ST. PETERSBURG, FL – Day 2 of the intensive began with the physical education orientation.
John Thomas, one of the intensive participants and manager of the Tyron Lewis Gym gave an overview of fitness and how it relates to the revolution. John conveyed the message that in order to be a revolutionary we will have to be physically fit to be leaders and to defend ourselves.
All participants were weighed, measured, and divided into three different levels based on their physical ability.
The skill levels are beginner, intermediate, and advanced. Participants will be working on three different aspects of physical fitness, weight training, yoga and body weight training.
Mid morning all participants returned to the Uhuru House to begin the day's workshops. We began by the daily flag raising ceremony which gives each participant a daily reminder of the significance of the red, black, and green of the African National flag. Looking at the flag invokes the spirit of Garvey and his call for "Africa for African People!".
The first workshop of the day entitled "The Basics of Party Style Organizing" was presented by Chimurenga Waller and Waleeah Brooks.
This workshop covered the basics of the outreach process. Its theme is that the APSP is an organization of organizers that must study African Internationalism so that we can go out into the community to recruit 1000s of members into the organization.
Some of the outreach strategies discussed were selling the Burning Spear newspaper, drops and door to door outreach.
The workshop explained how the outreach and recruitment process is a science, and when done right is successful in bringing new members into the organization.
The most important part the outreach is the consolidation process. Directly tied to the consolidation process is the SELLS process, which is a follow up process used to gain contacts and follow up with them to become members.
The second workshop of the day was about the science of making fundraising and membership appeals during events, presented by Penny Hess and Bakari Olatunji.
The most important aspects of making an appeal is having confidence in the revolutionary strategy of the Uhuru Movement (Uhuru Movement Swagger), setting your fundraising and membership goals before the event and having a team in place.
It can include music and must be upbeat and fun, yet serious in the mission of raising resources and memberships for the organization.
The InPDUM Weekly Mass Rally is held every Sunday at 4pm. The meeting is open to the public and broadcast live via Livestream from time to time.
Glen Ford from Black Agenda Report was the keynote speaker for this week's rally. The theme was "Detroit, the Banks and Attacks on the African Community."
Ford's summation shed light upon how the ruling class is taking over black cities one by one.
They are essentially disenfranchising Africans by state takeovers of the school system and state appointments of financial managers which takes control of the city from the mayors and city council and gives full control of the city to the state. This in turn leads to privatization of the cities pushes Africans out to the new impoverished suburbs, Glen analyzed.
After Ford's analysis Chairman Omali Yeshitela gave his summation of the state of affairs.
The Chairman basically said the dispersal of Africans and breaking up the African community is not a new phenomenon. The fact is that the ruling class is slowly losing its grip on the strong hold of colonized folks around the world, that they are so desperate to maintain control that they are doing whatever is possible to keep Africans oppressed and exploited.
We must become organized under African Internationalism in order to gain freedom and independence in our life time.
Due to an upbeat fundraising appeal by Tammy Harris and Bakari Olatunji, $360.00 was raised at the Sunday Mass Meeting from those in the room and from viewers online. After a membership appeal by International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement (InPDUM) President Waleeah Brooks, a new InPDUM member was gained. A grand welcome to Malvin Prince from St Petersburg, Florida. After a very delicious and nutrious dinner, the flag was lowered and we said goodbye to another insightful and powerful day.
Log in tomorrow for Day 3. Uhuru!
