We are here today as representatives of the Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations.
We are here to announce that on November 7th hundreds of Africans and other people from throughout the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean will be converging on this city for a rally and march in opposition to the U.S. wars and occupations against the peoples of the world and against our own communities in the U.S.
In addition to our U.S. mobilization, African people will demonstrate at the U.S. embassy in London, England under the same slogan of: “Stop U.S. Occupation and War Inside the U.S. and Abroad.”
Some of our concerns are obvious and will be recognized as common to many of the anti-war demands of an assortment of groups that have come to this city in the past.
Like others we are concerned about the growing U.S. aggression against the peoples of the Middle East, including Occupied Palestine, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
We are also concerned about the announcement that the Obama regime has established a U.S. military presence, supported by hired mercenaries euphemistically referred to as “contractors” in Colombia as a direct threat to the government of Venezuela and other progressive governments of the region.
However, as our name infers, we recognize that the call for peace is empty of meaning if it is not accompanied by a demand for social justice. Therefore, our coalition not only addresses the question of peace, but we endorse the principle of resistance to imperialist aggression and occupation and announce our support for such resistance.
The Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations is also concerned with the wars and aggressions, some covertly supported by the U.S., in Africa, the Caribbean and within the U.S. itself.
On November 7th we will also denounce the proxy wars being fought in the Democratic Republic of Congo that have cost the lives of approximately 7 million Africans since 1998 as the U.S. and other Western Imperialist powers drain the territory of natural resources, especially Coltan, necessary for the functioning of cell phones and computers.
We will denounce the establishment of AFRICOM, a military command created to guarantee the continuation of the parasitic relationship between the U.S. and Africa and to contend with imperialist rivals that would challenge U.S. hegemony on the Continent of Africa.
We will demand reparations to Africans within the U.S. who have experienced the brutality of slavery, convict leasing and other forms of terroristic exploitation to the benefit of the general U.S. economy and the continuing emiseration of African people in Africa and the U.S. even up to this day. We have witnessed the trillion-dollar giveaway of taxpayer money to the capitalist thugs who are responsible for the economic crisis currently being experienced in this country and refuse to accept the notion that resolution to the crisis should come at the expense of Africans and other working people. While the Obama regime and various other sectors of the government – federal, state and local – are demanding cutbacks, we say PAYBACK! REPARATIONS NOW!
The Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations is also compelled to rally and march on November 7th because of the paralysis being experienced by much of our community and other progressives since the s/election of Barack Obama as president of the U.S.
At a time when many organizations within our oppressed communities would be seeking alternatives to the social system responsible for our historic oppression and exploitation, the s/election of Obama has drawn millions of Africans and their hopes and dreams for a better future back into the safe embrace of the Democratic Party, a bastion of imperialist aggression and domination.
We are compelled to rally and march on November 7th in defense of the proud legacy of resistance to oppression and unjust wars that has historically distinguished our people and community. Notwithstanding the presidency and policies of Barack Hussein Obama, the mass of our people are not war mongers; we are not servants of capital at the expense of the wellbeing of our people and other workers.
Finally, we want to make it clear that while our relatively small coalition is new, having been founded less than two months ago, we are a coalition that is representative of a broad and diverse sector of the African community.
Our membership and leadership range from nationalists, socialists, revolutionaries, civil libertarians, cultural workers, radio personalities, community activists, political prisoners, students, civil rights veterans and an assortment of others who are determined to shatter the silence and the assumption of universal support for U.S. imperialism within our community because white power is now represented to the world in black face.
We denounce the notion of some kind of post racial harmony in the face of the billions of dollars lost to our community through home foreclosures and the subprime mortgage scheme that targeted African and Mexican people within the U.S. We refuse to ignore the mass incarceration of our people, especially young African men and women of childbearing age. We demand the right to return for our people who lost their homes and valuables to Katrina and the other Gulf coast weather systems while the U.S. government and other agencies “dithered” and even contributed to our distress.
Finally we must say that our people have survived the worst things this government has thrown at us to destroy our movement for happiness and a return of the resources stolen from us. The assassinations of our leaders, such as Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King, Fred Hampton and lesser-known figures have not crushed our fighting spirit. We have survived the criminalization of our freedom fighters, many of whom have been rotting in U.S. prisons far longer than Mandela in South Africa, while others are living furtive existences in exile.
Our statement to our oppressors in the U.S. and the world and, more importantly, to African people everywhere is that November 7th will be our clearest demonstration of the failure of oppression and reaction. BLACK IS BACK!
Black is Back Coalition: Steering Committee
Omali Yeshitela, APSP – Chair
Ayesha Fleary, AAPDEP – Secretary
Yaa Asantewa Ohema, NCOBRA – Fundraiser Jared Ball, Vox Union Media – Media Coordinator Efia Nwangaza, Malcolm X Center for Self Determination – Recruitment Coordinator Chioma Oruh, ASI North America – Outreach Coordinator Ousainou Mbenga – APSP – Logistics Coordinator Rich Piedrahita – APSP – Graphic Designer/Website Manager Riley Hamilton – Uhuru Radio – Website Manager
Black is Back Coalition: Coalition Members
- Abdul Alim Musa, Masjid Al-Islam
- Aaron O'Neal, InPDUM
- Ayesha Fleary (BiB Secretary), APSP, AAPDEP
- Chairman Omali Yeshitela, APSP
- Chakanda Gondwe, APSP
- Charles Barron, Council member NY
- Chimurenga Waller, InPDUM
- Chioma Oruh, ASI North America Organizing Committee
- Curtis Gatewood, North Carolina NAACP
- Cynthia McKinney
- Desmera Curtisa Gatewood, Central University, Student
- Diop Olugbala
- Efia Nwangaza, Malcolm X Center for Self-Determination
- Eliyah X, African People of Love
- Fodali Bowen
- Glen Ford, Black Agenda Report
- Gus "sity" Greer, Morgan State University
- Hodari Abdul-Ali, Muslim Alliance in North America (MANA)
- India Thomas, Hampton Univeristy
- Jared A. Ball, Free Mix Radio
- Jayme Wooten, Kinetic Faith and Justice Network
- Kali Akuno, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement
- Kobina Bantushango, APSP
- Lady Freedome
- Lawrence Hamm, People's Organization for Progress.
- Luwezi Kinshasa, ASI
- M1 (Mutulu), Dead Prez
- Maurice Carney, Friends of the Congo
- Melissa Lyde, Black Campus Progressive, Hampton Univ.
- Marcos Bellamy
- Naji Mujahid, Black August Planning Organization (BAPO)
- Nellie Bailey, Harlem Tenants Council
- Netfa Freeman, PS/Hot SALSA
- Nkemka Anyiwo, University of Marlyland
- Norman Richmond
- Olevette "Heart"
- Omowale Adewale, G.A.ME
- Omowale Kefing, Burning Spear Newspaper
- Ona Zene Yeshitela, APSP
- Oronde Takuma, APSP
- Ousainou Mbenga, APSP
- Pam Africa
- Paul Washington
- Priest Hemnetcher, Howard University
- Raheal Rayza, University of Toronto
- Remy Johnson, University of Syracuse
- Rich Piedrahita, APSP
- Riley Hamilton, African Women in Revolution Show
- Stic Man (Knum Olugbala) of Dead Prez
- Tammy Harris, APSP
- Yaa Asantewaa Ohema (D. Lewis), NCOBRA
DEMANDS
The election of Barack Obama as U.S. president has not ended the suffering of our people or U.S. injustices around the world. While the US Congress has given Wall Street and the auto industry trillions of dollars, the same Congress refuses to repair the legacy of slavery for descendants of enslaved Africans or prevent ethnic cleansing of black people in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. Massive home losses due to criminal banking practices attests to the ongoing theft of billions of dollars of black community wealth. Every day, our people suffer police brutality and murder, unjust imprisonment, depression-level unemployment, slave labor in prison and disenfranchisement. People who dedicated their lives to our freedom during the 1960s still rot in U.S. prisons. U.S. wars have been expanded beyond the African community in the US to Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and now threaten Venezuela.
Reparations Now! Pass HR 40!
Single Payer Health Care/Medicare for All!
Stop Gentrification, Home Mortgage Foreclosures, Bail-out the victims!
Free Mumia Abu Jamal, Jamil Al-Amin, all US political prisoners/pows/exiles!
End Mass Black Incarceration! Count Them Home for Census!
STOP Police violence, Black Community Containment Policy!
NO! to US wars, occupations, domination, exploitation!
NO AFRICOM!
US Out of Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, the Middle East! Hands off Iran!
Rescind the Patriot Act! Drug Wars in U.S, Colombia, Ghana!
The Call
The Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations calls on all black, oppressed and freedom loving people to join the mass mobilization in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, Nov. 7.
We are marching under the call:
Resist U.S. Wars and Occupation in the U.S. and Abroad! Reparations Now!
Despite the escalation of U.S. imperialist aggressions against the peoples of the world and the growing oppression and emiseration imposed on black people in the U.S., most black leadership in the U.S. has suffered political paralysis since the election of Barack Hussein Obama as U.S. president.
Thus the Black is Back Coalition is issuing this call to march on November 7 because we owe it to ourselves and to the peoples of the world to unite with the efforts of freedom-seeking peoples across the planet to liberate themselves and their resources from imperialist domination.
This is a call to resistance, a call to pick up the righteous mantle of struggle that has characterized our people since our first encounter with U.S. and European-imposed enslavement and the forcible expropriation of our right to be a self-determining people, equal among the free peoples of the world.
We must act because the Obama regime has expanded the U.S. wars against the peoples of Afghanistan and Pakistan and continue to occupy Iraq against the will of the Iraqi people.
We must act because one out of every three young African men within the U.S. is tied to the profitable prison system. Our young people are placed there by an America that has never acknowledged its crimes of slavery, oppression and deprivation stemming from the brutal, genocidal economic exploitation of slavery, convict leasing, sharecropping and subhuman wages.
We must act because of the abandonment of black people in the Gulf Coast region before, during and after hurricane Katrina and other disasters.
We must act because of the millions of black people who lost their homes as a result of the predatory subprime mortgage scams that made billions of dollars for bankers and Wall Street.
We must act because of the unemployment—more than double the U.S. jobless rate—that stalks our community like a vicious lynch mob.
We must act because of the police killings and public policy of police containment that the presidency of Obama is designed to obscure.
We must act to demand reparations for the hundreds of years of slavery, colonial oppression, exploitation, terror and deprivations that continue to be experienced in the U.S. by African people to this day.
This reparations demand must be made loud and clear in the face of the trillions of dollars of bailout given the bankers and other ruling class institutions that owe their existence to the historical exploitation of African labor and resources.
We must act to declare that the political assassinations and jailing of our leaders did not destroy our will to resist and to win our freedom.
We must act as our statement to the world that Black is Back!
