Neighbor Newspaper Vol. 15 September 2021

NEIGHBOR NEWS AFRICAN & INDIGENOUS NEWS SERVICE

Neighbor Program News Service September 3, 2021

Vol 15

$5.00

Table of Contents

Black August - 3 Neighbor News - 4 Neighbor Updates - 5 Poetry - 6 Political Education & Amerikan Delusion - 8 Ancestor Acknowledgement - 9 Decolonize The Classroom - 10 Organizing, Commitment & The Evolution of Self- 12 10 Point Platform & Program - 13 BTS: The Living Legacy of The BPP - 14

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.

Thank You

Your support allows us to continue our work for the community

BLACK AUGUST RESISTANCE AND THE A.I.M. For over four centuries, New Afrikans have struggled for Freedom, Justice, Equality and Human Rights. They have NOT found it. In spite of a culture of capitalist exploitation, institutional racism and unapologetic white supremacy - still Our People hope for change, never fully coming to grips with the reality that the only rights we have are those we can enforce.

Across the long breadth and depth of this historical miscarriage, intellectuals, activists and would-be progressives, and even some self-described Revolutionaries have sought to realize these aims primarily through either the doctrine of reform and inclusion (an approach that history has proven is unequal to the task), or through decrying the evils of the "white man" and raging against external mechanisms designed to maintain Our oppression. But very rarely do we instead focus on HOW WE HAVE (or in many cases HAVE NOT) RESPONDED TO THAT OPPRESSION. The Community Development and empowerment initiatives we institute during Black August Memorial are central to Our culture of resistance.

Black August Resistance is 365 days a year and the relative success of these initiatives will determine Our relative ability to resist capitalist excesses and encirclement campaigns. The Autonomous Infrastructure Mission (AIM) is specifically designed for this purpose - to make Our People and Our Communities AUTONOMOUS. In perhaps some of the most patently irrational reasoning in human history, New Afrikans have looked upon solutions to Our collective oppression which are primarily oriented on Our self-determination and self-development, solutions which seek to resolve the INTERNAL contradictions at the root of Our National oppression, as somehow "radical", "extremist" and most disturbingly, "unrealistic" (as if Our People are incapable of genuine Freedom). Our People New Afrikans in Amerikkka - have undergone a contrapositive authoritarian conditioning process over the course of centuries, surviving some of the most brutal and unspeakable atrocities in human history, so of course some warping of the character structure, some collective irrationality and psychosis is to be expected. However, at this juncture in history, with an over 400 year long historical record to reflect upon, how is it we are still seeking to "reform" a system of institutional racism and naked exploitation which is functioning EXACTLY AS IT WAS INTENDED TO; when EVERY so called "reform" has simply been a refinement on the same institutions and mechanisms of oppression we've endured since 1619? At what point do we begin to look at Ourselves - Our own actions and inactions, both irrational and self-defeating, as the true basis of Our oppression, and then move against them?

NP's PPOW Program

To join Neighbor Program's PolitiCAL Prisoner of War program by simply emailing letters or sending monetary donations tagged "PPOW" Letters & donations will be sent every month

We have responded to organized policies of divide and control with disunity and self-hatred; Our response to the deliberate application of poverty is to rob, steal, pimp, and sell poison to one another; Our response to racist murder, police brutality and criminalization is to kill one another, gang-banging or to picket and plead for this system to stop functioning as it was designed to. Instead of organizing Ourselves to be strong, we continually choose weakness, constantly looking outside Ourselves for salvation from Our woes. Instead of structuring Ourselves to enforce Our rights, we beg the state - a state that has demonstrated in every way humanly possible over the course of CENTURIES that we are not included in its' safeguards - to somehow honor Our rights.

When we look at the condition of Our Communities and Our inadequate and irrational response to fixing it, no one can convince me that we are not functioning under some degree of colonial psychosis, a general inability to act rationally to confront and alleviate Our suffering.

We must all recognize that genuine progressive social change is an exact science, based on a concrete analysis of Our concrete conditions. Such an analysis, both scientific and objective, bears some inescapable conclusions: 1) The development of Unity, Functional Unity, is a prerequisite for any solution with any hope of success.

2) Just as no one can be your master unless you consent to being a slave; no one can be Our oppressors if we act Collectively to oppose Our oppression.

3) No one outside of Our Communities is going to rescue Our Communities.

4) The only "rights" we have in THIS society are those we can enforce.

5) The ONLY way we are going to change Our Communities' conditions for the better, is by organizing, maintaining and defending Our own Community based infrastructure.

-Joka Heshima Jinsai

Local Events & News

LOCAL POLITRICKS: THE WAR ON THE POOR

As the voting populace prepares for the upcoming recall election throughout the land known as the state of California, the unhoused are feeling the full weight of this current political theater between the red and blue wings of amerikkan fascism. In Nisenan Land, despite mayor steinberg’s repeated public promises to come up with a comprehensive solution-orientated plan to address the issues facing the unhoused community, those of us serving the people are watching violent and what appears to be coordinated state-wide (through various reports) attacks on a high number of encampments. These illegal sweeps not only displace some of the most vulnerable but increase the risk of spreading COVID among a population of people who already have very limited access to medical care due to the kkkapitalist systems that pollute humanity. This is just another example of the contradictions being on full display between the lip service and the tangible actions of the fascist amerikkkan government, from the national level all the way down to county and city policies.

As Gavin Newsome prepares to fight for this seat as California’s governor he is cleaning up the streets in order to garner voter support, but what his actions are showing us once again is that profits are more important than people. Gavin Newsome is willing to throw away the poorest of the people, he is willing to trust steinberg by placing him on his committee regarding houselessness, the steinberg who is attempting to criminalize anyone who refuses to accept his crumbs. Do not be fooled by the fox and his lies, listen to Malcolm:

Neighbor “The white liberal is the worst enemy to ... the black man. Let me explain what I mean by the white liberal. In America there is no such thing as Democrat or Republican anymore... the Negro sides with the white liberal, and the white liberal use the Negro against the white conservative. So that anything that the Negro does is never for his own good, never for his own advancement, never for his own progress, he’s only a pawn in the hands of the white liberal. The worst enemy that the Negro have is this white man that runs around here drooling at the mouth professing to love Negros, and calling himself a liberal, and it is following these white liberals that has perpetuated problems that Negros have. If the Negro wasn’t taken, tricked, or deceived by the white liberal then Negros would get together and solve our own problems...I only cite these things to show you that in America the history of the white liberal has been nothing but a series of trickery designed to make Negros think that the white liberal was going to solve our problems. Our problems will never be solved by the white man. The only way that our problem will be solved is when the black man wakes up, clean himself up, stand on his own feet and stop begging the white man, and take immediate steps to do for ourselves the things that we have been waiting on the white man to do for us. Once we do for self then we will be able to solve our own problems...the white liberals are foxes, who also show their teeth to the Negro but pretend that they are smiling. The white liberals are more dangerous than the conservatives; they lure the Negro, and as the Negro runs from the growling wolf, he flees into the open jaws of the "smiling" fox. One is the wolf, the other is a fox. No matter what, they’ll both eat you.”

- Malcolm X

Updates

Neighbor Program was able to distribute 100 backpacks to the community in South Sac & Oak Park

LOCAL POLITRICKS: THE WAR ON THE POOR CONT'D

Once we study the data, both statistically and through sheer observation, it is abundantly clear that a large population of the unhoused population consists of Africans, actually 40% here in Nisenan Land (Sacramento) and an even larger number in Ohlone Land(Oakland). These figures make the issues facing the houseless community part of our fight for the liberation of all African/Black People. The crisis of our people living on the streets is a direct result of amerikkka’s Genocidal War Against Africans; look at how our representation always shows up exactly where they see fit. We must not ignore that the 4th point in the Black Panther Party’s was: “We Want Decent Housing Fit For The Shelter Of Human Beings. - We believe that if the White Landlords will not give decent housing to our Black community, then the housing and the land should be made into cooperatives so that our community, with government aid, can build and make decent housing for its people.”

Our people are unhoused and living on the streets because our basic human right to housing (see UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 25) is denied by kkkapitalism. Similarly, the housing we do often have is outdated and ill-equip to protect us from the weather and recently the smoke. These houses are typically in the most segregated areas of the city with a pig infestation that leaves a thick tension in kkkolonial occupation inside the community. This is the current state of captured and colonized Africans in Nisenan Land, subjected to accept our oppression and oppressors based on the fact they claim to be liberal. Wake up my people, see what the material conditions of our people are. We must join the fight to FREE THE PEOPLE.

This Planet Is Dying

By Moiz This planet is dying Doctor, a 97th opinion?

This planet is dying Listen You can hear its people crying Out They voted for you because they just want an Out The path we’re on is cataclysmic There’s no time for funny business You’re in charge of a country not a company So switch your priorities, yesterday. Please.

This planet is dying We are killing it We are killing Us We choke on carbon on acidifying seas on floods on smoke on plastic on pesticide on paper, on money We choke on greed on empty stomachs on dry tongues on lead in water on lead in gas on lead on bullets on drone strikes on the rubble we leave behind on and on and on On compromise that comes with The cost of doing business Of two steps forward at the price of one step back There is no time for backwards As any doctor of science will testify Physics is no negotiating partner Balance the equation before the scale tips too far Don’t try to carry on lying Because the roots of truth spread like wildfire And the whole world is watching Like the planet’s on the brink of dying.

Solidarity

Photo & Poem: Ibraheem Leone

Wow, Look At The Sky

By Emok Neni One warm summer evening Five comrades hung out for the first time They swam and they drank And they flew on cloud nine One moment in time they watched a bee die They rushed to its side to keep it alive But nothing could save it, not even its hive They were sad and confused Even helpless in their eyes But their humanity and big their hearts should make you want to cry All that love for a bee All that worry for a bee All that care and wishful thinking for a bee Can you imagine what they do for you and me?

For you and I?

September Playlist family ties - Baby Keem & Kendrick Lamar Blasphemy - Tupac/Makaveli Big Steppin - Stunnaman02 SF Anthem - San Quinn, Big Rich, Boo Banga Calling - Rexx Life Raj, Terrance Martin Red Lights - RINI & Wale 4 Page Letter - Aaliyah I Have Nothing - Whitney Houston In a Sentimental Mood - Sonny Rollins A Love Supreme - John Coltrane Ghetto Child - Curtis Mayfield God Bless The Child - Sonny Rollins If There Is a Hell Below - Curtis Mayfield Moritat - Sonny Rollins Power To The People - Curtis Mayfield

A Love Supreme

By Jordan McGowan A Love Supreme A Love To Be A Love That's Free A Deeper Love Than You & Me A Love Supreme A Love To Redeem A Love Of Mercy A Deeper Love Of Humanity A Love Supreme A Love Too Extreme A Love That Calls Us Worthy A Deeper Love That Grounds My Humanity A Love Supreme

OMENS - TSAVO Painting our cities in red Matching the stripes on the flag The culprits commissioned politicians and blue lives with a badge Badgering black lives for a bulk of the budget Banking on cash cut from a suit n tie building they fortune off the proletariat’s back Peasants to them Nothing more than a pre-emptive threat they can’t relax till we in jail or the back of a hearse This trauma rehearsed like Knotted up nooses used to keep those of us uprising below in class Huh? Black codes translated to Morse Reason why the ship of white supremacy could steady its course For hundreds of years Evil had to transform Of course Under the Radar means you meet less force Democrats Sneak away children to cages so even liberals rejoice The border wall is just a symbol for the black n brown world Colonial culture chanting free at last To plunder native land Then turn around and Kill their scapegoats with no remorse Chanting all summer in the streets Why our voices course We won’t go silently in the night while Your tiki torches rise Rage coursing through these veins watching the pigs court your neighborhood Nazis and proud boys fuck a reform Get that boot off the neck of my kin before we “reform” your face into sumn unrecognizable See, Our power sizable Even when we don’t realize it It’s all inside of us When we commune again Our higher powers be charging up Higher Freequensee spreading when we can spread the love To the deserving ones Forgiveness of our oppressors ensure the end of us Yet revenge is an endless cycle systemically destroying life itself Finding balance in philosophy how we find ourselves Our destiny greater than defeating those tryna “civilize” us...

Besides They don’t want no smoke from militias of the oppressed pressing that Capitol building for reparations or death Black Panthers on the block who address killer cops with that heat when they actin up y’all just film it instead I see the omens I feel moment Ain’t soft spoken I’m just tokin Staying focus I’m Not your token I’m the coldest The ice man Chillin in the face of death

Come try me for my life I’ll leave with yours Especially feds Just how they did Fred Hampton I could be next So I’m outfitted like navy seals with sticks and a vest I wish an opp would come test me No flexin I’m laying out the first 9 through the door Without a question But my energy better served in a different projection Like growing food for the village being present to offer youth new direction Your discretion is lackluster in impact Don’t need corporate sponsor need our own land and collectives Got vivid recollections Of redlining white only signs children protesting met with water hoses and dogs, Had no protection Just a faith in Jah to bend the universe towards justice wow have to sit back and remember what a blessing To be here at all and fight for life really a blessing to be the chosen ones We’ll claim the throne soon enough Do what must be done So World peace and harmony never ending

On Political Education & Amerikan Delusion Excerpt from Comrade's Classroom INTERVIEW QUESTION: What’s the value of studying within the revolutionary struggle?

What do y’all see in the value of knowing yourself and knowing your history? And how did these things relate to both the material conditions that our people face but also how we understand and analyze the material conditions that our people face?

KINGS: I think reading just gives you a handbook. Like instructions. If you ever try to build something, and you try to do it without instructions, it’s going to take way longer and you’re going to go through a lot of trial and error and make a lot of mistakes that you could have avoided if you just read the manual. You know what I mean? So that’s kind of what reading and studying is. It’s just reading a manual. If you have revolutionaries who’ve led revolutions, who’ve done nation building and have encountered the tactics like CIA plots and counter things like rats and all types of infiltrators in the orgs and their programs, and they’re telling you things to look out for and they’re writing about certain things that you need to watch when you’re building and certain behaviors and strategies that may be counterproductive to what your agenda is, you need to understand that so you can see it for yourself. That’s a lot of the things I think are wrong in today’s movements. Just being out, having been out with B in the summer with the Black Power Collective and having tapped in with folks in the Bay when I was up there. A lot of people are arrogant and they think that they know what they’re doing without having to have done the research or the studying. And without having any resume of any accomplishments for them to warrant thinking they should be leaders. We’re in the era of clout chasing. A lot of people are just trying to position themselves for platforms, but they haven’t accomplished anything at all. If you look at their track record materially, what have they accomplished? Nothing that they could really vouch for. Like no political education background where they’re really radicalizing folks and pushing the good word. No material accomplishments they’ve gotten locally, at all. And then, when you ask them about their political principles and what they believe in, it’s very faulty and you can tell they’re not doing the reading. So it’s a lot of those individuals. And because I think too many organizers, because they don’t understand the severity of what it is we’re fighting for, too much space is being given to these people. I think people need to go back to these texts and do this studying and really understand why studying is important because we’re making too many mistakes that we shouldn’t be making. And it’s because a lot of people aren’t (a) reading or (b) internalizing what they’re reading.

B.: I 100% agree with what Kings said. Personally for me, reading helped me develop a lot. From going to somebody that was like 19 — or I can’t remember how old I was, I think I was like 19 — when I voted for Obama...like I really identified with that war criminal, you feel me? I really thought that I saw myself in him at one point in my life, before I got put on game and started reading about the struggles of Black folks like Huey Newton, Assata Shakur, the Obadele brothers and really understanding what it takes to effect change. My radicalization was in the context of the Black Lives Matter movement. So I think the real question for me and what really got me going into the research was if we’re talking about Black Lives Matter, and we know that Obama has some imnperialist foreign policy towards Africa and towards Haiti specifically at that time, then it really made me question who is really for us? It’s not just about our identity. Not all skin folk are kin folk, that old saying. So I think reading is paramount in the struggle. It’s just as important as doing the actual work, but it doesn’t outweigh it. I think Kings really encapsulated the importance of it. It’s like knowing who you are and where you stand in society and understanding who our real enemies are. And then also, the shortcomings of people that might come off or might appear to be for you, but like really aren’t.

Learning about doing that with… Like I was in the multinational organizations thinking that that was the way for Black folks. Then to come to the realization after doing more reading that my ancestors had already dealt with that, came up with solutions to the contradictions that come up in multinational leftist parties. So it’s all about reading and learning and knowing our history.

INTERVIEWER: Man, that shit is so important. To both of y’alls points, I think a lot of people listening to, and like all of us here as well, have a lot of similar experiences with y’all. With having identified with Obama as being something progressive, even though he’s the head of an empire and a war criminal. I just think that’s super validating for folks. Because people think that — I think lot of liberals, too, think that — a lot of people who they would consider radical put themselves above them and recreate these chauvinist hierarchies in their own minds.

But I think what you’re saying is like this shit, like coming to political consciousness, is a process and it is something that no one just started at. But I have a kind of follow-up question to what you and Kings were saying. How does living within the heart of the empire, having only this political perspective from being an Amerikan, from benefiting from all of the luxuries of global capitalism and the violence of global capitalism, how does that reality work to create this hyper delusion around what you were saying Kings, like understanding really what we’re up against when we’re talking about imperialism? When we’re talking about empires.

B.: I just finished reading Jackson Rising not too long ago. In an interview, Chokwe Lumumba talked about access to the vote and these institutions kind of fogged our vision and made us lose sight of our initial objective, which was self determination and freeing the land. It didn’t bring us access to economic and political power. So I think that, like we were just talking about, political education is going to help us mitigate against that delusion of thinking that we’re straight, or that as Black folks we’re on equal footing, or that we’ve made any progress.

Really refocusing the people on the real goal, which is freeing the land and self determination and independence.

New Podcasts

Comrade's Classroom Cont'd KINGS: Yeah, the particular situation of living in the core that you have to understand is that political contradictions, political struggle here is going to be different because of the way the government is structured. And I say this for example, one of the (key) examples is supporting social democracy. For example, free health care, minimum wage, all that stuff. Supporting it in the imperial core is different than being in the Global South supporting it. Like if you’re in the Global South supporting it, you’re trying to support the nationalization of your own resources.

You’re trying to support better redistribution of what your own country is producing. When you’re in the imperial core, the resources you’re trying to nationalize and trying to redistribute comes from other countries. So I think, another thing people in the Global North have to realize is that supporting struggles that actually seek to shift that whole dynamic is actually the most crucial. So for the New African movement, for example, they push for sovereignty, self determination. Those are movements that deserve support because that’s saying that we want to be able to control. As Africans, we want to control our own destinies, our own ways of negotiating. That type of political power structure leads to Africans in the Global North having non-imperial relations with Africans around the world because you are divorcing yourself from that Western power structure, that Western political structure.

The movements of self determination, the movements of Indigenous sovereignty, those weaken the Global North imperial relations because you’re basically constructing your own nation that is owed to you, that is your right based on the history of the US and what was enacted by the settlers. You’re basically taking that power structure and you’re weakening it, because now you’re taking away your dependence on this imperialism, your dependence on this exploitation. You’re taking that and you’re making yourself self-reliant. You’re making yourself independent. And when you have independence, you can now change your relations globally. So that’s how a lot of people, I think, need to look at it living in the Global North. That’s why I don’t support social democratic anything in America. Because if you’re not shifting the way that imperial relations are engaged through trade deals, through sanctions, through war, if you’re not shifting any of that, then you’re not changing the power dynamic. You’re just basically saying we’re going to take what we’ve been exploiting overseas and we're going to redistribute it to where we live in the US. So a lot of the core power structure is not changed. Indigenous peoples still wouldn’t get their land back or their sovereignty. Africans would still get the worst piece of the pie that’s going to be shared. So people got to understand the power relations of what it means to be in the Global North in comparison to the Global South, and understand what positions that you need to take that’s actually going to challenge that. And that's what's going to get people on the right path to building the right programs and doing the right Political Education.

Ancestor Acknowledgement

By Mason Forbes

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

Behind The Scenes: The Living Legacy

Decolonize The Classroom: Welcome Back & What We Must Do

By Jordan McGowan We are all pretty much back in school at this point and despite so much talk in education circles of not returning to “business as usual”, it seems that is exactly what we are doing inside the school setting these days. From curriculum to classroom policy and procedures, white supremacy is rampant and still just as prevalent inside education now as it was before the pandemic.

Don’t get me wrong, I HATED zoom school; and I truly mean HATE. Zoom U had me ready to quit some days, but returning to campus like this feels damn near worse! Districts are completely disregarding the fact that the delta variant is more dangerous and contagious than the strain of the virus we saw when we first shut down schools, meanwhile teachers are being saddled with 34!kids in classrooms; in spite of decades worth of data that proves smaller class sizes is what benefits and promotes student learning. Despite every major teachers union and school district releasing a public statement claiming “Black Lives Matter”, the same anti-Black campus culture persist inside of the budget, dress codes, zero-tolerance policies and the piss poor cultural relevancy and competency of most educators. The time to decolonize the classroom is now; and it is up to those of us inside the classroom who are serious about creating liberated learning spaces to commit ourselves to the work of the Panther’s 5th point: “We Want Education For Our People That Exposes The True Nature Of This Decadent American Society. We Want Education That Teaches Us Our True History And Our Role In The Present-Day Society.” menticide: a systematic and intentional undermining of a person's conscious mind : BRAINWASHING School is the single most oppressive system inside amerikkka for the simple fact that no child can escape the propaganda of the education system. Truthfully, school is simply 13 years of white supremacist programming; with this in mind we must understand the significance and urgency in which we must organize liberated learning spaces and systems for our children. Through a study of different liberation movements we observe that providing the people with a quality education program is vital to being able to win a people’s liberation struggle. Whether in Cuba or Guinea-Bissau, those who wish liberation for their people, must seek to liberate their people’s minds first. How can we expect a system that has taught us to hate ourselves and look up to those who have continually gone to war with us ever be used to empower us?

No amount of diversity inclusion inside of kkkolonial institutions will ever amount to what our own schools and education programs can accomplish for our people. So for those of us who are currently in education it is up to us to break away from the strongholds of the kkkolonial establishment’s idea of what education looks like. We must create as many pockets of liberated learning spaces as possible in order for us to begin to turn the tide of this genocidal brainwashing war against our youth.

Create schools and spread education in all liberated areas.

Amilcar Cabral Nkrumah makes this same point in his Handbook for Revolutionary Warfare, the need for the masses of the oppressed and specifically the youth to be educated by those committed to the revolution is extremely necessary. We as educators must be excruciatingly focused on uplifting our students' dignity as human beings. In a world and school that will be ready to throw our children away we must love them and be willing to be in community with them. I have learned this through years of trial and error. The years where I intentionally sought to establish my “control and authority” over the class students were always more difficult; while the classes and students I intentionally establish relationships with yield the most copasetic response. That is because our relationship with our students is no different than our relationships with our friends, colleagues, family members, etc.; at the end of the day we are all human beings with very real human needs, wants and feelings.

Would you respect and listen to someone who, at the very least, hasn’t seen you in two months, and at worst has never met you, tell you how you should or shouldn’t simply exist for the hour or so you are in their class? Are we forgetting that there has been a pandemic rift with social and political waves that the majority of these students had never experienced in the post-Obama years they remembered leading up to the shutdown and subsequently the Uprisings of Summer 2020.

For these students this was their Birmingham, Kent State, Selma, Vietnam War; this is their coming of age and it is occurring while the empire is collapsing. Don’t forget these students have never known a world where the amerikkkan military propaganda isn’t interwoven into every aspect of their social consumption from movies and tv advertising to video games and social media influencers. This last year has given them a new perspective and it is our job to invite our students to continue to engage in the world they live in so that they can assist in our collective effort towards freedom.

That might mean directly teaching against the book, that might mean calling out racist policies, that might mean fighting for your students to be valued as human beings worthy of being seen. The student-teacher relationship is no different from any other relationship, it is between two human beings who must understand and co-exist with each other in order for the year to be successful; not only for the student but for the teacher as well.

Decolonize The Classroom Cont'd

By Jordan McGowan

Last year I invited other teachers on campus to create an anti-racist education but it was co-opted by white liberals posing as “allies.” This year I am commuting to working with and organizing students and families, inviting the community to be invested in the learning our students are taking part in. If we can create a community culture where these liberation school models can be birthed we stand a real chance of turning the tides in this war. This psychological warfare, menticide, is what is pushing our babies into special education and out of the classroom through suspensions and expulsions. This kkkolonial system is to blame for conditioning our children to hate themselves and idolize their oppressors, it is the school system that should be held accountable when we lose teenagers to inter communal violence. This brainwashing is intentional and forced upon us through the establishment’s education, but we have seen that we can educate ourselves. It is happening, it has happened the Panther’s longest standing social program was their Liberation School (Oakland Community School), and even dating back to The Continent before any european ever touched our shores. Africans have always valued education and yet inside of the amerikkkan kkkolony through the longest genocide history has ever witnessed the love for education has been struck at by the fascist pigs. From forbidding our indigenous African languages to outlawing our ability to learn their language, the european ruling class has never wanted to see righteously educated Africans because of the repercussions it would yield. This is the key reason for why the education system is intentionally so racist, to confuse the African and Indigenous People inside the kkkolony in order to subdue our righteous resistance.

When I think about how racist, how euro-centric our so-called education in amerika is, it staggers my mind. And when I think back to some of those kids who were labeled “troublemakers” and “problem students,” I realize that many of them were unsung heroes who fought to maintain some sense of dignity and self-worth.

Assata Shakur Divorce ourselves from everything carceral, everything european. Teach in community, teach with community, teach to learn, teach to build, teach to create. Teach in music, teach in art, teach in film, teach in words - spoken and written. Teach in love.

Teach in revolution.

All Power To The People

“Youths are passed through schools that don’t teach. Then forced to search for jobs that don’t exist and finally left stranded to stare at the glamorous lives advertised around them.”

- Dr. Huey P. Newton

Oakland Community School Pics from Its About Time BPP

Organizing, Commitment, and The Evolution of Self By: Delency Parham Yesterday (July 30th) my brother and comrade, Abbas, took Shahada. For those who are unfamiliar with the term, it means that he declared his faith in Allah and has become a Muslim! I’ve known Abbas since 2015 and it’s been surreal to watch him grow. As a result of working side by side for the last 6 years, it’s easy to get caught up in the everyday process of struggle and living, but after a brief conversation with him yesterday, I’ve taken the last 14 hours or so to really reflect on not only his journey, but my own, and the community of people around us.

Before I dive into the full purpose of the essay(?) — which I feel is to address the process of radicalization, growth, and the decolonizing of the mind, body, and spirit, and how this all calls for patience — I want to use a few more sentences to pay homage to B and ground us in the growth I’ve had the honor of witnessing over the years.

If you’re an advent listener of Hella Black, then you have probably heard the story of how Abbas and I met, and how our working and personal relationship has come to be. So for the sake of time, but to still acknowledge our history — I’ll keep this short. I met Abbas in 2015 when I was working as an intern/freelance writer at Berkeleyside (a small independent online paper based out of Berkeley,CA). I was writing a story about Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) pushing to change the name of one of their elementary schools, LeConte Elementary School, because it was named after a prominent slave owner and funder of the confederate military (neoliberalism for you). While BUSD was addressing its ties to the colonial empire, Abbas and the Black Student Union at UC Berkeley were fighting for a list of demands that would eventually lead to the Fannie Lou Hamer Resource Center (the place where People’s Programs first core team meeting & community learning session would be held years later). One of the BSU’s demands also centered around renaming a hall on campus that honored Barrows hall, and they also brought attention to the LeConte brothers — this led to me interviewing Abbas for my piece. 6 years later, we co-chair People’s Programs and with the help of comrades, volunteers, and community, our org runs 7 of decolonization programs (free breakfast, grocery giveaway, legal support, mobile health clinic, political education, and garden).

Over the course of time I’ve witnessed Abbas go from stomping the hoods of cars at protest, to teaching an intro to african studies course at UC Berkeley, grocery shopping for People’s Breakfast Oakland, speaking in front of thousands at rallies, making hygiene packs, writing book chapters, serving hot meals to the houseless, supporting his family, and list of other acts that would take me another couple years to name.

As I look at the work Abbas has either led or taken part in — I see progress, I see learning, I see growth. And I know none of this would have been possible not only without Abbas’s commitment, but without a community of people around him that were patient and invested in his learning. The Left’s, the Jalil’s, The Uncle Freddy’s, The Auntie Anita’s, The Shy’s. The same is true for me. I am but a product of my own work, plus the folks along the way who took the time to teach me, and then teach me again when it was clear I hadn’t learned the lesson. And the same could be said for all of us who are on this active path of growth (decolonizing our entire beings is what’s really going on). We wouldn’t be who we are if we didn’t have folks that were willing to teach us, and who were patient with our process of learning and unlearning. Folks who stayed by our sides while we unlearned the violent conditionings of a people subjected to their masters values -misogyny, classicism, homophobia, racism, carcerality, the list goes on.

Which is a point that is really resonating with me as I think about the work we will do as individuals and as People’s Programs.

Growth is the result of small daily shifts. It is what happens when we persist through the bumps and bruises — the valleys and peaks. The importance of patience with the people as they make their way through the bumps and bruises cannot be overstated. I look at the lives of Abbas & myself as examples of what can happen when you have dedicated students and teachers — but for us to be dedicated students, we needed teachers (both in profession and in practice) to nurture and guide us.

This is critical for anyone that plans to do work with the poorest of the poor (also named the lumpenproletariat). Any work that is truly dedicated to liberating all Afrikans and oppressed people will need to address the socio economic conditions of the poor, the houseless, those in the ghettos — and to really build with them you have to exercise patience.

Abbas and I are college graduates who have been exposed to ways of living and thinking that will be uncharted waters for the masses of oppressed people. As a result of us being college athletes we had the opportunity to be exposed to theories and ideologies that people who are just trying to survive each day so they don’t have the luxury of blocking out an hour to read, didn’t.

And we STILL have had our fair share of mistakes — so what do you expect people who haven’t had the privilege of education (because here in amerikkka education is not a birthright, it’s a privilege) to do, when in reality they are simply exercising their conditionings from the ruling class?

But back to patience — it’s easier said than done. It can be difficult to be in spaces where folks use the wrong pronouns, degrade the poor, taking violent actions (sometimes against you or people you love), but how can we claim to know what we know about colonization and be shocked at how much of an impact it has had on the people? How can we be taken aback by how much unlearning and rebuilding we as a people have to do? To be a revolutionary, it means to have an undying love for you people, and part of love is being patient and being willing to educate!

Now don’t get it twisted, not everyone will change (willingly). Not everyone will join the righteous side of revolution. To be patient and allow mistakes does not mean to allow people to consistently be counterrevolutionary with no consequence. It is up to you to practice discernment and know when someone is not making any changes as a result of either conscious or subconscious rejection — those people will be left behind. However it can be said that too often folks turn their back on the ghetto, on the poor, because they’re not changing overnight, or “fast enough”. This is what we must caution against!

Anyone with a in depth analysis of what 400+ years of white supremacist capitalist oppresion has done and continues to do on the masses of Black/New Afrikan psyche, should know we got a lot of work to do — and i hope that we find faith through examples of whole person shifts and decolonization that we have either witnessed or read about from Afrikan & Black/New Afrikans of the past and present.

I myself can say that I find faith when I look back at the change of my brother and comrade. As he has made the shift to a New Afrikan Muslim and along the way consistently fought to show up for his family, friends, and community, and will now do it with the guidance of Allah and the Muslim community.

I find faith in looking at my own transition. I find faith in the growth of comrades.

Free The People!

Free The Land!

Black Panther 10 Point Program & Platform 1. WE WANT FREEDOM. WE WANT POWER TO DETERMINE THE DESTINY OF OUR BLACK COMMUNITY. WE BELIEVE that Black people will not be free until we are able to determine our destiny.

2. WE WANT FULL EMPLOYMENT FOR OUR PEOPLE. WE BELIEVE that the federal government is responsible and obligated to give every man employment or a guaranteed income. We believe that if the white American businessmen will not give full employment, then the means of production should be taken from the businessmen and placed in the community so that the people of the community can organize and employ all of its people and give a high standard of living.

3. WE WANT AN END TO THE ROBBERY BY THE CAPITALIST OF OUR BLACK COMMUNITY. WE BELIEVE that this racist government has robbed us and now we are demanding the overdue debt of forty acres and two mules. Forty acres and two mules were promised 100 years ago as restitution for slave labor and mass murder of Black people. We will accept the payment in currency, which will be distributed, to our many communities. The Germans are now aiding the Jews in Israel for the genocide of the Jewish people. The Germans murdered six million Jews. The American racist has taken part in the slaughter of over fifty million Black people; therefore, we feel that this is a modest demand that we make.

4. WE WANT DECENT HOUSING, FIT FOR THE SHELTER OF HUMAN BEINGS. WE BELIEVE that if the white landlords will not give decent housing to our Black community, then the housing and the land should be made into cooperatives so that our community, with government aid, can build and make decent housing for its people.

5. WE WANT EDUCATION FOR OUR PEOPLE THAT EXPOSES THE TRUE NATURE OF THIS DECADENT AMERICAN SOCIETY. WE WANT EDUCATION THAT TEACHES US OUR TRUE HISTORY AND OUR ROLE IN THE PRESENT-DAY SOCIETY. WE BELIEVE in an educational system that will give to our people knowledge of self. If a man does not have knowledge of himself and his position in society and the world, then he has little chance to relate to anything else.

6. WE WANT ALL BLACK MEN TO BE EXEMPT FROM MILITARY SERVICE. WE BELIEVE that Black people should not be forced to fight in the military service to defend a racist government that does not protect us. We will not fight and kill other people of color in the world who, like Black people, are being victimized by the white racist government of America. We will protect ourselves from the force and violence of the racist police and the racist military, by whatever means necessary.

7. WE WANT AN IMMEDIATE END TO POLICE BRUTALITY AND MURDER OF BLACK PEOPLE. WE BELIEVE we can end police brutality in our Black community by organizing Black self-defense groups that are dedicated to defending our Black community from racist police oppression and brutality. The Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States gives a right to bear arms. We therefore believe that all Black people should arm themselves for self- defense.

8. WE WANT FREEDOM FOR ALL BLACK MEN HELD IN FEDERAL, STATE, COUNTY AND CITY PRISONS AND JAILS. WE BELIEVE that all Black people should be released from the many jails and prisons because they have not received a fair and impartial trial.

9. WE WANT ALL BLACK PEOPLE WHEN BROUGHT TO TRIAL TO BE TRIED IN COURT BY A JURY OF THEIR PEER GROUP OR PEOPLE FROM THEIR BLACK COMMUNITIES, AS DEFINED BY THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. WE BELIEVE that the courts should follow the United States Constitution so that Black people will receive fair trials. The 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution gives a man a right to be tried by his peer group. A peer is a person from a similar economic, social, religious, geographical, environmental, historical and racial background. To do this the court will be forced to select a jury from the Black community from which the Black defendant came. We have been, and are being tried by all-white juries that have no understanding of the "average reasoning man" of the Black community.

10. WE WANT LAND, BREAD, HOUSING, EDUCATION, CLOTHING, JUSTICE AND PEACE. AND AS OUR MAJOR POLITICAL OBJECTIVE, A UNITED NATIONS SUPERVISED PLEBISCITE TO BE HELD THROUGHOUT THE BLACK COLONY IN WHICH ONLY BLACK COLONIAL SUBJECTS WILL BE ALLOWED TO PARTICIPATE, FOR THE PURPOSE OF DETERMINING THE WILL OF BLACK PEOPLE AS TO THEIR NATIONAL DESTINY. WHEN, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

WE HOLD these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. **That, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. ** Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and, accordingly, all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. **But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. **

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to all who contributed their time, effort and work to this issue of Neighbor Newspaper. Thank you to the Black August Organizing Committee (BAOC), People's Programs, The People's Coalition, Foreign Native, Sanokfa Market, Sacramento African Marketplace, as well It's About Time BPP. Thank you to all the writers who contributed & a huge shout out to Indy & the Rochester Branch of Neighbor Program for the dope cover art.. For this issue, we made a conscious effort to uplift the BPP's original 10 point program to root ourselves in historical understanding.