Following the shooting of St. Petersburg cop David Crawford, allegedly by an African teenager on February 21, the U.S. government used local, regional and federal armed forces to impose a military occupation on the African community.
Crawford’s death followed the shooting deaths of two other St. Petersburg police by less than a month.
Although he had nothing to do with the deaths of the three cops, Chairman Omali Yeshitela has been seriously targeted by the U.S. government in a COINTELPRO-style counterinsurgency attack following these shootings.
To carry out the attack on the Chairman, the police and U.S. government are using their white nationalist mouthpiece, the violent shock jock known as Todd “Bubba the Love Sponge” Clem.
For nearly two weeks the Sponge has used his daily radio show to call for the assassination of our Chairman Omali Yeshitela, among other violent demands for assault and mayhem directed at the Chairman, the Uhuru Movement and the African community as a whole.
The Sponge and cohort William Warner, a private investigator in Sarasota, have attempted to mobilize their white nationalist minions against the Chairman and the Uhuru Movement with rabid, threatening anti-African invective.
This attack on our Chairman is very serious. It follows on the history of U.S. government assassinations of nearly every African leader that fought for independence, self-determination and national liberation for African people.
From Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Fred Hampton and Bobby Hutton in the U.S. to Patrice Lumumba and Kwame Nkrumah in Africa and Walter Rodney in Guyana, the U.S. government and its cohorts have spared no violence or brutality when it comes to African people and our leaders struggling to be free.
In the wake of these murders the U.S. government has propped up neocolonial dictators and politicians, who work hand in hand with the police, army and white power to keep African people oppressed, exploited and on our knees.
Chairman Omali is the leader of the international African struggle for freedom!
For more than 40 years Chairman Omali has never compromised in the struggle to overturn these conditions and lead African people to freedom and independence.
The Chairman’s single goal has been to mobilize African people to liberate Africa and Africans everywhere from the grip of white power and colonial domination.
He has waged countless campaigns for political power of African people who were ripped from our homeland, turned into commodities and enslaved to build the wealth of the white world.
Chairman spent years in prison for his stand and has always continued to struggle despite threats and attacks such as the firebombing of his family home.
He has built African working class-led organization and for the first time brought theoretical clarity to the struggle for African liberation in the form of African Internationalism, the worldview of the African working class.
When the movement for African liberation was nearly defeated by the U.S. government’s vicious military assault in the 1960s and many former leaders abandoned the struggle for black power, Chairman Omali, along with the African People’s Socialist Party single-handedly kept the African Revolution alive.
When the majority of people were led into the embrace of neocolonial leaders such as Nelson Mandela, Jesse Jackson or Barack Obama, Chairman Omali boldly exposed them as tools of white power.
When millions of African people suffered the deadening effects of the U.S. government-imposed drugs and mass criminalization, the Chairman exposed the white house as the drug house.
As millions of African people live under the military occupation of the U.S. government’s war on the African community, the Chairman has tirelessly exposed that this war is a counterinsurgency no different that the war the U.S. is waging against the people of Afghanistan or Iraq.
Chairman Omali has always fearlessly struggled against white power, regardless of the personal consequences. The Chairman has built the only international Party of African workers along with mass organizations addressing every aspect of life for African people.
He has organized in the U.S., Africa, Europe, the Caribbean and South America. He has written books, articles, built The Burning Spear newspaper and Uhuru News and Radio. He is one of the very few veterans of the movement of the 1960s who continues to lead the African Liberation Movement today.
The people must defend Chairman Omali Yeshitela! He belongs to Africans and oppressed peoples and our allies everywhere. He is our leader. He has dedicated his life to African liberation and we must keep the filthy hands of white power off of him!
Please send in your statement of “Hands Off Chairman Omali,” to info@uhurunews.com.
No Surrender! No Compromise!
Defend our Revolution! Defend our Chairman!
Below are some statements that Uhuru News has recieved in defense of Chairman Omali Yeshitela:
Uhuru! I am writing this letter to unite with the call to defend Chairman Omali Yeshitela. I am appalled and outraged that threats on the life of Chairman Omali was made on public airways via the radio.
I'm also greatly offended by threats made online by police officers to do a drive by at the Uhuru House. It is evident that a movement must be put in place calling for the defense of Chairman Omali and the entire Uhuru Movement.
Chairman Omali Yeshitela has been on the forefront of the struggle against colonialism and white supremacy and has displayed expert leadership to not only the Uhuru Movement but to Africans here in the USA and all over the world. It is that leadership that is under attack.
They want to assassinate Chairman Omali to cease the struggle against white domination over the world. Even when the revolution was halted by military attack and almost came to a cease, Chairman Omali remained a key representative in the fight for true freedom of oppressed people around the planet.
Now that the struggle is reaching momentum and gaining ground, Chairman Omali’s life is being threatened by these pigs in an attempt to cut the head off of the movement. We see the pigs plotting, and that is why it is most important to put a defense plan in order for Chairman Omali Yeshitela, the Uhuru House and the entire Uhuru Movement.
Vincent in New Jersey
Uhuru! I am writing to unite with the call to defend Omali Yeshitela, leader of the Uhuru Movement. The online threats by police to do a drive by shooting of the Uhuru House, as well as the call for the assassination of Omali Yeshitela by a white nationalist radio show host, are clearly coordinated at a higher level.
In the 1960s, the U.S. government used all types of media manipulation to set up the attack on the black power movement (COINTELPRO). This comprehensive military assault coordinated police agencies on the local, state and federal levels, resulting in the assassinations of leaders like Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Fred Hampton and many others.
These current attacks demonstrate the desperation of this violent and oppressive system in response to the rising resistance of colonized African, Mexican and Indigenous people who experience living hell every day inside the U.S.
For more than 40 years, Omali Yeshitela has led the struggle to rebuild the African liberation movement. Powerful organizations of the Uhuru movement are deeply rooted throughout this country and the world, defending the right of African people to resist their oppression and demanding reparations, the return of all stolen resources and control over the continent of Africa.
The leadership of Omali Yeshitela challenges the ability of those currently in power to maintain the oppression and exploitation of African people. As a member of the African People's Solidarity Committee, I am committed to organizing in the white community in support of justice and reparations for the African community. I condemn these State-sponsored attacks on Omali Yeshitela and the Uhuru movement and call for all honest and freedom loving members of the white community to do the same.
Pete in San Francisco, CA
Uhuru!
I am one of many worldwide who are calling for an end to the collective punishment and continued colonial occupation of the African community of St. Petersburg and taking a stand in defense of Chairman Omali Yeshitela against the threats being publicly made on his life by the ranting white nationalist “Bubba the Love Sponge” and other internet hate posters.
Chairman Omali Yeshitela sets an example to the entire world. He has dedicated his life to defending the rights of African people to self-determination, resources, and a prosperous life like anyone would want and has always lead with a vision of a world without borders and free from oppression.
He has taken upon himself the responsibility of carrying on the struggle of the African Liberation Movement and tirelessly building organization to show the true power of people in achieving social change against all odds.
He is loved and respected all over the world by all justice loving people who have experienced his leadership and they see him as their own.
As a white person and member of the African People’s Solidarity Committee, I am honored to have been able to work under the leadership of the Chairman and the Uhuru Movement and see the world through the eyes of the oppressed.
Participating in the work of the Uhuru Movement has enabled me to take a principled stand in solidarity with colonized people despite the historical failure of Europeans to disunite with the vicious colonial strategy to live off of stolen resources and a culture of violence.
I can’t imagine lasting one day being put through the kind of terror that the African community has experienced for hundreds of years! I know that now is the time for the African community to see justice.
The Chairman’s work has taken on the colonial conditions that African and other colonized communities experience every day while pushing the struggle in forward motion towards victory, freedom and self-determination for over 40 years!
The Chairman and the Uhuru Movement have always provided incredible analysis of the historical basis for the current world situation and a vision for a way forward. He has built incredible institutions and organizations that meet the needs of the people and offer the theory, science, training and victories that create powerful revolutionaries and puts the power in the hands of the African masses.
Through the programs of the Uhuru Movement, there is a place for anyone to participate and experience the victories of collective work and struggle.
The incredible strength and resistance of the courageous African community in St. Petersburg, Florida is the result of the Chairman’s tireless work. It is only cowardly, white nationalist, reactionary forces that are attacking the Chairman, the Uhuru Movement and the African community exercising their right to resist!
I stand with the African People’s Solidarity Committee in defense of the Chairman, the Uhuru Movement and the heroic African community of St. Petersburg. The world is watching and the worldwide Uhuru Movement is in place to expose the attacks being made as continued colonial oppression that can and will be defeated.
I encourage all white people to respond publicly against these attacks, join the Uhuru Solidarity Movement, unite with the call for reparations and raise material resources for the incredible work of the Uhuru Movement under the leadership of Chairman Omali Yeshitela!
Learn to see the world through the eyes of the oppressed African community and join the work to end our parasitic relationship so that a new world can be built where humanity can prosper all across the globe.
Africans Have a Right to Resist! Uhuru!
Lisa in Philadelphia, PA
I am shocked and angry that anyone would want to hurt Chairman Yeshitela. I guess there are still many racist types out there, and we just have to keep a good face and not behave like they. I wish for his safety at all times!
Jill
Uhuru! Thank you for exposing the treachery of the U.S. government and its intent to maintain its oppressive colonial grip on African people. It is absolutely appalling for the U.S. government to believe that it can continue to intimidate and derail the African pro-independence struggle inside the U.S. and around the world by murdering its leadership!
We are not fooled by the call from Mr. Sponge to reactionary whites or collaborationist blacks for the assassination of Chairman Omali. We understand this as a call to arms from the U.S. government, who has a long history of resorting to assassinations of freedom-loving leaders of oppressed and colonized people.
The treachery of the U.S. government is being exposed to all freedom-loving people; especially Africans colonized inside the U.S. Africans will be free!
Hands off Chairman Omali Yeshitela, his family and the Uhuru Movement. U.S. imperialist leaders cannot murder freedom fighting! Africans will continue to resist!
Gaida Kambon, Secretary-General of APSP USA
I noticed the banner the first time I went to the Oakland, California Uhuru House. It said, "We are our own liberators." I knew it to be as true in reference to the African freedom struggle as to any people who want freedom. As Chairman Omali Yeshitela, founder of the African People's Socialist Party, has pointed out many times — nobody is going to give freedom away; it has to be taken.
Omali Yeshitela is a leader of African people, not because he says so, but because African people and their allies say so. I believe that is why the enemies of African freedom hate him so. No matter how the powers that be slander him, huge numbers of African and other oppressed nations uphold him.
Omali Yeshitela represents. He is one of the great sons of Africa. He is a brilliant theoretician whose decades of writings are rooted in practice — the actual work of having built and continuing to lead an organization for revolutionary change. He is an amazing orator and master teacher. He is a motivator, tactician, politician, general, president, coach, parent, comrade. He makes you believe that this remorseless, genocidal, deceitful, capitalist system can be defeated and then provides the tools to help us do it.
In 1976, Omali Yeshitela created the African People's Solidarity Committee as a means for white people to humbly acknowledge that Africans are their own liberators and to organize other white people to abandon our allegiance to a system which has lifted the white race up through murder and plunder of the rest of humanity.
His confidence in the decency inside of all human beings is staggering in light of the seeming limitless depths of hostility and brutality that white people continue to demonstrate toward black people.
For this and more than I can express here, I thank and defend Omali Yeshitela as one of the great leaders for justice and morality in human history.
Joel in Oakland, California
Uhuru!
I unite with the call to defend Chairman Omali Yeshitela. I also unite with the sentiments raised by others that we must heighten our security consciousness.
White power imperialism (as it defines itself) is in its last throes as they call for the assassination of our Chairman and a drive by on the base of our movement, the Uhuru House.
The media (in general) is a tool for imperialism so the use of the medium y the State and the white nationalists does not surprise me. Condemnation of the media must be spearheaded by our growing movement as InPDUM President Diop has stated. The Chairman must be defended! The Uhuru Movement must be defended!
No Retreat! No Surrender!
Touch One! Touch All!
FYC in New York
These attacks show the continuing and increasing crisis of imperialism. This should also inform us that we must be more security conscious than ever. This beast is mortally wounded and at its most dangerous state, before it finally dies.
Yes, the Chairman is our most valued asset, and we must defend him, and our organization without fail. Oakland will most certainly keep this in mind, as we reorganize and push forward the Revolutionary National Democratic Program and re-implement the mandate to "expose and defeat the U.S. government's war against the African community."
Sealli in Oakland, California
The attacks against Chairman Omali Yeshitela and the call for his assassination are a vicious and severe threat to the struggle for African self-determination.
Omali Yeshitela has led decades of resistance, and the Uhuru Movement, founded by his leadership, is a vast organization that spans the globe with branches in Africa, Europe and North and South America.
The attacks made by white nationalists on the radio airwaves and on the web are very serious because they can be put into action militarily by the State’s murderous police apparatus.
The U.S. government has no limits when it comes to the terror, murder, and rape of African communities to prevent their resistance to imperialism.
Those who would attack the Uhuru Movement and Chairman Omali Yeshitela are obviously those who sit on the pedestal of slavery, genocide, and oppression of the African community and would rather that continue than lose their position in society and access to the stolen resources of Africa.
I, as a member of the white community, will stop at nothing to show my solidarity with the oppressed African community and that’s why I am so thankful that Chairman Omali Yeshitela established the Uhuru Solidarity Movement because it gives me a structure in which to do that and also a way to establish a principled relationship with the African community.
Uhuru!
Kristin in Illinois
