Monday, April 8, 2013

Contact:     Kali Akuno

404.567.5938

kaliakuno@mxgm.org

For Immediate Release: New Curriculum, We Charge Genocide Again, notes the importance of Operation Ghetto Storm findings for younger generations

Operation Ghetto Storm, a critical report released by the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (MXGM) in April, calls for awareness of acts of genocide, commitment to struggle, and mobilization of the people. Crucial to all three of those tasks, is political education. The We Charge Genocide Again curriculum is a series of lesson plans generated from the Operation Ghetto Storm report that encourages the critical thinking that are necessary to stimulate and guide action against the genocidal dynamics and practices illustrated in the extrajudicial killing reports produced by the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement.

“This is about our future. We have to educate our youth and prepare them for struggle”, says Tongo Eisen-Martin, author of We Charge Genocide of Again. “We designed this curriculum to be used by all who struggle, as struggle makes all of us educators”. “We have to make sure that this curriculum gets into every high school and college that serves Black and Latino people” says Tongo.

We Charge Genocide Again is part of an organizing toolkit produced by the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement to accompany the Operation Ghetto Storm report. The other major tool in this toolkit is Let Your Motto Be Resistance a handbook on organizing for self-defense released in March. Together these tools form a comprehensive guide for community organizers throughout the United States to challenge extrajudicial killing and repressive police tactics like “stop and frisk” that lead to the mass incarceration of Black and other oppressed people.

“The United States government is intent on creating more and more laws and practices that target Black, oppressed, and impoverished communities. The aim is social control to maintain the status quo, and they will go to whatever extent necessary, including extrajudicial killings and acts of genocide, to achieve this aim”, says Kali Akuno, and organizer with the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement. “We Charge Genocide Again is a counter, one of many that we have to produce and put in the hands of our youth to give them a fighting chance to live lives free of oppression”, says Kali.

We Charge Genocide Again is issued by the Every 28 Hours Campaign and the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement. The curriculum can be downloaded for free at www.mxgm.org.

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we charge genocide FINAL

Overview

In 2011, at the conclusion of the 10 year commemoration of the World Conference Against Racism (WCAR) and the Durban Declaration and Program of Action (DDPA), the Durban + 10 Coalition, in addition to several international non-governmental organizations and members of the African bloc and the Group of 77 (G-77) nations, proposed to the General Assembly (GA) of the United Nations (UN) that a Decade of People of African Descent be declared and implemented from 2012 through 2022.

While the General Assembly (GA) has considered the Decade proposal on several occasions since the fall of 2011, it has basically stalled as a result of the resistance to it mounted by the United States (US) and several members of the European Union (EU). The resistance of the US and EU states is centered around the Durban Declaration and Program of Action (DDPA) being a fundamental point of orientation and program development for the Decade. The US and various members of the EU have been opposed to the DDPA since its inception in 2001. And they want to make sure that the DDPA has no influence on the Decade and any program of action that is associated with it.

As the approval process continues to drag out within the General Assembly (GA), the US and EU are making steady progress to divorce the Decade and its adoption from the DDPA. Any force concerned with justice for Africa and African people throughout the Diaspora cannot allow this to happen!

The DDPA is one of the most important documents ever produced by the United Nations (UN) pertaining to people of African descent. A few of its most critical contributions are that it recognizes the trans-Atlantic slave trade as a crime against humanity, it acknowledges the economic roots of slavery, the ongoing impact enslavement has upon the social and economic status of people of African descent throughout the world, and states unequivocally that restitution is needed to address the crime of enslavement and the unequal and inequitable systems it has produced.

Given the global scourge of anti-Black racism and the continuing challenges posed by the legacies of the slave trade, slavery, and colonialism, it is critical that there be a Decade of People of African Decent to challenge theses issues in the 21^st century. However, we must do everything within our power to make sure that the Decade addresses the deep structural issues confronting African people, and do more than just affirm the cultural contributions of African people. To do this, the Decade must stand on the foundations of the DDPA, and use it as the basis of its programmatic work.

What You Can Do

1. We encourage all justice loving organizations to endorse the call for Decade of People of African Descent based on the implementation of the Durban Declaration and Program of Action.
2. We encourage you and your organization to contact the Ambassador to the United Nations (UN) of the nation-state you are a citizen or resident of and demand that they support the Decade and the inclusion of the DDPA into its programmatic work.
3. We encourage you and your organization to contact the Secretary General (SG) of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, and demand that he push for the Decade to be approved, ensure that it fully incorporates the DDPA, and that the program drafted by the Working Group of People of African descent be adopted, promoted, and fully funded as the core basis of its implementation. The Secretary general can be contacted via mail at United Nations, SA-1B15, New York, NY 10027. By phone at 212.963.7162 or fax at 212.963.7055.
4. We encourage you and your organization to contact the representatives of the various alliances within the United Nations (UN) – Africa bloc, the Islamic bloc, the Group of 77 (G77), and the Non-Aligned Movement – and implore them to remain firm on their support and commitment to the Decade and the DDPA.
5. Finally, we encourage you and your organization to organize your own educational and promotional events for the Decade and the DDPA. It is critical that we inform our own social bases and the general public about the importance of the Decade and the DDPA as a means of addressing the human rights crisis confronting people of African descent.

To sign on or for more details please contact Kali Akuno, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement and Co-Convener of the Durban + 10 Coalition at kaliakuno@mxgm.org.

By Kali Akuno

Malcolm X Grassroots Movement and Durban + 10 Coalition

La Década para los Pueblos Afrodescendientes y la Declaración de Durban y Programa de Acción: Superando Iniquidad y los Retos que Enfrentan los Pueblos de África en el Siglo 21

Por: Kali Akuno Movimiento Popular de Lucha Malcolm X y la Coalición de Durban + 10

Sinopsis:

En el 2011, al final de la décima conmemoración de la Conferencia Mundial contra el Racismo y la Declaración de Durban, la Coalición de Durban + 10, junto a varias organizaciones nogubernamentales, miembros del Bloque Africano y naciones del Grupo de los 77 (G77), le propusieron a la Asamblea General de las NNUU (ONU) que se declare la implementación de la Década del Pueblo de Ascendencia Africana desde el 2012 hasta el 2022.  

Mientras que la Asamblea General ha tomado en consideración la propuesta de la Década en varias ocasiones desde el otoño del 2011, básicamente se ha frenado como resultado de la resistencia a que se lleve a cabo en EEUU y varios miembros de la Unión Europea. La Década de los Afrodescendientes y  la Declaración de Durban y Programa de Acción: Superando la Inequidad y los Retos que Enfrentan las personas africanas en el Siglo XXI. Básicamente se ha frenado debido a la resistencia de que se inaugure en los Estados Unidos, también por varios miembros de la Unión Europea. La resistencia por parte de los EEUU y varios estados miembros de la Unión Europea se basa en que el punto fundamental es de orientación y un programa de desarrollo para la Década. Los Estados Unidos y varios miembros de la Unión Europea se han opuesto a la DDPA desde su origen en el 2001. Se quieren asegurar de que la DDPA no tenga influencia sobre la Década así como sobre ningún otro programa de acción con el cual esté vinculado.

Durante este tiempo, el proceso de aprobación que se ha venido arrastrando dentro de la Asamblea General, los Estados Unidos y la Unión Europea están comprometidos para desvincularse de la Década y su adopción por parte de la DDPA. Cualquier esfuerzo concerniente a la justicia para el África y el pueblo africano a lo largo de la Diáspora no puede permitir que esto suceda! 

La DDPA es uno de los documentos más importantes que ha producido la Organización de las Naciones Unidas en lo que respecta a las personas de ascendencia africana. Algunas de sus contribuciones más circunstanciales es que proclama el comercio transatlántico de esclavos como un crimen contra la humanidad, reconoce las raíces económicas de la esclavitud, el impacto continuo que tiene la esclavitud sobre el bienestar económico y social de los afrodescendientes a lo largo del mundo y establece sin reparo que es necesaria una restitución para abordar el crimen de la esclavitud y el sistema desigual e inequitativo que ha producido.

Dada al flagelo del racismo hacia los negros y los retos continuos que imponen los legados del tráfico de esclavos, la esclavitud misma y el colonialismo, es fundamental que exista la Década de los Pueblos Afrodescendientes para enfrentar estos temas en el Siglo XXI. Sin embargo, debemos hacer lo posible dentro de nuestras posibilidades para asegurarnos que la Década aborde temas estructurales profundos que afrontan los pueblos del África. Para lograrlo, la Década debe sostenerse sobre los cimientos de la DDPA y utilizarla como la pase de su trabajo programado.

Lo que puedes hacer para ayudar:

1. Incentivamos a todas las organizaciones compuestas de amantes de la justicia a acudir al llamado de la Década del Pueblo Afrodescendiente basado en la implementación de la Declaración de Durban y Programa de Acción.

2. Fomentamos que su organización y usted se contacten con el embajador ante la ONU del estado-nación respectivo del que sean ciudadanos o residentes para exigir apoyo para la Década y la inclusión de la DDPA en su trabajo programado.

3. Instamos a que junto a sus organizaciones y/o como individuos se contacten con el Secretario General de la ONU, Ban Ki-moon para exigir que agilice la aprobación de la Década, que asegure la implementación completa de la DDPA, y que se adopte el programa presentado por el Working Group of People of African Descent (Grupo de Trabajo de Personas de Ascendencia Africana), y que éste se promueva y sea auspiciado en su totalidad como lo que es, la base de la implementación de lo propuesto. Se le puede contactar al Secretario General por correo en las NNUU, SA-1B15, New York, NY 10027 o por teléfono al: 212.963.7162 y fax al: 212.963.7055.

4.  Promovemos que su organización se contacte con los representantes de varias alianzas dentro de las NNUU (ONU) como el bloque africano, el bloque islámico, el Grupo de los 77 (G77) y el Movimiento de Países No Alineados, para implorar que se mantengan firmes en su apoyo y compromiso con la Década y el DDPA.

5. Finalmente, alentamos a que junto a su organización armen sus propios eventos promocionales e informativos sobre la Década y la DDPA. Es imperativo que mantengamos informadas a nuestras bases sociales y al público en general sobre la importancia de la Década y la DDPA como medio para tratar la crisis de derechos humanos a la que se están expuestas las personas de ascendencia africana.

Para firmar o para más detalles, contáctese con Kali Akuno del Movimiento Popular de Lucha Malcolm X y Co-Promotor de la Coalición de Durban + 10 a su casilla: kaliakuno@mxgm.org.

Juntos en la Unidad y Lucha,

Kali

The Black Left Unity Network (BLUN) salutes the victory of Nicolas Maduro Moros as the new and democratically elected President of Venezuela.

We stand in revolutionary solidarity with the statement issued by the Afro-Venezuela movement that pledges its’ continued support to the objectives of the revolutionary process in Venezuela and the election of President Maduro.

The struggles and voices of Afro-Venezuelans represent the deepest sentiments for democracy and social transformation and were critical to this victory and the ongoing Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela that was led by Comrade President Hugo Chavez.

We will never forget the immediate response by the Venezuelan people led by President Chavez to the tragedy triggered by Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf Coast and the offer of major aid to assist the survivors remaining in the disaster area and those dispersed to all corners of the U.S.  The U.S. government’s refusal of this aid and the aid offered by revolutionary Cuba, pointed out clearly how the U.S. government will sacrifice the lives of African descendants and poor people, before it will recognize the good deeds of governments that are anti-imperialist, truly democratic and building a society that benefits the needs of the majority, not the capitalist elites.

Even with the major changes and improvements made by the Venezuelan revolutionary process, the forces of counter-revolution are still part of the economic and racist elite in Venezuelan society.  Their ties to U.S. imperialism make them a major threat to the revolutionary process.  Combating and defeating their maneuvers remains part of the ongoing revolutionary process until this class is defeated.

African descendants in the U.S. know firsthand how elections are manipulated by the capitalist elites. They use their control of major media to try and place doubt in the minds of the people, trying to suggest voter fraud as has been the case so many times for candidates supported by Black people in the U.S.  But in Venezuela, where the elections are structured in ways that safeguard and protect the democratic will of the majority, the capitalist elites have been combated in this arena.

The revolutionary struggle in Venezuela is critical to the revolutionary direction of building and expanding socialism throughout the Americas in the 21^st Century.  The organization and struggles of the Afro-Venezuelans as an identifiable and integral part of the Venezuela revolutionary process represents the further advance for socialism.

Through our efforts to rebuild a revolutionary Black movement in the U.S. we will ensure that African descendants in this country understand the common historical and political ties that bound our peoples together. For us there is no question that African descendant’s in the U.S.  must be part of the defense of the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela, as U.S. imperialism assumes its historical role as a central force supporting and or initiating counter-revolution in Venezuela.

The BLUN commits to educate the Black working-class and to call on the activists and organizations in our network, to mobilize in defense of the Venezuelan Revolution as it is connected to the struggles of All African descendants against the impacts of the colonial, neo-colonial and imperialist past and present, and to further shaping the direction for a revolutionary social transformation throughout the Americas.

Victory to the ongoing Bolivarian Revolution!

Black Left Unity Network-Continuations Committee

                                                                                                       Monday, April 8, 2013

Contact:     Kali Akuno

404.567.5938

kaliakuno@mxgm.org

For Immediate Release: New Annual Report reveals that 313 Black People were killed in 2012, averaging one every 28 hours. 

Every 28 hours in 2012 someone employed or protected by the US government killed a Black man, woman, or child! This startling fact is revealed in Operation Ghetto Storm: 2012 Annual Report on the Extrajudicial Killings of 313 Black People by Police, Security Guards, and Vigilantes.

“When we started this investigation in early 2012, we knew a serious human rights crisis was confronting the Black community”, says Kali Akuno, an organizer with the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (MXGM). “However, we did not have a clear sense of its true depth until we compiled and examined the annual figures. We have uncovered outrageous rates of extrajudicial killings–rates, that when they are found in countries like Mexico or Brazil, are universally condemned.  The same outrage inside the U.S. also demands immediate action.”

Given recent revelations in the case of Floyd et al v New York City that challenge “stop-and-frisk”, the study demonstrates that NYPD violations of human rights are endemic throughout the U.S. For example, racial profiling that singles out Black people for looking, driving or behaving “suspiciously” leads to at least 43% of Black peoples’ fatal encounters with police. Only 13% of those who were killed were involved in allegedly violent criminal activity that physically threatened others’ lives. These and many more of the Report’s findings reveal the deadly impact of systemic racism in the U.S.

Akuno further points out, “Operation Ghetto Storm follows the trail of extrajudicial killings to the rise of militarized police forces and their occupation of Black communities. And explores how systemic racism has led to increased militarization and repression, which in turn has exacerbated the human rights crises devastating Black communities.”

He added, “This Report breaks new ground by going beyond reliance on police department press releases and investigating as fully as possible the context and consequences of each killing. This investigative journalism serves as an example of respect for Black life so often neglected in public conversations.”

Arlene Eisen, member of the Malcolm X Solidarity Committee and the author of the Report, explained, “Any one of these people killed could have been my son or your husband or daughter. Regardless of education, class, behavior or dress, nowhere is a Black person safe from potentially-fatal racial profiling, invasive policing, constant surveillance and overriding suspicion.”

Based on a year of research, Eisen concluded, “police departments and government agencies throughout the United States go to great lengths to hide the data on extrajudicial killings, particularly the race of the murder victims. I am quite sure that there were more than 313 Black people killed by the police in 2012. Social movements in the United States must demand this information and must demand an end to these killings.”

Operation Ghetto Storm is issued by the Every 36 Hours Campaign and the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement and can be downloaded at www.mxgm.org.

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Preface: Context for Operation Ghetto Storm

The facts presented in Operation Ghetto Storm: 2012 Annual Report on the Extrajudicial Killing of Black People present us with a deeper understanding of the utter disregard held for Black life within the United States. Operation Ghetto Storm is a window offering a cold, hard, and fact-based view into the thinking and practice of a government and a society that will spare no cost to control the lives of Black people. What Operation Ghetto Storm reveals is that the practice of executing Black people without pretense of a trial, jury, or judge is an integral part of the government’s current overall strategy of containing the Black community in a state of perpetual colonial subjugation and exploitation

In July 2012, in the tradition of “On Lynching” by Ida B. Wells-Burnet and “We Charge Genocide” by William L. Patterson, the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement released a critical report that exposed the fact that in the first six months of the year a Black man, woman, or child was summarily executed by the police, and a smaller number of security guards and self-appointed vigilantes, Every 36 Hours! But, the July 2012 report did not tell the whole story. Further investigation revealed a more accurate and gruesome number of extrajudicial killings during the first six months of the year. And true to form, the assault on Black life stayed consistent for the last six months of the year, resulting in the extrajudicial killing of at least 313 Black people in 2012, or one Every 28 Hours!

Setting the Record Straight

If not for our investigation, this gruesome reality would largely be ignored. The United States government has no interest in revealing these facts and police unions actively suppress them. The corporate media is so permeated with white supremacist and capitalist assumptions and rationalizations that reporters and editors deem these killings unworthy of note. With one important exception: They use the stories of “officer-involved killings” to reinforce a stereotypical, but strategic depiction of the most dispossessed sectors of the Black working class as criminal commodities, fit for disposal.

This demonization of Black “targets” reinforces the insidious propaganda of the United States government and its supporters, that the United States is the most democratic and socially liberated country on Earth. But, any critical observer and thinker must ask, how can the supposedly “most democratic” country on Earth be the largest jailer on the planet? What types of “legitimate” democratic processes result in nearly half of the countries prison population being Black, while Black people only comprise 13% of the total population of the United States? What types of resources, planning, coordination and programmatic implementation go into arresting, convicting, imprisoning or deporting over 10 million people annually? And what can possibly justify the extrajudicial killing of at least 313 Black people in one year?

Genuine and healthy democracies do not spend more than 50% of their budgetary resources on their militaries, domestic “law enforcement” agencies, and prisons. The fact that the United States government spends this amount demonstrates that the United States is neither a genuine democracy nor a “healthy” society in any form or fashion. The United States is a European settler-colonial project that has erected a racial state to enforce and maintain a rigid order of white supremacy, colonial occupation, and capitalist exploitation. As the facts presented herein attest, the United States is one of the most repressive and brutal societies in the world, particularly to oppressed peoples like Blacks, Native Americans, and Latinos. The rates of extrajudicial killings on the US rival only those perpetrated against the Indigenous people of Palestine, Mexico, Guatemala and the Amazonian region, and African-descendants in Brazil and Colombia.

The War Against Black People

In order to contain the oppressed peoples within its colonial possessions, the United States settler-colonial government has built the most full-spectrum network of repressive enforcement structures in human history. They include the Police, Sheriff’s, Rangers, Customs, FBI, Homeland Security (including INS), CIA, Secret Service, prison guards, as well as the numerous private security and other protective services. It has also created the largest and most invasive surveillance system in human history. This system includes everything from satellites, police, FBI, and DHS operated surveillance drones, and electronic tracking and monitoring via our cellphones, computers, tablets, email, Facebook, Twitter, and chip-filled passports, driver’s licenses, and identification cards.

These forces of occupation and repression have been strategically deployed over the last 70 years to wage a grand strategy of “domestic” pacification to sustain the colonial occupation of North America via a never ending series of containment campaigns that amount to nothing less than a “perpetual war”. This “perpetual war” has been known by many names over the last seven decades such as the “Cold War”, COINTELPRO”, the” War on Drugs”, the “War on Gangs”, the “War on Crime”, and most recently, the “War on Terrorism”. This pacification strategy is designed to contain the various peoples’, social, and religious movements that resist the colonial order of white supremacy inside the United States, the post World War II imperialist world-system, and the vicious strategy of neo-liberal accumulation by dispossession that it has been aggressively imposing on its citizens, colonial subjects, and the rest of the world. The most visible component of this pacification campaign inside the US, has been the astronomical increase in the incarceration of Black people over the last 40 years.

This “perpetual war” intensified both quantitatively and qualitatively after the events of September 11, 2001. Exploiting those events as justification, the United States government launched a new series of imperialist conquests and occupations and further expanded its overall military operations and spending. It has also justified the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, which integrates domestic and international intelligence, surveillance, and repressive institutions of the United States government. Even further it has provided a rational for the implementation of extensive “constitution free zones”, the expansion and deepening of the militarization of the police, and the passage of some of the most repressive legislation in United States history, such as the Patriot, Homeland Security, and National Defense Authorization Acts to name a few.

And the United States government’s grand strategy of domestic containment and pacification via perpetual war shows no signs of either slowing down or coming to an end on its own accord any time soon. Extrajudicial killings are clearly an indispensible tool in the United States government’s pacification pursuits.

Confronting the Crisis

Despite being virtually ignored by the corporate media, our July 2012 report did receive considerable coverage in various Black and progressive media outlets. It’s dissemination via these channels insured that the Every 36 Hours report reached thousands of people throughout the United States and the world. It’s reception helped to stimulate righteous indignation and outrage in many isolated quarters. However, unchanneled and unorganized indignation and outrage are not enough. We must turn this indignation and outrage into organized, sustained, and determined mass action to stop this crisis.

As we noted in the July 2012 report, the first critical step is organizing the Black community to proactively defend itself. We must end our reliance on the model of protest mobilizations that occur after the police have executed one of our loved ones. This must cease being our primary means of securing justice. We have to see the war on Black people for what it is and proactively organize ourselves to resist it. To aid in launching and promoting these necessary organizing initiatives, we have authored and released “Let Your Motto Be Resistance: A Handbook on Organizing New Afrikan and Oppressed Communities for Self-Defense”. It can be found at http://mxgm.org/let-your-motto-be-resistance-a-handbook-on-organizing-new-afrikan-and-oppressed-communities-for-self-defense/.

“Let Your Motto Be Resistance” draws on the long history of Black peoples’ struggle to realize self-determination and defend our persons, our rights and our dignity from the assaults of the oppressive settler-colonial government and the forces of white supremacy. Building on this history “Let Your Motto Be Resistance” provides, in summary form, a vision of how we can (re)organize our communities from the ground up.

Self-defense in and of itself is not enough, however. We will not turn back “Operation Desert Storm” and the military machine that aims to keep Black and other oppressed people subordinate and contained, until we defeat and dismantle the systems of colonialism, national oppression, white supremacy, capitalism and imperialism. It is imperative that we build a broad and dynamic mass movement capable of transforming the system and building a new social order.

More specifically, the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement is calling for a broad alliance of Blacks, Indigenous peoples, Latinos, Arabs, Asians, and progressive whites that will challenge the various forms of state repression, including racial profiling, mass incarceration, mass deportation, displacement, and of course, extrajudicial killings. It is our hope that local, regional, and countrywide peoples’ alliances will form and stand as the core of the Peoples’ Self Defense Networks proposed in “Let Your Motto be Resistance”.

To honor the memory of every Black man, woman, and child summarily executed at the hands of the police and other agents of the United States government in 2012, let us organize our communities to end the terror being waged against us.

For more information about the report or any of the proposals contained within it, please contact Kali Akuno at kaliakuno@mxgm.org.

Source: Colorines

David Floyd

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Contacts:

Nadia Alexis 646-645-2334

Linda Tigani 718-419-2143

The Malcolm X Grassroots Movement stands in solid support of all victims of police harassment, abuse and murder represented through the cases of Davis vs. City of New York, Ligon vs. City of New York and Floyd vs. City of New York.  As a lead plaintiff in the landmark class action lawsuit of Floyd v. the City of New York, we are confident that U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin will find that the NYPD is failing to promote public safety or enforce the law legally in its indiscriminate “impact zone” approach to policing in public and private residential buildings alike. We are also confident that the federal court will find that racial discrimination drives the illegal practice of stopping and frisking innocent Black and Latino New Yorkers in all three cases. Thus, racial justice is one of the pinnacle victories we will achieve in reforming the NYPD’s current practices from rulings in the favor or the plaintiffs in each of these historical cases.

In 2010, Central Brooklyn had a total of 104,758 stops by the NYPD. The 79^th and 81^st precincts are among the city’s top 10 precincts that are rampant in illegal stops and frisks. Of the total number of people who were stopped in the 79^thprecinct area, 88% of them were innocent, and although only 57% of the population in the 79^th precinct is Black, they made up 80% of the victims of illegal stops and frisks.  In the 81^st precinct, 87% of those stopped and frisked were innocent and 89% of these victims were Black although only 76% of the population is Black. These numbers reflect larger racial disparities found throughout the city. Citywide, 87% of stops and frisks are of Black and Latino people although they only make up 52% of New York City’s population.

After decades of profiling and over-criminalizing our communities, we remain vigilant in the fight to end the NYPD’s illegal practices. In light of the recent murder of Kimani Gray by the NYPD and the statistics that show that every 36 hours a black woman, man or child is killed in this country, we recognize the pivotal role this trial plays in our lives and the lives of our community members. On March 18^th and through the upcoming weeks of the Floyd trial, we stand in solidarity with our allies to achieve meaningful accountability, dignity and respect from all members of the police force for all New Yorkers.

* * *

Oppressed peoples and communities can and will only be secure in this country when they are organized to defend themselves against the aggressions of the government and the forces of white supremacy and capitalist exploitation. “Let Your Motto Be Resistance: A Handbook on Organizing New Afrikan and Oppressed Communities for Self-Defense”, is the latest contribution of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (MXGM) and the Every 36 Hours Campaign that seeks to strengthen organizing initiatives within Black or New Afrikan communities for self-defense, by presenting these initiatives with a comprehensive analytical framework and practical organizing tools to ground and unite them.

As the extrajudicial killing of Kimani Gray and the more than twenty other Black women and men by the police in the first two months of 2013 clearly illustrate, it is imperative that New Afrikan communities get organized and defend ourselves. As the real economy continues to contract, corporations become more vicious and exploitative, our communities are gentrified and displaced, public goods and services continue to be eliminated or privatized, and the national security state continues to grow and become ever more invasive, the attacks on New Afrikan and other oppressed and exploited people are only going to escalate. We must defend ourselves, and we have every right to do so by any means necessary.

“Let Your Motto Be Resistance” draws on the long history of New Afrikan peoples struggle to realize self-determination and defend our persons, our rights and our dignity from the assaults of the oppressive settler-colonial government and the forces of white supremacy. Building on this history “Let Your Motto Be Resistance” provides in summary form a vision of how we can (re)organize our communities from the ground up to defend ourselves and reassert our fundamental human rights to life, dignity, and self-determination.

We encourage the broad dissemination, discussion, and utilization of this work as a modest contribution towards the effort to rebuild the Black Liberation Movement, Stop the War on Afrikan people, and eradicate white supremacy and US imperialism.

For more information on this work, or to set up trainings or public events regarding its contents or those of the Every 36 Hours report on extrajudicial killings contact Kali Akuno at kaliakuno@mxgm.org.

Kimani Gray was reportedly killed by 11 shots fired by NYPD with 7 of the shots hitting his body and 3 of them hitting his back, even though he never fired a weapon. Community witnesses state that Kimani begged for his life.  Even if they thought he was going try to use a weapon against them—which has been questioned by many credible accounts—why wasn’t there a warning? Why didn’t the shooting stop after it was clear he was no longer a supposed threat? Why?

In order to answer these questions, we first have to look at what is going on in the NYPD. For far too long, a culture has been tolerated where our communities are treated like enemy combat zones by undercover detectives, looking for guns and drugs. This culture has been so well documented in books, films, court decisions and several other places, that its existence is barely debatable at this point. Yet in New York—supposedly the most metropolitan major city in the world—the mayor and police commissioner refuse to acknowledge the problems this creates. Ordinary people are stopped and frisked and get their rights trampled on because some officers live in a fantasy world where they view themselves as conquerors in a dangerous urban jungle. The community’s frustration leads to mistrust of the police and as a result many crimes go uninvestigated and unsolved due to this dynamic. In a seemingly ritual fashion we see the lives of women, men and children cut short with families left to fill the void of the murders of their loved ones in circumstances that, in many cases, were avoidable. These circumstances came about because of racially biased thinking and racial profiling that are enabled by an unjust stop & frisk program along with the continued police murder of our people.

This is why copwatch patrols are needed, not only to document and prevent misconduct and abuse but to affirm that the community’s rights are valid and can be maintained, even in this flawed legal system. For over 10 years, MXGM’s New York chapter has been conducting Copwatch patrols in our community in the Bedford Stuyvesant and Crown Heights neighborhoods. During these patrols, we often see the behavior of officers shift when they are caught during a stop & frisk, sometimes resulting in their immediate departure and unarrest of a community member. Copwatch is one piece of the solution as we develop methods to combat these attacks.

Over the past week, the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement supported the community in their outcry and frustration at the Kimani Gray vigils and marches, and at the 71st Precinct in Brooklyn by way of Copwatch. We stand in solidarity with the families of all those harassed, physically and sexually assaulted, and killed by the NYPD. We demand that District Attorney Charles Hynes drop all charges for any individual arrested in connection with the protest for Kimani Gray.

If you live in New York and you want to be trained for Copwatch please contact brilfalcon@gmail.com  so we can follow up with you. A few hours out of your month can make a big difference!

In solidarity,

Malcolm X Grassroots Movement’s People’s Self-Defense Campaign

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www.mxgm.org/Copwatch