Published continuously since 1968, first in a mimeograph and then tabloid in 1969, the revolutionary journal that is The Burning Spear newspaper marks its 57th anniversary this December. Born out of the need to inform and organize African people against issues pertinent to our community, The Spear, since its inception, has distinguished itself as the voice of the international African Revolution.
Founded in St. Petersburg, FL, by Chairman Omali Yeshitela, The Spear was initially attached to the Junta of Militant Organizations (JOMO), the predecessor of the African People’s Socialist Party. The Spear printed JOMO’s politics or “What JOMO believes” on the second page of its first-ever and succeeding issues. The first point immediately set the tone of its revolutionary political consciousness. It declared, “The united states of america is a colonized nation where Black people are being colonized by america.” From the beginning, JOMO identified colonialism as the main contradiction African people were facing and declared that “because of the fact of our colonization, Black people have no responsibility to the law which was made without our consent and without consideration for our interest.”
Its first page depicted an image of “Picknicking at Pass-a-Grille,” a racist mural painted in 1945 that hung in St. Petersburg’s City Hall. This mural showed African people entertaining southern whites in minstrelsy, with dark skin, distorted features, and large lips. This editorial choice, of course, commemorated that one fine day in Black Power history in December 1966 when Chairman Omali Yeshitela of JOMO and SNCC’s St. Pete chapter, along with other SNCC members, stormed city hall and tore down the mural before marching with it in hand.
With its first issue, JOMO, through The Spear, aimed to not only call back an important event in Black Power and Civil Rights history, but also to use the event as an anchor to make clear its politics and what it sought to do for the black community in St. Pete. Over were the days that African people would look up in resignation at the racist mural that mocked our history and dignity as they visited city hall. But what was not over was the continuation of the Black Revolution of the 60s, despite the calamity that the U.S. government rained down on black revolutionaries through the counterintelligence program (COINTELPRO).
Founded by the same Chairman Omali Yeshitela who has now led the Party since its 1972 founding, The Spear is a living history recording the story of African resistance while also waging the war of ideas. As a 2018 Spear article noted, “It was recognized early on that in order to compete with those opposed to African freedom that it was absolutely necessary to create our own media, thus the creation of The Burning Spear newspaper to contend in the arena of the war of ideas—the white bourgeoisie worldview versus the worldview of the African working class. The mission of the newspaper was to explain the world in order to change the world.”
Staying true to its founding principle, The Spear has covered the truth of historical events even in the face of the distorting forces of bourgeois news media. Barack Obama’s presidency is a great example. When the popular consensus was to back Obama and the Democratic party in 2008, The Spear, based on Chairman Omali Yeshitela’s analysis a few days after Obama’s election, was one of the few voices that reported that “the election of Obama to the U.S. presidency represents the highest stage of neocolonialism, white power in black face.” Noting the inherent class interests of the Democratic party, The Spear reported that “the ideas that he put forward were those of his ruling class sponsors.”
The Spear is the primary organizing tool of the African People’s Socialist Party, as it teaches the people about this organization, about “What We Want, What We Believe” as expressed on pages 10 and 12 of every issue in the 14-Point Platform. It connects the Party’s membership and supporters which spans at least four continents. Every member of the Party has the daily assignment to sell The Spear, establishing ourselves as leaders within our community, providing analysis on the conditions of our people and bringing the masses of people into the Uhuru Movement.
The Spear has also been the sole recorder of the many campaigns, organizations and economic development institutions that the Uhuru Movement has built in its 50+ years of existence. These include but are not limited to the Free Dessie Woods campaign, the housing struggle against Measure O in Oakland in the 1980s, the Black Power Blueprint, the numerous mass organizations (see page 8), the Hands Off Uhuru campaign, and more. This rich history is digitized and available for all at TheBurningSpear.com/archive.
The Spear then is a living testament to the unwavering and relentless struggle that African people continue to wage against a system that has never worked for the majority of people in the world. It is a record of our history, but it is also a guideline for our ever-continuing struggle against colonialism. When the likes of Zuckerberg and others work overtime to censor us, we continue to push out the worldview and objectives of our Party through the one platform they can’t silence.
This is a struggle that keeps The Spear burning, lighting our path to a socialist world revolution.
Keep The Spear burning!
Liberation in our Lifetime!
Uhuru!
