The International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement (InPDUM) will be holding its 31st Annual Convention from Sep. 8-10 in St. Louis, Missouri. Africans from around the world will convene at Akwaaba Hall in North St. Louis under this year’s theme: Deepening the Counteroffensive! Completing the Black Power Movement! This time we will win!
This convention is being organized at a moment of severe imperialist crisis. The French colonial State has deployed 45,000 colonial police in France to combat the uprising of African and Arab workers there. Throughout Africa, as represented in the uprising in Mali, West Africa, neocolonial states are severing ties with colonial powers as part of a struggle to place power in the hands of the African petty bourgeoisie. In Burkina Faso, the French colonial military has been forced out.
While we see the retreat of French colonizers, we also see an expanded attack against Africa by the U.S. The glaring attack against Africa can be seen in the July 29, 2022 assault against the Uhuru Movement and subsequent indictment of the “Uhuru 3” on April 18, including Chairman Omali Yeshitela. Colonialism is a fatally wounded beast. A fatally wounded beast is extremely deadly as it fights to live. It is at this moment that we need the organization of African people, more than ever. With revolutionary organization, we can tilt this moment of imperialist crisis in our favor.
InPDUM is deepening the counteroffensive
In the spirit of the masses of African people that love martial arts, the InPDUM counteroffensive can be defined through reference to two fighting styles: capoeira of Brazil and Wing Chun of China. Both art forms were crafted in moments of anticolonial struggle. Both fighting styles are defined by the ability to attack while also defending.
InPDUM has played a central role in the Hands Off Uhuru counteroffensive. We have petitioned, organized people to the Black is Back mobilization in November 2022, held teach-ins for African Martyrs Day, and went into Alabama– for Mafundi Lake Day, the Selma commemoration and for the pushback against Regions Bank (after having colluded with the FBI with economic sanctions). We also organized in North America, the Caribbean, Africa, and Europe for the May 27 Day of Action.
For InPDUM, deepening the counteroffensive means organizing the masses and bringing them into political life, growing membership, bringing political education and ideological clarity to the African masses, building branches, and opening offices. InPDUM was officially chartered as a national organization on April 6, 1991, in Chicago.
InPDUM was built to defend the African community and push back the counterinsurgency. InPDUM was placed on the offensive, over 15 years ago, with the creation of our platform: The Revolutionary National Democratic Program (RNDP).
In August 2022, the United States and FBI attempted to wipe clean any evidence of InPDUM’s Africans Charge Genocide campaign. Upwards of 130,000 people signed this petition and united with our campaign to charge the U.S. with the crime of genocide against African people, taking our petition to the United Nations. They tried to slander our campaign by saying Russia told us to do it. However, this is a campaign that the Uhuru Movement has fought for since its inception in the late 1960s. It is embodied in the recent 40th anniversary of the 1982 Reparations Tribunal and reprinting of “The Verdict is In: Reparations Now!”
InPDUM has not been deterred and we have not only resurrected our campaign, but we have taken our struggle to the United Nations–not once but twice. InPDUM has seen an influx of members behind enemy lines from the colonial prisons into the George Jackson-Dessie Woods prisoner program. We see new heights in our Black Community Control of the Police campaign.
In St. Louis, The People’s Alderman Comrade Jesse Todd forwarded the Dred and Harriet Scott Sanctuary Cities Resolution in January. This resolution defended the democratic rights of the African community and exposed the colonial democracy of the United States, as well as its neocolonial stooges.
In the U.S., Caribbean, Africa, and Europe, InPDUM is on the rise, attacking while we defend.
Our Africa is under attack
Our Africa is under attack, and we call on everyone to unite in St. Louis for the InPDUM Convention. African workers and peasants are impacted by colonialism’s deepening contradictions. Gas prices are high, wages are low, Africans are increasingly unhoused, imprisoned, and murdered by the State.
Anti-colonial organizers like Gaile Walker, the Stop Cop City organizers, the Tampa 5, and our comrades in the Filipino National Democratic Movement, Venezuelan organizer Alex Saab and others have all been attacked for their defense of the democratic rights of African and colonized people.
The U.S. attack against Africa and the Uhuru Movement is part of the colonial powers’ Africa Plan. Everyone has an Africa Plan because of the central role that Africa plays for the whole world economy. Africa and African people need our own Africa Plan. The Uhuru Movement and Chairman Omali Yeshitela have laid that plan out. Our convention is a way to take this plan out into the world.
We call on all sectors of the African independence movement to join us in St. Louis. “Deepening the Counteroffensive! Completing the Black Power Movement! This time we will win!” is the appropriate motto for this convention. It underscores the programmatic character of our convention and what we need to do to get free.
In Occupied Azania (South Africa), InPDUM will be holding its Africa Pre-Convention. On September 8, we will host the Black Star Awards. We will be recognizing a long list of freedom fighters in our struggle for liberation including Fred Hampton, Jr., Mike Africa, Jr., InPDUM President Emeritus Akua Njeri, the People’s Alderman Jesse Todd and New York City Councilman Charles Barron.
On September 9, we will initiate the official proceedings of our convention. We will be hearing reports on the activities of InPDUM by President Matsemela as well as our leaders in Occupied Azania, Director Tafarie and President Zakhele. We will workshop and conduct panel presentations on Hands Off Uhuru and the Sanctuary City Panel. Chairman Omali Yeshitela will deliver our main presentation. That evening, we will host a film screening and Karamu (feast).
On September 10, we will hold workshops on Africans Charge Genocide and the African Reparations Claim, there will be an update on our prison outreach, and a panel discussing Chairman’s newest book, “The Verdict is in! Reparations Now!” We will hold a branch building workshop and a panel on African community control of economics. Constitutional revisions will be voted on, the InPDUM President will be appointed by Chairman Omali Yeshitela, and the new international executive committee will be elected.
Forward Towards the InPDUM 2023 Convention!
Deepening the Counteroffensive!
Completing the Black Power Movement!
This Time We Will Win!