Blacks 4 Palestine needs your signature now!

 

 Black Arts Movement Poet Marvin X at Gaza Rally, Seattle WA

From: Black4Palestine
To: Marvin X, Black Arts Movement District, Oakland CA
Sent: Thursday, August 13, 2015 9:26 AM
Subject: Pushing for 1,000 signatures before our statement is published next week!

Peace everyone, 

We wanted to give you a couple of updates on publishing the statement:

1. The statement will debut in Ebony next week! 
2. The statement will remain open for additional signatures until the end of Monday
3. We currently have 700 individuals and 29 organizations signed on and we'd like to reach 1,000 over the next five days

If we can add 100-150 signatures by Friday, we'll be in pretty good shape! Can everyone reach out to 5-10 people or organizing lists today? If everyone only gets one new person to sign, we'll still be at 1,500!

We encourage organizations to sign the statement as well. If your org has already signed on, please send another blast asking for individual signatures.

Sample appeals for signatures are below, as well as a list of the orgs and some of the notable figures who have signed so far.

We recognize we've said that the statement is being closed/re-opened/published a few times now and appreciate your patience--it's taken us more time than expected to iron things out, but the statement has only grown stronger in that time.

In love and in struggle,

Kristian & Khury

​

Here are some sample social media messages. We still recommend posting on Facebook/mailing lists over Twitter, as the latter opens us up more to getting trolled by anonymous people.

700 Black activists, artists, and scholars have signed this statement of solidarity with Palestine. Help us get to 1,000 over the next five days!

A group of Black activists, artists, scholars, and writers are circulating a solidarity statement with Palestine. We're trying to add 300 signatures by Monday. Will you read, sign and share it? http://www.blackforpalestine.com/

​

Join Angela Davis, Cornel West, Mumia Abu-Jamal, and me in signing this Black Statement of Solidarity with Palestine! http://www.blackforpalestine.com/

Here is a list of organizations and notable ​signatories to help with your efforts:

Individuals

Angela Davis

Bill Fletcher, Jr.

Boots Riley

Cornel West

dream hampton

Emory Douglas

Jasiri X

Mumia Abu Jamal

Phil Hutchings

Robin DG Kelley

Rosa Clemente

Sundiata Acoli

Talib Kweli

Tef Poe

Marvin X

​Organizations​

Amistad Law Project 

Assata's Daughters 

Baltimore Bloc 

Barry University Black Student Union

Black Arts Movement District, Oakland

Black Autonomy Federation-North East Branch 

Black Bottom, LLC 

Black Student Alliance at Yale 

Black Student Alliance Executive Board 

​- St. Louis University​

Black Unity Group 

BlaQue UCLA 

​C​

oalition of African Lesbians 

Columbia University Black Students' Organization 

Columbus Coalition on Mental Health, Addiction & Mass Incarceration 

Dorothy Cotton Institute 

Friends of the Congo 

Hands Up United 

Muslim American Society - South Florida 

Muslims for Economic, Racial and Reproductive Justice Network for the Elimination of Police Violence 

New Afrikan Independence Party 

Organization for Black Struggle 

Peace by Piece 

Spoken Word Alliance at Tufts 

Stanford NAACP Executive Committee 

The Dream Defenders 

Tribe X 

UCLA Afrikan Student Union 

Ujima People's Progress Party 

Wisdom Within Health & Wellness

PALESTINE by Marvin X (El Muhajir)

I am not an Arab, I am not a Jew
Abraham is not my father, Palestine is not my home
But I would fight any man
Who kicked me out of my house
To dwell in a tent
I would fight
To the ends of the earth
Someone who said to me
I want your house
Because my father lived here
Two thousand years ago
I want your land

Because my father lived here
Two thousand years ago.
Jets would not stop me
From returning to my home
Uncle toms would not stop me
Cluster bombs would not stop me
Bullets I would defy.
No man can take the house of another
And expect to live in peace
There is no peace for thieves
There is no peace for those who murder
For myths and ancient rituals
Wail at the wall

Settle in "Judea" and "Samaria"
But fate awaits you
You will never sleep with peace

You will never walk without listening.
I shall cross the River Jordan
With Justice in my hand
I shall return to Jerusalem
And establish my house of peace,
Thus said the Lord.

 
© 1972 by Marvin X, published in Black Scholar Magazine, circa 1970

             Two Poems for the People of Syria

 

Oh, Mohja
how much water can run from rivers to sea
how much blood can soak the earth
the guns of tyrants know no end
a people awakened are bigger than bullets
there is no sleep in their eyes
no more stunted backs and fear of broken limbs
even men, women and children are humble with sacrifice
the old the young play their roles
with smiles they endure torture chambers
with laughs they submit to rape and mutilations
there is no victory for oppressors
whose days are numbered
as the clock ticks as the sun rises
let the people continue til victory
surely they smell it on their hands
taste it on lips
believe it in their hearts
know it in their minds
no more backwardness no fear
let there be resistance til victory.
--Marvin X/El Muhajir

Syrian poet/professor Dr. Mohja Kahf

Oh Marvin, how much blood can soak the earth?

The angels asked, “will you create a species who will shed blood

and overrun the earth with evil?” 

And it turns out “rivers of blood” is no metaphor: 

see the stones of narrow alleys in Duma

shiny with blood hissing from humans? Dark

and dazzling, it keeps pouring and pumping

from the inexhaustible soft flesh of Syrians,

and neither regime cluster bombs from the air,

nor rebel car bombs on the ground,

ask them their names before they die. 

They are mowed down like wheat harvested by machine,

and every stalk has seven ears, and every ear a hundred grains.

They bleed like irrigation canals into the earth.

Even one little girl in Idlib with a carotid artery cut

becomes a river of blood. Who knew she could be a river 

running all the way over the ocean, to you,

draining me of my heart? And God said to the angels, 

“I know what you know not.” But right now,

the angels seem right. Cut the coyness, God;

learn the names of all the Syrians.

See what your species has done.

--Mohja Kahf

www.blackbirdpressnews.blogspot.com 
jmarvinx@yahoo.com