NEIGHBOR NEWS PAN-AFRIKAN NEWS SERVICE WWWW.NEIGHBORPROGRAM.ORG @CMB.NEIGHBORPROGRAM | @NEIGHBORNEWSPPR
Neighbor Program News Service Vol. 43 Jan 8, 2024 2023 Recap
Table of Contents
2023 Recap - 3 Poetry - 4 Free Em All - 5 Shakur Scholarship - 7 & 8 Neighbor Series - 8 & 9 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.
December Updates 608 grocery boxes 2 breakfast distros 6 mindfulness classes 2 community learnings
Thank You
Your support allows us to continue our work for the community
2023 recap
6 ,10 8 GROCER
5 ,0 5 8
Y BOXES
15
MEA
LS &
SNA
CK P
ACK
S
NEWSPAPERS & COMMUNITY LEARNING CLASSES JOINED COMMUNITY MOVEMENT BUILDERS AS SACRAMENTO CHAPTER & PLANTING OF LA CHAPTER
5 open mics 3 markets 3 health clinics Free Mumia Day Malcolm X Day
63 MINDFULNESS CLASSES
3
poetry Beyond The Yard Jordan McGowan Beyond the yard & over the fence … That’s where we will meet again one day Where the birds can be heard singing, our babies are dancing and and even the wind will pull you close Where sidewalks don’t double as beds & streets don’t serve as graveyards Beyond the yard, just past the fence At the very end of our reach There’s a place - if you make it That will give your soul some peace Where we can breathe fully Without pollutants like politicians & pigs Where we can just exist & have a right to live Beyond the yard & over the fence … That’s where we will meet Outside the yard & over the gate Where forever we will be free
House Negro Raiin Ali I come from the city of trees Was born a winner You are experiencing A true committer Each time that I breathe The veil grows thinner Pick your head up nigga Pick your head up Nigga Waiting for politicians to put your city on Rappin out your ass just to get to the top No substance in life after the peak you’ll fall Teach the youth somethin other than how u get in them drawls Weak ass niggas, always talk they talk Choppin your jaws but what that action do? Stay Kissin Mozzy’s ass bruh what’s the use Just to get some traction he’d split yo ass in 2 These house niggas stay tyin up they own noose Came to terms most of my people love the oppression Craving suffrage like the outcome is the blessin Yall addicted to the pain just to learn some lessons Sacrifice a bit, you’ll be closer to heaven Ancestors rang my soul left and met them Traveled light years but it only took a second Felt water through my toes way back in Kemet And the sadness of the world as a whole collective I flew galaxies afar, danced passed mars Star Sirius thrives with every beat of my heart Life ain’t a race but you gatta press start Matter fact for this fresh start we gatta fall apart Feelin every day I’m not doing enough Even though by any means I be fighting for love Not a soul alive or dead could call my bluff No matter what ima keep it pushin because I come from the city of trees Was born a winner You are experiencing A true committer Each time that I breathe The veil grows thinner Pick your head up Pick your head up Nigga
free em all
Ed Poindexter was a member of the Omaha Chapter of
e r
R
o i n P d d e E xt P I
ELDERS LOST IN 2023
the Black Panther Party. Ed was part of the famous Omaha 2 case, in which the Omaha PD, DA & FBI coordinated to frame Poindexter and Wopashitewe Mondo Eyen we Langa for the 1970 death of an Omaha Pig Department officer.
Ralph Poynter Mutulu Shakur Ruchell Magee Allen Carroll Jr Eddie Conway 5
mxa update january 1: reflections on revolutionary education mel olugbala
at the start of each year, i feel grateful to be able to find myself in ritual, celebration and honoring of my ancestry by recognizing the liberation of Ayiti and Cuba, respectively. despite the fact that Ayiti, unfortunately, provides a great case study on the imperial experiment of the so called united states and can reveal (to those who study it) the dangers of “achieving revolution” without 1) an alternative system in place and 2) the means to defend said sovereignty. but i’m not here to write about that today (yet still lowkey waiting for some lucky department to hire me to teach a course on that). instead, i want to take the time to uplift and honor the legacies of political education in Ayiti, Cuba and within the Zapatistas who also celebrate the anniversary of their uprising in Chiapas on january 1st.
Cuba immediately following their independence, Cuba launched their literacy campaign which trained over 250,000 youth and young adults to travel across the newly independent state ensuring all members of their society knew how to read. to this day, Cuba’s literacy rate outpaces most of the rest of the world’s at 99.7%. this literacy campaign emphasized a holistic approach to learning which met all members of cuban society where they were at both figuratively and literally. volunteers travelled across the country, lived amongst their communities, worked alongside the people, participated in collective efforts of community well-being and coordinated lessons based on the day-to-day ongoings and capacity of their students.
Ayiti by contrast, many of Ayiti’s systems of schooling are still dominated by western ideologies with competing capitalistic/eurocentric/religious agendas. furthermore, schooling was actively discouraged via privatization and caste-based gatekeeping following their liberation. lack of literacy has allowed imperialist powers to exploit the people of Ayiti - namely through declaring retribution in writing with a justification of violence for nonresponse on multiple occasions and in 1919 when the people were manipulated into overturning Dessalines’ decree which outlawed foreign ownership of haitian land. still, anti-imperialist leaders like Aristide emphasized selfsufficiency via education by redirecting governmental resources into public education, providing scholarships and enacting Ayiti’s own literacy campaign in 2001 which trained and brought folks together across various faiths and entities to organize literacy centers which doubled as community kitchens.
Zapatistas also in 2001, Zapatista families who continued to experience the colonial violence imposed on them by traditional mexican schooling systems began to organize their own True Education. they removed their children from public schools, established education centers, elected and trained teachers and developed curriculum which centered literacy, critical consciousness and problem solving all through the lens of maintaining indigenous culture and sovereignty. our team is grateful to have been able to take many teachings from the Zapatista schools and integrated them into our work at MXA. which leads me to this: one thing the babies at mxa know about me is that i’m going to make them read. i’ll play with them all day, but i don’t play about literacy. one day, our babies will leave us and move fully into a world where they are surrounded by propaganda and may or may not have access to spaces like our school to counter all the messages they are receiving. as they grow and begin to experience and perceive things for themselves, they might one day find themselves in personal conflict with the things we’ve taught them. it is not an ideal way of thinking, but it is a reality. exposure to the “true nature of this decadent [amerikkkan] society” is allowing our babies to gain a better understanding of what they’re up against. rooting in R/evolution is Love and our community agreements is developing their critical consciousness, dignity and hearts. literacy is a tool to ensure that they will not be manipulated and will always have access to those decadent histories, and to their stories of dignity — regardless of where they may find themselves.
shakur scholarship Studying Liberation: The 1994 Zapatista Uprising 3 Decades Later Dejay Bilal “Here we live worse than dogs. We had to choose: to live like animals or die like dignified people. Dignity, Miguel, is the only thing that one should never lose...never.” — Subcomandante Marcos On New Years Day, 1994—the same day the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was operationalized—the faceless people of the Zapatistas (predominantly Indigenous Ch’ol, Tzeltal, Tzotzil, Tojolobal, Mam, and Zoque Indigenous peoples) proudly introduced themselves to the word through an armed people’s rebellion in Chiapas, Mexico. Much like there relatives from across Abya Yala, the Indigenous communities of the region have resisted and survived centuries of settler colonial terror carried out via mechanisms like prisons, ghettos, mission schools, policing, slavery, and forced immigration. The Zapatista people felt that the Mexican government—an extension of the Spanish settler-colonial project—was gradually eradicating them. We cover our faces so that you can see us. This famous Zapatista saying rung true on this day in particular; for a group of people often erased by politicians and exploited by global economies, the masked rebels of the EZLN made previously invisible faces visible to the entire world. Their demands? Simple. They wanted work, land, shelter, food, health, education, independence, freedom, democracy, justice, and peace for their people. While the signing of the NAFTA was a significant threat to the crops that support the economy for Indigenous farmworkers in Chiapas, this armed insurrection at its core was a direct response to over 500 years of settler-colonial terror inflicted upon the Indigenous people’s of the region. On that morning of January 1st, 1994, the Zapatistas and their fearless National Liberation Army (Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional, EZLN) descended opon six different cities within the state of Chiapas by occupying government buildings, liberating political prisoners from San Cristóbal de Las Casas prison camp, evicting landlords from haciendas, and bravely exchanging fire with the enemy Mexican military. In response to the many losses it was taking from the EZLNs tactical offensive, the enemy army began dropping bombs upon the mountains of Chiapas over a multi-day period. This reckless bombardment ignited riots throughout the streets and cities across Mexico. In the end, it was the offensive carried out by EZLN that forced the Mexican Government to approach the valiant rebel army in peace talks. Even with the signing of the San Andrés Accords in place, the Mexican governments response to the 1994 uprising has resulted in years of retaliation and repression. In the face of a great defeat to the small but mighty army of the EZLN, Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo dispatched thousands of troops into Zapatista territory in an attempt to locate the immortal Subcomandante Marcos, the movement's wellknown spokesperson. Unsurprisingly, they failed to locate him. Small, collectively owned businesses were destroyed and homes and fields were set on fire by the army, police, and its hired goons. Dozens of Indigenous civilians were captured and taken as political prisoners. The operation signaled the start of a covert campaign against the Zapatista communities who wholly uplifted the efforts of the EZLN rebel army. As I write this at the start of 2024, the Mexican Government continues to engage in a war of extermination on the Indigenous people of the Zapatistas. This is a war that the Spanish Conquistadors first waged over 500 years ago. In November of 2023, spokes person and Insurgent Subcomandante Moisés of the EZLN wrote a letter to the world, breaking a seemingly years long silence of the rebel army’s representatives. Subcomondante Moises acknowledges this gap in communication with the world as he writes, “Our silence in these years was not, nor is it, a sign of respect or endorsement of anything, but rather that we strive to see further and seek what everyone, everyone, everyone is looking for: a way out of the nightmare. As you learn from subsequent writings what we have been doing, perhaps you will understand that our attention has been elsewhere.” In this essay (cited in the reference section), Subcomandante Moisés outlines the Mexican Governments ongoing war with the Zapatista people that is being driven by the increased militirazation of Chiapas—a direct response to what Subcomandante Moisés identifies as a “order that came from the North American government.” He also lets the world know that the Zapatistas have reshaped their governmental structure—a process that took an entire decade—and are preparing to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their uprising in 1994—an insurrection the Subcomandante calls “the war against oblivion.” He reports to the world that the state of Chiapas is in “complete chaos,” where the people have been resisting “blockades, assaults, kidnappings, rent collection, forced recruitment, and shootings” being carried out by what he calls the governments “legal hitmen” or “disorganized crime” units. According to the Subcomandante, the purpose of the federal, state, and local armed forces and law enforcement in Chiapas is not to defend the general populace. Their one and only goal is to halt migration and the warmongering government of the so-called United States has issued that directive. They have made migration into a business, as is their custom. “Human smuggling and trafficking is a business of the authorities who, through extortion, kidnapping and buying and selling of migrants, shamelessly enrich themselves.” This letter was distributed to the world this past November of 2023. Almost three decades later, the Zapatistas have concentrated their efforts on leading a life of decolonial, anticapitalist, collective resistance, centered upon reclaiming land, providing for one another, and exercising autonomy. In order to maintain their autonomy, the Zapatistas prioritize Indigenous customs and practices of agroecological food sovereignty, egalitarian gender relations, Indigenous health care, grassroots education, and
7
shakur scholarship For the Zapatista people, collective autonomy of a people requires economic independence. One of the core pillars of Zapatista autonomy is collective work. It sustains the hospitals, clinics, elementary and secondary education, municipalities, and Local Autonomous Government boards. The Zapatista families in each of the caracoles throughout the region have set up small economic cooperatives which include coffee farms, bakeries, animal farms, shared agricultural fields, art collectives, and more. The caracoles are the organizational regions that make up the autonomous Zapatista communities. Within each Caracoles there is a specific governmental structure—which I noted above, has recently undergone a decades long process of change to provide even more control over decision making to the Indigenous workers who make up the localized zones. According to the update provided by Insurgent Subcomandante Moisés, there are now thousands of Local Autonomous Government Boards (formerly known as Good Governemnt Boards) in the region that control their own institutions for Health, Education, Agroecology, Justice, Commerce, and more. They are coordinated by autonomous assemblies of the “town, ranchería, community, area, neighborhood, ejido, colony, or however each population calls itself.” Within this community-based decision making model, the specific needs identified by each autonomous zone are proposed, discussed, and resolved through direct democratic assemblies that center the voices of those who sustain the community. This study is far from complete, but it provides us with a broad overview of the Zapatista project of autonomy that is relevant to any serious liberation struggle across the Global South. Just like their relatives in Gaza, the EZLN is waging a fierce war against an occupying government (Glory to the Resistance and All its Martyrs—Palestine will be free). I want to conclude this study with words from Subcomandante Marcos. In his essay to the children of Mexico (1994), he beautifully summarizes the purpose of the militant, a crucial actor in the project for educational autonomy. He writes: “I am sure that one day, as I write to you here, you will understand that it is possible that men and women exist like us--faceless and nameless, who have left everything, even life itself, so that others (children like you and those who are not like you) can wake up every morning without words that silence and without masks to face the world. When this day comes we, the faceless and the nameless, will be able to rest, finally, under the ground... quite dead, certainly, but happy. Our profession: Hope. It turns out that yes, we are professionals. But our profession is hope. We decided one fine day to make ourselves soldiers so that one day soldiers would not be needed. That is, we picked a suicidal profession because it is a profession whose objective is to disappear: Soldiers who are soldiers so that one day nobody will need to be a soldier. This is clear, right?” This is more than clear, Subcomandante Marcos—and as you continue to wage a war within the occupied territories of Chiapas, your African and Indgenous relatives from across the globe are working to carry on your profession of hope. By now, nearly the whole world has heard of your organization and the Zapatista people have taught the world how to educate those who educate us—an true process of reciprocity.
The 2024 Election Boogeyman Jordan McGowan In 2008, young people inside of the amerikkkan empire voted in historic fashion for Barack Obama, and ever since amerikkkan politics have had a strong focus on galvanizing youth and pushing their hope and faith for societal change into electoral politics. As a result of Obama’s symbolic victory for “Black” people in amerikkka in the 2016 election we saw a swing towards ethno-nationalism which gave Trump the 2016 election. I believe the political trend of ethno-nationalism will continue to rise as the empire loses its strength globally, but what took place in 2020 will be the newest political strategy to engage young people in voting while working to pacify and neutralize any real people’s movement. This 2020 strategy was to create a boogeyman that needed to be defeated to restore the morality of the empire and get things “back to normal”. The 2020 election gave us the narrative that Trump embodied all that was wrong with the empire and defeating trump at the polls would equate to a victory against fascism. But as young people are witnessing the martyrs of Gaza on their social media feeds, facing daily student loans emails and calls, struggling to find affordable housing, healthcare, childcare and food — something appears to be wrong with how the amerikkkan empire is working for them. These young people need someone to blame, and in a world where we love to be able to punish people, I can see how Joe Biden has become the next political enemy. Much like Trump in 2020, Biden is being villified by the same people who told people to vote for him. Biden has been made out as the single war criminal in the genocide of Palestinian people when the reality is that EVERY SINGLE PRESIDENT IS GUILTY. And not just are these politicians guilty of genocide against the Palestinian people, but of The Continent of Afrika via the land, the people, and the resources. And it is not just the president who people should be holding accountable, but the entire amerikkkan empire and all its apparatuses. From the White House down to your local government officials, they all serve the empire. And right now given the current geopolitical landscape, we must study what strategies the empire is utilizing to stifle true revolutionary movements.
Neighbor series In Occupied Nisenan Terrority (Sacramento), we can see how the local government is pushing all blame on city manager Howard Chan’s exuberant salary, yet it is the city council who approved Chan’s raise. Just as it was the city council who has approved increasing the military budget for the sac pig department, creating environmental hazards in particular neighborhoods and communities, it is city council proposing and voting on a daytime camping ban; every single one of them is complicit, at the very least as an accomplice to the empire and its war against the people. The 2020 uprisings opened Pandora’s box in regards to the empire’s latest round of responses to subdue the people; from kkkop cities, to RICOs and extreme identity politics. And the theater that is amerikkkan politics has decided to change the actor playing the antagonist every 4 years. This allows for the system as a whole to escape as salvageable, because you can vote out the war criminal/the racist/the incompetent etc. What we fail to realize is that we cannot have it both ways — Biden cannot be the mastermind and solely responsible for the genocide of Palestinian people if he is also a senile old man. Biden is merely a puppet, an actor of the ruling class; no different than Trump was, no different than Obama was. Yes, Biden is a war criminal, no different than any other amerikkkan president, government official, military or law enforcement officer. The grifters of the so-called amerikkkan left have begun the narrative of Biden as a war criminal and claiming his support of isntreal will/can lose him votes. This seems eerily familiar to how republicans began to distance themselves from then president trump. As the empire is collapsing in front of everyone’s eyes there needs to be a scapegoat, someone to blame for the lie of amerikkkanism unraveling in front of everyone’s face. We should be studying political trends, patterns and strategies of the empire to properly understand the terrain we operate within. Check carefully the trend of finger-pointing and blaming not just at the highest levels within the empire but even at your local level. Ask yourself the question: how was anything materially changed for the Afrikan masses inside of the empire between the Trump and Biden administration years? Don’t list how much representation you see within the empire either, tell me how our people are closer to freedom? Tell me how we have made material gains to liberate our political prisoners? Show me the data on how many Afrikan people were permanently housed as a result of a vote. Again we can see in real life the consequences of our People believing in amerikkkanism. Amantha Van Cleave, a young Afrikan mother, recently lost her one year old daughter Yayra Rutherford, while they slept through the night at a bus stop outside LAX due to being unhoused while LA’s “Black” mayor Karen Bass boosts of how many people she has housed, yet how many of those housed are Afrikan? How come a young Afrikan mother with 2 babies is not high priority? Or is that because Bass continues to play the same tired puppet that the democratic party always needs someone to play to keep the slaves in line? Bass, just like Chan, just like all politicians are simply puppets for the agenda of amerikkka. Don’t fall for the okie-doke again, Biden is a war criminal and holds responsibility for a number of genocides — but this election season do NOT allow Biden to be made into a sacrifical lamb like y’all did with Trump. Where there is going to be political energy let it be (re)directed towards changing material conditions? We have spent damn near 100 years working on voting and have even voted Afrikans into the empire’s highest ranking seats and yet the masses of Afrikan people, not only within the empire but globally, suffer from the amerikkkan empire in what is tantamount to genocide — no different than what the Palestinian people face. We should be learning from the Palestinian Resistance’s ability to collaborate and coordinate coalitions along different religious, ethnic, and cultural lines. We should be studying the example of the association of Sahel states, unifying to fight a common enemy and working together to build self-determination. The global south is not only willing to fight but they are winning! Malcolm spoke of the “Black Revolution” or the global revolution and this is what is upon us today — look at the world over and you would be hard pressed to not find a group of dark skin indigenous people fighting back against western-european kkkolonialism. We as Afrikans and other oppressed People should be able to recognize the significance of our historical context and realize it is time to make a decision on where you will stand: with empire or actively working against empire. Voting out whichever boogeyman they tell you it is this cycle — is standing with the empire. You would simply like for the empire to operate quieter, more respectable and less messy, but the fact of the matter is the man who wrote the Declaration of Independence was a rapist — no better than R.Kelly or Diddy; but school’s within the empire teach the babies that jefferson is a hero. We MUST understand who WE are, what OUR values are, who OUR enemy is and what THEIR values are. This can give us the insight needed to understand who the real bogeyman is.
Community Learning If you would like to watch either of December’s Community Learning classes, please just scan the QR codes
9
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.