LONDON–At this very critical time in world history, characterized by a sharp crisis and decline of U.S. led white power, we African Internationalists, are bold and confident enough to state to the world that our possibilities for a worldwide African revolution have never been better.
That is why we audaciously require revolutionary activity from every African on the planet who sincerely wants an end to worldwide parasitic capitalism.
In 1981, the first congress of the African People’s Socialist Party (APSP), in Oakland, California – under the leadership of Chairman Omali Yeshitela – adopted an historical resolution unambiguously calling for the creation of the African Socialist International (ASI).ASI would assume the responsibility for:
1. Liberating and uniting all of Africa under a single, all-African socialist State;
2. Uniting, coordinating, and giving general assistance and direction for the revolutionary struggles of all African people wherever they occur and whenever the aims of such struggles are consistent with the aims of the international socialist association;
3. Achieving the objective consolidation of African nationality for all African people wherever we are oppressed and exploited throughout the world due to the machinations of imperialism.
It was then a new beginning in arming the African proletariat around the world to organise and fulfil its mission to make the revolution, as the only solution to end over five centuries of colonial oppression and exploitation.
We should recognize and salute this historical effort and leadership provided to young and old African organizers alike by Chairman Omali Yeshitela.
Chairman Omali tirelessly developed African Internationalism by traveling to Europe and sending APSP organizers to Africa and the Caribbean to win unity for building the African Socialist International.
In the seventies and throughout the eighties, Chairman Omali and the APSP struggled with PAC, ZANU and other Africanists of that time to unite with African Internationalism.
ZANU leaders, who achieved power in 1980, never talked of the revolutionary unification project again.
It became clear to the Party that since the destruction of the Black Revolution of the sixties and the assassinations of its leaders that building the ASI would be a gigantic task.
We could not find any of the so-called revolutionary groups anywhere to unite with building the ASI.
Almost everywhere, work by these revolutionary groups had been replaced with charity, cultural, religious and spiritual work.
Whenever we met people seriously organizing for political power, it was for some electoral contest to secure a place under neocolonialism.
The APSP has to be organized everywhere
In the aftermath of the first two African Socialist International conferences in 1999 and in 2000 in London, it became crystal clear that building the APSP all over the world would be the task of the Party which would be the ASI.
The APSP had met with many African organizations and activists throughout the years, in U.S., England, France, Canada, etc., but we could not find revolutionary groups to unite with building the ASI.
The Party then had to go to the workers in every single African country and community, organize and train them to assume the leadership of the African Revolution. This is what we have been engaged in since the ASI Conference in 2000.
This latter conference was of great significance; it was there that we came up with the ASI black manifesto and resolutions on trade and commerce, the role of white people, etc.which were unanimously adopted at the conference.
This excerpt from the “Black Manifesto” shares the spirit of the 2000 conference.
“The liberation of Africa will be brought about through the coming worldwide upheaval of African workers and poor peasants—a sleeping giant poised to seize our freedom, happiness and wealth from imperialist white power and deal it the death blow. The world’s peoples are awaiting for Africa to strike.”
The electrifying slogan ”Touch One! Touch All!” was launched in the 2000 ASI conference.
Subsequent yearly ASI conferences characterized by high quality banners, flyers, discussions, and resolutions changed the ground in England.
This was where the Party was increasingly drawing the line in the sand between revolutionaries and reformists within the known African liberation organizations.
In 2002, Chairman Omali led a delegation of Party members from the UK and U.S. to South Africa.
We were the guests of the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania, which was hosting its historical Eighth Congress which we believed would make or break revolutionary trajectory.
Despite the extra dynamic speech delivered by Chairman Omali (see video) in the presence of 2000 delegates who attended the conference, the PAC leadership was not won to the African Socialist International.
PAYCO, however, the PAC Youth organization showed interest in continuing at least the discussion in building the ASI.
By 2009, it became clear that PAYCO, despite the brilliance of their leadership as exemplified by the work they did in developing the ASI constitution, also did not unite with the ASI unified strategy with a one discipline, one organization, one philosophy and one centre.
The Pan Africanism of PAYCO would not allow it to unite fully with the ASI. Pan Africanism is the clearest expression of the African petty bourgeoisie, as it opposes a unified strategy under the leadership of the African working class.
The Main Resolution coming out of the 2004 ASI conference in London, required that everyone applying for membership must unite with the constitution of the ASI. This document is available in Xhosa, Sotho, Spanish, English and French.
Here is an excerpt that lays out the significance of the ASI:
“A real capability of anticipating an Africa liberated and unbound by artificially-created borders—borders whose only function is to maintain our oppressive status—would allow us to plan the rational use of the human resources of Africa wherever they are located, either on the Continent or abroad.
“Hence, African workers of South Africa and Nigeria in Africa or of Brasilia and Detroit in South and North America would be considered in any assessment of Africa’s ability to mobilize a working class to lead our revolution and industrialize our continent.”
From 2005 to 2010, we worked in Sierra Leone, where we made gains in winning young members to African Internationalism.
The opportunism centred on access to resources and electoral politics to secure parliamentary careers hampered our progress and development in building the ASI. Nevertheless, we have recovered and are building strong in Sierra Leone.
ASI—African working class tool to capture international black power
Today, we are organizing in the U.S., Bahamas, Canada, Senegal, South Africa, Luxemburg, France, England and Sweden; we have supporters in Germany, Russia, Belgium, Liberia, Jamaica and in Kenya, where and APSP-Kenya was once on the ground.
The horrid events which are occurring in neo-colonial led countries in Africa cannot be solved within the boundaries imposed on us by European imperialists at Berlin conference in 1884.
Chairman Omali makes it plain that, “National liberation fought within national colonial boundaries have reached their limitations.”
We need an all-African solution. We need a worldwide African plan for a single African national liberation. Such is the mission of the African Socialist International.
The imperialist crisis we see in Congo, Uganda, and Rwanda , Mali, Haiti, U.S. ,Bujumbura, Libya, South Africa etc. requires organized and united revolutionary activities inside and outside each black territory and community
All neo-colonial crises cannot be solved without the recognition that the workers must be organized in their own revolutionary party to wrest power from the African petty bourgeoisie and imperialist bourgeoisie.
The current imperialist and neocolonialist crisis is their’s, not the African workers and peasants.
There is no revolution without the defeat of U.S. led imperialism in Africa and in the U.S.
There is no freedom anywhere in Africa, without a unified strategy to end all white imperialist wars and theft of our resources.
The EU and U.S. have shown us many times that they are unified when it comes to dealing with us and they have their own Africa plan to maintain status quo.
We need our own Africa plan, a revolutionary plan which ends the oppression, exploitation and domination of African workers. That plan is the African Socialist International.
That is why we call on African workers to join the African Socialist International and build the unified African revolution by building the party in your area.
“This is the Party of workers who have never been paid, for centuries of forced, stolen labour, workers who produced the cotton, sugar, coltan, gold, oil, diamond, tin and bauxite for others’ enjoyment.
This is the Party of workers forced to live on 50 cents a day, many of whom have never seen a dentist or an electric stove; of young men stuffed into the prison camps, this is the Party of women who walk miles to get water unfit for human consumption, or bury their loved ones who are shot down by the police every 28 hours.” “Uneasy Equilibrium,” The African revolution versus Parasitic Capitalism, Chairman Omali Yeshitela
As the Party is preparing to travel to Jamaica in August and to South Africa in November of this year to organize for African liberation, we call on you to join this Party and organize the final offensive which will bring down bourgeois imperialist white power and usher in proletarian black power.
BUILD THE AFRICAN SOCIALIST INTERNATIONAL!
