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African Liberation Day events unite worldwide movement of African resistance

African Liberation Day | 01.04.2009 15:44 | Anti-racism | Social Struggles | Workers' Movements | World

With the theme of “One Africa, One Nation: Separated by Colonial Slavery, Reunited by Revolutionary Resistance!” African Liberation Day events will be held simultaneously in Washington, DC and in Manchester, UK on May 22-24 by the African People’s Socialist Party, which leads the Uhuru Movement. The goal of the events is to build the African Socialist International, the organization working to unite and liberate Africa and African people everywhere.

As the economic and political crisis deepens for Africans throughout the world, the African-led Uhuru (freedom) Movement is struggling on many key fronts as it works to unite African people worldwide.

In Oakland, CA, the Uhuru Movement is on the ground defending the right of the African working class community to resist police terror following the incident where four Oakland policemen were killed in the process of chasing and killing 26-year-old Lovelle Mixon. The March 21 shootings came just three months after the point-blank murder by BART police of 22-year-old Oscar Grant in the BART station after Grant had already been subdued and handcuffed on the ground. Oakland police have murdered twelve people in the past two years.

Uhuru Movement organizer Bakari Olatunji, who led the East Oakland community vigil and march honoring the resistance of Mixon, stated, “We pay respect for a young brother who we feel symbolizes resistance of African people who are terrorized daily by the police.”
Watch video of the march:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6QKcARdl2w

Diop Olugbala, also an Uhuru Movement organizer, is known for raising the question to then presidential candidate Barack Obama at a St. Petersburg, FL townhall meeting, “What about the black community, Obama?”

Recently Olugbala led an Uhuru Movement protest in a meeting where Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter was laying out the city’s budget cuts that are slated to reduce services to the African community while maintaining the police. As a result of the stand of the Uhuru Movement, Olugbala was attacked for nonviolently protesting and was put in a chokehold by police.
Watch video of the police attack:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmnZs349Euk

In Philadelphia, the city with the largest prison population in the entire world and where African men are killed by police on an average of once every two weeks, the Uhuru Movement is leading the “Stop the billion dollar war against the African community” campaign.

Olugbala stated, “The issue of police and prisons is bigger than the struggles in Oakland and Philly. From black community resistance against police terror in the U.S., to rebellions demanding an end to French colonialism in the Caribbean, and uprisings in Kenya, African people are demanding an end to the oppressive relationship that has fueled the economic systems of the U.S. and Europe for so long. The African Socialist International will provide the organizational structure in our struggle for political power over our own lives, to unite and liberate Africa and African people everywhere.”

African Liberation Day
- Homepage: http://www.alduhuru.org