Donald Trump’s lynch party seeking the extradition of Assata Shakur from
Cuba includes every U.S. president -- most especially Barack Obama, who
doubled the bounty on her head and demanded “that a home-grown Black
revolutionary and escaped political prisoner be returned to captivity.”
As for the Congressional Black Caucus, there is “no chance that the CBC
as a body will protest either Trump’s persecution of Shakur or his
general policy on Cuba.”
Berlin, Germany--WTF, Rosa Park's house moved to Berlin, Germany
Detroit planned to demolish the home, so now it’s in an artist’s yard in
If you want to visit the home where civil rights legend Rosa Parks lived, you have
a trip ahead of you — all the way across the Atlantic Ocean. That’s because her
home is in the backyard of an American artist living in Germany.
It seems like back-of-the-bus treatment for the black woman who had the guts in
1955 to refuse to give up her seat to a white man in Alabama and go to the back
of the bus. Instead, she gave birth to the civil rights movement.
Why is her home in Berlin? The short answer is that Detroit planned to destroy it.
When Parks’ niece Rhea McCauley found out, she paid $500 for the home, which
Parks moved to in 1957, and cast around for ways to save it. She reached out to
artist Ryan Mendoza, who happened to be in Detroit at the time and had
previously moved a house from the city to Europe for an art project.
Though they both appealed to Detroit’s mayor to protect the building,
they said the mayor had no interest. So Mendoza and volunteers
disassembled the home,
packed it in shipping containers, transported it to Germany, and put it back together in an expensive operation that took several months, reported Deutsche Welle.
Mendoza said, “The Rosa Parks house should actually be a
national monument and not a demolition project,” he told Deutsche Welle.
“The basic question, the fundamental question I ask myself: ‘Is the house
worthless or is the house priceless?’ For the American institutions so far the
house has been deemed worthless,” he told Agence France-Presse. “It was put
on a demolition list; that’s not a detail.”
Mendoza believes it’s apt that the house now stands in a country that tore down
a wall and was removed from a nation that plans to build a wall.
McCauley said she hopes one day the U.S. will “grow up” and ask for its treasure
back.
North Korea--‘Self-Restraint’ Is Only Thing Stopping War With North Korea, U.S. General Says
SEOUL,
South Korea — “Self-restraint” is all that is keeping the United States
and South Korea from going to war with the North, the top American
general in South Korea said on Wednesday. His comment came as the
South’s defense minister indicated that the North’s first
intercontinental ballistic missile had the potential to reach Hawaii.
The unusually blunt warning, from Gen. Vincent K. Brooks, the commander of American troops based in Seoul, came a day after North Korea said it successfully tested the Hwasong-14, its first intercontinental ballistic missile.
Washington
and its allies confirmed that the weapon was an ICBM and condemned the
test as a violation of United Nations resolutions and a dangerous escalation of tensions....
LOOK: Colin Kaepernick, in Ghana, tweets about finding his independence on July 4
Kaepernick says he went home -- to the land of his ancestors -- for personal discovery
Colin Kaepernick took
to social media July 4 to explain why he took a recent trip to Ghana to
find his own independence. His Twitter post features a video of his
journey, while an Instagram post featuring the same video included a message from Kaepernick, starting with a quote from Frederick
Douglass.
BAM news national
Harlem, NY
Please Donate to the Larry Neal 80th Birthday Tribute
A
Tribute on September 9 at The Schomburg Center in memory the
Great Revolutionary Black Arts Movement Activist, poet, philosopher/Cultural Worker on his 80th Birthday
A
repurposed day care center stands amid a handful of empty lots on
Capitol Street in Jackson, Miss. No development of any kind has taken
hold in this mid-point to the city’s downtown area. What stands out as
cars come by are the red letters spelling out the “Lumumba Center”
painted on the windows in honor of the short reign as mayor of legendary
community activist and movement lawyer Chokwe Lumumba.
Lumumba, who passed away three years ago after serving only nine
months of his term, served as a center point for radical change in
Jackson. That center point is housed in the Lumumba Center and
represents the tradition of Black self-determination and cooperative
economics he advocated for during his organizing and political life.
That center point is Cooperation Jackson.
Jackson, Miss., is perhaps one of the Blackest cities in the United
States, with a population of over 180,000 people, 80 percent of them
being Black. Everything about Jackson — from the story of African
enslavement to the great era of the civil rights movement — proudly
shapes the town’s history and its people. Mississippi winds whisper the
names of freedom fighters like the great Fannie Lou Hammer and Medgar
Evers. It is this tradition of Black resistance, unmistakably flowing in
the blood of Black Jacksonians, that continues today out of necessity....
A
Chicago Police officer, left, watches as an evidence technician officer
investigates a gun at the scene where a 16-year-old boy was shot in the
head and killed and another 18-year-old man was shot and wounded on the
7300 block of South Sangamon Street on April 25, 2016 in Chicago,
Illinois. (Joshua Lott/Getty Images)
After countless shootings and hundreds of murders during the first half of 2017, Chicago is getting more federal aid.
Twenty additional federal agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco
and Firearms (ATF) have been sent to the city after President Donald
Trump tweeted Friday that: “Crime and killings in Chicago have reached such epidemic proportions that I am sending in Federal help.”
Philadelphia--PhilAesthetic explores local Black Arts Movement
Ayana Jones
Tribune Staff Writer
The African American Museum of
Philadelphia is marking its 40th anniversary by curating PhilAesthetic: A
Celebration of Philadelphia’s Black Arts Movement, a multimedia, pop-up
exhibition that opens this week.
The celebration is an
unprecedented collaboration between four cultural institutions: The
Philadelphia Clef Club of Jazz and Performing Arts, Philadelphia Dance
Compay, the New Freedom Theatre and AAMP.
“PhilAesthetic is a
shared celebration amongst Philadelphia’s African-American legacy
cultural organizations,” Patricia Wilson Aden, AAMP president and CEO,
told The Philadelphia Tribune.
“All
of these organizations, for the first time, are offering programs with a
shared theme. PhilAesthetic is all about the Black Arts Movement,” she
said. “The Black arts movement is that time between the late ‘60s and
early ‘70s where we had a lot of creative energy percolating up not only
from neighborhoods in Philadelphia, but also nationally and
internationally.”
“What we wanted to do is highlight the fact that
these legacy organizations very often had their genesis during that
time period and those legacy organizations have associated with them
artists that have had impact not only here in Philadelphia but across
the globe For so long we believed that these legacy organizations
haven’t been celebrated collectively as they could and should be, “ Aden
said.
“We really want people to appreciate the fact that they
have had this fantastic, immeasurable and invaluable imprint. The
culture community is changing, the neighborhoods in which they exist are
changing and very often their impact is under appreciated,” she added.
PhilAesthetic
is anchored by a two-gallery exhibition showcasing four decades of
works by some of the top Black visual artists. It also features
community workshop performances and pop-up exhibits at the three partner
institutions where visitors can explore the stories, history and work
of each of community cultural organizations.
“One of the
objectives of our project is to tie generations together,“ said Helen
Haynes, PhilAesthetic producing director. “We talk about the Black Arts
Movement and we talk about what the boomers’ experience with it, but a
lot of the millennials and the Xers haven’t had that same experience
with these institutions.
“We want to attract younger people to
these institutions. This programming is really designed to attract
younger people to the institutions to really get them more involved with
them and also different cultures to these institutions,“ she said.
PhilAesthetic
launches Thursday with a free reception from 6 to 8 p.m. at the AAMP,
701 Arch St. The reception features live performances by the Clef Club
Ensemble, Ursula Rucker and Kulu Mele African Dance and Drum Ensemble.
Through
August, each partner institution will host a series of performances
showcasing the diversity of artwork created by the Black Arts Movement
artists and their influence on contemporary performers.
A
performance titled “Fierce! Three Generations of Jazz, Funk and Hip-Hop”
will be held June 24 at 8 p.m. at the Philadelphia Clef Club, 738 S.
Broad St. The event features Jamaaladeen Tacuma and his band,
soul-singer Lady Alma as well as rapper, singer and songwriter Hezekiah.
An
event titled “The Ultimate Supa Sisters!” featuring Ursula Rucker,
Sonia Sanchez and Jessica Care Moore will be held July 14 at 8 p.m. at
AAMP.
BAM news local
oakland--support black woman is god exhibit
Jun 28 at 11:16 PM
We
are transforming the Bay Area art scene and the world, so we need your
support! With your help, we look forward to bringing you beautiful gifts
of art and community.
Our
names are Karen Seneferu and Melorra Green. We are artists, activists,
and change-makers. We love Black art and work to create spaces for Black
women artists who are often marginalized in the art world.
Last
year we had 2,000 people come out to the opening reception of The Black
Woman Is God at SOMArts in San Francisco. So many performers, artists,
healers, and stewards helped make this mammoth exhibition possible —
providing a platform for 60 Black visual artists to contribute over 100
pieces of artwork and over 75 dancers, drummers, and performers to
activate the exhibition at the opening reception.
Since
then, SOMArts has created space for us to bring The Black Woman is God
back in 2017 and the exhibition has gotten bigger. We are reaching out
to you for financial support to show appreciation for those who continue
to give without requesting to be paid. Let's show the artists, the
communities and the world that The Black Woman is God is not only an
exhibition but a movement that has the power to bring about healing and
transformation.
This is what we have done so far and what we are asking you to support:
The City of Oakland was supposed to end up with a new two-year budget
after its Tuesday night council meeting. Instead, a large assembly of
activists shut the meeting down and prevented a vote.
Chanting "defund OPD," in reference to Oakland's police department, and
urging more spending on housing, homeless services, and similar
programs, the group took over the chambers and prevented the meeting
from continuing before the actual discussion about the budget began.
Members of the council appeared caught off-guard by the disruption, but then declared a recess and slowly exited the room.
Councilmembers Desley Brooks, Rebecca Kaplan, and Noel Gallo left City
Hall shortly after the disruption. The remaining councilmembers then
quickly reassembled inside the locked council chambers, but only to vote
to adjourn. Although a typical budget resolution only requires five
councilmembers' votes to pass, certain parts of the proposed budgets
this year require six votes. As a result, there was no quorum last night
after the disruption.
Elaine Brown is the CEO of Oakland and the World Enterprises, and also a staff member in Supervisor Keith Carson's office.
The Oakland City Council is scheduled to vote tonight on a deal to sell city-owned land near
West Oakland's BART station to a nonprofit that improperly obtained
hundreds of thousands in county tax dollars, according to the Alameda
County Grand Jury. The city would sell the land for a nominal price,
even though it's worth $1.4 million, in order to subsidize an affordable
housing project on site.
Further complicating the deal is the fact that the nonprofit's leader
sued the City of Oakland last year, alleging that councilmember Desley
Brooks attacked her at a barbecue restaurant. The lawsuit is ongoing,
and Brown is seeking millions in damages from the city.
The nonprofit, Oakland and the World Enterprises,
was set up by former Black Panther Elaine Brown to build affordable
housing and operate an urban farm in West Oakland. It also plans to
build a grocery store, restaurant, fitness center, and technology center
at the location.
But according to the Grand Jury, Brown's group was given $710,000 by
Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson at the same time Brown was a paid
staff member in Carson's office. "[T]he dual role of the county
employee in these transactions constituted both a failure of good
governance practices by the county of Alameda and a conflict of
interest," concluded the Grand Jury in their investigation, which was published yesterday.
Brown is currently listed as a staff member in charge of job creation
and West Oakland constituent services on Carson's supervisor web site.
Oakland-- the anti-police terror project on oakland city council member lynette mcelhaney
The Anti-Police Terror Project & The Oakland Justice Coalition just started a petition to Oakland City Council Member Lynette Gibson McElhaney demanding that she: Withdraw the nomination of Sarah Chavez-Yoell to the Oakland Police Commission's selection panel.
The Anti-Police Terror Project & The Oakland Justice Coalition just started a petition titled: "We demand REAL community oversight of the Oakland police department." Here's why this is important: Oaklanders need to be safe and secure, we need housing and job
security, we need a city that spends it's budget on jobs for the youth,
housing protections, and the arts. And we need a city that spends less
money on the police. We need to be living in an Oakland where
the OPD is held to the same level of responsibility as civilians and
where residents have security in knowing that if they are victimized by
the police, such as Jasmine Absulin was, that the OPD will be held
accountable. Currently we do not live in this type of Oakland but we're ready to fight in order to create it!
In fighting for a better Oakland we're highlighting the egregious
conflict of interest that currently exists within the Oakland Police
Commission, an oversight panel that is supposed to keep the police in
check. We deserve a police commission that can objectively
analyze the misconduct of officers and a selection panel, currently
chaired by Sarah Chavez-Yoell, the wife of a violent officer is a
conflict of interest that residents can not afford. Marvin,
join us in demanding Sarah Chavez-Yoell, wife of a known violent
officer, Lieutenant Mike Yoell, be removed from the Oakland Police
Commission immediately! In Oakland, we know far too well the outcomes of an unchecked police force. From
the COINTELPRO attacks of the 1960s, the current Negotiated Settlement
Agreement stemming from the Rider's case, and the more recent child rape
case of Jasmine Absulin (also known as Celeste Guap), accounts of
corruption, scandal, and violence are all too familiar and can have
deadly outcomes. When elected officials at the highest levels of city government
know what's going on but turn a blind eye to police abuse bad outcomes
will occur. Oakland officials ignore the intrinsic criminality of police
behavior while calling for more cops to address crime on the street. It
is the height of hypocrisy.
The Oakland Police Commission is supposed to address the lack of
oversight of the Oakland Police Department. It is supposed to put
civilians in roles to hold the department accountable for misconduct.
But how does this occur when the selection panel appointed to choose
commissioners has a bias toward violent officers? District 3 City Council Member Lynette Gibson McElhaney’s recent
appointment of Sarah Chavez-Yoell to the police commission raises
considerable red flags. Chavez-Yoell is the wife of former OPD
Lieutenant Mike Yoell, an officer with numerous incidents of violence.
His "checkered past" includes excessive force, hitting a teen with a
car, sexual harassment and "many other high-profile incidents”. The
commission used to hold Oakland police accountable cannot consist of
people that sympathize with and are married to violent officers. We
demand a fair and just police oversight commission and for this to
happen Sarah Chavez-Yoell must go!
The Anti Police-Terror Project and the Oakland Justice Coalition request
your support in demanding that Oakland City Councilmember Lynette
Gibson McElhaney:
Immediately withdraw her appointment of Sarah Chavez-Yoell from the
Oakland Police Commission's selection panel due to a conflict of
interest.
Select an individual from community who can objectively make decisions based on the needs of community.
Create a community-centered vetting process for the replacement appointee prior to actual selection
"Conflicts of interest are the number one thing that can and
will tank the credibility of the Oakland Police Commission. That process
has begun with the appointments to the Selection Committee." - Cat
Brooks
On behalf of the organization, I want to thank you for your presence and rousing speech at the "Black And African Business Expo". The speech left us educated and inspired.
Judging from the comments of those who attended, the expo was very successful. Most of the credit goes to you and other vendors who made their presence felt. I hope your speech imparted into everyone, especially the youngsters, the importance of "Black Dollars".
Again, we were pleased to have your participation in this outstanding expo, and we thank you for your valuable contribution.
I will be sending you pictures and looking forward to your write up on the expo. GCEA will plan to do an interview with you about the Black Arts Movement Business District.
One last thing, is there any suggestion, critique or observation you can point out that can make us a better host in the future.
My name is Troy Williams. On Monday, Juneteenth, Black Liberation
Day, I agreed to be the editor for the Bay View newspaper. It is with
great honor, respect and much consideration that I step into this
position.
I recognize that over the past 40-plus years the Bay View has been a
voice for the people. Simply put, we speak truth to power, logic to the
illogical, from the perspective of those who seldom have a platform to
speak from. And, what greater truth is there than examples of people
whose lives have been touched, transformed and empowered by what they
read in the Bay View newspaper.
I first heard of the Bay View while serving time in prison. Two and a
half years ago, I was serving a life sentence and paroled from San
Quentin State Prison with $200 to my name, a skill set and a plan for my
life. As we move forward, I will share more about me. But for the
purposes of this introduction, I will state that I am most noted for
founding a media organization inside the walls of San Quentin....
‘Self-Restraint’ Is Only Thing Stopping War With North Korea, U.S. General Says
SEOUL,
South Korea — “Self-restraint” is all that is keeping the United States
and South Korea from going to war with the North, the top American
general in South Korea said on Wednesday. His comment came as the
South’s defense minister indicated that the North’s first
intercontinental ballistic missile had the potential to reach Hawaii.
The unusually blunt warning, from Gen. Vincent K. Brooks, the commander of American troops based in Seoul, came a day after North Korea said it successfully tested the Hwasong-14, its first intercontinental ballistic missile.
Washington
and its allies confirmed that the weapon was an ICBM and condemned the
test as a violation of United Nations resolutions and a dangerous escalation of tensions.
Although
doubt remained whether North Korea had cleared all the technical
hurdles to make the Hwasong-14 a fully functional ICBM, the launch
prompted the United States and South Korea to conduct a rare joint
missile exercise off the east coast of the South on Wednesday. The drill
involved firing an undisclosed number of ballistic missiles into the
sea.
“Self-restraint,
which is a choice, is all that separates armistice and war,” said
General Brooks, referring to the 1953 cease-fire that halted but never
officially ended the Korean War. “As this alliance missile live-fire
shows, we are able to change our choice when so ordered by our alliance
national leaders.
“It would be a grave mistake for anyone to believe anything to the contrary.”
President
Moon Jae-in of South Korea asked President Trump on Tuesday night to
endorse the joint exercise, insisting that the allies needed to respond
to the North’s provocation with “more than statements,” Mr. Moon’s
office said.
The
South Korean military said the missiles, which had a range of about 185
miles, were fired to test their ability to launch “a precision strike
at the enemy leadership” in case of war. The military did not say how
far the missiles traveled.
Japan’s
chief cabinet secretary, Yoshihide Suga, said on Wednesday that Japan
and the United States had agreed to take “specific actions to improve
our defense systems and our ability to deter North Korea.”
Mr.
Suga did not say what those actions were, but a spokesman for the
Defense Ministry said the government was considering buying ballistic
missile defense systems from the United States.
Japan
is considering the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or Thaad, a
system that the United States recently deployed in South Korea, the
spokesman said, as well as another known as Aegis Ashore, which is
similar to what Japan already deploys aboard naval destroyers.
The
Japanese news media has reported that the government was also
discussing buying Tomahawk or other cruise missiles, which would give
Japan the ability to strike North Korea.
Yasushi
Kojima, the Defense Ministry spokesman, denied those reports, which
would face strong opposition in Japan. But an American official familiar
with the talks, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was
not authorized to speak publicly, said the purchase of cruise missiles
was being discussed.
Meanwhile, Mr. Trump criticized China
on Wednesday for failing to do more to pressure North Korea on its
nuclear program, suggesting that he is re-evaluating the United States
trade relationship with Beijing.
The
propaganda battle between the Koreas escalated on Wednesday, even as
Asian stock markets appeared to shrug off the latest tensions. The
North’s leader, Kim Jong-un, said that the missile test was intended to
“slap the American bastards in their face” and was a Fourth of July
“gift package” for the “Yankees.”
South Korea released a computer-animated video
showing missile strikes at the heart of Pyongyang, the North Korean
capital. The video featured an American B1-B bomber and German-made
Taurus air-to-land cruise missiles.
The
Taurus, which is meant to destroy targets underground, is often cited
as a critical weapon South Korea would use in an operation to
“decapitate” the North’s government.
The video showed flags and government buildings in Pyongyang in flames.
The
North Korean missile launched on Tuesday was fired at a steep angle,
flying a horizontal distance of only 578 miles but reaching an altitude
of more than 1,700 miles, according to North Korean, South Korean and
Japanese officials.
Speaking
to the South Korean National Assembly on Wednesday, the defense
minister, Han Min-koo, said that the Hwasong-14, if launched on a
standard trajectory, could have a range of 4,350 to 4,970 miles, enough
to hit Alaska and possibly Hawaii.
Analysts
had said on Tuesday that the missile appeared to be capable of striking
Alaska. Hawaii is farther, about 4,780 miles from Kusong, the North
Korean town where the missile was fired.
A
ballistic missile is considered an ICBM when its range is greater than
5,500 kilometers, or about 3,420 miles, according to military analysts.
But
Mr. Han said although the Hwasong-14 was developed as an
intercontinental missile, it was still too early to conclude whether
North Korea had mastered long-range missile technology, especially the
re-entry ability that allows an ICBM’s warhead section to survive the
intense heat and destruction of its outer shell as it plunges from space
through the earth’s atmosphere.
Mr.
Han said an ICBM warhead section must endure a heat of 7,000 degrees
Celsius, or 12,630 degrees Fahrenheit, while hurtling toward Earth at a
speed of at least Mach 21, or 4.5 miles per second. But the North Korean
missile’s maximum velocity was “far below” that, Mr. Han said, casting
doubt that the missile was put through a proper atmospheric en-entry
test.
On
Wednesday, North Korea said the test showed that it had mastered the
technology of operating and separating the missile’s two propulsive
stages, and guiding the warhead to its target in the waters west of
Japan. The warhead section of the missile proved structurally safe
during “the harshest atmospheric re-entry environment,” the government
said, according to the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency.
But
Mr. Han said that the real test was whether the warhead section
“performed its military function” after it re-entered the atmosphere.
“Even
if we have more time to analyze, it’s hard to say that North Korea has
succeeded in the re-entry technology,” he said. “We believe that North
Korea is still in the process of developing an ICBM.”
North
Korea carried the missile to its test site on a 16-wheel truck,
believed to have been imported from China and reconfigured for military
purposes. But the missile was launched from a platform, indicating that
the country had not developed the ability to launch the missile directly
from the vehicle, South Korean officials said. A missile fired from a
vehicle is harder to counter because it requires less time to prepare to
launch, they said.
North
Korea also said its missile was capable of carrying a “large-sized
heavy nuclear warhead.” Some analysts say that North Korea is probably
still years away from developing a nuclear warhead small and light
enough to fit into a long-range rocket that could reach the continental
United States.
“This
new tier complements North Korea’s well-developed escalatory posture
toward its neighbors,” Gabriel Dominguez and Neil Gibson, analysts
affiliated with IHS Markit, said in a commentary. “The Communist country
is already able to field conventional, chemical and, possibly, nuclear weapons
against Seoul and Tokyo. As a result, a danger of increased North
Korean military confidence is that it raises the risk of increased
belligerence.”
The
United States secretary of state, Rex W. Tillerson, issued a warning
that any country hosting North Korean guest workers or providing any
economic or military benefits to the North was “aiding and abetting a
dangerous regime.”
Saudi Arabia chief foreign promoter of Islamist extremism in UK: Report
PTI | Updated: Jul 5, 2017 A man attaches a St George's Cross flag to a City of London boundary marker on the south-side of London Bridge (AFP Photo)
LONDON: Oil-rich Saudi Arabia
is the chief foreign promoter of Islamist extremism in the UK, a new
report has claimed, asserting that a "clear and growing link" can be
drawn between overseas money and the recent wave of attacks in Britain
and Europe.
The Henry Jackson Society, a foreign affairs think-tank, called for a public inquiry into the role of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations, BBC reported.
The think-tank said there was a "clear and growing link" between
Islamist organisations in receipt of overseas funds, hate preachers and
Jihadist groups promoting violence.
However, the UK's Saudi Arabian embassy says the claims are "categorically false".
Ministers are under pressure to publish a report on UK- based Islamist groups.
The Home Office report into the existence and influence of Jihadist organisations, commissioned by former Prime Minister David Cameron in 2015, has reportedly yet to be completed amid questions as to whether it will ever be published.
Critics have suggested it could make uncomfortable reading for the
government, which has close and long-standing diplomatic, security and
economic links with the Gulf, particularly Saudi Arabia.
Today's report says a number of Gulf nations, as well as Iran, are
providing financial support to mosques and Islamic educational
institutions which have played host to extremist preachers and been
linked to the spread of extremist material.
At the top of the list, the report claims, is Saudi Arabia. It alleges
individuals and foundations have been heavily involved in exporting
what it calls "an illiberal, bigoted Wahhabi ideology", quoting a number
of examples.
In a minority of cases, the report alleges institutions in the UK that
receive Saudi funding are run directly from Saudi Arabia, although in
most instances the money appears to "simply buy foreign donors'
influence".
In a statement, the Saudi embassy here said any accusations that the
Kingdom had radicalised "a small number of individuals are baseless and
lack credible evidence".
And it pointed out that the country has itself been subject to numerous attacks by al-Qaeda and so-called Islamic State.
It added: "We do not and will not condone the actions or ideology of
violent extremism and we will not rest until these deviants and their
organisations are destroyed."
The report's release comes at a time when Saudi Arabia, the UAE,
Bahrain and Egypt are all accusing Qatar of supporting extremism - a
charge the report says is hypocritical.
A
repurposed day care center stands amid a handful of empty lots on
Capitol Street in Jackson, Miss. No development of any kind has taken
hold in this mid-point to the city’s downtown area. What stands out as
cars come by are the red letters spelling out the “Lumumba Center”
painted on the windows in honor of the short reign as mayor of legendary
community activist and movement lawyer Chokwe Lumumba.
Lumumba, who passed away three years ago after serving only nine
months of his term, served as a center point for radical change in
Jackson. That center point is housed in the Lumumba Center and
represents the tradition of Black self-determination and cooperative
economics he advocated for during his organizing and political life.
That center point is Cooperation Jackson.
Jackson, Miss., is perhaps one of the Blackest cities in the United
States, with a population of over 180,000 people, 80 percent of them
being Black. Everything about Jackson — from the story of African
enslavement to the great era of the civil rights movement — proudly
shapes the town’s history and its people. Mississippi winds whisper the
names of freedom fighters like the great Fannie Lou Hammer and Medgar
Evers. It is this tradition of Black resistance, unmistakably flowing in
the blood of Black Jacksonians, that continues today out of necessity.
The legacies of slavery and Jim Crow have produced a racial
wealth-gap that is further amplified in Mississippi by rapid
de-industrialization. Rampant white flight out of the urban areas in
favor of the suburbs during the ’60s and ’70s removed economic resources
and caused further deterioration. In Mississippi, 34.4 percent of
Black people live in poverty in a state where they make up only 37
percent of the population, according to a 2010 U.S. Census. In Jackson,
those numbers are even worse. Where Black people make up roughly
80.1 percent of Jackson’s population, they are 87.8 percent of the people in poverty.
Enter Cooperation Jackson, seeking the self-determination and
economic empowerment of the Black community through cooperative
economics. To bring Mississippi “from worst to first” was the catch
phrase Lumumba used to describe the project that would eventually become
Cooperation Jackson. Lumumba was a revolutionary, a public defender and
a politician who courted the Jackson council seat in 2009 with the help
of the organizing base he created through several political
organizations he founded with others. In 2013, he ran for mayor of
Jackson and won a decisive victory.
The mayoral position allowed Lumumba the resources to seed
cooperative projects in Jackson but his sudden passing from heart
failure left many Black Jacksonians wondering if the material conditions
of oppression in their lives would ever change. The conservative white
establishment reconsolidated power and quickly moved away from
cooperative development. However, outside of city politics, the
organizing infrastructure and framework, which could push the goals of
cooperative economics forward, were well established and left in the
hands of some of Lumumba’s ablest lieutenants. Saki Hall and Kali Akuno,
themselves longtime organizers who worked with Chokwe Lumumba, along
with others pushed forward the cooperative ideas that became Cooperation
Jackson.
“The broad mission of Cooperation Jackson is to advance the
development of economic democracy in Jackson, Miss., by building a
solidarity economy anchored by a network of cooperatives and other types
of worker-owned and democratically self-managed enterprises” Akumo
said.
The
organization’s four-part approach for building in Jackson involves
developing a co-op incubator, an education center, and financial
institutions. It has recently launched its Sustainable Communities
Initiative, which involves the development of an “eco-village” housing
cooperative, a community land trust and a community development
corporation. The initiative provides the stable foundation for the
development of child care, urban farming, construction and recycling
cooperatives.
Some of the project’s other goals involve the creation of a
fabrication laboratory (fab lab), called the Center for Community
Production, that functions as a training center and digital fabrication
factory. This is a part of Cooperation Jackson’s Community Production
Initiative, which hopes to establish a flourishing production economy
based on new and innovative technology like 3D printing.
Cooperation
Jackson is always busy working on a number of projects in the Jackson
area that all feed into each other.
“A big part of Cooperation Jackson is based on Black reality. Ain’t
nobody creating no jobs for us,” said Akuno, co-founder and director of
Cooperation Jackson. “Those days are long since past. In Jackson, Miss.,
I think the real unemployment rate is easily over 50 percent.
“Rather than see the limitations, we are seeing there’s more space
from the decay of late capitalism to actually do some things to push
back and start seizing the means of production. That is a big part of
our project in Jackson. We call it organizing for ‘community
production.’”
The story of Corporation Jackson and the Jackson plan is one of loss
and perseverance. That perseverance has led to the son of Chokwe
Lumumba, Chokwe Antar, also a member of Cooperation Jackson, running for
the mayoral seat briefly held by his father. With ideas firmly grounded
in cooperative economics as a way to build a shattered Jackson economy,
Chowe Antar recently won the mayoral race. and hopes to continue his
father’s legacy. With the advantage of a model of cooperative
development already in place with Cooperation Jackson, the city of
Jackson might just be ready to move from “worst to first.”
LOOK: Colin Kaepernick, in Ghana, tweets about finding his independence on July 4
Kaepernick says he went home -- to the land of his ancestors -- for personal discovery Colin Kaepernick took
to social media July 4 to explain why he took a recent trip to Ghana to
find his own independence. His Twitter post features a video of his
journey, while an Instagram post featuring the same video included a
this message from Kaepernick, starting with a quote from Frederick
Douglass.
Colin Kaepernick
took to social media July 4 to explain why he took a recent trip to
Ghana to find his own independence. His Twitter post features a video of
his journey, while an Instagram post featuring the same video included a
this message from Kaepernick, starting with a quote from Frederick
Douglass.
"What have I, or those I represent, to do
with your national independence?" - Frederick Douglass. In a quest to
find my personal independence, I had to find out where my ancestors came
from. I set out tracing my African ancestral roots, and it lead me to
Ghana. Upon finding out this information, I wanted to visit the sites
responsible for myself (and many other Black folks in the African
Diaspora) for being forced into the hells of the middle passage. I
wanted to see a fraction of what they saw before reaching the point of
no return. I spent time with the/my Ghanaian people, from visiting the
local hospital in Keta and the village of Atito, to eating banku in the
homes of local friends, and paying my respects to Kwame Nkrumah's
Memorial Park. I felt their love, and truly I hope that they felt mine
in return.
Here is Kaepernick's tweet and the
Instagram post, which will most certainly spark more conversation
between the controversial quarterback's supporters and his crtics.
Kaepernick, who led the 49ers to the brink of winning Super Bowl XLII remains a free agent after being released by the 49ers this off season.
Kaepernick has passed his time as a free agent by taking
up multiple humanitarian causes over the past few months. In January
he donated his gigantic sneaker collection to homeless people in San Francisco, and in March, he helped raise funds to fly a plane full of food and water to help the struggling population of Somalia.
We much appreciate the artistic personality known as Fantastic Negrito who offered his services to perform at the Laney College 50th Anniversary Celebration of the Black Arts Movement 2015. A scheduling conflict didn't allow him to perform, but since then we had the pleasure of meeting him. We found him a humble person, and he agreed to support our long planned 27 City Tour of Black Arts Movement icons. Finally, I heard his music and was blown away by his neo-blues, spiritual, black classical music style. We will soon write a review o his music. Marvin X Notes on Fantastic Negrito
photo adam turner
photo adam turner
graphics design and photo adam turner
photo adam turner On Monday, July 3, we were blessed to finally hear Fantastic Negro live. The occasion was a video shoot in West Oakland at the Revolution Cafe, near 7th And Parelta, maybe a few yards from where the old Lincoln Theatre used to be back in the day, actually, across the street from where I grew up on 7th and Campbell in the back of my parent's florist shop. The Lincoln was a black theatre that showed black films along with the white supremacy hollywood variety.
photo adam turner
The video shoot was in a yard adjacent to Revolution, a multi-cultural venue in gentrified West Oakland, formerly Hedarlem of the West. Fantastic wanted to do the shoot at this venue because he liked the ambiance, the artwork behind the stage. We arrived early white the film crew was setting up and the band practicing and the sound check. Eventually, as the band practiced, Fantastic Negrito appeared and took command.He went through several song with the band.
photo adam turner
He is a blues singer and guitar player. Looks a little like Chuck Berry and we say his stage moves are from Chuck Berry along with his guitar playing. Yet Fantastic Negrito comes from deep down in the Blues' well. Deep in the Black Christian Church tradition as well. We heard some Holy Ghost sounds, yes, we think deeper than Baptist! But the lyrics are special into the now. Even though the psycho-linguistics of the Bllues has been studied for its rawness, and the Black Arts Movement as well, he was clearly in the new now with a blues lyric saying Stop the Bullshit, Come with some Good Shit! The lyrics from that song were enough for me, you know senior citizens go to bed early. After The Movement Newspaper photographer arrived, he photographed the event and we departed.
Again, Fantastic Negrito has a new sound and lyrics that cross lines, racial, musical; any human being will move to his music and lyrics. Even Marvin X. Fantastic Negrito is off to Norway in the morning, so we are thankful, especially so, that we caught him in our home turf of West Oakland.
photo adam turner
--Marvin X, Publisher, The Movement, Voice of the Black Arts Movement International
Negus hate movement
even bowel movement
constipated in the mind
frozen in time
no amnesia here
no memory of there
Malcolm said you left your mind in Africa
go back seed of seed of seed of seed of seed
to first seed
untie knot in mind
fuck history get to mystery
yr story deeper than history
recall memory of things past
cause past ain't past
granny's dna in children
what did granny eat grandpa
conscious parents reverse the trend
no mo negro children
conscious diets can reverse granny's soulfood
no fear in my children
dentist said nefertiti had no fear in his chair
first time in 30 years child no fear
nefertiti conceived in parental flight
jesus child
parents running from pharaoh in the night
refused to be pharaonic slaves
no fear parents no fear children
even in the now you're numb
fixated in fear and nothingness
don't ask me bout black agenda
ask yo black ass what's the agenda
what you bringin to dinner table
at least bring some wine
let there be movement
how you get free
200,000 black troops moved on whitey
fucked up when we gave up guns
hamas no give up guns
hezbollah no give up guns
200,000 negus with guns
movement since ain't two cents
sisyphusian myth-ritual
up the mountain down up down up down up
movement michael jackson moonwalk at best
civil rights Sun Ra said civil rites
last rites at cemetery
move on down six feet ground move
no black move
scared shaking in boots
fear
mental paralysis
no movement got you dialysis
move from static to dynamic
be fluid flow
wit da flow
--Marvin X
7/3/17