Jan 11 St. Petersburg, FL
APSC Annual Open Conference
Take Action
Donate a Diamond / Buy a Liberated Diamond
Sierra Leone is rich in diamonds, yet the people there live on less than $1 day with no access to clean water, electricity, decent shelter or healthcare. That's why the Uhuru Movement says that "All Diamonds are Blood Diamonds."
APSC
is raising money through diamond donations and sales of "liberated"
diamonds. All proceeds go to programs of the All
African People's Development and Empowerment Project (AAPDEP).
AAPDEP projects are set to begin in Gbanelolo and Oloshoro, Sierra Leone in March of 2008 with the building of community-sized rainwater harvesting systems and a number of community-wide health trainings on how to prevent, identify and treat waterborne diseases. Funds are urgently needed.
To donate a diamond:
Send by registered mail to:
“Return the Diamonds to Africa”
484 Lake Park Blvd., #357
Oakland, CA 94610
To buy a liberated diamond:
Visit SolidarityForAfrica.org.
There you can view and purchase jewelry items donated during the 2006 and 2007 "All Diamonds are Blood Diamonds" tour and the "African People's Solidarity Day" events, sponsored by the African People's Solidarity Committee.
Your "liberated" diamond comes with a certificate signed by Dr. Aisha Fields, Director of AAPDEP, authenticating that your purchase is contributing to putting Africa's resources back in the hands of African people.
Reports from Past Actions
> Feb. 11, 2007: Demonstration outside Bond Diamonds, St. Petersburg, FL
> Feb. 5, 2007: Day of Action Against International Diamond Conference, New York, NY
The “All Diamonds Are Blood Diamonds” demonstration and press conference (read the press statement) called by the African People’s Solidarity Committee (APSC) in New York City Monday was a great success. APSC is a white solidarity organization working under the leadership of the African People’s Socialist Party, which leads the Uhuru Movement.
The
demonstration was held outside the Hilton Hotel in opposition to the 4th Annual
Rapaport Diamond Conference taking place inside. This year’s conference agenda
clearly attempted to cover up the diamond industry’s bloody hand in Africa.
The industry is taking a defensive posture today in large part due to the Uhuru
Movement-led struggle of African people demanding to control their own diamonds.
In sub-freezing temperatures a crowd of around twenty people loudly called for
a total boycott of all diamonds, an end to the brutal exploitation and oppression
of African diamond miners and the return of all Africa’s resources to African
people themselves. Powerful presentations were given by Penny Hess, Chairwoman
of the African People’s Solidarity Committee; Aisha Fields, a member of the
African People’s Socialist Party, and Diop Olugbala, International Organizer
for the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement.
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Hess stated that, “The diamonds of Africa belong to African working people. They are part of the legacy of colonial plunder that began with slavery that has made America and Europe wealthy and powerful, and the majority of Africans impoverished and powerless. Every child growing up in Sierra Leone or South Africa or Botswana should live in prosperity with a beautiful home, first rate health care, an excellent education and the best prospects for life.” |
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Aisha Fields spoke about the African Development and Empowerment Programs that the African People’s Socialist Party is leading. The programs will bring water purification and sustainable electricity, run by the people themselves, to diamond-producing areas of Africa. |
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Diop Olugbala expounded on the Uhuru Movement slogan, “Touch One, Touch All!” stating that, “If African people had the power over their own land and resources in Africa, the police in New York would not be able to gun down Sean Bell in Queens!” |
Burning Spear Media representatives inside the conference reported that there
was no one present at the conference representing the diamond workers or even
the neo-colonial governments of the diamond-producing nations. The discussion
at the conference revolved around how the diamond industry could maintain its
control over Africa’s resources and land, while appearing to be concerned about
improving the conditions of the diamond workers.
The reality is that in Sierra Leone twenty-eight percent of children die before
the age of five, and full-time diamond workers can’t even afford to feed their
children. Botswana, the world’s largest supplier of uncut diamonds, has the
highest AIDS rate in the world, and almost half the people live on less than
a dollar a day.
Despite the diamond industry’s attempt to portray themselves as the saviors
of African people, the only way that African people are going to experience
prosperity and happiness is through gaining total control over their resources
once again; by uniting and liberating Africa.
Organizers of the demonstration will continue the campaign with more actions,
teach-ins and an “All Diamonds Are Blood Diamonds” speaking tour this spring.
APSC calls for all concerned people to boycott diamonds and to give
back your diamonds to the African People’s Development and Empowerment Programs.
To get involved, stay tuned to www.boycottdiamonds.net and contact us at info@apscuhuru.org or call 215-387-0919.
More photos from the demonstration:
> December 2006: Demonstrations at the opening of the movie Blood Diamond, nationwide
Article on demonstration in Philly
> October 2006: National Day of Action Against the Diamond Industry, nationwide
The week of October 21st, demonstrations were held in front of retail diamond stores in Philadelphia, Boston, San Francisco and St. Petersburg protesting the devastating impact that the diamond industry has on Africa and African people.
Chanting “All diamonds are blood diamonds!” protesters demanded that all of Africa’s vast natural resources be returned to the control and benefit of the indigenous African people themselves.
The demonstrations were organized by the African People’s Solidarity Committee, a group formed by the African People’s Socialist Party to build political and financial support from the white community for the African liberation movement. They are sponsoring African People’s Solidarity Day teach-ins and benefits around the country this November.
The group is calling for the donation of diamonds and cash to support African-led development projects in Africa and the U.S.
In Philadelphia, one man offered a diamond ring as a donation to the projects, while the head of “Jeweler’s Row” begged protesters to take pity on the poor diamond merchants whose profits were being negatively impacted upon by the protests.
In Boston, jewelers on the second floor of a diamond retailer threw water onto protesters, while passersby offered their support for the diamond boycott.
In San Francisco, an African woman from Liberia brought photographs of her relatives who had been buried alive in the diamond mines of that region.
Speaking at the demonstration in St. Petersburg, Florida, Penny Hess, Chairwoman of the African People’s Solidarity Committee, stated, “The diamond industry contributes to the fact that more than half the population of Sub-Saharan Africa is forced to live on less than a dollar a day on the earth’s richest continent.
“We are aware that in the past 10 years there has been much media coverage and public awareness of efforts to boycott what are known as blood or conflict diamonds.
“These were diamonds sold on the open market by brutal forces who waged genocidal
wars that slaughtered millions of people, particularly in West Africa in the
1990s. These forces—such as the
Revolutionary United Front in Sierra Leone, for example—were backed by U.S.
and Western interests in order to keep West Africa destabilized and easy prey
for Western exploitation of Africa’s diamonds, gold, oil, coltan and other resources.
“In recent months, DeBeers, the nearly century-old diamond cartel headquartered in South Africa, has launched a multi-million dollar PR campaign to assure American consumers that there is now little danger of buying a blood diamond on the retail market.
“DeBeers instigated its ‘Kimberley Process Certification Scheme,’ in which the source of a diamond is supposedly traceable to ensure that it does not come from an area controlled by the warring factions.
“However, the Kimberley process is just what it says it is—a scheme—for DeBeers to maintain world control of diamonds as a commodity.
“The reality is that now that diamonds are certified, the diamond workers of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Congo still make only about 30 cents a day and perhaps a cup of rice for 10 hour shifts digging or sifting for diamonds.
“While Sierra Leone has some of the best diamonds in the world, the majority of the people live in deadening poverty with a life expectancy of only 36 years.
“While DeBeers and the Western world make billions of dollars from the diamond industry, West Africans live with curable disease without an electrical grid or water purification programs.
“The atrocities perpetrated by the forces such at the RUF in the diamond wars
of the 90s must be
condemned. However, DeBeers and the so-called legitimate diamond industry are
no different.
“DeBeers was founded by the brutal British colonizer Cecil Rhodes who was responsible for the slaughter of tens of thousands of African people throughout Southern Africa as he stole their land, cattle and resources. Cecil Rhodes massacred up to 5000 African people in one afternoon with machine guns, which he first introduced into Africa.
“It was the DeBeers Diamond cartel that forced African workers to crawl on their knees at gunpoint to pick up diamonds lying on the ground. It was DeBeers that engineered the apartheid system in South Africa and that remains the driving force behind the economy there where more than half of African working people still live in desperate poverty.
“It was DeBeers that fired all the striking low-paid diamond miners in Botswana two years ago, rendering them and their families homeless by evicting them from the substandard living compounds surrounding the mines.
“The world’s best diamonds are in Africa. But, all the wealth produced by diamonds is in the U.S. and Europe, while all the poverty resulting from diamonds is in Africa.
“This protest is uniting with the efforts of African workers to build the African Socialist International, not for better wages, greater benefits or better housing as diamond miners, but for control of Africa and all its resources, including diamonds. We unite with the call for a United States of Africa and an end to the colonial borders that create division and maintain poverty and powerlessness in Africa today.
“Africa and all its diamonds are the birth right of African people, those in Africa and those dispersed around the world. White people can no longer take for granted that our lifestyle will come at the expense of other peoples. We unite with the call for Reparations to African people and stand in recognition of the fact that America was built on slavery and genocide.”
The recent protests against the diamond industry pointed supporters to African People’s Solidarity Day, upcoming nationwide teach-ins that will raise money for electrification and water development projects in West Africa coordinated by the Uhuru Movement. The Uhuru Movement, headed by the African People’s Socialist Party, is also leading efforts to build the African Socialist International, working to unite the countries of Africa into a single nation and to return Africa’s resources to African people.
Featuring African speakers from South Africa, Congo, Haiti, Venezuela and elsewhere, African People’s Solidarity Day will bring the viewpoint of the African revolution to those in the white community willing to see it. African People’s Solidarity Day kicked off this weekend in Boston, MA (Oct. 28th) and will continue with events in St. Petersburg, FL (Nov. 1st), Oakland, CA (Nov. 4th), San Francisco, CA (Nov. 5th), and Philadelphia, PA (Nov. 11th-12th). For more information on events in your area, visit apscuhuru.org.
