By Any Means Necessary, Volume 1, Issue 3

VOL-

Volume 1: 1 3 Issue

BAMN

By Any Means Necessary

“A social revolution after the fact of the modern corporate capitalist state can only mean the breakup of that state and a completely new form of economics and culture.�

Blood in My Eye, George L. Jackson H T T P S : / / W W W. M X G M . O R G /

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TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S Editorial: Introduction to By Any Means Necessary - Makungu Akinyela, MXGM National Information Coordinator Section - 1 - Updates from the Chapters Atlanta - Nyeusi Jami Philadelphia - Akanke Washington Oakland - Ifetayo Flannery Jackson - Noel Didla Section 2 - International Sudan’s Revolution: Putting the Roots Back in the Grassroots Movement - Marine Alneel Imperialism and Black Migration at the Border of the US Empire - Maria Fernandez Section 3 - Political Prisoners & Prisoners of War Imam Jamil al-Amin - Nyeusi Jami and Edward Onaci Mumia Abu Jamal - Nyeusi Jami and Edward Onaci Black August Resistance: Building the Tradition - Kwame-Osagyefo Kalimara Sec 4 - Culture They Do it for the Culture - Nyeusi Jami Section 5 - Notes on Revolutionary Theory and Practice Monroe Doctrine - Akinyele Umoja The International Decade for People of African Descent: A Call to Action - Kwame-Osagyefo Kalimara

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Introduction to BAMN Congratulations on reading the Black August edition of the BAMN News Journal (issue 3). This journal will be published by the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement and delivered to you each quarter of the year. This journal on both the e-document platform and hard copy is an important step in the MXGM program to organize our people to fight for self-determination and human rights. It comes at an important period of our struggle when news, ideas of struggle, culture and theory will play an important part in developing and shaping a grassroots centered national consciousness and identity that will unite all of our people in the fight for freedom.

Our hope is that this journal will reflect the best tradition of the revolutionary journal Soul Book of the House of Umoja/RAM, the Black Star news paper of the African Peoples Party, and The New Afrikan, the official voice of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Afrika, three of the predecessor organizations of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement. Today, the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement is working to organize our people for liberation for the twenty-first century. The Malcolm X Grassroots Movement is an organization of Afrikans in America/New Afrikans whose mission is to defend the human rights of our people and promote selfdetermination for our colonized nation and our oppressed communities throughout the U.S. Empire. We understand that the collective institutions of white supremacy, patriarchy and capitalism have been and continue to be at the root of our people’s oppression. We understand that without community control and without the power to determine our own lives, we will continue to fall victim to genocide. Through this journal, we will heighten our people’s consciousness about self-determination and national independence as a human right and a solution to our colonization. The BAMN News Journal will help us build a network of every day people and is committed to the protracted struggle for the liberation of our New Afrikan Nation - By Any Means Necessary. Our Movement is defined by six key principles: 1. We actively support and struggle to defend the Human Rights of Afrikan people in the United States and around the world. We actively oppose those social, economic, political and cultural practices and structures that contribute to the violation of our people’s human rights whether it is based on ethnicity, nationality, social status, class, gender or sexual orientation (including gay, lesbian, transgender, bi-sexual, or other sexuality).

2. We demand Reparations, or repayment for four hundred years of slavery, colonialism and oppression of our people in the United States of America.

3. We promote Self-Determination and must organize for the liberation of the Afrikan nation, held colonized in the United States.

4. We oppose Genocide or the acceptable and calculated killing of our people by individuals, institutions and organizations of the United States government, through lynching, disease, police terror and any other means.

5. Freedom for All Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War. We demand the release of activists who have been imprisoned because of their commitment in seeking human rights and liberation for our people. These brothers and sisters are Political Prisoners or Prisoners of War and should be recognized as such.

6. We actively struggle to End Sexist Oppression. We oppose any form of oppression that limits women from reaching their fullest potential, as manifested in our cultural, economic, political and social institutions, practices and beliefs. We actively oppose those beliefs, ideas, terms, etc. that limit the human worth of women and contribute to violations against women.

Each quarter the BAMN News Journal will cover important news stories, both national and international. Additionally, the journal will have timely discussions and reporting on our people’s culture from poetry, hip hop, music, film, theatre and literature as well as important grassroots cultural trends. You can also expect cutting edge write ups on twenty-first century theory of revolutionary Black nationalism. Our goal is to consistently reflect and deliver on the seven criteria for education of MXGM. We strongly believe that our revolutionary journal must: 1)Teach Black people who we are: We are an Afrikan nation colonized by American imperialism 2) Teach Black people what we are fighting for: We are fighting for self-determination, the right to make our own decisions about our political destiny 3) Teach Black people who we should identify with: We identify with all colonized people fighting for their own freedom around the world 4) Teach Black people where our loyalty lies: We are loyal to our nation, the Black nation and to all of our members who love freedom 5) Teach Black people what we should do: We should organize and fight for freedom by “any means necessary’ which includes all legal means, civil disobedience, economic resistance or any new solutions that will work for our collective freedom 6) Teach Black people how to do it: We will get our freedom by building social/economic institutions, organizing youth, building people’s political assemblies, organizing for collective self-defense and gaining land which will be the basis of our political autonomy 7) Teach Black people that the destiny of all Black people are inseparably linked: This means that we need all Black people who want to be free regardless of our class, gender, sexuality, skin shade or whether we are urban or rural dwellers.

We expect that all of these criteria will be filled quarterly in the BAMN News Journal. We encourage you to support the journal. Support our movement and make it your own. Write to us at BAMN and tell us what you want to read. If you have a contribution that fits our principles of Unity and the criteria for education, make a contribution to the journal and to our people’s liberation struggle.

To contact us at: BAMnews@protonmail.com . You can also contact us through the MXGM website at www.mxgm.org.

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MXGM Atlanta Report Nyeusi Jami

On May 18th and 19th, MXGM Atlanta hosted the 30th annual Malcolm X Festival in Malcolm X (West End) Park in Atlanta. Many thousands of people came to the festival over its two days. The weekend was full of spectacular entertainment and education, including a performance by the Last Poets. The city of Atlanta gave a proclamation recognizing the Malcolm X Festival as a cultural mainstay in the city.

July 7th-13th MXGM hosted the 25th year of our annual Camp Pumziko.

Camp Pumziko is sponsored by the New Afrikan Scouts Organization (NASO), the youth arm of MXGM, which started in Los Angeles in 1979. The first Camp Pumziko was held in 1994 in Alabama, organized primarily by Sanovia Muhammad, Ahmed Obafemi, and Kwame Kalimara. In its 25th year, Camp Pumziko had well over 100 campers and staff members coming from cities all over the country.

It was a resounding success and an excellent example of grassroots movement, receiving zero corporate or big foundation sponsorship.

Camp Pumziko 2019 Photo Credit: Nyeusi Jami

The Malcolm X Grassroots Movement and the Imam Jamil Action Network are partnering to host a conference called “Relearning H. Rap Brown: A Prisoner At War, 75 years of Life, 60 Years of Conscious Struggle.” The conference will be held October 4th-5th in Atlanta at the Auburn Avenue Research Library. The first day will focus on the 50th anniversary of the classic book Die Nigger Die, and Imam Jamil’s work in the Black Power movement. The second day will focus on his imprisonment for his beliefs and the efforts to free him. Visit https://hrapbrownsymposium.wordpress.com/ for more information.

MXGM Philadelphia Report Akanke Washington

The Philly chapter of MXGM has taken on a variety of initiatives designed to develop ourselves politically, connect us with the community, and align us with the Jackson-Kush Plan. Recently, during local elections, we assisted North Philadelphia organizer Sheila Armstrong in her attempt to obtain the required sig-natures to get on the ballot for City Council Representative. Our goal was to make connections with residents and local organizations in North Philadelphia so we can begin to explore the possibility of creating Peoples Assemblies around housing and other pressing issues affecting the Black community. The members of the organization did have extensive internal conversations about the role of electoral politics before we embarked on this endeavor. Although Sheila Armstrong was not successful in her attempts to get on the ballot, we still remain in the beginning stages of building a relationship with her.

We also sponsored the annual Anti-4th of July Barbecue, which MXGM member Ismael Jimenez started in 2011. We used this platform to share information about the historical context of the 4th of July for New Afrikans and our Political Education series which we began to hold every first Saturday beginning August 3. The first session honored the spirit of Black August by centering political prisoners, mass incarceration, and how these ongoing struggles are connected to gentrification. Local activists helped provide insight and strategic suggestions. We look forward to deepening our relationships with the community and politicizing the masses.

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Brief Summary of the Jackson People’s Assembly Noel Didla

People’s Assemblies over the years have served as a significant means for Jacksonians to democratically dis-cuss emergent issues, organize responses, and mobilize to address key issues impacting their lives. PAs have emerged out of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, and exist to support ongoing selfdetermination and sacred liberatory work of the community, supported by the People’s Assembly Task Force.

People’s Assemblies are independent and autonomous vehicles for self-determination and self-governance.

The Jackson People’s Assemblies have been vehicles of community processes since the early 1990s.

They serve as a means for successfully educating, motivating and organizing Jacksonians on a myriad of issues such as Katrina, State of Public Education, the state government's takeover of Jackson Municipal Airport, One Cent Sales Tax issue, infra-structure issues, Capital Complex Improvement District, etc. As Jackson People’s Assemblies are driven by the needs of the community, they continue to evolve in strengthening people’s participatory engagement in governance, co-governance and self- governance in tune with ultimately building people’s capacity to navi-gate power that is principled and liberatory.

Over the last twenty-plus years, the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement’s Jackson Chapter has been organizing mass assemblies in the city and driving an understanding of people-centered and place-based decision making processes. Assemblies gained visibility as equitable processes during Chokwe Lumumba’s term as councilper-son for Ward 2 and continued to gain prominence since.

Based on years of developing and evolving the assembly processes in the most Jackson and Jacksonian cen-tered ways, it has so far been determined that the impact and scaling of the city-wide assemblies depend on: 1.

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principled and unapologetic grounding of the purpose of the assemblies honoring of the legacies of peoples and places as the context for the assemblies principled and self-determined production of assembly histories and legacies depth and breadth of the people-centered assembly process collective leadership structuring and accountable delivery base building and sustaining of assembly task forces across all 7 wards equity and justice driven intergenerational political education and engagement of the task force principled grassroots approach to imagining and building assemblies as autonomous and independent vehicles of self-determination and self-governance 9. principled structuring of relationship with the legislative and executive branches of the municipality

There has always been a strong response to the assemblies as autonomous vehicles, and since Chokwe Antar Lumumba became mayor, assemblies have gained even more support, as Jacksonians believe in the assembly process as the pathway to developing a deep democratic cultural shift in Jackson. Issues that are a priority to the community were identified by the MXGM-led People’s Assembly Task Force and Democratic Visioning Transition team and a tentative year-long calendar was formulated. City budget, crime, and safety, public education, infrastructure and state of youth were identified as key issues to prioritize as assemblies in 2018. As a result, one assembly on Participatory Budgeting, two Budget Training Sessions, one assembly on Crime and Safety and one on Public Education were organized in 2018.

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In July 2019, The Jackson People’s Assembly Community Budgeting process was organized by which residents and city administration engaged in conversations on how to create a people-centered budget. Affordable-quality housing for all Jacksonians, making Jackson an accessible and walkable city for all its residents, investing in the most neglected areas of the city and generating new revenue that allows Jackson to be a self-sustaining city were identified as priorities.

Jacksonians also expressed the desire for a move-ment toward carbon neutrality / environment-friendly design and affirmed the need to fix water and sewer system and roads, and emphasized the need to do so without burdening the pockets of everyday people.

Approximately 740 Jacksonians attended the assemblies Jackson People’s Assembly, July 2019 between 2013-19.

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MXGM Oakland Report “Landlessness in the Bay” Ifetayo M. Flannery

The Bay Area of California has a remarkable imprint on the memory and Black consciousness of this country. It is most well-known for the birth of the Black Panther Party and for the development of Black Studies in higher education. However, while the history and memory of the Black radical past continue to linger, the actual presence of New Afrikan people has been on a sharp decline particularly over the last twenty years. In any neighborhood in Oakland or San Francisco there is a persistent buzz and tension around the displacement of Black natives; this process is more readily referred to as gentrification. In correlation with the inflated costs of living in the Bay Area over the last two decades, gentrification is the most reported grievance of Bay Area locals and particularly Black Bay Area natives. The Black population in San Francisco has been most drastically diminished and almost eliminated. The Black population in San Francisco is currently at 3% of the total population in contrast to its height of 30%; in Oakland the Black population is currently at 20-25% compared to the 40% Black demographic two decades ago.

On the surface the explanation for the de-Africanization of the Bay Area has been the influx of tech companies and tech employees to the Silicon Valley leading to dramatic surges in housing costs. A basic one bedroom apartment in the city of San Francisco is now averaging at $2,300 per month and across the Bay in Oakland is not far behind, averaging at $1,800. Some of the largest global tech companies that have made the Bay Area their cornerstone for business include Google, Yahoo, Twitter, and Uber, among many others. These companies have absorbed the blame for the ongoing displacement of local residents and there remains a general hostility among locals toward these growing tech industries but more specifically around the consequence of being priced out of the city. Poor, working class, and middle class New Afrikans have experienced the most dramatic displacement compared to Asians and Latinos because they have a longer history of renting housing rather than owning property. The idea of gentrification has been the limited way Black folk are able to explain their displacement but at the alarming rates and pace of this removal I do not believe “gentrification” is a strong enough concept to explain this phenomena.

The anger, but more importantly, the powerlessness of New Afrikans in claiming ownership to space speaks to the long standing problem of the landlessness of New Afrikan people in this country. The reality is that before the tech companies began to expand, the local Black community held residence but did not hold legal ownership of the land in mass. Therefore, we now have little defense against being removed besides moral sentiment. The growing sense of Black landlessness and involuntary removal has been captured in the new film release, Last Black Man in San Francisco. The film is a close reading of an individual narrative where the main character, a Black man, struggles to accept that he has no way to sustain life or ownership to the only place he understands to be “home” (San Francisco). The issue of landlessness makes New Afrikan communities in the Bay and other urban areas of the United States vulnerable to social isolation, economic destabilization, decline in political potency, and dismemberment of longstanding Black businesses and institutions. Where are all the Black people going? A large majority of Black Bay natives are scattered into peripheral eastward areas of the Bay, most commonly areas known as Antioch, Pittsburgh, Hayward, and Fremont. These areas exist sever-al miles east (further inland) from the urban center of Oakland. While the cost of living declines as you move eastward so does the development of the land and access to food, medical, and learning hubs. Many people may not realize that outside of a few dense cities, much of California looks similar to the rural South or Midwest of America. There is a disconnect in organizing an urban population who has become rural overnight. While the larger population of New Afrikans are now residents in the surrounding suburbs, the familiar public spaces, youth centers, jobs, and universities remain in the cities. The organizing efforts for Black activists are

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thereby unaligned with the actual demographics of Black people in what we know as the “local� Bay Area. It is not clear what would constitute the end of this rapid displacement, but it is likely that the Black population will be somewhat permanently removed from what we recall as the heart of the Black Panther Party.

With the resurgence of reparations in national discourse, we also must pair the conversation with the on-going position of MXGM on land sovereignty for New Afrikans. Involuntary displacement and landlessness is a growing problem in most urban cities across the country. We must plan for the necessary changes in organiz-ing tactics and political representation, particularly in areas that have been central to revolutionary nationalists' developments.

FREE THE LAND

Black August Salute to Marcus Mosiah Garvey - August 17, 1887 - June 10, 1940

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International Section Introduction “The only way we’ll get freedom for ourselves is to identify ourselves with every oppressed people in the world. We are blood brothers to the people of Brazil, Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba -- yes Cuba too.” - Malcolm X The Malcolm X Grassroots Movement is a Pan-Africanist and Internationalist organization. We believe that the fate of all Black people, and all poor people, wherever we are in the world, is interconnected. Our struggle against oppression here in the United States is the same struggle as the people of the Caribbean, Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Australia. This is so because we all have the same opponent.

The global capitalist system can only survive through the exploitation of the labor and resources of the masses. The prosperity of North America and Western Europe literally cannot exist without the natural resources of Haiti and Brazil and the Congo and pretty much every place in the world where the majority of people look like us. And you can’t take a people’s natural resources without brutally and violently dominating them through some form of colonization.

Whenever any movement in the world strikes back at the global capitalist system and has some success, it makes the entire system a little bit weaker and brings all of us one step closer to freedom. So we feel that it is necessary for BAMN to document the liberation struggles of our comrades all over the world. It is necessary for us to recognize that we are part of a global struggle for freedom.

Slavery in America, Slave Trade From Africa to the Americas 1650-1860, www.slaveryinamerica.org

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Sudan’s Revolution: Putting the Roots Back in Grassroots Movements Marine Alneel

News of a power-sharing deal between the forces representing Sudanese protestors, the Declaration of Freedom and Change Forces (DFCF), and the military council on July 4th could have been easily interpreted by international audiences as the happy ending that the revolting Sudanese people have been seeking.

However, the situation is far more complex than that.

The deal that gives the military council power for months before surrendering it to civilian representatives falls short of the aspirations of the protestors. They have been shouting in the streets a simple and concise chant – “civilian!”– which sends a clear message of what the people want. And while the DFCF appears willing to settle for less than the core demands of the revolution, what’s known as the neighbourhood resistance committees might be the forces to set the route of the revolution straight.

The current events started in early December when hikes in bread prices caused an eruption of protests in the towns of Damazein and Gadarif. A coalition of professionals’ unions, including doctors, journalists, and lawyers, under the name of Sudanese Professionals’Association (SPA), adopted the movement and took the role of organizer and leader channeling the energy that was already in motion on the ground. On January 1st of 2019, the SPA announced the Declaration of Freedom and Change, which was signed by many opposition parties, youth resistance groups, and armed resistance groups. Together with the SPA, they form the DFCF. The declaration calls for an end to Albashir’s presidency and the conclusion of his administration, as well as for the formation of a transitional government formed of qualified people based on merits of competency and good reputation.

The military council members that will have power for the first 21 months of the transitional government, as per the deal, fit neither of the two criteria, mentioned above. The members of the military council which took power after protests led to the ousting of Albashir, whose dictatorship lasted almost 30 years, on April 11, 2019, are the same generals who formed Albashir’s Security Committee. In a confirmation of the fact that they are merely an extension of Albashir’s regime, the military council continued the tradition of violence and oppression practiced by the deposed regime. On June 3rd, a 56 day-long peaceful sit-in by the protestors was dispersed by armed forces that used indiscriminate violence and caused the death of dozens of protestors and the injury of hundreds more. Some remain missing.

Shortly after the sit-in had been dispersed a complete Internet blackout in all of Sudan was ordered by the military council. Many feared that the month-long blackout might squash the resistance, considering how heavily dependent it was on social media. Since December, the SPA would announce dates and locations of protests through its Facebook and Twitter pages; thousands of protestors would show up to these announced protests.

The events that took place during the blackout were surprising. A 3-day nationwide disobedience was successfully conducted towards the beginning of the blackout, and even three weeks into their isolation, Sudanese protestors managed to organize mass protests. On June 30, tens of thousands of people joined the protests in cities all around Sudan and even among the Sudanese diaspora worldwide. The blackout, rather than squashing the resistance, might have strengthened the networks created by the protestors as they were forced to find alternatives to the easy distribution of information through social media.

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Neighbourhood resistance committees are probably the entities to thank for the success of protests without the convenience of communication through the internet. These committees are mainly youth groups working in community organizing in their own neighbourhoods. At times implementing the instructions of the SPA, and at others disobeying them and enforcing the power of the people. The sit-in was first announced by the SPA as a mass march to the military headquarters. Protestors on the ground under the leadership of neighbourhood resistance committees had decided to stay put after reaching the military headquarters. The SPA then announced the start of the sit-in, but only after it was decided by the people. The mass protests of June 30 were also adopted by the SPA after people on the ground had decided on it and neighbourhood resistance committees began promoting it.

The SPA and the DFCF might be the faces of the resistance, but entities working on the ground such as the neighbourhood resistance committees are the soul and body of the movement, and through them the face gains its legitimacy.

Following the deal, protests have continued in Sudan’s capital city of Khartoum, and in cit-ies around the country. The July 13 protests that were announced by the SPA prior to the deal, were still being promoted by Resistance committees. The resistance committees of Mamoura and Arkaweet – neighbourhoods in Khartoum – reminded the people that the mass protests planned for July 13 are to commemorate the martyrs of the June 3rd massacre and not to celebrate the deal. While the committees of Bahri issued a newsletter that stated that the deal indicates that the revolution has gained additional points, but it does not mean that it has reached its goals.

Even the violence that protestors have been facing since December has not stopped after the deal. Teargas and barbed wire blockades were awaiting the protestors in Khartoum. Confirmed news came out the city of AlSuki of a protestor being shot in the head and killed on July 14. The resistance committees were swifter than the SPA in reacting to the events. After the violent events took place in Alsuki, various resistance committees, within hours, organized vigils and issued statements casting the blame on the military council. While the SPA, many hours later, issued a statement and vaguely pinned the responsibility of the events on “the authorities.”

The disappointing deal could lead to a situation where the neighbourhood committees assert their power and remind the leadership that they cannot move forward with decisions that do not satisfy the masses. The power lies in the hands of the people, and that power is demonstrated through efforts of organizing at the grassroots level that can make long-ruling dictatorships and friendly leaderships alike bow to the will of the people.

A major lesson learned from the ongoing Sudanese revolution is the importance of organizing based on organic groupings that already exist in the community, such as neighbourhoods. And although in many other places it might be unlikely to face oppression through total Internet blackouts, it might still be worth it to put more emphasis on the real roots while organizing grassroots movements.

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Furaha Ya Kuzaliwa to you comrade!

Dr. Akinyele Omowale Umoja - Born on August 10

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Imperialism and Black Migration at the Border of the U.S. Empire Maria Fernandez

The forced movement of Black bodies across borders and geographies has been a fundamental strategy of the global white supremacist project. From the kidnapping and enslavement of over 13 million Africans through the trans-Atlantic slave trade, to the wars, military interventions and destabilization of Black nationstates, the U.S. Empire and its allies have created the immigration crisis at its southern door.

The mainstream narrative of those migrating to the U.S./Mexican border, who are fleeing violence and war, who are seeking asylum, and who are being targeted, arrested and detained in inhumane private detention facilities has once again erased Black people from the diaspora. This erasure of forced Black migration is dangerous – it absolves the U.S. (and its allies) of all the ways neoliberal foreign polices and military backed coup d’Êtats manipulate Black people's economic, social, and political movement – both metaphorical and literal.

No other Black nation is more of a testament to the devastation of U.S. imperialism than Haiti. After the Hai-tian Revolution, the United States and France ensured the first free Black Nation would never have the eco-nomic and political stability to thrive and lead the Caribbean against colonization, imperialism, and racial capitalism. Under the 19-year military occupation from 1915-1934, the U.S. took control over Haitian financ-es, customs, police, public works, and medical services – backing violent corrupt regime after violent corrupt regime. The U.S. Empire secured its interests and the interest of multinational corporations – the exploitation of the Haitian people and their resources. This has created massive political and economic turmoil, civil unrest and uprisings, a militarized police, which for decades forced hundreds of thousands of Haitians to migrate.

Through Central America and up to the U.S./Mexican border is the newest route for Haitian immigrants. According to a report by the Black Alliance for Just Immigration entitled “Black Lives at the Border,� a total of 19,000 migrants arrived to Mexico in 2016 from Africa and Haiti. Approximately 7,000 Haitian immigrants are now residing in several border towns in Mexico.1 Just last year, 3000 Haitian migrants made the journey to Tijuana, Mexico. This past June, footage of a Haitian mother trapped in a makeshift detention center in Tapachula (in southern Mexico) went viral. In the video she's pleading for food for her starving children.2 She was one of hundreds of Haitian and African immigrants who rioted demanding food, water, medical attention and stream-lined immigration processes. It is no surprise that the same violent, racist, inhumane conditions deployed onto Central and South American migrants, which are protested in the U.S., are deployed by the Mexican state against Haitian and African migrants. America’s tentacles and anti-Black racism have no borders.

Similarly, in 2018, Mexican officials saw 3,000 African migrants from Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Angola seeking entry into the United States.3 According to the United Nations’ Refugee Agency, Congolese make up the third largest new refugee population in the world. We would be foolish to not recognize the linkages between the current socio-economic conditions in the Congo and the CIA backed and Belgian government orchestrated assassination of the Pan-African revolutionary nationalist leader Patrice Lumumba. Once again, the U.S. Empire secured its interests – to control Central Africa from communism during the Cold War. After Lumumba’s assassination, the U.S. supported Mobutu Sese Seko’s (Jospeph Mobutu) rise to military dictatorship, reigning over 30 years of violence, corruption, and human rights abuses.

After Mobutu’s exile and assassination, wars and conflicts forced over 600,000 Congolese to migrate to escape hunger and violence.

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Haiti and the Congo are just two examples of the deep U.S. imperialism in the continent and the Caribbean that cause generations of Black migrants. Global consolidation of right wing xenophobic powers, or white nationalism, is on the rise. Our call, as Black people within the empire, as Black people who never gained (some may say never wanted) full citizenship in this country, is to demand, organize, and win the destruction of the American Empire. We will never “solve� the question of immigration, of Black immigration, unless we struggle for the right of Black people to self-determination, sovereignty, and land.

Black August Salute to Our Ancestor Chokwe Lumumba - August 2, 1947 - February 25, 2014

"Black August Political Education Session in Philadelphia." 8-3-2019

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CONFERENCE SPONSORED BY: IMAM JAMIL ACTION NETWORK (IJAN) & MALCOLM X GRASSROOTS MOVEMENT (MXGM)

RELEARNING H. RAP BROWN

A Prisoner at War, 75 Years of Life, 60 Years of Conscious StruggleÂ

SAVE THE DATE

OCTOBER 4-5 2019 Auburn Avenue Research Library

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Political Prisoners & Prisoners of War Safiya Bukhari once wrote that no liberation movement is complete if it does not achieve the liberation of political prisoners (PP) and prisoners of war (POW). Therefore, organizing around any given issue should include discussion and action regarding those who have suffered incarceration due to their efforts on behalf of our cause. PPs are those who have been arrested and convicted in enemy courts as a result of their political beliefs and actions around those beliefs. POWs, like PPs, are in the confines of U.S. detention camps because of their political beliefs and actions. The difference here is that POWs may have participated in armed self-defense leading up to or in the moment that they were apprehended. Some examples include the RNA-11, Panther 21, Wilmington 10, Sundiata Acoli, Imam Jamil Al-Amin, Safiya Bukhari, and scores of others.

Agreeing with Bukhari, MXGM seeks “Freedom for all Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War. We demand the release of activists who have been imprisoned because of their commitment in seeking human rights and liberation for our people. These brothers and sisters are Political Prisoners or Prisoners of War and should be recognized as such.” Just as Nelson Mandela’s liberation was tied to the destruction of apartheid, we see the release of our PPs and POWs as integral to the success of the broader effort for human rights and self-determination of our nation and to all historically oppressed peoples.

Featured in this section are brothers and sisters who have fought hard for our liberation. They are serving life sentences, in some cases as stipulated at the time of their sentence hearing, and in other cases as a result of being locked away long after they have served their set time. Even as their legal teams work to get them out of prison, they benefit greatly by hearing from those of us who are on the outside. Writing to them helps them maintain their inextinguishable spirits. Lifting them up as PPs and POWs also makes clear to the world that we have not forgotten them and that a luta continua!

Mumia Abu-Jamal - www.AAIBC.com

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Imam Jamil Al-Amin Nyeusi Jami & Edward Onaci

Imam Jamil Al-Amin has been a target of U.S. policing agencies since the 1960s. Formerly known as H. Rap Brown, he was an activist with and chairperson of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, the Justice Minister of the Black Panther Party, and was an elected Minister of Defense for the Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afrika. A highly effective speaker, he was feared by the U.S. Empire and arrested multiple times for allegedly causing local rebellions.

In 2002, Al-Amin was convicted of killing a Fulton County, GA sheriff’s deputy and wounding another during a shootout. The fact that another person confessed to the shooting was not admitted as evidence during the trial; and Al-Amin’s choice to exercise his constitutional right not to testify was portrayed as evidence of his guilt.

The state has since acted on its long-standing fear of his powerful speech and influence to silence him. Scholars and filmmakers have been denied requests to interview him and he has not been permitted to perform any of his duties as an imam for fear that he will radicalize incarcerated Muslims.

Imam Jamil’s case was heard in appellate court on May 3rd; we are waiting to hear if that court will grant him a retrial. In addition, there are grassroots organizing efforts to get him transferred back to the state of Georgia near his family, as well as efforts to lift the gag order so he can share his story with the world.

Within the global context of systemic Islamophobia and continued resentment at the minor successes of New Af-rikan freedom fighters, Imam Jamil’s incarceration and maltreatment make visible how the U.S. Empire views and deals with those who challenge its legitimacy. For more information, visit https://hrapbrownsymposium.wordpress.com/ Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin #99974-555 USP Tucson Post Office Box 24550 Tucson, AZ 85734

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Mumia Abu Jamal

Nyeusi Jami & Edward Onaci Mumia Abu Jamal is probably the most well-known and visible political prisoner in our current moment. He co-founded the Philadelphia chapter of the Black Panther party at the age of fourteen, later became an unwavering supporter of the MOVE organization, and has since struggled for human rights.

In late 1982, Mumia was driving his taxi when he witnessed some police brutalizing his brother.

During the struggle, someone shot and killed one of the officers. Although witnesses claimed that the shooter fled the scene while Mumia (also wounded) waited, he was arrested and convicted for the officer’s death. At that time, the death penalty was still legal in the state of Pennsylvania.

Although his death penalty has since been overturned, Mumia continues to be held in prison without any chance for parole. Despite his incarceration, his commitments to the liberation of oppressed people and his fearless and skilled use of written and verbal communication to advocate for truth and justice have flourished. He has written several books and countless news columns and articles. His audio contributions to www.prisonradio.org educate and inspire budding and seasoned activists. His 2003 “Black August” audio segment clearly articulates the importance of the month of August for New Afrikans and African/Black people throughout the hemisphere.

In December 2018, Mumia was granted the right to a new trial appealing his conviction.

In April 2019, the Philadelphia district attorney dropped his opposition to the appeal, allowing it to move forward.

Mumial Abu-Jamal #AM 8335 SCI Mahanoy 301 Morea Road Frackville, PA 17932

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Black August Resistance: Building the Tradition Kwame-Osagyefo Kalimara

Black August Resistance celebrates the honor, dignity and respect of Afrikan peoples’ movement com-bating white supremacy, colonialism, neocolonialism and imperialism. This August represents 40 years of recognition of the contributions of Afrikan prisoners in advancing the Black Liberation Movement in the United States Empire. It also represents a vital ideological connection between mass incarceration, enslavement and varied forms of genocide of Afrikan peoples.

This narrative begins with the political consciousness of prisoners who have transformed themselves from criminal to revolutionary. Detroit Red became Malcolm X/El Hajj Malik Shabazz, one of our best-known examples of personal and political transformation. In the late 1960s and early 1970s in the prisons of California, George Jackson, a prison activist and co-founder of the Black Guerrilla Family (BGF), electrified the political landscape of America with the publication in 1970 of his book Soledad Brother: The Prison Letters of George Jackson. It codified his political thought and development. Readers felt Jackson’s passion, integrity and commitment to the creation of a just society. It has been described as his “manifesto!” That same year, Jackson and two other prisoners were charged with the murder of a guard stemming from a prison rebellion. In 1966 Jackson met W.L. Nolen, a BGF co-founder, who introduced him to the ideologies of Marx and Mao, of whom he credits his redemption. In 1969 both were transferred from San Quentin to Soledad Prison.

On August 7, 1970 George Jackson’s younger brother Jonathan, in an action akin to Cinque seizing the Amistad (1839), sought to liberate Black Liberation Fighters James McClain, William Christmas and Ruchell Magee from the Marin County California courthouse. Unfortunately, the only New Afrikan survivor was Ruchell Magee. Deputy District Attorney Gary Thomas was paralyzed and one juror was wounded. Magee’s co-defendant was Angela Davis who purchased the guns used by Jonathan. Davis was acquitted of murder and other related charges on June 4, 1972. Magee remains today in confinement at the California Men’s Colony State Prison in San Luis Obispo, California.

George Jackson himself was assassinated on August 21, 1971 by San Quentin prison guards in order to stop the prison organizing and its impact on the movement outside the prison industrial complex.

Khatari Gaulden is one of the prison activists who developed the Black August resistance commemoration, honoring George and Jonathan Jackson and others. He argued that fasting, study and education during the month of August would help instill self-discipline amongst those honoring the commemoration. The fast was designed to remind us of the sacrifices of our ancestor freedom fighters, as well as encouraging non-participation in corporate enterprises. Gaulden was murdered on the San Quentin Prison yard August 1, 1978.

In late 1979 the New Afrikan Independence Movement began to observe and practice Black August, which it gleaned from the prisons of California. The Black August Organizing Committee, the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement and other formations teach and practice fasting during the month of August from sunrise to sunset, refraining from drinking liquids and eating food. Breaking the fast is to be a shared meal among comrades and/or family. Other examples of fasting are not listening to the corporate radio and watching corporate television. Traditionally a “Peoples’ Feast” is held on August 31st to honor the fallen sheroes and heroes and to acknowledge the collective sacrifices necessary for our people’s self-determination and sovereignty globally.

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The Black August Resistance Calendar of Recognition Includes: • August 1619

The arrival of the first enslaved Afrikans to Jamestown, Virginia

• August 21, 1791

The start of the great Haitian revolution

• August 30, 1800

Gabriel Prosser’s rebellion

• August 21, 1831

The rebellion of Nat Turner

• August 22, 1843

The call for a general strike by enslaved New Afrikans by Henry Highland Garnett

• August 17, 1887

Marcus Garvey born

• August 27, 1963

W.E.B. DuBois died

• August 28, 1963

The March on Washington

• August 1965

The Watts Rebellion

• August 18, 1971

The defense of the Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afrika (PGRNA) from a FBI assault in Mississippi

• August 8, 1978

The Philadelphia police assault on the MOVE family

The events above are just a small sample of Black August observances. The institutionalizing of Black August Resistance is growing. Observances include, but not limited to Oakland, New York, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas, Austin, New Orleans, Cuba, Venezuela, Haiti, Tanzania, South Africa and Brazil. It emphasizes Afrikan liberation.

For more information on Black August see Watani Tyehimba’s NAPO/MXGM Black August Connections 7-15-18. Its focus shares personal and relationship roles within the context of the commemoration and the formations which support it.

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Culture is a Weapon!

Culture is at the heart of the Movement for the liberation of Black people in the USA as well as internation-ally. It is through culture, the way we move, the way we sing and make music, the way we cook and dress, the way we talk to each other and spend time with each other, that we create the collective national identity that we call New Afrikan. Our culture, New Afrikan culture whether it is expressed musically in blues, gospel, jazz or hip hop, or whether it’s expressed aesthetically in dashikis and head wraps or in sagging pants and cut offs, shapes our struggle and is shaped by the struggle. It is important as we build our struggle that we pay attention to and honor the rich deep African culture that has developed here in colonized New Afrika over the past 400 years. It is a culture of resistance and liberation. It is the source of the voice of our nation. For these and many more reasons we here at BAMN News Journal see the importance of regular discussions, presentations and expressions of our people’s culture which is at the center of our revolutionary development.

Image credit: ESPN

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They Do It for the Culture Nyeusi Jami

In the beginning of 2019, Anthony Davis, one of the top five best basketball players in the world, approached his employer, the NBA's New Orleans Pelicans, and demanded to be traded. His preferred destination was to be with Lebron James and the Los Angeles Lakers. Much of the media coverage of that story revolved around the fact Anthony Davis and Lebron James share the same sports agent, Rich Paul. Reports were that owners of teams around the NBA demanded that the Pelicans not acquiesce and trade Davis to the Lakers. Rich Paul and Lebron were becoming too powerful and needed to be put in their place.

On June 15, Anthony Davis was, indeed, traded to the Lakers. This is just one anecdote which shows the considerable influence that Lebron James has gained in the world of sports and entertainment, along with his crew of childhood friends who run his business. Lebron, Randy Mims, Maverick Carter, and Rich Paul formed a sports marketing company in 2005, called LRMR. That was the beginning of what would eventually become SpringHill Entertainment which produces film and TV projects, the digital media platform UNINTERRUPTED, and the Klutch Sports agency.

LRMR was formed at Maverick Carter’s mother’s kitchen table in Akron, shortly after Lebron fired his well-established sports agents, Aaron and Eric Goodwin. Lebron said at the time, “I don’t want to have guys around me who are just along for the ride. I want guys around me to actually put rides in the amusement park.”

Around the same time, a columnist for America Online wrote, “a few years from now, when Lebron needs knee surgery, he’ll have his plumber do the job.”

In 2016, legendary basketball coach Phil Jackson was the president of the New York Knicks franchise.

When asked about Lebron in an interview, Phil Jackson had this to say: "When LeBron was playing with the Heat, they went to Cleveland, and he wanted to spend the night. They don't do overnights. Teams just don't. So now [coach Erik] Spoelstra has to text [president Pat] Riley and say, 'What do I do in this situation?' And Pat, who has iron-fist rules, answers, 'You are on the plane. You are with this team.' You can't hold up the whole team because you and your mom and your posse want to spend an extra night in Cleveland. . . I do know LeBron likes special treatment. He needs things his way."

“You and your mom and your ‘posse’” – Lebron James and Maverick Carter took exception to those words. But this quote from Jackson illustrates how many of the powers-that-be in basketball felt about Lebron and his assembled circle of friends. How dare the best (and most profitable) basketball player in the world try to get special treatment?? Who does he think he is? Uppity, I believe, is the word they used to use for that.

In the 1960s, Harold Cruse published The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual and Amiri Baraka published Blues People. Both of these books explored a crucial point about the development of the music industry and its relationship to Black people. We are a nation of Afrikans, lost in North America, robbed of our land and our wealth. However, we have tremendous human capital. Our physical prowess and our artistic genius are immense natural resources. Hollywood, the music industry, and the sports world have exploited this natural resource of ours for almost 100 years. We are the source of everything that is culture in this U.S. Empire.

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For most of the past century, our people have done a very poor job of capitalizing on the natural resource of our talent and creativity. Our genius has generated untold billions of dollars of which we have received only the scraps from the table. But times are changing thanks to people like Lebron James.

SpringHill Entertainment is named for the housing projects where Lebron lived until his rookie year in the NBA. Lebron and Maverick Carter persuaded Warner Bros. to ink them to an overall production deal – for film, television, and digital video – that Warner Bros. called unprecedented in scope. A few months after that, Warner Bros. and Turner Sports invested $15.8 million into UNINTERRUPTED. Their company has spent this summer producing the long awaited Space Jam 2.

In early 2018, Lebron said on UNINTERRUPTED’s social media that Donald Trump “doesn’t give a f*** about the people.” Fox News host Laura Ingraham responded to Lebron’s comments by saying that athletes should stay out of politics and just “shut up and dribble.” Lebron and UNINTERRUPTED responded by producing a multi-part series on ESPN called More Than An Athlete in which the members of LRMR tell their story of coming up together and why their experience provides a point of view that has value far beyond sports and entertainment.

While Space Jam 2 was being filmed, the NCAA was trying to figure out a way to prevent the rise of the next Rich Paul. They announced in early August what has been called “the Rich Paul Rule,” which basically mandates that persons wanting to represent student-athletes trying to enter the NBA draft must possess a bachelor’s degree, which Rich Paul doesn’t have. But Rich Paul is already established in his field. What this Rich Paul Rule sought to do was to prevent future Lebrons from being able to empower their friends and family to represent their business interests. The NCAA and many NBA owners and executives are desperately clinging onto the reins of their good ole boy network.

Lebron immediately took to his millions of followers on social media denouncing the rule change and calling it out for what it is. Many media pundits followed suit and in the end, the NCAA had to try to save face by amending the rule. Just one more example of Team Lebron winning, and the old power structure losing.

In an interview with The UNINTERRUPTED, Maverick Carter said this about the launch of Team Lebron as a business: "I thought the most important thing was just establishing a mindset of empowerment. The imperative, even then, was more or less trying to get Lebron to understand the mindset of empowerment, which he absolutely embraces and lives every day." He spoke about the sports conveyor belt that transports young Black talent from their communities and distributes it for the enrichment of mostly white businessmen. "Being on the conveyor belt wasn't what we wanted to do. It seemed like everybody who had been on that conveyor belt was getting the same results, and we wanted different results."

And that is what this is really all about. Team Lebron seeks to revolutionize the way our culture gets used and viewed. Lebron is leading a whole generation of athletes and artists to take ownership over themselves and their work. When you see Lebron and the Lakers this season excelling on the basketball court, know that his being a winning athlete is only the foundation of a much bigger plan. The goal is to change the power dynamics in all of sports and entertainment. The plan is to take back control of our natural resources, for the culture.

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Notes on Revolutionary Theory and Practice An Introduction to One of the Architects of Revolutionary Black Nationalist Theory Our people’s struggle for self-determination, human rights, and liberation will always be at its strongest when it is guided by theory put into action. The theory that guides the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement and the New African People’s Organization is rooted in the revolutionary black nationalism of Queen Mother Audley Moore, Malcolm X, and Robert F. Williams. That revolutionary black nationalist theory was built on by the sisters and brothers of the Revolutionary Action Movement, the House of Umoja, the Afrikan People’s Party, and the Republic of New Afrika. Our theory has been influenced and sharpened by great thinkers like Harry Haywood, James and Grace Lee Boggs, Akbar Muhammad Ahmad (Max Stanford) and Mamadou Lumumba. This and each following issue of BAMN will include the best in Revolutionary Black Nationalist theory including its latest developments through New Afrikan womanist, queer, and Afrofuturist lenses. We will continue to publish the best of Revolutionary Black Nationalist thought in the interest of self-determinationand liberation for our nation.

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Monroe Doctrine and 21st Century Anti-Colonialism Akinyele Umoja

“The only way we’ll get freedom for ourselves is to identify ourselves with every oppressed people in the world. We are blood brothers to the people of Brazil, Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba -- yes Cuba too.”

Malcolm X United States (U.S.) President James Monroe, a Virginia slaveholder, ordered a policy known as the Monroe Doctrine in 1823. In this doctrine, Monroe stated that the western hemisphere was under the “sphere of influence” of the U.S. Empire. The U.S. imperialist state asserted its aspiration to dominate the Americas (the Caribbean, North, South, Central) just as the white settler colonial-capitalists asserted its dominance over the lands of the indigenous nations of North America westward in its policy of “Manifest Destiny.” While ostensibly created to counter the influence of European colonial powers in the western hemisphere, the spirit of Monroe Doctrine has been utilized as a vehicle to assert U.S. dominion over the Caribbean and Latin America. Nearly two centuries later the U.S. maintains the imperialist policy in regards to the countries and peoples south of its borders. The U.S. Empire is currently engaged in a campaign of regime change in Venezuela and Nicaragua and destabilization of Cuba. U.S. imperialism wants to implement its neoliberal agenda to privatize the public resources of countries in the hemisphere to further exploit the peoples of the Americas and continue to be the major beneficiary of the labor and natural resources internationally.

The continuation of the Monroe Doctrine to maintain U.S. imperialism in the Americas in the 20th century is well-documented. The U.S. Empire’s invasion and occupation of Haiti in 1915, role in the coups of democratically-elected governments in Guatemala (1953), Chile (1973), Haiti (1991), support of counter-revolutionary paramilitary forces in Cuba (since the 1959) and Nicaragua. The U.S. imperialist state has historically supported the dictatorships in the Caribbean and Latin America and also bolstered regimes engaged in the genocide of indigenous and African descendants, and the violations of human rights of its citizens.

Thrust for Radical democracy in the 21st century in the Americas The twenty-first century began with the election of socialist, social democratic, and progressive nationalist governments that challenged the neoliberal policies of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Working and poor people began to vote their interests by supporting grassroots agendas and opposing neoliberal agendas in response to the historic exploitation of their labor and natural resources and recent increases in the prices of basic commodities such as oil and food. In this regard, Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution achieved victory with radical anti-imperialist Hugo Chavez being elected head of state in Venezuela in 1999. Chavez led the re-writing of the country’s constitution to guarantee free health care, broader educational access, recognition of indigenous peoples, and human rights. The Bolivarian Revolution also redirected revenues from Venezuela’s vast oil industry to benefit services like housing and medical care to working and poor people in urban areas and campesinos (peasant farmers).

The liberation theologian Jean Bertrand Aristide and the political party Fanmi Lavalas assuming power in Haiti is another example of the motion towards radical democracy. Aristide established his reputation as a Catholic priest opposed to the U.S. backed Duvalier dictatorship in Haiti. Aristide regained the presidency after being deposed from a military 1991 coup, returning in 1994 to serve the last 13 months of his term. He received 92% of the electorate with what CNN estimated to be a 60% voter turnout in the 2000 presidential election.

Aristide and Lavalas demonstrated his commitment to empower and serve the Haitian grassroots by building

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schools (195 primary and 104 secondary), clinics, and hospitals, dedicated resources to improving Haiti’s infrastructure. Aristide also raised a demand of $21 billion in restitution from France for the 150 million gold francs Haiti was coerced to pay upon winning its independence from the European colonial power.

The people’s momentum against imperialist neoliberalism increased in the Americas in the early 21st century. There was the election of social democrats to power both in Brazil, with Workers Party leader Lula da Silva, and in Argentina, with the neo-Peronist Nestor Kirchner in 2003. Bolivia elected indigenous radical Evo Morales of the Movement for Socialism political party as its President in 2006, who immediately condemned the U.S. neoliberal influence in his country and implemented radical reforms. The same year Nicaragua re-elected Daniel Ortega from the revolutionary nationalist, pro-socialist Sandinista Front for National Liberation to the presidency.

These developments and others in the region also meant the expansion of political and economic space for the Cuban Revolution after decades of isolation from the blockade of the U.S. and the collapse of the Soviet Union and Eastern European socialist bloc. Cuba and Venezuela instituted the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) as a new political and economic bloc with the vision of regional social, political and economic integration of countries in the Caribbean and Latin America and as an alternative to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Several states in the Caribbean, Central and South America joined Venezuela and Cuba’s call to join ALBA including Bolivia, Nicaragua, Antigua, Barbuda, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

Counter-Revolution in the Americas The momentum towards radical democracy, self-determination, and opposition to neoliberalism would not proceed without a challenge from U.S. imperialism in alliance with counter-revolutionary forces inside the Caribbean and Latin America. The continuation of the Monroe Doctrine primarily aims at the destabilization and regime change of governments that do not willingly fall under U.S. control. And the U.S. supports and turns a “blind eye” to the human rights abuses of states complying with the neoliberal agenda.

U.S. involvement in the 2002 attempted coup of Hugo Chavez and Bolivarian Revolution in alliance with the Venezuelan elite is a clear example of the imperialist-right wing inspired regime change. The George W. Bush Administration immediately recognized the government of coup-leader Pedro Carmona, before the revolutionary forces regained power with 48 hours. Immediately after the initiation of the coup, Otto Reich, Bush’s appointed U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela, invited other Caribbean and Latin American diplomats to the U.S. embassy to lobby support for the ouster of Chavez.

Aristide and the Lavalas government were targeted for destabilization and regime change in Haiti.

The U.S. withheld and blocked critical aid to the Caribbean state and provided support to opposition groups and counterrevolutionary paramilitary death squads to wage a counterinsurgency campaign against the Lavalas government. The economic destabilization and support to opposition groups and death squads ultimately created the crisis in Haiti to justify an invasion by U.S., French, and Canadian military and ultimately an occupation by the United Nations armed forces. U.S. imperialism and the Haitian elite were also effective in spreading disinformation and fake news to confuse the international public to dissipate solidarity efforts for Aristide and Fanmi Lavalas. President Aristide and his family were kidnapped and banished, first to the Central African Republic and then to South Africa until the Haitian grassroots movement and an international campaign forced his return home in 2011.

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A military coup overthrew the government of Manuel Zelaya in Honduras in 2009. Zelaya was exiled to Costa Rica. Zelaya led Honduras to significant reforms including universal education and school meals for the country’s children, increase of the minimum wage, and provided electricity for impoverished communities. Zelaya also led Honduras into membership in ALBA in 2008. U.S. policymakers and military intelligence considered Zelaya as within the Chavez camp and conspired with right-wing elements to create a constitutional crisis to prepare the ground for a military coup. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton utilized economic pressure to Honduras's neighbors to prevent support for Zelaya’s return.

Similarly, a 2012 coup against the government of liberation theologian Fernando Lugo in Paraguay.

Elected in 2008, Lugo emphasized fighting against economic inequality in the country and rejected U.S. military presence in Paraguay. Regional governments challenged the legitimacy of the impeachment of Lugo by pro-U.S., right-wing opposition forces in the Paraguay legislature. Impeachment proceedings were immediately issued giving President Lugo two hours to prepare his defense against charges, widely believed to be trumped up by the opposition to create a domestic crisis.

The U.S. supports regimes like Colombia who are loyal to the imperialist agenda and wage genocide against indigenous and African descendants in their country. The Columbian government agreed to grant reparations, including land redistribution, to indigenous and African descendants as result of 2016 peace accords and negotiations with the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

Columbia’s right-wing government is a primary ally to U.S. imperialism in its destabilization and regime change efforts in Venezuela. The U.S. government is silent on Columbia’s failure to fulfill its agreed upon reparations to First Nation and African communities and has turned a “blind eye” to the numerous assassinations of indigenous and African leaders.

Why Should Black/New Afrikan Liberation forces support revolutionaries in the Caribbean and Latin America New Afrikan people in the U.S. are oppressed by global system of haves and have-nots that enslaved and imprisoned our Ancestors, as well as working and poor people internationally. Some of the benefi-ciaries of this system are fighting to maintain the power and privileges of the inequality of this system. We witness within the U.S. imperialist state the promotion of a white supremacist and settlercolonial agenda including gentrification, increased voter suppression, repression of undocumented workers of color, and terrorist violence targeting Black youth. The modern-day expression of Monroe Doctrine is what the Trump Administration’s strategist for Venezuela, Elliot Abrams, calls “Hemispherism,” an agenda to stop the growth of socialism in the western hemisphere. In the tradition of the Monroe Doctrine, “Hemispherism” counters the right of self-determination of working and poor people of Haiti, Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, and other countries in the Americas to choose their own leaders and course of their economic development.

As Malcolm X taught us, We must not only challenge white setter-colonialism and capitalism within the borders of the U.S. imperialist state. We must act in solidarity with oppressed people worldwide.

We must support the grassroots movement in Haiti. We must support the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela and socialist development in Bolivia. We must expose the genocide and assassination of indigenous and African descendant leaders in Colombia. We must support the Caribbean states' calls for reparations from the British Empire. We must form relationships with the African descendant social movements throughout the western hemisphere along with forming alliances with other liberation fighting forces.

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References: “Venezuela’s Coup linked to the Bush Team,” The Guardian (International edition), https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/apr/21/usa.venezuela (16 July 2019) Laura Flynn, Pierre Labossiere, and Robert Roth for the Haiti Action Committee, Hidden From the Headlines. Oakland: Haiti Action Committee, August 2003. https://haitisolidarity.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Hidden-from-the-Headlines-2-2016.pdf (16 July 2019) Laura Flynn and Robert Roth, We Will Not Forget: The Achievements of Lavalas. (Oakland, CA: Haiti Action Committee, February 2005. https://haitisolidarity.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/We_Will_Not_Forget_2010.pdf (16 July 2019) Michael Fox, “Defining the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas-ALBA,” VenezuelaAnalysis.com, (4 August 2006) https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/1870 (16 July 2019)

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Black August Salute to George Lester Jackson - September 23, 1941 - August 21, 1971

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The International Decade for People of African Descent: A Call to Action Kwame-Osagyefo Kalimara

The International Decade for People of African Descent (A10) is a vital initiative for Afrikan populations to display the significance and importance of correcting the narratives of the Afrikan experience worldwide. A10 is a charge subsequent to the United Nations World Conference against Racism, Xenophobia and Related Intolerances, held in 2001 in Durban, Azania (South Africa). The Durban Declaration recognized that peoples of Afrikan descent have been victims of racism, racial discrimination and enslavement for centuries. The denial of that history allows for the continued denial of Afrikan rights to just reparations for the past and current human rights violations. Article 13 of the declaration articulated an admission that Afrikan people have demanded without cease, that “slavery is a crime against humanity.”

This specific language opened the international legal doors for petitions of redress. There were two states who fought in opposition to this acknowledgment, the United States and Israel. They continue to lobby against just causes by global peoples of color.

The International Decade for People of African Descent was adopted on December 23, 2013 focusing on the theme of “recognition, justice and development.” Between 2015 and 2024 organizations are to operationalize effective programs to: • • •

Promote respect, protection and fulfillment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by people of African Descent, as recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; Promote a greater knowledge of and respect for the diverse heritage, culture and contribution of people of African descent to the development of societies; Adopt and strengthen national, regional and international legal frameworks according to the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and to ensure their full and effective implementation.

Global organizations are calling on United Nations member states to support a UN Permanent Forum on People of African Descent that: 1. Is a freestanding and independent mechanism with its own strong mandate reporting to the Council; 2. Is democratic, inclusive and empowering to people of African descent; 3. Is inclusive of all civil society organizations—be they registered to ECOSOC or not or even without any legal standing in their countries—and also individual experts, research institutions and associations; 4. Is well funded through the general budget of the UN and a Voluntary Fund.

The New Afrikan People's Organization/Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (NAPO/MXGM) is one of many revolutionary and progressive formations that have signed on to support this work. Working with grassroots and “civil society” organizations from around the world to “apply constant pressure and demands” is one of the many vehicles necessary to advance the strategic goals and objectives of the Pan Afrikan Movement (PAM) and the New Afrikan Independence Movement (NAIM). Along with the December 12th Movement International Secretariat (D12), the Durban Declaration and Program Watch Group (DDPA Watch), and the Latin American and Caribbean Community Center (LACCC) have led forces in the U.S. Empire in pressuring the United Nations and its member states.

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Many of the above formations are also urging the African Union (AU) to fully support their efforts in heightening the contradictions of “white supremacy” and racism. The AU has developed a role for the Afrikan Diaspora consisting of peoples of Afrikan origin “living outside the continent, irrespective of their citizenship and nationality and who are willing to contribute to the development of the continent and the building of the African Union.” The the Sixth Region (the Afrikan Diaspora) has yet to gain substantial AU support.

NAPO/MXGM encourages all people of Afrikan descent to support its efforts and join them/us utilizing the International Decade to advance our international struggle for reparations, economic development, and self-determination.

FREE THE LAND

BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY BAMN Staff: Makungu Akinyela Maria Fernandez Ifetayo Flannery Zalika Ibaorimi Nyeusi Jami Edward Onaci Kwame-Osagyefo Kalimara Akinyele Umoja

Designed by The Center for Ideas, Equity, and Transformative Change

Volume 1: Issue 3 A Black August Edition

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