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African People's Socialist Party

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African People's Socialist Party
AbbreviationAPSP
ChairmanOmali Yeshitela
FoundedMay 1972 (1972-05)
HeadquartersSt. Petersburg, Florida
NewspaperThe Burning Spear Newspaper
IdeologyAfrican internationalism
African socialism
Communism
Anti-imperialism
Black power
Black nationalism
Black separatism
Pan-Africanism
Reparations for slavery
Political positionFar-left
International affiliationInternational People's Democratic Uhuru Movement
Party flag
Website
apspuhuru.org

The African People's Socialist Party (APSP) is a pan-Africanist political party and organization working towards reparations for slavery in the United States, identifying ideologically with African internationalism and African socialism.[1] The party was formed in May 1972 by the merger of three black power organizations based in Florida and Kentucky. Omali Yeshitela, one of the original co-founders, leads the APSP as of 2019.[2][1][3]

The APSP's stated goals are "to keep the Black Power Movement alive, defend the countless Africans locked up by the counterinsurgency, and develop relationships with Africa and Africans worldwide".[4]

History

The APSP was founded in 1972 — emerging from three earlier Black organizations in Florida, namely: the Junta of Militant Organizations (JOMO), the Black Rights Fighters, and the Black Study Group. JOMO, the most influential of the three organizations then led by Yeshitela, was a Black organization protesting against racial discrimination, and racist police brutality and abuses against people of African descent in Florida, United States. Omali Yeshitela, who was then the chairman of JOMO also founded APSP in 1972 and became its chairman.[2] According to Klehr, the APSP styles its members as "true, genuine communists."[1][3] That same year (1972), the APSP adopted the oldest Black Power newspaper in the U.S. — The Burning Spear Newspaper as its official publication.[3]

The APSP established the African People's Solidarity Committee (APSC) in 1976. The APSC is a Euro-American/European people organization "that works in solidarity with the struggle for African liberation and the unification of Africa and African people worldwide." The role of the APSC is to raise funds through donor campaigns and economic development campaigns operated by the APSP.

In September 1979, the party founded the African National Prison Organization (ANPO) following a 4 September 1977 meeting in Atlanta, Georgia. Several nationalist organizations attended that meeting where the importance of, and the need for developing greater unity between pro-independence forces were established. It was decided that the ANPO "would be the gateway to building a national liberation front. Additionally, the participants at the meeting established five principles as the basis for forming the ANPO, which were self-determination, political independence, anti-imperialism, anticolonialism, and self-defense."[5]

In 1981, the party moved its national office to Oakland, California, and opened the Uhuru house.[2] The first party congress was held in Oakland in 1982. At that congress, the party passed a resolution to create the African Socialist International (ASI) organization. The ASI sought to be the "international party of the African working class",[6] and has held conferences in various countries outside the United States.

The APSP also founded the African National Reparations Organization in 1982, and the First World Tribunal on Reparations for African People was held in Brooklyn, New York.[7] On its official website, the APSP claims that "through this work, the African People's Socialist Party gave birth to the modern Reparations Movement."[8] Martin and Yaquinto however posits that, in the National Black Political Assembly's (NBPA) Black Agenda report published in 1974, the NBPA "endorsed the concept of African American reparations." Citing Hakim (Hakim, I. T., Reparations, the Cure for America's Race Problem. Hampton. Va.; U.B. and U.S. Communication System, 1994), the authors however went on to write that: "The African National Reparations Organization linked to the African People's Socialist Party has conducted yearly tribunals on U.S. racism since 1982 and demanded $4.1 trillion in reparations for stolen labor."[9] That financial reparation was initially demanded at the First World Tribunal on Reparations for African People's 1982 meeting, which concluded that, "the United States owned $4.1 trillion for the crime of genocide against African Americans and the unpaid labor provided by them and their descendants during the period of slavery."[7] The stated objective of the movement is to obtain compensation for the injustices of slavery, as well as segregation and neocolonialism since then.[7][9]

In the mid-1990s, the party's national office moved back to St. Petersburg, Florida.[2]

The APSP and its sister organization the Uhuru Movement were investigated by state prosecutors for allegedly collaborating with alleged Russian foreign agent Aleksandr Viktorovich Ionov to sow social divisions in the United States.[10] Members of the APSP and Uhuru Movement have traveled to St. Petersburg, Russia to attend an anti-globalization conference hosted in Russia.[11] The organization supports Russia in its ongoing invasion of Ukraine.[12][13]

The Colorado Times Recorder indicated that the African People's Socialist Party is linked to another group under investigation for ties to Russia, the far-right Black Hammer Party, by way of Gazi Kodzo (referred to by the publication as "August Romaine Jr.") who had previously been a key member in both organizations. [14]

References

  1. ^ a b c Klehr, Harvey, Far Left of Center: The American Radical Left Today, Transaction Publishers (1988), p. 118-119, ISBN 9781412823432 [1] (Retrieved 19 April 2019)
  2. ^ a b c d Shujaa, Mwalimu J.; Shujaa, Kenya J.; The SAGE Encyclopedia of African Cultural Heritage in North America, SAGE Publications (2015), p. 316 ISBN 9781506300504 [2] (Retrieved 19 April 2019)
  3. ^ a b c The Weekly Challenger, The Burning Spear celebrates 50 years, December 20, 2018 [3] (Retrieved 19 April 2019)
  4. ^ "African People's Socialist Party-USA - History". asiuhuru.org. African People's Socialist Party. Retrieved January 19, 2019.
  5. ^ Umoja, Akinyele; Stanford, Karin L.; Young, Jasmin A.; Black Power Encyclopedia: From "Black is Beautiful" to Urban Uprisings, ABC-CLIO (2018), p. 811, ISBN 9781440840074 [4] (Retrieved 19 April 2019)
  6. ^ Yeshitela, Omali. "Main Resolution (2004)". asiuhuru.org. African Socialist International. Retrieved January 19, 2019.
  7. ^ a b c Araujo, Ana Lucia, Reparations for Slavery and the Slave Trade: A Transnational and Comparative History, Bloomsbury Publishing (2017), p. 159, ISBN 9781350010604 [5] (Retrieved 19 April 2019)
  8. ^ The African People’s Socialist Party-USA official website. "History" : Founding of the African People's Socialist Party, [6] (Retrieved 19 April 2019)
  9. ^ a b Martin, Michael T.; and Yaquinto, Marilyn; (contributors: Lyons, David; and Brown, Michael K.), Redress for Historical Injustices in the United States: On Reparations for Slavery, Jim Crow, and Their Legacies, Duke University Press (2007), p. 362, ISBN 9780822389811[7] (Retrieved 19 April 2019)
  10. ^ "Russian charged with using US groups to spread propaganda". AP NEWS. 2022-07-29. Retrieved 2022-07-30.
  11. ^ "FBI investigating Russian interference possibly linked to St. Petersburg Uhuru Movement". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved 2022-07-30.
  12. ^ Mazzei, Patricia (2022-07-29). "Russian National Charged With Spreading Propaganda Through U.S. Groups". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-07-30.
  13. ^ "FBI investigating Russian interference possibly linked to St. Petersburg Uhuru Movement". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved 2022-07-30.
  14. ^ Beedle, Heidi (19 August 2022). "Russian Influence Operation Targeted Black Separatist Group With Colorado Ties". The Colorado Times Recorder. Retrieved 21 August 2022.
  • The Bridge, A Day of Reparations Stops in Portland by Rory Elliott, November 21, 2018 [8] (Retrieved 19 April 2019)
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