PDF of whole issue

Voice of the
International
African Revolution!
Volume 24, Number 5 • January/February 2005
£1
African People’s Socialist Party • P.O. Box 11281 • St. Petersburg FL • 33733-1281 • www.apspuhuru.org
White Christmas in Black Face
Dutch tradition promotes African humiliation!
See Point of the Spear
Page 12
Con La Plataforma del Partido Socialista del Pueblo Africano En Espanol — P.19
Voir la page 17 por la 14 plate-forme de point des Gens Africains’ les Parti socialiste en Francais
Inside:
British High Court overturns
unlawful killing verdict in police
murder of Roger Sylvester
(page 2)
APSC sponsors march against
U.S. war on African community
in several U.S. cities
(page 7)
NY councilmen propose curfew
bill targeting African communities
(page 8)
White power brought poverty
to Asia long before tsunamis
(page 10)
2
THE BURNING SPEAR
January/February 2005
EUROPE
Justice for Roger Sylvester’s family!
Verdict won by African community overturned by British High Court
LONDON — The victory in the
inquest case of Roger Sylvester,
who was brutally murdered by
police, was one of the few victories
that Africans have received when it
comes to us being murdered by the
standing army of the State.
However, the State quickly showed
the African community that it would
not allow any such victory for
Africans to stand.
Roger Sylvester was jumped by
eight police officers right outside his
home in Tottenham. The police claim
that they were detaining him “for his
own safety” under Section 136 of the
Mental Health Act.
However, his safety came into
question when the eight police
began beating him viciously, and as
a result of their looking out “for his
own safety,” he suffered heart and
kidney failure and severe brain damage. After being beaten into a coma
and placed on life support, 30-yearold Roger Sylvester died leaving
behind a family distraught and full of
questions.
During the inquest that took place
in October 2003, the police came
with the same usual bullshit defense
and claimed that Roger Sylvester
was “extremely violent,” and displayed “almost superhuman
strength” as he was detained.
Neighbors who witnessed the arrest
told the inquest that they did not
observe a struggle as he was taken
into the police van.
The eight officers claimed the
“unlawful death” ruling of St.
Pancras coroner Dr. Andrew Reid
last October was “irrational and perverse.” Despite a unanimous verdict
from 11 jurors, the pigs argued it had
not been proven that they deliberately and dangerously pinned down
on the floor a naked Roger Sylvester
for an unreasonable 20 minutes.
The police’s version of the incident that ended the life of Sylvester
stood in “stark contrast” to the eyewitness accounts. Police said they
did not hold Roger Sylvester facedown. Nurses and medical staff at
St. Anne’s hospital said they did.
Roger Sylvester before and after the police beat him into a coma causing
severe brain damage and heart and kidney failure. He died after being on a
life support machine.
Roger Sylvester was not enough to
convince Africans that the State
holds no value for our lives, the
overturning of the unlawful killing
verdict is painful evidence.
The verdict of unlawful killing won
at the inquest in October 2003 was
overturned in November 2004 by the
British high court, led by Lord Justice
Collins; many Africans were in grief,
a state of shock and disbelief
because of the conclusion reached
by the white judges which made it
clear to Africans and to the rest of
the world that the duty of British
police is to murder African people in
Britain.
Despite overwhelming evidence
that having eight officers to deal with
one unarmed man is a form of
excessive violence, and despite the
medical evidence that exposed that
Roger Sylvester was violently killed
by the British police in Tottenham,
North London, the white ruling class
has still found a way to justify the
theft of this African man’s life.
His parents, along with the rest
of the family and all of those who
hoped that the unlawful killing verdict against the eight policemen was
the beginning of the justice that
would bring forward charges against
the eight police criminals, were devastated.
people’s government.
The British government, run by
High court judge overturns
Self-determination is a
Labour or Tory or Liberal Democrat
inquest verdict in favour of the
precondition for justice
parties, is a representative of white
Many Africans were asking thempower.
It
is
white
people’s
governeight killer cops
selves,
“Why can’t we get justice in
ment,
and
it
has
always
been
a
white
If the brutal police murder of
Britain?” and “Will we ever get justice in this country?” Some of us
have concluded that there will never
be any justice for us in this country.
These conclusions from various
Africans are born out of our experience at the hands of the British colonial State and ruling class. They are
realities at the surface, which is all
that most of us can see.
There is also another conclusion
w e Ye s h i t e l i s t s , o r A f r i c a n
Internationalists, have come to when
analysing and dissecting neo-colonialism. We say the government and
the police federation may have won
this round, but our struggle for justice against the eight police officers
The overturning of the unlawful killing verdict was like salt poured into the
is not over. It is far from being over.
wounds of Roger Sylvester’s family and the African community.
The reason the government can
African People’s Socialist Party
...as a result of
[the police]
looking out “for his
own safety” he
suffered heart and
kidney failure and
severe brain
damage. After
being beaten into a
coma and placed
on life support, 30year-old Roger
Sylvester died
leaving behind a
family distraught
and full of
questions.
validate the murder of Africans by
the police is that Africans have not
achieved self-determination in modern history. We have not achieved
power over our own lives and communities.
So the struggle for justice for
Africans anywhere is a struggle for
African self-determination everywhere. It is the struggle for community control of the police, courts,
schools and business markets. It is a
struggle for power for our children
and our people.
Self-determination means developing the capacity to monitor and
control the political economy of our
community and as long as this struggle for self-determination is not over,
the struggle to get justice for Roger
Sylvester is also not over.
The victory of attaining selfdetermination will allow us to take
the matter to our own court and
carry the sentences out on the eight
murderous police officers ourselves.
That is why the urgent task of
any African seeking justice should
be to join the International Peoples
Democratic Uhuru Movement
(InPDUM) to build the effort to win
our people to the necessity of
becoming self-determining people,
and to build the capacity of having
our own court and carrying out the
sentence that will bring justice to
African people in the UK and all over
the world.
We must build InPDUM as part of
nationwide mass democratic
movement for self-determination
D e v a s t a t e d f a t h e r, R u p e r t
Sylvester said, “I’m very angry. Very
disappointed, very bitter. The police
know they can go and [take] our
loved ones and get away with it
because they have the whole establishment backing them, protecting
them, covering them. When you’ve
got the establishment against you,
you can’t compete with them.
They’ve taken this [inquest verdict]
away from us. I don’t know how
we’re going to get justice.”
Does this mean the end of a
struggle for those of us who have
lost our loved ones? No, it simply
means that we are conscious from
the start that our ability to achieve
our immediate need for justice
against the local police station,
which killed our brother or sister,
depends on every successful step
we make towards achieve in building
for power.
Sometimes our mobilization on
local levels may be powerful enough
to force our oppressors to make concessions to our people’s demands. It
is the wide scope of motion of angry
and determined Africans to get justice at all costs that will force the
government to consider meeting our
demands.
That was the case in the aftermath of the 1981 and 1985 rebellions that shook Brixton, Bristol and
other British towns in the eighties.
You all may be very aware that,
see Roger Sylvester, page 21
January/February 2005
THE BURNING SPEAR
3
EUROPE
African community outraged:
Inquest verdict lets British police off
the hook for murdering Derek Bennett!
LONDON — On December 15,
2004, Dorothy Bennett, mother of
Derek Bennett, wept, as many
African mothers have before her, as
a white colonial jury delivered the
verdict in favour of the white police
murderers who gunned down her
son on July 16, 2001.
The African coroner, Dr. Selena
Lynch, a loyal servant of the white
ruling class, removed from the
inquest jury the option of reaching an
unlawful killing verdict. According to
a December 13, 2004 report from the
Black
Information
Link
(www.blink.org.uk), “She said, ‘I’m
only going to offer one substantive
conclusion to you. The conclusion
available to you is one of lawful
killing.’”
She told the 12-person jury,
including one black man and two
black women, that even though she
was recommending only the lawful
killing verdict, they still had the option
of reaching an open verdict. The
Black Information Link further quotes
her as saying, “Do not use an open
verdict as a mark of censor or disapproval. As you may appreciate, an
open verdict is inconclusive.”
She went on further to say,
“Lawful killing occurs if the evidence
shows a person used reasonable
force, even if that force was by its
nature likely to be fatal. A person who
honestly believes he is about to be
attacked may use reasonable force.’”
Derek Bennett’s father, Ernest,
said in a statement, “Whilst we
fought for justice we put our grieving
on hold. We are devastated and our
grief is compounded by the outrageous decision of the court.”
Reacting to the decision, Derek’s
brother Daniel Bennett said, “We are
sickened by the result. We can see
that there ain’t no justice here. The
police and the establishment are
here to protect their own.”
Inquest is just another colonial
tool of the white ruling class to
maintain status quo
Derek Bennett, a 29-year-old
father of four, was shot four times in
the back as he ran away from armed
police men, who can only be identified as Officers A and B (otherwise,
the state claimed that their lives will
be in danger). Bennett was shot
dead in 2001 after being spotted with
what turned out to be a gun-shaped
cigarette lighter.
Officer A claimed Bennett was
facing him at the time shots were
fired, but this contrasts with bullet
entry-wounds in his back. The same
killer cop also admitted that Bennett
did not point the cigarette lighter at
armed policemen at any time.
The 11-person jury reached a 9-2
majority verdict after deliberating for
over five hours. Their decision of lawful killing means the Crown
Prosecution Service will not press
criminal charges against the officers.
As is often the case, one of the
regain the power of self-determination for our people; to end our existence as objects of oppressor
nations.
These nations’ economic systems
are born out of and maintained by
500 years of ongoing enslavement of
How to get justice for
Africa and her children scattered
African people
around the world.
against the police is
The real fight against crime must
be
a fight to end the imposition of a
an urgent question
drug
economy in the African commuThe police in the
nity,
and
to expose the British govAfrican community are
ernment
as
responsible for the existhere as a force to contence
of
drugs
and crime in our comtain our community. This
munity.
It
must
be a fight for ecomeans they are not part
nomic
development
for the African
of any justice, freedom,
community
in
the
form
of community
independence nor libercontrol of vital and strategic businesses and growth of the already
existing, but struggling African
businesses.
The democratic struggle in
Derek Bennett, 29-year-old
Britain is part of an international
father of four, murdered by
revolutionary movement that is
London police
diligently being built across the
globe. It is a struggle that opens
killer cops, Officer B, who
up all aspects of struggle for
they claimed did not shoot
democratic rights due to our peoDerek Bennett, has been
ple and allies abroad. It is a strugpromoted since the murder.
gle to build the capacity for a State
Deputy Commissioner
power capable of carrying out jusSir Ian Blair said, “They contice on our own terms within an
tinue to serve with the
international context for any local
Metropolitan Police, and we
harm done to us.
continue to offer appropriate
That is why in the Uhuru movewelfare support. They have
Dorothy and Ernest Bennett continue to struggle
ment,
we don’t think that the strugbeen removed from operafor justice for their son, who was shot in the back gle is over. It has simply entered a
tional firearms duties since
by police.
new phase, characterized by
the incident. That decision
growing
African internationalism and
ation movement for African people,
will now be reviewed.”
heightened
consciousness of
and they don’t come to solve any colWe are witnessing the power of
Africans
in
this
country and all over
lective problem we may face.
the British State against African peothe
world.
Whenever they are sent into the
ple in this country. It is white power in
that the policy of the
British government,
Labour or Tory, is that
police officers can’t be
jailed for killing African
people in Britain.
the service of the British ruling class
at our expense. It is made of courts,
all kinds of police forces, the army,
prisons, the councils, inland revenue,
schools, media and the government
itself.
The State defends white nationalists who attack, brutalize and murder
our people on the streets, such as
those white thugs who stabbed 18year-old Stephen Lawrence to death
in 1993 while he waited for a bus on
the streets of London. It is the court
who let them free; it is the police who
refused to arrest them despite being
overwhelmingly tipped by the public
in the neighborhood.
This refusal to move quickly on
the main suspects, wasted vital clues
and evidence to be used in court
which could have been hard to
ignore.
In the murder of Derek Bennett
and other Africans before him, we
have clearly seen that the State in
this country is a State run in the interests of white people, and that the
standing army of the police department is an iron fist of the State that
goes into the African community to
kill with impunity. We all have seen
that the police are the crime
enforcers in our community who do
not get punished for their crimes.
Our experience in Britain tells us
schools, markets or streets of our
community, they come to contain our
people. The police take lives in our
community, they break up African
families and they criminalize our people.
Defeating the policy of police containment of the African community is
an urgent task of all genuine democratic organizations of the African
working class community. And it
comes in the form of the imposition
of a drug economy, which is an illegal
economy run by the same ruling
class that controls the British State
and the legal economy.
The legal economy denies
Africans jobs while the illegal economy validates the criminalization of
the African community through the
media. It serves as an excuse and a
cover for the white rulers to swamp
our community with police forces,
with the intent of arresting and jailing
our young people for participating in
the illegal economy that they have
imposed on our African brothers and
sisters in the first place.
The International People’s
Democratic Uhuru Movement
(InPDUM) forces are not people who
are trying to make the capitalist slave
system more efficient, more fair,
more just or more equal. They are
African people who are fighting to
British government owes
reparations to the family of
Derek Bennett
We hold the British government
directly responsible for the death of
Derek Bennett. They made the decision to send armed police to deal
with an unarmed African. The police
officer shot at an African who never
pointed a gun at the police. The
police shot Derek while he had his
back turned against them and was
running away from them.
The government has openly
defended the police gunmen who
shot Derek by refusing to release
their names on the false grounds
that the “safety of the police officers
would be at risk.” The government
has clearly, despite irrefutable evidence, cleared the killer cops and
has intentionally continued to promote this volatile relationship with
the African community by validating
the murder of Derek Bennett.
We believe the government has a
chance to take a step toward giving
the African community what it is due
in light of this travesty against our
people. It cannot bring back the
mother ’s son and the children’s
father, but it can attempt to repair the
damage caused to the family of
see Derek Bennett, page 21
African People’s Socialist Party
4
THE BURNING SPEAR
January/February 2005
EUROPE
The Crisis of European Imperialism
An African Internationalist Analysis
Blair government out of steam as imperialist crisis deepens
LUWEZI KINSHASA
Seven years ago, white people
voted the Labour party and their new
leader Tony Blair into power. They
pompously came to office promising
to stop the crisis of British imperialism. They heightened hopes of white
people for a better future under
imperialism. They promised to solve
some of the most obvious symptoms
of the crisis of white power in Britain
including: long waiting patient lists in
hospitals; poor transportation systems; teacher shortages; and
poverty faced by a sector of the white
people and children.
Now in 2005, it is seven years
later and the crisis and symptoms of
British imperialism have deepened.
At the same time, several Labour
Party leaders have been caught up
in financial or sexual scandals and
other kinds of corruption, and have
resigned only to reappear in different
governmental department jobs.
Other prominent leaders of the
Labour Party, without government
jobs have also been caught in dishonest or unprincipled practices.
Stephen Byers, Peter Mandelson,
David Blunkett, Estelle Morris, Keith
Vaz, Harriet Harman, Dianne Abbott,
and Chairie Blair are only some of
the names that have made headlines.
British foreign policy is George
Bush’s policy
As Tony Blair’s failure to make the
lives of British people better and
safer continues to manifest, the number of critics attacking him for this
failure grows. White people accused
the Labour government of having
abandoned its traditional values for
the white working class, in favour of
the British millionaires.
Of all the crises that have
engulfed this government, it is the
Iraq crisis that has eroded much of
the Blair administration’s credibility.
Failing to win a majority of British
people to support the invasion of
Iraq, Tony Blair disregarded the
biggest anti-war demonstration to
ever happen in Britain.
Compounding this issue was the
“big lie” about Saddam Hussein’s
ability to launch a biological attack
against Britain’s interests within 45
minutes; the failure to find weapons
of mass destruction; the suspicious
“suicide death” of Doctor Kelly, a scientist who worked for the Ministry of
Defense and was accused of having
passed secret info to a BBC journalist that exposed the lie of Tony Blair
in Iraq; and the Lord Hutton inquiry
in January 2004 that “washed the
Blair government” of any wrong
doing in the death of Dr. Kelly.
Also, the undeniable submission
of British foreign policy to U.S. foreign policy and Blair’s support of the
African People’s Socialist Party
U.S. government
in their violation
of international
law involving the
torturing
of
M u s l i m
detainees and
imposing military
tribunals
on
them, denying
the detainees the
status of prisoners of war and
The Blair regime has lost credibility with
diminished furwhite people because of its unity with the
ther the Blair
blatant tactics of U.S. imperialism while it
administrations
has support for its anti-African laws.
already crumbling
worse in these white
credibility. Following the U.S.’s lead,
nationalist institutions.
Britain’s own anti-terror laws jail forThe cost of buying
eign nationals suspected of terrorism
a house has risen so much that it has
indefinitely without proof, evidence or
out-priced many white people buying
any charge required.
homes. “Illustrating the wealth divide
in the starkest terms, the researchers
White people disapprove of
calculated that 10 years ago, the
Labour policies in education,
sale of the average house in
healthcare and taxes but support
Kensington, central London, the richanti-African/anti-Muslim laws
est area, would have bought two
houses in the Fife town of Leven, the
The education crisis has also conpoorest area. Today, the Kensington
tributed to Blair’s loss of popular suphouse would buy 24 properties in
port among white people. The introLeven.” — November 26, 2004, The
duction of tuition fees at universities
Guardian.
and the abolition of student grants
The rise of violence, including gun
has resulted in most students being
violence, in most of the British cities
left in debt.
has created a sense of insecurity,
In order to alleviate the teacher
despair and hopelessness that, until
shortage in Britain, the government
recently, used to be the plight of colwants to recruit unqualified classonized peoples only.
room assistants or helpers as teachBlair is also trapped with the
ers. Of course, it is the African and
advance of the European Union’s
other oppressed communites that
currency and constitution. White
receives many of these unqualified
people in Europe are already experiteachers to go with our oversized
encing the use of the Euro, while
classrooms of 30 children making the
Britain is still undecided, as the
standard of education received
British ruling class remains divided
more than ever before. The campaign to vote for a European constitution is also happening in the rest of
imperialist Europe, piling more pressure on the British ruling class to
decide where they stand — in an
integrated European imperialism or
with U.S. imperialism.
No white
imperialist
government has
anything to offer
to oppressed
peoples and
colonized peoples
on earth. The terror
laws are in
complement to the
laws and policies
to build more jails
and fill them with
colonized Africans,
Muslims and other
oppressed peoples
of the world.
British imperialism exposed by
its domestic policy against
colonized people
The UK government has come
with a tactic to divide the colonized in
two sections: the ones with and without British citizenship. Like African
people in Britain, many young
Muslims are regularly stopped and
searched by the police, whose activities to intimidate the Muslim population have greatly increased.
Just after the September 11
attacks, the government quickly
passed the anti-terrorist, Crime and
Security Act. This is the act that
allows the government to lock up
indefinitely foreign, mostly Muslim,
alleged militants suspected of terrorist attacks. While some are impris-
oned in Belmarsh top security prison,
others have been locked away in
Broadmoor mental hospital in
London.
The following case illustrates the
treatment of the oppressed Muslim
population: “These 12 men were
arrested after the September 11
attacks on the U.S. They have no
idea what they are accused of.
Those with access to secret intelligence are suggesting that the allegations against those detained,
because they are foreigners, are
actually less serious than those who,
because they are British, have the
right to a trial” — December 22,
2004, The Guardian
“Around 19 barristers have been
given security clearance to represent
the interests of detainees before the
Special Immigration Appeals
Commission (SIAC), the detainees’
only route to appeal against their
detention. The barristers are
appointed by the attorney general to
put forward a detainee’s case, but
they are unable to tell their client the
case against him or seek an explanation from him.” — December 21,
2004,The Guardian
No white imperialist government
has anything to offer to oppressed
peoples and colonized peoples on
earth. The terror laws are in complement to the laws and policies to build
more jails and fill them with colonized
Africans, Muslims and other
oppressed peoples of the world.
They all make up part of a comprehensive counterinsurgency that
has nothing to do with street crimes
as many of us are told by the white
media outlets.
It is a struggle for position, to contain and defeat the effort of the
colonised people to stand up tall and
fight for our freedom and the return
of our resources and freedom. The
essence of the headlines of the
domestic policies of Blair, Chirac in
France, Bush in the U.S., and other
imperialist leaders is, in essence, to
tackle security, fight terrorism and
see Crisis, page 5
January/February 2005
THE BURNING SPEAR
5
EUROPE
African community marches for justice:
Reparations to Ricky Bishop’s family!
LONDON — On Sunday,
November 21, 2004, more than 100
Africans gathered on the streets of
Brixton for the “Justice for Ricky
Bishop March.” Ricky Bishop was a
young African brother who was murdered by Brixton police during its
“Operation Clean Sweep” three years
earlier on November 22, 2001.
Led by the International People’s
Democratic Uhuru Movement, and
with the full support and participation
of Ricky Bishop’s family, Africans
lined the streets demanding that each
one of Ricky Bishop’s murderers —
Police Constables (PC) McDaniel,
Atkins, Rees, Lane, Wood, Luke,
Wilson, Gittins, Molyneux, Davis and
Johnston — be arrested and put on
trial for the brutal slaying of Ricky.
Throughout the march, participants chanted that these officers,
along with the rest of the British police
force are “Murderers” and “Terrorists!”
Ricky Bishop was Doreen Bishop’s
only son and he also left behind a
daughter, and so chants also called
for reparations to be paid to his family.
One could not ignore the politically
advanced ideas that were espoused
throughout the march, with Africans
calling for an end to the public policy
of police containment of the black
community, which is, in essence, a
military occupation of African communities throughout London and the
world.
The community acknowledged not
only the innocence of Ricky Bishop,
who never sold drugs one day in his
life, but the guilt of Tony Blair and the
rest of the British government as the
true drug pushers.
One of the primary demands made
in the march was that the police, as
an institution, must be under the control of the community. It was made
quite clear that the brutal military force
known as the British police must withdraw from the African community and
that the inhabitants of the community
must be allowed to take responsibility
for the policing and safekeeping of the
entire community.
This demand was put to the test on
the day of the march as a brother who
joined the march got into a confrontation with the police and was about to
be arrested. An altercation began
between one of the police and this
brother and he could no longer hold
back the aggression every African
Crisis
continued from page 4
immigration.
They all have the same meaning:
counterinsurgent warfare against our
people, the colonised and oppressed
people.
The latest government report in
Britain reveals this hot truth at our
expense: “One in eight prisoners in
England and Wales is a foreign
national — an all-time record —
according to a report published
today. The Prison Reform Trust says
the figure represents a threefold
Ricky Bishop
feels towards the occupying army
known as the police.
The group of officers who, by
English law, must accompany any
demonstration, immediately rushed to
this African in order to arrest him and
perhaps even deliver to him the same
fate they had dealt young Ricky
Bishop three years earlier. But this
group of officers obviously underestimated the power of the people.
With not even a moment’s delay,
the mass of African people in the
demonstration rushed to the aid of
this African man and wrested him
from the clutches of the police officers. Many of the Africans who
responded did not actually see what
initially transpired between the
African and the police, but they knew
what the police are capable of and
the role they play within our communities.
The myth of police invincibility
instantly faded away, and all that
remained were a small group of
English men with fear in their eyes.
Their frailty was exposed as they
were easily overpowered by the participants of the march and order was
restored.
The ushers on the march, all
members of the Uhuru Movement,
were instrumental in organizing protection for the African who the police
increase over the last 10 years.
“In some jails, foreign nationals
now make up over 50 percent of the
population, it adds up. The figures
are revealed in a report which concludes that such prisoners are not
given the attention and support they
need, and in some cases are treated
with disrespect, often experiencing
racist behaviour from prison staff.
“The report, Going the Distance,
suggests official figures may underestimate the number of foreign prisoners because there are 1,200 people in custody whose nationality is
not known. The Verne prison, Dorset,
and Morton Hall, a women’s jail in
had tried to arrest
and also calming
him as he was obviously suffering from
illness.
Though
the
police
were
defeated, it was
plain to see that
they could not
accept African people in complete control of their own
march and their own
communities, and
so they called for
reinforcements.
Being completely
aware of the police’s
intentions to arrest
the man when the
reinforcements
arrived, the people
revealed
their
strategic brilliance,
first, in having the
man lifted by car,
and then, by forming a blockade in the road which prevented the van full of police from pursuing the vehicle.
This action was well received by
everyone on the march and there is
no doubt that the participants of the
march, under the leadership of the
Uhuru Movement, saved this African
The myth of police
invincibility instantly
faded away, and all
that remained were a
small group of
English men with fear
in their eyes. Their
frailty was exposed
as they were easily
overpowered by the
participants of the
march and order was
restored.
Lincolnshire, are identified as those
where foreign nationals make up
over half of the population. In 16 prisons they account for a quarter or
more, including all of the large prisons in London.” — December 1,
2004, The Guardian
What they consider foreign
nationals are Africans coming from
Nigeria, Jamaica, Congo, Somali,
etc., and a fraction of other
oppressed peoples including Arabs,
Asians, and Gypsies. This does not
take into account the majority of
Africans born in this country who
have British nationality.
The British State is convinced that
from death or jail. This gave everyone
just a taste of what community control
of the institutions within our community means.
Despite this unexpected incident
between the pigs and the people, the
focus of the march never shifted from
Ricky Bishop and other victims of
police containment of the African
community.
Sister Doreen Bishop, the mother
of Ricky Bishop, addressed participants on the march with brave words
while speaking about her son, speaking about the police, and speaking
about the case. Sister Doreen is a
courageous sister who has pledged
not only to fight for the cause of her
son, but to fight on behalf of African
people as a whole.
This was done both at the site
where Ricky Bishop was first
arrested, and at the end of the march,
in front of the police station where
Ricky was beaten to death.
In addition to Doreen’s words, testimonies were given outside the
police station by various Africans,
candles were lit and tributes made,
and Ricky Bishop’s young daughter
even laid down a wreath in honor of
her father, slain at the hands of the
police.
The march ended outside the
police station where there was an air
of confidence about the Africans
involved in the march. It was not just
confidence but resoluteness — determination that the police will not be
allowed to jail and kill members of our
community one by one.
The need for African people to
have organization to win control over
our own lives was given great emphasis. The Uhuru Movement stands at
the forefront of the fight for African
people’s democratic rights and the
self-determination. African people
united can never be defeated!
Build InPDUM!
Jail the police murderers of
Ricky Bishop!
Reparations to the family of
Ricky Bishop!
Defeat the Public Policy of
Police Containment!
Economic Development for the
African Community!
Uhuru!
these counterinsurgent attacks will
remedy the every deepening crisis of
imperialism. It moves with conviction
to cut off any ability of Africans and
other colonized peoples to resist
oppression. We must move with just
as much conviction in organizing
Africans to overturn this counterinsurgency and fight for self-determination for the African community!
Fight for self-determination
for the African community!
Build and join the InPDUM
today!
African People’s Socialist Party
6
THE BURNING SPEAR
January/February 2005
NORTH AMERICA
How to make the cops lean back:
Keep a Black Eye on Jake!
BY DIOP OLUGBALA
In 1989, rapper KRS-One made a
song called “Who Protects Us from
You?” The hook went like this…“you
were put here to protect us, but who
protects us from you?”
He got the question half right, but
if KRS ever thought the pigs were put
in our community to protect us, he
needs to go back to the South Bronx
and find out what’s really hood.
Because in the real world, the police
are placed in the African community
as an occupying army to kidnap us,
shoot us down in the streets and
keep us from organizing to take back
all the wealth that is stolen from us.
But the question still remains,
who does protects us from po-po? Is
it the supreme court? Is it internal
affairs? Is it having 100 negroes in
law enforcement? Hell no! How can
you expect the same people who
caused the problem to fix the problem?
The only way to defend yourself is
to practice self-defense. If somebody
walks up to you and swings on you,
are you going to stand there and let
him beat you? Are you going to ask
somebody to step in and fight for
you, or are you going to fight for
yourself, block his punches and
swing back?
The same principle applies to
defending ourselves against the
attacks that the U.S. government
makes on us.
In the spirit of self-defense, the
Brooklyn branch of the International
People’s Democratic Uhuru
Movement has launched a campaign
to defend ourselves from the police
assaults on our democratic legal
rights. We call this campaign, Keep a
Black Eye on Jake (BEOJ).
If you live in the ‘hood then you
know how the police get down. They
randomly stop and search Africans
on a constant basis in attempts to
keep us in a state of terror and lock
more and more of us up everyday.
Most of the time, the police don’t
even follow the same laws that they
claim to uphold. How many times
have you been standing on the corner minding your own business, and
po-po rolls up on you demanding to
see your ID?
In a situation like that, the police
are supposed to have probable
cause for stopping and/or arresting
you according to their own law. You
have the right to ask if you are under
arrest and whether they have probable cause for stopping you. If the
answer is no, you have a right to
keep it moving.
But when in that situation, be firm
with your stance. The police take
advantage of the fact that African
people (especially young Africans)
don’t know our rights and are unorganized.
Also, make sure that you speak
loud enough for everyone around
you to hear what is going on. The
pigs try to pick us off one by one, but
when we show unity, they back up.
We as a people have not been
organized to have community control
since the Black Power Movement of
the Sixties. So when we distribute
the BEOJ pamphlets among the people, a lot of times it is a foreign concept that just looks good on paper.
TO
E
B
I
SCR
B
SU
The law doesn’t
mean anything to
them. But our
power through
organization is an
irresistible force —
regardless of what
the law says. BEOJ
is designed to
organize the people
to create our own
policy on how the
police relate to us.
But the Uhuru Movement firmly
believes in practicing what we
preach. We don’t just tell the people
how it is done, we show the people
how it is done.
On a weekly basis, we patrol the
African community in central
Brooklyn on foot and in vehicles
looking out for acts of police terrorism. When we find some (which
doesn’t take long), we intervene in
the process. We start agitating the
people: “If you want to get the criminals you should go to city hall! The
THE BURNING S
PEA
R
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African People’s Socialist Party
!
white house is the rock house! Uncle
Sam is the pusher man! 911 for murdaaaa!”
We also pass out the BEOJ pamphlet to all those standing around,
and sometimes to the Africans getting harassed. This often upsets the
pigs, cuz they don’t like for their victims to have any weapons to defend
themselves.
They will often demand that we
step out of the way. A lot of times,
they ask if we want to get arrested,
too.
We give the pigs their little 15 feet
‘cuz we aint trying to get into no
fights. But we don’t stop talking, and
we make sure everyone can hear us.
A favorite tactic the pigs like to
use is blaming the Movement for the
reason why they are going to arrest
their victim. “You better tell your
friends to shut up, or else we’re
going to have to lock you up!”
But everybody’s hip to their corny
Jedi mind tricks. The police were
locking us up way before the Uhuru
Movement existed. In fact, it is
because of things like police terror
that the Uhuru Movement exists!
Law is the opinion of our
oppressors set up to protect
their interests
“We get out of this through struggle. You can’t write a good enough
brief for white folks to turn you loose.
The only way that works is if you
write a brief, and then you go to court
and say, “judge, look out the window.” And the judge looks out the
window and sees a well-armed body
of forces standing there. Then the
judge will say, “well damn, I think this
person is innocent, innocent, innocent!” — Omali Yeshitela, Chairman
of the African People’s Socialist
Party
Some would argue that there’s no
point in holding the police accountable for respecting our legal democratic rights because the police do
what they want anyway. In a way
they are right.
The law doesn’t mean anything to
them. But our power through organization is an irresistible force —
regardless of what the law says.
BEOJ is designed to organize the
people to create our own policy on
how the police relate to us.
In the final analysis, the law ain’t
nothing but the opinion of those who
are in power. Slavery was legal at
one point. If we respected their law
and didn’t revolt, we would still be
slaves!
Over the years, we have forgotten
this. Now, Africans follow “the law”
like its the best thing for us. But the
reality is that the same law is used to
keep us in chains. Only difference
now is the chains are invisible (until
the police lock you up).
How else could you explain the
fact that over 400 years, we went
straight from the plantation to the
projects? How else could you explain
the Rockerfeller laws in New York
see Black Eye, page 23
January/February 2005
THE BURNING SPEAR
7
NORTH AMERICA
Stop America’s Other War
APSC-sponsored Marches for Social Justice call for end to
U.S. war against African community
In three U.S. cities this
fall, a very significant event
took place: North Americans
(white people) marched in
solidarity with the movement
for economic and social justice and reparations to the
African community.
The March for Social
Justice, which raised up the
slogan “Stop America’s
Other War,” took place in
Oakland,
California,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
and St. Petersburg, Florida
during the months of
October and November.
Sponsored by the African
People’s
Solidarity
Committee (APSC), the
marches called on other
white people, especially
those who consider themselves progressive, to recognize that even as the U.S.
The African People’s Solidarity Committee sponsored Marches for Social Justice in Oakland,
is waging a brutal war
California, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and St. Petersburg, Florida.
against the people of Iraq,
the same torturous and
the U.S. is doing when the same
genocidal conditions are imposed on
policies are enforced against African
the African community right here
people colonized inside this country.
within its own domestic borders.
APSC works to wake North
The mission of the APSC, which
Americans
up and make them face
was created by the African People’s
the
reality
that
our wealth, power and
Socialist Party (APSP), is to organize
lifestyle
come
from
the suffering and
in the white communities, building
oppression
of
African
and native
political and financial solidarity for
people
as
well
as
colonized
peoples
the African liberation movement led
around
the
world.
by the Party, while working directly
Thirty percent of young African
under the Party’s leadership. These
men
are tied to the U.S. prison sysmarches were also fundraisers for
tem
which
is nothing but a host of
the Party.
concentration
camps for Africans as
While tens of thousands of liberal
well
as
well-oiled
money making
white people have marched in oppomachines
for
white
capitalists who
sition to U.S. attacks on the Iraqi
have
tapped
heavily
into the profpeople, there is almost complete
itable
business
of
private
correcsilence from the so-called progrestional
institutions.
And
this
is
done
sive and left sectors about the bloody
while
the
government
simultanecounterinsurgency that America
ously brings jobs and economic
wages against the African population
development to white communities.
inside this country. As APSC
Just like the U.S. counterinsurexplained in the brochure advertising
gency
in Iraq, the U.S. imposes marfor the marches, the U.S. atrocities
tial
law
on African people here, killing
against the Iraqi people are based on
hundreds
of Africans every year and
400 years of enslavement, colonizabrutalizing
tens of thousands.
tion and oppression imposed on
Through
the marches, APSC also
African people inside the U.S.
raised
the
question
of where real
There was some outcry against
peace
comes
from,
pointing
out that
the torture of Iraqi people in the Abu
the
solutions
to
the
current
crisis
of
Ghraib prison earlier this year. But no
imperialism
under
president
George
North American progressives talk
Bush could not be solved by voting
about the fact that the same kind of
him out of office. We live in a system
torture is inflicted on African people
“Stop America’s Other War” — a
built on slavery, genocide and coloin U.S. prisons every day. One of the
powerful stand
nialism and no U.S. president,
U.S. military torturers at Abu Ghraib
For weeks before the three
Democrat or Republican, has any
was Charles Graner, a former guard
marches,
APSC members and supother
interest
but
to
maintain
and
furaccused of torture at State
porters
were
seen out in the streets
ther
develop
that
system.
Correctional Institute Greene, the
going
door
to
door or setting up outAPSC
pointed
out
that
true
peace
Pennsylvania super-max prison
reach
tables,
approaching other
can
only
come
from
national
liberawhere political prisoner Mumia Abu
North
Americans
to sponsor them to
tion
for
colonized
peoples
—
whether
Jamal is held captive.
march
for
social
justice. Some
they
are
Iraqi,
Palestinian
or
African.
APSC’s goal in building the
marchers
raised
hundreds
of dollars
The
peoples
of
the
world
are
clear
Marches for Social Justice was to
from
family,
friends
and
people
on
that
they
will
get
their
stolen
bring home to white people this chillthe
street
in
this
fundraiser
that
resources
back
from
the
white
world
ing reality, and to expose that it is not
brought in resources and political
by any means necessary.
necessary to look thousands of miles
support for the work of the APSP.
away to find a reason to protest what
In each city, APSC held events,
While tens of
thousands of liberal
white people have
marched in
opposition to U.S.
attacks on the Iraqi
people, there is
almost complete
silence from the socalled progressive
and left sectors
about the bloody
counterinsurgency
that America wages
against the African
population inside
this country.
house meetings, press conferences and media interviews as part of the build-up.
“It was really great being out
there with a strong political
presence in the months
leading up to the march,”
commented
Joel
Hamburger, APSC member
from Oakland and one of the
top fundraisers.
During this period most
of the white left was caught
up in the election mania.
The March for Social Justice
gave people an opportunity
to see that the solutions to
the world’s problems would
not be found by voting, but
by building a movement in
solidarity with the struggle
for liberation for African and
other colonized peoples who
bear the brunt of daily U.S.
attacks.
The first of the three
marches was held in
Philadelphia on Saturday,
October 16. According to march
organizer and local APSC chair
Alison Hoehne, “About 40 people
participated in the spirited march
through West Philadelphia, including
through the campus of the University
of Pennsylvania, chanting, ‘We can’t
ignore America’s other war!’
“This was important because the
university is in the process of ousting
the African community of West Philly
through gentrification, which brings
affluent white people in to buy up the
houses and drive up African community property values forcing [Africans]
out.
“Police brutality and murder are
rampant here and the African community catches hell every day. APSC
exposed the hundreds of police murders of Africans in Philadelphia over
the past 30 years for which no cop
has ever been prosecuted.
Philadlephia has [a higher] incarceration rate of Africans per capita than
any other U.S. city,” Hoehne said.
“It was significant that white people took this stand and the response
from many onlookers was good.
Hundreds of North Americans made
a contribution in support of the campaign for justice and economic development led by the Uhuru Movement.”
As in all the marches, Chairman
Omali Yeshitela was the keynote
speaker at the rally following the
march. Despite rain showers, a
crowd of about 75 people gathered in
Clark Park to hear the Chairman and
the other dynamic speakers.
The rally included Sateesh
Rogers, APSP Director of
Organizations; Penny Hess, Chair of
the APSC; Pam Africa, Chair of
International Friends and Family of
Mumia Abu-Jamal; Lou Fornwald,
father of Milo Fornwald, who was
see March, page 23
African People’s Socialist Party
8
THE BURNING SPEAR
January/February 2005
NORTH AMERICA
NY councilmen propose curfew bill to
criminalize and attack African youth
BY FATIMA SHITTU
NEW YORK — Two city council
members in New York recently
announced their proposal for a citywide youth curfew bill. If approved,
the bill would make it illegal for anyone under the age of 18 to be outside
without adult supervision between
midnight and 6:00 a.m. More than 80
percent of all large cities in the U.S.
already have similar laws which
effectively place young “citizens”
under house arrest after dark.
Proponents of curfew laws are
quick to argue that they are just trying to protect children from the
streets and keep them out of the
hands of predators and violent
offenders. Or, they’ll tell you that similar laws in other states have been
proven to reduce juvenile crime.
However, objective studies show that
there are no statistics to support the
claim that curfew laws reduce crime
committed by or against children.
The solution to crime among
youth or any sector of our community
is not additional containment by the
police. Crime doesn’t exist because
kids are hanging out late at night or
because parents aren’t doing their
jobs. There is crime in our communities because we have no access to
the resources created from our labor
and no real form of economic development.
The truth of the matter is that the
youth curfew is simply another tool
used by the ruling class to control the
masses and to specifically target
young Africans who are already stigmatized by society as delinquents.
No matter how much the legislators
and politicians lace their anti-African
curfew bills with ‘do-gooder’ rhetoric
about the welfare of the young, we all
know that it will actually work to the
detriment of the African community.
Africans demand control of
community and end to police
containment
Curfew laws rob Africans of our
most basic democratic rights, taking
power out of our own hands and further subjugating the decision making
power of African people. They speed
up the process of criminalizing our
youth, serve as yet another license
for police occupation of our communities, and continue the U.S. government’s policy of counterinsurgency
against the people.
They claim that any violation of the
curfew law would lead to the underaged “offender” being escorted back
home or safely held until a parent or
guardian could come pick him/her up.
But history has taught us that the
relationship of the police department
to the African community is anything
but safe, and that enforcement is
selective and discriminatory.
Even before the bill has been officially proposed, there is already talk
of “targeted policing” in “areas of concern” — in other words, the bullseye
is on the African community. While
white suburban violators of the rule
will receive a slap on the wrist, children in the African community will be
quickly swept up into the criminal sys-
African People’s Socialist Party
This is where the curfew laws are designed to put African children — in
prison. They label African communities “targeted areas of concern” and create these anti-African laws just for our people.
tem.
Disciplinary infractions that once
Statistics show that African youth
earned detention and a note in a stuare up to six times more likely to be
dent’s folder, now lead to official citaimprisoned than white youth, even
tions from the police and the estabwhen faced with the same offense
lishment of a criminal record before
and have no prior record.
they even leave the school grounds.
These curfew laws undermine
Young Africans are already being
parental authority and seek to put
booked for everything from loitering
guardianship of African children into
and truancy, to the catch-all “disorthe hands of the police regime. Our
derly conduct”, which often equates
families are already targeted by
to nothing more than hanging out. An
social welfare programs aiming to
unprecedented number of African
kidnap our children and discard them
students are being run through the
into the destructive foster care syspolice system at an ever-increasing
tem. Now, they have more reason to
rate.
enter our homes and dictate how our
If this bill is successful, the NYPD
households should function.
can soon add curfew violation to the
Parents can no longer have the
list of ‘offenses’ that warrant dragging
responsibility of setting limits for their
an African child into the police station.
children. If a parent knowingly sets a
Even if no official charges are filed, it
child’s curfew after the state manallows the police to add their names
dated time, they can look forward to
to a database of “potential future
their son or daughter being picked
offenders”.
up, forced to do 25 or 50 hours of
With a record on file for meaningcommunity service, and the parents
less “violations,” the cops can claim
can be fined from $75 to $275.
even more justification in profiling and
We cannot allow the State to crimtargeting African youth. It further
inalize and attack our children,
guarantees that a larger percentage
putting them under what is effectively
of our population is tied to the crimihouse arrest, under the guise of
nal justice system in one way or
“police protection.”
another, and at a younger age.
We see this police “protection”
In addition to the physical harm
every day as these cops harass and
that police interaction can bring, it is
terrorize our youth on a regular basis.
important that we not discount the
Police “protection” in African commupsychological impact that this forced
nities usually means police terror, like
interaction with the police has on us.
in London where eight police “proThey are essentially training us, from
tected” Roger Sylvester “for his own
childhood, for a life of military consafety” and he ended up being
tainment, and convincing us that we
beaten to death suffering brain damare crooks that must be watched at
age and heart and kidney failure.
all times.
We go to school and are moniYoung Africans subjected to
tored by cops, ride the trains and are
court lynchings for meaningless
watched by transit police, and get off
violations
the train to be greeted in our neighborhoods by the same racist and vioThe U.S. government is getting
lent police force. Our children and our
more brazen by the day about their
people in general are under constant
counterinsurgent attacks on Africans,
police supervision.
and the young amongst us are
This police occupation is a
increasingly bearing the burden.
weapon used by the government to
Already, we are forced to interact with
further the counterinsurgency against
the police force on a daily basis as
the African community. The curfew
school monitors are replaced with
laws are just another attack on our
gun toting pigs. Students spend their
democratic rights as a people. The
days in a hostile climate — walking
U.S. government revokes our fundathrough metal detectors, being monimental rights to make basic choices,
tored by closed-circuit cameras, and
including what time we go in and out
being susceptible to searches of their
of our homes, forces us to face an
belongings and person.
antagonistic military force from dusk
to dawn, imprisons and murders as
many Africans as possible, and effectively demoralizes those that are not
behind bars.
Their aim is to kill the spirit of our
freedom fighters and ensure that the
African working class is excluded
from political life and revolutionary
activity. Every brother or sister that
gets locked up is a potential Garvey,
Malcolm, Assata, or Lumumba that’s
not on the street to organize our people and wage war against the system
that oppresses us.
Another strategy of the ruling
class is to create artificial class divisions within the African community
using the old school antics of house
negro verses field negro. They line
the pockets of a minority of our people in an effort to convince them that
the American dream is available for
all so-called African hyphen
“Americans,” if we would just play the
game right.
We’ve got a whole sector of the
community that’s bought into these
“pull yourself up by your own bootstraps” ideologies that teach us that if
we can just work twice as hard, and
save twice as much, go to the right
schools and join the right clubs, talk
right, act right, and look right, they will
let us have stuff and we’ll somehow
get free.
This is the reason you’ve got
Africans like Bill Cosby, who are
aligned with the ruling class, getting
up to tell us that the reason we fail out
of schools is because we speak
“ebonics.” Instead of looking to the
school system that mis-educates,
criminalizes and demoralizes our
youth on a daily basis, Cosby would
have us blame parents for not instilling values that support a colonial
education.
The ruling class uses the media
and these Uncle Tom, puppet “Black
leaders” to persuade the masses of
African people that we are our own
worst enemy. The government tries to
make us believe that we create and
maintain the horrible conditions that
we live in because we don’t behave in
the correct manner, because we listen to rap music, because we wear
our pants too low or we spend too
much money on jewelry.
But the real criminal is the U.S.
government and all the imperialist
nations that attack Africans around
the world and continuously rob Africa
of all its resources. We’re not poor
because we waste our money; we’re
poor because while we work for slave
wages that barely feed us, all our
wealth is being siphoned from our
Africa.
Crime exists in our community
because they take all the jobs out of
our communities and pump drugs
into the hood as the only means of
economic survival for our people.
Long live African
Internationalism! Black power
to the African community!
We need to be clear that all these
see Curfew, page 21
January/February 2005
THE BURNING SPEAR
9
BUILD TO WIN!!
Africa: Two Nations, One Destiny?
Editor’s Note: The following presentation was delivered by B.F. Bankie at a
Global Afrikan Conference held in
Paramaribo, Surnimame on October 4,
2004. We are printing the presentation
here because we feel the issues dealt
with regarding the relationship between
Arabs and Africans and the oppressive
history that has defined this relationship
is one that demands public discourse. Up
until recently this has been a relationship
that has been discussed mostly in whispers by Africans afraid that public discourse would prevent an anti-imperialist
unity necessary to contend with U.S. and
European imperialism.
However, now that such a discussion
seems to serve the interests and agendas
of the imperialists, especially U.S. and
British imperialists, there is an abundance of public discussion concerning the
oppression of Africans by Muslims and
especially Arab Muslims. Virtually every
white imperialist medium avails itself to
the issue of Arab and Muslim oppression
of Africans in Africa and currently in
Sudan.
We of the African People’s Socialist
Party are no less aware of the history of
oppression that exists between Africans
and Arabs in Africa and the significance
of that history when it comes to determining the future of Africa as a united
and liberated whole. However, we are not
interested in advancing the foreign policy
objectives of the U.S. or any other of the
imperialists with their vicious life-drenching grasp of Africa and its resources.
Therefore, we are naturally suspicious
of the need of imperialists to expose Arab
or Muslim oppression in Africa while
obscuring their own current and historical
involvement in looting Africa of its
resources, both human and material.
We are printing this piece by Bankie
because we believe that this discussion is
one that must be seized by genuine revolutionary, anti-imperialist African
Internationalists with a vision of a liberated and united Africa under the leadership of the African working class allied
with the poor peasantry.
We are hoping that printing Bankie’s
piece, notable for its inability to mention
imperialism at all, will initiate a discussion of this issue in a manner and forum
that will forward the struggle to destroy
imperialism and advance the liberation
and unification of Africa and her children
scattered worldwide.
BY B. F. BANKIE
Internationally, it is generally
accepted that there exists within the
African continent two nations — the
Arab Nation and the African Nation.
Certainly, the Arabs as a people, be
they in the Middle East or within continental Africa, distinguish themselves
from the blacks who are, in general,
found south of the Sahara. That was
why they created their Arab League
in the 1940’s, to bring the Arab Nation
together within one structure.
This is also the perception of the
peoples of the world in general about
the peoples presently living within
continental Africa. Africa is seen to be
peopled by two nations, the Arabs in
the north and the Africans south of
the Sahara. It is therefore odd that
these peoples, especially the Africans
living south of the Sahara, should
have chosen a structure uniting Africa
north and south of the Sahara, as
their vehicle of choice to defend their
global interests.
This “wisdom” comes from the
hindsight of the year 2004, whereas
the Organization of African Unity
(OAU) was established in 1964 and
converted to the African Union (AU)
in 2002-2003.
Edward Blyden [regarded by
some as the father of Pan Africanism]
taught us about the African Nation. It
was a term used by people such as
Marcus Garvey. However, in the past
we never had a clear definition of
what constituted this entity. The
importance of Sudan is that a study
of it leaves no room for doubt as to
what constitutes the African Nation,
and what is African Nationalism. It is
suggested that both these definitions
are important for the Global Afrikan
Congress.
Many Africans believe that with
the ending of settler colonialism in
the southern region of Africa, which is
now engaged in the struggle for economic emancipation, the frontline of
the struggle for Africans would shift to
the northern borderlands of the
African Nation. In the past, this area
was grossly neglected by Africans in
general, as the global struggle, led by
the anti-Apartheid Movement, took
shape in the south. So Southern
Africa was liberated, with independence coming to Namibia in 1990
and majority rule to South Africa in
1994.
Meanwhile the Torit Mutiny of
August 18, 1955 in Sudan had
marked the commencement of yet
another phase of war in Sudan.
Sudan is the longest on-going war
zone in Africa. War in this area was
never discussed in the OAU as this
war was defined as the ‘internal affair’
of the Arab League, not to be discussed by the OAU. Egypt was fearful that the waters of the Nile might
fall into hostile hands.
To put the Sudan fight in context,
war in the Afro-Arab Borderlands,
stretching from Mauritania on the
Atlantic Coast, through Mali, Niger
and Tchad to Sudan on the Red Sea,
has been going on since time
immemorial. Cheik Anta Diop, the
Senegalese nuclear physicist and
Egyptologist, established in western
scholarship that Egypt was originally
populated by Africans. Africans originally populated present day Tunisia,
Libya, Algeria and Morocco. The
The discussion of the oppressive history in the relationship between Africans
and Arabs has not happened openly until now when it serves imperialist
interests in isolating Arab Muslims.
Black Africans
constitute the
majority of the
population of Sudan.
In the North of the
country and in Dar
Fur, many of these
Black Africans have
been Arabised and
Islamised... They are
Pan–Arabists, and
they support the Arab
nationalist fight of
the central
government in
Khartoum against the
South Sudanese
African nationalist
fight...
Arabs came to Sudan through the
Nile Valley after conquering Egypt,
passing through the desert from
Libya and Maghreb.
Africans were, and continue to be,
pushed
southward
in
the
Borderlands. In Sudan, the battleground today is Dar Fur, where an
Arab militia known as the Janjaweed
hailing from Libya and northern
Tchad, have been armed by the government of Khartoum, the capital city
of Sudan, to push the African farmers
off their lands.
Only 39 percent of Sudanese
regard themselves as Arabs.
However, Sudan is a member of the
Arab League and is seen as part of
the Arab world. It is correct to say that
Sudan is predominantly Muslim,
although no demographic statistics
are available on the country’s religious composition.
Black Africans constitute the
majority of the population of Sudan.
In the North of the country and in Dar
Fur, many of these Black Africans
have been Arabised and Islamised.
So much so, that in the past these
Africans considered themselves to be
Arabs and not Africans.
They are Pan–Arabists, and they
support the Arab nationalist fight of
the central government in Khartoum
against the South Sudanese African
nationalist fight, in keeping with the
policy of using a black against a
black.
So in one country we find Arab
nationalism fighting African nationalism. This is the strategic significance
of Sudan in the understanding of the
African Nation. The ruling elite in
Khartoum serve as the advanced
guard of Arab nationalism, and as the
defenders of the interests of the Arab
League and Egypt, they are steadily
determined to push southward the
interests of Arabia. Succeeding governments in Khartoum have played
this role.
Hassan Al-Turabi, once the
speaker of Sudan’s parliament and
the ideological power behind its
Islamist revolution now languishing in
prison in Khartuom, aggressively
asserted an intention to push southwards and even capture Kampala, in
Uganda, and thus insert a dagger into
the heart of black Africa.
It was such a government which
hosted the international terrorist
Osama bin Laden in Sudan as he
fought against the Southern
Sudanese African nationalists, no
doubt using weapons of mass
destruction (WMD) against the southerners, such as poison gasses. South
Sudan was considered a front of the
global jihad.
It has to be said that South Sudan
was jointly administered from
1898–1956 by Britain and Egypt. The
elites, which ruled Sudan after its
independence in 1956, including the
Mahdi, were all committed to advancing Arab interests southwards in
Sudan at the expense of the Africans.
A similar ruling group, mainly Arab in
composition, pursues a similar policy
see Two Nations, page 21
African People’s Socialist Party
10
THE BURNING SPEAR
January/February 2005
ASIA
Poverty in Asia did not begin with tsunamis:
White power responsible for Asia’s inability to respond to disaster
BY LUWEZI KINSHASA
While the white press continues
to debate over the exact amount of
people who have tragically died after
being struck by tsunamis, there is
nothing being said about the fact that
the tsunamis are not the most devastating thing that has hit the affected
areas of Southeast Asia.
In fact, more than anything, we
have been bombarded by the news
of white people’s donations to the
people of Southeast Asia. It is as if
white people just discovered poverty
in that part of the world.
They travel there every year, running from inhospitable European
weather. They go into Asia to have
fun and find “heaven on earth,”
knowing that the very people who
serve them food and make them
comfortable in those colonial holiday
resorts are plagued by poverty,
hunger, prostitution and AIDS that
white power imperialism has
imposed on them.
In 2004 alone, 2.1 million people
were killed by diarrhea related diseases. Many more continue to die
from curable diseases caused by the
poverty that is a product of white
imperialist domination over
oppressed peoples.
The truth of the matter is that the
vast majority of humans on earth are
poor because over 75 percent of the
wealth of the peoples of the world is
concentrated in the hands of the
white ruling class and white people in
general.
During this past Christmas season alone, British people spent £4.3
billion on decorations and £30 billion
celebrating Christmas, while most
people walk about four miles a day to
get water in the colonized world.
Imperialist pollution is
responsible for severe
environmental disorder
The violence of the sea cannot be
separated from aggression against
the environment at the hands of the
European, U.S. and Japanese capitalist classes, who have, for a long
time now, been dumping toxic waste
into the sea, releasing high levels of
dangerous gases into the environment, and carrying out all kinds of
atomic and nuclear experiments at
the expense of nature.
Long before the tsunamis
appeared, contaminated water and
water born diseases like diarrhea,
cholera, dysentery and denge fever
have been killing people in those
areas of the world.
It is the oppressed and colonized
peoples who have suffered the most
from white power’s mindless interference with nature. Had these colonized countries had access to their
own resources, they would have
been better prepared to deal with the
effects of the tsunamis.
In a country like India, where at
least one third of the population lives
on less that $2 per day and 40 percent of the population lives below the
poverty line, the effects of the
tsunamis were devastating. India
would have sufficient resources to
African People’s Socialist Party
The Aceh province, which has been involved in a struggle for independence
from Indonesia for 26 years, was devastated by the tsunamis.
deal with the tsunami disaster, but its
colonial relationship with Europe
drains its resources, weakening its
ability to cope.
Sri Lanka’s neo-colonial government’s resources, that should have
been available for its people, are tied
up in arms bought from imperialist
countries for its war against the Tamil
people who are struggling for independence.
Indonesia has lost over 70,000
people to the tidal waves. The epicenter of these deadly waves was
near the Aceh province, which for 26
years has been fighting for independence from Indonesia.
In the Aceh and Sumatra regions,
the neo-colonial government and
infrastructure have collapsed. The
freedom for the working masses of
these regions from neo-colonialism
and white imperialist power is a
necessity. That is the only way they
can be free to work and use their
resources and labor to protect themselves from any natural disaster.
European charity is a cover for
imperialism — what the people
of Asia need is reparations
In Sri Lanka, Oxfam claims to
have provided food for 8,000 families. Christian Aid in India and Sri
Lanka has provided £150,000 of
emergency funding through its part-
ner organizations, the Churches
Auxiliary for Social Action (CASA)
and the National Christian Council of
Sri Lanka.
This amount of money and the
hundreds of millions of dollars that
will flow to this region is a pittance in
comparison to the money and
resources stolen from people of Asia
by imperialist white power. The
British press claimed that the British
public donated £20 million in 24
hours; but Africa alone pays white
imperialist nations £20 million every
16 hours disguised as debt repayment.
Charity donations by these organizations, funded by the “generosity”
of white and Japanese people, do
not challenge the parasitic imperialist
relationship to Africa, Asia or other
oppressed nations. Charity donations appeal to the emotions of white
people and allow them to feel good
about themselves as they sit upon
the bodies of colonized people killed,
directly or indirectly, by imperialist
policies that benefit white power and
white people.
They leave white people free to
determine what to do and what to
give to oppressed people from whom
the resources they have come in the
first place. It leaves white people free
to support their imperialist governments even as they give crumbs to
Join the
African People’s
Socialist Party
Contact:
Bilt Mansions
4-16 Deptford Bridge
London, England SE8 4HH
020 8265 1731
[email protected]
www.apspuhuru.org
the peoples who their government
steals resources from.
But where is the white left from
Britain, Germany and France?
Where is their opposition to the
imperialist pillage of the resources of
these affected nations that has left
them unable to effectively deal with
the tsunamis? Where is the outcry in
response to the fact that the Pacific
Tsunami Warning Center in the U.S.
knew in advance about the tsunamis
but did not adquately warn the
affected countries?
There is nothing. There is no
massive action from white communists nor threat of industrial action in
solidarity with the dispossessed people in Indonesia, Thailand, India, Sri
Lanka, and Somalia.
This is an opportunity for the
white left to mobilize and call for
material reparations to victims of
hundreds of years of European looting and plunder of resources. This is
a moment for them to call for a new
beginning in search of a new and
better world where white people fight
for reparations to colonized workers
and the right of Africans, Asians and
all other oppressed peoples to control their own resources.
However, their opportunism runs
deep. They only mobilize when it is
the livelihood of white people at
stake.
Defeating neo-colonialism in
Southeast Asia is the only way
to guarantee safe future
The only way to create a situation
where peoples, no matter where
they are in the world, are capable of
being prepared for disasters like this
one; the only way to bring about a
system without poverty and human
suffering is to destroy imperialism
and capitalism. We call on all working masses in Asia to intensify their
efforts to end the neo-colonialism
that has allowed a breathing space
to imperialism in the region.
White and Japanese imperialism
must be defeated in the region. The
local ruling classes that have
bertrayed the interest of the people
must be defeated.
All power to the people!
January/February 2005
THE BURNING SPEAR
11
WE ARE THE
AFRICAN PEOPLE’S
SOCIALIST PARTY
Basic Line of the
AFRICAN PEOPLE’S
SOCIALIST PARTY
“All our work is guided by our understanding that
our struggle for national liberation within U.S.
borders is an integral part of the whole African
Liberation Movement; that the African Liberation
Movement itself is a part of the great contest
between the ever-emerging forces of international
socialism and the dying, but not yet dead forces of
imperialism; that the particular character of the
African Liberation Movement within the U.S. is a
struggle against U.S. domestic colonialism; that
the destruction of colonialism, led by a conscious
black revolutionary socialist party, will constitute
the critical blow in the struggle for socialism within U.S. borders.”
— Chairman Omali Yeshitela
RULES OF PARTY DISCIPLINE
At the June 2, 1974 Central Committee meeting the following
rules were drafted so that Party members would have a guide to
develop and strengthen our discipline.
ANY PARTY MEMBER WHO:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10
11.
12.
13.
Does not consciously strive to elevate his or her political
understanding has broken Party discipline;
Does not strive to unite our Party with the masses has broken Party discipline;
Reveals Party business without authorization has broken
Party discipline;
Discusses a Party member negatively to non-Party members
has broken Party discipline;
Exploits or oppresses African women through action or
statement has broken Party discipline;
Exploits or oppresses African people through action or
statement has broken Party discipline;
Fails to initiate constructive criticism or self-criticism has
broken Party discipline;
Uses words or actions to divide the Party has broken Party
discipline;
Refuses to recognize and follow Party leadership through
words or actions has broken Party discipline;
Discards or weakens Party leadership as opposed to
strengthening Party leadership has broken Party discipline;
Helps to divide and circumvent international African unity
through words or actions has broken Party discipline;
Uses criticism to divide and not unite the Party has broken
Party discipline;
Uses criticism or self-criticism on a personal level and not
Chairman Omali Yeshitela (r) and Huey P. Newton (l), co-founder of the Black
Panther Party
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
a political level has broken Party discipline;
Uses criticism or self-criticism to hide her or his own shortcomings has broken Party discipline;
Does not carry himself worthy of emulation by the masses
has broken Party discipline;
Displays arrogance through actions or words has broken
Party discipline;
Displays negativism and reluctance in carrying out Party
tasks has broken Party discipline;
Does not strive to bring more Africans into the Party or
Party organizations has broken Party discipline;
Engages in adventurous and individualistic acts has broken
Party discipline;
Fails to carry out Party policy as manifested by the Party
constitution, Party documents, and the Central Committee
has broken Party discipline.
— From the Central Office
see NPDUM, page
African People’s Socialist Party
12
THE BURNING SPEAR
January/February 2005
Point of the spear
Chairman Omali Yeshitela speaks on
Sinter Klaas and Zwarte Piet
The origins of Santa Claus are in anti-African Dutch tradition
The following presentation was made by
Chairman Omali Yeshitela in St.
Petersburg, Florida on December 19,
2004 at a weekly meeting of the African
People’s Socialist Party.
I want to talk a little bit about Santa
Claus. How many people know of
Santa Claus in here? Well, there’s a
history to Santa Claus and we want to
say some things about that history.
I was recently in Holland. One of
the places I went to in Holland was
Amsterdam. This was on November
4.
In Amsterdam, they have this
parade about Santa Claus. The little
cherubic, chubby, unhealthy white
guy — well, now he’s even become
brown and black — who you take your
children to go and visit has his origin,
his immediate origin, in Sinter Klaas.
Sinter Klaas is the Dutch name for
Santa Claus, and he is the patron
saint of shipping. There’s a Catholic in
the room who knows what I’m talking
about when I say “patron saint” of
shipping.
According to the Dutch, Sinter
Klaas is this wonderful guy who
comes along, and traveling with Sinter
Klaas is an African whose name is
Zwarte Piet — “Black Pete.”
Sinter Klaas travels throughout the
Netherlands, throughout Holland, and
Piet is the helper. He works for Sinter
Klaas and he gives away gifts to the
good children and he puts the bad
children in a sack and takes them to
Spain.
So while I was in Amsterdam, the
Sinter Klaas parade was happening,
and I didn’t know it was happening.
When we first got there we were walking through a mall and I saw a little
white child in an outfit with a little cape
on and with something like soot on
her face.
So I thought, “Okay, this is
November. Maybe in November they
do something like Halloween in
Holland.”
I wasn’t thinking about the Sinter
Klaas and Zwarte Piet thing until we
began walking from the train station to
the place where we were going to be
staying, and the person who was
walking with us says, “The Sinter
Klaas parade is going to be happening right here. Do you want to see it?”
So, I say, “Yes. Let’s see the
parade.”
So, here we are standing here
watching this parade, this incredible
thing that was mind-boggling. First of
all, you see all these white people with
something like shoe polish all over
their faces. They’re in black face like
minstrels!
I couldn’t believe it. I’m taking pictures, and they saw nothing wrong
with it. They posed for me. They wore
fake dreadlocks or fake afros, and
they did imitations of what they think
you dance like. [Video footage can be
found on the internet at www.asiuhuru.org]
The mayor of central Amsterdam
happened to be walking through, and
somebody said, “That’s the mayor!”
So the mayor and I got involved in this
spontaneous debate on the streets.
Now the mayor assured me that I
just didn’t understand because outsiders just don’t understand. But I’m
not an outsider.
Now, all of this is in quite civilized
Holland. All the liberals like Holland
because you can go there and in the
cafes you can smoke hashish, and
you can go to the red light district
where there are near nude women
advertising themselves for sale
behind glass windows.
I tell you, it’s interesting because
Black Pete takes the children and
sticks them in sacks and he takes
them to Spain. Do you know why he
would take them to Spain? Because
Spain was occupied by the so-called
Moors who were Africans.
There’s a whole bunch of stuff
mixed up in there, because Black
Pete also gives away spices to the
good people — which is what they tell
us the colonialists were looking for
when they crossed the ocean. Isn’t
that right?
Now Spain also, at one juncture,
dominated Holland. Did you know
that? So that’s part of the connection.
But I want to say some more things
about that.
The ideas of any society based
on class are dictated by the
ruling class
There is a basis for this whole
Santa Claus thing, and we live in
societies and countries with traditions
and institutions that we don’t understand. In fact, people get born into situations which give them the impression that the situations have always
So when you hear
George Bush say,
“They hate us
because we are
good,” he is, in his
own way, telling
the story of Santa
Claus because what
is offered by the
Christmas story is
an explanation for
why all the wealth
and value that
they didn’t work
for is in the white
world.
been like that.
But you can understand the ideas
and institutions in a society based on
the kind of society it is; the kind of
social system it is; the kinds of relations of production that exist within it.
What I mean when I say relations
see Spear, page 18
The Central Committee
of the
African People’s Socialist Party
Omali Yeshitela
Gaida Kambon
Sateesh Rogers
Ironiff Ifoma
Chairman
National Secretary
Director of Organization
Director of Economic
Development
Nyabinga Dzimbahwe
Luwezi Kinshasa
Bakari Olatunji
Chimurenga Waller
Director of Agitation and
Propaganda
Director of
International Affairs
West Coast U.S. Regional
Representative
President of the
International People’s
Democratic Uhuru Movement
African People’s Socialist Party
April 2003
THE BURNING SPEAR
13
The Working Platform of the African People's Socialist Party
WHAT WE WANT—WHAT WE BELIEVE
Adopted September 23, 1979. Revised and adopted at the First Congress of the African People's Socialist Party, September 6, 1981.
1
We want peace, dignity, and the right to build a prosperous life through
our own labor and in our own interests.
We believe that the U.S. North American government and society were founded on the
genocide of Native people, the theft of their land, and the forcible dispersal, enslavement,
and colonization of millions of African people. We believe that the present condition of
existence for African people within current U.S. borders is colonialism, a condition of existence where a whole people is oppressively dominated by a foreign and alien state power
for the purpose of economic exploitation and political advantage. We believe further that
this colonial domination is the primary basis of the problems of African people within the
U.S. and that we shall know neither peace, prosperity, nor human dignity until this colonialist domination is overthrown and the power over our lives rests in our own hands.
2
We want the rights to economic development and creative and productive employment which promote the needs and well-being of our
entire people.
We believe that colonialism is a blood-sucking system which causes all economic development
to benefit the colonialist ruling class state and society at the expense of our colonized people. We
also believe that the massive, habitual unemployment and underemployment of our people benefit the U.S. colonialist ruling class and capitalist system and that a struggle by African people
for jobs must be combined with a struggle for socialism and independent economic development.
3
We want an end to all local, state, federal, and other taxation of black
people by the U.S. government and any of its agencies.
We believe that such taxation is illegitimate, that black people have no real or meaningful
authority within the U.S. government, and that U.S. taxation of African people is therefore
taxation without representation. We believe that in the absence of such real or meaningful
authority we have nothing to say about how such monies are used, and that therefore the
taxes taken from black people are often used against us and other oppressed and exploited
peoples within the U.S. and around the world.
We believe that the use of taxes extracted from the African population to build more prisons to stuff us in and to hire more police to kill us with is criminal, as is the use of these
taxes to hire soldiers to intimidate and plunder peoples oppressed by this same system
internationally. We also believe African people must refuse to pay taxes to a government
which uses such taxes to prop up and support brutal dictators around the world who keep
their own peoples oppressed and living in squalor in order to maintain U.S. and Western
imperialist economic and political domination.
4
We want the right to free speech and political association, a guarantee of
the right to work for the betterment and emancipation of black people
without fear of political imprisonment and the loss of life, limb, and livelihood.
We believe that the liberation of African people throughout the world will come primarily as
a result of our own efforts. We believe it is our duty to our mothers and fathers, our children
and ourselves, to organize ourselves to overcome our oppression. We believe that the rights to
organize and speak out against our oppression are basic human rights and that the U.S. government must discontinue its attempts to smash these rights and must discontinue criminal
attacks on those African patriots who work for the betterment and emancipation of our people.
5
We want the right to international political and economic association
with Africans and all other peoples anywhere on the face of the Earth.
We believe that all black people are African people and are a part of a single national entity.
We believe that the genuine freedom of African people everywhere is irreversibly linked to
the creation of an independent, united, and socialist Africa. We believe the struggle of African
people within the U.S. represents the U.S. front of the worldwide movement of African people for African liberation, political independence, and socialist democracy. We believe that
the worldwide struggle for African liberation is in unity with the struggles being waged by
the majority of the peoples of the world to end the oppression of nations by nations and to
create a new world, within which the toiling masses will end the system of workers and bosses and slaves and masters and will own and benefit from the means and products of our labor
and will have political authority over our own lives. We believe that the natural, objective
friends of our struggle for African liberation, independence, and socialist democracy are all
the toiling masses of the world — the people of the Middle East, the Asian and Latin
American peasants and workers, the democratic forces throughout Eastern and Western
Europe and the U.S., and the truly socialist states of the world, and that we must therefore
have the absolute right to free political and economic international association.
6
We want the immediate and unconditional release of all black people
who are presently locked down in U.S. prisons.
We believe that all the African men and women who are locked down in the U.S. concentration camps commonly known as prisons are there due to decisions, laws, and circumstances which were created by aliens and foreigners for their own benefit and as a means
of genocidal colonialist control. We believe that these decisions, laws, and circumstances
were created and are enforced without our consent and are therefore illegitimate. We
believe that the African men and women who are locked down in these concentration
camps are victims of U.S. colonialist ruling class justice which maintains our enslavement
and terrorizes our people, and that they should therefore be released immediately to the just
representatives of our struggle for liberation, independence, and socialist democracy.
7
We want complete amnesty for all African political prisoners and prisoners of war from U.S. prisons or their immediate release to any friendly country which will accept them and give them political asylum.
We believe that U.S. prisons are also used as the illegitimate tool for torturing, murdering,
and holding captive those courageous daughters and sons of Africa who through their patriotic deeds or spoken or written words in support of the cause of our liberation have become
political prisoners and prisoners of war. We believe, along with the majority of the peoples
of the world, that it is the duty of the colonized and enslaved to resist slavery and colonialism and to fight for socialism and those who do so are patriots and heroines and heroes
and should be held in the highest esteem.
8
We want the immediate withdrawal of the U.S. police from our
oppressed and exploited communities.
the U.S. colonialist state which is responsible for keeping our people enslaved and terrorized.
We believe that the U.S. police agencies do not serve us, but instead represent the first line of
U.S. defense against the just struggle of our people for peace, dignity, and socialist democracy. Therefore, we believe the U.S. police is an illegitimate standing army, a colonial army in
the African community and must withdraw immediately from our community, to be replaced
by our liberation forces whose struggles in defense of our community and against our oppression demonstrate their loyalty to our community and their willingness to serve in its interest.
9
We want an end to the political and social oppression and economic
exploitation of African women.
We believe in the absolute, unequivocal, political, social, and economic equality of African
women and men. We believe that a fundamental test of the progressive or revolutionary
character of any organization, party, movement, or society is its commitment, confirmed in
practice, to the destruction of the special oppression of women and the elevation of women
to the rightful place as equal partners and leaders in the forward motion of the development
of human society and as leaders, makers, and shapers of human history.
10
We want the right to build an African People's Liberation Army.
We believe that true freedom, although often taken away, cannot be given to a people. We
believe that African people are our own liberators, and that we have a right and obligation to
build an African People’s Liberation Army to defend our political gains, our freedom fighters and communities, and to win our actual freedom from our oppressive colonial slave masters. We believe that neither meaningful freedom, nor guaranteed political and social gains,
nor genuine liberation are possible without the assuring existence of an African People’s
Liberation Army. We believe further that the only legitimate wars are wars of national liberation, and wars to oppose imperialist aggression, and that therefore, the only legitimate military forces for black people to serve with are military forces which defend liberty and repel
imperialist aggression. Such a force would be the African People’s Liberation Army.
11
We want the U.S. and the international European ruling class and
states to pay Africa and African people for the centuries of genocide, oppression, and enslavement of our people.
We believe that U.S. and European civilization were born from, and are presently maintained by, the horrendous theft of human and material resources from Africa and its people. We also believe that this theft of human and material resources is responsible for the
present underpopulation and underdevelopment of Africa and her people and the political
servitude, material impoverishment, and cultural discontinuity and disintegration of
African people throughout the world. We believe that Africa and African people are due
reparations, just economic compensation, billions of dollars which must be paid to the
Organization of African Unity or any other legitimate international organization of African
people, for equitable distribution for the development of Africa. We also believe that reparations must be distributed to the various independent African states dispersed throughout
the world, and to the legitimate representatives of African people forcibly dispersed
throughout the world who have not yet won liberation.
12
We want an end to the vicious, self-serving U.S. and Western
European political, economic, and military interference in the
affairs of Africa and African people throughout the world.
We believe that African people in Africa and elsewhere have a right and responsibility to
solve our own problems, free from the unwanted, and self-serving interference of U.S. and
Western imperialists. We believe that the U.S. and Western imperialist interference in the
affairs of our people is designed to maintain the continuation of the theft of our human and
material resources and our oppression and impoverishment.
We believe that African people must be free to organize and struggle for an end to colonialism
and neo-colonialism without interference from U.S. and Western imperialism which supports
neo-colonialism and colonialism in Africa, the U.S. and elsewhere, and which has deposed progressive and revolutionary African leaders and replaced them with neo-colonialist stooges.
13
We want an end to U.S. colonial domination of African people
within the U.S.
14
We want the total liberation and unification of Africa under an AllAfrican socialist government.
We believe that the primary struggle of African people within the U.S. during this period is
to throw off the alien U.S. colonial domination which is responsible for virtually every hardship imposed on black people by this government that is identifiable as a “black problem.”
We believe that our problems with education — from our inability to control our own
schools and determine the education of our own children, to the inferior and racist quality
of the education we do receive — are caused by colonialism. We believe that our problems
with health care — from the absence of black controlled and operated health clinics and
institutions throughout our communities to the hazardous health conditions imposed on us
by poverty and callous government decisions — are caused by colonialism.
We believe that our problems with housing — from the unavailability of decent and adequate housing for the majority of our people, to the dilapidated and vermin-infested housing we are forced to live in — are caused by colonialism.
We believe that our problems with food and clothing — from the terrible quality and
quantity which are imposed on us by blood-sucking merchants, to our inability to produce
and distribute them for and among ourselves — are caused by colonialism, where our
whole people is dominated and oppressed by a foreign and alien state power for the purpose of economic exploitation and political advantage.
We believe that “the total liberation and unification of Africa under an All-African socialist government must be the primary objective of all Black revolutionaries throughout the
world. It is an objective which, when achieved, will bring about the fulfillment of the aspirations of Africans and people of African descent everywhere. It will at the same time
advance the triumph of the international socialist revolution, and the onward progress
toward communism, under which every society is ordered on the principle of — from each
according to his (her) ability, to each according to his (her) needs.” — Kwame Nkrumah
We believe that the various U.S. police agencies which occupy our communities are arms of
INDEPENDENCE IN OUR LIFETIME!
see NPDUM, page
14
THE BURNING SPEAR
January/February 2005
LONG LIVE MALCOLM X!
Revolutionary Martyr and True African Internationalist
The following is a presentation made by
APSP Chairman Omali Yeshitela at a May
19, 1977 Malcolm X commemoration program in Tampa, Florida.
BY CHAIRMAN OMALI YESHITELA
I would like to thank our sister and
brother comrades who are responsible for organizing this program in
memory of the great African patriot
and leader, Malcolm X. I would like to
thank you first of all for organizing
the program, and secondly, I would
like to thank you for inviting me to
participate in the program.
For, as many of you know, I am a
great believer in the teachings of
Malcolm X, and I am chairman of a
political organization based in several states of the United States of
North America which believes that
Malcolm X and Marcus Garvey were
two of the most significant political
leaders of African people within current North American borders.
For me and the African People’s
Socialist Party, the life and teachings
of the great patriot, Malcolm X, mean
more than just an annual celebration
of his life. For us, the life and teachings of Malcolm X are not something
to be understood in the abstract,
separate and apart from the material
conditions of life experienced by our
people. For us, the life and teachings
of Malcolm X are revolutionary
guides to the liberation of our people
in the real world.
I want to make this point because
today, when Malcolm X is not here to
defend his philosophy, there is a
great deal of revisionism going on.
There are many people and forces
who correctly understand the impact
Malcolm X has had on the developing revolutionary consciousness of
our people and who would distort
Malcolm’s teachings so as to make it
serve their own self-serving and dishonest motives and who would
therefore turn Brother Malcolm’s politics against the very people he fashioned them to serve.
He was not a saint or a ghost
First of all, it should be noted that
Malcolm X was a black man, an
African man, who defined himself as
“one of 22 million black people who
are the victims of Americanism.”
Malcolm X was not a saint, or a
ghostly apparition that descended
mysteriously upon us. He was a
man, a black man, an African man,
who through his life experiences in
America and through study, came to
understand the meaning of life for
African people held captive here in
this North American prison.
It is important to mention this
because attempts are often made to
deify Malcolm X to an extent that we
place the great ideals and aspirations he held for our people beyond
the possibility of human realization.
We do this so it will not be necessary
for us to live up to those ideals.
After placing his ideals on some
great, unreachable pedestal, the only
thing we have to do is have annual
African People’s Socialist Party
celebrations, take the covers off his
philosophy once a year, dust it off a
little bit, sing praises to Malcolm, and
then go home to wait for the next
year to come around when we can
come out and have fun with his
memory again.
But when we
realize that
Malcolm X
was a
man,
an African
human being
just as we are
African
human
beings, it must be clear to us
that we not only have the responsibility of unveiling his life and teachings once a year; we have the more
important responsibility of living like
Malcolm X. We have the responsibility of concretizing, making real in this
world, the things that Malcolm X lived
and died for. Otherwise, we are simply petty, little frightened and dishonest people who ought not to call his
name.
Malcolm X was a great African
patriot, a freedom fighter. Some of us
are here because we believe and
understand this. Others of us do not
believe in the greatness of Malcolm
X and his teachings, and are only
here as political ambulance chasers,
going where the action is, and opportunistically exploiting his greatness to
push forward teachings which are
contradictory to what Malcolm X
believed in and taught.
But you and I know that Malcolm
X was either a great leader or he was
not. He was not “a great leader and
teacher, but…” or “a great leader and
teacher, except for…”
He was either a great leader or he
was not. I say he was a great leader
and his teachings should be continuously studied and developed as a
guide for our struggle, and I challenge everyone here today to go
beyond paying lip service to his
memory. I challenge everyone here
to be the human being that Malcolm
X was, and to take up his philosophy
and to live for struggle as he lived for
struggle.
And what were some of the things
Malcolm X taught and believed?
Malcolm X taught and
believed that we,
African people, are
not Americans.
In a speech
in Cleveland
on April 3, 1964,
he made this very
clear. In this speech Malcolm
X stated:
“I’m not a politician, not even a
student of politics. In fact, I’m not a
student of much of anything. I’m not
No, I am not an
American. I’m one
of the 22 million
black people who
are the victims of
Americanism…
that’s what we are
— Africans who are
in America. You’re
nothing but
Africans. Nothing
but Africans. In
fact, you’d get
farther calling
yourself African
instead of Negro.
a Democrat, I’m not a Republican,
and I don’t even consider myself an
American. If you and I were
Americans, there’d be no problem.
Those Honkies that just got off the
boat, they’re already Americans.
Polacks are already Americans. The
Italian refugees are already
Americans. Everything that came out
of Europe, every blue-eyed thing, is
already an American, and as long as
you and I have been over here, we
aren’t Americans yet.”
This is what Malcolm X taught
and believed. But most of us — or at
least, many of us — don’t believe
this. Most of us are so busy being
Americans that we excuse every
unjust act this country perpetrates
against our own people, and against
other oppressed peoples of the
world.
So, for those of you who are
“Americans,” it should be clear to you
that you don’t believe in what
Malcolm believed or taught, and to
the extent that you are here today
because you thought you did, or
wanted to pretend you do, I want to
make you aware of what is correct,
and what it is you are pretending.
This is especially important for the
pretenders because generally the
pretenders do not serve, nor do they
ever intend to serve black people,
and if we can put what Malcolm X
really believed and taught before
you, it makes it more difficult for them
to pretend. And it may even get them
in trouble with their bosses, who I
guarantee you will not appreciate the
fact that their “Negro-Americans” are
out here at a meeting commemorating a great African leader who correctly taught us that we are not
Americans.
I know there are probably people
here who want to pay homage to
Malcolm X without paying homage to
his ideas. These people are likely to
say that Malcolm’s statement about
not being an American was simply a
rhetorical statement that he really
didn’t mean.
But throughout the speech I just
mentioned, Malcolm X made it very
clear that he said what he meant and
he meant what he said. For example, in another place in the same
speech, Malcolm X strikes the same
theme:
“No, I am not an American. I’m
one of the 22 million black people
who are the victims of Americanism;
one of the 22 million black people
who are the victims of democracy,
nothing but disguised hypocrisy.
“So, I’m not standing here speaking to you as an American, or a
patriot, or a flag-saluter, or a flagwaver. No, not I. I am speaking as a
victim of this American system, and I
see America through the eyes of the
victim. I don’t see any American
dream; I see an American nightmare.”
So, there was no mistake.
Malcolm knew exactly what he was
saying. Therefore, when you and I
Continued on following page
January/February 2005
Continued from previous page
get together to pay homage to
Malcolm X on occasions such as
this, we have to understand that we
are not simply paying homage to the
man in the abstract. We are paying
homage to his ideas, to his political
utterances — to all the factors which
made him the great African patriot
that he was.
We refuse to give you a politically
sanitized Malcolm X. We refuse to
give you Malcolm X without his ideas
and philosophy. It’s not like Burger
King where you “have it your way.”
You have to have it the correct way,
the Malcolm X way. You can’t just
take the part of Malcolm X that
makes you comfortable, that’s noncontroversial, that won’t disturb your
bosses or your lives.
Malcolm X had a political philosophy. It was not a philosophy that he
picked up in some book and decided
to try and fit the lives and experiences of black people into, like some
of your recently-discovered North
American misleaders are doing.
The philosophy of Malcolm X was
derived from the terrible, real condition of our people in this world.
Malcolm X experienced the U.S. as a
black man, confronted with all the
problems and concerns of other
black people in this world.
The same problems that
Malcolm X fought against are
the same problems we face now
The problems and concerns of
our people which shaped Malcolm
X’s worldview are the same as the
problems and concerns we are confronted with today, although some of
us would rather ignore them.
They are police terror — the
same kind of police terror that shot
down Paul Barney, and snuffed the
life from Larry Murphy, right here in
Tampa; the same kind of police terror that murdered Curtis Murph just
a month ago in St. Petersburg,
across the bridge from here, and
that takes the breath away from any
black person in this country when we
find ourselves accidentally passing a
police station while traveling
throughout this country.
The problems and concerns that
shaped the worldview of Malcolm X
are still with us today. They are economic terror. The same kind of economic terror responsible for one out
of every four black adults, and one
out of every two black teenagers
being unemployed in this country;
the economic terror that makes you
too cowardly to do the things you
ought to do because of fear you’ll
lose your job. The kind of economic
terror that makes you choose
employment and so-called economic
security over freedom.
No, Malcolm X’s ideas did not fall
from the sky. They were products of
the real world that we experience.
And since they were born from the
world they are good ideas, they are
correct ideas, and we ought to know,
study, understand and live them.
Malcolm X not only believed and
understood that we are not
Americans; he defined who we are
exactly, and we ought to know what
he said about this, too, if we are
going to be having programs each
year extolling Malcolm X.
In the same April 3 Cleveland
speech I have been quoting,
THE BURNING SPEAR
Malcolm X said, “…you and I, 22 million African-Americans — that’s what
we are — Africans who are in
A m e r i c a . Yo u ’ r e n o t h i n g b u t
Africans. Nothing but Africans. In
fact, you’d get farther calling yourself
African instead of Negro.”
Malcolm X was an African
Internationalist who realized that the
particular problems of African people
oppressed in different parts of the
world are connected, and the solution for all our problems is dependent on international African unity
and cooperation against a common
enemy who stands between us,
freedom, and a united and socialist
Africa.
In a 1964 letter from Accra, which
reported on an earlier meeting in
Nigeria, Malcolm X had this to say
about international unity:
“The people of Nigeria are
strongly concerned with the problems of their African brothers in
America, but the U.S. information
agencies in Africa create the impression that progress is being made
and the problem is being solved.
Upon close study, one can easily
see a gigantic design to keep
Africans here and the AfricanAmericans from getting together.
“An African official told me, ‘When
one combines the number of peoples of African descent in South,
Central and North America, they
total well over 80 million. One can
easily understand the attempts to
keep the Africans from ever uniting
with the African-Americans.’ Unity
between the Africans of the West
and the Africans of the fatherland will
well change the course of history.”
Therefore when we commemorate Malcolm X we are also commemorating his views on African
Internationalism — views which
place us squarely on the side of our
oppressed and warring sisters and
brothers in Zaire, Azania,
Zimbabwe, Namibia, Mozambique,
and Angola.
These are views which also place
us on the opposite side of the
oppressive and barbaric U.S. gov-
FEBRUARY 21
The Day of the African Martyr
February 21 is the anniversary of the
assassination of Malcolm X, arguably the
most significant African leader within
the U.S. since the heyday of Marcus
Garvey and the Universal Negro
Improvement Association and African
League in the first quarter of the 20th
Century.
At the First Congress of the African
People’s Socialist Party held in Oakland,
California in September 1981, a resolution was passed that marked the significance of Malcolm X in the struggle for
the liberation of our people.
We are reprinting that resolution here
in The Burning Spear to commemorate
the death of Malcolm X and the many
other Africans who have become martyrs
in the struggle for our liberation.
The struggle of African people to
liberate our national homeland,
Africa; to resist oppression and
exploitation; and to overthrow the
system of imperialism and advance
the cause of world socialism has
seen hundreds and thousands of
our people make the ultimate heroic
sacrifice, the sacrifice of life itself.
The history of our resistance has
been written in blood and flames. It
has been punctuated by the courageous examples of such martyrs as
Nat Turner, Steven Biko, Patrice
L u m u m b a , Wa l t e r R o d n e y,
Nehanda Nyakasinkana, Fred
Hampton and Mark Clark, Amilcar
Cabral, and Lawrence Mann, cofounder of the African People’s
Socialist Party.
Historically, the oppressors of
African people have attempted to
turn history upside down and present the heroic examples of our
freedom fighters as evidence of the
futility, the hopelessness of our
cause for political independence,
African liberation and world socialism.
In many instances our oppressors have succeeded in demoralizing great numbers of our people by
using the examples of brutally mur-
dered African freedom fighters to
prove the invincibility of imperialism
and the permanence of African
oppression and exploitation.
The African People’s Socialist
Party rejects and denounces this
reactionary view of the bourgeoisie
and calls on all African revolutionaries of all countries to proclaim
February 21, the anniversary of the
1965 imperialist assassination of
Malcolm X, as the Day of the African
Martyr.
The African People’s Socialist
Party calls on all African revolutionaries of all countries to take command of the history of our people’s
struggle for political independence,
African liberation, and socialism, by
taking command of the definition of
that history and resistance.
The African People’s Socialist
Party calls on all African revolutionaries of all countries to raise high, in
a revolutionary manner, the heroic
memory of all our fallen martyrs, of
all those in every city, village, community and country where they fell
as evidence of the determination of
our people to fight every battle on
every front until liberty has been
won.
The African People’s Socialist
Party calls on all African revolutionaries of all countries to initiate special ceremonies and programs in
every community where an African
revolutionary has fallen and to raise
the memory of our fallen freedom
fighters to its proper revolutionary
and historical significance.
The African People’s Socialist
Party calls on all Party members to
win the masses, within the U.S. in
all mass organizations where the
African People’s Socialist Party has
influence, to unite with this resolution. We call on every Party unit,
region and organization to take out
this call to the masses and to
actively work to institutionalize
February 21 as the Day of the
African Martyr.
15
ernment, which is the main enemy of
African and other peoples throughout the world.
To embrace the ideas of Malcolm
X is to embrace the ideas of African
Internationalism and the ideas of
African Internationalism are opposite
and contradictory to the ideals of
Americanism. The ideals of African
Internationalism promote freedom
from oppression and injustice.
These ideals promote freedom and
independence.
On the other hand, the ideals of
Americanism, ideals which were
born out of a process that saw mass
genocide committed against the
native people upon whose land
America was founded; the ideals of
Americanism which were born of the
process resulting in the forced immigration, enslavement, and deaths of
millions of African people; ideals
which flow from the process resulting in the colonization of Puerto
Rico, the theft of Mexican land, the
special oppression of our women —
these ideals promote death, slavery,
and war for all the peoples of the
world.
To believe in Malcolm X, to honor
and extol the ideas of Malcolm X is
to believe in ourselves, our history,
and our future. To extol and honor
the ideas of Malcolm X is to honor
and extol the absolute need to struggle against Americanism. To honor
and extol the ideas of Malcolm X is
to struggle for the liberation of Africa
and the unity of all African people.
Did you come here today to do
this? If you did not, perhaps you
have come to the wrong program.
But Malcolm X did not believe in
the struggle of African people in an
a b s t r a c t o r m e c h a n i c a l w a y.
Malcolm X did not have a one-sided
view of our struggle as a people. He
did not simply say we should identify
with Africa and struggle to liberate
our national homeland. He went further than this.
Many people like to forget this
point, even many people who do
believe in the ideas of Malcolm X.
They like to pretend that because
Malcolm X was an African
Internationalist he was only interested in the liberation of Africa. This
is a very safe belief for many of our
sisters and brothers because it
relieves them of the responsibility to
struggle where we are.
But Malcolm X saw the whole
struggle of African people, a struggle
b e i n g f o u g h t i n m a n y d i ff e r e n t
places under different conditions, as
an integral part of the same worldwide African Liberation Movement.
Moreover, Malcolm X defined the
particular aspect of our struggle here
in this country in a fashion designed
to take the mystery out of revolution
and give us the key to the direction
we must take.
Malcolm X defined our struggle
here within current U.S. borders as a
struggle against colonialism. He
defined it as a struggle for political
independence.
Malcolm X never said we were
struggling to prove ourselves to our
oppressors. He never said we were
struggling to integrate.
In an April 8, 1964 speech in New
York, Malcolm X stated: “There are
22 million African-Americans who
are ready to fight for independence
see Malcolm X, page 22
African People’s Socialist Party
16
THE BURNING SPEAR
January/February 2005
African People’s Socialist Party joins other oppressed
peoples for anti-imperialist conference in Holland
Since the successful July 2004
conference to build the African
Socialist International in London,
African People’s Socialist Party
(APSP) Chairman, Omali Yeshitela,
has been busy mobilizing the African
world to take up the most critical
challenge before our eyes: overturning the imperialist verdict that has
enslaved Africa, dispersed and
enslaved its children around the
world, stolen our labor and built, on
our backs, a new economic world
order known as capitalism.
This new world economy brought
democratic rights, material wealth
and social progress to white people
and their allies, whilst pushing
Africans into extreme poverty for
over 500 years.
In November, the Chairman and
several Party members were in
Holland, where they attended an
anti-imperialist conference in
Eindhoven, Holland.
At the time of the conference, the
atmosphere in Holland was high.
While the Chairman was there, the
white press reported intense violent
attacks on the Muslim population by
white people. These attacks were
happening with the support of the
government, which had been making
vicious verbal attacks against nonwhite people.
These attacks had become intensified with the death of white film
director Theo Van Gogh. Van Gogh
had been killed by a member of the
Muslim community in response, it
seems, to a short film broadcast on
television earlier that year and
designed to focus attention on the
abuse of women by Muslim men —
Holland was a
testing ground for
our theory. It was
powerful and on
the cutting edge.
The invincibility of
the theory of
African
internationalism
was obvious at all
of the workshops
we attended.
featuring images of a half-naked
woman with passages from the
Koran painted on her body.
One
report
read,
“The
Netherlands is in an ongoing crisis of
racial and religious violence. In just
one week the country has seen the
apparently religiously inspired murder of a well-known filmmaker and
some 20 attempted arson attacks on
mosques and churches, including
one serious bomb incident.”
Between November 10 and 14
the APSP, led by Chairman Omali
Yeshitela, attended the conference
which was organized by the
International League of People’s
Struggle (ILPS) Second International
Assembly, an organization opened to
all nationalities and led by Philipino
freedom fighter Jose Simpson.
It was part of the conscious effort
of the APSP to achieve the following
strategic goals: 1) win international
solidarity for the worldwide African
Liberation Movement; 2) win recognition and support for national liberation movements inside the U.S.; 3)
Oppose making imperialist democracies better democracies; 4) Win support for reparations for Africans in the
U.S.; 5) Isolate U.S. imperialism as
the strategic enemy of all peoples of
the world.
Party members took part in work
shops covering these numerous subjects: the cause of national liberation,
democracy and social liberation
against imperialism and all reaction;
defense of human rights at the collective and individual levels in the
civil, political, economic, social and
cultural fields; and rights of indigenous peoples, national minorities
and nationalities for self-determination and decolonization, against discrimination, racism, caste-ism and
national oppression perpetrated by
imperialism and local reaction. In
these workshops, Party members
were able to intervene and influence
the conference for the long term
interests of our revolution.
Our presence is part of the
process to re-establish our independent and revolutionary voice in the
world using African Internationalism,
the scientific theory of the African
working class often referred to as
“Yeshitelism” after its author Omali
Yeshitela.
Holland was a testing ground for
our theory. It was powerful and on
the cutting edge. The invincibility of
the theory of African internationalism
was obvious at all of the workshops
we attended.
The white left that tried to stand in
our way by resisting the demand for
reparations and the necessity to recognize and support national liberation movements in the U.S. was
defeated each time.
The conference was attended by
forces from India, Sri Lanka, the
Philippines, Iran, Turkey, and white
leftists people from Holland, USA,
Germany, Belgium, Britain, Spain,
and from Japan.
Our party’s presence was a success for the African proletariat, as we
began securing allies for our liberation struggle that has entered into its
final stage. This must lead to a situation where every progressive newspaper is won to the political and
material support of the ASI process
as they actively denounce U.S. policies everywhere.
Build the African Socialist
International!
Uhuru!
Subscribe
to the
Burning
spear
Resolution Against U.S. Imperialist-led War
ILPS Second International Assembly
Eindhoven, the Netherlands, November 11-13, 2004
The following is a resolution passed at
the November 11-13, 2004 Second
International Assembly (SIA) of the ILPS
which was attended by members of the
African People’s Socialist Party.
Whereas, since the founding of
the International League of Peoples
Struggle (ILPS) in 2001, the most
urgent political crisis facing the workers and toilers of the world has been
the Bush-led U.S. imperialist war of
terror — unending and preemptive
war against the world’s peoples and
brutal invasions and direct occupation of the once sovereign nations
and people of Afghanistan and Iraq;
Whereas, under the pretext of the
“war on terror” the United States has
greatly increased military bases,
presence and combat troops in the oil
rich Middle East, Central Asia and the
Andean Region of Latin America, as
well as in the Philippines;
Whereas, the placement of U.S.
combat troops in both the Philippines
and Colombia are aimed at crushing
African People’s Socialist Party
the advanced national democratic
and liberation movements of both
countries;
Whereas, the economic motivation for U.S. imperialism’s military
brutality and drive for empire is its
insatiable drive for maximum profits
involving increasing control over the
worlds resources, in particular oil,
natural gas, pipeline routes and vital
sea lanes, vis a vis their competitors,
such as countries of the European
Union;
Whereas, the Bush-led wars have
had the support of both political parties in the U.S. and such a war drive
will continue regardless that Bush the
Republican was re-elected President
of the United States;
Whereas, Bush’s so called “war
on terror” brings only catastrophe to
the peoples of the world including
massive civilian deaths, destruction
of vital infrastructure, trampling on
national cultures and traditions, pillaging of natural resources, and massive unemployment rates;
Whereas, the Bush-led war
against the worlds peoples is also
being directed against the working
class people and oppressed nationalities in the United States itself, with a
drive toward fascism and full scale
attacks on civil liberties and civil
rights, on the labor movement, on
immigrant peoples’ rights along with
massive tax breaks for the wealthy
and growing unemployment for the
workers;
Whereas, the occupation of Iraq
has brought forth powerful and legitimate resistance by the Iraqi people
against the 140,000 U.S. troops,
8,000 British troops, tens of thousands of U.S. “civilian” mercenaries,
the hand-picked puppet government
and the control of their resources by
the likes of giant energy and construction companies like Halliburton
and Bechtel;
Whereas, the ILPS founded in
2001, was organized precisely to
make a global struggle against the
global imperialist enemy, led by Bush
and U.S. imperialism, and many of
the ILPS affiliated organizations have
been deeply involved in the antiimperialist war fight against Bush’s so
called “war on terror”.
Therefore, be it resolved that the
Second International Assembly of the
International League of Peoples
Struggle which gathered in the
Netherlands in November 2004,
oppose and condemn Bush’s terrorist
war against the peoples of the world
and call for an immediate end of U.S.
occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan
and for all U.S. troops out of the
Philippines, Colombia and Haiti.
And be it further resolved, that the
SIA of the ILPS extend militant antiimperialist solidarity to the people of
Iraq and Afghanistan who are struggling for national sovereignty and
independence.
And be it further resolved, that the
ILPS engage in coordinated efforts
and campaigns against U.S. imperialist-led global terrorist war.
April 2003
THE BURNING SPEAR
17
Le platforme de travaille du Partie Socialiste du Peuple Africain
CE
QUE
NOUS
VOULONS
–
CE
QUE
NOUS
CROYONS
Adopté le 23 Septembre 1979. Modifié et Adopté au premier congres du Partie Socialiste du Peuple Africain le 6 septembre 1981.
1
Nous voulons vivre dans la paix, la dignité et dans le droit de batir une vie
prospère basé sur nos efforts et en fonctions de nos interêts.
Nous croyons que le société et le governement des Etats Unis d’Amerique du Nord a été fondé sur
le genocide de la population Indigène, le vole de leur territoire , la dispersion force, l’esclavage et
la colonisation de million d’Africains. Nous croyons que la presente condition de vie des Africains
a l’interieure du territoire des Etats Unis est le colonialisme, une condition d’existence dans laquelle une puissance exterieure domine oppressivement une population entière pour des besoins d’explopitation economique et politique . De plus nous croyons que cette domination coloniale est la
cause principale des problemes des Africains aux Etats Unis et qu’en connaissance il n’yaura ni
paix, ni prospérite ou ni dignité humaine jusqu’a ce que cette domination coloniale ne soie renversée et la responsabilité de notre vie entre nos mains.
2
Nous voulons le droit au dévelopement économique et à des emploies
créatif et dynamique qui promotionnent le besoin et le bien être de notre
peuple.
Nous croyons que le colonialisme est un système suce-sang qui béneficie la classe dirigente, l’état et
le société coloniale a un dévelopement économique au depend du peuple colonisé. Nous croyons aussi
que l’enorme taux habituel de chômage et de sous-emploie de la population Africaine béneficie la
classe dirigente colonialiste et le systême capitaliste des Etats Unis, de ce fait la lutte menée par le peuple Africain pour le travail doit être combiner avec la lutte pour le socialisme et à un dévelopement
économique independante.
3
Nous voulons la fin de toute forme de taxation locale, nationale ou
féderale de la population noire menée par le governement des Etats Unis
et par n’importe quel autre agence governementale.
Nous croyons que cette taxation est illégitime, que le peuple noire n’a aucune véritable ou même
un samblant autorite a l’interieure du gouvenement des Etats Unis et par consequence la taxation
Americaine des Africains est une taxation sans représentation. Nous croyons donc qu’en l’absence
de cette véritable ou semblant d’autorité nous n’avons aucuns mots-dit sur la manière dont cette
argent est utilisée et de plus, ces taxes payée par le peuple noire sont souvent utlisées contre nous
et contre la plupart des peuples oppressés et exploités a l’interieur des Etats Unis et de par le
monde.
Nous croyons que cette taxe extraite de la population Africaine est utilisé pour construire des centres d’incarceration pour les Africains, pour recruiter plus de policier qui nous criminellement
assassine; tout comme cette taxe est utilisée pour le recruitement de soldats qui auront pour mission d’intimider et de piller les peuples du monde opprossés par ce systeme. Nous croyons aussi
que le peuple Africains doit refuser de payer des taxes qui sont utilisées pour intaller et supporter
à travers le monde des dictateurs qui continuent a opprimer et a negliger leur propre population
afin de maintenir la domination politique et économique de l’imperialisme Americain et
Occidentale.
4
Nous voulons le doit a la liberté d’expression et d’association politique, à une
guarantie du droit de travailler pour l’amélioration et l’émancipation du peuple noire sans craindre l’enprisonment politique, la perte de vie, de membre ou de
condition de vie.
Nous croyons que la liberation du peuple Africain a travers le monde sera essentiellement le resulta de nos propre efforts. Nous croyons que c’est de notre devoir face a nos mères, nos pères, nos
enfants et nous même de nous organiser pour supprimer l’oppression. Nous croyons que les droits
de s’organiser et de denoncer notre oppression sont les bases des droits humain , de ce fait le gouvernement americain doit interrompres ses tentatives d’ecraser ces droits et doit interrompre les
attaques criminelles menées contres ces patriotes Africains qui travaillent pour l’amelioration et l’émancipation de notre peuple.
colonisés et en esclavage est de resister a l’esclavage, au colonialisme et de combatre pour le
socialisme ; ceux qui le feront seront des patriotes, des heros et heroines et seront devraient élevés
au plus haut égards.
8
Nous voulons le retrait immediat de la police americaine de nos communautes exploitées et oppressées.
9
Nous voulons la fin de l’oppression politique et de l’exploitation
économique et sociale de la femme Africaine.
Nous croyons que les differentes agences de police americaine qui occupent nos communautes
sont des bras de l’etat colonialiste americaine responsable du maintien de notre peuple en
esclavage et sous la terreur. Nous croyons que les agences de police americaine ne nous servent
pas mais reprensentent leur premiere ligne de defense contre le juste combat de notre peuple pour
la paix, la dignité et la democratie socialiste. Par conséquence, nous croyons que la police amerinaine est une armé, coloniale, illégitime a l’intérieure la communaute, qui doit etre immediatement
retiree pour etre remplacer par notre force de liberation qui lutte pour la defense de notre communaute contre notre oppression en demontrant leur loyauté et leur desir de servir ses interêts.
Nous croyons a l’égalité absolue, unéquivoque, politique, sociale et économique de l’homme et de
la femme africaine. Nous croyons que le test fondamentale de personalite de toute organisation,
partie, movement ou société est dans la dévotion, confirmée par la pratique, à la destruction de
l’oppression de la femme et a son élèvation a sa véritable place comme partenaire égale et dominante du development de la société humaine comme dirigeante,batisseur et creatrice.
10
Nous voulons le droit de crée une Armee de Liberation du Peuple
Africain.
Nous croyons que la véritable liberte ne peut être donnée à un peuple. Nous croyons que le peuple africain est notre véritable liberateur et que nous avons le droit et l’obligation de construire une
Armé de Liberation du Peuple Africain pour proteger nos gains politique, nos combattants de la
liberté et notre communauté, et de gagner notre liberté contre l’oppressive colonisateur.
Nous croyons que ni un samblant de liberté ou une garantie d’acquisition politique et sociale ou
authentique liberation ne sont possible sans la sertiude de l’existence d’une Armé de Liberation
de Peuple Africain. De plus nous croyons que les seule guerres legitimes sont les guerres de liberation nationale et les guerres d’oppositions aux aggressions imperialistes, et donc par consequent,
les forces militaires legitimes dans lesquelle les africains peuvent servir sont les forces armés qui
defendent la liberté et qui repoussent les aggressions imperialiste. Cette force est l’Armé de
Liberation du Peuple Africain.
11
Nous voulons que les Etats Unis et les classes dirigentes europeenne
payent a l’Afrique et aux Africains pour les centenaires de genocide,
d’oppession et d’esclavage.
Nous croyons que les Etats Unis et la civilisation Europeenne sont nées et presentement maintenues
par l’effroyable vole des ressources humaines et materielles de l’Afrique et de son peuple. Nous
croyons aussi que ce vole est responsable de l’actuelle depopulation et sous-developement de
l’Afrique, de la servitude politique, de l’appauvrissement materielle et de la discontinuité culturelle
du peuple Africain a travers le monde.
Nous croyons que l’Afrique et le peuple Africain doivent obtenir reparation, une juste compensation econonique, des milliards de dollar qui doivent être repayés a l’Organisation de l’Unite
Africaine ou n’importe quel autre organisation internationale legitime du peuple noire, pour une
redistribution equitable et le development de l’Afrique. Nous croyons aussi que la reparation doit
etre redistribuée a tout les autres etats independants africains et aux autre representants legitimes du
peuple Africain, dispersé par la force a travers le monde, qui n’ont pas encore gagne la liberation.
5
12
Nous croyons que toute la population noire est africaine et donc de ce fait partie d'une seule et
même entite nationale. Nous croyons que la liberation l'authentique du peuple Africain dans le
monde est irreversiblement liée a la creation d'une Afrique unie, indépendante et socialiste.
Nous croyons que la lutte du peuple africain aux Etats Unis represente le front des Etats Unis du
movement globale du peuple Africain pour la liberation de l'Afrique, l’independance politique et
la democratie socialiste.
Nous croyons que la lutte de la liberation globale de L'Afrique est en unite avec la lutte menée par
l'ensemble des peuples du monde pour en finir avec l'oppression de certaines nations par d’autre
nations afin de créer un monde nouveau dans lequel la masse des travailleurs eradiquera le systeme patron–travailleur, maitre-esclave afin qu’ils puissent beneficier des produits de leur labeur
et avoir une autorite politique sur leur vies.
Nous croyons que les amis naturel et objectif de la lutte pour la liberation de l’afrique, de l’independance et la democratie socialiste sont :les masse de travailleur du monde – le peuple du MoyenOrient, les travailleurs et paysants de l’Amerique latine et de l’Asie, les forces democratique a travers l’Europe de l’Ouest, de l’Est et des Etats Unis, et les véritable Etats socialiste de la planète,
on doit par consequent avoir le droit absolue à la libre association politique et économique internationale.
Nous croyons que le peuple africain en Afrique et n’importe où a le driot de resoudre ses propre
problemes, sans craindre l’interference des Imperialistes americains et europeens. Nous croyons
que ces interference dans les affaires de notre peuple à été designé pour maintenir la continuite du
vole de nos ressources humaines et materielle, de notre oppression et appauvrissement.
Nous croyons que le peuple africain doit être libre d’organiser la lutte pour la fin du colonialisme
et du neo-colonilaisme sans l’interference de l’imperialisme americain et europeen qui supportent
le neo-colonialisme et le colonialisme dans l’Afrique, aux Etats unis et ailleurs, et renverserent les
direngeants progressiste et revolutionnaire africain pour les remplacer par des marionettes neocoloniale.
Nous voulons le droit de nous associer politiquement et économiquement
avec les Africains et tout autre peuple n’importe ou sur la surface de la
Terre.
6
Nous voulons la liberation immédiate et inconditionnelle toute la population noire actuellement incarcérer dans les prisons americaine.
Nous croyons que tout les hommes et femmes Africains qui sont actuellement incarcérer dans les
camps de concentrations habituellement appellés prison sont là due à des decisions, des lois et des
circanstances crées par des êtres étrangers pour leur benefices et pour des fins de contrôle coloniale genocidaire. Nous croyons que ces decisions, ces lois et circonstences ont été crées et
appliquées sans notre consentement et sont par consequent illegitimes. Nous croyons que les
hommes et femmes Africains enfermés dans ces camps de concentrations sont victimes de la justice de la classe dirigente coloniale americane qui nous maintient en esclavage et terrorise notre
peuple, par consequence ils devraient etre libérés immediatement a des juste représentants de notre
lutte pour la liberation, l’independance et la demcratie socialiste.
7
Nous voulons l’amestie complète de tous les prisoniers politique et prisoniers de guerre africains des prisons americaine ou leur liberation et la
remise immediate aux pays amis qui les accepteront et leur donneront l’asile
politique.
Nous croyons que les prisons des Etats Unis sont utilisées comme outils illégitime de toture, assassinat et de enfermement de ces fils et fille d’Afrique qui a travers leur actions patriotique, leur discours et ecritures en soutient de la cause de notre liberation sont devenue prisonnier politique et
prisonnier de guerre.
Nous croyons, paraillement aux autres peuples du monde, que la responsabilité des peuples
Nous voulons la fin de la vicieuse interference politique, economique
et militaire des Etats Unis et de l’Europe de l’ouest dans les affaires de
l’Afrique et du peuple Africain à travers le monde.
13
Nous voulons la fin de la domination coloniale du peuple africain
aux Etats Unis.
14
Nous voulons la liberation et l’unification totale de l’Afrique dirigé par
un gouvernement socialiste de tous les Africain.
Nous croyons que la lutte principale du peuple africain aux Etats Unis en cette periode est de rejetter la domination coloniale americaine qui est responsable de chacune des difficultés, imposées a
la population noire par ce governement, identifiées comme ‘le probleme avec les noires’.
Nous croyons que nos problemes avec l’education – de notre incapacite de controler nos écoles et
determiner l’éducation de nos enfants, à la qualité raciale et inferiore de l’education que nous
recevons – sont causés par le colonialisme.
Nous croyons que nos problemes avec le systeme de sante - de l’absence du contrôle et de la direction des hopitaux, des cliniques de soin et des institutions a travers la communaute, aux dangereuse conditions de sante imposées par la pauvreté et par la froideure des decisions gouvernementales- sont causés par le colonialisme.
Nous croyons que nos problemes avec l’hebergement- du manque d’hebergement adequat pour la
majorite de notre peuple, aux maisons dilapidées et infectees de vermines dans lesquelles nous
sommes forcées de vivre - sont causés par le colonialisme.
Nous croyons que nos problemes de nourriture et d’habillement – de la mauvaise qualité et la
quantité imposée par des vendeurs suceur de sang, à notre incapacite de les produire et les distribuer entre nous – sont causés par le colonialisme, là où notre peuple est oppressé et dominé par
une puissance etrangère pour des buts d’exploitation économique et d’avantage politique.
Nous croyons que ‘ la liberation et l’unification totale de l’Afrique sous un gouvernement socialiste doit etre l’objectif principale de tous les revolutionnaires Noire a travers le monde. C’est un
objectif, lorsqu’atteint, apportera partout l’accomplissement des aspirations des Africains et des
peuples de descendance Africaine. Cela le même temps avancera le triomphe de la revolution
socialiste international, et le progres continue vers le communisme, sous lequel chaque société est
organisée sur le principle– de chacun (chacune) en fonction de sa capacite, à chacun (chacune) en
fonction de ses besoins’ – Kwame Nkrumah
INDEPENDANCE DANS NOTRE TEMPS DE VIE!
see NPDUM, page
18
THE BURNING SPEAR
January/February 2005
White people dress up in black face and fake afros and dreadlocks and attempt to imitate Africans in an offensive display of buffoonery.
Spear
continued from page 12
of production is the kinds of relationships that exist in society for the purpose of that society acquiring what it
needs for its development in the form
of food, clothing and shelter. The
ideas in any society spring from that
reality.
There are people who actually
believe that it is ideas that create
reality, but in the real world, it is reality that gives rise to certain ideas.
There is a juncture in time where we
come to certain conclusions, and
these conclusions, these ideas, can
be important to changing this reality.
But the origin of these ideas is this
social reality itself.
There are no ideas born outside of
the context of that societal reality, and
as we live in societies that are dominated by class, ideas have class
character and class content. And in
any society, the ruling class — the
class that has the political and economic power — is also the class that
has the intellectual power and is the
source from which all the ideas or
most of the ideas in that society
spring.
So, when you look at Christmas
as it is practiced in general, throughout the U.S. and throughout Europe
and those places that are influenced
by Europe, this is what you’re looking
at.
For example, a couple of years
ago in December, I found myself in
what they call South Africa. It was
shocking to see Christmas trees and
Christmas lights all over the place
similar to what you would find here.
But of course, there’s something
else about South Africa too, isn’t
there? The ones that structured the
ideological system of oppression
there were who? The Dutch. From
the same place that we’re talking
about in the Netherlands. And when I
say the ideological system of oppression, I’m talking about the whole
Apartheid, segregation, etc.
Now, the whole capitalist system
that most thinking people in this
country hold up and say is wonderful
— that Bush and the general white
population in this country are prepared to kill to defend and extend
around the world — this whole system that has brought wealth to the
white world in general has its origin
in slavery and brigandage. That is to
say, it has its origin in the theft of the
resources of other peoples around
the world.
White wealth has its origin in
theft of oppressed peoples’
resources
Karl Marx, who at one juncture
was held in high esteem by certain
people who call themselves “revolutionaries,” particularly throughout
Europe and North America, referred
to this phenomenon as primitive
accumulation of capital.
In explaining how capitalist production got started, he said that in
order for there to be capitalist production there must be capitalist accumulation. But, in order for there to be
capitalist accumulation there must
also be capitalist production.
So we can only get out of this
weird cycle by assuming that there
must have been an accumulation of
capital that came before the capitalist
production, and this accumulation of
capital he referred to as primitive
accumulation.
He talked about this being born
out of turning Africa into a warren for
the hunting of black skins. He
referred to the internment of the
Indians in North America and
throughout the Americas, the so
called New World, into the mines and
how they were bringing up silver and gold that went to
Europe.
Of course, there were the
British attacks in 1841 and
1842 on China that turned
China into a nation of
junkies.* They called it the
Opium Wars wherein they
forced China to become a
nation of junkies.
There’s the situation
where France held Vietnam
for 199 years and got most of
the stolen resources from
Vietnam in the form of drug
resources.
This is the origin, or the
start up money, that the
whole capitalist system was
Zwarte Piet is supposed to be Sinter Klaas’
born of. It was slavery. The
servant who takes bad children to Spain
key component was slavery.
which was once ruled by Africans.
African People’s Socialist Party
[We should]
make an
international call
to Africans around
the world to come
to Amsterdam next
year and kick
Santa Claus off the
horse and introduce
Holland to the real
Black Pete! Let him
know that we’re
mad as hell and we
want everything
that he took from
us back!
Not just the tremendous amount of
resources gained when you can work
somebody for free. That was just one
aspect of it.
But the key thing was what they
called the slave trade. That is to say,
the trade of Africans throughout the
world that created colonies throughout the world. Most of the so-called
countries that we know of in the western hemisphere came about as a
consequence of the slave trade.
When you look at Cuba, Haiti, and
Jamaica, when you look at Argentina
and all of those places, the colonies
were organized around the slave
trade. And it’s the slave trade that
created, for the first time in history, a
world economy that was a precondition for the rise of capitalism.
So it was the fact that Africans
were being traded as slaves all
around the world that created, for the
first time, a single economy that dominated the whole world, and out of
this, the whole capitalist system was
born.
The Santa Claus story is an
ideological explanation for why
white people have everything
and everyone else is poor
But can a society say that the reason we have all this wealth as white
people — Indians are damn near
decimated, Africans don’t have nothing and everybody else is starving —
is because we stole everything we’ve
got?
The society can never condemn
itself. It will never say it’s all because
we stole it.
And you have all these defenders
of imperialism and capitalism who
refuse to say it, even as they know
the reality.
They know I didn’t pop up here in
America under a collard green leaf.
There was a process that brought me
here and they know it was slavery.
They know that this land is the
land of indigenous people. They
know that the Indians were massacred and the land stolen, but they will
deny a relationship between this and
their wealth, between their wealth
and my poverty. They will deny that
relationship.
They cannot say, “The reason that
you are poor is because we stole
everything you’ve got. We worked
your family like beasts, and because
you had to do all the work, it meant
that our children could go to school
and become this and that. They could
become inventors, and they could
steal your inventions as well.
“Because you had to do all of that,
we were free to build universities and
do all these other things. Because of
what you did, we took the resources
we made from you, and we put them
into factories. We put them into
schools, and this value that we stole
from you then is now concentrated in
IBM and Dell and all these other
resources.”
They can’t say that to you. So
what they do instead is they come up
with various explanations, philosophical explanations, which become the
underpinning of the society.
Some of these philosophies are
very serious. You know, heavy weight
philosophers like Kant and other
forces like that. They teach some of
these philosophical explanations in
universities, but some of them are
more subtle than that, and Santa
Claus is one of them.
What is Santa Claus? He is the
jolly, cherubic white guy who lives in
the North Pole where it’s too cold to
work. He has no Africans, no Indians,
no Mexicans, no Asians or anything
like that with him, but he has these little dwarves.
These dwarves, all of whom are
white, right? They produce all of
these resources. And then he has
these flying reindeer and what have
you, and they just take off and fly all
over the world. And everybody who is
good gets something from them, and
if you ain’t got nothing it’s because
you ain’t good.
So when you hear George Bush
say, “They hate us because we are
good,” he is, in his own way, telling
see Spear, page 20
April 2003
THE BURNING SPEAR
19
Plataforma de Trabajo del Partido Socialista del Pueblo Africano
QUE QUEREMOS — QUE CREEMOS
Adoptada el 23 de Septiembre de 1979. Revisada y adoptada en el Primer Congreso del Partido Socialista del Pueblo Africano, el 6 de Septiembre de 1981.
1
QUEREMOS PAZ, DIGNIDAD Y EL DERECHO A CONSTRUIR UNA VIDA PROSPERA A
TRAVES DE NUESTRA PROPIA LABOR Y EN NUESTRO PROPIO INTERES.
Creemos que el gobierno de los Estados Unidos de Norte América y su sociedad se fundaron en
el genocidio de los nativos, el robo de su terra y la dispersión por la fuerza, la esclavitud y la colonización de millones de gente Africana. Creemos que la condición de existencia actual de la gente
Africana dentro de los límites corrientes de los Estados Unidos es colonialismo, una condición de
existencia donde todo un pueblo es opresivamente dominado por el poder extranjero y ajeno del
estado con el propósito de la explotación económica y la ventaja política. También creemos que la
dominación colonial es el base fundamental de las problemas del pueblo Africano dentro de los
Estados Unidos y que no gozaremos de paz, prosperidad o dignidad humana hasta que esta dominición colonialista sea desterrada y el poder sobre nuestras vidas descanse en nuestras propias
manos.
2
QUEREMOS LOS DERECHOS AL DESARROLLO ECONÓMICO Y AL EMPLEO CREATIVO Y PRODUCTIVO QUE PROMUEVA LAS NECESIDADES Y EL BIEN ESTAR DE TODO
NUESTRO PUEBLO.
Creemos que el colonialismo es un sistema chupa sangre en el cual todo desarrollo económico
beneficia a la clase colonialista que gobierna el estado y a la sociedad a expensas de nuestro pueblo
colonizado. También creemos que el masivo desempleo habitual y bajo empleo de nuestra gente
beneficia a la clase colonialista gobernante de los Estados Unidos y al sistema capitalista y que la
lucha del pueblo Africano por trabajos se debe combinar con la lucha por el socialismo y el desarrollo económico independiente.
3
QUEREMOS PONER FIN A TODO IMPUESTO LOCAL, DEL ESTADO O FEDERAL
SOBRE EL PUEBLO NEGRO POR EL GOBIERNO DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS Y
CUALQUIERA DE SUS AGENCIAS.
Creemos que tales impuestos son ilegítimos, que el pueblo negro no tiene autoridad real o significativa dentro del gobierno de los Estados Unidos, entonces son sin representación. Creemos que
en la ausencia de autoridad real o significativa no tenemos nada que decir acerca de como se usa ese
dinero y que consecuentemente los impuestos que se extraen del pueblo negro son con frecuencia
usados en contra neustra y otras gentes oprimidas y explotadas dentro de los Estados Unidos y en el
mundo.
Creemos que el uso de los impuestos extraídos de la población Africana para consruir más prisiones
donde hacinarnos y emplear más policia para matarnas es criminal, como lo es el uso de tales
impuestos para emplear soldados para intimidar y saquear las gentes oprimidas internacionalmente
por este mismo sistema. También creemos que el pueblo Africano se debe rehusar a pagar impuestos
a un gobierno que usa tales impuestos para apoyar y mantener dictadores brutales en todo el mundo
quienes mantienen a sus propios pueblos oprimidos y viviendo en la pobreza con el propósito de
mantener la dominación económica y política de los Estados Unidos y el Oeste imperialista.
4
QUEREMOS EL DERECHO DE LIBRE EXPRESIÓN Y ASOCIACIÓN POLÍTICA, LA
GARANTÍA DEL DERECHO AL TRABAJO PARA EL MEJORAMIENTO Y LA
EMANCIPACIÓN DEL PUEBLO NEGRO SIN TEMOR A LA PRISIÓN POLÍTICA A LA PERDIDA DE LA VIDA, UN MIEMBRO DEL CUERPO O LA SUBSISTENCIA.
Creemos que la liberación del pueblo Africano en todo el mundo vendrá primeramente como resultado de nuestros propios esfuerzos. Creemos que es nuestro deber hacia nestras madres y padres,
nuestros hijos y hacia nosotros mismos, organizarnos para vencer nuestra opresión. Creemos que
el derecho a organizarnos y denunciar nuestra opresión son derechos humanos básicos y que el
gobierno debe los terminar sus ataques criminales a los patriotas Africanos que trabajan por el
mejoramiento y la emancipación de su pueblo.
5
QUEREMOS EL DERECHO DE ASOCIACIÓN INTERNACIONAL POLÍTICA Y ECONÓMICA
CON AFRICANOS Y CUALQUIER OTRO PUEBLO EN CUALQUIER LUGAR DE LA TIERRA.
Creemos que toda la gente negra es gente Africana y que son una parte de una entidad nacional
única. Creemos que la libertad genuina del pueblo Africano en todos lados está irreversiblemente
unida a la creación de un Africa independiente, unida y socialista. Creemos que la lucha del pueblo
Africano dentro de los Estados Unidos, representa el frente en los Estados Unidos de un
movimiento mundial del pueblo Africano por su liberación Africana, independencia política y
democracia socialista. Creemos que la lucha mundial por la liberación Africana está en unidad con
las luchas libradas por la mayoriá de los pueblos del mundo para terminar la opresión de las
naciones por naciones y crear un nuevo mundo, dentro del cual las masas trabajadoras pondrán fin
al sistema de trabajadores y empleadores y esclavos y dueños y poseerán y se beneficiarán de los
bienes y productos de nuestra labor y tendrán autoridad política sobre nuestras propias vidas.
Creemos que los amigos naturales, objectivos en nuestra lucha por la liberación Africana, independencia y democraticia socialista son todas las masas trabajadores del mundo — los pueblos del
Medio Oriente, los campesinos y trabajadores de Asia y Latino América, las fuerzas democráticas
de Europa Oriental y Occidental y los Estados Unidos y los verdaderos estados socialistas del
mundo, que por consiguente debemos tener el derecho absoluto a la asociación política y económica internacional.
8
QUEREMOS EL RETIRO INMEDIATO DE LA POLICIA NORTEAMERICANA DE
NUESTRAS COMUNIDADES EXPLOTADAS Y OPRIMIDAS.
9
QUEREMOS TERMINAR CON LA OPRESIÓN POLÍTICA Y SOCIAL Y LA EXPLOTACION ECONOMICA DE LA MUJER AFRICANA.
Nosotros creemos que las varias agencias de policía que ocupan nuestras comunidades son ligos
del Estado colonialista de los EE.UU. que es responsable por mantener nuestra gente esclavizada
y aterrorizada. Nosotros creemos que las agencias policias no nos sirven pero que al contrario representan la primera línea de defensa norteamericana en contra de la justa lucha de nuestro pueblo
por dignidad y democracia socialista. Por esto nosotros creemos que la policía de Estados Unidos
es un ejército ilegítimo, un ejército colonialista en la comunidad Africana y debe salir inmediatamente de nuestra comunidad para ser reemplazada por nuestras fuerzas de liberación cuyas luchas
en defensa de nuestra comunidad y contra la opresión, demuestra su lealtad a nuestra comunidad
y su deseo de servir en el interés de ésta.
Nosotros creemos en la absoluta igualdad política, social y económica de las mujeres y los hombres Africanos. Nosotros creemos que una prueba fundamental del carácter progresista o revolucionario de cualquier organización, partido, movimiento o sociedad es su compromiso confirmado en la practica a la destrucción de la opresión especial de la mujer y la elevación de la mujer al
lugar de compañeras y líderes iguales en la mocion del desenvuelto de la sociedad humana y como
creadores, líderes y constructores, modeladores de la historia humana.
10
QUEREMOS EL DERECHO DE CONSTRUIR UN EJÉRCITO DE LIBERACIÓN
DEL PUEBLO AFRICANO.
Creemos que la verdadera libertad, aunque muchas veces quitada, no puede ser dada al pueblo
Africano somos nuestros propios liberadores, y que tenemos el derecho y la obligación de crear un
ejército de liberación del pueblo Africano para defender nuestros derechos politicos que han sido
ganados, para defender nuestro liberadones, y para ganar del opresor colonial-esclavista, nuestra
verdadera libertad. Creemos, que las unicas guerras legítimas son las guerras de liberación national y aquellas guerras que se oponen a la agresión imperialista, y por lo tanto, la unica fuerza militar legitima para que la gente negra se sirva son las fuerzas militares que defienden la libertad y
repudian la agresión imperialista. Esa fuerza será el Ejército de Liberación del Pueblo Africano.
11
NOSOTROS QUEREMOS QUE LOS EE.UU. Y LA CLASE DOMINANTE INTERNACIONAL EUROPEA, REPAGUE A AFRICA Y EL PUEBLO DE AFRICA POR LOS SIGLOS DE GENOCIDIO, OPRESIÓN Y ESCLAVITUD DE NUESTRO PUEBLO.
Nosotros creemos que los EE.UU. y la civilización europea nacieron y son actualmente mantenidos por el horroso robo de seres humanos y recursos naturales del Africa y su pueblo.
También creemos que ese robo es responsable por la baja población y el sub-desarrollo de Africa
y de su pueblo y de su servidumbre político, pobreza material, de su discontinuidad y desintegración cultural a través del mundo. Creemos que a Africa y su pueblo se le debe unas reparaciones, una justa compensación economica, billones de dolares que deben ser pagados a la
Organización de Unidad Africana o cualquier otra legítima organización internacional del
pueblo africano para que sean distribuidos en forma equitativa para el desarrollo de Africa.
También creemos que reparaciones tienen que ser distribuidas a las varias naciones Africanas
que estan dispersas por todo el mundo y los legítimos representantes del pueblo Africano que
han sido dispersados a la fuerza a través del mundo y que aun no han ganado su liberación.
12
QUEREMOS DAR FIN A LA VICIOSA Y EGOÍSTA INTERVENCIÓN DE LOS EE.UU. Y
DE LOS PAÍSES OCCIDENTALES DE EUROPA EN LOS ASUNTOS POLÍTICOS,
ECONÓMICOS Y MILITARES DE AFRICA Y DE LOS PUEBLOS DE AFRICA A TRAVÉS DEL
MUNDO.
Creemos que los pueblos de Africa en Africa y en otras partes tienen el derecho y responsabilidad
de resolver sus problemas, libres de la indeseable y egoísta interferencia de los EE.UU. y de los
imperialistas occidentales. Creemos que tal intervención esta disenada para mantener la continuación del robo de nuestros recursos humanos y materiales, para mantener la opresión y la pobreza.
Creemos que los pueblos de Africa tienen que ser libres para organizar y luchar para poner fin al
colonialsmo y neo-colonialismo sin interferencia de los EE.UU. y del imperialismo occidental, los
cuales apoyan al neocolonialismo y el colonialismo en Africa y los EE.UU. y en otros sitios, y que
ha derrocado líderes Africanos progresistas y revolucionarios reemplazandolos con títenes neocolonialistas.
13
QUEREMOS EL FIN A LA DOMINACIÓN COLONIAL ESTADOUNIDENSE
DEL PUEBLO AFRICANO DENTRO DE LOS EE.UU.
Creemos que los hombres y mujeres Africanos encerrados en los campos de concentración comunmente conocidos como prisiones están allí por decisiones, leyes y circunstancias que fueron
creadas por desconocidos y extranjeros para su propio beneficio y como medio de control colonialista genocida. Creemos que tales decisiones, leyes y circunstancias fueron creadas y son implementadas sin nuestro consentimiento y son por consiguiente, ilegítimas. Creemos que los hombres
y mujeres Africanas que están encerradas en tales campos de concentración son víctimas de la justicia colonialista de la clase gobernante la cual mantiene nuestra esclavitud y aterroriza a nuestro
pueblo, y que por lo tanto deben ser inmediatamente liberados los representantes justos de nuestra
lucha por la liberación, independencia y democracia socialista.
Creemos que la lucha principal del pueblo africano dentro de los EE.UU. es el derrocamiento de la
dominación colonial de los EE.UU., la cual es virtualmente responsable por toda la penuria y privación
impuesta sobre el pueblo negro que este gobierno identifica como el problema de los negros.
Creemos que los problemas educacionales — desde nuestra inhabilidad para controlar nuestras escuelas y determinar la educación de nuestros hijos, hasta la educación inferior que recibimos, son causados por el colonialismo. Creemos que nuestros problemas en el área de salud — desde la ausencia
de clínicas e instituciones operadas y controladas por el pueblo Africano, hasta los peligrosas condiciones de salud impuestas por la pobreza y decisiones insensibles gubernamentales — son causadas
por el colonialismo.
Creemos que nuestros problemas de vivienda — desde la escasez de vivienda adecuada para la mayoría del pueblo, hasta las casas deterioridas y llenas de piojos son causadas por el colonialismo.
Creemos que los problemas de alimento y vestuario — desde la terrible calidad y cantidad que nos
imponen los mercaderes chupa sangres hasta nuestra inhabilidad para producir y distribuirlos para
nosotros y entre nosotros, son causados por el colonialismo. Todo lo nuestro está dominado y oprimido por un poder estatal foráneo y extranjero con el propósito de explotarnos económicamente y sacar
ventajas políticas.
7
14
QUEREMOS LA LIBERACIÓN TOTAL Y LA UNIFICACIÓN DE AFRICA BAJO
UN GOBIERNO TODO-AFRICANO SOCIALISTA.
6
QUEREMOS LA LIBERTAD INMEDIATA E INCONDICIONAL DE TODA LA GENTE NEGRA
QUE EN EL PRESENTE ESTA ENCERRADA EN PRISIONES DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS.
QUEREMOS AMNISTÍA COMPLETA PARA TODOS LOS PRISIONEROS POLÍTICOS
AFRICANOS Y PRISIONEROS DE GUERRA EN LAS PRISIONES DE LOS ESTADOS
UNIDOS O SU LIBERACIÓN INMEDIATA A CUALQUIER PAÍS AMIGO QUE LOS ACEPTE Y
LES BRINDE ASILO POLITÍCO.
Creemos que las prisiones de los Estados Unidos son usadas también como el instrumento ilegítimo
para torturar, asesinar y mantener cautivos aquellos valientes hijos e hijas de Africa quienes por su
actuación patriótica o su palabra oral o escrita en favor de la causa de nuestra liberación se han convertido en prisioneros políticos y prisioneros de guerra. Creemos, junto con la mayoría de los pueblos
del mundo, que es el deber de los colonizados y esclavitud y el colonialismo y luchar por el socialismo
y quienes lo hacen son patriotas, heroinas y héroes, que deben ser mantenidos en la más alta estima.
Creemos que “la liberación total y unificación del Africa bajo un gobierno Africano socialista, debe
ser el objetivo primario de todos los revolucionarios Africanos a través del mundo. Este objetivo,
cuando sea alcanzado, llenará las aspiraciones de los Africanos y de los pueblos de descendencia
Africana en todas partes. Al mismo tiempo avanzará el triunfo de la revolución socialista internacional, y del avance hacia el comunismo, bajo el cual toda sociedad será guiada en el principio de
— cada uno de acuerdo a su habilidad, a cada uno de acuerdo con sus necesidades.” — Kwame
Nkrumah
¡A CONSTRUIR PARA GANAR LA INDEPENDENCIA EN NUESTRO TIEMPO!
see NPDUM, page
20
THE BURNING SPEAR
Spear
continued from page 18
Holland to the real Black Pete!
Let him know that we’re mad as
hell and we want everything that he
took from us back! We told them that
we would come there and lead it.
We need to have an international
call to Africans from around the world
to come and engage in civil disobedience to say that from this day on, you
will not do what you just did. If you
want to have a white Pete, do it. But
you are not going to do this any more.
And so that’s what our objective is.
Someone asked, “Can’t you keep
it a secret?” But if we keep it a secret
no one will know about it, especially
the people who need to get there.
“But if we announce it, they’ll close
the borders.”
We said, “That’s alright, let
Holland close the borders. Let
Holland say to the world that we want
to keep Black people from coming to
Holland to deal with Zwarte Piet. Let
the world then have an opportunity to
look at what Holland calls fun every
year, at the expense of African people. And if Holland can live with it then
we can… for a little bit.”
the story of Santa Claus because
what is offered by the Christmas story
is an explanation for why all the
wealth and value that they didn’t work
for is in the white world.
They didn’t work for it. Nobody
worked for it. It wasn’t because there
were people working in plantations in
Brazil, or in Congo where they cut off
the hands of the people who refused
to bring in the rubber for them. It didn’t come from that!
It was some magic shorties and
this cherubic white guy who, with the
reindeer, flies around and gives all
this stuff. That’s where it came from
“because we’re good.” This is the
explanation.
Now, you may know that the first
Africans brought to the Americas as
captives in 1619 were brought by the
Dutch. And if they were brought by
the Dutch, there is a great likelihood
that the ship they were brought on —
and they were on The Good Ship
Jesus, by the way — was blessed by
Europe has movement to make
the patron saint Sinter Klaas.
capitalism more gentle to white
So in other words, Africans from
workers while violently raping
this country were a gift to the white
folks from Santa Claus. That is the
everyone else
kind of reality that we are dealing
Capitalism was born off of a
with.
grotesquely bestial, profoundly
Now ideas play a role in even trapoppressive theft of all of our
ping people in their slavery. Ideas
resources and off of terrible things
play a profound role. These ideas are
done to the peoples around the
born out of this kind of social system
world.
and they are there to reinforce the
Out of the things that they stole
enslavement of a people.
from us, you saw emerging in Europe
It convinces the white people that
what they called the Industrial
this is the reason they have everyRevolution, and for the first time,
thing, and every white person you
white people were free from serfdom
know, even your liberals that work at
and from being stuck on the land in a
your popular community radio stafeudal situation.
tions that you listen to all the time, will
Now they were going into the facdefend to the death the relationships
tories. In fact, the ruling class began
that exist in this country.
to kick them off the land and force
They will tell you that they didn’t
them into situations where they would
do it to you because you’re black.
have to enter the capitalist society in
They did it to you because you are a
order to exist. They called it the Land
worker. What’s the difference in that?
Enclosure Acts and things like that.
That’s redundant. They will argue
So you had these white folks
with you around this country because
working in the factories. Sometimes
it is a means by which they defend
children and women were being
this relationship that they
have.
So, that is in Holland,
Burning Spear Publications Presents...
and in Holland, the power of
the ideas is shown in that
there were Africans that
were there who brought
their children to see this
thing.
January/February 2005
maimed in the factories. They had no
rules or anything like that and they
were working under terrible conditions.
So in the 19th century, a movement was born among intellectuals in
Europe in opposition to this capitalism, as it was expressing itself there.
Not to what it was doing to us in the
Congo. Not to what it was doing to
the people in China or anywhere
else, but how it was affecting white
children and women and workers
there.
So they came to the conclusion
that they had to convince the ruling
class to moderate this capitalism.
Make capitalism kind and gentle. And
one of the intellectuals involved in
this movement was a man named
Charles Dickens.
Are you familiar with Dickens?
Dickens was the guy who wrote the
book upon which this thing, which
you will see over and over again on
television during Christmas time, is
based, called “A Christmas Carol.”
“A Christmas Carol” is the story of
the prototypical capitalist who is a
man called Scrooge. Now, Scrooge
doesn’t like Christmas. People come
to Scrooge and say “Merry
Christmas,” and he’s the one who
says, “bah, humbug.”
He’s a relatively ruthless capitalist.
He works his nephew, Bob Cratchet,
and there’s a crippled guy, Tiny Tim,
who might also be a relative and
Scrooge is just horrible to everybody.
And these intellectuals are trying to
get these capitalists to treat the workers better.
So, they use Scrooge and have
him go to sleep, and he must have
eaten something terrible because
after he goes to sleep, he wakes up
and gets these visits from these
ghosts, right?
There’s Christmas Past, Present
and Future, and as a consequence of
this Scrooge is a changed person. He
likes Tiny Tim. Bob Cratchet gets the
day off, and I think he actually goes
home with him to eat. But the thing is
that it was part of this struggle to get
them to moderate capitalism.
They struggled that Christmas
now become this thing where you
give, where you are nice to people,
etc. Dickens wasn’t the only one, but
he was part of a general movement to
win the capitalists to be nice to people.
And so that’s the basis, that’s the
origin of things like “A Christmas
Carol” and what you’re going to be
watching on TV maybe tonight when
you leave here. That’s the origin of it
and you need to know it.
We must construct contending
philosophy to oppose
oppressive social system
People who are oppressed have
to construct philosophical systems in
opposition to the social system that
keeps them oppressed. And that’s
why we say you bring us Sinter Klaas
and we’re coming to kick his butt.
We have another philosophy in
contention with the philosophy that
they just put forth, and ours says that
when Sinter Klaas shows up, we
want everything in the bag because
everything in it belongs to us. And we
want to go to the secret location
where they are supposed to be producing because it belongs to us, you
understand?
We have to create our own contending philosophy that is opposed to
slavery; that is opposed to colonialism; that is opposed to oppression
and that stands for the liberation of
African people and human beings on
this planet and the eradication of
workers and bosses and slaves.
Uhuru!
*Here Chairman Omali refers to the
Opium Wars in China. The first began in
1839 when Britain attacked several
Chinese cities because China had
attempted to stop the British from smuggling opium into its borders. In 1842,
China was forced to sign the Treaty of
Nanjing at gunpoint which, among other
things, exempted British nationals from
Chinese law in China and forced China to
pay more than 20 million dollars to
British imperialists. Britain again formally attacked China in 1856 after which
China was forced to sign another treaty
that legalized the import of opium.
The Black Queen Compilation
Come to Holland, kick
Santa Claus off his
horse and show him
the real Black Pete!
Anyway, if we have anything to do with it, it’s not
going to last much longer
because I was just in Paris
at a meeting of the
European region of an
African organization, and
these Africans say they
want to engage in some
struggle. We told them that
we think one of the most
important struggles that we
can engage in is to make an
international call to Africans
around the world to come to
Amsterdam next year and
kick Santa Claus off the
horse and introduce
African People’s Socialist Party
Featuring Hip-Hop,
Reggae, Soul artists
from around the world!
$10 U.S.
£7 UK
GET YOUR COPY TODAY!
Name __________________________________
Address ________________________________
City ___________________________________
State __________ Zip/Post Code ___________
Make checks payable to Burning Spear Publications. Add
$3 for shipping and handling.
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USA
January/February 2005
Roger Sylvester
continued from page 2
despite our heroic efforts in the
eighties, the government dealt with
us on its own terms.
The British government promoted
the African petty bourgeoisie, an ill
formed social class, as leaders of
our movement. It propped them up
to act as a buffer zone between the
white ruling class oppressor and the
masses of the African workers
throughout Britain.
That is how our struggle came to
be used as a rear base to elect the
black faces that stood for white
power of the Labour party, and as
members of the British parliament.
This is how Dianne Abbott, Bernie
Brown, Paul Boating and other
opportunists of the negro petty bourgeoisie joined the white ruling
class’s political parties at our people’s expense.
For example, after the verdict
was overturned, the African
Tottenham MP, David Lammy said
he was “completely disappointed.”
He said, “The family has not got justice.” He could not say my people
demand justice! He just repeated
what everybody already knows!
This class of assimilators and collaborators have the job of locking
Derek Bennett
continued from page 3
Derek Bennett.
It must pay the family a substantial sum of money for the murder of
their son and for the immense pain
and trauma caused to both the family and our people. They must pay
reparations to the Bennett family for
all missing money, services and
love Derek would have contributed
to his family and community had he
not been gunned down in the street.
Reparations to the Family of
Derek Bennett!
End the Public Policy of Police
Containment!
Economic Development to the
African Community!
Uhuru!
Two Nations
continued from page 9
in Mauritania. Throughout the
Borderlands, Africans are enslaved
by Arabs or by Arabised Africans.
The challenge, which is now being
realized in the face of international
opinion, is to reverse the marginalization of Africans in the Borderlands.
African enslavement by Arabs predates by a millennium the European
encounter, and continues today. We
claim reparations and restitution for
this crime against humanity.
Some of us are calling for the creation of the African National
Organization, linking Africans south
of the Sahara with Africans in the
Diaspora.
We are saying that the problems
of the Borderlands of the African
THE BURNING SPEAR
our struggle in the House of
Commons where the people’s fate
will always be in the hands of our
white colonialist oppressors and
exploiters.
We have to build a mass democratic movement that will aim at getting Africans to massively turn our
backs to all three major white power
liberal organizations: the Tory,
Labour and Liberal Democrat.
All local, spontaneous struggles
for justice and economic development need to build toward our
strategic long term goals for African
independence and self-determination.
Our mass democratic movement
will fail if not guided by
revolutionary ideas and lead by
African working class
The inability of Africans in the
eighties to consolidate and transform
the rebellion into a lasting national
movement fighting for our own
national and class interest as African
workers in Europe, was a result of
the absence of revolutionary theory
that has evolved from our own history of fighting and resisting white
imperialism and oppression around
the world.
This is not to say that there was
no theory. There were philosophical
ideas that guided our struggle then
just as there are now, but the problem was and still is the absence of
revolutionary theory throughout the
African democratic movement.
We still have people who attend
demonstrations for the sake of
demonstrating, looking for a lone
fight or dispute with the police, displaying their spiritual, religious and
cultural inclinations and beliefs, but
in no pursuit of any clear political
aims.
We still have people who attend
demonstrations not in support of
political aims and goals as set by the
organization, but rather use their participation to seek center stage and
self satisfactions at the expense of
the goals of the event and long terms
goals for our movement.
Our movement is still suffering
from obscure ideas created by people who glorify our rich history of civilization and struggles, but who come
up empty when faced with the questions of what our present tasks are
and how to build a revolutionary
Nation require a solution from the
Africans themselves and need a
decisive African intervention.
We say that the government of
Sudan is at war with its own people
on all fronts. That it is illegitimate and
is not sincere in the so–called peace
talks with the South taking place in
Kenya. In fact, these talks were
designed to neutralize the South
whilst Khartoum pacifies Dar Fur
before returning to fight the South.
The Centre for Advanced Studies
of African Society (CASAS) in Cape
Town, South Africa, together with the
Drammeh Institute of New York, USA
on February 22, 2003 called for a civilization dialogue in Johannesburg
between the Arab and African peoples to chart the way forward in their
relations. It is suggested that the
proper forum for this is the African
Union.
21
The reason the
government can
validate the
murder of Africans
by the police is
that Africans have
not achieved selfdetermination in
modern history. We
have not achieved
power over our own
lives and
communities. So
the struggle for
justice for Africans
anywhere is a
struggle for African
self-determination
everywhere.
mass movement in Britain today.
A revolutionary theory is part of
the answer to those who are concerned about the ability of opportunists to betray our struggles and
leaders.
The revolutionary theory that
guides the Uhuru Movement is
Yeshitelism. It is all-around scientific
theory that allows African working
class people to walk with confidence
against our internal and external
enemies as well as expose opportunism within our own camp.
Our theory allows Africans to follow all complex political economy
questions from the beginning to the
end without losing sight of what our
own African working class interests
are. It allows us to predict outcomes
of political processes without waiting
for the particular events in that
process to happen first.
Yeshitelism is the science of the
African slave to overturn imperialism,
imposed exploitation, oppression,
injustices, disunity, powerlessness
and poverty.
Curfew
continued from page 8
devices of the government are used
to keep us from focusing on the only
true struggle that exists, the fight for
our freedom. So long as we all
believe the hype that Africans are the
real criminals, we won’t flinch when
they murder an African in Brooklyn or
Oakland because “he was probably a
thug anyway.”
As long as we buy into these false
divisions that tell us that an African
born in the U.S. is different from an
African born in Jamaican or Nigerian
or London, then we won’t react when
a million Africans are butchered in
Rwanda; we won’t raise hell when
the U.S. stages a coup in Haiti.
All of these are deliberate policies
used to prevent the completion of the
British government does not
want peace with the African
community here
InPDUM is a mass democratic
organization led by a revolutionary
organization of the African working
class. It was formed by the African
People’s Socialist Party for the purpose of bringing the demoralized
African masses back into political
life, and leading our people in our
democratic struggle for self-determination!
The strength and growth of our
movement will determine our ability
to prevent our oppressors from taking back from us the victories that we
win against imperialism.
With the development of InPDUM,
the APSP, and the African Socialist
International — an international
organization of African revolutionaries — all over the African world, we
will be able to internationalize every
local struggle of our people in the
UK. This will allow the participation of
all our people on earth to force the
British ruling class to meet our
demands for justice and self-determination.
Justice for Roger Sylvester, jail
all eight police officers!
Not one more black life!
Build InPDUM in every corner
of Britain for African selfdetermination!
Uhuru!
Subscribe
to the
burning
spear!
African Revolution because they recognize that it will be the final blow to
their world system of colonial domination.
But even with all their tactics, we
must organize for our own self-interests as Africans. We have no choice
but to struggle for control of our education, control of the police, access to
our resources and true economic
development.
Our foremost jobs as students,
parents, workers and community
members must be to organize and
fight for our freedom. It is the only
way to ensure the liberation of our
people and guarantee any true
future.
Join the International People’s
Democratic Uhuru Movement today
and bring the true criminals to justice.
Uhuru!
African People’s Socialist Party
22
THE BURNING SPEAR
Malcolm X
continued from page 15
right here.”
Later in that same speech
Malcolm X continued, “And there is
no system of this earth which has
proven itself more corrupt, more
criminal, than this system that in
1964 still colonizes 22 million
African-Americans, still enslaves 22
million Afro-Americans.”
At another place in the speech,
Malcolm X says of America,
“America is a colonial power. She
has colonized 22 million AfroAmericans by depriving us of firstclass citizenship, by depriving us of
civil rights, actually by depriving us
of human rights.”
E x p l a i n i n g t h e d i ff e r e n c e
between Integrationists and African
Internationalists, Malcolm said in the
same April 8 speech I have been
quoting from, “So, in this country you
find two different types of AfroAmericans — the type who looks
upon himself as a minority and you
(white people) as the majority,
because his scope is limited to the
American scene; and then you have
the type who looks upon himself as
a part of the majority and you (white
people) as a part of a microscopic
minority, and this one uses a different approach in trying to struggle for
his rights.
“He doesn’t beg. He doesn’t
thank you for what you give him,
because you are only giving him
what he should have had a hundred
years ago. He doesn’t think you are
doing him any favors.”
Further on in the same speech
Malcolm asks, “How can you (white
African People’s Socialist Party
people) condemn South Africa?
There are only 11 million of our people in South Africa. There are 22 million of them here, and we are receiving an injustice which is just as criminal as that which is being done to
the black people of South Africa.”
Malcolm X told us that our struggle was a nationalist struggle, a
struggle to build the developing
African nation. Anticipating a statement that would be made later by
another African patriot, Amilcar
Cabral, Malcolm X clearly struggled
against the notion that ours is a
struggle for or against the ideas in
anyone’s head.
In a speech entitled, “Message to
the Grassroots,” delivered in 1963 in
Detroit, Malcolm X had this to say
about nationalism:
“When you want a nation, that’s
called nationalism. When the white
man became involved in a revolution in this country against England,
what was it for? He wanted this land
so he could set up another white
nation. That’s white nationalism…
All the revolutions that are going on
in Asia and Africa today are based
on what? Black nationalism. A revolutionary is a black nationalist. He
wants a black nation.”
This is what Malcolm X stood for.
Did you know that when you
decided to come here today? We
must not allow ourselves to simply
come out to programs like this and
recite poetry, make speeches in the
name of Malcolm X and go home.
Malcolm X was a socialist and a
black revolutionary. And although I
imagine he must have participated in
commemorative programs such as
this one during his lifetime, he did
more than that. He lived struggle
In our Party, the
African People’s
Socialist Party, we
consider ourselves
heir to Malcolm X’s
philosophy. We
believe it is
absolutely necessary
to continue to
develop his
philosophy, and to
concretize his ideas
by living like him —
as a revolutionary
totally committed in
actuality, in the real
world, to freedom for
African people
throughout the
world.
and revolution. He acted out his
belief in the right for African people
to live in dignity, determining our
own fate and controlling our own
destiny.
He was not someone who just
popped up on posters. He was not
just a nice guy, voted most popular
by some black college fraternity or
sorority. He was a black socialist,
anti-colonialist,
African
Internationalist revolutionary.
Can you embrace that? Can you
commemorate that? Can you pay
homage to all that? I hope so,
because that is what Malcolm X was
all about.
In a New York discussion in May
1964, Malcolm X spoke about the
differences between capitalist and
socialist economic and social systems:
“While I was traveling I noticed
that most of the countries that had
recently emerged into independence
have turned away from the so-called
capitalistic system in the direction of
socialism.”
During that same discussion
Malcolm X elaborated:
“Most of the countries that were
colonial powers were capitalist
countries, and the last bulwark of
capitalism today is America. It’s
impossible for a white person to
believe in capitalism and not believe
in racism. You can’t have capitalism
without racism. And if you find one
and you happen to get that person
into a conversation and they have a
philosophy that makes you sure they
don’t have racism in their outlook,
usually they’re socialists or their
political philosophy is socialism.”
On December 20, 1964, at the
Audubon Ballroom in New York,
Malcolm added these words about
capitalism:
“You can’t operate a capitalist
system unless you are vulturistic;
you have to have someone else’s
blood to suck to be a capitalist. You
show me a capitalist, I’ll show you a
January/February 2005
bloodsucker.
“He cannot be anything but a
bloodsucker if he’s going to be a
capitalist. He’s got to get it from
somewhere other than himself. So,
when we look at the African continent, when we look at the trouble
that’s going on between East and
West, we find that the nations of
Africa are developing socialistic systems to solve their problems.”
This was the Malcolm X whose
memory you are honoring today.
Malcolm X was an anti-capitalist. He
clearly understood that there can be
no freedom for our people under
capitalism.
I suspect that some of the people
who are here today identify with capitalism as the economic and social
system which best represents their
aspirations. If I am correct, you now
know what Malcolm X thought of
capitalism and you.
I hope none of the people on this
program are aspiring capitalists. If
there are some here they should
confess and say they really don’t
believe in the ideas and philosophy
of Malcolm X. That would be the
honest thing to do. Otherwise people
will be consciously misled.
I have spent all this time quoting
Malcolm X and talking about his philosophy, because I hold his memory
very dear. Not in any romantic or
idealistic sense, but because of his
giant contribution to our people’s
struggle for freedom.
In our Party, the African People’s
Socialist Party, we consider ourselves heir to Malcolm X’s philosophy. We believe it is absolutely necessary for those of us who speak of
freedom and liberation to study the
philosophy of Malcolm X.
We believe it is absolutely necessary to continue to develop his philosophy, and to concretize his ideas
by living like him — as a revolutionary totally committed in actuality, in
the real world, to freedom for African
people throughout the world.
In order to do this we must move
beyond programs honoring his
memory. We must make ideological
choices, ideological positions.
Either we are Integrationists,
which means we are pro-capitalists,
pro-colonialists, and anti-socialist, or
we are African Internationalist
socialists. We cannot be both.
Either we believe in political independence for African people colonized within current U.S. borders, or
we believe in continued colonial subjugation for our people. There are no
multiple choices.
As for our Party and its members,
we have chosen socialism and independence; we have chosen revolutionary African Internationalism, and
we are building the political apparatus designed to give life and form to
the vision of Malcolm X. We ask you
to join us in this endeavor.
In any event, regardless of what
you choose to do, or where and how
you choose to do it, if you don’t
believe in the ideas and philosophy
of Malcolm X, let him be. If you don’t
aspire to his definitions of revolution
and liberation, don’t participate in
programs such as this one, and if
you’re not willing to take a philosophical stand for independence, for
Africa, for our people and yourself,
then don’t call the name of Malcolm
X. He belongs to the people.
January/February 2005
Black Eye
continued from page 6
state that would lock up Africans for
15 years for a gram of crack, while
white people, who are the biggest
drug users in the U.S., hardly ever go
to prison. How else could you explain
a brother getting 10 years for taking
$20,000 from a Brinks truck while
Martha Stewart gets 6 months at
“camp tiddlywinks” for stealing $20
million?
They make laws that are convenient to them. But we can’t expect
the government to drop a hustle that
has been working very well for them
for centuries. African people have a
responsibility to knock their hustle
and break their hustle.
To do this, Africans must organize
for power – so that we dictate our
own laws that everyone is forced to
follow when it comes to dealing with
us. White people can do whatever
they want in Europe – but when they
come to Africa, they got to respect
ours. When they deal with Africa’s
citizens anywhere on the planet, they
got to respect ours.
Such power will only come about
if we have organization. The U.S.
government is an organization that
makes sure that everyone living in
the U.S follows its laws. If you don’t
follow their law then they send somebody with a gun to come and lock
you up.
We need the same kind of power.
We need State power. State power
can only be won through mass struggle. The masses of the people must
be in a position to seize the power. It
won’t mean anything if just a hand
full of people come with a list of
demands. But if, like Chairman Omali
said, there is a body of well-armed
Africans outside the courthouse, we
March
continued from page 7
murdered by Philadelphia police on
June 10, 2003; as well as Rennie
Payne, the father of Haile Payne,
who was killed by the police on the
same day in 2004. Many other powerful speakers, poets and cultural
workers spoke.
Despite rain and cool temperatures in Oakland, CA on October 22,
APSC held a lively and militant
march through the streets of central
Oakland in the area around Lake
Merritt. The march was accompanied
by drummers and led by spirited
chant leader and APSC member,
Matthew Willis. It got a tremendous
response from motorists who honked
their horns in support.
Oakland march organizer, Wendy
Snyder, noted that participants were
not dismayed by being soaked during the march. “More than 40 people
stayed for the rally which had to be
staged from a tent in Lake Merritt
park.”
Powerful presentations were
given by Bakari Olatunji, Oakland
Uhuru Movement leader; Monica
Bernal of Union del Barrio who came
from San Diego for the event; and
former city councilman Wilson Riles
who spoke on behalf of No on
THE BURNING SPEAR
will be respected.
The International People’s
Democratic Uhuru Movement is an
organization that allows the masses
to participate in such a struggle for
State power. The people must be
united in organization. We have to
be our own liberators!
U.S. imperialism is a paper tiger
“All reactionaries are paper tigers.
In appearance, the reactionaries are
terrifying, but in reality they are not
so powerful. From a long-term point
of view, it is not the reactionaries but
the people who are really powerful.”
— Chairman Mao Zedong of the
Chinese Communits Party
Mao Zedong, who led the
Chinese revolution in the 40’s and
50’s once referred to U.S. imperialism as a “paper tiger”. He was right.
From the president to the NYPD —
the entire U.S. government relies on
the illusion of strength.
A good example of this is the
struggle going on in Iraq. Despite the
fact that U.S. soldiers are constantly
Subscribe
Now!
Measure Y, a citizens group that is
organizing against an initiative to put
more city funds into the Oakland
Police Department. Quetzaoceloacia
from the Barrio Defense Committee
of San Jose also spoke. Chairman
Omali Yeshitela gave a brilliant presentation calling on white people to
take a stand in solidarity with African
and other colonized peoples.
Sunday, November 7 was the
date of the March for Social Justice
in St. Petersburg, Florida. About 80
people joined in the march and about
a hundred gathered in Crescent Lake
Park for the rally in the town known
as the city of African resistance and
the international headquarters of the
APSP.
It was the weekend following the
presidential elections and the political climate was very polarized with
many North Americans honking in
support while others booed and
heckled. A couple of white guys even
got out of their pick up truck and
attempted to attack the marchers,
especially African marchers who
were part of the Uhuru Movement
contingent.
The rally after the march included
presentations by Sheridan Murphy of
the American Indian Movement;
Mohammad Chehab, Arab Activist;
Penny Hess, APSC; Rev. Bruce
Wright, homeless activist; and
Chimurenga Waller, President of the
being sent home in body bags,
George Bush keeps holding press
conferences announcing the
progress the U.S. is making over
there.
He does this to send a message
to other oppressed peoples that
they will be defeated if they challenge him, but we know the time.
The truth is, if an army has to begin
killing innocent children to contain
its enemy you know it is desperately fighting for its life.
The African liberation struggle is
inspired by the heroic struggle the
Iraqi people are waging against
U.S. imperialism because we have
the same enemy. And just like the
Iraqis, Africans witness the cowardice of U.S. imperialism around the
world including right here in
Brooklyn.
Every time we intervene in a
brother getting harassed, the police
back up. They know the potential the
people have to rise up so they try to
undermine that potential. They try to
break the links of our chain because
they know the streets are watching
just like the world is watching Iraq.
Campaigns like BEOJ is training
ground for struggles to come
Most professional boxers have to
train for months before they are
ready for a title fight. They have people to train them. A lot of prizefighters
have a whole team of trainers, but at
the end of the day, if the fighter himself has not done the work the trainers give him, he will lose the fight.
The same thing goes for revolution. The Uhuru Movement cannot be
seen as a group of people who will
do all the fighting while everybody
else stands on the sidelines watching, hoping we win. The Uhuru
Movement is the people.
The people should not have to
The marches for
social justice were
really important in
opening up the
eyes of some of the
white people who
continue to want
to keep their heads
in the sand while
African and
colonized peoples
around the world
are struggling for
their very lives.
International People’s Democratic
Uhuru Movement. Chris Ernesto of
St. Pete for Peace also spoke and
spoken word artists L.I.F.E., D-Slack
and Lizz Straight performed their
poetry.
Chairman Omali Yeshitela’s presentation rocked the park, offending
23
What you can do!
Help Keep a Black Eye On Jake!
InPDUM Weekly mass rallies
are held every Thursday night
at 8PM at the Think Café
733 Franklin Ave (bet. Park
and sterling), Brooklyn, NY
take the 2,3,4 or 5 to Franklin Ave
call 347-385-1574 or
347-249-1570
wait for a group of organizers to
come with some fliers and a camera
to take a stand against the pigs. This
is something anyone can and should
do any time they see police messing
with an African. We have to become
our own liberators.
BEOJ is a campaign that, when
embraced by the masses of African
people who catch hell in the streets
at the hands of police, will deepen
our capacity to fight back against
police terror in every sense of the
word. It is a first step to getting the
police off our backs and ultimately to
driving this terroristic occupying army
completely out of the African community.
Keep a Black Eye on Jake!
Join the International People’s
Democratic Uhuru Movement!
All Power to the People! Black
Power to the African
Community!
some white people with his challenge to break with liberal white
nationalism and pacifism and take a
stand in solidarity with African people
here and oppressed peoples around
the world for national liberation and
independence from U.S. imperialism.
As Penny Hess, Chairwoman of
the African People’s Solidarity
Committee summed up, “The
marches for social justice were really
important in opening up the eyes of
some of the white people who continue to want to keep their heads in
the sand while African and colonized
peoples around the world are struggling for their very lives.
“The African People’s Solidarity
Committee was formed by the
African People’s Socialist Party to
give North Americans an opportunity
to break with our historic unity with
parasitic capitalism and imperialism
which created wealth and prosperity
for us at the expense of African and
oppressed peoples.
“APSC gives white people a
chance to take a principled stand in
solidarity with oppressed humanity
with its struggle for liberation and justice. APSC hooks white people up
with our genuine interests in unity
with the majority of humanity. I
believe that the Marches for Social
Justice forwarded that strategy and
made an important impact.”
African People’s Socialist Party
The Burning Spear Publications
Marketplace
Books
Main Resolution
of the African
Socialist
International
By Omali Yeshitela
Africa for Africans!
Main Resolution of
the African Socialist
International by
Omali Yeshitela
$3.00
Africa for Africans at Home and Abroad! The 4th
Conference to build the African Socialist International,
which convened in July 2004, was a turning point in
the liberation of Africa as hundreds of Africans
embarked on this historic mission to change the world
as we know it. Powerful presentations from Africans
representing Haiti, Spain, Angola, Equatorial Guinea,
Congo, the U.S., the U.S. and British Virgin Islands,
England and more. $15.00 DVD/$10.00 CD
If Jesus Was a Revolutionary, Why is Your Preacher
Such an Uncle Tom? This presentation by Chairman
Omali Yeshitela gives a thorough analysis of the
historical Jesus using biblical scripture and exposes the truth that Jesus was a revolutionary who
struggled against the Roman Empire, while your
preacher sells you lies for tithes; telling you to get
yours after you die while he gets his right now.
$15.00 DVD/$10.00 CD
The Last Speeches
of Huey P. Newton
$3.00
Overturning the
Culture of Violence
by Penny Hess
$18.00
AZANIA! In December 2002, the Pan Africanist
Congress of Azania held its 8th Congress. Omali
Yeshitela, Chairman of the African People’s Socialist
Party, was invited to Azania (known by its colonial
name South Africa) to be the keynote speaker at
this historic event. This video is a documentary of
that trip. $15.00 DVD/$10.00 CD
Special Session of the 12th World Tribunal on Reparations.
Found on this video is the Special Session of the 12th
World Tribual on Repartions for Africans in the U.S. The
video includes presentations from Omali Yeshitela,
Chairman of the African People’s Socialist Party, historian Leonard Jefferies, Penny Hess, Chairwoman of the
African People’s Solidarity Committee, and more.
$15.00 DVD/$10.00 CD
Why I Became a
Revolutionary by
Omali Yeshitela
$5.00
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