U.S.-BASED PAN-AFRICANIST VISITS WESTERN SAHARA REVOLUTIONARIES

India Pitts, a member of the All-African People's Revolutionary Party (@aaprp on X) and its women’s wing, All-African Women's Revolutionary Union, has sent us exclusive footage showing her experience at the headquarters of the National Union of Sahrawi Women in Tindouf, Algeria. Pitts (@indiapitts21 on X and @indiapitts on IG) travelled from the US state of North Carolina to attend the union’s 50th-anniversary commemoration. 

Other women came from countries, including Brazil, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Mauritania, Spain, Germany and Portugal, to express their solidarity with the Sahrawi women’s struggle for self-determination, against Morocco’s occupation, and for continental unification. The union is the Polisario National Liberation Front’s women’s wing. The front formed in 1973 against Spanish occupation, later fighting Moroccan occupation starting in 1975.

Continued……. As Pitts relays in this video, the Sahrawi people embraced her wholeheartedly from day one. She said the indigenous group is dedicated to the cause of Pan-African unity, embracing and welcoming the African diaspora with open arms.

The African diaspora can support the struggle in Western Sahara, the revolutionary movements of the Sahel, the fight against imperialism in the Horn of Africa, and the liberation of Africa everywhere by joining Pan-African organisations and building direct relationships with those that exist in Africa.

What does it mean for you to see a young African from the United States being able to walk freely in southern Algeria with @polisario_ (X)?

Sources:

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Polisario-Front

A much-anticipated peace summit between Central African rivals Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) flopped when Rwandan President Paul Kagame failed to turn up. Instead, the mediator, Angolan President João Lourenço, met with DRC's Félix Tshisekedi alongside former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta in the capital, Luanda, on 15 December. 

Kigali stated Kinshasa deadlocked the summit by refusing to hold direct talks with the M23 militia. Congo's presidency said the reason for the collapsed discussions was that the Rwandan delegation refused to participate. DRC and the UN say that Rwanda backs M23. A UN experts report published on 4 June said that in January 2024, at least 1,000 Rwandan troops entered the DRC through various border crossings east of Kibumba, Rutshuru territory, reinforcing M23 positions and helping it seize more territory. The same report estimated that Rwanda had sent 3,000 to 4,000 troops by the time the report was being drafted in May.

Continued……In July, Angola mediated a ceasefire between the M23 and Congo. By October, Angola accused the group of violating the agreement.

In November, DRC and Rwanda signed the Concept of Operations (CONOPS), a key agreement outlining a plan to propel the peace process in eastern DRC. The involved parties expected the just-aborted peace talks to build on this deal.

A vicious three-decade resource war, one of the most significant and devastating conflicts in recent history, has pitted more than 120 militia groups, which the UN says are backed by foreign governments and interests, against each other. This war has claimed the lives of about 6 million people, internally displaced over 7 million, and resulted in numerous cases of s*xual abuse. DRC holds an estimaed $24 trillion worth of untapped minerals, attracting powerful foreign entities keen to extract its wealth for their industries.

Continued….. Sources:

https://www.eac.int/nairobiprocess

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/12/15/rwanda-dr-congo-peace-talks-hit-snag-as-mediator-angola-calls-off-meeting

https://www.enca.com/news/eastern-drc-peace-talks-fail-angola-summit-cancelled

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/13/un-says-all-peacekeepers-will-leave-dr-congo-by-end-of-2024

https://www.barrons.com/news/angola-accuses-m23-of-violating-ceasefire-in-dr-congo-fb3749df

https://documents.un.org/doc/undoc/gen/n24/118/80/pdf/n2411880.pdf

https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-10089
https://x.com/4thPresidentKE/status/1868321455026651212

https://medafricatimes.com/37613-drc-and-rwanda-take-a-step-forward-in-the-peace-process.html

U.S. CORRUPTION FILTERING DOWN TO AFRICA'S CORRUPTION?

Is it a coincidence that the West favours some of Africa's autocratic leaders? For example, take the Democratic Republic of the Congo's Mobutu Sese Seko (1930-97), whose nearly 26-year rule over the resource-rich country was supported by Washington and its allies. More recently, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has been in the United States’ good books amidst human rights abuses allegations. 

Continued………In this clip from our Pan-African Attitude podcast discussing the Pentagon's failed audit, we touched on US support for African leaders accused of corruption, including Nigeria's Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Kenya's William Ruto. 

Could the United States' corruption be contributing to corruption among some leaders in Africa?

Find the whole reaction video on Rumble or X. Join this important conversation by subscribing to our X handle, @african_stream. You can also find our latest work on Bluesky, Telegram and Patreon.

Sources:

https://www.iol.co.za/news/opinion/how-us-nurtured-dictators-to-africas-detriment-17744850

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/04/26/africa/sudan-generals-west-democratic-transition-intl/index.html

https://www.africanliberty.org/2019/01/12/supporting-one-of-africas-worst-dictators/

https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2017/10/10/why-america-has-lifted-sanctions-on-sudan

https://www.khartoumprocess.net/about/the-khartoum-process

https://washdiplomat.com/us-diplomat-herman-cohen-reflects-on-lifelong-career-linked-to-africa/

https://sgp.fas.org/crs/mideast/RL33003.pdf

NO JAIL, NO FINE FOR UHURU 3

What started with FBI raids in 2022 that ransacked and destroyed the African People’s Socialist Party’s (APSP) properties in Saint Petersburg, Florida, and Saint Louis, Missouri, and proceeded with chants of ‘Not one day, not one dime,’ ended with federal judge William Jung ruling against prison time on 16 December for party founder and chairman Omali Yeshitela, African People’s Solidarity Committee (APSC) Chairperson Penny Hess and APSC mass organisation Uhuru Solidarity Movement National Chair Jesse Nevel. The ‘Uhuru 3,’ as they came to be known, each faced five years behind bars and a $250,000 fine following convictions in September for conspiring to act as foreign agents. They had been acquitted on the charge of acting as Russian agents.

The judge deemed prison time unnecessary in a free-speech case, instead sentencing each person to three years of probation and 300 hours of community service.

Continued…………The court banned the Uhuru 3 from contacting Russian nationals during probation. They are appealing the conviction, saying it violates their freedom of speech.

‘When they indicted us, they expected us to fold. They expected us to run or to take a plea, which is mainly how they achieved their 99 per cent conviction rate in federal criminal cases,’ Yeshitela’s granddaughter told the WFTS TV station in Tampa Bay (@abcactionnews on X). ‘We didn't fold. We didn't run.’

The party’s anti-war and self-determining position has made them a prime target for the US state. The group has worked toward reparations for descendants of enslaved Africans, the unification of African states under a single socialist government and the release of political prisoners. In the United States, they have built institutions for Africans, including a prisoner-transition programme and a doula school. 

Last week, the judge sentenced a fourth defendant, Augustus C Romain Jr, to five years’ probation. Romain, better known as 'Gazi Kodzo,' was the party's secretary-general until a 2018 expulsion. Romain was prosecuted on similar charges while running another organisation they founded, Black Hammer. The judge ordered them to participate in mental-health treatment and submit to random drug tests.

You can follow the Uhuru 3 and their organisations on X: @apspusa, @omaliyeshitela, @PennyAPSC, @uhurusolidarity, @realJesseNevel

Sources
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/12/13/uhuru_three_case_russian_agents_accusation

https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/region-hillsborough/the-uhuru-3-sentenced-to-probation-and-community-service-no-prison

https://www.tampabay.com/news/crime/2024/12/16/uhuru-3-trial-tampa-russian-election-interference-meddling-sentence

https://apspuhuru.org/2018/11/18/important-psa-of-the-african-peoples-socialist-party

https://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-news/leader-of-atlanta-based-radical-group-sentenced-for-working-with-russian-agent/4COW2BWBBFGCDA5JEW24PC7QMM/

UHURU MOVEMENT FOUNDER SHOW’S WEST’S HYPOCRISY ON HAITI

The Uhuru Movement will avoid jail time following trumped-up charges of them being Russian agents. The movement is characterized by its antiwar position, which has put it at odds with the US empire. The movement also agitates for reparations for Black people whose ancestors built the wealth of the United States, the unification of Africa under socialism and the release of Black political prisoners.

In this video from August 2023, we had the honour to speak to the founder, Omali Yeshitela. Using Haiti, he points to the hypocrisy of the US attempting to put him behind bars for his activism when the real criminals, France and the U.S, still posture as vivacious actors. France forced Haiti to pay reparations for decades to enslavers for the loss of ‘their property’. The US, on the other hand, is responsible for multiple regime change operations and the theft of Haiti’s gold, all while painting Haitians as somehow unable to govern their affairs.

Assata Shakur, a Black Liberation Army member exiled in Cuba since 1984, is the only person among the top 10 on the FBI's 'Most Wanted Terrorists' list who is not an Islamic militant.

You see, long before the Islamic terrorist 'threat,' the United States had a long history of vilifying African freedom fighters who could care less to sing 'kumbaya' and just 'get along' with everyone (particularly their oppressors) at the expense of their own freedom.

This week's dash of Wednesday Wisdom reminds us that freedom is not something that is handed over to the oppressed by their oppressors simply because the oppressed appeal to the oppressor's 'moral sense.'

Continued……If freedom was so easily won, the oppressed would not march for decades and sing the same songs. It is not that the oppressors are unaware of the morally defunct nature of their actions. Rather, it is that the benefits to them outweigh the freedom of those they oppress. Time and time again, history has proven that people must 'fight' for their freedom, not ask politely.

Sources:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/100322.Assata

https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/terrorism