Food Distribution Events Seek to Bring Relief to Communities Struggling under CoVID-19

As the CoVID-19 coronavirus pandemic continues to spread across the United States, infecting as of this writing over 5 million US citizens and killing over 160,000, communities across the country continue to struggle as businesses that were unable to weather the economic slowdown have closed, workers have lost their jobs and people have fallen behind with rent and mortgages, increasing the risk of evictions across the country.  The ineffectual efforts of national legislators in drafting new relief measures, with the expiration of the meager $600 payouts and a failure or refusal to renew the measures, have left many Americans in the lurch.  Unemployment has surged, and hunger threatens communities that once thought they were safe from the worst ravages of poverty.

In several cities across the United States, local governments have identified organizations, businesses and foundations that have donated to food drives, and community organizations have answered with independent charitable efforts, often teaming up to provide relief, however modest, for struggling communities.  Below are some of the announcements of efforts that have been launched in the Baltimore, Maryland area, from Baltimore City agencies, church foundations and community organizations.

Most of these food distribution events have specific dates and times.  Some are undated.  As we learn more about these events, we will do what we can to let our readers know about them.

The City of Baltimore announced several locations where free food distribution events are occurring, from churches, City schools, recreation centers and community organizations.

The Arch Social Club, located at 2426 Pennsylvania Avenue in the Penn-North Community, holds a food giveaway event on Thursday afternoons starting at 12 noon.  The club, like other establishments that held regular social events, was forced to close down during the height of the pandemic, but the dedication of the Brothers and several Sisters who provided invaluable assistance made sure the club was able to continue to serve as a beacon to the surrounding neighborhood.  Until the pandemic has been brought under control, the club has been forced to do what it can to provide assistance to the community as it prepares to resume operations once the pandemic has been defeated. 

Above, the Brothers of the Arch Social Club, the oldest current Black private social club in the United States, stand ready to reach out to the community, as many of them did during community walks every Monday evening before the pandemic struck.  Below, they are set up to distribute food to those who drive through for the Thursday afternoon food drive, and they are prepared with masks, gloves and guides to direct community members to ensure a smooth and safe event.

The food giveaway events below, from AgriHood Baltimore and Be More Green & the ICARRe Foundation, were not dated, so it might be prudent to contact them and ensure that these food giveaway events are still current.

There are other events happening across the City of Baltimore and elsewhere in the state of Maryland about which we are unaware.  But rest assured there are community organizations, local churches and even government officials who are making the effort to actually serve the struggling communities of this and other cities.  As we learn of them, we will post announcements about their programs so the people will know where to find assistance.  Contact us at cliff@kuumbareport.com if you know of food-distribution events that need to be brought to the people’s attention.

 

JUSTICE INITIATIVE: The genius of John Lewis’ unyielding nonviolent discipline

EDITOR’S NOTE: John Lewis, the “Conscience of the Congress” who transitioned to the Honored Ancestors last week, consistently demonstrated his commitment to fighting for justice over six decades by literally placing his body in the path of what he often referred to as “good trouble”, from being arrested 45 times to several vicious beatings, the most famous of which occurred on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, when his skull was fractured and even he had stated that he was prepared to be killed by police.  Here, we feature another commentary from Atlanta, Georgia-based Justice Initiative.  Mary Elizabeth King offers a tribute to the courageous spirit of the late Georgia Congressman.

John Lewis and police in Nashville, 1961. COURTESY OF THE TENNESSEAN JOHN LEWIS AND POLICE IN NASHVILLE, 1961. / PBS

The civil rights icon’s uncompromising insistence on treating opponents with respect was perhaps his greatest attribute – even if it has not always been understood.

Mary Elizabeth King
July 27, 2020
Waging Non-Violence

I was privileged to work alongside the esteemed civil rights leader and congressman John Lewis from 1963-66 while on the staff of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, or SNCC. My responsibility was in communications, which plays a critical role in nonviolent struggle, because putting across the claims, demands, calls and requests of the campaign is essential. If observers cannot clearly grasp why and what social change is being sought, they are unlikely to respond or be recruited. I would often need to issue news releases quoting John, our chairman, that I had written. John’s consistency of purpose and uncompromising insistence on treating the opponent with respect made it possible for me to conjure what he would like to say.

The technique called nonviolent action has been frequently found throughout human history as an alternative for violence or passivity. Yet I find it fascinating that what may be John’s greatest capacity and attribute has not always been understood. He deeply grasped that how one fights determines the end result achieved. This has long been called the connection between the means and ends. It is based on grasping that the way one acts and speaks can modify the outcome, which is tightly associated with maintaining nonviolent discipline. John, more than anyone in our ranks, made real and tangible that the ability to control any verbal or physical retaliation could make or break effectiveness.

I could often see John reaching inside himself to find a place that sought neither retribution nor retaliation – seeking solely justice and the dismantling of inequities. Without comprehending the necessity for tenacious self-restraint, it’s hard to appreciate how the social power of nonviolent action actually works.

Many have missed that what made John exceptional and helped him to maintain a guiding role in the U.S. Congress – up until he drew his last breath – was his understanding of nonviolent discipline. What does this mean? Large numbers of individuals utilizing rigorous willpower is part of the way that the technique of nonviolent struggle operates. This form of power is entirely different from that utilized in armed conflict. To explain, let me turn to social philosopher Hannah Arendt, who has been influential with theoreticians of nonviolent action. Arendt’s 1969 essay “On Violence” distinguishes between violence and power. Violence, far from being the most “powerful” force in power relations, she says, needs to use instruments, so it’s not real power. Arendt writes, “Power and violence are opposites … to speak of nonviolent power is actually redundant.” For her, power is what happens when people willingly come together to take action on common purposes.

Impact of the 1960 southern student sit-in campaigns

The 1960 southern student sit-in campaigns spread to cities throughout the region. The point of a sit-in is not that a group of people sat down somewhere. The feature of this nonviolent method (one of hundreds, with unlimited potential) is that when asked to leave, the participants refuse to move. This is where maintaining an iron grip on discipline is crucial.

I could often see John reaching inside himself to find a place that sought neither retribution nor retaliation – seeking solely justice and the dismantling of inequities.

Sekou M. Franklin, president of the National Conference of Black Political Scientists, has been studying with colleagues how the engagement of some 60,000 to 70,000 participants in the southern student sit-in campaigns affected the Southland over the decades. Their research is showing that students sitting down at lunch counters and refusing to leave when asked has had greater ongoing significance than previously understood. Franklin and other social scientists are additionally finding that the sit-in campaigns – which were crucial to desegregating lunch counters as public accommodations – were also catalytic for spurring small-town organizing by local people. “Dozens of local movements are now being catalogued that have not heretofore been assessed,” Franklin said. “They were much more widespread than previously understood.”

SNCC was a galvanizing force with field secretaries living and working with local communities and all the while sharing the basics and versatilities of organizing and nonviolent action. It can now be seen that as a result, communities and their neighborhoods, homegrown institutions, churches, women’s and youth groups became engaged to work for social change with nonviolent direct action. According to Franklin, “The southern student movement was one of the critical mobilizing inflection points spurring local movements South-wide.” Such home-grown sit-in campaigns often spread into downtown shopping districts “in dozens of cities.” From the Arkansas Delta to Southwest Georgia to Tallahassee, Florida, to Southside Virginia, to the Eastern Shore of Maryland and points in between, these drives often became the stimuli for demolishing racial discrimination in both public accommodations and among private department stores in city centers, while also congealing local movements that produced tangible results.

When John was elected to chair SNCC at age 23, he was the youngest of the six speakers at the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. To me, John’s remarks were the climax of the entire spectacle. Among SNCC workers, we had already adopted the slogan from the African independence struggles in Ghana, Kenya and Zambia: “One man, one vote.” John proceeded to tell a quarter of a million marchers that this was the African cry and “It should be ours too.” He expressed with utter clarity a democratic ideal in which every citizen, including those at the bottommost rung of the U.S. social order, must be able to partake in determining its destiny.

John Lewis and the author, Mary King, revisited Neshoba County, Mississippi, in 1994 to commemorate the horrific murders of three fellow workers by the Ku Klux Klan in 1964. They stand before the historical marker on Highway 19, where the deputy sheriff intercepted the voter canvassers before turning them over to Klansmen to be killed. This official acknowledgment was the result of action by the state legislature.” (WNV/Mary King)

Sponsored by an amalgam of all civil rights groups working in Mississippi in 1964, Mississippi Freedom Summer saw the horrifying murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner by the Ku Klux Klan in Philadelphia, Mississippi. Thirty years later, I would return with John to the Mount Zion Methodist Church that had been set ablaze by Klansmen to lure the three vote canvassers to what would be their deaths. The wanton killings of an interracial team, all in their early twenties, would eventually be revealed to have had heavy state involvement. The enormity of the tragedy had the effect of forcing the nation to begin to face the malevolence of its tolerance for domestic terrorism in the form of the Klan’s racial depravity. Two commemorations in Philadelphia, Mississippi – on the 1989 and 2004 anniversaries of the killings – forced the community to face its past and undertake the Mississippi Truth Commission.

John’s sincerity and earnestness helped to get the Civil Rights Act passed that same year. In 1965, the Voting Rights Act followed, in some ways making the passage of the 15th Amendment of 1869 a reality for African Americans.

John’s perspective often echoed the viewpoint of senior SNCC advisor Ella Jo Baker, whose views were both penetrating and influential. A significant exemplar for justice in U.S. social history, Baker is noted for saying, “Oppressed people, whatever their level of formal education, have the ability to understand and interpret the world around them, to see the world for what it is, and move to transform it.” The centrality of this tenet radiated through all of SNCC’s work. It was later articulated in a poster when John directed the Voter Education Project, where the authenticity of his conviction was expressed as “The hands that once picked cotton can now pick presidents.”

Crucial to the success of the nonviolent method of fighting for justice, which goes back to ancient times and has been found wherever historians have looked for it, is an understanding of the basic prerequisite for maintaining a restrained stance of nonretaliation. You can praise John’s bravery when, on March 7, 1965, “Bloody Sunday,” he led some 600 citizens onto the Edmund Pettus Bridge on the outskirts of Selma, Alabama. Walking solemnly and steadily among armed mounted police, troopers and posses of deputized civilians with batons, he ended up suffering a skull fracture, as news cameras recorded police in gas masks assaulting unarmed children, women and men, many dressed for church. Incontestably, John exuded courage. Yet I do not think that this was his concentration. He was holding tight to his firm mastery of unyielding nonviolent discipline. Since the 1930s it has been understood that when police or security officers face unarmed people who respectfully and nonviolently express their grievances, it can have an unbalancing effect on police and security authorities, sometimes causing defections. Scholars today call this political jiu-jitsu.

The Nashville Workshops

The Rev. James Lawson began weekly workshops at Clark Memorial United Methodist Church, and other houses of worship in Nashville, in autumn 1959, which eventually included students from all of the city’s institutions of higher learning. The Nashville campaign that developed is worthy of study: It was interlinked with the Nashville Christian Leadership Conference, local leadership and the broader Black community. There, John deeply internalized the basic theories and methods of nonviolent action, including the necessity for focus on maintaining discipline. With nonviolent direct action, it is crucial to retain mastery over any impulse to retaliation, and to remain non-belligerent in practicing noncooperation, in order to allow larger and more inscrutable dynamics to occur when the unarmed stand up to those who are heavily supplied with weaponry. By nonviolent direct action, I am speaking of an historic phenomenon in which action is taken directly to the source of a grievance or injustice, rather than working through representatives, agencies or standard political institutions. In the words of scholar April F. Carter, “nonviolent direct action is adopted by social groups or whole communities suffering injustice or oppression as a form of protest that demands change by addressing the issues directly, rather than formally appealing to those in power to effect change.”

Lawson met the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at Oberlin College in February 1957, upon returning from teaching for three years in Maharashtra state in India. Lawson would become the critical interpreter of Gandhian insights for the U.S. mid-20th century Black community, selectively introducing knowledge from India’s struggles against European colonialism. The historical crossroads for both the practice and theory of nonviolent civil resistance was Mohandas K. Gandhi, whose experiments with satyagraha (or a relentless pursuit of Truth) in South Africa and India placed nonviolent methods on the world political map. In retrospect it can be seen that – as a result of his ability to meet with countless individuals who had worked alongside Gandhi – Lawson, in a figurative sense, would become the go-between for the world’s two most consequential and influential nonviolent movements: the Indian independence campaigns and the southern freedom movement of the United States. Lawson interwove Gandhian comprehensions with the religious culture and biblical ethos of Southern Black communities. He also became the main strategic advisor for the wing of nonviolent direct action of the civil rights era.

John Lewis’ life’s work was a national tutorial on the power possessed by the maintenance of strict nonviolent discipline, and Black Lives Matter supporters exemplified this essential self-restraint.

For the rest of his life, John would reach deep into himself to enact the philosophies and insights he had absorbed and adopted in the Nashville workshops. This is how he became the exemplar within our ranks for what it means to possess nonviolent discipline – a crucial requirement for effectiveness in using “people power,” the term that emerged from the national nonviolent struggle in the Philippines that ended the Ferdinand Marcos regime in 1986. It is important to recognize that the ongoing preparation, advice and counsel from advisors – like Ella Baker and Lawson, as well as historians Staughton Lynd and Howard Zinn – set a high standard for proving the validity of nonviolent direct action as a potent process for disassembling injustices in the 1960s southern freedom struggle. I regularly quote Bayard Rustin today, who was among our mentors.

Indeed, the modeling being done by the wing of direct action groups in the mass mobilization – such as SNCC, the Congress of Racial Equality and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference – can now be seen across the world. Television coverage became commonplace in 1963, just in time for the international community to see children being arrested and transported to jails in school buses, during the Birmingham Children’s Crusade.

Within the United States, news coverage invigorated other constituencies. In 1978, Native Americans conducted the “Longest Walk” from San Francisco to Washington, a distance of 3,600 miles, arising from their benefiting from the Civil Rights Act. Moreover, many actions of dramatic nonviolent resistance were being carried out in the 1970s and 1980s by U.S. adults and children with physical disabilities who had been prevented from having equal access. As Andrea Faville of Syracuse University, phrased it, “Inspired by the success of the African American civil rights movement, people with disabilities began to campaign.” Indeed, by 1990, they had secured the far-reaching and impactful Americans with Disabilities Act.

Black Lives Matter and maintaining critical nonviolent discipline

As massive Black Lives Matter demonstrations took place in thousands of U.S. cities, across all 50 states, in response to the killing of George Floyd on May 25, you could see various forms of disarray resulting from the protesters’ political jiu-jitsu. For more than a month, newscasts showed instances of police officers breaking rank, disobeying orders, defecting from their fellow officers, others standing back silently and motionless, while in certain locations the police physically joined the demonstrators.

The study and practice of nonviolent action is for life. It does not belong to the young. It is not something one outgrows. Seeking tangible justice without stooping to violence or passivity can empower one for life.

By June, Black Lives Matter chapters wisely appeared in step with maintaining the critical nonviolent discipline John modeled for 61 years – ever since enlisting in Lawson’s Nashville workshops. His life’s work was a national tutorial on the power possessed by the maintenance of strict nonviolent discipline, and Black Lives Matter supporters exemplified this essential self-restraint.

Additionally, Black Lives Matter is seeking social change through nonviolent action with the involvement of multiple generations. Without intergenerational involvement, we forfeit cross-generational human expansiveness. This is part of what can continue to effect attitudinal and tangible change in the United States with the urgency of holding up a mirror for self-evaluation, bringing about racial healing and stoking pride in human diversity.

John exemplified something else that I have been appreciating with the passage of time:

The study and practice of nonviolent action is for life. It does not belong to the young. It is not something one outgrows. Seeking tangible justice without stooping to violence or passivity can empower one for life.

Numbers count with nonviolent methods. Combining headcounts with exacting self-restraint is partly how nonviolent struggle works, which is entirely different from the power wielded in armed, militarized power that seeks to incite fear, vanquish and kill. In the past 60 years a volcanic explosion of research, study, and documentation of the accomplishments of this technique of struggle has become available, and translations are widely available in dozens of languages.

Yale historian Geoffrey Parker once stated that “the major export of Western civilization is violence.” John Lewis did not need to attend Yale for this insight. He became the recognized catalytic agent for spreading knowledge of a technique of struggle that is invigorating nonviolent civil resistance worldwide. In the past half century, more than 50 nations have made democratic transitions from tyrannies or dictatorships through carefully planned nonviolent action. John’s mastery of nonviolent discipline will remain the way.

____

Mary Elizabeth King

Mary Elizabeth King is a political scientist and author of acclaimed books on civil resistance, most recently “Gandhian Nonviolent Struggle and Untouchability in South India: The 1924-25 Vykom Satyagraha and the Mechanisms of Change.” She is professor of peace and conflict studies at the UN-affiliated University for Peace, Distinguished Rothermere American Institute Fellow at the University of Oxford, Britain, and director of the James Lawson Institute. Her academic specialty in the study of nonviolent action dates to four years working in Atlanta and Mississippi for the 1960s U.S. civil rights movement as staff of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, or SNCC. There she learned the basics of nonviolent struggle from the Reverend James M. Lawson in this profound experience that would define her life. Her website is maryking.info.

SRDC/Sehwah Summer Cultural Exchange Program Virtual Camp Announces Reduced Tuition

A sizeable contribution from the Sixth Region Diaspora Caucus (SRDC) National Secretariat has allowed the Summer Cultural Exchange Program to reduce the Tuition for the Virtual Summer Camp to $250.00 per student for the entire six-week Program.

This subsidy from SRDC has been provided to help ensure the availability of the Virtual Summer Camp Program for students in Afrika and the Diaspora who have been hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic this summer.

The Registration Form for the Summer Camp may still be used to officially register students.

Questions about the Program may be directed to Mama Maisha Washington, Sixth Region Diaspora Caucus (SRDC) and Maryland Council of Elders (MCOE) at maishawashington_865@hotmail.com.

How To Contribute To the SRDC/Sehwah Summer Cultural Exchange Program Virtual Camp

The Sixth Region Diaspora Caucus (SRDC) and Sehwah Liberia encourage concerned activists and members of the Global African Family to Contribute to our Inaugural Summer Cultural Exchange Program.

Registrations for the Program are currently being accepted. The Program is designed for high school students from Africa and the Diaspora who wish to learn about various aspects of the Global African Family and make connections with each other.

Donations are also graciously accepted. Online, the PayPal link https://paypal.me/srdcinternational?locale.x=en_US can be used for donations as well as for registrations and tuition payments.

Below is a brief description of the Program, which can be read in full on the websites https://kuumbareport.com and http://www.srdcinternational.org:

SRDC Announces the Summer Cultural Exchange Program Virtual Camp to benefit the Liberia Library Project
SRDC Summer Cultural Exchange Program
A Summer Camp in Support of the Liberia Library Project
Produced and Sponsored by Sehwah-Liberia and the Sixth Region Diaspora Caucus (SRDC)

Overview

The Liberian Summer Cultural Exchange Program will recruit 84 high school students. This includes students born of families from different countries in Africa, and the descendants of kidnapped Africans in the Diaspora.

The students will learn the necessary skills to become specialists doing effective research in the area of their choice. The finished product will be utilized as exhibits in the 21st Century Liberian Library Project Facility.

This cultural interaction will broaden the students’ view and vision of Africa, leading to more effective communication, along with developing skills in project management, compromise/consensus, negotiation, decision making and problem solving.

The success and completion of the Pilot Summer Cultural Exchange Program will lead to a trip to Liberia for the students who complete this summer program successfully. They would then become a part of the first phase of building the Library in Monrovia, Liberia (scheduled for completion by the year 2027). The Library will be the cornerstone of information accessible to Africans around the world in search of our common history and culture.

For full details, visit the following posts, which include fillable Registration Forms and a PayPal link for registration and tuition fees:

https://kuumbareport.com/2020/06/16/srdc-announces-the-summer-cultural-exchange-program-virtual-camp-to-benefit-the-liberia-library-project/

http://srdcinternational.org/?p=3315

Detailed questions about the Program can be directed to Mama Maisha Washington at maishawashington_865@hotmail.com.

For a little background information on the work of Sehwah Liberia, check out this story about their recent Food Distribution Project for families in Liberia who are suffering from food insecurity as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. The project was carried out by Sehwah Liberia with support from the Sixth Region Diaspora Caucus (SRDC):

https://kuumbareport.com/2020/06/18/sehwah-liberia-inc-and-srdc-report-on-covid-19-emergency-food-distribution-in-liberia/

http://srdcinternational.org/?p=3396

If you are not registering for the Summer Cultural Exchange Program (the Virtual Summer Camp) but would like to make a donation to SRDC’s effort, the same PayPal link can be used:

https://paypal.me/srdcinternational?locale.x=en_US

We are looking forward to a rewarding and successful Virtual Summer Camp. Proceeds will support SRDC and Sehwah Liberia’s program to build the first-ever Public Library serving the African nations of Liberia, Cote D’Ivoire, Sierra Leone and Guinea-Conakry.

Sehwah Liberia Inc. and SRDC Report on COVID-19 Emergency Food Distribution in Liberia

SEHWAH LIBERIA Inc. &
Sixth Region Diaspora Caucus
REPORT
ON THE EMERGENCY RELIEF PROGRAM:
“COVID-19 FOOD DISTRIBUTION IN LIBERIA”
Prepared by: Louise W.M. Siaway
SEHWAH-Liberia
Tel #: +231 880445456/778541208
Email: louisesiaway@gmail.com

EDITOR’S NOTE: For the PDF version of this Report, with additional photographs depicting the Sehwah Food Distribution Effort, please click the link below:

SEHWAH LIBERIA and SRDC COVID 19 Food Distribution Report

Introduction

On 31 December 2019, a cluster of pneumonia cases of unknown aetiology was reported in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. On 9 January 2020, China CDC reported a novel coronavirus as the causative agent of this outbreak, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Coronaviruses (COV) have been identified as human pathogens since the 1960’s. Coronaviruses infect humans and many other vertebrates. Illness in humans is mostly respiratory or gastrointestinal infections, however symptoms can range from the common cold to more severe lower respiratory infections such as pneumonia. A broad range of coronaviruses are found in bats, which might play a crucial role in the virus evolution of alpha- and beta-coronavirus lineages in particular. However, other animal species can also act as an intermediate host and reservoir. Zoonotic coronaviruses have emerged in recent years to cause human outbreaks, such as the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003 and the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) since 2012.

Madam Louise Siaway of Sehwah speaks to community Elders in Liberia during the food distribution effort.

On the 10th of April 2020, the Government of Liberia declared a State of Emergency, coupled with a Nationwide Lockdown. In the wake of this State of Emergency, SEHWAH and its collaborating US based partner organization SRDC (Sixth Regions Diaspora Caucus) launched a food distribution drive to supplement the government’s efforts in providing food assistance to the needy people. This was necessary in order to alleviate the hardship and suffering which came as the result of the government’s stay at home order. While the government’s stay at home order is necessary to prevent the spread of the deadly pandemic, enforcing it was very problematic because the common complaint of many people was, “how can we survive if we cannot go out to look for our daily bread?”

In wealthy nations, governments provide stimulus relief packages to their citizens while they are told to stay home and practice social distancing. In Liberia, such a gesture from the government was not put in place and the economic hardship was creating problems among the citizens. As such, SEHWAH Liberia Inc. and its collaborating partner, SRDC joined together to launch the fund raising campaign in support of their food donation campaign. This campaign consisted of food and material distributions in various communities in Monrovia. This campaign mainly targeted the most vulnerable such as children, elderly men and women as well as the people living with disabilities.

Residents and activists meet during the food distribution effort.

According to Madam Louise Siaway, former Assistant Minister for Cultural Affairs at the Ministry of Information and founder of SEHWAH, the recipients of the food donation have been very grateful and thankful to the SEHWAH-SRDC partnership for thinking about them in this time of serious health crisis and its adverse consequences. Along with the food, we also donated face masks as well as bottles of hand sanitizer

One Month and 6 Days of Food Distribution

The SEHWAH-SRDC food distribution initiative started on Saturday, April 17 and continued until May 23, 2020. We operated on the daily schedule from 9 a.m. to 2:00 pm, including weekends. We began with 100 50lbs bags of rice. The response to that initial distribution was so overwhelming and we saw the needs to continue. Along with rice, we also distributed hand sanitizers and face masks as well as carried out preventive health education along the way. Over this period of time, we served women with children, and people living with disabilities and elderly who are disproportionately affected by the state of emergency lockdown.

Impact on Food system

Local food systems are fragile in a country like Liberia. About 85 percent of the total workforce is from the informal sector, they include agricultural and other workers who entirely depend on daily wages as a mode of living. These vulnerable groups and their families are the hardest hit during these unprecedented times. Even though the sudden imposition of the countrywide lockdown was a wise move to contain the spread of the coronavirus, local food systems were disrupted. The fear of the virus spread faster than the virus itself, leading to the following consequences below. The worst part of the countrywide lockdown was that it coincided with the country’s rainy season and partial harvesting time of a variety of crops of the season. Vegetables and fruits were ripened and ready to pick. Following the lockdown declaration, temporary workers in cities had to leave to get back to their villages as surviving in the city without regular salaries was implausible. As transportation froze and sky rocketed, many people were left with no choice but to defy the curfew schedules. The most noteworthy thing was the exodus of local migrant from Montserrado to other rural areas of the country such as Nimba, Grand Bassa, River Cess, Lofa, Bong, Grand Gedeh, etc.

SEHWAH /SIXTH REGION DIASPORA CAUCUS INVOLVEMENT

SEHWAH/SRDC emergency food distribution imitative was principally intended as an emergency food assistance under an emergency condition. It was intended to complement the efforts of the government. In order to facilitate the food distribution, SEHWAH/SRDC engaged the services of many volunteers. These volunteers were very instrumental in the overall success of our mission. These mobilizations were made through community leaders who played the major role in our efforts.

Madam Louise Siaway and members of Sehwah and the COVID-19 Response Team talk with residents during the food distribution effort.

ACCOUNTABILITY

As the curfew hours are extended from 6:00Am-3:00PM to 6:00Am – 6:00PM, economic activities are gradually picking up. As such, our food distribution campaign came to an end on May 23, 2020. Our efforts were aided greatly by the fund raising campaign. We received donations from individual Liberians as well as the SRDC. Below is the breakdown of the total amount raised and how it was expended.

REACTION

The family head that received our relief items passed very positive comments. During distribution our team members interviewed a lot of affected people. The affected families appreciated our efforts as they received relief food items in timely manner. They said that SEHWAH Liberia/SRDC has selected genuinely affected and the poorest families who have no other alternative to provide food. Local people assisted our team members during distribution as they were satisfied with our beneficiary selection and quantity of food. Special emphasis was placed on the most affected families. We also involved volunteers from the local community to ensure that we identified real affected and poverty-stricken families. Local people gave us adequate cooperation in this regard.

Some of the bags of rice that were distributed along with other food items.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I would like to express my deepest appreciation to all those who contributed to the success of this project. We are thankful to the youths and leaders of the communities we served. We acknowledge with special gratitude the very important roles of SRDC in this effort to prevent the spread of the deadly pandemic as well as helping people with food donation. This symbolizes a genuine collaborative partnership between the Continental Africans and the African American communities. This truly indicates that we are working in the spirit of Pan Africanism as envisioned by our great leaders from Africa and the African diaspora. This project was a great opportunity and learning experience for us all, coupled with experience on the current situation and condition of Corona Virus and the adverse impact on the economy and the lives of the people of Liberia.

The elation and gratification of this project will be incomplete without mentioning and thanking all the people who helped to make it possible. Their supports and encouragements were very crucial in this endeavor. They are the two SEHWAH representatives in the US, Mr. Kalifala Donzo -SEHWAH’s Outreach Coordinator and Mr. Nvasekie Konneh -SEHWAH’s Public Affairs Coordinator. It was Mr. Donzo who suggested the idea. Having said that, I will like to reiterate that our success with this campaign would not have been possible without our collaborating partnership with Sixth Regions Diaspora Caucus (SRDC). This project should only motivate us to continue our discussion on the Library and other important projects we are hoping to carry on. We also like to extend gratitude to the Liberian media, both print and electronic.

It’s always an amazing experience to work with people from diverse backgrounds. At last but not the least I am thankful to all SEHWAH team and friends who helped and encouraged us to move forward with the project.

We are thankful to my family for giving encouragement, enthusiasm and invaluable assistance of $1500.00 to complete this food distribution projects.

Hon. Senator Prince Y. Johnson, for the use of his pickup two times to get to the rice store.
Mr. Amos Togba for use of his Jeep to delivered on Saturday April 18 and 19.
Mr. Abraham Donzo for the use of pickup for delivers from April 19 to May 23rd, 2020.
Thomas Togba who input our daily beneficiaries’ data
Sermah Salassane head of youth that mapped the areas before delivery.
Mrs. Victoria Kuma Richards who helped hand out the food
Mrs. Pauline M. Korkor who helped hand out other items
Ms. Mulbah who helped hand out food

SRDC Announces the Summer Cultural Exchange Program Virtual Camp to benefit the Liberia Library Project

SRDC Summer Cultural Exchange Program
A Summer Camp in Support of the Liberia Library Project
Produced and Sponsored by
Sehwah-Liberia
and the
Sixth Region Diaspora Caucus (SRDC)

APPLICATION:

Overview

The Liberian Summer Cultural Exchange Program will recruit 84 high school students. This includes students born of families from different countries in Africa, and the descendants of kidnapped Africans in the Diaspora.

The students will learn the necessary skills to become specialists doing effective research in the area of their choice. The finished product will be utilized as exhibits in the 21st Century Liberian Library Project Facility.

This cultural interaction will broaden the students’ view and vision of Africa, leading to more effective communication, along with developing skills in project management, compromise/consensus, negotiation, decision making and problem solving.

The success and completion of the Pilot Summer Cultural Exchange Program will lead to a trip to Liberia for the students who complete this summer program successfully. They would then become a part of the first phase of building the Library in Monrovia, Liberia (scheduled for completion by the year 2027). The Library will be the cornerstone of information accessible to Africans around the world in search of our common history and culture.

This document includes:

Class Descriptions 
Camp Schedule (List and Grid) 

Course Registration Form (Must be completed by Applicants)
Course Selection Form (Must be completed by Applicants)

CLASS DESCRIPTIONS:

I. The following courses are required for all students:

· CODING
· SWAHILI
· WEST AFRICAN FOODWAYS/COOKING

II. Students may choose one of the following specialized classes:

· AFRICA – Geography/Archaeology

This team will do a Geographical mapping of Africa, including all physical features of the continent, all the natural resources, and explore archaeological digs that expose our long history on the planet. The team will create a database of their discovery. They will also date and tell the history of the artifact/natural resource explaining how it was or is still used today.

End product: The team will create a virtual exhibit of the artifacts, natural resources, physical features of Africa and the historical story of our homeland. The history will have a written narration, as well as a video of the team explaining their discoveries.

· ORAL HISTORY

This team will learn how to do historical research and document the histories of the main ethnic groups of Liberia. The team will have a virtual team of high school students from Liberia who will jointly work with students from the U.S.

End Product: Production of oral tapes and videos for exhibits about the people of Liberia.

· LINGUISTICS

This team will begin the process of researching and documenting all of the African languages spoken in Liberia. There will be a virtual team in Liberia with which students will work. The team will get oral tapes, as well as written examples of each language.

End Product: A book for younger children, oral tapes and videos of conversations.

· CULTURE – Art / Music 

This team will research and document all forms of art, music and drama found in Liberia. There will be a Liberian team working with U.S. team. They will begin the process of collecting and preserving all the different types of art produced. They will research and collect all instruments designed and developed in Liberia/Africa.

End Product: Collections of Art and instruments. Oral report on tapes and videos of music for exhibits.

· PROJECT MANAGEMENT – Engineering / Architecture / Materials

This team will research the engineering needs, learn how architecture designs are developed and ascertain the materials needed for building the library. The team will look for both quality and best prices for materials.

End Product: Engineering specs, architectural plans and list of materials and samples. Report from each area in video presentation telling the story of building the library as a welcome exhibit from youth developers.

· ENVIRONMENT – Water, Soil, Sewage

This team will research the three crucial elements needed to have a fully functioning facility. The soil quality and depth which will determine how many levels can be built underground and how high the building can be. The team will determine access to water and sewage, as well as the impact of earthquakes seasonal (rainy, dry) conditions rainfall on soil quality. They will also examine the suitability of developing building materials (cement, bricks, etc.) from local soil.

End Product: A video explaining environmental research and how decisions were made that were considered best for the environment

· ASTRONOMY / IT

This team will research the night sky and African stories related to it. They will also determine the technical capacity of the facility and necessary equipment to create a vibrant interactive virtual world for the library.

End Product: The team will build a telescope and create an astronomy show for the planetarium.

III. Students may choose any or all of the following classes:

· YOGA
· ZUMBA
· AFRICAN DANCE

Camp Schedule (List)
Monday through Friday

9am to 9:45 am – Good Morning Activities. Students will have a choice between:

Yoga
Zumba
African Dance

9:45 to 10:00am – Snack – Fruit

10:00am to 11:30am – Class

11:30am to Lunch – Project chat and Music.

5 weeks, focus/camera on one ethnic group participating in the camp. Sixth week, Pan-African cultural program

12:30 to 2:00pm – Class

2:00 to 2:30 – Required Classes

Swahili (Monday, Wednesday)
Coding (Tuesday, Thursday)

Friday 10:00 am – Virtual Field Trip

Friday 1:00 pm – Required Class

West African Foodways Class; make an African dish for Family dinner

For the Camp Schedule in Grid Form, see below:

Pan African Summer Camp 2020 Camp Schedule Grid

For the Camp Registration and Course Selection Form in fillable format, scroll down and see below:

Registration Fee: $75.00 US
Includes: T-shirt, Cap, Backpack, Toolkit and Class Kit
Tuition: $150.00 US per Week for 6 Weeks = $900.00
Total Registration and Tuition: $975.00 US
Pay with PayPal:

https://paypal.me/srdcinternational?locale.x=en_US

Militarization of U.S. Police Departments: Some History by JUSTICE INITIATIVE

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is another commentary from Atlanta-based human rights organization Justice Initiative, founded by Heather Gray.  Here, she looks into the history of militarized police and its repressive roots at home and abroad.

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
— Martin Luther King, Jr

Weapons of War On Our Streets: A Guide to the Militarization of America’s Police (Ammo.com)

Heather Gray
June 2, 2020
Justice Initiative
(Link to article)

Preface

Once again, with the recent tragic killing of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd, young activists are wisely demonstrating throughout the United States demanding an end to this injustice, racism and white supremacy and of police violence.

Strange as it might seem, I began to learn more about the history of contemporary U.S. police violence while in the Philippines in 1989, which led me to better understand what we are experiencing regarding today’s scenario.

It is also likely that Donald Trump recently held a national call with governors of U.S. states to explore ways to take federal troops into the various states. The fact is, however, that the U.S. government is not allowed to send federal troops into the states at will, thanks to the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 after the Civil War. “The purpose of the act… (was) to limit the powers of the Federal government in using its military personnel to enforce the state laws” (Posse Comitatus Act – Wikipedia).

Below is some history of the militarization of the U.S. police departments thanks to the early U.S. colonization of the Philippines and of the restraints of the federal government to militarize the states due to the Posse Comitatus Act.March 24, 2018 Atlanta “March for Our Lives in Atlanta” (Photo: Heather Gray)

America’s Early Colonial History

In the 20th and 21rst centuries, U.S. policies around the world, both economically and militarily, have been questionable at best. U.S. violent international policies outside the Americas started with the Philippines in the beginning of the 20th century. These policies, more often incredibly violent, as mentioned, are coming back to haunt us. An example of this includes the U.S. international policy of “Low-Intensity Conflict” (LIC) related to the militarization of our domestic police forces.

After Philippine-American War (1899 to 1902), the U.S. launched LIC, at the beginning of the century in its Philippine colony, with the creation of the Philippine Constabulary. The Philippine Constabulary is, even today, a national police organization created principally to protect American and Filipino corporate and military elite interests. The legacy of this policy is that it now serves as a model for a militarized policing system in our 21rst century domestic American life.

I generally define the “elite” as neoconservative and neoliberal economic proponents along with their corporate capitalist supporters and colleagues.

The U.S. government and its elite tend to often try out policies internationally before introducing them into the U.S. and, as in the Philippines, the U.S. elite have always demonstrated their desire to control the American people. They certainly don’t want opposition to their policies or threats to their economic control, as we have consistently witnessed throughout the history of the U.S. Witness the FBI, the CIA, COINTELPRO, etc, and the assassination of many of our persuasive and profound leaders, such as Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and others.

Constraints on Militarization in the United States: Some History

I realize this is hard to believe, but often, the U.S. elite are constrained in implementing controlling policies in the U.S. domestic arena due to some laws that prevent this. They then will try to circumvent the restricting laws or attempt to overturn them altogether.

Not long after the end of the Civil War (in 1865), the United States government sent federal troops to the South to enforce the policies of the post-war Reconstruction period:

The Reconstruction period addressed how the eleven seceding southern states would regain what the Constitution calls a “republican form of government” and be re-seated in Congress; it addressed the civil status of the former leaders of the Confederacy, and the Constitutional and legal status of freedmen, especially their civil rights and whether they should be given the right to vote. Intense controversy erupted throughout the South over these issues….Congress removed civilian governments in the South in 1867 and put the former Confederacy under the rule of the U.S. Army. The army conducted new elections in which the freed slaves could vote, while whites who had held leading positions under the Confederacy were temporarily denied the vote and were not permitted to run for office (Reconstruction – Wikipedia).

Needless to say, it is important to note, as referred to above, that many of the federal policies during the post Civil War Reconstruction Era were needed and appreciated regarding the rights of freed slaves. And it is also important to note, then, that what is critical regarding federal government intervention, as Trump is wanting, is the policies and/or political orientation of the federal government itself. If the orientation of the federal government is oppressive of the rights of all the people, then the last thing the majority of the people would want is federal troops coming into their states.

The Compromise of 1877: When, in 1877, there was a highly contested presidential election between Democractic candidate Samuel Tilden from New York and Republican candidate Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio, a compromise was generated between the southern ‘Democractic’ delegation and the northern ‘Republicans’. This became known as the “Compromise of 1877“, in which the south agreed to support the Hayes presidency in return for the removal of the federal troops from the South (Compromise of 1877 – Wikipedia).

In other words, the southern elite wanted to once again have controlling interests over the freed slaves and everything else in the South without federal interference.

The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878: The compromise between the northern and southern political parties, then, led to Congress passing the Posse Comitatus Act in 1878. “The purpose of the act… (was) to limit the powers of the Federal government in using its military personnel to enforce the state laws” (Posse Comitatus Act – Wikipedia).

There are exceptions, however, to the Posse Comitatus Act. If a state chooses to violate its citizens’ rights under the constitution and/or federal laws, federal military troops can then be sent in. This was the case when President Eisenhower sent troops to Arkansas in 1957 to enforce the Supreme Court’s “Brown v Board of Education” decision to integrate American schools. Eisenhower, reluctantly, I might add, responded to the obstructive opposition by the arch segregationist, Arkansas Governor, Orval Faubus.JI Military Police 3: U.S. Troops in Little Rock, Arkansas 1957 (History.com)

Since the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, therefore, the U.S. government has been constrained overall in the use of military force domestically in any of the U.S. states.

This constraint, though, has never been the case in U.S. international policies and, therefore, the U.S. has engaged in militarizing the domestic arenas of other countries that fall under the auspices of the U.S. empire or areas of interest (such as the Philippines, South American countries, the Middle East, etc.).

Low-Intensity Conflict (LIC) is a “Policing/Militarization of the U.S. Empire”

What is “Low-Intensity Conflict”? There are seemingly many definitions of the term. Regarding the impact of LIC on the U.S. personnel, however, I refer to it as “low-intensity” only for the U.S. military and/or the controlling elite. In other words, the U.S. military does not get its hands dirty nor is it violently impacted by LIC, but instead it trains others to do this insidious work. JUSMAG- Philippines headquarters in Manila 1989
(JUSMAG – Joint United States Military Assistance Group) (Photo – Heather Gray)

“Low Intensity Conflict” is simultaneously “high intensity” for those outside the U.S. who are victims of these U.S. international LIC policies. These victims are often under intimidating surveillance, sometimes suffer or are killed by summary execution, torture, displacement etc. by military or police in their own country who are often trained philosophically and militarily by the U.S.

In other words, LIC is a method employed to “police/militarize” the U.S. empire on behalf of U.S. political and economic interests. This could also be referred to as “war capitalism” (Beckert).

After the Philippine-American War, the Philippines became a colony of the United States. This was the first imperial venture by the United States outside its hemisphere and it set the tone for the 20th century policies in other countries including those in South America, Africa, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. These other countries were not ‘colonies’ but are ‘countries’ the U.S. has had an interest in and/or has wanted to make sure the governments complied to U.S. trade policies or other economic interests.

In 1901, then, the U.S. created of the Philippine Constabulary (PC) to perform LIC policies and intimidate the existing Filipino revolutionaries. It is still in existence today. (Philippine Constabulary – Wikipilipinas)

It was created under the Commission Act No. 175 by Captain Henry T. Allen, an American, who was later dubbed as the “Father of the Philippine Constabulary”. It was first named as the Insular Constabulary and later renamed to Philippine Constabulary in December 1902.

The Constabulary was the first of the four service commands of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. It was a gendarmerie-type police force (armed police force or a militarized police force) to replace the Spanish Guardia Civil (Spanish Civil Guard – Wikipedia).

The Constabulary was later integrated with the municipal police force, (to become the) Integrated National Police (and then) into the current “Philippine National Police” on January 29, 1991.

In layman’s terms, the militarized Philippine Constabulary has served in the interest of the U.S. and Filipino elite against the revolutionary movements in the Philippines that would, for example, choose to rid the country of its exploitative corporate and military ventures. At the very least, the revolutionary movements throughout Philippine history have attempted to end a government that relies so heavily on and adherence to the United States dictates. (Read the history of the Hukbalahap in the mid 20th century and/or the New Peoples Army (NPA), and about the National Democratic Front in the Philippines in the excellent book The Philippines Reader: A History of Colonialism, Neocolonialism, Dictatorship, and Resistance by Daniel Schirmer and Stephen Shalom).

Michael McClintock describes an example of the Constabulary military actions in the 1950s:

The combined army and Philippines Constabulary (PC) force level rose dramatically from 32,000 at the beginning of 1950 to 40,000 in 1951 and 56,000 in late 1952. Air power, too, became increasingly important as U.S. assistance stepped up, with some 2,600 bombing and strafing runs reported between I August 1950 and 30 June 1952 alone (some sorties allegedly with support from U. S. planes out of Clark Air Force Base). Requests for napalm were initially turned down on State Department advice, but from late 1951 American napalm was supplied and used both for crop destruction and antipersonnel purposes. A record system devised for Philippine military intelligence, which traced all known supporters of the wartime Huk resistance movement, was operational by the end of 1950; according to one source, it was used in screening operations that resulted in some 15,000 arrests in the first six months of 1951 (McClintock).

In other words, regarding the Philippine Constabulary, there is a fine distinction, if any, between what is “policing” and what is “military” operations.

On-Going U.S. International “Low-Intensity Conflict” Policies

When militarizing the domestic arena of its areas of influence in the world, the United States, as mentioned, pays no attention to its own domestic laws as a model that do not easily allow for this militarization in its own domestic sphere.Signs in Manila, Philippines 1989 (Photo – Heather Gray)

In fact, international LIC policies have been implemented by the United States throughout much of the 20th century. The Philippines is just one example. Regarding LIC in South America, we need to consider the U.S. School of the Americas (SOA) or what is now referred to as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC). Founded in 1946, it is located in Fort Benning, Georgia. In this school, the United States trains the military of South American countries to serve a somewhat similar role as the Philippine Constabulary and/or even more violent and extreme, if that’s possible. Filipino army officers have also been trained at the SOA.

We could say that the WHINSEC in the U.S. is training the South American military to fight against their own people, as is true with the Philippine Constabulary.

So, instead of the United States military going into El Salvador, Nicaragua, Columbia, Argentina, etc. the U.S. trains troops from these countries to serve the interests of the United States and the friendly elite of the South American countries. Again, it is a “policing” or “militarization” of countries in what the United States considers its empire of interest.

The “School of the Americas Watch” has a sizable listing of human rights violations committed by graduates of the SOA/WHINSEC. In fact, the “School of the Americas Watch” is under the leadership of Father Roy Bourgeois who has for years wisely tried to close down this school.

School of the Americas Watch

One example, below, of these human rights violations is by the SOA graduate General Juan Orlando Zeped from El Salvador who took a course at the SOA in 1975 on “Urban Counterinsurgency Ops”.; and in the 1969, the “Unnamed Course.” Below is some information about General Zeped’s tragic behavior:

Jesuit massacre, 1989: (Zeped) Planned the assassination of 6 Jesuit priests and covered-up the massacre, which also took the lives of the priests’ housekeeper and her teen-age daughter. (United Nations Truth Commission Report on El Salvador, 1993) Other war crimes, 1980’s: The Non-Governmental Human Rights Commission in El Salvador also cites Zepeda for involvement in 210 summary executions, 64 tortures, and 110 illegal detentions. (Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador) Member of the “La Tandona” and held the rank of colonel and served as the Vice Minister of Defense at the time of the massacre. Prior to the massacre he publicly accused the UCA of being the center of operations for the FMLN and was present for the meetings where orders were given for the massacre. He was later promoted to the rank of general (Notorious Grads – School of the Americas).

The Domestic Military: Contemporary Police Departments and Militarization

I have always assumed that the U.S. would also want to implement the LIC strategies domestically or have increased domestic militarization in the U.S. as well, that, as mentioned, the Posse-Comitatus Act has largely prevented. So, rather than sending in the U.S. military into the cities, one way the U.S. has managed to circumvent Posse-Comitatus is to “militarize” the local domestic police forces, which is now happening to a significant degree in the United States. It’s also another way to increase the huge U.S. military budget, as the domestic police departments are obtaining left over military equipment, as if that’s what we want or need in our cities!

In many ways, the militarization of police departments affords the opportunity for the police to “fight against” the American people rather then serve in the “interests” and “protection” of the American people. This is similar to the U.S. LIC trained military recruits in South America and elsewhere.

In a 2014 article on Alternet, Art Kane states:

The “war on terror” has come home-and it’s wreaking havoc on innocent American lives. The culprit is the militarization of the police….

A recent New York Times article by Matt Apuzzo reported that in the Obama era, “police departments have received tens of thousands of machine guns; nearly 200,000 ammunition magazines; thousands of pieces of camouflage and night-vision equipment; and hundreds of silencers, armored cars and aircraft.” The result is that police agencies around the nation possess military-grade equipment, turning officers who are supposed to fight crime and protect communities into what look like invading forces from an army. And military-style police raids have increased in recent years, with one count putting the number at 80,000 such raids last year (Kane).

Art Kane‘s “11 Shocking Facts About America’s Militarized Police Forces” are:

1. It harms, and sometimes kills, innocent people.
2. Children are impacted.
3. The use of SWAT teams is unnecessary.
4. The “war on terror” is fueling militarization.
5. It’s a boon to contractor profits.
6. Border militarization and police militarization go hand in hand.
7. Police are cracking down on dissent.
8. Asset forfeitures are funding police militarization.
9. Dubious informants are used for raids.
10. There’s been little debate and oversight.
11. Communities of color bear the brunt.

Included in the concerns about militarized police forces should also be about information the training police officers receive altogether, as in attitudes and justice toward the other.

Kane provides an excellent narrative for each of the above facts. I witnessed virtually all of these “11 shocking facts” in the Philippines in 1989. They are now, unfortunately, to be witnessed in the United States as well.

The unfair and disastrous “Low-Intensity Conflict” policies forced on many other parts of the world have come home to roost.

Summary

It is encouraging, however, that there is now significant organizing in the country against this trend of police militarization and gun violence overall. It needs to also be extended as well to the countries throughout the world that are continuing to be victims of these U.S. “Low-Intensity Conflict” policies. Closing down the School of the Americas would also be a good first start and implementing policies that do not allow for a militarization of our police departments would be another, and should be addressed with all deliberate speed. Many American police have also been trained in Israel and this should end altogether.

Americans also need to address the training American police departments are implementing with the domestic police recruits and police staff altogether. For example, how much of the low-intensity conflict model is being implemented. In other words, is the violence by the police used to service the corporate and elite interests in America? And further, is the training racist, biased, altogether encouraging discriminatory behavior and the use of force by the police throughout the country.

When Martin Luther King said “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” he was certainly correct by inferring that injustices conducted by the U.S. elsewhere will come home!

Gray & Associates, PO Box 8048, Atlanta, GA 31106

Dr. Conrad Worrill Joins the Realm of the Ancestors

EDITOR’S NOTE: This comes from the National Black United Front (NBUF), the organization Dr. Worrill has led as founding member and National Chairman for many years.

Dr. Conrad Worrill of Chicago, Illinois founding member and National Chairman of the National Black United Front (NBUF) from 1985-2009 has made his transition to the realm of the Holy African Egun (Ancestors). Our thoughts and prayers are extended to his wife Mrs. Talibah Worrill, his children, his brother, his grand-children and large extended family.

Dr. Worrill’s contributions to NBUF are too numerous to fully account for. However, some efforts that stand out under his leadership include: The African Centered Education World Education Plan, We Charge Genocide Campaign against U.S. government, The Demand for Full & Complete Reparations, the Durban 400 delegation to the World Conference Against Racism and various political campaigns. Within NBUF some of us have been his contemporaries, some have been mentored directly by him, some he has served as surrogate father figure, for others he has been a sage elder and for all of us he has made a great impact on our lives. Travelling the Pan-African World he made us all proud representing NBUF.

As a scholar/activist Chairman Emeritus Dr. Worrill placed a meticulous focus on organizing African people, never too big to do the “little things” passing out flyers, setting up chairs and the like. While we believe in the collective, it is correct to say that more than other single people he is the reason NBUF has lasted for 41 years.

As a part of his ideological family we are assured that our ancestral realm is being fortified with his strong spirit, joining Baba Jitu Weusi, Momma Porter and so, so many others.

Conrad was our brother, he loved his biological family, he loved his ideological family, he loved his community and spent the majority of his life working for African people worldwide. He consistently made great contributions to the African Liberation Movement. He has begun his ancestral journey standing at the ready to assist us in death as he did in life when called upon.

As tributes pour in and rightfully so, we all know the best tribute to Dr. Worrill is to continue the work of African Liberation on all levels.

Updates will be provided as information becomes available.

Forward Ever, Backwards Never,
Kofi Taharka
National Chairperson
National Black United Front

PO Box 31544 Washington DC 20030
(202) 753 – 9671

Check out our Web site

Follow Us

     

 

George Floyd: We’ve Been Here Before

By now, we have all seen the images and the videos. We have read the articles. we have heard the analyses of the news reporters, the community activists and the politicians. Some of you have probably seen everything we’re about to recount in this post. We are certainly aware of the incident that sparked all the grief over the past week, despite the ongoing concerns about the Covid-19 Coronavirus. None of us have been able to escape the upheaval that has followed in the wake of the murder of George Floyd by four Minneapolis police officers, whose knees compressed his neck and torso for over nine minutes until he died, pleading for breathing room and calling for his deceased mother, cries that went callously unheeded by his killers in blue. Bystanders who pleaded with the officers to allow Floyd to breathe were similarly ignored.

Given the graphic nature of the scene, four armed police officers restraining a handcuffed man and essentially choking and suffocating him to death on camera, perhaps one should not be surprised at what happened less than two days later: Minneapolis erupted into chaos, with angry protests morphing into a sometimes-violent uprising that not only evoked the rebellions that followed the March 3, 1991 beating of Rodney King, but as they quickly spread from city to city across the United States (and finally to cities in Europe as well), brought back the spectre of the nationwide conflagrations that followed the April 4, 1968 assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Some certainly saw the apocalyptic destruction of modern civilization as they declared the return of the urban riots of the Sixties; still others described the rebellions as the harbingers of a long-awaited people’s revolution, often promised but never fully delivered.

Uprisings that follow these atrocities often elicit confusion among the people. Why are they burning their own neighborhoods? Why do the police so often seem to be regarded as the enemy of the protesters? What are our political leaders doing about this? How will this bring about a new Utopia of truth and justice? Why aren’t more police officers arrested and convicted for killing us in cold blood? And how will we get out of this vicious cycle of complacency, shock, anger, despair, denial and complacency again?

THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY REACTS TO THE KILLING OF GEORGE FLOYD

The United Nations responded with an expression of outrage at Floyd’s killing, which has increasingly been described as a murder.  Michelle Bachelet, former president of Chile and current UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, released this statement:

United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner
UN Human Rights Chief urges “serious action” to halt US police killings of unarmed African Americans

GENEVA (28 May 2020) – UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet on Thursday condemned the killing of George Floyd, an African American man whose death in police custody on Monday was captured on video and has led to serious ongoing protests in Minneapolis.

“This is the latest in a long line of killings of unarmed African Americans by US police officers and members of the public,” Bachelet said. “I am dismayed to have to add George Floyd’s name to that of Breonna Taylor, Eric Garner, Michael Brown and many other unarmed African Americans who have died over the years at the hands of the police — as well as people such as Ahmaud Arbery and Trayvon Martin who were killed by armed members of the public.”

“The US authorities must take serious action to stop such killings, and to ensure justice is done when they do occur. Procedures must change, prevention systems must be put in place, and above all police officers who resort to excessive use of force should be charged and convicted for the crimes committed.”

“I welcome the fact that the Federal authorities have announced that an investigation will be prioritized,” she said. “But in too many cases in the past, such investigations have led to killings being deemed justified on questionable grounds, or only being addressed by administrative measures.”

“The role that entrenched and pervasive racial discrimination plays in such deaths must also be fully examined, properly recognized and dealt with,” she added.
While saying she understood the anger unleashed by Floyd’s killing, Bachelet urged people in Minneapolis and elsewhere to protest peacefully.

“Violence and destruction of property won’t solve the problem of police brutality and enshrined discrimination,” she said. “I urge protestors to express their demands for justice peacefully, and I urge the police to take utmost care not enflame the current situation even more with any further use of excessive force.”

International Pan-Afrikan activists also responded to this latest atrocity, including writing letters of appeal directly to US president Donald J. Trump. Dr. Barryl Biekman, International Facilitator of the African Union African Diaspora Sixth Region of Europe, Tiye International and keynote speaker at the January 2015 launch of the United Nations International Decade of People of African Descent at the UN Headquarters in New York City, wrote a letter appealing to Trump’s sense of justice, diplomacy and statesmanship. That Trump possesses neither of these qualities did not deter her from making this appeal, though she may have known that a favorable and sincere response from Trump would be unlikely. Following is the text of her appeal.

Urgent Letter To The President of the United States of America
H.E. D.J.Trump
Regarding the Killing of Mr. George Floyd
May 30th, 2020
Dr. Barryl A. Biekman, Coordination & Monitoring Working Group UN International Decade People of African descent (The Netherlands)

Excellency,

Respectful greetings,

I hereby respectfully ask your attention to the following;

During an election year for the Presidency of the United States of America and the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, I am hopeful that you will receive this letter, read it and respond to it with an assurance that new policies will be enacted so that such atrocities, such as what recently happened to Mr. George Floyd in Minneapolis will not be tolerated again.

I humbly approach you as the civil society speaker, elected by H.E. Sam K. Kutesa, President of the United Nations General assembly, to speak (https://app.box.com/s/8bg9s1t0ez9sgmmiar61k7wix97jv1h5) on behalf of the global civil society People of African descent during the launching of the International Decade for People of African descent (2015-2024) on December 10th, 2014 at the 69th session of the UN General Assembly.

This Decade is based on the UN Resolution 68/237 (https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Racism/IWG/session12/A.RES.68.237.pdf). The mission (https://www.un.org/en/observances/decade-people-african-descent/programme-activities) of the Decade is summarized in the title of the Decade namely: ‘Recognition, Justice and Development’. A title that includes the themes on which the Decade is addressed. The main objective is that:

– People of African descent around the world, in all regions and countries, experience the full enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms, as recognised in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination as well as other relevant international and regional human rights instruments.

Regarding the killing of Mr. Floyd in Minneapolis, U.S., I would like to bring into memory my statement (https://app.box.com/s/4sgg9vpjvd95capjmribd36gxc4m6boy) during the launching of the Decade whereby I emphasized that: ”….When an African American man is strangled to death by the police on the streets of New York we the people of African descent feel the same that we cannot breathe”.

And this time more than ever the killing of Mr. Floyd has shocked the world, it has shocked all People of Good Will in the Netherlands. It has shocked members of the world wide African (diaspora) family.

Excellency, we are shocked!

This here: “…..We add our voices in solidarity with all those demonstrating to demand justice for the victims of racially based police brutality. This situation makes it clear that institutionalized racism is still alive and that the campaigns against all forms of multiple racism & racial profiling (These include Afrophobia, the specific term to define the forms of multiple racism against African people) as well as the symbolic & psychological violence situation in different countries must be intensified” is another statement that I speak out during the launching of the Decade.

In 2020, five years later of the International UN Decade, we are still experiencing the killing of defenseless ‘African American men’ by police. That means that the intention of my statement on the International UN Human Rights Day on December 10, 2014, and the request on behalf of the global civil society African family did not penetrate to the capillaries of the police system.

Let me reiterate my appeal that I have made towards the United Nations of which the United States of America is a member of:

”….On behalf of the world wide African diaspora families I invite all of you to join hands with us for the implementation of the Program of Activities in the spirit of “Recognition, Justice and Development.” Because this Decade requires the committed support and involvement of all international, regional, national, sectors of society, stakeholders and people of Good Will in the world “.

The invitation to make this “Reparation Decade” a great success was also addressed to the United States of America.

Excellency, President Trump,

I’m certain that you will do everything in your power to effect immediate policies that discourage such inhumane actions against African Americans and other minorities. In concrete terms I urge you to implement (city diplomacy) policies that will overhaul the police force to act as protectors of all citizens.

Thank you for your swift action to the urgent matter. I am certain we all want peace, stability and harmony. So George Floyd and his family too.

Respectfully,
Dr. Barry A. Biekman

PROMINENT US ACTIVISTS RAISE THEIR VOICES

North Carolina-based social justice and religious leader Rev. William Barber, who has been organizing a new Poor People’s Campaign on a national level for years, wrote a commentary that was featured in an article by Fisher Jack on the Web site of the Electronic Urban Report (EUR), Screams, Tears and Protests Are A Mourning for Our Democracy on June 1 (https://eurweb.com/2020/06/01/social-justice-leader-rev-barber-screams-tears-and-protests-are-a-mourning-for-our-democracy/):

America must listen to the protests in the streets if it is ever to heal the wounds caused by both police and police brutality, social justice leader Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II said as he delivered a pastoral letter on Pentecost Sunday.

“ … I want us to look at those crowds deeply in the street. Listen to them, hear them, see the diversity,” Barber said from Greenleaf Christian Church in Goldsboro, North Carolina, where he is the minister. “And remember that in our history, slavery was abolished, women did gain the right to vote, labor did win a 40-hour workweek and a minimum wage. The civil rights movement in the face of lynching … did expand the right to vote for African Americans.”

Sociopolitical Commentator Earl Ofari Hutchinson wrote a commentary for EUR, Many Hands Created the Frankenstein Monster Derek Chauvin (https://eurweb.com/2020/06/01/earl-ofari-hutchinso9n-many-hands-created-the-frankenstein-monster-derek-chauvin/).

SPORTS FIGURES SPEAK OUT

Fox News host Laura Ingraham’s condescending and disrespectful warning for NBA superstar LeBron James and other sports figures to “shut up and dribble” instead of speaking out against injustice seems to be (thankfully) falling on deaf ears. Gradually, athletes are speaking up. New Orleans Saints safety Malcolm Jenkins, long an advocate for the people’s rights especially in cases of police brutality and abuse, chided his team’s quarterback Drew Brees after Brees’ tone-deaf criticism of those who protested by taking a knee during the national anthem, as Jenkins and Colin Kaepernick have done. Players on other teams around the league began to join in the criticism, and former player and television analyst Shannon Sharpe even suggested Brees retire from football because of his remarks. Brees was forced to issue a clarification of his remarks and an apology to those anti-police brutality activists he might have offended (https://www.nbcsports.com/washington/ravens/shannon-sharpe-says-drew-brees-should-retire-after-anthem-comments).

Former player and star wide receiver Anquan Boldin, who played for the San Francisco 49ers, Arizona Cardinals and Baltimore Ravens (whom he helped win a Super Bowl in 2012), has been speaking out against police brutality and corruption ever since his cousin Corey Jones was killed in 2015 by a Florida police officer. Boldin has spoken to focus groups and Congressional panels about this, co-founded the Players’ Coalition with Jenkins to raise awareness about racial justice and social inequality, and he has come to the rescue again, as detailed in the commentary As George Floyd’s death sparks anger and hopelessness, Anquan Boldin urges us to fight system, by Mike Jones, June 2, 2020, USA TODAY.

… “Did I think it was going to be easy?” asked Boldin, who retired almost three years ago to devote himself fully to fighting social injustice.

“No. I’ve always been a fighter. In my neighborhood, if you didn’t fight, good luck! But that’s what we’re going to have to continue to do. Not some of us, all of us.”
(https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/columnist/mike-jones/2020/06/02/anquan-boldin-george-floyd-players-coalition-racial-injustice/5312217002/)

Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes and Russell Wilson spoke out as well, and were profiled in the article Patrick Mahomes and Russell Wilson: Senseless murder, racism cannot continue, by Jori Epstein, June 1, 2020, USA TODAY
(https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2020/06/01/chiefs-patrick-mahomes-seahawks-russell-wilson-george-floyd-protests/5309716002/).

POLICE EXPRESSIONS OF REGRET AND SUPPORT DURING PROTESTS

While in several cities, there have been indications of increased cooperation between police and protesters, with the city of Seattle cancelling curfew on the night of Wednesday June 3, and with police officers and National Guard troops kneeling with protesters and in some cases marching with them, some police officials have taken more overt and official stands in solidarity with protesters and with victims of police brutality.

Houston police chief Art Acevedo walked with protesters and made several important and supportive speeches over the weekend of May 28-31 to the community in George Floyd’s hometown about their collective feelings of loss, the need for justice and the need to prevent opportunists from using his death to sow destruction.  Several links to this story follow:

https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/houston-police-chief-art-acevedo-speech-transcript-amid-george-floyd-protests

https://www.channel3000.com/police-chief-absolutely-sorry-over-george-floyds-death-after-fiery-protests-prompt-calls-for-peace/

https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2020/05/31/blog-mayor-sylvester-turner-and-hpd-chief-art-acevedo-speak-local-pull-up-and-praise-event/

Minneapolis police chief Medaria Arradondo expressed regret over the responsibility felt by his own police department in creating the “deficit of hope” felt by many in the city (https://www.channel3000.com/police-chief-absolutely-sorry-over-george-floyds-death-after-fiery-protests-prompt-calls-for-peace/).

Santa Cruz police chief Andy Mills took part in several marches and protests against the brutality of his “brothers in blue”. Photos of him kneeling with Santa Cruz mayor Justin Cummings have made headlines. The pose is reminiscent of that taken by former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, whose own peaceful kneeling protests have led to his condemnation as a traitor by Trump and his unemployment in football for the last several years.

https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/santa-cruz-mayor-police-chief-kneel-in-peaceful-protest/2300401/

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-06-02/santa-cruz-police-chief-kneeling-george-floyd-protest

https://www.santacruzsentinel.com/2020/06/01/image-of-santa-cruz-police-chief-mayor-kneeling-packs-a-punch/

https://nypost.com/2020/05/31/santa-cruz-police-chief-kneels-with-peaceful-protesters/

https://patch.com/california/santacruz/santa-cruz-police-chief-kneels-alongside-peaceful-protesters

Are these expressions of regret and solidarity from a few police officers and chiefs indicative of some major change in attitude among law enforcement?  Certainly not.  In a more recent development, police in Buffalo, New York pushed a 75-year-old protester to the ground, where he hit his head and began bleeding from his ear.  Police officers did not stop to render aid to the man they pushed, and their official report claimed the man had tripped and fallen.  (At this writing, the man was in a local hospital in serious but stable condition.)  When the two officers directly involved in the incident were disciplined, 57 members of that unit resigned in protest … of the disciplinary action.  And other incidents of brutality by police have continued to occur in cities across the country even during the protests which were themselves sparked by an act of police brutality.

Also, just because police in places like Santa Cruz, Houston, Minneapolis, Seattle and Los Angeles have expressed contrition now, does not in any way guarantee that those same departments, and perhaps even some of the same officers, will not commit their own acts of brutality in the future (especially since Minneapolis, where Floyd was killed, remains with a rather abysmal record in the area of relations between the police and the public).  Such is the degree to which the public trust in police has been damaged.

TRUMP’S CHURCH STUNT

In the face of the often-angry and always assertive public protests, the condemnations of police brutality from commentators and athletes, and the political pressure that increases with each new revelation about the incident and the apparent callousness that was seen in the expression on Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin’s face as Floyd lay dying, the Trump administration, while admitting that the loss of Floyd’s life was a tragedy, seemed increasingly unrepentant, especially with regard to the degree to which Trump’s own bombast has contributed to the hyper-militarized “us vs. them” attitude of many police officers. Trump appeared motivated to use whatever visuals he could find to bolster his Nixonian “law-and-order president” image.

On Monday, June 1, one day after a fire had been set in the basement of historic Saint John’s Church near the White House, Trump dispatched federal police to disband a crowd of peaceful protesters in Lafayette Park in a surprise attack using flash-bang grenades and teargas, then led a small group that included Defense Secretary Mark Esper, Attorney General William Barr, White House national security adviser Robert O’Brien, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows across the park to a spot in front of the church where he stood with a copy of the Bible in what was termed a “photo op” and a “stunt” by detractors, which included Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington Rev. Mariann Budde and presiding Bishop Michael Curry, both of whom excoriated Trump for using the church as a prop, a mere backdrop “for partisan political purposes.”

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/dc-episcopal-bishop-outraged-trump-church-visit-71011653?fbclid=IwAR3PzvLe-T3i4jEgFd9LkBZoWB-DzRVuRcbXODmgsTXLuxU_Pkuc1xqcxU8

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/religious-leaders-lawmakers-outraged-over-trump-church-visit-n1221876?cid=sm_npd_nn_fb_ma

https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/bishop-budde-trump-church/2020/06/01/20ca70f8-a466-11ea-b619-3f9133bbb482_story.html

https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/watch/most-gop-senators-avoid-commenting-on-trump-s-church-visit-84245061843?cid=sm_npd_ms_fb_ma

TRUMP AND HIS MINIONS TRY TO FLEX THEIR MUSCLES

As White House officials sought ways to employ the National Guard and local police of Washington DC (https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisettevoytko/2020/06/02/white-house-officials-asked-if-they-could-take-over-dcs-local-police/), other states, and even the US military (which would violate the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posse_Comitatus_Act), Trump himself openly considered invoking the Insurrection Act of 1807 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insurrection_Act_of_1807), a move which was momentarily opposed by Defense Secretary Mark Esper until pressure from Trump caused him to withdraw his objection.

McEnany on Insurrection Act: If Needed, President Trump Will Use It, Posted By Ian Schwartz, June 3, 2020 (https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2020/06/03/mcenany_on_insurrection_act_if_needed_president_trump_will_use_it.html)

On June 3, Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton (R), no stranger to controversial hard right-wing statements, called on Trump to engage the military to quell protests in an opinion piece in the New York Times, Send In The Troops (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/03/opinion/tom-cotton-protests-military.html). This led to much rancor at the Times, with several staffers warning that the column could put Black staff in danger (https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/news/new-york-times-staffers-react-with-fury-over-tom-cottons-send-in-the-troops-op-ed/ar-BB1509tJ).

THE LONG ARM OF THE LAW CATCHES UP TO THE LONG ARM OF THE LAW

The old saying goes, “Truth crushed to earth shall rise again .” When these crimes are committed in such brazen fashion, it seems silly for the perpetrators to believe that they will escape justice, or at least public exposure, for long. The names of the police officers who committed acts of brutality against unarmed civilians, especially those of Afrikan descent, are always announced as they go before a police disciplinary board or, in rarer cases, a criminal court. And the police departments for whom they worked are often exposed as hotbeds of police brutality and corruption.

As the four officers involved in the killing of George Floyd moved toward formal indictments by the Minnesota Attorney General, the troubles for the Minneapolis police force as a whole began to escalate on June 3, as the Minneapolis Public Schools severed their decades-long relationship with the police (https://m.startribune.com/minneapolis-public-schools-terminates-contract-with-police-department-over-george-floyd-s-death/570967942/).

In Atlanta Georgia, six Atlanta cops who participated in a violent tazing and arrest of college students during the protests there were arrested and charged, according to the Electronic Urban Report (EUR, https://eurweb.com/2020/06/03/six-atlanta-police-officers-charged-over-excessive-force-on-college-students-video/).

Back in Minneapolis, on June 3, Minnesota Attorney General and former Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison, who had been asked two days earlier by Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to take charge of the investigation of the killing of George Floyd, announced that former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin would be charged with second-degree murder as well as third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, and that the other three officers who participated in George Floyd’s arrest and murder, J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas K. Lane and Tou Thao, had been arrested and charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter. He acknowledged that the case would be a difficult one, but that the evidence supported the enhanced charges against the officers.

Attorney General Keith Ellison upgraded charges against officer who knelt on George Floyd’s neck; charged other 3 involved, by Stephen Montemayor and Chao Xiong, Minneapolis Star Tribune, June 4, 2020 (https://www.startribune.com/four-fired-mpls-officers-booked-charged-in-killing-of-george-floyd/570984872/)

As more evidence comes to light and activists make increased calls for the charges to be elevated even further to first degree murder (which would require prosecutors to prove premeditation and might create difficulties for securing a conviction), we can expect more developments regarding the legal case.

POLITICAL BLOWBACK?

Sooner or later, a political price is usually paid. Sometimes, it comes in the form of a public rebuke by a respected former political leader or a former member of the current administration. Former president George W. Bush (2001-2008) delivered a speech on June 2, stating that he and former First Lady Laura Bush were “anguished” by the brutal suffocation of George Floyd and “disturbed by the injustice and fear that suffocate our country,” called for the US to “end systemic racism”, “examine our tragic failures” and protect the right of people to protest. The speech has been called a “rare silent rebuke” of Trump and his behavior.
(https://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/2020/06/end-systemic-racism-bush-43-delivers-rare-silent-rebuke-to-trump-calls-for-law-enforcement-to-protect-protestors/)

Former Defense Secretary James Mattis continues to show that, despite his “Mad Dog” nickname, he was among the more level-headed members of Trump’s Cabinet. He delivered a blistering critique of Trump’s behavior, calling him “the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to try. Instead, he tries to divide us.”

https://deadline.com/2020/06/donald-trump-james-mattis-george-floyd-racial-justice-1202950664/

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/03/read-mattis-statement-on-trumps-handling-of-nationwide-protests.html

Sometimes, the political price is manifested in plummeting approval ratings (though Trump has somehow managed to survive over the last three and a half years despite approval ratings that are, for all practical purposes, underwater).

But eventually, even poor performance such as this will be exposed and the opportunity will be presented for the people to punish such malfeasance at the ballot box. In Ferguson, Missouri, where Michael Brown was killed five years ago, the first Black and first woman mayor was elected in 65-year-old Ella Jones, as reported by the Web site of the Electronic Urban Report (EUR, https://eurweb.com/2020/06/03/ella-jones-elected-as-first-black-mayor-of-ferguson-missouri/).

Also, the existing political bodies eventually work up the power in numbers, or just the courage within their existing members, to take concrete action, though this often takes far too long. EUR also reported that the Congressional Black Caucus, under the direction of its current Chair, Congress Member Karen Bass (D-California), has announced it will “forcefully respond” to cases of police brutality (https://eurweb.com/2020/06/03/congressional-black-caucus-looks-to-forcefully-respond-to-police-brutality-crisis/).

In Los Angeles, in a move that drew opposition from police unions as well as right-wing commentator Rush Limbaugh, mayor Eric Garcetti announced a plan to cut the budget of the police department and divert those funds to programs to lift up marginalized communities and communities of color (https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/los-angeles-police-department-budget-cuts-defund-lapd-eric-garcetti-press-conference-a9549001.html#gsc.tab=0):

Los Angeles to defund police department by $150m and instead invest in minority communities

Mayor Eric Garcetti says: ‘It is time to move our rhetoric towards action to end racism in our city’

Chris Riotta, New York

Los Angeles officials have proposed sweeping cuts to the city’s annual budget and police department while calling for that money to be invested in marginalized communities after nationwide protests over the death of George Floyd.

Mayor Eric Garcetti announced at a press conference on Wednesday night the city would “identify $250 million in cuts so we can invest in jobs, in health, in education and in healing” following demands from the Black Lives Matter movement and other activist groups to divest funding from the Los Angeles Police Department.

Those groups called for the city to implement a “People’s Budget” that would fund housing and environmental projects, as well as promote opportunities for people of colour, Los Angeles Magazine reported.

In announcing the budgetary cuts, the mayor added: “It is time to move our rhetoric towards action to end racism in our city.”

The announcement comes after Los Angeles City Council president Nury Martinez proposed cutting up to $150 million from the LAPD and reinvesting those funds into communities of colour.

Ms Martinez explained the proposed cuts in a statement that read in part: “If we are going to finally end the sin of racism and all of its illogical, dehumanizing and sometimes deadly consequences, including in our police department, then we have to provide real solutions for real people who need our assistance.”

Eileen Decker, president of the city’s police commission, confirmed at the press conference on Wednesday that her panel would seek to identify funds that could be divested from the LAPD.

The proposed cuts were seen as a response to days of protests throughout Los Angeles and across the country, with those participating in the marches demanding an end to police brutality and the disproportionate use of excessive force against people of colour.

Prior to the nationwide protests, Mr Garcetti proposed increasing the police department’s budget by seven percent. Under the previous budget proposals, the LAPD would receive nearly 54 percent of the city’s general fund while other departments faced major cuts.

The mayor said more details would come at a press conference on Thursday night about how the city would reinvest its funding, and that a new Civil and Human Rights Commission would begin meeting next week.

THE CALL FOR “REFORM”: GOING FROM THE WOLF BACK TO THE WOLF AGAIN

When the protests finally cool off and the analysts are done with their speculation, ultimately the question will have to be asked and answered, What do we do to prevent this from happening again, and again, and again? A number of ideas have already been proposed, and some even embarked upon, such as increasing community policing, instituting police review boards that are made up of civilians who are elected, and even partially defunding police departments as Los Angeles’ mayor Garcetti is proposing, though no one outside of “revolutionary activist” circles has so far proposed abolishing police departments altogether. In the end, in order for these atrocities to stop, there will at least need to be a fundamental change in the relationship between police and the communities they interact with. Even so, the danger is that the very entity that inspires so much distrust will be granted inordinate control over the process. What makes less and less sense with each incident is that for decades now many elected officials, media personalities (including reporters and talk show hosts) and community leaders want to try to deal with a long history of justifiable distrust of the police by turning back to those same police for direction on how to solve this issue. Malcolm X called that going from the wolf to the fox, or maybe more accurately, back to the wolf again. The police claim to wrack their brains wondering why they are not trusted while they continue the very behavior (including murder and covering for murderers) that provokes the distrust and rage in the first place. Add to that their slave-catcher historical origins and the fact that they behave this way everywhere in the world where we live, and it boggles the mind why they still haven’t figured this out despite their unprincipled self-interest as demonstrated by the behavior of the vast majority of their police unions, most prominently the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP).

If we ever establish a true Pan-Afrikan Cooperative Coalition and re-start the kind of local Community Town Hall Meetings where the members of the grassroots community can come together and craft their own ideas for solutions to the scourge of police brutality and misconduct (among other concerns), one thing we need to look at is how we can build our own community-based means of ensuring the security and civility of our neighborhoods, so we will be less dependent on police departments to provide the kind of strong but caring and principled security that they have in too many cases proven incapable of delivering. This may require more outreach to street organizations, some of whom have their own serious issues with respect to criminality and misbehavior, to try to mobilize them into becoming community benefactors.

LACK OF ORGANIZATION ALLOWS OPPORTUNISTS AND PROVOCATEURS TO INTERFERE

The other major issue is the degree to which the principled protest movement was, especially in the early days of the uprisings, misdirected from their mission of expressing righteous anger into committing acts of random mayhem and petty thievery. Every uprising seems to contain three distinct groups: the largest group being the real activists, community members and citizens who wish to directly and defiantly protest the latest atrocity by the police state; a smaller group of opportunists who take advantage of the presence of the masses of people and the cover of darkness to break into and loot businesses, sometimes the businesses of the people of the community themselves; and a third, even smaller group of provocateurs that has no specific social-justice agenda (they may, in fact, be opposed to the aims of the main group and see an opportunity to discredit their cause with some well-placed acts of mayhem, or have political aims entirely unrelated to the issue at hand) that is there simply to cause wanton destruction in the form of burning cars, buildings and barricades in the street. Some individuals may be motivated by a mixture of these objectives, and many of them are ready with explanations designed to justify their actions as “revolutionary work” or “fighting the power”, though the only “work” they are actually seen doing is setting fire to a building or loading a television into the trunk of a car.

Reports of White provocateurs, for example, who began vandalizing buildings including spray-painting “Black Lives Matter” and anti-police slogans on windows while invoking the names of George Floyd, Philando Castille, Sandra Bland, Breonna Taylor and other victims of police murder, have proliferated (https://atlantablackstar.com/2020/06/01/white-provocateurs-accused-of-disrupting-peaceful-george-floyd-protests-with-rioting-some-accused-of-giving-bricks-to-group-of-black-men/; https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/us-news/george-floyd-protests-hijacked-white-22116897), though the claims by the Trump administration that the amorphous anti-fascist group “Antifa”, which Trump seeks to label a domestic terror organization, was behind the mayhem have not thus far been supported by evidence.

The fact is that in any uprising such as this there are a number of groups that will come out of the woodwork, as opposed to those who have been working tirelessly to organize our community at the local level. In Baltimore, Maryland, for example, “veteran” organizations have proposed a variety of strategies for our people’s uplift for years and even decades, from the Pan-Afrikan Liberation Movement (PLM) to Our Victorious City (OVC, https://www.ourvictoriouscity.org/home) to Teaching Artists Institute (https://www.facebook.com/teachingartist/?epa=SEARCH_BOX) to Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle (LBS, https://lbsbaltimore.com/) to the Maryland Council Of Elders (MCOE, https://www.facebook.com/mcoe1958/?ref=br_rs; https://bmorechristnewschr.wixsite.com/marylandcouncilofeld) to the Sixth Region Diaspora Caucus (SRDC, http://www.srdcinternational.org) and many other SERIOUS organizations and activists, as opposed to those that just surfaced to take advantage of the publicity brought by our response to the latest attack against our community. There are so many different organizations with different strategies because we are beset on multiple fronts, and not just police brutality, which is on graphic display right now. We are also threatened by environmental racism, healthcare disparity, political instability, political imprisonment, mass incarceration, human trafficking, deprivation of education, food insecurity, demonization by media, entanglement in the courts, cultural manipulation & appropriation, political imprisonment, economic marginalization and much more. We are under attack on many levels and as many activists in Baltimore and elsewhere have said many times before, we must be able to respond on many levels. But those many levels must be organized. Disorganization, and insufficient organization, allows opportunists and provocateurs, many of whom seem to have come out of nowhere and who we may not have heard of, to turn a righteous uprising into an unprincipled riot that will only elicit a response of mass condemnation from major media and violent reprisals from right wing militias as well as the police state. We must coordinate our responses so the true revolutionaries, those who are ready to build rather than just destroy, can work hand-in-hand with grassroots activists, businesses that work for the Community and Black Media to ensure that any Black response to White racism remains under control of Black activists committed to the Community and to Ma’at. This is why we need a Cooperative Coalition, and not one that is slapped together as a reactive measure to deal with the latest attack on our communities, but planned, organized and built as a proactive measure that can lead to a standing Pan-Afrikan United Front to respond to crises when they arise and develop forward-thinking strategies to build and lift up the community for everyone’s benefit.

Building such a Coalition is never easy. The reality of so many organizations with different missions that sometimes seem mutually exclusive of each other is the reason why a Cooperative Coalition is important, and why I talk about “Spokes of the Wheel” so much. People can pick the battle, or “spoke”, that speaks to them, be it economic, cultural, media, grassroots, spiritual, science or something else. And the different “spokes” can, and must, interact with each other to make sure one “spoke” works constructively with the others, that one “spoke” doesn’t counteract or disrupt the activities of others, and that the activities of each of them are timed in a strategic way so everyone’s work has the greatest and most beneficial effect. Sometimes, I must wait for your plan so I don’t step on it (like in football when the long pass play waits for several runs by the fullback to bring the defense’s safeties closer to the line of scrimmage). Sometimes I must go first to “set the table” for you (like in baseball when a leadoff hitter gets on base so the cleanup batter can belt the 3-run or grand slam home run). But we must be more strategic so the different groups with their different strategies can see their work finally bearing fruit and bringing success and victory for our people. And there is a role for all of us here, except those provocateurs and opportunists who thrive on our confusion and ultimately use it to bring us all down and leave us running laps instead of actually moving forward and making progress for our people and the world.

 

Focus on Political Prisoner Jamil Al-Amin on George Jackson University Radio

The Wednesday, May 20, 2020 edition of George Jackson University Radio (https://www.blogtalkradio.com/georgejacksonradio/2020/05/14/) features the issue of Political Prisoners, specifically the case of Imam Jamil Al-Amin (formerly known as H. Rap Brown), who has been imprisoned in Atlanta since his questionable conviction for the killing of two Fulton County Sheriff’s deputies in 2000.  Guests on the show include cultural anthropologist Mama Tomiko in Hour One and attorney Bro. Kairi Al-Amin, the son of the Imam and leader of his father’s support committee, and atorney Bro. Najee Mujahid of the Imam Jamil Action Network, who speaks about the case as well as James Santos (also known as Otis Jackson), who confessed to the crime for which Imam Al-Amin was convicted, in Hour Two.

Hosts Bro. Bomani Uhuru Jihad Shakur and Bro.Bilal of George Jackson University posted this descriptive promo on Facebook:

“Free The Land ! Revolutionary Greetings ! Welcome to a special double broadcast on George Jackson University Radio . Where we make it our duty to influence the narrative regarding ourstorical struggle .Because we know “We Are Our Own Liberators “. This show will have two one hour programs . George Jackson University Radio is approximately 2 hours . Our broadcast is scheduled for Wednesday May the 20th, 2020 at 8 pm Eastern time (7 pm Central and 5 pm Pacific). During the first hour from 8-9 pm ,we will be talking to Mama Shine. She is a cultural anthropologist with a focus on systemic/institutional identities, culture of racism ,generational trauma ,and healing paradigms/models. She is also an advocate for the population of aging men and women incarcerated from anywhere from 30,40 ,50 ,or more years in prisons across the United States. The last hour from 9-10 pm will be politicking with Brother Kairi Freemyfather Al-Amin. Kairi is a man of many faces ,jack of all trades and wears various hats . He was born in Atlanta ,Georgia to his parents Attorney Karima and Imam Jamil Al-Amin. Brother Kairi is currently an attorney working tirelessly to free his dad Imam Jamil Al-Amin. Besides from his legal work, he is a Rapper that utilizes the craft to promote the release of his father in a profound message via story telling .Brother Al-Am in graduated in the Class of 2012 John Marshall Law School. He also is a Life Coach and Business Developer. … There a petition to get Imam Jamil Al-Amin a re-trial. It can be found on facebook, Instagram and other media platforms. Please sign the petition and free our Elder, who has put in so much work for the people. Free The Land!”

George Jackson University Radio is dedicated, according to its Web site, to “to the work and legacy of ‘The Dragon’ George L. Jackson.  All supporters, students, and laborers welcome to continue the legacy – carry it on!” 

Listen to Hour One here:

Listen to Hour Two here: