On March 15-16, 2025, the Uhuru Solidarity Movement (USM) held its National Convention at the beautiful Uhuru House in North St. Louis, MO, themed “White Solidarity with Black Power! Join the growing movement: Solidarity with African, Indigenous, Palestinian, and oppressed peoples!”
In the wake of the US Government’s military attack on the Uhuru Movement and attempt to put the Uhuru 3–African People’s Socialist Party (APSP) Chairman Omali Yeshitela, African People’s Solidarity Committee (APSC) Chairwoman Penny Hess and USM Chair Jesse Nevel–in prison for 15 years with $500,000 fines each, members of the Uhuru Solidarity Movement stood firmly in solidarity with African self-determination and liberation by attending the USM National Convention the FBI didn’t want to happen.
Comrades traveled from over 22 cities and tuned in live from over 31 cities, with hundreds of people participating either in-person or online to learn about building the movement for reparations. The attendees’ unity with oppressed people’s struggles for national liberation was palpable throughout the mobilizing and historic Convention.
As the colonialists rear their head and lash out due to the crisis imperialism is experiencing, African, Indigenous, Palestinian, and colonized peoples are rising all around the world against colonial capitalism. The APSP leads the way out!
Convention victories
The Convention affirmed the brilliant strategy Chairman Omali Yeshitela put in place 49 years ago: for white people to join under the leadership of the African Revolution and “go behind enemy lines” into our white communities to win white people to the stance of reparations, material solidarity and support for the anti-colonial liberation movement of the African working class.
Highlights included profound keynotes from Chairman Omali Yeshitela & Chairwoman Penny Hess; a Political Report on the reparations work being done across USM regions; a workshop from APSP Deputy Chair Ona Zené Yeshitela; a panel on “The Anti-Colonial Struggle is the Driving Force of History: Victory to African, Indigenous and Palestinian People!”; a Reparations Culture & Awards night; compelling poetry from AAPDEP’s Project Black Ankh Coordinator Comrade Fofeet Alkebulan; a solidarity statement from the Center for Political Innovation; a panel on “The Victory of the Uhuru 3”; an exciting Reparations Legacy Project workshop launching the new Reparations Investment Company; a call to join the APSC; a tour of the Black Power Blueprint; and raising over $20,000 in reparations to Black Star Industries.
The USM Convention received endorsements from Veterans for Peace (VFP), Florida Indigenous Alliance, American Indian Movement of Central Florida, Green Party of Florida, Green Party of St. Louis, Center for Political Innovation (CPI), Women Against Military Madness (W.A.M.M.), San Jose Peace and Justice Center, United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC), LA Anti-Racist Action, Reparations United, St. Louis People’s Alderman Jesse Todd, International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement (InPDUM), and African National Women’s Organization (ANWO).
Convention speakers showed the way forward for white solidarity with Black Power
USM was honored to welcome special guest speaker Efia Nwangaza, who is a veteran of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and Executive Director of the Malcolm X Center for Self-Determination.
Efia Nwangaza grounded the Convention in the history of the struggle for the African Revolution since the 60s, underscoring the critical leadership the APSP has provided in getting white people to “stop hiding in the black community and go to where the source of the problem is–the white community.”
The Convention also featured ANWO President Yejide Orunmila, who delivered a powerful presentation about African women in the anti-colonial struggle and expressed appreciation for USM’s recognition that “there’s no such thing as women in general!”
She reminded us that the special oppression African women face is due to colonialism, so white women must also stand against colonial violence and in solidarity with African women’s struggle for liberation.
During the Uhuru 3 Panel, Chairwoman Penny and Chairman Omali stressed the continual supervision colonized people experience in this prison of nations known as the U.S., whether they’re one of the 5 million people directly under state supervision or not.
This point reflects how the white people’s assumption of privacy and security is contrived at the expense of colonized people. If white people are to be socialist, we must be anti-colonialist. We must abandon white individualism and join the movement under the leadership of the African working class. The APSC is a manifestation of this principle.
APSP formed the African Peoples Solidarity Committee 49 years ago in 1976 due to the necessity that white people must join under the leadership of the African Revolution if they want to take a principled stand against all oppression.
White people who are prepared to make the commitment to work under the direct leadership of and be accountable to the African People’s Socialist Party can apply to join the African People’s Solidarity Committee at APSCUhuru.org.
RLP announces RIC
In a testament to the commitment of the APSP and APSC members to building the independent African economy, the Convention featured a groundbreaking announcement about a new institution of the solidarity movement that will expand the scope of the reparations work–the Reparations Investment Company (RIC).
As an extension of the Reparations Legacy Project, the RIC creates a way for white people to directly contribute to countering the colonial reality of North St. Louis by building economic development on the terms of the African working class.
North St. Louis is an extremely concentrated instance of what colonialism does; with policy consciously crafted to decimate and gentrify the North side reaching its height with the construction of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), also known as “the Pentagon of the West.”
They don’t want to see economic development and life in the African community. White people and white companies are buying up blocks of North St. Louis, but the Black Power Blueprint is standing in the way.
USM will be winning white people, including the moneyed sector of society, to turn over resources, property, skills, etc., to RIC and support African self-determination while opposing colonial violence.
As Chairman Omali Yeshitela emphasized in his keynote presentation, “White Solidarity with Black Power is solidarity with yourself!” It’s in our truest interest to work to end the colonial mode of production once and for all.
The Convention reinforced the necessity for white people to take responsibility for our history as members of the oppressor nation, and stand in solidarity with the Party’s constant refrain, “One Africa! One Nation!”
The trend that’s sweeping the world today is the independence of African people!
White people can join the Uhuru Solidarity Movement at uhurusolidarity.org/join
White Solidarity with Black Power!
Unity Through Reparations!
Uhuru!
