LOCATION:
Baltimore, Maryland
Lafayette Square
Corner of West Lafayette &
North Arlington Avenue
Time: 1pm-6pm
LOCATION:
Baltimore, Maryland
Lafayette Square
Corner of West Lafayette &
North Arlington Avenue
Time: 1pm-6pm
LOCATION:
Baltimore, Maryland
Lafayette Square
Corner of West Lafayette &
North Arlington Avenue
Time: 1pm-6pm
These are hard times for Africans. We are a people who have been dispersed to all corners of the world where we have been enslaved and oppressed for centuries and where we now cope with the continuing horrors of a pandemic, police terrorism, theft of natural resources, widespread poverty and illness, racial discrimination, inadequate education and much more. In every corner of the African World, our people experience isolation and a growing sense that a united effort to end our misery is more a dream than a realistic possibility.
African Liberation Day is the one day during each year when African people throughout the world stand united in their commitment to liberation. This year we want to use this special day to dedicate ourselves to sustaining that level of world-wide unity every day of every year. It’s not an easy job. By participating in the 2021 commemoration of African Liberation Day, you are striking a blow against the enemies of oppressed people everywhere by fighting for unity.
Unity is not totally absent from our struggles. For example, in the wake of the police murder of George Floyd, Africans throughout the world have been united in action against police terrorism. Many thousands have participated in street manifestations and militant uprisings. However, among the ranks of these demonstrators, the individuals have countless ideas about their objectives, and why they are engaged in these actions. For example, in any demonstration against police terrorism, you will find some who march to defund the police, and others who want only for police forces to hire more Africans. Some want civilian control of police. Others want police abolished altogether. They are united in their actions, but they are not united in thought.
This unity in action and disunity in thought is nothing new. Even during Africa’s colonial era, there were members of Africa’s bourgeoisie who united in nationalist action with workers and peasants to purge the continent of European colonizers. However, they were not united in thought with respect to what should happen in Africa after the colonizers were chased out. The supposed “unity” lasted only long enough for the bourgeoisie to take the place of European colonizers as new African bosses, and without any concerns about the workers and peasants who shed their blood for independence.
We will be free only when we are united in both thought and action. As Kwame Nkrumah observed: “Unity presupposes organization.” We will achieve world-wide Pan-African unity of thought and action when we achieve world-wide Pan-African organization. That’s what the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party fights to achieve every day of every year. Organization for the sake of organization is insufficient. Organization to achieve unity of thought and action will liberate Africa and Africans. An organization that strives to achieve unity of thought and action needs a clear objective and an ideology to focus and guide it. The All-African People’s Revolutionary Party has both.
The All-African People’s Revolutionary Party (A-APRP) has made its annual African Liberation Day Tabloid available in advance of their International ALD Webcasts happening on the May 23rd and May 25th 2021. In this edition, which can be viewed in its entirety HERE, the following stories are included:
The A-APRP’s Objective and Ideology Were Created by and for Africans
Pan-Africanism Won’t Fall Into Our Laps – We Must Fight!
What’s So Frightening About Revolution?
World-Wide Pan-African Unity Holds the Key to the Defeat of Imperialism
World-Wide Pan-African Unity will Lead to the Liberation of the Sahrawi
Africa Needs Unity Now — Time is Running Out, It’s a Choice Between Life and Death contributed by the Zimbabwe Movement of Pan African Socialists (ZIMPAS)
If Africans throughout the world aspire only to drive a Mercedes, eat a chocolate bar, wear a diamond ring, and pump gasoline into our vehicles, we will never achieve the liberation we have craved for generations. We will be free only when we realize that we should be the people managing the auto, cocoa, diamond, and oil industries. Not only should we be managing those industries, we should be managing them within a socialist development system that places the needs of people over profit so that our riches are not exploited, but instead made available for collective good and development.
The All-African People’s Revolutionary Party (A-APRP) didn’t choose “Forward Ever to Worldwide Pan-African Unity!” as our international theme for African Liberation Day on a whim. The A-APRP understands that global African unity is essential to achieving Pan-Africanism, which means the liberation of Africa from the control of exploitative foreign capitalist interests and the unification of the African continent under a continent-wide socialist government. Accomplishing that objective will make it possible for African people everywhere to not only control the industries mentioned above, but to also make it possible for Africans around the world to benefit from them.
The A-APRP is not guessing about the benefits of Pan-Africanism. We have seen how others have achieved global power when they have liberated territory and consolidated it into a super state that has the capacity to impose its will economically, diplomatically, and militarily. Consider China. At one time, China was subordinate to colonizers, warlords, and feudal landowners. Chinese immigrants were disrespected and exploited, and often found work outside of China as laborers whose low wages allowed lifestyles that were qualitatively comparable to those of enslaved persons. The old saying: “He doesn’t have a Chinaman’s chance” reflected an abusive, discriminatory reality.
However, China underwent a socialist revolution that fundamentally transformed the country’s reality. Since then, China has been and remains a world power and a growing force to be reckoned with. China’s success may have inspired resentment among western imperialists that has trickled down to racist individuals who have engaged in recent acts of abusive violence, but it can’t be denied that the power of China and its people is highly respected, and in some cases feared. China’s people benefit from this respect regardless of whether they are born in Beijing or San Francisco. This respect will continue to grow, and racist propaganda aimed at China for whatever reason will do nothing to stop this.
Africans around the world do not enjoy that type of respect. When Africans are gunned down like mad dogs by police in New York, Toronto, Paris, and Lagos, it is suggested that the victims’ brought violence on themselves by their actions. When Africans’ resources are shamelessly exploited and they suffer premature deaths because of this blatant exploitation, those who plunder claim their deeds encourage “development.” Africans’ resistance is met with suggestions that Africans too can get a piece of the action if they join in and play the imperialist game. It’s all a lie of course, and the living conditions of Africans everywhere prove it. There are government crackdowns against people in Kenya, Uganda, Senegal, and elsewhere. There is the continued domination of the Horn of Africa by outside imperialist interests, intent on ensuring control of that region. Apple, Samsung, Shell, Chevron, Firestone, DeBeers, Ford, Toyota, Mercedes, BMW, Chevrolet, Nestle, Hershey, Alcoa Aluminum, and many other foreign corporations exploit both Africa’s mineral wealth and its people. Outside of Africa, the experiences of Africans throughout Europe, Australia, Canada, the U.S., Haiti, Brazil, and elsewhere involve daily, systemic attacks on Africans’ dignity.
What then are we to do? First, we must be wary of hazards we create for ourselves. Sekou Toure warned that class struggle was a human challenge in Africa long before the Europeans invaded, and that often, the greatest enemy is the internal one. The evidence is found in many neo-colonial regimes throughout Africa and countries with large African populations. So-called African leaders make symbolic Pan-Africanist gestures, but then implement policies that serve the interests of international imperialism at the expense of the African masses. Even outside of Africa there are opportunists who claim they seek reparations for the historical abuse of Africans, but they use a scarcity model and appeal to the ignorance and fears of Africans in the U.S. by claiming Africa and Africans born outside of the U.S. do not share the oppressive history of those descended from Africans enslaved in North America and should therefore be excluded from their so-called movement.
Anyone who calls for the division of Africans works against the best interests of Africans. When the slave raiders entered Africa, they had no concerns about keeping families together. Consequently, any African whose family was touched by the slave trade is likely to have blood relatives living anywhere and everywhere from Eritrea to Ghana to Congo to Canada to Cuba to Haiti to the U.S. This irrefutable fact makes any efforts to separate Africans illogical, unscientific, and unproductive. When one considers that Africa’s enemies have worked hard to divide Africans and that Africa possesses the greatest mineral wealth on Earth, it becomes easy to understand why African people everywhere are the poorest. African division allows Africa’s enemies to maintain their dominance, and they are eager to eliminate any possible chance that Africans will embrace the concept of Pan-African unity.
Pan-Africanism realized represents African people everywhere combining our intellectual, scientific, artistic, creative, and practical skills to determine how to utilize and manage Africa’s mass mineral wealth to serve the purpose it should serve – service to the masses of African people. No African (or any justice-loving human being for that matter) can credibly oppose Pan-Africanism. But Pan-Africanism will never just fall into our laps. We are going to have to fight for it, and that means getting organized and creating the unity we need to be free. The A-APRP represents that. The theme for African Liberation Day 2021 represents that. The only remaining question is how many of us are willing to demonstrate our commitment to those values?
Some years ago, a member of the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party spoke to university students about the thousands of years of African history that preceded slavery, explaining that the length and breadth of that rich history and culture meant descendants of enslaved Africans are not simply emancipated slaves, but they have been and remain “Africans.” The lecturer recalls: “A student came up to me after the presentation and said she understood and agreed that she should have an allegiance to Africa, but she also suggested: ‘you would attract more people if you didn’t call yourselves revolutionary. Revolution scares people away.’”
What’s so frightening about the word revolution? The capitalists always use that word to advertise their products. The pictures below are three examples.
So why do capitalists train us to become frightened when socialists use the word revolution? The reason is simple. Socialist revolution requires the destruction of capitalism. This would mean the elimination of a system where a few own and control the factories, banks, farms, mines, and oil fields across the planet. The wealthy don’t want this to happen, so their media outlets make people think fighting for revolutionary social and economic change is harmful and dangerous and buying more and more of their “revolutionary” junk is good.
It has been this way for a very long time. Years ago, students were taught that the invention of the transistor was a “revolutionary” advance in technology. Transistors replaced vacuum tubes. When it comes to technology, revolutionary change is applauded. Integrated circuits replaced transistors, then computers on a chip replaced circuit boards of integrated circuits. We are taught that the industrial revolution was a great thing. Now there is much discussion of how Africa must embrace the fourth industrial “revolution.”
Each year individuals are awarded Nobel prizes in a range of disciplines. We are told that it is for their “revolutionary” contributions in physics, chemistry and even peace-making. An award-winning physicist once spoke of the days and hours of running experiments. After a breakthrough, he was so excited he ran from his lab into the hallway to share his excitement, only to find the building empty. He then realized it was 3 a.m. on a holiday weekend. It was evidence of the fact that revolutionary change of any kind, including scientific change, requires hard work, determination, sacrifice, and discipline. Organizing to bring an end to neo-colonialism and capitalism is no exception.
Although capitalists imply socialist revolutionaries are dangerous or criminal, socialists are actually fighting for a better world. Capitalism is based on a few people owning and controlling all production and distribution and operating to make personal profits. The so-called free market system involves cutthroat competition and a drive to increase profits to survive. Where do these profits come from? They come from the labor of workers and the cheap extraction of natural resources. Capitalism increases the wealth of a few while increasing the toil, work, and exploitation of the many. That toil, work and exploitation are the basis for capitalist profits. It is only natural that well-meaning people – good socialist people – want an end to this system of exploitation. The elimination of capitalism and its replacement with a system that asks people to contribute according to their abilities and to receive according to their needs is the revolutionary change capitalism demonizes. However, it is in the best interest of humanity for us to struggle for this revolutionary change. In fact, our collective conscience demands that we do all we can to support and improve humanity and our world. This is the essence of being human. Therefore, the highest expression of humanity is to struggle for revolution!
Are you ready for revolution?
“Forward Ever to World-Wide Pan-African Unity”
The key to worldwide Pan-African unity is found in Africa’s history. African civilizations once developed their own societies based on their needs and visions for the future. These societies had social, political, and economic foundations grounded in an African way of life. However, colonial intrusion caused disorder and confusion as well as the adoption of beliefs and practices that opposed matriarchal culture. This had a significant impact on gender, class, and clan, and led to the abandonment of the social and communal principles that guaranteed African unity and prosperity. It was an abandonment of principles intrinsic to African culture.
Value systems adopted from colonizers conflict with the value systems of African societies that align life and nature. Africans’ instinct is to support others, but capitalist individualism promotes antagonism, disrespect, and abandonment of others. These foreign values create obstacles to unity and cause Africans to question their identity and transform gender respect and community cooperation into disruptive, divisive, and destructive relationships. The ultimate consequence is war. War in Africa has caused people to flee conflict and poverty by attempting to reach Europe by way of the Mediterranean Sea. In recent years, an average of 1,800 migrants from Africa and surrounding regions may have drowned each year attempting to make this journey. War has destabilized millions of women and children, with more Africans living outside their country of birth than any other continent.
There are fifteen civil or border wars occurring in Africa today. Women and men of revolutionary African organizations like MPLA, PAIGC, TANU, PDG, FRELIMO, PAC/ANC, ZANU and others fought valiantly for unity and true liberation. They did not make sacrifices so that Africans might engage in the internecine conflict we witness today.
We are creating instability within our nations and a worker and brain drain in Africa which is feeding the labor base in capitalist, elitist and racist countries in Europe, Asia, and America. As they did during periods of enslavement and colonialism, capitalists benefit from our misery. When Africans internalize capitalist values, adopt capitalist governmental systems, military strategies and ways of life, Africans’ lives become meaningless.
In Ethiopia, Sudan, Congo, Nigeria, and throughout the African continent, children – especially women and girls are kidnapped and murdered by Africans at an alarming rate. During the current pandemic, the numbers have increased. The fight over mineral resources has made the weakest of the society pawns of corporate bloodsuckers. This is not African!
Women and youth make up most of the African World’s population, and they have become the primary victims of war, migration, and poverty. In 2019 and 2020, there were 53,300 incidents of sexual violence reported in South Africa. Police report an average of 146 such incidents each day. Violence has escalated throughout Africa and Africa’s diaspora. These crimes include an increase in forced child marriages, domestic violence, honor killings, rape, political and sexual assassination, female genital mutilation, sex trafficking or slavery, and physical punishment – especially against gay and lesbian citizens. Such violence can only be addressed by revolutionary principles and a recommitment to revolutionary culture.
Our focus must be on ideological and political development of the masses. The enemies of our people are in our midst and only mass, revolutionary African culture and organization can combat this reactionary behavior. We must collectively reconstruct not only the ethical and political foundation for a new African society but also reinvigorate revolutionary and principled people willing to build an ethical and principled society for the future of Africa and all our African communities.
We must have a plan that guides development from youth to leader. We must build revolutionary collectives, be they community, political, cultural, social, and educational for the reconstruction of our ethics and principles. The contradictions throughout the diaspora are our contradictions and they must be honestly addressed so we can elevate our individual and collective consciousness and behavior.
A social/cultural revolution can cause a resurgence of revolutionary love, a commitment to principles that will bind us to a common foundation that will live beyond our years into the next generation, creating the revolutionary cultural foundation for Africa and the world.
Unity is one of the cardinal principles of revolution. The PAIGC of Guinea Bissau made “Unity, Struggle, Unity” their motto. In their struggle, there were the Fula, the Pepel, the Mandinka, and the varied classes but stronger than any ethnic or social division was a unity amongst those who wanted to free Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde. So, our differences cannot be allowed to prevent us from achieving our Pan-African objective. It is the critical key for African Unity, stability, development and prosperity for all!