HB 315: What You Need to Know
HB 315 is another way for police officers to avoid accountability when it comes to police brutality. This puts organizations, law firms, and families in situations where they have to pay for evidence of either themselves or their loved ones being harmed at the hands of the police. We know how dangerous bills like this are, especially regarding the Columbus Police Department and its violent history.
Over 60 people have died at the hands of the Columbus Police Department since 2013, making them one of the most violent departments in the United States. In 2024, Columbus ranked third for Police killings, following Indianapolis and Austin.
Top 7 cities with the most police killings in the U.S.
Jacksonville: 985,843 people. 69 total killings, two in 2024
Columbus: 913,175 people. 63 total killings, six in 2024
Austin: 979,882 people. 59 total killings, seven in 2024
Indianapolis: 879,293 people. 55 total killings, seven in 2024
Fort Worth: 978,468 people. 46 total killings, zero in 2024
Charlotte: 911,311 people. 39 total killings, zero in 2024
San Jose: 969,655 people. 30 total killings, zero in 2024
SOURCE: 10TV – as of July 17, 2024
Since 2022, we have seen an increase in officer involved killings year over year. See chart below. Source: Axios.
The People's Justice project has stood with countless community members who have been negatively impacted by CPD. Our organization is taking action regarding HB 315 and we are calling on the community to sign this petition and volunteer to capture signatures.
Currently, the starting cost to access police records is $1.00. HB 315 is proposing that in order to access these records, the new costs can vary up to $750.
We have written a petition demanding that the amount of money for body cam footage or any police footage remain the same. Our organization is dedicated to educating and advocating for our community, and we will be canvassing to garner 5,000 signatures. With these signatures, we will show our decision-makers that we will not stand for bills like HB 315 being implemented in our city.
Please join us for our first canvassing opportunity at the People’s March on January 18th.
More canvassing dates to come.
PJP’s Statement on Jazmir Tucker
People’s Justice Project is outraged by the body cam footage of the lynching of Jazmir Tucker. The body cam footage revealed what we already knew: the Akron Police Department has a serious issue with how it handles its Black and brown citizens.
After examining the body cam footage, we can conclude that Jazmir Tucker was not displaying a firearm at the time of the shooting. Akron Police murdered a 15-year-old child and then proceeded to call out commands numerous times. Upon approaching Jazmir, they then handcuffed his lifeless body, unzipped his jacket, and searched him for weapons.
Jazmir Tucker bled out for 10 minutes.
The released footage does not show what led up to the murder of Jazmir, nor is there any evidence of him being a threat to police.
We stand with the family of Jazmir, the community, and our partners, The Freedom BLOC.
People’s Justice Project is in solidarity with the following demands:
Full transparency and cooperation from the Akron Police Department
Full criminal investigation of this incident
Full audit and review of practices and procedures of Akron Police Department
In addition to this, we want the names of all officers involved in this shooting released along with their personnel files. We demand Justice for Jazmir Tucker, increased community safety measures, and transformative policy measures.
All of these officers must be held accountable for their participation in the murder of Jazmir Tucker immediately. This should have NEVER HAPPENED. Jazmir should still be ALIVE. Justice for Jazmir Tucker.
PJP’s Statement on Sinzae Reed; It’s just us.
It is upsetting and absurd that our children can be murdered, and no one is held accountable. Krieg Butler killed Sinzae Reed because he is a violent, racist, and murderous person. Our so-called “justice system” did not even look into this case. They took the word of Butler, who claimed that Sinzae Reed, a child, posed a threat to a 38-year-old grown man. Butler claimed he was acting in self-defense against a child. This is outrageous. It clearly shows that these disgusting stereotypes can be used against us and further showcases “justification” for the murder of our children in our communities. But we shouldn’t be surprised; it hurts and is upsetting, but this has always been how the system has worked against us.
Our city has prioritized a violent police department that has a history of killing children. This past week, the Columbus Police Department shot a 16-year-old child that they have “suspected” to be involved in a crime. At the same time, Franklin County has prioritized the police and the imprisonment of our people while failing to invest in our communities.
If the state claims to be dedicated to “safety” and “justice,” why is there no justice for Sinzae Reed? Why are there 1000s of children missing? Why are there people dying in our jails? Why is there no justice for the dozens of people murdered by CPD?
Kreig Butler's ability to continue to live his life as he pleases while Sinzae Reed’s life was cut short at 13 is a display of power from the state. They are showing us that they do not care about us, our communities, or our children. We need a change now. There is no time to wait around for our city to give us what we want to survive or what we need to thrive. These systems are not working for us because they were never made for us.
Now, Adam Coy’s sentencing is being delayed, even though he was proven guilty. He was guilty of the murder of Andre Hill, which we already knew in 2020. We have to understand these contradictions and understand that our city does not and never gave a damn about Justice; it’s just us!
Written Statement by Bryanna Chambers, Community Organizer at People’s Justice Project
PJP Takes Demands to City Council President
Community Organizer, Bryanna Chambers of People's Justice Project visited Columbus City Council on Monday, October 7, 2024, to bring letter of demands in response to the death of Sam Sharpe Jr. at the hands of the Columbus Police Department. The officers involved in this incident were:
Nicholas Mason, joined CPD in 2007
Adam Groves, joined CPD in 2011
Canaan Dick, joined CPD in 2022
Karl Eiginger, joined CPD in 2022
Austin Enos, joined CPD in 2022
The demands include:
Demand #1. Release information from the personnel files of the officers involved in the murder of Samuel Sharpe, including past use of force incidents and complaints.
Demand #2. Create a transparency policy for future incidents involving CPD - release names and body cam footage, posted on the CPD website, within 48 hours.
Demand #3. A non-police response that is non-carceral.
Read the full letter below:
Dear City Council,
My name is Bryanna Chambers and I am a community organizer with the People’s Justice Project and resident of Columbus. On July 16th at the RNC in Milwaukee, Columbus police fatally shot Samuel Sharpe Jr. 2 of the police officers, Nicholas Mason and Adam Groves already had previous incidents of excessive use of force.
This shooting really shows the culture of the Columbus police. Over the past 10 years, they have killed more than 63 people. No Columbus police officer has been convicted of any of these murders. Why? Because of how this city has aimed to find ways to make it difficult for families impacted by Police brutality to receive any form of Justice.
In the 2024 budget, this council allocated nearly 400 million dollars to the police alone, leaving way less money for community services. How is that acceptable? How does a police department with a history of violence, that has resulted in multiple investigations by the Department of Justice and an unsolved violent crime rate of 85% (Bischoff, 2024) have a budget of 400 million?
The People’s Justice Project has three demands:
Demand #1. Release information from the personnel files of the officers involved in the murder of Samuel Sharpe, including past use of force incidents and complaints.
We have reached out to the City Attorney for the personnel files, but it is absolutely ridiculous that as an organization we have to do this. We should not have a culture of policing that is violent and a city that protects the people who enact this violence.
Demand #2. Create a transparency policy for future incidents involving CPD - release names and body cam footage, posted on the CPD website, within 48 hours
The residents of Columbus should have the right to know what type of Police department they really have.
Demand #3. A non-police response that is non-carceral
There should be no reason that people who have mental health issues, are homeless, or have addictions-which is a disease, should be criminalized.
Like most Columbus residents I am sick and tired of the terror that police inflict on us, and they are not held accountable. I am afraid of being around police or calling 911 for any emergency. It is upsetting that these police officers who do nothing to prevent crime, help residents, or de-escalate situations are given a large portion of the city budget. The residents of Columbus deserve better.
Sincerely,
Bryanna Chambers
People’s Justice Project
Work Cited
Bischoff, Laura A. “Police Fail to Make Arrests or Solve 7 in 10 Violent Crimes in Ohio, Report Found.” The Columbus Dispatch, The Columbus Dispatch, 27 Aug. 2024, www.dispatch.com/story/news/crime/2024/08/26/report-7-in-10-violent-crimes-reported-to-ohio-police-are-unsolved/74905650007/.
PJP’s Statement on Marcellus Williams
In 2001, Marcellus Williams was convicted of a crime that he did not commit. Before the unjust and inhumane execution of Williams, thousands of people signed petitions nationally demanding that Williams not be executed including the family of the victim, the prosecutor, and the jurors who were involved in the court proceedings.
Wrongful convictions have been a national problem since colonizers stole land and forced their way of living onto Indigenous people.
Since 1989...
3,200+ people have been exonerated in the U.S.
105 of those exonerations were in Ohio
Half of the exonerations were of Black people and
8 of these exonerations were of Black men
These numbers combined add up to 30,000 years lost in the prison system.
This is another reminder about the unjust treatment of Black people since we were enslaved and forced into free labor. The 13th Amendment, which was passed in 1865 and disguised as a piece of legislation to “free Black people from enslavement” came with a clause that stated:
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”(via congress.gov).
This has enabled the state to pass laws we call “black codes” to enslave Black people into convict leasing; a fancy word for slavery. While convict leasing “ended” in the 1930s, it was replaced by the modern-day prison system where black people make up 40% of the incarcerated population despite only making up 13% of the United States population.
There is a pattern here in America. As the masses continue to grow consciousness, unjust laws are replaced with more palatable unjust laws that ultimately have the same goal: to keep Black people enslaved, underserved, and overlooked. This is why we must continue to analyze these laws, demand our voices be heard, build Black power, and organize.
People’s Justice Project is appreciative and supportive of the Innocence Project, Equal Justice Initiative, and other national organizations that are doing work to free our people. We also want to acknowledge the work in Ohio with organizations like Ohio Innocence Project and Ohio Public Defender’s Wrongful Conviction Project.
Marcellus Williams should still be alive today. People’s Justice Project is deeply saddened by this loss and will continue to do the work and move forever forward, and unafraid together.
Columbus, OH and Milwaukee, WI Community Organizations Release Joint Statement
Columbus, OH and Milwaukee, WI Community Organizations Release Joint Statement to Demand Congresswomen Joyce Beatty and Gwen Moore to Sign onto People’s Response Campaign after Columbus Police Murder Man in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
COLUMBUS, OH—People’s Justice Project of Columbus, OH, The African American Roundtable, Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, Metcalfe Park Community Bridges, the Community Power Coalition, and Freedom Action Now of Milwaukee, WI and Freedom Inc. of Madison, WI release joint statement to demand Congresswomen Joyce Beatty (OH - District 3) and Gwen Moore (WI - District 4) to sign onto People’s Response Act after Columbus Police Department murder Sam Sharpe Jr. in Milwaukee, Wisconsin during the Republican National Convention.
The joint statement between all organizations reads as follows:
The people of Milwaukee, WI are experiencing another murder at the hands of the police. Only this time, it was a department of outsiders who had come in to terrorize our community.
Sam Sharpe Jr. did not deserve to die. It is a shame that the very people who claim it is their duty to keep us safe, are the ones who constantly wreak havoc in our streets.
We the people of Columbus, OH, and Milwaukee, WI demand Congresswomen Joyce Beatty and Gwen Moore sign onto the People’s Response Act. It is imperative that our communities have access to the proper resources when in crisis.
We the people of Columbus, OH, and Milwaukee, WI demand the release of the names and bodycam footage of the Columbus Police officers who were involved in the murder of Sam Sharpe Jr.
We are calling on the people of Columbus, OH, and Milwaukee, WI to join us in these demands by calling, emailing, and showing up to ask our U.S. Congresswomen Joyce Beatty of Columbus, OH, and Gwen Moore of Milwaukee, WI why they have yet to sign onto the People’s Response Act and what is their plan to keep our communities safe.
Congresswoman Joyce Beatty
Ohio, District 3 113th-118th
2079 Rayburn House Office Building
(202) 225-4324
Congresswoman Gwen Moore
Wisconsin, District 4 109th-118th
2252 Rayburn House Office Building
(202) 225-4572
The People’s Justice Project (PJP), based in Columbus, OH, builds the power of black and brown people disproportionately affected by state violence, mass criminalization, and incarceration by centering community organizing and leadership development.
The Metcalfe Park Community Bridges (MPCB) is a nonprofit organization in Milwaukee, Wisconsin whose mission is to cultivate resident-led community development rooted in social justice.
Freedom, Inc. is a queer feminist non-profit that organizes within low to no-income Black and Southeast Asian communities in Madison, WI. Our mission is to achieve social justice through combining direct services and community organizing.
The Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (MAARPR) is a Black and brown-led grassroots organization fighting for community control of the police in order to end police crimes committed primarily against the poor and Black, Indigenous, and brown people.
The Community Power Coalition (CPC) is a collective of Black and Southeast Asian social justice organizations across Wisconsin, that work to improve the material conditions of most impacted communities through statewide civic engagement initiatives and rapid response resource mobilizations.
Freedom Action Now, Inc. is a Black and Southeast Asian Wisconsin-based organization creating change for Survivors of interpersonal and state violence. We achieve this through voter education and turnout, leadership development, community organizing, coalition building, and statewide policy advocacy.
The African American Roundtable (AART) organizes, nurtures, and transforms Black leaders to build power in service of Black liberation.
For more information, contact Tonnisha English-Amamoo at tonnisha@ohiopjp.org.
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Rep. Beatty Urged to Join People’s Response Campaign
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 18, 2024
Tonnisha English-Amamoo
Communications Director
People’s Justice Project Calls for Representative Joyce Beatty to Sign onto People’s Response Campaign after Columbus Police Murder Man in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
COLUMBUS, OH—People’s Justice Project calls for Representative Joyce Beatty to sign onto the national People’s Response Campaign in the wake of the Columbus Police Department murdering Sam Sharpe Jr. in Milwaukee, Wisconsin during the Republican National Convention.
PJP’s Communications Director took to Washington, D.C. in April 2024 to join Movement for Black Lives and 50+ organizations to endorse pivotal legislative bills aimed at promoting community safety and well-being. The endorsed bills include the People's Response Act, Mental Health Justice Act, Opening Doors to Youths, and Counselors Not and Criminalization. Representative Joyce Beatty was one of the many state leaders asked to sign onto the bill but has since given no response.
“It is evident that Columbus Police believe they are protected no matter where they are,” said PJP’s Community Organizer, Sha-Lamar Davis. “They kill us at home in Columbus, OH. Now, they are coming to your homes and taking the lives of your loved ones, too. If they are bold enough to behave this way outside of their jurisdiction, the entire country now has insight into what we are experiencing in Ohio. This is why a non-carceral, non-police response act is necessary.”
“This legislation is crucial to ensure the safety of Black and Brown people in our communities,” said Tonnisha English-Amamoo, Communications Director at People’s Justice Project. “We are bringing the push for such legislation from Washington, D.C. to the front door of our local elected officials and we are asking community members to join us. The people have spoken and are demanding a non-carceral, non-police response program in Columbus, Ohio.”
The People’s Justice Project (PJP) builds the power of black and brown people disproportionately affected by state violence, mass criminalization, and incarceration by centering community organizing and leadership development.
For questions, please contact Tonnisha English-Amamoo at tonnisha@ohiopjp.org
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People’s Justice Project Joins Movement for Black Lives for the Community Safety Agenda Endorsing Crucial Legislation at U.S. Capitol
COLUMBUS, OH—People’s Justice Project joins Movement for Black Lives in Washington, D.C. for the Community Safety Agenda; a coalition of 50+ organizations with a re-imagined vision of public safety.
PJP’s Communications Director took to Washington, D.C. to join Movement for Black Lives and 50+ organizations to endorse pivotal legislative bills aimed at promoting community safety and well-being. The endorsed bills include the People's Response Act, Mental Health Justice Act, Opening Doors to Youths, and Counselors Not and Criminalization.
Key principles guiding the Community Safety Agenda's endorsements include:
All investments are in fully non-carceral programs and services.
Investments will shrink the size, scope, and footprint of policing.
Investments will help reduce police contact by addressing human needs upfront and providing civilian responses.
Funding should reflect the values and priorities of grassroots partners and movement groups.
“This legislation is crucial to ensure the safety of Black and Brown people in our communities,” said Tonnisha English-Amamoo, Communications Director at People’s Justice Project. “We are bringing the push for such legislation from Washington, D.C. right to the front door of our local elected officials and we are asking community members to join us. The people have spoken and are demanding a non-police response program right here in Columbus, Ohio and PJP, alongside our partners.”
The People’s Justice Project (PJP) builds the power of black and brown people disproportionately affected by state violence, mass criminalization, and incarceration by centering community organizing and leadership development.
For questions, please contact Tonnisha English-Amamoo at tonnisha@ohiopjp.org
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Women’s History Month: Militant Organizing of Women
During this month of celebration of African Women, we must take a moment to reflect on the militant organizing of our sisters in the past to better understand how we can organize in the present. It is in this spirit of wanting to build revolutionary organization and mass action, that we should think about the militant resistance actions of Aug 9, 1956—Anti-Pass March—where 20, 000 women joined forces to struggle against the colonial apartheid system.
Let us not forget, that for more than a hundred years, women in South Africa have organized themselves in mass mobilizations for the defense of their interests as women and the interests of their class. In the last 100 years, women of South Africa’s most frequent cause has been the persistent opposition to the pass laws from the early 1900s to its most known resistance in 1956. The pass laws required African women and men to carry written permission from their white employers allowing them to legally enter certain areas. If they were found without a permit they could be arrested and face severe punishment and even “deportation” to another place.
As early as March 1912, a group of African women protested against this form of colonial oppression. Women from the Orange Free State took to the streets with a petition against passes with signatures from over 5,000 people and sent it to Prime Minister, Louis Botha. They were met with harsh arrests and succeeded in pushing the implementation of the pass laws to a much later stage.
How can we compare the significance of the 1956 Anti-Pass March to those of us working to organize and develop militant actions against colonialism and capitalism?
1. Anti-Pass Campaign and Colonial-Capitalism.
The fact that women have led the struggle against the Pass Law system is of great significance to the African working class struggle against capitalism. Why? Because the Pass system was an essential pillar of controlling the movement of labor. Passes were used to control the movement of African and Indian people, ensuring the provision of a cheap labor source that worked arm-in-arm with the colonial segregation laws of that time. A protest against the control of labor is an attack on the domination of capitalism and colonialism which divided Africa through their artificially created border of today.
In the Women’s Charter of the Federation of South African Women (an organization of anti-apartheid women political organizers that led the 1956 march), they identify class society as one that should be eliminated. They said this about the conflict between the colonizer and the colonized :
“These are evils that need not exist. They exist because the society in which we live is divided into poor and rich, into non-European and European. They exist because there are privileges for the few, discrimination and harsh treatment for the many. We women have stood and will stand shoulder to shoulder with our menfolk in a common struggle against poverty, race and class discrimination…”
2. Women and mass organization.
While mass mobilization was a new phenomenon for the ANC male political leadership in the 1950s, for the women of the 1956 Anti-Pass march this was nothing new. Women had always been a feature in the anti-pass campaign and other expressions of public political upheaval. Women embraced the idea of mass campaigns long before the men did. They led the way. They organized dynamic action against all forms of colonial oppression, like the ban on brewing traditional beer, high food prices, high rents, and passes for women.
The courage of the women in the early demonstration of 1913 was extraordinary. Women went to jail for their anti-pass protests and refused to admit guilt by paying bail or fines. These efforts delayed the implementation of passes for women by 40 years.
Another important element is that the 1956 march was organized by women of different races, ideological backgrounds, and social statuses. There were Communist women, churchwomen, trade unionists, African nationalists, the peasantry, and the upper middle class of black and white South Africa, brought together by a common cause of striking back at the oppressive and exploitative system of colonial Apartheid. African women were not going to carry them. To these many different women, despite coming from different backgrounds, they all put forward this demand: clear and non-negotiable.
3. Fighting for women, to fight for universal freedom.
They recognized the complex struggle of being women in class struggle. They both understood the specific oppressions of women within the broader colonial oppression and exploitation of all people under the apartheid system: their goals were ‘to fight for women’s rights and for the full economic citizenship of all’.
As is shown by the Charter of the Federation of South African Women (1954), women understood the complexity of organizing for the liberation of all people when faced with obstacles from their own comrades:
"The law has lagged behind the development of society; it no longer corresponds to the actual social and economic position of women. The law has become an obstacle to the progress of women and therefore a brake on the whole society. This intolerable condition would not be allowed to continue were it not for the refusal of large sections of our menfolk to concede to us women the rights and privileges which they demand for themselves.
We shall teach the men they cannot hope to liberate themselves from the evils of discrimination and prejudice as long as they fail to extend to women complete and unqualified equality in law and practice."
This showed a clear understanding that they were committed to revolution, like many of us are, we must continue to struggle for a revolution with the revolutionary organizations. This is a contradiction we confront today.
It is along these lines of organized and militant action that we remember the women not only of 1956 but all working women who struggled against the exploitation that feeds colonialism and capitalism. We salute them and all those revolutionary women who fight to destroy the colonial-capitalist system and build a new society!
Forever Forward, Unafraid Together Amandla Ngawethu!
Unity of Struggle with the African and Indigenous Peoples of the Western Hemisphere
As Africans, it's important to state that we have no claim to this colonized land and its arbitrary borders commonly referred to as "The United States". We do not unite with certain Africans who reject that our people were once a free people that existed within our own political economies in Africa, and were kidnapped and transformed into the first commodities of capital. The first capital and producers of capital's first workers. Within a social system defined by the relationship between capitalist production and producers resting on a foundation of enslavement and colonial domination of peoples and territories around the world. However, in the Western Hemisphere, we do recognize that we Africans and Indigenous people's histories are uniquely tied. From the land theft of the 13th century by the Spanish Conquistadors, to the importation of enslaved Africans, our struggle to reclaim our dignity and culture has been grounded within this history of struggle. Thus, we must recognize our shared struggle against colonialism and slavery which has been the driving force to liberate ourselves from our wretched condition.
We have a tradition of engaging in struggle shoulder to shoulder since the First Seminole War of 1814, where the United States government attempted to force the Seminoles to leave Florida and move to Native Territory per the Native Removal Act of 1830. We, the fugitive enslaved Africans, took up arms alongside our comrades, against the United States Army, using guerilla tactics to advance our position against this colonial effort. Though our courageous struggle was lost, we maintain that this relationship is of the utmost importance as we struggle for our dignity and humanity.
Additionally, during the Mexican War of Independence from Spain, historical records agree that the “mulattos” , the enslaved Africans in Latin America called by the Spanish, took up arms in guerrilla bands crushing the Spanish in 1821. Not only does this set the stage for other such collaborative efforts, but this unlikely alliance was a key force towards freedom. Furthermore, not only did we struggle together as partners, but one of the principal leaders in this development was Vicente Guerrero, an African who became president annexing the practice of slavery.
It has been estimated that 30 to 40 percent of the Latin American population has some form of African ancestry. Thus, our solidarity with the Indigenous peoples of the Americas is sacred and the most strategic alliance towards self-determination. We have taken up arms with our comrades from the Cuban Revolution of 1960s, as well as holding the banner of the Sandinistas of Nicaragua, we were there. We have not gained anything, in the colonization of the Indigenous and Africans of the Americas without the shedding of our blood, as partners. Thus, our fate is deeply rooted as colonized people and exploited peoples. Furthermore, we must recognize that if the Indigenous peoples of the Americas are not free, there will be no such liberation for the Africans in the Americas. It is a struggle of the most honest proportions. For, we both had land that was colonized in the same brutal fashion. We both have been forcibly displaced. Both of our peoples struggle with the contradictions of colonial power, in the form of capitalism. Thus, our unity in the struggle must be centered on the advanced revolutionary theory and historical revolutionary materialism. Furthermore, it must be a theory and practice that unifies our cultural differences and sameness. This is where we will find the essence of true solidarity and unity. This is the starting point towards the process of liberation.
Independence
We, The African masses, once a free people that existed within our own political economies in Africa, were kidnapped and transformed into the first commodities of capitalism. The first capital and producers of the capital's first workers. Within a social system defined by the relationship between capitalist production and producers resting on a foundation of enslavement and colonial domination of peoples and territories around the world.
In the United States, we are approaching an election year. A year that still will find the people in the grip of depression brought about by domestic colonial occupation of our communities. We Africans in the United States will continue to suffer regardless of who is elected or who we vote for. Neither of the Parties is in a position to stop (or care to stop) massive unemployment, community displacement, drugs, violence, homelessness, or the calculated miseducation and imprisonment of our young people.
The President has said on a number of occasions that the place for the U.S. in the “future” global economy will be in technology, research, and development. This is the niche they hope to occupy in the global economy. All of the industrial jobs are gone and are not coming back. Let us be clear, with other countries beginning to offer the same or superior set of skills in the area of technology and research; the position of the U.S. as a leader in this area will be temporary at best; for no more than 50 years.
For Africans in the U.S., we have already been marginalized from this new role of the U.S. in the global economy. The collusion and partnership between the school system and the prison system have guaranteed that the fruit of our generations will not gain the skill sets necessary to compete. More young Africans are matriculating into prison than into universities, and it is on a steady and progressive increase.
Added to this is the fact that the cost of obtaining skills for this century has risen to the point that dreams of education and skills acquisition are now mostly for the colonial elite and not the masses. It is not uncommon for students to leave college (looking for jobs that are not and will not be there) to have amassed hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loan debt. They have been made into nothing more than “educated” debt peons willing to do anything to avoid the debt hunter-collectors. They will make up the new fugitive peons/slaves in this economy. The colonial elite provides only themselves with a means to survive and even then, they will devour each other if it means that only a few of them can survive. They are and have always been cannibalistic and they, when it comes down to it, do not exempt members of their own class from being consumed.
What Must Be Done: Any competent observer of the global political economy knows that it is Africa (not China, Brazil, or India), that occupies the balance of global power for the future. We Africans are a global People, with the world’s first culture and civilization. We must study Africa and the system that displaced its children around the world. We must become conscious and aware of the forces and conditions created by this immoral economic system of capitalism and all of its effects on our People. We must not shrink from identifying those in our own midst that are, in the words of David Walker, complicit (handmaidens) in the exploitation and misery of our People.
A conscious people are a powerful people. We must come to know what is going on around us in our local, national, and international environment. We must collectively struggle to understand and specify what real development means to our People. We must not accept definitions given to us by outsiders, liberal or otherwise. We must study the definitions given by others, but in the end, our own definitions of freedom, justice, democracy, and dignity must spring from our own understanding of our culture and traditions. Our goals and strategies must be our own, based on our own analysis of African and global conditions; and be aligned with the righteous and moral struggle of global forces for freedom, justice, democracy, and dignity.
We Africans are, and have been, historically in the vanguard of the struggle for human rights and dignity. We must make our strength strong and make a contribution to that global struggle on behalf of all humanity. This is our destiny and our obligation to those living and yet unborn. Let 1 billion discussions take place in every nook and cranny of the African world. We, and only we, can educate ourselves for our future development.
Next, we must build a permanent independent organization. When we say independent, we do not mean that any culture or people stand on this globe as an island solely dependent on themselves. There is interdependence in independence…but dependence and interdependence are quite different things — something we can no longer tolerate in this century. Dr. Kwame Nkrumah once said, “Thought without Action is empty…and action without thought is blind”. Once we come to a working understanding of what development must be for us, we must lodge it firmly in the network and structure of a permanent organization. There is and can be no debate on this necessity. The African masses must experience unification…not just unity. This is not only our historical destiny, but the only hope for Africans at home and those of us scattered and suffering around the world.
Finally we, in the end, must be motivated by the love of our People and the desire to make a contribution to them; and through them to the global community of righteous and freedom-loving people. As Martin Luther King once said, “The ark of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” Let us begin…Let us Continue. Forever Forward Unafraid Together Amandla Ngawethu!
We Can Only Free Ourselves
Juneteenth must be placed into its proper historical context. Furthermore, we caution that it should not be seen as a development of special concern, but only as a part of an ongoing process of freedom that ultimately was not completed by the end of the civil war.
We define freedom as the ability to produce and reproduce life and the ability to be a self-determined people organized to sustain autonomy from outside forces. Thus, with this definition, what are we celebrating when it comes to Juneteenth?
Many would argue that we’re celebrating the emancipation of African people. However, Abraham Lincoln did not have jurisdiction in territories that held the majority population of enslaved Africans. Therefore, his Emancipation Proclamation did not instantly free us. Therefore, it is a clear and undeniable truth that we Africans freed ourselves!
We have been engaged in this struggle for some time now. During this time period the struggle was intensified. This created an opportunity for war and its existential disruption and threat to production within the colonial slave-based plantation system.
This internal contradiction (North vs South) created favorable conditions for us to free ourselves. It is also true that Lincoln suggested to Congress on December 12, 1862, less than a month before the Emancipation Proclamation, that slavery could be extended to 1900 with slaveholders being compensated for the loss of their "property" and that free Africans be colonized outside the U.S (see Vincent Harding, There Is A River).
Despite this offer from Lincoln, the Republican Party government and the North were not abolitionists and were not in favor of ending slavery. They were only interested in ending the expansion of slavery; particularly west of the Mississippi as slavery posed a continued threat to the development and domination of the Industrial Capitalism of the North as it fought against the Agrarian Capitalism of the South.
Here, we immediately see the connection and difference between emancipation and freedom. There is no Emancipation without Freedom. It is vitally important for us to see this relationship and not assign too much recognition to this so-called emancipation.
We have three developments: slavery, emancipation, and freedom. These three developments are the principal contradiction of the colonial mode of production, Capitalism, and Enslavement (see Eric Williams, Capitalism and Slavery). It is this principal contradiction that brings these three developments into existence. Once in existence they become inextricably connected where one cannot be understood without the other. Between these three developments, the struggle for freedom is the consistent factor in both slavery and the so-called emancipation. It is here we should study and be focused on.
Indeed, slavery did not end with emancipation either in 1863 or in 1865. Slavery continued but just in a slightly modified form. In this connection, we offer a further examination of some short pieces, The Convict Lease System by Ida B, I Denounce the So-Called Emancipation As A Stupendous Fraud by Frederick Douglass, and the introduction to Slavery By Another Name, by Blackmon. Taken together, they demonstrate the fraud, corruption, and betrayal by the colonial bourgeoisie government on behalf of the capitalist class and the enthroning of Industrial Capitalism as the dominant economy within the U.S. This, after all, is precisely the primary reason for the war.
Again, we can only free ourselves. It is not some jester from the colonial bourgeoisie, nor an African assimilationist whose primary role is to coerce and manipulate the people. We recognize the African working class and other oppressed people gained nothing in this country without the shedding of our blood. This is why we must struggle and we must fight.
Remember, freedom is the ability to produce and reproduce life. We are engaged in a historical process for self-determination, independence, and freedom over our black lives since we were kidnapped and forced to adapt to hostile conditions in the Western Hemisphere. As a whole people, we are contending with these historical forces that have defined our existence. This reality is what informs our demands and ultimately our struggle for freedom. Forever forward, Unafraid together Amandla Ngawethu!
In Struggle,
Aramis Malachi-Ture Sundiata
Executive Director, People’s Justice Project
PJP Stands in Solidarity with Defend the Atlanta Forrest and Community Movement Builders
The most familiar representative of the United States government for the African working class is the police! Not a city councilperson, not a Mayor, or what have you. It is the State and its ability to impose terror and social control of the masses.
The state is an instrument of oppression. It's there to maintain "law and order" and protect the bourgeoisie from the masses. The state is the police department. The state is the court system. The state is the jails and prisons. The state is the army and navy. All of those things are instruments of state power. The primary mistake that the administrators of the state make, is the forces of the organized masses and the guiding principles of seasoned organizations. We will struggle, we will win...
Forever forward, unafraid together, in unity with Defend the Atlanta Forest and Community Movement Builders…Amandla Ngawethu.
Sign on to the solidarity statement and sign the Petition Demanding corporations divest from Cop City.