Makola Libanga has won the Biko Lumumba award for Comrade of the Quarter because of his tremendous work, initiative, commitment, leadership and positive spirit in organizing Africans for self-determination.
He has brought strong passion to the Party as a dynamic force necessary to win mass support and confidence.
He is key to enabling us to interact with students by struggling with the Party to have a much more visible presence on the black student political scene, especially at Black Student Campaign conferences and other black student organizational meetings.
He has taken on tasks that are not necessarily his forte, and struggled to make sure that they are achieved.
He does not let inexperience or past errors faze him, and in the past quarter (in fact the past year!) he has really grown, taking on criticism in a winning way and improving on his organizational ability.
Comrade Makola does not allow a discussion with any mass force go by without injecting African Internationalism into it somewhere on some level.
The Black August rebellions saw Makola tirelessly springing into work. He was involved in every action he could physically get to during that period, pushing the Party line and gaining contacts.
Makola has pushed for us to have statements out on every issue that is hot in the African community, or that the African community should be hot about.
He is not satisfied with the slow pace that we had become used to at one stage. In the last quarter, he has been responsible for a number of articles that he has written personally, as well as inspired comrades to write as soon as possible to make our news fresh.
Also in this quarter, Makola cooked food for the Chairman’s European tour and was an instrumental force at every single event, taking on ad hoc roles where he saw gaps, without ever needing to be prompted.
On the Brussels leg of the tour, he stepped in to manage the registration process at the tribunal meeting with great skill.
The comrade has learnt and continues to learn how to adapt out of necessity. This is a true test for any revolutionary.
Although administration is not one of the comrade’s strong points, he has been vital as Local Party Organization (LPO) secretary, and has shown vast improvement in maintaining contacts and organizing meetings.
He is always pushing for street work to occur and has been the most consistent force from our LPO on the street corner with propaganda and soap boxing.
This push has even been carried over into other people’s events where Makola never misses an opportunity to intervene, and in this quarter has been a major part of assuming leadership over at least two mobilizations where the people had none.
In short, Makola has shown an outstanding level of commitment to the Party vision. It is a level of commitment worthy of emulation by the masses. He is inspiring all of his comrades to step up to the challenge.
Makola will receive a $50 gift card, the Biko Lumumba Comrade of the Quarter plaque, an article in The Burning Spear newspaper, recognition on Uhuru News and Radio and recognition at an Uhuru Movement event.
