“We are hungry, we got no jobs and we can’t pay our rent and bills!”
These are the conditions facing millions of African people in the U.S. as the COVID-19 lockdown continues into its second month.
Most of us haven’t seen a cent of the promised $1,200 stimulus check or any unemployment benefits so far which is why car lines at food banks are more than a mile long in many cities.
As of May 7, 2020, more than 33 million people have filed for unemployment benefits in the U.S. in response to job loss from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Under colonialism, Africans, Indigenous and Mexican people in the U.S. bear the brunt of massive unemployment.
According to a study from the University of Southern California Dornsife Center for Economic and Social Research, which focused on conditions in Los Angeles (LA) county from March 1-14 of this year, African and Latino people face an unemployment rate of 21 percent and 18 percent, respectively, as compared to 15 percent for whites.
African people make up only 8.6 percent of LA county’s total population of over 10 million people with whites comprising 52.4 percent.
The numbers are growing daily as the unemployment rate rises at an unprecedented rate during the pandemic.
With increasing unemployment in the African community we find it harder and harder to secure food to feed our families.
About 95 percent of the food banks at Feeding America, a national network of food banks reported a 70 percent increase in demand for food since the colonialvirus began in February.
Feeding America estimates that they could see an additional 17.1 million people desperately needing food if the colonialvirus continues.
Lines several miles long can be seen at food banks throughout the country as they face an increase in demand and a 40 to 60 percent decrease in donations.
Farmers meanwhile, are dumping millions of pounds of fresh produce because the U.S. government won’t buy it from them to distribute to the people who need it.
We don’t need white power’s jobs; we need self-determination over our own lives
African people in the U.S. had full “employment” under chattel slavery. We worked from “can’t see” in the morning until “can’t see” at night.
It was colonialism then just as it is colonialism now.
The working platform of the African People’s Socialist Party (APSP), What We Want – What We Believe, found in every issue of The Burning Spear newspaper states in point number 2, “We want the rights to economic development and productive employment which promote the needs and well-being of our entire people.”
It is clear that there are no solutions for African workers coming from the U.S. government since they are the problem.
Trillions of dollars in relief in the form of economic stimulus packages have been doled out by the government to Wall Street and large businesses while little to no relief monies are reaching the African community.
Solutions to our dilemma are found in the philosophy and practice of the APSP. We must have power over our lives. Power in the hands of the African working class.
We are demanding reparations and the return of our stolen resources back to our own community. This country was built with our labor and resources and we demand what is ours.
African people aren’t poor! We have never been paid for the work we have done and do every day!
The African People’s Socialist Party understands that we must do for ourselves and be economically self-reliant which is why we have built over 50 institutions contributing to a liberated African economy.
Some of the many economic institutions under the Party are:
- The Burning Spear newspaper and Black Power 96.3 FM radio station
- Black Power Blueprint
- International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement
- Uhuru Foods & Pies
- Uhuru Furniture & Collectibles
- Zenzele Consignment
- African National Women’s Organization
- Africans People’s Solidarity Committee and the Uhuru Solidarity Movement
- Africans One Billion Strong Donor Campaign
Get organized and join the African Revolution! This is the solution for our people to be able to feed ourselves. We will not beg the beneficiaries of our oppression to throw us crumbs!
We demand the whole damn kitchen!
All Power to the People! Black Power to the African Community!
Join the African People’s Socialist Party at apspuhuru.org
