Belafonte calls war for "a few, sick, powerful people" at Oakland rally

Democrat Barbara Lee always votes for money for Israel, voted for the resolution supporting the butcher of Palestine, Ariel Sharon, last year, and voted for the resolution condemning the excellent 9th Circuit decision tossing the illegal pledge of allegiance which violates the Constitutionally-mandated separation of Church and State, the same Constitution which Barbara Lee has sworn to uphold and which oath she proudly announced she was violating under the guise of being "religious." In supporting George Bush and his Christian fundamentalist fascist regime, no different from the Islamic fundamentalist fascist regimes of the world and the Jewish fundamentalist fascist regime of Israel, on all of the above, there is nothing progressive about this Democrat Barbara Lee. She is playing the usual Democratic Party game of giving lip service to progressive causes to get elected while supporting the same capitalist agenda the Democrat-Republican parties always promote. Barbara Lee is for capitalism and supports the Democratic Party ticket, including president, US senator, governor, ad nauseum. This con game is utterly despicable and no one in the peace movement has any business supporting it, her or any other registered Democrat or Republican at any level of government.

On the KPFA news, 94.1 FM, of April 5, 6 p.m., we heard a whole array of Democrats speak at this rally, all whining about no federal dollars being spent on local needs while the war gets that money. I did not hear any of them complain about the giveaway of $80 billion to the war machine this week by that good Democrat, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, along with most of her other fellow Democrats.

It is long overdue that all Democrats (and Republicans) and all religious parasites not be invited to speak at the peace rallies as they are part of the problem. We need the local leaders of labor, tenant and anti-imperialist organizations as political speakers and we need people who can provide serious information from the medical, environmental and public power communities. We should always promote science, not religion, which is superstitution. It should also be mandatory that we have at least one, preferably several speakers describe exactly how the crimes of 9/11/01 were a Reichstag Fire, the CIA's Operation Northwoods realized. It was after all a Communist, George Dimitrov, who put the Nazis on the witness stand and proved to the world that they burned their own government building, the Reichstag, in 1933, to perpetrate war and fascism. It is long over due that the peace rallies take the lead in doing the same regarding the Reichstag Fire of 9/11/01.

So long as these peace rallies are show pieces for Democrat-Republicans and religious parasites, they are not worth attending and an insult to anyone's intelligence. The peace marches are worth attending, if one can.

Organize:
http://www.newswatch.org/baghdad.htm

Unite: April 12

i agree with socialist's analysis of the contradictions with these big "peace" rallies. how pathetic and lame that a "keynote" speaker is an aged actor and singer. and the nauseating democratic party member, after nauseating democratic party member was enough to wither the entire crowd into almost nothing by the end.

but fact is they organized it, so they controlled it.

what is lacking is those of us who want to see better rallies, putting aside our differences to form principled coalitions where we pool our resources, bring out people and provide analysis that will move people forward -- including sept.11 information.

the uhuru movement is calling for a meeting on tuesday in that effort. please come, so that we can move past whining about how lame demos and rallies are and start building some of our own.

http://www.indybay.org/news/2003/04/1594796.php

matthew willis, uhuru movement.

just to say there is nothing wrong with aged actors and singers. they should be welcome to be on the programs of peace rallies, but keynote speakers should have political credentials and significance. not hollywood celbrity status.

A couple of points to the Uhuru folks:

this coaltion has allowed for your groups points and arguments to be heard democratically and morally within all our planning for the march

this coaltion has allowed for your group to bypass every established procdure and process that was agreed upon by all its members to allow Omali from your organization speak at the rally

yet, your still condeming us and the march and rally?

your sit and lecture us in meetings with your views where you seem to think that you own a monopoly on progressive political thought, you attack thoughful and intelligent members of the organization at will without any discipline, and you disrupt our meetings.

you need to tone down the rhetoric and work with people - we still see it as one big movement - and we still beleive that uhuru should also be a part of it.

but, even on behalf of the workers and students who brought alot of people to the march, we aren't claiming that anyone could have made this march any "bigger and better." read the quotes of people in the Oak Trib or SF Chron who came - they came for the issues and concerns - not to support any groups particular beleifs.

i am sorry but neither you or your organization uhuru "owns" this peace and justice movement. it belongs to the people!

"we" did not disrupt "your" meetings. those meetings were ours as much as yours. disruptions were caused by ugly attempts to censor us.

it is outrageous and hypocritical that you would lecture "uhuru folks" about being inclusive. we want EVERYONE to speak. harry belefonte, democratic party officials, everyone. only, we demand our voice included also. that was a big problem for the leadeship of April 5th. the leadership of the april 5th coalition attempted to censor our voice. not the other way around.

the coalition allowed for omali yeshitela to speak because, time and time again, the room voted by majority that he could speak. the reason we had to have vote after vote was because the leadership of the april 5 demanded it, after failing to censor us in highlevel meetings that they could control.

the only "procedure" the uhuru movement challenged was the attempt by the leadership to boycott us in a high-level dinner conversation where they "stacked" it in such a way that they could vote omali off the program. this stacked meeting was the only open procedure that was violated in this whole process.

when they failed thanks to vote after vote by the majority in the open meetings. they exercised their authority by relegating the "knockout presentation of the day by omali" (those words from a non-uhuru member) to the tail end of the program where most people had already become bored with the same speach over and over by different people which accounted for most of the program.

all of this is in a position paper we are circulating. i will post it here tomorrow.

matthew

There you go again - you prove your self righteousness and attitude once again.

You put words in peoples mouths and you try to make it seem that you are being oppressed. I was lectured by some "white people" in uhuru who were telling all the people of color and oppressed peoples in the room that they knew more about racism than them. As a person of color - all of us were not happy about this.

EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW WHAT YOU PEOPLE ARE DOING - disrupting, attacking, and trying to push your brand of justice on everyone like a dictatorship.

You now are claiming other people "stacked" meetings when you know that uhuru was the only group that did this. YOU HAVE NO CREDIBILITY.

I am trying hard not to think of uhuru in the ways that the people here in Oakland seem to have taken it -

for all I have seen so far - you seem to do try hard to disrupt and attack people in the peace movement -

Neither the FBI, CIA, or CointelPro are doing a better job than you guys at trying to break up the peace movement. I would like to know where exactly your members came from - I smell government spying and counterintelligence in your actions.

I don't beleive uhuru or Omali in florida would even support how you people are acting here.

You have insulted everyone in the coaltion by claiming that we tried to censor you or uhuru. In fact uhuru was granted everything it wanted and everyone in your group said something - one person called 2-3 people in the audience "liars," another uhuru person (a white guy no less) told us that we didn't know anything about racism, etc. etc. etc. Yet, nothing was done to allow uhuru to have their say even with the vicious attacks you made on everyone in the room.

Another point, I also voted for omali to speak also. so i have no reason to beleive in censorship or whatever you claim, but your tactics of disruptions, attacks, and self-righteous dictatorial commands to everyone is what i question.

And another point, to say anyone other than "uhuru" stacked the meetings is ludicrous and you know it. Uhuru was the only group that had up to 15 people trying to "stack meetings" while everyone sent 1 or 2 representatives.

As for socialism, there were no less than 5-6 other "socialist" groups in the meeting so much like the rest of the crowd, your organization did not have any monopoly on the non-democrat crowd. in fact, many others were also green party and peace and freedom party. so this wasn't a democratic party dominated meeting as you profess.

I would wish that uhuru work with people rather than trying to keep jumping in front of the people as you people seem to demonstrate.

During the Nixon administration George Bush senior became the head of the CIA and Henry Kissenger became the National Security Advisor and Secretary of State under Nixon and Ford. This alliance produced a document called "The Implications of World Wide Population Growth on the National Interest of the United States." The code name is National Security Memorandum 4200 (NSSM 200). Written in 1974 it concluded that there were 13 countries that were (are) a direct threat to the national security interests of the US. For the first time in the history of the world one country has deemed the populations of of other countries enemies and a threat to their national interests. The countries are Mexico, Egypt, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, China, Indonesia, Nigeria, Brazil, Columbia, Sudan, and the Palestinians although they are not considered a nation. These countries have been targeted for attack. Any pretense will do as an excuse to wipe out the inhabitants. Pestilence, faminine and war are being used against women and children to wipe them from the planet. Jimmy Carter commissioned a study called Global 2000 that was written by John D. Rockefeller III. The question that was proposed was how to reduce the world's population by 2 billion by the year 2000. From AIDS in Africa to the bombing of a wedding party in Afghanistan, to the use of cluster bombs in Iraq it is all part of the same diabolical scheme of extermination.

All this back and forth about the "coalition" and UHURU. What nonsense. No one involved in any of this is even the LEAST bit relevant. You've all managed to form a confederacy of dunces.

I'm not his biggest fan, but if you think Harry Belafonte is just some random "aged actor and singer," you'd find a little research interesting. Things looked pretty black for MLK at one point in the Birmingham jail--if HB hadn't amassed funds to bail him out a lot of the civil rights movement could have lost a lot of steam. He helped finance alot of marches and Freedom Rides too.
He's pulled his boners, but he's not just anybody.

to robert that labor guy and everyone,

no one in the uhuru movement said anything about "racism" or anyone's level of knowledge of it in any april 5th meetings. after i'm done with this, i will post our position on the peace movement. white people such as myself, have as much right and responsiblity to criticise the peace movement for reflecting a "white people's peace" as anyone else. perhaps more. the uhuru movement doesn't cater to race politics and white members make those kinds of statements all the time.

if robert or anyone else has honest criticisms and concerns that you want to raise with the uhuru movement or with the peace movement in general, you should come to tomorrow's forum we are sponsoring:

Tuesday, April 8th, "Where is the Peace Movement Going?" at the Fellowship Hall, 390 – 27th St. in Oakland. Contact the African People’s Solidarity Committee at (510) 625-1106 or email reparations_sfbay [at] yahoo.com

we invited the leadership of the april 5th coalition, in the form of the "people's nonviolence response coalition" to this meeting. its chair responded with the rude, terse email message about a week later: "We decline your invitation to participate in the forum. Please take us of your flyer [they are listed as an invited guest]. Thank you in advance for respecting our decision." no explanation beyond that. obviously they don't want to have an honest principled discussion on these issues. Hopefully robert is different and will show up with his concerns. Omali will be there if you'd like share this correspondance with him.

- matthew from uhuru

ps: like i said, i think harry belafonte should be allowed to speak. and i again apologize for being harsh in my description of him. however, "keynote speakers" should be activists and theoriticians who can provide analysis that will challenge and move an audience to a deeper committment in the struggle. harry belefante is not this. he is a celebrity who did some important work in the 60's.

robert: insinuating fellow that activists are cointelpro instead of enganging in principled political dialog and struggle is the only cointellpro-like activity going on around here. you have a responsibilty to make that accusation out in the open, where those you are accusing can defend themselves. otherwise you are engaging in rumor mongering and whisper campaigns -- tried and true metiods of destroying political motion and movements.

the only "stacked" meeting was the program committee meeting which happened over dinner on thursday march 27th. it was supposed to be closed, but high level non-program committee leaders in the coalition came to single out omali yeshitela, and vote him off the program. this was the only violation of "procedure."

at the next OPEN program committee meeting, uhuru movement supporters and activists came out in numbers to make a struggle about this and to fight for our voice as part of the rally on april 5th. at this point we were accused of "stacking meetings." when we addressed the dishonesty in this accusation since it wasn't a problem in the "closed" program committee a few days earlier, now we were terrible ogres not only for "stacking meetings" but for calling people "liars."

the deeper question than "who stacked the meeting" is: why all this controversy and struggle just to allow the uhuru movement to put forward a great speaker who ended up adding so much to the day? did you like omali's presentation robert?

The Peace Movement Divide
What kind of peace can exist in a world of colonized and colonizer?

Why is the peace movement so white?
It is truly exciting and profound, the numbers of people on the streets in the U.S. and around the world swept up in the political motion of the peace movement.

However, despite reports that the African community overwhelmingly opposes this unjust war, the peace movement inside the U.S. remains predominantly white. It’s leadership arrogantly demands for a peaceful return to the pre-9/11 status quo. However, the only people who knew peace before 9-11 were in the white community. So, while staging huge mobilizations, the "Peace Movement" ignores the centuries-old war at home, which creates so many casualties for African people and indigenous people. It has censored speakers who would raise up these contradictions as the foundation for the war in Iraq today

Censorship of the voice of African liberation
Nowhere is this problem more glaring than right here in the SF Bay Area. The large anti-war organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area are doing everything in their power to ruthlessly protect the "peace movement" from African and Mexican organizations who want peace through justice to their communities. White leadership of the peace movement provides lip service to "people of color" and makes room for black celebrities and Democratic Party members. But they maintain their careers and political significance based on a silent and defeated African and Mexican community.

Case and Point: In organizing for the April 5th Oakland Peace March and Rally, a scenario that has become all too familiar once again emerged. In a coalition where the Uhuru Movement was an active and forthright member-organization, we were forced to struggle fiercely for the inclusion of Omali Yeshitela, Chairman of the African People’s Socialist Party for a mere three minutes on the program. At one of the first meetings, local Uhuru Movement leader Bakari Olatunji brought forward the need for black community representation in the April 5th mobilization. This was offered up with the proposal that Uhuru Movement founder, Omali Yeshitela, be included as a theoretician for the anti-war program.

Yeshitela is a brilliant and dynamic speaker and leader who is known and loved internationally – particularly in the African community. He leads the Florida Alliance for Peace and Justice and recently was a featured speaker at the Congress of the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania, the organization of Stephen Biko. His words are featured on popular hip-hop albums, such as Dead Prez’ "lets get free." Omali Yeshitela, as a featured speaker of the day, would undoubtedly attract Africans who remain alienated from the peace movement.

However this proposal was met with underhanded, insidious attempts to prevent it from actualizing. In the first program meeting which was supposedly restricted to "program committee" members, other leadership of the coalition came to vote Omali Yeshitela off the program. In response, many Uhuru movement members came to the next general meeting to raise an objection to this and to recall for his participation on the program. This led to the Uhuru Movement hypocritically attacked for not abiding by "process," which had only been violated by the Coalition leadership.

Undaunted, we demanded a vote in the general meeting in which Yeshitela’s name was re-added to the list of speakers by a super-majority. The leadership was outraged that the Uhuru movement had not quietly accepted our censorship. The April 5th coalition leaders held vote after vote to attempt to get Yeshitela’s name off the list of speakers. Their efforts were thwarted as the people in the room continued to support Omali Yeshitela.

They remain furious and indignant at the Uhuru Movement for standing firm on the need for representation, in the form of Omali Yeshitela, of the just struggles of the African community.

Why all this controversy and trouble for a 3 minute presentation?
Yeshitela was singled out, these leaders claimed, because Uhuru Movement members had "stacked" previous meetings and not followed the proper "process." But no other speaker was subject to this kind of second-guessing, re-vote and scrutiny. We understand that the reasons for this double standard are political. Our experience in the April 5th Coalition is just another chapter in decades of unprincipled slander, boycott and censorship by the white left of the Uhuru Movement — a movement for African community self-determination and national liberation.

These struggles are emblematic of a larger issue and divisions within the peace movement. The white-dominated peace coalitions are calling for "peace," but they want the kind of peace you might find temporarily on a slave plantation; one in which the slave is beaten into submission and the slave master is therefore comfortable in his role as the colonizer. The Uhuru Movement, and other organizations reflecting the needs and aspirations of oppressed peoples, aren’t allowing that. We demand a peace that will come when the status quo is destroyed, and the world’s people are free from colonialism.

If Bush stopped bombing Iraq tomorrow, and the world went back to the way it was on September 10th 2001, the majority of the world’s peoples would still exist on $2 a day while the white world maintains its wealth and power off of the people’s land and resources. The U.S.-led world system of imperialism would continue to cause starvation, disease and warfare for millions of people in Africa, Colombia, the Philippines, Haiti, Cuba, the Middle East and for peoples inside its own borders. The African, Mexican, Asian and other indigenous communities in the U.S. would still live in daily terror that their loved ones might be snatched up, murdered or imprisoned by the police. Africans would still live in desperate poverty and foul housing; African children would still be forced into schools that resemble prisons.

In fact, most of the people on Earth haven't experienced peace for the past 500 years, since the European onslaught on Africa, Asia and the Americas. The United States and the North American population exist on a pedestal of stolen land and labor that came as a result of white complicity and participation in genocide and slavery.

Peace on Social Justice!
True peace can only come as a result of an end to the U.S. war on the peoples of Iraq and all oppressed peoples on the planet. We support the struggle of oppressed peoples for justice, national liberation and freedom. Uhuru means freedom!

About the Uhuru Movement: The African People's Socialist Party formed in 1972 following the military defeat of the Black Power Movement of the 1960's and leads the Uhuru Movement. The Uhuru Movement has led countless struggles for justice for African people around the world and has unwaveringly supported the struggles of Mexican, indigenous and other oppressed peoples. Organizations that the APSP leads include the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement, a grassroots organization that struggles for the democratic rights of the African community. APSP formed and leads the African People’s Solidarity Committee, which organizes for white people’s reparations to the African community and coordinates Uhuru Concessions.

To reach the African People’s Socialist Party,
call 510-569-9620.
To reach the African People’s Solidarity Committee,
call 510-625-1106
http://www.uhurureparations.org

Participate in the campaign for Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations, building for the World Tribunal in Philadelphia, PA in November of 2003. Join the work of Uhuru Concessions streetfairs as an expression of support for reparations to the African community. Campaign meetings on the first and third Tuesdays of every month at Walden Pond Bookstore, 3316 Grand Avenue in Oakland.

"the peace movement inside the U.S. remains predominantly white. It’s leadership arrogantly demands for a peaceful return to the pre-9/11 status quo. "

This is something Matthew just reposted, and I saw it in a Uhuru flyer a friend picked up. The first part, that most folks in the peace movement are white, is true; the population of the US remains predominantly white as well, and although I don't think whites are a majority in California any longer, I think they do remain the largest ethnic group in the state.

The second assertion is the one that's just comical, though: that the peace movement wants a return to a pre-911 status quo.

The groups doing the bulk of organizing have been red-baited like nobody's business for the number of people in their groups who have been committed to radical change in the US for many years.

Oops, but since they haven't been working with Uhuru, I guess they haven't really been working for radical change. Some kind of false consciousness thing must have been going on, since the The One Door to Truth is through Uhuru.

Buncha fundmentalist 'toons.

thanks for the feedback on our position paper. i'm glad you enjoyed it and i appreciate an honest criticism. since you found only two sentence to contend with, i'm guessing you found the other 99% of the paper to be right on the money?

regarding your criticisms:
peace rallies are much more white than the demographics of the cities they are in. if you don't see this you are ignoring reality. african and indigenous in particular are alienated from the peace movement. if you don't see this, you are also ignoring reality. playing hip african culture inbetween speakers is not going to resolve this.

reagrding your second point: what groups are you refering to and what radical change have they been committed to? skin heads want radical change. bush himself wants radical change. a desire for "radical change" doesn't make one progressive.

the uhuru movement wants peace through an end to colonialism, reparations to african people, self-determination for african people, a return of the stolen land to the indigenous people. we want "peace" in the middle east through VICTORY for iraq and palestine.

is that the radical change others in the peace movement are committed to? so far, we find many are opposed to these radical changes. many "leaders" in the left emerged after the independent motion of african people was crushed in the '60s. by u.s. military organizations called police departments. when african people fighting for self-determination are in leadership in the struggle, their credential as leaders will no longer be there. we assertin this, not breeches in procedure or "stacked" meetings, is the basis for attempts to marginalize the uhuru movement, as it happened by the leaders in the april 5th coalition and is described in the position paper.

our position paper is based on ongoing attempts to censor us, not to be the "most radical" group on the block. we do not demand you agree with us. we don't try to censor anyone for having a different view. we only demand a democratic peace movment. we want our positions and vision for how peace can exist on the program. we won't settle for anything less. this makes your "The One Door to Truth is through Uhuru" wisecrack is a petty, disingenuous hypocrisy.

after that, and the other insulting description of us as "fundmentalist 'toons" i hope you'll muster the intergrity to come out to our meeting tomorrow to make principled criticism in live and in public. experience tells us most of ya'll who like to say such vile things will only do so in private or anonymously on the internet. i hope your different, rogue.