The International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement (InPDUM) stands in unwavering solidarity with our brothers and sisters of Ayiti (Haiti), and we condemn the brutal attacks on them by the U.S. government at the illegitimate Texas border.
In response to these attacks, mobilizing demonstrations were held by our San Diego, Chicago, St. Louis, Boston and Philadelphia branches condemning the actions of the U.S. government, providing our communities with an African Internationalist analysis of the situation and upholding the revolutionary history of the Africans of Ayiti.
InPDUM St. Louis condemns U.S. brutality
Led by our International President, Kalambayi Andenet, InPDUM St. Louis comrades staged a rallying press conference featuring statements from InPDUM, the African People’s Socialist Party (APSP), the Uhuru Solidarity Movement (USM) and local organizers from the St. Louis Haitian community.
Elikya Ngoma, member of the APSP and Haiti Editor for The Burning Spear newspaper gave a breakdown of the situation in Haiti and the Texas border.
She stated that no honest explanation of the situation can be given without including the U.S.’s parasitic relationship with Ayiti.
“When you talk about the question of why there’s an influx of so many Africans from Haiti in the United States, you have to talk about the question of U.S. colonialism in Haiti and its presence in Haiti which is only there to keep our people in a state of oppression and to install neocolonial presidents and government agencies which do not work in the interest of the people, that continue to steal our wealth and resources and that continue to keep us tied to these colonial enslavers—the United States.”
She went on to explain that since Ayiti’s resources are being sucked dry by U.S. imperialism, we have to recognize that Africans in Ayiti entering the United States are merely chasing their own resources—attempting to gain access to the resources that have been stolen from them.
Boston opens demonstration with Haitian National Anthem
Comrades in Boston began their demonstration with a thundering rendition of the Haitian National Anthem, performed in Haitian Creole by InPDUM Boston member and cultural worker Thamanai Justine.
This anthem, which celebrates the revolutionary history of Africans in Haiti, was performed by the comrade with such fury that her voice was said to have echoed off of the immigration office and its surrounding buildings.
“We are having this demonstration right in front of the immigration offices because these are the people who believe that they can determine who can enter the country and who cannot,” began comrade Dexter Mlimwegu at the demonstration.
“But a country that established itself through the genocide of the Indigenous people of this land and the enslavement of African people has no right to say who can be here and who can’t be here! THEY are the ones who can’t be here! White people are the only illegal immigrants in this conversation.”
Chicago educates African youth
Chicago members of InPDUM held a dynamic press conference. They delivered a statement in solidarity with the people of Haiti and read the opening statements from InPDUM’s African Charge Genocide Petition charging the U.S. government with the crime of genocide against African people.
At one point, an African man, drawn by the Red, Black and Green flag waving at the demonstration, approached the comrades with his son and asked about the meaning of the flag as well as an explanation of the events at the Texas border. The father told the comrades that he wanted his son to get a “firsthand” analysis of the situation from a member of InPDUM.
InPDUM Chicago immediately followed their demonstration with a Burning Spear newspaper study session open to all in the African community to attend.
San Diego looks at Haitian Revolution as an example of Indigenous struggles to follow
InPDUM Vice-President Matsemela Odom led our San Diego demonstration. He emphasized the 1803 Revolution of Haiti which dealt a near-death blow to Spain, France, Britain and the entire system of colonial-capitalism.
“We know that what’s happening at the false colonial border is another act of genocide. It’s a 200-year counterinsurgency against the African workers’ revolution of Ayiti, the first workers’ revolution to topple colonial slavery, and we refuse to remove it from that context.”
Profound statements of solidarity were also given by comrades from Umoja, the Party for Socialism and Liberation and Unión del Barrio.
Under-Secretary of Unión del Barrio, Benjamín Prado, stated, “We unite with the call of InPDUM to charge the United States with genocide. We, as a Mexican organization, recognize that we are on our stolen land as Indigenous Mexican people and that California, Arizona, Nevada, Texas and Colorado are all stolen land that came as a consequence of U.S. settler colonialism.”
Comrade Benjamín continued “… we recognize that Haiti was the first liberated land of the Americas when the slave rose up against the slave master and kicked him out. We salute the people of Haiti and the brave African people who provided the example of what it means to struggle and liberate your lands from the oppression of colonialism.
“Because of that example, today, we [Mexican people] celebrate 200 years of resistance to colonialism because Mexico kicked Spain’s ass and liberated our own land.”
The San Diego demonstration then marched to the local U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) prison where many colonized people are held captive and showed their solidarity with our brothers and sisters locked behind the walls.
Africans Charge Genocide
We understand that the inhumane treatment of Haitian people at the border is nothing but a day in the lives of colonized people. This is not new. This is colonialism, and we understand that the ongoing intensifying attacks made on our people as nothing short of genocide.
According to the criteria of genocide put forward by the United Nations themselves at the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide Assembly on December 9, 1948, genocide means any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodi.ly or mental harm to members of the group
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to an.other group;
By the United Nations’ own colonial definition, we deem the U.S. government guilty of the genocide of African people and InPDUM will not stop until the U.S. government answers for its crimes against African people and humanity as a whole.
You can join the struggle today by becoming a member of InPDUM at inpdum.org.
We also call on you to join the Africans Charge Genocide campaign and help us bring this fight right to the United Nations. Sign our petition charging the U.S. with the genocide of African people at africanschargegenocide.org.
We demand that the U.S. stop the deportations!
We demand reparations to Haiti and all African people!
And we demand freedom in our lifetime!
Uhuru!
