Conceptual Art: A Critical Anthology - uncopy

DOCUMENT VI, 1975
The Anti-Imperialist Cultural Union (AICU) began to recruit members from AMCC [Artists
Meeting for Cultural Change] during the winter of 1975. Composed almost exclusively of
African-Americans who had been active in the Black Nationalist organizations which emerged
after the Newark Riots following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, the AICU
sought to enlarge their social base to include SoHo artists to form a new, “mass organization.”
A leading figure in the AICU was Amiri Baraka (aka LeRoi Jones, the well-known beat poet),
of the Congress of Afrikan People (CAP) and, later, the Revolutionary Communist League
(RCL). The following is taken from an early draft of the organization’s Principles of Unity
submitted by CAP.
We propose the name Anti-Imperialist Cultural Union for this organization. As Georgi Dimitrov
pointed out to the Union of Bulgarian Writers: “Its task is to develop devotion and love for the
people,intensifying the general aversion to fascism and all people’s enemies,to scourge everything
that is rotten and noxious for the healthy people’s organism (parasitism,vulgar careerism and
petty egoistic political intrigues).” (We also propose that the character of the organization be that
of a mass organization made up of people in various organizations,individuals and class strata,
all joined together around a common issue.)
“Anti-Imperialist” because our class stand opposes Imperialism wherever it exists,“Cultural”
in order to include all the arts and artists who through their creative labor take the raw
materials found in the life of the people and shape them into the ideological form of literature
and art serving the masses of the people,and “Union” to reflect the proposed mass character of the
organization. We unite to take revolutionary action to end our oppression and exploitation caused
by the system of Imperialism. . . .
Presented by the Congress of Afrikan People
DOCUMENT VII, MARCH 1976
In March 1976, a series of meetings on the issue of ALNY’s organizational form took place.
At that time, a number of provisions were put forward in draft form with the intention to force
the issue of collaboration under the name “Art & Language.” Since his association with Art &
Language in the late 1960s, Kosuth’s “independent” practice had always been a contentious
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