Petition for Necessary ECAASU Changes

ECAASU, Necessary Changes to Return to Your Founding Values!

Dear ECAASU Board of Directors, National Board and 2012 Conference Board at Duke University,

As ECAASU attendees, workshop facilitators, performers, keynote speakers, long-time supporters, and allies, we are writing to express our serious concerns about the direction of the organization and its annual conference after ECAASU 2011 at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

We, the undersigned, urge ECAASU leadership to:

1) Cease using any source of military funding for ECAASU activities, which includes its annual conference, and to seek funding sources that share the progressive values upon which ECAASU and the Asian Pacific Islander American (APIA) Movement were founded.

According to ECAASU’s official website, a key component of ECAASU’s mission is to “advance the social equality of minorities by eliminating prejudice and discrimination, defending human and civil rights, and combating racism…” This point belies the fact that substantial funding is provided by the U.S. military, an institution that has historically targeted, and continues to target, disproportionate populations of color to endanger their lives for a country that oppresses them. This critique is neither of individual conference attendees, nor individual military personnel, but of the military-industrial complex, which institutionalizes socially unjust practices. By accepting funding from military sources and allowing them to have such a prominent role within the conference, ECAASU is allowing the military institution to shape our APIA learning and empowerment. To this end, we respectfully request that the ECAASU to proactively divest from military funding sources. In line with the mission of ECAASU, we urge the Board of Directors to solely pursue sponsors whose values align with ECAASU’s mission to advance social equality.

2) Develop an organizational structure for ECAASU that a) is transparent with its leadership structure, decision-making activities, operations and funding and b) actively engages and includes its conference participants and members of the APIA community for constructive feedback on improving the annual conference and the organization.

ECAASU was first organized in the late 1970s by young people participating in the Third World Movement as a vehicle of political empowerment. As members of the community that ECAASU seeks to serve, we need to have a voice in shaping the conference that is aimed to “inspire, educate, and empower those interested in Asian American issues.” We want to be able to shape our own learning and political development to continue to build the Movement that founded this conference for racial equity. We want to ensure that the ECAASU conference remains a conference for the people, by the people. At present, it is unclear how important decisions are made that determine the direction of ECAASU, including how elections (if any) that determine the leadership of ECAASU are run and held, how ECAASU leadership can be held more accountable to its members, how ECAASU supporters and attendees can be better represented in the organization’s leadership, how funding sources are determined, how conference funds are allocated, and which sponsors are solicited. A transparent and community-engaging leadership ensures that ECAASU will be representative of our community’s values and needs.

3) Issue a public apology for the email sent by the ECAASU Board of Directors that alienated and disenfranchised guest speakers Lai Wa Wu and Professor Vijay Prashad.

Keynote speakers Lai Wa Wu and Professor Vijay Prashad were within their rights and liberties to speak about troubling issues affecting the APIA community from their perspectives, especially within an organization that claims to be “inclusive,” interested in fostering “proactive dialogue” and promoting “community-building and mutual understanding among Asian Americans with different nationalities and all people of color.” Instead, the speakers were ostracized for their views when ECAASU chose to selectively disassociate itself from them, thereby favoring the speakers’ opposing views and preemptively discouraging any positive and progressive conversations between different sides. To this end, we urge the ECAASU Board of Directors to rescind their public email that alienated both keynote speakers and that the Board of Directors issue a public apology that will be circulated to all attendees, workshop facilitators, partners, sponsors, and participating colleges and universities via ECAASU’s official website, social media, and any related communications networks.

Until these requests are met, we pledge to continue organizing for a more representative and transparent ECAASU that is aligned with the progressive values upon which it was founded.

[Your name]