The following excerpts are just a small sampling of the many salutations and greetings that came from revolutionary forces from around the world to the 5th Congress of the African People’s Socialist Party.
The entire Congress can be viewed on UhuruNews.com. The Political Report to the Congress by Chairman Yeshitela along with all the salutes and resolutions will be published by the Party in September and can be pre-ordered on UhuruNews.com.
Ernesto Bustillos, founding member, Unión del Barrio
“Comrades, Compañeros, Compañeras! It is an honor being with you today, joining you in this historic and what we think is a critically important event, the African People’s Socialist Party’s 5th Congress…
“I am here representing Unión del Barrio, its general membership and its Central Committee. Unión del Barrio is a Mexican liberation organization that was founded in 1981. We believe and struggle for the liberation of our people, all our lands and the socialist unification of Latin America.
“Comrades, we are here because we understand as the Party has said so many times that the days of imperialism and settler colonialism are coming to an end. This Congress is a fundamental and critically important step to bring about the destruction of this parasitic system, a system that is responsible for the suffering and oppression of the majority of the people on the planet Earth…
“For 25 years the African People’s Socialist Party and Unión del Barrio have enjoyed incredible and unprecedented fraternal and comradely unity.
“We don’t know that you can find two organizations that have worked so closely and with so much unity and as principled as has been the relationship between Unión del Barrio and the African People’s Socialist Party…
“Comrades it is important that we recognize this unity, the political significance of this lasting alliance. We believe that all people and all forces who believe in justice and freedom should know about and understand this alliance…
“The unity between our organizations provides a historical materialist example to all revolutionaries, to all colonized people that the oppressed peoples will unite to fight together for our common freedom…
“This is what we believe this Congress is about—building and moving forward the vanguard that will unite Africans, Mexican and Indigenous people, Asians, Pacific Islanders and all oppressed people of the world. It will unite us in a powerful force that will destroy imperialism once and for all.
“Comrades, Compañeras and Compañeros, this is why we are here today. We want to be part of forming and uniting and creating this vanguard. We want to struggle with you in creating the movement that will liberate all of us in this world…
We have said it many times before, our organization Unión del Barrio has learned tremendously from the African People’s Socialist Party. Our political program comes from what we have learned from the Party and from the leadership of Chairman Omali Yeshitela.
“Some people have even argued that the only difference between the Party and Unión del Barrio is that the Party is African and Unión is Mexican! That’s the only difference.
“The African People’s Socialist Party has provided all oppressed people who are fighting for their liberation with a scientific and advanced theory and a correct political line, what the Party calls and upholds as African Internationalism, a political theory and line that will lead to everyone’s liberation no matter what color you are or in what part of the world you live…”
Queen Mother Yaa Asantewa Dorothy Lewis, Black Reparations Commission, N’COBRA International Affairs Commission
“It is a privilege for me to stand here in solidarity with the African People’s Socialist Party on behalf of myself, the Black Reparations Commission, N’COBRA and N’COBRA’s International Affairs Commission. And, I want to salute the spirit of our new ancestor Njeri Alghanee, and have her stand here with us, as well as Baba Imari Obadele, both revolutionaries.
“I bear witness to the many years of dedication, commitment and leadership that the Party has consistently and uncompromisingly demonstrated over the past 28 years that I’ve known of the Party’s work.
“My knowledge of the APSP began with the Black Reparations Commission. In 1982 the APSP convened a world tribunal on reparations for African people and put the United States government on trial for its crimes against African people, those in Africa and those dragged across the oceans in chains, kicking and screaming.
“The tribunal was a bold move. The United States government was summoned to stand trial for its criminal behavior toward African people. The people got to tell their story to a panel of international jurists. The jurists found the U.S. government guilty of violation of six United Nations treaties, including the convention on the crime of genocide—genocide which continues to this day…
“After the tribunal the APSP called for the formation of a peoples’ organizational structure to carry the findings of the tribunal to the people. That organization was the African National Reparations Organization (ANRO)…
“Not only did the tribunal find the U.S. government guilty of genocide but also owing African people over $4.1 trillion in stolen labor alone. This debt is still outstanding with interest compounding daily since 1982…
“It is comforting to be in association with an organization that has clear vision and a clear mission. Congratulations to APSP on your 5th Party Congress and to the APSC for your continued support.
“I just want to say that as people were talking, this thing kept going through my head about ghost busters, you know, “Who you gonna call?”
“I always say, if I ever get in trouble, I’m gonna call the APSP.
They are imperialist busters!”
Lawrence Hamm, Chairman, People’s Organization for Progress
“Uhuru! On behalf of the People’s Organization for Progress I bring you comradely greetings and salutations on the 5th Congress of the African People’s Socialist Party. We salute your Chairman Omali Yeshitela and your organization for being on the forefront of the struggle for more than 38 years…
“Your Chairman, of course is a leader in the theoretical effort to help us deepen our understanding of imperialism and colonialism and the system of oppression that holds us in bondage today. We thank him for all of his work. …He’s really our hero! We love you brother Omali Yeshitela and we wish you a long life in the struggle to continue to give us leadership.
“We also salute the various organs of the African People’s Socialist Party, including that great newspaper, one of the longest continuously running newspapers of the black movement, The Burning Spear, to which many of us subscribe in the People’s Organization for Progress! In fact we do clips at our meetings from The Burning Spear…
“Long live the African People’s Socialist Party! Long Live Omali Yeshitela! Long live our struggle against imperialism, colonialism and oppression! Uhuru!”
Glen Ford, Executive Editor, Black Agenda Report
“It’s a real privilege to speak to you on the subject of the crisis of imperialism and Obama’s wars…There are very few places in black America where we can even have this kind of conversation in the year 2010. So I’m glad to be here.
“We of Black Agenda Report salute the African People’s Socialist Party for bringing to the forefront some essential truths of our time, truths that are not heard except in environments like this: that U.S. imperialism is the enemy of all peoples that seek self-determination.
“That U.S. imperialism is a dying system that is thrashing about, as Comrade Brother Yeshitela likes to say, in a death-bed agony of endless wars.
“That U.S. finance capital’s selection years before the 2008 election of Barack Obama as the face of the empire was an act of desperation. It was an act of the slave master putting on the mask of the slave. It is a measure of the depth of the crisis of imperialism…
“It was the African People’s Socialist Party that most dramatically and categorically rejected Barack Obama as just another operative of U.S. imperialism and we owe the Party a debt for that.”
Marcos Garcia, Labor Attaché, Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in the U.S.
“I express the solidarity of my people and my government with this meeting. You have support in Venezuela. We can promote any type of cooperation. There are a lot of things going on in Venezuela. We need to connect more. I am very happy to be here.
“From the point of view of the workers we need to make more connections. We believe the only way to free our country is through cooperation and solidarity. This is why our government and president have been developing a lot of contact with African countries.
“We understand that African governments are not true revolutionaries, but we need to make the contact. The second thing we will have to do is make contact with social organizations, with revolutionary forces in those countries and try to organize meetings together. We need to organize a summit of social movements between South America and Africa.”
Jamitah Fari, African Socialist International, Colombia
“Uhuru! One People! One Party! One Destiny!
“We have fought for freedom ever since the mass kidnapping of our ancestors in Africa. Today, this is more than just the memory. Rather than an inheritance, the struggle for our emancipation is a must!
“Africa calls on her sons and daughters scattered all over the world with their minds to join forces against the oppressive system that holds them captive.
“Colombia is just one more of the prisons in which we are trapped, but it is also a place where the light from the fire of liberation has been lit!
“So, today on this historic day, even though we are not there physically we are there in spirit and consciousness, and we give a revolutionary greeting to all African sisters and brothers and all Africans around the world! Especially those who constitute the strength of the African Peoples Socialist Party!
“We know that freedom is our goal, and that revolution is the path!
Revolution is what leads our struggle, revolution based on the principles of African Internationalism, our own ideology, which means we won’t be simply another organization struggling for a foreign agenda opposed to our own interest.
“The presence of the African People’s Socialist Party in Columbia is the renewal of the fighting spirit of our ancestors who never bowed down and did not accept the imposition of a second class life! We, along with all of you, are one great family, and like you in search of freedom!
“Izwe Lethu i Afrika! I Afrika Izwe Lethu! Uhuru!”
Saladin Muhammad, Black Workers for Justice
“Uhuru, Comrades! I bring greetings and solidarity from the Black Workers for Justice to the leadership and membership of the African People’s Socialist Party and the participants in this important 5th Party Congress.
“We wish the Congress much success in its deliberations and decisions. I am personally honored to represent Black Workers for Justice in bringing expression of our solidarity as I have known and worked with at different times leaders and members of the Party over the past nearly 40 years.
“The APSP has always been engaged in the fight against African people’s oppression inside of the U.S. and internationally. It has grown, as all revolutionary parties and movements must, in its theoretical and practical understanding of how to wage this struggle.
“It has brought to the African Liberation struggle the spirit of “dare to struggle, dare to win” that has been reflected in most revolutionary movements that are serious about revolutionary change.
“Its longevity is testament of its understanding of protracted struggle and its need to be rooted in the struggling masses.”
Chokwe Lumumba, Chairman, New Afrikan People’s Organization
“Uhuru! Free the Land! Black Power and warm revolutionary greetings to you all. I bring you those greetings from children, men and women of the New Afrikan People’s Organization and the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement and from our entire New Afrikan Independence Movement.
“It’s a delight to be here and let me also congratulate the African People’s Socialist Party for having its Fifth Congress and for putting together a tremendous graphic display of the work that it has been doing and is doing and connecting that all in a wonderful political report which I haven’t had a chance to read and study thoroughly but which definitely appears to be very comprehensive and to address the things which have been done, the linkage which the African Socialist International sees with the Garvey Movement and the work that is being done today.
“That kind of work is to be applauded because without work and study we can be nothing. I want everyone to give the African People’s Socialist Party and Chairman Yeshitela a round of applause.”
Chernoh Alpha M. Bah, Interim Chairman of the African People’s Socialist Party-Sierra Leone, Director of Organization, African Socialist International
“Uhuru! Izwe Lethu i Afrika!
“On behalf of the African People’s Socialist Party of Sierra Leone and the Interim Leadership Committee, that is under my leadership up until the First Congress of our Party which should happen in November of this year, we express our profound greetings to the African People’s Socialist Party, to the Central Committee.
“We salute the Chairman of the African People’s Socialist Party, Chairman Omali Yeshitela, who is also the Chairman of the African Socialist International, which is responsible for our being here.
“The African People’s Socialist Party of Sierra Leone was launched in November of last year following the National Conference attended by Chairman Yeshitela and his national delegation. This was a profoundly significant event in the history of our struggle in West Africa. That elevated our struggle from what it was during the last five or seven years to a more concrete strategy geared towards the actual acquisition of state power by the workers and the poor peasants in West Africa.”
Malik Zulu Shabazz, Chairman of the New Black Panther Party
“Black Power! As-Salaam Alaikum! Hotep! Uhuru! Free the Land! And as we say, ‘Praise the lord and pass the ammunition.’
“As I continue to say, ‘Giving honor to God,’ I bear witness that regardless to land, label or language there is but one god. I bear witness to the god of our forefathers.
“I thank all of those who have come into the line of divine to help liberate African people, from Nat Turner to Denmark Vesey, to Toussaint L’Ouverture, to the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey, to Steven Biko, to Patrice Lumumba, the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X, Kwame Ture or Stokely Carmichael, John Henrik Clarke—all of those who have come before, names who we know and names that are left unknown.
“I thank all of them, particularly my teacher and my mentor, the one that gave me my spiritual and revolutionary rites of passage. I speak of none other than Minister and Doctor Khalid Abdul Muhammad…
“First of all I am thankful to the Chairman of this organization, this session, this Congress, this movement, a man that I have deep respect for his commitment to organizing African people.
“As I have begun to do more study and research on his work and looking at the organization, not him but those who are with him, the quality of the organizing, the seriousness of the structural organizing and the resolutions that have gone into this Congress, and to his efforts and your efforts, I want to say that I learn much from studying from the African People’s Socialist Party and the Uhuru Movement. I learn much!
“I lost my leader in 2001 and I’ve had to carry it on my own, so I don’t think it’s a weak statement on my behalf to say that I continue to study from Attorney Chokwe Lumumba, who is in our midst, that I continue to study from my elders, Omali Yeshitela, Minister Louis Farrakhan and others. I continue to study knowing that because I have the power or the control over the New Black Panther Party does not mean that I cannot still grow, develop and evolve to serve my people better.”
