Chokwe Lumumba was an exemplary leader for Black liberation in the U.S., particularly in the U.S. South. As a founding member of the Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afrika and the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, he dedicated his life to the African American liberation struggle and the belief that African Americans in the U.S. have a right to self-determination. As an attorney, he represented many African American political prisoners and people facing state repression, including Assata Shakur and hip-hop artist Tupac Shakur.

On June 5, 2013, Chokwe Lumumba was elected mayor of Jackson, winning 87% of the vote in the general election. His term as mayor was cut short by his sudden death. Chokwe Lumumba will be missed for his revolutionary legacy that taught people all over the world that the struggle for Black liberation in the Black Belt South continues boldly in the 21st century.

Chokwe Lumumba’s passing is felt by working and oppressed people far and wide. The struggle to which he dedicated his life continues.

With regards, The Freedom Road Socialist Organization

#JacksonMS #Remembrances #selfdetermination #nationalLiberation #FreedomRoadSocialistOrganization #ChokweLumumba #MalcolmXGrassrootsMovement #NewAfrika #Elections

Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Yang Yujun states that China created the Identification Zone with “the aim of safeguarding state sovereignty, territorial land and air security and maintaining flight order. This is a necessary measure taken by China in exercising its self-defense right.”

Inside the newly created Identification Zone are the Japan-occupied Diaoyu Islands. Historically a part of China, Japan maintains physical control over the Diaoyu Islands and the islands have become a flashpoint in Chinese-Japanese relations in recent years.

Japan’s current Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe – a right winger who defends Japan’s brutal imperial past – is up in arms about the decision to establish the Identification Zone.

A Nov. 24 report in The Guardian states, “Japan has denounced the zone set up by China on Saturday as ‘totally unacceptable’ and indicated that aircraft from its self-defence force would ignore Beijing's attempt to oblige aeroplanes to obtain its permission before entering.”

On Nov. 23 U.S Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel stated, “This announcement by the People's Republic of China will not in any way change how the U.S. conducts military operations in the region.”

Referring to the Diaoyu Islands as the ‘Senkaku Islands’, which is the name used by the Japanese authorities, Hegel affirmed the U.S. was ready to join a military conflict with China, stating, “We remain steadfast in our commitments to our allies and partners. The U.S. reaffirms its longstanding policy that Article V of the U.S.-Japan Mutual Defense Treaty applies to the Senkaku Islands.”

#MinneapolisMN #China #selfdetermination #Japan #USImperialism #DiaoyuIslands #EastChinaSeaAirDefenseIdentificationZone #Asia

The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) has been criticized for its slow response to an outbreak of tuberculosis (TB) which has infected more than 100 people in rural Greenwood County, South Carolina since last March. More than 400 children at Ninety Six Primary School in Greenwood County were not tested for almost three months after TB was first reported.

Greenwood County is part of the Black Belt, named for the rich soil farmed by slave labor, which forms the heart of the African American Nation in the South. The national oppression that Black people face is most intense in the Black Belt South, even greater than other areas of the South. The poverty rate for Blacks, already much higher than that of whites, is even higher for Blacks in the African American Nation than other Blacks in the South. The infant mortality rate is also higher and the life span lower for Blacks in the African American Nation than Blacks living outside the nation but in the South.

The mishandling of the TB outbreak by the South Carolina DHEC is another example of the poor-quality government services and health care that are part of the all round economic, political, cultural and social oppression that African Americans face in the U.S.

I want to comment on two mistaken views in the left about national oppression. One incorrect view reduces national oppression to just a matter of racist attitudes among whites in general and white workers in particular. According to this view, if we can just overcome these racist ideas, then African Americans and whites can “unite and fight.” The problem is that there are important material differences in the lives of whites and African Americans, not just bad ideas. For example, African Americans are almost twice as likely as whites not to have any health insurance (19.5% vs. 11.1%). This is in part because many more whites (61.6%) than African Americans (44.6%) have jobs that provide health insurance benefits. White workers need to be won over to supporting demands for equality for African Americans, such as universal government health care, which would especially help African Americans, and also Chicanos, Mexicanos and Latinos, whose lack of health insurance is even higher than that of African Americans (at 30.1%) .

There is also a view that whites in general and white workers in particular actually benefit from the national oppression of African Americans. If this were true, we would expect to see a pattern where the more intense the national oppression is, the better off whites should be. But in fact whites in the Black Belt South where the African American Nation is based are worse off than other southern whites outside the Black Belt. An example of this is that the life span of whites is shorter, and the infant mortality rate among whites higher, in the Black Belt South than in other areas of the South.

This should be no surprise, for when the government doesn’t take care of public health, the tuberculosis bacteria doesn’t care if the body they are infecting is African American or white. So fighting national oppression is in the interest of white workers, because they face a common enemy: the wealthiest 1%, or the monopoly capitalists, who own and control the giant corporations that dominate the economy and control the government. But to upend the power of the 1%, we need an alliance between the working class and the national movements (the movements of oppressed nationalities such as African Americans, Arab and Asian Americans, Chicanos, Mexicanos, and Latinos, and Native Americans and Pacific Islanders). This alliance can only be forged by explaining to white workers that fighting national oppression is in their own interests and that they need to support the struggle for equality by Black people and support the right of self-determination, up to and including secession, for the African American nation.

#SouthCarolina #SC #healthCare #AntiRacism #selfdetermination #BlackBeltSouth

In a day of action organized by Students for a Democratic Society, October 7 saw dozens of protests across the country against the Afghanistan war on the 8th anniversary of the U.S. invasion. Students marched, conducted die-ins and skits, and some were arrested as they demanded money be spent at home on education and healthcare, instead of two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Students Take Action

Hundreds of students marched in Washington, DC in a “Funk the War” event organized by DC Students for a Democratic Society. The demonstrators stormed the lobby of a building that houses Chevron, Shell, Blackwater’s lobbying group, United Technologies, and Clear Channel, demanding U.S. troops out of Afghanistan and Iraq.

In Gainesville, Florida, 40 people rallied in the Plaza of the Americas at the University of Florida to protest the war in Afghanistan. The protesters then marched to Turlington, chanting “Fund education, not occupation” and “What do we want? Peace! When do we want it? Now!” The demonstrators held a “die-in” during a class change to symbolically represent innocents killed in war. Protester Fernando Figueroa said, “I think the demonstrations in both Gainesville and across the United States showed that students are willing to fight back against imperialism and demand that funding be used for education and not occupation…what we have done today doesn't end here. We will keep building the movement to end the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan.”

In Asheville, North Carolina students shouted “Money for jobs and education, not for war and occupation!” across the quad on the University of North Carolina at Asheville. UNCA Students for a Democratic Society member Angela Denio said, “The people of Afghanistan have the right to self determination. Eight years of unjust U.S. occupation in Afghanistan has resulted in hundreds of civilian casualties, and displaced too many families that are now living in extreme suffering and poverty.” The SDS chapter in Chapel Hill, NC also had 30 people protesting the war, with hundreds more stopping to listen to speeches.

A “Funk the War” protest by Rochester SDS that drew dozens into the streets demanding an end to the occupations and an end to militarization of schools ended violently, when almost 30 police cars interrupted the peaceful protest and began shoving students and community members, threatening them with batons, and spraying them with pepper spray. The police arrested 12 protestors, 2 of whom had to go to the hospital for injuries caused by police brutality. The first person arrested by the police was the only African-American student in the vicinity, and protestors quickly called the police out on this obvious racism. This protest was part of a larger campaign by Rochester SDS to end budget cuts and demilitarize their schools.

University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee SDS had a protest of 50 people including members of Iraq Veterans Against the War. The protest led to SDSers starting a new campaign for education rights and to fight cutbacks on their campus, as well as a campaign against a racist student senator.

University of Houston SDS held a teach-in with 70 people in attendance. Afghanistan war veteran Matt Dobbs spoke about his experiences in two tours of duty in Afghanistan, and how he has come to oppose the war on a civilian population that is fighting a battle of self-defense against the U.S. occupation.

University of Minnesota SDS held a protest of 30 students that included a skit to demonstrate the need for funding to go to education and not the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Grace Kelley of SDS linked the war to sexism at home, saying “It has been argued by many people, politicians, and even feminists, that the war in Afghanistan is in fact going to liberate the women of Afghanistan. This argument reveals a prejudiced belief that we Americans are in a culturally superior position to help, which is both bigoted and untrue. How can our military forces help the women in Afghanistan overcome their own cultural oppressions when we can’t even eliminate sexism within the military itself, with one in three female veterans reporting sexual assault while in service? How can we claim that we are creating a better world for Afghan women when our superior military force continues to widow them and maim their children? How can we say we are helping the people of Afghanistan when our bombs murder Afghan civilians everyday?”

An Unjust War

The war in Afghanistan is becoming more and more deadly as it continues. 311 coalition troops were killed in the war in 2009 alone, bringing the total of dead soldiers to 869. U.S. and NATO occupation forces do not keep track of civilian casualties, but many estimate that U.S. air strikes and gunfire have killed tens of thousands of Afghans. Just last month, U.S. air strikes killed over 90 Afghan civilians in the northern Afghan village of Omar Kheil. A similar strike in Farah province on May 4 this year killed 147 civilians.

Troop levels have increased from 5,200 in 2002 to 68,000 in 2009, with no talk of de-escalation or ending the war. The war is costing American taxpayers millions of dollars everyday – $228 billion overall, $60.2 billion of which was spent in 2009 alone.

There will be no justice for the Afghan people while U.S. and NATO forces occupy their country. Only full U.S. and NATO withdraw will give the Afghan people self-determination, their right. It is the continued responsibility of activists in the US to demand an end to the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, and to insist that the hundreds billions of dollars being used to pay off the banks and wage war on peoples around the world be used for social needs at home, like education and healthcare.

#UnitedStates #AntiwarMovement #StudentMovement #Occupation #StudentsForADemocraticSociety #Afghanistan #selfdetermination