The African United Action Front (AUAF) deeply regrets not being able to continue co-organising the above event. The main point of contention was our status as organisations and as joint sponsors

The main issue for us in the AUAF is the legacy of Garvey. We see Garvey as one of the greatest organisers of African people in the 20th Century. We feel it is therefore unacceptable to be organising a celebratory meeting on Garvey and not emphasise the difference between individuals, organisations and co-organisers. For too long individuals within our community have been allowed to say and do anything without being accountable to no one but themselves. We say that must come to an end.

The UK Pan African Congress Organising Committee (UKPACOC) required the AUAF (with limited resources) to put in over £800, help with publicity, crèche, food and stewarding on the day and them insists the AUAF should only have 10 minutes presentation per subject from the platform just like any individual attending the conference.

Four subjects were to be presented on the first day- on education, economics, culture and the solutions to racial violence. We tabled for the second day presentations on Neo-Colonialism as the major obstacle to achieving Pan-Africanism and our view on how we should organise future Pan-African Congresses (PAC).

The intensity of the onslaught against African People nationally and internationally requires us to develop a survival programme well beyond the 21st Century. To counter this onslaught, like Garvey, we need to build powerful African organisations. This we believe is an important legacy of Garvey.

Let us state on the record once and for all, that the AUAF holds the principle of Organisation as cardinal. It is a principle the AUAF is founded on and we believe it is one of the fundamental lessons of our history.

Compromise?
The AUAF compromised with the UKPACOC by changing our plans for the 2nd State of the Race Conference planned for 11-16 August 1998. We compromised on the structure of the days. We compromised over the venue. We believed in getting a venue in the African community where it would also be cheaper. We compromised over our presentation time from 20 minutes per subject to 15 but this was still not enough! ! ! !
 

The fact of the matter remains the UK PAC programme for the two days remains completely intact. What kind of compromise on their part? We believe in unity but unity has to be principled which inevitably means some compromise. We find it absurd that everytime we put unity to the UKPACOC, certain individuals then accuse us of domination.

Some other concerns
If the AUAF had got further in the unity process with the UKPACOC then we would have insisted that one of their leading organisers in the committee be refused permission to promote his book, with a cover that insults African People especially African Women. The cover uses a half-naked African woman in a sexually explicit pornographic way to sell a book. This image goes further to trash our traditional outlook and the symbol of the Ankh with the background colours of Black, Red and Green that Garvey gave to us as our international flag.

Have we as African people sunk to the level of having no principles, standards or morality? We in the AUAF say NO. We have principles, we have morality and we will defend them especially on Garvey's birthday. Our other concern is the UKPACOC want to elect representatives for the Global Pan African Congress in Sept 2000. We feel more consultation needs to be done on this especially with regards to the participation of individuals and organisations.

Way Forward
Despite our differences with UKPACOC. We hope we can develop a stronger principled unity in the future. We call upon all African (Black) people to join an African organisation - we call upon all African organisations to join the AUAF. Unity is strength. We seek nothing less than the total liberation of our people.

For further information contact:
AUAF c/o PO Box 3414
London N15 5DP -
0181.801.0205