African Liberation Day | African People On The Rise At Home And Abroad

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[00:00:00]one, the only, the indomitable, the bold, the outspoken, the unbought, and the unbossed >> humble servant, Charles Barron. And I deem it an honor to be on with my wife of 43 years, the stunningly beautiful >> Thank you.

[00:00:24]>> the intellectually brilliant Inez Barron.

[00:00:27]>> Thank you so much. We're so pleased to be a part of Black Power Media Reloaded.

[00:00:32]We come to you each Thursday evening at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, and we'd love for you to subscribe and support and share this information. You know, set your alarms so that you remember to tune in and hear what it is.

[00:00:44]We've got an exciting topic for you this evening. African Liberation Day.

[00:00:50]>> Yes.

[00:00:51]>> And we're going to be talking with two exciting guests. We have Margaret Kimberley, and we have Sinkhe Brath. Two exciting people who've got lots of information. But we'll be getting with them shortly, but right now we want to have a libation. We know that we did not get here where we are today at this point in the movement along our journey to get to liberation without the sacrifices, the contributions, and all of the knowledge and wisdom that was given by our ancestors to get us to where we are. So we acknowledge them, and we want to take time to share this video with you. It's a libation video honoring our ancestors who brought us this far on the way.

[00:01:34]>> For African people, nothing important happens without a libation.

[00:01:44]For African people, [music] nothing important happens without a libation.

[00:01:49]And so for this very important presentation, we begin by the pouring of libation.

[00:01:54]>> [music] >> We pour libation first to our first ancestor, To that hidden one who, though hidden, manifests in all things as all things. That God Goddess idea in the universe by any and all names. To our first ancestor we pour libation. Ashé.

[00:02:11]>> [music] >> We pour libation too to our ancestors because they were the first people on this planet. [music] Mothers and fathers of all mankind. Flash point of the human family. To those ancestors we pour libation. Ashé.

[00:02:22]>> [music] >> Pour libation too to our ancestors because they were the ones who first gave birth to the idea of civilization.

[00:02:29]Knew we would need a form of governance.

[00:02:32]And they nurtured that idea along the Nile until it reached its zenith in Kemet. There they built these gigantic monuments as evidence of that great civilization. And they [music] carved instructions on the walls of temples and tombs for us so we would never forget.

[00:02:46]To those ancestors we pour libation.

[00:02:48]Ashé.

[00:02:50]Pour libation too to our ancestors because over time they put together all the tenets of civilization. And they took [music] those ideas and left the continent. They were the people of the first exodus. They left Africa and went all over the world and [music] peopled the world. To those ancestors we pour libation. Ashé.

[00:03:09]>> [music] >> We pour libation too to our ancestors because they did not sit on their laurels. They continued to improve, continued to evolve. And at each point of evolution, they again would leave the continent. Leave the continent and settle and resettle the planet. They met themselves coming and going. [music] To those ancestors we pour libation.

[00:03:30]Ashé.

[00:03:31]Pour libation too to those ancestors because over time they found themselves the object of a forced exodus. When they were kidnapped, shackled, cargoed, shipped out of Africa and enslaved in diasporas around the world. To those ancestors we pour libation. Ashé.

[00:03:47]Pour libation too to the ancestors left at home. The very young, the aged, the infirm. left to reinvent themselves.

[00:03:53][music] They pleaded of us, human resources, but they were enjoined by us in the diaspora, both objects of a global my offer that ruptured the soul of a people as it ravaged a continent. To those ancestors we pour libation, ashay.

[00:04:10]Pour libation to to those ancestors.

[00:04:16]Ashay-o.

[00:04:18]We honor our ancestors and we call on you to remember those ancestors and the great sacrifices and contributions they made.

[00:04:26]As we know, this program is Operation Power and we do have a brief video that we want to share with you, which gives you some of the highlights of what Operation Power has done and what our focus is. So, at this time we're going to move to that brief video. Operation Power.

[00:04:50]>> [music] >> Operation Power stands for people organizing and [music] working for empowerment and respect.

[00:05:03]>> Operation Power is a grassroots social justice organization founded by local community stakeholders, which includes activists, organizers and leaders who understand that the system as it is currently structured is destroying us and our communities.

[00:05:24]>> The system, the capitalist system, one that promotes human greed over human need, one that promotes profit over people, needs to be dismantled. These local community organizers recognize capitalism needs to be destroyed and replaced with socialism.

[00:05:40]>> Operation Power was founded in 1997 with the understanding that uprooting capitalism needs to begin locally. Operation Power understood that our communities are the perfect vehicle to dismantle this parasitic capitalist system brick by brick and the economic, political, and cultural institutions and other systems in place in our local community infrastructure, whether it's the local school board, community board, city council, state assembly, all represents mechanisms to control [music] the destiny of our people.

[00:06:23]>> In 1997, Operation Power launched the campaign Charles Barron for City Council that would lead to over 20 years of radical changes in the East New York community.

[00:06:35]These changes included over 20,000 units of housing affordable to our community, 388 million dollars schools, over 110 million dollars secured and allocated for community parks, millions secured for library upgrades and another 42 million dollars for the construction of a new library.

[00:07:01]>> Cultural programs such as the June Juneteenth celebration, Kwanzaa programs, and reinterment of Sankofa Park, securing thousands of jobs for local residents.

[00:07:16]>> We've secured political seats that include city council seat, state assembly seat, state committee person male and female district leader, chair of the local community board, community board members, campaigning and getting a judge from the community elected.

[00:07:33]County committee seats, block association presidents, ten- tenant presidents, and much more.

[00:07:42]>> And all this was done while being black radicals. We [music] are black radicals, which means getting to the root causes of the problems challenging our community. We need to get to the root and not lose ourselves battling the symptoms of this vicious capitalist system because we know revolution is the solution.

[00:08:05]>> Operation Power believes in black power for black people. Black power is still needed and still relevant. Operation Power believes that black radicalism is the only position we can afford to take.

[00:08:19]Getting to the root of our problem for revolutionary change. Operation Power believes in community control for black people as the only way to get to self-determination [music] and liberation.

[00:08:33]>> Operation Power believes that we need to move to a more socialist system.

[00:08:40]A communal system that doesn't suffocate but liberates.

[00:08:45]With these beliefs, we take collective action for our self-determination and liberation by being a part of Operation Power.

[00:09:06]>> Thank you so much, Dr. Olubunmi.

[00:09:09]We're going to move forward. We have some books that you might have seen highlighted in the video about Operation Power. There were three books that were highlighted in that video, and the first one is Speaking >> [music] >> Pardon my [music] interruption, Mrs. Berry. You just need to unmute.

[00:09:55]Okay.

[00:09:57]I'll just quickly go back.

[00:10:00]Can you hear me now?

[00:10:05]Can you hear me now?

[00:10:08]>> Yes, we can hear you.

[00:10:09]>> Okay, good. [music] So, the books we wanted to highlight were the ones that you saw on the screen. Speaking truth to power by Charles Barron, It's Not You, It's Capitalism by Malika Shabazz, [music] and the next three are a trilogy written by Kevin Barron. They're novels. And it's called Black Rising, Black Rising uh the threat are the three books by Kevin Barron. And all of those are books which are available online through Barnes and Noble. So, we encourage you to check them out.

[00:10:41]Uh we're going to be talking about an exciting topic today, African Liberation Day, which was celebrated May 25th of this year. It's an annual event. It's a national international event. It had its origins going back to 1953, and it evolved to be called African Liberation Day in 1963, when several about 30 countries came together to commemorate it. And we're going to be talking with our guests about that, Charles.

[00:11:11]>> Yes, and um it's an important event because in the United States in 1972, May 27th, 1972, we had African Liberation Day. You know, a lot of our people say, "Why am I dealing with Africa?

[00:11:30]What does that have to do with me in East New York or Harlem?

[00:11:35]And then you know what Malcolm X said when people told him, you know, why you going to Africa? He said, "Why you left your mind in Africa, and you need to get it back." But African Liberation Day occurred in 1972, which was a very interesting year cuz it was also the year of the National Black Radical Conference in Gary, Indiana, where over 10,000 black people came together to talk about an independent party, an independent uh program, an agenda. Uh of course, it didn't turn out the way many of us wanted it to turn out. Matter of fact, the Democratic Party hijacked that whole convention and wound up getting more black Democrats elected who were neo-colonial puppets of the Democratic Party and the colonial capitalist system in America. But African Liberation Day, I'm going to show you a film shortly, and then you'll see the importance of it connecting to Africa. Puerto Ricans connect to Puerto Rico. Asian people connect to China, Japan, Japan, wherever. The Caribbean people, our brothers and sisters, they connect to their countries. So, everybody has a country that they connect to, and the continent of Africa, as Dr. John Henry Clarke said, we were all on the same boats, and those boats left Africa, those ships left Africa. When we were on those ships, we were Africans.

[00:13:04]And then when you dropped off in the diaspora, you became what those nations were, and many of who enslaved you.

[00:13:11]So, we're not who we are based upon where the ships dropped us off, but where they picked us up from. We are an African people. So, we're going to show this little clip here, and then I'll guess we'll be able to tie the struggle on the African continent with the struggle of African people. 51.2 million African people, black people in America.

[00:13:40]Ousmane Dembélé, >> AFRICA IS GOING TO WIN.

[00:13:52]>> AFRICA IS GOING TO WIN.

[00:13:54]>> LONG LIVE PEOPLE'S WAR.

[00:13:57]>> LONG LIVE PEOPLE'S WAR.

[00:13:59]>> PEOPLE'S WAR IS GOING TO WIN.

[00:14:01]>> PEOPLE'S WAR IS GOING TO WIN.

[00:14:11]>> [music] [music] >> AFRICAN LIBERATION DAY, WHICH is traditionally celebrated throughout the African world each May 25th, was the occasion this year for the largest all-black assembly ever held in Washington, D.C.

[00:14:36]More than 30,000 blacks, representing a wide cross-section of political ideologies, gathered at the culmination of a two-day conference on Africa.

[00:14:45]The underlying themes behind the conference and march were to heighten the awareness of blacks in this country to the plight of our brothers and sisters in Africa.

[00:14:54]To create some ongoing organization that would actively aid black freedom fighters in those African countries still under white colonial rule.

[00:15:04]To begin to link our future as a self-determined, free people with that of Africans.

[00:15:10]And to begin to act as a unified body of blacks who will influence US policy towards Africa.

[00:15:22]>> [music] [singing and music] [music] >> The marchers demonstrated in front of the Portuguese Embassy as a protest against that government's colonial domination of Angola, Guinea-Bissau, and Mozambique.

[00:16:24]In front of the South African Embassy and the Rhodesian Information Center because of their racist minority regimes which rule over the black majority population.

[00:16:36]And here, in front of the US State Department, to protest this country's trade agreements with South Africa and importation of Rhodesian chrome ore despite a United Nations embargo against it.

[00:16:51]In spite of this demonstration, a week later the US Senate upheld the right of America to continue to import Rhodesian chrome ore.

[00:17:01]It defeated the McGee anti-Rhodesia amendment.

[00:17:06]The demonstrators then congregated at the Washington Monument renamed Lumumba Square.

[00:17:13]>> AS MALCOLM SAID, WE MUST MUST NOT BE CONTENT LETTING BACK WITH NEGRO POLITICIANS DECIDE OUR FATE AND SELL US OUT. WE MUST DO BATTLE WITH THEM.

[00:17:24]WE MUST DO BATTLE WITH THEM. WE MUST DO BATTLE WITH THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY OR ANY OTHER WHITE PARTIES THAT TRY TO CLAIM BLACK LOYALTY OR REPRESENT BLACK LEADERSHIP. And we must put together a nationalist party, a Pan-Africanist party.

[00:17:41]What the National Black Political Convention tried to do in GARY WAS TO SET OUT ON THE COURSE toward creating a political structure.

[00:17:51]A POLITICAL STRUCTURE THAT HAS A BLACK VALUE SYSTEM. A POLITICAL STRUCTURE THAT CAN MOVE THE MASSES OF THE PEOPLE. A POLITICAL STRUCTURE THAT UNDERSTANDS PAN-AFRICANISM AND THE STRUGGLE ALL OVER THE WORLD to unify African people and to liberate THE CONTINENT OF AFRICA AND THE CREATE SELF-DETERMINATION FOR AFRICAN PEOPLE wherever they are.

[00:18:16]I think THAT TODAY PROVES FIRST OF ALL THAT THOSE OF US WHO ARE TALKING ABOUT NATIONALISM and talking about Pan-Africanism THAT THERE IS A CONSTITUENCY FOR THAT.

[00:18:36]THERE ARE OVER 25,000 PEOPLE HERE IN WASHINGTON TODAY TALKING ABOUT NATIONALISM and Pan-Africanism.

[00:18:44]TALKING ABOUT AFRICAN LIBERATION.

[00:18:48]SO THE NEXT TIME ANYBODY WANTS TO TELL YOU THAT YOU DON'T HAVE A CONSTITUENCY OUR IDEOLOGY IS IN THE MINORITY POINT OUT THE FACT OF THE 25,000 OR 30,000 PEOPLE who came to Washington, D.C. TODAY TO CELEBRATE African Liberation Day, TO SUPPORT AFRICAN LIBERATION.

[00:19:09]>> The architect of the concept, unity without uniformity, Imamu Baraka, is also head of the committee for a unified Newark and was a co-chairman of the recent Black Political Convention.

[00:19:21]He has evolved as a leading spokesman for Pan-Africanism and Black Nationalism.

[00:19:34]>> That is some of the uh excerpts uh from the film. Uh you can put us back on full stage, Olubowale.

[00:19:43]That's some of the excerpts of the film.

[00:19:44]In that film, Amiri Baraka was there.

[00:19:46]His son is on. You know, if we played it further, you would see Amiri Baraka. You can put us on the screen fully for now.

[00:19:56]Um Amiri Baraka's son was there.

[00:19:59]I mean, Amiri Baraka was there. His son is with us today. But, we're going to bring our guests on the stage cuz both of these guests have work that they've done here, especially in and also are connected to Africa. So, Olubowale, you can uh put our guests on there.

[00:20:14]>> Oh, welcome.

[00:20:17]Welcome. Our two guests have joined us.

[00:20:20]You can see them on screen. They're on studio. They're on the stage here with us. And our guests are Margaret Kimberley of the Black Agenda Report and the author of the book Prejudicial, uh Black America and the President's Truth to Power. And our other special guest is Sekou Odinga Baraka. And he is the head of the co-founder of the and chairman of the Amiri Baraka Foundation. And we reference his father who was such an icon and such a leader in our struggle. Welcome to you both and we'll start >> Thank you. We'll start with you, Sister Margaret Kimberley. You can give us opening remarks and whatever way you would like to.

[00:21:03]>> Oh, thank you. Thank you so much for uh inviting me uh here this evening. I wanted to I wanted to say and I was trying to get the quote right from Malcolm X about Congo and Mississippi. And that's in response to people who asked, "Well, why do you care about Africa? Why are you talking about Africa?" And he said, "You can't understand what's going on in Mississippi if you don't understand what is going on in the Congo. You can't really be interested in what's going on in Mississippi if you're also not interested in what's going on in Congo. They're both the same. The same interests are at stake.

[00:21:42]The same sides are drawn up. The same schemes are at work in the Congo at that are at work in Mississippi. And I I said I can't do any better than to to quote Malcolm X because we are not only an African people, but our experience here in this country and in this hemisphere are the experiences of African nations, many of which are they call it flag independent. Some people say briefcase independent. That is to say countries that are not truly independent. Did you see what happened this week with in Ebola? There unfortunately is another Ebola outbreak in Congo and Uganda. And the United States has said any US citizens have to be sent to Kenya to be cared for. And that comprador lapdog government agreed.

[00:22:37]>> Right.

[00:22:37]>> But Kenyan doctors just said, "If it's not safe for the US, it's not safe for us either." So that is an example. We have a black misleadership class here.

[00:22:50]We have misleaders on the African continent.

[00:22:54]We see countries like Eritrea, like Burkina Faso, which struggle to be truly independent, Just as we struggle to be truly sovereign and self-determined people within this country. So, it's very very important that we as black people here always make reference to ourselves in in reference to Africa.

[00:23:24]>> That's right.

[00:23:24]>> Because we are not distinct. We may be thousands of miles away, but we need even more solidarity, not less.

[00:23:33]>> That's right. And brother brother, you know >> Yes.

[00:23:37]>> your dad was tight. As a matter of fact, he was a walking encyclopedia. That's what we always said about brother Lumumba.

[00:23:44]>> You know, this was his favorite holiday.

[00:23:46]African Liberation Day was his favorite holiday.

[00:23:49]And as I said this Yes, as I said this past weekend, this is Yeah, this is a Pan-African holiday.

[00:23:57]>> When I wanted to find out what was going on in Africa, I called up Lumumba because I knew he was the one who was with SWAPO and Sam Nujoma and he he brought Thomas Sankara to Harlem and so many other things. So, opening remarks, my brother.

[00:24:15]>> Well, that was just to say that was part of his duty, his radio show Africa Kaleidoscope and for many years on WBAI.

[00:24:22]That was the focus of it. When he formulated Patrice Lumumba Coalition in 1975 with with and Davidson Kenyatta, that was their goal. It was basically like the first African internationalist organization. That was their goal. I mean, Lumumba was the martyred figure in the person, but it was for all of these African heads of state, you know. I think probably he got a lot of inspiration from Sekou Touré when Sekou Touré gave him the Coat of Chivalry Award in the early '70s, which is like it's like a Purple Heart. It's the highest award that a non United Citizen can get and that gave him the inspiration. I mean, it was already coming from his early work with, you know, African Jazz Arts Society and Studio, which he co-founded with my uncle Kwame in 1956.

[00:25:13]But, um which is more of a black arts, black is beautiful organization, but it moved into Pan Pan African African Internationalism.

[00:25:24]So, this was his This was his favorite holiday. As you said in that film we looked at Breaking the Chains of Oppression, he was in he was in that film and he was talking. And one of the things I remember about that is that the chant that he did um in that film is when the same chant when I was a little boy with Thomas Sankara came we went to Thomas Sankara Hall it's the same chant that he did. So, I'm like, you know, African Liberation Day has had long roots. And so, since we're talking about long roots, I wanted to mention you you mentioned a book. I wanted to mention a book. So, today I have on my Tuskegee hat, you know, and there's a book Booker T. Washington and the Making of a Pan Africanist is written by one of your biggest fans, Dr. Tyrene Wright.

[00:26:12]And you know, and in that book she talks about in the early 20th century, you know, Tuskegee was involved in securing Liberia from French encroachment so that they could um become independent, you know, otherwise they would probably have annexed uh uh Liberia, you know, so this is early early on, you know, where we're having this African Liberation, you know, so that's a book people might also want to add into the collection. They can talk about that.

[00:26:40]>> [snorts] >> But, but not to I can't mention Tuskegee without it mentioning my own school North Carolina A&T because a good friend of mine from North Carolina A&T, his father, Awusi Saduku, who used to be named Howard Fuller, right. also at the North Carolina A&T with me. And his son, Malcolm, and I were very good friends, his son Malcolm Fuller. We were classmates.

[00:27:01]He was a very early organizer of this.

[00:27:04]You know, he he wrote the book, like, No Struggle, No Progress, A Warrior's Life, Black Power to Education Reform. And he founded that Malcolm X Liberation University. But then, of course, I don't know what happened. Next Next thing I know, he's a Republican, you know what I mean?

[00:27:19]>> I'm about to tell you that. He made some time.

[00:27:22]>> Yeah, yeah.

[00:27:24]>> [laughter] >> But >> a little bit about um the work that you're doing with organizations around AFRICOM, getting the Africa Command, American military bases out of Africa.

[00:27:39]As a matter of fact, under Barack Obama, more military bases in Africa, rather than mutual aid or some kind of cooperative economic venture, but military bases were built by Barack Obama.

[00:27:53]>> Yeah.

[00:27:54]>> Sister Kimberly?

[00:27:58]>> We can't hear you. There we go. I'm back. Yes, AFRICOM, the US Africa Command, became in existence at the tail end of George W. Bush's administration, but it's You're right, it's Obama who really increased funding and increased the military presence in Africa with AFRICOM. AFRICOM took the lead in destroying the state of Libya, for example.

[00:28:29]So, you have this situation where African countries cannot be sovereign as long as they have US bases and US troops throughout the continent.

[00:28:41]So, Black Alliance Black Alliance for Peace, another hat I wear. We have a campaign, US out of US out of Africa.

[00:28:54]It's It's important for people here to to decrease the military budget for the United States, stop to stop trying to control the entire world. And it's important for people of the rest of the world to be free from US hegemony. And that is why AFRICOM, SOUTHCOM, the commander of SOUTHCOM was just in Venezuela in the wake of that regime change operation. All these US military commands are very dangerous for the people of the world.

[00:29:30]>> Mhm.

[00:29:31]Uh brother Brack, you know, that film was really about the armed struggle in Africa at that time.

[00:29:39]Because a a lot of us here in America were looking to what Africa remember our identity was evolving. They were calling us Negroes and colored. And then we became black and then people would say, "Wait a minute. There's no black land, so we can't just call ourselves black and race is a social construct that Europeans brought in. We are an African people." So, talk a bit about the importance of that African identity, yes, but also the fact that your father and yourself now really highlight some of the revolutionary movements that occurred in Africa in the '60s and are being revived now in the Sahel states in West Africa.

[00:30:21]>> Yeah.

[00:30:22]Well, what I'll say is that in 1959, they had a convention to abrogate the term Negro. Carlos Cooks was the one who spearheaded that event. And you know, that's where my father's first organization and they were not always African Jazz Art Society and Studio.

[00:30:40]They became that in 1959.

[00:30:42]In 1956 when they were founded, they were just Jazz Art Society. You know, they were they still had the same goal, but they did not have the African part in their title of their organization.

[00:30:54]They became they became that, you know, in 1959 because it was a way to, you know, reaffirm in early 50s you know people like y'all crazy y'all talking about y'all Africans. But yeah, in the 1950s they said no we yeah we are African uh people. You know, they started they began to say that after that convention they wanted everybody to recognize that because, you know, earlier you mentioned you said Puerto Ricans connect to um Puerto Rico and other people. But you know, Puerto Ricans were connecting to African Liberation Day also. Carlos Cooks the one who did this is a Dominican. He's connecting to African Liberation Day also. So all of our groups were still connecting to African Liberation Day.

[00:31:35]The film also, you know, there's a point in there um that I've always been curious about as many times as I've seen the film. They they say that it was renamed to Lumumba Square like over at the Washington Monument. I never could tell if that was sort of colloquial being said because all the times I've been in DC I never checked. You know, it's kind of like when D12 had Frederick Douglass Square up there. I thought that was official. I never knew. [laughter] I never knew that they just took that that there. But even here in Harlem a lot of people I I mentioned the other day we have Africa Square right at the Harlem State Office Building where all our political leaders connect, right? Says all four of those corners each one says African Square. That used to say African Liberation Square because my father told Percy Sutton then and you see the picture the ladder, we want to keep African Liberation on everybody's mind.

[00:32:27]So being that that was the most popular destination is right across where the street speakers and everything. He had Percy Sutton cuz at that time it was the borough presidents who would do the street namings. So that's why you see him and Percy Sutton up on a ladder and then you have some Garveyites under they say Africa for the Africans at home abroad underneath the ladder. It's changed now says Africa Square now, but it used to say African Liberation Square and that was to change the consciousness in the minds and let people know listen, we got countries in Africa that still need liberation. You know what I mean? You know, of course you know, coming out of May in 1920 May 25th, 1963 after we had the you know, the 13 31 heads of state meeting in Ethiopia in organization of African Unity um starting this off for us. It's still hadn't touched people laid people of what was trying at what was happening.

[00:33:25]You had like 17 African countries winning independence at that time. You know, they talk about the Arab Spring.

[00:33:31]What about the African Spring, right?

[00:33:34]>> [laughter] >> So it was the thing to to keep this on to keep the momentum going for African people. And just like today most people don't even call African African Liberation Day. They call it Africa Day.

[00:33:48]So just like that square, but that square people is a old to this day here.

[00:33:54]Again, it was my father's a favorite holiday African Liberation >> Great great great man.

[00:34:00]So Margaret, you mentioned something and I wanted to explore it a little more.

[00:34:04]The Miss Leadership Class and you also mentioned the even in Africa. Dr. Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah wrote a book Neo-colonialism, The Last Stage of Imperialism. This whole concept of Neo-colonialism it's not only in Africa, but it's also domestic Neo-colonialism with the Miss Leadership Class. So if you could just get into it a little more Neo-colonial and Neo-colonialism and some of the puppets in this country and in Africa.

[00:34:38]>> Yes, well, you know, we are colonized people and so that many of the so-called leaders are the colonial overseers, the buffer class.

[00:34:50]You could call them many different many different things.

[00:34:57]But we I mean you were both elected officials, you so I don't have to tell you about how how the system works, how people get into office, who gets them into office and it's rarely anyone who's working on behalf of the people.

[00:35:14]>> That's correct.

[00:35:14]>> We have Look at New York. We have black borough presidents, leaders of the state senate and the assembly. And you would expect, you would think that black people would be doing much better as a group. But like other elected officials, they don't work for us. They work for the donor class.

[00:35:38]>> That's right.

[00:35:38]>> And that is why we remain colonized as our our neighborhoods are lost through gentrification. Deed theft is a big issue nowadays, something that's been going on for a very long time and there are simple things that these so-called leaders could do >> That's right.

[00:36:00]>> to prevent this property loss in order to protect our communities. So it's not just, you know, I live in Harlem. If I've lived here for 40 years and it gets Harlem gets wider and wider and less and less black every year. And I've I've said to people, they're the pilgrims, we're the Indians and you see how things turned out for indigenous people here despite their their great uh resistance. So we have these folks in the black caucus various black caucuses, but what do they do for the people and unless you you have folks who are grassroots organizers like yourself in office, you get into office because precisely because you will not represent the interest of the people and so I you know and and it's not just elected officials. It's these organizations that get a lot of money.

[00:37:06]It's the people who get the big jobs.

[00:37:09]They're not beholden to the people. So no matter how many black faces there are in high places. We don't have very many people who actually represent our interests and that's the same thing that we see around the world.

[00:37:27]I was recently in Kenya where the president welcomed President William Ruto welcomed the president of France allegedly going to help Kenya.

[00:37:37]Excuse me and Africa forward Summit basically it's a lot of giveaways to French corporations.

[00:37:47]And I was there at a counter Summit Pan-African Summit against imperialism, but but that is what happens unless you have liberation movement strong liberation movements. That's true there and it's also true here as well.

[00:38:08]>> Well, you know Margaret one more thing and I'm going to get right to you brother Sankara to talk about some of the present present liberation struggles particularly in the Sahel Sahel region.

[00:38:19]But the Bandung conference uh in 1955, when um this was considered or the world was considered a bilateral world, Russia and America. So, a non-alignment movement, those who were not connected to Russia or America, and they had a conference in Bandung, Indonesia of Asian and African uh nations in 1955, shortly after that, Kwame Nkrumah liberated Ghana, no longer the Gold Coast in '57. So, talk about how the liberation struggles of those times, and then I'm going to let uh Sinkay talk about the liberation struggle in the Sahel in these times, and how those things evolved and developed.

[00:39:06]>> Oh, still me?

[00:39:07]>> Yes, you. Yeah.

[00:39:08]>> [laughter] >> Um I'm going to let I'm going to let the young lad do the early the latest part.

[00:39:14]Okay. Well, you know, it's I I I have I have a lot of some sadness in thinking about the hopes that people had uh in the 1950s uh struggling to be independent uh away from the two poles of the US and the Soviet Union. Um and the US defeated the Soviet Union, and that was a great disaster for um for the whole world. But But it was still an im- important um we we cannot say that it failed. We saw uh nations uh leave the the worst parts, I suppose, of um uh the colonial relationships, although they did not it did not end. But there was great hope after World War uh II when uh colonized people saw their colonizers dying on the battlefield. They knew they were weak. They knew that >> [clears throat] >> Britain and France and all these countries weren't as powerful as they had been led to believe and it gave people inspiration and uh and hope that they could free themselves. And in many cases they did, but these colonizers don't change. They don't just give up easily. They They didn't say, "Oh well, never mind. We'll let these countries be independent and we'll just go away and let them do what they want." No, to this day, to this day, their goal is to uh keep colonial control, but that's why it's so important for us to support the alliance of Sahel states, to support nations like Eritrea, to support uh movements in these supposedly independent but not independent African states, and to support people who are striving for self-determination right here.

[00:41:08]>> Very important. Uh brother breath, you know, in the Black Panther Party in the '60s where I got most of my uh political education, uh people like Ho Chi Minh was a hero of ours who liberated uh Vietnam and Kim Il Sung who liberated uh North Korea and Korea. And then we looked at the African liberation movements of uh Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana and Patrice Lumumba in the Congo, Julius Nyerere in and and uh Tanzania and and Ben Bella in Algeria. And then of course you had uh Sekou Touré in Guinea. Now they had that, but they didn't get a chance to complete the revolution before there was a counter-revolution that took most of them out of power. And all of them were talking socialism.

[00:41:57]I mean the whole world was moving toward socialism. 60% of the world was moving toward socialism. But then there's been uh a counter-revolutionary movement that now assassinated Lumumba, took Kwame Nkrumah out of office, and he wound up being a co-president with Sekou Touré in Guinea, and they took Ben Bella out of Algiers. And now, when we came into the 21st century, we had a bunch of neo-colonial black puppets, particularly in the Sahel region in West Africa. However, there were some bright spots.

[00:42:38]Uh how about that? Uh Ibrahim Traoré in Burkina Faso, and then we had Siaka Stevens in Sierra Leone. And uh Mali, and then, of course, Koutché in the Niger.

[00:42:52]What about that revolution where they said, "America, and uh France, get the hell out of Africa and leave the gold behind on your way out."

[00:43:02]>> I I think they they have their eye on the prize, and it is very important because a lot of places, as Margaret mentioned, we we going backwards. I mean, I I was looking the other day. I don't know if you all aware that uh President Macron was talking about Macron was on TV talking about he is the leading Pan-Africanist.

[00:43:21]Macron of France, their president said he's the leading Pan-Africanist. And he he points to Ruto in Kenya as having his back and and agreeing with him. And then, you know, um it's a touchy subject, but we also got to look at what's happening right now in South Africa, right? And the ANC is not with this xenophobia, with the attacks on other African people from Ghana, from Nigeria, from South Africans, right? And this movement that is actually led by Afrikaners. And also, what we're seeing there is that, although they are with impunity uh targeting Africans with violence, when they make that same without no arrest, no fear, when they make that same move against uh Asians, they're arrested. They make that same move against these Africanas, they're shot at. You know what I mean?

[00:44:16]And then we have these same forces on the ground, also people who lead us on this movement saying the the whites that are here, though they we work with them, we've been here a long time. So, um if we're talking about African liberation as a unifying measure and unifying strategy, we have to look at those problems also on the continent. And that's why we can point to these uh three members of the Sahel states and what they're doing as a as a bright spot for where we look to move forward uh in the future. Even though I think it was in Mali that they lost a a a brilliant brother. Yeah, they they they lost him.

[00:44:56]Um I'd say overall, it shows that, you know, it's kind of almost like Iran. One of of small block or a few successful, others join in. You know, and they say, "You know what? They We can stand up, too. You know, we This ain't United States ain't so tough, you know, we don't have to deal with AFRICOM, but, you know, especially with this fascist in here right now in in terms of Trump, he's more so the Democrats would do it a little more subtly using AFRICOM.

[00:45:26]Trump is more aggressive. Sort of what he's implying over one of our leading non-aligned countries of the African liberation struggle, which is Cuba, you know, cuz we always have to include the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale, which is responsible for the springing these liberation movements happening all that after Africa. Cuba's connected with Frelimo in Mozambique. Cuba's connected with uh ZANU-PF in Zimbabwe. Cuba's connected in Na- um also with with SWAPO in Namibia. Cuba's connected with the uh ANC in South Africa even though not only just ANC but other groups which were vying for control in South Africa. So, right you know, right now I kind of feel like it's really a which way is it's an attack on African people and unless we re- and invigorate us with the African liberation struggle, you know, using as a road map or model what's happening in the Sahel states where they're feeding their people. They're doing the agriculture. Africa is the richest uh country on Earth in terms of minerals and resources. I mean, we look at the Congo. You all mentioned about the uh Ebola and stuff like that's happening.

[00:46:47]Congo is a My father used to say it's a geological scandal. It has so many resources and minerals which these Europeans want. And there's no reason for us to be in this state except that we're constantly fighting off our oppressors whether they do it directly with the Republicans or indirectly with the Democrats, you know. So, I I definitely agree that we have to keep holding up Ibrahim Traore. Look, he he's coming after Thomas Sankara, you know what I mean?

[00:47:18]He's coming in his footsteps, you know what I mean? And not only that, they're always trying to steal uh the the legacy and always trying to put somebody right next to the man as you said to take them out. In fact, if you speak about it, there's a book out that came out um that the brother, well, not the brother, the sister. Random House put a book out called uh it's about a spy, a woman who was a spy.

[00:47:46]She's supposed to be the first double agent spy who uh she was supposed to It's a novel book but based on history.

[00:47:54]Um her goal was to kill Sankara, right?

[00:47:57]And you know who they said she infiltrated, right? They said she infiltrated the Patrice Lumumba coalition.

[00:48:02]>> Oh, really?

[00:48:04]>> Yeah.

[00:48:05]So, [clears throat] of course and and my whole thing, of course this did not happen, but this book was on Barack Obama's reading list for the summer and according to Gerald Horne, they were supposed to be trying to turn it into a movie. Just like they tried to turn the Garvey uh uh situation into a movie. You see what they did with Fred Hampton, they make it more about the the spy, the confidential informant and these sort of people and and they big that up. But, um I you know, so there had been some communication between me and that sister. She said she put Patrice Lumumba coalition in there as an ode to cuz she remember coming up in Harlem attending the forums and um you know, learning so much about Africa.

[00:48:49]But, my whole thing was we wanted to know was who's this sister who was the who served as the source for this information saying that they wanted to kill Sankara. That was her goal, but she in the book she falls in love with him and she couldn't kill him.

[00:49:04]Um my whole thing is you're doing a novel, you don't need to name but you know, that's scandalous. That's like you're slandering uh the Patrice Lumumba coalition's history, you know, at the same time. But, my my point being with that is that there even added that uh Burkina Faso. What happened? We still got your Aubrey. So, it's we always we can never lose faith in our young people who are coming up and who are watching us, you know. And so, I believe that the Sahel states it won't just be Sahel, but this core members of African uh organizations will grow and eventually will lead us to a stronger continent.

[00:49:42]>> Professor Margaret, if you could talk to us a bit about a very complex, interesting development and that's BRICS.

[00:49:52]The Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, maybe 20 other countries now.

[00:49:58]>> Mhm.

[00:49:58]>> It's not a coalition made in heaven.

[00:50:00]There's a lot of contradictions and a lot of inconsistencies in that coalition, but they are talking about uh uh uh independent unit of of uh currency. Mhm.

[00:50:14]They're talking about a new development bank and not dealing with the IMF and the World Bank.

[00:50:21]With all of its contradictions, what is some of the promise that can come out of a coalition like that as we see the dying, declining American empire?

[00:50:34]>> Well, it's you know, it's it was uh very important that these nations get together and talk about ending dollar domination. US US dollar is the Excuse me, world's reserve currency uh for countries to start breaking away.

[00:50:51]China's done that the most uh effectively using their uh economic power as the world's biggest manufacturing uh nation. So, it's it's a very very important step. However, uh the US it's interesting. On the one hand, yes, we can say the US is in crisis. The US is wounded, but that is also what makes it dangerous. Look at what they've done in just the last few months. Kidnapping Maduro, depriving China, a BRICS member, of oil. China uh was buying Venezuela's oil and now they don't have it anymore.

[00:51:32]Um they are their attempt, and they have failed, thank goodness, in uh um uh regime change in Iran. Also, an effort to um uh uh, country that's geographically not far from Russia, but on the Asian mainland. Uh, that also supplies China with oil. So, the US is not going to just stand by. Um, and they want to go in for the kill with Cuba, especially in this very dangerous moment for Cuba. We know all know about the worsening blockade and the blackouts, all because of the US.

[00:52:11]Uh, but they want a success because they failed in Iran and they haven't given up in Iran, either. Um, it didn't work out the way they thought, but they chip away and chip away year after year after year to weaken a country as they did with Venezuela, as they did with Syria. So, it's very important that nations, um, work together to free themselves from US hegemony as they've done with the BRICS, but as I said, these folks don't just give up. They don't take their marbles and go home. So, the struggle has to be continuous.

[00:52:50]Um, uh, against, uh, the imperialist, uh, uh, powers of the world and we must always be in support of those nations that are struggling to have self-determination and to be free of, uh, this, uh, hegemony that the US wants, uh, to keep.

[00:53:10]>> And you mentioned, we were talking about the youth. I think the average age on the continent of Africa is like 22. And these are very, very young people that are telling military leaders that we want you to take out these so-called puppet governments and they try to connect democracy to imperialism or democracy to capitalism.

[00:53:34]>> Do we have democracy? Do we even have democracy here?

[00:53:38]>> [laughter] >> There's none here. Listen, I mean, anytime you have 240 million people registered to vote for president, 160 million of them come out and vote, 80 million stay home, when only 538 of them can vote directly for president.

[00:53:55]>> Yes, and I I I want to say this about, you know, Burkina Faso is an and youth in Africa. It's been a great inspiration. A friend in Nigeria was telling me that young people all over the continent are saying, "Well, if they can do that here, why can't we do that?

[00:54:12]Uh if they can do that there, why can't we uh do that here? So, this we we every success builds upon itself. And to see this country in struggle that has uh removed itself or is in the process of removing itself from Western domination, although have we we've seen in Mali, Mali is under attack. Uh uh they've even sent Ukrainians. They've armed these jihadists who they armed against Libya. Uh so, they're constantly constantly constantly at work to try to undermine revolutionary uh movements. Uh but that makes it all the more important to be in support um in support of them.

[00:54:57]>> That's right. Well, we're running out of time. We got about 5 minutes left, but you did mention South Africa. Brother Brath and I I remember the uh support we gave to the Pan African Congress of Azania and Mangaliso Sobukwe and David Sibeko. He was also the UN rep. But in South Africa, what about the hero heroine Winnie Mandela? You know, a lot of people don't lift up Winnie Mandela cuz she stayed the course.

[00:55:27]She stayed the course as a revolutionary and they wind up Bishop Tutu and all of them attacking her instead of apartheid Zionist fascist pigs. Go ahead.

[00:55:40]>> Mhm. You know, I I agree. I am a big fan of Winnie Mandela. And I think Winnie Mandela understood something early on.

[00:55:51]She understood what the United States was doing in terms of how they operate.

[00:55:55]You know, when I used to be on 90.3 FM, we used to have a show called The Communicators uh by It was founded by Wayne Grice. I used to be on with brother Leroy Baylor.

[00:56:06]And we interviewed more than once a brother or not a brother, but a good guy named John Perkins. He's the author of a book called The Economic Hit Man. And he talked about the what the United States does if you do not give up your resources to them. He talked about whether it's the Middle East, whether it's Latin America. Um you know, he's a hot He's basically a consultant uh international consultant for them, you know.

[00:56:30]Um he talks about they'll kill you, you know what I mean?

[00:56:33]>> [laughter] >> Whether you're in a No matter where you're at, their goal is if you're not agreeing to his And the bottom line is this, what they want is they want the act those who have the avarice, the greed to hoard the wealth for their self. If you're trying to use it for your people in a socialist sort of way, uh you got to go.

[00:56:53]They they they trying to take you out, you know? And And the thing about it, he has all the receipts cuz when he first tried to put this out, they said we could do it a movie or you could put this out. But put it out in a novel so we could say it's not true. And no, he put it out as his own experiences of what is happening and what's going down, which is juxtaposed kind of what I mentioned. Uh someone had text me like, "You never said the name of the book." The book is called American Spy was by Lauren Wilkinson.

[00:57:20]>> about 2 minutes left. I want uh Margaret to finish with a post You wanted us to post something because you were going to have another event. So, you can put that up now on the moment.

[00:57:33]>> Mhm.

[00:57:34]Yes, thank you so much. We're I'm among the speakers at a webinar on Saturday morning, May 30th, 11:00 a.m.

[00:57:42]Eastern. If you just go to Black Alliance for Peace website, you can see how to register. And myself and others who are part of this delegation in Kenya, this counter summit to the Kenyan compradors.

[00:57:56]The webinar is entitled Resisting the Imperialist Plunder in Africa. Kenya Delegation Report Back on the Passaic Summit. So, thank you for displaying the graphic and I hope folks can join us.

[00:58:08]Thank you very much.

[00:58:10]>> Well, you're welcome. And we have some closing remarks. I'll start with Inez and then I'll give you mine and thanks for coming on. This was wonderful. We got to bring you all back. There's so much information.

[00:58:22]>> Thank you so much for being our special guests here on this program.

[00:58:28]Knowing that we've got lots of work to do and that we are encouraged by the work that has already been done.

[00:58:36]We appreciate your being with us and we know that the hope that you have brought through giving us information about what's going on across the continent and on this country as well is an inspiration to maintain the hope that we will be successful. We know we're going to be successful and we'll bring our people's consciousness, raising that so that we will know that liberation is an ongoing struggle and as we get those steps and move closer and closer, we've got to maintain the fight because as you said, they're a caged animal, they're dangerous and they never leave. They never stop. So, we've got to be encouraged to keep our feet planted, move ever forward and support those institutions and those organizations and be able to raise our voice in support of those countries, particularly as we're talking about Cuba and Venezuela, as they're being targets right now. And the work that those nations have done historically to support the African movement for liberation. So, we've got to be mindful of that, inform other people of what it is, and continue to raise our consciousness, and be ever vigilant in the struggle.

[00:59:48]>> And we say that we're experiencing the birth pains of a new world order.

[00:59:54]American imperialism is dying. The American dollar is declining.

[01:00:00]And no empires last forever. Remember the rise and fall of empires. They said the [clears throat] Roman Empire was here forever, it fell. They said the British Empire, the sun never set on the British Empire, and the British pound was here forever. Now they're being pounded with economic crises right in their own country. They died. The American Empire is dying all over the world. Countries are rising up, smaller countries are rising up and fighting for liberation. So, we are excited about the times that we're living in, and we do believe that no leader is fit to lead you if they're going to betray you and sell us out and betray the cause of liberation for their own personal ambition. We call them sycophants, who suck up the people in power for their personal ambition over our collective liberation. We will win. Our struggle may be long, but our victory is certain.

[01:01:04]And we say each and every week the truth shall set you free free, and power is the great equalizer. Black power.

[01:01:15]>> Black power.

[01:01:16]>> [sighs] >> Till next week.

[01:01:25]>> Mhm.