Midway through the campaign to elect Akilé Anai for District 6 councilwoman and Jesse Nevel for mayor in St. Petersburg, Florida, the Campaign Committee determined to form a new organization as the umbrella for precinct organizing for the duration of the election.
Inspired by the campaign slogan of “Unity through Reparations,” we named this new organization, Communities United for Reparations and Economic Development. The name and its acronym, CURED, were also inspired by the broad-based organization that Chairman Omali Yeshitela built after his 2001 run for mayor of St. Petersburg, Citizens United for Shared Prosperity (CUSP).
Now that the election is over, CURED will be a permanent grassroots organization with the goal to influence public policy and run candidates for office on a progressive agenda of unity through reparations to the black community. The creation of CURED is one of, if not the most significant developments of the Akilé/Jesse campaign.
The Mission
CURED brings together many of the steeled fighters who came into the embrace of the Party through the electoral campaign and ensures that the invasion of the electoral arena by genuinely progressive forces will never be abandoned. It is an extension of the Chairman’s strategy to take up all political space for the black working class by utilizing the electoral process to deepen the crisis of imperialism and advance the struggle for African national liberation and self-determination.
CURED will be chaired by Akilé Anai of the African People’s Socialist Party and vice-chaired by Jesse Nevel of the African People’s Solidarity Committee. It is led by an Executive Committee that oversees a Steering Committee comprised of a field team tasked with building countywide district and precinct-based organization so that next time we run for office, we have a stronger organizational capacity to get the vote. The Steering Committee will also involve working groups dealing with the issues of the CURED platform including workers and labor, public safety, the environment, economic development, gentrification, affordable housing and more.
CURED will host The People’s Forum with all of the candidates in the City Council and Mayoral general election on October 30th. It will raise the critical questions that inflamed the excitement of the masses during the primary when Akilé and Jesse were in the race.
CURED will be developing a strategy to take on issues like the Tropicana Field baseball stadium being returned to the black community as an act of reparations and the struggle to change the rigged, fake single-member district voting system designed to undermine the democratic power of the black voting population.
As Akilé stated during her victory speech, the campaign is not over until the goals of the platform are achieved.
CURED is the way forward.
Forward the Revolution!
Uhuru!
