Eritha “Akilé” Cainion and Jesse Nevel: Leading radical campaigns in St. Petersburg, Florida!

ST. PETERSBURG, FL––The August 29th primary elections are fast approaching as the climax of one of the most radical election seasons in recent years, and probably of all time.

This is due to two young radical candidates, Eritha “Akilé” Cainion and Jesse Nevel who are running under the slogans ‘radical times, radical solutions’ and ‘unity through reparations,’ respectively.

The movement to elect Akilé for District 6 City Council and Jesse Nevel for mayor of St. Petersburg is gaining fierce momentum and winning international support.

Although Akilé and Jesse are running against the big money political establishment, their campaigns, led by the Uhuru Movement, are fueled by an uprising of young, black working class leaders.

They are also fueled by white people who unite that the cornerstone of a progressive stance is a commitment to reparations to the black community.

White ruling class try to silence the campaign’s radical message

The rigged political establishment has done everything to try to stifle and silence the people’s movement for Akilé and Jesse’s campaigns.

After multiple debates and forums where Akilé and Jesse effortlessly defeated their opponents and won enthusiastic support from the audiences, the rulers have cancelled all debates and blocked Jesse from participating in the only televised debate, hosted by Bay News 9 and the notoriously slimy, reactionary Tampa Bay Times.

St. Pete College, one of the original sponsors of the July 25th debate, dubbed by the Uhuru Movement as the “Jim Crow Debate,” actually backed out of sponsoring in response to public pressure by concerned students and community members.

Despite these attacks by the system, the popularity of this campaign continues to surge.

The people’s candidates

Eritha “Akilé” Cainion, the bold 20-year-old African woman known for her work chairing the committee for justice for the three drowned black girls, has garnered widespread support in St. Petersburg as well as on the national level.

Akilé was profiled in Ebony Magazine’s July-August issue as a “millennial of change” who is inspiring people around the world with her revolutionary stance.

“There’s a war against the black community and our resistance comes in the form of myself for District 6 and Jesse for Mayor,” said Akilé in an exclusive interview with The Burning Spear.

During one of the debates, in his closing statement Jesse expressed his commitment to right the wrongs of the previous administrations through supporting black community control of police and reparations.

He pointed at current mayor Rick Kriseman and former mayor Rick Baker and stated, “…the murders of Javon Dawson, Marquell McCullough and Jarrell Walker that happened under THIS Rick (Baker), and the murders of Dominique Battle, Ashaunti Butler and Laniya Miller that happened under THIS Rick (Kriseman), I will take responsibility for that.”

Ruling class candidates’ anti-African, reactionary response to basic questions

The issue of reparations brought the campaigns into the international spotlight when another mayoral candidate named Paul Congemi screamed “Go back to Africa!” at the Africans in the audience, and also said that reparations had already been paid “in the form of Barack Obama.”

The Congemi video went viral, bringing international attention to the campaigns of Jesse and Akilé and their platform of unity through reparations.

Akilé is running against seven other candidates, all of whom represent the interests of big developers and have promised to extend the legacy of Karl Nurse, the white real estate speculator who has occupied the District 6 seat for the past eight years and presided over the devastation of south side St. Pete by the ravages of gentrification.

Akilé is the only candidate fighting to represent the interests of the poor and oppressed black working class and to unite the whole city with power in the hands of the people.

Challenge the status quo! Register to vote!

It is because of the real threat to the status quo posed by these campaigns that agents of the colonial State power have gone on the offensive attempting to discredit and destroy this revolutionary people’s movement.

Susan McGrath, a white woman who is the chair of the Pinellas County Democratic Party and a high-ranking operative of the Kriseman campaign despite her repeated DUI and domestic violence charges, went on the record slandering the Uhuru Movement as a “Domestic Terrorist” organization.

George Lofton, the president of the Suncoast Police Benevolent Association and also an endorser of Rick Kriseman, also called the “Uhurus” a “terrorist” organization.

The campaigns to elect Akilé and Jesse held a press conference in front of the St. Pete police station to call for the termination of Lofton and McGrath from their respective positions.

The people have united with Akilé’s and Jesse’s campaigns and are gearing up for the election on August 29th.

To learn more about Akilé’s campaign, visit Akiléfordistrict6.com. Visit JesseNevel.com for more information in Jesse’s campaign.

Uhuru!
We Are Winning!