2014 MIDTERM ELECTIONS: Big Bucks & Political Mercenaries by Kiilu Nyasha

This midterm election has not only spent a whopping $4 billion, the highest yet; it also witnessed the lowest voter turnout. Given these two facts, I would deduce voters are fed up with the blatant corruption endemic to U.S. electoral politics.

It’s clear to me that in practice, Democrats and Republicans comprise one capitalist party with a Left and Right wing. Republicrats, as Mumia dubbed them.  I simply call them fascists, meaning they are in bed with big business and the military with no regard for the lives of the U.S. majority, everyday working people, employed and unemployed.

BLACK AUGUST 2014: Quotations from George Lester Jackson, ed. by Kiilu Nyasha

August 21, 2014, marks the 43rd anniversary of the assassination of our beloved Comrade George Lester Jackson.  Here are more quotes from his two books; the first was the bestseller, Soledad Brother: the Prison Letters of George Jackson and Blood In My Eye, published after his death.  It’s remarkable that these statements are as pertinent today as they were 43 years ago, perhaps more so.

"Iola," Princess of the Press: The Story of Feminist Anti-Lynching Crusader, Ida B. Wellls-Barnett, by Kiilu Nyasha

"I then began an investigation of every lynching I read about.  By 1893, over a thousand Black men, women and children had been hanged, shot and burned to death by white mobs in America."

A tireless champion of her people, Ida B. Wells was the first of eight children born to Jim and Elizabeth Wells in Mississippi in 1862, six months before chattel slavery was ended with the Emancipation Proclamation. Her parents, who had been slaves, were able to support their children because Elizabeth was an excellent cook and Jim a skilled carpenter. But when Ida was only 16, her parents and youngest sibling died of Yellow Fever during an epidemic.  In keeping with the strength and fortitude she demonstrated throughout her remarkable life, Ida took responsibility for raising her six younger siblings with her grandmother’s help. Educated at nearby Rust College, a school run by white missionaries, Ida was forced to drop out; she got a full-time teaching job by lying about her age, and spent weekends washing, ironing and cooking for her large family.

Wells eventually moved to Memphis, Tenn., where she taught school in a small town called Woodstock and continued her education by attending Fisk University and Lemoyne Institute during the summers.

‘Day of the Gun’ - How KRON-4 distorted the story of Black August- Review and rebuttal (2002)

George Jackson was a unifying force who fought to transform the gangster mentality into a revolutionary one. KRON-4 aired a special program in October labeled “Day of the Gun.” The “day” was Aug. 21, 1971, when George Lester Jackson, three prison guards and two inmate trustees were killed.

As one of countless people who knew and loved George, I found the title itself offensive. How would you feel if your loved one had been murdered by gunshot and the day of his death symbolized by the weapon of destruction, not the human tragedy, the loss of life?

Comments for Freedom is a Constant Struggle on BAVC July 17, 2014 by Kiilu Nyasha & Israel's War on Gaza, July 20, 2014

I've never been so ashamed to admit I'm an American citizen. The past weeks have demonstrated clearly that this nation hates children. Not only does it hate its own children for whom there's no safety net, but the suffering, endangered children fleeing Central America and being threatened, harassed, and jailed, as well as children being murdered in occupied Palestine, over 40 to date.

Mass-murdering Israeli dictator, Netanyahu, had the chutzpah to thank Obama and thank Americans for our support on network television! It enrages me that we have to listen to some fascist thanking us for slaughtering children.

Fourth Draft of A Revolutionary Party Platform

Fourth Draft of A Revolutionary Party Platform

"If there is to be revolution, there must be a revolutionary party." (Mao Tse-Tung)

We the people of these United States in recognition of our shared oppression under the current, corporate-dominated government do hereby propose the establishment of a revolutionary political party. Such a party would be launched outside of the established parameters and would not be dependent upon corporate financing or subjected to its lobbying influence.

Our people’s party will recognize and acknowledge the following:

 * The genomic breakthrough by the Human Genome Project of the new millennium confirms the biological, singular human race to which we all belong regardless of color or other differences.  In short, there’s one race, the human race, and we all descended from Africa, the Motherland of humankind.  While racism persists, we will de-institutionalize it through our revolutionary education and media, fighting bigotry with international solidarity, appreciation of differing cultures, and revolutionary politics.  We will become the new men and women who will forge a new, nonracist paradigm.

Hugo Pinell denied parole again

It's with great sadness, but renewed hope, that we announce the results of of our brother Yogi's May 2nd Board hearing.

His attorney, Keith Wattley, reported the Board gave Hugo a five-year hit, but with the following caveat:  If he participates in the prison's Step-Down program (attends group therapy, etc.), he will get another hearing in about a year to a year and a half.

This is certainly better than the worst possibility, a 15-year denial, but I'm quite sure it doesn't make Hugo's mother very happy.  She's well into her 80s and has been waiting nearly 50 years to have her son released and back home.

We are all disappointed, but still very committed to Yogi's ultimate release.  So please keep up your support, and send Yogi some love.  He'll need it to get through this disappointing period, as well as encouragement to endure this next phase of incarceration.  As far as we know, he is still in lockup, albeit with less tortuous conditions than at Pelican Bay.

End the death penalty!  Stop the torture of solitary confinement! Abolish the prison system!

FROM PARIS TO PELICAN BAY by Kiilu Nyasha, February 2001

In behalf of two of our most treasured prisoners of war -- Mumia Abu-Jamal

and Leonard Peltier -- we visited seven European cities in ten days and

spent our last four days in Paris where a major demonstration happened on

December 2, 2000. A letter from one of the longest held political prisoners

in the country (37 years!), Hugo L.A. Pinell (Yogi) awaited my return from

Paris. I thought to myself, if I could travel all over France for Mumia and

Leonard, I could make it to Pelican Bay to see Yogi again.