Organizing Meeting for Justice for Oscar Grant III

This meeting is organized by the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement for the community to come together to continue to strategize around actions regarding the BART police murder of 22 year old Oscar Grant.

Thursday, January 8th, 6pm 

Uhuru House, 7911 Mac Arthur Blvd, Oakland

510-569-9620, inpdum_oakland@yahoo.com

InPDUM is a grassroots organization, led by the black working-class community. It was founded in 1991 in Chicago by the African People's Socialist Party.

InPDUM membership is open to anyone united with democracy for the African community and that self-determination is the highest expression of democracy.

Protest the BART Police Shooting of Oscar Grant III!

22 year old Oscar Grant of Hayward was gunned down by a BART police officer on the morning of New Year's Day.

Numerous videos taken by witnesses from their cell phones show that Grant was face down on the ground in handcuffs when he was shot in the back at close range on the Fruitvale BART station  platform at 2am following a New Year's Eve outing with his friends.  

In this new year, it is the same old story. Police killings of African men like Oscar Grant have reached epidemic proportions. In fact, the number of police killings outnumber the killings of U.S. soldiers in Iraq in a war that is clear for anyone to see who has been paying attention against the African community in the U.S.  This war usurps the budgets of cities like Oakland which pays out the majority of its monies to "public safety" justifying the war in the eyes of the outside world by the "war on crime" and "war on drugs." This has been the reality for decades since the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements of the 1960's and 70's.

Last year in Oakland, the Oakland police killed Casper Banjo, Jose Luis Buenrostro, Jody Woodfox and at least four others. The previous year the OPD killed Gary King Jr. and Andrew Moppin on New Year's Eve. The heavy handed policing in East and West Oakland is justified by the economic reality that these communities face that make them "high crime" areas, code word for the conditions faced by African and Mexican communities because of the legacy of slavery and colonialism.  

Oscar Grant III's young life was brutally taken away by the police. In this case, there were many witnesses making the police unable to fabricate a story and say that Grant had a weapon. Grant's family members and friends have come out to express their grief in losing their son, nephew and friend making the press unable to slander Grant's character like they normally do. His four year old daughter is left without a father to raise her and a family and community mourns the loss of this well loved young man who worked as a butcher at the Farmer Joe's Market in the Dimond District of Oakland.

In this time of hope and change, we have to take an honest stand against the policies in place that systematically ends young lives yet never stirs an outcry from white people who call ourselves progressive. 

We can stand up against the U.S. war in Iraq or in other places, but we say nothing about the killing of African people who are criminalized by the police and media.

It is time to speak out! We must stand up against this cold-blooded murder.

The International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement and the Uhuru Solidarity Movement will join the protest called for this Wednesday, January 7th at 3pm at the Fruitvale BART Station. 

Stop the war the African community! Justice and reparations for the family of Oscar Grant III! Jail the killer cop!

The Uhuru Solidarity Movement works under the leadership of the Uhuru Movement to organize political and material solidarity from the white community with the African led Uhuru Movement. Uhuru Means Freedom!

Email oak_office@apscuhuru.org or call 510-625-1106 to join the work of the Uhuru Solidarity Movement

City of Oakland's War on the African Community

The city of Oakland, like other cities across the U.S. has a fat budget to carry out the war on the African community. Hundreds of young African people die every year through the U.S. imposed drug economy that justifies military occupation in East and West Oakland. The Oakland Police Department tramples on the rights of the African and Mexican communities with the full sanction of the mayor and city council. 

This week the East Bay Express published an article with some outrageous facts about neocolonial mayor here in Oakland, who was the darling of white liberals but who covers for the brutal war on African people that has killed at least seven people this year at the hands of his police department.

In a city that, like many others, faces a serious budget crisis, Dellums works, at most, three short days a week, coming in sometimes for a Monday meeting for a couple hours and occasionally attending evening and weekend events - roughly 25 hours a week while getting paid $184,000 a year.  

Dellums is also chauffeured to and from work in a Lincoln Town car that is leased by the City of Oakland for $70,000 a year, which includes the driver's fee.

This is in a city where the New York Times reported that one in five households live on less than $5,000 a year. Dellums makes as much 37 of these families at the bottom 20% of Oakland's population.  14 families attempt to survive on what Dellums pays out to be driven to city hall three or four times a week. 

This is in the context of a city that has bloated its budget with an overpaid police department. 

According to this report by the UC Berkeley School of Journalism several years ago, Oakland police officers make nearly $138,000 a year in overtime pay. The Oakland Police Department's own web site lists the salary range between $69,162 to $87,172 annual salary range "plus shift differential." 

The Uhuru Movement understands that this city money going to Dellums and going to the police department is being used to carry out an assault on the oppressed African community, the same community that rose up to build independent programs and was known internationally for its stand against police violence, poverty and injustice. This was the Black Panther Party for Self Defense.

Under Dellums, African and other oppressed communities continue to be driven out of Oakland through massive foreclosures. Communities in East and West Oakland live under an imposed illegal drug economy that never seems to go away but justifies martial law where cops run roughshod over peoples' rights.  and homicides and police killings that continue with little, if any, public outcry. 

We in the Uhuru Solidarity Movement demand an end to the police killings, a end to the policy of police containment and call for economic development from the city.

Come out to Oakland City Council on the first meeting on the year to speak out:

Tuesday, Jan 6, 6pm, Oakland City Council Meeting, One Frank Ogawa Plaza, Oakland (near 14th and Broadway), 12th ST. Bart station. Get there at 5:30pm to fill out a speaker card or do it online .
 

Yes We Can! Change the Conditions of War, Violence and Injustice

Two Events This Week!

Slide Presentation & Discussion

Saturday, December 13th, 6 to 8pm

Louden Nelson 301 Center St, Santa Cruz

Monday, December 15th, 7 to 9pm

Humanist Hall, 390 - 27th St., Oakland

Come out to watch a slide presentation on "The Collapse of the Parasitic U.S. Economy"
presented by Penny Hess, Chairwoman of the African People's Solidarity Committee, providing an analysis of the current economic downturn, its origins and the way forward.

Bakari Olatunji, local organizer with the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement
will give a statement about the growing movement of African people in the U.S. for justice and reparations.

Wall Street criminals stole billions from African and Latino people through the subprime mortgage and support an economy of war, prisons, military and police terror.
Only a movement for real hope and change will make Obama work for the benefit of the people
Find out how you can participate in the work of the Uhuru Solidarity Movement and Uhuru Pies.

(510) 625-1106
oak_office@apscuhuru.org

The Struggle for Justice for Jody Woodfox Continues!

Tonight, Robin Glenn, the aunt of Jody "Mack" Woodfox III, along with members of the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement spoke out on the open forum portion of the Oakland City Council meeting.

The demands are clear;

1. Jail killer cop Hector Jimenez for the shooting deaths of Woodfox and 20 year old Andrew Moppin.

2 Reparations to the families of Woodfox and Moppin.

3. Economic development, not police containment of the African and oppressed communities in Oakland.

During the meeting, the city council honored the 38 new police officers added to the force, making it the largest in the department's history.

Robin Glenn just wanted to know what they were going to do about this police officer still being on the force who had killed two people. 

City council member Desley Brooks later told Uhuru Movement organizers that the issue of the police officer's killings could not be on the city council agenda because there was an investigation pending.

How much investigating do they need to do when Jody "Mack" Woodfox was shot six times in the back according to their own records?  How can a police department rife with rights violations and police brutality lawsuits filed against it, investigate itself with any objectivity? 

This is a war mongering city council that profits from the U.S. counterinsurgency war carried out by the Oakland Police Department against the African community, just like the U.S. counterinsurgency being carried out by the U.S. military in Iraq.  The city of Oakland, whose budget is in crisis, can not continue to pay a murderer his salary (Officer Hector Jimenez is on paid administrative leave).  Just as we should not support the bailout of the Wall Street crooks, we should not support the continued payment of the criminal city council and mayor for their rule without regard for law and their complete disdain for the African and oppressed communities. 

More police will not solve the problem of crime in Oakland, but economic development will. 

Stand on the side of economic justice and reparations to the African community!

Come out to the Sunday meeting of the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement on Sunday, November 23rd at the Uhuru House at 4pm, 7911 MacArthur Blvd in East Oakland. 

For more information, call 510-569-9620.

Uhuru Pies November & December 2008

Order Your Uhuru Pies at www.uhurupies.org

Uhuru Holiday Pies Funds Programs from West Oakland to West Africa

Since 1981, Uhuru Foods has coordinated a fundraiser selling thousands of pies throughout the Bay Area during the November and December holidays.

States Maureen Wagener, coordinator of the local fundraiser, "Conditions in Oakland speak to the need for programs that benefit the African community, which already experienced an economic crisis and is most impacted by the current economic downtrend.. Bringing an Uhuru Pie to your holiday dinner is a easy way to start talking about serious issues."

Continues Wagener, "The Alameda County Department of Health published a report this year citing the economic and environmental apartheid that exists in our city. Born in West Oakland, a black child can expect to die 15 years earlier than a white person born in the Oakland hills due to environmental and economic stresses and lack of access to healthy food and clean air."

The Uhuru Holiday Pies 2008 fundraising campaign will take this message out to thousands of people this holiday season with the call to support the programs of the Uhuru Movement to unite African people across borders to transform these conditions of poverty and oppression.

Whether it’s selling pies in the office, in front of the local Safeway or baking in the kitchen, anyone can participate in the Uhuru Holiday Pies fundraiser. Volunteer coordinator Bill Canada speaks to the wide range of people and groups involved in the campaign. “We are excited to be working with groups like Building with Books, an organization that empowers high school students to get involved in changing the world. Other groups on board this season are Alpha Phi Omega of Cal State East Bay as well as Key Clubs and Excel Clubs from Oakland high schools. We have families and individuals, young and old, who get involved every year. People love to sell our pies because they are so delicious.”

Uhuru Pies are handcrafted and are made from high quality ingredients. This year’s flavors include the signature sweet potato pie, using the authentic spice recipe, pecan, apple, pumpkin and vegan blackberry and pumpkin.

Uhuru Foods stands for solidarity with red, black and green -- sustainability and self-determination for African people everywhere. For more information about the Uhuru Movement or to order, sell or help bake Uhuru Pies this season, visit www.uhurupies.org or call (510) 625-1106.

Speak Out at Oakland City Council Tues, Oct 21st!

WHAT & WHEN:
Speak on Open Forum Before Oakland City Council on Tuesday, October 21st, 2008; Arrive at 5:45pm and Speak at 6pm
WHERE: Oakland City Council, Frank Ogawa Plaza, 3rd Floor on 14th St near Broadway
RSVP: Respond to this email and/or call Wendy at 510-295-7834 to coordinate submitting a speaker's card (we need to submit them at the same time in order to be able to speak in succession as a group).

Seven to a dozen Oakland police officers were exposed recently as lying to obtain search warrants to carry out police raids of homes in East Oakland and to "bust down the doors of suspected small time drug dealers," according to the Oakland Tribune.

We are calling for all the cases to be dismissed and for the officers in question to be fired. This is one exposed instance of the egregious attacks being carried out on the African community, criminalized by a system that itself has no regard for law, evidence or real justice.

This year alone, the Oakland Police Department has killed Casper Banjo, Jose Luis Buenrostro, Jody Woodfox and others. In recent years, the "Oakland Riders" made international news as four police officers who lied, fabricated evidence and beat and harassed the African community of West Oakland. The police brutality, containment and repression of the African community. We demand an end to the war and militarized repression and call for economic development and social justice for the African and oppressed communities in Oakland!