Thursday of week three of the Cadre Intensive School began with the raising of the African flag!
Secretary General Gaida Kambon conducted the morning assembly and then Chairman Omali Yeshitela led a discussion around the film The Battle of St. Petersburg.
The film showed the African community on the South side of St. Petersburg as it rose up in righteous rebellion following the police murder of 16 year old TyRon Lewis.
The film chronicles the militant and sometimes armed efforts against more than 300 St. Petersburg cops who tried to burn down the Uhuru House, with 100 Africans trapped inside, in 1996.
Next, SG Gaida and Omowale Kefing presented a workshop on "The Oakland Years." The Party led a powerful campaign that fought for African community control of housing in Oakland in the 80s.The Party collected more than 28,000 signatures to qualify an initiative to be placed before the voters.
Dubbed Measure O, the initiative placed on the Oakland ballot was a revolutionary project that would have altered the property relations in Oakland and put power in the hands of the African working class.
Measure O received more than 2800 votes. The Party also built a Tent City for Homeless and prepared more than 100 hot meals for its residents. Empty and abandoned houses were seized, and the Bobby Hutton Free Clinic was built.
During this period, the Party also built a mass based movement to free Freddie Lee Roberts, a young African accused of gunning down an Oakland pig.
The Oakland years also included militant struggles against the prison system which included all-night vigils at the infamous San Quintin Prison in the San Francisco Bay area.
Upon our return from lunch, InPDUM President Waleeah Brooks and Jesse Nevel of APSC led the SELLS workshop. The importance of the SELLS outreach mandate of the Party was laid out as a way to add science to organizing techniques.
After a brief break, African People's Solidarity Committee Chairwoman, Penny Hess, led a discussion on why the Party built APSC.
Hess explained that even though the APSC was formed in 1976, it wasn't until 1985 that APSC was consolidated as a principled white organization working under the leadership of the Party.
Hess spoke to the fact that APSC is the only entity that takes a truly progressive stance around reparations owed to Africans, exposing that all white people sit on the pedestal of parasitic capitalism.
The day ended with the retrieval of the African flag, dinner and outreach calls.
Uhuru!