Omali Yeshitela - on Obama (2008) and Harris (2020)

Speaker 1: With a crisis like this, people lose faith in the established system. They lose faith in the system. They lose faith in Bush. They lose faith in the Republican Party. They lose faith in the Democratic Party. They lose faith in the presidency and the United States Congress itself. And they begin to look for alternatives. They begin to be open to the ability that we can join something else, that we can participate in something else to control and change our lives and to build for a better future. That means they're capable of listening to what we have to say about what it takes to build a different world. You can't build a world based on injustice, based on slavery, and expect it to work right. And so some people open up. opening to that possibility. You go to any college campus, you see all these young people on the campuses who were thinking about revolution, but overturned the whole system, recognized that something was rotten with the system. And then, here comes Barack Obama. Obama. So you got Africans who are losing their homes. Believe me, it's happening already. You look at most of the major cities where Africans are located and look at the pattern of a home, what do you call it? Foreclosure? You will see that it's Africans who are losing their homes by the thousands. And so you find Africans now who were open to the question of revolution. And here comes Barack Obama. Here comes Hillary Clinton and many people who I've known or known of, I see them now talking about how Barack represents a possibility of the future. They say Obama means that it's possible that the race issue is no longer a significant issue in America anymore. I've seen that. I've seen this by nationalists, pan-Africanist nationalists. who are raising this question. They're saying that Obama proves maybe the race question is no longer a primary factor in American life anymore. That's what they're saying. And then Obama went and won a New Hampshire primary. Iowa. Iowa. Thank you. Iowa primary. Won the Iowa primary. And then was leading in the polls going into New Hampshire. Lost New Hampshire. People said, what happened? They still haven't explained what happened in New Hampshire. They still haven't explained what happened in New Hampshire. All the polls said he was going to win in New Hampshire. But he lost in New Hampshire. And then, of course, he won big just now in South Carolina. What in the hell is going on? People are talking about Barack Obama in the newspapers. They're talking about him. They're holding him up as this great example. He represents hope and change. That's what they're saying. Isn't that what they're saying? Hope and change. But the primary thing about Barack Obama is that he hasn't said the word black out of his mouth, not even to talk about the color of his suit or his shoes. He cannot address the question of African people, the suffering of our people. He cannot say a single word about the condition of African people. He can't say, look at what the subprime mortgage industry is doing to Africans in this country. He can't say what's happening to us at all. Because if he does, it means the white people won't vote for him. But guess what? Let's go back. He won in Iowa. Everybody said, wow, Iowa's white. And he won an hour. And it looks like he's going to lose in New Hampshire, win in New Hampshire. But the difference is this, that our caucus is open. That is to say, when you go to Iowa in the caucus, the different contenders have representatives at the meetings. So whoever's for Obama is over here. Whoever is for Edwards is over here. Whoever is for Clinton is over here, et cetera, et cetera. And if your guy doesn't get everything, then you might go over and support another candidate. If it's strategic, you go over there and support him. Do you understand what I'm saying? It's public. It's open. But New Hampshire was closed, and the white people who said they were going to vote for Obama didn't do it. And they said they were going to vote for him because there was no good reason they shouldn't vote for him. If you're going to vote for a lick-spittle, boot-licking servant of capitalism, Obama was the best lick-spittle you could have. So why not vote for Obama? except you got something against black people. And so they couldn't say, I got something against black people, therefore I'm not going to vote for Obama.

Omali Yeshitela: They said, I'm going to vote for him.

Speaker 1: And the time they got behind the curtain, they did what white folk often do. They voted for white people, just like they often do. But he goes to South Carolina. He wins big in South Carolina. He wins so big, it's amazing. So they say, what happened? Because it wasn't too long ago that most of the Africans who they polled in South Carolina said they were going to vote for Clinton. But what happened? What happened was when he won in Iowa and came in second in New Hampshire, many of the Negroes who were going to vote for Clinton thought he had a chance to win. They actually said, he can win. So all of them went back. 80% of the Africans in South Carolina voted for Obama. But only 25% of the white people in South Carolina voted for Obama. And so even if you're talking about race doesn't make a difference, Some made a damn difference. 80% of the Africans voted for Obama, and 75% voted against him. 76%. Actually, he got 24% of the white vote. And 76% split their vote up between the other white people who were running for office.

Omali Yeshitela: So he didn't do as good as they would have you think he did in terms of proving that race is no longer a factor in this country.

Speaker 1: Now, Obama has got a lot of money behind him. And in fact, in the first quarter of this process, he raised more money than Clinton did, which was extraordinary. So the question is, why does Obama get this kind of support? Well, there are a couple of reasons for it. One is because Obama is somebody that America needs right now. White America. Because for one reason, he is a symbol of what every Negro should be.

Omali Yeshitela: Somebody who doesn't rock the boat, doesn't say anything about black people in the political life, and got nothing to say about nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, said nothing about black people, except I can't help because I'm black. Or something to that effect. Or it doesn't matter if I'm black. It ought to be the most goddamn important thing in your life that you're black. You understand?

Speaker 1: But he is like race and color neutral. He's like Oprah Winfrey and Michael Jordan.

Omali Yeshitela: You know what I'm saying?

Speaker 1: These are somebody that all the white people in the world can love them because they don't say nothing that would shake them up about black people and the condition of our folk. And so they need that now. They need an Obama to become a template to create a template for how Africans should act, how people should act in pursuing political objectives. He is a noble Negro. He's like Mandela. Nothing upsets him. No, no matter what has happened, he's not upset about it. And that's how all of you should act. Stop acting upset. Be like Obama. If you come down here with a demonstration that bold is, Obama would never do that. Understand? And so anything that acts different from Obama is extremist. So that's really important for him to become this template. But one of the most important tasks of Obama, and I'm not talking about... He volunteered and said, look boss, this is what I'm going to do. I'm saying this is why the white folk give him the money to make it possible. I'm saying that when you talk about a presidential election where they're going to spend more than a billion dollars in this election, it's not something like your neighborhood guy can run for office. Somebody with a whole bunch of money is a lot of force, a whole bunch of money is promoting him and projecting him forward for their own reason. Not because of you, but because of them. Not because of what's important to Africans, but because of what's important to this element of the ruling class. So he's important because at this time of crisis, where you might be looking for revolution, where you might be willing to talk about overturning the system, He brings Africans back into the safe embrace of the Democratic Party.

Omali Yeshitela: I think one of the most interesting developments around the candidacy of Barack Obama for the nomination of the Democratic Party as candidate for US president is the response that we're seeing coming from many Africans who are considered nationalist and pan-Africanist, and some of whom are even involved in organizations that consider themselves pro-independence. They talk about achieving an independent state for African people here in the United States. And what makes it really interesting is because they are really quibbling on this question. On the one hand, we see on the internet, on one of the popular listservs, this ongoing discussion. I've seen actually one indication from such a person that raises the possibility that quote-unquote race is no longer a main issue, a primary issue, a big issue in American political life anymore as evidenced by Barack Obama's success. From others, we've seen a serious kind of quibbling where folks now raising the issue of actually criticizing US imperialism and saying that it's a terrible instrument of oppression and genocide, et cetera, and slavery and colonialism, and they know what the system is about, and they know, they say, that there's great likelihood that Obama can't do anything different than what the system will allow on the one hand, but on the other hand, they talk about supporting him anyhow. They say simple-minded things like because of what they characterize as Africaninity. Or I saw one person saying that they're going to vote for him because of the symbolism. And one discussion we saw, it was from an African group based in the United States of Haitian-born activists. who is saying that they know that there's a great likelihood that he's going to be like a neo-colonial puppet that they see actually in Haiti, but the question they say is, what else is there? And I think this is the final, this is the real issue that most of these nationalists are confronted with. I mean, because it's almost as if though they're playing with politics. Either they actually believe that African people can have and should have independence from US imperial white power here and around the world. Either they do believe that the future of African people is as a united and liberated people and that they have fundamental ideas for Africa itself to be free. Either they believe that the U.S. government is an illegitimate entity that imposes its will at gunpoint on African people here in this country, and that it is the primary basis for all of the poverty, all of the injustices, for the nooses being hung, for the police violence against our community. Either they believe these things or they don't. And if they believe these things, then it seems to me that the question of what else is there is really an easy one to answer. What else is there is a struggle for our own power to replace this illegitimate power that is represented by both the Republicans and the Democratic Party, regardless of whether it's in the form of Hillary Clinton or McCain or Barack Obama. It doesn't make any difference. Both of these are illegitimate institutions, both of which share in controlling the colonial state power that's responsible for our oppression and the misery of our people as well as the misery of the peoples around the world. I think that it is a telling statement that to have nationalists and so-called radical activists in this place of where they are in a quandary as to whether or not it is legitimate somehow for them to be supporting Barack Obama and not saying that they recognize, particularly at a time like this and such crisis, that Barack Obama is important to white power imperialism, to lead African people out of independent political life and carry us into the safe embrace of an imperialist organization like the Democratic Party. So what we are suggesting is that we have to stop trying to find these quick and easy fixes to our problem and assume responsibility for our own liberation. This is not against Barack Obama as an individual or as a person. It is the fact that we as Africans, and especially those of us who have assumed responsibility to lead our people, must then call on people to reject both the Democrat and the Republican Party and to join revolutionary organizations with the objective of overturning the social system. I heard all of the arguments, yeah, That's going to happen down the line. But right now, that's what we usually hear. Right now, what we have to do is start. And every year, every four years, we go through this process of, oh, God, please let a good white man get elected. Now, let a good white woman or a good Negro get elected. But the consequences are the same. We don't have power over our own lives. And so what we call for in the African People's Socialist Party is for Africans everywhere to be organized, either in the African People's Socialist Party or the African Socialist International, so that we can make revolutionary transformation and seize power over our own lives. That way we have real power, we have nappy-headed power, we have big-lipped power, we have broad-nosed boombox on your shoulder power that belongs to us and doesn't make it necessary for us to kowtow to or kiss the feet of any other force for fear that we might offend them when we speak into our own interests. We have to be able to fight for our own interests. Our people will not have a future unless we do. Join the African People's Socialist Party. Join the African Socialist International. Assume the responsibility of liberating and uniting Africa and African people worldwide. No compromise, no surrender.

Speaker 3: On Tuesday, November 4th, Barack Obama was elected as the first president of the imperialist United States. While there has been much discussion about what this means for black people in the world, we felt it important to bring the forum here to UhuraRadio.com, the voice of the international African revolution. To participate in this discussion on today, we have in the studio with us O'Malley Eshitela, chairman of the African Socialist International, who has for more than 40 years been a leader in the international African revolution. We also have on the line with us renowned journalist and editor of BlackAgendaReport.com, Brother Glenn Ford. On the line from London, England, we have Louisa Kinshasa, Secretary General of the African Socialist International. We also have on the line from Freetown, Sierra Leone, Cherno Alpha Mba, who is the director of the Africanist Movement, where black presidents and prime ministers have been the norm for several decades. And we also have in the studio with us Penny Hess, the chairwoman of the African People's Solidarity Committee. First of all, I want to welcome everybody to this very significant discussion, and thank you all for being here to participate in it. uh... we might name this discussion the the great black hope discussion uh... all great back black hopeless discussion uh... uh... speaking of uh... how many uh... have viewed uh... barack obama and uh... in his election uh... uh... as the first uh... black president of the united states uh... how about we begin the discussion uh... with the question that everybody is asking and that question is is Obama's election going to mean a different reality for African people in the U.S.? Chairman, if I can begin with you in answering this question.

Omali Yeshitela: Well, that was a softball pitch. But I think we need to do more than, I think that we cannot trivialize the significance of the election itself. And the thing that makes that very obvious is the jubilation that has been experienced by African people all around the world. Throughout this country, I did not, for example, stay up waiting for the election returns, but was awakened in the middle of the night by gunfire and by African screaming and jubilation with the election. And as we will probably hear from comrades in Sierra Leone, West Africa, and in London, England, similar experiences with black people there occurred. And I've seen evidence otherwise of how people... made the assumptions that this election was going to be a profound transformation not only in this country but for people and particularly African people around the world. But in addition to just seeing African people acting a certain way, I have seen and heard expressions by North Americans or white people by people, by French persons, etc. So it is not something that can be trivialized. There is a tremendous expectation and assumption of power by African people as a consequence of this election. But to answer the question, no, we cannot count on the election of Barack Obama meaning anything meaningful and positive in terms of the conditions of existence for African people in this country. And I think this is something that we're going to have to concentrate on because The fact is that most Africans have, or many Africans in our experience, have indicated that it doesn't matter in a certain way. I mean, they've said that, okay, he didn't say anything about us, but he didn't have to, or he couldn't say anything about us, or he couldn't have a program that addressed our interests, otherwise he could not have got elected. But having said that, there is an assumption among masses of people that some power has come to us as African people in this country as a consequence of this election. Even a young brother I was talking to on yesterday said, He said that now we've got the power. We've got the power. The question is, do we know what to do with it? So there's an assumption out there that African people have power, and I think that's something that we're going to have to work with. I want to say that while I'm speaking here about the implications this has immediately for African people, I think that we have to be concerned that I have always been so happy to say that African people have not taken some opportunistic stance in this country, that our stance in this country has always been one that has been in solidarity with oppressed peoples around the world. When America said we want to go kill Iraqis, the African population in this country, 77% of black people in this country were opposed to it. When America fought in Vietnam, the majority of African people, even in Vietnam, fought against it. And when America talks about treating people badly, generally speaking, African people have been on the other side of the question. Now what we are confronted with is an Obama who is holding up the same basic imperialist principles that America has stood for all along. There's no statement, even this is the Iraqi war, where he talked out of both sides of his mouth about about the war. He never was able to denounce the war, first of all, as a crime that was committed against the people of Iraq. Instead, he talks about it in terms of a war that there was no real weapons of mass destruction and or that it was a war that was problematic for other kinds of reasons. Never because of what it meant in terms of taking people's freedom And now he talks about leaving thousands of troops. And the thing that goes unspoken, of course, is the so-called contractors who are civilians who fight to kill people in Iraq that have been hired by the American government. There's no discussion about removing them. He talks about sending more troops to occupy Afghanistan and keep those poor people oppressed, and about even attacking Pakistan. Obama has said this. So we're looking at the same basic warmongering principles as we must see because America is an imperialist country. It's not an imperialist country because Obama was elected. In fact, Obama was elected precisely and put forth by white power imperialists precisely because it was an imperialism suffering serious crises. and that it could not function in the same old way anymore as imperialism now with a new face that is not historically associated with the oppression of peoples around the world. And so that's one thing that makes his election really helpful for imperial white power. Secondly, Obama... has to say something and do something immediately about AFRICOM, which is the US military command that has been established for the purpose of contending with China for the resources in Africa and for maintaining the status quo in Africa so that there can be an ongoing extraction of wealth from Africa, the national homeland of black people all around the world. Obama has to say something about and do something about the fact that one out of every eight African young men in America is in prison on any given day in this country.

Speaker 1: Or the fact that the unemployment rate and the whole crisis that impacts and has impacted on our community for a very long time.

Omali Yeshitela: Uhuru, brothers and sisters, for those of you who don't know, Uhuru means freedom. It means black freedom. It means nappy haired freedom. It means broad nose and thick lip freedom. It means Mau Mau freedom. It means death to colonialism, freedom, Uhuru. My name is Omalie Chattel and I'm chairman of the African People's Socialist Party. I'm leader of the Uhuru Movement and the International African Revolution. I want to welcome everyone to this discussion. On today, what we want to talk about is a question of Kamala Harris. As many of you know, The Democratic National Convention is happening now, and it has all been declared officially that Joe Biden, the senator from Delaware, or the former senator from Delaware, the former vice president under Barack Hussein Obama, is now officially the standard bearer for the Democratic Party in the contest to become president of the United States. he has chosen as his vice president, Kamala Harris. She is a person who has come to some acclaim and notoriety over the process of the presidential campaign, Democratic presidential campaign. And as could be expected, putting forth Kamala Harris as his vice presidential choice has led to a lot of discussion. Some people are ecstatic. Many people, or it appears to be many people anyway, see Kamala Harris characterized as the first black woman who has been a presidential nominee from a major presidential party or vice presidential force nominee for a major political party to be the first woman to have achieved that designation as the vice presidential candidate of a major political party. Some people say that is a fantastic victory. And of course, that's how it's being pushed and promoted, not only by the Democratic Party, but it is being pushed and promoted even by forces who are opposed to the Democratic Party and Joe Biden being elected. This idea that Kamala Harris represents a form of progress that It represents progress for black people and it represents progress for African people. We've seen some women from our community who have shown their celebratory expectations of this nomination and

Speaker 1: how much it should mean, even a person, an iconic figure from our struggle in the 1960s, Angela Davis.

Omali Yeshitela: has stepped forward and she has made statements to the effect that although that we don't like what Kamala Harris did when she was the District Attorney in San Francisco and the Assistant DA in Oakland, California, and we don't like what she did when she was the Attorney General of the United States, that some kind of feminist policy, she said, some feminist assumptions make it possible for us to overlook those contradictions. And of course, the contradictions that they are talking about or she is talking about are those that have resulted in hundreds and hundreds of African people being locked up in prison. And sometimes with Kamala Harris actually doing nearly the equivalent of dancing at her success in having people in prison, on one occasion at least. Even after DNA and other evidence indicated that somebody was innocent, she has pushed for his execution, black man, for his execution because he didn't get his paperwork in on time. So this is what we're talking about when we look at Kamala Harris and we're looking at how we can overlook some of her contradictions based on the fact that some feminist instinct or some feminist position should make it possible for us to overlook those contradictions. We don't have to say that much about Joe Biden. Joe Biden, of course, is the guy who put forth the 1994 crime bill. He worked on it. He's the one who shepherded through virtually every necessary committee, made all the deals that had to be made in order to get it passed. Joe Biden is the one who, with the 1994 crime bill, the crime bill that resulted in 100,000 policemen being put in the streets throughout this country, and perhaps one of them, perhaps one of them,

Speaker 1: kill George Floyd. Perhaps one of them is responsible for the murder of Mike Brown.

Omali Yeshitela: But the point is that Biden is the one who put that forward, and it was something that was carried on the ballot with William Jefferson Clinton. And so you had that. It's a crime bill that created more than 60 new offenses that could demand the death penalty in federal courts. So this is Biden. And he's more than that, as you know, just in terms of his horrible anti-African, his whole colonial attitude that despite the fact that he is the one who, for example, when Barack Hussein Obama was nominated by the Democratic Party said that the good thing about Obama is that he is clean and he is a black person who speaks good English when he wants to. And so this is Biden. This is the same Biden who fought against what was supposed to be, in the minds of many liberals, the ingredient that would integrate or desegregate schools in this country. He fought against the busting of African people. And of course, we know that that wouldn't have made a dime's worth a difference in terms of the real relationship we have to the system. But the fact is that the white people who he was quoting didn't understand that.

Speaker 1: He worked very closely with reactionary Jim Cole Ku Klux Klan politicians in the US Congress. So this is Biden. So Biden clearly is no friend of African people. So in the form So in the form of, here we have Biden, who's put 100,000 policemen in the streets of this country.

Omali Yeshitela: on the one hand, and then we have Kamala Harris as prosecutor who's using those police to lock Black people up throughout California. So this is who they are. And the fact is that people have mentioned that. This is not something that people, many people are unaware of. And as I said, we had forces like Angela Davis who was saying despite who Kamala Harris is, despite her Her record, it is a historic thing that the feminist instinct that has me makes it necessary for us to overlook these issues with her and to be able to support her. The fact is that we hear some of the same things about Kamala Harris that we heard about Barack Hussein Obama when he ran for office, that despite his record, despite The vacuum was an empty platform that made no mention of serving the interests of African people, nor of serving the interests of others in this country and the oppressed peoples around the world as president of the main of the international chief hegemon predator of the world. Despite all of that, it's a good symbol. This is what they say about Kamala Harris too, that this symbolic victory. They have this black woman who is now in the process of ascending to being the vice presidential candidate of the Democratic Party. And there are forces who have said that, and there are even people who

Speaker 1: many forces who call themselves leftists and revolutionaries work with like Bernie Sanders who is now talking about what a good job that Harris is going to do how what a big difference this is going to make and many other leftist forces who Africans and some Africans and many liberal leftists had looked to to make the big difference and

Omali Yeshitela: in the Democratic Party. Many of the people who thought that Bernie Sanders' presence in the electoral process was going to push the Democratic Party to the left, to make it something that looks more revolutionary, more progressive, if you will, now are on board with this Kamala Harris choice and putting forth Kamala Harris

Speaker 1: and Joe Biden as this great new force that's going to be able to unseat Trump and make a lot of difference for the people in this country. And people are frightened. And I recognize and understand that especially a lot of working class people in our own community, that is to say the African community, and a lot of people who call themselves progressives and leftists otherwise are frightened. They are terrified by the idea of another term for Donald Trump and it's like regardless of what kinds of crimes and offensives that these persons who are from the Democratic Party, Biden and Harris, have committed or may commit, we have to vote for them because otherwise Trump is going to maintain a hold on the presidency. And then they are prepared to say and will say by the time this presentation is over that if you go against Biden, if you go against Trump, then what you're doing is facilitating the re-election of Donald Trump. And so that is a terrifying prospect for many people who will not come out and say right up front that Kamala Harris is not representative of our people and that there's no basis, no real reason in the world why anybody should organize to vote for and support Kamala Harris. And so we are prepared to have that discussion with anybody. And the only reason it's necessary to have that discussion with anybody is because we're at a place today where opportunism reigns supreme in what used to be a revolutionary movement in this country and around the world by African people.

Omali Yeshitela: This question of Kamala Harris and the electoral process is not something that's peculiar and specific to

Speaker 1: to African people or people in the United States. This question of the electoral process and how it is to be treated is something that revolutionaries around the world are grappling with and the peoples around the world are grappling with. Just the other day, we see that the military overthrew the government in Mali. It's a reactionary neo-colonial government, a puppet of French and US imperialism who occupy Mali in the real sense. starve and exploit and oppress our people. And what we've seen subsequent to the military coup is that people are dancing in the streets. But we've seen them dance in the streets in Egypt. We've seen them dance in the streets in other places around the world when these thugs have been overthrown only to find themselves back in the same situation they were in prior to the removal of those faces of white power. And what we are confronted with today is the fact that many of the people are trapped. They feel like they are trapped. If we don't vote for Biden and Harris, then what the hell is going to happen to us? That's the assumption that many people are moving with, and they're too afraid not to support Harris. They are more afraid of Trump than they are for any kind of program that Biden and Harris might be bringing. Biden and Harris cannot bring for a program that would speak to the interests of Africans and oppressed and working class people here and around the world. So it's not that we are voting for a program that they are presenting or people are being asked to. People are being asked to vote against Trump. People are saying, let your fears make the decision for you on the one hand. And on the other hand, many people, Africans in particular, are being duped by the fact that Kamala Harris is a woman. And so as a woman, this feminist instinct, this historic event of a Black woman being on the ticket of a major political party is overcoming any kind of examination of who she is, what her politics are, and what that means in terms of forwarding the movement of Black people, whether it progresses us or whether it sets us back. These are the kinds of issues that we have to deal with. And it doesn't matter that Kamala Harris is an African woman. We've seen if being Black was enough to satisfy what it is that we're looking for, all we have to do is look all over the continent of Africa, where puppets have been put in power, kept in power, manipulated in power by either France or the United States or other imperialist powers there. And they bleed the people. They steal resources from Africa and from the people and send them to these major corporations. Just like Obama gave trillions of dollars to the corporations here inside the United States and other places as well. So being black is not enough because we've seen these. If that was the solution, then there would be nothing but freedom and happiness and joy all over the continent of Africa. But Africa is suffering more now than it was before these puppets were put in power. And they were put in power because they need to be able to disguise the reality that imperial white power is the dominating force and it cannot operate in its own face anymore because the masses of people have become conscious of this white colonial domination and the massive people have begun to chant kill the white devils and things like that so then white devils can't come in their own face they come looking like us. They eat foo-foo like we eat foo-foo. They go to the same clubs that we go to. They know the same dances and handshakes, et cetera, but they're not us. And this is something that we cannot make this mistake about because people say we have to vote for Kamala because she's one of us. She's not one of us. And I'm not talking about she's not one of us because she's supposed to be of some mixed heritage. and the like. I'm not saying that because of that. I never even condemned Barack Hussein Obama because he's supposed to be some mixed person. I don't even know what the hell mixed is. But I'm saying this because they're not one of us because they represent imperialist white power. It's colonialism. It is colonialism in black face. It's white power in black face. And this is the basis of the opposition. So the reason we're having this discussion in part is because we had a revolutionary movement. It didn't start off as a revolutionary movement. It was a movement that grew out of what people refer to as the Civil Rights Movement that gained more and more clarity and more and more momentum and challenged this whole social system to its foundation. It developed into an anti-colonial movement that we characterized as the Black Power Movement. We saw the emergence of the Black Panther Party. And as this occurred, what we saw happen also was a diminishing of the significance of the Democratic Party. The fact is that by 1965, when universal suffrage happened in this country through the hard blood work, you want to hold up an African woman that you need to look at? Look at Fannie Lou Hamer. Look at Ella Baker. These were people who actually talked about against imperialism and fought for the liberation of our people. And Fannie Lou Hamer once said that in 1964, she said, I fought like hell to get into the Democratic National Convention. By 1968, she said, I fought to get the hell out because she came to understand exactly what she was dealing with that social system. So if you got to say one of us, then look at Fannie Lou Hamer. look at ella baker look at other women who actually stood up to fight against this social system and never repudiated the revolution and never ever ever uh compromise the uh the fact that we have to stand up for the freedom and liberation of our people and also peoples around the world that is not kamala harris ain't kamala harris and uh so then the question is left uh here here we have this movement incredible movement developed, blew up. And it was this movement of thousands of poor people, starving people facing water hoses and facing cattle prize. You know, you've heard the line, our people, so that we have the right to vote. People fought because they wanted freedom. That's what they fought for. They didn't fight just to vote. The vote is empty if it doesn't produce the freedom that the people fought for. So you had the people struggling, changing the ground in this country and affecting struggle all around the world. And the people in the process of changing the world changed themselves and moved from this passive instrument that could be, this passive entity that could be used by the Democratic Party, manipulated to go here and go there, and became recognized that even after we achieve the so-called universal suffrage, the Voting Rights Act was passed when? 1965. the voting rights act was passed in 1965 this is what gave universal suffrage to all of us but the movement didn't start then it escalated and it moved beyond the so-called voting rights and then in 1966 the man was what black power saying it's not enough just to just to have rights to vote we have to have power over our own lives that was an anti-colonial demand And this escalating struggle of our people led to a war against our movement. We're talking about political prisoners stuffing the prisons in this country right now who came from that period. We're talking about Malcolm X being assassinated by the United States government, King being assassinated by the United States government. More than 30 members of the Black Panther Party in 1968 alone were wiped out by the United States government. And more and more, more than 300 thrown in prison. Fred Hampton in 1969 was killed to stop a revolutionary movement. At this time, we weren't looking for the Democratic Party to solve our problems. We weren't looking to go, oh, I hope the white man gets a nice Negro to be a solution for us. We were looking to solve our own problems. We came, built our own revolutionary organization, had our own programs. The Democratic Party does not have a revolutionary program. It does not have a program that speaks to the interests of African people. Some are saying, well, you know, you can't have everything. So we just have to take what we got and whatever is offered to us. And I say that's wrong. That one thing I want to introduce you to. is that we don't have to settle for that. We don't have to assume responsibility for the election of Trump no more than we were responsible when he was elected before, as people have tried to say that the reason he was elected because enough Black people didn't come out to vote against Trump, to vote for Hillary Clinton. Uh, and, uh, lying Hillary Clinton, uh, reactionary Hillary Clinton. Uh, that's why they said, uh, we, uh, this, this Trump is in office and that's not true. And, uh, the same forces that put Trump in power, uh, keep Trump in power. Also the forces that are presenting, uh, representing Biden, Biden represents them as well. I mean, they're going to be Democrats and Republicans speaking throughout this convention, uh, uh, this democratic convention. So what is it then? that we have to do. We have to build movement. There is no easy way out of this. There's no, okay, let's get this white person or that Negro person and just vote for them. It's gonna be a hunky dory, so to speak. The fact of the matter is that the power of our movement was stronger before we got the right to vote. It was the movement that got the right to vote. It was not the vote that got the movement. It was not the fact that we were voting and therefore things began to happen. It was a struggle of the people, a struggle that bears at least some minimal resemblance to the fact that millions of people throughout this country have been protesting and have been engaged in struggle that even included insurrection almost in this country. Millions of people, many of whom have never been involved in political life before. And they damn sure were not trying to get a Kamala Harris there. And they damn sure were not mobilizing because of Joe Biden. In fact, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are the people who will put them in jail. And I guarantee you right now, even simple-minded stuff like defund the police, Biden couldn't support that. And so these are not forces who represent our program, but neither could Bernie Sanders support that. Because the police is the state, and the state is the organization of coercion, repression. It is the military occupation of our communities that we call the police department throughout this country. None of them want to get rid of that. So you have a situation where Biden puts 100,000 cops in the streets in this country, and then who arrest people and send them to courts, and there is Kamala waiting for them. uh to make sure as prosecutor uh that they get good they get a lot of time and she's against even minimal minimal reforms in that process so the revolution was crushed and defeated And the agenda that was coming out of that revolution, even Martin Luther King's Poor People's Campaign, the one that Malcolm X talked about, the one that when he talked about how he said these Negroes were threatened to shut down Washington, he said that was the Black Revolution. Malcolm said that. And he said, Kennedy and the other liberal Democrats called in the big six. Those are the big shot Negroes at the time, representing the big shot civil rights organization at the time. He said, call it off, call it off. And then he said, Malcolm said, they said, I'm sorry, boss, we can't stop because we didn't start it. And that's what you have in the streets today. Increasingly, the ruling class cannot stop it because they didn't start it. The petty bourgeoisie cannot stop it. Kamala Harris and Joe Biden cannot stop it. What has to happen is that we have to give it direction. When I say we, I'm certainly talking about revolutionaries. I'm talking about the African People's Socialist Party. That's our responsibility. I'm talking about the Uhuru Movement. That's our responsibility to give it a direction, to give it ideological content, and to raise the confidence of the people in their own capacity to change things. Let me just say this with you. I don't have much time left. I have just a few minutes, but I just wanted to say that the African People's Socialist Party has participated in building the Black is Black Coalition for Social Justice, Peace, and Reparations. And one of the things that this coalition has done is to provide leadership based on the fact that our revolution was crushed. Our program for black power was crushed. a program for the interests of working people was crushed by the United States government, the same one that Biden created cops to kill. And I just want to read for you a revolutionary national black political agenda for self-determination that came from the coalition. And this national black political agenda is our agenda. Democratic Party's agenda is not our agenda. You can fight for this agenda. Not only can you fight for this agenda that I'm going to just tell you something about, I'm just going to read to you the declaration from this agenda, but also I'm going to call on you. Because this election, when this election happens, just three days after this election, the Black is Back Coalition is calling on African people from throughout this country to march on Washington, D.C., where we will host the 11th consecutive mobilization march on the White House rally that's around the question of Black Power Matters. that says that black community control of police, that says death to colonialism. That's the slogan that's coming from the people. And this national black political agenda for self-determination was something that we put together before we heard of Kamala Harris. uh running for office before we knew that joe biden was going to be the presidential uh nominee of the of the uh democratic party because our people needs this right not the democratic party our people need this and so here's how it said it could have been if this was written in 2016 and it could have been written today uh and what it says uh is the declaration A critical moment in our history is upon us. In addition to the traditional centuries-long destitution and political repression that has characterized our existence and distorted virtually all our intracommunal relations within the United States, there is now an escalation of police and other white violence directed at our people that demands a coherent response. The entire world is in a state of turmoil. The vast majority of the world's population that experiences poverty and cruelty as normal features of life is in a state of rebellion. Because the world capitalist system owes its existence to the enslavement of our people and colonial domination of much of the world, capitalism rests uneasily on a fault line of oppression. The historical oppression of our people stems from this cruel fact of history. Like most peoples of the world, we trace our current conditions of existence to the birth of a capitalist system at the expense of our happiness and human and material resources. We recognize the escalation of terror against Black people that includes state and popular attacks and police and civilian murder. We understand that the prominent expression of white nationalism revealed through the electoral process to select a new president of the United States are due to the growth of resistance among oppressed populations of the world and within the U.S. We recognize that the apparent social peace within the US over the past 35 years or so has been illusory. a product of the successful brutal assault by the U.S. government on the struggle of Black people for justice and power in the 1960s. Our movement was obstructed by state-imposed repression that included the political murders of important leaders from the community. Among these leaders were Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Fred Hampton, and others. The false sense of social peace during this past period also depended on the disruption of the then developing Black agenda that demanded peace, democracy, and end to poverty, political repression, and the acquisition of Black power. The US government and its millions of appointed or anointed Black leaders have contributed to a defeatist outlook among our people that reduces our struggle to vain attempts to influence the two major US ruling parties to include the interests and aspirations of our people in the otherwise ruthless, terror-inducing imperialist agenda they normally represent. The U.S. government's assault on our independent movement for Black political power has created a worldview that promotes the U.S. electoral process as the only viable means of forging and pursuing an agenda favorable to our interests. the black is back coalition for social justice peace and reparations does not believe that our future should be in the hands of any institutions that does not have its origin within our own community and has not been forged through the struggles of our people Black people, therefore, are gathering to consolidate our own national Black political agenda for self-determination. With our national Black political agenda for self-determination, we claim responsibility for our own future, independent of the Democratic and Republican parties or any other organization or institution external to our community. We are fully aware of the long history of betrayal of our people by both parties and refuse to submit our destiny to a slavish dependency on either of them. As conscious women and men, we are declaring our intent to guarantee a future for our children and generations to come by creating an independent agenda for the progress of our people. We know that this agenda is not all-encompassing. It cannot be. Our movement is in a developing stage, having been re-energized most recently By the August 9, 2014 uprising of poor working-class young people on Canfield Drive in Ferguson, Missouri, after the police murder of 18-year-old Michael Brown, we recognize that our national Black political agenda for self-determination is in contention with the decisions made for us by the rulers of the U.S., their servants in our midst, and other African people who may have legitimate disagreements with our views. But we cannot wait. History will not permit hesitation at this critical juncture. Our people demand participation in creating the future that awaits us. This development of our national Black political agenda for self-determination is not an attempt to create a new political party or organization. The Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace, and Reparations is a coalition in the truest sense of the word. We are an organization of organizations and individuals who have chosen to unite around a common set of principles for self-determination and a conscious struggle against world imperialism. We have seen the defeat of previous attempts to create a Black agenda We have seen the defeat of previous attempts to create a black agenda by prematurely creating new political formations before basic principles and organizational relations were firmly established that required first loyalty to our people rather than to the Democratic Party. we call on all organizations currently not affiliated with the black is black coalition to join us as part of a process that will extend the political influence of all our movements and organizations while preserving the independence of each so this is just a part of the uh declaration that we put forth and saying this is what we can stand for we don't have to wait for a program that would come from the Democratic Party. We can put forth our own program. We can fight. We can take to the streets. We are expecting thousands of people to be in Washington, D.C. in November for our rally, our march on the White House and our conference under the slogan Black Power Matters, Black Community Control of the Police, and Death to Colonialism. And we expect to see you there too. This is the beginning of a new movement. It doesn't matter who it is that gets elected because our circumstances will not change unless we take them in our own hands. We've got hundreds, perhaps, of political prisoners who are locked up, men and women who fought for our freedom. You don't hear anything coming from Kamala Harris. You don't hear anything coming from Joe Biden saying free Sunyata. You don't hear anything saying free Mumia. You don't hear anything saying free Leonard Peltier. You don't hear anything that says free Matula Shakur or any of the political prisoners, men and women whose courage are such that they would put to shame any of these Negro politicians that we see out here today. Let me just give you a sense. of what this National Black Political Agenda for Self-Determination stands for. The first point on there is Black women. So with this National Black Political Agenda for Self-Determination, the entire Black or African nation declares our commitment to facilitate the elevation of African women to full, equal partnership in our struggle to create a new world of freedom and socialist democracy for a unified, for a united Black community and a world shorn forever of bosses and workers and slaves and masters and where African women will share the power to guarantee that African women are adequately empowered as equal architects of our new world. Is that coming? You think Kamala means that in Democratic Party? You think that's what's represented there? Number two, the Black family. We demand an immediate halt to attacks on the Black family, a genocide campaign rooted in the Atlantic slave trade and embedded in U.S. public and private policy. The United States has ceased its war on the Black family, from the slaveholder that sold Africans as units of private property with no claims to family ties that he was bound to respect or she was bound to respect because a lot of white women were slave owners as well, to the denial of adult black people the human right to protect our families, to the deliberate exclusion of heads of black households from employment sufficient to provide for our family's needs, the systemic undermining of black family structures through public welfare programs such as the foster care system in which black children are disproportionately taken away from families and in which parental rights of being stripped from black parents in an alarming rate. That's part of it. Number three, black community control of the police. We demand the immediate withdrawal of all domestic military occupation force from black communities. This democratic demand assumes the ability of black people to mobilize for our own security and to redefine the role of the police so that it is no longer functions as an agency imposed on us from outside. Number four, free all political prisoners number four free all political prisoners number four free all political prisoners this includes politicized prisoners who may have originally been imprisoned for non-political reasons but who's who who's achieved political consciousness after imprisonment resulted uh in special uh resulted uh in political acts or statements that were punished by specialized treatment and sometimes additional prison time. Number five, roll back and end mass incarceration. Freedom all. Number six, reparations. We demand reparations consistent with international norms regarding redress of crimes against humanity. Number seven, self-defense. We declare our human right to arm self-defense from the violent attacks by white citizens and the assaults and murders by domestic military organizations and forces that include various police organizations. Number eight, nationalize the banks and end forever the rule of capital. Number nine, full employment And national minimum income, that's different from $15 an hour over a number of years. They say, we're not talking about just a minimum wage, we're talking about a national minimum income. These are some of the things that we will find in this program. You're not gonna find it in the Democratic Party program. You're not gonna find Kamala Harris even with the ability, the courage to say that. Number 10, the right to housing. Number 11, stop gentrification. Number 12, black businesses must be nurtured. Number 13, right to free education through post-graduate level. Number 14, free universal quality healthcare for all, not Obamacare. not biden care not kamala harris care not the democratic party care but free universal quality health care for all 15 voting rights 16 usl of africa asia and latin america uh 17, the West must pay its debt to Africa and its descendants. 18, free Palestine down with Israel apartheid. 19, climate change and toxic pollution created by capitalism must end. That's your program. That's the program we took through 10 different states and the District of Columbia had conventions there and then had a national convention in Washington DC that adopted this program. So you don't have to wait. for the Democratic Party, you have a program. You need to be in Washington, D.C. on November 6th. Then on November 7th, we'll have a rally at Malcolm X Park, and then we'll march on the White House. And then we'll have another rally across the street from the White House at Lafayette Park. And then on November 8th, we'll have a conference there that deals with the question that we just raised, Black Power Matters. of black community control of the police and death to colonialism. I'm Omalie Isetela. I'm the chairman of the African People's Socialist Party and the African Socialist International. I'm leader of the Uhuru Movement and the International African Revolution.