This article first appeared on the Africa on the Ascendancy page in The Burning Spear newspaper
LONDON—According to a police leaflet put together by the Brent Metropolitan police department in London, England, a young man was seriously stabbed on Kilburn High Road on August 16, 2015 by an African in his late 20’s.
The London police rounded up black youth, whether they were involved in the incident or not—a move similar to what police do in New York, Ferguson and every other black community in the U.S.
Michael Gallagher, chief superintendent and borough commander for Brent Metropolitan police, on August 19, 2015, responded with a menacing and contradictory letter, to youth he had targeted in the borough.
The letter demanded that they attend a meeting called, “Brent Partnership Gang Call-in – South Kilburn,”organized by himself, in conjunction with Brent Council and other agencies.
The police commander’s letter stated that the meeting was being held to,“discuss the events of August 16, a possible risks to ‘yourself,’and ways we can help you move away from criminal behavior” and threatened, “If you choose not to attend we will see this as a clear message that you intend to continue with a criminal lifestyle. As such, we will work hard to disrupt your activities utilizing every legitimate means available to us.”
APSP UK, Mothers Against Police Containment
The African People’s Socialist Party UK (APSP UK) and the U.K. front of the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement (InPDUM) went to work, exposing the Brent police commander’s actions as an aggression against black youth and the African community in general and police containment in the African community.
Leaflets exposing the police and calling the community to fight back against the police department’s attempt to criminalize our children were printed up and distributed.
The leaflet explained that as African Internationalists, the APSP opposes all forms of violence against oppressed colonized African people including horizontal or so-called “black on black”violence.
The APSP opposes horizontal violence because it is misdirected at each other and not against our real enemy, the white nationalist colonial State, which is the cause of the problems in our community. Parents were organized to attend and to fight back the police-planned railroading meeting.
The meeting was scheduled for one hour, but because of the unanticipated turnout from the movement and the community, as well as the militant engagement of the community with the police, the meeting lasted more than two hours.
The people voiced their opinions against police containment of our community. In the end, the commander tucked his tail and apologized for sending the hostile letter to the community. The community was exuberant that they were able to snatch their children from the jaws of the vicious State!
We must demand—in London too—Black Community Control of the Police!
The police are the first line of defense of the colonial State
The Chairman of the APSP and InPDUM, Omali Yeshitela, teaches us that the State is an organization of coercion that includes the police, court system, prisons, etc.
The State came into being as an instrument of ruling classes to protect the system of haves and have-nots and the class that is in power.
The police are the first line of defense of the State. As such, the police are instruments of extreme violence which is absolutely necessary to prevent the oppressed from rising up and crushing the state and winning our liberation.
The job of the police is to protect the State built on genocide, slavery and looting of the resources of the colonized.
Because the colonized African population is constantly––whether consciously or unconsciously––attempting to reclaim our resources and our lives, we are targeted as an enemy of the colonial State.
It is the responsibility of colonized African people throughout the world to overturn colonialism and reclaim power and control over our lives and our motherland, Africa.
The African People’s Socialist Party builds the African Socialist International (ASI) to Govern!
The African People’s Socialist Party is a revolutionary African Internationalist organization. APSP in London, England represents the U.K. front of the African People’s Socialist Party; the work done in the U.S. represents the U.S. front of APSP.
All around the world and in this country, oppressed people are rising up and engaging parasitic capitalism to reclaim their resources.
This period provides excellent opportunities to advance the African liberation struggle to its logical conclusion— revolution!
The critical question—the 800 pound gorilla in the room—is, where is all the motion we see today taking us?
Where do empty slogans take us? Are we doomed to continue marches and demonstrations?
The APSP answers, towards the development of the African Socialist International (ASI)––a single revolutionary organization of African Socialist around the world––who is committed to the total unification and liberation of Africa and Africans under the leadership of the African working-class aligned with the poor peasantry.
Our strategy, as it has been for the last 43 years, is to organize for the achievement of power and control over our own black lives. As the Chairman puts it, “the African working-class must lead.”
Build the ASI!
Organize to govern!