Sep 11 San Francisco
Power to the Peaceful
The Events
Report::Dates/Times::SpeakersReport from African People's Solidarity Day 2007
With the slogan, “solidarity, not charity,” the African People’s Solidarity Committee’s second annual African People’s Solidarity Day (APSD) events targeted the white communities, exposing to them the current crisis of imperialism through the eyes of the African working class.
The solidarity day events from October 13 through the 21st were held in Oakland, CA, St. Petersburg, FL and Philadelphia, PA. Among the featured speakers were Mfanelo Skwatsha, Executive Secretary of the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (South Africa); Chernoh Alpha M. Bah, Leader of the Africanist Movement of Sierra Leone and West Africa and Omali Yeshitela, Chairman of the African People’s Socialist Party.
The three-city whirlwind tour also included Gaida Kambon, Secretary of the African People’s Socialist Party, Ivory Muhammad, President International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement, Pierre LaBossiere, of the Haiti Action Committee and Penny Hess, Chairwoman of the African People’s Solidarity Committee.
With the message that Africans are one people worldwide, that Africa and all its resources are the birthright of African people everywhere, and that the 500 year assault on Africa and the enslavement of African people is the cornerstone of American wealth and power, APSD brought the white community face to face with its genuine interest in solidarity with the liberation of African people.
To most white people in Europe and North America the poverty, war and oppression experienced in Africa and by African people everywhere are disconnected from the reality of European enslavement, colonialism, genocide and the theft of African resources that make up the pedestal on which all white people sit.
Africa is portrayed as a charity case that needs the help of rock musicians, missionaries and movie stars to keep from sinking in the ocean.
The African People’s Solidarity Day events showed that there is a powerful, growing movement of African workers all around the world united with the African Socialist International and its mission to liberate Africa and its resources under the leadership of African workers. This emerging African liberation movement demands true solidarity from the white world, not favors from well-wishers.
Neocolonial reality in South Africa exposed
As the National Executive Secretary of the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC), Mfanelo Skwatsha’s participation in the ASPD events represented the first official PAC tour in the United States in more than 20 years.
PAC was founded by Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe as a break-away organization of the African National Congress in 1959 after the ANC issued its infamous “Freedom Charter” stating that South Africa belonged to all who lived there, white colonizers and African people alike.
PAC was the organization responsible for winning international support for the African liberation struggle in Southern Africa after it launched mass protests against the pass laws in the early 1960s.
The African People’s Socialist Party had a close organizational relationship with the PAC in the 1970s and 80s and Chairman Omali Yeshitela was the keynote speaker at the PAC’s 8th Congress in 2002.
Comrade Skwatsha emphasized his organization’s historic relationship with the Party and announced that PAC had voted to join the African Socialist International earlier this year.
Secretary Skwatsha also exposed that the poverty and oppression for the majority of African workers in South Africa today are worse than they were under the colonial period and the apartheid system before Mandela and his ANC came to power in 1994.
Africans fight for One Africa! One Nation!
Chernoh Alpha M. Bah, former child soldier from Sierra Leone and Director of the Africanist Movement with over 100,000 members across West Africa returned to the U.S. to participate in APSD, his third Uhuru Movement sponsored tour in less than 2 years.
Comrade Bah discussed the U.S.-manipulated elections in Sierra Leone in August and the importance of the general strike earlier this year in Guinea Conakry, which was given heightened significance by the workers national democratic platform issued by the African Socialist International. The platform can be viewed at http://asiuhuru.org/guinea/
As the keynote speaker at all three events Chairman Omali Yeshitela gave powerful presentations that were both moving in their passionate call to action and educational for both white and African participants.
Chairman Yeshitela called on white people to begin to open themselves to seeing the world as African and other oppressed workers experience it, and to recognize that the genuine interest of all white people lies in abandoning allegiance with white power and standing in solidarity with the movement for one united and liberated Africa. The Chairman also addressed Africans in attendance, calling on them to unite with the strategy and political basis for African liberation by joining the Uhuru Movement.
Ivory Muhammad, the new President of the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement gave dynamic multimedia presentations laying out the InPDUM platform, a program addressing the conditions of African people in the U.S., Africa and around the world.
As a young person committed to shouldering the responsibility to lead this revolutionary mass organization, President Muhammad is representative of the young Africans who are coming forward in this period to join the African People’s Socialist Party and lead the struggle to liberate Africa and African people everywhere.
Gaida Kambon, Executive Secretary of the African People’s Socialist Party and veteran organizer of numerous campaigns led by the African People’s Socialist Party over the years also gave moving presentations, including a powerful history of the Party’s work and campaigns over the past 35 years.
Pierre LaBossiere, leader of the Haiti Action Committee based in Oakland laid out the struggle of African people in Haiti who are facing military occupation by the United Nations following the U.S. and French backed ouster of democratically elected President Jean Bertrand Aristide in 2004.
Penny Hess, Chairwoman of the African People’s Solidarity Committee gave multimedia presentations exposing the Party’s understandings that white people sit on the pedestal of African oppression and that African liberation is key to peace on the planet.
As Chairwoman Hess stated of the events, “African People’s Solidarity Day is part of our work to rectify the reality that white wealth is founded on slavery, genocide and colonialism. Under the leadership of the African People’s Socialist Party we as white people can begin to experience a principled relationship to African people—in the U.S., in Africa and around the world.
“Working in the white communities we are able to win others just like ourselves to recognize that a world of peace and security can only be possible when African and all oppressed peoples are free and self-determining. APSC is about solidarity with the African struggle, not self-serving charity work. We stand for victory to African people everywhere!”
Oakland, CA
Sat, Oct. 13 - 10am-5:30pm
Sun, Oct. 14 - 1pm-5:30pm, banquet 6pm-8pm
Venue: Beebe Memorial Cathedral, 3900 Telegraph Ave., Oakland, CA
Speakers:Omali Yeshitela, Mfanelo Skwatsha, Chernoh Alpha M. Bah, Gaida Kambon, Ivory Muhammad, Gary King Sr., Pierre LaBossiere, Penny Hess
Culture:Burning Spear Records hip-hop artist Krown
Cost:
$10-$50 sliding scale daily (no one turned away)
Saturday lunch $7
Sunday banquet $10-$50 sliding scale
Full weekend package (registration for both days, Sat. lunch, Sun. banquet)
$25-$100 sliding scale
For more information contact the Oakland APSD Organizing Committee
Email: oak_office@apscuhuru.org
Phone: 510-625-1106
Mail: 1601 2nd Ave., Oakland, CA 94606
St. Petersburg, FL
Tues, October 16 - 6:30pm
Venue: The Studio @ 620, 620 1st Ave. S., St. Petersburg, FL
Speakers:Omali Yeshitela, Mfanelo Skwatsha, Chernoh Alpha M. Bah, Penny Hess
Culture:Burning Spear Records hip-hop artist Krown
Cost:
$10-$50 sliding scale (no one turned away)
For more info contact the St. Petersburg APSD Organizing Committee
Email: stpete_office@apscuhuru.org
Phone: 727-824-5685
Mail: 541 16th St. N., St. Petersburg, FL 33705
Philadelphia, PA
Sat, Oct. 20 - 10am-6pm
Sun, Oct. 21 - Noon-5:30pm, banquet 6pm-8:30pm
Venue: International House, 3701 Chestnut St.
Speakers:Omali Yeshitela, Mfanelo Skwatsha, Chernoh Alpha M. Bah, Gaida Kambon, Ivory Muhammad, Penny Hess
Culture:Burning Spear Records hip-hop artist Krown
Cost:
$10-$50 sliding scale daily (no one turned away)
Saturday lunch $7
Sunday banquet $10-$50 sliding scale
Full weekend package (registration for both days, Sat. lunch, Sun. banquet)
$25-$100 sliding scale
For more information contact the Philadelphia APSD Organizing Committee
Email: philly_office@apscuhuru.org
Phone: 215-387-0919
Mail: 3733 Lancaster Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19104
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Keynote Speaker, Omali Yeshitela is the Chairman of the African People’s Socialist Party and leader of the Uhuru Movement. For the majority of his life, Yeshitela has been a powerful speaker, leader and proponent of one united and liberated Africa as the birthright of every African worldwide. 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! Read more... Read about Yeshitela's history in Oakland... (O/S/P)
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Mfanelo Skwatsha is Executive Secretary in the Presidency and a member of the National Executive Council of the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC). A PAC member for over 20 years, he has held many leading positions including Eastern Cape Provincial Secretary and Mthatha Branch Secretary. He has worked in the PAC labor union in the educaiton sector and holds degrees in social science and labor law from the University of Transkei. Read more.... (O/S/P)
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Chernoh Alpha M. Bah is Director of the Africanist Movement of Sierra Leone and West Africa, with over 70,000 members throughout the region. A former child solider and award-winning journalist, he has reported extensively on conditions and conflicts in Sierra Leone and Liberia. Read more... (O/S/P)
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Gaida Kambon is the Secretary of the African People’s Socialist Party. She was born and grew up in Panama. A powerful organizer and leader of the Uhuru Movement, she has headed up many successful campaigns against police brutality and in defense of the democratic rights of African people, including the Cross City 5 and the Tampa 4. (O/P)
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Ivory Muhammad is President of the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement, committed to defending the democratic rights of the African community. Read more... (O/P)
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Pierre LaBossiere, a Haitian activist, is founder of the Haiti Action Committee, a San Francisco Bay Area-based network of activists in the USA who have supported the Haitian struggle for democracy since 1991. (O)
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Penny Hess is Chairwoman of the African People's Solidarity Committee (APSC), an organization working under the leadership of the African People’s Socialist Party, which leads the Uhuru Movement. 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. (O/S/P)
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Culture | |
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Krown, revolutionary hip-hop artist from the Burning Spear Records label. (S/P)
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About APSD
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African People's Solidarity Day is a series of events across the U.S. in solidarity with the worldwide movement for African liberation. Speakers will give presentations on conditions facing African people everywhere and how you can get involved with solutions led by African people themselves. African People's Solidarity Day is based on the understanding that: Africans are one people worldwide, forcibly dispersed by a system built and maintained on slavery, colonialism and genocide.
There is a direct relationship between the affluence and power of white people and the poverty and oppression of African people.
The Uhuru (Freedom) Movement of African workers and poor peasants is leading an international struggle to liberate Africa and reclaim ins vast natural resources for the benefit of African people everywhere.
Racism is not the problem. Charity is not the answer.
African people in the U.S. and around the world don't want charity. They are clear it's not the "racist" ideas in white people's heads that devastate their communities, but an economic and political system built at African people's expense. The Uhuru Movement is calling on white people to work in solidarity with African-led programs to transform their conditions. Donate to support these projects in Africa and the U.S.:
African People's Solidarity Day is organized by the African People's Solidarity Committee (APSC). APSC works under the leadership of the African People's Socialist Party, building support from the white community for the Uhuru Movement for African liberation. |
Get Involved
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Get organized!
- Join the organizing committee in your area
- Oakland: 510-625-1106 / oak_office@apscuhuru.org
- St. Pete: 727-824-5685 / stpete_office@apscuhuru.org
- Philly or other areas: 215-387-0919 / philly_office@apscuhuru.org
- Join the organizing committee in your area
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Spread the word!
- Help distribute postcards, brochures, and posters in your area (see Downloads below).
- Help with online networking.
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Fundraise!
- Get pledges from friends, relatives, and others. More info on the Pledge Drive!
- Organize a benefit or other fundraiser.
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Come to APSD and bring a contingent!
- Oakland, CA - Sat-Sun, Oct. 13-14
- St. Petersburg, FL - Tues, Oct. 16
- Philadelphia, PA - Sat-Sun, Oct. 20-21
Contact us or send us your info for help getting started!
Downloads
| General Brochure (PDF format) | |||
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Oakland view (2.6M) print (3.9M) |
St. Pete view (1.0M) print (3.9M) |
Philly view (1.0M) print (3.9M) |
| Fundraising Brochure (PDF format) | |||
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Oakland view (189K) print (987K) |
St. Pete view (189K) print (986K) |
Philly view (189K) print (986K) |
| Postcard - 4" x 6" (PDF format) | |||
 
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Oakland view (514K) print (1.9M) |
St. Pete view (359K) print (1.3M) |
Philly view (372K) print (1.4M) |
| Poster - 11" x 17" (PDF format) | |||
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Oakland print (1.3M) |
St. Pete print (1.1M) |
Philly print (1.4M) |
| Pledge Drive | |||
.: Study Materials :.
Where the money goes
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African
People's Solidarity Day is a fundraiser for Uhuru Movement programs led
by African working people, transforming conditions for Africa and African
people everywhere. Some programs include:
Donate online! Or make checks
to "Uhuru" and send to: Commit to raising pledges!
Dowload Pledge Drive materials:
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