ST. PETERSBURG — From Feb. 1-3, black community organizers from across the U.S., Europe and Africa will meet in St. Petersburg, Florida to develop strategies to win reparations and to prepare for socialism.
It’s the first Plenary of the 7th Congress of the African People’s Socialist Party (APSP), an organization with an almost 50-year legacy of leading theory and practice fighting for African self-determination.
For the first time, reparations and socialism are being debated by U.S. presidential candidates. The APSP is uniquely positioned to define and direct the outcome of these demands.
In 1982, they put the U.S. government on trial for violations of United Nations law in its treatment of black people. An international panel of judges ruled that black people in the U.S. were owed $4.1 trillion for unpaid and underpaid labor alone, with damages to be calculated later for pain, suffering and the theft of national identity. The APSP and its Uhuru Movement have been taking the reparations demand to the streets ever since.
“They want to commission a study? The study has been done. Reparations are owed and must be fought for as part of a revolutionary process. African people must have all of our resources back – those accumulated in the collective hands of white society and those still being extracted from our resource-rich Africa,” declares APSP Chairman Omali Yeshitela.
In response to one U.S. presidential candidate’s claim that he’s a socialist, Yeshitela retorts, “A $15 per hour job is not socialism. Socialism is when the workers control the means of production. The achievement of socialism will take a revolution led by a revolutionary party.”
“This is our time. The white world is in crisis because African and other colonized peoples around the world are rising up and overturning the pedestal upon which capitalism was built and still rests today. Brexit, China, Trump – these are all indications of a deep crisis for white power. We must seize the moment and win our freedom!”
The Plenary conference will feature practical workshops on political organizing in the neighborhoods, on campus and in the workplace. It will include presentations on the APSP’s successful economic development work and training in media and journalism strategies to “win the war of ideas”.
The Feb. 1-3 Plenary conference is open to the public. It will take place at the Uhuru House, 1245 18th Ave. S in St. Petersburg. Registration at apspplenary.org is required. For more information, email info@apspplenary.org or call 727-821-6620.
