Black Misleadership Class Specializes in Groveling
Most Black elected officials and established civic organizations long ago stopped making substantive demands of U.S. rulers. “They have no demands. They can’t step outside the parameters established by the system,” said Omali Yeshitela, chairman of the Black Is Back Coalition, which will hold its 9th annual march on the White House and national conference, November 4 and 5.
Black Philly Officials Refuse to Control Cops
When the Philadelphia City Council refused to consider a proposed bill to make the police accountable to democratically elected neighborhood bodies, the Black Is Back Coalition and its allies held a city-wide conference to demand Black community control of the police. “This is further evidence of the need for the Black community to build dual and contending power over our lives and institutions,” said Coalition activist Diop Olugbala.
Afro-Colombians Defend Collective Land Rights
The Colombian government “has no intention” of making sure that Black and indigenous people’s right to collective land ownership will be protected under the peace agreement with FARC rebels, said Charo Mina-Rojas, of Black Community Process. The government has failed to provide security to Afro-Colombian and indigenous people, even as criminals and paramilitary groups have moved into Black areas, replacing demobilized guerillas.
U.S. Prisoners Need Some Love
In an essay for Prison Radio, Charles Diggs, an inmate at Pennsylvania’s Graterford state prison, said U.S. leaders “need the courage to imagine something different than 1,500 prisons all over the country.”
Liberation struggles are not fought only on the battlefield. The African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde (PAIGC) left a legacy of educational decolonization.
