Our conference ought to give ex­pression to our common desires and thus make itself a treasured page in the his­tory of Asia and Africa.’

—-Chou En-lai

1955

Ed. Note :Non-alignment and underdevelopment defined the "Third World". Asia, Africa and Latin America underdevelopment stemmed from European colonialism exploiting their natural resources, markets and cheap labor. The People’s Republic of China (PRC) saw the Third World as part of a worldwide strategy against U.S. and Soviet Union worldwide hegemony. This "Three Worlds" analysis placed the U.S. and the Soviet Union within the First World; Europe, Japan and the Soviet Satellite Countries in the Second World; and the underdeveloped countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America within the Third World.