Special Features

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.

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!”

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.

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.

What’s at the end of my rainbow? Freedom!

My name is Gazi Kodzo and if you have seen me chanting at one of the many marches I have led you should have easily determined that I am a homosexual. As a Gender and Sexuality Nonconforming African (GSNA) I have to endorse Akilé and Jesse because I am African before anything else! This is why…

“Millennials” is a generalized and imprecise term used to describe people born between the years of 1981 and 1997. This generation lives in a time where access to information is both endless and extremely suppressed. A time when paid leave is the system’s response to videos of police shootings that have live coverage, millions of views and instant commentary. A time where hashtags can start movements and end careers.

We are a generation that demands an immediate stance in response to the world and its developments. We are a generation that was sold a message of hope and change only to be betrayed by the status quo of a corrupt system that had been turned against the interests of the people.

Presented one piece of evidence after the other, millennials are suspicious, looking to differentiate between genuine representatives of progress and those who would sell out at the expense of the people.

Despite what corporate media would have you think who millennials are, we are invested and often participate in politics. Locally this is evident from the huge millennial support of Eritha Akilé Cainion’s campaign for District 6 and Jesse Nevel’s campaign for Mayor.

This article is part of a special Black August series on TheBurningSpear.com. We encourage all our readers to help “Keep The Spear Burning” during our Black August Fund Drive. Support your black power newspaper! Sponsor a prisoner or donate today at Burningspearmarketplace.com

Black August is a commemoration begun in 1979 by Africans in prison to raise up those who have died struggling for African liberation from within prison walls or in attempts to liberate Africans from the colonial prisons like George and Jonathan Jackson.

August 9, 2017 marks 3 years since the police murder of 18-year-old Michael Brown Jr. Young Michael was murdered by Ferguson, MO copy, Darren Wilson. 

Witnesses stated that Mike Brown was shot eight times while his hands were in the air. His rotting body was then left on the concrete for more than eight hours as an example to the Ferguson community of what the police will do if we disobey their colonial orders. 

What the police did not expect in this suburb of St. Louis, MO was resistance from the African working class community. This powerful display of African Resistance on August 9, 2014 marks one of the critical dates in Black August.