The official blog of the Uhuru Solidarity Movement, an organization of Euro-American and other allies who organize in material solidarity with the African Liberation Movement
Thursday, October 27, 2011
VIDEO: Diop Olugbala on NBC Philadelphia!
Wali "Diop" Rahman, aka Diop Olugbala, President of the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement and Philadelphia's only Independent mayoral candidate, was featured in an in-depth interview on NBC Philadelphia. The video is split up into 8 segments. The remaining segments are posted below. Vote for Diop and contribute to the Diop for Mayor campaign at www.diop2011.org. And if you're in or around Philadelphia, don't miss your chance to hear Diop Olugbala speak at the upcoming "Day in Solidarity with African People" event, 1-6PM on November 12 at First Unitarian Church 2125 Chestnut St.
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Tuesday, October 25, 2011
"Occupy Wall Street" is a crisis for the ruling class. Deepen the crisis!
The following is a statement from the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement on the Occupy Wall Street actions.
The International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement welcomes the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protestors into the historical struggle against the ruling class that we, as Africans, have been involved in for centuries.
This growing movement of mostly white protestors who are challenging the bankers, capitalists and the political rulers represents a reinforcement for the ongoing centuries-long struggles of African, Mexican and Indigenous people.
The undeniable fact is that colonized people have been victimized by the bankers, politicians and even ordinary white citizens ever since Europe enslaved Africans and committed genocide against Indigenous people.
Identifying the enemy: the ruling class and their puppet politicians
The thieving bankers on Wall Street and the corporations are the ones who control the politicians, hire the armies to occupy communities and steal the resources of the oppressed peoples of the world.
They are the ones who impose repressive police-military occupation of the barrios, “reservations” and African communities inside this country.
These are the same criminal elite who ripped off tens of thousands of African people of our homes in this country through the subprime mortgage scheme. This resulted in the loss of more than $200 billion for the African community through foreclosures, which is the largest transfer of wealth from the African community since the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
African people were the first commodity of capitalism
Wall Street and the stock market were built on slavery and genocide. African people were the first “stock” sold and traded on Wall Street.
The bones of African people lay buried in the slave cemetery beneath the buildings on Wall Street. These same African slaves were forced to build Wall Street, for the purpose to subdue an Indigenous insurgency that was trying to take its stolen land back.
The OWS movement must support reparations from the banks and the U.S. government for centuries of slavery and gross exploitation of African people.
African Liberation Movement has historic record of challenging Wall Street and capitalism
We welcome others who are coming to the same conclusions that Africans have held for so long.
We hope that the OWS movement will not allow itself to be drawn into false solutions that demand more wars against the rest of the world’s peoples, millions of whom live on less than two dollars a day because of the exploitation by the bankers and their political and military representatives.
The OWS movement must unite with oppressed peoples around the world and inside this country whose communities have been occupied by Wall Street and their lackeys for the past 500 years.
African self-determination is the way forward
As African people under military occupation inside this country, we are struggling for control of our own communities, for economic development that uplifts the entire community out of poverty that was imposed on us since our enslavement, and to end the police occupation and mass imprisonment of our people.
Wall Street and the system it represents are the primary obstacles that separate African people from our resources and self-determination. It is our African struggle for freedom that will ultimately signal the triumph of humanity over the parasites on Wall Street. African Revolution is the solution!
Occupy Wall Street, not Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Palestine, the barrios, the black community, the reservations!
Resist the police occupation of the African community! Stand in solidarity with the Indigenous people, as they struggle for their land and self-determination!
We say down with Wall Street and U.S. imperialism! Africans have a right to resist! Stop the wars and build the resistance!
Join the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement!
http://inpdum.org/
Join the Black is Back Mobilization: “Stop the Wars! Build the Resistance!” on November 5 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania!
http://www.blackisbackcoalition.org/
Uhuru!
Monday, October 24, 2011
Uhuru Solidarity Movement speaks at Occupy Philly
Uhuru Solidarity Movement organizer Harris Daniels addresses the crowd at the Philly Against War rally on Independence Mall in Philadelphia, PA on Saturday, October 15. The rally also included over 500 participants from Occupy Philadelphia, who had marched from City Hall.
If you believe that there will never be peace on the planet without justice, reparations and reconciliation for African people and all the countless victims of imperialism past and present against whom terror, genocide, exploitation were carried out in our name and for our benefit, then Take the Pledge of Solidarity and contribute at least $10 to the African-led Uhuru Movement for liberation and self-determination for African people everywhere!
Join the Black is Back mobilization November 5, 2011 in Philadelphia:
http://www.blackisbackcoalition.org
Be sure to attend the upcoming "Day in Solidarity with African People" event in Philadelphia, PA where you will have the opportunity to hear presentations from Chairman Omali Yeshitela, Wali "Diop" Rahman and other leaders in the African Liberation Movement! The event will be held on Saturday, November 12 · 1:00pm - 6:00pm. First Unitarian Church, 2125 Chestnut St., Philadelphia, PA. Click here for more info!
Uhuru!
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Report back from Oakland's Day in Solidarity with African People
A Day in Solidarity with African People, held on October 13th, 2011 in Oakland held an electrifying program at the Humanist Hall that brought out long time supporters, welcomed in new members and raised support for the programs of the Uhuru Movement.
Wendy Snyder, the West Coast organizer with the African People’s Solidarity Committee and the Uhuru Solidarity Movement welcomed the attendees by reading the Pledge of Solidarity and describing the campaign to win members and allies from the white community with the African Liberation Movement.
The young performers from the Marcus Garvey Upliftment Project were brought forward by Director Nyisha Moncrease and kicked off the event with African dance. The MGUP is a free arts and education center in East Oakland, CA with the mission to provide a safe environment for tomorrow’s leaders by teaching skills needed for African community self-determination.
Following the performance, Penny Hess, Chairwoman of the African People’s Solidarity Committee gave a brilliant powerpoint presentation that detailed the understandings and teachings of Chairman Omali Yeshitela and illustrated through her slides how the wealth of the white population comes directly from the attack on Africa, the enslavement of African people, the genocide of Indigenous peoples and the plunder of oppressed peoples worldwide.
Chairwoman Hess also challenged the “Occupy Wall Street” movement, “We are NOT the 99 percent,” she stated, clarifying that in actuality white people live of the resources of the rest of the people on the planet.
Hess explained that a true movement to overturn the system of Wall Street is the one led by African and oppressed peoples and that our role is to join the Uhuru Solidarity Movement.
After the presentation by Penny Hess, Cephus “Uncle Bobby” Johnson saluted the Uhuru Movement and struggled with the notion of racism versus colonialism, describing the terror that he and his family have faced – from the brutal killing of his nephew, Oscar Grant on the Fruitvale BART platform on January 1, 2009. He described the growing resistance that he sees, particularly among young African people.
"Right now it’s pregnant, ready to give birth to something powerful,” he said.
The keynote speaker following “Uncle Bobby, “ was Omali Yeshitela, the Chairman of the African Socialist International and founder of the Uhuru movement. “Welcome to the struggle,” he said, addressing the Occupy Wall Street Movement. We have been against Wall Street from the beginning."
He explained that Wall Street was actually built by African slaves and African people were the first commodity to be bought and sold. Furthermore, he stated that the wall itself was actually built to protect white people from the so-called Indians. Yeshitela called on the people of the Occupy Wall Street movement to be against imperialism and therefore with the African and indigenous peoples on the planet who are victims of imperialist aggression.
Also speaking at the event was Vylma Ortiz, from the Stop the Gang Injunctions coalition who presented the recent victories of that coalition to push back the legalized racial profiling, the youth curfews and other police measures in the city of Oakland.
Cat Brooks of the Onyx Organizing Committee gave a statement from her organization, describing their involvement with the struggle for justice for Oscar Grant and their intervention in the Occupy Oakland. She explained the roots of the Onyx Organizing Committee in the challenge to the opportunism of white people who attempted to lead that struggle. She also relayed the backlash she was facing at Occupy Oakland by so-called white progressives who opposed African self-determination.
Finally, Maureen Wagener, the director of Uhuru Foods presented on the economic development programs of the Uhuru Movement and the upcoming Uhuru Pies fundraiser, which has a goal to sell 3500 pies in November and December.
People at the event contributed to the Uhuru Movement programs and joined the organization. The event raised $1400 and won six new members to join and two others to renew their membership. Participants also signed up to be involved in Uhuru Pies, a fundraiser for the African People’s Education and Defense Fund, which include community economic development designed to uplift the entire African community.
The Day in Solidarity with African People in Oakland showed the massive potential of the Uhuru Solidarity Movement to build its membership and to reach allies of the African Liberation Movement who are looking for real transformation and change.
If you believe that there will never be peace on the planet without justice, reparations and reconciliation for African people and all the countless victims of imperialism past and present against whom terror, genocide, exploitation were carried out in our name and for our benefit, then Take the Pledge of Solidarity and contribute at least $10 to the African-led Uhuru Movement for liberation and self-determination for African people everywhere!
Monday, October 17, 2011
Omali Yeshitela Speaks at Occupy Wall Street in Oakland
Omali Yeshitela, Chairman of the African Socialist International, founder of the Uhuru Movement and leader of the Black is Back Coalition speaks at Occupy Wall Street in Oakland, California to the People of Color Caucus about struggles of African and Indigenous peoples against U.S. imperialism and Wall Street interests since its inception.
Join the Black is Back mobilization November 5, 2011 in Philadelphia:
http://www.blackisbackcoalition.org
UhuruNews.com
http://www.uhurunews.com
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Wali "Diop" Rahman speaks at Philly Against War
Wali "Diop" Rahman, aka Diop Olugbala, International President of the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement and Philadelphia's only Independent Mayoral Candidate, addresses the October 15th, 2011 "Philly Against War" rally, which included over 500 people from Occupy Philadelphia, on Independence Mall in Philadelphia, PA.
Building for the November 5th, 2011 Black is Back Coalition mobilization "Stop the Wars and Build the Resistance!"
http://uhurunews.com
http://diop2011.com
http://inpdum.org
http://blackisbackcoalition.org
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Overturning the legacy of Columbus
It would be unthinkable for any country in Europe or America to set aside a day each year in honor Hitler, yet the greatest perpetrator of genocide in history is celebrated every October 12, the day that honors Christopher Columbus and his “discovery” of a “new world” in 1492.
We are told that Columbus represented the visionary spirit of exploration that characterized the Europeans. But as we know history is written by the conquerors.
How can someone “discover” two continents inhabited by millions of human beings with advanced, long standing and diverse civilizations that had cultivated the land, built enormous monuments and buildings, understood astronomy, wrote books and lived in towns, cities and countryside alike without pollution?
The reality is that Columbus was backed by the Spanish crown for the purpose of colonization and plunder of resources in what was believed to be Asia to enrich Spain and its inhabitants.
The dispatching of Columbus on his colonial mission came about at the same time that “white” Spain was being consolidated through wars and the terror of the Inquisition, driving out the Arabs, Africans and Jews who had lived there peacefully for 700 years, and seizing their considerable resources.
Spain like most of Europe was poor in the middle ages, and this is why Queen Isabella had to hock her jewels to pay for Columbus’s trip.
It was Columbus’s occupying force along with the trade in enslaved African people (which Columbus was also involved in) that opened the door for the vast wealth and power that would flow into Europe for the next 500 years at the expense of the Native and the African people.
As Chairman Omali Yeshitela, leader of the Uhuru Movement states, slavery and genocide are the foundation on which America rests. Would there be an America without the genocide of the Indigenous people and the theft of their land? Would there be an America without the enslavement of African people? “No, no, no and a thousand times no,” states Yeshitela.
As writer and Indigenous activist Ward Churchill writes, subsequent to Columbus’ first “voyage of discovery” in 1492, he returned the next year “with an invasion force of 17 ships, appointed at his own request by the Spanish Crown to install himself as the ‘viceroy and governor of the [Caribbean islands] and the mainland of America,’ a position he held until 1500.
“Setting up shop on the large island he called Espa–ola (today Haiti and the Dominican Republic), he promptly instituted policies of slavery (encomiendo) and systematic extermination against the native Taino population. Columbus's programs reduced Taino numbers from as many as eight million at the outset of his regime to about three million in 1496. Perhaps 100,000 were left by the time of the governor's departure. His policies, however, remained, with the result that by 1514 the Spanish census of the island showed barely 22,000 Indians remaining alive.
In 1542, only two hundred were recorded. Thereafter, they were considered extinct, as were Indians throughout the Caribbean Basin, an aggregate population which totaled more than fifteen million at the point of first contact with the Admiral of the Ocean Sea, as Columbus was known…”
This process of genocide, begun by Columbus in Haiti was only just beginning as it expanded throughout North and South America.
As Churchill continues, “All told, it is probable that more than one hundred million native people were ‘eliminated’ in the course of Europe's ongoing ‘civilization’ of the Western Hemisphere.”
In his book Conquest of Paradise, Kirkpatrick Sale wrote of Columbus’ domination of the island of Espa-ola:
The tribute system, instituted by the Governor [Columbus] sometime in 1495, was a simple and brutal way of fulfilling the Spanish lust for gold while acknowledging the Spanish distaste for labor. Every Taino over the age of fourteen had to supply the rulers with a hawk's bell of gold every three months (or in gold-deficient areas, twenty-five pounds of spun cotton); those who did were given a token to wear around their necks as proof that they had made their payment; those who did not were, as [Columbus's brother, Fernando] says discreetly "punished"-by having their hands cut off, or as [the priest, Bartolome’ de] las Casas says less discreetly, and left to bleed to death.
It is entirely likely that upwards of 10,000 Indians were killed in this fashion alone, on Espa–ola alone, as a matter of policy, during Columbus's tenure as governor.”
Las Casas' writings among other contemporaneous sources, are also “replete with accounts of Spanish colonists (hidalgos) hanging Tainos en masse, roasting them on spits or burning them at the stake (often a dozen or more at a time), hacking their children into pieces to be used as dog feed and so forth, all of it to instill in the natives a "proper attitude of respect" toward their Spanish ‘superiors.’”
And this is only a single example of the massive terror waged by the thousands of successors of Columbus who repeated this genocidal terror in a myriad of forms, from Alaska through the Americas to the tip of Chile.
Whether it was with small-pox infested blankets and brutal massacres such as Sand Creek and Wounded Knee in the U.S. or working indigenous people to death in the silver mines of Potosi, Bolivia, Columbus set the example for European conquistadors ready to stop at nothing for land, gold and riches.
Today Indigenous people in North America make up the most impoverished population inside the U.S., living on reservations on their own stolen land with a life expectancy of about 47 years.
The affluence, prosperity and opportunities of white people be able to come from poverty in Europe and climb up the ladder of success are directly attributable the violent theft of this land from the original inhabitants and the stolen labor of enslaved Africans for 200 years.
This explains why white people now have 20 times the wealth that the African community has and why Indigenous reservations are struggle under deadening poverty and powerlessness.
We unite with the call by many Indigenous groups and their supporters that Columbus Day must be abolished and replaced with Indigenous People’s Day.
But more than that we unite that the Indigenous people have a right to the return of their own land and to justice and reparations for hundreds of years of genocide and oppression.
If you believe that there will never be peace on the planet without justice, reparations and reconciliation for African people and all the countless victims of imperialism past and present against whom terror, genocide, exploitation were carried out in our name and for our benefit, then Take the Pledge of Solidarity and contribute at least $10 to the African-led Uhuru Movement for liberation and self-determination for African people everywhere!
Monday, October 10, 2011
Chicago Day in Solidarity with African People breaks new ground
WINS ALLIES, RESOURCES, AND SUPPORT FOR UHURU MOVEMENT'S AFRICAN SELF-RELIANCE PROGRAMS
TAKE THE PLEDGE OF SOLIDARITY WITH AFRICAN PEOPLE TODAY WITH A MINIMUM $10 CONTRIBUTION TOWARDS THE PROGRAMS OF THE UHURU MOVEMENT!
The Day in Solidarity with African People held in Chicago broke new ground in a city that has not seen the Uhuru Solidarity Movement for many years.
The Days in Solidarity with African People is the annual campaign of the African People’s Solidarity Committee and the Uhuru Solidarity Movement, organizations of Euro-American people working in white communities under the leadership of the African People’s Socialist Party, which leads the Uhuru Movement.
The Chicago event, held at the Bucktown-Wicker Park Library community room, attracted North Americans and others from all age groups, many who attended because of the postering and leafleting that had been done by the Chicago branch of the Uhuru Solidarity Movement for weeks.
There were also several Africans present, including Wil Lockett, a Chicago organizer for the African People’s Socialist Party.
To start things off, local Uhuru Solidarity Movement organizer, Kristin Gordon, welcomed all attendees and showed the national campaign video for A Day in Solidarity with African People.
Nate Gilliam, Director of Economic Development and Finance for the All African People’s Development and Empowerment Project (AAPDEP), came in from Milwaukee and gave a powerful presentation about the work that AAPDEP is doing in the U.S. and Africa.
Gilliam provided a critique of the charity model propagated by all not-for-profit organizations that not only demoralizes African people but its intention has never been to actually resolve and change the conditions for African people.
Gilliam pointed out the huge profits that NGO’s make in Africa from the suffering and starvation of African people, like the huge food donations that only swamp the market so that Africans cannot make any profit from selling their own produce. Gilliam also raised the critical issue that these NGO’s never ask the question, “Why is charity needed in the first place?” Africa is so rich in fertile land and resources, why would it need donations to feed itself?
Making it clear that the poverty experienced by African people everywhere is imposed, Gilliam stated that the root cause of the poverty was the initial attack on Africa and the continued exploitation by the U.S. and Europe. Gilliam emphasized that it is a war against African people.
Gilliam spoke about the many projects that AAPDEP is working on, including the rainwater harvesting project in Sierra Leone, where he and other African People’s Socialist Party members are going next month, and the Marcus Garvey Saturday School in Washington D.C. He received a rousing applause from the audience.
Chairwoman of the African People’s Solidarity Committee Penny Hess gave a presentation based on the understandings and teachings of Chairman Omali Yeshitela and explained that the white population lives on the pedestal of the enslavement of African people, the genocide of Indigenous peoples and the plunder of oppressed peoples worldwide.
Chairwoman Hess exposed the “Occupy” movement as a loosely-defined group of mostly white leftists that are calling for reform of a capitalist system that is inherently parasitic and simply want a larger chunk of the stolen resources from the oppressed peoples of the world.
Hess laid out that “We are NOT the 99 percent,” that in fact white people are the 10 percent that live off the resources that are expropriated from oppressed countries through war, genocide and exploitation. This presentation won a lot of North Americans to the theory of African Internationalism as several people joined the Uhuru Solidarity Movement that day!
Hess participated in the call for resources with Kristin Gordon and they were able to raise $475 in pledges and donations. One generous donation of $100 was contributed by a college student in Chicago who took the Pledge of Solidarity with African People several weeks ago and sponsored Matt Daniels, a member of Uhuru Solidarity Movement. He was very interested in holding a similar event at his college and wants to be actively involved in upcoming Uhuru Solidarity Movement - Chicago actions.
Uhuru Solidarity Movement is on their way to building a powerful branch in Chicago!
If you believe that there will never be peace on the planet without justice, reparations and reconciliation for African people and all the countless victims of imperialism past and present against whom terror, genocide, exploitation were carried out in our name and for our benefit, then Take the Pledge of Solidarity and contribute at least $10 to the African-led Uhuru Movement for liberation and self-determination for African people everywhere!
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Reparations, not reform! An appeal to the Occupy Wall Street movement
An appeal to the Occupy Wall Street movement
Uhuru! We begin our letter with this greeting, “Uhuru,” because it is a Swahili word that means freedom and it is the slogan of the Uhuru Movement, an international African working class movement led by the African People's Socialist Party (APSP) that is uniting African people in the U.S. and around the world in the revolutionary struggle for self-determination.
We are the Uhuru Solidarity Movement, an organization of white people and other allies of black liberation who work under the leadership of the APSP to organize in our own communities for material solidarity with the African Liberation Movement.
We stand against the thieving bankers on Wall Street
Several of our members traveled to New York City during the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations where they did outreach for the national campaign to build A Day in Solidarity with African People and signed people up to participate in the upcoming “Stop the Wars, Build the Resistance” march led by the Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations.
We unite with the enthusiasm of the participants in protesting the profound injustice of this government and system that we see all around us. We believe it is a sign of the ever increasing and deepening crisis of imperialism. For the first time since Obama was elected, we are seeing thousands of North American/white people taking to the streets to express discontent with the current state of the U.S. economic system.
But we want to seriously and sincerely call on the Wall Street protesters and all progressive minded North American people everywhere to look deeper at the problem and recognize that capitalism is not “broken”—it was born this way. It cannot be reformed. And as millions of oppressed peoples around the world are rising up to prove: the entire capitalist system must be overturned.
The world system of capitalism—for which the U.S. is the leading state power, and Wall Street its economic epicenter - was built on the enslavement of African people and the genocide of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas and the theft of their land.
Capitalism is a parasite, sucking the blood of the majority of humanity, waging unending wars of plunder and occupation, terror and genocide around the world in order to control natural resources necessary for the high standard of living in the Western world, justified by an ideology of racism and white nationalism.
This system has wreaked havoc on the majority of the world—the true 99 percent—for 500 years, destroying whole continents of people, decimating civilizations, terrorizing nations, imposing poverty and repression and even destroying the ecosystem of the planet itself to provide the white population with a pedestal for our assumed lifestyle that is unattainable except for the most wealthy in other parts of the world.
Who is the real 99 percent?
While it is true that one percent of the U.S. population controls the majority of the wealth, to equate ourselves with those suffering profound poverty and repression around the world and inside this country simply flies in the face of reality. You and I know this is true.
Just because we are not all bankers, Rockefellers or Bill Gates does not mean we are “all in the same boat.”
The fact of the matter is that even as white people are beginning to experience the effects of the economic crisis, we are still living the highest standard of living in the world at the expense of the real “99 percent” inside this country – African, Mexican and Indigenous people who live behind an invisible wall of colonial oppression right here in America.
Even as the economic crisis has begun to affect the entire U.S. population, white people are still earning an average income that is $20,000 higher than the average income of African families. The wealth gap between white and black families in this country has widened to a point where white people have 20 times the wealth of black people.
Yes, we are starting to feel the pinch. But why haven't we been coming out in droves to demonstrate as black teenagers have been shot down by police all over the U.S.?
Where is the outcry about the mass roundups of African people in this country that now have more black men in prison than in college? There is a war going on inside these borders, but we walk right over the African community to get to Wall Street.
Where are the demonstrations calling for genuine peace, saluting the right of the African, Afghani, Iraqi, Palestinian and Indigenous peoples to have their land, resources and self-determination back in their own hands?
This parasitic monster can’t be reformed
There is no such thing as “going back to the good old days.”
Parasitic capitalism is not going to go away simply because we reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act or repeal a Supreme Court decision about corporate personhood. You cannot overcome a disease by treating its surface symptoms. We must go to the heart of the problem—colonialism.
We have to see our future as inextricably tied to the rest of humanity who are struggling fiercely to get this monster off their backs so they can live and prosper on their own land and resources. In fact, this is the cause of the crisis in the U.S. and Europe today: oppressed peoples are fighting back, making it more difficult for the U.S. to steal the increasingly rare resources of the planet.
Any attempt to reform capitalism will prove to be futile. This system is going down. And the majority of the oppressed peoples of the world are the ones who are going to bring it down as they struggle to build a new world based on justice and equity, not one nation prospering at the expense of another.
Imperialism is the enemy
We unite with struggles of the colonized, in solidarity, under their leadership. Their enemy—the U.S. and European governments, military and war machines, the Wall Street bankers and corporate bloodsuckers—is our enemy as well.
We must take responsibility for the legacy of the oppressor and the slave-master that we have inherited and build the movement for reparations from the white community to the African and oppressed peoples of the world.
We do not ask for more of the loot stolen by bankers and the U.S. government. We demand that the stolen resources—the basis of all imperialist war—be returned to the self-governing peoples of the world as the only possible basis for peace on this planet.
That's the only thing that's going to put this capitalist system into its grave. And we have a role to play in bringing this new world into existence by organizing in solidarity with African liberation.
Without resolving this fundamental contradiction between the oppressor nation and oppressed nations, it is impossible to resolve any of the contradictions that we face within our own communities—homophobia, sexism, the oppression of white workers, etc. All of these problems occur within the context of the colonial enslavement and mass exploitation of Africans and other colonized peoples.
What you can do
If you are truly committed to changing the world, then we call on you to do more than simply occupy Wall Street; we call on you join the movement for reparations and organize in solidarity with African liberation! Join the Uhuru Solidarity Movement. Take a genuine stand on the side of the African community, going to heart of the problem to overturn this system.
The future is in the hands of the colonized. Our future, as well, is to be found in solidarity with the revolutionary struggles of African, Mexican, Indigenous, Arab, Afghan and other oppressed and colonized peoples of the world.
We unite with the demand for reparations to African and oppressed peoples everywhere.
If you believe that there will never be peace on the planet without justice, reparations and reconciliation for African people and all the countless victims of imperialism, past and present, against whom terror, genocide, exploitation were carried out in our name and for our benefit, then take the Pledge of Solidarity and contribute at least $10 to the African-led Uhuru Movement for liberation and self-determination for African people everywhere!
We call on all white people struggling for justice to hear the voice of African and oppressed people and to participate in the Black is Back Coalition demonstration to "Stop the Wars and Build the Resistance" in Philadelphia on November 5, 2011.
Victory to the African and Indigenous peoples of the world!
Death to imperialism! Down with Wall Street and white power!
Solidarity with African liberation!
REPARATIONS NOW!
UHURU!
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
PHOTOS: Uhuru Solidarity organizers at Wall St. demo
Members, supporters, and friends of the Uhuru Solidarity Movement attended the "Occupy Wall Street" demonstrations on Saturday, October 1, 2011 to organize the North American/white participants there to Take the Pledge of Solidarity with African People and sign up to participate in the Black is Back Mobilization,"Stop the Wars & Build the Resistance," that is being held in Philadelphia on November 5, 2011.
But "reform" is not good enough. Imperialism cannot fix itself. And there will be no solution for us at the expense of African people. Our future is to be found in solidarity with the revolutionary struggles of African, Mexican, Indigenous, Arab, Afghan and other oppressed and colonized peoples of the world.
We unite with the demand for reparations to African and oppressed peoples everywhere. If you believe that there will never be peace on the planet without justice, reparations and reconciliation for African people and all the countless victims of imperialism past and present against whom terror, genocide, exploitation were carried out in our name and for our benefit, then Take the Pledge of Solidarity and contribute at least $10 to the African-led Uhuru Movement for liberation and self-determination for African people everywhere!
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Beyond Wall Street: Build the movement for reparations!
We believe we have to stand against U.S. imperialism, currently led by the Obama administration which is waging wars of plunder and occupation all over the world. The US wages military, political and economic terror around the world at the expense of the resources, freedom and self-determination of people in the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and Asia. We stand on the side of the oppressed peoples and say Victory to the people of Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Libya, Venezuela, Cuba.
If you believe that there will never be peace on the planet without justice, reparations and reconciliation for African people and all the countless victims of imperialism past and present against whom terror, genocide, exploitation were carried out in our name and for our benefit, then Take the Pledge of Solidarity and contribute at least $10 to the African-led Uhuru Movement for liberation and self-determination for African people everywhere!
Below we are reprinting the Black is Back Coalition's call for support and participation in the upcoming Nov 5 Mobilization:
This is a call to join the Black is Back Coalition (BIBC) for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations in Philadelphia on Saturday, November 5 for a national rally, march and conference entitled "Stop the Wars and Build the Resistance!"
The U.S.-led attack on the government of Libya is the latest attempt of a dying, parasitic social system to rescue itself at the expense of the happiness and resources of the world's peoples.
The people are fighting back — in Libya, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Palestine, Egypt and Iran in the Middle East, North Africa and the Persian Gulf.
The people are fighting back throughout the Americas — in Haiti and Venezuela and Cuba and Bolivia and Ecuador, and again in Nicaragua.
The people are also organizing in the North American concentration camps euphemistically referred to as Indian reservations.
These are the Other Wars. They are occurring against the people in the internal colonies — the Barrios and the criminalized African communities of North America, Europe and Australia.
The Other Wars are displacing millions of people on the African Continent, which has experienced hundreds of years of colonial domination, pillage and exploitation, all of which is also experienced by the millions of African people who have been displaced around the globe as enslaved captives.
The other imperialist wars include the Africa Command or AFRICOM, the U.S. military apparatus that projects U.S. imperialist State power, blanketing the entire African continent in a desperate effort to lock Africa into a permanent state of bloody, impoverished servitude.
The Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations opposes these imperialist wars and supports the righteous resistance of the people in the struggles to regain their resources, sovereignty, dignity and happiness.
Stop the desperate efforts of a mortally wounded parasitic capitalist system built and sustained by the slavery, colonialism and centuries of genocide that provided the primary accumulation of capital upon which the modern imperialist system depends for its survival!
March and rally in Philadelphia on November 5 to Stop the Wars and Build the Resistance!
Stop the wars against African people in Africa, inside the U.S. and Europe and around the world!
Stop the wars against the Native people, the Mexicans and so-called "Illegals."
Stop the domestic wars against the Muslims and Arab peoples.
We are marching against all the imperialist wars. We are marching in Philadelphia because our real obligation is to stop the U.S. imperialist war machine that is headquartered in the U.S. and we understand that to stop the imperialist wars we must open up another front of resistance right here.
We are marching in Philadelphia because Philadelphia is prototypical of the war being waged against the internal colonies of the U.S. It is the city where police under the leadership of an African mayor, dropped a bomb in 1985 that incinerated an entire African community, killing 11 men, women and children.
Over half of the more than one million people in prison in the U.S. are Africans, Mexicans and other indigenous people. Scores of political prisoners are rotting behind bars in U.S. prisons with little chance of release through normal legal processes.
In Philadelphia, 72 percent of the 253,000 people stopped and searched by the police department in 2009 were African and Latino men.
Philadelphia is the city where U.S. use of mass imprisonment as a modern form of population control and colonial slavery and where the death penalty and political incarceration of colonized people is exemplified in the cases of Mumia Abu Jamal and the MOVE 9.
But the people are fighting back.
In Philadelphia, a neocolonial black mayor has engaged in a vicious anti-African slander campaign to win white support for his reelection. He is being forced to defend himself and the system from an independent campaign being waged by a real anti-imperialist candidate that is affiliated with the Black is Back Coalition.
We will draw the connection between the neocolonial bombing of 1985 in Philadelphia by a black mayor and the neocolonial bombing of Libya in Africa by a black president.
We are mobilizing to give support to the anti-imperialist candidate for Philadelphia mayor in the November 8 election. We are marching to change the contours of the political terrain in Philadelphia by forcing a public anti-imperialist discussion that will expose neocolonial, indirect imperialist rule used against the peoples of Philadelphia, the U.S. and the world.
We are marching to demand freedom for the Cuban 5, to end the blockade of Cuba and the ongoing counterinsurgent interventions throughout South America.
However we are going beyond the traditional anti-war movement. We are not only opposing the popularly recognized wars abroad. We are not simply calling for peace. We are not pacifists; we are anti-imperialists that recognize that the way to stop the wars is to build resistance to imperialism itself.
This is a call for all anti-war and anti-imperialist activists to join with the Black is Back Coalition in Philadelphia on November 5 to open up a new front of anti-imperialist struggle capable of defeating imperialism and ushering in a new world free of war and exploitation.
Stop the Wars and Build the Resistance!
For more information, go to www.blackisbackcoalition.org or call 202.681.7040.