The following is the official statement made by Eritha Akilé Cainion (Akilé Anai) announcing her candidacy for District 7 City Council in St. Petersburg, FL. Akilé previously ran in 2019 on a platform to “Make the Southside Black Again!” Her run for office in 2019 as well as 2017 earned her a spot as an unindicted co-conspirator by the FBI on July 29, 2022. Akilé qualified for the upcoming August 20th elections on June 18, 2024.
Black people have been the torchbearers of democracy within the U.S. historically. It was our struggle that produced universal suffrage and concretized freedom of speech, assembly and association. We have fought for this historically and the efforts of our people brought about free public education following the presumption of emancipation following the civil war.
It is for this reason that I have to participate in the upcoming election. It is because this struggle is far from over. Efforts by the governor to limit public discussion of the history of African colonial enslavement and participation within the electoral arena are a reflection of the escalation of efforts to push us back and to retract the freedoms black people fought so hard to achieve.
The leader of the Uhuru Movement, Omali Yeshitela, known to many as Joe Waller, of which I am a member played a fundamental role in fighting for democratic rights leading to the Civil Rights Bill of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965, rights that opponents of black freedom have been chipping away for some time now and which are fundamental to this electoral season.
I am participating in this election because I am currently an unindicted party to an FBI charge of being a Russian agent, partially because of my participation in elections in this city in 2017 and 2019 that called for reparations and an end to the highly lucrative process of gentrification responsible for the escalation in homelessness, artificial pressure on the housing market and bringing the black population of this city from 23 percent to 21 percent in the last five years.
I will not spend time defending myself against these ridiculous, bogus and racist claims that I, Omali Yeshitela, or any of the other Uhuru Movement members indicted by the U.S. government are Russian agents. It is an age-old tactic used by the government to brand those that they disagree with as scary individuals that the people will distance themselves from. More than this, it is the government’s attempt to use the law to crush its political and ideological opposition, despite the fact that no law has been broken in the work that we’ve done and continue to do for the improvement in conditions of life for black people in this city and around the world.
The charge of Russian influence in a campaign that is consistent with the historical struggle by black people for universal suffrage is a barely concealed effort by the justice department to circumvent the Voting Rights Act that we fought and died for within this country, while having to fight the charges that at the time our efforts to vote were Russian influenced.
This is also an attack on free speech that is consistent with Desantis’ policies to restrict democratic rights. The ban on Black History, “Don’t Say Gay” and other efforts are being made by the governor to restrict the discussion and moreover, punish those for expressing their opinions or participating in political processes that aim to push back against such blatant attacks.
Desantis, however, doesn’t act alone. On July 29th, 2022, at 6:00 in the morning I received a phone call from the St. Pete police department telling me that my car had been broken into. I would quickly learn this was a deceptive tactic by local law enforcement to lure me out of my home, completely disarm me and have me surrounded by gun-toting FBI agents demanding my phone, my laptop and search of my car. The city of St. Pete played a direct hand in collaborating with a federal agency to attack a black woman who exercised her right to the electoral arena and ran for office on a platform of reparations to the black community. The St. Pete city government actively participated in an act that would open the door for the federal government to assault the people’s right to free speech. Free speech rights that do not only guarantee the rights of the people to criticize the government, but to also guarantee the rights of the people to hear what is being said – for an alternative to be known instead of forcing the people to be locked into an impossible decision that ultimately comes at their expense no matter how it’s spun.
This is what we’ve done in the past, this is what my run for office represents now: an alternative to the status quo that is quite literally making it impossible for black communities and working class people to live. The people constantly get trapped with the same old types of politicians that work for those lining their pockets. The corruption of this government, the clear willingness to drive us out to make way for the millionaires who will occupy the condos and luxury apartments, is why an alternative is even desired in the first place.
It’s clear the status quo doesn’t work. Food deserts, environmental strain, homelessness, all of these things are increasing in a city where so-called progress is said to be made. Meanwhile, if you attempt to speak out against these issues, your political opponents will weaponize agencies like the FBI against you, or attack you on a college campus, arrest you and threaten your ability to graduate. They will use the media to slander you, the courts to railroad you, and they’ll rig the electoral process to make sure you can never get elected if you put these issues on the ballot.
This is what the people are up against.
We cannot allow the government, whether local, state or federal, to take us back to a period in time where black people were being shot at, churches were being bombed, water hoses and dogs used on us just for standing in line trying to get registered to vote. We won’t go back to a period where saying something your oppressor doesn’t agree with can result in a physical assassination or political imprisonment. The fact is we fought for the space, we seized the space, and they can’t have it back. And we have to be opposed to this government attacking the black community and those you may not agree with, because it’s how they open up an overall assault on everyone’s rights.
My campaign represents a movement that’s fighting for genuine democracy. Our futures depend on the success of this struggle.
I’m calling on people to do three things: Vote Eritha Akilé Cainion for District 7 City Council on August 20th, join the Uhuru Movement’s Freedom Summer Project for an intense month of outreach around issues of freedom and democracy, and come to the trial beginning September 3rd to demand charges be dropped on the Uhuru 3!
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