NEW YORK�Amid fresh controversy and court cases still unresolved, the second Million Youth March has been announced. Slated for Sept.4 in practically the same location as last year�s march, that which event ended in a melee�that participants say police instigated�with 28 injured, including more than a dozen police officers, and two men arrested for assaulting officers. This year�s event�billed as a march and a rally�promises to be no less problematic.

As he did last year, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani has voiced a firm opposition to the event, calling it a "hate march" and threatening to do all in his power to halt it. "Here are two things that are true about last year�s event," he said at a recent press conference. "It was 6,000 people, not a million, and it wasn�t a youth anything. It was a hate march. To report it as a Million Youth March just continues to perpetuate a fraud."

The march/rally coordinators have responded with equal vigor, challenging the mayor�s resistance. "The Million Youth March �99 will mobilize Black and Latino youth and young adults to implement the strategy that will ensure that Mayor Giuliani will not be allowed to increase his fascistic policies on a state or national level," a press release from the organizers stressed. "Black and Latino youth have been the greatest victims of Mayor Giuliani�s racist policies and abuse of power."

These points were further emphasized by Khalid Abdul Muhammad, the event�s chief coordinator. He was particularly incensed by a rumor that the city would issue no permit for the event. "We will march with or without a permit, " Mr. Muhammad told the press," and Black youth will come from throughout the country. And if they thought it was a volatile situation with a permit, it would be much more dangerous without one."

When marchers were denied a permit last year, the organizers went to court and received a Federal District Court order that forced the city to allow the march to occur. If the mayor continues to be adamant about not allowing the march, the organizers said they would take the matter to court again.

Two men indicted and tried for assault and other minor misdemeanors stemming from last year�s rally face a new trial after jurors ended in a deadlock.

Concern about the proposed march has also come from several civic and political leaders. Stanley Gleaton, chairman of Community Board 10 in Harlem, insisted, "There�s been a general consensus in the Harlem community that we do not want it to occur again."

Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields, who sought a middle ground position following last year�s event, said she would like to see any discussion of hate and division minimized. "We should be speaking about healing and working together," she pled, "rather than talking about taking up arms. We should focus on getting as many guns as possible off the streets."