Uhuru Movement
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The Uhuru Movement is an American-based socialist and African internationalist movement founded in 1972 and led by the African People's Socialist Party (APSP), whose chairman is Omali Yeshitela. It is centred on the theory of African internationalism, which it says provides a historical materialist explanation for the social and economic conditions of African people worldwide.[1]
Contents
Evolution
The Uhuru Movement's political theory is African internationalism, which states that capitalism was born parasitic through the attack on Africa and its people. African Internationalism holds that capitalism is imperialism developed to its highest stage, not the other way around, as propounded by Vladimir Lenin.[2]
This belief derives from Karl Marx's 1867 book Capital, in which Marx wrote of the condition essential to the emergence of capitalism which he called the "primitive accumulation" of capital. African Internationalism is not a static theory that only refers to past conditions, it refers also to the conditions that African people are faced with today. It refers to African people who live inside what it views as imperialist centres, such as the United States and Europe, as an "internal (or domestic) colony". The Uhuru Movement has called for the release of all African prisoners in US prisons, described as "concentration camps", and has described US police forces as an "illegitimate standing army". They have called for the withdrawal of police forces from exploited and oppressed African American communities.[3]
Russian connection
The Uhuru Movement has been accused by state prosecutors of collaborating with alleged Russian foreign agent Aleksandr Viktorovich Ionov to sow social divisions in the United States.[4] Members of the group have travelled to St Petersburg, Russia, to attend an anti-globalisation conference, and the group has also acknowledged that it supports Russia in its ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
On 19 July 2022, the Uhuru House in St Petersburg, Florida, was raided by the FBI due to an indictment by a Grand Jury alleging a conspiracy between Aleksandr Ionov and the Uhuru Movement to spread Russian disinformation under the guise of domestic political movements. An FBI Tampa special agent said that "The facts and circumstances surrounding this indictment are some of the most egregious and blatant violations we've seen by the Russian government in order to destabilise and undermine trust in American Democracy."[5]
On 23 December 2022, the Uhuru Movement organised an emergency meeting via Zoom, stating that the APSP expected new indictments by the FBI and the US Department of Justice "in early January 2023 and possibly sooner", for violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
Federal indictment
A federal indictment from April 2023 charged members of the St Petersburg-based Uhuru Movement, which operates as the African People's Socialist Party's activist arm, of working on behalf of the Russian government in a campaign to "sow discord, spread pro-Russian propaganda and influence local elections." The indictment sets out the following "overt acts":
- Publishing a petition charging the US with genocide.
- Speaking and organising at United Nations hearings for reparations to African people in the US.
- Publishing an article opposing a ban on Russian athletes in the Olympics.
- Running for public office on a reparations platform.
- Speaking out against the US/NATO proxy war on Russia. (Burning Spear, Sept. 3)
Uhuru 3
The government accused the group’s longtime leader, Omali Yeshitela, 82, of conspiring with a Russian man who aimed to foster social divisions in the US as a way of leveraging Russian interests.[6]
The government also charged Penny Hess, 78, and Jesse Nevel, 34, two leaders of branches of the group’s white allies.
A fourth defendant, Augustus Romain Jr, aged 38 and known as Gazi Kodzo, was kicked out of the Uhurus in 2018 and established his own group in Atlanta called The Black Hammer.[7]
Trial
The trial of the Uhuru 3 — Omali Yeshitela, Chairman of the African People’s Socialist Party; Penny Hess, chair of the African People’s Solidarity Committee; and Jesse Nevel, Uhuru Movement member — began on 3 September 2024 in a Tampa, Florida, federal courtroom. The three are being charged with failing to register as Russian agents and face prison sentences of 10-15 years if found guilty.[8]
Verdict
On 13 September 2024, Democracy Now reported:
A federal jury in Florida has found members of the pan-Africanist group African People's Socialist Party guilty of conspiring with the Russian government to "sow discord" and "interfere" in US elections. They face up to five years in federal prison. In a major victory for the activists, however, the jury acquitted them of the more serious charge of acting as foreign agents.
- "The trial of the Uhuru Three is proving to be one of the most important First Amendment cases thus far in the 21st century," says attorney Jenipher Jones, who is on the legal support committee for defendants. "It remains clear that when covert government repression tactics fail against activists, the government will use the overt means of charges and cages against folks that they simply disagree with."[9]
References
- ↑ "Black Power in the '60s plants seed for Uhuru Movement"
- ↑ "IMPERIALISM: THE HIGHEST STAGE OF CAPITALISM"
- ↑ "Protestor Tells Why He Heckled Obama"
- ↑ "Russian National Charged With Spreading Propaganda Through U.S. Groups"
- ↑ "FBI investigating Russian interference possibly linked to St. Petersburg Uhuru Movement"
- ↑ "Omali Yeshitela denounces the arrest of APSP leaders under fake charges of acting for Russia"
- ↑ "St. Petersburg Uhuru members indicted in Russian influence case"
- ↑ "Is it a crime to tell the truth? The trial of the Uhuru 3"
- ↑ "Uhuru 3 Found Guilty of Conspiracy, Acquitted of Foreign Agents Charge in Landmark Trial"
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