The International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement (InPDUM) will hold its annual Convention in Philadelphia February 19-21, 2011. Its theme is “Africans Have a Right to Resist: We Demand Freedom and Reparations Now!”
From Iraq to Venezuela to North Korea, oppressed people around the world are waging resistance against the same United States government that holds more than 50 million African people hostage within its own borders.
The crisis of imperialism deepens day by day and resistance against it allows the African community to build a movement to win freedom for ourselves and for oppressed people around the world.
The proverbial iron is indeed hot, if only we will strike it!
To seize this opportunity will render US imperialism unable to deal with resistance anywhere else on the planet; they will be too busy trying to contain the Black Power Movement right here in the US.
InPDUM, equipped with the tenets of the Revolutionary National Democratic Program (RNDP), is poised to lead the struggle.
All roads lead to the Convention
We have done tremendous work during this period to promote InPDUM throughout the world.
In front of the international media, we have confronted and exposed president Barack Hussein Obama for the sell-out that he is.
We have helped build the last several major mobilizations of the Black is Back Coalition, including the incredible marches on the White House, and the marches to defend Haiti that took place in Miami (February 2010) and Harlem, New York (November 2010).
We have gone toe-to-toe with the neocolonial government of Philadelphia, demanding an end to the annual billion-dollar war budget it spends on prisons and police occupation of the African community, at the expense of essential services vital to our existence.
Through an international call-in/write-in campaign, we have prevented the blood-thirsty state of Pennsylvania from imprisoning Diop Olugbala, newly appointed President of InPDUM.
Diop was convicted of aggravated assault on police during a March 2009 Philadelphia city council meeting, though video footage clearly showed two plain-clothes police officers viciously attacked him as he peacefully held a sign in protest of that city’s war budget.
Through relentless struggle, InPDUM and its supporters forced the court to grant a compromise sentence of two years of probation.
President Diop still faces the threat of imprisonment if he is arrested again for defending the rights of the African community.
The people wage struggle on a daily basis against the police throughout the ghettos of North America.
Lovelle Mixon took out four Oakland pigs in response to their public execution of Oscar Grant in March 2009.
In the face of such danger and controversy, InPDUM has proven itself to be the organization equipped with the theory, principle and program to destroy the US imperialist beast from within its own belly.
Uniting the resistance of the African working class
The Convention is the forum through which we will unite the resistance of the African working class and patriots.
This resistance is now limited only by its lack of organizational and ideological cohesiveness. Although we are resisting, we resist as individuals.
In the absence of organization, this resistance will not result in power.
Through the Convention we will win the people to a strategy designed to tear US imperialism limb from limb.
We have a strategy to overturn the colonial education system that is responsible for a 50% high school dropout rate among an entire generation of young African workers.
We have a strategy to overturn the colonial prison system that holds two million Africans daily–one out of nine young African men.
We have a strategy to overturn the parasitic economy that currently keeps the average African household earning only ten cents for every dollar made by the average white household.
When the Convention’s goals and objectives have been achieved, African mothers no longer will be alone in confronting the schools that abuse their children.
Grassroots organizations and programs that formerly relied on government funding will no longer be alone and without direction in their (our) struggle for resources, resources that are continuously transferred to an expanding police state.
Families of the victims of police brutality will no longer have to rely on spineless lawyers and profit-driven, white nationalist judges to serve us justice.
What will the Convention cover?
The three-day Convention begins with the March of Resistance, a militant march through the African community of North Philly and ends at the footsteps of Cookman Methodist Church, the Convention venue.
The Convention will include presentations on gentrification by Nellie Bailey, chair of the Harlem Tenants Council; the economic crisis by Glen Ford, Executive Editor of Black Agenda Report; the role of the church in revolution by Pastor Donna Jones; a statement by Pam Africa; and a keynote presentation by Chairman Omali Yeshitela.
The final day is dedicated to African youth titled, "From Flash Mobs to Black Power: the African Youth Resistance Conference.”
At the African Youth Resistance Conference, we will officially unleash Junta of Militant Organizations (JOMO), the youth wing of the Uhuru Movement. This is historic!
Attendance critical
The Convention will give the people organization. Organization will give us strength. Strength will bring us Black Power. Black Power will bring us freedom!
But the Convention will not and cannot fulfill its strategic task if we don’t get the people to the Convention.
Attendance is tied to outreach. Outreach leads to contacts. Contacts lead to registrations!
This is a call to all of you all local organizers, activists, workers and intellectuals to register immediately for the Convention and to organize your circles of comrades and peers to do so as well.
Damn it, go register!
Comrade John Perez, aka JP, who coordinates the National Convention Registration Committee, has asked me to send this memo out to initiate the D.I.G.R. (pronounced "digger") campaign (i.e. Damn It, Go Register).
A deadline of December 4 has been established, by which all members of the InPDUM should be registered.
Registration is only $25 for ALL THREE DAYS!
You can register by going online to inpdum.org. Or you can call Brother John Perez at 215-200-8737.
Housing/hotel details
Comrade Josephine Jackson, who heads the logistics committee, has made arrangements with the Microtel Inn. Rooms are at a special economic crisis rate of only $69.99 per night!
Don’t worry, this is not a roach motel. The Microtel is NICE, AND it provides free shuttle service to and from the airport.
Free shuttle service? You heard me: FREE SHUTTLE SERVICE!
To book your hotel room, please call the Microtel Inn @ 215-492-0700. Let them know that the room is being reserved under Josephine Jackson.
You need to give your name and credit card to reserve the room. When you call, you can change or add dates to your reservation.
If you have any questions or complications with the hotel reservation process, please call Comrade Josephine at 215-500-2966.
If you have other questions that do not pertain to conference registration or housing, please call me, Diop Olugbala, InPDUM President, at my office number at 215-459-7551.
Damn It, Go Register!
Forward to the National Convention!
Africans Have a Right to Resist!
Freedom and Reparations Now!
