BAMN By Any Means Necessary 2019 Year Review-2020 to Self Determination

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Table of Contents Section 1: Reflections

2019 The Year in Review

Section 2: International

NAPO and MXGM solidarity with Evo and the people of Bolivia

The First International Afrodescendant Congress

Final Declaration of the Afro-descendant International Congress Tribute to the Afro-Venezuelan Cimarron “Guillermo Ribas”

Section 3: From Around the Empire

Why We Should Care About Environmental Justice

Black Identity Extremism: The New CointelPro

Section 4: Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War

Veronza Bowers

Jalil Muntaqim

Dr. Mutulu Shakur

Re-Learning H. Rap Brown Symposium

Section 5: Culture

Galilee

Blind

Use This Gospel

Section 6: Notes on Revolutionary Theory and Practice

A Brief History of the Assata behind the chant

Section 1: Reflections 2019 The Year in Review Makungu M. Akinyela As we reach the end of the year 2019 the staff of BAMN thought it would be important to reflect on significant developments and events over the past twelve months and what they mean for the fight for self-determination and freedom for our people. We are excited that our collective has been able to build a consistent rhythm of publication which has brought us to this fourth issue of the journal, and we look forward in the coming year to not only continuing the journal but also to improving on its quality in both contents and reach. We expect to not only continue on this electronic platform but to broaden to print publication as well as regular video and podcasts. Combined, these will allow us to report on the progress of our people’s struggle and to widen the influence of the political and strategic ideas of the struggle for self-determination and political and economic democracy for our nation, including the struggle for autonomy and land in the historic black belt here in the South-East. As we begin this reflection, we want to acknowledge a great loss at the very beginning of 2019 with the death of our comrade and sister Mama Nehanda Abiodun, a founding member of the New Afrikan People’s Organization and an organizer of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement while in exile in Cuba. We continue to honor Mama Nehanda’s legacy and commitment and to remember her comrade Mama Assata Shakur who remains protected in exile in revolutionary Cuba. 400 years of settler-colonial oppression 2019 has been recognized by some as the four hundredth year since the arrival of enslaved Africans in the settler colony of Jamestown, Virginia in 1619, though both free and enslaved Africans were in other areas of North America such as Florida for at least 100 years prior. Nevertheless, this 1 remembered date has generated significant discussion and debate including the 1619 Project organized by the New York Times to “reframe” U.S. history so that it is understood that 1619 is the year of the U.S. founding. This decidedly liberal integrationist project is being led by author Nikole Hannah-Jones. Though the project is decidedly pro-American in its concept and approach, it has been met with expected pushback and debate from the white nationalist right which currently has control of the U.S. 2 government at this time. They are led by people like former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who said that this project is “brainwashing propaganda and a lie”. This focus on our people’s enslavement has 1

https://timesevents.nytimes.com/1619NYC

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2019/08/19/gingrich_nonsense_for_nyts_1619_project_to_clai m_american_revolution_was_about_protecting_slavery.html

also contributed to a reopening of the demand for reparations which currently has even entered the 3 presidential debates. While we may disagree with the basic liberal premise of the 1619 project, it provides us an opportunity to both challenge the integrationist premise and sharpen the demand for justice, reparations and self-determination for our people.

Photo Credit: UNESCO, The Slave Route Map

Settler colonialism is the main culprit in the rising aggression of white nationalism around the world. The descendants of the original European settlers in South America, North America, Israel and even Europe itself where white nationalists are attacking Africans, Muslims, Asians and other people is result of the settlers belief that they have first rights to land and resources wherever they live in close proximity to indigenous and other colonized people on the land. Here in the United States, settler colonialist oppression has become evident again in urban areas as the settlers encroach on neighborhoods that were once euphemistically called “inner-city” and “urban.” The settlers are reclaiming these spaces through gentrification which is pushing Black people, Latin Americans, and

https://fortune.com/2019/07/31/applause-for-reparations-at-cnns-democratic-presidential-debate-raceahe ad/

others out of neighborhoods. The settlers are moving in backed up by the city police forces and demanding that the Black and other people who live there change decades, and sometimes centuries, of tradition and culture. They are demanding and receiving resources that poor and working Black people have begged for years but did not get. They are creating enclaves of white culture and safety inside traditionally Black neighborhoods and aggressively moving to force Black people out of these areas by buying land for pennies on the dollar and then raising the value of property making it impossible for working and poor people to remain in the neighborhoods. This is the same settler colonial tactic used in Israel against the Palestinian people. It is being used still in South Africa and Puerto Rico. It is being done in Atlanta, and Houston, and Los Angeles and wherever traditionally stable communities of Black people have existed. Gentrification is settler colonialism and is grounded in white nationalism and neoliberal capitalism. Our current struggle for self-determination and Black Power is a struggle against settler colonialism. This is simply an extension of our 400-year fight against our colonization by the white nationalist United States of America.

White Nationalism and Neo-liberal Capitalism 4

Speaking of the white nationalist right, it is important to reflect on the reality that 2019 has also been a year of consolidation for the fascists who currently control the U.S. settler colony empire led by Donald Trump. Not only have the fascists been consolidating power in the U.S. by rapidly gaining control of all three branches of the U.S. government, but they have given support to white nationalist fascism in Latin America by undermining governments in Bolivia, Venezuela and Nicaragua, as well as continued attempts to destabilize revolutionary Cuba. The fascists have joined forces with and supported similar white nationalist fascist drives in the UK, France, and Eastern Europe and continues to help the Zionist white nationalist government of Israel commit genocide against the Palestinian people. What this has meant for us here in the heart of the empire is a rising fear and anxiety for what the future may hold. This is not a baseless fear. Fascist consolidation has real material outcomes. Trumpâ€™s 5 fascism is an instrument of neo-liberal capitalism aimed at taking away all restraints that prevent big corporations from doing whatever they want to make money for their stockholders. Without rules and regulations to limit their power and with very few rights and powers for working people over their economic lives, as well as with judicial and police powers to criminalize and punish people who get out of line, the corporations through Trump run the U.S. with little interference. Their super profits are guaranteed with new tax laws that place the bulk of taxes on the backs of the working and poor people and place little on the corporations and the rich. Everything from health care to education to prisons is privatized so that money can be made off of it. This means that Black people and other people are no longer just workers, but in fact our bodies become the direct source of profits as we sit in privatized prisons, schools, and hospitals and are forced to spend billions in direct payments and tax dollars. While even so-called liberal media reports that the economy continues to rise (though liberals insist that this is a continuation of Obama policies) the reality is that reports of economic upswings are based on Wallstreet stability and profits reported by corporations. For Black people this year both the wage gap and the wealth gap have increased. More people may be working, but many are forced to work several jobs for low pay and even minimum wage just to make ends meet. And these jobs often have no health benefits, meaning that health care costs and other costs must be paid out of pocket, leaving these working people in poverty. Homelessness has become an increasing crisis in cities all across the U.S. in 2019 with makeshift tent cities and shanty towns becoming the norm in even formerly affluent parts of cities. This homeless crisis is exacerbated by poverty and rising rent costs as well as people being evicted because of inability to pay mortgages. Homelessness is also grounded in a growing crisis of mental illness which can be linked to the increasing stressors of living in America.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/04/el-paso-shooting-white-nationalist-supremacy-viole nce-christchurch 5

â€‹https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vS4eKwCEC0

State Violence and Extra Judicial Terrorism Trumpâ€™s focus on white nationalism and white nationalist Christianity to generate xenophobic, homophobic and white supremacist hatred of Black, Brown, Muslim, non-heterosexual and other un-white people is how the fascist movement maintains the support of significant numbers of white (and even some un-white) people to protect the power grab of the neo-liberal corporations. In 2019 this unleashing of white hatred on our people and other people has resulted in an increase of white nationalist violence both from the State via increased police killings of our people and from white terrorist organizations and individuals as seen in ramped up so-called mass shootings on an almost weekly basis and acts of individual racist violence in 2019. In most of these cases there has been little to no justice provided. Even in the case of a conviction of the police officer Amber Guyger who murdered

brother Botham Jean in his own apartment, we were appalled when the judge and bailiffs, representatives of the State, showed more compassion for her as demonstrated through hugs and caressing than we have ever seen shown to a Black person convicted of any crime. POWs and Political Prisoners In 2019, we were happy to see the return home of Janine and Janet Africa of the MOVE organization after 41 years in prison! This was one year since the release of Michael Davis Africa in 6 2018. Any time political prisoners are freed is reason to celebrate! Additionally, in a hopeful move over 500 prisoners were released in a single day from prisons in Oklahoma. While we are overjoyed with the release of the MOVE comrades and the sisters and brothers in Oklahoma, we are reminded to continue the fight for freedom for other political prisoners still being unlawfully and unjustly held. We continue the fight for freedom for Dr. Mutulu Shakur, Imam Jamil Al-Amin, Sundiata Acoli, and dozens of other political prisoners. We continue to fight to end unjust imprisonment of millions of brothers and sisters being held in prisons simply because their imprisonment means a profit for the prison industrial complex. What Should We Do for 2020? Admittedly 2019 has been a difficult year for our people’s freedom fight. We have seen limitations and setbacks not only for ourselves but for our allies and comrades around the world as white nationalist fascism has consolidated and empowered itself around the world. But as we move into the end of the year and as we move into the holiday season, we believe that the wisdom of our African ancestors and their revolutionary commitment to freedom can continue to provide guidance and direction for us into the new year. Many of us will be celebrating Kwanzaa and we will be focused on the values of the Nguzo Saba (seven principles) of the holiday with a particular focus on Umoja (unity), Kujichagulia (self-determination) and Imani ( faith in the victory and righteousness of our struggle). We also believe, as our ancestors taught us in the tradition of Black Dialectics, that within our current crisis there is the possibility of an opportunity. The basis of fascist white nationalism is racism, hatred, and isolation. We are determined to organize and challenge this enemy, not with more racism, hatred, and isolation, but with the internationalism, solidarity, and democracy of Revolutionary Nationalism as we have learned from Malcolm X, Queen Mother Moore and Robert Williams. In 2019, through BAMN the voice of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement and the New Afrikan People’s Organization, we will be encouraging our people to organize and fight both strategically and tactically for self-determination and democracy in solidarity with other oppressed people and allies who oppose the rise and consolidation of fascist white nationalism in the Trump regime. We invite you to join MXGM in targeting our demands for freedom and fighting for self-determination, which is the right of a nation of people to collectively decide their own political destiny without interference. We believe that beyond the U.S. justice system and civil courts, we should fight in 2020 to sue the United States in 6

https://nycabc.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/nycabc_polprisonerlisting_oct2019.pdf

the international arena for violation of our people’s human rights and the commitment of genocide on our people through police terror, poisoning our water and food supply, criminalizing our blackness and daily activities as an excuse for police murder and incarceration, and creating other conditions which make the daily living and pursuit of a good life impossible for our people. We invite you to focus on our struggle and fight for reparations and repairing of our communities not only for the international crime of slavery which has no statute of limitations, but for the ongoing genocidal war against our people since the end of slavery, through Jim Crow and the civil rights/Black Power era up until today. These reparations should include not only money but also land, medical and mental health support, as well as 7 self-determining discussions among us for self-governance and autonomy. We encourage you to join the fight for the freedom of our remaining political prisoners who fought for our freedom and an end to the prison system which locks up millions of potentially productive Black men and women in U.S. prisons. We also will be fighting in 2020 for total social justice and equality for all Black people regardless of their gender, sexuality or sexual expression. We will be fighting for an end to sexist oppression among our people and the full inclusion of all of the people into the fight for self-determination.

Photo Credit: Tina M. Stanford

Our Focus for the Year 2020 So how should we be fighting in the coming year? Wherever our people are organizing in the coming year, we will focus our work on the demand for recognizing our right to self-determination which would be our people being able to discuss, debate, and plan a political agenda in the interest of Africans in America without interference from political agencies working in the interest of the U.S. or other parties. This will be a political agenda for Black power. We will wage this fight through five political objectives. People’s Assemblies and organizing for political power We will organize our people in local areas into people’s assemblies through which the people can discuss, learn and plan for political power in their locales, build political campaigns, register 7

https://jxnpeoplesassembly.org/

people to vote, fight against voter suppression, build political alliances and establish the basis for dual power in local areas, while establishing a national network for Black political interests. Solidarity economies and cooperative economics We will educate the people and organize the people for economic democracy by building 8 institutions for a solidarity economy, and peopleâ€™s cooperatives for production, distribution and consumption of goods and services. Through these, we want to establish alternatives to exploitative capitalism, employ the people and create streams of income as much as possible. And through these cooperative economic projects, we hope to ground the people and prepare the people to make demands for socialist alternatives to vulgar neoliberal capitalism.

Youth development and New Afrikan Scout/Panther programs We will continue to establish a base for long term struggle and ultimate victory for our people by organizing and supporting existing youth training and development programs and educational institutions. These have already been modeled through our New Afrikan Scout and New Afrikan 9 Panther programs as well as through the establishment of educational schooling programs in Atlanta and New York. These youth training and development programs go hand in hand with organizing and supporting young people and parents in struggles for local community control of public schools and educational institutions and promoting the demand for free and African centered education as a part of our demand for reparations.

Photo Credit: Community Aid and Development Corporation

â€‹https://thenextsystem.org/learn/stories/solidarity-economy-building-economy-people-planet

â€‹https://www.cadnational.org/naso

Land acquisition and development Land and control of material resources is essential to our strategy for self-determination and freedom. An important part of this fight is the acquisition of land, buildings and land-based resources from which we can launch community projects and institutions and reproduce the resources needed for our people’s struggle. Land needs to be an integral part of the demand for reparations, but the acquisition and control of these material resources cannot wait on reparations. Our organizations and institutions need land now from which we can build the people’s struggle for freedom. Consequently in 2020 this should be a central focus of our work. We will focus on reestablishing Centers for Black Survival and Unity in local areas from which the People’s Assemblies, youth programs and economic democracy programs can be promoted and coordinated. Building networks for collective self-defense If we have learned little else from the past twelve months, we at least see that we cannot depend on our oppressors to protect us. Our community continues to be threatened by white nationalist State violence, vigilante violence and white nationalist militia and terrorist violence. Additionally, the rising threat of sex trafficking and kidnapping of Black women and children has become evident. We believe that these threats to our collective community survival require a collective response and organized self-defense. We have called for a long time for the building of New Afrikan People’s Militias. We also find it necessary to build alliances with community militias of our allies among other oppressed people, as well as revolutionary whites who support our freedom struggles. We will continue to build our New Afrikan Militias in the coming year. These militias do not require loud rhetoric, grandstanding, flashy uniforms or meaningless threats as we have seen from some groups in the Black community. We are working to organize and work with any of our people and allies who are willing to work in a spirit of humility and firmness and who understand the importance of discipline, structure, training, and commitment to defend our people from both external and internal threats to our people’s security. Our strategy for self-determination will need to be protected and defended, as the history of the past sixty years has shown us where our movement has been built, not only on non-violent resistance to oppression, but on armed self-defense which has ensured the survival of the people. Conclusion 2019 has been a difficult year for freedom struggles around the world including the struggle of New Afrikans here in the United States of America. But our people are used to difficult times, and we have overcome them in the past. We in the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement and the New Afrikan People’s Organization are confident in the people’s ability to overcome difficult times again. We are confident that a unified focus on self-determination, reparations, and human rights, while building political and economic democracy in our communities will set us on the right track for freedom. We will

be uniting with all movements, organizations, people and allies who share in our hopefulness and determination for the coming year and who are determined to fight fascist white nationalism, neo-liberal capitalism, and sexist patriarchy along with us. We are looking forward to a strong 2020 and a strong future! Free the Land! Free the Land! Free the Land! BAMN!

Section 2: International NAPO and MXGM Solidarity with Evo and the People of Bolivia The New Afrikan Peopleâ€™s Organization (NAPO) and the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (MXGM) join in with the voices of pro-democratic, pro-self-determination, socialist, and anti-imperialist forces in condemning the fascist, neo-liberal, and white supremacist coup in Bolivia. The coup in Bolivia and the political repression today against indigenous people and militants of the Movement for Socialism (MAS) is an international disgrace and violation to human rights and any standard of democracy and social justice. We stand with the MAS and the vision of a plurinational state and the rights of indigenous and African descendant people in Bolivia. The coup is part and parcel with a counter-revolutionary offensive and the continuation of the Monroe Doctrine in the Western Hemisphere.

â€‹Photo Credit: Kwame-Osagyefo Kalimara

The election of Evo Morales in 2005 represented the aspirations of Bolivian workers, campesinos, and the indigenous people for dignity and liberation. Evo and the MAS moved to bring economic democracy and social justice in the country in alliance with other anti-imperialist movements in power in the region, particularly Venezuela and Cuba, to oppose the dominance of the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and us imperialism. The MAS administration recognized the necessity of a process of decolonization to create space for the liberation of the indigenous and African descendant population in the county.

Photo Credit: Kwame-Osagyefo Kalimara

The us empire has historically moved to eliminate any movement for self-determination in the Americas. From the Haitian Revolution in the 19th century, to the Cuban Revolution in the 1960s, to Venezuela today, the us empire has employed imperialist violence, terrorism, destabilization and counterinsurgency to oppose any anti-imperialist movement with state power in the Americas. The us imperialists relationship to the Bolivian military was critical to the coup. The us empireâ€™s training and corrupting of the militaries of the Caribbean, Central, and South America is a dangerous element of counter-revolution and serves as an opponent to true democracy and peopleâ€™s power in the Americas.

Photo Credit: Kwame-Osagyefo Kalimara

Racist and white supremacist thinking underlines the ideology of the fascist forces of the Bolivian coup. This trend of white supremacist, authoritarian, fascism is global. The governments of Donald Trump in the us empire and Bolsonaro in Brazil are clear examples of this reactionary trend. The Bolivian fascists have neo-Nazis in their ranks, just as those aligned with the Trump administration within the us empire. President Evo Morales and the MAS promoted policies that challenged neo-colonialism and neo-liberal capitalism. NAPO and MXGM stand with Evo, the MAS, and the workers, campesinos, indigenous and African people of Bolivia against the fascist coup and imperialism. We will continue to counter the campaigns of disinformation waged by the pro-imperialist, corporate media and build solidarity for democracy and socialism in Bolivia.

In the spirit of Che Combat fascism Combat imperialism We demand the return of Peopleâ€™s Power in Bolivia Free the land

The First International Afrodescendant Congress Kwame-Osagyefo Kalimara On November 11- 12, 2019 hundreds of organizers from the Afrikan diaspora and the continent itself met in Caracas, Venezuela to challenge imperialism for the benefit of the global community. There

were five themes and working groups. Theme 1: Repairs and International Decade of Afrodescendant Peoples. Theme 2: Women of African descent, decolonization and intersectionality. The struggle against patriarchy, capitalism and racism towards the construction of a new civilization project. Theme 3: The protagonist participation, integral defense of the territories, sovereignty & self-determination of peoples. Theme 4: Afrodescendant youth: against racialization of power relations, intergenerational dialogue and social justice. Theme 5: Rearticulation of Afro-descendants movements of the left in order to build a new global correlation of forces in pursuit of defeating imperialism and to achieve ethnic recognition of African descent in the exercise of power.

The themes and objectives of the International Afrodescendant Congress were to further the work of the World Conference Against Racism and Racial Discrimination of 2001 held in Durban, South Africa (Azania). There have been several forums and formations prior to and subsequent to Durban, however, the impetus has always been to “repair” the harm done by “white supremacy.” Genocide and neo-liberal globocolonization are continuations of European imperialism. The significance of this congress is that it brought together women and men, young and old, organizers to develop the best strategic and tactical considerations to further the interests in securing human rights for those denied for centuries. This was an intergenerational grouping inclusive of the varying dimensions of gender. Inclusivity was important to advance revolutionary movement. We cannot say that the old colonial contradictions were resolved. However, many see promise and are thankful to the government and the people of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela for hosting the first International Afrodescendant Congress. Ancestral blessings. Free the Land!!! Resources for further reading: https://searchlight.vc/searchlight/news/2019/11/29/vincentians-attend-international-afro-descendant-con ference-in-venezuela/ https://www.blackagendareport.com/final-declaration-afro-descendant-international-congress-tribute-afr o-venezuelan-cimarron-guillermo

Final Declaration of the Afro-descendant International Congress Tribute to the Afro-Venezuelan Cimarron “Guillermo Ribas” We, Afro-descendants of Our America, and Africans, gathered in the city of Caracas, capital of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, on the occasion of the Afro-descendant International Congress, in accordance with what was agreed in the framework of the 25th Meeting of the Sao Paulo Forum and in the framework of the commemoration of the 248th anniversary of the assassination of the Afro-Venezuelan Cimarron "Guillermo Ribas", leader of the Cumbe de Ocoyta (1768 - 1771), self-government that put in check the colonial power of the time, after the deliberations carried out we have arrived at the following conclusions: The conquest and colonization of America, a continent so called by the European invaders, constitutes a founding historical fact of the current international order and of the power relations that impact societies until these days. The unjust international order emerging since the aftermath of the 15th century, characterized by an unequal economic-trade system that had its epicenter in Western Europe, was erected on the extermination, subjugation and spoliation of the original peoples of Americas and of the African population. Undoubtedly, the history of humanity does not record in its annals, genocide of such dimensions. This was recognized by the "3rd World Conference against Racism and Racial Discrimination" held in Durban, South Africa in 2001. The colonial world-system was marked by an inhuman trafficking of people from Africa to America in order to invigorate the economic-productive apparatus at the service of Western powers. This required a colonial rationality that would "legitimize" such economic-social practices, thus giving rise to the concept of race as an invention conducive to perpetuating Western predominance over other peoples. Racial segregation seeks to protect a civilizing model created for the systematic exploitation of peoples and the plundering of their natural wealth. Consequently, ever since, racism has become an inherent element of modernity. Today's neoliberal globalization is the continuation of modernity stemming from the European invasion of America. This model not only reinforces exploitation, but also deepens it while imposing a cultural homogenization that does not know the history of peoples, their traditions and their identity. Neoliberalism, through the cultural industry of capitalism, perpetrates a memoricide against the peoples of the world, which is aimed at "justifying" the plundering of peoples’ wealth, the subjugation of women and domination over Afrodescendant people based on the alleged superiority of some over others. It is a model that endorses a conception of life that deepens the separation between human beings and nature.

It is an instrumental rationality of nature that condemns it to destruction for the sake of a developmental and extractivist model. This Eurocentric colonialist logic that threatens biodiversity arises from a secularization that puts material prosperity at the forefront of life. Neoliberalism is part of a global domination project that seeks to perpetuate the colonial model of power synthesized in U.S. hegemony. Faced with the emergence of new poles of political and economic power such as Russia, China, Iran and India, the West with the U.S. at its head, it clings to the application of neocolonial policies supported by powerful financial, communicational and cultural transnationals at the service of neoliberalism. However, given the changes resulting from the emergence of a multicentric and multi-polar world, U.S. imperialism has escalated into a global offensive aimed at preserving its supremacy and the perpetuity of the neoliberal model. Forty years after the Washington Consensus, imperialism, led by a corporate state, continues in its hegemonic eagerness to impose the rules of savage capitalism through neoliberalism, for which it relies on the follow up of European governments that in turn operate with the same pretensions in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean. In Our America, the offensive of U.S. elites and their allies seeks to end the cycle of progressive governments to impose neo-colonial relations in the so-called "national interest" of the United States. Coups d'ĂŠtat, political violence, unilateral coercive measures, economic-financial blockade, threats of military intervention, military bases and diplomatic pressures have been some of the tactics of the Doctrine of Non-Conventional War implemented against the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean. This has led, thanks to the racism inherent in this doctrine, to the displacement of Afrodescendant populations, racial extermination, increased xenophobia, racial discrimination in the justice system, trafficking in persons and hate crimes, among other consequences. In the cycle of progressive governments, the struggle for peace, national sovereignty, self-determination of peoples and the battle for the rights of the people's sectors were enhanced. At this stage, thanks to the organized action of Afrodescendant people, the denunciation of the genocide committed by Europe was placed, the struggle to overcome structural racism was intensified, and with the support of progressive Governments, the right call for reparations for women and Afrodescendant people, derived from slavery and colonialism, has been brought to various multilateral bodies. Afrodescendants have played a key role in building the independence of the peoples of Our America, as well as in the ongoing struggle for the full liberation and profound transformation of our peoples. Likewise, its prominence was important in the constitution of the pan-africanist movement, which from the Island Caribbean was projected to the U.S., Europe, and Africa in the first international advances of a decolonial proposal and of the entrenchment of the most basic freedoms of men, women and peoples of the world. Once again, Afrodescendants are uniting with social movements, left-wing political parties, and progressive currents and together with sovereign governments that do not give in to imperialist pretensions, are changing the correlation of classes and social forces in our American continent. The

irreducible resistance of the progressive governments, the popular insurrections in Haiti, Ecuador and Chile, as well as the electoral results in Bolivia, Argentina, Colombia and Uruguay, account for the failure of the neoliberal model, express the generalized rejection of that model and the neo-colonial policies of the United States for the region.

Photo Credit: â€‹Fernando Saldivia Najul

A particular mention should be made of the anti-imperialist resistance and offensive of the people of Venezuela. It is well known that the multiple attacks of the American imperialism against the Bolivarian Revolution are aimed at undermining the hope created by Commander Hugo Chavez's liberating work, overthrowing the government of the Constitutional President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro, ending democracy and taking over the country's natural wealth, which has not been allowed by the brave people of Guillermo Ribas and Simon Bolivar. In Venezuela, the Afrodescendant Movement has maintained a key role in the construction and defense of the Bolivarian Revolution, with its Cumbes, communes and other forms of peopleâ€™s power organization. Its historical forms of community life are fundamental in the construction of a communal society; its knowledge contributes decisively to the preservation of planet earth; its traditional mode of production contributes extensively to food security. Their positive evaluation is essential in the battle

against the neoliberal model, a great importance issue considering that the Afrodescendant sector, scattered throughout the country, constitutes more than 50% of the population. Today, when a new progressive cycle emerges in Our America, we understand that the full and irreversible liberation of our societies requires a new civilization that recognizes the millions and millions of people of African descent that populate these lands and thus dismantle neo-colonialism as a cross-cutting element of neoliberal capitalism.

Photo Credit: Orinoco Tribune, Final Declaration of the 25th Meeting of the Sao Paulo Forum, Caracas 2019

In this context, the Afro-descendant International Congress declares: We support the heroic effort of the Bolivian people to preserve democracy in the face of fascism, we condemn racism against the Bolivian indigenous people, we demand that the coup plotters respect the right of President Evo Morales’ supporters, we denounce the generalized repression against the Bolivian people, we call for permanent mobilization to stand with the Bolivian people’s struggle in the building of a new civilizing model and we demand that the White House depose its neocolonial policy aimed at subduing Bolivia. We condemn the United States and Western Europe’s interventionist policy in our countries, in order to bend the sociopolitical conquests and appropriate biodiversity at the cost of human life and all forms of life on planet Earth.

We support the Haitian people’s struggles for their social recognitions and their historic legitimate demands in the face of the serious political, economic and social situation derived from the unpopular decisions of their rulers associated with savage capitalism. We denounce the breach of the "Havana Peace Agreement" by the current Colombian president and reject his direct aggression against the people of Venezuela. Likewise, we condemn the subordinate actions of the governments grouped in the so-called Lima Group as a political operator of the United Sates administration, emulating its universal condition of violator of the human rights and the international order. We claim the international solidarity with the Ecuadorian people, with their afro and indigenous movements, with the Citizen Revolution Movement’s leadership, all of them who are persecuted and criminalized by a government which betrays the principles and which operate in the mentioned South American country. We call for an end to the repression of the Chilean people and support them in their just struggles against neoliberalism and the continuity of Pinochet’s dictatorship in the abovementioned country. We welcome the progress made in incorporating into Mexico's legal framework the afro-descendant population as a step towards their full recognition. We condemn the violation of human rights by the American government against the African-American population and against migrants from Our America and Africa, particularly women and children. We warn of the discrimination in selection practiced by the European Union against migrants escaping terrorism sponsored by West Africa. We demand before international bodies and the old European powers the fulfillment of the historical reparations of the afro-descendant communities based on the recognition of the genocide against the peoples come from of America, Africa and their descendants. We stand with the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, and especially its afro-descendant movement in their struggle for peace, social welfare, self-determination and sovereignty. The Afro-descendant International Congress assumes the spirit of the "Final Declaration of the XXV Meeting of the Sao Paulo Forum" adopted in the city of Caracas in July 2019. Consequently, we approve the following Plan of Struggle: To recognize in the legal instruments such as international conventions, summits, constituent processes, constitutions, laws and regulations, the moral, political, social, cultural and spiritual contributions of the afro-descendants in the independence processes, and the struggle for participatory and protagonist democracy in Our America.

To urge, within the framework of the Afro-descendant Decade, the United Nations to elaborate, discuss and approve an International Convention on the afro-Descendant Rights, which should be binding on all countries of the world. To promote and respect the integral protagonist participation of afro-descendant women in political decision-making spaces in favor of justice, equality and equity, and create spaces for international and intercultural meetings of afro-descendant women, with a view to strengthening African approaches in America and the Caribbean. To carry out legal and political, socio-cultural, educational and communicational actions that contribute to dismantling and eradicating the racial and class prejudices which underpin the criminalization of young Afro-descendants. To establish cooperation mechanisms among young people of the global south, by developing opportunities that serve to solve problems in our territories. Solutions must range from agricultural production to the sustainable management of electronic waste. Such planning goes together with the takeover of power in order to identify mechanisms to face racism. To promote, within the political parties and progressive governments, the inclusion of afro-descendant sections in their structures and programmatic schedules. To hold, biannually, the â€‹Afro-descendants International Congress in different venues requested by each country. To provide the Congress with basic rules of procedure based on the experiences and proposals of the participating movements. To constitute the â€‹International Anti-imperialist, Afro-descendant and African Cumbe in order to link and articulate all afro-descendant organizations for the purpose of defining collective purposes, follow up the agreements of the present congress, promote peace, fight against neoliberalism, racism and against any kind of discrimination. The Cumbe is inspired by solidarity, equality, respect, recognition of plurality, independence, dignity and brotherhood among peoples. The International Anti-imperialist, Afro-descendant and African Cumbe will have its headquarters in Caracas, Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. To create the International Centre of South-South African and Afro-descendant Studies, attached to the International Cumbe, with a view to promoting training in the intersectional consciousness, politics, ideologies, social production, by naming an interdisciplinary promoter team based in Venezuela for its formation. To compile, configure and promote our own horizons of meanings expressed in the liberating praxis of cimarrones and cimarronas of all times, through the building of the historical routes resulting in training materials.

To locate reparations not only in the economic and legal field, but also reparations related to epistemicides, culturicides, memoricides, language death, ecocides, filicides and economicides, through militant processes of decolonial and imperialist literacy. To promote respect for our spirituality as an ethical code, by avoiding the secularization and commodification of our spiritual conceptions, through encounters of knowledge and recognition of our cultural manifestations. Finally, the Afro-descendants International Congress, assumes the Agenda of Struggle adopted in the "First International Meeting of Workers in Solidarity with the Bolivarian Revolution", endorsed by the “First International Women’s Congress”, by the "International Congress of Communes, Social Movements and People's Power" and by the "First International Meeting of Indigenous Peoples", held in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in 2019, agenda that consists in the following: 1. To coordinate in the world capitals a day of activities on December 9, 2019, the day of the commemoration of the Battle of Ayacucho, in order to condemn the United States imperialism’s interventionist policies in our America. NO MORE TRUMP! 2. To hold an international mobilization in support of the Bolivarian Revolution and against neoliberalism on February 27, 2020 with a view to commemorating the 31st anniversary of the first insurrection in Caracas against neoliberalism. 3. To call for a world mobilization in April 2020, in favor of peace in Venezuela, in Our America and against the war plans of the government of the United States 4. To develop an international day of activities on June 28, 2020, in rejection the Monroe Doctrine and the blockade and other unilateral coercive measures. Approved in the City of Caracas, Cradle of the Liberator Simón Bolívar and Capital of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela on November 12, 2019.

Section 3: From Around the Empire Why We Should Care about Environmental Justice Ron Whyte // @deepgreenphilly When we think of the challenges facing Black people in this country it’s easy to see why climate change and the environment often slip down to the bottom of the list. Police murders, lack of quality education, mass incarceration, homelessness, unemployment and underemployment, gun violence – these issues and many more grab the headlines and people’s attention, and rightfully so. However, we should realize that even though environmental issues often receive less attention, it doesn’t make them less important.

There’s a great Instagram page called Philly Housing Projects that exposes the harsh environmental and social conditions many urban Black people are forced to live in. The decrepit streets and sidewalks, the illegal dumping and litter, the vacant lots and abandoned houses, this is what many of us wake up to and see every single day. The question we must ask is why some people live in clean, well maintained and greenery-filled spaces while others live in polluted and violence ridden places that look straight out of a horror movie. Our environment is not only far away forests and ice caps, it’s the area and the spaces surrounding us that we live in and move through day to day. The quality of our environment determines the quality of our lives. In the summer of 2019, there was a massive explosion at an oil refinery in South Philadelphia that released thousands of pounds of toxic chemicals into the air. Guess who lives near that refinery? Mostly working class and poor Black people, many of whom have suffered health problems from the refinery’s decades-long history of toxic emissions. If the worst-case scenario had occurred, tens of thousands of people would have been killed as a result of the latest explosion. In big cities, who is more likely to live near airports, highways and congested traffic corridors? Most so-called ghettos and public housing are placed near pollution spewing infrastructure. Daily exposure to high levels of smog, car exhaust and other air pollution can cause or aggravate conditions like heart disease and asthma. Air pollution has also been linked to miscarriages and birth defects. Many of us are familiar with Flint, Michigan, but lead contamination is a problem in many Black communities across the country. Recently, residents of Newark, NJ were ordered to stop drinking tap water and switch to bottled water because of high levels of lead. Lead contamination can cause brain damage that contributes to a lack of self-control as well as learning disabilities. The origins of today’s environmental injustice and inequality can be traced back to the time of chattel slavery. Most enslaved people lived a distance away from their captors’ home in run down shacks not far from the outhouses. Enslaved people were essentially housed in the worst possible conditions on plantations just a step above farm animals. We’re all familiar with how enslaved people were given leftovers like pig intestines to eat, but that’s part of a bigger story about how our ancestors were forced to live in degraded and rundown circumstances from the very beginning. A 1982 sit-in protest against a planned chemical landfill in a majority Black North Carolina county is viewed as part of the foundation of the environmental justice movement. Organizations like MOVE have been talking about the issue of environmental racism since the 1970s. Poor people in general, but especially Black, Latinx and Native Americans are often subjected to environmental racism; the institutional practice of either incidentally or intentionally exposing communities to environmental harms. Notice how you will almost never find a waste burning power plant, a trash dump, or an oil refinery in a wealthy, white suburb. The owners and managers of our society know these things are toxic

and harmful and don’t want them in their communities. Why should we accept them being placed in ours? Environmental racism is affecting communities all over the world, from South Africa to Bangladesh to Australia. Everywhere we find capitalism and settler colonialism, environmental racism is always close by. The Central American refugee fleeing to the United States has much in common with the oppressed inner-city dweller. The dysfunction we see in poor and working class communities across this continent and across the world is caused and perpetuated by the same individuals and institutions who see people of color as less than and expendable. This is one reason why we must work together in coalitions to defeat our common enemies. Climate change and environmental disruption will have severe impacts for communities that are already facing environmental racism. If you think gentrification is bad now, wait until climate refugees begin pouring into the big cities as they flee sea level rise and more frequent hurricanes and other disasters. Who do you think will be the first ones to be displaced? Do you or your loved ones struggle to put food on the table? Climate change will wreak havoc on our natural seasons, making it more difficult to grow crops. Those who are already poor or struggling will suffer most from rising food prices and shortages. This is why we must begin preparing now and planning for how we will live and thrive in a world that is rapidly changing. Urban gardens, housing co-ops, communal living, and political agitation for environmental justice/reparations are things we can do today to prepare for an uncertain tomorrow. All organizations working towards Black liberation should have a strong program in place to address both current and future environmental justice concerns.

Resources for further reading: - http://greenaction.org/what-is-environmental-justice/ - https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/21/what-is-environmental-injustice-and-why-is-the-guardian-covering-it

Black Identity Extremism: The New CointelPro Nyeusi Jami In the summer of 2017, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) produced a report which it shared with dozens of local and federal law enforcement agencies around the country. The report was prepared by the FBI’s Domestic Terrorism Analysis Unit,which is part of their Counterterrorism Division. This report detailed that they believed “Black Identity Extremists”(BIE) to be their number one domestic terrorism threat. The report’s definition of Black Identity Extremism was given in a grammatically incorrect and incomplete sentence: “individuals who seek, wholly or in part, through unlawful acts of force or violence, in response to perceived racism and injustice in American society and some do so in

furtherance of establishing a separate black homeland or autonomous social institutions, communities, or governing organizations within the United States.â€?

Photo Credit: Joshua Lott/AFP/Getty Images

Poor writing aside, it is pretty clear that the Bureau views #BlackControlOfBlackLives to be a threat to them. It is interesting that the FBI Counterterrorism Division is taking this position, given that almost all of the so-called domestic terrorism actually committed in recent years has been done by white supremacists. According to an analysis by The Intercept, 268 right-wing extremists were prosecuted in federal courts since 9/11 for actions that appear to meet the legal definition of domestic terrorism, even though the Justice Department applied anti-terrorism laws against only 34 of them. An April 2019 federal government document shows that in 2018 there were 32 incidents officially classified as domestic terrorism and 25 of the 46 individuals involved in those incidents were identified as white supremacists. None of those individuals were classified as Black Identity Extremists (BIE)â€‹iâ€‹. The original 2017 FBI report, which originated the BIE title lists six incidents of Black men responding angrily to our people being killed by cops, between 2014 and 2017. They include three Black men who attacked and, in two cases killed, police officers in New York, Baton Rouge, and Dallas. A man who shot at two police stations in Indiana in October 2016, and another who drove his car toward three police officers in Arizona in September 2016, are also listed in the report. None of these individuals were connected to any particular organization and promoted no ideology other than anger at their people being killed constantly by police officers. These incidents provide a very different picture than the dozens of white supremacist terrorists who commit mass shootings of innocent people every year. The disparity in treatment begs the question: Why do the shootings of a few police officers constitute a greater threat to the country than the shootings of hundreds of civilians, according to the FBI? The fundamental relationship between the New Afrikan people and the United States Empire has not changed since the traffic in Afrikans forced our Ancestors to the shores of North America over 400

years ago. The New Afrikan Creed states that “the fundamental reason our oppression continues is that We, as a people, lack the power to control our lives.” Those who control the Empire consider our pursuit of that power to be a crime. When white people use terroristic violence to maintain their power over us, the government has always turned a blind eye to it, from the slave overseers to lynchings, from the destruction of independent Black towns to killing our people for pursuing the right to vote, and even on down to white supremacist inspired mass shootings in 2019. When the New Afrikan people seek to gain control over our lives and defend ourselves from the violence of white terrorists, we are painted as criminals. The story remains the same as it has always been. What your enemy is afraid of shows you where they are vulnerable. In the March 1968 memo from J. Edgar Hoover explaining the goals of the FBI’s CoIntelPro, he said he aimed to prevent militant Black Nationalist groups from gaining respectability, forming coalitions with one another, and bringing youth into the movementii. These are exactly the things that we should be doing in response to the vulnerable position that we find ourselves in within this country. The entire Black community must be organized into the “militant Black Nationalist group.” Forming Community Self-Defense Networks is the way for us to defend ourselves against the violence of our enemies as well as to assert some control over the institutions in our community. Our aim is not to go out and hurt anyone who hasn’t hurt us, whether they be civilians or soldiers (military or cops). Our duty is to protect ourselves from those who seek to harm us, oppress us, and prevent us from organizing for our liberation. Since the initial controversy over the BIE label, the FBI has officially changed its language in 2019. Their new term is “Racially Motivated Violent Extremism,” which they say doesn’t differentiate between Blacks and whites. However, their description of Racially Motivated Violent Extremists is that they “use force or violence in violation of criminal law to perceived racism or injustice in American society, or in an effort to establish a separate Black homeland or autonomous black social institutions, communities, or governing organizations within the United States.” Though they claim to have changed their tune, it’s still all about preventing us from getting free. In the spirit of the great philosopher DJ Khaled: THEY DON’T WANT US TO FREE THE LAND, SO WE HAD TO GO AND FREE THE LAND. #BlackControlOfBlackLives

Resources for further reading: - https://theintercept.com/series/the-threat-within/ - https://www.democracynow.org/topics/cointelpro

i https://news.yahoo.com/heres-the-data-the-trump-administration-wouldnt-give-congress-on-white-su premacist-terrorism-235254627.html?soc_src=hl-viewer&soc_trk=tw ii https://genius.com/Federal-bureau-of-investigation-cointelpro-long-range-goals-and-prevention-of-ablack-messiah-annotated

Section 4: Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War Veronza Bowers Nyeusi Jami Veronza “Daoud” Bowers is 74 years old and currently held captive at the Federal Medical Prison in Butner, North Carolina. He grew up in Omaha, Nebraska where he joined the Black Panther Party and became known as a very effective community organizer. He later moved to California and became Captain of the Party’s Richmond branch. Like so many others, he became a target of CoIntelPro. In September 1973, when he was 28 years old with a 5-year-old daughter, a small army of troops from various law enforcement agencies came to arrest him on charges related to robbery. However, in that instance, the empire’s troops were sloppy and those state charges had to get thrown out. But the Feds swooped in and charged Veronza with first degree murder of a National Park Service Ranger to ensure that he would stay in captivity. Veronza was given a life sentence, which according to the federal guidelines of that time, meant that he would serve thirty years and then have a mandatory “supervised release,” the federal version of parole. On April 7, 2004 the thirty years had arrived and Veronza’s friends and family from around the world were ready to receive him upon his release. This time, the National Parole Commission stepped in to keep him in captivity at the insistence of the Fraternal Order of Police. His parole was supposedly postponed in order to allow the victims’ relatives to express their opposition at a new parole hearing in December 2005 in which his mandatory p arole was denied. His parole has been continuously denied since then, the most recent time being May 2019.

Photo Credit: sfbayview.com

In August 1979, Veronza made an unsuccessful attempt to escape from Lompoc Federal Correctional Institution. He reacted to his failed bid for freedom by putting 100% of his focus on his spiritual development. He studied music and a variety of healing arts, becoming a master at acupressure and the healing vibrations of the shakuhachi flute. He has been a healer to countless inmates dealing with sickness and injury, and he has helped to provide relief for prisoners in hospice, on the verge of death. After Lompoc, Veronza was transferred to the federal prison in Atlanta, serving several years there. In April 2017, he was diagnosed with lymphoma, cancer of the lymph nodes. His comrades on the outside successfully petitioned for his transfer to the Federal Medical Center in Butner, NC where he began the fight for his life, while still serving his fellow inmates as a healer. His cancer is now in remission, but he is in serious need of a hip replacement. Veronza “Daoud” Bowers is a spiritual giant and a world-class humanitarian who still maintains his innocence and his status as a political prisoner. He can receive letters of support at this address: Veronza Bowers Jr. #35316-136 FMC Butner P.O. Box 1600 Butner, NC 27509

Jalil Muntaqim Nyeusi Jami Jalil Muntaqim was born in 1951 and raised in the Bay Area of California. His mother was a student of African dance and a member of the NAACP. Like many people of his generation, Jalil (then named Anthony Bottom) was fundamentally changed by the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and other events of 1968. He came to believe that the Black Liberation Movement needed to form a more aggressive response of self-defense in the face of our extreme repression from the US empire. Jalil was recruited into the Black underground, which came to be known as the Black Liberation Army. In May 1971, two New York City police officers were killed in an activity that the Black Liberation Army claimed responsibility for. Jalil Muntaqim, Albert “Nuh” Washington, and Herman Bell were later captured and convicted in connection with that activity. Jalil was 19 years old at the time, and his girlfriend was pregnant with his first and only child. He is now 68 years old and he has been held in state prisons for 48 years.

Photo Credit: Sheri Pinto

While in prison, Jalil has achieved degrees in sociology and psychology, certificates in architectural drafting and computer literacy, and he has established programs for prisoners in Black studies, conflict resolution, and poetry. He was highlighted in a 2000 Essence m agazine article about incarcerated fathers maintaining relationships with their children. While in San Quentin prison in California in 1976, Jalil launched the National Prisoners Campaign to Petition the United Nations to recognize the existence of

political prisoners in the United States. Progressives nationwide joined this effort, and the petition was submitted in Geneva, Switzerland. This led to the National Conference of Black Lawyers having the UN International Commission of Jurists tour US prisons and speak with specific political prisoners. The International Commission of Jurists then reported that political prisoners did in fact exist in the United States. In 1997, Jalil initiated the Jericho Movement. Over 6,000 supporters gathered in the Jericho â€˜98 Marches in Washington, DC and the Bay Area to demand amnesty for US political prisoners on the basis of international law. The Jericho Movement aims to gain the recognition by the U.S. government that political prisoners exist in this country and, that on the basis of international law, they should be granted amnesty because of the political nature of their cases. In December 2018, Jalil was denied parole for the ninth time. He had hoped that recent reforms in parole regulations in New York state, designed to make it more difficult to deny parole to a person classified as low risk of reoffending, would work to his benefit. In May 2019, he filed an Application to Commute the Sentence to Time Served with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. Cuomo has the authority to grant the application and immediately release Jalil. 75 public figures sent a letter to Governor Cuomo asking him to commute Jalilâ€™s sentence, including Angela Davis, Cornel West, Danny Glover, and Michelle Alexander. It remains to be seen what the outcome of that application will be. There was an immediate appeal filed in regard to the December 2018 parole denial. In October 2019, it was announced that the appeal was denied and Jalil will remain in captivity for now. Letters of support for him can be sent to:

Anthony Jalil Bottom Sullivan C.F. P.O. Box 116 Fallsburg, NY 12733-0116

Dr. Mutulu Shakur Medical/Legal Update December 2019

Photo credit: mutulushukur.com

Dear Friends and Comrades – Dr. Shakur received a diagnosis of life-threatening bone marrow cancer in October, 2019. Until now, he has requested that this information be kept private. For over a year he had experienced pain in his bones, but he was not even x-rayed until April 2019. Although the prison doctor probably suspected cancer and called for a CT scan, the scan was delayed for four months. After a year of delay, we know now that Mutulu is suffering from extensive painful bone lesions, caused by a rapidly growing bone marrow cancer. He is 69 years old, and aging in prison after 33 years of incarceration. In 2014, he suffered from a stroke, which required several months for recovery. He has high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, and vision problems from glaucoma. We fear for his survival and his life. Dr. Shakur's legal team has filed a compassionate release petition, because now Dr. Shakur's very survival depends on his release. He meets the conditions for compassionate release under federal law. He is a recognized advocate for human and civil rights who poses no danger of committing any crimes against anyone. As evidenced by widespread support for his parole, he will be welcomed back into a community that will also provide for his financial and medical support. However, on December 5th he was denied compassionate release by the Central office of the BOP. He is currently receiving chemotherapy, but the BOP has not told him or his lawyer the exact type of treatment he is getting. He has been able to talk with his newest lawyer Mark Kleiman and may receive a family

visit from his son. Most importantly, Mutulu says that he is managing the treatment and his spirit is strong. Our next steps are two-fold: Mutulu will petition his original judge, Judge Haight in the Southern District of New York, to modify his sentence so he can be released immediately based on his current medical condition. Dr. Shakur also has a habeas petition in front of Judge Wilson in federal court in Los Angeles, detailing the parole commission’s abuse of discretion through their politically-driven denials of parole. We will move to expedite that petition based on the newest information about his life-threatening medical condition. What you can do to help: Please send letters of support and love to Mutulu at Victorville: Dr. Mutulu Shakur #83205-012 Victorville USP P.O. Box 3900 Adelanto,CA 92301 We are asking his comrades and supporters to give money for medical, legal defense, commissary, and more. The quickest way to send financial support is through the Family and Friends of Mutulu Shakur, https:mutulushakur.com. For your contribution to be tax deductible, FFMS has a partnership with Community Aid and Development (CAD) https:cadnational.org that allows for tax deductible donations online. For your check or money order to be tax-deductible, make it payable to CAD, P.O. Box 361270, Decatur, GA 30036- 1270 with “FFMS” in the memo line. At Dr. Shakur’s request we are not creating a public campaign for his release at this time. We will update this information as we move into federal court. Family and Friends of Dr. Mutulu Shakur

Re-Learning H. Rap Brown Symposium Kwame-Osagyefo Kalimara In Atlanta, Georgia on October 4 – 5, 2019 the Re-Learning H. Rap Brown Symposium celebrated the 50th Anniversary of his autobiographical book Die, Nigger, Die. The symposium was held at Georgia State University and the West End Islamic Center; it was a collaboration of the Imam Jamil Action Network (IJAN), the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (MXGM), and the Relearning Rap Brown Collective. The Imam Jamil Action Network advanced the theme to announce the 60 years of struggle in the black liberation movement and the transformation of H. Rap Brown into Imam Jamil Al-Amin, still engaged as a freedom fighter although incarcerated for a 2000 murder he did not commit. “It’s

Always Been A Government Conspiracy” (quote from the September 2019 IJAN Status Update), the F.B.I.’s COINTELPRO continues to violate the human rights of Imam Jamil and the New Afrikan Nation.

Photo Credit: Kwame-Osagyefo Kalimara

In March 2002, Imam Jamil Al-Amin was convicted of 13 criminal charges, including a murder of a Fulton County Sheriff deputy, sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole; although a person confessed to the shooting prior to Al-Amin’s conviction, which the prosecution hid from defense council. The trial judge, it must also be noted, placed a “Gag Order” on Al-Amin forbidding him to speak in his defense, which is still in effect. During the appeal process the F.B.I., under the Freedom of Information Act, was forced to acknowledge and release 44,000 pages of surveillance documentation on H. Rap Brown from the 1960’s forward. Friday’s symposium workshop titles were Plenary 1 – From H. Rap Brown to Jamil Al-Amin; Plenary 2 – Jamil Al-Amin’s intellectual trajectory and Black women in the movement; Plenary 3 – Agitation: From the Local to the Global; Plenary 4 – Radical Memories, Black Power, and Islam; and Culture, Arts, Imam Jamil and Struggle. The moderators and panelists were respectively, Robyn C. Spencer (Brooklyn College), Karima Al-Amin (spouse and Attorney), Komozi Woodard (Sara Lawrence College); Efia Nwangaza (Malcolm X Center S.C.), Shafeah M’Balia (Black Workers for Justice), Aisha Al-Adawiya (Women in Islam, Inc.); Michael West (Binghamton University), Quito Swan (UMASS Boston), Eusi Kwayana (Guyanese cabinet minister in the People’s Progressive Party government of 1953); Arun Kundnani (New York University), Imam Nadim Sulaiman Ali (Imam of the Community Masjid of Atlanta); Jameel Blair (spoken word artist) and Bilal Sunni-Ali (former Political Prisoner, artist). Akinyele Umoja welcomed and opened the entire symposium, sharing the purpose and its objectives.

Photo Credit: Kwame-Osagyefo Kalimara

Saturday’s symposium workshop titles were “1960s COINTELPRO to 21st Century Patriot Act’, Jamil Al-Amin as Imam: His Theology and Al-Ummah and Jamil Al-Amin as Political Prisoner: His Capture and the Fight to get him Free. The moderators and panelists were respectively, Akinyele Umoja, Ward Churchill (University of Colorado, Boulder 1990-2007), Johanna Fernandez (Mumia Abu-Jamal supporter), Sekou Odinga (former Prisoner of War), Masai Ehehosi (Prison and Gang Program of Al-Ummah); Hugh Esco (Secretary for the Georgia Green Party), Jamal Abdul Hakim (Community Masjid of Atlanta), Mauri Saalakhan (Director, Aafia Foundation), Akil Fahd (historian West End Community), Kairi Al-Amin (son, attorney); Tarell Kyles (scholar-activist), Khalid Abdus-Samad (coordinator “Peace the Hood” Cleveland, Ohio), Haroun Shahid Wakil (“Street Groomers” West End Community); Heather Gray (former director Non-Violent Program at the King Center), Watani Tyehimba (New Afrikan Peoples’ Organization/Malcolm X Grassroots Movement), Bilal Sunni-Ali and Shafeah M’Balia. The Friday symposium’s focus centered around H. Rap Brown’s entry into activism, his influences and where his influence impacted others both in the united states empire and globally. Die, Nigger, Die (published in 1969) was the foundation of the exploration of Al-Amin’s life as Rap. He shared beliefs on what black people (New Afrikans) needed to free ourselves from white oppression. There were personal presentations on Brown from Karima, his wife, and Last Poet Felipe Luciano. Their sharing was endearing, illustrating his humor and skills in “playing the dozens.” Clarity was given on the information on his relationship with SNCC, the Black Panther Party and other organizations and the role he played and why. Other presenters focused on the legal trials prior to the transition from H.

Rap Brown to Imam Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin. It is important to acknowledge that Black Women in the movement workshop presented rich information on the significance of their political role and the interactions with Brown/Al-Amin. The Saturday symposium’s focus centered on COINTELPRO, the Patriot Act; Islamic Theology; Political Prisoners (local & national) and Prisoners of War. Ward Churchill shared an exhaustive rendition of the illegal u.s. government programs targeting legitimate political movements in this country. Former POW’s Sekeou Odinga and Masai Ehehosi lent their personal experiences which added to the gravity of the human rights violations. Mumia Abu-Jamal’s recorded message to this forum was shared. Recognition was given to the Move Organization and the Jericho Movement for their steadfast dedication to the freedom of all Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War. The last segment of Saturday’s symposium centered on Al-Amin’s 2002 trial in Fulton County, Georgia for murder. All of the contradictions supporting Al-Amin’s innocence were addressed and why the u.s. judicial system refuses to acknowledge those facts. Both days of the Re-Learning H. Rap Brown, A Symposium on the 50th Anniversary of His Groundbreaking Book, Die, Nigger, Die were illuminating. You may see much of the presentations on MXGM’s Facebook page. Imam Jamil Al-Amin’s family encourages interested persons to visit https://whathappened2rap.com/ for additional information on how to support Imam Jamil Al-Amin.

Section 5: Culture Galilee Theron Wilkerson

I trace my lineage up the Pearl and Yockanookany Orange mud like play dough from Ofahoma to Cascade down Old Canton Back when routes became dirt roads marked by four wheelers. I built trails with machetes that became too rusty for daddy But sharp enough to make a jungle out of woods. I walked the Attala when the school bus fines were too high And left the 24th Amendment in the classroom When textbooks were too taxing to carry out. I did the Cupid Shuffle for Y2K And gambled my new Filas on obedience. I survived the Apocalypse and walked back to the projects. I moved to the top of a hill where Toyotas jumped and flipped Into blood stained ditches I hop over to take short cuts to church.

Acorns and wild berries were lunch in one room schools That my bloodline left for burning houses Incensed by the rivers of the righteous. A mulatto hung, bled and died with his saddle Covering his unmarked cemetery. A square shaped salute to Dixie. Pearls are maimed under pressure; Mares are fed with blood from Barnett’s red reservoir. Haints float out of the mouth of old folk Hovering like dragonflies over Highway 25. Afterimages flash like steam from the mildew Of Mississippi engines running hot. I cast my ballot in soil arable for tilling nightmares Planting dreams in crop rotation Transmuting the dominance of crimson vines With family reunions and my uncle’s barbeque. We eulogized him with helium on our tongues Our obituaries stuffed in purses And pinned over penny filled moonshine jars. I found his tears off Ellis pouring off his cousin’s face And into his nephew’s hands. We ate Kush from the Senegambia Stuffed into Tupperware and twisted sandwich bags. We spread our herbs across the district And named our homeland celebrations for dressing. We dreamed Edwards, burrowing ourselves in the mud, To hide our Afrikan village from southern heritage and blue pride. We commune in Harmony and Pilgrim’s Rest Out by where O.E. Jordan was put to rest. What a consistent sacrifice of fortune, Trading love and hope and resistance For unmarked cemeteries. But we keep some of our Galilees. We build some of our Mound Bayous And preserve our Smith Robertsons. We survive the Revelations and the burnings Though we, sometimes, forget.

Blind Mckenna https://mckennab.com Built from gritty concrete I grew up quiet and sweet At the nucleus of me, at my center I had love, my feelings tender But the wall so high, it reached even to my white teeth The core of some of us is rough Cause it’s either be vulnerable or tough Wasn’t until you reached inside my heart so soft That your vibration waft Through my body so powerful my ego was scuffed The sun rested softly on my face Was when I realized it’s me that’s laced With all the gifts you gave me at the beginning All the time I was winning So who cares what you call me/I call myself grace

Use This Gospel Nyeusi Jami

On October 25, 2019, Kanye West dropped his ninth studio album, titled Jesus Is King. The album debuted at number one on five different Billboard charts, including the all-genres Billboard 200 and the Hot Christian Songs chart. A week later, the movie Harriet debuted in theaters, with many Black organizations hosting private screenings as fundraisers. Moviegoers saw not only the heroism of Harriet Tubman but also the singing of Negro Spirituals with coded messages for those who were enslaved.

Photo Credit - WFMT 98.7

These two recent cultural pieces have put a highlight on the influence that New Afrikan (Black) musical traditions have had on what is considered American popular music. During America’s early years, the settlers (white people) received most of their entertainment from the enslaved. Using makeshift instruments and their own bodies, Afrikan peoples created unique musical ensembles. One of the most widespread of early musical forms among southern Afrikans was the Spiritual. The Spirituals expressed the longing of the enslaved Afrikans for spiritual and bodily freedom, for safety from harm and evil, and for relief from the hardships of slavery. We are all familiar with how people grow up playing music in the church and then go on to create music in other genres. That is basically the story of music in the United States in general. The style of music originally created on southern plantations eventually evolved into Jubillee Singers, Ragtime, Blues, Jazz, Rock n Roll, Country, Soul, Funk, and Rap. In all of these genres, Black folks’ pain has served as the main fodder for creative content. From “sometimes I feel like a motherless child,” to “don’t push me because I’m close to the edge,” New Afrikans are masters at turning our suffering into the world’s greatest art. Our music and art have been the primary ways for us to soothe the pain of our enslavement, colonization, and continued oppression. One of the greatest examples of this in the history of music is the song “Strange Fruit.” In 1937, a member of the American Communist Party named Abel Meeropol, son of Russian Jewish immigrants born in New York City, published an anti-lynching poem called “Bitter Fruit.” A couple of years later, a Black woman named Billie Holiday helped him set the poem to music and she recorded it under the title of “Strange Fruit.” Billie Holiday never received credit for creating the music to go along with the words. But she did make the song famous with her historically great performance of it on record and in live shows. The song describes Black bodies hanging from poplar trees in the South, looking like a most

strange and bitter crop. Billie’s vocals bring the scene to life, in a larger-than-life way. Nina Simone brought the same song to a new generation when she recorded it in 1965. Her vocal interpretation was quite different, reflecting the spirit of the rising Black Power movement of the time; she allowed the imagery of lynchings to shine light on just how much our condition in this country had not changed. If you have never heard (or truly listened to) both Billie’s and Nina’s versions of this song, do yourself a favor and look them up. Unfortunately, our musical creations have also become another tool for our exploitation. The entire music industry was built on selling the success of Black music. Scott Joplin’s “Maple Leaf Rag” in 1899 was America’s first hit record, selling over a million sheet-music copies. For decades, white performers thrived by performing “coon songs” or “minstrel shows,” painting their faces Black and performing imitations of the kinds of song and dance created by enslaved Afrikans. Songwriters like W.C. Handy circa 1914 turned the Blues into some of the earliest hit records, carrying the sounds of the Mississippi Delta to the big cities throughout America and around the world. In the 1960’s, American and British white acts like Elvis Presley, The Beatles, and Led Zeppelin all admitted that they copied Blues artists like Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, and B.B. King. Despite this tremendous influence on what became the popular music for multiple generations, Black folks have never been the primary financial beneficiaries of what we created. White, mostly Jewish, people became the owners and controllers of the music industry around one hundred years ago. They owned the rights to the songs that they got us to record which made them rich. The white musical acts who stole our songs never gave any payback to those who were their inspirations. Many of our favorite Black musical performers over the years have died broke and destitute because they couldn’t benefit from what they created. Today, the struggle continues. Some of the same families that created the music industry plantation system a century ago are still the ones profiting from Black music today. 75% of all music currently sold in the U.S. is controlled by three companies: Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group, and Sony Corporation. However, technology has given us reason for optimism. Music has become easier than ever to record with just a laptop computer, and streaming services have made it possible for our living room creations to go directly to the smartphones of people all over the world. It is possible to bypass the big machines and maintain ownership of our creativity more than ever before, as shown by artists like Chance the Rapper and Gucci Mane. The one thing that remains constant is that New Afrikans are oppressed, we transmute our suffering into amazing art, and our creations determine what is cool and popular at any given time. The U.S. has no musical culture outside of what we give it. And we need to get PAID - for what we make now and what we have made since we were first brought here. Reparations Now!

By Any Means Necessary Volume 1: Issue 4

2019 Year Review-2020 to Self Determination

By Any Means Necessary Volume 1: Issue 4

Published on Dec 20, 2019

2019 Year Review-2020 to Self Determination

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