Omali Yeshitela holding a press conference in front of his home on Friday, July 29, 2022. (Post-Dispatch)
The Uhuru 3 were recently indicted by the federal government, continuing a historical pattern of connecting revolutionary Black organizations and movements to an outside malign state actor to destroy and delegitimize them.
On July 29, 2022, the FBI carried out a violent pre-dawn raid at the homes of Uhuru Movement leaders, namely Chairman Omali Yeshitela of the African People’s Socialist Party (APSP), and other Uhuru Movement offices. The APSP is a political party that aims to lead the struggle of the African working class and oppressed masses against U.S. capitalist-colonialist domination and all the manifestations of oppression and exploitation that result from this relationship.
These raids were followed by a bogus indictment that charged Chairman Yeshitela, Chairwoman Penny Hess of the African People’s Solidarity Committee, and Chair Jesse Nevel of the Uhuru Solidarity Movement with being agents of Russia and acting on behalf of the Russian government.
It should be of no surprise that the U.S. justice system is attempting to imprison Chairman Omali Yeshitela, Chairwoman Penny Hess, and Chair Jesse Nevel–people who have dedicated their lives to the completion of the African Revolution–on fallacious charges threatening each with 15 years in prison.
The absurdity of the charges is revealed in its blatant lie that the Uhuru Movement’s 50-year struggle for Black freedom suddenly became a “Russian-led conspiracy.”
The African People’s Socialist Party, since its inception in 1972, has remained central to securing the freedom of African people wherever they are located.
The Motion to Dismiss called for the bogus charges to be dismissed because they violate the First Amendment right to freedom of speech. The irony of disregarding the very right it was supposedly created to protect is lost on the U.S. government.
Chairman Omali Yeshitela rightly points out that, “The U.S. government has put us in the position of having to fight for the free speech that they claim is the cornerstone of U.S. democracy.”
However, this latest FBI attack is not only an attack on free speech.
It is an attack on anti-colonial free speech: “speech that is anathema to the colonial mode of production, speech that emboldens and invigorates Africans to join the fight for the freedom and liberation of Africa and African people the world over, and simply, speech that exposes the truth.”[1]
This attack on Chairman Omali Yeshitela is the current example of a long-standing FBI practice of culling any revolutionary movement that is yielding material results on the long road to liberation.
It is the continuation of the U.S. government’s historical attack on African people who dare take freedom and self-determination into their own hands. This happened with Martin Luther King Jr.; it happened with Malcolm X; it happened with Fred Hampton; and now it’s happening with Chairman Omali Yeshitela.
This is an attack on the progressive force, personified by Chairman Omali Yeshitela, that calls for African people’s self-determination, a free and united Africa, and in essence, the African Liberation Movement.
The Uhuru 3’s case is emblematic of the U.S.’s growing anxiety about its receding world power. It is lashing out and grasping at straws to do what it can to discredit a long-standing movement known and loved by African people worldwide.
The case is expected to go to trial in September of this year in Tampa, Florida.
The future of the First Amendment rests with this case. Anyone who opposes attacks on freedom of speech should condemn this assault on Chairman Omali and the Uhuru 3, and demand that the changes be dropped.
Demonstrate your love and devotion to the African Liberation Movement by joining the Hands Off Uhuru Defense Campaign and donating to the legal defense fund at handsoffuhuru.org/donate.
Solyana Bekele is the Managing Editor of The Burning Spear newspaper.
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[1] https://theburningspear.com/defend-the-right-to-anti-colonial-free-speech/
Alec Karakatsanis is an attorney with a long history of work as a public defender.
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