New Year's Resolution: Stop Oakland's Policy of Police Containment

The Uhuru Solidarity Movement supports reparations for the Mixon family following the brutality claim by Lovelle Mixon’s younger sister Reynete Mixon.

On March 21st, 2009, the 16 year old Mixon was burned by a stun grenade and subjected to hours of subsequent mistreatment by police during the raid of the apartment on 74th Avenue in East Oakland.

Although there are mixed reports about the family’s pursuit of legal action, we support the demand for redress for the brutality committed by the Oakland SWAT team. The brutality faced by Reynete Mixon and the deaths of the four police officers and Lovelle Mixon on March 21, 2009 must be placed in the context of the long history that the Oakland police department has with the Oakland African working class community.

Events this year, including the brutal murder of Oscar Grant by former BART cop Johannes Mehserle on January 1, 2009, which took place in Oakland, have brought the tense situation to a head. The state has moved the trial of Mehserle out of Oakland in an attempt to deny the community impacted by this murder access to the hearings. In addition, BART plans to deploy all of their 200 police on the New Year’s eve anniversary of Grant’s murder, militarizing public transportation through the African community.

Following the murder of Oscar Grant and the ensuing public outcry about police brutality in general, two Oakland police sergeants and nine officers were fired for lying to obtain search warrants to raid the homes of East Oakland residents.

Also in January, internal affairs chief Edward Poulson was suspended by the department due to the FBI investigation into his responsibility for the beating death of East Oakland resident Jerry Amaro in 2000. Both incidents forced the resignation of the police chief Wayne Tucker.

In 2008, Oakland police killed eleven people, including 20 year old Andrew Moppin. Moppin was killed by officer Pat Gonzales who was responsible for the killing of 20 year old Gary King Jr. in September of 2007 and the maiming of then 17 year old Ameir Rollins in 2006now a quadriplegic.

In March of 2008, 70 year old Casper Banjo, a renowned Black Arts artist who suffered from epilepsy was shot by police in front of his Eastmont apartment. Five days later, OPD killed Jose Luis Buenrostro-Gonzalez, a 15 year old high school student, right near his home. Jose Luis was wearing his pajamas where police claimed he was hiding a sawed off shot gun. In July 2008, Oakland police shot and killed 27 year old Jody “Mack” Woodfox, who was unarmed and was running away from police.

This year, Oakland police killed Parnell Smith on July 18th on the streets of East Oakland in a case of “mistaken identity” when they were looking for another African man who walked with a cane. They killed handyman Brownie Polk on August 1st at a liquor store while he was walking away from the police.

In September, the 74th Avenue apartment where two Oakland officers and Mixon were killed was once again raided. The police tear gassed and abused residents.

Reports that the Oakland SWAT team did not follow proper procedures during the March raid of the apartment building have forced the SWAT team commanding officer on the scene, David Kozicki, to retire prior to the release of the investigative report. Kozicki, at 51 years old, guaranteeing that he will collect a pension of nearly $187, 351 per year, his current salary.

Just recently, on December 3rd, 18 year old Kenneth Ross was shot multiple times in the back while running away from Oakland police officers at an East Oakland apartment. Ross’ mother waited on the scene for five hours while the new police chief Anthony Batts conferred with city officials and the media. Batts offered no condolences or apologies to Ross’ mother; instead he characterized her son as a “gang member.”

The Uhuru Movement contends that the murder and brutality conducted by the Oakland Police Department, BART police and other police agencies is not an aberration, due to racist individuals or flawed department policies. We believe that brutality and murder by the Oakland Police are part of the policy of police containment, military occupation and colonial terror waged against the African and other oppressed communities aimed at preventing resistance to poverty and oppression.

Anthony Batts was brought in the fall as the new police chief to heighten these containment policies of the African community. He has stated in a recent article that “the department's new mantra will be fighting "drugs, guns, and gangs," resurrecting the code words of past decades for the war on the black community.

These policies exist in a city where one in five families live below on less than $15,000 per year and where the city spends nearly half of its budget on police and only a fraction on economic development. The city of Oakland was the center of resistance to police containment during the 1960s, when the Black Panther Party for Self Defense built campaigns to challenge police violence and built self-reliance programs for the African community. The movement of African people during the ‘60s was militarily defeated by the U.S. government’s counterinsurgency programs.

We are calling for unity with the Uhuru Movement’s demand for reparations, economic development and self-determination for the African community.

We express our unity with the families and communities in Oakland who’ve been victimized by police terror and murder, unjust imprisonment and criminalization by the city government, police and the media.

Change is happening in the world and those of us who want to be a part of it must be organized in solidarity with the just movement of African people to have self-determination, economic development and access to the resources of Africa, the birthright of African people everywhere.

Come to the African People’s Solidarity Committee Annual National Conference on January 10-12th, 2010 in St. Petersburg, Florida.

• Keynote by Uhuru Movement leader Omali Yeshitela - A New Day: Beyond Protest to a Genuine Anti-Imperialist Movement -Struggling for Power


• Presentations by African People's Socialist Party leaders Gaida Kambon and Ironiff Ifoma


• African People's Solidarity Committee Chairwoman Penny Hess speaks on solidarity with national liberation struggles.

Come out to the local meeting of the Uhuru Solidarity Movement to build a movement in Oakland of solidarity with the African community struggle here and abroad – African Resources in African Hands!

Tuesday, January 5th, 7 to 9pm at the Niebyl Proctor Marxist Library at 6501 Telegraph Ave in Oakland.

Contact Oakland@uhurusolidarity.org or 510-625-1106 for more info.

Our Trip to Sierra Leone: Two Weeks that Changed the World

By Penny Hess, African People’s Solidarity Committee

Flying into Sierra Leone on November 13 for a night landing we looked out the window of the commercial 757 jet to see no lights—nothing that signaled the major metropolitan area we were approaching.

Eventually, tiny runway lights appeared as we landed in Lungi, the airport for Freetown, the capital city of the West African country.

One of the most impoverished countries in the world, Sierra Leone has no electrical grid. The few existing lights flickering around town are fueled by generators or candles in a country where $2 a day is a middle class income and the average person lives only 37 years.

Yet Sierra Leone is the center of a lively and growing, world-changing liberation movement led by African workers determined to overturn the brutal colonial legacy, not just for Sierra Leone but for all of Africa, and put power into the hands of the people.

I had the honor to join Omali Yeshitela, Chairman of the African People’s Socialist Party, and his delegation traveling from the U.S. and Britain to the founding conference of the African People’s Socialist Party-Sierra Leone.

The APSP-SL is led by Chernoh Alpha M. Bah, the former journalist and child soldier who made a U.S.-wide speaking tour in 2006, hosted by the Uhuru Movement. Comrade Bah was the leader of the popular Africanist Movement, which recently voted to dissolve itself and reorganize as the African People’s Socialist Party-Sierra Leone.

The newly launched Party is a member of the African Socialist International (ASI), an organization also growing in Kenya, Guinea and South Africa, Britain, the U.S. and elsewhere with the motto: “One Africa! One Nation!” and “Izwe Lethu i Afrika!” (Africa is our land).

The ASI is based on the understanding that Africans are one people wherever they are located around the world, and that Africa and all its resources are the birthright of every African person on the planet.

I am a member of the African People’s Solidarity Committee, the white organization working under the leadership of the Party in the U.S. Two other members of the solidarity committee—Alison Hoehne and Sandy Thompson—were also part of the delegation.

As part of the African People’s Solidarity Committee we often give presentations in white communities about what Chairman Omali Yeshitela has named “parasitic capitalism.”

This means that capitalism and the wealth of Europe and North America come directly from the enslavement of African people, the genocide of the Indigenous people and the violent theft of the resources of the majority of the people on the planet for the benefit of the white world.

We talk about how half of all the world’s resources are enjoyed by North Americans. We show how there is a direct inverse relationship between our access to prosperity and the poverty and degradation experienced by Africa and much of the rest of the world.

As one of the countries designated the least “developed” in the world by the United Nations, Sierra Leone was the clear, living example of the other side of the parasitic equation. It is as impoverished as Europe and North America are prosperous.

Freetown is a city of nearly a million people, teeming with life, full of beautiful, resourceful, dignified people for whom every day is a struggle to feed their families and themselves.

To witness first hand this daily struggle for survival was a profound experience as cold statistics became living, breathing human beings with names, families, children, hopes and dreams.

Issa, Masaray, Fenty, Sia, Aminata, 10-year-old El-Hadji—these are some of the comrades in and around the newly formed African People’s Socialist Party. These are people who have dedicated their lives to making the struggle for liberation, dignity, justice for themselves and for all African people. It was an honor to be part of the white solidarity committee under the leadership of this powerful movement.

There is no clean running water and no infrastructure for indoor plumbing in Sierra Leone. There are few good roads, no public schools, no social services, no traffic lights or vehicle emissions standards.

A school teacher makes just $50 a month and the cost of living is high with a 50-kilo bag of rice costing over $40 and a liter of diesel fuel going for $5, when you can get it. The country has the highest maternal mortality rate in the world and rampant malaria. Hospitals, by all accounts, are vermin infested institutions with no medicine or technology, nor food or water for the patients.

Shelter for many, if not most people, are structures made from sheets of corrugated tin nailed together. But even those with houses have neither a kitchen nor a functioning bathroom. Cooking is done outside over a wood fire leaving the city in a haze of smoke much of the time.

Every day people are hand washing their clothes for the next day, hanging them out to dry and then pressing them with irons heated with burning coals. Despite these difficult conditions people emerge onto the streets daily looking sharp and well-put-together either in traditional or Western dress.

From the balcony on the second floor of the YMCA where we stayed in Freetown we could see a “mental institution” next door where one man had a chain around his ankle and young people played in a courtyard as rats scampered around. Down the street were polio and leprosy institutions run by white missionary-type, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), international charity programs that line many white people’s pockets at the expense of the Africans.

Sierra Leone is a beautiful, mineral rich country with gold, bauxite, rutile, iron ore, abundant fresh water, rich offshore fishing grounds and some of the best gem quality diamonds in the world. It produces coffee, cocoa, ginger, palm kernels, palm oil, cassava, bananas, citrus, peanuts, cashews, plantains, rice, sweet potatoes, cattle, fish, pigs, poultry and sheep. (1)

By all rights Sierra Leone should be one of the best places to live with one of the highest standards of living. Freetown, on the Atlantic coast with lush, verdant hills rolling down to the sea could be one of the most sought after places to visit in the world.

But like all of Africa the on-going ravages of centuries of European slave trade, colonial and corporate plunder, imperialist backed war and neocolonial politicians have left the majority of the people with shortened, difficult lives of almost unimaginable poverty.

One hundred percent of Sierra Leone’s lucrative mining industry, which includes the country’s diamonds, iron ore, rutile (a mineral used in paint) and bauxite, used in aluminum, is owned by foreign corporations, mostly from the U.S., Britain and Europe.

This “foreign investment” is simply a shadow economy serving only as economic extraction from the country and continually downgrading the standard of living of the people. Diamond diggers work on commission for an average of 30 cents a day.

The foreign mining industry is colonialism pure and simple with mines guarded 24 hours a day by highly armed private military companies (PMCs) trying to make sure that no challenge comes from the African people, the rightful owners of the land and its resources.

According to the website promoting these mercenaries, Sierra Leone Private Security Companies,

“Three-quarters of Sierra Leone currently is under contract to international mining companies for mineral exploration. Diamond export revenues alone increased by 700 percent in five years, from less than USD 20 million in 2001 to more than USD 142 million in 2006…Many extractive mining and timber companies, such as Sierra Leone’s second largest diamond exporter Koidu Holdings currently train and arm their own private security forces under agreement with the Sierra Leone government.” (2)

Meanwhile, two thirds of the Sierra Leone’s six million people eke out a meager existence on subsistence farming at near starvation level which accounts for an outrageous 52 percent of the country’s GDP. And this is taking place on only 8 percent of the land, although at least thirty percent of Sierra Leone’s landmass is potentially arable! (3)

There is no Sierra Leone economy. There is modern-day colonial extraction by U.S./European corporations accompanied by enslavement and violence, and a hand-to-mouth underground economy forced on the people.

This is the same story all over Africa. This is the legacy of colonialism and nominal “independence.” In 1885 the European powers met in Berlin to carve up Africa and impose colonial borders with the sole purpose of facilitating plunder and slavery for the benefit of Europe.

Long-term African kinship groups were separated in this process, and the ability to freely move through the imposed borders was difficult or nearly impossible for the working person, and remains so today.

The U.S. media cries that the problem in Africa is “corruption,” but the problem is neocolonialism, white power hidden behind African puppet leaders. Most of the genuine leaders of Africa who had the interest of the masses of the people at heart were overthrown or assassinated by the U.S. CIA—people such as Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana and Patrice Lumumba in Congo.

All over Africa the U.S. and European imperialists and their trans-national corporations have set up the situation that best forwards their ability to rob and loot: self-serving indigenous puppet leaders who repress the people and make money from their suffering, volatile political regimes carrying out U.S. proxy wars, IMF “development” restrictions that impose ever deepening “debt,” dislocations of millions of people, violence, coups and profound poverty.

These are the same policies used to enforce colonial domination over African communities inside the U.S.: black neocolonial mayors and city council people who carry out the brutal police containment policies imposed by the white rulers—policies responsible for the rampant mass imprisonment and police brutality for African people. This is why New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, or most of Detroit looks more like Freetown than white suburbs a few miles away.

The founding of the African People’s Socialist Party-Sierra Leone was a huge success and a turning point in history with the masses of African people taking history into their own hands. It was the first workers' socialist party ever founded on African soil.

More than three hundred people a day attended the sessions at the British Council Hall. Men and women of all ages participated in the conference, although most people were young, exposing the reality of a people who are not expected to live until their 38th birthday.

People are ready to do whatever necessary to end this inhuman colonial reality under which Africans have been born and have died in unmitigated suffering for the past 600 years.

Chairman Omali Yeshitela as the keynote speaker was greeted enthusiastically at the conference and other places, not as an outsider but as a brother African returning home with a report from the African family exiled abroad.

The Chairman always forcefully states that Africa is not poor; it has been looted for the past 500 years and that Africa’s resources belong to African people.

Africans did not leave Africa voluntarily but were kidnapped, turned into a commodity and enslaved for hundreds of years. Every place around the world that African people are living they face the same conditions of poverty and repression. Africans are not citizens of the countries where they were enslaved; they are colonial subjects.

It’s clear that imperialism is in crisis today because of the resistance of peoples around the world to the incessant plunder and resource wars that the U.S and Europe have imposed on the majority of humanity for so long.

All over the planet people are back—fighting for their self-determination, control of their own resources for the benefit of their own people.

The formation of the African People’s Socialist Party in Sierra Leone takes this world struggle to a higher level as an organized, disciplined, workers’ party with a unified socialist worldview and the ambitious and necessary goal of wiping white power off the face of the African continent. This is what it will take to finally put political power and control of Africa’s resources into the hands of the masses of the people.

For me as a white person this trip to Sierra Leone was one of the most profound experiences of my life.

It was inspiring to see African people, brought together by their beautiful culture but also by a unified will to overturn similar colonial conditions whether in Africa or inside the U.S. or Europe.

There is nothing that we have in America or Europe that does not have a bloody story behind its glitter—including diamonds, computers, cell phones, chocolate, the U.S. national parks or the Wall Street stock market.

We can “feel better” if our computer does not contain coltan from the Congo or our Nikes supposedly weren’t made in sweatshops, but it does not change the reality of colonialism for the majority of people on earth.

For us to be able to buy a house, have a job, drive to Starbucks or take a vacation to the Bahamas, this economic system requires that African mothers die in childbirth, babies with bloated bellies starve to death and people die before they are barely in adulthood.

This parasitic system is in deep crisis now—even some white people are feeling the pinch. Capitalism is in a crisis because oppressed peoples on the planet are taking back what is rightfully theirs. This means that the land of oppressed peoples around the world is no longer the playground for imperialist plunder and pillage. This is justice.

President Obama’s “recovery” is a false dream because, as Chairman Omali Yeshitela says, the genie will not go back in the bottle. For us capitalism will never look the same as it did five years ago. The world has permanently changed.

Whole civilizations of people have been wiped out by this capitalist beast and the earth itself is being destroyed for the lifestyle of the white world. There is no future for this blood-sucking parasite.

But there is a positive future being determined by the masses of African workers that will ultimately liberate all humanity by freeing the world of this death-dealing system.

The future of the planet is at the crossroads. World peace, environmental sustainability, a prosperous world community and beneficial economic system will be possible only when African and other oppressed working people around the world are once again self-determining. This is the only viable future for us as well. Peace is only possible when the thief and bully has been brought to justice.

We can be part of changing the world by standing in solidarity with the African Revolution. Join in, there is much work to do.

The National Conference of the African People’s Solidarity Committee will be held January 10-12 in St. Petersburg, FL. Chairman Omali Yeshitela and other leaders of the African People’s Socialist Party will give presentations. There will be workshops, studies and organizing for action. For more information: www.apscuhuru.org, info@apscuhuru.org.

Footnotes
(1) http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/5475.htm
(2) http://s4rsa.wikispaces.com/Sierra+Leone+Private+Security+Companies
(3) http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/5475.htm

Celebrate!

If you can not attend this event but want to make a donation toward the commercial kitchen and recording studio, you can make your donation online at this secure website: Click Here

Sponsored by the African Village Survival Initiative For more info: 727-821-2437

DON'T MISS OUT!

Sunday Dec. 13th 4pm
Uhuru House 1245 18th Ave. So.
St. Petersburg, FL.
727-821-2437

UHURU HOLIDAY PIES! BUY! SELL! VOLUNTEER!

Made from scratch with all natural ingredients!

Order your Sweet Potato ($12), Apple Crumb ($12)
and Pumpkin ($8) pies now!

Ordering is easy!
Order online, by phone or by email at:
www.uhurupies.org
727-683-9949
stpetepies@uhurufoods.org

Pies can be picked up Tues, Nov 24 • Wed, Nov 25. See our website for pickup locations, times and December dates. Delivery available for orders of 6 or more pies!

• Let your friends, family, coworkers and organizations know that they can buy pies and support the African Village Survival Iniative!

• Volunteer to bake with us! No experience necessary. A great way to give back during the holiday season!
Join the work to promote, sell and bake Uhuru Pies, this holiday season.

Learn about opportunities to sell pies to your church, school, organization or at your job.

Find out about online networking and Uhuru Pie tables.

Volunteer to Bake
Uhuru Holiday Pies are baked collectively by volunteers in commercial kitchens in St. Petersburg. No experience is necessary! You can bake on a shift with your friends and family. We are looking for both experienced and beginning bakers. Volunteers are needed to help mix large vats of pie filling, bake and then box and label mountains of pies! Join us on one or more of these pie baking shifts:

Baking Shifts at
Lakewood United Church of Christ
Street:
2601 54th ave. S

November

Mon, Nov. 23 9:00am - 7:00pm
Tue, Nov. 24 8:00am - 9:00pm

December
Sun, Dec. 13 11:00am - 5:00pm
Mon, Dec. 14 5:00pm - 9:00pm
Tue, Dec. 15 5:00pm - 9:00pm
Wed, Dec. 16 5:00pm - 9:00pm
Fri, Dec. 18 10:30am - 3:00pm
Sun, Dec. 20 11:00am - 7:00pm
Mon, Dec. 21 9:00am - 7:00pm
Tue, Dec. 22 9:00am - 7:00pm
Wed, Dec. 23 8:00am - 8:00pm

Volunteer to staff pie pickups and deliveries at the Saturday Morning Market (Al Lang Field parking lot, 1st Street & 2st Ave. S., downtown St. Pete) or at Central Organics Cafe (In the courtyard, 243 Central Ave., St. Pete)

Tues, Nov. 24 Central Organics Cafe 10am - 6p
Wed, Nov. 25 Central Organics Cafe 10am - 6p

Sat, Dec. 19 Saturday Market 9am-2pm
Wed, Dec. 23 Central Organics Cafe 10am - 6p
Thurs, Dec. 24 Central Organics Cafe 9am - 4pm

If you're interested in volunteering, contact us today and help raise money for sustainability and self-determination in the African community! Stephanie, Volunteer Coordinator, 727-683-9949 or email stpete@uhurufoods.org

Hands Off the City Hall 2! Call-in to Defend African people's right to resist oppression!

Defend African people's right to resist oppression! NOTE: Friday's City Hall 2 Demo is CANCELLED - you can still call the judge at 215-683-7032 and demand that Judge Joyce Eubanks EXONERATE Diop Olugbala (Wali Rahman) and Shabaka Mnombatha (Franklin Moses)! CALL THE PRESIDING JUDGE at (215) 686-8334 and demand that Judge Joyce Eubanks EXONERATE Diop Olugbala (Wali Rahman) and Shabaka Mnombatha (Franklin Moses). In November of 2008 Mayor Nutter began holding “townhall meetings” where he unveiled the City of Philadelphia’s 2009 budget that spends $1.1 billion on police and prisons, instead of economic development for the African community. Because the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement (INPDUM) has worked to expose and defeat Mayor Nutter’s colonial war budget the City has been attempting to silence InPDUM… December 10, 2008: InPDUM organizer Diop Olugbala serves Nutter with the People’s Subpoena to appear at the InPDUM-led Tribunal (court) for Reparations to African People. The City was to face charges of crimes of genocide including police violence and government imposed poverty. December 13, 2008: Members of the community testify against the City of Philadelphia at the tribunal. The People’s Verdict was that Nutter and the City were guilty of crimes of genocide against African people! December 18, 2008: Police attack InPDUM and remove Diop from the Mayor’s Townhall Meeting at Martin Luther King High School after attempting to serve Mayor Nutter with the People’s Verdict. The Verdict called for the jailing of killer cops and reparations to police murder victims. March 19, 2009: Again, police attack Diop and fellow InPDUM member Shabaka Mnombatha during a City Council meeting where Nutter was to unveil the 2010 war budget. Diop and Shabaka were holding up signs protesting Nutter’s war budget when the cops brutally attacked them. They were charged with assault on the police! April 28, 2009: Fortified by InPDUM led mass protest brilliant legal representation by attorney Michael Coard pushes Judge Teresa Carr-Deni to dismiss felony charges. May 29, 2009: District Attorney appeals Carr Deni’s ruling, requests reconsideration hearing to re-impose felony charges on Diop’s case. June, 16 2009: Judge Frank “Fumble” Palumbo recuses himself from reconsideration hearing after receiving stack of hundreds of petitions and a swarm of phone calls from InPDUM members and supporters from around the world demanding Hands off the City Hall 2! July, 1 2009: Courts appoint neo-colonial Judge Renee Cardwell-Hughes (L) to preside over the reconsideration hearing. In the process of slapping the felony charges back on Diop’s case Hughes attacks City Hall 2 supporters who attended the hearing, calling them jackasses and demanding they submit their driver’s licenses. The felony trial was set for November 20… WHAT YOU CAN DO: CALL THE PRESIDING JUDGE at 215-683-7032 and demand that Judge Joyce Eubanks EXONERATE Diop Olugbala (Wali Rahman) and Shabaka Mnombatha (Franklin Moses).

For more information contact: Uhuru Solidarity Movement 215.387.0919 WWW.UHURUSOLIDARITY.ORG

Yoga with a purpose

Yoga studios across the country have graciously donated a class to the African Village Survival Initiative during the week of November 16-22nd.
Contact them and attend the classes! Donate to the African Village Survival Initiative! If you are a teacher, studio owner, or do massage, dance, reiki, acupuncture, or other movement/healing arts, sign up today to donate your class!
CALL 215-387-0919 or email philly@uhurusolidarity.org.

Partial List of Classes at yogawithapurpose.blogspot.com - keep checking for more!

Three Days Left! Bid!

UHURU HOLIDAY ONLINE AUCTION!

Socially Conscious Holiday Shopping Starts Now...

A fundraiser for the African Village Survival Initiative.
The Auction is now open for bidding! www.APEDF.org/AUCTION
(Bookmark this page!)

* Unique gifts! Something for everyone!
* Handmade, one-of-a-kind items!
* Massage, Jewelry, Original Artwork, Gourmet Foods, Pampered Pet Products, Gardening and more!

Your participation raises critically needed resources
for the programs of African Village Survival Initiative!

Other ways to support the Uhuru Holiday Online Auction:

* Forward this email to others!
* Join our Facebook page and "share" with friends!
* Contact us to receive promo cards - leave them at coffee houses, restaurants and other venues in your neighborhood!
* Make a donation! Any amount makes a difference!

All items in the Uhuru Holiday Online Auction were donated by artists, businesses and individuals to express support for the programs of the African Village Survival Initiative. Please bid generously - show your support for African development in African hands!

For more information contact: auction@apedf.org, 727-683-9949

Volunteer with Uhuru Holiday Pies!

Urgent: At Least 8 Volunteers Needed Nov 15th!

Volunteer to Bake

Uhuru Holiday Pies are baked collectively by volunteers in commercial kitchens in St. Petersburg. No experience is necessary! You can bake on a shift with your friends and family. We are looking for both experienced and beginning bakers. Volunteers are needed to help mix large vats of pie filling, bake and then box and label mountains of pies! Join us on one or more of these pie baking shifts:

Volunteers are urgently needed for these shifts*:
Sunday, Nov 15 11:00 am - 8:00 pm (at least 8 volunteers needed)
Monday, Nov 16 5:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Tuesday, Nov 17 5:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Wednesday, Nov 18 5:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Friday, Nov 20 10:00 am - 2:00 pm
Sunday, Nov 22 2:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Monday, Nov 23 9:00 am - 7:00 pm
Tuesday, Nov 24 9:00 am - 9:00 pm (at least 8 volunteers needed)

*We ask volunteers to staff at least a 4 hour shift with us, but we will work with your schedule!

Email or call us today and sign up for your holiday volunteer shifts! 727-683-9949, stpete@uhurufoods.org

http://www.apscuhuru.org/emails/stpete/UhuruPies_OrderToday.html

Volunteer with Uhuru Holiday Pies!

Holiday volunteer opportunities! No experience necessary - our commercial kitchen and recipes. Give back during this holiday season. Great for the family, groups and individuals. Complete service hours.

Help prepare, bake and sell scrumptious Pumpkin, Sweet Potato and Apple Crumb pies. Made from scratch with all natural ingredients - can you think of a better volunteer experience?

Uhuru Holiday Pies are a fundraiser for the African Village Survival Initiative. Find out more by visiting http://www.apedf.org/.

Volunteers are urgently needed for these shifts*:

Wednesday, Nov 13 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm

Sunday, Nov 15 11:00 am - 8:00 pm (at least 8 volunteers needed)

Monday, Nov 16 5:00 pm - 9:00 pm

Tuesday, Nov 17 5:00 pm - 9:00 pm

Wednesday, Nov 18 5:00 pm - 9:00 pm

Friday, Nov 20 10:00 am - 2:00 pm

Sunday, Nov 22 2:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Monday, Nov 23 9:00 am - 7:00 pm

Tuesday, Nov 24 9:00 am - 9:00 pm (at least 8 volunteers needed)

Wednesday, Nov 25 10:00 am - 6:00 pm

*We ask volunteers to staff at least a 4 hour shift with us, but we will work with your schedule!

Are you talented on the phone? We also need volunteers to call our many past pie buyers and invite them to buy again this year. Many people are waiting for our call to place their orders! Let us know if you'd like to volunteer time on the phone!

Email or call us today and sign up for your holiday volunteer shifts! 727-683-9949, stpete@uhurufoods.org

Philly First Friday, November 6th - Open House at Dhyana Yoga!

Join Us!
First Friday • November 6th • 6-9pm

Open House at Dhyana Yoga Old City
68 N. 2nd Street (2nd & Arch) - Old City, Philadelphia, PA

Benefit for the African Village
Survival Initiative (AVSI)
• Films and updates on AVSI Projects
• Online Silent Auction • Refreshments

Bid on the online silent auction until November 15th!

Participate in the Yoga With a Purpose Benefit Week to give and attend yoga, massage, dance & other classes for a great cause!

Support African Community Development in African Hands!

The AVSI is building economic self-determination programs to create a collective solution now, as unemployment in the African community reaches 50%. Programs include outfitting a licensed community kitchen as a resource for independent African food businesses. AVSI is also setting up a state of the art recording studio to give African artists, from throughout the world, a means to produce their own music, to use their talents and create their own self-sustaining employment.

BLACK IS BACK!

Black Is Back Nov. 7th D.C. Rally!

Check out the link Below! Donate or join the Rally!

http://www.blackisbackcoalition.org/

UHURU HOLIDAY ONLINE AUCTION!

Socially Conscious Holiday Shopping Starts Now...

A fundraiser for the African Village Survival Initiative.
The Auction is now open for bidding! www.APEDF.org/AUCTION
(Bookmark this page!)

* Unique gifts! Something for everyone!
* Handmade, one-of-a-kind items!
* Massage, Jewelry, Original Artwork, Gourmet Foods, Pampered Pet Products, Gardening and more!

Your participation raises critically needed resources
for the programs of African Village Survival Initiative!

Other ways to support the Uhuru Holiday Online Auction:

* Forward this email to others!
* Join our Facebook page and "share" with friends!
* Contact us to receive promo cards - leave them at coffee houses, restaurants and other venues in your neighborhood!
* Make a donation! Any amount makes a difference!

All items in the Uhuru Holiday Online Auction were donated by artists, businesses and individuals to express support for the programs of the African Village Survival Initiative. Please bid generously - show your support for African development in African hands!

For more information contact: auction@apedf.org, 727-683-9949

Black Is Back Nov. 7th D.C. Rally

Check out the link to the video promo for Black is Back!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_5miyG5nTI

Urgently Needed Volunteers for Food Booth at Circus McGurkis

Uhuru Foods Needs Volunteers for our food booth at the outdoor all day festival, Circus McGurkis - Saturday, October 24th


Uhuru Foods is looking for volunteers to help with this important fundraiser during shifts from 7 am - 5 pm at Lake Vista park in St. Petersburg. We ask that you sign up for a four-hour shift or longer, if possible. You are welcome to staff with us all day!

Circus McGurkis is a fun and exciting outdoor event! This is a perfect volunteer opportunity for individuals or groups, no experience is necessary. Also a great way to complete volunteer service hours.

All proceeds from our booth supports active, community-based projects of the Uhuru Movement. Visit www.APEDF.org and www.DevelopmentForAfrica.org.

We call on all people seeking positive and lasting change in the world to support the Uhuru Movement's call for "Sustainability thru self-determination for African people."

For all our volunteers we provide a complimentary meal and the opportunity to demonstrate true solidarity with the peoples of Africa. Your hard work really makes a difference with Uhuru Foods!

Please join us as we roll up our sleeves and get busy - giving back to Africa!

For more information and to schedule a shift please contact Stephanie Midler, Volunteer Coordinator with Uhuru Foods at 727-510-4360 or stpete@uhurufoods.org.

Black is Back! Moblization Meeting

Attend the Uhuru Solidarity Movement meeting to mobilize solidarity with this historic African-led march!

Thursday, October 22nd at 6:00 pm

Atlanta Bread Community Room, 179 1st Ave. N., St. Petersburg

Get on the bus for D.C.!

Attend the meeting Thursday for full details.

Bus ticket costs $135 per person. Includes travel from Friday morning, arriving D.C. Saturday, 11/7 morning. Rally and March will last until the evening. Bus will leave D.C. that night and arrive back in St. Pete on Sunday 11/8.

Call us at 727-683-9949 for more information or email us uhurusolidaritystpete@gmail.com

Demonstration at Baywalk!

Gather at Baywalk, 8:10 pm sharp

Type:	Causes - Protest
Network:	Global

Date:	Friday, October 16, 2009
Time:	8:30pm - 10:30pm
Location:	Baywalk

If you can't attend but want to take action, contact your representatives and make your voice heard:
• Email or call Mayor Rick Baker at mayor@stpete.org, 727-893-7201
• Email or call City Council at council@stpete.org, 727-893-7117

Freedom Greetings and Uhuru Sisters, Brothers and Comrades,
A Call to Action

The last week has and particularly, this last Thursday's City Council meeting have revealed to us that CW Capital Holdings (the Wells Fargo Bank political hacks) has no intention of dealing honestly with African people or any other forces for that matter.

After the initial meeting of October 1, 2009 with CW Capital Holdings, the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement, St. Pete for Peace, and Veterans for Peace, where we all agreed to operate in good faith as an initial step toward a possible agreement on the Baywalk Bailout and sidewalk giveaway proposal, we have encountered nothing but back door wheeling and dealing.

CW Capital has convinced the City Council to reconsider their tie vote that temporarily stalled the implementation of the Baywalk proposal that would give CW Capital control of the public sidewalk and prevent free speech in that traditional public forum. In addition, This proposal will give $700,000 in capital improvements to CW Capital Holdings, which has bragged that they have more than 11 billion dollars in assets.

Comrades this is an outrage. This proposal is being forced through council by CW Capital as 71% of the African community live at or below the poverty line. This money clearly should be redirected to the African community for economic development to create new African businesses and improve the existing African businesses.

Comrades sisters and brothers, the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement is calling on all who believe in justice and free speech to join us in principled unity and a day of outrage as we demonstrate at Baywalk on Friday, October 16, 2009 at 8:30pm.We are asking people to meet at the corner of 2nd street and 2nd Avenue to assemble for the demonstration at 8:10pm sharp.

The demands will be economic development for the African community, not for the Wells Fargo crooks and freedom of speech at Baywalk and to keep the sidewalk public. Please be advised that we expect at the Thursday, October 15th City Council meeting that council will give the public sidewalk to CW Capital Holdings and the $700,000 bailout with federal taxpayer's money. What this means is that there may be tresspass warnings given to protesters. However, the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement believes that if handled correctly this could actually work in the favor of the demonstrators.

We are asking all who believe in Justice to attend a strategy meeting on Wednesday, October 14th, at the Uhuru House 1245 18th Avenue South at 10:00am. We believe we can defeat this anti-democratic measure by the city and CW Capital, but it is going to take a protracted effort involving a multi-faceted strategy.

We are asking that all organizations and individuals please respond to this e-mail with their committment to attend the strategy session and demonstrations. InPDUM can be reached via e-mail address stpeteinpdum@yahoo.com or call us at (727)851-2086 or (727)322-3882.

Please bring blank posters so we can write them up for the demonstration.

Stand for Free Speech!
Stand for Economic Development for the African Community!
Chimurenga Waller, President InPDUM

African People’s Solidarity Day Challenges U.S. War Here and Abroad

A Call for Solidarity with the African Anti-Colonial Struggle

Sunday, October 11th, St. Petersburg, Fl
Tuesday, October 20th, Oakland, Ca
Sunday, October 25th, Philadelphia, Pa

Throughout the month of October, African People’s Solidarity Day events in three different cities across the country will organize solidarity with African and oppressed peoples rising up to take control of the land and resources of Africa and demand payback for the wealth stolen from African people that created the U.S. economic system.

Colonialism, Not Racism
In the face of a deepening economic crisis, the African People’s Solidarity Committee and the Uhuru Solidarity Movement are white people that stand in solidarity with the African liberation movement and organize support for the Uhuru Movement campaigns and programs. With thousands of foreclosures, massive imprisonment and rampant police brutality, violence and poverty afflicting the African communities in the U.S., we recognize that the question is not racism, but that colonialism exists right here.

Through the march at Malcolm X Park in Washington D.C. planned for November 7th by the newly formed Black is Back Coalition, the African working class led Uhuru Movement is leading the struggle to oppose U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and to oppose the brutal wars against African and oppressed peoples right here in the U.S. Following the legacy of the Marcus Garvey Movement, Malcolm X and the Black Power Movement, the Uhuru Movement is building a movement for self-determination, justice and reparations to the African community.

African People’s Solidarity Day, an annual day of recognition, is a call for support and resources from the white community as an expression of unity with economic and social justice for the African community.

APSD programs feature dynamic leaders
Keynote speaker Omali Yeshitela, Chairman of the African Socialist International (ASI) will summarize the current world situation, comparing U.S. military and economic intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan with domestic counterinsurgency programs and discussing the Uhuru Movement’s strategy for achieving national liberation for African people worldwide.

Author and African People’s Solidarity Committee Chairwoman Penny Hess, whose multi-media presentation will detail the effects of U.S. economic and military policy on colonized African communities, declares, “We don’t want to see America’s economic crisis resolved at the expense of African people once again. This is a time of great opportunity to support sustainable solutions being put forward by the victims of the current system, who are rising up to define their own agenda and determine their own destiny.”

At events in St. Petersburg, Florida and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Chioma Oruh, Chairwoman, of the ASI’s North American Region, and a nationally recognized expert on AFRICOM will explain the mission of AFRICOM and the response of African leaders to it. Chioma Oruh resides in Washington, D.C. where she is pursuing a PhD in African Studies at Howard University.

Featuring Keynote Speaker: Omali Yeshitela

• • Founder of the International Uhuru Movement
• • Leading a delegation to West Africa next month to found
  • African People’s Socialist Party, Sierra Leone
  
• • Founder of the “Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace & Reparations” marching on Washington D.C. Nov 7
  • Just back from the March & InPDUM Convention in Philly

Other Speakers:

Chioma Oruh
Chair, North American region of the African Socialist International

Penny Hess
Chair, African People's Solidarity Committee

Diop Olugbala
Phila leader, International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement

APSD raises money for African self-determination
African People’s Solidarity Day is a benefit for the African Village Survival Initiative (AVSI). The AVSI is the joint effort of the All African People’s Development and Empowerment Project (www.developmentforafrica.org) and the African People’s Education & Defense Fund (www.apedf.org), to create community-led, self-sustaining economic institutions such as rain water harvesting, community agriculture and healthcare for the African community as a collective response to the global economic crisis. A local project of the AVSI is to outfit the Uhuru House in south St. Petersburg, with a recording studio as an institution of international African culture and a commercial kitchen for community based economic development projects.

Get Involved!

• Register for APSD in Oakland or Philly
• Take the Pledge to Take a Stand to Stop U.S. Colonial Wars Here and Abroad
• Donate! St. Pete • Oakland • Philly

Breakfast with a Good Cause!

Volunteer with us in our kitchen. No skills required! Food Preparation needed Wednesday 6 - 8 pm and Friday 10 - 1 pm. No skills required!

and/or Volunteer with Uhuru Foods at the St. Pete Saturday Morning Market at our gourmet breakfast fundraising food booth. Shifts available from between 7 am - 4 pm Saturday, October 17h! No experience necessary!

and/0r Volunteers needed to help load equipment onto our truck, unload food items into our kitchen and wash dishes! If you're not one to want to work with customers but want to volunteer with a great team - this behind-the-scenes volunteer opportunity is for you!

Date:	Saturday, October 17, 2009
Time:	1:00pm-4:00pm

Location:	Al Lang Parking Lot, Lakewood United Church of Christ
Street:	230 1st Ave. S., 2601 54th ave. S.
City/Town:	Saint Petersburg, FL

If you're interested in volunteering, contact us today and help raise money for sustainability and self-determination in the African community! Stephanie, Volunteer Coordinator, 727-683-9949 or email stpete@uhurufoods.org

The Murder of Oscar Grant, the Mehserle Trial and African People's Solidarity Day

Anyone who was born prior to yesterday knows that on January 1st of this year, young Oscar Grant was shot and killed in full view of the public and multiple videocameras shown for the world to see by former BART cop Johannes Mehserle in collaboration with a gang of other BART police officers.

As the Mehserle defense attempts to make their case to win a change of venue, citing "racial polarization," threats of violence and other "arguments," we must remember that African people and victims of police violence in this country have historically not been given a fair trial. 

In fact, the state apparatus protects itself.  It is a rare occurrence to even have a police officer stand trial for the "use of deadly force." History shows that police are systematically acquitted of murder.  The courts, crime labs and prison system all work together to ensure that police departments are rarely held accountable for their crimes. Case in point, the Oakland Riders, four cops accused of brutally beating suspects in West Oakland, falsifying police reports and planting evidence were acquitted time and time again.

Most recently, eleven Oakland officers were fired for falsifying search warrants that they utilized to raid peoples' homes in East Oakland. This is the same police department whose internal affairs chief was exposed as having killed Jerry Amaro III, after having kicked him to death in 2000. For nine years, this information was covered up by the Oakland Police Department. 

It should be as conspicuously clear to anyone who is paying attention that the police are a brutal presence in the African and other oppressed communities and that they lie to cover up their crimes. The mainstream media, for the most part, will only expose their crimes after the proverbial cat's body has completely jumped out of the bag. On a daily basis, the media works to justify the presence of the police in the black community, which is kept impoverished and under seige by the U.S. government imposed drug economy that in turn is used to justify more police. 

At this time in history, in spite of a black president, one million African people are locked down in prisons under this "war on drugs."  In California, even though African people make up just 5% of the population, they represent 50% of those incarcerated in the one of the largest prison systems in the world. 

While the city of Oakland spends nearly half of its general budget on this war, one in five households live on $5,000 or less per year and virtually none on economic development. Even their other budget that is supposedly earmarked for economic development is spent on police related services and gentrification efforts, buying banners and planters to superficially make a neighborhood look friendlier for shoppers using Community and Economic Development Agency monies that are supposed to go to alleviate the poverty in Oakland. 

The actions of Lovelle Mixon in Oakland, California on March 21st took place within this context. Mixon, having recently been released from prison in the fall of 2008, faced an unprecedented economic downturn. He was living in a city in which the public slaughter of Oscar Grant was captured on numerous phone and video cameras for the entire world to see.

We will never know exactly what was in the mind of Lovelle Mixon on that afternoon when he was pulled over on a "routine traffic stop," but we do know that the events of the day took place within a political context of police terror, repression and violence against the African community.

Recent revelations in the media also point to the coverup of lies that took place about exactly what happened in the apartment building where the Oakland SWAT team raid took place, resulting in the deaths of the third and fourth officers, so much that an independent panel will be called in for the investigation.

We may never find out what exactly happened in the apartment where SWAT officers Erv Romans and Daniel Sakai and Lovelle Mixon were killed; however, we do know that that the same entities that reported the reported the police version of events also reported the state crime lab results that pinned a rape of a child on Mixon. This was a rape that, if it did happen, was not reported to the school that stands within a mile of the area where they say it occurred. These were lab results that came out after Mixon was killed.

Time and time again, we see the war on the African community being carried out with the full support of the public and in conjunction with the media slander of an entire community. When Jody "Mack" Woodfox was killed by Oakland Police Officer Jimenez in July of 2008, there was no outcry from the public. Woodfox was killed by multiple shots to his backside while running away from the police.   Oakland police officer Hector Jimenez is also responsible for the shooting death of 20 year old Andrew Moppin, on New Year's Eve, 2007. 

When Jose Luis Buenrostro was killed in mid day just a block away from his house, the media reported the police version that the 16 year old had hidden a sawed off in his pajamas. They also came out with subsequent articles that insinuated that the Oakland Aviation High School student was somehow affiliated with a gang, assigning a low price to his life. 

When 71 year old Casper Banjo, a pillar in the Black Arts Movement had an epileptic seizure and was surrounded and shot right in front of house near Eastmont Mall, there was dead silence on the part of the general public and media. So far there have been no consequences for any of these deaths. 

It is time for those of us who say that we are about social justice to fully understand the role of the state, the organized system of violence that arises in society when there exists haves and have nots, colonized and colonized, oppressor and oppressed. 

For too long, white progressives, who may come out for a big march against the U.S. war in Iraq have stood silently where the African community faces this police terror, in the name of safety, in the name of diversity, with the celebration of a black president and in our name.

No longer can we afford to stand silently by while young people like Lovelle Mixon face no future. The African community has been the hardest hit by the economic collapse. No longer can we seek the means for our own survival - whether it be eco-friendly, DIY, gay friendly or in some other way alternative - if it does not include the complete and total transformation of a system based on genocide and slavery. 

The problems that African people face - in the U.S., on the continent, and around the world - are our problems to face, embrace and address. Let's support the African Village Survival Initiative and its collective response to the economic crisis. Let's say yes to collective and community gardening, rainwater harvesting, solar and wind energy, economic self-reliance, but it has to be under the umbrella of African self-determination, not within a system that robs self-reliance from the peoples of Africa and all over the world.

 

These problems can't be solved by a struggle against racism, which are simply the ideas in peoples' heads but are being solved by an anti-colonial struggle led by African and other oppressed peoples for liberation and justice in the tradition of Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X and the Black Panther Party.

Come out to African People's Solidarity Day on Tuesday, October 20th from 6 to 9:30pm at the Humanist Hall at 390 - 27th St. to hear for yourself about the African Socialist International, the African Village Survival Initiative and the Black is Back Coalition challenging the U.S. colonial war here and abroad. $10-25 sliding scale but no one will be turned away for lack of funds.

To register, go to www.uhurusolidarity.org. For more info, email oakland@uhurusolidarity.org or call 510-625-1106

Volunteers Needed for Food Prep, Sat. Morn Mrkt, and Breakdown!

Volunteer with us in our kitchen. No skills required! Food Preparation needed Wednesday 6 - 8 pm and Friday 10 - 1 pm. No skills required!

and/or Volunteer with Uhuru Foods at the St. Pete Saturday Morning Market at our gourmet breakfast fundraising food booth. Shifts available from between 7 am - 4 pm Saturday, October 10th! No experience necessary!

and/0r Volunteers needed to help load equipment onto our truck, unload food items into our kitchen and wash dishes! If you're not one to want to work with customers but want to volunteer with a great team - this behind-the-scenes volunteer opportunity is for you!

Date:	Saturday, October 10, 2009
Time:	4:00pm - 6:00pm

Location:	Al Lang Parking Lot, Lakewood United Church of Christ
Street:	230 1st Ave. S., 2601 54th ave. S.
City/Town:	Saint Petersburg, FL

If you're interested in volunteering, contact us today and help raise money for sustainability and self-determination in the African community! Stephanie, Volunteer Coordinator, 727-683-9949 or email stpete@uhurufoods.org

Volunteer with Uhuru Foods at the St. Pete Saturday Morning Market

Lend a hand!

Volunteer with Uhuru Foods at the St. Pete Saturday Morning Market at our gourmet breakfast fundraising food booth. Shifts available from between 7 am - 4 pm Saturday, October 3rd! No experience necessary! Make a difference - Have a great time! Uhuru Foods is raising money for urgently needed programs that are addressing the struggle of African people around the world for social and economic justice. We need volunteers to help prepare, serve and sell fresh made to order omelets, red potato home fries, locally made bakery toast, our famous breakfast burritos and scrambled egg platters! No experience is necessary and we will work with your schedule. Want to be part of an exciting day, on a great team? Need to complete volunteer hours? Uhuru Foods needs your help! Contact us today to sign up. Volunteers are needed between the hours of 7:00 am - 4:00 pm on Saturday. We invite you to sign up for at least a 4 hour shift. All volunteers with us will enjoy a free meal from our booth and the opportunity to be part of a truly meaningful fundraiser. Past volunteers have given their experiences with us rave reviews! If you're interested in volunteering, contact us today and help raise money for sustainability and self-determination in the African community! Stephanie, Volunteer Coordinator, 727-683-9949 or email stpete@uhurufoods.org

Be Part of History in the Making: African People’s Solidarity Day is your Ticket!

Secure your tickets now for:

African People’s Solidarity Day (APSD)

• - Register online: www.uhurusolidarity.org

Sunday, October 11th, St. Petersburg, Fl

1 pm at Studio@620

620 1^st Ave. S., St. Petersburg, FL

$20 - $50 donation per ticket requested (No one will be turned away from attending the event due to lack of funds.)

Throughout the month of October, APSD events in three cities across the country are challenging the war abroad and the war here in the U.S., with a call for solidarity with the African anti-colonial struggle.

Your ticket to APSD will include:

• - Presentations by an incredible program of speakers!
• - Dinner
• - African drummers and dancers
• - Special Presentations including the unveiling of the 2010 historic calendar of Omali Yeshitela!
• - The opportunity to express solidarity with the right of African and oppressed peoples to the land and resources of Africa and to payback for the all wealth stolen from African people, economic development and social justice for the African community!

African People’s Solidarity Day – the event to kick off this time of genuine transformation in the world!

Also in October, the African People’s Socialist Party will put a branch of the organization on the ground in Sierra Leone, Africa. The Uhuru Movement in Africa means African people can organize in their own interests!

Then, on November 7^th, the newly formed “Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations” led by members of the Uhuru Movement and the NAACP, MOVE, the Green Party, Black Agenda Report and many other grassroots organizations will march on Washington D.C. to oppose U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and to oppose the brutal wars against African and oppressed peoples right here in the U.S.

The African People’s Solidarity Committee and the Uhuru Solidarity Movement are sponsoring this event. We are white people that stand in solidarity with the African liberation movement and organize support for the campaigns and programs of the Uhuru Movement.

APSD Program:

Keynote Speaker: Omali Yeshitela, Chairman of the African Socialist International, providing a summary of the current world situation, comparing U.S. military and economic intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan with domestic counterinsurgency programs and discussing the Uhuru Movement’s strategy for national liberation for African people worldwide.

Chioma Oruh, Chair, African Socialist International, North American Region, and a nationally recognized expert on AFRICOM, explaining the mission of AFRICOM and the response of African leaders to it.

Penny Hess, National Chair of the African People’s Solidarity Committee, and Author providing a multi-media presentation to detail the effects of U.S. economic and military policy on colonized African communities, and the sustainable solutions being proposed.

Workshop: African Village Survival Initiative (AVSI), featuring:

Ironiff Ifoma, Director of Economic Development, African People’s Socialist Party

Kitty Reilly, Uhuru House Development Campaign

AVSI is outfitting the Uhuru House with a commercial kitchen and a state-of-the-art recording studio. Both are part of creating economic development by providing the space and essential equipment for burgeoning catering businesses, as well as artists in the community to produce and distribute their own culture!