Editor’s Note: The following is a presentation from Comrade Makda Yohannes, Europe Representative, African Socialist International (ASI) And International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement (InPDUM) leader in Sweden.
The presentation was made at the November 1, 2014 London, UK Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations march and rally for “Peace Through Revolution.”
The London rally was held in conjunction with a national Black is Back Coalition march and rally in Washington, D.C.
Comrade Makda’s commitment to the liberation of her people certainly earns her the title of one of Harriet’s Daughters.
Her understanding and practice of African Internationalism is what real leadership is about, men and women.
Here Comrade Makda advocates not only for the African Revolution but she also raises up the African Internationalist Women’s Conference as an integral part of making and winning that Revolution. Here is Makda Yohannes at Black is Back London.
Uhuru!
I’m glad to be part of the Black is Back event all the way from Sweden.
My name is Makda Yohannes and I am the Europe regional leader of the African Socialist International (ASI). We organize Africans in the Europe region with the aim to free Africa and take back the resources that belong to us through the ASI and its mass organizations: the International Peoples Democratic Uhuru Movement (InPDUM) and The All African Peoples Development and Empowering Project (AAPDEP).
We organize armed with the revolutionary theory of African Internationalism that has the tools and strategies to move us in one direction to reach our goals.
As you can see in the world today there is a lot of things happening, in Burkina Faso, Ebola, Afghanistan, in the U.S and in different parts of Europe and many other places as well. Police brutality and Africans fleeing to the west from their home countries. African men, women and children being killed by the police every 26 hour in the U.S etc.
Comrades, brothers and sisters and allies are here today at the Black is Back conference in unity with self determination and reparations to Africans and colonized people.
Many people in the oppressed nation think that the imperialist crisis is their crisis. The matter of fact, however, is that the imperialist crisis exists as a result of colonized people fighting back to reclaim our resources. The U.S can’t operate like they have up to now without paying a consequence.
Our freedom is our responsibility—Build the ASI!
The oppressor nation is built through the exploitation of the oppressed nation. It is a parasitic relationship that cannot survive if it can’t take the resources of the oppressed and that is the basis of the imperialist crisis today.
We who are a part of Black is Back want to deepen the crisis, as we help people understand it better and become a part of the solution and a new world.
The African Socialist International has branches and individual forces in different parts of the European region, mainly in Sweden, London, Paris and Germany and we have supporters in Luxemburg, Norway, Portugal and Italy.
Everywhere we are located we conduct outreach in the African communities, organizing the people and selling our independent newspaper, The Burning Spear.
We recently commemorated African Liberation Day (ALD) in Paris organizing Africans and building organization in France.
We are building the ASI committee in Europe at this moment. We are also organizing for next year’s ALD and the African Women’s Conference that will be held in London March 28-29th in 2015.
The African Women’s conference is very significant because we need more sisters’ participating in and building revolutionary organization. We call on sisters to be part of this work; it is our responsibility! Africa belongs to both African men and women.
We call on everyone to join the African Socialist International, InPDUM and AAPDEP. Help build for the African Women’s Conference and African Liberation Day and be part of the solution. We want to see a new world free from oppression it is up to us to bring it into existence.
Build the ASI! Build revolutionary organization! Freedom in our life time!
Uhuru means freedom!
