Newark, NJ—On February 2, 2013 the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement (InPDUM), Newark chapter, had its first major event in the Brick City of Newark, NJ with their African Community Convention.
This event is part of a worldwide series of mobilizations to bring Africans globally to revolutionary organization and to take responsibility to “Protect and Defend Our Own.”
InPDUM hosted three panel discussions with topics concerning the African community.
Each panel was led with an African Internationist political overview by InPDUM President Diop Kujo Olugbala.
The first panel discussion was themed “Protect and ORGANIZE the African Woman! Defend and Organize the African Community!”
Guest speakers for this panel included InPDUM International Secretary Waleeah Brooks, who spoke about how the welfare system and housing system is disguised as an attempt to help African women.
The welfare and housing system actually criminalizes African fathers and ultimately breaks up African families.
Waleeahs presentation spoke to point number 22 of InPDUM’s Revolutionary National Democratic Program which states:
“We commit ourselves to the relentless struggle for the rights and dignity of African women and the end of social and political oppression. We adamantly oppose sexual and economic exploitation of African women by any sources, including our own colonized community. We demand the recognition of African women as equal partners and leaders in the struggle for the emancipation and unification of Africa and African people worldwide.”
Other participants on this panel were Sister Munirah El Bonami, who spoke about being an African woman in the U.S. Prison Industrial Complex and Sister Lisa Davis from the Black is Back Coalition Healthcare Working Group.
Lisa spoke about a recent struggle that InPDUM and the BIBC intervened in, which was the case of Baby Dillen, a newborn at Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia that Doctors prescribed injections of morphine doses against his mothers and the families will.
InPDUM and the Black is Back Coalition led a series of social media protests, telephone call-ins to the hospital and a protest that led to the release of Baby Dillen from Pennsylvania Hospital.
Lisa also called for the use of more natural remedies and medicine.
Brother Sadiki “Shepp” Olugbala was the moderator for the second panel.
He brought representatives from the Jericho Movement who shed light on political prisoners/prisoners of war who were among the revolutionaries who were locked up as a result of the counter insurgency against the Black Liberation Movement of the late 1960s.
This panel stressed the importance of not forgetting our brothers and sisters who were among the first casualties in the fight for power.
President Diop raised up the victories of InPDUM as the organization who worked diligently to free Bakari Oluntaji from being prosecuted in 2012.
Diop also mentioned the case of Eric Oliver, a young black man who single-handedly fought off a white lynch mob from attacking his family, who was then brought up on assault charges for his actions.
InPDUM led a successful campaign to free Eric Oliver of those charges.
InPDUM’s International Membership Coordinator, Ushindi Watu, was the moderator for the Youth Panel, titled “Message to All Ghetto Youth: The World is Yours!”
Professor Jahjah Shakur of the Essex County College Hip Hop Student Association used spoken word to explain that to be a revolutionary, there needs to be a change in the mindset of the masses.
Comrade Ushindi spoke to the youth from an African Internationalist perspective.
Ushindi called on the youth to stop killing each other in the streets but to turn their aggression to the state, which is the white power structure whose only goal is to keep them in a constant state of poverty and incarceration.
As a result of this mobilization, InPDUM Newark has established a committee to build onward to the International Convention.
The Newark Convention Organizing Committee will be responsible to bring a contingency of at least 20 forces from the Newark area into St. Petersburg, Florida.
The International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement is calling on all of its members, supporters and all Africans to attend the upcoming 2013 International InPDUM Convention, scheduled for March 23 – 24 in St. Petersburg, Florida, the “City of African Resistance.”
The theme of this upcoming convention is “One Africa! One Nation! Build Revolutionary Organization to Protect and Defend Our Own!”
Register for this convention at http://inpdumresistance.wordpress.com/convention/
