Uhuru Solidarity Oakland

A Day in Solidarity with African People

2010-09-10T22:12:00.000-07:00

Come out to the Oakland event for the Campaign for a Day in Solidarity with African People:

Beyond Obama:
Seeking Real Solutions to the Growing Racial Divide in the U.S.

Sunday, September 19th
1 to 5pm Humanist Hall
390 - 27th St., Oakland
$10 to $25 suggested donation.
No one will be turned away for lack of funds.
oakland@uhurusolidarity.org (510) 394-1780
A $35 donation (or $20 for students) includes a one-year Uhuru Solidarity Movement membership.

Featuring
	Keynote Speaker, Omali Yeshitela Chairman of the African People’s Socialist Party-USA and leader of the Uhuru Movement. Speaking throughout Africa, Europe and the U.S., Yeshitela continues the unfinished legacy of Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X and Kwame Nkrumah. A brilliant theoretician, he has authored several books including One Africa! One Nation!
	Glen Ford Executive Editor of the Black Agenda Report and a leading member of the Black is Back Coalition for Peace, Social Justice and Reparations Ford has had a long career as a radio host and commentator. He is the author of "The Big Lie: An Analysis of U.S. Media Coverage of the Grenada Invasion" and of countless articles and radio editorials on the oppression of African people and exposing the truth about the Obama administration.
	Penny Hess Chairwoman of the African People's Solidarity Committee (APSC)APSC builds support from the white community for the call for reparations to African people and for the movement for the liberation of Africa and African people. Hess is author of Overturning the Culture of Violence, a book telling the true story of America’s history built on slavery and genocide and exposing white complicity with the oppression of African people.

Agenda
1 – 1:15 Opening and Cultural Performance

1-2 Presentation by Penny Hess, Chairwoman of the African People's Solidarity Committee
and Author of Overturning the Culture of Violence

2 - 2:45 Presentation by Omali Yeshitela, Leader and Founder of the Uhuru Movement and
Chairman of the African Socialist International

2:45-3 Fundraising

3-3:30 Glen Ford, Executive Director of Black Agenda Report and member
of the Black is Back Coalition,

3:30-3:45 – Video - Solidarity with African Liberation

3:45-4:40 Panel Discussion on Oakland's War on the African Community with Jabari Shaw,
Member of the Campaign for Justice for Oscar Grant, Orlando Johnson, Campaign Manager
for Don Macleay for Mayor, Sealli Moyenda, International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement and others.

4:30-4:45 – Uhuru Pies and Uhuru Solidarity Movement

4:45-5 Culture and Close Out

5-7 Dinner

Based on the strategy and campaigns of the African People’s Socialist Party, the
Uhuru Solidairty Movement organizes in white communities.
We call on white people to unite with our true human interest in recognizing that
the struggle of African people for liberation and justice has a relationship to the
fact that our lifestyle rests on a pedestal of African oppression. APSC organizes
forums, demonstrations, studies and events to educate other white people about
the true history of this country, founded on slavery and genocide, and what we can
do to support the struggle of African people

No Justice for Oscar Grant: Verdict Sparks Outrage and Police Containment by the City

2010-07-11T05:56:00.000-07:00

“We could not even get six hours of deliberation. My son was murdered. He was murdered. He was murdered. My son was murdered. And the law has not held the officer accountable the way that he should have been held accountable,” Wanda Johnson, mother of Oscar Grant

On July 8th, after less than six hours of deliberation, a jury in Los Angeles found former Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) cop Johannes Mehserle guilty of involuntary manslaughter for the murder of 22 year old African Oscar Grant. The charge of involuntary manslaughter with a weapons enhancement is expected to result in a maximum sentence of eight to ten years.

Oscar Grant was killed by Mehserle, who is white, at point blank range during the early morning hours of January 1, 2009, after having been made to lie on his stomach in submission on the Fruitvale BART station platform in Oakland, CA. The murder of African people by police is an all too common occurrence in the U.S. government’s undeclared war on the African community, which faced the colonial policy of police containment on a daily basis. The murder of Oscar Grant was only significant in that it was caught on video by BART passengers for the world to see.

The historic resistance of the African community of Oakland forced the arrest of Mehserle, the first time in history that a police officer has been put on trial for murder in the state of California. Immediately, the state worked overtime to ensure that Mehserle, if convicted, would face minimal jail time.

The state succeeded first in moving the trial three hundred miles away from Oakland to the city of Los Angeles to lessen the impact of the resistance of the African community on the trial. Next, the defense was able to dismiss all potential African jurors due to either their affinity with the case of Oscar Grant or their experience with being targeted by the police or “racial profiling.”

In the end, the jury who made the decision to give Mehserle a mere slap on the wrist for the crime of murder was made up of seven whites and five Latinos. Four of the jurors were reported to have police officers among their friends and family.

The lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter should be of no surprise in a system that treats the murder of African people by the police as a commonplace and necessary occurrence in the containment of our criminalized and colonially occupied community.

To be expected, the jurors sympathized with Mehserle’s crocodile tears as he performed the rehearsed narrative on the stand that he had mistaken his gun for his taser when he shot and killed Oscar Grant. Even though the defense showed Mehserle’s prior handing of a taser minutes before the killing and also showed the difficulty in firing a weapon “by accident,” the jurors bought the former white cop’s lies and please for mercy.

In preparation for the potential rebellion, the state set up "Operation Verdict" in Oaklnad, mobilizing police agencies from throughout the area and putting the National Guard on alert. The city of Oakland and police department held a press conference, collaborating with local non profits to put forward the reactionary message of "violence is not justice," further criminalizing the African community by condemning the potential African resistance and sanctioning the state's colonial violence and containment that maintains the relationship between the white ruling class and neo colonial government and oppressed African and Mexican working class.

In spite of neo-colonial Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums' expressions of pride in how crowd gathered peacefully initially following the verdict, te people had no right to freedom of speech and assembly since the rally was cordoned off within two blocks of the downtown area by thousands of police in riot gear and row police cars and helicopters overhead to ensure the farcical "freedom of speech" was contained and that no unsanctioned expressions of outrage could occur.

The fact is that the African community throughout Oakland was put on lockdown with twelve passenger vans of Oakland police patrolling the MacArthur corridor in front of the Uhuru House to quell any potential rebellion.

The media looked hard for a story that would justify the military style presence of the police; however, the fact is that when darkness fell in downtown Oakland a handful of people smashed windows, set fires and looted a Foot Locker store. The police had corralled hundreds of people and later declared "an unlawful assembly," putting on gas masks and taking out clubs to ensure that the police state was in full effect.

While the struggle for justice for Oscar Grant continues, the Uhuru Movement calls for the following demands:

1. Justice and reparations to the family of Oscar Grant and all victims of police violence from BART and the city of Oakland.

2. End the city of Oakland’s public policy of police containment of the African community carried out through police chief Anthony Batt's war on ‘gangs, guns and drugs’ and his recently imposed gang injunction.

3. Economic development for the African and Mexican communities.

We call on the community to:

• Support the right of the African community to resist the state violence.

• Join the Uhuru Movement.
http://www.uhurunews.com/

http://www.inpdum.org/

http://www.uhurusolidarity.org/

Meetings of the Uhuru Solidarity Movement on Tuesdays at 7pm at the Niebyl Proctor Library, 6501 Telegraph Ave, Oakland

oakland@uhurusolidarity.org

The Murder of Oscar Grant and the Continuing Struggle for Justice for the African Community

2009-06-06T08:31:00.000-07:00

The news that former BART cop Johannes Mehserle will stand trial for the murder of 22 year old Oscar Grant III signals a victory for the African community and all those who stand opposed to police violence and injustice.

During the hearings, BART cop, Anthony Pirone, who was caught on video punching Grant in the face just minutes prior to the deadly shooting, confirmed that Grant posed no threat to the officers.

We know that this is a rare occurrence to have a police officer stand trial for the "use of deadly force." History shows that police are systematically acquitted of murder. In fact, the courts, crime labs and prison system all work together to ensure that police departments are rarely held accountable for their crimes. Case in point, the Oakland Riders, four cops accused of brutally beating suspects in West Oakland, falsifying police reports and planting evidence were acquitted time and time again.

Most recently, eleven Oakland officers were fired for falsifying search warrants that they utilized to raid peoples' homes in East Oakland. This is the same police department whose internal affairs chief was exposed as having killed Jerry Amaro III, after having kicked him to death in 2000. For nine years, this information was covered up by the Oakland Police Department.

It should be as conspicuously clear to anyone who is paying attention that the police are a brutal presence in the African and other oppressed communities and that they lie to cover up their crimes. The mainstream media, for the most part, will only expose their crimes after the proverbial cat's body has completely jumped out of the bag. On a daily basis, the media works to justify the presence of the police in the black community, which is kept impoverished and under seige by the U.S. government imposed drug economy that in turn is used to justify more police.

At this time in history, in spite of a black president, one million African people are locked down in prisons under this "war on drugs." In California, even though African people make up just 5% of the population, they represent 50% of those incarcerated in the one of the largest prison systems in the world.

While the city of Oakland spends nearly half of its general budget on this war, one in five households live on $5,000 or less per year and virtually none on economic development. Even their other budget that is supposedly earmarked for economic development is spent on police related services and gentrification efforts, buying banners and planters to superficially make a neighborhood look friendlier for shoppers using Community and Economic Development Agency monies that are supposed to go to alleviate the poverty in Oakland.

The actions of Lovelle Mixon in Oakland, California on March 21st take place within this context. Mixon, having recently been released from prison in the fall of 2008, faced an unprecedented economic downturn. He was living in a city in which the public slaughter of Oscar Grant was captured on numerous phone and video cameras for the entire world to see.

We will never know exactly what was in the mind of Lovelle Mixon on that afternoon when he was pulled over on a "routine traffic stop," but we do know that the events of the day took place within a political context of police terror, repression and violence against the African community.

Recent revelations in the media also point to the coverup of lies that took place about exactly what happened in the apartment building where the Oakland SWAT team raid took place, resulting in the deaths of the third and fourth officers, so much that an independent panel will be called in for the investigation.

We may never find out what exactly happened in the apartment where SWAT officers Erv Romans and Daniel Sakai and Lovelle Mixon were killed; however, we do know that that the same entities that reported the reported the police version of events also reported the state crime lab results that pinned a rape of a child on Mixon. This was a rape that, if it did happen, was not reported to the school that stands within a mile of the area where they say it occurred. These were lab results that came out after Mixon was killed.

Time and time again, we see the war on the African community being carried out with the full support of the public and in conjunction with the media slander of an entire community. When Jody "Mack" Woodfox was killed by Oakland Police Officer Jimenez in July of 2008, there was no outcry from the public. Woodfox was killed by multiple shots to his backside while running away from the police. Oakland police officer Hector Jimenez is also responsible for the shooting death of 20 year old Andrew Moppin, on New Year's Eve, 2007.

When Jose Luis Buenrostro was killed in mid day just a block away from his house, the media reported the police version that the 16 year old had hidden a sawed off in his pajamas. They also came out with subsequent articles that insinuated that the Oakland Aviation High School student was somehow affiliated with a gang, assigning a low price to his life.

When 71 year old Casper Banjo, a pillar in the Black Arts Movement had an epileptic seizure and was surrounded and shot right in front of house near Eastmont Mall, there was dead silence on the part of the general public and media. So far there have been no consequences for any of these deaths.

It is time for those of us who say that we are about social justice to fully understand the role of the state, the organized system of violence that arises in society when there exists haves and have nots, colonized and colonized, oppressor and oppressed.

For too long, white progressives, who may come out for a big march against the U.S. war in Iraq have stood silently where the African community faces this police terror, in the name of safety, in the name of diversity, with the celebration of a black president and in our name.

No longer can we afford to stand silently by while young people like Lovelle Mixon face no future. The African community has been the hardest hit by the economic collapse. No longer can we seek the means for our own survival - whether it be eco-friendly, DIY, gay friendly or in some other way alternative - if it does not include the complete and total transformation of a system based on genocide and slavery.

The problems that African people face - in the U.S., on the continent, and around the world - are our problems to face, embrace and address. Let's support the African Village Survival Initiative and its collective response to the economic crisis. Let's say yes to collective and community gardening, rainwater harvesting, solar and wind energy, economic self-reliance, but it has to be under the umbrella of African self-determination, not within a system that robs self-reliance from the peoples of Africa and all over the world.

Come out on next Thursday, June 11th to hear from Omali Yeshitela, the brilliant leader of the Uhuru Movement addressing "Why We Must Organize to Stop Police Terror Against the African Community." The first of two events will take place at 7pm at the Humanist Hall at 390 - 27th St. in Oakland with a second event on Sunday, June 14th from 4 to 6pm at the Uhuru House, 7911 MacArthur Blvd in East Oakland.

To hear Yeshitela speaking on the situation in Oakland, you can listen to this broadcast:

http://uhurunews.com/radio/playaudio?resource_name=lovelle-mixon-and-african-resistance-in-oakland-the-role-and-composition-of-the-african-people-s-socialist-party-2009-03-22-2009-03-29-audio

Penny Hess, Chairwoman of the African People's Solidarity Committee will present a slide show on The Crisis of Imperialism and the Question of the State

You can read her blog entry, "African People Have a Right to Resist."

oakland@uhurusolidarity.org for more info

From Oscar Grant to Lovelle Mixon: Why We Must Organize to Stop Police Terror Against the African Community

2009-06-01T13:53:00.000-07:00

Two Events This Month!

Thursday, June 11th, 7 to 9:30pm

Humanist Hall, 390 - 27th St., Oakland

Sunday, June 14th, 4 to 6pm

Uhuru House, 7911 MacArthur Blvd, Oakland

$5 to $25 sliding scale

No one turned away for lack of funds

Building the Movement for Economic Development, Reparations & Justice

Find out what the Uhuru Movement's solutions are for police violence, poverty and injustice and get involved in work that supports the African Village Survival Initiative, because environmental justice, gay rights, women's rights and the rights of all people must be addressed through the overturning of the culture and system of violence and genocide and the building of a new world where all people can live.

With Presentations by:
Omali Yeshitela, Leader and Founder of the Uhuru Movement
on the movement for economic development, reparations and justice
Penny Hess,
Chairwoman of the African People's Solidarity Committee
presenting a slide presentation on Environmental Justice Through African Liberation

WE DID IT! Uhuru Foods Will Be at the Maker Faire

2009-05-27T17:05:00.001-07:00

Thank you to all Supporters! Visit our booth at Maker Faire

A huge "Thank you!" to all the supporters of Uhuru Foods from Massachussetts to Florida to California who sent heartfelt e-mail letters of deep unity with the Uhuru Movement and Uhuru Foods. Thanks to everyone who made phone calls, as well.

Because of the broad base of support for the Uhuru Movement, we were notified this morning by Ovations that Uhuru Foods' booth location and contract has been reinstated at the Maker Faire. If you plan to be at Maker Faire, sign up to volunteer at our booth, stop by to make a donation or get your meals from Uhuru Foods. This important fundraiser for African self-determination will be a great success with all of your support.

To find out more about Uhuru Foods and the African Village Survival Initiative, to join the AVSI solidarity committee or to make a donation, go to www.apedf.org or www.uhurufoods.org

Urgent Call-in: Demand Uhuru Foods is Included at the Maker Faire

2009-05-24T20:26:00.000-07:00

Dear Uhuru Foods and Uhuru Movement Supporters,

We are calling on people to write letters and make calls to express shock and outrage at the decision by Ovations, the food coordinators for the Maker Faire 2009 to terminate the contract of Uhuru Foods, without explanation, just 7 days prior to the event.

(See sample letter)

As you may know, Uhuru Foods has been coordinating popular food concessions at fairs and festivals for 30 years to raise resources in support of the Uhuru Movement programs for African genuine economic development and self determination. The booths have offered good quality natural foods, and the opportunity for thousands of volunteers to concretely demonstrate their support for genuine economic development for the black community.

On Friday, May 22nd, Nancy Davis of Ovations notified Uhuru Foods that they were terminating our contract just one week prior to the faire. She refused to give a reason for excluding Uhuru Foods. Uhuru Foods has had an excellent relationship with Maker Faire promoters in the past.

We believe that excluding Uhuru Foods runs counter to the mission of the Maker Faire. The Maker Faire focuses on generating thought and action towards building a sustainable future.
The predominantly white middle class community that produce and attends the Maker Faire have always appreciated being able to support Uhuru Foods. Excluding Uhuru Foods ensures that the festival is an exclusive enterprise that does not include the voice, perspective and struggle of the African working class.

Without any explanation from Ovations for the cancellation, we can only assume that they do not support the independent voice and self determination struggle of the black community, They are choosing to exclude African led programs for true sustainability and justice that African people are leading through the Uhuru Movement. Just as during the early 1960s, some opposed the leading struggles of black people in the South who challenged the status quo with such bold actions as the lunch counter sit-ins.

Uhuru Solidarity Movement Meeting, Tues, 5/19 at 7pm

2009-05-18T12:38:00.000-07:00

When: Tuesday, May 19th, 7 to 8:30pm

Where: Humanist Hall, 390 - 27th St., Oakland

What: Uhuru Solidarity Movement meeting

Come out to participate in the work of the Uhuru Solidarity Movement, a part of the African Liberation Movement building a movement on the ground against the policy of police containment and terror in Oakland and beyond. We will study the legacy of Malcolm X on his birthday and the COINTELPRO program that destroyed the Black Power Movement of the 1960's. Find out how to get involved with the African Village Survival Initiative and support the work to build sustainability, justice and programs led by and for the black community. Uhuru means freedom!

Save the Dates! June 11th & 14th Community Forums to Stop Police Terror

2009-05-14T14:38:00.000-07:00

From Oscar Grant to Lovelle Mixon:

Why We Must Organize to Stop Police Terror Against the African Community

and Build the Movement for Economic Development, Reparations & Justice!

Thursday, June 11th, 7 to 9pm

Humanist Hall, 390 - 27th St., Oakland

Sunday, June 14th, 4 to 6pm

Uhuru House, 7911 MacArthur Blvd, Oakland

Dinner following the event

Keynote Speaker:

Omali Yeshitela, Leader and Founder of the Uhuru Movement

Addressing the growing African liberation movement in the U.S., in Africa

and throughout the African world

With Penny Hess, Chairwoman of the African People's Solidarity Committee

Addressing the question of Environmental Justice through African Liberation

$5 to 25 sliding scale

No one turned away for lack of funds

oakland@inpdum.org

Two Oaklands: One Solution This Thursday!

2009-04-26T14:47:00.000-07:00

Thursday, April 30th, 7pm:

Two Oaklands: One Solution

Economic Development for the African Community and an End to the Policy of Police Containment
390 - 27th St., Oakland, CA

Donation Requested (no one turned away)

The killing of four Oakland police officers and Lovelle Mixon on March 21st has brought to the surface the economic and political crisis in our city.

40% of the Oakland general fund budget goes to police services, while only a half of one percent goes towards economic development

The Uhuru Movement invites concerned members of our community to discuss solutions for peace and justice.

We can develop Oakland into a model city for shared prosperity and true social justice!

Speakers:

Shanrika Turney, Local Uhuru moement organizer presenting on the current campaigns of the Uhuru Movement

Bakari Olatunji, member of the African People's Socialist Party presenting on the history of the Black Panther Party

Wendy Snyder, Uhuru Solidarity Movement presenting on the roots of the crisis in the city of Oakland.

The Uhuru Movement is building the African Village Survival Initiative, a collective response to the economic crisis to ensure the African community can meet its own needs through self-reliant programs and institutions: community gardening, solar energy, rainwater catchment, holistic health practices and economic development.

Call 510-625-1106 or email oakland@uhurusolidarity.org to find out more about the event and/or how to volunteer for the programs.

Uhuru Solidarity Movement Study: From the Black Panther Party to the Uhuru Movement

2009-04-13T13:55:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, April 14th, 7pm
Humanist Hall, 390 - 27th St., Oakland
(between Broadway and Telegraph)
oakland@uhurusolidarity.org
510-625-1106

The Uhuru Solidarity Movement invites people interested in learning more about the historical legacy and current campaigns of the Uhuru Movement and how to join in solidarity with the struggle for African liberation and justice.

The Uhuru Solidarity Movement will hold a study to provide an orientation to people interested in studying the history of the Black Power Movement in Oakland from the Black Panther Party to Uhuru.

We want to educate and understand COINTELPRO, the military disinformation and assassination campaign of the FBI and the tactics the U.S. government has used to discredit and undermine struggles of the oppressed for national liberation.

We are interested in discussion and dialogue about how to address the serious conditions that the African community in Oakland and the SF Bay area faces.

We believe that we must join in solidarity with the African led movement for liberation, sustainability and shared prosperity.

Come to the study and you will learn about the Uhuru Movement campaigns including:

** The struggle for economic development, not police containment in Oakland and around the U.S.

** The "City Hall 2" in Philadelphia, where the city attacked the African community's right to free speech in challenging Philly Mayor Nutter's war (police) budget

** The Campaign to Free Ajamu Bandele, Uhuru Movement organizer in York, PA who has been framed up for his work exposing the drug economy as part of the war on the black community

** The African Village Survival Initiative and its collective response to the global economic crisis through community gardening, solar energy, rainwater catchment, sustainability and economic developent

** The African Socialist International building in East and West Africa and North America, uniting African people into one organization

** The Uhuru Solidarity Movement first national conference on Saturday, May 2nd in Philadelphia, PA to build organization everywhere of white people and other allies taking a stand against police violence, economic attacks and injustice against African people everywhere.

Upcoming Uhuru Movement Events

2009-04-08T21:46:00.000-07:00

The solution to the economic crisis
and violence in Oakland:
Economic development
to the African community
and an end to the policy
of police containment

The killing of four Oakland police officers and Lovelle Mixon on March 21st has brought to surface the economic and political crisis in our city.

The Uhuru Movement invites concerned members of our community to discuss solutions for peace and justice.

We can develop Oakland into a model city for shared prosperity and true social justice!

Upcoming Events:

Tuesday, April 14th, 7 to 9pmUhuru Solidarity Movement Study Group, Humanist Hall, 390 – 27th St., Oakland

Tuesday, April 21st, 7 to 9pmUhuru Movement & Uhuru Foods Organizing Meeting, Humanist Hall, 390 – 27th St., Oakland

Sunday, April 26th, 2 to 6pmEarth Day at the Uhuru HouseSupport the African Village Survival Initiative

Thursday, April 30th, 7 to 9pmCommunity Forum:A Solution to the Economic Crisis & Violence in Oakland: Economic Development, Not Police Containment, Humanist Hall, 390 – 27th St., Oakland

Come out to the Uhuru Foods breakfast booth every Saturday at the Grand Lake Farmers Market & Shop at Uhuru Furniture & Collectibles at 3742 Grand Ave in Oakland
For more info, email Oakland@uhurusolidarity.org or call 510-625-1106

Support Economic and Social Justice, Not Police Containment in Oakland

2009-04-05T06:23:00.000-07:00

Why & How We Must Participate in the Solutions to Oakland's Problems

Two weeks following the killings of four Oakland police officers and Lovelle Mixon, many in Oakland are still trying to make sense of what happened and put forward solutions to the underlying problems that we face in our city. As the economic crisis deepens throughout the country, we see the rapid escalation of violence - in nursing homes, family homes, immigration offices, and yesterday's killing of two police officers by a 22 year old white man in Pittsburgh, PA who had just recently lost his job and was concerned about losing his guns.

We can see that the economic crisis is at the root of many of these killings - people losing their jobs and with it their ability to feed themselves and their families. In these troubled times, many people are suffering. And yet, African communities across the U.S. have faced an economic crisis for a long time now. The unemployment rate in the black community has always been disproportionate to the rest of society. Joblessness, homelessness, poverty and oppression follow the historic legacy of a two tiered system and reality that maintains the wealth and privilege of white people in opposition to the impoverishment of African and Mexican communities. This oppression coincides with the lucrative prison economy of California, fueled by the lives of young black men like Lovelle Mixon who are caught up in the poverty and hopelessness and forced into a fierce struggle just to survive.

The Uhuru Movement has stated that the events in Oakland are the result of the failed policy of police containment, which offers no future for the African working class communities. The police are part of the state, an apparatus that encompasses the courts, the prisons, the navy and the army. They exist to maintain the divisions between the wealth and poverty, the employed and the unemployed, the imprisoned and the free.

While we can only surmise what was in the mind of Lovelle Mixon when he shot and killed the Oakland police officers (what happened in the house on 74th Avenue, we still do not know), there are some things we do know. The city of Oakland spends 40% of its billion dollar budget on its notoriously brutal police department, infamous for the "Oakland Riders," fabricated search warrants, consistent killings of young black and Mexican men and unsolved homicides in East and West Oakland. This portion of the budget going to a militarized police force does not include the amount in overtime monies paid to officers nor does it include the thousands of dollars paid by the city in police brutality settlements.

It is commonly understood that the same public policy functioned in the brutal public killing of Oscar Grant III on January 1st by BART police officer Johannes Mehserle. This police killing is in the consciousness of every young African person as they face the daily presence of the OPD in their neighborhoods and the constant reminder that they could be the next victims of deadly police violence.

We also know that the city government spends just one half of one percent of its budget on community economic development in a city one in five households in our city live on $5,000 or less. Oakland is a city of haves and have nots maintained through the violence of the state. This is a city of the hills, the cool hip, artsy neighborhoods versus the impoverished and desparate flatlands where black children live 15 years less than white children in the hills.

The Uhuru Movement has always provided a forum and a voice for the most oppressed sector of the African community. The Uhuru House community center in East Oakland provides this space through which the African community has stood up on numerous occasions for economic and social justice and struggled for community control of the police, housing and education.

The black community-led Uhuru Movement has recently initiated an international collective response to the deep economic crisis we are experiencing that is hitting the African community especially hard, called the African Village Survival Initiative.

For those of us who want to see social justice and peace in our city, the African Village Survival Initiative is a program and a vision for the future we can all support. This program is a prototype for creating green, sustainable energy, farming and economic self-reliance programs that can be reproduced anywhere in the U.S. & worldwide. This is a program that we can support that will be led by the African working class community themselves to grow their own food, build their own programs, meet their own needs and hasten the transformation of this terrible reality into something new and something good for everyone.

We can struggle for genuine economic development and an end to the failed policy of police containment that has created the volatile conditions in East and West Oakland. We can support programs like the African Village Survival Initiative in Oakland and beyond. The more of us who can participate in real community based solutions the sooner we can bring about the change our city and our world needs.

Learn about the African Village Survival Initiative and the campaigns and programs of the Uhuru Movement. Join the Uhuru Solidarity Movement and Uhuru Foods that raise funds and support for the Uhuru movement. Attend our study this Wednesday, April 8th from 7 to 9pm at the Jump 'N Java Cafe, 6606 Shattuck Ave, Oakland

Call (510) 625- 1006
oakland@uhurusolidarity.org

Today's Coverage of Killings of Police and Mixon

2009-03-29T21:10:00.000-07:00

These articles make some interesting points:

http://www.insidebayarea.com/sanmateocountytimes/localnews/ci_12019917

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/03/28/INO216MACK.DTL

Video Coverage of Lovelle Mixon Video

2009-03-26T17:14:00.000-07:00

Video footage from the March 25th, 2009 Vigil for Lovelle Mixon and victims of police violence in Oakland:

Uhuru Movement Statement on the Killings of 4 Officers and Lovelle Mixon

2009-03-26T00:48:00.000-07:00

International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement
7911 MacArthur Blvd, Oakland
(510) 569-9620
Oakland@inpdum.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE!

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

WHAT: Uhuru Movement statement on the killing of
four Oakland officers and Lovelle Mixon
CONTACT: Bakari Olatunji, 510-304-2078

The Uhuru Movement thanks all of our friends and supporters who have voiced their concerns about the position taken by the Uhuru Movement on the March 21 killings of four Oakland policemen and twenty-six year old Lovelle Mixon.

We unite with your interest in dialog and resolution to this situation and in building unity among the various communities in Oakland through genuine social justice.

The Uhuru Movement has always understood that our friends may disagree with some of our positions—positions which always uphold justice for the African working class community.

We understand and unite with your concerns that the tense situation in Oakland must be resolved.

It is unfortunate that it takes a situation like this to bring Oakland’s real problems to the surface.

We have to take the March 21 events in the context of the long history that the Oakland police department has had with the Oakland African working class community.

It was the infamous brutality of the Oakland police that gave rise to the Black Panther Party for Self Defense in the 1960s.

There has been the exposure of the notorious Oakland “Riders,” whose brazen violence, harassment, racism and dishonesty are well known.

There have been relentless police murders of African community members young and old, such as Casper Banjo, an elderly African man and well-known, respected artist who was blatantly shot by the police last year.

There are hundreds of African and Mexican working class people who have been murdered by police over the years, real human beings whose names fade from the collective memory so quickly. Many of these victims have been blatantly slandered in the media, doubling the pain of the grieving families.

The recent cold-blooded, point blank BART police murder of young Oscar Grant was only unusual because it was caught from many angles on video.

But it is much more than this. Oakland has a very clear publicly supported policy of police containment, implementing an incessant martial law with ever-present SWAT teams and police helicopters circling over neighborhoods daily.

California’s prison population is the fourth largest in the entire world and the OPD does everything possible to feed young African men and women from Oakland into that system for their entire lives.

Discriminatory legislation such as Three Strikes locks up countless African people as young as 14 years old for things that white people get to go to rehab for.

It has long been documented in articles by journalist Gary Webb in the San Jose Mercury News, for example, that the US government is responsible for imposing the devastating crack cocaine plague in African communities, and it is well known that the police have and continue to facilitate this.

The Uhuru Movement does not support the loss of life of any person. But the loss of life at the hands of the police in the African community of Oakland has been going on for half a century.

The “tensions” in Oakland are caused by the police, not by an impoverished community struggling to survive.

Even the mainstream media sources such as the New York Times and National Public Radio have had to mention in most reports that many in the African community do not support the police’s position in this case, and understand that Mixon’s actions were the result of years of oppression of a whole community which has come to a boiling point.

Lovelle Mixon’s life, like that of thousands of young African men in the impoverished neighborhoods of Oakland, was over long before he was killed by police. He faced a hopeless dead end of joblessness, poverty and criminalization by a society that would rather lock up young African men than make college or jobs available to them.

The police are not social workers; they are a military force with the assignment to carry out a violent containment policy against a whole community. The purpose of the police is to maintain power for the status quo and uphold the relations of poverty and wealth in the city.

If we want to move forward and “build bridges” as a city there is only one road to do so. We have to truly understand the calls of a community under siege and demand an immediate end to this completely failed public policy of police containment, this war without terms waged against the African community of Oakland.

We have to demand a policy of genuine economic development for the African community—development that truly benefits and uplifts the deeply impoverished African working class of this city, and is not just another cover for gentrification and dispersal of the oppressed.

We appreciate your continued support of the Uhuru Movement and urge you to take an active stand in transforming Oakland into a model city of shared prosperity and true social justice.

Uhuru!

RIP Lovelle Mixon

2009-03-24T23:38:00.000-07:00

Lovell Mixon (below) with his uncle Curtis Mixon

The mainstream media, for the most part, portrays Lovelle Mixon as a despicable human being beyond reform - child rapist and urban terrorist.

The comments on previous posts to this blog attest to many peoples' willingness to believe in this picture of him.

I did not know him personally but I know a little bit about what young African men face in East Oakland and I know the history of this phenomenon - some from books and some from having lived to see the Stuart Case, the acquittal of the officers who beat Rodney King, the frame up of Fred Hampton Jr. and numerous other events unfold. Mostly, however, I have learned from the brilliant teachings and campaigns of the Uhuru Movement.

I learned from young men like Lovelle in my classroom as a teacher at Castlemont High (just down the street from where the events took place and also down the street from the Uhuru House), young men and women who were brilliant, ready to take on the world, but who were treated as less than intelligent and whose pride and brilliance prevented them from putting up with the miseducation, irrrelevance and boredom that often came with being in school.

It turns out that Derrick Mixon was Lovelle's cousin. Derrick was a 9th grader at Castlemont High who was witty, hilarious and creative and only lived to age 15 before he was killed last summer. There was no outcry about this young man's death. He was one of many young men whose unexplained death was unnoticed by the outside world.

With what I have learned from the Uhuru Movement about the history of slavery, the hundreds of years of lynchings of African people by regular white folks (my people), about the everyday terror of the chain gangs, police violence and prison system, there is no possible way that I could just believe what they want me to believe. The historic figure of the black man as rapist figures into the popular imagination to such a degree to stir up white nationalist lynch mob justice and to separate him from his community. And this young man is already dead.

It is time for white people who consider ourselves forward thinking and progressive to stand with the victims, stand with the families and with the communities who have suffered enough and whose movement can overturn a system that we also hate for its inhumanity, its brutality, its perpetual war here and in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.

I encourage you to come out to support tomorrow evening - Wednesday, March 25th at 6pm at the Uhuru House, 7911 MacArthur Blvd, Oakland.

For other views diverging from that of the mainstream on Lovelle Mixon and the events in Oakland, see:

http://uhurunews.com/story?resource_name=stop-the-genocidal-war-on-the-african-community-now-economic-and-social-justice-for-the-african-community

http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=765a336402b359f577a09d8e09eb00dd http://blogs.newamericamedia.org/nam-round-table/1633/lovell-obama-the-theory-behind-the-image

http://www.feministing.com/archives/014439.html

A decent letter to the editor by Sally Norvel of Alameda (at the top):

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/03/24/EDB616LGMA.DTL

This article is mainstream but has a lot of details about his life that I haven't read about yet:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/25/us/25parolee.html?ref=us

Defend African People's Right to Resist!

2009-03-23T23:30:00.000-07:00

Defend African People's Right to Resist!
March, Candlelight Vigil and Rally for Lovelle Mixon and Family
Wednesday, March 25th, 6 to 8pm
Gather at Uhuru House, 7911 MacArthur Blvd, Oakland
6:30 March to Eastmont Town Center
Rally & Return to the Uhuru House

Contact: 510-569-9620, oakland@inpdum.org

Stop the Genocidal War on the African Community Now!
Economic and Social Justice for the African Community!

Statement from the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement

The International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement calls on all progressive-minded people to stand against the brutal, long-standing, publicly-supported policies of police containment that keep the African community under the grip of a colonial occupation for which the Oakland Police Department is the front line of assault.

We call for support for the African community demands for genuine economic development and social justice for the African community.

The deaths of four members of the OPD on March 21, 2009, were the result of these relentless policies, which are manifested daily in the cold-blooded police murders, brutality and harassment of African men and women, youth and elderly by the heavily armed, military style Oakland police force;

In draconian laws such as Three Strikes that discriminatorily lock up tens of thousands of African people for life in the multi-billion dollar California prison industry;

In the hostile, substandard education system that profiles African male children as young as six years old as criminals and “super-predators,” and feeds the shameful juvenile prison industry that violates every principle of international law;

In the highly-documented government-imposed illegal drug trade which is often the only last-ditch source of employment in a community whose own economic infrastructure has been destroyed by “urban renewal” and gentrification;

In the specific targeting of African homeowners for predatory subprime mortgages, thousands of which are now in foreclosure;

In the cruel foster care system that turns African babies and children, victimized by this system, into profitable commodities for the lucrative white foster-care industry.

It was the historic brutality of the Oakland Police Department that gave rise to the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense in the 1960s.

We recognize that African communities of Oakland and throughout the US are locked down under a deadly colonial occupation no different than the conditions imposed on the Iraqi and Afghani people under the US military occupation and the near genocidal colonial assault on the Palestinian people by the illegitimate state of Israel.

We believe that all oppressed and colonized peoples have a right to struggle for liberation and to resist, as Malcolm X said, by any means necessary.

Just like the resistance of Nat Turner and Gabriel Prosser, enslaved Africans once vilified and today considered heroes, African people in Oakland have a right to struggle against this government-imposed terror. This is exactly what our brother Lovelle Mixon did.

We believe the actions brother Lovelle Mixon took were in fact a direct response to a system that upholds itself and protects itself through the imposition of a police state within the African community to enforce systematic harassment, torture, death and destruction on the African community, so that it can continue to thrive.

Africans have come to the conclusion that if you do not resist oppression from the police, you will end up unjustly murdered by them, all criminal charges will be dropped against them, hence injustice within the system perpetuates itself while Africans continue to die.

Knowing the history of how the police treat Africans, Lovelle Mixon felt he had to defend himself in the face of the oppressive police state. And he did so, honorably. Like the missiles launched from Gaza and the Iraqi resistance forces, African people will rightfully fight to free themselves against oppression in every form.

We call on the citizens of Oakland to unite with the demands raised by the Uhuru Movement for genuine economic development to the African working class community, for reparations for the families of victims of police violence, for a community controlled police review board with subpoena powers and for an immediate end to these failed public policies of police containment which have brought so much suffering to the African community for so long.

We call on Oakland citizens to join us in rejecting the knee-jerk criminalization of the oppressed African community by the city and state governments, and in recognizing that in order to go forward as a city we must unite in the quest for economic and social justice for the African community.

Uhuru!

The International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement is an organization led by the African working class to defend the democratic rights of the African community.

Four OPD and One Young African Down in Billion Dollar War

2009-03-21T23:14:00.000-07:00

In urgent response to yesterday's events in Oakland, we are inviting people to come out to the Oakland Uhuru House Today:

Stop the Billion Dollar War on the African Community!
Remember Oscar Grant, Jody Woodfox, Casper Banjo, Andrew Moppin, Gary King Jr.
and all the Victims of the Oakland Police Department Policies of Police Containment

WHEN: Sunday, March 22nd, 4 to 6pm
WHERE: Uhuru House, 7911 MacArthur Blvd, Oakland

Yesterday, in what the media is calling a "routine traffic stop,” four Oakland police officers, two of whom were members of the SWAT team were shot by a young African who was later shot and killed by police in East Oakland. Following the shootings of the first two officers, hundreds of police, sheriff, highway patrol and helicopters terrorized the entire community around 74th and MacArthur. 27 year old Lovelle Mixon, the suspect described as having "an extensive criminal history" was killed at the scene.

These events are in direct response to what has been happening in the African community of Oakland. Every day, the notoriously brutal Oakland Police Department comes into the neighborhoods to attack us and we have a right to resist. Nearly half of the city's billion dollar budget goes to support a militarized policy of police containment while one in five families in Oakland communities live below the poverty line. African people are on lock down in their own communities and never see justice for the police killings of African people. Lovelle Mixon is a victim of the policy of police containment and economic embargo of our African community.

The city and the media are using these events to cover up the police violence that plagues the African community and win support for their policies.
Come out today to get organized in unity with the African working class and join the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement and unite with the following demands:
Jail the killer cops
Reparations to the families of the victims of police violence
Economic development not police containment to the African community

Stop the Billion Dollar War on the African Community!
Build a sustainable future based on justice and liberation!

Justice for Oscar Grant and all the Victims of Police Violence!
Join the Uhuru Solidarity Movement!
www.uhurusolidarity.org
oakland@uhurusolidarity.org

All Resources of the U.S. Empire Are Blood Resources

2009-03-08T08:27:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, March 10th, 7 to 8:30pm

Uhuru Solidarity Movement Study

3127 Herriott Ave (off Virginia and High St), Oakland

We will watch a slide presentation, "All Resources Are Blood Resources" by African People's Solidarity Committee Chairwoman Penny Hess showing the foundation and ongoing collapsing system of U.S. imperialism based on slavery, colonialism and genocide from the diamonds in Sierra Leone to the prison economy in the U.S. The presentation will be followed by a discussion of the theory of African Internationalism, the philosophy of the Uhuru Movement and the programs and campaigns of the Uhuru Movement including the All African People's Development and Empowerment Projects, the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement, the African Village Survival Initiative in the U.S. and the work of the Uhuru Solidarity Movement and Uhuru Foods to win unity and support for these programs and building a new world based on justice and true sustainability under the leadership of the African revolution. Email oakland@uhurusolidarity.org or call 510-295-7834 for more info.

Oscar Grant's Birthday

2009-02-27T14:06:00.000-08:00

Oscar Grant III would have been 23 year's old today. Broken hearted family and friends mourn today a young black life taken away by the public policy of police containment and terror against the African community.

It is very moving that there are friends and family members and organizations holding actions to honor his life. The Uhuru Movement is calling on people honor Oscar Grant's too short life by getting involved in the movement for justice for the African community.

This Sunday, March 1st at 2pm, the Chairman of the African People's Socialist Party and founder of the Uhuru Movement, Omali Yeshitela will be speaking on "US War, Economy in Crisis and Police Terror Against the African Community" at the Uhuru House, 7911 MacArthur Blvd in Oakland. Support the independent voice and movement of the African working class. Participate in the long term strategy of the Uhuru Movement for freedom and independence for African and oppressed peoples. Join in solidarity with the struggle to overturn a filthy rotten system that would take the life of this young man in his prime and countless others in Oakland, in the U.S. around the world. Let's destroy the system that is already in a state of collapse that is built on slavery and genocide and let's participate in building a new world. Hear the vision of the Uhuru Movement and get involved. Call (510) 569-9620 for more info, for transportation to the event or for more information. Email oakland@uhurusolidarity.org

Two Weeks From Today: Omali Yeshitela Speaks!

2009-02-15T15:05:00.000-08:00

Not One More Black Life! USM Rally This Thursday

2009-02-09T20:31:00.000-08:00

Uhuru Solidarity Movement Rally
Humanist Hall, 390 - 27th St., Oakland
With Penny Hess, Chairwoman of the African People's Solidarity Committee & Bakari Olatunji, West Coast Representative of the African People's Socialist Party and Chair of the InPDUM Oakland organizing committee

Many people rightfully continue to be outraged at the brutal murder of Oscar Grant III. However, the majority of the police crimes - the police killings, the brutality, the planting of guns, the falsification of search warrants - take place without any significant public outcry and with the majority of the city of Oakland's budget.

Bakari Olatunji, the West Coast Representative of the African People's Socialist Party and Penny Hess of the African People's Solidarity Committee will speak at Thursday's rally.

Olatunji will speak about the need for the African working class to lead their own struggle against the brutal daily conditions of police violence, poverty and oppression and demand economic development for the African community in Oakland, connecting to the struggle to unite with other African people for the liberation of Africa's resources to benefit African people everywhere.

Penny Hess will address the economic crisis, the continuation of U.S. imperialist wars, the escalating attacks on the African and other oppressed communities and the necessity for white people to find solutions to our problems with this social system by struggling for reparations from the white community and for a better world under the leadership of the African liberation movement. We can participate right now in building the capacity o the Uhuru Solidarity Movement's political actions and in the weekly work of Uhuru Foods farmers markets and streetfairs which help fund the Uhuru Movement campaigns and programs.

The Uhuru Solidarity Movement is calling on the white community and allies of the African working class led Uhuru Movement to embrace the struggle for justice and reparations for the family of Oscar Grant and all victims of police violence as our own. Come out to learn more and get involved. oakland@uhurusolidarity.org (510) 625-1106

Community Speak Out Today at the Uhuru House

2009-01-31T07:32:00.003-08:00

Come out to support the Community Speak Out today Saturday, January 31st at the Uhuru House at 12 noon at 7911 MacArthur Blvd, Oakland and join organization to build economic development, justice and reparations for the African community. Reparations is necessary because it means repair for the damages caused by the system - the police killings, and the destruction of the African community by the imposition of the deadly drug and prison economy, the gentrification, the foreclosures, the inferior schools, the child welfare system's intervention in African families, the list goes on and on.

Take a stand and join the Uhuru Solidarity Movement. Come out tomorrow to organize white solidarity under the leadership of the African working class led movement for liberation and freedom: Sunday, February 1st, 10am to noon, World Grounds Cafe, 3726 Mac Arthur Blvd between 35th Ave and High Street in Oakland

Call 510-295-7834 for more info or for transportation to either event.

Oscar Grant Punched in the Face Before Being Shot!

2009-01-28T12:01:00.001-08:00

Just in case you missed this. It came out a couple days ago:

Oscar Grant was punched in the face by another officer before being shot by Mehserle.

BART hasn't disclosed the name of the officer. This shows the complicity of the BART police in their policies of terror and murder. Remember they also left Grant for dead after Mehserle shot him and ran around taking peoples' phones and cameras!

Stop the City of Oakland's War Budget! Join the Uhuru Solidarity Movement!

2009-01-27T09:40:00.000-08:00

Uhuru Solidarity Movement Orientation & Meeting
World Grounds Cafe, 3726 Mac Arthur Blvd (between 35th Ave and High St.), Oakland
Come learn about the theory and practice of the Uhuru Solidarity Movement, organizing solidarity from the white community and other allies with the African liberation movement.

Join the work of justice and reparations for the family of Oscar Grant and all victims of police violence.
oakland@uhurusolidarity.org

Watch the interruption by InPDUM leader Bakari Olatunji challenging Oakland Mayor's war budget:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDTNnOnCxPU

In a city where one in five families live on less than $5,000 a year, the city spends 40% of its billion dollar budget on its occupying army in the African and other oppressed communities where it has brutalized, killed and trampled on the peoples' rights. The city spends one half of one percent on community economic development!

Join the Uhuru Solidarity Movement to take a stand against the public policy of war and police containment and stand for economic development and justice!

Oscar Grant Punched By Another Officer Before Being Shot

2009-01-25T22:12:00.000-08:00

http://www.ktvu.com/video/18554358/index.html

Internal Affairs Chief of OPD Beat Man to Death

2009-01-25T20:56:00.000-08:00

Embrace the worldview of the African working class and revelations like these don't surprise you. This is what happens every day to African, Mexican and indigenous peoples in this country.

In March of 2000, Jerry Amaro III was beaten so badly by then-Lieutenant Edward Poulson of the Oakland Police Department, that his five broken ribs and collapsed lung resulted in his death from pneumonia. Not only that, he spent three days at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin without any medical care whatsoever.

Not only that, Poulson told five officers to lie about the incident and cover it up. He was "disciplined" by then-police chief Richard Word who conducted an internal affairs and homicide investigation finding that none of the officers involved was guilty. Word suspended Poulson for two weeks.

It seems that people in Oakland who are suspected of using government sanctioned drugs are fair game to be beaten and left to die. It would seem also that cops that brutalize and murder Africans and Mexicans and then cover it up are rewarded for their "courageous" actions. Just last year, Chief Wayne Tucker made Poulson the head of the Internal Affairs Department. And guess what? Just in case you didn't know, the Internal Affairs Department is supposed to investigate the police.

Right now Oakland is a city with a budget crisis due to the money spent on the war on the impoverished African and Mexican communities. Amaro was killed just blocks away from the Oakland office of the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement, the Uhuru House. The Uhuru Movement calls on the African community and its allies to demand an end to these brutal policies committed by the occupying army of East Oakland and demand monies for the development of economic life that will make life better for the communities of East and West Oakland.

Come out to support the Community Speak Out! Stop the Crimes against the African and other oppressed communities. Join the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement and the Uhuru Solidarity Movement!

Saturday, January 31st, 12 noon to 3pm

Community Speak Out:

Against the City's Crimes Committed Against the African Community

Uhuru House, 7911 MacArthur Blvd, Oakland

Sunday, February 1st, 10am to noon

Uhuru Solidarity Movement Orientation

World Grounds Cafe, 3726 MacArthur Blvd, Oakland

White Solidarity with the African Community's Struggle for Justice

oakland@uhurusolidarity.org

March for Justice on MLK Day

2009-01-20T13:02:00.000-08:00

The march yesterday calling for justice for Oscar Grant and the families of all victims of police violence was successful in its participation of the people - between the two rallies and the march there hundreds of participants. It was also successful in its impact on and response from the community. Leaders from the Black Power Movement and the growing resistance of the African community in the form of leaders young and old were present and a significant outpouring of solidarity from Mexican, Asian and white people for the struggle for African liberation as we marched through the historic African community of West Oakland, past the Oakland headquarters of the Marcus Garvey movement to the sites where Black Panther Party founder Huey P. Newton was assassinated by the government to Li'l Bobby Hutton Park, recognizing the government's brutal attack on the African freedom struggle and the strength of the organized resistance of the freedom fighters in the struggle.

Check out today's San Francisco Chronicle for a decent article on the march.

Come out to an orientation of the Uhuru Solidarity Movement on this Sunday, January 25th from 10am to noon at World Grounds Cafe,3726 MacArthur Blvd (between 35th Ave and High St.) in Oakland.

Email oakland@uhurusolidarity.org for more info.

Listen to Uhuru Radio Today

2009-01-18T07:55:00.000-08:00

Tune into Uhuru Radio for two shows today addressing the movement for justice for Oscar Grant:

10am
"Uhuru On Tha Move!"
Chimurenga Waller will talk live with Bakari Olatunji in Oakland, California about the police murder of Oscar Grant, and with community members in Augusta, Georgia about the police murder of Justin Elmore.
1pm
"Solidarity, Not Charity!" Hear African People's Solidarity Committee (APSC) Chairwoman Penny Hess speak live with Oakland organizer Wendy Snyder about the movement for justice for Oscar Grant and other victims of police murder in Oakland, California.

Come out to a meeting today to finalize plans for tomorrow's March for Justice.

Meeting today is at the Uhuru House, 7911 MacArthur Blvd, Oakland at 4pm

Email oakland@uhurusolidarity.org if you need directions and/or a ride.

March on Monday! Join the Uhuru Solidarity Movement!

2009-01-16T01:59:00.000-08:00

Take a Stand! Show Real Solidarity!

The Uhuru Solidarity Movement is calling on white people and other allies of the African liberation movement to join the march on this Martin Luther King Day holiday under the leadership of the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement (InPDUM) representing the African working class. Read the position of the InPDUM on Uhuru News

and listen to the broadcast, "Solidarity Not Charity!" on this Sunday at 1pm on Uhuru Radio.

On Monday, January 19th, gather at 11:30 at West Oakland BART for 12 noon march through the historic sites of the Marcus Garvey and Black Power Movement, ending at West Oakland BART for a rally from 2 to 3pm.

The People's Court - the Tribunal to Charge the City and Other Officials with crimes of genocide against the African community will take place on Saturday, January 31st at the Uhuru House, 7911 MacArthur Blvd in Oakland. (Note the date change)

Email oakland@uhurusolidarity.org to participate in the march or tribunal.

Come Out Tomorrow to Oakland City Hall!

2009-01-13T15:28:00.000-08:00

Here is the information about the actions that the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement and the Uhuru Solidarity Movement will be participating in tomorrow.
http://www.apscuhuru.org/emails/oakland/justiceforoscargrant0113.html

Build the March on MLK Day, January 19th!

2009-01-10T19:34:00.000-08:00

The way to show solidarity with the struggle for justice is not to destroy black businesses and draw the attention of the police to further brutalize the African community!

The way to show solidarity is not to arrogantly and recklessly disrupt a peaceful yet righteous march led by African people for justice.

The way to show solidarity with justice for the African freedom struggle is to support the organization representing the interests of the African working class. Be a part of it! Show your unity!

Come out to the Uhuru House tomorrow to help build the march on Martin Luther King Day!

SUNDAY, JAN 11TH, 4 TO 6PM

UHURU HOUSE, 7911 MACARTHUR BLVD, OAKLAND

510-569-9620

inpdum_oakland@yahoo.com

The International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement calls on the people to come out to help organize the march on Monday, January 19th on the Martin Luther King Holiday for JUSTICE and REPARATIONS for the family of Oscar Grant III.

The InPDUM is a grassroots organization, led by the black working-class community. It was founded in 1991 in Chicago by the African People's Socialist Party.

InPDUM membership is open to anyone united with democracy for the African community and that self-determination is the highest expression of democracy. InPDUM is known and respected around the world for demanding reparations to African people for slavery and colonialism, demanding an end to the police containment of the African community and pushing for real economic development.

For the march, we want people to come ready to join the teams to:

1. Distribute leaflets and posters.

2. Make contact with other organizations, schools, church groups, temples, mosques who would want to participate.

3. Make powerful placards and banners for the March based on the demands.

4. Join the security and logistics team to ensure that the march is disciplined under the leadership of the African working class interests.

Uhuru Movement Demands:

2009-01-08T23:16:00.001-08:00

1. Jail and Prosecute Killer BART Cop Johannes Mehserle and Charge All BART Cops Involved With Accessory to the Crime of Murder

2. Reparations to the Family of Oscar Grant

3. Economic Development for the African and Oppressed Communities in Oakland

4. Immediate End to the Public Policy of Police Containment of the African and Oppressed Communities in Oakland

5. Immediate Release of All Arrested Demonstrators

Join the March on MLK Day January 19th, Gather at West Oakland BART at 11:30am

March at noon; Rally at 2 to 3pm

Help organize the march by attending meetings at the Uhuru House, 7911 MacArthur Blvd on Sundays at 4pm. Call 510-569-9620 or email inpdum_oakland@yahoo.com

Organizing Meeting for Justice for Oscar Grant III

2009-01-08T07:44:00.000-08:00

This meeting is organized by the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement for the community to come together to continue to strategize around actions regarding the BART police murder of 22 year old Oscar Grant.

Thursday, January 8th, 6pm

Uhuru House, 7911 Mac Arthur Blvd, Oakland

510-569-9620, inpdum_oakland@yahoo.com

InPDUM is a grassroots organization, led by the black working-class community. It was founded in 1991 in Chicago by the African People's Socialist Party.

InPDUM membership is open to anyone united with democracy for the African community and that self-determination is the highest expression of democracy.

Protest the BART Police Shooting of Oscar Grant III!

2009-01-05T20:04:00.000-08:00

22 year old Oscar Grant of Hayward was gunned down by a BART police officer on the morning of New Year's Day.

Numerous videos taken by witnesses from their cell phones show that Grant was face down on the ground in handcuffs when he was shot in the back at close range on the Fruitvale BART station platform at 2am following a New Year's Eve outing with his friends.

In this new year, it is the same old story. Police killings of African men like Oscar Grant have reached epidemic proportions. In fact, the number of police killings outnumber the killings of U.S. soldiers in Iraq in a war that is clear for anyone to see who has been paying attention against the African community in the U.S. This war usurps the budgets of cities like Oakland which pays out the majority of its monies to "public safety" justifying the war in the eyes of the outside world by the "war on crime" and "war on drugs." This has been the reality for decades since the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements of the 1960's and 70's.

Last year in Oakland, the Oakland police killed Casper Banjo, Jose Luis Buenrostro, Jody Woodfox and at least four others. The previous year the OPD killed Gary King Jr. and Andrew Moppin on New Year's Eve. The heavy handed policing in East and West Oakland is justified by the economic reality that these communities face that make them "high crime" areas, code word for the conditions faced by African and Mexican communities because of the legacy of slavery and colonialism.

Oscar Grant III's young life was brutally taken away by the police. In this case, there were many witnesses making the police unable to fabricate a story and say that Grant had a weapon. Grant's family members and friends have come out to express their grief in losing their son, nephew and friend making the press unable to slander Grant's character like they normally do. His four year old daughter is left without a father to raise her and a family and community mourns the loss of this well loved young man who worked as a butcher at the Farmer Joe's Market in the Dimond District of Oakland.

In this time of hope and change, we have to take an honest stand against the policies in place that systematically ends young lives yet never stirs an outcry from white people who call ourselves progressive.

We can stand up against the U.S. war in Iraq or in other places, but we say nothing about the killing of African people who are criminalized by the police and media.

It is time to speak out! We must stand up against this cold-blooded murder.

The International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement and the Uhuru Solidarity Movement will join the protest called for this Wednesday, January 7th at 3pm at the Fruitvale BART Station.

Stop the war the African community! Justice and reparations for the family of Oscar Grant III! Jail the killer cop!

The Uhuru Solidarity Movement works under the leadership of the Uhuru Movement to organize political and material solidarity from the white community with the African led Uhuru Movement. Uhuru Means Freedom!

Email oak_office@apscuhuru.org or call 510-625-1106 to join the work of the Uhuru Solidarity Movement

City of Oakland's War on the African Community

2008-12-28T20:14:00.000-08:00

The city of Oakland, like other cities across the U.S. has a fat budget to carry out the war on the African community. Hundreds of young African people die every year through the U.S. imposed drug economy that justifies military occupation in East and West Oakland. The Oakland Police Department tramples on the rights of the African and Mexican communities with the full sanction of the mayor and city council.

This week the East Bay Express published an article with some outrageous facts about neocolonial mayor here in Oakland, who was the darling of white liberals but who covers for the brutal war on African people that has killed at least seven people this year at the hands of his police department.

In a city that, like many others, faces a serious budget crisis, Dellums works, at most, three short days a week, coming in sometimes for a Monday meeting for a couple hours and occasionally attending evening and weekend events - roughly 25 hours a week while getting paid $184,000 a year.

Dellums is also chauffeured to and from work in a Lincoln Town car that is leased by the City of Oakland for $70,000 a year, which includes the driver's fee.

This is in a city where the New York Times reported that one in five households live on less than $5,000 a year. Dellums makes as much 37 of these families at the bottom 20% of Oakland's population. 14 families attempt to survive on what Dellums pays out to be driven to city hall three or four times a week.

This is in the context of a city that has bloated its budget with an overpaid police department.

According to this report by the UC Berkeley School of Journalism several years ago, Oakland police officers make nearly $138,000 a year in overtime pay. The Oakland Police Department's own web site lists the salary range between $69,162 to $87,172 annual salary range "plus shift differential."

The Uhuru Movement understands that this city money going to Dellums and going to the police department is being used to carry out an assault on the oppressed African community, the same community that rose up to build independent programs and was known internationally for its stand against police violence, poverty and injustice. This was the Black Panther Party for Self Defense.

Under Dellums, African and other oppressed communities continue to be driven out of Oakland through massive foreclosures. Communities in East and West Oakland live under an imposed illegal drug economy that never seems to go away but justifies martial law where cops run roughshod over peoples' rights. and homicides and police killings that continue with little, if any, public outcry.

We in the Uhuru Solidarity Movement demand an end to the police killings, a end to the policy of police containment and call for economic development from the city.

Come out to Oakland City Council on the first meeting on the year to speak out:

Tuesday, Jan 6, 6pm, Oakland City Council Meeting, One Frank Ogawa Plaza, Oakland (near 14th and Broadway), 12th ST. Bart station. Get there at 5:30pm to fill out a speaker card or do it online .

Yes We Can! Change the Conditions of War, Violence and Injustice

2008-12-10T20:21:00.000-08:00

Two Events This Week!

Slide Presentation & Discussion

Saturday, December 13th, 6 to 8pm

Louden Nelson 301 Center St, Santa Cruz

Monday, December 15th, 7 to 9pm

Humanist Hall, 390 - 27th St., Oakland

Come out to watch a slide presentation on "The Collapse of the Parasitic U.S. Economy"
presented by Penny Hess, Chairwoman of the African People's Solidarity Committee, providing an analysis of the current economic downturn, its origins and the way forward.

Bakari Olatunji, local organizer with the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement
will give a statement about the growing movement of African people in the U.S. for justice and reparations.

Wall Street criminals stole billions from African and Latino people through the subprime mortgage and support an economy of war, prisons, military and police terror.
Only a movement for real hope and change will make Obama work for the benefit of the people
Find out how you can participate in the work of the Uhuru Solidarity Movement and Uhuru Pies.

(510) 625-1106
oak_office@apscuhuru.org

The Struggle for Justice for Jody Woodfox Continues!

2008-11-18T20:05:00.000-08:00

Tonight, Robin Glenn, the aunt of Jody "Mack" Woodfox III, along with members of the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement spoke out on the open forum portion of the Oakland City Council meeting.

The demands are clear;

1. Jail killer cop Hector Jimenez for the shooting deaths of Woodfox and 20 year old Andrew Moppin.

2 Reparations to the families of Woodfox and Moppin.

3. Economic development, not police containment of the African and oppressed communities in Oakland.

During the meeting, the city council honored the 38 new police officers added to the force, making it the largest in the department's history.

Robin Glenn just wanted to know what they were going to do about this police officer still being on the force who had killed two people.

City council member Desley Brooks later told Uhuru Movement organizers that the issue of the police officer's killings could not be on the city council agenda because there was an investigation pending.

How much investigating do they need to do when Jody "Mack" Woodfox was shot six times in the back according to their own records? How can a police department rife with rights violations and police brutality lawsuits filed against it, investigate itself with any objectivity?

This is a war mongering city council that profits from the U.S. counterinsurgency war carried out by the Oakland Police Department against the African community, just like the U.S. counterinsurgency being carried out by the U.S. military in Iraq. The city of Oakland, whose budget is in crisis, can not continue to pay a murderer his salary (Officer Hector Jimenez is on paid administrative leave). Just as we should not support the bailout of the Wall Street crooks, we should not support the continued payment of the criminal city council and mayor for their rule without regard for law and their complete disdain for the African and oppressed communities.

More police will not solve the problem of crime in Oakland, but economic development will.

Stand on the side of economic justice and reparations to the African community!

Come out to the Sunday meeting of the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement on Sunday, November 23rd at the Uhuru House at 4pm, 7911 MacArthur Blvd in East Oakland.

For more information, call 510-569-9620.

Uhuru Pies November & December 2008

2008-10-24T10:30:00.000-07:00

Order Your Uhuru Pies at www.uhurupies.org

Uhuru Holiday Pies Funds Programs from West Oakland to West Africa

Since 1981, Uhuru Foods has coordinated a fundraiser selling thousands of pies throughout the Bay Area during the November and December holidays.

States Maureen Wagener, coordinator of the local fundraiser, "Conditions in Oakland speak to the need for programs that benefit the African community, which already experienced an economic crisis and is most impacted by the current economic downtrend.. Bringing an Uhuru Pie to your holiday dinner is a easy way to start talking about serious issues."

Continues Wagener, "The Alameda County Department of Health published a report this year citing the economic and environmental apartheid that exists in our city. Born in West Oakland, a black child can expect to die 15 years earlier than a white person born in the Oakland hills due to environmental and economic stresses and lack of access to healthy food and clean air."

The Uhuru Holiday Pies 2008 fundraising campaign will take this message out to thousands of people this holiday season with the call to support the programs of the Uhuru Movement to unite African people across borders to transform these conditions of poverty and oppression.

Whether it’s selling pies in the office, in front of the local Safeway or baking in the kitchen, anyone can participate in the Uhuru Holiday Pies fundraiser. Volunteer coordinator Bill Canada speaks to the wide range of people and groups involved in the campaign. “We are excited to be working with groups like Building with Books, an organization that empowers high school students to get involved in changing the world. Other groups on board this season are Alpha Phi Omega of Cal State East Bay as well as Key Clubs and Excel Clubs from Oakland high schools. We have families and individuals, young and old, who get involved every year. People love to sell our pies because they are so delicious.”

Uhuru Pies are handcrafted and are made from high quality ingredients. This year’s flavors include the signature sweet potato pie, using the authentic spice recipe, pecan, apple, pumpkin and vegan blackberry and pumpkin.

Uhuru Foods stands for solidarity with red, black and green -- sustainability and self-determination for African people everywhere. For more information about the Uhuru Movement or to order, sell or help bake Uhuru Pies this season, visit www.uhurupies.org or call (510) 625-1106.

Speak Out at Oakland City Council Tues, Oct 21st!

2008-10-20T12:19:00.000-07:00

WHAT & WHEN:
Speak on Open Forum Before Oakland City Council on Tuesday, October 21st, 2008; Arrive at 5:45pm and Speak at 6pm
WHERE: Oakland City Council, Frank Ogawa Plaza, 3rd Floor on 14th St near Broadway
RSVP: Respond to this email and/or call Wendy at 510-295-7834 to coordinate submitting a speaker's card (we need to submit them at the same time in order to be able to speak in succession as a group).

Seven to a dozen Oakland police officers were exposed recently as lying to obtain search warrants to carry out police raids of homes in East Oakland and to "bust down the doors of suspected small time drug dealers," according to the Oakland Tribune.

We are calling for all the cases to be dismissed and for the officers in question to be fired. This is one exposed instance of the egregious attacks being carried out on the African community, criminalized by a system that itself has no regard for law, evidence or real justice.

This year alone, the Oakland Police Department has killed Casper Banjo, Jose Luis Buenrostro, Jody Woodfox and others. In recent years, the "Oakland Riders" made international news as four police officers who lied, fabricated evidence and beat and harassed the African community of West Oakland. The police brutality, containment and repression of the African community. We demand an end to the war and militarized repression and call for economic development and social justice for the African and oppressed communities in Oakland!

Events with Diop Olugbala

2008-09-02T10:07:00.000-07:00

As heard on NPR and seen on CNN, Diop Olugbala, the International Organizer for the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement, who challenged Barack Obama in front of the eyes of the world, will be in Oakland next week for two events:

Mon, Sept 8th, 7pm, Humanist Hall, 390 - 27th St, Oakland
Thurs, Sept 11th, 7pm, Uhuru House, 7911 MacArthur Blvd, Oakland

Come out, bring your friends and family, find out about the growing movement of African people to transform their conditions of poverty, prisons, police violence to one of justice and self-determination.

Call (510) 569-9620 or email inpdum_oakland@yahoo.com to find out more about the events building up to the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement convention on September 27th and 28th in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Oakland Police Kill Another Man

2008-08-22T12:45:00.001-07:00

Early this morning, Oakland police officers killed a man who they say was attempting to "speed away from arrest with an officer in his car" downtown at 14th and Jefferson. The officer who killed the driver was placed "on routine paid administrative leave pending investigations by Oakland police and the Alameda County district attorney's office." The police had approached the car, the San Francisco Chronicle reported, because "the officer smelled marijuana."

The Uhuru Movement has always challenged the police violence against the African community throughout this country that is carried out under the guise of a "war on drugs" and a "war on crime." Although we don't have the details about the background of the man who was killed. It is highly likely that he was African. How many white people in Oakland are arrested for smelling like marijuana?

It is time now for us to have the courage in the white community to stop supporting and silently participating in this violence and stand up for economic development and justice for the African community!

Think of Casper Banjo, a 70 year old African man, famous in the Black Arts Movement, who was shot dead by OPD in front of his home while having an epileptic seizure in March of this year. Remember young Jose Luis Buenrostro Gonzalez who didn't have a chance, killed while only 16 years old near his home in East Oakland while on spring break from school. He had dreams of being an airplane mechanic. What about Jody Woodfox, whose two children will grow up without their father because Oakland Officer Hector Jimenez made the decision to shoot Woodfox in the back while he was running away? And what about Andrew Moppin, also killed while running AWAY from the same police officer who killed Woodfox and was shot dead on New Year's Eve of last year. He was a teenager.

This type of police violence is rampant against the African community through the U.S. Think of Sean Bell murdered on the night before his wedding by New York City cops. Just google "police shootings,"wrongful death" +police, "taser deaths," just to see how many African people have been brutalized or killed by the police.

The Uhuru Movement has been waging a campaign called Justice for Javon. Javon Dawson killed on June 7th of this year while attending a graduation party. Dawson was killed by St. Petersburg police officer Tom Nemeth, having just come from committing crimes against the Iraqi people through his military service in Iraq. On last week, August 11th, a Grand Jury under the State Attorney Bernie McCabe, acquitted Nemeth of all charges. The Uhuru Movement upped the ante and took the case to Florida Governor Charlie Crist in the form of a demonstration in Tallahassee. As a result of the pressure from the campaign, which includes family and friends of Javon Dawson, the governor has called for a review of the State Attorney's findings. This is the kind of campaign and action we need here in Oakland. Join the Uhuru Movement!
Come to our Uhuru Solidarity Movement rally to build the events with Diop Olugbala coming up on September 8th and 11th, "What About the Black Community, Obama?" this Monday, August 25th from 6 to 7:30pm at the Temescal Library Community Room at 5205 Telegraph Ave in Oakland. For more info, call Wendy at 510-295-7834

Justice for Jody Woodfox!

2008-08-21T18:24:00.000-07:00

I just posted a YouTube video with footage from the demonstration held a couple weeks ago to protest the killing of Jody Woodfox on July 25th by Oakland police officer Hector Jimenez. This police officer also killed Andrew Mopin, a 20 year old Native American man.

Both young men were pulled over in a traffic stop. Both men were running away from the police. In both instances, Jimenez thought the victim had a gun.

The conditions in the African and oppressed communities of Oakland are deplorable and the press and media just wants to cover the "takeover" robberies and the problem of "crime" in Oakland. Well the problem of crime is the problem of poverty!
The police run roughshod over the African and Mexican communities of East and West Oakland. Meanwhile, Rockridge, Temescal, Montclair, Grand Lake, other neighborhoods pretend that we can simply enjoy our lifestyles with the poverty that exists right night to us and we ask for more police to protect us from the crisis!

Come to a meeting on Monday to stand for economic development, not police containment of the African and Mexican communities in Oakland. We are building for two events with International Organizer, Diop Olugbala, who raised the question to Barack Obama on August 1st, "What About the Black Community?"

Our meeting on Monday, August 25th will be at 6pm at the Temescal Community Room at 5205 Telegraph Ave, Oakland.
Let's build solidarity with the African community struggle for justice!

Uhuru Solidarity Movement Meeting on Mon, Aug 25th

2008-08-19T11:39:00.000-07:00

"What about the Black community, Obama?"
Uhuru Solidarity Movement Event
Monday, August 25th, 6 to 7:30pm
Temescal Community Room, 5205 Telegraph Ave, Oakland
You saw the Uhuru Movement challenge Obama with "What about the Black community?" - the question heard around the world. Until the real truth about race in America is dealt with, there can be no peace and unity. Debunking the myth of "post-racial America".
Presenting video from the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement, facts about Obama's backers and policy positions and what it will take to make social change.

"What about the black community, Obama?" Uhuru Movement challenges Obama on unwillingness to speak to African community interests

2008-08-03T20:16:00.000-07:00

from UhuruNews.com

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — On Friday, August 1, the Barack Obama presidential campaign hit a serious bump in a St. Petersburg, Florida town hall meeting as members of the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement (InPDUM) challenged Obama on his unwillingness to speak to the interests of the African community.

Oakland's Racial Divide: Build the Uhuru Solidarity Movement!

2008-07-20T10:28:00.000-07:00

Come to the Uhuru Solidarity Rally to Build Our Organization!
Oakland's Racial Divide
Presentation & Discussion
Monday, July 28th, 7 to 9pm
Humanist Hall, 390 - 27th St., Oakland

In the midst of the wealth and affluence of the Bay Area, African and other oppressed communities live under deep poverty and oppression.

* One out of five households in Oakland live on less than $15,000 a year
* An African child in West Oakland can expect to die 15 years earlier than a white child in the Oakland hills
* In Alameda County, Africans are sentenced to prison for drug offenses at a rate 34 times higher than that of whites even though they use drugs at about the same rate
* In 1990 African people made up nearly 50% of the population of Oakland and now make up around 25% due to gentrification

Join the work of the Uhuru Solidarity Movement and Uhuru Foods supporting the African community led Uhuru Movement campaigns to transform conditions of poverty, massive imprisonment, police violence and gentrification and to unite African people in a struggle for the unification of their land and resources and to build a truly sustainable future. The Uhuru Movement is calling for all allies to join in solidarity!
With Bakari Olatunji of the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement, Wendy Snyder of the African People's Solidarity Committee

Contact the Uhuru Solidarity Movement at oak_office@apscuhuru.org or call Wendy at 510-295-7834

Uhuru Furniture Calls for Economic Development

2008-07-15T07:03:00.000-07:00

This incident happened two months ago, but I wanted to post it here. It is a very relevant analysis of the question of crime in Oakland:

Grand Avenue merchant latest target in robberies of Oakland businesses.
Uhuru Furniture & Collectibles calls for economic development instead of increased police as response.

On the afternoon of Sunday, May 4th, 2008, customers and staff at Uhuru Furniture & Collectibles on Grand Avenue experienced what several businesses in the area have experienced, a daytime robbery during open hours.

We recognize that this robbery, and the increased number of such robberies in Oakland, is taking place within the context of a sharp escalation in the already desperate poverty of Oakland’s black community.

Although we deplore the robbery, we know that more police is not a solution. We believe that true security will come from an economic development strategy in which the African community owns and controls the economy, property, profits and development in their own community.

Uhuru Furniture & Collectibles is a nonprofit economic development project of the African People’s Education and Defense Fund (APEDF). APEDF is an African-led organization whose mission is to develop and institutionalize programs to defend the human and civil rights of the African community, and to address the grave disparities in education, health, healthcare, and economic development faced by the African community. These disparities are at the core of the robberies.
- The New York Times reported in March that one in five Oakland households lives on less than $15,000 a year. Those are poverty wages! African people with multiple college degrees cannot find employment in Oakland.
- Many news sources are reporting that the housing collapse has devastated African home ownership due to racist, predatory lenders who targeted black people of all income levels.
- The Oakland Tribune reported in March that black people consistently receive poorer hospital care than whites. The average life expectancy in the Oakland Hills is seventeen years longer than in the majority black flatlands. Black infants are twice as likely to die before their first birthday than white infants in the same city.
- The public schools are failing African people. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that 52% of Oakland students drop out. 68% of the 50,400 public school students are poor enough to qualify for the federal lunch program.
- Disproportionate and discriminatory sentencing is a historic and well-documented American practice. Although African people make up only 6% of California’s population, they make up 29% of the state’s prison population.
- Where is the Community Development Block Grant money in Oakland? One city official reported that 75% of it is used to pay for department infrastructure. Much of the remaining 25% is snatched up by non-Oakland residents or used in ways that don’t benefit or improve the quality of life for Oakland’s poorest residents.

Police, politicians, business leaders and average citizens all know and acknowledge that poverty and crime go together. Some, like Representative Kernighan and Mayor Dellums even acknowledge privately and in town hall meetings that slavery, Jim Crow and colonialism are at the root of the immiseration of the black community. Still, they proclaim that there is no money for economic development for the black community. But they had no trouble finding 7.7 million dollars for more police in March of this year!

Uhuru Furniture also opposes vigilantism as a solution. Last year, the thuggish Guardian Angels were hired to patrol Grand Avenue resulting in the harassment of innocent African people. The vigilante mentality has even emboldened one man to run for Oakland city government in 2008 based on a repugnant belief that his having shot an unarmed black teenager represents a stand against crime.

These policies cannot work! We can see other places in the world in which whole communities are walled off – both physically and militarily – creating poverty and depravation. This can never lead to a decrease in crime, but rather to an escalation of tension, explosion and catastrophe from which none of us are immune.

The African People’s Education and Defense Fund is committed to addressing the conditions of poverty faced by the African community. The robbery at Uhuru Furniture was an attack on an institution for economic development for the African community. By robbing Uhuru Furniture, this individual was attacking the black community itself.

We at Uhuru Furniture stand with all those who recognize that genuine economic development for Oakland’s impoverished African community is the true road forward. Those of us who want to see genuine peace must demand from our city government an immediate transformation in the living conditions for the impoverished people of our city – social justice and economic development.

The solution lies with us on the grass roots level. We will either move forward together as one city or continue down the present road of violence and instability. Nobody is going to come and save us – not the police, the governor, Congress nor a current or future president.

In the aftermath of this armed takeover assault on Uhuru Furniture & Collectibles, APEDF is calling for:
1. real, transformative economic development in which the African community owns and controls the economy, property, profits and development in their community
2. a massive infusion of capital into the impoverished African community
3. African owned businesses, not imported corporations
4. grants and loans for African businesses to start or expand
5. jobs and contracts for any development in Oakland be given to African residents, contractors and businesses
6. a comprehensive, city-sponsored promotions campaign providing Oakland’s residents and businesses with the information and means to access economic development money
7. creation of job opportunities and businesses for everyone that will raise the pay scale for all workers by making black labor more competitive

Take a Stand Against White on Black Violence in Oakland

2008-07-08T12:09:00.000-07:00

Another weekend has passed and two more young African men have been shot and killed in Oakland. Out of the 127 people murdered last year and the 71 killed this year, the majority are young African and Mexican men. 27 year old Deshon Barker and 26 year old Jarvis Hodges were killed on Saturday evening, July 5th, while sitting in the 900 block of Adeline St. in West Oakland. The media use these terrible violent deaths to further criminalize the African community, but we must have the courage to look at the reality behind the headlines and to reject the fact that this reality is maintained for our benefit.

The African community of East and West Oakland lives under deep poverty and oppression in the midst of the greatest wealth and affluence in the country and perhaps the world. It is hard to ignore that this reality has its legacy in the slavery and genocide that built the U.S. Conditions are so desperate that there is no future for young Africans growing up in West or East Oakland to look forward to except early death, prison or the pennyante drug trade. Here are some of the facts:

One out of five households in Oakland live on less than $15,000 a year
An African child in West Oakland can expect to die 15 years earlier than a white child in the Oakland hills
In Alameda County, Africans are sentenced to prison for drug offenses at a rate 34 times higher than that of whites even though they use drugs at about the same rate
In 1990 African people made up nearly 50% of the population of Oakland and now make up around 25% due to gentrification

Given these conditions, we should be able to see clearly that the notions of integration and diversity are myths and that this is a community under occupation. This is a colonial occupation much like the U.S. military occupation of Iraq.

In a country whose wealth is built on the enslavement of African people and the genocide of the Indigenous people, African workers were brought to Oakland from the south in 1940s as reserve labor to build ships for Kaiser. This short-lived economy contributed to African community home ownership and the ability to build their own economic centers in West Oakland, along with the Filmore and Hunter's POint in San Francisco. Through the government's attack on the black movement of the 60s and decades of "urban renewal" and
gentrification jobs, homes and African community economic and cultural centers have long disappeared.

The African community has been criminalized by the drug economy and has become fuel for a gargantuan prison economy. As was proven by journalist Gary Webb more than a decade ago, drugs were first brought by the U.S. government into the African communities on the West Coast. Entire communities have been devastated by drugs and yet the African community has clearly not benefitted from the drug economy. Like the Iraqi people, the African community is being forced out of Oakland and other cities across the United States to make way for white development and investment.

We in the Uhuru Solidarity Movement support the movement of African people to challenge the deadly drug and prison economy and to struggle for a future where African people will benefit from their the land and resources of Africa, which now feeds the white and imperialist world. We invite other white people and all people who want to align themselves with justice to call on the city of Oakland to put $7.7 million into economic development, not police containment and military style raids of the African community.

Join us for an Uhuru Solidarity Movement study and discussion on Monday, July 14th at 7pm at Espresso Roma at the corner of Ashby and College Avenues at the Oakland-Berkeley border. We will be holding an Uhuru Solidarity Movement rally on Monday, July 28th at 7pm at the Humanist Hall, 390 - 27th St. in Oakland. Email oak_office@apscuhuru.org for more info. Participate in the work of Uhuru Foods this summer - www.uhurufoods.org

Creative Loafing Article Interviewing Omali Yeshitela

2008-07-05T13:19:00.001-07:00

Republished from Creative Loafing by Alex Pickett

Who? Omali Yeshitela, founder of the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement

Sphere of influence: Since Yeshitela (formerly Joe Waller) tore down a racist mural in St. Petersburg's City Hall, he has earned the respect (and ire) of St. Petersburg residents both black and white. Though once praised by high-profile politicians, he has distanced himself from City Hall and prominent African-American organizations in recent years. He continues to remain active in promoting African self-determination in other U.S. cities and Africa.

How he makes a difference: Some historians credit Yeshitela for ushering in the civil-rights movement in St. Pete, and even some white politicians admit he has empowered the city's black community. Through the Uhuru Movement, he has helped create retail stores, a gym, sports leagues and a radio station. Whenever there is an issue involving African-Americans and police, he becomes involved; a day after the shooting death of Javon Dawson by a St. Petersburg police officer earlier this month, he called a press conference condemning the shooting and telling witnesses that they could talk to a lawyer representing Dawson's mother.

CL: Describe to me what led you to tearing down the City Hall painting in the 1960s. Was it a turning point for you?

Yeshitela: I don't think tearing the mural down was a turning point for me. I had already come to a turning point. That's why I was down there. I was with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). I had made a clear choice that was the organization I would be associated with because of its black power demand, and because of its boldness and willingness to take on struggle where traditional civil rights organizations seemed unable to go.
We had been involved in letter-writing campaigns to the mayor about that mural, because the mural was horrible. It was an 8-by-4-foot display in the center of city power. It represented to us a relationship. It was like locking this relationship that they perceived as one between the African and white community that should exist forever. It was a caricature of black people. It wasn't a caricature of all the people; it was black people that were caricatured on there.

So after a series of letter writings and a number of marches down to City Hall, on one occasion, I walked into City Hall with five other Africans and tore it from the wall. I'll never forget this nice woman who was standing upstairs and she says, "You black bastard!" And we walked out with the painting.

This was where the whole concept of black power was still exciting to a lot of people around the world and police were unaccustomed to dealing with forces like us. So we started marching down the street carrying the mural. We made it to Central [Avenue] -- I don't remember how far on Central -- and this cop grabbed me. I'll never forget he was trembling. He grabbed me, and he was literally trembling. Others pulled me away and I ended up running down the street, dragging the mural behind me. I got to the back parking lot of Webb City and was stopped and arrested and went to jail.

It was an uproar. It was media from everywhere. They held some of the longest court hearings that went on late into the night. They were historic in terms of their duration into the night. I was charged with I think 11 offenses: disturbing the peace, inciting a riot, resisting arrest with violence, resisting arrest without violence, destruction of public property, just a whole array of charges were thrown at me. I think I was tried for disturbing the peace and probably destruction of public property and sentenced on one of those to six months. I spent a lot of time in the city jail first. They used to keep me isolated, because if I was with other black prisoners it created a problem for them. So they put me in this basement that they had in the city jail and on occasion they would bring little white students through on tours through the jail. And they would bring them down to the hole to see me.

It was an alarming thing for the city officials, and for the state as well, because what happened is it mobilized citizens throughout the state of Florida. Because it was kind of direct action that was talked about a lot philosophically at that time in the civil rights movement.
What was the turning point for you?

I used to -- before there were sit ins and things like this, before Rosa Parks, when there was the little yellow line in the back of the city buses here -- I refused to go behind the yellow line when my mother wasn't with me, to her dismay. I'm the guy who would go to Webb City and would refuse to drink out of the colored water fountains and would go on the fourth floor, where they had the snack bar. Africans on the first floor could eat as long as we were standing, but we could not eat at the snack bar where they sit down. I would go and do it and sit down and they'd kick me out and what have you. Until my high school English teacher learned what I was doing and sort of intervened to stop me from doing that.

It seems like there's been a history of sorts. In fact, one of the reasons I left high school -- I quit high school in my senior year because I was in one of these special classes that's supposedly for bright people and I had this professor who was well recognized as being a top notch professor. He made the statement in class one day that Africans would have to earn the respect of white people and I had a serious disagreement. ... We had struggles around that.

My text for learning how to read was the St. Petersburg Times, and I could read while I was still in diapers. And the stories I grew up reading were of lynchings and other terrible things happening to African people. So it was something that I was always conscious of and to the dismay of my parents, never comfortable with, and always struggled against.

Since Mayor Baker began his Midtown initiatives, have things gotten better in Midtown?
Worse. In the sense that what Baker has done is he co-opted much of the apparent leadership in this community. I don't have to mention Darryl Rouson, but one figure that was of great significance to this community was Goliath Davis. Because he did a tremendous job of containing that terrible police organization temporarily and because of that created a lot of hostility in certain sectors of the white community and certain ideological components of that community. This was an aspect of the city that Baker needed to win as well. To pacify that community without alienating the African community, he kicked Goliath Davis upstairs. I say "kicked upstairs" but I think it was like an elevator because Goliath didn't seem to mind it too much, this concept of deputy mayor. Without a budget. We've seen this kind of thing happen and the conditions of the community continue to deteriorate.

The Hope Six thing that got rid of Jordan Park proper in the name of helping the people. Now only half the people that were there are now there. We can't even trace the others because it wasn't required for them to know what happened to other people. In this community, the white guys in pick-up trucks and clipboards coming through, this massive gentrification where so many people have lost their homes and been kicked out, all in the name of helping us.
And in helping us, the Sweetbay along with other things they have done to help us, raised the value of the property, hence the property taxes, makes it difficult for these old women who have been left now to pay the property taxes and some of that has resulted in loss of their homes. So it hasn't been better at all, it's been worse.

And now you have more return to the policing. What the guy whose there now -- Chuck Harmon -- he brought the [Pinellas County] Sheriff's Department back in. And the sheriff's department has a reputation for rabid anti-African sentiments in that department. They did terrible things in this community following the rebellions that happened here. The sheriff's department is notorious in their brutality. Where as Goliath had told them to keep out, Harmon brought them back in. So after eight years -- they had gone eight years without a single African being killed by a cop -- the first was killed by the sheriff's department, two were killed by the sheriff's department, and now this thing with Javon by the [St. Petersburg] Police Department.

The city reminds me of a heart patient. It has a heart attack, and promises the doctor "I'm going to change my ways, and I'm going to live differently now," and then forget and go back to the same things that started it. That's what this city reminds me of. So it's worse than it was before.
What's the answer to economic development in Midtown?

It is something the city cannot do, that is one thing I'm aware of. They cannot participate in it; it would go against interests of some very entrenched economic forces here. The significance of the African population here is that it is a tremendously important kind of labor reserve for us. And it's cheap labor. And at the point that this community can fend for itself then its labor becomes competitive in terms of what has to be paid for it, and it won't ever happen.

African people are going to have make revolution to be free. We are going to have to be a self-determining people, a people that do not have to rely on the goodwill of anybody else. There are no people on the planet Earth that has ever been able to change their circumstances because of somebody else's good will and that's never happened for us. The thing is that the more one learns about one's condition as an African, the more it becomes clear that the conditions I'm suffering from in St. Petersburg are not separate and distinct from the suffering in Haiti or in Jamaica or in Nigeria or in Sudan. The same historical process is responsible for it and part of it is an attack of Africa, dispersal of African people, a separation of African people from each other and from our resources. That is the resolution there is no other resolution.
Something that may have seemed far fetched just a little while ago, is becoming clearer every day to the point that even pundits tied to the ruling class are raising the question of whether the empire is in decline now. And, of course it is. It is in decline as part of a process that sees other peoples around the world whose resources were necessary for the wealth of the empire. And as people rise up everywhere, the empire is in a state of decline and African people will have to rise up and take back our resources before we'll be free. I don't expect, in the final analysis, any meaningful solutions within the context of the existing system. I'm capable of struggling for certain kinds of reform that contribute to positioning the population and enhancing its capacity to resist and transform our condition. But America can't solve our problems.

But on the same token, the Uhuru Movement seems to have lost influence over the last few years.

You talk about influence. I just read an editorial in the St. Petersburg Times that says nobody will talk to the police. Nobody in the African community. There were 200 and some odd people, they said, where they murdered Javon Dawson, but nobody would talk to the police because of Omali Yeshitela and the Uhuru movement. That's what they said. When this crisis happens you will see the person who heads up the Justice For Javon Dawson committee is his stepmother and his cousins and other folks who are members of this organization. We're

not as influential as we'd like to be, and we don't have the numbers that we'd like to have.

Have you heard from any witnesses on what exactly happened?

We've heard people. We've also watched Channel 9. I want to mention this because they talk about Omali Yeshitela won't turn over witnesses, they should subpoena Channel 9. Because I saw people on Channel 9, young people, who are saying the boy didn't have a gun. Yes, I have heard people say that they were there and didn't have a gun. I heard one person go further stating that her daughter who was with him earlier on had actually patted him down and there was no weapon in his pockets.

And this whole thing about how we won't let anybody testify is just nonsense, and it's a way to change the subject, because the real deal is that you have a 17-year-old youngster with no criminal history. And the thing that's really interesting about this is every time the police kills somebody in this community, the next day the first thing you see in the newspaper is a mugshot, and the implication there is that the killing was justified because this person has a record. Now, the media that has so much respect for criminal records, in this instance when they can't find a mugshot, they don't say "There's something wrong here. This kid doesn't have a record. That he's never committed a crime in his life, but he decides on this night the first criminal act he's going to engage in is point a gun at the police, and after pointing the gun at police, they find a way to shoot him, though he's shooting at them, twice in the back." Not only is that strange, but the fact is that we've got a 24-year-old kid that's just back from Iraq, from another occupation, who kills him. That's not even a story. The story is the mysterious witnesses that Omali Yeshitela and the Uhuru movement won't produce. What about those witnesses that Channel 9 won't produce?

So they create this thing that somehow we're responsible for anybody talking to the police. They have a problem, and the problem is it doesn't make sense the boy was shot in the back, not in the side, in the back.

There's a lawyer now that's working with the family. Her name is Maura Kiefer, and she is trying to interview witnesses that people give to her so that she can have an approach of taking these witnesses, so these youngsters won't have to face the same cops they saw gun down this boy, their parents can be there and this is a condition that she is trying to establish with the state's attorney when she goes to them. We have nothing to do with keeping witnesses from testifying at all.

Would this be as big of an issue with you if this was an African-American cop that shot Javon Dawson?
It'd be more of an issue. His young brother had gone to try and help his brother, and I'm told it was a black cop that told him to "get back or you can get shot too" or something to that effect.
The state is the state, and you know people who work for that institution are just as capable. The police is a military organization. Its job is an occupation force in this community. Just like you got Iraqis who work with the U.S. to occupy their country, there are black people who do it here. Just like you had Indian scouts that helped the calvary to track down the indigenous peoples here and wiped them out, we got Africans that will do the same thing.
It would be just as serious for us, and in some ways it would be more serious if it were an African that did it.

But it is worth noting that in every instance these shootings have happened up until now, they've been white cops that have done it.
I think you had a cop that was afraid. He might have even flashed back to Iraq. You know, that's their job to subdue communities. You're in Fallujah again. You've got all these people who know nothing about, in a community about which you know nothing. Listen, when police were called they were called because of too many youngsters in the street and noise from a party. They weren't called to it because of a robbery, mugging, a rape or a killing; they were called because of too much noise at a party. You could send a social worker to take care of that. But they sent the Save Summer guys out there, and one of them knew what occupation really meant and killed that boy.

How come you and the Uhuru don't come out more strongly against black-on-black crime?
We do. We just don't call it black-on-black crime. Most of what you call black-on-black crime is white-on-black crime. It's a façade.

I mean, it's a thing we're concerned about. On a regular basis we challenge the community about violence, but we have a relationship with the people. We're not the police working against the people and preaching at the people; we work with the people to try to change from within. The solution is not the police and not the church. The solution is organizing people to change their circumstances, that's a long and difficult thing. But believe me when I tell you that we challenge this community in a serious way.

If you had the opportunity to move with me in this community, you would see the relationship that we have with young people and the respect that is there with young people. And the fact is if people thought we were in the vicinity where something illegal or violence against somebody else was about to happen, they would cease and desist. We have that kind of respect, because we struggle against it. But we don't call the newspaper. We don't work like that.

It's like Barack Obama suddenly discovering that fathers need to take care of their children. That was his Sister Souljah moment. That was his way to speak to the so-called white social conservatives. I ain't speaking to white social conservatives, I ain't speaking at city hall or the police department. My discussion happens in this community. ... Our attempt is not to have that discussion with white folk, it's to have that discussion inside our community.

We don't want violence in this community; in fact, we have campaigns and programs that say if a brother kills another, you are the police. You are working with the police, you are doing the very same thing they are doing. We have produced DVDs that are not only distributed here against that kind of stuff but all around the world, but we place the violence in the proper context. ... It's pandering. It's pandering to a racist, colonialist assumptions about this community. It's pandering, and it's contributing to this whole notion of the need to have this external force to control our community. it liquidates the contradictions inside this community caused by policies outside this community. so this whole discussion as it would happen on black-on-black crime places the onus of responsibility for the conditions of existence on its victims. So we won't participate with that. We won't participate with that.

Do you agree with the "no snitching" code?

I think it exists in the police department. In fact, they've done movies on it. they call it the code of silence. I haven't heard any report yet of cops saying what happened that night, just this one cop.

When you talk about a code of snitching ... I believe that what this country does is what they cursed the Nazis for doing. They would have an informant on every corner just snitching on people inside their community for the benefit of the state. If it's bad when Nazis do it, it's bad when African people do it. You can't have it both ways. You can't say it's bad to turn a community into a community of informers and snitches when it comes to white people, and it's good when it comes to African people, that somehow we're supposed to be the informers.
The bigger question is this: Why is it that the police department has so alienated the African community that you have to be worried about a code of snitching? That ain't our problem. That's something wrong in the relationship that exists between the police department and the African community. The question really needs to be asked -- why is it that there is such an animosity existing between the community and the police department that people seem to have a problem talking to them?

Do you worry that sometimes talk of socialism and revolution may turn off younger people from your ideas?
It doesn't worry me. the majority of people we come into contact with don't relate to us because of communism, socialism or capitalism. They relate to us because of the pain this system imposes on them. I think most people can relate to goodness, to try and make things better. So most people who we hear that discussion from, like some middle class folk. Ordinary people aren't debating that question. They're trying to feed their children and get them off to school safety and things like that. But I will tell you this -- what we are discovering is daily young people, I n particular, are demanding revolution. They don't want some milquetoast reformist agenda. Young people are demanding revolutionary transformation. Again, it's not just here. All over other world that's our experience. Because we've been reformed out. For example, how many civil rights bills do you think will ever happen. It's not going to happen anymore and what has been the consequence of the last one, except for the middle class? Nothing.

For an organization for African-American self-determination, there seems to be a lot of white people in your group. What's up with that?
Let me tell you this. [Laughs.] It's an interesting question. We're called black nationalists by some folk, and then they see the white people they say, "Well, there's so many white people that something's wrong with them." I have integrationists, who in an attempt to slander me, spread the word that I'm married to a white woman. And I have the same integrationists who say they hate me because I'm for black power and this and that.
When the Nicaraguan revolution took off, before they got to Managua in July of '79, I didn't even know a Nicaraguan. But I went to find some, so we could put all of our organization resources at their disposal, because we could support the struggle of the Nicaraguan people. We did not require that they abdicate their struggle for self-determination. We did not require that they develop a taste for Ray Charles or anything like that. We were in solidarity with that movement.
We have a movement that anybody who wants to express solidarity with can join, but it is a movement for self-determination. And white people can actually join a movement that supports self-determination for black people. There's really no mystery to it.
The problem that we have is this whole racially-based politic that makes the assumption, somehow, that if there are white people or black people who are working in the same process that somehow it must be some kind of integrationist process, or it must be some process that white people are leading. That's usually how the thought process works.
There are white people that have tremendous solidarity. There have been people who have been in the movement 30 years or more. White people in solidarity with the struggle of African people.
Beyond that, most of the resources of the peoples of the world are located in a white community somewhere and genuine solidarity by white folk is required for us to repossess some of our resources. Some of these are material resources and some are human resources. It's a legitimate thing for white people to work in solidarity with the struggle of African people.

How do you feel about Barack Obama?

He's a wonderful representative for white power. I think that his role in part is at a time of tremendous crisis for this whole system that Barack Obama is a neo-colonial ploy. He is a white power in black face. At a time when Africans would be looking for alternatives to the system, he's dragging Africans into the safe embrace of the Democratic Party and the system. He cleans up the image of America throughout the whole world. He becomes an apologist for white nationalism, I'm not just talking about America but white nationalism proper. He condemns anything that comes from this community. he talks about a post-racial America. He is an apologist for the relationship black people have to this country. It's an interesting situation because a lot of black people follow Obama because they think he stands for black power and a alit of white people follow him because they know he doesn't. I think it's a really interesting situation.

How did you come to meet [hip-hop group] Dead Prez?
They were in our organization. They were in Tallahassee. They joined our organization. One of them used to run our New York office.

Do you know if they are going to tour here any time soon?
I don't [laughs].

Come have Breakfast with us Saturday, June 21st!

2008-06-06T14:02:00.000-07:00

Saturday, June 21st, 9am to 2pm
Uhuru Foods Special Summer Solstice Booth
We are back on Saturday, June 21st at the Grand Lake Farmers Market kicking off the summer season!

Come out to have breakfast or volunteer with us! Experience our delicious omelette and scrambled egg platters served with home fried potatoes and vegan cornbread and our always popular breakfast wraps.

We will also have our Planet Uhuru t-shirts, bags & DVDS for sale and info about the current struggle in Sierra Leone, the campaign for Justice for Javon Dawson and the local campaign in Oakland for economic development, not police containment of the African community.

All proceeds benefit the Uhuru House Development Fund and the campaign for red, black and green, sustainability for Africa and African People! Volunteer with us!

For more info, email uhurureparations@yahoo.com

Campaign Victory: McCullough Thoroughly Defeated!

2008-06-04T13:07:00.001-07:00

On Tuesday, June 3, 2008, everyone in Oakland who believes in justice and real unity won a victory! Voters in Oakland city council district 1 overwhelmingly defeated Patrick McCullough, neighborhood vigilante and self-proclaimed “anti-crime activist” who three years ago shot and wounded his 16 year old neighbor, Melvin McHenry.

The campaign to expose and defeat McCullough as a front man for the interests of property and gentrification moving at the expense of the African community was initiated by the black-led International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement (InPDUM) with the support of the Uhuru Solidarity Movement.

The Uhuru Movement campaign, along with all justice-loving voters in district 1, successfully pushed back McCullough and his backers. Voters rejected McCullough who ran on a platform criminalizing the African community and justifying self-enrichment and gentrification at the expense of black residents.

The InPDUM campaign forced the media and others to acknowledge that McCullough was a violent vigilante terrorizing African youth and neighbors who did not meet the approval of the white neighborhood association.

The efforts to defeat McCullough called for a recognition of the profound poverty experienced by African people Oakland. The Uhuru Movement is uniting Oaklanders in demanding the only real solutions to the deep divisions in our town today: genuine economic development to bring shared prosperity, not martial law, increased heavy-handed policing and vigilante violence.

The campaign successfully distributed thousands of door hangers to households in Bushrod Park, the Shattuck Corridor, Temescal and Rockridge neighborhoods. Campaigners talked to the public at the Temescal farmers market on Sundays during the campaign, spoke out at candidates’ forums and circulated posters in district 1.

The overwhelming response to the Uhuru Movement-led campaign was positive and appreciative. The campaign opened up a deeper discussion about how to bring about real peace to Oakland, where the divisions mirror the racial divide throughout America, a country built on the enslavement of African people and the theft of the land of the Indigenous population.

The campaign drew out the stark disparities in a city where one in five households live on less than $15,000 a year in the middle of the Bay Area, which is home to the most millionaires per capita in the U.S.

The Campaign to Defeat Patrick McCullough galvanized Oakland residents to work for positive, African-led solutions to the deep poverty and oppression that African and other communities face. It gave voice to the white community efforts to break from the public policies of police containment and law and order violence against the African community, policies which are used as vehicles for white gentrification.

Defeating Patrick McCullough proves that Oakland can move together as one only through shared prosperity, no one group at the expense of another.

We have much work to do to push for economic development, not police containment in the city of Oakland, but we have won a victory in defeating Patrick McCullough! Join the Uhuru Movement and join your neighbors in building real hope and change right here!

Join the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement!
Come to the Forum on Thursday, June 5th - "Black People Under Attack: Organize to Fight Back!" at 7pm at the Uhuru House, 7911 MacArthur Blvd in Oakland

Be a Part of the African Liberation Movement!

2008-06-02T17:07:00.000-07:00

From the African People's Solidarity Committee School in January

On this Thursday, June 5th at 7pm, we invite white people and all allies of the African liberation struggle to come out to the Uhuru House in Oakland to hear another presentation by Diop Olugbala, International organizer with the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement and participate in a community forum to build organization in Oakland.

The forum is taking place at 7911 MacArthur Blvd in East Oakland. Rides can be arranged by emailing uhurureparations@yahoo.com

The dynamism of Diop represents a growing trend of young African people taking on the leadership and responsibility to build organization that will solve the problems of African people. We believe that the problems that African people face will be solved through the transformation of the social system that we live in. All the problems and contradictions that we face as white people - women's oppression, gay and lesbian oppression, oppression as workers, tenants, etc. stem from a system that must be overturned at its base. That's what where the African liberation struggle comes in.

As white people who actively participate in the Uhuru Movement, we have embraced the strategy of the African People's Socialist Party as a way to be a part of transforming the current world situation. We see that the African revolution is at the cornerstone of the struggle of oppressed peoples around the world. Our role is to organize other white people to understand the deeply parasitic nature of the social system that we live in and to look at the hard truth about the complicity of white society in the genocide and enslavement of African and other oppressed peoples.

The African People’s Solidarity Committee (APSC) was formed and is led by the African People’s Socialist Party, which leads the Uhuru Movement working for the liberation of African people inside the U.S. and around the world.

Based on the strategy and campaigns of the African People’s Socialist Party, APSC organizes in the white communities. We call on white people to unite with our true human interest in recognizing that the struggle of African people for liberation and justice has a relationship to the fact that our lifestyle rests on a pedestal of African oppression. APSC organizes forums, demonstrations, studies and events to educate other white people about the true history of this country, founded on slavery and genocide, and what we can do to support the struggle of African people.

APSC is active in bringing campaigns of the Uhuru Movement into the white communities on local and national levels. Campaigns in support of African community demands for an end to police brutality and massive imprisonment, and for economic development, reparations and justice for African people everywhere, are key to APSC’s work.

APSC raises resources for the work of the African People’s Socialist Party based on the reality that the white world lives on the pedestal of African oppression.

APSC’s fundraising programs include Uhuru Foods, a food concession, staffed by volunteers, with booths at major street fairs, events and farmer’s markets in Northern California and Florida. In addition APSC coordinates an annual holiday pie campaign, tours and direct donor campaigns to raise funds for the African Liberation Movement.

APSC takes part in the African People’s Education and Defense Fund’s Uhuru Furniture stores based in Oakland, Philadelphia and St. Petersburg as institutions building an economic structure led by and for the benefit of the African working class community.

In order for white people to understand the issues and demands raised by African, Indigenous, Arab and other oppressed peoples here and around the world, we believe that it is necessary for us to see the world as they experience it.

The African People's Solidarity Committee (APSC) is an organization of white people formed by the African People's Socialist Party as part of its strategy to win the liberation and unification of Africa and all African people worldwide.

The African People's Solidarity Committee is the front of the African Liberation Movement inside white society.

APSC embraces the African People's Socialist Party theory, African Internationalism, as our own. African Internationalism goes to the root of the causes of the political crisis that the capitalist system is experiencing today.

By taking on African Internationalism as our own worldview we begin to see the world through the eyes of African and oppressed peoples, instead of through the viewpoint of white power.

Come out on Thursday!

Donate your tax stimulus check to the Uhuru House Development Fund!

Come out on June 21st and 22nd for special fundraisers at the Grand Lake Farmers Market (Saturday) and a special Temescal brunch on Sunday. More info to come. Uhuru means freedom!

Community Forum & Election Rally

2008-05-27T20:42:00.000-07:00

Wealth, Poverty & Crime in Oakland:

What's Going on?

Community Forum & Election Rally

Thursday, May 29th, 7pm,

Humanist Hall, 390 - 27th St., Oakland

Featuring Diop Olugbala, International Organizer with the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement
Diop organized the International Tribunal for Justice for Sean Bell in New York City. He has led efforts to support the Jena 6 and other victims of attacks on the African community. Diop has also built organizations on the ground in Sierra Leone and Ghana as part of uniting African people all over the world facing the same colonial conditions to take back control over their own lives and to challenge the imposition of poverty and violence.

Defeat Patrick McCullough for City Council June 3rd!

2008-05-24T10:03:00.000-07:00

Vigilante McCullough shot 16-year-old black neighbor; Fronts for white gentrification in Bushrod, Would deepen division, inequity, insecurity in Oakland
Written by Penny Hess, the leader of the African People's Solidarity Committee

(left, Patrick McCullough in 2005, being given a party by a Rockridge family following the shooting of 16 year old Melvin McHenry)

In 2003 George Bush led the U.S. bombing and invasion of Iraq. It is a war that many now agree is an unjust assault on an oil-rich nation that has left massive death, displacement and destruction in a vain attempt to maintain cheap and plentiful gas for the U.S.

In 2005 Patrick McCullough shot his unarmed 16 year old teenaged neighbor, Melvin McHenry as he was coming home from school.

As a black man fronting for the interests of property and white gentrification in the long-standing African community of Bushrod, McCullough’s assault on an African child could be compared on a neighborhood scale to Bush’s aggression against the people of Iraq.

Like the U.S. war, the stance upheld by McCullough represents the arrogant assumption that the “haves” can forever ramrod their interests over the “have-nots” regardless of the human and societal price to the victims.

Like the Bush government’s attempt to seize other people’s oil resources, McCullough represents the white community drive for real estate in what many up until recently believed to be an endless Bay Area housing boom.

As the low interest rates of the early 2000’s fueled a frenzied housing bubble, many white people who were priced out of the trendier Oakland neighborhoods found “bargains” in West and North Oakland areas that have long been African communities.

As the white people move in with renovations, privacy fences and landscaping, they set up vigilante and police organizations such as neighborhood watch to push out and contain the African community, whose incomes are often way below those of the new homeowners.
If the gentrifiers can find a black man like Patrick McCullough to front for this community invasion, all the better.

In Oakland the gap between the more affluent white and the impoverished African communities has deepened and intensified over the past few years. While the top 20 percent of Oakland lives on nearly $100,000 a year, a recent article in the New York Times stated that one fifth of Oakland subsists on less and $15,000, well below the federal poverty level.

While most white children in Oakland expect to go to college and find meaningful and gainful employment, an African child born in Oakland today faces the high probability of poverty, joblessness, prison or early death. There are no bright futures for thousands of Oakland residents on the other end of the gentrification equation.

In the face of the recent “invasion” robberies –the result of deepening poverty and desperation, some politicians are pushing for more and more police.

Clearly, the ever-growing resistance in Iraq should show us that oppression, martial law and containment policies will never make Oakland more secure.

As long as one community continues to live at the expense of another there will be no security, safety or peace in our town. McCullough’s campaign for City Council represents the same oppressive approach as America’s failed war against the Iraqi people.

For security, peace and prosperity in Oakland we need genuine and massive economic development to uplift and stimulate the conditions faced by the entire African community, to give a future to all children and the opportunity to develop their talents, skills and abilities.

Say no to Patrick McCullough, gentrification and injustice on June 3rd.

Say yes to peace the only way peace ever works—peace built on a foundation of social and economic justice and true community solidarity, no one community at the expense of another.

Join the Uhuru Movement, an African working-class led movement for liberation, self-determination and economic and political development for African people in Oakland and worldwide.

Uhuru Solidarity Movement provides and opportunity for white people to come together to participate in righting these long-standing historical wrongs in a country whose wealth is built on slavery and genocide. USM is for white people who find living at the expense of African and oppressed people intolerable.

Oakland must not be the command center for the war against the African community. Let’s make it a model community for the world to emulate.

Election Rally and Community Forum on Thursday, May 29th, 7pm
Humanist Hall, 390 - 27th St., Oakland

For more info 510-625-1106 oak_office@apscuhuru.org

Walk the District 1 Blocks Saturday

2008-05-14T07:08:00.001-07:00

This Saturday, May 17th, walk the block to put up door hangers to Defeat Patrick McCullough for District 1 City Council in Oakland.

Meet at 1pm at BakeSale Betty's.
Go out for two or more hours.

Support Economic Development and Social Justice, Not Vigilante Actions and Police Containment!

Candidates Forums This Week:
Come out to ask questions of McCullough and show support for economic development, not police containment!
Wednesday, May 14th - Piedmont Avenue Neighborhood Improvement Association, 7:30pm, Piedmont Gardens, 110 - 41st St., 11th floor Sky Room

Thursday, May 15th - Rockridge Community Planning Council, 7:30pm, College Avenue Presbyterian Church, 5951 College Avenue

For more info on the Campaign to Defeat Patrick McCullough, see earlier post.

Join the Campaign to Defeat Patrick McCullough!

2008-05-07T15:47:00.000-07:00

Campaign to Defeat Patrick McCullough!

Get active in the last month of the campaign. Please contact uhurureparations@yahoo.com if you are able to participate in any of the following activities leading up to the June 3rd elections:

Door Hangering:

Walk the blocks in District 1 to put fliers on peoples' doorknobs to inform them about what McCullough really represents!

Saturdays May 10th, 17th, 24th and 31st from 1 to 5pm. Meet at Bakesale Betty's at 1pm on 51st and Telegraph.

Candidates Forums

Come out to ask questions of McCullough and show support for economic development, not police containment!

Wednesday, May 14th - Piedmont Avenue Neighborhood Improvement Association, 7:30pm, Piedmont Gardens, 110 - 41st St., 11th floor Sky Room
Thursday, May 15th - Rockridge Community Planning Council, 7:30pm, College Avenue Presbyterian Church, 5951 College Avenue

Thursday, May 29th Event: Defeat Patrick McCullough, Support Economic Development Not Police Containment of the African Community!, 7pm, Humanist Hall, 390 - 27th St., Oakland

Campaign Update: Defeat Patrick McCullough for Oakland District 1!

2008-05-05T19:40:00.000-07:00

It's been too long since I have updated this blog on the Campaign to Defeat Patrick McCullough.

Listen to our first attempt at a Campaign to Defeat Patrick McCullough YouTube video from the campaign. There is more to come!

Here is a recap of the work that we have done in the past month:

Outreach at the Temescal Farmer's Market

We have done outreach on six consecutive Sundays at the Temescal Farmer's Market in the DMV parking lot on Claremont in North Oakland. Many people have already gotten the information and every week we meet folks who were thinking about voting for McCullough and who are rethinking their positions! We have been set up right next to McCullough himself, so the campaign has been quite lively! One the first day out, McCullough told one of our members that she "was going to lose her house." Last Sunday, McCullough, after taking pictures of our table, said that he would "see us in court!"

Candidates Forums

We have attended four different candidates forums - the April 5th forum sponsored by the League of Women Voter's at Oakland City Hall, the April 19th forum in Temescal sponsored by STAND, the April 28th forum sponsored by Black Women United for Political Action and the May 2nd forum sponsored by United Seniors at St. Mary's off of San Pablo Ave.

We reached hundreds of people through leafletting at these forums and have had success in putting McCullough on the spot. At the STAND forum, he admitted to shooting 15 year old Melvin McHenry. Before the forum, one of his campaigners took one of our leaflets, crumpled it up and threw it on the ground. (A similar tactic used by McCullough's "security coordinator" Kevin Thomas at the Temescal Farmer's Market.) At the forum sponsored by Black Women United for Political Action, McCullough lashed out at our questions saying we were "brainwashed" and that these were "falsehoods" (the fact that he has been part of gentrifying Bushrod Park). He also got personal and said to an Uhuru Movement member, "I bet you are not even registered to vote."

People who are still wondering where they stand on McCullough should check the mainstream press. Numerous articles talk about McCullough's actions. Is this the kind of representation you want on your city council? Sure, he has now schooled himself in presenting a more "respectable" face and can quote MLK and Malcolm X at the forums, but the fact is that he shot a child and was put forward as a hero! He blatantly lies about what happened on that day back in February in 2005.

The International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement is struggling for leadership that addresses the deep economic and social divisions in Oakland through economic development and social justice, not a "Fix Oakland" platform that continues the criminalization of the African and oppressed communities. McCullough caters to the white community's fears of takeover robberies (which are a reality) and muggings. We aim to look at the fundamental causes of the deep poverty in Oakland that are driving people to desperation. We encourage people to do the same and not settle for the status quo which can only deepen the fear-mongering, oppression, injustice and polarization between the haves and the have-nots in Oakland.

Outreach Sunday at the Temescal Farmers Market

2008-04-03T21:14:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, March 30th, members of the Campaign to Defeat Patrick McCullough spent four hours speaking to shoppers at the farmers market in the DMV parking lot on Claremont, giving them a different perspective on "crime" and poverty in Oakland.

Patrick McCullough is running in District 1, which covers areas of North Oakland, for the city council seat. His claim to fame is when in 2005 he shot 15 year old Melvin McHenry in the back and was upheld by the city and white residents for his courage in standing up to "crime."

Shortly after we arrived and set up our table, McCullough himself arrived and set up right next to us. He was visibly panicked by our presence and immediately got on the phone and summoned his "security coordinator" Kevin Thomas. An hour or so later, several North Americans showed up who are McCullough friends and supporters. McCullough and Thomas opportunistically played on the fears of the mostly white Temescal and Rockridge residents' fears of armed robberies, muggings and perceived lack of police protection. Because of our presence, McCullough was forced to address his shooting of Melvin McHenry and did so by slandering the African teenager. We also overheard him slandering Jose Luis Buenrostro Gonzalez, the 15 year Mexican high school student shot and killed by Oakland police offers on March 19th, calling him a "gang banger."

McCullough was definitely put on the defensive. We were able to get the word out to even people not wanting to stop by saying, "We are from the Campaign to Defeat Patrick McCullough who is running in this district for city council. He shot a black teenager three years ago and has been the point person for gentrifying the historically black neighborhood of Bushrod Park. We don't want that on our city council! "

Many people were interested in hearing our perspective that peace and unity in Oakland can only come through social justice and economic development. Many people were also concerned about the police murders. They didn't buy the police and media versions of the killings and wanted to have a deeper understanding of what was going on. Most people did not seem to be aware of the fact that one fifth of Oakland's households live on less than $15,000 a year.

People thanked us for the information and were reminded of what McCullough did. One woman told us, "That guy is running? Oh no, I won't be voting for him!"

McCullough kept referring to us saying, "I'm the bogeyman that they are talking about." His camp acted extremely unprofessional towards us. One North American from their camp was taking pictures of us and said "we were going to be sued for slander." Another guy who later was hugging McCullough told me to "go to hell." The outreach was effective in pushing them back and showing the people the illegitimacy of his candidacy!!

Defeat Patrick McCullough in Oakland District 1!

2008-03-22T21:27:00.000-07:00

No vigilantes and attempted child murderers on Oakland's city council!

$7.7 million for economic development for the African community, not more police!

Economic development for the African community, not police violence and murder!

In 2005, self-appointed Bushrod neighborhood vigilante Patrick McCullough shot his neighbor, unarmed 16 year old Melvin McHenry as he was running away from McCullough.

McCullough was not charged or jailed for his crime. He was praised as a hero by police, city officials, the media and white people who are gentrifying the historically black Bushrod neighborhood.

Now McCullough is running for city council for North Oakland's district one on a platform of law and order violence targetting the African community.

McCullough is a black man who acts as a convenient front from all those intent on dealing with Oakland's deep social and economic problems with a military solution similar to Israel's genocidal assault on the Palestinian people of Gaza.

Oakland just granted $7.7 million of tax payers' money for more police and has launched an aggressive recruitment drive for the OPD with base salaries over $87,000 a year and up to $244,000 with overtime.

Since the police budget was allocated in March, already two people have been killed within a few days by the OPD. Casper Banjo, 71, a well-known and respected African artist was gunned down on March 14th by police. On Wednesday, March 19th, 15 year old Jose Luis Buenrostro-Gonzalez was murdered by police. Both took place in East Oakland.

This is the murderous climated advocated by McCullough. Remember that just reported in the New York Times was the fact that in Oakland, one in every five families live on less than $15,000 and the poorest 20 percent live on $7600 annually. Oakland is a city of deep disparities: crushing African poverty while the Bay Area has the highest rate of millionaires in the country.

California has the world's sixth largest economy and the third largest prison population. The black population in California is 7 percent but makes up 32 percent of the California prison population, a growth industry that pumps billions of dollars into the state's economy.

In 1996, Gary Webb from the San Jose Mercury News exposed that the U.S. government was responsible for the massive influx of crack cocaine into Oakland. This came in the wake of COINTELPRO, the Counterintelligence Program that destroyed the Black Power Movement of the 1960s and that was responsible for the assassination of L'il Bobby Hutton right here in Oakland.

Urban renewal and gentrification destroyed the economy of the African community where today it is estimated that half of young black people face unemployment. Sometimes just to put food on the table African people are forced into a government and corporate-controlled economy that studies show pay minimum wage for young street workers but make millions of dollars for banks and Wall Street.

In a city where white people are snatching up deals on houses and lofts at the expense of the lives of an impoverished African community the question is, "Who is the real criminal?"

The problem is poverty, oppression and public policies of police containment of the African community.

For peace and unity in Oakland, we need genuine economic development to transform the conditions of the African and other impoverished communities. We need an end to police containment and violence against African and Mexican people. We need people like Patrick McCullough to pay a political price for their white-backed terror against the African community.

Defeat Patrick McCullough in Oakand District 1!

No Police State in Our City!

2008-03-16T20:24:00.000-07:00

The time has come for those of us who oppose what is going on in our city to speak out and ask other people to do so as well!

We want to introduce into the blogosphere a different voice in Oakland politics. This blog is the work of myself, Another Mother for Peace through Justice (a soon to be email group), and is part of the work of the Uhuru Solidarity Movement, under the leadership of the African working class-led Uhuru Movement, organizing for white solidarity, not charity with the African liberation movement.

We think there are many others in our city who oppose Mayor Ronald Dellums' recent approval of $7.7 million for more police officers on the streets of Oakland. The New York Times published an article two weeks ago stating that one in five families in Oakland live on less than $15,000 a year! Where is the $7.7 million for economic development for the African and other impoverished communities of Oakland?

How can we talk about what the U.S. is doing in Iraq and around the world and yet agree to put millions of dollars into more police which are deadly in the African community and will put more African people in prison? Although only 6% of the state’s population, African people make up 29% of the prison population in California!

It is outrageous that all over the country it is just accepted, even in so-called progressive places like the Bay Area, that the solution to the economic crisis that African and oppressed peoples face is more police. We are calling for genuine economic development to uplift the living conditions of the entire impoverished African community, not brutal, heavy-handed police containment policies and prison for youth faced with no future!

We are gearing up for an incredible campaign led by the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement to get this message out and also to defeat Patrick McCullough, a man in his fifties who shot an unarmed teenager in the back three years ago on 59th St and Shattuck Ave and who is now running for city council, District 1! McCullough has served as the point person for the gentrification of Oakland’s historically black neighborhoods, including Bushrod, pushing African working people out of the city. He plays a role in criminalizing African youth in Oakland. In fact, after McCullough shot young Melvin McHenry, he was given a party and money by the city, police and some white residents. This is unacceptable!

African people have been pushed out of Oakland increasingly over the past decade. Starting when African people were brought by the thousands to work to build a ship a day for the Kaiser corporation, Oakland was a majority black city. Over one third of the black population has been pushed out of Oakland since the 1990’s through gentrification.

Dellums' plan is a military solution to an economic problem serving the interests of white developers and business and deepening the poverty and gentrification of the African community. The rise in crime is the result of the economic crisis felt sharply by communities in East and West Oakland made worse by the deadly drug economy. Illegal drug sales create enormous profits to those on top while those at the street level face death at an early age or the billion dollar prison system. For decades these communities have experienced police violence and repression in their daily lives under this “war on drugs.”

Police containment of the African community continues the legacy of white domination that has kept the majority of African people impoverished for hundreds of years and maintained wealth in the white community. As long as the white community lives at the expense of the African community there will never be peace. The answer is not more militarized police but genuine economic development – massive infusions of capital equal to what goes into the white communities.

We call on the white community to stand in solidarity with the African community’s struggle for a solution that involves economic justice, reparations and control over their own lives.

Uhuru Solidarity Oakland

A Day in Solidarity with African People

Come out to the Oakland event for the Campaign for a Day in Solidarity with African People:

Beyond Obama:Seeking Real Solutions to the Growing Racial Divide in the U.S.

No Justice for Oscar Grant: Verdict Sparks Outrage and Police Containment by the City

The Murder of Oscar Grant and the Continuing Struggle for Justice for the African Community

From Oscar Grant to Lovelle Mixon: Why We Must Organize to Stop Police Terror Against the African Community

WE DID IT! Uhuru Foods Will Be at the Maker Faire

Urgent Call-in: Demand Uhuru Foods is Included at the Maker Faire

Uhuru Solidarity Movement Meeting, Tues, 5/19 at 7pm

Save the Dates! June 11th & 14th Community Forums to Stop Police Terror

Two Oaklands: One Solution This Thursday!

Uhuru Solidarity Movement Study: From the Black Panther Party to the Uhuru Movement

Upcoming Uhuru Movement Events

Support Economic and Social Justice, Not Police Containment in Oakland

Today's Coverage of Killings of Police and Mixon

Video Coverage of Lovelle Mixon Video

Uhuru Movement Statement on the Killings of 4 Officers and Lovelle Mixon

RIP Lovelle Mixon

Defend African People's Right to Resist!

Four OPD and One Young African Down in Billion Dollar War

All Resources of the U.S. Empire Are Blood Resources

Oscar Grant's Birthday

Two Weeks From Today: Omali Yeshitela Speaks!

Not One More Black Life! USM Rally This Thursday

Community Speak Out Today at the Uhuru House

Oscar Grant Punched in the Face Before Being Shot!

Stop the City of Oakland's War Budget! Join the Uhuru Solidarity Movement!

Oscar Grant Punched By Another Officer Before Being Shot

Internal Affairs Chief of OPD Beat Man to Death

March for Justice on MLK Day

Listen to Uhuru Radio Today

March on Monday! Join the Uhuru Solidarity Movement!

Come Out Tomorrow to Oakland City Hall!

Build the March on MLK Day, January 19th!

Uhuru Movement Demands:

Organizing Meeting for Justice for Oscar Grant III

Protest the BART Police Shooting of Oscar Grant III!

City of Oakland's War on the African Community

Yes We Can! Change the Conditions of War, Violence and Injustice

The Struggle for Justice for Jody Woodfox Continues!

Uhuru Pies November & December 2008

Speak Out at Oakland City Council Tues, Oct 21st!

Events with Diop Olugbala

Oakland Police Kill Another Man

Justice for Jody Woodfox!

Uhuru Solidarity Movement Meeting on Mon, Aug 25th

"What about the black community, Obama?" Uhuru Movement challenges Obama on unwillingness to speak to African community interests

Oakland's Racial Divide: Build the Uhuru Solidarity Movement!

Uhuru Furniture Calls for Economic Development

Take a Stand Against White on Black Violence in Oakland

Creative Loafing Article Interviewing Omali Yeshitela

Come have Breakfast with us Saturday, June 21st!

Campaign Victory: McCullough Thoroughly Defeated!

Be a Part of the African Liberation Movement!

Community Forum & Election Rally

Defeat Patrick McCullough for City Council June 3rd!

Walk the District 1 Blocks Saturday

Join the Campaign to Defeat Patrick McCullough!

Campaign Update: Defeat Patrick McCullough for Oakland District 1!

Outreach Sunday at the Temescal Farmers Market

Defeat Patrick McCullough in Oakland District 1!

No Police State in Our City!

Beyond Obama:
Seeking Real Solutions to the Growing Racial Divide in the U.S.