Spear staff

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).

The 2017 Committee to Elect Akilé (Cainion) Anai for District 6 city councilwoman and Jesse Nevel for mayor of St. Petersburg, FL was led by the African People’s Socialist Party and made up of youthful forces powered by the slogans “Unity through Reparations!” and “Radical Times; Radical Solutions!”

For six months, from early March through August 29, the joint campaign committee was a powerhouse of energy, enthusiasm and commitment waging an outstanding ground war to elect the dynamic young candidates who excited the African working class to come out and vote for their own interests for the first time ever.

The African People’s Socialist Party’s campaign for Akilé Anai (formerly Eritha Cainion) for District 6 city council and Jesse Nevel for mayor of St. Petersburg, FL this year was a six-month decorum-shattering, cadre-building, history-making mobilization of the masses of the people.

Between our announcements to run in March and election day on August 29, our daily work included work on the streets among the masses of the people, disruption of status-quo debates, fisticuffs, laughs, exuberant demonstrations, battles with the bourgeois media, social media wars and recruitment of amazing new Comrades in the process of breaking up the status quo and forcing the interests of the African working class onto St. Petersburg’s electoral agenda.

When New York assemblyman Charles Barron endorsed Eritha Akilé Anai (Cainion) for city councilwoman and Jesse Nevel for mayor in the 2017 St. Petersburg, FL elections, it was historic. Assemblyman Barron gave powerful advice, based upon years of successful campaigning and stopping the vicious tide of gentrification in East New York: “Door to door wins the war!”

Three weeks after Hurricane Maria’s September 16, 2017 devastating landing on the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico, causing the destruction of its fragile colonialist infrastructure, the people are still dying, there is no electrical grid, and food, water and medicine are trickling down to the people at a snail’s pace.

St. Petersburg, Florida—A plane crashed less than a block away from the Uhuru House on Wednesday, October 18, 2017 at 3:45pm. A total of 5 people were injured and 3 cars totaled. Amongst the three injured was an African woman and her grandson.

test

test

The 2017 St. Petersburg District 6 city council election provided the undisputed final, insidious evidence that the white power has succeeded in taking over the formerly majority African district.