African Stream coverage of the Africans In Solidarity With Sahel Revolutions At Niger Conference

During 19-21 November, Pan-Africanists, anti-imperialists, and friends of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) flocked to Niamey, Niger, for the Conference in Solidarity with the Peoples of the Sahel.

The AES is a revolutionary confederation consisting of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, West African countries that have made enormous strides toward ending neo-colonialism in recent years since their people-backed military coups d’état.

The conference, organized by the West Africa Peoples Organization, Pan-Africanism Today and Nigerien civil society organizations, marks a turning point for global solidarity with Africa’s new self-determining bloc. Delegates representing political and workers’ organizations came from Zambia, Kenya, Ghana, Brazil, Cuba, Venezuela, the US, India, China and other countries.

From day one, African Stream was on the ground in Niamey to interview Nigerien locals, those involved in organizing the event and foreign delegates. In this video, we hear from people after the event’s opening ceremony.

PART 1 from African Stream

PART 2 from African Stream

DROP THE CHARGES AGAINST UHURU!

Black Alliance for Peace Condemns the Federal Indictments of the Uhuru 3 and Denial of their Fundamental Human Rights to Speech, Association, Information and Political Dissent

 Tampa, Florida — The process of jury selection on September 3rd, 2024, will mark the beginning of the federal trial of Omali Yeshitela, Chairman of the African People’s Socialist Party (APSP); Penny Hess, Chair of the African People’s Solidarity Committee (APSC); and Jesse Nevel, Chair of the Uhuru Solidarity Movement (USM), together known as the Uhuru 3.

The Uhuru 3 were indicted by the U.S. government in April 2023 on the absurd charges of being “agents of a foreign government.” — charges very similar to the indictment of W.E.B. Dubois, the internationally known Black scholar and human rights defender. Dubois was eighty-one at the time of his indictment as a supposed agent of the Soviet Union for his anti-nuclear and pro-peace advocacy. Omali Yeshitela is similarly eighty-one with an international standing as a human rights and anti-imperialist fighter for more than 60 years. The African Peoples’s Socialist Party and Uhuru Movement that he helped to found have been organizing and advocating for African people and colonized peoples for over 50 years. 

Ajamu Baraka, Chair of the Black Alliance for Peace’s (BAP) Coordinating Committee who will be an official observer of the trial states that: 

“It is only in the imagination of white supremacists that African people would need smart white people from Russia to guide our people and movement to oppose the U.S./EU/NATO proxy war against Russia and analyze and comment on all aspects of U.S. foreign policy. Internationalism has always been a core principle of our movement from the Garvey Movement and anti-fascist struggles of Africans in America and in Spain in the form of the Abraham Lincoln Brigades, as well as the International Friends of Ethiopia that opposed the Italian invasion of Ethiopia, to our support for the liberation movements in Cuba, Haiti, Africa, Central America, and Vietnam. 

Omali Yeshitela is an outstanding product and an example of that tradition, which, among many other reasons, is why BAP gives its inexorable support to chairman Yeshitela, as well as to Penny Hess and Jesse Nevel, who embody the highest example of revolutionary solidarity with African people. Hess and Nevel have stood with us, and we intend to stand with them against the criminal repression that the Uhuru 3 are targets of.”

BAP recognizes that the ridiculous charges leveled at the Uhuru 3 represent a shot across the bow of the radical Black movement. The U.S. understands that if it is successful in containing Black opposition to the increasingly aggressive militarism abroad and repression within the borders of the U.S., the broader movement in the U.S. will be more easily controlled.

BAP and our movement will not be intimated. We recognize that the complete abandonment of constitutional and human rights by the U.S. and other Western states represents an irreversible crisis of legitimacy. We will continue to stand in support of the right to resist as a core human right.

DC’s 2024 Crime Bill Is More War on the Black Working Class

“The ‘Secure DC’ Omnibus bill is the latest attempt by DC’s local government to impose law and order, while ignoring the root issues that lead to street-level crime and advancing the war against the Black working class…

Crime bills are a national phenomena in the U.S. and are nothing new. They are a means of enforcing punitive policies against the dispossessed and a way to feed the national security industrial complex in response to crises such as homelessness, poverty, and gentrification. We cannot confront this issue of the crime bill with the tunnel vision that confines us locally and keeps us disconnected from other domestically colonized Africans within the U.S. settler state.”

READ MORE.

Eric Adams and the NYPD Repress Dissent

John Chell is Chief of Patrol of the New York Police Department (NYPD). Chell has made news lately because of his threatening social media posts directed at a judge, journalists, and even City Council Members. His language was of such concern that the City Council Speaker requested that the Department of Investigation’s Inspector General conduct an official investigation.

Chell is also a white police officer who shot and killed a Black man in 2008. He shot Ortanzso Bovell in the back, claiming that he did so accidentally. In usual fashion he was never charged with a crime and the case was quickly closed. But a jury in the civil case found his version of events not credible and the city paid $2 million to Bovell’s family. Oddly, Chell ended up investigating the murder of Bovell’s surviving brother in 2022.

Despite being a killer, Chell continued to climb the ladder in successive mayoral administrations and he now has a prominent position in the department which is under the jurisdiction of a Black mayor, Eric Adams. A killer cop is one of Adams’ right hand members of the police top brass… FULL ARTICLE CONT’D

The Crisis of Liberalism

EACH strand of political praxis is informed by a political philosophy which analyses the world around us, especially, in modern times, its economic characteristics. On the basis of this analysis, the particular political philosophy sets out the objectives which have to be struggled for, and the political praxis informed by it carries out this struggle. The objective may be difficult to achieve, more difficult in certain contexts than in others, and this difficulty may act as a hurdle for political praxis; but this does not constitute a crisis for that political philosophy. The sheer difficulty of achieving an objective does not constitute a crisis. A crisis of a political philosophy arises when it has an internal contradiction, when the objective it puts forward is logically in conflict with some other feature in which it believes… FULL ARTICLE CONT’D

Introducing Black Alliance for Peace’s New National Coordinator, Max Rameau

The Coordinating Committee of the Black Alliance for Peace is happy to introduce BAP’s new National Coordinator Max Rameau. Max will assume responsibilities from Brother Ajamu Baraka, BAP’s Interim Coordinator since January of this year, on April 1st part-time and will assume full-time responsibilities May 1st. Ajamu will continue as BAP’s Coordinating Committee’s Chairperson and the coordinator of BAP’s North-South Project for People(s)-Centered Human Rights that will be launched in the Fall. 

Max Rameau is a Haitian born Pan-African theorist, campaign strategist, movement scientist and organizer.

While a student in the Washington, DC area, Max was introduced to Black Nationalist and Pan-Africanist thought. After moving to Miami, Florida in 1991, he began organizing around a broad range of human rights issues impacting low-income Black communities, including Immigrant rights (particularly Haitian immigrants), economic justice, LGBTQ rights, voting rights, particularly for ex-felons and police abuse, among others.

As a result of the devastating impacts of gentrification taking root during the housing "boom," in the summer of 2006 Max helped found the organization which eventually became known as Take Back the Land, to address 'Land' issues in the Black community. In October 2006, Take Back the Land seized control of a vacant lot in the Liberty City section of Miami and built the Umoja Village, a full urban shantytown, addressing the issues of land, self-determination and homelessness in the Black community. In October 2007, Take Back the Land initiated a bold campaign that sparked a national movement: "liberating" vacant government owned and foreclosed homes and moving homeless families into them in pursuit of the human right to housing and community control over land.

Max Rameau continues to develop movement theory, working with organizations and movements to develop impactful organizing models and campaigns. Max is an organizer with Pan-African Community Action (PACA) based in Washington D.C. and a member of the Black Alliance for Peace.

FOR IMMEDIATE ACTION: Campaign to Open the National People’s Assembly (ANP) in Guinea Bissau

FOR IMMEDIATE ACTION!

Campaign to Open the National People’s Assembly (ANP) in Guinea Bissau

The All-African People’s Revolutionary Party calls all organizations, movements, individuals, A-APRP members, contacts, friends, allies and supporters to put pressure on the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in solidarity with the struggle being waged by the African Party of Independence of Guinea Bissau (PAIGC), and the duly elected PAI Terra Ranka Coalition. The People of Guinea Bissau demand the opening of the National People’s Assembly (ANP)!

We ask each of you to contact the ECOWAS structures listed below by email and by phone, where possible, on 1st, 2nd and 3rd of February 2024. The objective is to put diplomatic pressure on ECOWAS to open the National People’s Assembly (ANP) in Guinea Bissau. Contact as many of those listed below as often as you can.

Our emails and calls to ECOWAS structures on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd of February 2024 will synchronize with actions of the PAI Terra Ranka and the PAIGC on the ground, in Guinea Bissau.

The language of these communications should vary, but the essence is as follows, but do not simply copy and paste, but rather use your own language:

'The doors to Guinea Bissau’s National People's Assembly (ANP) should be opened immediately to allow the democratically elected representatives (Deputies) to fulfill their constitutional responsibilities. We encourage the ECOWAS Permanent Commission to guarantee that the Guinea-Bissau Constitution is respected to avoid unforeseen negative consequences.'

FURTHER INFORMATION FOR ACTION

Link to background information about the situation in Guinea Bissau.

Campagne d’ouverture de l’Assemblée populaire nationale (ANP) en Guinée Bissau

Campanha de Abertura da Assembleia Nacional Popular (ANP) na Guiné Bissau

Banner photo: National Assembly building in Guinea-Bissau, courtesy Wikimedia.

South Africa's Case at ICJ Also Exposes the US and the West

South Africa's Case at ICJ Also Exposes the US and the West

By Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist, 17 Jan 2024

South Africa's charge of genocide against Israel proves that this very serious word should be used more often instead of being treated as a rarity. The U.S. and the nations of the west have committed countless genocides and their actions must be labeled as such.

On January 11, 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) began hearing the Republic of South Africa’s charge of genocide made  against the state of Israel. Israel ratified the Genocide Convention  and as such it is duty bound to uphold its precepts. The definition of genocide is not hard to find nor is it difficult to understand.

In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

Killing members of the group;

1. Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

2. Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

3. Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

4. Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group

Cutting off water and electricity, bombing hospitals, and withholding food and medical aid all clearly fall within this definition. Not only has Israel publicly committed these acts, but its officials openly and publicly brag about having done so, and make South Africa’s case easy to prove.

But if there is another point which is made obvious by this definition and that is that the United States has and is committing genocide domestically and internationally. Of course Black people played the biggest role in making this case beginning in 1951 when the Civil Rights Congress published the pamphlet, “We Charge Genocide ,” and documented the case against the U.S. government. The charges are still valid as Black people have been the group primarily victimized by mass incarceration and all the other impacts of racial capitalism, from denial of housing rights to decent medical care.

If Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, the United States did the same and assisted others in Libya and Syria and Somalia and Yemen and Haiti. This long list of criminality is one of the reasons that Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other officials call South Africa’s charge against Israel “meritless.” If they acknowledge Israel’s genocide it would not only expose U.S. culpability but they would have to acknowledge their own misdeeds as well.

The term genocide must not be thought of as having some sort of high bar that can only be used in rare circumstances. On the contrary, it should be used much more often so that U.S. guilt can be exposed. The U.S. practice of imposing economic coercive measures, commonly known as sanctions, prevent the people of Cuba, Iran, Zimbabwe, Venezuela and 30 other countries, from securing their basic needs of food and medical care. Economic coercive measures are a war crime by definition as they impose collective punishment  on civilians.

The Republic of South Africa has done the world a great service, not only because it is revealing the seriousness of Israel’s crimes, but because it also reveals how these crimes have been normalized around the world. Of course U.S. allies like Canada, Germany, and the United Kingdom join in denying South Africa’s claim. First they do as they’re told because they are reliable and good little vassal states, but they have joined in U.S. crimes and they also have their own histories of genocide.

The first genocide of the 20th century took place in Namibia, then a German colony, from 1904 to 1908, when thousands of the Herero people were murdered as they attempted to free themselves from imperial rule. The sun never set on the British empire because of its brutality committed as recently as the 1950s in Kenya’s revolutionary struggle when mass killings and concentration camps were used to put down the rebellion. The systematic destruction of records  which documented these atrocities is proof of Britain’s guilt in committing genocide.

The attention brought to the ICJ case in the Hague is an opportunity to lift the veil of secrecy and complicity and make the world aware that normalized practices are in fact genocidal. Every war and intervention ranging from regime change in Haiti to the full scale invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan were committed with the intent to destroy national groups. The response should not be to stop using the word genocide, but instead to make its usage more common. Doing otherwise allows the guilty to act with impunity.

South Africa has created a crisis for the world and should be applauded for doing so. Now millions of people know how genocide is defined and know that their nations are guilty of the practice. There is now less fear about naming names and a greater willingness to speak truthfully about what is accepted far too often. The nations of the Collective West as they call themselves, have written history and exculpated themselves despite being perpetrators for centuries. Israeli officials are genocidaires but they are not alone. All of those who aid and abet must be called to account too.

————————————————— 

The article was first published in Black Agenda Report.

Margaret Kimberley is Executive Editor of Black Agenda Report, the author of Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents, and on the Coordinating Committee of the Black Alliance for Peace.

Over 800 Organizations Globally Sign On To Letter Urging International Support For South Africa’s Genocide Case Against the State of Israel

*****FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE*****

Over 800 Organizations Globally Sign On To Letter Urging International Support For South Africa’s Genocide Case Against the State of Israel

New Coalition Calls for Global Mobilization As Hearing Before the World Court Begins on January 11

CONTACTS:

Adrienne Pine, Popular Resistance, 202-652-5601, adrienne@quotha.net

Lamis Deek, Palestine Assembly for Liberation,  212-226-3999, Deek@DeekDictorAdi.com

Genie Silver, WILPF US, 610-283-1376, rhsilver@comcast.net

United States - The newly-formed International Coalition to Stop Genocide in Palestine (ICSGP) issued a sign-on letter* on January 3, 2024 that garnered over 800 organizational endorsements from around the world in less than one week. In addition to the initiating organizations noted here, signing organizations represent broad social movements, including World March of Women and the International People’s Assembly, Palestinian-led and Palestinian solidarity movements such as Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions and the Palestinian NGO Network, as well as human rights and legal groups, unions, and religious organizations of all faiths.

“It is important for La Via Campesina to support the South African initiative. What is happening in Palestine is an atrocity. In particular, the use of starvation as a weapon of war is part of a strategy of genocide that we need to denounce. The expulsion of farmers and land grabs in Gaza as well as the West Bank, is also part of a strategy of ethnic cleansing,” said Morgan Ody of the Confédération paysanne (France) and General Coordinator of La Vía Campesina International. “La Via Campesina calls upon the governments of the world, and in particular progressive governments and those in the Global South, to do everything in their power to stop Israel’s apartheid and colonization. Those governments have the responsibility to coordinate their efforts in order to ensure a future for Palestine and for all Palestinian people, and to make sure that those responsible for Israel’s crimes against humanity are held accountable.”

The coalition letter urges all signing organizations to press their “governments to immediately file a Declaration of Intervention in support of the South African case against Israel at the International Court of Justice to stop the killing in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.” So far, Malaysia and Turkiye, and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, which represents 57 member countries on four continents, have publicly supported South Africa’s case. Jordan reports that it intends to take the more legally substantive step of submitting a Declaration of Intervention. Members of ICGSP are working closely with a number of other countries that are in the process of doing the same.

“The South African filing before the ICJ marks a critical juncture which tests the global will to salvage the laws and systems which were designed to safeguard not merely human rights; but to preserve humanity itself,” emphasizes Lamis Deek, co-founder of The Global Legal Alliance for Palestine and the PAL Commission on War Crimes. “Genocide is the highest crime and none has been so publicly documented as the Israeli Genocide in Palestine. The sincerity of states' commitment to the principles of the Geneva and Genocide Conventions is now under heavy scrutiny. The very least states can do is to submit Declarations of Intervention as a small part of fulfilling their obligations under Article 1 of the Genocide Convention, to assure their people—and humanity—that they have lost neither their moral compass nor abdicated their obligations under international law.

The sign-on letter states:

“Many countries have rightly expressed their horror at the State of Israel's genocidal actions, war crimes and crimes against humanity being committed against Palestinians. Israeli Occupying Forces have bombed hospitals, residences, United Nations refugee centers, schools, places of worship and escape routes, killing and injuring tens of thousands of Palestinians since October 7, 2023. More than half of the dead are women and children. Israeli leaders have made brazenly genocidal statements openly declaring their intention to permanently and completely displace Palestinians from their own land.”

Despite the clear evidence of genocidal actions being committed daily by Israeli Occupying Forces, the State of Israel is actively soliciting nations to deny its atrocities and denounce South Africa’s case. At this moment, the United States, a major backer of the Israeli State that has vetoed three resolutions calling for a ceasefire in the United Nations Security Council, stands alone in denying that Israel is committing genocide.

Edith Ballantyne, former Secretary General and International President of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, warns, “I write from my personal experience over ten decades, spanning two world wars and living through fascism, with the absolute conviction that the basis of the conflict must be solved in a legal, political and non-violent way as the only means to achieve permanent peace desperately needed by the world’s peoples and for the survival of our planet.” She adds, “Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom was involved in the Middle East conflict since the 1920s when it recognized that what was happening in Palestine was destined to be catastrophic. The genocidal war the government of Israel is waging in the Occupied Palestinian Territories against the Palestinian People must be stopped. I urge all to challenge their governments to live up to the principles of the UN Charter and international law, including human rights and humanitarian law.”

The International Court of Justice, also called the World Court, will hear South Africa’s case against the Israeli State on January 11 and 12, 2024. The ICSGP is calling on endorsing organizations to join actions of support at The Hague during the hearing and to hold local rallies and vigils, including expressions of gratitude and solidarity at South African embassies, this week. Details about the hearing and where to watch it are here: https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/192/192-20240103-pre-01-00-en.pdf

*The full text of the letter and an updated list of signers can be found here: https://bit.ly/Genocide_Convention_Letter

The International Coalition to Stop Genocide in Palestine is currently building global support for this effort by circulating a sign-on letter, which already has over 800 endorsing organizations. The letter can be read and endorsed here.

International Coalition of Human Rights and Antiwar Organizations forms to Demand End to Genocide in Palestine

****FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE****

International Coalition of Human Rights and Antiwar Organizations forms to Demand End to Genocide in Palestine

Social Movements Call on Nations to Support the South African Petition to the World Court on Israeli Genocide with Declarations of Intervention.

Contacts:

Adrienne Pine 202-652-5601, adrienne@quotha.net

Ajamu Baraka  201-292-4591, ajamubaraka2@gmail.com

Suzanne Adely  773-510-7446, suzanne.adely@gmail.com

Lamis Deek  212-226-3999, lamisjamalesq@yahoo.com

United States - On December 30, the newly-formed International Coalition to Stop Genocide in Palestine convened around the urgent need for nations to invoke the Genocide Convention as a way to end the State of Israel’s devastating bombing campaign and additional war crimes being committed in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. That effort advanced on December 29 when South Africa submitted a well-documented case against Israel to the International Court of Justice.

The Coalition—which includes Progressive International, the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, Black Alliance for Peace, Popular Resistance, CODEPINK, the National Lawyers Guild and numerous other groups—strongly supports the call issued on January 2 by the Palestinian Anti-Apartheid Coordinating Committee (PAACC) urging governments to support South Africa’s complaint with Declarations of Intervention, which can be filed before or after the hearing, scheduled to take place on January 11 and 12, 2024.

Declarations of Intervention in support of South Africa’s invocation of the Genocide Convention against Israel will increase the likelihood that a positive finding of the crime of genocide will be enforced by the United Nations such that actions will be taken to end all acts of genocide and those who are responsible for the acts will be held accountable.

“It's imperative that more states follow South Africa's historic leadership demanding Israel is held accountable under international law,” said Suzanne Adely, president of the National Lawyers Guild and member of the Bureau of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers. She added, “One clear and immediate way to do that is to file Declarations of Intervention supporting South Africa's filing in the ICJ under the Genocide Convention. The increasing global isolation of Israel and the US and their European allies is an indicator that this is a key moment for popular movements to move their governments in the direction of taking these steps and being on the right side of history.” Adely led an international delegation to Cairo last November to demand the opening of Rafah border crossing.

Ajamu Baraka, chair of the coordinating committee of the Black Alliance for Peace, which has repeatedly condemned Israel’s ongoing genocidal campaign in occupied Palestine, stated, “The action by the South African government is a courageous attempt to do no less than salvage the credibility of the international mechanisms that were meant to protect human rights and international law. The South African petition is a reminder that it is a legal and moral imperative for states and international civil society to oppose impunity. Genocide has been identified as one of the most egregious international crimes. If the Israeli state and its backers are allowed to escape justice and international condemnation, it will strip the current international system of justice of any legitimacy.”

Lamis Deek, a Palestinian attorney based in New York, whose firm convened the Palestinian Assembly for Liberation's Commission on War Crimes Justice, Reparations, and Return and co-launched the Global Legal Alliance for Palestine, added that "This is the rare case where collective social pressure urging governments to support the South African case can be a sharp turning point for Palestine. Through the ICJ, South Africa is poised to strike a decisive blow against this brutal genocide and torture campaign led by Israel in coordination with the United States. We need more states to file supporting interventions-  and we need the court to feel the watchful eye of the masses so as to withstand what will be extreme US political pressure on the Court.   International Humanitarian Laws and institutions are meant to be, and must be seen as, tools for the people, not distant abstractions. People can- and should-  play a strategic and powerful role by integrating this advocacy into their solidarity work, not only until their governments file supporting interventions but until the ICJ delivers justice."

The International Coalition to Stop Genocide in Palestine urges human rights, labor, anti-colonial, anti-imperialist and other groups to increase public pressure by mobilizing to demand that their respective countries immediately submit Declarations of Intervention to the International Court of Justice. No matter how the World Court decides South Africa’s case, the coalition is committed to ending the genocide in Palestine and will continue to take action to make this the reality.

The International Coalition to Stop Genocide in Palestine is currently building global support for this effort by circulating a sign-on letter, which already has over 100 endorsing organizations. The letter can be read and endorsed here.