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Register for the USM National Convention, “White Solidarity with Black Power” on April 1-2 in St. Petersburg, Florida.

We are living in times of crisis, struggle and resistance. This is a call for white people to get on the right side of history by joining in solidarity with Black Power and organizing for white reparations to African people.

In order to boost academic performance in the heavily African city of Detroit, the State of Michigan has been trying for some time now to reform its public schools. For the past 20 years, Detroit Public Schools (DPS) has been in decline. With the intervention of Trump’s education secretary and billionaire heiress Betsy Devos, DPS has been pushing African students towards an increasing number of charter schools. DPS brought in an emergency manager and closed some public schools while transforming others into corporate-backed charter schools.

The Panafrican Congress of Azania’s (PAC) demonstration against the pass law was repressed by the white settler colonial rulers 57 years ago on March 21, 1960.

Sixty-nine people were murdered during this demonstration and 181 were wounded, in Sharpevill, a township in southern Gauteng province. Africans were also killed in similar protests in Langa and Cape Town.

An estimated 2.6 million mostly white women participated in the January 21 Women’s March on Washington and in cities across the country following the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 45th U.S. president. 

The rallies were not considered “protests;” although they had a mission statement, the marches had no demands. Organizers have never revealed the source of their funding that provided buses from nearly every state in the U.S., but it was closely aligned with the Democratic party

Lynne Stewart, the militant lawyer who went up against U.S. state power to defend African, Arab and other oppressed nation activists, died March 7 in New York.

Stewart was 77 and is survived by her husband, Ralph Poynter, a member of the Black is Back Coalition.

After serving 4 years of a 10-year sentence as a political prisoner, Stewart was released from prison in December 2013 as a result of popular pressure on the government in the face of breast cancer that was terminal.

Newly hatched mayoral candidate Jesse Nevel officially launched his challenge to incumbent St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman Wednesday morning with a pledge to end poverty and misery on the city's historically black south side.

Nevel, a 27-year-old member of the Uhuru Solidarity Movement—a group of white activists that stands with the African People's Socialist Movement (also known as Uhuru)—launched his bid with a striking slogan: "Unity through Reparations." It's the idea that the city should invest more resources in leveling the playing field for the city's African-American population. Some 20,000 or so people on the south side live below the poverty level and many are plagued with disproportionate rates of addiction and homelessness. And the few opportunities available to many residents are low-wage retail and service jobs that keep the city's tourism economy going. That has to stop, Nevel said.

On Monday, March 6, 2017, 20-year-old Eritha “Akilé” Cainion threw her hat into the race to become the next councilperson for District 6 in St. Petersburg. She made the announcement while standing in front of the recently shutdown St. Petersburg, Florida Walmart with her proud parents and a group of enthusiastic supporters.

 
“I am 20 years old and for all these 20 years I have lived in this city, specifically in this neighborhood. In all these 20 years, the St. Petersburg city government has done nothing but work against the black community. I have entered this election because the black community is and has been under assault by the leaders of this city,” declared Akilé.

Eritha Cainion (traditionally known as Akilé Anai) filed paperwork this week at City Hall for the council seat to be vacated by term-limited Karl Nurse. She joins an already crowded field of candidates, including: local NAACP president Maria Scruggs, Lakewood Terrace activist and South St. Petersburg CRA advisory board member Corey Givens and perennial candidate Sharon Russ.

Cainion says she has discussed financial and grassroots support with the Uhuru movement, but considers herself a non-partisan candidate that will accept support from across the city. 

A second candidate with ties to the Uhuru Movement has emerged for the upcoming city elections.

Jesse Nevel’s slogan for his mayoral run?  “Unity through reparations.”

Nevel, 27, a Miami native who has lived in the city since he was 18, said he decided to make his initial foray into politics fight for justice for the city’s black residents.

“I decided to run because the old guard is on its way out and we want to see economic development for black communities and this city that is something that will uplift