The following statement was published on uhurusolidarity.org on Aug 5, 2022
Stop the Attacks on the African People’s Socialist Party, Chairman Omali Yeshitela and the Uhuru Movement!
Victory to African people! #HandsOffUhuru
The African People’s Solidarity Committee (APSC) and Uhuru Solidarity Movement (USM) condemn the violent U.S. government assault on the African People’s Socialist Party (APSP), prompted by the government’s bogus and slanderous allegations of “Russian influence.”
At 5 am on July 29th, 2022, the FBI raided the home of Chairman Omali Yeshitela, and Deputy Chair Ona Zené Yeshitela in St. Louis, Missouri. They also raided the Uhuru House in St. Petersburg, Florida, and the homes of Party Director of Agit-Prop Akilé Anai, African People’s Solidarity Committee Chair Penny Hess and APSC Central Committee member Kitty Reilly, USM Chair Jesse Nevel and USM Vice Chair Amanda Carlozzi.
The Uhuru Solidarity Center at 2654 Gravois Ave, St. Louis was also targeted because it represents the Party’s strategy to organize white people to stand in solidarity with African Liberation and reparations.
As the organizations of white people formed by and working under the leadership of the APSP, we express our unconditional support for Chairman Omali Yeshitela, the African People’s Socialist Party and the Uhuru Movement.
We unite with the work of winning reparations from white people for the programs of the Party that are building African dual and contending power.
Historically the U.S. government and its secret political police have attacked and assassinated African leaders who have fought against all forms of colonial domination and for the interests of African people, in particular the African working class.
We condemn these vicious attacks. We call on white people and all freedom-loving people to defend Chairman Omali Yeshitela who has relentlessly and tirelessly worked for 50 years for freedom, liberation and reparations for African people in the U.S. and around the world
These assaults come at a time when the African People’s Socialist Party, with Chairman Yeshitela as its leader, is recognized as the vanguard, the most powerful and influential African Liberation organization in the world.
This comes as the programs of the Black Power Blueprint are at the height of their success in building political and economic power in the hands of African people. The Black Power Blueprint projects and programs in North St. Louis include the construction of a community center, a community basketball court, an African women’s doula training program, the community garden and beautiful murals, a farmers market, renovated housing for formerly incarcerated Africans who will be part of a workforce development program, and the renovations that will be the home of the Uhuru Jiko community commercial kitchen and cafe.
The rapid development of these dynamic institutions are bringing a new, positive, self-determined future to the most impoverished African community of north St. Louis. With the Black Power Blueprint, the African People’s Socialist Party has done something by and for the African community of North St. Louis, while the colonial city government implements nothing but economic destruction, police containment and gentrification for African people.
The ever-growing Black Power Blueprint institutions were built through thousands of donations from supporters, including white people contributing as a stand of reparations.
These brutal assaults are an attempt to intimidate white support for the African Liberation Movement. They are trying to discredit and isolate the centuries-long struggle of African people for national liberation, self-determination, reparations and the end of white colonial domination in all forms.
What we are seeing is the continuation of the U.S. government’s counterinsurgency programs, such as COINTELPRO that targeted the Black Revolution of the 1960s using tactics to discredit the movement through psychological warfare; smearing individuals and groups using forged documents and by planting false reports in the media; harassment; wrongful imprisonment; illegal violence and assassinations.
The U.S. government has murdered beloved African leaders over and over again. We remember the targeting and political imprisonment of Marcus Garvey and the brutal assassinations of Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King, Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton and Patrice Lumumba, to name but a few.
The African People’s Solidarity Committee calls on white people to stand between the violent face of the U.S. colonial state and its target, Chairman Omali Yeshitela, the African People’s Socialist Party, the Uhuru Movement, and the African working class community.
We recognize that what is known as the “racial divide” in this country is in fact what Chairman Omali Yeshitela calls “the colonial mode of production.” White people sit on the pedestal of social wealth and democratic rights built on the stolen labor, resources and freedom of African people, on the stolen land of the Indigenous people, against whom genocide was committed.
Contribute reparations to the worldwide movement for African self-determination led by Chairman Omali Yeshitela and the African People’s Socialist Party. Take a stand in defense of the Uhuru Movement.
Donate to the committee to defend the Uhuru Movement against these brutal attacks. Donate at: apspuhuru.org/donate.
Follow the campaign at HandsOffUhuru.org to see solidarity statements and media coverage.
Join the Uhuru Solidarity Movement!
Hands off the Uhuru Movement!
Unity through Reparations!
Hands off the African People’s Socialist Party!