Revolutionary Black Nationalism for the Twenty-first Century — An Interview With Kali Akuno

 

[A recent (earlier this year) analysis and the related programmatic plans, in an interview of Kali Akuno by editors of New Politics magazine.  It is an analysis well worth studying.  —  Frontlines ed.]

Riad Azar and Saulo Colón, New Politics, Summer 2015

Kali Akuno

Kali Akuno served as the coordinator of special projects and external funding for Jackson Mississippi’s late Mayor Chokwe Lumumba. He is co-founder and director of Cooperation Jackson as well as an organizer with the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement. He was interviewed by email by Riad Azar and Saulo Colón, both members of the New Politics editorial board.

New Politics: Kali, part of your work and that of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (MXGM) has been strategically and organizationally focused on the South. Can you explain the thinking behind this and also how it connects to your understanding of the specificity of the South (especially due to its changing demographics because of the recent migrations of Latino workers) in terms of capitalist power and racism?

Kali Akuno: First and foremost, it is critical to understand that the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement is a revolutionary nationalist organization that is part of the New Afrikan Independence Movement. Revolutionary nationalism is a left-wing variant of nationalism, practiced by colonized and oppressed peoples, that seeks to liberate them from the yoke of their colonizers and oppressors and replace the capitalist-imperialist social order imposed upon them with a socialist social system. The New Afrikan Independence Movement is a multi- tendency movement struggling to liberate the southeastern portion of the so-called mainland territories now colonized by the United States government. The New Afrikan Independence Movement recognizes that territories it is claiming for its national territory rightfully belong to the indigenous nations of Turtle Is- land, and makes no claims that supersede their just claims. However, our aim is to unite with indigenous peoples and with other oppressed peoples throughout the United States empire and break the back of white supremacy and the settler-colonial project through a unified anti- colonial, anti-imperialist, and anti-capitalist struggle. So, it is critical to understand MXGM, and its parent organization, the New Afrikan People’s Organization, and their commitment to the South in this context.

It is also critical to understand the economic and political role of the South within the colonial-imperial framework of the United States government. Since the defeat of the Confederacy, the South has largely operated as an internal colony from which cheap natural resources and labor could be readily drawn. This strategic site of super-exploitation provided critical capital accumulation and other developmental competitive advantages to the U.S. settler-colonial project in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that played a critical role in the ascendency of U.S. imperialism on a global scale later in the twentieth century. And given the structural acknowledgement of colonialism and slavery within the U.S. political framework—specifically the creation of the electoral college, the unrepresentative Senate, and the limited number of congressional districts— the South has always played a disproportionate role in determining the overall politics of the empire. The South typically plays a decisive role in deciding the presidency and the makeup of the Congress, bending both toward right-wing settler-colonialism. This historic reality is what gives rise to the phrase, “as the South goes, so goes the nation.”

The People–Not the System–will solve the Problem of White Supremacist Murders

The Zimmerman Verdict is a Reflection of the Times.   WE CHARGE GENOCIDE!

The People Must ORGANIZE!

Statement by Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, July 13, 2013

Trayvon Martin was never going to get justice from a courtroom of the United States government. Justice for Trayvon and for the hundreds of other Black women, men, and children executed by someone employed or protected by the US government on a daily basis will only come from our people and the power we are able to wield through the strength of our organization and the resolve of our will. Zimmerman was only put on trial because millions of our people took to the streets in early 2012 and threatened to disrupt the system. The trial was a means to divert our energies and return things to the status quo.

Obama’s statement that a “a jury has spoken” encouraging what he called, “calm reflection”, is just another effort to lure Black people to sleep and keep us accepting the status quo. The status quo of white supremacy has never and will never work for Black people.  As W.E.B. DuBois stated, “a system cannot fail those who it was never meant to protect.” White supremacy and the systems that support and reinforce it like capitalism, colonialism, and patriarchy must be defeated and dismantled. We must always keep this in mind and be prepared in concrete, organized ways to ensure that there will be no peace if there is no justice. Now is the time for direct action in the form of organized Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaigns that disrupt the status quo systems of the US government through massive non-compliant resistance.

We must also be clear that the Zimmerman verdict is a reflection of the times. 17-year old Trayvon Martin was the 31^st Black person executed by someone employed or protected by the state in 2012. As we demonstrated in Operation Ghetto Storm, 313 Black women, men, and children were executed without trials by the police, security guards or certified “neighborhood watchmen” in 2012. These extrajudicial killings have by no means stopped or slowed down, as witnessed by the execution of Kimani Gray and dozens more Black people in the first six months of 2013. With the Zimmerman verdict justifying and setting new precedent for the disposal of Black life, we should expect the number of extrajudicial killings to increase. It is now more imperative than ever for us to strengthen the organization of our communities and defend ourselves.

Chokwe Lumumba Elected Mayor of Jackson, Mississippi

Democracy Now, Thursday June 6, 2013

Democracy Now:  “Just days before the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Medgar Evers in Jackson, Mississippi, the city’s voters have elected longtime black nationalist organizer and attorney Chokwe Lumumba to become mayor. Describing himself as a “Fannie Lou Hamer Democrat,” Lumumba surprised many political observers by winning the Democratic primary, despite being outspent five to one. He went on to easily win this week’s general election.

“Over the past four decades Lumumba has been deeply involved in numerous political and legal campaigns. As an attorney, his clients have included former Black Panther Assata Shakur and the late hip hop artist Tupac Shakur. As a political organizer, Lumumba served for years as vice-president of the Republic of New Afrika, an organization which advocated for ‘an independent predominantly black government’ in the southeastern United States and reparations for slavery. He also helped found the National Black Human Rights Coalition and the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement. ‘People should take a note of Jackson, because we have suffered some of the worst kinds of abuses in history,’ Lumumba says. ‘But we’re about to make some advances and some strides in the development of human rights and the protection of human rights that I think have not been seen in other parts of the country.'”

[Next, two different news articles, below, describing Chokwe Lumumba’s victory in the Jackson, Miss. mayoralty election–as a continuation of human rights activism (first article), and as a victory for adopting “mainstream” politics (second article).  Lumumba, and his grassroots activist supporters,  will undoubtedly clarify, in the weeks ahead, the (tactical or strategic) programmatic significance of this hard-fought struggle for this administrative and political platform. But, for an important background on the organizing perspective of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, see The Jackson Plan at

http://mxgm.org/the-jackson-plan-a-struggle-for-self-determination-participatory-democracy-and-economic-justice/  — Frontlines ed.]

New Annual Report — “Operation Ghetto Storm” — 313 Black People were killed in 2012, averaging one every 28 hours.

[Last year, the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement released, in the wake of the murder of Trayvon Martin in Florida, a report revealing that every 36 hours, a Black man, woman, or child is murdered or protected by the US government.  As if this were not shocking enough, ongoing research is revealing an even more pervasive pattern, as shown in the updated research and new report described below.  We urge you to download and forward, share, discuss and study this report which must not be ignored.  Take it to friends and neighbors in the community, in schools, at work–and plan ways to educate and act upon it. — Frontlines ed.]

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Released by Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, Monday, April 8, 2013

Contact:     Kali Akuno, 404.567.5938, kaliakuno@mxgm.org

For Immediate Release: New Annual Report reveals that 313 Black People were killed in 2012, averaging one every 28 hours. 

Download here: http://mxgm.org/operation-ghetto-storm-2012-annual-report-on-the-extrajudicial-killing-of-313-black-people/

Every 28 hours in 2012 someone employed or protected by the US government killed a Black man, woman, or child! This startling fact is revealed in Operation Ghetto Storm: 2012 Annual Report on the Extrajudicial Killings of 313 Black People by Police, Security Guards, and Vigilantes.

“When we started this investigation in early 2012, we knew a serious human rights crisis was confronting the Black community”, says Kali Akuno, an organizer with the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (MXGM). “However, we did not have a clear sense of its true depth until we compiled and examined the annual figures. We have uncovered outrageous rates of extrajudicial killings–rates, that when they are found in countries like Mexico or Brazil, are universally condemned.  The same outrage inside the U.S. also demands immediate action.”

New Release “Let Your Motto Be Resistance: A Handbook on Organizing New Afrikan and Oppressed Communities for Self-Defense”

[We have received the following message from the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, announcing and detailing the release of a new organizing manual for community self-defense.  When many reform activists continue to appeal to oppressive institutions to solve the problems of repression and oppression, the manual charts a different path where matters are taken into the hands of the people, both in response to specific attacks they face from government and reactionary aggression, but also in building the struggle to end those oppressive powers once and for all.  Well worthy of study and broad distribution and active organizing, Frontlines offers it here (see link at end of announcement), encouraging responses.  — Frontlines ed.]

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Oppressed peoples and communities can and will only be secure in this country when they are organized to defend themselves against the aggressions of the government and the forces of white supremacy and capitalist exploitation. “Let Your Motto Be Resistance: A Handbook on Organizing New Afrikan and Oppressed Communities for Self-Defense”, is the latest contribution of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (MXGM) and the Every 36 Hours Campaign that seeks to strengthen organizing initiatives within Black or New Afrikan communities for self-defense, by presenting these initiatives with a comprehensive analytical framework and practical organizing tools to ground and unite them.

As the extrajudicial killing of Kimani Gray and the more than twenty other Black women and men by the police in the first two months of 2013 clearly illustrate, it is imperative that New Afrikan communities get organized and defend ourselves. As the real economy continues to contract, corporations become more vicious and exploitative, our communities are gentrified and displaced, public goods and services continue to be eliminated or privatized, and the national security state continues to grow and become ever more invasive, the attacks on New Afrikan and other oppressed and exploited people are only going to escalate. We must defend ourselves, and we have every right to do so by any means necessary.

“Let Your Motto Be Resistance” draws on the long history of New Afrikan peoples struggle to realize self-determination and defend our persons, our rights and our dignity from the assaults of the oppressive settler-colonial government and the forces of white supremacy. Building on this history “Let Your Motto Be Resistance” provides in summary form a vision of how we can (re)organize our communities from the ground up to defend ourselves and reassert our fundamental human rights to life, dignity, and self-determination.

MXGM Statement – Dorner, Racism, and State Repression

The Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (MXGM) maintains that regardless of what one may think of Christopher Dorner and the rights or wrongs of his actions, we want to call attention to the truth’s stated in Dorner’s manifesto regarding the pervasiveness of racism in the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD).

As many historians and commentators have pointed out since the release of Dorner’s manifesto, the LAPD is a notoriously racist institution. The Ramparts Division scandal of the late 1990’s is one recent reminder of how racist and corrupt the institution is, and to what extent the judiciary and other branches and institutions of the US government support its actions.

We should be clear that the LAPD is not an aberration or an exception to the rule. Racism is endemic to all law enforcement agencies in the United States, and is part and parcel of the foundations of the United States government, its historic mission, and its systemic functioning. What Mr. Dorner’s manifesto call into question is the degree to which racism is blatantly ignored, reasoned away, and legitimized in this society. This is further evidenced by the fact that William J. Bratton, the innovator of the infamously racist “stop and frisk” policies and tactics, who was the Chief of Police in Los Angeles when Mr. Dorner filed his complaints and was subsequently fired, has been hired by the city of Oakland (which is currently under Federal receivership for its racist conduct) to reportedly “clean it up”.

Update on Tracking Police Murders: Every 36 Hours a Black Person is Murdered by the Law Enforcement

This episode of  Critical Insight we were joined by Kali Akuno of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement to discuss their 2012 report detailing the fact that every 36 hours (at least) a Black person is extra-judiciously executed by “Law Enforcement” within the United States. Please watch this episode to to hear Mr. Akuno discuss the more recent developments regarding this report, how the corporate media has tried to marginalize it, and what you can do to help make a positive impact. Your support is needed.

Sources:  Critical Insight, Navigating the Storm

Telling Our Stories: MXGM Member Talks NYPD Violence and Calls for Passage of the Community Safety Act

Oct 25, 2012 in New York, PSDC Blog

Greetings. My name is Djibril Toure and I am here today as a lifelong Brooklyn resident and member of the Malcolm X Grassroots to lend my voice to those calling for a change in the NYPD’s Stop & Frisk program, and passage of the Community Safety Act.

I am a college graduate, musician and business owner and I have directly experienced the racially biased stop and frisk policies of the NYPD.  I have had the disheartening experience of walking down the street in my own community where I grew up, being stopped for no reason, forced to stand against a wall and being illegally searched by four officers who demanded that I show them some ID or go to jail. This experience repeated itself so many times over the years that I became involved in providing assistance to others who had experienced the same or many times much worse treatment, sometimes resulting in physical injuries. I have heard too many stories of the humiliation and frustration of regular law abiding community residents who are repeatedly stop & frisked or tricked into consenting to a search. This is an all too common occurrence across neighborhoods and communities in this city. Too many of my peers have shared similarly frustrating stories of being stopped and searched, for no apparent reason without explanation.  The overaggressive policing approach taken in these communities has led to a widespread feeling of mistrust towards the police.

The issue of consent to a search without a warrant is a particularly important one. (Intro. 801) of the Community Safety Act would require that NYPD officers provide their name and rank to the subjects of law enforcement activity, such as New Yorkers being stopped and frisked. The officer would also have to provide the specific reason for the stop and a business card to the person being stopped that includes information on how to file a complaint. In my experience, this is a key issue that must be addressed because often when people in my community are approached by undercover officers for questioning, they do not even initially understand that they are dealing with a police encounter. This often leads to people not being able to identify who they were stopped by. In my personal experience, I have on several occasions witnessed officers refusing to provide their name and badge number – or even providing a false one.

Report on the Extrajudicial Killing of 120 Black People

An interview with Kali Akuno (Malcolm X Grassroots Movement) on the new report on

the growing extra-judicial killing of black people — every 36 hours —  throughout the US in 2012

Oct 15, 2012 by TheRealNews

Kali Akuno: The staggering number of black people killed by police is increasing

“Net sharpens divide over cop shootings”

[The San Francisco Chronicle performs its duty as bourgeois media,  blaming the internet for the outrage over police killings.  The epidemic of such killings of, especially,  Black and Brown youth, as detailed in the recent Malcolm X Grassroots Movement report detailing that such killings take place every 26 hours, is not described by the Chronicle as alarming or disturbing.  Instead, they decry the attention given by the internet. — Frontlines ed.]

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Demian Bulwa, San Francisco Chronicle, Sunday, October 14, 2012

[Jimmy Blueford, whose cousin Alan Blueford was shot by police, marches in Oakland. Photo: Sarah Rice, Special To The Chronicle / SF]

From San Jose to Oakland to Vallejo, fatal police shootings often follow a familiar script.

An officer makes a split-second decision to kill, later explaining that he had no choice. His department struggles to communicate with the dead person’s family and the public. Anger spills into the streets, with activists demanding that authorities condemn the shooting – not just as a mistake but as murder. And an investigation clears the officer of any wrongdoing.

This could describe the shooting of 18-year-old Alan Blueford in Oakland in May or many other recent Bay Area cases.

While there is little evidence that police shootings are on the rise, they have become more politically divisive and combustible, people on all sides say, in part because of the spread of video cameras and the immediacy of online communication.

When The Movement Was Strong And Culture Was A Weapon

[The following article, from the website of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, is about a time when popular entertainers often contributed to political movements and to the defense of targets of government repression, because of the strength and influence of the movements.  The case described, of Aretha Franklin coming forward to bail Angela Davis out of jail, largely out of solidarity and in opposition to injustice, is posted here as a good example of the times, in which support was given to such revolutionaries as George Jackson as well as to such members of the revisionist CPUSA as Angela Davis.  —  Frontlines ed.]

August 20, 2012, http://mxgm.org/when-the-movement-was-strong-and-culture-was-a-weapon/

From 1970′s Aretha to 2012 Beyoncé

by Kamau Franklin, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement

A 1970′s news article on Aretha Franklin’s heroic gesture to pay bail for then recently arrested Angela Davis has been circulating on face-book (link is at end of article). Aretha offered to pay bail stemming from the capture of Angela Davis in New York after a massive FBI woman hunt in 1970. Ms. Davis was charged with murder, kidnapping and conspiracy for allegedly supplying weapons for an attempted courtroom escape led by Jonathan Jackson to free his brother and revolutionary leader George Jackson.  Angela Davis already well known for her battles with then California Governor Ronald Reagan over her right to teach in California Universities after being identified as a communist sealed her image as a revolutionary icon in the Black movement.  The article has caught the attention of many because of Aretha’s striking and unapologetic stance in offering bail towards Mr. Davis release. Aretha Franklin states

“My Daddy (Detroit’s Rev. C.L. Franklin) says I don’t know what I ‘m doing. Well I respect him of course but I’m going to stick by my beliefs. Angela Davis must go free. Black people will be free. I’ve been locked up (for disturbing the peace in Detroit) and I know you got to disturb the peace when you can’t get no peace. Jail is hell to be in. I’m going to see her free if there is any justice in our courts, not because I believe in Communism, but because she is a Black woman and she wants freedom for black people. I have the money; I got it from black people – they’ve made me financially able to have it – and I want to use it in ways that will help our people”

For context Aretha is speaking during a time in the early 1970′s when the dominant ideological current in the Black community had shifted from civil rights to Black Power. With all the inconsistencies related to the Black Power slogan it is clear that a critical mass of Black people during that time internalized it as statement of Black pride, activism within the community, standing up and forcefully challenging white supremacy over black lives and the contemplation of different forms of struggle and ideological beliefs within while attempting unity to the public. Broad concepts because it lacked the crystallization of an actual program to gain “freedom” but nonetheless during that time the idea of “Black Power” set the tone for community actions and collective responsibility.

Aretha of 1970 states she has “disturbed the peace and has been arrested”. She is hinting to a political arrest not one for drugs, shoplifting or for domestic violence, but for advocating for her people. Aretha Franklin was as big as it gets in terms of mainstream artist during that time in the Black community. She was not touting her donations to charity but her personal involvement and desire to be a part of the movement to free black people and in particular her solidarity with another Black woman.

What makes these statements even more note worthy is that Aretha was more a product of the times than a devout revolutionary artist. She was moved to her position by what was happening around her. Just as today’s pop figures/ artist are also not devout revolutionaries and are moved these days by anything but a movement.  As time evolves you can see how in just one generation a figure like Muhammad Ali takes a stance against US military adventurism that costs him millions in personal wealth and prestige from the dominant power players to his daughter Laila’s promotion of US military adventurism in an upcoming television series that will probably earn her great sums.  Times and context will mostly dictate this outcome and activist types should not waste much time in a critique of the vast majority of popular artist for not being “political” but instead movement people should be critiqued for hoping that popular figures/artist in today’s context will themselves be committed to community action.

Every 36 Hours A Black Person is Killed by the Police in the US

Updated Report,  Monday, July 16, 2012

Report on Black People Executed without Trial by Police, Security Guards and Self-Appointed Law Enforcers — (January 1 – June 30, 2012)

Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (MXGM)

This report was produced for the “No More Trayvon Martins Campaign”, demanding a National Plan of Action for Racial Justice. This is the 2nd Major report of the Campaign.

A human rights crisis confronts Black people in the United States. Since January 1, 2012, police and a much smaller number of security guards and self-appointed vigilantes have murdered at least 120 Black women and men. These killings are definitely not accidental or random acts of violence or the work of rogue cops. As we noted in our April 6th, 2012 “Trayvon Martin is All of US!” Report (see http://mxgm.org/trayvon-martin-is-all-of-us/), the use of deadly force against Black people is standard practice in the United States, and woven into to the very fabric of the society.

The corporate media have given very little attention to these extrajudicial killings. We call them “extrajudicial” because they happen without trial or any due process, against all international law and human rights conventions. Those few mainstream media outlets that mention the epidemic of killings have been are unwilling to acknowledge that the killings are systemic – meaning they are embedded in institutional racism and national oppression. On the contrary, nearly all of the mainstream media join in a chorus that sings the praises of the police and read from the same script that denounces the alleged “thuggery” of the deceased. Sadly, too many people believe the police version of events and the media’s “blame-the-victim” narratives that justify and support these extrajudicial killings.

However, we have studied each of the reports of these deaths — including false, implausible and inconsistent claims by police and witness reports that contradict police reports. From this study and many peoples’ experience, we must reject the corporate media’s rationalization for the horrible fact that in the first six months of this year, one Black person every 36 hours was executed. This wanton disregard for Black life resulted in the killing of 13 year-old children, fathers taking care of their kids, women driving the wrong cars, as well as people with mental health and drug problems.

Malcolm X Grassroots Movement: “Report on the Extrajudicial Killings of 110 Black People”

http://mxgm.org/report-on-the-extrajudicial-killings-of-110-black-people/
July 9, 2012

Report on Black People Executed without Trial by Police, Security Guards and Self-Appointed Law Enforcers — January 1 – June 30, 2012.

This report was produced for the “No More Trayvon Martins Campaign”, demanding a National Plan of Action for Racial Justice. This is the 2nd Major report of the Campaign.  Download this report as a PDF using this link.

A human rights crisis confronts Black people in the United States. Since January 1, 2012, police and a much smaller number of security guards and self-appointed vigilantes have murdered at least 110 Black women and men. These killings are definitely not accidental or random acts of violence or the work of rogue cops. As we noted in our April 6th, 2012 “Trayvon Martin is All of US!” Report (see http://mxgm.org/trayvon-martin-is-all-of-us/), the use of deadly force against Black people is standard practice in the United States, and woven into to the very fabric of the society.

The corporate media have given very little attention to these extrajudicial killings. We call them “extrajudicial” because they happen without trial or any due process, against all international law and human rights conventions. Those few mainstream media outlets that mention the epidemic of killings have been are unwilling to acknowledge that the killings are systemic – meaning they are embedded in institutional racism and national oppression. On the contrary, nearly all of the mainstream media join in a chorus that sings the praises of the police and read from the same script that denounces the alleged “thuggery” of the deceased. Sadly, too many people believe the police version of events and the media’s “blame-the-victim” narratives that justify and support these extrajudicial killings.

However, we have studied each of the reports of these deaths ­ including false, implausible and inconsistent claims by police and witness reports that contradict police reports. From this study and many peoples’ experience, we must reject the corporate media’s rationalization for the horrible fact that in the first six months of this year, one Black person every 40 hours was executed. This wanton disregard for Black life resulted in the killing of 13 year-old children, fathers taking care of their kids, women driving the wrong cars, as well as people with mental health and drug problems.

A National Plan of Action on Racial Justice — a Call to Build an Independent People’s Movement for Power

Friday, May 11, 2012

by Ajamu Baraka

The Malcolm X Grassroots Movement recently called on the Obama administration to commit to the development of a national plan of action on racial justice, in light of the Trayvon Martin case. This is an important and necessary call, and an example of how to use human rights processes and discourse to demand accountability for human rights violations.

Demands for public services, the right to organize, the fight for a living wage, de-militarization of our communities, ending discriminatory hiring practices against transgender people, ending internal displacement because of mega-development projects, stopping paramilitary violence (George Zimmerman), halting FBI infiltration and disruption of lawful organizations—these are just a few of the demands that are being reconceptualized as human rights demands locally and are also being seen as fundamentally linked to global fights for working class power, self – determination and individual and collective dignity. This reformulation, emerging out of social practice and reflection from the bottom-up, is at the heart of what I have termed a “people-centered” approach to human rights struggle (see “From Civil Rights BACK to Human Rights: Reclaiming the African American Radical Human Rights Tradition,” www.ajamubaraka.com)

It is only through the process of building independent movements for power that the national and global structures of white supremacy will be defeated. This is true for the developing human rights movement in the U.S. and also for the broader social justice movement.  Independent power bases not linked to either of the major parties and the liberal establishment is a historical imperative. But what is also imperative is to recognize that the essential task now is to build structures that are grounded in and represent the interests of the people. A people-centered human rights approach recognizes that “advocacy” is not enough. It is important and should not be discounted, but appeals to the State are not enough when the State itself is responsible for massive human rights violations. What a people-centered human rights approach argues for is a process that builds independent power, so that the people will have the means to restructure society to realize the full range of interconnected human rights.  This is the position that most differentiates the people-centered approach from mainstream, liberal human rights practice. The liberal approach, with its privileging of legalism, elite change model, and anti-radical stance is unable to meet the critical needs of people suffering the catastrophic effects of the global capitalist crisis, growing repression and systematic racist assaults.

“Million Hoodie and Hijab contingent” on May Day

ROOTS (formerly Occupy the Hood), People’s Community Medics, and Malcolm X Grassroots Movement invite you to

Join the Million Hoodie & Hijab contingent on May Day!

as part of the Dignity and Resistance march in Fruitvale & the International May Day mobilizations for workers & im/migrants

Tuesday, May 1

Meet at 3:00pm at Fruitvale BART plaza.
After the rally, we’ll join the march to San Antonio Park and on to Downtown Oakland.

Uniting our struggles against racist profiling and oppression
In honor of: Trayvon Martin (Sanford, FL), Sergio Huereca (El Paso), Shaima Alawadi (San Diego), Oscar Grant (Oakland), Ramarley Graham (Bronx), Rekia Boyd (Chicago), Danny Chen (U.S. Army), Kenneth Chamberlain (NY), Agnes Torres (Puebla) and all people attacked, detained, brutalized, and killed by racist violence.

We will wear our hoodies, our hijabs, our rebosos, in solidarity with each other for:

* An end to police brutality and vigilante murders *
* An end to splitting up and deporting our families *
* An end to the oppression of all immigrant communities *
* An end to all forms of racism, xenophobia, and homophobia *
* An end to evictions, foreclosures, and gentrification *
* An end to school closures and funneling our children into private prisons *

We call for Black, Brown, & Arab Unity against institutional racism
We want: Schools not jails. Homes not banks. People not profits. Immigrant rights. Civil Rights. HUMAN rights for all!