ASIA AM 10W Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Asian American Political Alliance, Third World Liberation Front, Yuji Ichioka
21 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
All credits are given to Professor Fong, K.N.. Direct quotations are directly from the
professor’s slides. Others is either paraphrased or summarized.
Overview
●“AAM part of broader struggles in 1960s against racism, oppression, power
●Particularly inspired by Black Power movement and the Black Panther Party
●“Self-determination” and “serve the people”
●Included students & community activists on college campuses and in community”
Concept
●Third Worldism: “AAM recognized struggle as part of multiethnic coalition in the US and
abroad”
○People of color in undeveloped nations; solidarity across racial groups and across
nation borders
●Interracialism: “interethnic/interracial coalitions and solidarity”
○Shared experiences under the capitalist system: capitalism, racism, and
imperialism (similarity in the root causes of experiences)
○Slogans: Yellow Power Supports Black Power; Free Huey (the person of Black
Panther Party incarcerated)
●Internationalism: “international political inspiration and solidarity”
○AAs’ struggles are linked to struggles abroad against capitalism and imperialism
Asian American Political Alliance (AAPA)
●Established explicitly as a political
organization in UC Berkeley in May 1968; part of the
movement of the Third World Strike
●Members had experiences in United Farm Workers and Black Panther Party
●“AAPA co-founder Yuji Ichioka coined term “Asian American””
○Alternative to the term “oriental”
○The power of creating a term that you identify with instead of being imposed on
a term
○Shared identities for diverse Asian ethnic groups
●Third World Liberation Front (TWLF) and Ethnic Studies
○“Multiracial coalition in the 1960s, called for self-determination for Third World
people and the end of US dominance”
■Self-determinination: the ability of controlling all aspects of your life
without the dictated external forces
■E.g. state legislature determine K-12 standardized education vs. people
institute new kinds of studies e.g. Asian American studies, ethnic studies,
African American studies etc.
■“Serve the people”: the idea of serving your community and people of
color through services, education, and programs
○The first and longest student strike in US history: Strike at San Francisco State
College in 1968
■5 long runs: 80% students went on strike, and campus had to close
■Hard won: the birth of ethnic studies and the only one College of Ethnic
Studies in US
■“Demanded Ethnic Studies courses and a college; open admissions;
self-determination”
○Ethnic Studies means having control over education: the content (curriculum)
and the teachers
●Asian Studies
○Goals:
■Curriculum oriented to the notion of “serve the people” (community and
people of color)
■Teach about issues of oppression and racism (the root of the studies) and
how to understand and change the current situation
■Focus on AA identity against forced acculturation and forced
incarceration
●E.g. Japanese Americans forced children to speak English and not
learn Japanese to distance themselves away from the identity
Japanese and incarceration
○Struggle for:
■Social programs: after-school programs
■Housing rights/anti-evictions: tenants
■Union organizing: work strike
■Education rights: ethnic studies
■Democratic rights: right to vote
●International Hotel (I-Hotel)
○An older building, in historica Manilatown in San Francisco, known as
single-room occupancy hotel for tenants to live permanently
○Many Chinese and Filipino old men (especially early immigrants recruited for
work without their family due to Exclusion Law) lived in I-Hotel
○Evictions and demolition for parking lot started in 1968
○Activities organized and mobilized, trying to protect the tenants and the building
○Struggles maintained for about a decade; “violent standoff between police and
activists” in 1977
Document Summary
All credits are given to professor fong, k. n Direct quotations are directly from the professor"s slides. Aam part of broader struggles in 1960s against racism, oppression, power. Particularly inspired by black power movement and the black panther party. Included students & community activists on college campuses and in community . Third worldism : aam recognized struggle as part of multiethnic coalition in the us and. People of color in undeveloped nations; solidarity across racial groups and across abroad nation borders. Shared experiences under the capitalist system: capitalism, racism, and imperialism (similarity in the root causes of experiences) Slogans: yellow power supports black power; free huey (the person of black. Aas" struggles are linked to struggles abroad against capitalism and imperialism. Asian american political alliance (aapa) movement of the third world strike. Established explicitly as a political organization in uc berkeley in may 1968; part of the. Members had experiences in united farm workers and black panther party.
