Spear staff

Since Chavez came to power in 1998, his leadership made Venezuela one of the key centres of national liberation struggles in the world. Over 16 years later, his policies succeeded in shaping a new vision of Venezuela and of what is referred to as “Latin America.”

One of the first things Hugo Chavez and his United Socialist Party of Venezuela did was to take back control of the Venezuela’s oil resource, upon which the entire economy of Venezuela depends.

Do a google image search for “pimp” and your results will turn up hundreds of pictures of black men, two pictures of Playboy’s Hugh Hefner, and a few of white men dressed in the pimp costume synonymous with what black men wore in 1970’s blaxploitation films.

The pimp, in capitalist society, is often glamorized and held in high esteem for his ability to control women.

Rappers like Snoop Dog, Pimp C, 50 Cent and Ice T (a former pimp), have claimed to reinvent the term to mean someone who dresses luxuriously, hustles and gets money (without selling the sex of women).

This reinvention, however, has not reached the back alleys and dark rooms where, to be a pimp still means to abuse, coerce and steal from women who have sex for money.

Similarly, if you did a google search for “whore” or its slang “hoe,” the results are a lot less black and more white, lots and lots of white women...and garden tools.

At first your response could be “good, black women are not seen as whores,” but seconds later you realize that is not the case as you recall the historical perception of African women as oversexed harlots and white power’s practice of forcibly using our bodies for sexual gratification and the production of workers.

Sometimes when our allies are under extreme attack, especially from the lead white nation colonizer (U.S. imperialism), a “Big Lie” narrative is often put forward for the purpose of creating a pretext for making war against the colonized.

Oftentimes, the colonized are surrounded and the people of the world are inundated by bourgeoisie media and can’t always speak for themselves. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the African revolutionary internationalists to speak in support of the oppressed and to defend and support their revolutionary aspirations.

In this instance the African Socialist International (ASI) stands in unwavering solidarity with the toiling workers, peasants, workers party and leadership of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

HOUSTON—Hurricane Harvey made landfall upon Rockport Texas on Friday, August 25th at 11pm local time as a Category 4 hurricane. The storm, which is expected to last for a next few days, is déjà vu for African (black) people, reminding us of Hurricane Katrina which hit New Orleans 12 years ago.

This familiarity which one may feel about Hurricane Katrina when looking at Hurricane Harvey is the yet another slap-in-the-face evidence that the State does not care about African people.

ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA—Today is a historic day for the people of St. Petersburg as they gear up excitedly, ready to make real change in the city by voting in two of the most radical elections that the city has ever seen.

The race for District 6 City Council and Mayor of St. Petersburg has reached its climax as the masses head to the polls to cast their votes for the candidates with the best plans to bring real, material change to the city.

CHICAGO—The Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations (BIBC) held their annual national conference at Chicago State University in Chicago, Illinois on Saturday and Sunday, August 12-13, 2017.  The theme of the conference was “The Ballot and the Bullet: Elections, War and Peace in the Era of Trump.”

The conference was attended by African people from throughout the U.S. including Philadelphia, Texas, Washington D.C., Florida and Chicago itself.

The program was filled with important reports from the coalition working groups, resolutions for action and cutting edge analysis.

As the theme stated, the focus of the program was on raising up strategy for African people to engage in resistance for self-determination through the electoral process, while also recognizing that doing so cannot serve as a substitute for anti-colonial resistance through armed struggle.

Uhuru Comrades, mark your calendars!

The International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement (InPDUM) is entering its final stretch of for the 26th Anniversary Convention, which will take place on September 16-17, 2017 in St Louis, Missouri.

We have entered the championship round.

As election day fast approaches, next Tuesday in fact, the people’s movement to elect myself, Eritha ‘Akile’ Cainion for District Six City Council and Jesse Nevel for Mayor have defined this period as the championship round.

Dear Burning Spear, First I want to thank you for sponsoring my subscription to The Burning Spear. There are so many brothers in here that are surprised that a newspaper like this even exists after they come in contact with it.