Neighbor Newspaper Vol. 42

NEIGHBOR NEWS PAN-AFRIKAN NEWS SERVICE WWWW.NEIGHBORPROGRAM.ORG @CMB.NEIGHBORPROGRAM | @NEIGHBORNEWSPPR

Neighbor Program News Service Vol. 42 December 7,2023

Table of Contents

Poetry - 3 CMB Scholarship - 4 MXA Update - 6 Get Connected - 7 Neighbor Series - 8 Politic & Acknowledgments - 10

Land Acknowledgement WE ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THE NISENAN PEOPLE ARE STILL HERE AMONG US TODAY, THOUGH NEARLY INVISIBLE. WE UNDERSTAND THAT WE ARE ON NISENAN LAND THAT WAS NEVER CEDED AND THE ORIGINAL TRIBAL FAMILIES HAVE YET TO RECOVER FROM THE NEAR GENOCIDE OF THEIR PEOPLE. AS A RESIDENT OR VISITOR IN NISENAN LAND, WE SUPPORT THE NEVADA CITY RANCHERIA NISENAN TRIBE IN EFFORTS TO STABILIZE THEIR PEOPLE AS WELL AS THEIR CAMPAIGN TO RESTORE FEDERAL RECOGNITION.

November Updates 563 grocery boxes 2 breakfast distros 8 mindfulness classes 2 community learnings

Thank You

Your support allows us to continue our work for the community

poetry dystopia is only a facade Rawest Forms you condemn those who have failed to develop your masochistic appetite for death those who cannot unsee the rotting of corpses those who are not plagued with naivety and willful ignorance as we understand that the swelling of empty bellies and the cold sweats of children who cannot sleep away their misery are but mere reflections of our reality we understand that dystopia is only a facade, created to convince us that the world has not already turned to welcome darkness but we remember the faces of our martyrs and the children here who sleep alone on hardened concrete while their caretakers are kidnapped by the demons of the night who call them in for questioning but never allow them to return you see we do not have to look far to understand the righteousness of those whose anger has been transmuted into revolutionary resistance and as they tell us it costs too much to care for another as if our heartbeats have yet to return to their depths since the day the veil was lifted before our eyes we know we have seen terror and evil permeate the soul of this earth and as her lovers and protectors, we do not forget

Incarcerated in America Nevaeh Hall (student submission) An inked body of a nazi skin iconography on the lower arm of a white man. Held in a holding cell for gathering stripped-down photographs of a 9-year-old girl.

His bail is set at $75,000 and ordered to take a class held once a week to get "help".

A tattooed body of a passage from the Bible, and a child’s name On the forearm of a Black man. Held in a holding cell for possession a firearm. Locked and unloaded. His bail is set at NO BOND and is eligible for one phone call a day.

CONCENTRATE, the girl remains unharmed, a singular incident, he grapples with mental turmoil, he is just misunderstood, and his family ties bind him.

Technically, he didn't hurt her.

Concentrate, He possessed a firearm, harboring just the potential of Extreme danger. What if provoked?

Why the need? Where, when, and how acquired?

Does a family stand behind him?

He is a threat to our community.

Technically, he could have

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CMB scholarship National Statement on Palestinian Liberation “People cannot be free until they realize that peace is not the absence of war or struggle…

Peace is the presence of justice” Ella Baker (1964) We speak to you as fellow inheritors and instruments of liberatory struggle. We represent peoples, cultures, and knowledges of Africa, North America, Latin America and Caribbean with a shared history of resistance against Western imperialism, capitalist exploitation, cisheterosexism and patriarchy, and white supremacy with comrades in Asia, Oceania, the Middle East, and Indigenous territories around the world.

As Black peoples in the Americas, we assume the legacy of Africans who confronted and survived European plunder of the continent. As descendants of stolen people who resisted on slave ships and plantations, and marooned themselves in strange lands, we carry on the struggles for liberation of the Black revolutionaries who led armed revolts against enslavement. We call on the spirits of Nzinga, Zumbi, Queen Nanny, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, and Nat Turner.

We speak to you as Africans in the white supremacist cisheterosexist settler colony that is the United States.

We build upon the freedom movements mobilized by Indigenous, Black, and Brown radicals against genocide, sexual exploitation, land dispossession, environmental destruction, slavery, apartheid, economic predation, and premature death. As Black internationalists, we affirm the fight of colonized and other oppressed peoples around the world against racial capitalism and Western imperialism. As Black feminist and queer liberators, we defend the collective right of peoples to achieve freedom by any means necessary.

We speak to you from Turtle Island (aka USA), where our actions for civil and economic rights have been bombarded with the same CTS tear gas deployed in Hebron and Tahrir Square. We speak to you from the occupied cities of Dallas, Detroit, Delaware, Oak Park-Sacramento, Brooklyn, Los Angeles, and Atlanta, where we are being pushed off the margins due to state disinvestment, corporate settlerism, gentrification and police terrorism. Nationally, we struggle against the further militarization of the police using Israeli technologies of terror. And from the center of the U.S. empire, we recognize the white supremacist imperialist plot to exterminate the peoples in the Congo, the Sudan, Yemen, Cuba, Venezuela and Haiti.

“To co-exist, one must first of all exist, so the imperialists and the colonialists must be forced to retreat.”

Amilcar Cabral (1974) As of this statement, the Israeli occupation forces’ relentless and indiscriminate bombardment of schools, mosques, churches, hospitals and homes in the Gaza Strip has killed more than 12,000 people—including more than 4,000 children. 1.5 million of Gaza’s 2.1 million inhabitants are internally displaced. In the West Bank, Israeli occupation forces and state-armed settlers have killed 183 Palestinians. But this struggle did not begin on October 7th.

@communitymovementbuilders @grassrootsthinking

CMB scholarship Statement on Palestinian Liberation

Every facet of Israel’s present campaign of terror – mass civilian deaths; abduction; torture; the murder of journalists; denial of basic resources; restricted mobility; destruction of infrastructure; widespread displacement; and the brazen flouting of international law – has been visited upon the Palestinians for over 75 years of crimes against humanity and genocide. Since the 1948 Nakba, Israeli occupation forces, including Zionist militia, have forcibly displaced more than 700,000 Palestinians and stolen over 78% of historical Palestine.

We rightfully separate being Jewish from being an Israeli settler and a Zionist. We remember and denounce the fascist German regime that slaughtered more than 6 million Jews, 3.3 million Soviet prisoners of war, 1.8 million non-Jewish Poles, up to 250,000 Roma and Sinti people, over 240,000 disabled people (including 5,000 children), and over 15,000 gay men in the 20th century. As such, we recognize that the removal of Indigenous Palestinians from their land to establish Israel is not justice for the Jewish people. Instead, the United States and the United Kingdom invented the Zionist state as a colonial outpost to protect Western capitalist interests in the Middle East.

Community Movement Builders unequivocally supports the right of ALL colonized people to liberate themselves from oppression by any means necessary. We believe that all humans have the right to a homeland, and relatedly the right to clean water, fresh air, foods that nourish, quality housing and safety, as well as relationships with other humans in the form of families and communities.

“I’m for truth, no matter who tells it. I’m for justice, no matter who it is for or against.

I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.”

Malcolm X (1963) May the Palestinian people’s ongoing resistance to their oppression serve as a reminder that colonialism is not invincible, and that nowhere is safe as long as it remains in place. May those who resist continue to inspire all of us who dream of collective self-determination.

We proclaim all power to the people. We declare our solidarity with Palestine liberation.

Long Live the Intifada!

No to Genocide!

End the Israeli occupation of Palestine!

No to fascism and imperialism!

Yes to Peace and Liberation in our Lifetime!

From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free!

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mxa update we show love and respect to our friends mel olugbala this past month at mxa, we have been continuing to figure out for ourselves what exactly it means to move in love. and i’ve been so grateful for the opportunity to do that alongside our learners and their families. during our family conferences in mid-november, one of the things we did was ask each of our learners which of our community agreements they felt they excelled in and where they could use more practice. not including “we keep our space clean” – an agreement we’re all struggling with since having to downsize – the agreement most learners named was “we show love and respect to our friends…” needless to say, our learners are very self aware. because, where we spent the first half of this semester learning how to breathe, we’ve spent even more time since navigating beef – a lot of which was tied to who we are, what we believe and what that means for how we put things into practice. november was punctuated by regular, unofficial restorative circles full of a bunch of people with some very big feelings – learners, learning guides and families. shit was rough. but i think the fact that we’d all been learning how to breathe helped. our team has been able to slow down and consider how we want to move: “in love” is always the easy answer. but what would that actually look like in practice? choosing love is hard. and trying to define love is nearly impossible. everyone comes into space with a personally significant definition of what it looks like to move in love, and most times can hold that definition with a rationalization rooted in truths.. so, lately when i’ve been thinking about love, i think about what it means to do the exact opposite of what the empire would do. for the purpose of this piece, “the empire” refers to colonizing forces that prioritize the sustainability of capitalism above all else (see: amerikkka, “israel”). it helps. so lately what i’ve been reflecting on, and trying to bring into our space is a practice of thinking “what would the empire do? and how can we plan to do something completely different?” where the empire would say, “dispose of this person,” how can we find a way to keep them around and deepen our connection? where the empire would say “they’re more trouble than it’s worth,” how can we keep ourselves open to the possibility that it could actually end up being the most worthwhile. where the empire says “punish them” how can we instead question our own realities and share in a moment of growth? don’t get me wrong, i am constantly questioning whether my conceptualization of love is naive. i understand the risks present for a revolutionary organization that chooses grace or trust when faced with uncertain situations. at the same time, i’m 30+ and i think this conceptualization may just be one of those habits i’m stuck with for life. so i’m learning how to live with it. and at mxa, i get to practice it. because at the end of the day, our school is really just a few dedicated scientific socialists who happen to be skilled educators and have come together to test a hypothesis. and we are so grateful to all those who’ve opted into this mad scientist experiment of ours (to quote Lauryn Hill’s Unplugged). so, we sat in circle with the learners of mxa (sometimes with their families) week after week, talking through how/if we were showing love and respect to our friends. talking through our community agreements, our shared values, bodily autonomy and our hard boundaries as Afrikans. we sat in circle and addressed beef to the point where i know these kids are sick of hearing me and i have a much better understanding of why my college students were begging to go back to sitting in rows by the end of our summer in ghana lol. and, at the end of it, all of our babies know they are loved. they all have been able to be reflective for themselves of what it looks like to move in love. i have learned from them how i can better support their learning and growth. with them, i have been forced to test my own commitment to living a life of love again and again. and, what’s most beautiful to me is that i’ve learned that they/we all can sit down and talk to each other about some really big things. i have witnessed it. the experiment is working. we don’t always do it perfectly. in some cases we do have to revert back to the things we know – and at times we encourage it. but in the 4 short weeks of november, our community has been able to heal so much hurt. in 4 short weeks, our community has been able to move deeper in connection with one another. it’s been the most worthwhile thing.

get connected

For more info on Malcolm X Academy for Afrikan Education please follow us on IG @916mxa, visit our website malcolmxacademy.org or use the scan code to fill out our interest form

Community Learning is every 2nd & 4th Monday night at the Shakur House at 7:00pm Scan the QR codes to watch November’s Community Learning Classes

Mindfulness is in-person every Monday night at Functional Elements at 6:30pm & on IG Live every Tuesday at 6:30pm Scan the QR codes to watch November’s Mindfulness Classes

Go listen to Rawest Forms Podcast on Spotify!

Scan the QR codes to listen to “love as sacrifice”

7

neighbor series How the media co-opts the Afrikan Struggle Jordan McGowan The media’s the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power. Because they control the minds of the masses.

- Malcolm X This quote has been used quite a bit recently given the empire’s media coverage and stance on the atrocities and genocide of the Palestinian people. But I ask us to take an even deeper look at this quote in the context of how the amerikkkan media is an integral component to the amerikkkan system operating as a whole. And more specifically focused on how the media is able to help co-opt Afrikan revolutionaries, their politics, movements and legacies.

December 1st marks the anniversary of Mrs. Rosa Parks arrest in Montgomery, Alabama for refusing to adhere to racist Jim Crow laws. Now that is the extent of what most people know about Mrs. Parks but her contribution to our people’s liberation struggle is much more profound than simply refusing to give up a seat and challenging Jim Crow. Mrs. Parks was a staunch advocate for Afrikans inside the empire. From organizing to defend the wrongly accused including the nine Scottsboro boys, falsely accused of rape to her work focused on voter registration, youth outreach, and even pursuing legal remedies for Afrikan victims of white brutality and sexual violence.

Because of her and her husbands’ politics, the Parks were forced to flee Montgomery and the South altogether and relocate to Detroit in order to find sufficient employment to live. While in Detroit, the Parks’ still faced employment and housing security problems coupled with growing health complications, likely from the burden of going to war with the empire. This did not stop Ms. Rosa from getting active! While in Detroit, her work in the Afrikan struggle inside of the empire indicates her steadfast commitment toward our people. Ms. Rosa actually worked on prisoner support, co-led the Detroit chapter of the Friends of SNCC (the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) and was active in the anti-war movement during the Vietnam War years. And even at age 74 was able to open the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development, which educates young people about the struggle for civil and human rights and is still open today.

This is not what the media gives us of Mrs. Parks though is it? Mrs. Parks was a political prisoner, an organizer, she was actively working against the empire, YET her life has now been co-opted by amerikkka, and therefore the media, to fit the narrative and agenda necessary for amerikkka to persist. While Ms. Rosa fought for Afrikans to be treated as human beings inside of the empire, empire has used the media to convey to us that “Black history is American history” and our People’s historic struggle against empire is somehow something that should make us proud to now be accepted into the empire if we are willing to sacrifice just enough (read: our people). Congresswoman Terri Sewell (D-AL) is pushing for the Rosa Parks Day Act. The bill would make Dec. 1 a federal holiday commemorating the arrest of Rosa Parks. But how many holidays can they give us y’all? MLK, Juneteenth, Rosa Parks Day too; sure why not? Who isn’t for it? I mean it’s not like majority of the Afrikan people, who are often forced to work service jobs as a means of survival, will see much of a change because of this holiday and yay #representationmatters but won’t this be yet another symbol of “progress” from the empire without changing any material condition of Afrikan people?

Representation matters and elections matter because that’s what our ancestors fought and died for right? Again, this is how the media has deceived us. We should study and learn from those who were organizing Afrikans to vote when they say things like …

“I’ve never voted in my life in the democratic party and I’ll never vote in the democratic party. It’s racist and it’s capitalist! To the core! This is understood. And I shed my blood! I shed my blood for the vote, now, I want to make that clear. Some people get confused.The vote for me has never been the road to liberation. It’s only been a means of organizing my people.”

— Kwame Ture “Black folks never fought and died for the vote. we fought and died to be left the fuxk alone by kkkracks” — Dhoruba bin Wahad “we can only use the vote as a means to organize our people.”

— Jamil Al-Amin

Neighbor series

The same #representationmatters representatives in congress, your state legislature or city council members are the same ones signing off on genocide, voting against human rights, and pledging loyalty to the amerikkkan empire which was convicted of 5 counts of genocide in October 2020. These are the same kkkoons signing off on bills that criminalize ski masks in Philadelphia, or tap dancing for massa on a stage to keep the slaves in line. The media covers what is necessary to keep the slaves preoccupied and unfocused on what they are subjected too as to keep them subdued. The media can and has convinced us that being accepted into the amerikkkan empire is the goal instead of our collective liberation.

And that is exactly how Chairman Fred Hampton Sr’s legacy and politic has been co-opted by empire’s media as well.

Chairman Fred was a dynamic leader even in his early years, so much so the FBI began surveillance on Fred while he was only in high school. This surveillance and subsequent conspiracy to neutralize him took many shapes including false charges and multiple arrest. Ultimately culminating in the planned execution of as many Panthers as possible in the early morning December 4th raid where Chairman Fred and Captain Mark Clark were martyred. After his assassination, Fred’s rainbow coalition was co-opted into electoral politics and away from community control of resources to ensure the people’s needs were met. Fred Hampton’s politic was largely left out of the hollywood adaptation of his assassination, and Indiana University history professor Jakobi Williams argues that Hampton’s coalition and death led to the election of Obama. This is how legacies are co-opted!

The amerikkkan media is a tool of the amerikkkan empire; which is why you see the Obama’s producing movies for Netflix. Their latest film “Rustin”, is another example of amerikkkan neo-kkkolonial propaganda. Bayard Rustin is no hero or supporter of Afrikan Liberation,; in fact he was a staunch critic of Malcolm X and Black Nationalism, a Zionist, and worked with the government against the anti-war movement. Rustin was a house nigga whose job was to keep the slaves in line, just like Obama; this is how the media is able to manipulate our people’s understanding of history.

This is how we as a people fall for the traps set up by the amerikkkan empire. While a gang of us are caught up in the debate over hiphop lyrics between Dee-1 and Rick Ross, Meek, Jim Jones and the like — others are focused on Diddy and Johnathan Majors, this is all intentional. The media is picking up and covering whatever fits the agenda for the money to keep coming in, which means creating the necessary content to keep the slaves content. It would serve us well to begin to move away from amerikkkan media and remember why it is so important for us to understand amerikkkan media as another key component to the continued success of the amerikkkan empire and actively work against it.

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Acknowledgements Special thanks to all who contributed their time, labor, effort and work to this issue of Neighbor Newspaper. Thank you to Nicole Crawford, mel olugbala, RaiiN Ali, Dejay Bilal, Shane Williams, the MXA babies, Mama Kim, Mason Forbes, Community Movement Builders and EVERYONE working towards Afrikan Liberation!

Afrika WILL Unite!

Support the Shakur House Scan the QR code to visit our GoFundMe page

Ancestor Acknowledgement

By Mason Forbes (@mason_4bs) Neighbor Ancestor Acknowledgement We take this moment to honor and acknowledge our Ancestors, as we understand that we are one with them and their spirits live on through us.

We ask that they hear and accept our praise and reverence as we seek their continued guidance and heed their direction, trusting that with the wisdom and clarity they provide no feat is insurmountable.

We are washed and made anew in waters of their blessing, rising cleansed of all impurities, all blockages that might prevent us from fulfilling our purpose in this lifetime swept away.

We recognize their sacrifices and take refuge in the protection offered by the spiritual fortress they have built around us on a foundation of revolutionary love.

We ask them to grant us strength and good fortune, blessing our swords, shields, and hearts as we struggle for the right to determine our own destinies and that of our communities, striking down any enemies that may stand in our path.

We ask that they connect us with those who wish to join our cause and unify us as we channel our collective energies towards our major political objective, to build a new world where radical love for human beings is found.

Neighbor Power to the Neighbors & Divine Love to All

10 Point Program & Platform 1. WE WANT freedom. We want power to determine the destiny of our Afrikan and Indigenous Communities.

2. WE WANT full employment for the people.

3. WE WANT an end to the robbery by the kkkapitalist of our Afrikan and Indigenous Community domestically and globally.

4. WE WANT decent housing, fit for the shelter of human beings.

5. WE WANT education for our People that exposes the true nature of this decadent amerikkkan society. We want education that teaches us our true history and our role in the present-day society.

6. WE WANT the abolition of the Military-Industrial Complex 7. WE WANT an immediate end to POLICE BRUTALITY and MURDER of the People.

8. WE WANT freedom for all Afrikan People held in federal, state, county, and city prisons and jails.

9. WE WANT abolition! We believe the carceral system is inherently racist and that there are better alternatives to reduce harm.

10. WE WANT land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice and peace. And as our major political objective, a new world where radical love for human beings is found and the land is given back to its indigenous People.

Peace, Love, Freedom, All Power to the People

AFRIKA UNITE!!!

The 10 Point Platform & Program was written by Huey P Newton & Bobby Seal in 1966 & was the guiding ideological base for the Black Panther Party. Neighbor Program has adopted the 10 Point Platform & Program & edited some language based off guidance provided by elders to affirm the people's victory.